Zumba Toning

So I realized I have an extra hour in the morning before I have to go to work (our weekly staff meeting was cancelled), and somehow that results in me staying up late.

But I'm watching the Zumba Toning DVD so I feel like I'm being productive. Oh yea, did I tell you I got certified to teach Zumba Toning? Yep, last Friday I used one of my extra vacation days before the end of the year to spend the day at a training.

It was really awesome and I'm excited to start teaching those classes soon. (I'm thinking I'll set up a class probably starting in February and pre-register the group.)

HOWEVER, the scary thing with this whole thing is the lack of training that the group as a whole has. They do encourage you to further get certified as a group exercise instructor and as a personal trainer...training I think would be beneficial to a lot of the people. (And I do plan to do the group instructor certifications in the future.) Granted, I have a lot to learn as well, but I feel like I have a more solid foundation of knowledge than a large part of that group. For example, when I first started getting more into weight lifting, I worked out with a group of 3 with our own personal trainer...who focused on our form and doing the exercises correctly. I have also been a group exercise junkie for years and am the kind of person who focuses on the details of doing things right and the benefits of each exercise.

As I watched other people in my training last year, I was bewildered by the lack of this knowledge that people had. Granted, maybe people are using this training as a first step and are planning on doing more before actually teaching. Maybe it's wrong to think the male teachers in the class should have lifting knowledge...but I couldn't believe the lack of form a couple displayed.

I can't help thinking how horrible it could be when they show that lack of form in their classes and then their students copy what they do. Granted Zumba Toning doesn't use more than 3 pound weights, but the form students pick up from you in this class will likely transfer over when they do heavier weights...weights that COULD cause injury.

One thing they focus on in the training is doing movements that could also be done with a 10 pound weight (i.e. not too fast, not flailing about, with clear transitions.) I think this is SMART and beneficial advice. At one point, we were working in groups creating choreography and this kid says something to the effect of "My Zumba Toning teachers obviously don't follow this slow and controlled training; they are all over and fast and crazy and FUN."

Uh, I may have shook my head at him. Those instructors (and likely this kid in the future) are sacrificing safety for what they deem to be more fun, a choice that could eventually be a determent to any number of students.

Anyways, just my thoughts about that aspect of the training. Overall the experience was AWESOME...I enjoyed it much more than my basic training, probably because I was much less familiar with Zumba Toning than I was with the basic Zumba (I had been doing it for like 3 years afterall.)

Memorizing scriptures

When I was in Ogden for Thanksgiving, I got to attend my sister Christianne's Relief Society lesson, which just so happened to be on Elder Scott's talk "The Power of Scripture" from this past General Conference.

First of all, this was obviously a talk that I enjoyed because it had already inspired one of my word art pieces for my hallway:

Anyways, Christianne did a fantastic job on her lesson and got all the ladies in her class to participate, give insight, share their favorite scriptures, and overall discuss the importance of memorizing, pondering, and studying the scriptures. 

This lesson motivated me to try to be a little better at memorizing scriptures...as well as refreshing the many I had memorized once upon a time. (I have had this intention for a few years but haven't put much effort into it.)

So this week I choose a scripture to memorize. 

Ether 12:4
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

 It is currently written out on my hall mirror and I'm reading it every time I go past. Eventually I might erase words. I'm doing pretty well with the first half, but the second half is full of relative clauses that don't quite flow so I always mess up that part in my head.

Do you have favorite scriptures that you have memorized? What are they (so I can add them to my list)? What methods do you use for memorizing?

An update on my refinishing project

Hey friends! Do you remember this post where I talked about being crafty and teased, if you will, my first refinishing projects with this lovely piece:

Well, I have finally posted about the complete project! Check it out on the crafty blog my sisters and I have (although we've been slackers for like a year!) 

I guess it's time to see an allergist

Arg. The whole reason I wrote my last blog post was because I was excited to be feeling better and not having to worry about seeing a doctor and what not.

Well, my weird random redness/swelling symptoms that I experienced consistently throughout June and July are back and stronger than they've been since I had them checked out.

