NEW YEAR NEW YOU!  YOLO! LIFE IS SHORT!

Did I miss any cliches?

Okay, we all know the best way to lose weight is to diet and exercise, right? And I’m a huge proponent of eating proper meals, and getting enough fruits/vegetables and protein, and NOT starving yourself, because if you starve yourself your body goes into starvation mode, and honestly, that’s not good either.  Plus they always say, don’t diet, just change your lifestyle.

You have to fuel your body properly to work out.  You have to treat yourself properly and consider feeding yourself as something that is IMPORTANT and not guilt-ridden.  And interestingly enough, cookies and dessert are not actually needed everyday. (This is something I struggle with during the holidays, not so much during the year, oddly.)

But sometimes you need a little help.  Or you feel a bit desperate, or like you need a little bit of a jump start. Here’s where Vitacost comes in! (Click on that link, I save $10 and you save $10.)

ALSO Vitacost is running a huge sale from 12:01 EST today (Jan 3) through 11:59 EST tonight!  24 hours only, so act fast.

From the company:

Achieve your goals naturally with help from Vitacost.com’s wide selection of diet products, diet foods and weight management supplements. Whether you’re looking for weight-management supplements, diet supplements to support lean muscle, or appetite and satiety support, you’ll find an array of dietary supplements to meet your needs. Forget questionable products or ingredients – you can depend on the high-quality, all-natural supplements offered by Vitacost.com. From filling fiber to caffeine-free formulas, Vitacost.com has everything you need to stay on track, without harsh stimulants and mysterious chemicals. Along with a healthy diet and exercise program, our dietary supplements and other products can help you manage your weight and feel great. At Vitacost.com, we’re committed to providing you with quality vitamins, diet supplements, minerals and other health products at the lowest prices available.

In addition to the one day only discount code, I have a giveaway to offer that lasts for a week.

Honestly, I wish the giveaway I had to offer you was for some protein powder, because I love that stuff and eat it every morning either in a fruit smoothie or mixed into oatmeal, but instead it’s for a Slim-Fast Starter Kit.  After all I just blathered on about, I’m suggesting you switch your breakfast and lunch for a shake or something.  But hey, free is free, right?  And yeah, it’s possible I just suggested you need to lose weight–it’s possible you don’t!  I won’t assume that everybody gained a bunch of weight over the holidays 🙂 (In fact, a recent study suggests being a little overweight could help you live longer…)

The contest runs until midnight EST on January 10.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Anniversary to my husband Chris! 

Last year:

This year:

(No, I’m not wearing my bridesmaids dress.  Yes, I did buy it because it sort of looked like my bridesmaids dress. It’s a short version and I got it for approximately $25 at Marshall’s and I love it! Yes, I own things that aren’t purple but I rarely wear them.)

Here’s to many more! 

Looks about the same, right?  The holes are where there were little wooden “support beams” for the cake topper. 

Tasted great too!  I wrapped it in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil, one year later, tastes fantastic!  We actually refroze it after each having a piece…I don’t know how many more times we can do that though.

Shameless “our wedding” plug: If you are new to the blog and you love weddings, be sure to visit my wedding tab!  We planned our wedding mostly by ourselves and had it in St Louis (at Moulin Events, and here’s a link to my post with all our vendors), so if you are getting married in St Louis and have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them (honestly I love talking about weddings, so feel free to talk to me no matter).  A good friend of mine recently got engaged and I was getting all excited talking to her about it, and she said, You really want to plan another wedding, don’t you!  I said, well, maybe…maybe I should be a wedding planner!  But seriously, no, it’s entirely too stressful (I do play violin for weddings, so I’m in the industry), but I had so much fun planning it (in retrospect, I think we had an okay time and fought a bunch) and frankly, I love attending weddings too.  I’m still waiting for my sister’s professional photographs and hope to do a recap of her wedding and vendors when that time comes. 

Who would have thought, back when I was five years old learning Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, that one day I would be a ROCKSTAR?

Okay, I’m exaggerating…a little.  But! Yesterday I played at the Scottrade Center with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  This is my third time playing with the group—it’s a touring show and they always hire some local musicians to fill out the string section in each city.  There’s one violinist (her name is Asha, for the “West” Tour—I think there’s another tour with another violinist) who plays electric violin, dances, and leads the orchestra.  To fill out the string section there’s another first violin (me!), two second violins, two violas, and two cellos, and we sit onstage the whole time and play through a thick book of music with very little rehearsal!  No dancing for us, don’t worry.

The biggest stress the first show was when to turn on the stand lights.  I was in charge of the stand lights for the whole group and had a little button on the floor.  I had to turn them off at the end of each song and then on again shortly before the new song started.  Sure, that sounds pretty easy, except for it was dark in between so I couldn’t see anything, like the set list, and since we didn’t really rehearse I didn’t KNOW when the new song was about to start.  I only made one real mistake when I forgot there was a song we weren’t on and turned them on early.  I am assuming no one in the audience noticed, what with all the lights and fire and dancing and singing.  The second show was easier as I knew what to expect. 

