aloha friday, y'all! and, we're here!

We're here! We're here! Many hours after leaving Hawaii, we have arrived in Virginia. More specifically, Richmond. MORE specifically, Varina. Yes, I have now lived in two places that rhyme with... Varina, and Aina Haina. You can figure it out. 

The flights were uneventful, and we had seats together. Christian slept a solid 4-5 hours, and watched the iPad the rest of the time. We only had an hour and a half after landing in JFK until departure to Richmond, in completely different terminals. OF course, we were in the last row, BUT happy to have seats, obviously. We hustled, and made it with about 10 minutes to spare before boarding. I'm also so glad we decided to try our hand at standby on the way to Richmond because the plane was empty, and I would have been a sad puppy if I had paid the $450 one-way per person that was Delta's asking price. 

Christian JUMPED his way down the final exit of the terminal when he saw my mom waiting for us. He was very excited to see her... and the toys she brought for him. We made our usual stop at the grocery store, WHERE I WAS STRONG and did not buy banana pudding. After munchkin went to bed, at a normal-ish time of 8:30pm, I went out in the still light "night" for a run/walk/run/walk/jog around the hood. There was a beautiful sunset! By 9pm it was still light out, which I just love. And lots of lightening bugs, which we have been talking A LOT about with Christian. They're in a few of his books we read at home, and he doubts they're a real thing. 

Speaking of not real things, this cat. It's lifelike and creepy and looks straight out of Pet Cemetery. It meows and purrs and licks it's paws at seemingly random times. Christian is treating it like his personal pet. Maybe he misses Baxter. I don't know, but my Mom really got us both with it. Because I certainly thought it was real when I first saw it sitting on a chair and heard it "meow." Mom thought it was hilarious, just waiting for my reaction and watching my face say "what the hell?" If you ever wonder where I get my sense of humor from... Because I thoroughly enjoyed watching Christian encounter it for the first time as well. 

This beautiful magnolia flower bloomed last night and IS real. We have (technically, Mom has) a large magnolia tree in our/her front yard that my dad planted. It recently needed some trimming so she took a flower and put it in water last night; this morning it opened up. So beautiful and fragrant. We're officially in the South, y'all. 

Where even AT&T doesn't reach the depths of Varina. 

This morning we're planning on visiting the Metro Richmond Zoo and praying we don't melt in the heat and humidity. Hawaii may be tropical, but it doesn't have anything on Virginia in the summertime. 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend... staying cool. I know we will; Mom keeps her thermostat set at 43 degrees. 

Happy Aloha Friday! 

happy aloha friday!

Let's just get this out of the way. About half of this post was written before anesthesia and the other half afterward. Current forecast: hazy. 

Happy Aloha Friday! I don't know why, but this week I have been off by a day every single day. Yesterday I thought it was Friday, Wednesday I thought it was Thursday, and so on. But TODAY is Friday! Celebrate!

Rob got home from Japan yesterday and brought back all these goodies for Christian. Little chopsticks, a glow stick, and bath fizzies that once dissolved reveal a little surprise inside! Of course, we had to dissolve one fizzy thing right away, to reveal... a purple bear. So very exciting. He prayed the other would have a train inside.

On Saturday Rob's union is paying for all the pilots and their families to go to Wet n' Wild water park. We did it last year, and it was a BLAST. Christian rode some pretty big water slides like a champ. It was catered and they gave away some pretty big raffle prizes! Although unfortunately, like last time, I won't be able to spend much (any) time in the water. Last year at this time I was pregnant, and today I had a very small surgery, but am still forbidden to swim. Womp womp. No worries though, because we all know it's Rob who Christian wants to ride all the slides with him.

