Break Into Your Own House Lately?

Today was a weird day. It started with me heading to the gym for my second to last 30 minute cycling class of the summer. I am an easily bored person so I love the 30 minute class, but they only offer it on Thursday mornings at 8:30 when I'm always at work. I've only been to it once before (because most of the summer I still had work then) but I was ready for it today. Turns out the instructor was away and they forgot to get a sub. See? That's why I pay the big bucks for my gym haha.

I didn't have my ipod but I decided to grab a magazine and try to do the elliptical. I used to be fine at making it through 30 minutes on the treadmill, elliptical etc. I can't handle it anymore! It's SO boring. How do you guys do it? Back in February when I started doing the 30 day Shred and running outside, I just got impatient with boring work outs and now I can't handle them anymore. After 15 minutes on the elliptical I'm barely even sweating, and I can't jack up the resistance because it hurts my knee. Oh man...so seriously, any tips on not dying of boredom during a gym work out?

Eric and I also left for the Cape today. Since Eric just accepted a position being a Varsity Football Coach, this is our last weekend together at the Cape for the summer- and probably our last full weekend together for awhile. Apparently they have practice or games every single day of the week, even Sunday. Eric's parents are coming to the Cape with us this weekend so we can show them our wedding spot and scout some rehearsal dinner locations. I'll keep you posted.

One of the more eventful aspects of our day happened when we left for dinner. I walked out of the house without my keys (apparently I left them next to my duffle bag instead of on the counter where I normally leave them). Eric, always the diligent house sealer, had already locked the doors before I noticed so BAM- we were locked out. Since my house key and my car keys are on the same chain, we really could not go anywhere and after searching the usual spots for an extra key we decided there was no extra key. So we had to get creative. Eric started to work the screen on one of the open windows.

So one window is open. And so begins breaking into my own house...

Yes, one neighbor did walk by at this point and asked is this like the Gates case, should I call the police? Haha- pretty crappy robbers who take pictures as they break in. Needless to say we got the keys and made it to the Olive Garden in one piece. Of course OG was delicious, but my stomach was absolutely killing at the end. Nothing I eat this week seems to make my stomach happy and I guess it is still recovering from the nerves surrounding the wedding last weekend. My stomach does not like any stress at all but unfortunately I'm an easily stressed person so it's going to have to get used to it. I did take some acidophilus (a probiotic- like in yogurt) when I got home and I swear that stuff is like a miracle cure. If anyone has any problems with their stomach what so ever, try it, seriously.

We will be major tourists and wedding planners this weekend so I'll be sure to update. Please leave any and all advice on the gym. I have to pay $5 to use it down here so I have to be good and get my money's worth!

One more pic from last weekend. So cute :)

Engagement Party Invites

If you read my blog often, you know about my mixed opinion on weddings. I like them, but sometimes I think there is a bit too much crazyness surrounding them. One bit of crazyness in particular is the "bridal shower." Though I think they are great for some people, I definitely do not think they are my thing. I hate opening presents in front of people, particularly household items that I am not excited about at all. I am pretty bad at being massively fake and that is what it would require. Fortunately, my mom completely agrees. Therefore, Eric and I decided to do a great big engagement party instead (even though we got engaged like 9 months ago, oops). This way, people can have fun and not watch us open presents the whole time.

For some really dumb reason I decided to take on a big project for our invitations. I basically fell in love with these Save the Dates that Amber made, but decided that our Cape wedding would not be connected enough to the Red Sox theme. So instead we decided to recreate these for our engagement invites. They were a lot of work but they came out really cool. For those of you who saw our engagement pictures, you will now see why we took a bunch in Red Sox shirts :)
Even though I stole all of the ideas for this from Amber, who really has the coolest stuff EVER for her wedding- they were still extremely time consuming. My mom has all sorts of opinions on wedding invitations, so I'm hoping she can take them over completely since I have no opinions on them :) I really love how these invitations came out, but mostly I'm just pumped to cross something off my list!

Can't Help It If I'm Lucky...

Bonus points if you can name that 90s song that has "can't help it if I'm lucky" in the song lyrics haha.
The title refers to the fact that I went to the gym today to join permanently, and for some reason my summer membership had been extended to next July. I don't know how or why, but I am feeling very lucky :)
Today at the gym I did 1000 yards in the pool and I decided swimming IS really growing on me. While I was swimming I thought about how swimming compares to running.

Similarities Swimming & Running:
1. After 30 minutes of both swimming and running I am tired and feel like I got a GREAT work out.
2. Both have the same monotony that allow me to zone out, or be alone with my thoughts.
3. Both sports can make me out of breath.
4. Swimming and running have a proper "form"- which I could probably improve in both sports.

