because this made my day...

All Hail April!

So Far: April wins the 2011 month-of-the-year contest!

Last weekend was full of sunny hiking, cozy book-reading and nail-salon patronizing...


This weekend has been just as wonderful!

Spend yesterday morning teaching Gentle Yoga, Power Yoga and Bridal Boot Camp.

hover squats + band rows... killer!

Spent yesterday afternoon wine tasting in Saratoga!

We had a private tasting at Savannah-Chanelle



A not-so-private (or yummy) tasting at Mountain Winery... but we'll definitely be back for the concerts!

Then did a few tasting rooms in Downtown Saratoga - including Cinnabar.

the booty!

Then wandered downtown Saratoga around with Miss Lori...


until we found sushi!

Spent this morning transforming my apartment from war-zone to cozy home/somewhat-less-chaotic-home-office and have book club this evening with some of my favorite ladies.

Happy April!

TGI April!

March 2011 is FIRED.

It probably should have been this kind of month

get my crap together and build a meditation practice for the rough patches


But it was this kind of month

Rental Car Key as a wine opener as wine was not optional after the day I'd had and I somehow forgot my travel wine key...

It was intensely sad saying goodbye to Grandma and - in effect - saying goodbye to Grandpa again. As long as she was around, it was like a piece of him was still here.


But we found layers of joy in the sadness.

Like Greek yogurt and BARE FIT Granola parfaits for breakfast in the hotel with hubby and sis:


And a beautiful trip to the Georgia Aquarium with my Aunt and Cousins:


Lion Fishies.

Sister and Me with our heads poking up into the penguin habitat

Sister finding a new boyfriend.

We ended the trip on a really happy note with the the aquarium and Behinanas... then slept the whole way back to the West Coast on our 7 am flight the next morning.

And came home to this.

Hail.

T.G.I. April!

Vegas, Baby!

This business woman + wife took a very much needed vacation this weekend.
Despite having my smart phone/trusty sidekick attached to me... I managed to relax quite a bit!

Took a quick trip with the husband to Sin City to visit his family and did a little of this

poolside reading

A little of this

living it up!

And a lot of this

sister time

It was such a blessing to step away from life, work and the sadness of losing Grandma and spend time with a bubbling family full of love.

Saturday was spent by the pool!
We just chilled out, grilled out and a few of us found out max face capacity

our precious nephew does his uncle B proud

Saturday night, sister and I hit the Las Vegas strip!
Girls night out = martinis, slots and way too much mockery of the free "show" of weirdos.



Sunday, we hiked off the Martinis at Red Rock Canyon



Played a few "out for blood" rounds of Rook Sunday night (tried it. won. still not sure if I like it) ... then headed to the Yard House with Husband and sister for some silly drinks and vegetarian junk food.

(Vegetarian buffalo wings? Why YES, ahthankyou!)

Monday was a little more pool time... a lot of coordinating departures... dinner with the family... and a 2 hour delay at the airport thanks to San Francisco Fog.

Woo Hoo for free Wi-Fi! This girl got caught up on work! Back to the best job in the world tomorrow and on to another amazing and full week.

Be blessed, all!

Book Report! 3 Cups of Tea

About a month after I moved out here, I finally lit a fire and started meeting some awesome girls and making some amazing friends.

One of those friends (go team Harris!) started a book club and I happily joined!

So far, we have read:

Freedom, by Johnathan Franzen

Whatever you do... don't. read. this. book. A chronicle of the most agonizingly disgusting humans (and not in a fun, morbid curiosity way) in one long whine-fest of approximate 416 pages.

If nothing else - it gave us a lot to talk about.

Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

If Freedom was all about the inability of the American people to be grateful for the blessings that they have, Three Cups of Tea was the antidote.

While the book dragged a bit in places, it was an amazing testament to the power of selflessness.

Plot: Greg Mortenson, after a failed attempt to summit K2, develops a burning passion for building schools in the poorest villages in Pakistan. His intent: To keep boys from being shuttled off to the well-structured extremist Islam schools while girls are left without education or to the failing Pakistani education system.

