If you are a CrossFitter, these three ladies are nothing new to you or your vocabulary. If you have never done CrossFit before, or have never heard of it (which, by now, would surprise me!), then get ready...cause I'm about to tell you what's up with these three "Girls." There are many "Girls" of CrossFit, but we have just recently done these three benchmark workouts at Elite within the past two weeks. We have a "brag board" for both the guys and girls who are members at the gym to write down their times for benchmark workouts and their weight when we get a new 1 rep. max on anything. Since the girls brag board is fairly new, we have been doing a lot of work trying to get our 1 rep. max for different weight lifting exercises. And, we have also been doing various benchmark workouts...hence the title...Helen, Fran, and Angie. The boys are doing these WODs too...they have just had a board up for awhile...but they are improving on their 1 rep. max and their times as they do these WODs more and more. There also some "New Girls" that have come into the picture since CrossFit first began and blew up. All of the girls WODs...both the "Benchmark Girls" and the "New Girls" WODs are no joke! There are also "Hero Workouts" that will just almost push you to passing out! Which is awesome because it means that you gave it everything you had! What I love about Helen, Fran, and Angie is that they all have pull-ups and they will all push you to your limits. The first time I did these three "Girls" was back when I first started at Elite in August. I was using the green band (the one with the least resistance) to do all my pull-ups. I had gotten to where I could do a few kipping pull-ups, but not confident in myself to go beyond my comfort zone and just do the workout prescribed. Now that I can do kipping pull-ups and have gotten so much stronger, I can do these workouts prescribed...and rocked my times!!! Here is what these "Girls" are along with my times compared to Annie Thorisdottir (the 2011 and 2012 winner of the Reebok CrossFit games for the women's division):
Helen
3 Rounds for Time:
400m Run
1.5 Pood (55lb.) Kettlebell Swing - 21 Times
Pull-Ups - 12 Reps
My time: 9:24 Annie Thorisdottir: 7:40
Fran
21-15-9 Reps for Time:
65 lb. Thrusters
Pull-Ups
My Time: 5:19 Annie Thorisdottir: 2:55
Angie
For Time:
100 Pull-Ups
100 Push-Ups
100 Sit-Ups
100 Air Squats
My Time: 16:32 Annie Thorisdottir: 10:57
Are you sweating reading those?!?!? I am! And I also remember exactly how I felt after each and everyone of them! I had noodle arms and legs and my lungs felt like they were going to explode! Not so much on Angie...but on Helen and Fran...my lungs really felt like that. I was also completely exhausted...walking seemed near impossible! After those workouts...I just dropped to the floor, laid on my back, put my hands over my head, and waited until my breathing returned to normal before I tried to stand up. It was great! I knew that I pushed myself to my maximum ability and I had given it all in each and every one of those "Benchmark Girls!" I am no where near close to Annie's times. If I was I would be competing alongside her in the CrossFit games! But, my goal is to improve on my times each and every time we do one of these "Girls," or any other benchmark workout for that matter. CrossFit is all about doing what you can do for your ability, skill level, and strength...and improving each and every time you walk through those gym doors. I know that I have gotten better, stronger, faster, and more confident in myself the longer I do CrossFit...and especially since we joined Elite. I am pushed everyday by Jeremy and Chanan and the people I workout with to do more, go harder, and just be better than I was the day before. We all push one another to be better and cheer each other on as we accomplish new goals and crush old times and previous 1 rep max weights. I love the community that we have formed and are a part of at Elite and it's all because Jeremy and Chanan and the awesome people we workout with! CrossFit is a huge part of our lives...and it's something we love and are passionate about. I'm excited to get more into the competitive side of it and see how far I can push myself to become better each and every time. On that note, here's a fun quote to leave you with. I think it sums up what CrossFit is all about when you are going beyond your comfort level, pushing past the hurt and the mental blocks, achieving new goals, and getting better. XOXO!
"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious."
~Vince Lombardi
Yes...you read that title right! I had been craving something sweet...and I had 2 cans of coconut milk I needed to use. So, I made Paleo chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream the other day...OMG delicious! Here's the recipe for the ice cream...
And here's the recipe for the cookie dough that swirls into the ice cream (I halved the recipe because I knew the danger of having extra cookie dough laying around the house! I would have eaten it all!)
This was such good ice cream! It was very rich and the cookie dough was the perfect texture. I actually kept the ice cream in the fridge so that I could just open up the container and get spoon fulls of it throughout the day! Of course, I shared some. Everyone said that it was amazing! So...another sweet treat Paleo style was successful!!! I promise I'll post some actual meal dishes I've been cooking. It's just so much more fun to post healthy sweets! Enjoy!!!
So...I mentioned in another post that I've been working on getting my muscle-ups. This is one of the hardest exercises to do in CrossFit. It requires a lot of upper body strength, coordination, and some gymnastic skills. I'm strong, but my coordination and gymnastic skills haven't always been the best. They have, however, been improving since I really started hardcore training with CrossFit. You can either do these on the bar or on the rings. It's much, much harder to do them on the rings because you are having to stabilize your entire body with rings that can get away from you in a second with one hint of movement. Lots and lots of core strength gets added when it comes to doing these on the rings!
