Wedding Wednesday

by Chase on January 25, 2012

1. My wedding doesn’t have a theme.  Does it need a theme?  I googled “wedding theme” for ideas and came across Tacky Weddings.  It is exactly what you might think.  Heinously tacky wedding photos and videos.  And while I was wasting time on Tacky Weddings, I came across The Lovely Bride, which appears to be your one-stop-shop for quasi-orthopedic wedding shoes which almost guarantee a sprained ankle by time the DJ calls it a night.  For $140.  Really?

2. Saving up your vacation hours from work for a 2 week honeymoon is an overwhelming exercise in delayed gratification.  This girl could use a day off, for sure.

3.  A friend who happens to have 4 names (First name, Middle name, Maiden name, Married name) advised HIGHLY AGAINST having 4 names.  My middle name happens to be my Mom’s family name.  My last name is, of course, my Dad’s family name.  Having to decide whether to keep my middle name or my to-be-maiden name is something I am struggling to decide.  It would be easier if I could just smoosh them all together and then I would be Chase Moncarleist.  Or Chase Monleistberry.  Or Chase Carleistydoro.  Leistberrydoro.  Carmonleisterry. Hmm.

4.  I want our wedding vows to include the words ’til death do we party.  No?

5. Your fiancé probably does not enjoy being interrupted in the middle of the Bulls game for you to hold up your laptop for him to see the adorable/creative/cute/amazing thing for the wedding you just found on Pinterest.  Assuming your fiancé is like mine.

6. Speaking of Pinterest, I was looking back over my wedding pinboard and realized one of the wedding gowns I pinned many months ago is actually very, very, very similar to the dress I selected.  Totally coincidental.

7.  I’m a little bummed that the Nationals at Orioles game that is happening on my wedding day is not a day game.  I would have totally gone to the game in the afternoon before the wedding. (The wedding is late in the day.)  And I probably ended up with a bad sunburn.  Like this picture from Jeff’s cousin’s wedding in 2008 where we roasted in the sun at the Cubs game the day before.  Scorched.

Speaking of which, I made this sign for that game.  I was very proud of my cleverness.

The last T is silent.

8. There are some really cute bridesmaid dresses out there these days.  Is it wrong to buy one for myself? Tell me this isn’t an adorable dress.  Tell me, couldn’t you TOTALLY wear that again!?  Psst. Buy it here if you like.

9. In researching stylists to do hair and makeup for the big day, I had the brainstorm idea that there should be service where a hairdresser comes to your house in the morning before work and blow dries your hair for you.  I would do that more often than would be an advisable frequency. 

10.  My approach to my wedding is perfectly summed up in this passage from A Homemade Life.

When people would wish us well, they would often say, “Oh, I just know your wedding day is going to be PERFECT!  It’s going to be BLISS!  It’s going to be the BEST day of your life!”  Brandon and I would always giggle about that, even though the gesture was very nice.  For one thing, there’s the word bliss which makes my toes curl. It reminds me of diamond company commercials and bath beads.  But even more than that, if the best day of our lives is our wedding day, we thought, what the hell comes afterward?  We would have a lot of so-s0 years to look forward to.  We wanted to have a beautiful wedding, but it didn’t need to be utter perfection.  It needed to celebrate what we bring to each other in the truest way possible, and with some good food and dancing.  But it didn’t need to be the best day ever.  In fact, we sincerely hoped that, in the long-term scheme of things, it wouldn’t be.

Many better days to look forward to, indeed.

{ 4 comments }

LiveFit week 3 update

by Chase on January 23, 2012

I’m glad to say this week was a VAST improvement over last week.  I even hesitated linking to that post because I just wanted to learn from it and set it aside.

The weekends are always toughest for me when it comes to indulgences and I’m not 100% certain why.  Something having to do with the structure and discipline of the week and the complete opposite of the weekend. I almost would prefer to have a work week that was Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday instead of two days off in a row.  I get into too much trouble. ;)

But this weekend, I was a busy, busy girl.  Between the quarterly Les Mills launches and football, I was too busy to get into much of anything.

