DISCO FEVER!

Aahh...Halloween, you gotta love it. I look around me and I see a flying dragon (Belle), a zombie (Tre), and a crazy woman with big fluffy white-blond hair and an orange face. You know fake tanners came out in the seventies (i.e. orange face). We love Halloween at our house. What's not to love? Free candy, chocolate candy, free candy, chewy candy, free candy, sugary candy, and you get to dress up like anyone/thing that you want! Did I mention the candy?

This one is for you Kara! Thanks for being wild and crazy and funny. Get your groove on!

Yum, pumpkin guts! This is about all Tre did as far as pumpkin carving went.

"What the heck?" says boring, non dressed up Jeff

My pumpkin's in the Pumpkin Patch

"I love this!" Belle's favorite part is getting all the guts out. She is such a tomboy.

Yummy eyeballs! Kara made these treats for dessert and they were SO good. Like little balls of peanutbutter goodness with just a hint of bloody veins.

The finished product. The cute kitty cat was Belle's idea and the scary monster face was Tre's. Jer LOVED carving it out too! Yeah, right.

I've Been HAD!

Surprising! The shark pictures below are NOT real. They are real pictures but just not what they seem. The first picture is actually two separate pictures cropped together, and the second is a dolphin...not a shark. Still, they are really cool pictures.

Amazing(ly huge, scary, mean) Sharks

Can you believe these creatures? Not only would I wet myself, I would probably faint if I saw this while in the ocean. I love the ocean, and all that lives in it....except for these two creatures. Wow is all I can say because the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. If anything can convince you that being landlocked in Utah it's this!

The Purple Soccer Balls

Me and my friend Paige

Anabelle played outdoor soccer this year and LOVED it! Her team color is her favorite color and her coach was just ditsy enough to name the team...The Purple Soccer Balls. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all she did for the team. She organized practices and treats, dealt with uncooperative 4 year olds, and coached and reffed even though she clearly had no soccer training. But she did this all with a smile.

The first game of the season Belle made 3 goals!! And 2 of them were for her OWN team. Not bad. Then as the season progressed Belle had a harder and harder time at the games. She would get so frustrated that they wouldn't just let her have the ball that she didn't even want to play. The only thing she really cared about was the treat at the end. The only thing I cared about was watching and laughing at the kids and that she was getting exercise.

Will we do it next year? You bet ya....Even if she doesn't want to!!

This is one of my more happy times

Me and my Grandma

Working On Your Weak Area's

You know what they are...the parts on your body that just have the hardest time firming up or slimming down. Mine, for example, are my legs and booty (sorry, glutes). Sure they are strong but they also hold the most fat deposits on my body. One way to help this is a very advanced program that involves doing one set twice a day until fatigue for that particular body part.

Here's how it works. Say a man (or woman) wants to beef up his chest/shoulder area. What ever he does he just cannot build the type of muscle that he is looking for. So every morning he gets up, drops to the floor, and does push ups until he can't do anymore with good form. Then every night he brushes his teeth, puts on pajamas, and drops to the floor again for another set of push ups until failure. He does this everyday, 7 days a week for a month. What does it do? It forces the muscles to work again and again without much rest in between. This results in muscle strength/gain.

Same goes for women trying to slim down a certain body part. If it's your lower body, lunge jumps are great for this. Starting in a split stance (one foot in front of the other) bend knees with back knee close to the floor. Then jump up and switch your lead foot mid-air. Without stopping repeat left right left right until fatigue (when you no longer can do the exercise with proper form). Click here for an example of a correct Lunge Jump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zLTDUFjbXA . Doing this every morning and every evening for one month.

The trick is to pick an exercise that requires no equipment so you can do it anywhere. That does mean no excuses either. You also do your set even if you are sore, tired or sick. Remember, it is just one set then you're done until later that night.

If anyone wants to try it, let me know. I can help you pick an exercise for the body part you want to work. By the way, this probably doesn't work for the brain....sorry!

Tough Girl Training

Well, it just wouldn't be right if I didn't try to sell myself on my own blog. I am a personal trainer with an in-home studio. I am now accepting clients who want to jump start their fitness regime, get fit, fall off a plateau, and/or become lean and strong. I am located in the Traverse Mountain area and specialize getting tough. It's affordable, convenient, and fun. I promise that you'll sweat and love it! Email me today to set up your free consultation.

toughgirltraining@hotmail.com

Fall Vacation to Moab

We recently took our kids to Moab for the first time. Little did we know that they would love Arches National Park as much as we do. Trust me, Belle loved it even though it doesn't look like it above.

Tre practically dragged me down the mountain on the Delicate Arch trail. He decided it was much more fun (and faster) to run back to the car. I wouldn't let him do it on his own so we held hands and booked it, dodging others as we went.

Belle also liked hiking. She is coined herself "spider girl" because of how she can climb rock faces, small crevices and arches. People were truly amazed when they watched her scale large boulders. Jeremy only had a heart attack 30 or 40 times....per day.

We also found out that 4-wheeling is great, but just not in our Mazda. As we were bumping along a 14 mile trail, we bottomed out. We rolled on and heard a strange thump, thump, thump. Thinking we had at least one flat tire we pulled over to check. Good news! No flat tires. But...the sound was still there. After crawling under the car in the red dirt we found the problem. I don't know much about cars but something was bent and Jeremy had to straighten it out with a crow bar. Fun times, huh?!

Everything else went as planned and we had a great trip!

National Park visitor center

"Hang Loose!"

Looking at Delicate Arch

"Can you see the lizard?"

Right behind us is a HUGE cliff!

This is the view we sacraficed our car for

Making sand angels