I finally decided that it was time that I started working on getting my muscle-ups...and the rest is history. I had taken off work one day and really focused for about an hour and a half with the basics of getting a muscle-up. Jeremy had me doing basic movements so that I would get the feeling for what it was like to really push my hips forward so that I would have enough power to then push myself up on the bar so that I could extend and lock my arms. After I had worked on some floor work to get the movements, he then put this contraption together so that I could work on the turn-over...the hardest part of the muscle-up. He put two rings over the bar and then belted me in so that my feet were dangling off the floor and I was holding on to only the two rings. Then, I was practicing pushing myself up and extending and locking my arms. It was really hard because I was pushing up my body weight without any other movement. I wasn't kipping myself up or pushing myself off the ground. It was pretty much a strict triceps dip on the rings, but the movement started in front of my chest instead of from in front of me. Even though it was hard, it helped my body to understand the muscle movement so that when I attempted to do a muscle-up, it was simply putting the hip thrust together with the turnover and then getting my arms locked out.
I didn't get them the first several times I tried. In fact, I didn't even wind up getting them when I was working on them this day. I might have, but I decided to stop exerting so much energy on them and focus on the WOD...which was Helen...so I needed all the energy I could muster! A couple days later, I decided to just get back on the bar and not doubt myself. And you know what...I totally did it! Not only did I get one, but I got back up on the bar and did two more! I was SO pumped!!! Then, I decided I was just going to put my fear and doubt even more behind me and get up on the rings to attempt a muscle-up on those. And...I got those too!!! Well...I guess technically I didn't get a complete one. I got the turnover, but I could get my arms locked all the way out. I was probably about a quarter of an inch away from fully extending and locking out my arms. But...I DID IT!!! I've been practicing more and more and I can get a couple in a row without coming off the bar. They're still hard for me, but I know with more practice, I'll be able to do more and more. Jeremy really helped me to understand the technique and also had more confidence in me than I had in myself that I would be able to do them. That's what good coaches do!!! Now...Brent wants to put together a CrossFit team so that we can go and compete against other CrossFitters. Guess we'll see where that takes us!!!
This is not a very pretty muscle-up. But hey...it was my first official one! The more I practice them...the cleaner they'll be!!!
Happy Halloween!!! Well...a few days ago anyways! I had just gotten home from the gym and was getting ready to hop in the shower and Cody was packing for his hunting trip in South Dakota when we both got a text. It was the Jordan clan asking if we were home so they could swing by and show off their precious little ducky!!! Brent and Bria had taken Jansen to the Wylie Baptist fall festival for a little bit and decided to swing by our house since we live literally 2 miles away. Of course we said YES!!! They were rounding the corner of our street when we came outside to greet them. JJ looked ADORABLE!!! She was in such a good mood and was just talking and babbling...it was precious. I called my parents to see if they were home so they could see how cute she was. They were home, so we walked across the street and showed off our prcious friend's adorable baby girl! We love Brent and Bria so much...and Jansen is one special little girl...we love her to pieces!!! I'm glad we headed over there...they took a couple of pics of the five of us! It was a great surprise on Halloween night...definitely a special little treat!
Sweet Jordan trio with their precious Halloween Ducky!!!
LOVE this pic! Such great friends...love ya'll!!!
This was taken at the Health Club. Bria was a 24 KG kettlebell and JJ was an 8 KG kettlebell for Halloween...SO CUTE!!!
There are many times in my life when it seems like I just can't get any better. I had one of those days a few weeks ago during a WOD at Elite. I am so competitive...with myself and with others...and I just couldn't seem to get past a workout hump. We started the WOD off with a dead lift max, after we had done our warm-up of course! The last time I did my dead lift max, I got 185. My goal was to increase by at least 10 pounds...but I really wanted to get a 200 lb. dead lift max. It sounds like a lot to go up 15 lbs...but I have gotten SO much stronger in these past few months...I thought it would be really achievable. Boy, was I wrong. In fact, I didn't even improve at all. I got 185, no problem. So, I went up to 195 thinking it would be difficult, but doable. I couldn't even pick the bar off the ground. Needless to say, I was so mad. I should have gone down to 190, just to see if I could get it. But, I was so mad at myself for not getting my initial goal of 195, I just stopped and started mentally preparing for the WOD. Recently, I've gotten to where I can do my handstand push-ups...which is super exciting! However, our WOD for this particular day had a lot, 45 to be exact, of handstand push-ups in the workout. When we did this workout, I had literally just gotten to where I could do these two days before. The WOD was:
21-15-9 Reps For Time:
Pull-Ups
Box Jumps
Handstand Push-Ups (HSPU)
Toes 2 Bar (T2B)
If you couldn't do a HSPU, then you did pike push-ups. Well, I could do HSPU at the time, but I doubted myself on being able to 45 of them. I was also focusing on how fast I could finish instead of pushing myself to do the exercise the right way and take a little longer. This is a mental thing for me. Every WOD is for time (unless it's an AMRAP), and I want to be able to finish fast...but I also want to do the prescribed weight and prescribed exercise. Prescribed just means that you do the workout exactly how it is written with the highest weight recommendation that is given for any exercise that requires you lifting any amount of weight. Anyways, this particular WOD made me step back and think that I couldn't do that many HSPU after just being so new to developing the skill to be able to do them. So, I did the modified pike push-up. Except for the last 9. I decided since there was only 9, I would attempt to do the HSPU. And you know what??? I did all 9 of them just fine! They weren't easy, but I had no problem doing all 9 of them unbroken. Then, I was double mad at myself! Mad that I didn't improve on my dead lift max and mad that I cheated myself in a WOD because of self-doubt. I promised myself, never again would I do a WOD un-prescribed without attempting to do it all out first. If I, at first tried, and the weight was too much or the given exercise too hard for my skill level at the time, then I would lighten the weight and do the WOD modified. I am overcoming this obstacle with ease. The struggle is pushing myself beyond my comfort zone and my mental limits. Yes, it hurts; yes, it's hard; yes, it takes me longer sometimes. I just finally told myself that if I was ever going to get better and be at a level where I could compete, I had to just dig in and push past the "I can't" and yell at myself to say that, "I can." It's working. It's taking some time during some WODs, my muscles are sore, but when I go in and do something that I really struggled with at one time a week or two later and it's easier, I realized that my body can do way more than I ever thought possible with just a little hard work, dedication, and motivation.
