Let's go Back In Time!

Let's go back in time (yeah you started singing that song a little in your head didn't you? Thank you Huey Lewis and the News cir 1985 and the film Back to the Future). 

My professional 2012 started out with a promotion and a lot of new responsibilities. I was challenged in ways I wasn't expecting and ultimately made a choice and career change that I never saw coming. In July I opted to apply for a new role as the Associate Director for the Mid-Michigan office and was hired for the position. The gain of this position brought on a plethora of new challenges and changes. An amazing co-worker put herself and family first and made the brave decision to stay at home. With that sad goodbye came a fun new welcome to a new co-worker. All of the changes have helped me learn a lot about myself; and I learned it faster than I ever wanted to. Work also put me on the road some. I ventured off to Houston, Grand Rapids and Fort Wayne.

My personal 2012 was filled with family.  I spent many a days and nights at the Grieshop house enjoying my nephews and watching them grow; and they are growing quickly. The boys and I had fun in the sun enjoying the warm weather that came early and left late this year. We played on playgrounds, outside around their house and around mine. We had several sleepovers, watched a few movies and even took a few trips to couple Relay For Life events.  Amanda and I were able to fit in some sister days of shopping, talking and just spending time together. We see these times continuing in 2013.  Also, my father and his wife Jen made a couple of trips out to visit. As always they helped me get a few things done around the house.

I took this show on the road to see some friends and family. To start the summer I took a trip to Boston to see "my second family" the Lynchs. I was able to see Kathy's new house and visit with her entire family. Kathy and I took some time out to drive up to Maine to visit my Dad and Jen, Emily, Robbie, Elijah and their now toddler, Alexander.

Lash brotherly love.

 Shortly after returning from this incredible time I sped off in my new Toyota Prius C to visit the Sterner clan in Virginia. The new lake house in NC was complete so we spent most of our time there, relaxing on the lake or embracing the view from the new deck.

View from the lake house in North Carolina.

It was a quick trip, but filled with a lot of fun. I thought this would be the last trip of the year, but I was wrong. A opportunity came about to head off to DC to visit my old roommate and co-worker Bonnie. It had been years since I had been to DC and being legal drinking age really changes the view of the city. I did things I never thought I would; like visit the floor of Congress and pose with President Barack Obama (or his wax figure).

This Bonnie and the Obamas.

Again, this was short trip, but so much fun. I am hoping to make another trip in 2013.


There had been a lot of travel in 2012 so I was excited at the thought of being home in Lansing for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving didn't turn out quite like I had planned. The flu bug hit me and I was in bed - ill for all of Thanksgiving and the Friday following. The Christmas holiday was better. I took two and half weeks off of work to spend time with family and get some things done around the house. I painted some furniture, painted the kitchen, and for the first year since living here I decorated with out door Christmas lights. Illness didn't stay away, I had a few colds, but the big life change came about one week before my holiday vacation. I adopted a dog - Sandie - Merry Christmas to me and Sandie. 

Meet Sandie

She is a 2 year old half golden retriever and half yellow lab. She was trained when I got her and a complete love bug. She loves to give kisses and is now my baby girl. We both seem to fit into each others lives perfectly. She has helped me to take some focus off of work and enjoy the present more. She gives me laughs daily and sometimes some confusion. She has been the best addition to my household.

Speaking of additions around Thanksgiving my cousin Andy and his wife Erin became parents to a beautiful baby girl, Lilly Barrett and Kathy became an Aunt the day after her birthday (12/28) to her nephew, Edward Lynch. Congrats to all family involved.

These are my 2012 flashbacks. I hope your 2012 was also filled with friends, family, and fun. Mine wouldn't have been as fantastic without the love of all my friends and family. So make sure you give your love to those around you.

I hope 2013 is even better than 2012 for both you and me! Happy New Year!

School Pictures

Do you remember school picture day. The worry about what to wear, about if you would blink, and what you would look like. Then the waiting for the prints to come. They would arrive in a white envelope on your desk to bring home to Mom and Dad.

I hated picture day. They never turned out well, and I knew that this picture would be framed and shared in homes all along the east coast; I would never be able to escape it.

