Upper Body/Core-centric Deck of Cards Workout!

Since my dumb knee has been bothering me, I have been coming up with ways to train around it. Normally my Deck of Cards Workouts feature kettle bell swings, mountain climbers, jump squats, burpees, lunge switches, and lots of other knee-angering-exercises. A few days ago, I got a little creative and came up with a Deck of Cards Workout that focused on mainly the upper body and core. (I threw in some squats because as long as I focus on using my glutes, squats don't bother my knees.)

This workout will engage your glutes, core, 

shoulders, chest, and triceps!

I thought I would go through the deck twice, but I only made it through once! I was pretty darn tired and I'm sure I'm going to regret doing 100 push ups...


Any other suggestions for exercises to incorporate into my upper boy/core-centric Deck of Cards Workouts???

Weekend Wrap Up - In PICTURES!

Happy Monday! Only one more Monday of summer vacation left. Two weeks from now, I will be back at work, teaching music to 5-10 year olds. I love, love, love, love summer, but I also like being on a schedule, so I can't say I'm not ready to go back. I feel like I'm not contributing to society in any sort of way during the summer...

I have a few things I want to do before summer is officially over!

1. Go to Knoebels! I love Knoebels. It seems like everyone went this week except ME!
2. Get in ONE more pool day. Let's see... I went swimming 5 times this summer. It needs to be six.
3. Spend a few mornings on the back porch with coffee... birds chirping... ahhhh BLISS!

Let's get to the wrap up! Today's wrap up will be done with pictures. Enjoy!

Friday

Friday was our 5 year anniversary! Paul got me this bamboo puzzle.

5 year = wood, so he was pretty pleased with himself!

The puzzle is really hard, I think it will take me another 5 years to figure it out!

I got Paul this super awesome coffee mug. 

He is really into America right now.

It's sort of an inside joke.

I think this is the first year we actually got each other presents for our anniversary!

I was under the impression we were just doing small things- you know, like a puzzle and a coffee mug.

But then Paul presented me with this...

Can you believe it!? Now, my old laptop was in pretty shoddy shape. 

The battery was broken, so it ALWAYS had to be plugged into and outlet. 

Also, the wi fi card was broken, so it had to be hooked to our router with an ethernet cable. 

What is the point of having a lap top if it always has to be plugged into stuff?

Well, he got this super good deal on a brand new lap top!

 It is last year's model, and they only had two left, so they had it on super sale. 

That made me feel better about the purchase!

As if the day couldn't get any better, my new protein powder came in the mail!

My new plan is to drink a cassein protein shake before bed each night.

I will explain why in a future blog post! Let's just say it has to do with getting RIPPED.

Random cat picture! I love my Chrissy Boy!

Time for a run! I did 7 miles- the longest I have run in weeks!

It was pretty humid out.

My new favorite post run replenishment- 2 c. milk, 1 scoop whey protein,

and a grahamful. Oh they are so delicious! It's two graham crackers with peanut butter in between. It reminds me of eating cocoa and grammies as a kid.

Our house hadn't been cleaned since before we went to Atlantic City, 

so let's just say there was cat hair galore and it was time to clean! 

It wasn't so bad though, because Randy got me paper towels as a belated birthday gift. 

(We gave up paper towels about a year ago, so having them really made cleaning

 the house more enjoyable!)

Next was a trip to Aldis to buy snacks for game night tomorrow!

Don't worry, that Diet Coke is for my GUESTS.

Whenever we go to Aldis, we make a cat condo out of the boxes. 

My cats LOVE boxes!

Something else came in the mail for me today! My ACE study materials!

Now it's time to get to work for real!

But not tonight because...

We celebrated our anniversary at Hollywood Casino.

I won a gift card for the Final Cut Steakhouse on WINK 104 a few months ago.

Time to cash it in!

Unfortunately it took just under an hour and a half to get there because 

there was an accident on 81. (Big surprise.)

So we were STARVING by the time we sat down.