It started last night but I thought it would simply go away as it has the couple times I've had problems since July. But it seems to be getting worse. Last night I couldn't sleep again (after being oh so thankful for blissful sleep Saturday night), so about 2 a.m. I took two Benedryl to calm things down.

I'm about to take some more Benedryl but think I'm going to have to suck it up and go to the allergist my doctor referred me to when his tests came back inconclusive and he didn't know the cause of these weird symptoms.

So even though I'm pretty much done with the flu, I now currently have a left foot with swollen and red pinky toe, and swollen ball of the foot, and a red, swollen big toe. My right foot appears to be fine. My left pointer finger is red and swollen, as is my right pointer finger and the tips of my pinky and fourth finger. If you aren't me you probably wouldn't notice these things on your own, but it's very stiff to bend me fingers or my toes because of the swelling.

Man...my body is weird.

Thoughts from a sick Karianne

I'm on the upward recovery from my first bout with sickness in the cold season. I'd like to say that I hope it's also the last, but given my history I'm guessing that won't be the case.

I've had the flu for the last five days and am happy to prepare to go back to work Monday and pray my health continues to improve. This time being sick I have hated, hated, hated it—even more than is usually expected. ...which, of course, makes the whole experience even more unbearable.

Anyways, here just a few of my thoughts over the last few days:

• As much as I want to buy another electric blanket so I don't have to keep unplugging and moving mine around, I've found a lot of benefit of having a warm sleeping area (my couch) and a cool sleeping area (my bed). Because yes, my body would switch being hot or cold very, very, often.
• This was the first time since I was a child that I woke up soaking wet from night sweats. (And this was in my cool bed! P.S. Sorry, that was probably TMI.) 
• A shower can make all the difference to feeling better.
• I really enjoy JELLO. Man it feels good on the throat and those 10 calories are well worth that little treat. Oh yum.
• The muscle aches and soreness my body is used to do not compare to the aches that the flu cause. But it definitely helps to have someone massage them a bit. (Thank you Susie! ... and foam roller when I could manage the energy.)
• I very quickly ran out of things to watch during my days confined to my basement. When I had appendicitis I started watching HGTV nonstop; this weekend the show of choice was various Top Chef seasons.
• I realized a bit too late that watching food shows wasn't the best idea when I didn't have an appetite at all. It definitely got my mind wanting food before my stomach was up for it.
• I have pretty much lost my faith in doctors. I've gone to various types of doctors multiple times this year (more than I have in past years combined) and have never seen any sort of result. I'm grateful I started getting better so I didn't have to reconsider that need. 
• Speaking of past visits to doctors, during this bout with the flu, BOTH of my hips flared up with pain PLUS tonight my weird, red, swelling on my fingers and toes came back. Why can't doctors fix me!?!?

Flashback to 16

Any time I'm browsing through movies and happen to see something with Adam Sandler in it, I am immediately reminded of the following experience.

It was the summer of 2002. My sister and I were working on painting amazing blue and purple stripes in my new bedroom. We had just moved to Manassas, Virginia from Utah and were determined to make our rooms our own before we actually moved our stuff in and started unpacking. Our parents were not too pleased with the delay of removing the boxes from the downstairs living room, but hey, they were the ones that moved me across the country at 16 right? The least they could do was wait a little bit while I tried to make the most of the experience.

Susie and I were wearing our grubby clothes and covered with bits of paint on our fingers, feet, arms, legs, and probably a bit of hair. We had measured and taped the painters tape in my room and were about 1/3 of the way done with the painting. Then we hear our mom yell down the stairs.

"Karie, the phone is for you!'

Since we had moved I had met the girls in my new ward (LDS church congregation) at a church girl's camp and had meet a few of the guys my age at church. But I had never actually hung out with any of them and I was unsure who would be calling me and for what reason.

I answered the phone and it was one of the guys from the ward inviting Susie and I to join a group going to see a movie, "Mr. Deeds" to be exact. Now, at the time I wasn't one to very often spend money to see movies in theaters, nor did I know anything about this movie or have any sort of liking for Adam Sandler.

