Almost 4

Our nephew, Drew, will turn 4 years old on September 3rd.  So while over my sister’s house this weekend, I had the following conversation with Drew:

Aunt KyKy: Drew, what do you want Uncle William and I to get you for you birthday?

Drew: Ummm….You can just get me a card.  My daddy is going to buy the toys.

Aunt KyKy: Are you sure?  I think Uncle William really wanted to find a toy you would like?

Drew: No, you can just buy a card and put it in the mail so I can have it on my birthday.  My daddy will buy all the toys for me.

Wow… who knew an almost 4 year old would tell someone not to buy him a toy.

We’ll see what happens.

Wii love Wii Fit!!

I finally found a Wii Fit!!!  After several failed attempts over the past couple of months to find one, I thought that this past weekend would end in success since one of the sales associates at Circuit City told me they usually get Wii Fit’s in on the first Sunday of the month.   Well, I went to Circuit City on Sunday around noon and they were already sold out of the Wii’s they got in that morning.  The manager told me that there was a line outside when he arrived to work at 7am.  Really??!!  Wow.  I called several other stores and they had similar situations…received some that morning, but were already sold out.  Most stores only seem to get between 3-6 per shipment.  I still don’t understand why high demand item production is so scarce!

Anyway… the guy at the Game Stop near where I work told me they usually get one on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, so just call the store and ask if they got any in.  So… I figured that was my best option (to try to find one at a store near work instead of waiting till the weekend and going to Circuit City, Best Buy, Walmart, or Toys R Us.)  Well… today, I called Game Stop at the end of the day, and calmly asked, “Do you have any Wii Fit’s?” and waited for the disappointing news.  BUT… he said, in a voice like I had just found a clue to a $1million dollar puzzle, “Actually… we do!”   At this point, I became very excited over the phone and said, “really?!  Great!”  He explained that he couldn’t hold it, to which I quickly responded, “No problem, I am on my way!”.  I was literally running through the parking lot to my car and calling William to share the great news.   When I arrived at the store, the guy says… “You weren’t lying when you said you were on your way”  The mall is about 5 minutes from where I work.  I purchased Wii Fit #3 of 4 they had received the previous day.  I was so excited!!

Despite my excitement and anxiousness to try it out.  I still went to my usual Wednesday Turbo Kick Class to make sure I got a high fat-burning workout since I figured my first day on Wii Fit would be fairly low impact.  Although the beginning started a bit slow as you learn the games, I will admit that the they do get progressively harder and higher in impact and I was very impressed!  The best thing about Wii Fit is that is focuses on aerobic activity, strength training, Yoga, and most importantly balance.  I guess they don’t call it a “balance board” for nothing!  All of the activities incorporate balance since they want you to work on good posture and overall fitness.  I think that is great!!   Even though I knew that strength training was important and Yoga is a good idea, this brought it all into perspective.  I really love it!!  I did pretty well on the aerobics (Ski Jump was by far my best event) and very well on the strength straining exercises and surprisingly well at the Yoga exercises I did (I am not very good at Yoga).  The balance exercises… that was another story.  I am not good at those (although I was good when it came to balance with strength training).  There is a balance game where you have to head bump the soccer balls, but dodge the other objects that come flying in your face (like cleats and other random objects) and let’s just say that I was horrible at that.  I would be black and blue if that were real 🙂  I did pretty good at Hula Hoop though and was able to unlock the Advanced Hula Hoop.  I thought I would be superb at Step, but you have to step at the “perfect time”, so I was not as stellar as I thought I would be, but I did manage to unlock the Advanced Step (I should explain here that as you get “better”, it unlocks new games, yoga poses, etc.).  I love how when you don’t do well, they play this depressing music.  That is hilarious to me.

I have to say that the best thing about Wii Fit is he tracking mechanism.  It can track your weight and BMI over time and it even graphs your progress!!  You an set timelines to reach certain goals, like lose 5 lbs in 1 month, etc.  You can also complete the balance test each day to track your progress with that, which I definitely need to do.