This was the only shot of dinner I managed to get.

The food was delicious! Paul got salmon, I got scallops.

The cream of potato soup was the best we ever had!

The portions are very small. I had to eat from the bread basket to get full.

T

After dinner we watched horse race! There's a first time for everything!

My hottie husband!

Doesn't my hand look HUGE?

We took like 15 selfies. This is as good as it gets, unfortunately.

We didn't gamble at ALL, but did we see this funny slot machine.

Later that night I bought a muscle milk, but then realized I couldn't drink it because it contains sucralose. GOSH DARN IT ARE THERE ANY DRINKS WITHOUT FAKE SUGAR ANYMORE!!??

Saturday

Since we didn't go to bed until after 5am on Friday night (technically Saturday morning),
I thought I would sleep in on Saturday.
 Nope! I woke up at 9:30am to do my normal morning "lounge" routine, and then did some studying.
Basic helped!


I was sort of planning to lift today, but then realized I didn't have a whole lot of time because we were hosting a game night later and I had a lot of things to do to prepare.
So instead, I did two intense Deck of Cards workouts in my carport and a tiny 7 minute circuit.
It took me 45 minutes to complete it all!
Here's what I did:

I was pretty hungry after this, so I slammed down a protein shake and continued moving.

I cleaned out the carport, did some weeding, trimmed the bushes, swept, and mowed the lawn.
All of that was a workout in itself!

Then I quickly showered and started preparing the game night food.
I tend to overdo it on the food for game nights but at this game night, people actually ate!

Emily and Jake made the trek from Millersburg!

Rachel and Bob made the trek from Middletown!

Bob brought lots of olive oil because he loves it! 

We got a little silly...

Paul and his bestie!

We had a BLAST. Back yard game night- woot woot!

Sunday

Apparently Sunday was my morning to catch up on sleep! I slept until 1pm. Dang!

Jelly was tired too.

And Chrissy.

And Baser!

I haven't run any "long" miles in about 6 weeks. One of the reasons is because I was training for The Mile, which meant I was doing much shorter runs and workouts. Then after my race, I developed plantar fasciitis. When that went away, I started having knee pain. It was just one thing after another!

I didn't know if I could still run long! I wanted to put myself to the test and do one of my favorite 9 mile runs- complete with a TON of hills. The two biggest are Wharf and Moore's Mountain.

It was a GORGEOUS run!

Wharf Road

The Yellow Breaches

Look who posed for a picture for me!

I was pretty proud of myself for finishing the very challenging run without feeling too horrible. 

Unfortunately, I only managed an 8:30 pace. A few weeks ago I was running it around a 7:45 pace. 

Oh well, I'll get my mojo back!

I killed two birds with one stone. While I was running, I was also listening to my ACE notes which I dictated onto my mp3 player! Now I can study while I run and lift!

Later that night, I went to see the Oxymorons Improv Group perform at ABC Brewery in Harrisburg.

They are HILARIOUS, and tonight was no different!

Liz was John Wilkes Booth giving birth.

Randy and Liz "under the bed".

All the Morons! Sara, Randy, Liz, Josh, and Toby.

Until next weekend, folks!

"Weekend" Wrap Up – Atlantic City and Ocean City, NJ

This isn't a wrap up of our weekend, because if I told you about our actual weekend, you would be very bored. Instead, I will tell you about or Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday! . We had another mini vacation planned: 1 night in Atlantic City and 2 nights in OCNJ!

Let's get it started!

Wednesday

Wednesday was our day/night in Atlantic City. The drive there isn't bad at all. It's way better than driving down to the Delaware beaches or OCMD. And we only almost died on the turnpike once! (A bus started merging into my lane and I had to slam on my breaks so it didn't hit us.) Luckily, we rolled up to the Trump Taj Mahal just before check in, all in one piece.

A couple of things about the Taj...