Differences Swimming and Running:
1. Swimming is easier on my body
2. Running is easier on my time. Even though I can only swim for 30 minutes and be happy- I still have to get to the pool.
3. Running does not involve me smelling like chlorine even after a shower.
4. Swimming is working my arms.

That's all I came up with, but comparing the two sports did entertain me for about 20 of the laps I did today. Then I was thinking about how I used to come in last during every swim meet when I was on a swim team when I was little. I was thinking maybe I should take a stroke improvement class before I jump into joining a team. I may look into that.

After I did my work this morning at school and tutoring the kiddos, I went on a little dress shopping adventure. Hmm...does that make it sound like I enjoy these adventures? This time I brought Tiff, who was FAR more excited than me. I did find a bridal gown that I really liked a lot, which I can't post because I forgot the style number, but when I figure it out I'll show everyone. We also look at bridesmaid dresses and found a few relatively promising ones. I just have the hardest time picturing how a dress is going to look in a different color and actually fitting the person. Did anyone else have this problem planning a wedding? I am not good at imagining...

WEDDING!

Before I get into the wedding I just want to say I received a beautiful blog make over from Leslie and I love my new look :) Leslie is a teacher also, and uses the money she makes from blog designing for her classroom. I know how much money teachers spend on their own classroom, so I can tell you you'll be giving to a good cause! Go here if you would like her to design your blog to check out her packages.

so....WEDDING TIME. This wedding was a couple of day extravaganza for me including a bridal luncheon, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, all day getting ready party and the wedding itself. Of course I like the wedding itself part the best. On Thursday after the rehearsal dinner I stayed over at Katie's house because my job was to make her sleep. All I can say is I did make her sleep, but only for maybe 4 hours because of course we were chatting and too excited to sleep. Oops.

Friday was spent getting hair and make up done with all the bridesmaids. I haven't gotten my hair done since prom and I hate full updos (on me, particularly in pictures where it looks like I have no hair at all) and I've really never had my make up done so I was a little nervous. I gave the hair stylist this picture:

And this is what she did to me-

Pretty good huh? Haha. So anyway, we get to the church and my first nerve racking job was to walk down the aisle by myself. Everyone else walked down with a groomsman (and Katie with her Dad) but the Best Man was up with the groom, so therefore I walked by myself. For some odd reason this ended up being the scariest thing I had to do all night- not sure why. I think if I had to do it again it would not be as scary. Plus when you think about it, it's a pretty important honor. Katie looked beautiful coming down the aisle...

Even if she was crying :) Once she got down the aisle I was the boss of her dress. I am not a detail person, so basically unless your dress is sticking into your underwear, I probably won't notice. But I didn't want anyone out in the pews, particularly my mom, to be thinking oh my god her dress is so messed up so I tried to take the job seriously. Maybe a little too seriously. But hopefully when the professional pics come back it will be a perfect dress from the back haha. Katie, Adam, the best man and me were the only ones up on the alter- but the priest was good about whispering or using hand cues to tell us what to do. Everything went perfect during the ceremony.

The grooms parents got a trolley to take the bridal party and our dates to take pictures and then to the reception.

The trolley was a fun touch, especially for the Cape- but the whole idea that I just paid a million dollars to get my hair done was not making me excited about my hair blowing in the wind. We went to the beach to take some pictures of the bridal party...

Then we took a few more at the reception site. My next big job came when it was time to bustle Katie's dress. Luckily the seamstress understood that I think on a kindergarten level, so she color coded everything I had to tie making my job easy, yes! After that we all got introduced and it was time for the speeches. As Katie's dad said his welcome I went to my seat to grab my speech and take a drink of water. As I am drinking the water I realized I am spilling half the glass RIGHT on my dress, and I have to get up and give a speech in less than a minute. It was one of those moments where you realize you have too choices- panic and then cry, OR laugh and then make a massive joke of how you peed your pants as soon as you get up so that everyone is aware of the situation right away. I went for Choice #2. Eric was proud haha. Look closely at the bottom of this picture to laugh at my "pee" stain.

Overall I think the speech went well. I felt more comfortable giving it than I did walking down the aisle, and I even got a few laughs. One of the laughs I got was NOT when I was actually trying to be funny, oops! I was trying to explain that I had never known Katie without Adam and I said that when I met Katie she had already been dreaming ahead to today. I didn't think this would be funny but everyone thought it was hilarious because indeed Katie has been planning her wedding since before I met her haha. I didn't realize every person there knew that!

After the speech was over I was able to enjoy the night more and hang out with some of my favorite people in the world that I don't see nearly enough.