We all face obstacles and struggle to overcome them. It doesn't matter where you are in your skills and abilities. There are several of us that are more advanced in our WODs than others. But, no matter how good you are, how strong you are, how fast you are, or how new you are. There will always be something that challenges you and causes you to struggle. This is when you have to push past the hurt, the burn, and the mental blocks and tell yourself that you are much stronger than your mind allows you to believe. Find your weakness, work to overcome it, beat it, and do tomorrow what you couldn't do today.
I took off the Monday after Cody's birthday weekend in Ft. Worth. I knew that we would be getting in late on Sunday night and since we were gone all weekend, I knew that I was going to have a lot of laundry to do, a few chores needed to be done around the house, and I needed to run a few errands. So, back in September when we planned this whole shebang, I requested that Monday off so that I wouldn't run myself ragged throughout the week after his birthday. I am SO glad I did. We were both pooped when we got home on Sunday night. Unfortunately, Cody didn't take that Monday off. But, since I was going to be home, I was able to get a few things done for him so that when he got home from work and the gym, he could just relax! The one nice thing about taking the day off was that I got to go up to Elite and work on some skill work and my bench press max. I got 120 lb. bench press max by the way...super pumped!!! I've really been wanting to get my muscle-ups...so I worked on those for about an hour and half before I did the WOD, which was Helen (more on that in another post). I guess I got up there around 10:30 and was home by 1:00. Since Cody's birthday had just passed, I decided to whip up some Paleo chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and take up there to the 5:00 class. I found the recipe on a blog from a Google search...but my favorite Paleo blog is PaleOMG. I followed her blog even before Cody and I decided to go Paleo...like for about a year now! She's hilarious, her recipes are amazing, and she's a fellow CrossFitter. In fact, she's actually a CrossFit coach and has competed at Regionals...legit! Anyways, the thing I love about Paleo, is that you are eating super healthy, unprocessed foods (meats, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds)...AND you can still have treats! Eating Paleo isn't about depriving yourself of the foods you love. It's just about finding solutions to making the things you love healthy and unprocessed...and eating them in moderation. Like...I would never make these just for us to have at home...but I would for a special occasion or a family dinner or get-together! I just wanted to do something to celebrate his birthday at the gym with all our workout buddies...and there's no better way to do that than with a healthy cupcake treat! Here's the recipe...
Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes
created by JennyMac's Lipsmack
1 cup almond flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
5 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup honey
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 papers. Combine dry ingredients in medium bowl and set aside. Whisk eggs, oil, vanilla and honey then pour into dry ingredients. Use a electric hand mixer to combine, breaking up lumps and will help emulsify the eggs. Use a ice cream scooper to put into muffin cups. Cook for about 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on cooking rack. Makes 12. See frosting recipe below.
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup grapeseed oil (I used almond oil and it turned out perfect)
1 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. vanilla
pinch sea salt
Melt the chips with the oil in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Stir in honey, vanilla and salt. Frosting will be very loose. Dip each cupcake top into the glaze. I noticed as I was dipping the frosting was getting thicker as I could double-dip some of the cupcakes again makes a thicker fudgy top.
After I dropped them off and chatted for a bit, I headed home to get dinner started. When Cody got home, he walked in with an empty platter! The cupcakes were a hit! Now...go and make these for someone you love. Or for yourself if you're having "one of those days!" I promise you won't be disappointed!
