Holiday Update

I had good intentions to blog more frequently during our trip home for the holidays, but things have been pretty busy! Since I'd rather spend my time with family instead of in front of my computer, I'd planned to blog at night after everyone had gone to bed. The problem with that is that I have been the first one to fall asleep every night! Seriously, the first three nights here in Houston I went to sleep at 7:00pm. I don't know why I was so tired - probably a mixture of being tired from traveling, wrangling Emma and all of the wonderful food!

First, we spent five days in Alexandria and had so much fun with Mr. David, Mrs. Suzy, Payton, Jay, and Chad's grandmother Mae. Emma had a ton of fun with her little pal Dana and her very large cousin Miles (German Shepherd) . She played so hard each day, and slept like a baby each night.

One night we went to Natchitoches to see the lights and to have dinner down on the waterfront. We had po-boys, catfish and meat pies at Papa's and then walked down to look at the lights and get a funnel cake. Speaking of funnel cake, I have had SO MUCH good food on this trip. Here is a breakdown:

Louisiana, part 1:
Gumbo
Shrimp po-boy
BJ's pizza
Petit fours from Atwood's Bakery,
Rocky road candy
Cracker candy
Homeade chocolate chip cookies

Texas:
Taco Cabana fajitas
Schlotzsky's "the original" sandwiches (a Christmas Eve tradition)
Christmas dinner: turkey, macaroni and cheese, dressing and gravy, green been bundles, asparagus, and chocolate cake with ganache
Morning Kolache's cream cheese kolaches
Shipley's donuts, kolaches and coffee
Fuddrucker's hamburger and fries with cheese sauce
Gringo's cheese enchiladas
Muffaleta from Spec's
California chicken burger from Cafe Express

Louisiana Part 2:
To be determined

When I am not eating, I try to get a run in! I ran a couple of times in Alexandria, and I've run a few times here in Houston. I've also done one Crossfit WOD (with another one planned for tomorrow), and have gone on a bike ride.

I did the WOD (workout of the day) on Christmas Eve, and I finally was able to walk without pain on December 28th! CrossFit is a totally different beast from anything I've ever done. My sister Megan is really into it, and she is very good at it. It was really nice of her to let me come to CrossFit Bay Area with her, and to walk me through each of the sets.

The WOD consisted of:
Back squat
5-5-5-5-5
(after the squats my legs were shaking like a leaf, and we hadn't even started the workout yet! )

Then..
4 rounds for time of:
15 wall ball (6 lbs.)
6 ring rows
5 shoot-thrus (with paralletes)
15 box jumps

Megan's coach, Coach Laura, had mercy on me and said that I only had to do 2 rounds instead of 4. I did two rounds in about 7 minutes, whereas Megan knocked out all four in just about 8 minutes. Like I said, she's really good. The wall balls weren' too bad - it consisted of squatting down and touching your butt to a medicine ball on the floor, and then tossing another medicine ball up to the wall on your way up from the squat. The ring rows were pretty tough - especially since one of the rings I grabbed wasn't clamped in and I went sliding down to the floor. It was pretty funny, and Coach Laura came to my rescue and helped me get set up with the rings. The shoot-thrus were horrible, and are not ideal for people with long legs. As much as I tried, I don't think I did even one correctly. The box jumps were pretty straightforward, but since I was so shaky and wanted to preserve my shin bones, I did most of the "jumps" by just stepping onto the box.

It was a great time at the CrossFit gym, but it was also kind of embarrassing being so bad at something! I am definitely going to incorporate some CrossFit type workouts into my training plan, as I know that weight bearing exercises can really help me with my running, swimming and cycling.

Christmas Eve was an absolutely crazy day at my parent's house that involved a series of unfortunate events that were strung together in quite rapid succession, involving plumbing fixtures, jammed doors, loose dogs, a broken tea kettle and possibly a broken finger or two. It was very wild, but at the end of the day we were able to all take a deep breath and laugh about the events of the day.

As far as running, I've done a 2 mile run, a 3.3 mile run and a 10.52 mile run. The 10 miler was done with my sister's CrossFit affiliate, CrossFit Bay Area. Megan is training for the Pelican Challenge in Seabrook in March (back to back half marathons on Saturday and Sunday). Megan and I headed out for a 2 mile run before meeting up with the group, in order to get in a little extra mileage. Once we met up with the rest of the group, we headed out for 7 miles. There was a little miscalculation with the route, and we ended up doing 8.52 miles, for a total of 10.52 miles for me and Megan. We headed straight to Chipotle for lunch afterwards!

me, Megan, Wendy, Sonja, Melissa, and Coach Laura

I've been hanging out with my niece Brittany the past few days while she is out of school, and we went and saw Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakqal yesterday. It was pretty cute. I love being able to spend a few days with her!

Chad has been in Denver for the Love Mercy 2009 Wesleyan Youth Convention since the day after Christmas, and he will get back into Houston tomorrow. On Friday, we are heading back to Alexandria for a day and a half before driving back to Kentucky. It has been a wild and fun time with both of our families, and I continue to look forward to the day when we move back to Louisiana.

My next few posts will be of some pictures from the trip so far!