The Work-Out War

Does anybody have any tips on how to enjoy working out, or how to have the will power to get up and just do it? If so, PLEASE share!

I have always known that Eddie loves working out, and me...not so much; and when I say that he loves working out I mean he LOVES working out, it is more like an obsession. And don't get me wrong, working out is a great thing to do, but 6 days a week for 2 hrs? That's over the top in my opinion.

My hopes were that after we got married he would get so busy that he wouldn't have time to do it everyday, and of course...I was wrong. I am starting to think that my husband is superhero because he works all day, has responsibilities in the evenings, and most days he manages to fit in a 2hr work out session. It's incredible! Me on the other hand, I go through phases. One phase I will want to work out everyday, and the other--never. Needless to say I'm on the "never" phase right now.

When we first got married I was doing pretty well. We have a gym membership to InShape City, (the only affordable gym in town, the other is over $100/person/month) which is not that great to be honest. The people who go there are pretty shady and I just didn't like the overall feeling in there; the guys stare at you like a piece of meat...it made me very uncomfortable. I was going on and off all the way through November...a good 4 months, and then I was done; I wanted to work out at home. Eddie already had a bench and weights but that wasn't enough for a full work out, so we started looking around and decided to buy a Bowflex. We paid $800 for one of the simpler ones, and I worked out every single day for 2 weeks! That was really good for me, but things come and things go, and we decided that we should take back the Bowflex and find a machine that was cheaper. It was the month that we had to make that emergency trip to Brazil and we could use that extra money.

We finally canceled our gym membership (we're trying to), and Eddie bought the X-Factor, sold the old bench and bought a better one with more things to do on it. I don't like it as much as I did the Bowflex, and to be honest I have only used it a couple of times. Eddie goes running every night for his cardio and I go with him about every other day. After cardio he comes home and works out for another hour and a half on this X-Factor and free weights.

Why can't I be like him? I could lose some weight and that's the way to do it, but I just don't have the will power that he has. He begs me everyday to work out with him. Some days it works, somedays it doesn't. It's so important to him, and I should be a better wife and make him happier by working out with him. I've tried to ask him to lower his work out time and frequency, but that didn't work. He says he needs to do it all 6 days, for at least 1.5 hours. So I'm trying to work out with him at least 3 times a week, and for at least 1hr...I'm trying!

So please, if anybody has any tricks or tips to help get my bum up and start working out with a smile on my face...let me know!

The Napa Valley Trip

This past weekend Eddie surprised me with a weekend getaway. All he told me on Thursday was for me to pack our bags, no details, nothing. I asked him a million questions of course: hot or cold weather, heals or tennis shoes, jeans or dresses, etc; but he did not bend. However, I love surprises so that didn't bother me too much. On Friday after picking him up from work and going to our chiropractor's appointment we hit the road.

We drove about 2.5 hours northwest from Merced into the beautiful city of Napa, California. For those who don't know anything about Napa or Napa Valley, they are known for their beautiful wineries. Napa produces 92% of all of the United States' wines. Does that not sound crazy? It's not a big place either. People go there from all over the world for wine tastings, but we just went sight seeing of course.

We drove around quite a bit, just admiring the beautiful place that it is. On the pictures you can see the gorgeous landscapes and the surrounding nature. There are hundreds of vineyards lined up one next to the other, many say it is a lot like Italy. There are old city centers with the cutest shops and cafes, an old style train that takes you around for tours, small houses that look like they have been there for many years, and beautiful gigantic mansions that really look like little castles. It is an incredible place. I couldn't believe that I was only a few hours away from home, because I felt like I was in Europe.

I would have to say that the highlight of our trip was visiting the Castello di Amorosa, or also known as "The Castle." It is an actual castle built on 120 acres of land and it is 121 k square feet. The owner is in his late 60's and took 14 years to build his castle. Outside it is made to look exactly like an old world, Renaissance castle. It has towers, and those drop gate things, and the water that runs around it...it's legit! All of the material used in the construction is from Italy and Austria; and I mean every single brick. The stones on the outside of the castle were hand carved and chipped. The paintings on the walls and ceilings are hand done by professional Italians. It has a church, a great hall, and dungeon, a prison, a torture room...everything that you would find in a real castle. There are 107 rooms, well..you get the point, and the pictures make it so that I don't have to explain in too much detail. Not the whole castle is like that though, most of the castle is an actual winery. Almost every room is used for producing wine, it's amazing.

Everyone should go visit Napa Valley. We took tons of pictures, but obviously I won't put all of them here. If anyone would like they could go on facebook and look at the whole album. We had a wonderful time. It was so nice of my hubby to do this surprise for me, it shows me how much he cares; I am a lucky girl!

The Construction Business

As many of you know Eddie works in construction. He graduated from BYU-Idaho with a Construction Management degree and after graduation on April 2008 he was hired by a company in California named McCarthy Building Co as a project engineer. It has been great so far, but lately we have had to spend many occasions on our knees asking our Heavenly Father to continue to bless us with a job.