Cody Michael Kelley is officially 30 years young!!! My sweet hubby turned the BIG 3-0 on October 27th!!! Since this birthday is a big milestone, I wanted to do something extra special for his birthday. But...I didn't want to do anything that he wouldn't have fun with or be irritated with something I had done...like throw a surprise party. In fact, I very distinctively remember him telling me a long time ago that he didn't want a surprise party when he turned 30...or any other year for that matter. So, when I started realizing that it was time to start putting some plans together, I asked him what his ideal 30th birthday party would include. Of course...he said his dream 30th birthday would have been some fabulous hunt to South Africa...but that wasn't exactly in the budget! What he really wanted was just for all of his friends to get together and spend the weekend just hanging out as one big group...just like back in college. Then, the question became...where do you want to go??? I threw out Austin, San Antonio, DFW...but he never would really say exactly where he wanted to go. This conversation began in early July along with Josh and Abbie throwing out ideas too. When he finally came to the decision on where to go, we were at Josh and Abbie's house during the first weekend in September. And they say women can never make up their mind! Hehe...just kidding! We were all sitting around talking after an ACU football game and a girl's night out event at Betty and June (an adorable boutique in Abilene) when Josh said that if Cody wanted to go to the DFW area, his parents would love for us to come and stay at their house. And from that moment on he was sold! Sandra and LaDell are some of the most caring, generous, considerate, kind, loving people and they open their home to any of their three kiddos and their kids friends. Josh said he would check with his parents to make sure that it would be ok for some of to stay at their hose the weekend of Cody's b-day...and they said yes! Let the planning begin...
As soon as Cody made the decision on where he wanted to go for his b-day and we knew it would be ok for some people to stay at the Harrison's...I texted all of our friends the following day to give the FYI on the tentative plans for Cody's b-day weekend. All-in-all there were 28 people that we sent out the invite too. Because of the time of year that his b-day falls, several couples weren't able to go. But...there were 10 people were able to make the trip to Ft. Worth and celebrate Cody turning 30! We sort-of made some plans and then the rest of the weekend was just going to be up in the air. Nothing was going to be stressful...and when you make lots of plans and have lots of stuff going on...it tends to make things stressful! The only thing that was set in stone, was that we were going to go to Joe T. Garcia's for dinner and the Aaron Watson concert at Billy Bob's on Saturday night (the actual night of Cody's b-day). I guess we also made dinner plans for Friday night...we just decided to have a chill family dinner at the Harrison's with all of us there together. The rest of the weekend was just kinda up-in-the-air!
Because he didn't want a surprise party (and I was really ok with that because it would have been really hard for me to keep it from him), I still wanted to do something that he didn't know about. I decided to just do something simple, but something that would celebrate Cody. Since, I'm addicted to Pinterest, I turned to it for some party planning. I just did a search for a 30th birthday party for men and got lots of super cute ideas. At first, I wanted to do a theme, but then decided that doing black and white would be perfect! His b-day is so close to Halloween...so it went perfect with how Sandra had their house decorated...absolutely adorable! She's so talented!!! I sort of put lots of different ideas together to come up with my final product. I had some custom signs made on Etsy...four of them to be exact. So many of the cute ideas I saw on Pinterest were candy bars, snack bars, sweet bars, etc. I decided to incorporate those ideas for him. The signs I had made were a "Happy Birthday" sign (obviously!), "Drinks," "Sweets," and "Treats" signs. The treats sign was above a candy bar. I looked up candy from the 80's and just got tons of bags of different kinds of candies that were popular in the 80's. I may have gone overboard on this...I bought 12 bags of candy! For the sweets bar, I bought double chocolate Chips-Ahoy, Oreos, and chocolate Teddy Grahams. I also ordered a black and white topsy turvy cake...it turned out SO good! The bottom layer was black and white stripes and the top layer was black and white diamonds. On top of the cake, there were black and white stars on curvy metal stakes. The last bar that I had was an actual drink bar. I made a beer cake...complete with 30 beers, along with a liquor bouquet. These were mainly for decoration...I think the boys broke into a few bottles on the liquor bouquet! I also found a recipe for a black drink to add to the drink table. Since this was all a surprise, Josh and Emory took Cody to Cabela's for a little manly shopping and then to Mi Cocina for a pre-dinner margarita. The boys left early that Friday afternoon...and Abbie came to pick me up around 3:00 that afternoon so we could get on the road and get to the Harrison's house fairly early. When we were a few minutes outside of town, we let Josh know that we were close and they left the Harrison's so us girls could set-up for the party and dinner!
When we were all done setting up, we called the boys and they headed back to the house. In the meantime, us girls started chopping the veggies and making the salad while LaDell got the grill ready for the steaks and chicken. A little bit later, the boys came strolling in through the garage door and Cody got his first look at his little birthday "surprise!" It wasn't anything over the top...but he was really sweet about it and was excited to see the few little things all over the house that he didn't know about. The boys hung out and talked with us in the kitchen while we finished up getting dinner ready. When it was all in the oven, we moved to the living room and just sat around and talked for awhile before it was time to eat. It was soon dinner time and we were all starving! We piled our plates high and sat around the dinner table and talked and ate, and repeated that a few more times! The rest of the night was spent catching up with friends, laughing, and getting ready to countdown Cody's birthday. Josh decided to all have a birthday toast at the stroke of midnight to commensurate Cody's big 3-0!!! After that...we all headed to bed to get some rest before the eventful day ahead!
Obviously this is cheesy...but we had to get a re-do of him seeing things for the first time!
Josh, Jen, and Cody...love them!!! Nice booty Josh!!!