1. It's HUGE!!!! We weren't sure how to even navigate around the joint at first. It's more than just a hotel. There are several casino floors, many restaurants and shops, ball rooms, banquet facilities, auditoriums... And everything was so blinky. I mean, one slot machine looked just like another, so it got a little confusing!

The Taj likes to decorate with fake bamboo.

2. The Taj (and AC in general) is a great place to people watch. You had a granny with her afghan at a slot machine, a family with 4 kids walking around barefoot and sandy with all their beach supplies, and then a weird middle aged guy with a ponytail holding hands with a girl who could not have been more than nineteen (gross!!!!). Bottom line: There were lots of normal people (like me and Paul haha!) and then there was the freak show.

3. Our room was GORGEOUS! The wall facing the ocean was wall-to-wall-floor-to-ceiling windows. And we were very high up- the 93^rd floor. Not the actual 93^rd floor. They labeled the floors as such so you felt higher up (I'm guessing!). It was actually more like the 35^th floor. Even so, I was not comfortable standing closer than 2 feet from those windows. It gave me the heebie-jeebies!!!

Crazy windows!  

Christmas would love this room!

We had an awesome view of the ocean!

We were so freaking high up!

Double sinks! SCORE!

Fancy shower!

4. If you ever stay at the Taj, be prepared to WALK. I figure we probably walked a total of 2-3 miles just maneuvering around the building during the one day we were there. That was fine with me! Any excuse to get in some unstructured exercise is a bonus!

So after we explored the property a bit, we decided to get ready and go out for a fancy dinner. We dined at Il Mulino, an Italian restaurant. This is the type of place where they actually place your napkin on your lap for you. We don't go out to eat a lot, and when we do, it's definitely not somewhere like Il Mulino, but I wanted to DRESS UP!

I had magherita pizza and Paul had ravioli. I also had the. most. amazing. dirty. martini. ever. I think it may have had to do with the fact that it was made with Grey Goose.

Next, we decided to take a stroll on the boardwalk. The AC boardwalk is huge. We walked at least two miles and didn't even cover the whole thing. I took off my insanely high Vera Wang for Kohl's platform pumps and slipped my tootsies into flip flops for this excursion. Both shoes are bad for plantar fasciitis in their own ways, but there was no way I was going to wear my running shoes with my cute dress! Beauty, my friends, is sometimes painful!

Note: The hot items on the AC boardwalk this year are knock off Michael Kohrs handbags, shady looking massage parlors, and bongs. Yes, you read that correctly. BONGS. Boy did they have a ton of bong stores. Each store had a sign that clearly stated these devices were “FOR TOBACCO USE ONLY.” Yeah. Right.

Oh, and this was the new graphic tank that everyone was wearing:

Source

If you know what it means, let me know, because we are stumped.

(Other than that it sort of looks like an infinity sign. But what's with the anchor?)

We were so tired from walking the boardwalk that we almost paid one of those rickshaw guys to wheel us back to our hotel but we felt too guilty about it. Most of them were like 60 years old. No way would I feel good about having a 60 year old push our able bodied asses back to the Taj.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot! Ten minutes after we stepped onto the boardwalk, I got puhpped on by a seagull! Right on my toes! (Remember, I changed into flip flops! At least it didn't get my Vera Wangs!) It was disgusting. Then, on the way back to our hotel, when I was wishing we were getting pushed on a rickshaw, I noticed Paul had got puhpped on too! Right on the back of his new linen shirt from Kohl's! Freaking seagulls puhpping everywhere!!

I got puhpped on!

So did Paul!

They're coming to puhp on you!

Once we got back to the hotel, I put my Vera Wangs back on and we went barhopping in the casino. For us, bar hopping means going to two different bars. Paul got to try an IPA he never had and I got to enjoy my very first Cosmo and another Grey Goose dirty martini. Now, having more than one drink in the evening is VERY out of character for me and believe me, I paid for it the next morning. When I have more than one (even if it is over the course of HOURS, like tonight), I get a yucky feeling in my stomach and very, very, thirsty. I also develop and aversion to coffee. (Why couldn't I develop an aversion to ice cream!?) Luckily, the yucky feeling only lasts an hour or two and then I'm back to normal. BAM!

