Inspirations

A big Congratulations to my Mom! She met her goal of 55 before 55 over the weekend riding her bike all the way to Mifflinburg from her house. Congrats Mom, I am so proud of you. Inspiring...where do you think I got the 60 in 60 idea from...? ;) Love you.
In other news, BIG Hokie game this weekend that WASN'T on Texas cable. Big booooohisssss to the blacking out of the hokie game.  Wish I could have watched the magic live...
This is what Hokie love sounds like:



Kendall asked me this weekend, "What a Hokie?" and I proudly stated "I Am."
Go Hokies!

Rain Dance

I think we will be resorting to some serious measures soon. The weather gods have been teasing us here in this great dry state of Texas. Specifically deep in the heart of central Texas. This weekend is the first in a long time that the weather has followed through as predicted. Scattered showers but no good hard rain. It's so funny to hear people say 'what is this wet substance falling from the sky?', it's funny now but the closer and closer we get to repeating the La Nina weather pattern the more realistic a 9 year drought seems and the more frightening the prospect of non voluntary water restrictions become. With fires threatening everywhere throughout the state the more the lack of water scares the hell out of me.

We had visitors over the past week, Ashley and Scout stayed with us from Tuesday to Friday and it was awesome to spend some time with them. My favorite moment was Kendall and Scout's monumental bubble bath. Put the jetted tub to use for the second or third time this year...it's awesome what some jets and a few drops of Arbonne body wash can do. I think Jay said it best when he told Ashley we needed more bubbles. We did the traditional dinner out with Grindad one evening and then Mim the next. Cheddar's and Rudy's respectively. I skipped yoga all week, Tuesday through Thursday but it was totally worth the moments spent with our family. We miss those Holzers, a lot more than we knew before we were able to have the girls stay with us. Little heartbreaker Holzer herself probably said the cutest goodbye ever on Friday morning on my way out the door to work,"I want to stay here forever and play dress up and do laundry." I told her she could do all of the above especially my laundry if she was so inclined. Turns out a toy ironing board in Kendall's room was Scout's version of laundry.

Made it back to yoga after work yesterday afternoon and again this morning. I'm not sure what I ever did without it. Even on days that I do not feel like going, I even try to talk myself out of it often. Even on those days I walk out of the yoga studio after my 90 minute open eyed meditation as they refer to it in Bikram and I feel great. I feel refreshed. I feel better. I feel like myself. Yea I might be dripping in sweat, looking like I showered in my clothes and smelling like roses, but it feels awesome the moment you walk out of the studio. It's worth every moment you second guessed yourself before and during class. On a daily basis, normally during the warm up series of poses and then again in the back strengthening series I think to myself, 'what the hell am i doing here?' and then I remember I shouldn't be thinking at all and just breathing normal. Just be. Be in the moment. Regardless of where I am during my day, yoga has definitely retrained me to just be. Live in the moment and not get so caught up in the mental list of things I need to accomplish each day. I keep my eyes open and I breath normal much more often then my old self. No one is perfect and sometimes I find myself closing my eyes in disbelief or holding my breathe. I'm working to be in every moment so I can live every moment, good or bad and remember all of them fondly.

It just started raining and I'm actually excited that the satellite isn't working and I can just listen to the rain for the first time in what seems like forever... Dogs are all snuggled up on the couch with me. This is what fall feels like...in Texas!

Perspective...

Stumble!

Find perspective daily...

Hidden Talents...

Flashback to 80s family photog and you will find hidden talents in my family. Case in point. I never knew I could poop miniature farm animals.

One Day on Earth

One Day on Earth - Motion Picture Trailer from One Day on Earth on Vimeo.

