My name is NOT Lou!

When Emma was born almost 4 years ago her parents named her Emma Sage. I, for some reason have ALWAYS called her Emma Lou. Last year she decided her name was Emma Ariel. Her parents weren't too supportive of that and told her your name is Emma Sage. So Emma, clever girl that she is decide to just add Ariel on to her name.

Last Saturday I took the girls to the mall to meet grandma and buy Easter dresses. As I was unbuckling Emma from her car seat I said, "there you go Emma Lou." Then I walked to the other side of the van to get Morgan out. Morgan just turned two and has been speaking in sentences for about 6 months. I know she is brilliant, but she also says the funniest things ever!
After unbuckling Morgan she turned to Emma and said, "let's go Lou!" My mouth dropped open and then I had to hold my laughter in as Emma at this point stomps her foot and says, "My name is not Lou, it is Emma Ariel Sage..."

Oh how I love these girls! Lucky for me they live around the corner and I get to see them whenever I want. Also lucky for me I have a great sister who always lets me in!

And how was your weekend?

By this time next week we will have a Fabulous new kitchen and dining room floor! No more carpet under the table! Yea!

P90X...and Yoga Again!

I know I'm writing a bunch about P90X and yoga, but I just can't believe how hard it is! This morning I was doing the P90X Yoga workout, and I'm improving little-by-little. My favorite move is at the end, and it is called "The Corpse". In the Corpse, we just lay there as if we are dead for a 60 seconds...I almost fell asleep!

I don't know all the names of the moves, but the one that I find nearly impossible for me is the one in the picture below called the Half Moon Twist (or Twist Half Moon...or something like that). I dare you to give it a try.

P90X...And Hairless Chest

I'm almost embarrassed to write about this one, but it's pretty funny. Since I've been doing P90X, I was noticing that Tony (and a lot of other muscular guys) don't have any body hair on their arms, legs, chest, or back. I'm not sure what they do. I suspect they pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for laser hair removal treatments.

To tell you what I mean, here's a picture of Tony Horton, the P90X guy:

Well, I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I saw my wife had some Nair in the bathroom cabinet, so I decided to see what it was like to have a hairless chest, stomach, shoulders and upper back. Thankfully, that's where I stopped; I still have hair on my arms and legs. It took a total of 2 Nair treatments. The first one only took off hair in patches, so it looked kind-of funny. The second treatment (a day later) removed about 98% of the hair on all those areas. OUCH! It was so painful! The pain came from the burn that the Nair caused on my skin! It took about 3 days to get over the burning rash!

Well, once I was hairless, I looked totally weird, and Zack commented by saying, "Now you look fat." I appreciate the honesty of children.

It did remind me of the movie "Shrek the 3rd" when the cat and Donkey switched bodies because of a bad magic spell, and Donkey was standing up now as the cat, and he said, "I feel all nasty and exposed!" That's kind of how I felt.

Fortunately, my chest hair is growing back now, and I'm thinking I'll just let nature take over. I also know what it feels like to have my eyebrows waxed because Becky couldn't stand how they were all wild and crazy. I really feel bad for all the women out their who subject themselves to these beauty treatments. That stuff hurts! I'm glad I'm a guy, and can just be hairy.

P90X...and Yoga

I haven't quit working out, even though I'm not at Jim's Gym anymore. I started shopping around for a gym to join, and I was having a good time taking advantage of each of their 7-day free trials until I found out a neighbor and a friend of his are doing the P90X workout in his basement every morning. I asked my neighbor if I could join them, and he graciously agreed.  I've been doing that program for over a week now.

The P90X program is a 90 day (12 week) program. My neighbor and his friend were on week 3, so that's where I started. I had heard horrible and scary things about how hard P90X was, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The first workout was great, and I was definitely prepared to handle it. Jim's Gym had made me work a lot harder than that first workout. I admit that the workout is tough, and I don't recommend it to anyone who can't meet the minimum requirements for the program. Over the next few days I was going along fine with the P90X workouts, until...BAM! I had to do Yoga!

I've never done Yoga before, but I figured I could do it. Well, I was wrong. I can't really do the Yoga workout very well. I try. My intentions are good, but my body is well below average for it's flexibility. I've done the P90X Yoga workout twice now, and both times have been a humbling experience. I've even purchased Yoga blocks to help. You haven't heard of Yoga blocks? Well, I hadn't either until about a week ago. I get to try them for the first time this week.

I'm trying to keep positive about my Yoga skills, even though I feel so uncoordinated and inflexible while I'm attempting to do it. I guess I just need to trust that if I keep going, I'll get better.