Cooking Fools!

For Mom's birthday (which was in August), Kelly had the stellar idea of a cooking class. Cooking Fools, was pretty booked up, so last night was the first time our schedules meshed. Here we are before the madness began (for your Live Leaners...please note that I only had 1 glass of red wine the entire evening!!)
Mom got to help make the vodka tomato sauce - YUM!
Beginning to roll out the pasta...
Kel was VERY focused...
My raviolis all lined up!
The feast!
I highly recommend Cooking Fools for those Chicagoans...they were excellent, super fun evening!

Bon Appetit!

Once a month some great friends and I get together for "Cooking Club." The host picks the theme and cooks the main dish. The inaugural CC was last month - Italian and Gayle's, unfortunately I don't have too many pictures. Last night was French at Molly's. Her appartment was perfect - felt like we were in Paris! She did a wonderful job with the table...
I won the award for "most French" - not bad considering I am 0% French!
Molly made Julia Child's Beef Bourgenaise and Rice - TRE BON!!!
Lynne made Baked Brie, Ashley brought the French Bread, I made Green Beans, Chi Chi brought the wine (Beaujolais and Bordeaux), and Gayle made a strawberry raspberry tart.
We had a great time...especially deciding who would play us in the movie they will surely make int a few years...and who would play our love interest ;-)
Can't wait for Harvest Feast @ Ashley's!!!!

Reception Numero Dos!

I was lucky enough to attend Stephanie and Jason's first reception in Puerto Vallarta last month, so of course I was thrilled to attend their local reception! Also in attendance were Alan, Emmy, and Zoey who was about 5wks old - adorable.
Here you can actually see lovely Zoey Faith..
(2nd) First Dance
The reception was great - just like a "normal" post wedding reception and they even played the video of the wedding for everyone to watch. The only difference was no cutting of the cake...instead a delicious cupcake tower!!
Loved celebrating with you again Stephanie and Jason!

Basketball!!!

I've been playing basketball on Friday nights for the past year and a half (in the fall and winter) at Willow Creek. I can't even tell you how much I love it - love being out there playing basketball with a great group of girls!

I finally brought my camera last night and had our injured captain Kim take some pictures. Obviously Melissa was really excited to sign in...
We got crushed last night - the other team was incredible and we had some players missing and our shots weren't falling...but still SUPER FUN!!!

Live Lean Update!

As promised earlier this week, here is an update on how the Live Lean program is going....
After orientation on Saturday and Sunday, we started into our "routine." 6am group workouts M-F, 7am on Saturday, plus a second workout of choice later in the day. The group workouts alternate between Circuit Training and Strength Training - they are tough, but it helps that we're all in it together with coaches cheering us on and correcting form the whole way.

On Wednesdays we also have a group yoga class in the evening followed by group and small group discussions. This time we focused on Satya (Truth) and goal setting.

I'm loving the program so far...despite the fact that my shoulders are burning as I sit her right now (but heck, it it can get me arms like our lovely coach Megan then I can deal!). One thing that I wasn't necessarily expecting was how much energy and support comes from the other women involved in the program. Of course in the group exercise you push a little harder because everyone around you is pushing so hard....but also there are a lot of people going through similar challenges in life and have been able to bond and gain strength from each other.

Good work ladies! See you tomorrow morning :-)

Pot Pie!

After 5hrs of orientation at Live Lean it was wonderful to come home to a great afternoon/evening with Kelly and Dan. We watched football, played Wii, munched on Kel's great app spread, and then enjoyed a delicious chicken pot pie dinner made by Chef Kel.
Mmmm...delicious!

Beginning of the Transformation

Today was Day 1 of 33 days of Core Power Yoga's Live Lean program. As I said before, I've been looking forward to the program for awhile now. It certainly did not disappoint.
There are 18 of us in the program, 4 coaches, a program leader, and a program director. This weekend is orientation so we learned about the program, about each other, and what we were in for for the next 33 days. If you're wondering what LiveLean will help me do...
We've got group exercise together Mon-Sat from 6-7am (yoga, boot camp, strength work) and are expected to do another workout in the evening...so I am off for a run to train for the upcoming Hot Chocolate 15K!