Remembering Kennedy

I had originally planned to post a fab five list today, recapping what's been going on with this blogger since updates have been few and far between lately. But posting meaningless fodder just didn't feel right. Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love presidential history and President John F. Kennedy in particular. Today, many Americans, myself included, will pause for a moment of reflection over their noon hour, and think about what might have been if three shots weren't fired in Dallas that day.

I think my fascination with JFK began somewhere around the 25th anniversary of the assassination. That would have been in 1988, putting me around 9 years old. Old enough to realize this was something important in our nation's history. I remember watching news programs with my mom and listening to her recollections about that day. She said she was in kindergarten and class was dismissed early because of the shooting. She remembers going home in tears and telling my grandma that "they killed President Kennedy!" It surprises me that as young as she was when it happened, she remembers where she was and what she was doing. Perhaps it's because back then, the president was considered the most powerful person in the world and bad things just didn't happen to the president. Many historians say our country lost its innocence that day. I believe I agree with that. Back then, things seemed more carefree and innocent than what we deal with today. I am not a political analysis by any means, but Kennedy's quote, "ask not what your country can do for your, ask what you can do for your country," seems like it carries as much weight today as it did during his inaugural address.

One of the most poignant themes I've picked up these past few days is that many rank Kennedy as one of our greatest presidents. I really can't say that I agree or disagree, as my interest lies in the kind of people our presidents were, not their policy making or diplomatic skills. But my question is this: would Kennedy still have received all of these accolades had he not been assassinated? Would he still be considered one of the political greats had he finished his term out and was re-elected in '64? Sadly, we'll never know the answer.

Now, I think that I should have known that he was magic all along. I did know it — but I should have guessed that it would be too much to ask to grow old with and see our children grow up together. So now, he is a legend when he would have preferred to be a man.

-Jacqueline Kennedy

Race Week

Race week is finally here! I've spent the past 6 weeks working through my Couch to 5K training program in preparation for the Mutts and Monsters 5K run in Hays on Oct. 26. Am I ready? I hope so! But I think if I can survive the Warrior Dash 5K obstacle course J-Rock and I did earlier this year, I should be able to handle this.

Couch to 5K has actually been kind of fun this time! Bet you never thought you'd see me type those words! I tried it a few years ago to see if I could get into running, but just didn't enjoy it. You see, running has never, ever really been my "thing." I'm the girl who did all field events in track because I hated to run. I got away with it until that one meet when Mr. Brungardt decided to put me on the 4x400 meter relay team, just so I could have one race during my senior year. Let's just say that didn't go over so well...I'm still holding a little grudge over that. But I still have the medal to prove I did it and it's probably one of my most favorite memories from track. So thanks, Mr. B!

I've been doing most of my training indoors on the treadmill. This week, I'm hoping to train outside so I can get used to running outdoors. The workouts haven't been anything I have not been able to finish. I like the increasing intensity and distance each week - it's not too much, but just enough to make you know you have to push yourself a little harder to get through. Even though I'm a couple of weeks behind on the program (it's an 8-week program), I think I'm going to stick it out and finish my last 2 weeks after the race. Maybe, just maybe I'm turning out to be sort of a runner after all...who knows, perhaps I'll even try for a 10K. Yeah, right!

I am sad to say I won't be running the race with Tipsy dog, even though I really want to! I haven't been able to run with her so we can get used to running with each other. For some reason, she just doesn't like the treadmill. And, like her owner, she can be just a little high strung. So she'll just have to give me some good luck licks before I leave. Maybe we can make it work next year. For those of you wondering about why I'm not running with Tink, I'm pretty sure I'd have to carry her the entire race! Although, there's a good chance I might have to be carried for part of the race...

So, come Saturday morning, while you are still tucked into bed or enjoying a morning cup of coffee while watching College Gameday, be thinking of us Mutts and Monsters runners and say a little "Good Luck" for us! I really am truly excited for the race and even more excited about being able to help out the animal shelter. If it wasn't for a cause so near and dear to my heart, I probably wouldn't even be doing the race. Stay tuned for the race recap next week!

Traditions

Homecoming week is wrapping up at Northern Valley, my old high school, and it has me feeling a little nostalgic. Some of my best memories from high school involve homecoming festivities. Hard to believe that 15 years ago, the class of  1999 was celebrating our last homecoming! Of course, in my unbiased opinion, it was probably one of the best in school history. So I thought I would take trip down memory lane and share some memories from Homecoming 1998.