This morning I had a "quick" procedure, that unfortunately required me to go under general anesthesia. My doctor said it would literally take 5 minutes unless they saw anything that needed more attention, which they did. So that brought it up to total time under anesthesia: 7 minutes. Time at hospital: 5 hours. Glad to be home. I'm in a little bit of pain, but not to worry because the pharmacy is stocked with some hard-hitters, like Motrin. And Tylenol. You know what I dreamt about while under? Playing with building blocks with Christian. Also, my resting heart rate has gotten very low since becoming active again. It was in the mid-40s bpm; the machine kept beeping LOW! (Um, nurse?) The nurse asked if I was a runner. Ohhhh, something like that. :) But they were not concerned about it. During my previous two surgeries my resting heart rate was a bit higher. 

We're gearing up for and are VERY excited about our trip out east. Christian takes a link off every morning... sometimes more, but miraculously, we're back at the correct number of links left. I am still trying to catch up on laundry and I really really want to start packing before the actual morning of our flight, which you can ask Rob, is usually when I start. So lazy. Such a procrastinator. 

Speaking of lazy, this week I also registered to run my 4th half-marathon! Woot woot! And what's even more exciting is that there's a solid group of girlfriends running it too! It's not until September, so I have basically just the "right" amount of time to train for it. I'll most likely use one of Hal Higdon's training plans since I've always used his plans for any race I've done. 

Ok, so, effects of anesthesia are surprisingly strong even for a short surgery. 

Sweet dreams. 

more progress & kaia kaia kaia

I don't want to say "before & after" because I am not at my "after." I never will be. I want to keep growing, changing, learning new things, building endurance, and getting stronger. I consider this more of my progress - where I'm at after six weeks of Kaia.

A lot of people have asked me what is Kaia, and what exactly we do. Gather around children, it's story time. Criss-cross applesauce. I just finished a six week BRIK session. SIX weeks, FIVE days a week of hour long high intensity workouts, runs, yoga, lots of squats, lunges, jump roping, sit-ups, push-ups, high knees, butt kickers, sprints, mountain climbers, (and on and on and on) using mostly only our body weight. We did use kettle bells or our lovely weighted handbags for many exercises for added resistance. It was like a bootcamp. It was INTENSE, I was sore many many days, and I worked MY BUTT OFF. Quite literally actually. More on that later.

In between the BRIK sessions (there are 3 BRIKs a year), they have CORE sessions. Which are "only" five-weeks, four days a week. This is more the maintenance session of what we accomplished during BRIK, and to get stronger. There's no yoga during this session. And since I went this morning, I can attest, these workouts are no less intense. I got worked this morning. Worked. And I'm still sore from Saturday.

Kaia isn't just about working out, the coaches really take the time to talk about nutrition, eating clean, eating whole, eating foods that nourish our bodies. We have a Kaia Cookbook. To get the best results, we need to "eat clean, train dirty." For me, the eating part has always always always been the hardest. I don't think I'm alone in this. Amiright? But once I got a grip on getting sugar out of my system, and went through all the normal "sugar detox" symptoms, I felt amazing. It's kind of scary that withdrawing from sugar, that is in EVERYTHING, makes you have headaches, feel cranky, feel SICK, want to kick puppies, and generally hate life.

Even beyond exercising, eating foods that nourish our bodies, Kaia is about friendship and meeting women that really encourage you, cheer for you, and you for them. The coaches are phenomenal. They push you to your limit, and then some. The owner, Amanda, is just fantastic. It's clear that everyone absolutely loves their part in Kaia.

Oh hey. 

I know most of you saw my "week 1" and "week 6" picture. Here it is again. Sorry. You're welcome. 

I realize I'm not flexing (lol) in the week 1 picture, but that's because I felt embarrassed to even try. Honestly. But like I said before, the change is real. A lot of my clothes are loose, and some that were on the tighter side before, now fit. 

Here are my official stats: 

So what did I completely remove from my body? 

9.2lbs

4.5% body fat

9.25"

After about 8 weeks of clean eating, 6 weeks of Kaia, and a few days of double workouts. Kaia + Stroller Strides = a very worked, but feeling great, Amber. 

What could possibly be more motivating than losing weight and inches? This. 

