Ramblings of a Curve

Hello?  Anyone still read this thing?
Well, it looks like its been nearly a year, and I usually can be found posting nonsense and random photos on Instagram and Facebook.  I've had some thoughts in my head that I've wanted to get out, and mostly for me to hear me say it out loud, so here it goes.
    What is the ultimate body image?  Why do we obsess so much with it?  So I have some hot friends, like really hot- like have won competitions in bikini and figure competitions hot.  My work out buddy is one of those natural beauties that wakes up, jumps in the shower, runs a comb thru her hair and is fabulous.  She also has worked really hard and has an amazing body to show for it.  She will also down a cheeseburger without worry.  Love it, and she is very encouraging to work out with.
   Back in the day, I sported a 6 pack and could kick some serious a## if I wanted.  Well, life,
 3 kids a couple of very stressful years took its tolls on my body and my mental state.  I suffered from knee and ankle injuries, as well as a genetically inherited bad pelvis/ hips.  I did physical therapy with little help, and then took things into my own hands.  I took up Yoga, occasional elliptical exercises and found that Yoga did some serious help to my ailments.  I lost a couple pounds, but gained a lot of lost strength back.  It came time to take it to the next level: lifting weights.  At first it was tough realizing how far I let myself go, but with great workout partners I pushed forward.  I rocked it- like sometime 6 days a week I would be in the gym.  I logged my food, made better choices- aaannnd.... found I gained 5 lbs.  I knew this would happen because of all the amazing new muscle I built, so I pushed forward.
  So here I am, I still lift weights/ run/ walk on the treadmill at least 3 times a week.  I don't eat perfect, but I bet I eat healthier than a lot of people out there.  And I still have not lost any weight, even the lbs I gained.  My pants fit better, my muffin tops are gone, my butt has perked up-  I am not 'skinny', but I am healthy, and I am strong.
  Do I want to be skinny?  What perfection do I really want to achieve?   What is healthy anyway?
 According to BMI, I am overweight.  According to labs:  My cholesterol and other lab results show that I am healthy.  My body fat was checked and was logged at 23- which isn't athletic, but in the healthy range.
  One good thing out of getting older and rounder?  Yes, I'm going to say it:  Boobs.  I have boobs now.  Never before (other than pregnancy/ nursing) have I had boobs, and I'm not gonna lie- I like them.  Should I say it one more time for those uncomfortable with that?  Boobs.  Deal with it. ;)
    Frustrated one day realizing I wasn't that beautiful model material, and never would be- my Handsome hubby (who greets me everyday "hello Beautiful") said "You know I think you are gorgeous, and you may not be a VS Supermodel- but I always think of you in the same bracket as Tina Fey/ Kristen Wiig.  Your pretty, can look ridiculous if you want, and are hilarious, and have a fun loving personality."  Honestly- that was the best compliment I have ever received- because they are my heros, I found my niche.
  Body image is a crazy thing that every single person deals with, every.single.oerson.  Too big, too small, short, tall, too skinny, too round etc etc.  There are so many ads and campaigns out there trying to reach the youth (and adults alike) to love their bodies.  So lets do it.  
  The best thing I ever did with my self confidence, was to take a Belly Dancing class.  The instructor is an amazing woman, very loving and accepting.  She is all about embracing ourselves, inside and out, loving ourselves and our bodies .... and learning how to shake it.  I wish everyone had that experience.
   So here I am, a 33 1/2 yr old woman, I am 5'8", 164 lbs... I can bench press 110( possibly more) , squat 175, and can shake what my Mamma gave me like nothing else, and I have a blast doing it.  I still fight with attaining a better perfect figure- but I'm tired of the mental battle, I think its causing more stress than needed.
    I'm not perfect, but striving for perfection is a useless and sad journey/ goal that will never be reached.
  So find yourself, your happiness, if you aren't there, find a way to be there.  The mental journey is the hardest.  Love yourself now.  Seriously. Don't wait until "you loose 5 more lbs"... love yourself now.