Homecoming was a pretty big deal that year because it marked the 30th anniversary of the Almena and Long Island schools consolidating and celebrating their first homecoming. It was held on a Saturday afternoon and we played a school from Oklahoma. The rumor was that Barry Sanders' brother was their coach, but I never heard if that was true or not. I couldn't tell you if we won or lost the game, but it was pretty fun to have a game on a Saturday afternoon.

During the weekend before, all of the classes decorated their class windows on the downtown businesses of Almena. Our school didn't have a set homecoming theme, so it was up to each class to come up with a creative spirit window and float, and a pep rally skit. This was also back in the day when we actually painted the windows, instead of hanging up posters. Half of the fun of window painting was also painting the windows on your cars. I remember lots of cars with a big "BYA" on the window. Our coaches didn't like that saying, even though we assured them it stood for "Beautiful Young Athletes." They didn't buy it.

We had a spirit week contest the week leading up to the game with different dress up themes for each day. I'm sure there was a Come as You Are day, aka pajama day, and a hat, sunglasses and t-shirt day. Those two were always a given. It was also always a given for some of the teachers to dress up with us. Looking back, I'd say my favorite days were probably biker day and t-shirt day because usually by the end of t-shirt day, someone would have something obscene written on their shirt that we would all find hilarious and be in trouble for.

The bonfire was the night before the game, usually at the baseball field in Almena, and in this case it was on Friday night. It really wasn't much more than a pep rally around a big bonfire. The cheerleaders rode in on the fire truck and did silly cheers. Boom Chicka Boom ring a bell for anyone? The football boys made a stuff dummy of the opposing team to throw in the fire, then the senior boys  each gave a pep talk. Then we ran around town like a bunch of wild banshees - something we called The Snake. I think we were pretty easily entertained back then. Probably more so than kids are these days...

Saturday morning was the parade and pep rally. Usually the parade consists of the band, class floats, homecoming royalty candidates' cars, and maybe a fire truck or two. If you blinked, you'd miss it. Since it was the 30th anniversary celebration, the Student Council invited all of the kings and queens from the last 30 years to ride in the parade, which made it longer, and probably better, than usual. Our class was known to come up with some pretty kick-butt float ideas. The year we played Lenora, our theme was "Wipe Out the Wildcats," complete with an outhouse, toilet paper decorations and toilet thrones for our class attendants. We also tried a version of the Shriners' cars with golf carts and I think we tried to build a rocket out of a dismantled grain silo one year. But we saved our best for last with our tiki king Husky carrier. The guys made it out of trees they cut down from who knows where...I'll have to see what pictures I can dig up.

The pep rally and class skits followed the parade, right snack dab in the middle if downtown. Traffic really isn't an issue in Almena! 1998 was the debut of the then-sophomores' version of the Spice Girls, one of which was my future husband. I'm still not sure what they were thinking with that one...but from then on, cross-dressing seemed to be a prevalent theme in the class skits. Skits never seemed to be our wheelhouse.

The game was that afternoon and I remember it was a beautiful, fall day for football. The coronation was held during halftime. Since our school is so small, each class selects attendants and the seniors pick two girls and two guys for the student body to vote on for king and queen. Our class chose Clint, Ashley, Lacey and me that year. During the coronation, the guys and girls are escorted to each other by their moms and dads, respectively. Then they walk out to midfield for the traditional homecoming kiss, which always draws a lot of oohs and aahs from the crowd, and some groans when the attendants opt for just a hug. It seems so cheesy writing about it now, but back then it was such a big deal! Kind of like most things were in high school. Ashley and Lacey were king and queen; Clint and I, prince and princess.

Festivities always ended with the dance. Our dances weren't really anything special, although a few of us could really get down to Getttin' Jiggy With It. 

I haven't been to homecoming in a few years. I hope some of the silly traditions, like The Snake, are still surviving, but I also hope that new traditions are also being formed. But I hope the tradition of homecoming being one of highlights of the year will always remain. What are some of your favorite homecoming memories?

Paws for a Cause

Mark Twain once said, "The more I know about people, the better I like my dogs." That pretty much sums up how I feel about my fur kids. Josh and I are the proud parents of four: Motorhead and Tiger, the cats; and Tinker and Tipsy, the dogs. The cats have been with me since they were born in 2004. They moved with me to my first home in Stockton, then back to Almena before we finally settled down in Phillipsburg. Tinker, a miniature pinscher mix, joined the family on Thanksgiving weekend in 2007. Tipsy, a rat terrier mix, rounded out the crew in the spring of 2009.