But I craved friends and feeling included so I quickly got the information, told Susie, and then spoke with my parents. Of course, they wanted us to make friends too so they were more than willing to let us go...and I believe my dad even dished out the cash for the tickets.

Susie and I rushed about cleaning ourselves up. We had been working on projects all day, so we needed to shower, get ready, and find cute outfits—a task quite difficult when considering most of our possessions were scattered throughout an assortment of half-opened boxes.

We were both ready by the time scheduled for our hopeful new friends to pick us up. That time quickly passed. Could they not find our house? Did they forget that we had been invited? The time of the movie showing was quickly approaching. As we sat there contemplating what to do (we didn't have anyone's phone numbers), I thought back to that earlier phone call. I told Susie exactly what had been said, and I realized that I had messed up the information. The movie was not taking place until the FOLLOWING evening.

And so we changed back into our grubby clothes and continued working on our projects that evening. The following day, everything actually went down. Our new friends came to our house, picked us up, took us to the movie, and started new friendships that helped me make it through high school. (:P)

As silly as it sounds, I think the reason I remember that almost insignificant experience, is that I am oh so extremely grateful when people make an effort to reach out to me to establish friendship and make me feel welcome.

P.S. Thinking about this experience now, I have to say I am very grateful for that opportunity to paint my room. What kind of parents actually let their 14 and 16 year old daughters attempt such a project entirely on their own? My parents weren't involved at all. I picked my colors, bought the paints, and after a brief tutorial from my dad about snapping chalk lines, went about measuring and designing the room exactly as I wanted it, all by myself. (And the help of my dear sister Susie. No worries I helped with her room next.)

Last batch of General Conference Word Art

I pushed myself tonight to focus on and finish designing my last few quotes for my General Conference wall. I wanted to finish them tonight so I could get them printed off tomorrow and then put everything up over the weekend.

I'm excited to see how it all turns out...

Connecting the dots

Every morning I wake up to my alarm clock radio. Sometimes I will hear the DJs talking or the music playing but am not yet awake and aware enough to actually grasp what is going on. This morning was one of those days.


As I faded in and out, something caught my interest. It was an excerpt from some speech, and I remember thinking--amid my groggy early-morning thoughts--that I liked what that person was saying and wanted to listen to the whole thing. But I didn't know who this person was or where that speech occurred. All I caught was the DJ saying he posted the entire thing on his blog. 


I finally managed to get out of bed, shower and get ready for the day and went to work. Later I remembered that I wanted to look up whatever that thing was that I heard this morning. At this point, I couldn't remember the message or idea, much less the words. But I remembered something had stood out and I wanted to look it up.


I found the radio website and then the DJ's blog, and then a YouTube clip of the message easily enough. The speech was that of Steve Jobs to the Stanford graduating class of 2005. Except I didn't realize it was from 2005. So when I scrolled down a few posts on this blog and saw another video tribute to the late Steve Jobs, I thought it was joke. People were pretending that Steve Jobs died. I actually listened to the speech, took notes, and started writing this blog post before I realized that it was not actually a joke. 


Steve Jobs had indeed passed away, and the posting of this video which I now learned was from 2005 had resurfaced since people were honoring the man and his life. It's probably a good thing I started writing this post before I realized this speech was something that was popping up all over the internet worlds and quotes from which were published in article after article about his life. Sharing those types of things is not something I readily like to do. 


But his words had stood out to me in a state of unawareness and even though I didn't remember what I had heard, I was motivated enough to search for that message. 


The video is embedded below but first here are the portions from the entire speech that I particularly like. 


"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."


"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."


"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become."

My creative self

I have to say, I'm a bit proud of my creativity lately. I'm not sure why this is this case, but I've started and finished (and some not so finished) what seems to be like a zillion "creative" projects lately.

My most recent one is my refinishing a piece of furniture...this little beauty to be exact:

 

I had already taken off one of the top cabinet doors before I remembered to take a picture. (You can also notice my yoga mat, foam roller, shoes, and printer there in the background haha.) 