I improved my timed mile by 2 minutes! And I promise I actually tried in week1. Twenty more push-ups than the 1st week. (I can now do a few "real" push-ups yay!) And that last one? That's my favorite. AMRAP = As Many Reps As Possible before you feel like dying. There was a series of exercises we had to do in succession. After we finished the list, we started again until the allotted 10 minutes were up. Once we made it completely through the list 5 times, we got a time. The first week I made it through the list 3 times. The third week, through the list 3 times and about half-way through the 4th round. On week 6, I made it through the list 5 times in 9 minutes, 11 seconds. 

Which leads me to another thing I just love about Kaia. You compete against yourself. No one else. It's a perfect fit, because I'm not competitive against anyone else, but I totally am against myself. 

Truthfully I've been a little nervous about our vacation to Virginia, and various stops on our road trip. Virginia is traditionally where I just let myself eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Cracker Barrel biscuits, GET IN MY BELLY. I always say I'm going to workout, but I never do. And I ALWAYS come back with at least 5-10 extra poundage. Not this time. Because I have THIS. 

I have even been looking on Groupon and LivingSocial for some classes around Richmond. So if anyone has any good recommendations, then I'm all ears. Or wants to meet-up and go together, then YES. I'd love to take some barre classes, and I saw that there was a TRX class somewhere around Richmond. Or maybe a few Bikram classes. I've seriously considered lugging the BOB, but with the time change, Christian sleeps until about 11am, so that probably won't work. Or maybe I'll just run around the neighborhood and workout in the living room. 

I have the knowledge and enlightenment of how eating clean has made me feel, and I won't let Cracker Barrel derail me. Btw, Rob thinks Cracker Barrel is nasty. Hair FLIP. He'll be a good guiding light because our first stop after we land is always the grocery store. He always stocks up on vegetables, fruits, healthy things. I usually scoff while I'm running past him and his produce on my way to the banana pudding they make with Nilla wafers. 

On Saturday we had our end of BRIK celebration, with so much amazing, delicious, mostly-healthy food! Or as Rob calls it, "hippie junk food." (But he loves it too.) We also got some Kaia swag and yours truly won an award. 

Told you I was committed. 

I'm so excited that Suzi got to join in on a few Kaia classes while she was here. She summed it up as, "this shit is nuts." Well said!! Because yes. 

Suzi and I at the top of Makapu'u sporting our Kaia gear! 

I really recommend checking out either their main website: http://www.kaiafit.com or our Oahu location's website: http://www.kaiafitoahu.com. If you live where there's a Kaia, DO IT. You will not regret it. 

So, basically, I love Kaia. I didn't know if you could tell or not. 

happy toddler bed tuesday!

Up until Christian was about 5 months old he slept in a co-sleeper parked right next to our bed. I loved that little bassinet, but it soon became a tight squeeze for Christian and his thighs, so we bought a crib.

I remember this time so clearly. I remember thinking how HUGE the crib was for "little" Christian... and his thighs. 

And today...

That crib is now a big boy bed. At the ripe old age of two months shy of 3-years-old, Christian has out grown his crib. 

Can someone pass me a tissue? 

I was definitely a #crib4life type of mom, but he was regularly climbing in and out. And I mean, might as well make it a tad safer by removing the hurdle. He's also at the age that he gets that he has to actually stay in his crib. Not that that means he will; I'm not delusional. But he knows those are the rules. 

Last night we took the mattress out and he slept on the floor. And when he sleeps over at Mimi & Papa's house he has a "special" little sleeping area, that is not in a crib. So he's an old pro basically.  We do have a railing currently in transit as to avoid middle of the night wake-up from him falling off onto the floor. Expected delivery: today. I'm hopeful. 

That's it. An entire post about Christian's transition from crib to toddler bed. (Have you guessed that this blog basically serves as Christian's baby book?)

Happy Toddler Bed Tuesday!

aloha friday!

I took that photo when I walked out of the church this morning. It's been a mostly cloudy day with rotating bouts of rain, sunshine, and rainbows. But I just love the Ko'olau's and loved how the tops were covered by the clouds. The windward side is such a beautiful part of the island. But really, you can't go (too) wrong anywhere on the island. 

