Newest Addition to the Cunningham Casa- Clue #1

Okay, everyone- we have had a recent addition to Casa de Cunningham in the past few weeks. Here's a sneak peek...

Our Bounty Harvest... Almost

Lawrence planted a garden this year (just to clarify, in our household we loosely define 'garden' as four tomato plants) and it is almost time to harvest our first tomatos! Thought you'd enjoy a few photos. FYI- Lawrence is SUPER proud of how well the plants are doing (as well he should be) so if you see him or talk to him, you should probably congratulate him on his master gardening skills.

Goals In Motion - Day 2

So needless to say I was waiting for "more time" in my schedule before I posted about our latest personal challenge. But, as any of you who actually read this (seriously does anyone actually read this?) can attest to I don't get around to this thing as much as I should.

Below Brandy spelled out the maddness she experienced yesterday. I totally agree with every word from "Must. Work. On. Core." to drinking more water than I ever thought possible.

So yes, we are taking part in a 9 week fitness challenge. Until I can further explain it go here to read about it: http://www.goalsinmotionfitness.com/. And, be sure to check out people's before and after pictures. Pretty sure you won't get to see ours unless we really get cut!

As for today we did kickboxing. Seriously, who's bright idea was this challenge thing anyway. I kicked and punched my way into oblivion. As usual there were much older, much fitter, and much stronger people in the room. I wasn't the worst but my stamina left something to be desired. (No jokes you jerks!) More on this whole thing coming soon...I promise.

Day 2 coming to a close...and I'm oddly hungry. Good thing I took Pizza Hut off my speed dial or I'd order a cheese stuffed crust mushroom and pepperoni pie right fricken' now.

"Lifestyle Change"

Lawrence and I started a workout program this past weekend. He likes to refer to it as a "lifestyle change", I, on the other hand, refer to it as hell. I'm pretty sure he'll share the specifics with you but it's 1-hour workouts, 6 days a week, for 9 weeks. Oh, and you have a "coach" (I call her the Nazi) with whom you have to share every morsel that you eat each day and every sip of water you take. Not kidding. Every sip. And I only mention water because that's pretty much the only liquid we can have. Goodbye tailgating, see you next year!

Saturday morning was our pre-fitness test which included timed sit-ups, timed push-ups, and a timed mile run. Oh, and if that isn't bad enough you also have to get your pictures taken in your underwear (!) or a swimsuit (double !!) - front, side and rear so they can see your flab in all its glory from every angle. I haven't run a timed mile since high school and for a very good reason. I suck at running. Now, not Lawrence. He kept his nice little pace the entire time, never once stopping to walk or take a break or slow down. He ran a mile in a little over 8 minutes without breaking a sweat and one of the coaches even asked him afterwards "Are you a runner? You looked pretty comfortable out there?" Now, me on the other hand they did not ask that. They didn't ask me anything after I got done (a handful of minutes after Lawrence), but I'm pretty sure they wanted to ask me "Have you had open heart surgery recently? Did you start chain-smoking when you were four? Do we need to call the EMT?" because it wasn't pretty. I was red-faced, sweating, wheezing, and I didn't make it to the half-way point before I had to stop and walk for a minute. WTF? When did I get so out of shape?!? My only redemption is that we did this little jog at noon in Iowa where the humidity was 100% and the temperature was 94 degrees. Lawrence must have been running in his own little world of cool.

This morning at 6:30am was our first "workout". I won't go into the details, mainly because just like with any other traumatic life event I don't want to relive the pain, but here are a few lessons learned/thoughts pondered today:

1. I've completely lost my core. I'm not sure when or where or how, but somehow I've completely lost it. I'm not sure what is holding my bottom half to my top half, but I'm pretty sure it's a lot of what looks like cottage cheese and not a lot of muscle. I cannot do a plank to save my life. My planks look like they have been left out in the elements too long. They are either sagging with my stomach almost rubbing the ground, or I'm confusing the plank with downward dog and my butt sticks up in the air. Must. work. on. core.

2. Speaking of cottage cheese. It is NOT the ideal protein snack to have before working out, particularly at 6am. I was in a rush, at a loss, and panicked. Never. again.

