It's LGN time!

As my wedding is only in 185 days (six months exactly from tomorrow!) I have begun the arduous task of getting into shape.

Last summer running, The Firm, and yoga got me good and toned all the way up until my knee surgery. Then I once again became a lazy bum. Now it is time to reverse that effect!

Because of the degenerative cartilage in my knees I'm not supposed to run more than 2 or 3 miles at MOST three times per week. No worries about that, there's nowhere to run around here except a church parking lot and I can't run for longer than three minutes in the chilly weather before I'm totally winded. So to create interest and give me something more interesting and effective than yoga (in terms of fat burning) I bought another video from The Firm yesterday. Technically I'm not supposed to do anything high impact to save my sad knees, but this particular video advertises itself as being low impact and will therefore be better on my knees.

Sort of related side note: when I was kid I would watch my mom huff and puff and sweat away while doing aerobics in front of the television and I would think to myself, "I'll never do that". Eating my words now. Hopefully they're no fat low cal words.

So that video should get here within the next week or so. I figure I can do that video two or three times per week, do yoga one day to stretch myself out, and then every other week on Tuesdays at 7:15pm go to...

There is a Zumba class at the local rec center. I discovered this last night based on suggestions from Facebook friends. Each class is only $5 and after I talked myself into going (I'm not very good with the whole all alone in a group of strangers thing) I really enjoyed myself! The normal teacher is very sick right now so we had a substitute. She

Kicked.
My.
Butt.

It was crazy! So fast paced and intense, I didn't even realize how much I was sweating till I came home and peeled off my clothing. It was kind of a bear on my knees so I can't do it often, probably a bi-weekly thing, but boy was it fun! She had us moving and lunging and cha-cha-ing for over an hour. I'm amazed I can still move today.

This was my first time doing group aerobics, and also my first time doing any kind of aerobics or dancing in front of a mirror so I could see my every move. I'm often terrified that I look like a total idiot when I dance or work out, but watching myself last night I can tell you that I'm actually not bad. Pretty good, actually, if I'm going to be honest with you. I was one of maybe five new people and the room was packed and as I looked around a lot of them seemed as though they hadn't been there before either. But I was also told that the normal teacher doesn't kick butts like that either so perhaps that's why.

I still have half an hour before I have to go to work! I'll probably leave a little early and stop to get myself some orange juice. I used the last of it yesterday and that makes me sad.

In either case, I am determined to look hot hot hot on my wedding day, and I'm excited to really get started!

Ciao!

Oh Em Gee Itza Weddin', Yo!

I had a lovely weekend. It was the least amount of driving I've done in quite some time, which was nice especially because gas went up to $3.49/gal (ridonkulous!!!!).

Saturday was spent at a Pampered Chef party with ladies from work, which was a great amount of fun and lots of super-dee-duper great food! And I've decided that some of my registry will be through Pampered Chef. It's absolutely worth it, especially since a lot of the stuff they sell isn't sold anywhere else. It also helped because my younger sister is getting married in May and her bridal shower is on the 27th and, as the maid of honor, I needed to get her some kind of kick butt gift. Thanks in advance, Pampered Chef! I won't tell what I got her, since she might read this and I want it to be a surprise.

On Sunday I got to go to church downtown where I've gone almost every other weekend I spent in town. While there I not only signed up to be a tutor for a program the church will be doing to help out the local school but I also met some new people and got to chill for a little while before hiking it up to Columbus. Back at my birthday my sister and brother in-law gave me a gift card for a chain of super expensive really nice restaurants in Columbus. The cheapest place is called Cap City Diner, and its cheapest thing is somewhere around $7. Johnny and I decided to meet up for lunch and make use of this $40 gift card.

Now I will tell you the beauty of this diner: the portions are so huge that we had to share, so dinner cost significantly less than anticipated and I still have quite a bit left to use at a future date on that card! Score!

After this Johnny and I went over to see Erin and Derrick (sis and bro in-law) because, now that Mom is gone, I need some serious help with my wedding planning and Erin is my go to, seeing as how she has already been there done that. So our evening was spent going down a list writing to-dos and now I have a bunch of emails to write, websites to check out, decisions to make, etc. Doing all of this mixed with knowing that next weekend would be spent in premarital counseling hit me like a water balloon:

Holy Crap I'm getting married.

And not only am I getting married, I'm marrying that guy over there. A guy I've known for years and often believed was too good for me. I had so many moments of "I'm marrying Johnny Cross" it was ridiculous. You'd think the rock on my finger and four and a half months of engagement would have told me this long ago, but it wasn't until plans started really truly happening that it occurred to me I wasn't dreaming anymore.

So in the midst of all the planning and mayhem that will slowly begin occurring over the next six months I will be standing there staring gooey-eyed at him. The him most girls spend their lives waiting for, the knight in shining armor, the dream come true. You know, him!

***tangent: writing that sentence, the word "him" look super strange all of a sudden...***

So here I sit in my too-warm apartment after running and eating dinner and watching a movie, all by my lonesome, looking forward to the day when it won't be just me anymore. I'll not be lonely anymore, whether I want to be or not *wink*. 


Anyway, planning is underway. We have a location for the wedding, the reception, and the honeymoon. Deposits must be put down on all three. My sister is making my dress, two of three groomsmen have been selected, all the bridesmaids have their dresses, I've contacted a photographer, a friend is doing our engagement photos, I have a meet about the cake this weekend... It's all coming together, slowly but surely. My mind is full of lists, a notebook is full of lists, and somehow all of these lists will becoming a wedding. MY wedding. Technically, OUR wedding.

Insanity.