I'm not sure when the decision was made to get a dog, but I knew that if we were going to get one, I wanted it to be a shelter dog. The idea of buying a dog from a pet store or breeder just didn't sit right with me, especially knowing that there are so many dogs and cats in shelters in need of a good home. Plus, my grandparents had always been huge advocates of shelter dogs so that was also a big factor in our decision to adopt. Josh decided on a min pin, and I went to work searching on www.petfinder.com. Tinker was adopted from a shelter in Wamego. Tipsy came from a shelter in Junction City. She had been advertised as a min pin, but when we got there, we clearly saw that she was anything but! There was no way I was going to leave her in the shelter though, so home to Phillipsburg she went and became our fourth, and final (for the moment) fur kid. Aren't they cute???

Tiger and Motorhead

 

 Tinker and Tipsy

 

So while some people have human kids that walk on two legs, mine are covered in fur and walk on all fours. Since we adopted the girls, I too have become an advocate for animal shelters. For the past couple of years, Josh and I have put together a team to participate in the trivia night fundraiser for our local shelter, the Second Chance Homeless Pet Society. We've also made it a birthday tradition treat my dad to lunch at the Humane Society of the High Plains' Soup'r Bowl soup cook-off. My newest conquest is to complete the Mutts and Monsters 5K Walk/Run and Costume Contest to benefit the Western Plains Animal Refuge.

 

The run is scheduled for October 26, which gives me right at 6 weeks to prepare. Thank goodness for the Couch to 5K app on iTunes. Yesterday was day 1 of week 1 of the workout and I'm still alive today to tell about it. I've never had the desire or motivation to complete a 5K, but figured this would be a good reason and place to start. Plus, you can even run it with your dog and participate in the costume contest if you want! I'm still debating on that part. Registration starts soon and more information can be found at http://www.westernplainsanimalrefuge.org/.

 



Fab Five: Vegas Edition

Yes, I have been absent from the blog for the past couple of weeks...but I have a very good reason. I went to Vegas! J-Rock and I took a Labor Day weekend trip to Sin City. Those of you who know us know that we got married in Vegas so it was a bit of a homage to our upcoming "Lucky 7" anniversary.

For being a girl that likes quiet and low key, I absolutely love Vegas! I don't know what it is about it, but every time I go there, I never want to come home. And for at least two weeks afterwards, I look for jobs and houses in Vegas, and end my tweets with #imissvegas. Obsessed? Maybe a little. But a fellow tweeter sums it up best:

"Until you've been to Vegas, you don't know what you're missing. Once you're home, you just want to go back. #imissvegas"

When I started the blog, one of the things I wanted to try was a "Fab Five" feature. Sort of an abbreviated version of Letterman's Top 10 list if you will. What better way to kick it off than by doing a Vegas version of my top 5 highlights from our trip? Here we go...

5. Allegiant Air: Flying Allegiant out of Grand Island rocks! That 2 1/2 hour drive versus the 4-5 hour drives we used to make from Denver or Wichita is soooo nice. Those used to be brutal after a long weekend in Vegas. Plus, not having to leave a night early in order to get to the airport on time is an added bonus.

4. Miracle Mile Shops and Fashion Show Mall (tie): Shopping wasn't really high on my priority list for the trip, although a visit to the H&M store was a must for me ever since I saw Stacey and Clinton shopping there on an episode of "What Not to Wear." Considering our shopping selections are pretty limited in Western Kansas, we were able to shop a lot of places we wouldn't normally get to visit. My favorites? Definitely H&M, Lush, the Walking Company and the Puma store. And yes, I did score a cute outfit at H&M that I think Stacey and Clinton would approve of...I think!

3. Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay: Even thought I'd "been there, done that" on our wedding trip, J-Rock hadn't seen it yet (he was too busy at a naughty show). Earlier this year, he couldn't understand why I was a little disappointed in the Sea Life Aquarium in Kansas City, but I think he gets it now. That boy went camera crazy taking pics of all the fish and sea creatures! The coolest parts have to be the shipwreck room, the shark tunnel and, most definitely, touching the manta rays.

2. Criss Angel BeLIEve: If you don't know who Criss Angel is, we probably shouldn't be friends. Ok, maybe that's a little extreme. But seriously, go check him out! He's only the world's greatest magician, and a good looking one at that! I was soooo lucky (and excited) to get to meet and have a pic taken with him during our wedding trip. Since then, he has started performing in his own Cirque du Soleil show at the Luxor. Even though there weren't a lot of the acrobatics and pageantry that Cirque is known for, the illusions are MIND BLOWING. I'm still trying to figure out how those birds flew out of the projection screen...and how he sawed the lady in half...and how he teleported out of the box...Extra bonus: he has a new show coming out in October on Spike TV!