I'm not really sure what's going on in this picture...maybe talking to me from the looks of the pic below!
This is really cute of me...NOT! Hehe...I'm in the middle of talking...shocker!
Gettin' some candy!!!
So much to choose from!!!
LOVE these girls!!!
THE CAKE!!!
Getting sung to...he protested...but we insisted!!!
Blowing out his candles! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Such great friends...love this group of boys!
The gang on Friday night! Alex, Elle, and Jen's roommate, Jessica came over to celebrate with us! XOXO
Precious girlies!!!
Oh my! This is so typcial of these boys...crazy!
A successful beginning to an amazing birthday weekend! I love you!!!
On Saturday, we woke up to Sandra cooking us a yummy breakfast in the kitchen. We ate some yummy food, drank some delicious coffee and hung out for a little bit that morning. Since we are CrossFit-aholics...we found a CrossFit box close by and headed that way to see what it was all about. The closest one to Sandra and LaDell's house is CrossFit 817. It's a 15,000 sq. ft. building full of CrossFit love! They were actually having a competition that day...so we didn't get to workout...but we got to watch some other CrossFitters throw it down! It was super fun to watch...and encouraging to know that we could have been right in the middle competing alongside all these other CrossFitters. We stayed for about an hour, then headed back to the house. The boys decided to head down to the Stockyards and watch the Texas Tech game at Chimys and we decided to go shopping! We spent the afternoon doing our own thing...the guys being all manly watching football and the girls spending some quality time lunching and shopping. When we got back to the house, it was time to clean up and get ready for some yummy Mexican food and an amazing concert with our best friends! Dinner at Joe T.'s was amazing!!! If you've never been before...you should really just take a day trip to go eat there...and have one of their famous margaritas! Don't have two though...and don't ask me how I know this! I've said before that Cody and I don't drink hardly ever...so two margaritas for me put me a little on the tipsy side. Apparently it also makes me a Chatty Cathy! Anyways...we had an amazing, yummy dinner and sat around the table just talking and laughing. After dinner, we headed over to Billy Bob's for the Aaron Watson concert. We had so much fun spending the night together laughing, talking, and just being carefree and silly! After the concert, we headed back to the house, had a midnight snack, and sat around and talked for a little while longer before turning in.
Happy Birthday my love!!!
Jen and me!!! We kinda look alike in this pic!!! I love this precious girl!
A pre-dinner birthday drink!
Cheers!
These precious, amazing friends made Cody's birthday extra special! Logan and Macee, Cody and Me, Josh and Abbie, Mark and Jacki, Jen, and Emory!Love you all!!!
Birthday dinner at Joe T.'s!!! YUMMY!
All of us at dinner!!!
LOVE this!!! Jacki, Macee, and me. These are precious, precious girls!
Birthday margaritas! You can't go to Joe T.'s and not have one!
Oh yes we did! Cody always begs to not have people sing to him on his birthday. Obviously I didn't listen this time! It was his 30th birthday...he was not getting out of being sung to this year!
This is priceless! His face when he realized they were coming over to sing to him!!!
I think he made some new friends!
If you can't beat em...join em!!!
So...we decided to get dressed up and get on the bull at Billy Bob's! We are having way too much fun with this!!!
Last pic of the night! This is classic of us! We all love each other so much...we are family! We love to spend time together, have an amazing and fun time, and celebrate every occasion with one another! Thank you to each and everyone of you who came down and made this weekend so special!!! Happy 30th Birthday Cody! I hope it was one you will always remember and cherish!!!
When Sunday morning rolled around and we were all awake...we were all still so sleepy and ready for some coffee and breakfast! LaDell made a run to the store for the breakfast goodies...Sandra made us breakfast burritos...yum!!! After we ate, we seriously laid around on the living room floor and on the couches and just kinda crashed. None of us went back to sleep, but we just laid around watching movies for a little while. Pretty soon, it was time for some lunch...our tummies told us so! There is a BJ's right down the road from the Harrison's...so that's where we were headed! It is always so good to eat there...I really don't know why we don't have one in Abilene. When we got back to the house, we visited for a bit longer, then packed up our stuff and started to head home. We made one more stop by Cabela's before officially getting on the road though! The Harrison clan got Cody a gift card to there for his b-day...so he wanted to get a couple of things while we were still in town. Once we were done, we piled in the truck and headed back to Abilene! Before we went home, we stopped at Cotton Patch and had a yummy dinner with Cody's mom and dad for his b-day. It was so good to see his parents...I haven't seen either of them since this summer...WHAT?!?! How terrible is that?!?!? This is when I realize that our lives can be way too busy sometimes. After dinner, we headed to our house and had three very excited and wiggly doggies waiting for us!!! It was so good to be home and just sit on the couch with our little family of five and watch some Sunday night football. We have such amazing friends who have such amazing parents...and we are so very blessed to have each and everyone of them in our lives!!! All in all...I would say that Codys' 30th birthday was a success! He said that he had such a good time and it was awesome getting to spend such a big birthday with the people he loves the most. I love you babe...and I can't wait to spend every single birthday with you!!!
