A Date & An Explanation

First off, this weekend was amazing. AJ is phenomenal. Saturday we woke up early and took the dogs to go play for a couple of hours. When we got home, I took a shower and AJ prepared out date day and boy did he pull through! 

We did this:

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It's called The Discovery Trail (obviously) and you go to each of these 6 historic locations around Lawton. As you go to each location, you get a stamp on your card and a memorabilia trinket to take home. We started our adventure at 12:30 but only had time to visit four locations (we got really into some of the spots!). We are planning on finishing it this weekend.

The locations we were able to make it to were:

The Comanche National Museum & Cultural Center. 

The Historic Mattie Beal Home

The Fort Sill National Historic Landmark Museum.

This one was really awesome because we were able to visit the grave of Geronimo and Quanah Parker. 

And U.S. Army Field Artillery Museum

 
My favorite places for the day were the Mattie Beal home and the Fort Sill Landmark museum (we are going to go back there and look into more). The Mattie Beal home was taken care of by this 88 year old woman who was a hoot! The extravagant home has a small ball room on the top floor, built in 1907 it is a floating room! One side doesn't have floor support, its suspended from the ceiling. Our entire trip cost us 8$ and was a ton of fun. 

Next, we went home and got all dressed up and went out to dinner. We went to the only Greek Restaurant in town, El Greco. It was our first experience there.  

 My review? Terrible. It was very overpriced and the food was premade. You could tell they had just reheated it from wherever they order it from. The menu was super small and the food wasn't authentic. I was pretty bummed out. The terrible meal cost us over 50$ with the tip. :(

Finally, we went to see Real Steel. 

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I LOVED this movie! Loved, loved, loved it!! If you like action movies, you will enjoy this movie. I can't wait till it comes out in Blu-Ray! Sign me up!!! 

Although, the ENTIRE movie, I couldn't get over how much the boy in it looks just like my cousin Adam! And coincidentally, the robot is called Atom, which added fan to that fire the whole movie.



 

Although we got a discount for the movie itself for AJ being active duty military, one bucket of popcorn, one large soda (both for AJ), and my fat free welches gummies cost almost 30$! I was FLOORED!

When we got home, we camped out in the living all night and watched Disney Halloween movies. Perfect ending to a perfect day. This day totally satisfied my irrational, non-sports loving, little dog toting, girlie side. ;)

Speaking of which, this past post regarding AJ & my conversation on Friday, seemed to strike a nerve with some people. They seemed to believe that I am a bossy, control freak, jerk, who is overbearing & rude to her husband, and they regard AJ like a meek doormat.
Let me assure you, neither could be farther from the truth, which is why I found the conversation so amusing and decided to share it with everyone. I never demand AJ, "clean the house" before I get home" or "pick up dinner" so I can be lazy. The entire conversation, between both AJ & I was one sarcastic joke to one another. Neither one of us took the conversation seriously (although AJ did plan an amazing day on Saturday, he was going to anyway because he was postponing date night till then anyway..). It was an amusing conversation, not a typical one. Please regard it in this way. I am not a demanding bitch and my husband is definitely not a doormat. 

I hope you all have a very HAPPY HALLOWEEN! And look forward to your tales and pictures! 

My irrational, non-sports loving, little dog toting, girlie side pt. 2...

So,  to my poor husband's dismay, he wasn't able to talk to me on the phone all morning long.. This means I had a full 5 hours to stew on this morning's events. (Which you can read about in, My irrational, non-sports loving, little dog toting, girlie side (pt 1) ). This also means, that my ideas for this weekend and for his make-up to me had enough time to fully form. So when this dear man did finally reach me on my cell phone (which he had an overly chipper and happy tone when I answered), our conversation went like this:

Me: "Ok babe, this is how tonight and tomorrow are going to go.. You no longer have a choice in any of this.."
AJ: "Ok."
Me: "On your way home from work, you are going to pick up soda, one cheese and one pepperoni pizza from Little Caesars. You are then going to wash the dishes and take care of the dogs and basically clean the house before I get home."
AJ: "Check, check, check."
Me: "I on the other hand, am going to stop by Hastings on the way home, and pick up my last book in this series for tonight."
AJ: "Double check."
Me: "When I get home, there will already be pizza there, and the house will be clean. I will read, and you can watch Game 7."
AJ: "Check again."
Me: "Then tomorrow, we are going to wake up relatively early and take the dogs out to play until they cannot physically move anymore."
AJ: "Ok."
Me: "Then you are going to find some sort of activity for us to do before we go to the Greek Restaurant and see Real Steel. It can be a museum, or a flea market, or something. I don't care. It just has to be something completely UNsports related."
AJ: "Really? It can't be sports related?"
Me: "No. No sports."
AJ: "Does put-put count as sports related?"
Me: *Sigh* "I guess it depends on how cold it is outside. If it's cold, its a sport. If its not, its fun."
AJ: "Check"

And this mornings bad start was settled. Plus, once again, I get another new book...

My irrational, non-sports loving, little dog toting, girlie side...

I love sports. I LOVE the NFL! I LOVE football! I love pretty much any sport. For crying out loud, my blog is called, "Kelly Stadium". I have a fantasy football team and a fantasy baseball team. I know all the names of the major sports journalists, their view points, and I even have sports radio on in my car.... Now, all that being said, I do not ONLY love sports. I do not want my entire life to be about sports and only sports. My husband though, he feels differently.

On most day's AJ is home before I am, and when I walk into the house it never fails that either he will be playing Madden or Sports Center will be on. If Sports Center is on, that means that there is some game on that he wants to watch that night (who knows what it is.. college football, basketball, curling.. it doesn't matter..) If he is playing Madden, that pretty much means he intends on playing it the majority of the night. 

When we are in the car going for a hike/fishing/movies/grocery store/ insert any possible location here, AJ wants to talk to me about sports. I will pull another topic out of him, but inevitably, he somehow brings it around back. 

Normally, I am ok with this existence. Like I said before, I enjoy sports. And to his credit, he will watch his sports stuff in the bedroom if there is something I really want to watch or do in the living room instead. But there comes a time when he is on a particular sports streak (ie the Rangers are currently in the World Series) where he does nothing but sports. Help around the house? Later. Watch a movie? Maybe another time. Board game? Play Madden. Take the dogs to play? If we bring the football. This has been my past two weeks.

Sooooo.. this morning when AJ came in from PT and I was blow drying my hair, I excitedly asked if he was ready for our date night tonight (trying a new Greek restaurant and seeing Real Steel). He says,

"Yeah, about that. Can we post-pone or cancel it. Game 7 is on tonight."

Normally, I would be understanding about this. Normally it wouldn't be a problem. But I had already reminded him yesterday about our plans for Friday and I couldn't fathom another night of sports.. I look at him and levelly say, "It isn't my fault that the Rangers screwed up game 6..." 

AJ apparently doesn't hear the dark warning in my voice and decides to get out his acoustic guitar, sit next to me in the bathroom, and loudly sing a made up song about the World Series and sports in general (welcome to my world). Well, the situation didn't end well and I left with a gruff, "I love you.." this morning. 

Of course, hours later, I feel guilty and like I overreacted. I mean, it is the World Series after all and I know we will be able to go on our date night another night this weekend... But, the girlie girl part of me, the part that likes to dress up and go out and be treated to a nice fun date, completely over powered the situation. (Just to let you know, that super girlie part of me, is the least rational part of me..)

The problem my poor husband has, is that since I normally love sports too and would sit and watch the World Series with him and play Madden with him, etc., when I have reached my limit and that high maintenance girlie girl comes out in me, the poor boy is blind sided. Like this morning. (Although, I do have to point out in my defense this time, in whose world is it a good idea to loudly play the guitar next to me in the bathroom after cancelling our date??). 

So for now, I think I may offer him a compromise.. I will get all dressed up in my favorite Ranger's clothes and him and I can go have dinner at a sports bar and watch the game.. Of course, this comes with the stipulation that I get my Greek Restaurant and movie tomorrow night, and he better wear his good cologne. ;-)

My thought for the day...

...It's a pretty simple one really.....

