When I took step aerobics, I loved the group “choreography” of us all doing the same step together in front of a giant mirror. With a little creativity, I imagined that we looked something like backup dancers in a cool music video, grapevining or hop-stepping to the beat in perfect unison. There was tremendous peer pressure to be right on step, and no room at all for slacking, or for forgetting which foot was right or left in the heat of the moment (yeah, don’t ask…).

So at Curves, my workout du jour, they try to incorporate the same element of fun into the workout circuit, but it falls a little flat. In case you’re not familiar with the setup, there are about 15 different weight machines that you cycle through during a workout, and in between each machine is a little foam pad that you stand on for the “aerobic” part of the workout (hence, the Curves combination of strength training plus aerobics). Each pad is labeled with a suggestion for an aerobic activity: jog in place, arm circles, boxing, etc.–my favorite being the irritatingly misspelled “hulla hoop.” The big difference in doing these activities in Curves versus in a class is that you are doing it alone. Everyone else in the room is at a different point in the circuit.

Call me self-conscious, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I jog in place at every aerobic station. I know that it’s evil, but, yes, I do watch the other women as they pantomime swimming motions or air-hula-hoop and I think they look silly. I can’t get over myself. Especially not the hula, which just looks vulgar with no hoop. And ESPECIALLY not the one labled “chorus line,” which scarred me on my first day. I was behind a very manic woman who chorus-lined with such enthusiasm that she almost kicked me in the face. It made me think of an episode of Friends (yes, I know, I need to get a life…) and now every time I circuit past this station, I think, “I’ve never had any professional dance training!”). So that you can enjoy the full effect of this mental picture, check out the video below.

(The moment that I am referring to is at 4:28. The video is the full Amanda story, which is pretty hilarious if you have five minutes to watch. It reminds me of Steele and Megan in London.)

We saw Derek Webb at Common Grounds again last weekend, and this was my favorite show yet!  We enjoyed the music of our favorite nonconformist and got some great quality time with our Waco friends Dan and Sarah, and we were also introduced to three other great new groups:

Waterdeep

Alli Rogers

Sandra McCracken

It just so happens that our new friend Daniel also gave us a tip about a great website, www.noisetrade.com, where you can download music from all of these artists for FREE.  All you have to do is tell five people about it.  If you have my e-mail address, feel free to use me as one of your five.

No one is as thankful as we are for a little drop in gas prices this week, and it reminded me of one of my favorite funny pictures from our San Diego stash.  You would have had to look pretty closely at the digital scrapbook to have seen this, so I hope it’s not too redundant.

Stephen made fun of me for taking a this picture at the time, but I was a tourist, and I was horrified that people in California would pay SO MUCH MONEY for a gallon of gas.  Ah, to be young and innocent again.

Okay, here it is…my first scrapbook attempt.  These are pictures from our honeymoon to San Diego and family vacation to Washington, D.C.  It’s hard to fit lots of commentary plus lots of pictures on each page, but overall I’m happy with how it has turned out.  I haven’t ordered my copy to be printed yet, so please tell me if you see any typos!

Happy Honeymoon Scrapbook

All pictures courtesy of Leslie’s borrowed digital camera. Muchas gracias.

Here we are!

Our rented Santa Fe got us around town in style.

The cute church where the wedding took place. Ignore the shadowy faces.

A better look at Stephen in his groomsman get-up.

The lovely bridal party.

The other happy couple.

While we were in Phoenix, we caught up with my great-uncle D.C. and his daughter Karen, some of my far away relatives on my mom’s side.

Overall, the trip was very smooth, which I was proud of because this was one of the first trips I’d planned all by myself. I wasn’t sure how it would be getting a rental car and trying to find my way around an unfamiliar city, but everything was great! The funniest moment of the trip was when our return flight to Dallas got delayed, and we ended up sitting on the tarmac in our plane as our connecting flight to Killeen was scheduled to board. When we finally got off the plane, we ran as fast as we could (bags in tow) to another terminal to try to make the flight. As we reached our gate, gasping and panting at the check-in counter, the flight attendant informed us that our flight was not taking off for another hour. So yes, it was a waste of all that exertion, but at least I had time to use a potty on land and get some overpriced McDonald’s before the last leg of the trip.

As always, though, it’s been good to be home.

We recently were invited to a Hawaiian-themed couples baby shower. One afternoon while we were running errands, I coerced Stephen into accompanying me to Target to buy the baby gift.

We printed the gift registry from the little kiosk and set off for the baby section. Stephen glanced at the rows of baby paraphernalia. “How much are you planning to spend on this kid?”

I named the amount, and justified it by emphasizing the importance of the relationship that I have with the baby’s maternal grandmother. Besides, my mom had agreed to go in for half.

“Okay,” said Stephen, and skimmed the pages of the registry. “That means that we can get the Bumbo Baby Sitter Blue…and a Boppy slipcover. Oh, and one pack of assorted wash cloths. That will be just the right amount.”

“No, no,” I tried to explain. “We want to pick one semi-large gift to set the theme, but we want to have enough money left to buy a few other items that relate to the theme. Those things you said don’t have anything to do with each other.”

Stephen tried to look patient and understanding as it dawned on him that this would be no quick in-and-out trip. I prowled up and down the baby aisles in search of inspiration. My initial idea was a bath-themed gift, with a baby tub full of shampoos, lotions, and towels. But washcloths and shampoo were the only thing on the registry, and I wasn’t going to go out on a limb for the most expensive part of the gift.

After much agonizing, I decided to go with a diaper-themed gift. We bought diapers and wipes, and a travel changing pad, some diaper rash cream, baby powder, and Purel hand sanitizer.

Stephen mentally totaled the items in our basket. “So, we’re set, right? A basket full of themed baby stuff. Now we can get a big gift bag and go?”

“No, no,” I contradicted, and proceeded to instruct him in phase two of the gift buying: Themed baby stuff is a good gift. But good is not good enough- we want to give the best gift. And the line between good and best is all in the presentation. “We need to find a cute container that fits our theme that we can put all this stuff in.”

Stephen eyed the pile of diaper accessories. “Maybe a laundry basket?”

“You can’t put diapers in a laundry basket!” Stephen knows my paranoia about mixing clean and dirty.

“Well, they’re unused diapers in a brand new basket,” he reasoned.

I was off to investigate what seemed like the only logical possibility for a container in keeping with my theme: a trash can. Voila! There was a perfect one, in a lovely hue of baby green, and for a very reasonable price. Stephen was skeptical, but willing to go along with anything at this point.

I got home, played with my ribbons and scissors and clear cellophane, and even Stephen had to admire my final product:

Here…watch this until I get something new put up. I’m planning to be inspired tomorrow.