Now that I know, I can't live without...

1. H&M (enough said)
2. Joe Fresh (ditto)
3. Pur Minerals - http://www.purminerals.com/Pur-Mineral-Makeup-Starter-Kit
4. Kiss My Face - Early to Rise http://kissmyfacewebstore.com/detail/KMF+1401622
5. Lululemon - astro pant (w/complimentary hemming!) http://shop.lululemon.com/Astro_Pant/pd/c/560/np/560/p/2187.html
6. Hemming in general
7. Nail polish topcoat (it really does stay on for a week!)

Has it really been THAT long?

On September 18, Alex and I will have been married for two years. Most people would say "on one hand it feels like yesterday, but on the other hand it feels like so long ago". Not me, to me it feels like so long ago - and I like it that way.

Alex is:

• my rock;
• my voice of reason;
• my "I know you better than you know yourself" guy;
• my "you better slow down so you don't burn yourself out" guy;
• my pain in the ass; and
• most importantly, my love.

I feel truly and completely blessed to have someone like him for a husband. Sure, he drives me NUTS some days and I think "who is this guy?" but those days are usually about a week before Aunt Flo comes to town and I'll be honest, I tend to be a little irrational even when I'm trying my damnedest not to be.

Of course, there are those days no where near my time of the month when he drives me crazy but I'm 1000% sure that I drive him around the bend here and there too.

Would I like it if he did more around the house? Yes. Would he like it if I mowed the lawn here and there? Yes. In fact, we just had that conversation just last night when he asked if I'd unloaded the dishwasher yet (he'd be home all night and I'd been in Port Perry teaching Pilates 30 minutes before). Those are the times though that when he comes back with a remark "did you mow the lawn and whipper snip last night?" that make me think, riiiiight - it's not a one way street and we both do things around the house, just different things.

When it comes down to it though, I'd give us a 90% (I'm into percentages today) in the happiness department which takes into account pet peeves, button pushing & Aunt Flo. That, to me is pretty damn awesome.

I also think we are very lucky to have been together for so long prior to being married. We knew each other pretty darn well before getting married and had been through highs and lows and already know that pushing through the lows is more than well worth the highs.

In the spirit of TSN, I'd like to give my highlights of our last 2 years together:

• Our housewarming (ok, that was before the wedding, but it was still amazing)
• Our wedding
• Our wedding morning (waking up realizing all we had was our wedding wear)
• Our honeymoon, which was about 6 months after our wedding and SO well deserved
• Sunday drives to Bond Head
• Any drive to any cottage with the windows down and the music loud
• Our trip to Montreal with Em & Andrew
• Sunday afternoons on the couch watching movies followed by delicious takeout
• Alex's surprise trip to Québec City (so thoughtful)
• Our 1st anniversary (MAN we loved that spiced banana cake with a butter cream filling)
• Sir Winston Stanley Powell's arrival into our life
• Our completely beautiful home (starring the following): complete spare room, level and grass filled backyard, almost finished kitchen & new driveway
• Our new nieces and nephews who we are also guardians for
• And for me, the most important part - a countless number of times where I laughed so hard I cried when Alex said things that got me right in the funny bone. A great example is "Koskinen tagged me as a monkey on Facebook. Here let me show you (log onto facebook - picture comes up). Do I look like a monkey?" Umm.....Hahahaha (insert crying, rolling, belly aching laugh).

Wow, do we ever have a lot to be grateful for. I have everything possible on my body crossed that life keeps on the way it's been because we are on one great ride.

xo
Jenn

the benefits of set backs

After watching a particularly meaningful "Being Erica" that focused on how what we believe are set backs at the time they are occurring are actually gifts and if we let them they will reveal something about ourselves that we never would've discovered had everything run smoothly with no bumps in the road (that's right, instead of getting ready for work I furiously fast-forwarded our PVR to watch a t.v. episode as quickly as possible and came to work with dirty hair!).

Being somewhat of a perfectionist, setbacks are not something I normally ponder (they happen and I plow through them like they never happened) but after watching the show instead of showering, ironing, getting my lunch together or doing anything else remotely productive I sat on the couch and reflected back on all the perceived setbacks I've encountered over the past few years and the benefits they've provided for me. The ones that stuck out most in my mind are:

1) SETBACK: not having a baby a couple of years ago as per the "plan". BENEFIT: I never would've had the guts or opportunity to take a contract job with a little one to take care of and I'd be living in Oshawa, communting to Toronto on a daily basis and hating every minute of it (not to mention missing so much of our childs life).

2) SETBACK: not taking my Pilates certification a year and a half ago. BENEFIT: Your Pilates Place wasn't open, I didn't work at Durham College so I wouldn't have been hired to work at their fitness centre and my certification probably would've sat dormant until I forgot what I'd learned and I would've been so overwhelmed with starting a new job and getting the house renovations done I would've probably had a mental breakdown.

3) SETBACK: My boss not seeing my vision to combine 2 positions at my old job to give me a new challenging job and keep me at the company for a couple more years. BENEFIT: Even if I didn't love the job I would've felt that I owed them my time and stayed there unhappy.

So the moral of the storey is although you might feel it's bad to take 2 steps backward you're actually doing yourself a favour because you can look at the situation from a few feet back and re-assess if the path you were taking was really the right one!