My husband is gorgeous!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Ok, now that I have bragged him up a little, let me explain why.. Recently I was reading an article that talked about how many men/ women are not physically attracted to their spouses and the problems that it causes. A lot of the individuals interviewed in the article (which I can't find on the net but was in a magazine) said that they love their spouse and enjoy spending time with their spouse, but just aren't physically attracted to them anymore. To some individuals, it wasn't that big of a deal while others had contemplated cheating on their spouse because of being attracted to other individuals. 

This got me thinking of my husband and thus the above thought was born. Now, I admit that the majority of people (but not all) in this article had been married for a lot longer than AJ and I have been, and most were also older, it still got me thinking.

I know that I have days where I just don't put on makeup or do my hair.. Heck, I don't even get out of my pj's on a lot of weekends. This prompted the following conversation with my husband:

Me: "Does it bother you that I don't dress up and try and look nice everyday?"

AJ: "What?"

Me: "You know, I sit around the house in my pj's and almost never wear make up on weekends and stuff."

AJ: "No... Why?"

Me: "Cause when we were first dating I ALWAYS tried to look super hot for you..."

AJ: "Look babe, I don't know how to say this but I don't even really notice if you are or aren't wearing make up. You're just hot ok? And the only thing I prefer that you wear is naked. If you wanted to wear naked all the time, I'd be happy. But you're just hot. If you want to dress up every day for you, that's cool. I don't really care."

Me: *Beaming* "Ok babe! I love you! You're amazing." (Thinking to myself later, conspiratorially, of course he would say that.. What he must mean is, yes, please dress up more and wear tight fitting jeans...)

In all reality, he probably doesn't care. But I do worry about getting too comfortable, of letting myself go. I always want to be physically attractive to my husband. And whenever we actually go out, to movies or with friends, I really do try to look good. Not for me, but for him. I want him to be proud to walk into a room with me. I know I am with him. I think this is a big problem in marriages across the bored, getting too comfortable with each other and not putting any effort out to impress the other or make the other one get butterflies.

I remember one time in high school, it was a Saturday and I was talking with my mom in her bedroom. She was putting her make up on. I eventually looked at her and said, "Why are you putting on make up? It's Saturday. Are you going anywhere?" And she said to me, "No. I just like to look nice for your dad."

I will never forget that. My parents have been married now for 28 years. It still makes me smile.

PS: I really don't need to hear about how looks aren't the most important thing in a relationship, blah blah blah. AJ & I have an incredible marriage that is not based solely on looks. But I do believe that being physically attractive and desirable to one another, is one important part of intimacy and being married..

Love & Family: The real thing.

My Grandmother Jackie passed away in February of this year. She was one of the most influential women in my life. Last week my Grandfather Bob came down for the family cabin trip in Idaho. I, of course, was unable to attend but my mother sent me pictures... Especially this one...

There are two reasons this photo is so amazing. First of which, is that these are both my grandpa's. On the left is my Grandpa Bob and on the right is my Grandpa Gooch. My Grandpa Gooch was my Grandmother's first husband. They had 4 girls together (including my mom) and were married for 14 years. After her and him divorced, she married my Grandpa Bob and together they had one girl. 

This is the five of them together:

My Aunt Mary, Kristi, Joan, Mother, and Aunt Lori.

 Who would believe that in society today, both of my Grandpa's could show up for a family get together, months after my Grandmother passes, and sit and talk with one another as friends all night long? It seriously warms my heart. I love both my Grandpa's so, so much. They are inspirational men.

 The next amazing part of this photo, and the one that gets tears rolling from my eyes is this...

My Grandfather still wears his wedding ring. When I look at this, it brings tears to my eyes. They were married for 39 years before my Grandmother passed away from cancer. 

My Grandmother in I when I was in high school.

 I love my and miss my Grandmother ever so much. She was remarkable and truly brought worlds together. I can't wait to get back to Idaho. I haven't been able to see my Grandfather Bob since my Grandmother passed. He lives way up in Northern Idaho and doesn't get down very often. We plan on making a trip to visit him when we get there. True love is never taking off your wedding ring.

Bribery...

So, my dearest husband and I have put ourselves on a shoestring budget because I am OOBER paranoid about having enough in savings for when we get out of the military.. Because of this, AJ has forgone his favorite energy drinks (Don't roll your eyes at me, these things are like $2.50 a piece, times 7 is $17.50 a week, times 4 is $70 a month, times 12 is $840 a year on energy drinks!! We have coffee at home thank you very much...) 

