Few things to touch on.

Ok, so who had the best Thanksgiving? Or at least who had the best food? Between trying to make sure my thousand dishes didn't suck, my parents leaving the country the next day, and me having to work most of the holiday, I'm going to assume that most of you win over me. Not to say mine wasn't perfectly fine, just not overly fantastic. I do enjoy pecan pie though, and even though I force myself to stick to one slice, yum!! I'll post some more later though, with pictures!

My brilliant brother tore both his ACL and lateral meniscus in a football game last week. We found out this morning that he has surgery tomorrow. My parents made it to Germany just fine, but of course my mom is less than thrilled learning about the surgery. I'm hoping it doesn't affect their trip. Few things could affect a birthday romp across Deutschland visiting Christmas markets. But of all things, this could. Luckily this first surgery is an outpatient one. They are only fixing the meniscus first, and then going back in for ACL in a month or so. Poor kid. He's so physical that it's going to be rough, we'll have to keep a good eye on him though. He is one to try to work out when sick and injured, and this is definitely NOT the time to pull that.

Being a Nordyke, I am well versed in this injured field of reference. When we moved back to Iowa, my first few months were playing nurse/babysitter/chauffer to my mother who had just gotten done shattering her leg in Africa and was basically out of commission for half a year. Plus, with my own ankle injuries all growing up, if anyone is ready to take on the task this week, its me! And Tim, not to exclude him. He is totally helping out a lot. Its majorly helpful that his current job has the hours that it does so he can take over for me when I should be at the office for at least a little while.

As a side note, its the last week of this Next Level Extreme Fitness session. And what do I do yesterday morning? I SLICE my finger on a brand new Ninja blender blade. Massive tears. Half pain, half because i thought I would be out of kickboxing for the last week. I mummied out my finger this morning with plenty of gauze, and other than a few twinges, I was good to go! No outpour of blood like yesterday morning. Which is good, cause that was NO GOOD!

Look at me! Look at me!

This progression explains her so well.

Things I love about today:

• Killed the Kickbox Gauntlet this morning. I partially thank the playlist. Buckcherry makes me want to punch things.
• Learned that Tuesday is 80s Day at NLXF. Gotta get to shopping this weekend!
• Tried a new protein shake concoction. Peaches and sugar free vanilla syrup. Yum.
• Got in a ten mile run before 11am. The remaining 5 miles took the same amount of time.
• Received the call that I could claim Veterans Day and take the day off.
• Baked a batch of tasty pumpkin cookies for the video board kids tonight. Green sugar decor!

• Mom delivered me the new sugar free peppermint mocha lattes to work, and then when I wasn't there, brought it to the house for me!
• Trying out Dad's new Livestrong bike.
• Getting a full days workout in before having to work a double of games tonight. Volleyball and basketball, but Ill take that over football any day (sadly, Ill do just that tomorrow)

Things I love about today:

• Despite being at 6:30, this morning’s workout was brutally stellar
• New louffas are awesome
• A series of really good emails
• Starbucks now has sugar free mocha and sugar free peppermint
• My work space heater is loving on my legs
• Ally McBeal on netflix
• Planning and researching recipes for Thanksgiving
• Thinking about the chicken curry salad I plan on making for dinner tonight
• The salted carmel hot chocolate that will be the dessert following said dinner

What do you love today?

Nessa in November!

Nessa Pumpkin November!

No extra padding needed....

Things I loved about yesterday.

Yesterday was really good for a Monday, I gotta say. Especially with how crappy I was feeling by Sunday night due to the amount of junk I ate over the weekend (and not even Halloween candy!) All the little things of the day just seemed to add up nicely.

-Waking up at 5:45am for boot camp on a Monday was less traumatic than normal.
-Yoga was slow enough to relax, but still worked out all my poppy kinks.
-The chiropractor got a solid 6-7 cracks out of my neck without scaring me silly.
-My second round of kickboxing for the day was fantastic due to brand new shoes (like pillows on my feet), berry gum for lubrication, and a non achey neck due to pill popping (rare for me, so it REALLY worked well).
-Paula Deen in a monkey suit on The Talk. Making Monkeybread.
-Making a last Four Queens run of the summer season. Except I ate half my shake that was meant to last on the way home….
-Learning about our mid December shopping trip to Chicago.
-My goal to get in bed was 10pm since I've been getting up so early. And I actually made it by 10:20, better than expected!