Looking back at my "3 big ones" I am so glad they worked out the way they did.

xo
Jenn

1st class complete - 900 to go!

Hello, hello!

Sooooooooo yesterday I taught my first semi-private class and guess what?? It was a success. The two girls I taught were both very sweet beginners who were perfect to ease me into teaching. They were both very happy at the end of the session and so was I.

CHEERS - to my first class complete and the first and last 90210 we'll ever have!

xo
Jenn

Pilates, pilates - PILATES!

My oh my oh my.....lordy, lordy Jenn - what have you gotten yourself into?

Pilates update:

• Monday 6-7 (indefinitely)
• Tuesday 5:10-6:00 (until December)
• Wednesday 7-8 (indefinitely)
• Thursday 6-7 (until mid-October)
• Friday 12:10-1:00 (until December)

Who thinks they're Wonder woman? I DO! I DO! In order to keep my sanity and keep my blood pressure from skyrocketing through my body, through the ceiling and eventually to the sky I'm putting together a pro's and con's list.

PRO's

• I'm finally jumping in with two feet rather than one in and one out;
• I am putting my Certificate to good use;
• I'm going to see what I'm really made of;
• I'm going to find out if I enjoy teaching;
• I'm forced to learn every posture and master it;
• I'll get lots of experience in different locations (gym, studio, in-home lessons);
• Physical proof that their is a need for Pilates in the region;
• 3 of the classes are not indefinite and there is an end time;
• We'll have extra $ for trips and home renos (with no extra time to spend it on crap); and
• I'm gonna be buff, oh so buff.

CON's

• I feel like I'm over my head and I'm nervous about teaching in general;
• I'm afraid I won't be able to balance my job and home life;
• I don't know every posture by heart; and
• I'm worried that I'm not knowledgeable enough to teach to advanced students.

Based on the list above I have some to do's to help me feel good about my decisions to date:

• I know I'll be a good teacher once I feel more confident in myself and the only way to feel more confident is to practice, practice and practice.
• I will have to ask Alex to be patient with me during the next few months and let him know he might need to pick-up some slack around the house.
• I have to let my bosses know that I am comfortable teaching beginner and intermediate classes and that I am not comfortable teaching advanced classes yet - BE ASSERTIVE.
• I need to make sure that I'm taking it easy on my off days and really give myself time to recoupe from the hectic week.

Anything else you can think of?

xo
Jenn

speedy mcspeedertons is back.

As mentioned in prior posts I'm a busy beaver attempting to be not so busy (and failing miserably).

Going against everything I've been trying to do in terms of slowing down, I started applying to teach Pilates in a few different places in hopes of ONE of them working out.

I did this because became a teacher recently, really enjoy the form of exercise and thought it would be a good way to force myself to stay in shape, get better speaking in front of groups of people (for my current jobs benefit) and lastly, to earn a little extra dough.

On Wednesday I received an email from a co-worker asking if I could come up to her home to teach her and a couple of friends once a week and I agreed. On Thursday morning, I met the new fitness co-ordinator at the College who asked me to teach on Tuesday evenings and on Friday afternoons and of course, I eagerly agreed. Today, I received a call from the owner of a local Pilates studio asking if I could meet her this Sunday at 4 p.m. to discuss my available teaching times! Guess what I did? You got it - AGREED!

Can you believe it? I put it out there in hope of ONE and now I've got THREE. I am super excited to build up my Pilates teaching resume but also a little nervous about the amount I have on my plate.

On another note, I went to Winners today and got three awesome workout tops with built in slightly padded bras which I am super pumped about. I have an awful time finding tops that work for me and of course I'd find some this week because EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON!!

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

xo Jenn

my personal vows.

Monday was my 28th birthday. It was a GREAT day (although I worked for the majority of it) filled with family, friends and PRESENTS!! My hubby arranged for all my local family and friends to meet at a new little Thai restaurant downtown and totally surprised me - it was fabulous.

On the way into work on Tuesday feeling great about myself and everyone in my life I made a few vows to myself of things I will and will not do over the next 30 days in hopes of breaking bad habits and starting new good habits.

1) I will not smoke anymore cigarettes. I don't smoke regularly by any means but when I'm in a group of smokers and I've had a wobbly pop or two I get an insatiable need to smoke at least one cigarette if not five. I don't feel good about it the next day, my breath reeks and most importantly if I'm getting my body ready for a baby it does not need any second hand smoke.

2) I will start taking my vitamins again. I have a new family doctor who prescribed me calcium-mag (lactose intolerant), a multi-vit, vit D, vit C and now Materna = a lot of pills. However, she said in order for me to be the most "hospitable" for a bebe I've got to get my levels up in all of these areas.

3) I will committ to a 30-day, 30-minute Pilates challenge. This includes bringing my mat to the cottage or to a friends home if I stay the night. It seems when I don't exercise I get in a funk and when I'm in a funk I don't want to exercise (surprise, surprise huh?).

Last night I started the ball rolling by doing 45 minutes of Pilates, refraining from cigarettes while Alex sucked a couple back on the back deck and took my viatmins in the a.m.

1 day down and 29 to go!

PS - don't worry this blog isn't going to become me talking about these challenges constantly. I just needed to put the word on the street so people hold me accountable.

xo
Jenn