Well.... ten minutes ago AJ and I were on the phone and I wanted something, therefore this is how our conversation went...

AJ: "I think I want to go to bed early tonight. I'm exhausted."

Me: "Oh yeah? Well... Ummm.. I was thinking of stopping by Hastings and picking up the next book in the series I'm reading...." (note to viewers: I have bought and read two of these books in the past 3 days). "Would it be ok if I stopped by and picked up a book and a couple of energy drinks before I got home?" (Notice the subtle way I through that in there. Also please note that I know he could care less if I buy books, I am the one feeling guilty and using the energy drinks to reprise myself. )

AJ: "Yeah! Sounds great! But maybe I'll just pick up my energy drink now instead of later."

Me: "Oh great idea! You get yourself an energy drink now if you want, I'll just buy the book after work."

After we hung up, I felt happy knowing I would get my read on tonight.. Now, an hour or so later.. I am starting to feel guilty. Not that AJ cares. But is it bad to use energy drinks to bribe your husband? Is it an even trade when this super strict budget is mainly my idea? Maybe I should just give him sex for books.. Sex is free right? Is it the same thing? Oh what a conundrum I am in.

YAY for Pictures!!

Ok, so as I promised last Friday, I am updating you all on a few adventures AJ & I have had as of late...

A few weekends ago, him and I had planned on going on a 6 mile hike (we had already done a 4 mile track the week before) in the Wichita Mountains, but unfortunately when we woke up Saturday morning the weather looked like this:

I know it doesn't look like it but it was really rainy!

So, I decided what a perfect day for a little baking! Which looks like this in my house:

Groceries & cook ware! (I can't believe I didn't own a roller!)

My first ever batch of Pumpkin Cookies!!! The dough looks so tasty...

Pumpkin cookies.. for some reason I didn't take a pic of them with the cream cheese frosting??

I also made sugar cookies! Pumpkins and Ghosts! Yay!

Then, that night, AJ & I did the pumpkin carving thing!! YAY!!!! He had NEVER carved a pumpkin before.. Which is just craziness to me.. It was a lot of fun..

Our carving preparations, complete with popcorn for the movie!

Ewww!! Pumpkin goooo!!

Pretty pumpkins! AJ's on left, mine on the right. :)

A rainy day turned aaaamazing in my opinion. Then the next Friday, AJ was let out of work early  and I decided to do the same. Since our puppy Baylee was at the vet that day, AJ, Blitz and I hopped in the car for a fishing trip. It was a beautiful day.

Oddly enough, I was taking pictures of this cute little blue belly sand lizard... Apparently, it REALLY liked me, because it wouldn't leave me alone....

The picture of the lizard I caught. I've always loved these since I was a kid..

Then this little guy hopped onto my leg and just hung out for a while..

Then when Blitz scared him, instead of running away, he ran around and hung out there for a while.

Eventually the little guy ran around and down my other leg.. Where he hung out a little while longer before exiting to the bush on the left. He then sat there and watched AJ & I fish. I think he wanted to go home with us. Lol

I love this picture of AJ fishing that day. :)

After the lizard incident, Blitz stayed pretty dang close to me. :)

I had a pretty little spot myself picked out.

So there you have a little picture update of what him and I have been doing the last couple weeks. This last weekend, like I said in my previous post, I didn't do much of anything but read, read, read. It felt amazing. AJ cleaned the kitchen on Saturday and Sunday night, and even took the dogs to let me just absorb my stories. I love that man.

Do you believe in...ghosts?

AJ & my pumpkins! AJ's FIRST carving experience!

It's Halloween week!! Oh how I love, love O-Hallows-Eve! I don't care about the individuals who talk about how corporate America has taken a traditional holiday dating back 2000 years ago to the Celts and made into a money-making scheme. People who don't like holidays based on this make no sense to me. Of course capitalism is going to take over and do its thing, but it doesn't make it any less enjoyable for me. I love boosting the economy on Halloween by finding fun candy, decorations, and costumes. I love the fun kids movies like Hocus Pocus and Casper. I love carving pumpkins. I love ghost stories. And who doesn't love to trick or treat? 

