Happy Friday!

G$ and I actually have a pretty action-packed weekend coming up.  Tonight, we are meeting friends for Mexican (yeah, not ideal for the first week of Operation: Accountability), then Saturday is my company's holiday party at the Hotel Monaco in DC (repeat text above from parentheses). 

On Black Friday, I made a large Banana Republic purchase.  I bought four potential party dresses (each 30% off!) with the intention of returning three.  And sure enough, only one was actually flattering, so the other three are going back.  Phew.  I'll post pictures of me actually wearing it sometime next week. 

Other than those evening events, I'm sure will do the normal routine of hitting up the dog park and hiking...

Kairo pooped after a lot of running at the dog park. 

Muddy, dirty dog while hiking

Also, since I never post frequently, I know some of you may not have thought to scroll down to see if I had other posts... but I had a very productive, couch-ridden weekend due to the back tweak, so check out the other posts if you haven't already:

• October Catch-Up
• Thanksgiving 2012

As for an update on the back.  I think I'm almost back to 100%.  I had no pain yesterday - at all!  I even debated going to the gym with G$ this morning, but thought I shouldn't test my luck.  I'm planning to go hiking with them this weekend and assuming all goes well, will be back at the gym on Monday.  Hurray!  I'll keep you guys posted. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

<3
K$

Operation: Accountability - Week 0

So some of you know that G$'s brother is getting married to longtime girlfriend in April 2013 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico!  Which means... I'll need to be in a bathing suit in front of G$'s entire family in less than five months.  If that's not motivation to get in shape, I'm not sure what is...

This is where Operation: Accountability comes into play.

Over the next five months, I'm planning to post my progress on a weekly basis, in an attempt to motivate myself to keep with it.  I'll be sparing you guys picture progress -- although I am contemplating actually taking pictures every week or once a month to really see progress, but if I do, I most definitely will not be posting them here!  

The biggest problem I'm facing now is... being on the DL because of the Thanksgiving back injury.  To be honest, I really have no idea for how long, which really sucks.  However, starting on Monday, I'm planning to make healthy food choices, since that is 100% something I can control while not working out.

This Week 0 post is more of an introduction to give you guys a heads up of what's coming.  Get excited!  Ha!  :)  Every week, I'll report the change in my weight, body fat percentage, muscle percentage, bicep, chest, natural waist, lower waist, hips, thigh, and calf.  The number column will indicate the overall +/- compared to the Week 0 measurements.  

Anyone else want to get on board with their own Operation: Accountability?!

<3
K$

Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was again pretty low-key, just my immediate family plus G$'s parents over at my parents' house. 

G$ and I order eggs, milk, and meat from South Mountain Creamery and they were teaming up with a turkey farm in PA to offer hormone- and antibiotic-free turkeys, so we ordered one and it arrived the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  Since it's an au-naturale turkey, my mom reminded me that most store turkeys come pre-brined, so I took on the tasks of finding a brine recipe, cooking up the brine (all 3 gallons of it), and marinating the turkey in the brine in our cooler overnight.  Somehow in my 27 years of life, I had never had the pleasure of cleaning and removing the innards of a turkey.  After pulling out the neck, there was nothing else inside, which confused me.  I actually called my mom to ask where the bag of innards were.  The answer was simple -- check the other end.  :)  Gross. 

Me battling the turkey in the sink

I rinsed and dried the turkey, then plopped all 25 pounds of it into the brine-filled cooler.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the turkey in the cooler -- it was a quite funny!

On Thanksgiving Day, the boys -- my dad, my brother, G$'s dad, and G$ -- went golfing in the morning, while my mom and I prepped the turkey for cooking.  We then met up with Amy and Ally and went for an hour long walk through the neighborhood with the dogs -- a pre-stuff.your.face.with.yummy.food walk, if you will.

After the walk, folks started to arrive for Thanksgiving.  My mom suggested giving the dogs a rawhide bone to chew in an attempt to distract them (and reduce the barking) as the doorbell rang and people entered the house.  Unfortunately, Kairo is a very spoiled dog and prefers peanut butter slathered on his rawhides, so he was ignoring his and trying to steal Abby's and Hunter's pre-chewed (therefore soft) bones.  In an attempt to keep Kairo from their bones, I sat down on the floor holding his collar, while he was slightly pulling, which caused a pain in my lower back.  When I stood up, the pain became more excruciating. 

Having had lower back pain a few times before, I thought I just need to stretch it and it would pop back and I'd be fine, so I went into my parents' room and laid down on my back in an attempt to stretch the back muscle out.  I quickly learned that this was not the little batch twitches I've had in the past.  It.was.extremely.painful.  After laying on my back for a bit, I was able to roll over and get up on all four in an attempt to get back on my feet.  Scott walked past the door to see me half crying in pain and half laughing at the ridiculous image of me on all fours.  He tried to help me up, but the pain was so much that I ended up sprawling out on my stomach.  G$, my dad and mom came in to help.  I spent about 45 minutes on the floor with my face in tears.  The worst part was that laughing made it hurt sooooo much and you guys know G$, he's a jokester, but was very supportive and held in a lot of the jokes/one-liners he thought of while I was lying on the floor.  Isn't he sweet!?! :) 

In all seriousness, G$ sat by my side until the pain subsided enough for me to attempt to get up.  He tried to help me up once, then another spasm occurred, so it was back to my stomach for a bit, while he patiently sat next to me holding in one-liners (which I know was very, very tough for him, but much, much appreciated by me!  Thanks G$!).  From time to time, even Kairo would pry himself away from the appetizer-begging in the kitchen to check in on me. 

