All-in-One Christmas Decoration

In case you were wondering if I had a:

Patriotic

Angel

Snowman

with a Nativity built in...

I DO!

Door Decorating Contest at Work

For the past two years, we have done door decorating contest for the kids at work! The kids vote for a week and the winner gets BRAGGING RIGHTS and a small home decoration at the staff Christmas party.

Here is my door from this year:

It's a snow globe!! The globe was made out of the top of a vegetable tray -- My genius aunt's idea!! I hung snow flakes from fishing wire on the inside so that they wiggled every time you opened or shut the door.  I cut the nativity out of a book at home, and pulled Mary and Joseph forward for a 3-D effect.  And I used Popsicle sticks for the fence and tree sticks for the barn!  I think it came out super cute!! 

The kids LOVED cutting snowflakes!

Here are some of the other doors this year --

 Ms. Beth won first place -- this gingerbread house was awesome!! Except we caught multiple kids licking it!!

 Ms. Nancy just had eye surgery, so this door was a little bit of a joke too!

 Can you figure out this song??

and Rudolph being sneaky!!

Here is Last Year's doors!!

My door is Hand Wreath (all my kids traced their hands) and Ms. Beth -- who also won first place last year! -- made the chimney mantel with working lights in the fire and in the candles!! She is really hard to complete with!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Dancing off those Calories

So, Friday night, I did a little Science Experiement -- I wore my heart rate monitor to Wild West! Most of my church friends love to two-step (And turns out, alot of the guys are REALLY GREAT at it!) -- So we go dancing alot...

I turned on the heart rate monitor whenever we got there and turned it off when I looked down and saw I had lost connection, i.e., I moved the chest strap somehow and it lost connection with my skin -- it has a hard time reconnecting.


Here are my conclusions:

Max heart rate was 173 (I usually get max HR around 180 in my work out classes).
Avg heart rate was 118 (I usually get avg HR around 140-150 in my work out classes).

In 2 hours, I burned 635 calories (317 cal/hr). (In 1 hour of my book camp class, I burn 500-700 calories depending on leg vs. arm day and how hard I push myself.)

It looks like I danced about 8 songs during that time b/c there is about 8 peaks! (This is all just guessing) Somewhere in there were the "pop music breaks" My guess would be the 10-20 minute mark, and the 1hr- 1:10 min mark as my HR was medium for an extended period of time. So, two-step and polka seem to get my heart rate higher than "pop" music. Wish I would have noted when Copperhead Road came on!!

I would say that we danced a moderate amount that night over all, (the guy/girl ratio was off, lots of ppl to visit with, it was REALLY hot so I spent alot of time in front of a fan, etc) -- so -- maybe on a CRAZYYY night we could burn 400 calories per hour!?!

I sweat like crazy when dancing AND when working out -- but like Sara Strickland and I talked about -- when I work out I am not trying to look cute/decent/presentable! Also, I wear "wicking" (?) clothes that don't "FEEL" as sweaty and don't show my sweat rings -- Sorry - that's really gross!

Conclusion:
-- Calorie wise 2 hours of dancing is approximately equal to one hour of working out!
-- Plus, dancing is really fun! And dancing is a social activity.
-- THUS -- WE SHOULD ALL GO DANCING MORE OFTEN!!

Just interesting to see! haha!

Happy Tuesday, Amy

**UPDATE** Y'all didn’t check me -- the graph totally cuts off at 1:35 -- sooo We burned 635 calories in 95 minutes ===> which is 400 calories per hour!! DANG we are way better than we thought!!! Yahoo!! Who wants to do dancing right now?!


...just kidding...

(sorta!)

Wipe Outs

This is my Guilty Pleasure.... It is a source of pain when it happens, but is HILARIOUS (to me) to see it in a picture!

So cheer up:  I am sharing today!!

 "uuuugggh"

 "wwwwhooooppps!"

 "Yee-haw!"

 (This one is my Dad, he claims that he is "cutting" real hard ... yeah right!!)

 (This isn't a wipe out, but it is funny -- Garrett is skiing into the dock and if you look closely you can see my Dad freaking out while everyone else is giggling! In Dad's defense, he was in the front lines of the splash and my brother is rather close!!) 

"EEEE!"

(this is pre-wipe out -- you see the way the wake board is dipping only one side? = MAJOR pain when you wipe out -- I was done for the weekend after this fall!)

Okay, now go back one more time and look at everyone's facial espression -- zoom in if you like -- and LAUGH!!!

(fair warning -- if you come to the lake and I get a wipe out picture of you, I will laugh at you too!) 