Ok… well, I am sure you get the drift of my excitement by now.  I played around on it for about 2 hours, but it is after midnight now, so I need to go to bed (and call William back since I was too excited pre-occupied with the games when he called earlier… all he could do was laugh).  I definitely recommend this to anyone thinking of getting one (or even those not thinking of getting one) although it seems like many of our friends have one! I think this will really help me keep up with my workouts and fitness and weight loss goals, which is exciting!

Wedding Bells and Storks

I think I officially feel “grown” now since the mail these days frequently includes “Save the Dates”, wedding invitations, and baby announcements (not from relatives, but from high school and college friends). The trend of weddings and births is definitely in full swing. Here is he summary:

2006: 1 wedding, 2 births

2007: 7 weddings (including ours), 2 births

2008: 4 weddings, 1 birth, 2 pregnancies

2009: 1 wedding (already set) and I am sure more to come

It’s pretty much an even split between William’s friends and my friends, yet William is having the hardest time adjusting to us getting older. He will still be saying, “I can’t believe Neil has a kid” at Noah’s high school graduation.

Mile High Fun

William and I had a great time in Denver this past weekend. Typically we are simply excited to be in each others presence, so we don’t really take time to “plan” anything for our visits. However, this time William planned some “touristy” things for us to do. We have previously been to the Capitol Building, Mile High Stadium, and other sites in and around downtown, but we crossed a few more sites off our list.

After breakfast on Saturday at what has quickly become one of our favorite breakfast places, The Delectable Egg, we began our tour of the Denver Art Museum. With two buildings with several levels of exhibits, we became very overwhelmed at the amount of art on display, but did not really find anything that made us extremely fascinated. I guess we have not fully developed our appreciation for art. After the museum, we spent some time exploring the 16th Street Mall. We had several lunch options on the mall, but somehow managed to wander several blocks off the mall to a cute little pizza joint. After the long walk to get there, we were wondering if it would be worth it, but we both enjoyed our selection of the “Brooklyn”, which we quickly devoured. After making the walk back to the mall, which of course seemed much shorter this time, we treated ourselves to gelato (Italian ice cream). Yes, we broke our “healthy eating” rule, but hey… the gelato has less calories and less fat than regular ice cream 🙂 We concluded the day with William’s favorite combo…dinner and a movie. William was surprised to learn that I was interested in seeing Get Smart, and I think we were both surprised that we both enjoyed the movie and laughed throughout the film despite the lukewarm reviews.

To conclude the weekend, we enjoyed Sunday brunch at Dazzle. I thought the brunch was very good and the live jazz band was a nice touch. Please do not ask William how the brownie covered in fudge that I brought to the table for us to share became Kyllan’s dessert. It had chocolate chips in it! Brownie without nuts, fudge topping, chocoloate chips….enough said.

William took pictures, of course, so I am sure he will post those soon.

Oh… and I have to report that after multiple visits to the Apple store only to come out empty handed and disgruntled, William is now the very proud owner of an iPhone, which he loves. I am sure he will post about that later this week.

Exercise Challenge: Week 4 Update

I can’t believe we are already on week 4 of our exercise challenge. I hate to admit it, but so far, William is in the lead. He has been faithfully exercising (running, riding his bike to work, etc). He has been able to lose 4 lbs so far. I did well during Week 1, but Week 2 and 3 were bad for me. The holiday threw a wrench in things and I think I picked up a few pounds. The good news is that I was back to the gym this week doing my Turbo Kick classes and I have making some healthy eating choices with the exception of the desserts at work..it’s killing me! I have a hard time passing up apple cobbler, chocolate cake, or any cake for that matter. So… I am still working on that. I think with a couple pounds added during the holiday and the delay getting back on schedule, I am only down about 1-2lbs. I do plan to commit myself to my exercise routine (I have added it to my calendar at work to make sure I leave on time to get to the gym) and I plan to keep choosing and preparing healthier meals. I know William will continue to do well. Plus, we have Dr. Neil to coach us along he way! (Thanks for your support and advice Neil)

Don’t mess with the Schmapster!