I was completely lazy this weekend and actually finished two books: Demons are a Ghouls Best Friend & Ghouls Just Haunt to Have Fun, both by Victoria Laurie. They are fun fictional mystery novels based on a ghost busting psychic.

AJ's mother, Rebecca Kelly, has actually published a few books herself regarding ghosts; a fictional novel called Darkwood Secrets & a biographical accounting, East Texas Towns and Their Ghosts. I personally, am a full believer in ghosts. Although I do believe that reality TV has run amok on the topic. I actually have no problem or shame in saying that I believe in ghosts and have a few experience in my life to back my beliefs up. 

Halloween always gets people watching scary movies, talking about whether they believe in spooky this or that, and reliving their own tales. I'm excited for another fun year with family and festivities. AJ & I actually won a giveaway from the wonderful Jenny, from Geek In Heels, for Halloween costumes from halloweencostumes.com. Yay! We will post pictures of our costumes here sometime this week.

Until then, I hope you enjoy your Halloween festivities and I have to ask the question, "Do YOU believe in ghosts?"

Blogger Laziness...

I've been a pretty lazy Blogger the last few days.. Training and sickness have made blogging be the least of my worries. I need to though cause I actually have a few really good pictures and stories to post from last weeks adventures. But alas, damn camera is STILL in our tackle box. This weekend though, I promise. Until then, I was sent this by a friend and I LOVE IT! Enjoy for now.

What I do..

My Clutch Fitness logo!

I'm a certified personal trainer.. Did you know that? I bet you did. Something you probably don't know is that I am not based out of a gym like Gold's or 24 Hour. I have my own training business named Clutch Fitness where I travel to my clients homes to work with them. Right now my business is quite honestly on the ground level because AJ & I will soon be relocating, which means I can't, in good conscious, develop a large clientele and then leave again. This is why I don't expand much about my business on my blog or twitter account. I am getting all the pieces in place for when I finally do move to our permanent location. Although I am working with a few select clients.

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I have many reasons for wanting to have a traveling business instead of a Gym based membership one, but the largest one is that my passion is working with obese clients and aiding them in taking their lives back. I know that when I am not confident and feeling down on myself, the last place I want to be is in a place stripped down to what looks like my pajamas, in rooms full of mirrors and surrounded by buff and fit men and women strutting their stuff. One of my first clients fought tooth and nail with me to not even have to jog outside the first time. After she did, she was proud, but she was so embarrassed even at 5:30 am when it was dark outside.

I'm chomping at the bit to get my business really going because I CAN'T WAIT to show individuals who think they don't have it and have given up on themselves how they can take their life back. 

Let me ask you, what do you expect from a personal trainer? What would keep you from hiring one? Is it just the price? Is it the idea of having to "join a gym"? Is it the commitment? Or how about this, why do you want one? What do you think of when you think "personal trainer"? The more I know, the better I can understand and help!

Foiled Again! But not for long..

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Some of you remember when I wrote a post about entering into my first race and how excited I was to finally get involved in the competitive running circuit. Then, when I was unable to make the 4th of July run in Texas because of AJ & my Idaho trip, I rescheduled to run another race in September. Once again though, I was unable to make it because AJ & I had an emergency trip down to Texas that week and the race was in Oklahoma. 

I'm jealously, yet proudly, watching my friends run half marathons, train hard for and even compete in, their first full marathons but I have not even competed in a simple 10k. It's been ridiculously frustrating. Now that AJ & I have become total home bodies in our attempt to save money and prepare for our transition out of the Army, we are going to make practically no trips to either Oklahoma City or Dallas the next few months, giving me practically no opportunities for races this fall. When this realization hit me last week, I became very bummed out. I desperately want to stand with a number pinned on my shirt and run a truly competitive race. 

It also just so happened to be last week when I discovered Tough Mudder. 