Economic times are hard for almost every one right now, including McCarthy. In the last year Eddie has been working here in Merced building a hospital, and as with every other construction job, once you're done with one project you are on to the next. The problem is...there is no next. Not a whole lot of building is going on right now, and that makes things hard. There are way too many workers and not enough jobs, and the jobs that are coming in the future don't start for another six months or so.

Many people were laid off a couple of months ago, and some have been transferred already--which is great. I just hope that our turn is coming soon--to be transferred and not laid off! (knock on wood). We've been waiting and waiting, praying constantly, and crossing our fingers that we will be getting a new job soon.

The new hospital is supposed to be opening to the public on the first week in May, so we have just over a month for a miracle to happen. We feel good so far, and we're staying positive. We trust that whatever happens, or wherever we go, it will be according to the Lord's will for us. I hope to bring good news soon!

The First Valentine's

Last year for Valentine's Day Eddie sent a huge box from Sacramento, CA to Rexburg, ID as my present. In the box there was a beautiful red purse full of money inside, chocolates and cadies of all sizes and kinds, and my favorite...a gigantuous card with pictures. The card "announced" where we were going on our honeymoon. It had pictures of Kauai, the itinerary, and his kind words of love towards me (ohhhh, how cute) ...it was a wonderful surprise.

This year we decided to scale it down a notch. We planned on staying home on Saturday night and cook a yummy dinner together. What Eddie didn't know was that I had already gone to Target and bought a whole bunch of cute Valentine's Day dinnerware to make our evening even more special. I hadn't decided what I was going to give him as a gift yet, but before I even made up my mind he decided that we wouldn't be doing presents this year. He said that the dinner was enough and that we could maybe go to the hot tub later. He had his mind set already, and thought that that it would be more than enough, well...I disagreed. We got in an argument on whether we should do presents or not and I tried telling him it didn't have to be anything expensive; but like every girl I love to get gifts, and even more than getting gifts I love to GIVE gifts. Anyway, he won that argument.

Valentine's "Eve" came and we cooked all day. The ribs that had been marinating for more than 24hrs smelled heavenly. Together we made the ribs, risotto, asparagus, a yummy green salad, and for the first time, I made home made bread. It was all very delicious. That week I had also made Eddie a gift. It was simple, but cute. I made a 20 page coupon book for him. In the book there were things such as "get out of dishes free card," and "breakfast in bed." I also made him a beautiful card and inside wrote my words of love to him. I was very excited because even though he had decided for us that we wouldn't exchange gifts, I had taken the time to make him something special.

Well, about 1 hr before dinner, when I was setting the table, Eddie comes out with a gift box and a card. You can only imagine the face I had on. I couldn't believe him! After giving me a lecture on how unimportant presents were he shows up with one. He apologized for the big deal he had made about me wanting to get him a gift, he said that he was trying to be frugal but had gone way overboard. Anyway, he gave me these awesome running shoes, and he knew how much I was in need of new ones; it was very nice of him. Later I gave him my present and he loved it too, he thought it was very clever, haha.

We enjoyed a wonderful candlelit dinner afterwards, and that was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple.

The First Year

When you get engaged you think you know everything or at least most things about the other person. You have had months or maybe years of dating and courting. You think you know what the other is like; you think you know what makes them happy and what takes them out of their element. You know their pet peeves and you know their habits. You are ready to be married, and you think you know exactly what it is going to be like to live with that other person. Well, I'm here to tell you that you are wrong.

When you get married people tell you that married life is all fun and bubbly; that the first year as newlyweds is perfect, that you are still "honeymooning," and that everything is just right; that is not all wrong, but there is much more to it. What they don't tell you is that no matter how long you knew each other before you got married, you still have a world of things to learn about your partner.

Eddie and I dated for 19 months that were followed by 14 months of engagement. We were "together" for nearly three years before we were married, and let me tell you...we thought we knew EVERYTHING about each other, and we were also wrong.

We are coming up on 9 months of marriage now, and it has been the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to either of us. We are still adapting and learning how to live with each other, and some times we have to make compromises along the way to make us both happy. We have so much fun just being ourselves and enjoying each other. We make it a point in our lives to go on a date every weekend and to the temple at least a couple of times a month so that we can continue to kindle that love. We love to cook, play games, and watch movies together. Eddie still wishes that I liked working out as much as he does, and I'm still wishing that he would stop bugging me about it! It is not all fun and bubbly all the time; although we have our little stupid arguments and we don't agree on everything, we recognize that there are so many more things in which we do.

Our love and our marriage is centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we set goals for ourselves and for our future family, and everyday we try to be better people. We both feel that we are on this journey together, and together we want to share the good and the not so good times with one another.

I hope that through this blog we can be more in touch with our friends and family. We want to share what we is happening in our life with stories and photos, and we would love to hear from you as well....

ENJOY!