      ...The problem with a good selfie, is the fact that I had to post a selfie.....

Climbing

I tried my hand at climbing the other day and had a blast!  I'm not very good, but I could be worse.   Let's just say that my forearms were a little sore.  Here its a shot at me climbing, sorry its sideways.

This was taken as I fell... :D

Seattle

This past weekend I had the privilege to get away from it all and spend 4 fantastic days in Seattle, WA.

The occasion?  Nothing.  Just 4 friends wanting to get away from the mundane day to day life of washing dishes, cleaning house, taking kids to and from school. etc etc. 

It was fabulous.

Ashley is from the area, and it only being an 8 hr drive, it worked out great.  We rented a condo that ended up being right down town off of Pike St.  If you walked up, you were on Capital Hill with all the great restaurants and hang out joints, if you walked down, you were in the shopping district that ended up at Pike Place Open Market, and the Waterfront. 

The first day we went to the Puyallup (pronounced pew-al-up- not pull y'all up like I kept wanting to say) Western Washington Fair.  It was a lot of fun and we felt like kids.  Our first stop was the scone booth.  Ashley told the lady that this was our first time (us other 3) there, so we scored some free scones with jam.  Y-U-UM

 We rode the Ferris Wheel, the Swing and a small roller coaster.  Below is Ashley and Lori trying not to think about dying.

 Karen was a pro

   Sometimes, I feel I need one of these in my garage with the amount of diapers that are changed.  Plus it's fun.  When we visited the animals we saw a cow that desperately needed milking, very large Bavarian Horses and one with a super sonic fart blast that made his tail flap.  It was so funny, and at that moment I really wished my kids were there, because they would have died laughing.  It was great.  Plus with them there I could pretend I was laughing at them laughing- and not me being imature and laughing at the super awesome horse fart.

 They provided plenty of photo-op scenes.  The sign on the arch literally says "please enjoy this booth to take pictures to enjoy for a life time.  Ok, maybe not literally- and more paraphrased. ;)

 Giant pumkin.  Please excuse me if I offend you, but we all had to admit that the pumpkin reminded us of the morbidly obese bathing.  You know you see it too.

 Photo bombed

 The doll house exhibit was kind of a let down, until I saw this bad boy,  The details were amazingly accurate down to the broken cabinet and dirty sheets.  It won by a landslide.

 When in Seattle. one must visit the gum wall.

 I love Lori's face here.  She was so grossed out.

Do you ever have one of those moments where you are momentarily transported and you find yourself in a situation that just brings joy, energy and a giant smile on your face?  I had several of those moments, but the most memorable was this one.  Saturday morning at Pike's Market, surrounded by people and my friends, holding (and devouring) the most amazing almondine croissant from the french bakery, and you find yourself listening to a street band perform blue grass jazz on the sidewalk in front of the original Starbucks.  Loved it.  It was one of those moments that recharges your batteries.  I loved watching the guy on the washboard.  They all looked like they loved what they were doing and it translated to their music.  I will take this over any over processed 'music' that is spewed out to make a buck.  Anyone can sound great with modern technology, but give me the rough, the true and honest music with soul and I am happy.

 We met up with Ashley's Mom and headed to Chuhuly Glass Galery and Gardens.  Fantastic.  Another charge to my battery.  I am a little sad we did not make it to the Seattle Museum of Art, but this was amazing.

 My favorite chandelier.  I figured I could put it in my dining room. 

 Love it.

 They even take your picture for free and email it to you!  I loved how this one turned out.  Fun.

 They let you climb on the sculpture in the park.  Karen, the climber tried it out.

 She got injured.  Be careful out there kids.

We took the Ferry to Bremerton to visit Ashley's  Mom and get haircuts.  Loved this view as we left

 Our return home (back)

 Luckily, I was the last to get my hair cut, and we ran out of time.  The girl with the fuzzy hair+no time to style= awkward side braid.