1. Rick's Restorations: This was the thing I was most excited about to see. Rick's shop is featured on the show "American Restoration," which is one of my absolute favorite shows. We got a free tour of the shop and it was so cool to see the workspaces and projects in person. Unfortunately most of the crew had gone home for the day by the time we get there, but I was excited to be able to get a pic with my favorite crew member, Brettly, and catch a glimpse of his cute dog, Nana! I also got to see Rick, Tyler, Ron, Kelly and Ally, and they are all as nice and genuine as they seem on TV. They had a few of their projects on display and for sale in the showroom. J-Rock put his foot down about me buying the gas pump kegerator...something about it not fitting in the overhead compartment in the airplane. Whatever. This is a definite must-see again on a future Vegas trip!

 Me and Brettly!

 

So that's my Vegas top 5! I'm already trying to talk J-Rock into another trip after the first of the year. We'll see how that goes. What are some of your Vegas top 5? Post some comments so I can start on the to-do list for the next trip!

Genesis Pure Review

There is a new nutritional supplement that has become quite popular in our neck of the woods. Perhaps you've heard of it: Genesis Pure. The products are based on the mantra of "cleanse, balance, build," and range from vitamins to juices, to weight loss supplements to skin care. My sister-in-law is a huge advocate of them and recently completed their 7-day detox program with great results. I've been curious about the program and my mom talked me into doing the 7-day detox with her. We figured if we did it together, we'd be able to give each other some moral support...and boy, did we need it!

The first two days of the diet are cleanse days. We existed strictly on the Genesis Pure fasting solution, water, Genesis Pure appetite chews, more water, fruit and vegetables (as needed), and even more water. Did I mention we drank a lot of water? The next three days were food days! We ate one or two meals a day, consisting of whole grains, proteins and vegetables. The other meals were the Genesis Pure meal replacement shakes, which I thought were OK, but mom was pretty sure they were just ground up, flavored chalk. The final two days were back to the cleansing regimen. You can check out the entire 7-day plan here.

Now, for my honest feedback. I'm not one for dieting, but I liked the idea of having a schedule of knowing when and what to eat. In total, I lost between six and eight pounds...I didn't weigh before I started, plus I majorly pigged out the night before, so I'm giving myself a two-pound cushion. Was it hard? Yes. The worst part was definitely the cleanse days. My SIL warned us that the fasting solution would literally make us cry. The first two days drinking it weren't that awful, so I thought maybe she was full of it. Mom decided it kind of tasted like liquid dates. By the end of the second day, it was starting to get a little gross. The final two days of drinking it were pure hell. I got to the point where as soon as I put it in my mouth, the opening to my stomach would literally close. It. Was. NASTY!!!

Aside from the fasting solution, I was pleased with the program and my results. I didn't notice myself getting ravenously hungry, even though my portion sizes were significantly smaller than I am used to. It has definitely made me think what and how much food I'm eating. I am continuing to use the Genesis Core products and while I haven't noticed further weight loss, I have noticed a change in my mood and energy levels. I will swear by the Go-Yin juice...it is simply amazing!!! I am also embarking on another diet journey with the mom, this one called The Military Diet. More about that in another post...

Overdue

Ever had writer's block? I'm pretty sure I've had it for the past few years. The idea of starting a blog has floated around in the back of my mind for awhile now, but I never was sure what gems of wisdom and wit would I have to offer the world? I have friends who are great bloggers. They're funny, clever and seem to have some pretty entertaining stories and anecdotes. "Why can't I do that?" I would think. But every time I sat down to start something, the ideas would feel stale, boring or just not good enough. Hence, the writer's block.

So today, in the words of Nike, I decided to Just Do It. I'm taking the plunge into the blogging world. It's not that I have something important to say, any new, earth-shattering ideas or a fascinating viewpoint on current events. I just need a place to have a little fun doing some long, overdue writing.

Like any good journalism nerd, I had to research my project before getting started. I read articles on blogs and tried to brainstorm some ideas of things I could write about. The main takeaway from my readings? Write about what you like. So here are a few things you might expect from my little corner of the Internet:

Family, friends and fur-kids, K-State sports, Chiefs football, NASCAR, fashion, fitness, food, scrapbooking, shopping, motorcycle rides, reading and my love of the color purple.

Here we go...