DPP 23: Photo Fail?

The only photo I could get in of the gift exchange before my phone died. Apparently not charging it after my morning at the gym wasn't helpful.....

DPP 22: Taco Eating Father!

I'd be creeped out too by all the little dolls watching me eat my tacos....

DPP 21: Oh Christmas Tree!

It's not really a Christmas Tree until the gifts are underneath. Today its finally official!

DPP 20: Mommy's Wrapping "Helpers"

DPP 19: GO AWAY SNOW!

Not even 10pm and tomorrow is totally ruined by the "Snowpocalypse". Stupid cancellations. Stupid snow. I am boycotting by refusing to post a picture of it! So here is Chloe, one of my parents cat's posing for their birthday gift a few weeks ago. 

DPP 18: Post Vacation Chaos.

Haven't been home in a week. And within an hour, the house explodes!

December Photo Project 17

Last one from Texas!!! DPP 17: It's not a hot dog joint until there's a weiner dog on the wall....

Yoga Teaching Adventures Begin!!!

So I guess it's been long enough that I'm safe in posting about my new gig. I've finally put my 200 hour training to public use!

I really couldn't have asked for it to happen any better than it did. I wasn't really feeling in tune with the ONLY yoga studio in town, so imagine my happiness when I saw a new studio opening in September, and not only that, but HOT yoga, my true love! Oh yes.

I started going, almost obsessively. The studio is just gorgeous, clean, bright, beautiful. The owner is this total light of smiling joy and happy. Plus she knows her stuff (you know how annoyed I get at instructors that think an abs class with downward facing dog intermittently is "yoga"). She's completely knowledgable and uses it, love it. And people know it, I've seen zero advertising and she's turning people away at the door at max capacity, FOR A SUNDAY NIGHT CLASS. Yeah, that's what's up.

I was trying to play it cool, get well integrated before I brought up teaching, and before I knew it, October rolls around and she brings it up herself! I didn't even have to have the awkward ask for a job moment! It's just her teaching, with another instructor taking 2 or 3 classes a week (out of 20some). So the arms were wide open for another instructor!

I started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, probably ideal, I figured since the holiday would give me a smaller class. WRONG. 17, first class ever. Including the owner, who of course was awesome, but it's still that much more intense.

I thought I would have a heart attack that morning at the gym beforehand. Literal panic attack. But I got to my car between the gym and the studio to find Tim had left me a good luck present. not that I could even look at it without wanting to throw up. I could barely breathe. Let alone keep my mouth wet enough to practice AND talk through a 105 class for an hour. It was brutal, I kept tripping over leg versus arm versus right versus left. But I made it through and got plenty of compliments at the end.

It's been a month of teaching Mondays and Wednesdays, including a Saturday fill in. It's taking longer than I thought to get acclimated. Getting rid of dry mouth talking in that heat is hard, impossible when you factor any nerves. I still trip on right versus left a lot. And your arm has three parts. Placing your knee at your hand is very different than your elbow in plank....

But I haven't had any haters! Only compliments. A lot of them are regulars, so that's awesome, but I have at least 1-2 new people in each class, meaning new to yoga, not just new to me. So that's a struggle to teach a class that is good for someone of my level (or to be honest, probably better than me) but yet good for someone who literally can't get from there hands and knees to standing in under a solid 60 seconds.

My first was for sure my biggest. Gone all the way down to 6. But I feel more comfortable every time. It's not even a public speaking thing. It's trying to remember the sequence I created, hoping its hard enough and takes up the full class. I'm getting better at adding stuff on the fly dependent on how I think it's going, but it still needs work. I have heard that my classes are more challenging though, so that's good in my mind. The more practice I get before the New Years Resolution crowd, the better.

I gotta say though, a perk of teaching, you get to call your own shots. We were starting a balance series last week, and I was like, geeze my neck hurts, I want to stretch it out. *lightbulb* "Ok, before we go into our balancing sequence, we're going to come to mountain and do neck rolls." That's right, because I CAN!

Because I am the yoga instructor. :-)

       

DPP 16: Texas Style, Photobomb!

DPP 15: Texas Style Holiday 5k

Trail of Lights 5k tonight. This guy took it seriously. I love the dedication.

DPP 14: Torchy's Tacos is Terrifically Tasty!

DPP 13 (Special Edition, Texas style)

DPP 13 (Special Edition, Texas style): Why must the ones I want be the ones that are $600?!?!

DPP 12: Balanced Diet

DPP 11: Mysterious....

Ended up at Convienent Care with only ten minutes to spare before closing. Weird leg rashes before traveling for a week don't make for a sound mind. But all is good! 

December Photo Project 10: Olivia's Crinkle Sack

It's Mine. Touch it, make it crinkle, and DIE!!!!

DPP Catch Up!

I swear this week lasted a month and an hour all at the same time. I needed the weekend to catch up on everything, and it was even busier than the week! So forgive me, I must do what I hate, three December Photo Project Posts in a row.

Friday:
Last Gauntlet of the session. Only to receive my brand new wraps AFTER class. I want to go punch things NOOOWWWW.

Saturday:
Got called in to teach class with Corinne not feeling well. An hour to prep. Happens. Certainly got my adrenaline going right out of bed! Only to straight to work at UNI, then a coffee and sushi date with the boys.

Sunday:
Brunch with the boys again. And an afternoon of prepping yoga practices for the next few classes. Yoga after blueberry pancakes induces lots of groans and collapsing in sleepitude onto the floor.

DPP 6: NLXF Beat Down

One round is:

Ladder/steps/hurdles straight

Ladder/steps/hurdles lateral left

Ladder/steps/hurdles

Lateral right

5 burpees, 10 push-ups, 15 sit-ups, 20 squats.

And you do that 8 times.

22:25. I wasn't first, I wasn't last. And I beat Tim (so what if it was only 40 seconds).

Holiday Sweater Babies!

December Photo Project: Day 5. Take Me Home Tonight!

Ok, I wish you could see the pants better, but at 6am, this is the picture you get. 80s Day Gauntlet! Ready to rock!

DPP 4: Night Jobs.

Not your average workplace.

DPP 3: Fly Away!

My parents left on their annual birthday trip. Peru's Machu Picchu. I'm hoping for a Llama souvenir! Not a stuffed one. Full sized. For Nessa to ride around on.

December Photo Project. Day Two

Day Two. Hunting for the perfect pictures.