 After eating a giant sandwich, riding on a crazy drive to try and reach the ferry and being on a boat right after resulted in a not so happy stomach.  All was better later, but there were moment when we were like:

 The last night, we were exhausted from walking EVERYWHERE, going here, going there.  We decided to pick up some things from Pike's market and make food at the condo.  We all put on our stretchy pants and cooked dinner and hung out watching reruns of Friends.  For a moment we all pretended that we lived there and had no responsibility.  It was fun.  Then we headed to the roof deck to check out the sunset and hang out.  We ended up doing some Yoga with who knows who watching us.  We didn't care.  Strechy pants be damned, it was fun!

 We pulled the last of our energy together and headed to the Seattle Great Wheel.  It's set up to be like the London Eye, but not quite as big.  We all kept on our stretchy pants and headed out into the night.

 I love traveling.  The problem with travel, is that the more you do it, the more you want to do it.  Seattle was a little stinky and a lot of homeless wandered about, but it was still beatiful.  We were comparing cities.  The women in SLC seem to be a little too over done.  So much peroxide, lipstick and layers to uncover to find the real face.  Seattle it is was all out there.  It was more common that the women didn't wear make up or dress up.  Frizzy hair was all the rage- so on the last day when I found my frizzy hair escaping my braid, my make up rubbed off from a day of play...my stretchy pants with a skirt, and running shoes for comfort as we walked the @ 2 miles to and from the wheel that night- I felt like a native. ;)
    In the end we really appreciated Boise.  I really do love Boise- it's big but not too big.  We have a wide variety of no make up to the over done.  It's clean, green (most of the time), and I feel I can call it home now. 
     It was a blast, and was the perfect amount of time to be gone.  So excited to be there, but didn't stay too long to start to resent things.  I thought of my family from time to time, like the horse fart, the store of all Hello Kitty, and a picture of a couple kissing infront of the Eiffel Tower hanging in the French Bakery.  At that moment I really missed Preston and wanted to plant one right on his lips.  Now I am back home and back into the grind.  Fun memories with some fun ladies.  See ya, Seattle.  Until next time.

Make up

The other day I was playing around with hair and make up designs for the museum competition.  Aleah kept me company....

More bombs

Found these gems from Easter.  Made me realize at that moment that Aleah is growing up too fast.

                                                       These 2 are great

  I  made this trifle- and I documented it so I could remember what I made it with.  I can't remember.  I think I made a peanut butter mousse,  with whipped cream and chunks of  Reese's Pieces layered together.  What I do remember is that it tasted amazing.

Aleah, Elliot and Nick playing at the pool

  In April I took a girls weekend to Salt Lake.  We hit up the outlets and then had a nice dinner out at Cucina Toscana.  Here I am enjoying THE BEST hot chocolate that has ever lived.  Yes- it was that amazing, and I am on a mission to try and recreate it.

The next day we pampered ourselves with mani/ pedis prior to our IKEA trip.  In retrospect it should have been in the reverse order.

It was ridiculous what 4 girls can buy.  This is how we rode home...

  We checked out the new mall in SLC and had to take the cliche picture of us with our breakfast in front of Tiffany's.  I did not mean to match the display.

   After a couple failed attempts at keeping the tarp on, we purchased some duck tape kept that sucker down.

  On that particular trip, I purchased some items to jazz up Aleah closet to make it a playroom for her.  The book case and shelf are the best investments I've made in a long time.

   Can't tell here- but she loved it. :)

 I learned that if you lie down in a hammock- every child within a 50 yard radius will come and destroy your peace.

 Fun with Tutu's.  You can decide how it was worn best.  Elliott (please not Travis's face...)

  Aleah at her Music and Movement class...

   Aleah fresh out of bed.  In the end, they all looked fabulous.

 I had to take a snap shot at JoJo one day.  He looked too much like Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to not record.

Stay tuned for more...