Tough Mudder isn't really a race, they don't track your time or give you a medal. It's an obstacle course and your entire goal is to just simply finish. It's descriptions on the Tough Mudder website goes something like this:

"Tough Mudder is not your average lame-ass mud run or spirit-crushing ‘endurance’ road race. Our 10-12 mile obstacle courses are designed by British Special Forces to test all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie.... Tough Mudder is 3-4 times longer and MUCH TOUGHER than a typical mud run such as Warrior Dash. On average, only 78% of participants finish the event..."

You can also check out this video:

After watching and researching, I became SOOO excited! So what if I missed my first couple of 10k's, I can continue training and enter the Tough Mudder! There is an event happening this upcoming March in Dallas, AJ & I should be able to make that one and he said he would do it with me.  It's official, we are entering the Dallas Tough Mudder. Hell yes!! 

Excited about the training, I started working on more than my running last week. My upper body strength is going to need a serious overhaul if I am going to actually complete this event. It figures then, that last week I would come down with a horrible cold. Coughing, sneezing, couldn't breathe, couldn't talk, and definitely couldn't work on a hard training program. It figures.The fates it seems are trying to conspire against me. But I won't let them. Not this time. I want to do this so badly. I am so excited. This will let me leave Oklahoma with a bang, a Tough Mudder competitor. So, after a weekend (or actually more like a week) of medicine, sleep, and green tea, training continues today.

Tough Mudder, here I come!

Superman vs Batman

This is HILARIOUS!!! Hahahahahahaha

Helloooo Nurse!

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AJ and I are soon approaching his military ETS date (the date he is officially out of the military). He will have been in for 6 years by the time he is out and he joined the military straight out of high school. Getting out of the military is pretty scary for AJ. He hasn't known anything else. The idea of calling in sick, of sleeping past 4:30 am, of not having to stand in formation to start and end each day, or even before or after each lunch hour, doesn't even compute with him. The main thing that plagues his mind about getting out is, "Now what? What do I want to be when I grow up?" He was having trouble deciding whether or not he was going to go to school or straight into an occupation (he hates school) and what would he do for either? 

A few weeks ago though, he figured it out, and I was SUPER proud of him. I'm really excited about it and so is he. AJ is going to go to nursing school. It fits him perfectly, it truly does. Like my becoming a personal trainer, I don't know why we never thought of it before. AJ's Uncle Grady has been a nurse for 12 years, which really helped AJ shrug off the stereotype that typically comes with male nurses. 

Although nursing as a profession has come forward in leaps and bounds when it comes to sexism, it is still there in an undertone. When AJ tells someone he is going to be a nurse, it always takes them back at first. You can see that they have to consciously remind themselves that males can be nurses and that it is a good profession. I'm pretty excited to have a sexy male nurse for my husband.

What do you think of male nurses? Is it hard for you to think about? Do you still think of it as a female occupation? Do you look down on a male nurse?

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Whose Fault is YOUR Debt?

I know this doesn't cover all of what is going on, but I agree with the specific premises this message is talking about. Wish I could find its source.

Vacation

My favorite picture I took in Germany (Rothenburg on Easter)

Because I have lived so far away from family for the majority of my adulthood, the term "vacation" was and has always been synonymous with "going to see family." Since being in Oklahoma, AJ & I have gone to Idaho twice and down to Texas several times, each time to visit family. While I lived in Germany, I came home to Idaho a couple times to see my family. Although I did take long weekends to travel to Paris, Switzerland, or various other locations these weren't exactly vacations. 

Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I know how much they love to see me and want to see me but I think of all the amazing places I want to go on vacation. I have incredible friends I am dying to see all over the country and world. There is this amazing friend who just recently started calling Miami home, a few friends I haven't seen in years making it in New York City, a friend who is kicking it down in California, and not to mention the amazing people I would love to go back to Europe to visit. I keep thinking over and over again how badly I want to go see these people that I love and miss so much. How amazing it would be. Right now AJ and I are working our tails off at preparing for next year when we finally get out of the military but once we get there and we get settled down, I want to take a vacation to visit one of our amazing friends. Or maybe more than one. A true honest to goodness vacation. 

Like I said, I love my family and I love seeing them but it's time for a little extended family time I think. Hopefully next summer right before things get heavily going in Idaho. I'm already scheming... 

Tackle Box Does LOLZ

Our kitty Tackle Box even has a fantasy football team to watch it seems! Lol

We just love this cat. He's been another great addition to the family.