I love the LAKE

Summer 2011 (so-far) at THE LAKE with friends and family

 My dorky brother and his GF who "couldn't see" so they bought goggles.

 My friend Brooke, who makes the best faces and sounds while skiing!

 My sister, who usually opts to tube, skiing!!

 hanging out on the dock with friends

 waiting for the Fourth of July air show to begin!!

 Sunrises and Sunsets

And the new flagpoles my Papa built for us

Sunset Cruises around the lake 

My grandfather, Bum, and Sister Rachel

**Very Proud that my 80 year old grandfather rode Jet Skies with us! (No pictures though)**

 Jet Skiing with the Cousins!

 Racing on Surf Boards

 Spinning cute kids 

Paul, Lisa, Erik and Lindsey

 Wakeboarding - Paul did AWESOME this day!

Cousin James -- JUMPING THE WAKE ON A SLALOM SKI!!! very very impressive!

Rachel, Courtney, and Lisa Tubing

 lawn games

grilling

 Float Lines (so you don't get too far!)

and sitting and visiting and relaxing

Recent Wedding

Recently, I went to a co-workers wedding in Louisanna.  It was outdoors. In June. In the South. It was HOT.

As a party favor/useful tool, the bride had paper fans available as you came into the ceremony.
(The reception was inside, and much cooler!)

 and some pictures of {one of} the cutest flowergirls ever ...

 You can't see them, but Gabby (the flowergirl) has the BEST THIGHS I have ever seen on a baby -- chunky and sweet and oh-so-kissable-and-squeezable!! :)



Unfortunately, we never got a picture with the bride or our other co-worker who was in the wedding party... whooooops!!

Special Gift

My Papa is the greatest. 

So is my Uncle Jack.

They are two peas-in-a-pod.  They spend hours together at the "shop" where they tinker with cars, boats and motorcycles. They cook some great chicken-fried-vinison, steaks, cobbler, green beans, 'nana pudding, buttermilk pies and homemade peach ice cream!! Mmm!! They tile, redesign, and update the "shop." They host lunches -- with a white table cloth! And they have a huge vegetable garden and several fruit trees. 

Anyways, last week Papa sent me these:

Are you Jealous!?

A church friend of Uncle Jack's made them.  And I LOVE them. I've worn them twice in one week. Next week, I might wear them three times! haha!!

The church friend evidently made them by hand. Inside the small box was his return address label, so if you want some, I am sure you could send him a letter. 

I told Papa the only problem is...now I need Carmel-Colored Texas Tech Cowboy Boots to wear with them!! :)



Jenga

We went to the Lake for Memorial Weekend!!! 

The weekend before Memorial day, I was at a bar with some friends and they had a few different "group games" including: corn hole and Giant Jenga!!  I quickly took a picture and sent it to my dad, hoping that he would make a GIANT JENGA game for the lake!! (because we already had a corn hole game at the lake)

Sure enough, Dad planned and sketched and measured and calculated with their across-the-street neighbor Mike (who might be the best neighbor ever).  By Friday, we had our very own GIANT JENGA game!!

It's a great game because everyone can play-- all ages!

It could be a one person game -- or a group game... I think the most we had play at once was 6.

And you don't have to pay 100% attention when it's not your turn

-- just be careful when it falls!!

My brother and I might be slightly competetive, and we basically beat the game... we got to the point where there were no more blocks to pull!! 

VERY FUN!!

Thank you Dad and Mike!!

Third Place Softball 2011

Last weekend we played 3 teams, and lost in double overtime by one point to Pilgrim.

Went into the loser bracket of the double elimination tournament...

Today, we played 3 more teams, and lost by few points to Pilgrim (again.)

BUT... that left us in THIRD PLACE!!! YEAH!!

The PLAYERS:

The Stunt Man

The Kid

OUR Short Stop

Samson

Coach John

Freight Train

Pitcher Dave

Oh Paul!

She-who-did-the-splits-to-catch-the-ball

2B-D

AK

Nora gives you a run for your money

Carrie, The Trooper

Wes, Clayton , Joe, Hienrich and Tricia couldn't join us today, but definitely helped lead us to the championship tournament!!

I (usually) play catcher -- the caviat is -- in our league, there is no stealing bases.  So, basically the catcher's job is return the ball to the pitcher.  Luckily, we have some girls and guys who played college ball to cover the more "intense" positions... :)  We are all pretty good batters and runners too!!

We're called "One Bad Inning" b/c it seems like every game, there is always ONE really BAD INNING!  :) but our team usually pulls in out in the end!! We are lucky to have alot of good, positive, encouraging players.

This was our CHAMPIONSHIP picture last year:

CAN'T WAIT TILL NEXT SPRING YALL!!