Breakthroughs

Pillow Pet

Yesterday was a great yoga day. I was hesitant about any physical movement because of my lower back. They always say the best thing to do is to keep moving and in my case get back in the hotroom, so I did. Originally I planned to go back at 6am yesterday to try and heal my back but when my alarm went off and I rolled over my back said "oh no you don't" so I laid in bed for an hour longer. After rocking the yoga ball office chair (which did wonders) and walking like a little old lady most of the day I had to seriously convince myself to get back to yoga. I was more afraid of injuring myself further and not being able to move at all. So I got over it and went to my usual 7pm class. I forewarned the instructor about my injury and he told me to do what I could in class and not to push too hard on the forward bends. Terry at the front desk also had a surprise for me, she got me my 60 in 60 tshirt and I love it. I officially have my 'you can't buy this, you earn it' 26 in 60 tshirt for my 60 day challenge. I mentioned my injury to her as well and she made an interesting point. Typically when you have a new injury or pain its because you are about to have a real breakthrough in your yoga practice. At the time she said that I kinda chuckled as I walked or waddled into the hotroom. Guess what? This yogi did the toe stand pose for the first time ever. Standing on my left foot I went all the way down into toe stand, which has never happened before. I also completed every other pose including back and forward bending without pain, my only trigger was the straightlegged situp which really pained me but every other pose was a walk in the park plus I actually had a breakthrough. Even with my old lady walking and standing before class I had a breakthrough. Go me...Go yoga...Go hotroom whenever you have pain!
On a not so similar note, I have been so intrigued by the Amanda Knox story. As have many, many, many people over the past four years. I was shocked two years ago when she was convicted and I felt goosebumps and relief for her and her family yesterday when she was freed. I was watching a tv special on friday night about the case and the upcoming verdict and I looked at Dustin and said "I don't know why I'm so intrigued by this case?" and he pointed out that I studied abroad and it was almost like it could have happened to anyone, it could have been me. Despite the name (obvious similarity there) there's not a lot of similarities between Amanda Knox' experience in Perugia, Italy and me in Lugano, Switzerland. We were both 20 year old women leaving home to study abroad to learn more about ourselves and different cultures. I wouldnt change one moment of my experience abroad and I do not idolize in one bit  or wish upon anyone else what Amanda Knox went through. I hope her and her family are now at peace as they return home after her 4 years of helplessness and hopelessness. My one hope for everyone is that this doesn't detract from study abroad and travelling in general. The benefits of living within and learning about a new culture firsthand outweighs any media circus or murder mystery. What you don't hear anyone talking about is the number of American students living and studying abroad each year and how many of those individuals get caught up in a foreign judicial system for crimes.

Weekend Tales

Beyond the fact that it was a horrible football weekend in the Laycock household the hours and days clicked by in a hurry. I did the usual Friday afternoon Yoga class in the CP and was pleasantly surprised to meet up with my original yoga buddy, Kim. Kim and I started taking Vinyasa flow yoga together at Kat's studio way back when we were neighbors in the CP. I walked into Pure on Friday and low and behold Kim was signing up. Not only did we take class on Friday together we went both Saturday and Sunday morning. My latest breakthroughs in Bikram have also caused me pain as of late. I'm pretty sure I "threw out" my back on Sunday morning right after the warm up poses. I've noticed over the past weeks that my standing back bend right at the beginning of class has improved ten fold. I can actually look for the floor these days. On Sunday morning I really did notice how far back I was compared to the norm and I REALLY noticed it when we started the balancing series. I reached forward to grab my foot and my back told me "NO!". The rest of my practice Sunday was a struggle. Your lower back is real important when it comes to yoga and life in general and it was screaming at me the entire time. It was probably the best thing in the world that i was in the 105 degree extra humid room because my back really would  have hated me for continuing to attempt the poses in a normal temperature. The rest of my day Sunday was directed by my lower back allowing me to do only so much at once and aching even when sitting or lying down. I must say my yoga ball office chair has never been so perfect for my circumstances than it is today. Only position I feel no pain!
So the Hokies and the Aggies really messed up this weekend. It was a bad alma mater weekend in our household. Dustin said it best "at least the Aggies scored A touchdown." Poor Hokies. As per the usual the Bud Foster defense was awesome, we have NO offense and we are KILLING ourselves with penalties (atypical for Beamerball). What has happened to my Hokies? And ok...seriously Frank Beamer needs to up the ante on Special Teams. Uninspiring. If we could clone David Wilson for all positions on the team I'd be a happy camper. Maybe Wilson, Jayron Hosley and Danny Coale. I'd also keep George George just because he has the coolest name in history for a white boy. We do have a freshman QB and he has been struggling but seriously David Wilson is amazing. Best play of the game and the closest we came to scoring a TD. We gave Wilson a break to catch his breath after this play and the Offense successfully screwed the pooch and got NO POINTS.



Ahh football season...I didn't catch much (any) of the Penn State highlights but from what I hear they played like a high school team so all in all, football weekend BAD for Amanda.
In other news, Ashley, Scout and Jay were in the aTX this weekend and even though we didnt get the catch up (yet) there was comfort in the fact they were in the same area code again. We miss them. Jay's dad is heading off on a new venture with the Peace Corps so they were spending time with him and Jay's family this weekend before his departure. We'll get to spend some time with Ashley and Scout this week when they stay with us. It will be nice to have a big ole slumber party. Jay had to go back to CA for work and we were sad to have missed him. Should have had a big football party this weekend but I'm slightly glad we didn't due to the devastating outcomes of all the games.