I've helped other people refurnish before. My older sister Christianne is great at it. But this is my first project for me, doing exactly what I want. 

Granted what I want is pretty simple. I'll be leaving off the top cabinet doors, painting the whole thing black (I'm real creative I know), possibly doing an accent pattern on the back of the top two shelves, and possibly replacing the hardware. (The current bottom handles don't bother me too much.) 

So far I've sanded everything down, painted corners and curves with a deep red in case I want to let it peak through at all, and painted a top coat of black paint on the whole thing with the exception of the bottom six inches. (I'm going to let the top dry so I can just turn it on the side to get the bottom parts.) 

The main reason I'm writing this post (especially while the project is only half complete), is because I kinda laughed at myself while I was painting tonight. One year ago I was ever so struggling to do my weekly post for our sister creative blog, "Keep the Juices Flowing." I could never find time to do a craft to blog about. So as the weeks went on I found myself blogging about uh, music, organization, networking, or fonts. And those were all last minute topics thrown together Tuesday night for my Wednesday deadline. 

But here I am now. I'm, dare I say, even more busy that I was a year ago. (With a new job with a few extra hours, plus teaching Zumba and learning and creating choreography on top of normal stuff...hmm although maybe I have fewer friends now. Maybe that's it :P) 

Now I'm constantly doing some creative project. I guess even coming up with new Zumba choreography is creating. I've been so excited to have people come over to my new home because I get to show them everything I've been working on. ...Although I've been a little hesitant because I'm not "done." But I'm just not sure if I will ever actually be completely "done." 

Anyways all of this reminds me of Pres. Uchtdorf's General Conference talk from last October where he talked about the act of "creating."

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before....As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you."

- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf,

Happiness, Your Heritage

Tonight, I'm heading straight to bed. But tomorrow, I'm planning to get up and "create."

My standouts from General Conference

So my General Conference project is going pretty well. Below are some of the quotes/phrases/personal thoughts that stoodout for me through the Saturday sessions. I haven't had a chance to do any from the Sunday or priesthood sessions yet.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I want to select six of these excerpts to hang in my hallway. Here are some of the additional quotes that I want to design:

Drink deeply and often from the pages of the Book of Mormon. - Pres. Eyring

He knows your sacrifices and your sorrows. He hears your prayers. His peace and rest will be yours as you continue to wait upon Him in faith. - Elder Hales

  

Be loyal to the royal in you. - Sister Dalton

We must have the gospel at our core and the love of the Savior in our hearts. -Pres. Monson

  

Your eternal destiny will not be a matter of chance but of choice. - Elder Randall Bennett 

And yes, I want to know what things stood out to you!

Forget Not Word Art

I've been working on a lot of projects lately: making pillows, painting canvas, hanging curtains, building bookcases and tv stands, sewing and hemming clothing, etc. etc. It's been really fun to work on these things and piece by piece putting "Karianne touches" throughout my space in my apartment.

This picture is of the hallway that goes from my living area into my bathroom. (Sorry for the bad shot...I just took that using the computer cam while holding my laptop and trying to frame the wall...)

 

This picture shows the beginning of yet another project. When I thought about what I'd put on that wall, I decided I wanted to do something really personal and that I could show some creativity on and create a dramatic type of wall focus. I wanted to use my design skills to create some word art and other type of artwork that I'd love. I decided I'd want to do some smaller items that I could hang with ribbon from magnet strips and feature some bigger artwork below.

This is kinda what I envisioned: 

 So I hung the first parts as you can see and began looking for inspiration for my artwork. However, as General Conference grew closer, I decided that it would be really cool to do word art from the conference talks. This way I could pull out the messages that meant the most to me and display them in a prominent hallway throughout the year. Then I'd have the opportunity to create new things when the next General Conference rolls around. 

I loved the idea.

So last night after the Relief Society broadcast, I got to create a piece focused on Pres. Uchtdorf's amazing talk, "Forget Not."

 

And that's my first piece folks. I'll be doing more next week throughout the conference...although I'm a little worried I'll want to do more than I have room to display on that wall.