Today was the last day of Vacation Bible School. Hallelujah because I am tired. I was mostly a floating volunteer and helped where I was most needed. Which was usually the nursery. But I did help out with the preschool class one day and served as a crew leader for a group of older kids another day. I think I had the most fun working with the preschoolers and was most exhausted working with the older kids. The nursery was great too. It was fun to connect and chat with moms that I've met recently at First Prez through Mighty Moms. 

This week I completed a 3-day juice cleanse, and tomorrow's Kaia run is the Diamond Head loop. Hell week continues. It's about 4 miles all the way around. Hold me. ALSO tomorrow, Christian gets to help his good buddy, Austin, celebrate his 2nd birthday!! We're always always always excited for any opportunity to hang with the Liles family and a drive to the north shore! 

Looking for a good movie to rent? I rented The Pretty One a few nights ago and really enjoyed it! Although my taste may be questionable. Don't ask Rob. But I do love independents. 

Yesterday Rob, Christian, and I ventured down to Uncle Clay's House of Pure Aloha so they could get some shave ice. We live just over a mile away and Christian road his little balance bike the whollleeee way (and back). Rob chased him on his skateboard, and... I ran. A lot. 

Uncle Clay was there working the register. Probably the friendliest man I have ever met. In my life. While we were there he introduced us to his hanai son, who just happened to be there enjoying shave ice with his family, which also included his little boy which was born just 5 days after Christian. And sorry to use the Urban Dictionary link. It just described it perfectly. As Urban Dictionary so often does. Ha. BUT ANYWAY, I will forever take all my future guests to this local gem. 

Anything else anything else? I don't think so. Oh! I was really excited to see that Richmond has Stroller Strides. Now to convince Rob to let me take the BOB so maybe I will actually exercise while visiting. 

Baxter's most exciting thing to happen all week? 

A new box. 

Happy Aloha Friday! Have a wonderful weekend!

kaia: week 5 + detox week + blue tree juice cleanse

Plus plus plus plus.

I really just want to touch on this coming week in case you're (probably not) interested. Today was the beginning of week 5 (of 6 sniff sniff) of this BRIK at Kaia. And also our last detox week and also "hell week." I have mentioned before that detox week just means removing processed food, sugar, alcohol, dairy, probably some other stuff, which is how I've been eating 99% of the time since late April. I had a glass of wine on our anniversary and licked cake frosting off my finger some other time last month.

"Hell week" means exactly what it's called. We worked our booties off today and then had homework. Tonight's homework was 100 pushups. Currently at 90! Woot! Also, my quads were burning today. BURNING.

So let's talk about this juice cleanse. Not so bad really. I haven't really been hungry today. I have most definitely wanted to eat and chew food, and I think I confused that with hunger at first. It helped that it was a busy day. I zoomed home from Kaia to shower up and get Christian from mimi and papa's to be in Kailua by 8:15am for vacation bible school, which I'm helping out with this week. I was there until about 12:30 and was able to drink one juice and one smoothie. The smoothie was the Almond Dream (cherries, almond milk, almond butter, maca, cinnamon) and dream it was. I licked the last bits right on out of the jar. More please more!

Today's juices and smoothies in no particular order.

I've also had a decent amount of energy today. After we got home from VBS and Christian went down for a nap, I also took a power nap. We then headed back out to run a few errands and then to the park where Christian insists I chase him. And chase him. And chase him some more. 

One thing that I love about this cleanse, and that makes it my favorite thus far (talk to me on day 3), is the kind people at Blue True included a sheet that tells me exactly when and what to drink at what time. I like mindless things. The two smoothies were by far my favorite. But we rounded out the night with some fermented feet juice. Oh, I mean fermented tea with chia seeds. The first few sips were terrible, honestly made me shudder (I am not a huge kombucha fan... I know, I know... it's an acquired taste) but the rest was... manageable. 

Tomorrow will probably be an exact repeat of today, and since 4am comes early... goodnight!