My precious Mimi turned 89 on October 19th!!! She is the sweetest, kindest, most generous person that I know. Mimi still acts like she is much, much younger than her age. We are so blessed that she in such amazing health. She dresses to the nines, hangs out with her friends, goes on shopping trips, comes to see us multiple times in Abilene, she's in the Red Hat Club, she volunteers at the Court House and the little museum in Hamilton, and so much more! I swear she has more energy than I do...and I'm 27! In fact, when she came down for her birthday, she was telling us about how she went out into the field behind her house and realized that one of the logs that used to border the garden was rotten. So, she proceeded to go into my Granddad's shop and get the hand saw, go back to where the log was, saw it into three pieces, and then hauled those three pieces back to the house so she could put them out by the garbage cans. WHAT?!?!? You seriously couldn't pay me money to do something like that! I won't even pull weeds in our flower bed outside! I know that sounds bratty...but yard work isn't my thing. If I'm going to be outside, I want to be doing something active like running, riding a bike, hiking, swimming (or tanning), etc. Now...when it comes to the inside...I try to be like the domestic 1950's housewife (that works full time). But me and yard work...NO THANKS!!! So, when my Mimi is proceeding to tell me this story, my mouth was literally on the floor. We all just started laughing in amazement and she acted like it was no big deal! Love her!!!
Every year for my Mimi's birthday, the entire family gets together to celebrate with her. This year, it just happened to be that the Saturday that worked best for all of us was the Saturday right after her birthday...October 20th. She came to Abilene that Friday night. Michael actually went down to pick her up from Hamilton. Her car had been giving her problems for awhile and she felt that it was unsafe to drive. It had been leaking fluids and it scared her. In fact, she actually sold her car and bought mine! More on that in another post...when my new car actually comes in! He left early afternoon to go pick her up and they got back to Abilene around 6:30. Cody and I walked across the street to go visit for a bit before they went out to eat dinner. We had already eaten...we were both starving by 5:00! After we talked for about an hour, we headed back home and they went on their way to dinner.
On Saturday morning, we all woke up early and got on the road by 9:30 to head to Lubbock to meet the rest of the fam. My aunt and uncle live in Amarillo. As do my cousin and her husband. But, my other cousin, his wife, and their two boys live in Lubbock. It was a good middle ground for everyone to meet. And, since the boys are so young, we could be at their house where all their toys are. We finally got to Lubbock around 12:30...we had to make a few stops because some of us have small bladders...cough, cough!!! When we got there, my aunt, uncle, and cousins were already there. Lunch was minutes from being ready...good timing! They had prepared all the food...Mexican pile-up! Everyone said it was super yummy. I took my lunch because of the whole Paleo lifestyle. I brought a turkey burger patty, a sweet potato, steamed broccoli, and carrots and an apple for a snack later in case I got hungry (I got home with no food left!). I just knew if I didn't pack my own lunch and bring it with me, I wouldn't be able to eat some of the things that I knew would fill me up. And I was also afraid I would be tempted to eat chips, beans, and Mexican rice. But it looked and smelled absolutely amazing! After lunch, we watched college football and visited for awhile. A little bit later, everyone got hungry for some cake, so we sang "Happy Birthday" to Mimi and cut into the cake. It looked and smelled amazing...Cody and I took everyone's word for it that it also tasted great! It was a strawberry cake with butter cream frosting...her favorite. She also opened her presents from everyone. We talked for a bit longer, took some pictures together, then headed back into the truck to go home around 4:15. All of our dogs had been home all day without relief...so we needed to be back by 7:00 at the latest to let them out and feed them. I had put chili in the crock pot early that morning so that we would have dinner ready as soon as we stepped in the door. I'm glad I did because we were starving when we got home! The pups were so ready and happy to see us. They were jumping all over the place, wagging their tails like crazy, and giving us lots and lots of sweet kisses. We fed them, let them out, and then got things ready to serve dinner. Dad, mom, and Mimi came to eat with us and after dinner we just kinda sat back and relaxed for a little bit...while watching college football of course!
On Sunday, we went to church as a family and then went to lunch at Mimi's favorite restaurant. She loves the eggplant parmigiana at Olive Garden...so that's where we were headed for lunch! Lunch was soo good! Cody and I don't eat out hardly ever...so this was a treat! We had to be pretty specific and picky with what we ordered. But, we had the apricot chicken (minus the sauce) with the steamed broccoli and asparagus. We also had some salad before the meal came, mine without the dressing! It was nice to go out to eat and not have to worry about what to cook or the clean-up afterwards. We ran a few errands after lunch, then headed back to the house. I had some chores to take care of, so that's what I got started doing. Cody mowed the yard while I was inside doing stuff. A few hours later, Mimi was packing up her stuff to head home...in my car...tear! It was kinda sad to see it drive off down the street...but I'm so thankful that she is in a safe, reliable, newer car that won't cause her any problems. It was so good to see Mimi and celebrate such a wonderful woman's birthday!!! We love you so much Mimi!!!
The entire family. 2 daughters, 2 son-in-laws, 7 grandchildren (including spouses), and 2 great-grandchildren...such a sweet picture to cherish. My Mimi loves pictures...and I know that she will love looking back on this one and hold the memory of us all being together near and dear to her heart.