Some fun shots from this weekend. 

Me and Kate in BODYATTACK 75. I’m in the yellow.  Massive air.

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Jill and Jen rocking out RPM 53

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BODYJAM 59 (which the pictures totally don’t do it justice… you gotta watch the video)

BODYJAM Launch Jan 20 031 

Speaking of videos, check this one out!

 

Wheee! 

Anyway, I’m approaching the end of Phase 1 of LiveFit – one week to go.  I thought I’d share some of my progress by the numbers.  This is the change since January 1, 2012.

Weight -5.40
Biceps R 0.00”
Biceps L -0.25’
Bust -1.00”
Natural waist -3.00”
Waist at navel -4.00”
Hips -1.00”
Thigh R -0.25”
Thigh L -0.75”
Calf R -0.25”
Calf L +0.25” (haha!)

Can we just talk for five seconds about THESE TWO metrics?

Natural waist -3.00”
Waist at navel -4.00”

I’ve lost four inches from my waist in 3 weeks.  That even includes the really bad weekend I had last week where I was totally off the program.  Let me tell you folks, this program WORKS.  I’m going to do an “end of Phase I” photo comparison next Monday so you can see what I’m seeing.

Clean eats  + consistent exercise = RESULTS.   Woo hooo!  

Have a great night!

{ 2 comments }

Why I’m sad the Ravens lost.

January 22, 2012

So, the Ravens lost tonight, the game they needed to win to advance to the SuperBowl.  And before I go on, allow me to acknowledge it is a game.  It is a pastime, it is a sport, it is a hobby.  There are far more important things to worry about in this world. But, I’m [...]

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Where I’ve been all night.

January 20, 2012

This is how we roll at Gold’s. One word.  HAWT. (P.S. No, that’s not me teaching.)

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Book #2, A Homemade Life

January 18, 2012

It’s nearly ten 0’clock in the evening and I’m just sitting down to write today’s post because, gosh darn it, I said I would write on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and I asked you to hold me to it).  So I’m writing.  I’m fueled by whole wheat pasta, a sense of purpose and Tanzanian dark [...]

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LiveFit Week 2 Update

January 16, 2012

The Good -On Saturday, I went out to RedRobin for lunch and I got a lettuce wrap burger and a side salad (which was delicious, by the way) -I didn’t miss any workouts -Made these sweet potato chips to munch on for Saturday football (and promptly burned a bunch of them, oops!)  Awesome clean snack! [...]

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Carrot Cake protein squares

January 13, 2012

Not that anyone has asked but one of the foods that I eat regularly on the LiveFit plan (other than copious amounts of vegetables, egg whites and chicken breast) are these protein squares.   I’ve made probably 6 or 7 batches of these over the last few weeks and they’ve definitely become my go-to mid-morning [...]

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My 2012 goals

January 11, 2012

Last year, and this year, I’ve waited a little bit before posting my New Year’s goals.  Not long, just a week or two.  Why?  Well, I felt as though I wanted to get to know 2012 a little bit and I wanted to let the excitement of the new year wear off so that I [...]

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LiveFit update, wedding recon and books!

January 9, 2012

We got our first little dusting of snow here in the District so it FINALLY feels like Winter.  I didn’t mind the unseasonably warm weather we’ve been having but my sweaters were starting to feel lonely and unloved.  I happily broke out a turtleneck one for work today. So, it’s Monday!  So that means it’s [...]

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Why you should pay attention to Valentine’s Day

January 6, 2012

If you’ve set foot in a Target this year, or if perhaps you are like to play around on Pinterest, then you probably know that yes, the next holiday on our calendar is indeed Valentine’s Day.  You pretty much can’t escape it in any sort of retail environment, even though some of these shops are [...]

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