Can you find me in the picture?  I’m actually in all the rest of these pictures…

It was an exhausting show BUT it was really fun.  We classical musicians don’t usually get quite so many people cheering for us!  (I did play with Josh Groban once—that was interesting–the audience full of middle-aged women screaming and throwing underwear on stage.  I kid.  Sort of.  No, I really did play with Josh Groban, and I think maybe two or three times at huge venues in Columbus and Pittsburgh.)

(I totally stole these pictures from a friend’s facebook page.  I hope he doesn’t mind—his wife took the photos and I’m thrilled!)

That’s the fun bit of being a freelancer—every day is a different job so you never get bored and you never know what to expect.  Or at least that’s the fun part for me!  (Let’s ignore the 5 days of teaching the same people at the same times and pretend I freelance more 😉 )

Have you ever been to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Show before?  Did you find me in the pictures?  Do you think I’m way cooler now than you did before or have I ruined everything by asking that question?

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Here’s a double book review and giveaway!  These two books had the common theme of family and loss so I think they fit well together.  And I find the holidays to be a time that I always think about my family, and those who are no longer with us…is that just me?  I always get so introspective and a little depressed…

Celia’s Journey
by Heather Muzik

Celia’s Journey is the story of a family who loses a child in a tragic accident and how their lives continue from that point on.  I’m not going to lie, I cried more reading this book than I had from a book in a really long time (I’m thinking the last Harry Potter book…).

The Strane family (Lindsay, Jerry, Adam, and Max) have a wonderful and easy life until a tragic accident takes one of the boys.  Everything changes as the family members struggle with their grief and pain, and try to continue with life and put the pieces back together.  The book is a difficult read because of the subject matter, but it’s a really good read.  I highly recommend it.

Out and Back
by Diane Strong

Out and Back is the story of another family, but this from the point of the view of a daughter who loses her mom to cancer and how she copes with her life afterwards.  Amber is a mom and a runner (a synopsis I found online referred to her as a “obsessive running/fitness junkie”—I prefer “runner”) who has, as most of us do, a challenging relationship with her mother and struggles to create a “perfect” life for herself and her family.  (I definitely related to Amber in this book.)  The book jumps back and forth from earlier in her life to the present day to tell the story of her life and how she copes with her loss and other family problems.

Like I said, I enjoyed both these books.  Celia’s Journey is a harder read, but REALLY good.  Out and Back was more relatable for me since I’m a runner (and perfectionist too…or at least a failed perfectionist.)  I recommend them both.

More stuff: Heather Muzik wanted me to tell you about a promotion for some of her other books that starts tomorrow (Christmas Eve!)—these books will be free on kindle on December 24, 25, and 26 as part of a promotion. She said the “2 Till” books are light and fun, and the other book is dark and twisted.  I know I’ll be taking advantage of the promotion!

You can find some other books by Diane Strong here.

All her books have a running theme.  Diane is a runner, triathlete, and also participates in adventure races.  Crazy, right?

Another of her books:

Giveaway time!  GIVEAWAY CLOSED:  WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL! Okay, for the first book, “Celia’s Journey,” I am giving away a kindle or e-reader copy of the book OR a real paperback copy (mailed to US residents only).  For the second book, “Out and Back” I am giving away three kindle copies of the book.

Leave a comment below to win and let me know if you have a kindle or e-reader (you can read on your computer too and a variety of other ways).

I’ll choose the first winner randomly, and then choose three more winners who are up for the kindle copies (somewhat randomly, but funny, touching, or properly spelled comments would have a higher chance of winning!)  Winners will be notified by email.  This giveaway runs until 10 pm CST Sunday, December 30.

As thrilled as I am to be on vacation from teaching for over two weeks, that doesn’t mean I don’t love my students.  I do. 

Last night I said something like “Thank goodness I don’t have to see any children for over two weeks!”  My friend Laura looked a little insulted and said she would do her best to keep Benjamin out of my way on Christmas.  Mothers get so sensitive about these things.  I may teach him to play the violin on Christmas Day, just to spite her (he’s 8 months old, so it would be a stretch, but he’s a smartie, and I’m a really good teacher so it could work.)

This was a gift from my student who wore the horse head mask to his lesson one day.

And this from his mother!  The whole family is amazing and really gets me.

Then my friend Sarah sent me this picture.  Even better, she let me know that she followed the truck around the Tempe Marketplace for at least five minutes, waited for it to park, and then got out of her car to take that picture for me. 

Oh, and a note to recently married people:  keep your wedding registry up to date.  I found out my Mom sent us something from it and I hadn’t updated our address…since I didn’t think we’d be getting anything else.  Oops!  Thanks anyway, Mom!