My beautiful cousin and me. We are more and more alike the older we get! She is so sweet and I love catching up with her...we don't see them enough!
Cody and I...he is such a hottie! I am one lucky girl!!!
There was this old car from the 20's parked outside my cousin's neighbor's house...so we had to take a pic with it! Mimi loves anything old and vintage...so she was in love with this car and all of us in front of it. I hope you had an amazing and blessed 89th birthday Mimi!!! We can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with you!!! I love you so very much!
A few weeks ago we had an "In-House Throwdown" at our gym. Elite Fitness hosted a competition between any male or female that wanted to compete. You could be a member or a non-member...it didn't matter at all...we just wanted a good old fashioned throwdown! A big deal in CrossFit is "The Fittest on Earth." So, Elite decided to do their own spin on it to see who the fittest was within the gym and anyone else who wanted to participate.
So, here's how it all went down. There were three different workouts that you had to complete to be eligible to win the throwdown. The male competitors had three workouts to complete, and the female competitors had three workouts to complete. Our workouts were different, so we weren't doing anywhere near the same thing. There were 9 guys and 6 girls that competed.
Here's the guy's workout...
And here's the girl's workout...
They split us up into heats of 3, so there were 3 heats of guys and 2 heats of girls. The 3 heats guys went first, then the 2 heats of girls. So, the guys did event 1 first, then the girls did event 1, then the guys did even 2, then the girls did even 2, finally, the boys did even 3, then the girls did event 3. The winner of each even got 100 points, 2nd place got 75 points, and third place got 50 points. While the first group went, the others stayed in the back so they couldn't watch and have an advantage by knowing the times. But, as the previous groups finished, they could stay out and watch the groups compete after them. It was fun to be able to cheer everyone on after you were finished if you went before them. That's one of the things I love so much about the way we compete and workout. Even though we are trying to get a better time, more weight, more rounds in the given time, etc...we are always cheering each other on and motivating and encouraging one another to go faster, be stronger, and go harder.
Bria, Britain, and I before the throwdown started...love these two girls SO much!!!
The throwdown was super intense...but probably the most fun I've had in a long time! I got to spend an entire day working out with and cheering on my hubby and my best friends. Even though we were competing against each other, we wanted the other one to do their best and kick some serious tail! The other thing that was so amazingly awesome was that we all increased our weight during the workouts, conquered things (like pull-ups) that we had never done before, got new 1 rep. max weight, and improved our times. That's what this sport is all about...improving each and every time you do a WOD...love it!
All the boys that competed as well as the judges that made sure we were doing everything right!
The girls that competed...minus Anna. I don't know where she was, but I'm sad she wasn't in this pic!
Jeremy and Chanan were amazing throughout the throwdown...no surprise there! As our coaches, they were walking around and making sure that we had the proper form so that we wouldn't injure ourselves. We also each had our own judge. Their job was to count our reps, make sure we were doing them right, going low enough, etc. If we didn't do something right, they would "no-rep." us...which basically means that that rep. didn't count. When this happens, it totally sucks! But, it also makes you get your form down to ensure that every rep. counts. Cause let me tell you...when you get no-reped on anything...you are doing twice as much work. For instance, on Fran (the 21-15-9: 65 lb thrusters and pull-ups), I got no-reped a few times. So, I wound up doing more reps than the workout actually called for. Like...I probably did about 2 extra thrusters and 5 extra pull-ups. The same thing happened to Cody when he was doing Elizabeth (the 21-15-9: 135 lb cleans and ring dips). On his very last set (the 9's) he was on rep number 8 and couldn't get his elbows locked all the way out for the 9th rep. I bet he probably did an extra 15 reps trying to get that very last rep to complete the workout. Talk about brutal! Logan took first in Elizabeth and completed it in 3:00 minutes...which is flying! So proud of our boys!!!
Brent doing 135 lb cleans during Elizabeth!
Cody throwing up 135 lb cleans during one set of Elizabeth!
Ring dips during Elizabeth. After 21-15-9 reps of 135 lb cleans and ring dips...you don't want to look at rings for awhile! So proud of you babe!!!
Me doing Fran!!! I did it RX'd (65 lb thrusters and kipping pull-ups all the way) in 5:19...SO pumped about this!!!
Bria throwing up 65 lb thrusters. Look at that form...PERFECT!!!
Britain busting out Fran...so proud of you girl!
After the guys did Elizabeth and the girls did Fran, we moved on to the weight lifting ladders. The guys did the Bear Complex Ladder and the girls did a Clean Ladder. I got second in Fran by 16 seconds...but I won the clean ladder! I got all the way up to 115 pounds...which was a new max for me! I attempted 125...but just couldn't get under it. I need to try it again...I'm bound and determined to clean 125!!! Cody did awesome on the bear complex ladder. He got up to 235 pounds...which is so amazing! Brent actually won this one. He got 255 pounds...he's a beast!!! It was so awesome to watch him squat-clean, push press, back squat, and push press that much weight. We were all super pumped for him...and he was pretty excited too! All the boys did great with the bear complex ladder...and all us girls were so happy that we didn't have to do this. The bear complex ladders is one of the hardest heavy weight lifting exercises in CrossFit. For our clean ladder, we started at 65 pounds and went all the way until failure. Bria and Britain got a new max weight on the cleans too...they got up to 95 pounds!!! I love that all of us girls can throw-up some intense weight...don't mess with us!!! Hehe! But seriously...don't ;-) So, this completed the second of the three workouts. We had about a 15 minute break before the third workout...so we snacked on some healthy snacks to refuel and then headed outside to cheer the boys on and get ready to compete ourselves.