This is my BC Crew. The hand on the side is the other BC grads trying to jump in.

Which we eventually let them do...

Both my Dad and Katie's dad went to BC too. It's definitely one of those schools where multiple generations tend to go there. Here are just my BC girls- minus my favorite roommate in the world Ash :(

Cristina is making us all look pale with her spray tan. There was also a lot of dancing, which is my favorite part about weddings.

So now I am completely exhausted and not ready to leave my vacation behind at all. It's back to some serious work on Monday. Do not even think about saying "At least you have summers off..." because I had one, count them, ONE week off this summer and yet everyone still says that to me. Grr. Although on a positive note, it will be good to be back in a routine, my stomach has been bothering me so much because God only knows what I've been eating and exercise has been off, sleep schedule etc etc. There is definitely something to be said for routine.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

A Tribute to Katie, the Bride!

Thanks for all of your support on the 50 laps of swimming. It takes me about 30 minutes, which I like because I have to pay $5 to visit the Y down here, so it seems like a waste of $5 to just jump in the pool for 15 minutes, which is what I was doing before.

Last night I had some hilarious "nightmares" about Katie's wedding. Yes, I've never been in a wedding before but I've certainly watched people in weddings and I can tell you they are not expected to do NEARLY the amount of things I was making myself do in these dreams! All of a sudden it was the rehearsal and the priest was telling Katie to move to the back of the church, the front of the church, the side of the church- and for some reason I was supposed to follow this ridiculous dance around the church. Then, in my next dream- I was supposed to be putting on my bridesmaid dress AT the church, and I don't just mean like 30 minutes before at the church, I mean WHILE the other bridesmaids are going down the aisle. My mom was helping me and I was like QUICK, get the shoes! zip it up! Um...yeah so we are starting to get ready at 9:45 in the morning for a 3:30 ceremony, I THINK I have ample time to actually PUT on my dress!

Hmm...clearly I need to take it down a notch! Despite my insane dreams, I am actually very excited about today and tomorrow. Katie is my bestest friend AND she has been planning and dreaming about this wedding since I met her 7 years ago (and yes, she was dating the same guy haha). Unlike me, you never hear Katie saying she hates weddings. I would say there are even very few things she dislikes about them haha.

I don't want a give away my whole maid of honor speech 36 hours before my debut "performance" (obviously my dreams tonight will have something to do with me having to give the speech while standing on my head), but I will say Katie is pretty awesome. And, we have been through some "rough" times together...

Parasailing in Aruba...I know it doesn't sound rough, but it is for those of us who get motion sick.
St. Patrick's Day falling on a Wednesday...I know, tough life
A New Years of terrible decisions (not hers, all mine haha)
Of course during our 7 year friendship, times were not always "rough", they were also great! Like when Katie finally turned 21 (the two of us were the last of our friends, not cool).

The night that I met Eric...and by met I meant sort of met and then Katie put my number in his phone and then forced me to hang out with him the next weekend saying you COULD be missing out on the love of your life (insert eye roll here). As is usually the case when I roll my eyes at something, it ends up being right.
Dressed as 50s housewives...
Time at the beach
Supporting BC
and so many more.
Katie, I hope the next two days are all that you dreamed they would be and maybe the best of your life so far. But definitely not the best of your life to come :) I love you! And I promise I will not give my speech while standing on my head!

Vacation!!!

So I didn't get back to the gym yesterday to swim because I had work but today I managed to bust out 50 laps, which is 1,250 yards. It may not seem like a lot to actual swimmers, but considering that I never did more than 30 laps training for the triathlon, it's a lot to me. Swimming is really starting to grow on me and I'm not noticing the lingering chlorine smell even after taking a shower as much as I was before. Best of all, it doesn't seem to be bothering my knee much as long as I remember to push off with only my right knee, ha ha.

Since this is supposed to be Eric and my "vacation" this summer- we decided that today would be a touristy day once we got back to the Cape. I would say above anything else Eric and my favorite things to do involve being a tourist at new places we have never been. You'd think after spending the better part of 5 summers (minus working haha) at the Cape we'd be out of things to do, but no.

Today we took a river cruise on the Bass River. The Bass River separates the towns of Yarmouth and Dennis and leads out to the Nantucket Sound. Eric and I both love boats, but I have a tendency to get sea sick on the ocean so I decided a river cruise would be a good way to experience the boat but not get sick. Since the company we used also rents kayaks, I would say most of the younger people tend to rent kayaks (which I may have considered if it didn't look like it was going to pour at any minute). We were definitely some of the only people under 60 on the boat, but that was okay with us.