Well in all my years of getting pictures taken and seeing those of others; never have a seen such great, cute, adorable pictures. Although I am a little biased ... I admit it.

Otis - age 3. He look so much like me when I was younger,
and my mother that it is a little scary.

Arlo - age 5 - with his "Yeah, I did that" grin.

Sam - age 8. Growing up so fast.

This one is my favorite. Amanda took it before school that day.

Oh the things you see in Lansing!

So I was driving home from my sister's house the other night when I saw my "Oh the things you see in Lansing!" number 2.0 installment.

I pulled up to a stop light in not a great part of town. How do I know this isn't a great part of town you ask? This is the area of town where there are larger advertisements on the sides of abandoned businesses. The advertisements are usually for some high end item that you can get "at a low low cost." The most recent advertisement is for some richy looking watch, but the price on the original advertisement must not have been "low, low" enough b/c someone took a piece of white paper and glued it over the price and then wrote a "lower' price in sharpie marker.  You know, that kind of area.

So back at the stop light I was looking around, I noticed that the ad hadn't changed, that the house in front of me was looking even more run down and that to my left there was a gentleman with a 1/2 mullet (trying to make it a full mullet but just hasn't grown long enough yet) wearing a white wife beater tank top on, riding a baby blue moped.  He looked happy and content, but then why wouldn't he. This is when I noticed "it". A 6in tall, plush, pristine, Woody doll (from Toy Story) has been nicely tied with a rope to the back of the moped. The light turned green before I could grab my phone to get a picture, but both men drove off looking as happy and content as could be.

Here are pictures of "Oh the things you see in Lansing #1.0 and 3.0.

Really?! You had no where else to put the car door?

Does this name frighten anyone else? I would NOT want to attend this temple!

The Prius Family

Ever notice how when you are thinking about buying a car or are driving a new (or new to you) car you seem to notice them everywhere? I have been that way with Prius' for about 4 years now. This has always been a car that I have been interested in and wanted to buy. I finally did. Now I have the urge to wave to every other member of the Prius family, but my new Prius C doesn't look like the other Prius vehicles.  Also, it is a very new model so there aren't a lot of them on the road.

Then today, while driving down W. Saginaw I heard a honking at me; naturally I turned my head in several different directions thinking "I am not doing anything that would warrant a honk." and then I saw a vehicle passing me and the driver waving. I waved back thinking: "That must be  Relay volunteer. She does not look familiar at all!" Then as the car passed by me and I fully took it in, I realized, it was just one Prius C owner honking at another Prius C owner. Just waves between two (lonely) members of the Prius C family.

Embrace the Crazy!

I have a friend who even from hundreds of miles away can make me laugh. She and I became friends in college. We would never say we were best friends, but we were friends and good ones. I always knew if I needed a laugh she would be able to deliver.
Since we graduated college we lost touch. Then came Facebook - through this marvelous tool we have regained contact, well Facebook contact. It was through Facebook that I learned she blogged. I was thrilled another blogger and someone whose blog I knew would make me laugh.
Since I have started reading her blog I have found that crazy does not escape her... still. Then I got to thinking, why does crazy hit her and why does crazy not hit me? Then I realized crazy does make an appearance in my life, but I look at it and shrug it off. I don't find the funny in the crazy the way my friend does. In the funny and the crazy I had a life changing ah-ha moment.
Embrace the crazy. By embracing the crazy you will notice it more, laugh more, remember it and tell stories of the crazy. These are all things I vow to do from here on out. So don't be surprised if some future blog posts are about the crazy I encounter.

The power of a good book or books!