Cody getting a new max for the Bear Complex Ladder...235 lbs!!! My hubby's a beast!!!
Brent working 255 lbs on the Bear Complex Ladder. He got it!!! We were SO excited for him!!! Congrats Brent!!!
Me getting a new max on cleans...115 lbs!!! I love that Cody is so excited for me! It helps me push harder hearing him cheer me on and encouraging me through workouts!
The last workout for both the guys and girls was a Chipper type workout. Meaning...there's a bunch of different things that you are to complete within the single workout. It sort of represents this high-intense grinder of a workout with a series of movements all linked together one right after another. Trust me...you'll get all this CrossFit lingo...WOD, EMOM, METCON, AMRAP...and the hundreds more that are out there!!! It's a language all in it's own right. And you really know you're a CrossFitter when you start about workouts using these acronyms (and literally the hundreds of others)...and the people who you are talking to know exactly what you mean! You can go HERE to see some of the other acronyms that us CrossFitters use in our everyday language! LOVE!!! So, the boys went in 3 heats of 3 again. Since this was the last workout, and it was coming down to see who would take first in the throwdown, they separated the heats of boys and girls by who had the lowest amount of points to who had the highest amount of points. This way, it would be easier to determine who would win the entire competition. Cody competed in the middle heat and wound up getting 4th overall...good job babe!!! He totally rocked it on all the workouts and really improved on each and every exercise. And the winner for the boys...BRENT JORDAN!!! WOO HOO!!! We were all so excited when Brent won the boys division. After the boys finished up...it was time for us to go! When I first looked at the chipper, I knew it would be hard...but I didn't think it would be as hard as it was. My legs were DEAD! After doing 45 65lb thrusters during Fran and the clean ladder, the 400M row, the burpee box jumps, sit-ups, and air squats just about did me in. After the two rounds of the burpee box jumps, sit-ups, and air squats...we still had a 400M run to do! When I took off to do my run...my legs were so wobbly! Everyone said they were afraid I was going to fall over because they were so shaky! But...after a few steps my stride came into full motion and I wound up coming in first! Which meant...I won the girls division!!! WOO HOO!!! I was super pumped...and super exhausted! It felt so good to be done and to just sit back and celebrate with friends over what we had just accomplished!
Brent and I after the competition was over. We had to get a "winners" pic together!
My love and I. It's amazing to be able to work out with your best friend and cheer each other on...I love you babe!!!
Cody and I with Jeremy and Chanan...love these two so much!!! Thank you guys for all you do and for encouraging each and every one of us to go beyond what we ever thought our bodies could do! Elite is amazing and I am honored to be apart of your gym!!!
I love being that tired after a workout. For me, it just means that I pushed my body to it's maximum and got better. I pushed past the hurt, the mental blocks, and the exhaustion to make my body be stronger. "If you are in your comfort zone, you are still warming up." I love this quote! You simply can't get better unless you are pushing your body beyond what your mind thinks you can do. CrossFit has helped me go above and beyond what I ever thought my body could do. It's also taught me that I'm way stronger than I ever thought possible. Another thing that I love about CrossFit (really I just love everything about it!) is that whenever I doubt myself on what I can lift or push myself to do, there are about 10 other people telling me that I can. It gives me confidence in myself and in my physical ability and strength to push through the pain and...as Nike says..."JUST DO IT!" Elite Fitness has taught me more about myself than anything I've ever done workout wise. I've grown so much more in other ways too. I have more confidence in everything I do because I have learned to overcome so many obstacles throughout my workouts. I have also grown to know my best friends in a whole new light. We have all been friends for so long, and know pretty much everything there is to know about one another. But, because we have been working out together doing these super intense workouts, we have learned how to challenge one another, encourage one another, and also learned how to help each other through weaknesses that we probably wouldn't be able to overcome otherwise. I have also met so many other amazing people through this community. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not rooting for someone else to overcome an obstacle or cheering them on to finish a workout. And...I can't say enough about Jeremy and Chanan. They are such amazing people and have done so many things to encourage each and every one of us. If it weren't for them and their coaching, there is no way that I would have come this far. They have helped me to push my body in ways I never thought possible. I can do 30 consecutive kipping pull-ups, 95 pound overhead squat max, and my snatch form is almost perfected. Those three things I could have never done before on my own, and because of them and their coaching, I can do them without blinking an eye! Jeremy has been working with my on my muscle-ups...I'm almost there! Long story short...the throwdown was awesome and I can't wait until the next one in January!!!
To look at all the pics from the throwdown, you can click on the link below! Enjoy!!!