Key Message: Fight terrorism with education. Fight ignorance with love. Fight apathy with passion. If I took nothing else away from this book, I took away the knowledge that not all of Islam is radical and that the most rational way to fight the spread of radical Islam is to educate the next generation BEFORE they become terrorists.

Likes:

• The eye opener of how much money we, as a culture, spend on meaningless objects.
• The amazing descriptions of the Pakistani mountains
• The sense of passion that Greg oozes through every page

Dislikes:

• The book reads in fits and starts. It's really exciting! ... then you want to fall asleep.
• Greg's inability to see around his passion at times, to the detriment of his family and the organization that is funding the school projects.

All in all - a great, easy read! We're on to Under the Banner of Heaven, which has been a really interesting follow up as both of these books speak a huge lesson in the importance of teaching rational thought from a young age.

The biggest similarity between the two books? Indoctrination in place of education yields frightening results.

***

That's it for library hour! I'm planning to blog at Chute Assis once a week or so as my life gets crazier and crazier - but want to keep you all updated and tell you how much I miss my friends and adopted families all over the United States.

Blessings to you all!

I'M BACK! (again)

I got a nice long letter from a dear friend yesterday who very gently asked me...
"Where the *F* did you go!?"

I've been here! And a total blog bum at ChuteAssis because I've been building Finding Your ZenPulse! My business is slowly growing and my stress + joy levels growing right along with it. :)

Updates:

1. We're not pregnant! Hooray! (although I'm starting to put in a good word for a dog...)

2. We have friends! Had about 6 friends over for the Superbowl to watch the Packers KICK some Steeler ASS and felt so blessed to have built such a fun group of people to surround ourselves with.

WhatRunsLori was there with her new toy... I need one.

3. I joined an awesome book club with a really smart, really fun group of girls as well. We're reading Three Cups of Tea this month and I'll be sure to review it when I'm done with the book! (Book Club is Sunday. Need to finish it soon...)

3. I am SORE. Found an amazing lifting partner and business colleague, so Tuesdays/Wednesdays are usually recovery from Monday's lift. Am teaching spinning Tues through Fri (twice on Wed) and am loving the increase in endurance and power!

4. I am up to about 15 training and teaching hours a week ... up from 3 hours/week in December. We're growing like a weed over at ZenPulse!

5. I made some amazing cookies last week.

6. Last - but not least! - I got a SMART PHONE!

It is smarter than me. I am ok with that.

Love and miss you all!

Please drop me a line, drop by ZenPulse on Facebook or Twitter, or drop it like it's hot! (groan...)

out of shadow.

Yes. That was a Lord of the Rings reference. Don't judge. (B and I have been on a LOTR marathon since we ran out of Breaking Bad episodes this weekend. Just as good as they were 5 years ago!)

Not really any exciting stories or pretty pictures to share this time around. Just some good old-fashioned honesty.

Starting a business is hard. It is discouraging at times. And it is stressful.

And I spent the last half of last week in shadow. Not even the mean reds. Just a dark, icky, sticky shadow.

The kind where you can't sleep, can't take a deep breath, can't laugh at your husband's wildly ill-timed "that's what she said" jokes, and all you want to do is go back to sleep (even though you can't sleep.)

So I went to hot power yoga. I got up. And put on an old grey t-shirt and some crappy old yoga pants and went to yoga with a bad attitude and a determination to get through a really hard class with my bad attitude in tow.

Then my bad attitude and I had some tough conversations with a couple of loved ones.

And you know what?

My bad attitude didn't go away that day.

I woke up the next morning, though, after a full-night of deep sleep brought on by those truly healing practices... and had stepped out of the shadow. Monday suddenly didn't seem so scary and dark. Running my own business and being a home maker and a daughter and a sister and a friend suddenly felt lighter.

And this week has been amazing.

Step out of the shadow. Take your bad attitude with you if you need to. But take that step.