 For the last 6 or so days I have been wrapped up in another world. A world that could be someones reality, but isn't my reality. I was engrossed in an amazing book. I love when I find a book that bewitches me, sucks me into that world to the point where when I put it down it takes me a few minuets to return to my reality, to a point where when I am not entwined in that world I am thinking about it the characters and surroundings like they are real, to a point where I wonder about that world in my free time.
Don't get me wrong, I like my reality. I love living and enjoying the world around me, but sometimes it is nice to escape to another world. To relish in some one's problems, feel their joys and cry their tears. This is the reason we like television and enjoy movies, but there is just something about a good book. You are living some one's life, yet you can create the surroundings, you can image the people their flaws and their beauty, you have a little control over how things are. It is very rare that I find books that captivate me to the point where I lose sleep, want to skip work, turn off the television, avoid outside, just to read.
  I have recently read a couple, the Hunger Games trilogy was one. These books were great, suspenseful and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Though, once I was done with the third book; I was done. I felt I knew the characters well enough and didn't need to know any more. I still recommended these books to all and was sure to see the movie once it was released.
But no other book/books held me like Fifty Shades of Grey. These books were messed up, captivating, disturbing, romantic, warmhearted, scary, loving and the list goes on. Part of the time I didn't want to put them down, part of the time I felt alarmed that I was reading them, and the other part of the time I was wrapped up in that world. I read all three in a short amount of time, I missed workouts and sleep and yet couldn't put them down.
Now that I am finished I am happy that my "normal" life can resume, I am sad that those characters are out of my, but not out of my head. I find myself still wanting more, still wondering what happens to them.
I immediately looked up the author to see if she had written anything else... damn of course not, at least not yet.
I almost feel ruined for all other books, at least for a bit. I guess my reading stint will have to take a break for awhile, I guess that is okay, maybe I will accomplish some things other than reading 100 pages now.
Until the next book, next life changing event, next ah-ha moment.

All the luck in the world

So I spent the morning reading my friend Emily's blog. She is an amazing women I met when I started working at the American Cancer Society in the Great Lakes Division. I was immediately impressed with her in our work environment. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing and she did it very well. It never occurred to me that she would leave the American Cancer Society.

Leave she did, about a year after I met her. ACS was her first "official" job after college graduation, she new she needed to explore and find new things. Explore she did, she is now working to built new communities in Haiti and bridge gaps between the locals and other organizations that can help. Her time there seems to be amazing. She has made 6 (I think) total trip to Haiti, each one being about 4-6 weeks in length. All on a volunteer basis. This trip is different... she has been hired by church to help as an ambassador.

Her dedication to this cause and her willingness spent time away from her family and friends and give up "all the comforts of home" to help others is truly amazing to me. Every time I read her blog or speak with her when she comes home I am impressed, amazed and feel infinitely lucky to have gotten to know her, call her my friend and just plain have someone like her in my life. Her experiences and her blog never cease to ground me when I need. Just when I feel like I don't have something or want something I see pictures of kids and families who have nothing and this amazing person who gave up what she has to help them and I am humbled.

My transitions in life have introduced me to some incredible people from all different walks of life. I have been exposed to many different types of people, cultures, religions and I have enjoyed every second. I learned a lot about myself in the friends I have made and I believe that every one of them was introduced into my life for different reasons, to teach me different things and give different experiences.

It might be almost 1:00pm on a Sunday and I might have unwashed hair, be in my pj's and haven't moved out of my living room chair since I woke up, I might be having what everyone would consider a typical "lazy Sunday", but my brain has been anything but lazy. I have learned that although sometimes I don't think I do, I have a wonderful life, that although I sometimes want more, I have plenty, and that although I sometimes feel unlucky, I have all the luck in the world.  I am grateful for what I have, my friends, my family, my health, my house, my life!

Week #2 a bust!

So week #2 never really got off the ground. I had a Relay this weekend and work outs happened on Monday (actually two that day) Tuesday and Wednesday, but I just couldn't get the motivation to do one on Thursday or Friday.   I has originally planned to do Saturdays workout today, b/c on paper that made sense. In real life after working most of Friday, and from Saturday at 8:30 am until Sunday at 11:00am (straight), and being awake all night, working out was not on the top of my list.

So I have decided that tomorrow, Monday, I will do week #2 over again. So stay tuned for that post and other updates.

Week #1 of Insanity

Well week one is done. I was supposed to work out 6 days. I worked out 5. When Saturday rolled around and it was 80 degrees outside, I just couldn't be inside working out. So instead I spent 5 hours outside doing outdoor "chores".  I was exhausted after that and didn't have it in me to then do a workout.