 We got this wonderful family photo taken...

We tried again and with G$'s help, I was able to get to my feet.  Hurray! 

I made it into the kitchen for some appetizers, then sat myself down at the table in preparation for the Thanksgiving feast.  Everything was so delicious!  

From the table, I was able to get G$ to take a few cute shots of Brandon and Ally:

I am very thankful for having such a wonderful family, who all came to my side during the back incident.  Seriously, thank you very much for all your assistance, tips, and help to make Thanksgiving 2012 a great one despite having pain throbbing from my lower back.  :)

In you're interested... I'm doing better now, but still not 100%.  I have figured out what position/motion causes the spasm in my back, so I'm avoiding that.  It only happened once on Friday, and so far, not at all on Saturday.  I surprising found a comfortable position to sleep in, so at least I'm not tired and cranky.  I'm most disappointed in the fact that the gym is now out of the question, probably for the next week.  From what we've read, we believe it was a pulled/sprained muscle, which unfortunately means there isn't much that can be done.  Just ibuprofen, ice/heat, and time.  No instantaneous cure?!  Bummer! 

I'll keep you all posted on the recovery! 

<3
K$

October Catch-Up

I know it's been a while since my last post.  And since the tragic "pegging Kairo with a rock" incident, nothing all.that.exciting has happened in our lives.

Here are a few highlights:

G$'s Birthday. We had a low-key dinner at G$'s parents house with his sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  G$'s mom made G$'s fav cake -- yellow cake with chocolate frosting:

New Camera.  We bought a nice camera.  G$ had some birthday money/Amazon gift card, which we used towards the purchase.  We looked around at a number of 4/3 compact and DSLR cameras, but G$ convinced me that going with a straight DSLR was the way to go since it more naturally fit in both of our hands.  So we bought a Canon Rebel T3i.  And so far love it.  You'll see some of the pictures we took with it below in other recaps.  We are still working to accessorize it - with a sling strap (purchased) and bag (still being researched). 

via

Nats Game.  We went to Game 3 of the NLCS, the first game here in DC.  They lost... but the camera was shipped just in time. 

Then after Game 4 and the beginning of Game 5, we had high, high hopes of the Nats going on to the next round, only to be severely disappointed when St. Louis came back...  oh well, there's always next year. 

Busy at Work - Sick - Busy - Sick.   The past two months work has been much busier than normal.  I was working on a proposal, plus actual work was busy, which led to be me catching a few colds.  Staying up late and being sick caused me to make the conscious decision to sleep in rather than get up early to get to the gym... I'm embarrassed to say this, but there were no gym trips in October. 

Working before the Nats game, on my day off :(

Working on the couch with Kairo

Nephew Brandon's 2nd Birthday.  We had a small gathering at my parents house (sans Kairo).  Lisa sister and three kids were also there, so we opted to leave the K-Man at home.  I was able to get some good pictures of the fam!

Birthday Boy

Climbing over Hunter

Me holding my niece, Ally

Hurricane Sandy.  She came and she went somewhat anti-climatically for us.  G$ had two days off of work, I "worked" remotely those days.  Ultimately, we were surprised how little damage there was to our neighborhood.  No trees down.  Just some branches/leaves, not even tree limbs.  It certainly got very windy on Monday night, but it wasn't even raining that hard.  We had to take the K-Man out a few times when the wind was picking up, the first time in late afternoon, I took him out and he wanted nothing to do with it.  After much coaxing to get him to "do his business" he quickly retreated to the closed front door.  Then next time around dinner, G$ was taking him out.  G$ leashed Kairo up, but as soon as the door opened, Kairo did.not.want.to.go.outside, so G$ picked him up and was finally able to get him to tinked (yes, that's the past tense of tinkle in our little world).  The last time he had to go out was right before bed.  This time, G$ went to get his leash, and Kairo quickly back-peddled to the other side of the room.  He knew what was coming and was not a happy camper.  G$ coaxed him outside with treats, he did his business, then we went to bed.  I wish I got a picture of how pathetic Kairo looked that third time.  Puhlease don't make me go out there again!

Broken Bed.  A few weeks ago, I washed our sheets and that afternoon was trying to make the bed.  Kairo had jumped up on the partially-made bed, so in an attempt to get him to move to the bottom of the bed, so I could pull the sheets up to the top, I did a superman jump on the bottom of the bed.  CRACK!  The wood bed frame cracked, and the bottom-right corner of the mattress/box spring was sagging.  Awesome.  Since the bed was purchased, it had been moved four times.  In the last three times, we had movers who disassembled and reassembled the bed.  I knew after this last move, the extra stabilizing piece in the middle of the bed was broken.  After taking it apart, we noticed some screws missing and it just generally was not in the best shape.  So we slept with the mattresses on the floor for a few weeks while we decided what to do.

Kairo on top of G$ when the mattress was on the floor. 
Please ignore the under the bed storage bins that are not under the bed. 

At first, I thought this was the perfect time to buy a super cute upholstered bed...

via

 ...but then decided I should hold off until we buy a house and know what kind of space we'll have there.  So we just purchased a cheap metal bed frame (found on craigslist).  I have plans to drill holes in our existing wood headboard, so we can attach it to the bed frame.  

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving has come and gone (more on that in a future post) and Christmas is only a month away!  The holiday season is upon us!

<3
K$