3. In addition to fitting in the workouts and the food journaling into my daily routine, I also now have to fit in about a dozen extra bathroom breaks because with drinking an additional 100 ounces of water a day comes a need to pee. A lot.

4. I must figure out a different way to wash my hair in the morning after workouts because I literally cried in pain this morning from having to life my arm above my shoulder in the shower. Luckily, I was well-hydrated (see point 3).

5. I'm desperately looking for an in-house masseuse that will work for table scraps. They're very healthy table scraps, if that helps. Any takers?

6. And finally, I'm one day closer to being done with this crazy business, although I still don't know how I got talked into it in the first place. Lawrence should get a raise. His sales and negotiating skills have gotten much better. Obviously.

STATUS: 1 workout down, 53 to go.

Celebrating the Big [blank] - 0 !

As August quickly approaches, I was reminded that this August my kid* sister turns 20. TWENTY! How did that happen?!? (*Disclaimer: said 'kid sister' is married with child so it's not as if there wasn't writing on the wall that she was getting older. HOWEVER, I firmly believe that the lack of freshman year experiences including late night phone calls and roommate drama this past year fully disabled me from understanding that she was indeed getting closer to reaching adulthood by the day.)

Once that sunk in, then I quickly remembered that my father will be turning the big 5-0 this December (although, if you go by the card said kid sister sent him last year, 2008 was his big birthday year...). Wow! Half a century! He must feel ancient! (just kidding, pops!)

And then of course, Lawrence and I are both turning 30 next May/June. And while neither of us are the lock-yourself-up-in-your-room-til-the-day-is-over sort of people when it comes to milestone birthdays and getting older in general, it's still a big step for us. It's a whole other checkbox on most forms, it's a higher life insurance premium, it's the cuttoff for some "young people" groups.

Thirty is a big deal.

But so is 20 or 50 (!). So apparently the next 12 months hold big milestones for the Burhans clan (LC isn't a Burhans, but we'll include him with us just this once). Stock up on the candles. (Do they sell those in bulk??? All together we will need ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY! Wow, Pops really throws off the average...) Start practicing the the birthday songs. Break out the balloons and pinatas. (I've never had a pinata at my birthday before, but I feel like I would really enjoy it. Candy, hitting things, what's not to like?) It is time to celebrate!

Just Saying NO to Peer Pressure

It seems like everywhere we look these days, our friends are deciding to take that crazy (albeit, wonderful, I'm sure) leap of faith and have decided to start a family. Both Lawrence and I have college roommates that are currently expecting (super exciting news for them- congrats S&R and B&J!), Lawrence's brother and sister-in-law have finally stepped it up to take the Cunningham grandchild pressure off (to which we are eternally grateful!) and have announced she is pregnant, and our closest DM couple friends have shared they have "pulled the goalie" (a term that I have only recently added to my analogy repertoire) so I'm sure it's only a matter of time for them to join the ever-growing club of parents-to-be.

And that's just great. FOR THEM. But it's still not for us. Not right now. No matter how much people say things won't change post-baby and they'll still have time for (fill in the blank: friends/travelling/dinner out/showering) it doesn't work that way. And while that lifestyle change might work for a lot of other people right now, we're not ready. We like hanging out with friends (although at this rate we will need to start making new non-baby-ready friends soon!), we have just started making room in the schedule and the budget for travelling, and we really LOVE lounging around on Saturday mornings. Heck, we even enjoy showering on a regular basis, which, from what I've heard from my friends with new babies, is quite a feat in itself during the first few months.

So, just wanted to throw that out there that we're still holding strong in the "no kids" column, even though many others have jumped ship. And we're a-okay with that, so hopefully you are too.

Happy 4th Anniversary!

On July 3rd, Lawrence and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary! There we were, just the two of us, off traveling in a far-away city, hold hands, gazing out into the sunset together and listening to the sweet sounds of... Take me out to the Ball Game???

Yes, that's right. Somehow Lawrence convinced me to spend our 4th anniversary at a baseball game. Okay, in his defense it was Fenway Park and we were in Boston, so he didn't need to work very hard to convince me, but it was a baseball game nonetheless. In honor of full disclosure, it was a great night (even though the Red Sox lost) and it was a fabulous way to spend our anniversary together.

However, I have added this to the "one and only time we will spend our anniversary that way" list, just so he doesn't get any future ideas!