So what I have discovered about myself this week:
- I can get up in the morning and workout
- When I am tired I don't workout quite as hard as I could
- I can power through
- No matter how good I want to look, I HATE WORKING OUT!
- These dvd's are hard!!

So the workouts are hard, and there are a few moves that I can't even do. Most of those moves involve pushups. I do not have the arm strength to the regular pushups in the manner that Shaun T has us doing them, so I just do girl pushups until I get myself strong enough to do "regular" pushups. I do have to rest more than they give you time to. I am realizing that 6 days a week is A LOT. But I have mentally committed to doing at least 5 days a week.

Next weekend I have a Relay so I won't be sleeping much that weekend so the weekend workout isn't going to happen. But Monday-Friday will.

I know I said that I would post a before picture, and I did take it, but when I saw it I decided it didn't need to get posted.

I did weight myself to start and I was at 203. I am currently at 199, so it has been working (that and combined with no wheat.)

Week #2 to start tomorrow and I will keep you posted!

Results are in!

Well the results of the elimination diet are in. I have a "sensitivity" to wheat. That was the only item I had a reaction to when I re-introduced it. Eggs, milk and corn didn't show any signs at all. So I will be spending a large part of today (Saturday) going through my cabinets and removing anything that has wheat in it. Some will go in the trash, some will go to my sisters and some will go to the office. This way I don't have to throw it all away.
Then I will go to the grocery store and start to buy some items to "replace" or supplement items. I don't want to just replace items with gluten free stuff, but I will need items for my lunches.

My insanity DVD's came this week. I read the items that came with DVD's and they suggested to start on the day that the calendar starts on (Monday) so that is when I will start - Monday. Stay tuned for before pictures (maybe) and the blog on how much pain and misery I am in. Should be an interesting read.

Am I insane?

Since January I have decided I need to work harder at losing weight. So I started hitting the gym pretty regularly. I have been semi-enjoying going, but it has been so easy for me to slack and just not go. I haven't been seeing results, and that is when I realized that I need so see results or else I get bored with doing it. So I started looking into other classes, workout routines and things I could do at the gym. All I kept finding was what I had been doing.

Then one night I couldn't sleep and I saw a commercial for the Insanity work out videos. They claim to be able to get you in "the best shape of your life" in 60 days. I know this isn't going to be easy and I FULLY understand that these workouts are HARD. But I am willing to try it. To try it for 6 days a week, for 2 months. That is it just two months! I have read comments, heard from friends of friends that this is one of the hardest things I might ever take on, but I am ready! I want to see results, I want to challenge myself. So I am putting it out there for the world - I AM DOING THIS 6 DAYS A WEEK FOR 2 MONTHS!

I will blog about my workout, pain, suffering, misery, happiness, and most of all pride every week. I am doing this to hold myself accountable! If I have to blog and say what weight I am starting at, how many days I did them and where I am at hopefully it will keep me motivated and moving!

So if you read this and want to help - post comments, ask me on Facebook about my journey, and most of all put me in your thoughts and prayers b/c if this workout is anything like they say I will need them.

I will post my next blog when the dvd's come and it will include my weight and hopefully a before picture. See you all in 3-5 business days... wish me luck!

Is it Christmas without snow?

So let's be honest I am really slacking on this whole blog thing. Life gets crazy and I don't give this the time I should. So as one of my New Year's resolutions (which I have never kept before) is to keep this up better - we will see if it works. In the interest of full disclosure - I am only writing this right now because this is my last day of a 14 day vacation, I have a ton of "house chores" to do and I am delaying the inevitable. But no matter what got me on here - I am here.


This Christmas was my first Christmas not in a snowy atmosphere. Back in the summer my sister came to me and told me that the Grieshop family was going to Puerto Rico for Christmas and she wanted me come along. I jumped at the chance. How could you not?!