I don’t think I mentioned it before, but a photo I took of Invesco Field (Mile High Stadium) was chosen to be posted on Schmap, publisher of free digital travel guides. Well… I received an e-mail yesterday informing me that Schmap guides are now going to be available on the iPhone and iPod touch. She sent me a link to show me what my picture would look like. Check it out!

************Challenge Update**************

William and I did pretty well during our first week of “getting back on track”. He actually won this week, fitting in a workout every single day! I was only able to fit in 3 days of workouts, but I guess 3 is better than 0. This week is not going so well for me. I did some weight training Sunday, but that has been it so far. William and I will be in Jacksonville this weekend to attend his mom’s family reunion, so I am not even going to pretend that I will be working or choosing healthy options this weekend. I think he may be taking a break too, but we will be back on track after the weekend!!!

Challenge!

William and I have been complaining a lot over the past couple months about not being able to fit certain clothes and not being the size that we were in college. He has been losing some weight, but I have watched my weight slowly increase. So…. we are both challenging ourselves to make healthier food choices and exercise on a more consistent basis over the next couple months leading up to our 1 year anniversary. My goal is to lose 15-20 lbs. This will allow me to fit in most of my clothes again. William is also hoping to lose about 20 lbs. I am only posting this on the blog to possibly help keep us accountable for this goal. We will try to post updates on how we are doing. We have both done fairly well this week. I have worked out 3 days straight so far doing my Turbo Kick class on Sunday and the Turbo Jam DVD yesterday and today. William has been biking and working out in the gym. In fact, he plans to participate in Denver’s annual Bike to Work Day tomorrow. We have not finalized the prize for the winner of the challenge, but we’ll keep you posted.

The Drive to Work

I have a 20 mile, 30 minute drive to work each morning, so I tend to listen to the radio.  One of the best things about my new car is XM satellite radio.  My favorite morning show is Gayle King’s (Oprah’s best friend) show on XM 156, the Oprah and Friends network.  She generally starts out talking about current events or her plane trips from NYC to LA or how she “love love loves” Barack Obama, the color yellow, talking with people, her favorite son Will, and her favorite daughter Kirby.  The second half hour consists of interviews with different people of interest (recording artists, actors, authors, entrepreneurs, chefs, etc).  I enjoy her interviews and her show in general.  I also enjoy when they play the theme music to the once popular show “Charles in Charge” when her lawyer (Charles the lawyer) comes on the air.   Her show keeps me laughing and smiling on my drive.  Rodney Pete and Holly Robinson Pete also have a show on XM 156, but it comes on at noon my time, so unless I am in the car going to a lunch meeting, I usually miss hearing it.  Occasionally I hear the “Rabbi Shmuley’s Show also”.  Yes… he really is a rabbi and his show is about parenting, but often brings up some good points or things to consider.

Anyway… that’s my plug for XM Radio.  There are a lot of good stations, but I tend to listen to just a few, actually yesterday I listen to a finance podcast and it was so interesting, they mention the pay stubs maker for payments and it would work perfect for my business.  When I am not listening to the Oprah and Friends Network, I listen to “Suite 62”.  Suite 62 is also what I listen to while cleaning the house (we have DirecTV, so we can get the XM stations on the television also).  I love it!

Obama for President!

What a great night!  I am thrilled that Barack Obama has clinched the democratic nomination and will be a candidate for President of the United States.  His speech was great.  I am so excited about feeling so strongly about a candidate and am ready to put my full support behind him.  It is also a great feeling to be part of such a historic moment having the first black candidate to become a major political party nominee.  Wow!  It will be interesting to see what transpires over the next 5 months until election day.  I hope things stay positive and our nation is proud to have someone like Obama as a nominee.