A New Trekkie Is Born

1966 Movie Poster  *Source

When AJ & I first got together, he teased me about being a Trekkie. He said how nerdy and stupid Star Trek was. I later found out that he had never seen a single Star Trek anything before! So, before he deployed I was able to wrestle him down to watch the newest Star Trek movie (which I LOVE by the way). He ended up thinking the movie was totally badass. Now that he is home from deployment, we finally got to watch the Star Trek movie again on blu-ray. After watching it again he wanted to watch more and hear the back stories that I go on and on about during the movie.

Then (think of a ray of light coming down from the heavens and onto our TV screen) we found the entire original Star Trek series on Netflix starting from the pilot in 1966! AJ and I have been watching 1 or 2 a night ever since. Despite the ridiculous graphics, we are loving the story lines and watching in awe of the social barrier breakdowns on the show. (A black woman in an important position and a Russian on the crew in 1966? Interracial dating and flirting? A woman was put in command of the ship in the pilot episode!!) AJ officially declared himself a Trekkie the other night and I am once again reminded on why I love the show as much as I do. 

The crew on the original Star Trek Series.            *Source

It is one of the last truly unique continuing series (meaning I don't roll my eyes and think of a million other shows I've seen with the same plot), it also has never had social barriers. I'm looking forward to future Star Trek's where maybe we will see even more social barriers broken down. When watching the older shows, you wouldn't even be able to tell that there would be anything controversial about what they are doing and that is the whole point: there never should have been. 

The original Sulu on the series is now openly gay. Maybe there will be a gay couple on the series on day?

I'm happy that AJ has seen the light and joined me as a Trekkie. I am also a lover of Star Wars and George Lucas but I don't feel that it was a social pioneer like Star Trek was and continues to be. Star Trek has always lived up to it's motto:

"To boldly go where no man has gone before.."

Steve Jobs: More than a motivator.

Yesterday I blogged about motivation and a few hours later I found out that Steve Jobs passed away. Steve Jobs was an incredible human being and much more than just a motivator. Rest In Peace Steve Jobs. I am truly sad to see you go.

This is a lovely tribute to him. 

Motivation

For some reason, fall just gives me this whole new burst of motivation. I am a sucker for motivational quotes and motivational people. Maybe that comes with the personal trainer territory? 

Last night was NFL night on the Biggest Loser. I find Biggest Loser to be motivating on so many levels, but tonight I loved watching the players (CLAY MATTHEWS!!) say that the show motivates even them. 

Tim Tebow (Quarterback with the Broncos) was on last night and I think he is just amazing. Both AJ & I are huge Tebow fans. If you don't know about who he is, represents, or his story, go here. 

But last night he recited his favorite motivational quote to the contestants and I love it.

"Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work as hard."

Old memories, past pictures, personal stories, quotes, even the weather motivate me. What motivates you?

October!

 Oh how I LOVE October! The temperature drops and there is that beautiful crisp feel to the morning air, the leaves are turning, football season is in full force, fall candle scents and decorations are out, oh, and I LOVE Halloween!! Best part is, AJ is home this time! This weekend is Pumpkin Carving! AJ has actually never carved pumpkins before and it is one of my favorite things, so I am super excited!!

This is one of my favorite videos for this time of year. It gives me shivers. Enjoy the fall everyone!

Balls & Breasts

This month is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and to support the cause, the NFL wears pink all month to not only promote awareness but also to raise money. They auction off all of the pink items worn by players and used in the game, from footballs, to cleats, to headbands. It's a great cause and I have to admit, I love a man in pink!

Visit the site and support the cause.

Some images from the past week of Pink!

The Jacksonville Jaguars mascot bares it all for awareness.

Everything goes pink.

Even the players suite up in pink.

Boys will be boys.. Even wearing pink.

A lot of the players have personal stories.

Chargers nose tackle Antonio Garay gets personal with his tribute.

The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2011 alone there were approximately 230,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women. Remember your monthly self screening and make sure you doctor knows the right steps in prevention and detection as well. Early detection is key in all cancer and with breast cancer, women can take that into their own hands. Take your future in yours.