So the planning and hectic pre-holiday life began. Getting ready to bring some presents for the boys, figuring out what to pack, finding someone to deal with snowfall at my house, and making sure my house looked lived in for two weeks. Thanks to a good friend Molly Joyce, who drove me to the airport at 3am so my car could remain in my driveway, my stress level was less and to the Mason's for watching/taking care of my house.

 On December 18th, I flew out to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had no idea what to expect. We had a total of 12 people on this trip til 12/24, and then our number when down to just 8. Until 12/24 we were in Luqillo, Puerto Rico with the ENTIRE Grieshop clan. Then on the 12/24, Matt, Amanda, the boys, Andy Grieshop, his fiance Marge and I all traveled to the Mountains of Puerto Rico, Utuado - to stay with some friends, Warren & Olga, of Matt and Amanda's.

The first 6 days of the trip were wonderful. They were filled with beach days, Rainforests and family.

Seven Seas Beach, Puerto Rico 

 

Mangrove forest we found when we hiked around the beach

 

The first few days the weather was great. The next few is was slightly overcast and very windy. From what we heard from the locals that is very common for their winter. Once the wind started the beaches were very windy and hard to swim in. 

The boys watching the large waves.

With the wind setting in we ventured out and explored the Rainforests and caves in the area. The Rainforest was amazing - we hiked around a beautiful waterfall. The family enjoyed being right next to that. 

The beautiful waterfall

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the day in the Rainforest - we hiked around, took in some amazing views and enjoyed the rivers and warm rains.

 

 

 

The next day all twelve of us took a bit of a car ride to head closer to the mountains and hike to an amazing cave. Once we got there we took a ton of pictures and just hung out for large chunk of time. 

The entire Grieshop Clan!

View from inside the cave.

 

 To make the most of our time we wanted more beaches - since the ones on the east side of island were too windy & wavy we headed to the southeast area. We took a boat ride to what ended up being one of my favorite places, the Island of Culebra. The boat ride was very hard - pretty much everyone got some sea sickness, even me and I have never had that before. 

The Island of Culebra

We came here to snorkle, but before we could do that we needed to eat some lunch. But we didn't eat alone.

Our lunch visitors.

Before we new it the first half of our trip was over. It was time to say goodbye to some and hello to some new friends. We arrived in Utuado on Christmas Eve. There was already a party underway, the party included lots of family, friends, rum and pork.

Christmas Eve dinner - now that is a lot of Pork.

Warren & Olga's house sits on top of a mountain in Utuada and over looks some amazing views.

View from the porch.

 

The house has a wrap around porch and on it is an amazing hammock that I have to admit I laid in, read my book, and took a small nap... what - it was my vacation.

Warren is a local guide for an adventures touring company. One day when he had a tour he took us into the mountains, gave us a hand written map to a river that flows through a 2,000 foot cave that you can swim through. The hike to the river was amazing. The river was incredible.

The River. Behind the two rocks was the cave.

The bridge we crossed to get to the river. 

 

 

The river was incredible, it was also freezing cold. But once you were in, it didn't feel so bad. We swam through a cave, we jumped off of rocks and watched people who were on the tour zipline over our heads. It was a pretty incredible day.

Waking up early is not something I love to do, but getting up early in Utuado meant getting pictures like this:

Every morning we were so high we were above cloud level. To see the clouds roll in over "lower" Utuado was beautiful and worth waking up for.

The trip was amazing, of course it was hectic with some bumps (come on there were 12 people at any given time) but I wouldn't have traded it for the world.


I kept having to remind myself that it was December, that Christmas was upon us. I was in a tank top and short, not scarves and a winter coat, the kids were playing the sand and sea not the snow and cold, Santa didn't get cookies and milk, he got Wine, Cheese and Rum (yes - this will be a tradition I adopt). But overall the sense of family was there, the Christmas morning excitement was there, the fun was there, and memories were made. So is Christmas still Christmas without snow? Yes, just a different type of Christmas.


I cannot thank the Grieshop clan enough for letting me invade their family vacation. I cannot thank Irizarry family enough for housing us, entertaining us and feeding us some amazing foods and incredible fresh off the tree fruit. However, I think it will be a long time before I eat more pork :).

This was a once of lifetime trip, that I will never forget!