You're probably wondering when I'm going to get to the  gambling part. Guess what! We didn't gamble at all! I thought maybe my husband would play poker or something, but we didn't! However, we had a ton of fun, so even if you don't gamble, it's still fun staying at a casino. There is a lot of other stuff to do. Like drink Grey Goose.

Thursday

Thursday morning was dreary and drizzly. It was chilly too! I had my workout all planned out, though. I was going to run 3 miles on the beach and then do two deck of cards workouts. I figured it would be pretty fun to workout on the beach.

Wrong.

The Atlantic City beach is disgusting. That morning, the boardwalk smelled like trash, and the beach was full of cigarette butts. Luckily, I brought a towel, but it was still pretty gross. It was the yuckiest beach workout ever! As I was running along the water and smelling the fresh trash from the boardwalk, I remembered  an awesome beach run I did this past December. I was running on the beach in Delaware with my mother-in-law. It was cold, but the sun was so bright. It was magical. The total opposite of my AC beach run!

Oh well, not every workout is going to be great, even at the beach.

Thursday was our day to head down to OCNJ. We checked out of our hotel around noon, and then made the short drive to OCNJ. We had hoped to get in a beach day, but it was still dreary and only 68 degrees. We settled into our condo, which ended up being pretty lackluster compared to The Taj. (Let's just say I found a toenail on the sofa.) Even though it was dreary, it didn't take long to decide what to do. We headed up to the boardwalk to do some walking, people watching, and grab dinner.

I'm happy to report that for dinner I had the biggest, thinnest slice of cheese pizza that had just the perfect amount of grease on it. It was SO DELICIOUS. The wind was blowing all kinds of yummy food smells towards us but the pizza was drawing us in. Man, pizza twice in two days? I can't even remember the last time I had pizza since this vacation!

We finished the night with some yummy ice cream from Johnny B. Goode's Ice Cream Parlor. Pizza and ice cream... I can't think of a better beach dinner!

Friday

Friday morning was gorgeous! We could tell it was going to be an awesome day to spend on the beach. We went out for breakfast at The Bloomin' Tulip (our go-to breakfast place in OCNJ) and then packed up our cooler and hit the beach! 

I spent the first 50 minutes on the beach doing 2 very difficult deck of cards workouts. All I needed was a towel and my cards! Here's how it went down:

Workout 1:

Hearts- burpees (Have you ever done them in the sand? It adds a whole new element of difficulty!)

Diamonds- sit ups

Spades- jump squats

Clubs- push ups

Aces- run to the bathhouse and back (1 block each way)

Workout 2:

Hearts- run to the fence and back (not sure how far away it was... not too far!)

Diamonds- bicycles

Spades- lunge switches (Also freaking hard in the sand!)

Clubs- mountain climbers

Aces- 15 burpees 

I was going to do some planks after all this but I was too hot and tired! Instead, I changed into my bathing suit and jumped in the ocean! Then, I spent the next couple hours just chilling on the beach with my hubby. It was perfect!

Now, we were supposed to spend one more night in OCNJ and go home Saturday morning, but we decided to hit the road Friday night for several reasons.

1. We would beat the Saturday morning traffic.

2. We're homebodies! We couldn't wait to sleep in our own bed!

3. We couldn't wait to see our cats!

4. It would be nice to have a full day on Saturday to just chill and do whatever we wanted.

We made it home safe and sound. There were 3 kitties who were SO HAPPY to see us!

This an an old pic, but one of the few we have of all 3 cats together.
They did run up to the door when we got home!

I love vacation, but I love being at home, too. It's good to be back!

This was the only picture we took in OCNJ. It's an alligator made out of sea shells.
Our condo had "interesting" decorations...

I hope you all are having a fabulous weekend!