Basically the boat cruised us down the river, pointing out wildlife, houses and other areas of interest. Since we don't visit Yarmouth or Dennis too often there was definitely a lot to learn about the area. Plus, since the houses are beautiful, waterfront estates lots of famous people own or once owned them.

My first favorite house had FIVE master suites. Yup, five.

My second favorite house had NINE bathrooms. If Eric and I ever decided to quit teaching and get rich, I think our mansion would probably have nine bathrooms.

The best part about this house though (besides the nine bathrooms) was that the guy who owned it decided he did not have enough space, so he bought the house next door for an "entertainment center" and a little space even beyond that for a library. WHAT?!

The most random part of the boat ride was when we were going past a family fishing on a dock. All of a sudden I realize I know them- I taught both the son and the daughter and there they are fishing. I had the son my first year teaching and the daughter last year, they were both awesome kids but definitely invented the blank stare. I was afraid if I called out to them I would just scare the whole family and they may not be able to tell who I was out on the boat. I'll have to tell them when I see them around school next year.

After returning how we decided to continue to enjoy the cloudy, but still not rainy day. We order take out from our favorite Japanese restaurant and ate it on the porch. I got shumai (shrimp dumplings), miso soup and some rice with teriyaki sauce.

I love Japanese food because it's delicious but you don't feel disgusting and full after eating it.

Now I'm off to take it easy tonight because tomorrow is the beginning of Katie's wedding festivities, wahoo!

Delicious Restaurants and Exercise Controversy

Hi everyone, I'm still down at the Cape for a little bit. We have been checking out restaurants for our rehearsal dinner, and just enjoying Cape food so I thought I'd post some pictures.

Last night we went to Cape Cod Sea Grille in Harwich. We are considering it as a Rehearsal dinner spot and my parents had tried it out and recommended it. It's pretty close to the water, but I wouldn't say it has a "water view". It does have a great inside, fun decor and really nice waitresses. I got the Oven Roasted Cod. Look how delicious...

It was served with basal rice and a pineapple salsa. And here is Eric's filet mignon...

And his side of peach risotto. I am really hoping he attempts to recreate this at home.

I am totally sold on this place for a rehearsal dinner spot, but they only fit 35 people...and we can only do that if we have less readers then I wanted to, and do some other rearranging. So, I'll check out some other places before I have to take any drastic measures :)

Tonight Eric and I were aiming for Japanese food but the place was closed so we decided to hit downtown Hyannis again. We ended up at a place called Asa Grille. We have been there before only for drinks (which were delicious) so we thought we'd give it another shot for food. I got Cod again (I know it's amazing how adventurous I am) but it was so different and ALSO delicious.

This time my Cod was served on whipped potatoes and green beans. Mashed potatoes was probably my favorite food when I was younger, but now that I can't have butter it's not as exciting. This was probably filled with both garlic and butter, but I ate it anyway. I don't feel amazing tonight, but it's also about 100 degrees and humid so it's hard to tell if I can really blame it on the mashed potatoes. If you ever find yourself at the Cape, I'm highly recommending both the Cape Cod Sea Grille (Harwich) and Asa Grille (Hyannis).

In other news, have you guys read this new Time article? Way to stir up problems! Basically this article argues that exercising does not help you lose weight, for several different reasons including the ever popular, "I went to the gym today, so I can eat this cupcake." They don't say exercise is not healthy (although they do suggest that perhaps we just need to be moving throughout the day without actually spending an hour on the elliptical machine), but just that it is not helping us lose weight. Of course there has been a lot of rebellion against this, including this article by Runner's World.

Now, we all know I am a huge fan of exercise. I come from a very active family and my fiance's job is to teach kids to be active. However, I PERSONALLY have never found it to be a good tool for weight loss. When I was studying abroad in Australia, I went to the gym 6 days a week (far more than I ever made it to the gym when I was at BC), but I also gained nearly 10 pounds because I was eating like absolute crap. For me, losing weight has always been about changing my eating habits. But, I think things might be different for someone who eats unhealthy and does not exercise at all, and then begins doing both. Or things might be different for people who are just not me.

On the other hand, I clearly do not think exercise is useless. For most people, the point of weight loss is to be healthier and to look better. Exercise will do both of those. It will add to our cardiovascular health, and help us build toning and muscles which will make us look leaner. So while you may not see a number on the scale, you will most likely see a difference in your body if you take up exercise. I think Jillian Michael's Shred is a great example of this. Most people I know who have done the Shred have not lost the many pounds promised on the front of the DVD, but everyone has seen a change in their body, often proven by a change in their measurements in the waist, chest and hips area. Plus exercise keeps me sane and makes my stomach function a lot better. So I won't be giving up my treadmill or my gym membership just yet. What do you think?