Into 2015...

So, this is weird. I spent the better part of 2014 growing a human in my body, so as I sit down to recap the important moments of 2014, I'm realizing that most of them are going to involve pregnancy... but here goes, eh?

In January, I participated in the January Cure. I was feeling majorly burnt out from the 2013 holidays, but I managed to make a decent dent in my 30x30 goals.

February was pretty mellow. I participated in the #inversionsmakeyouhot instagram challenge. I managed to get a post up every day - even when I got sick at the end of the month.

March was a pretty cool month. Though it was the middle of tax season and I was pretty whelmed, I taught a really fun class at our local Lululemon, showed off a friend of mine's amazing new clothing line, and shared some of my favorite leg workouts you can do at home.

In April I took a staycation.

In May we flew up to Livermore for their Wine Country Festival, and later hubs and I ventured up to the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard.

In June I told you our big news, and not related to that at all, we became an internet television household.

July I got some friends together and we all did yoga at the beach. It was a blast. At the end of the month, I turned 30. That was real. We spent the weekend touristing around San Francisco. I loved every second of it and hubby laughed at me the whole time.

August was pretty mellow. I did manage to replicate a wrap I fell in love with at a local restaurant. So much yum.

In September we celebrated our 3rd anniversary! I can't believe how quickly 3 years went by!

October was when I wrote about changing my yoga practice. At the end of the month, I was lucky enough to be thrown the most adorable baby shower.

In November I put the finishing touches on little dude's room, and started really looking forward to meeting our baby.

This month, we ended the year with the most amazing and exhausting gift of all.

I am so looking forward to everything that 2015 has to offer. I know it is going to be filled with all new challenges. I hope I will have time for you to follow along as I learn how to be a parent and get my butt back into shape!

Happy New Year!

Yoga Baby; A Birth Story

Selfies taken from video diaries I made. Top left; 1:30am before we went to the hospital, Bottom right; 4am after we found out for sure we were stuck at the hospital for the duration.

Part of me wanted to start this post, "It was a dark and stormy night..." because it was very dark and very stormy - and on some weird level I knew (even predicted) my baby would be born during a storm.

Instead I'm starting like this...

On Friday, December 12th at 10:55pm, our son was born.

Yoga Baby; One Week

Yoga baby was born last Friday, December 12 at 10:55 pm. 

I do not have a week 41 picture because... Dun dun dunnnnnnn... I was in labor all day! 

This little human is entirely too perfect to wrap my head around. 

I'm working on getting his birth story written out. Hopefully I'll have that to post soon. 

In the meantime, don't expect to hear much from me on the blog for a little while. We're adjusting to life with a brand new, very needy little person in our home, and it's hard for me to justify the moments he's not in my arms, sitting at the computer when I should be getting some much needed shut eye. 

I hope you all have wonderful holiday. If I don't manage to check back in before Thursday, Merry Christmas! 

10 Christmas Traditions

*Yet another post I wrote this before our little man arrived. My friend Claire shared her list of Christmas traditions via vlog. I was going to follow her lead and post a video, but I haven't felt much like prettying myself up lately, so no video is happening. :P

1. What is your favorite Christmas movie? 

This one's a tie between White Christmas and Scrooged.

2. What is your favorite Christmas song?

Carol of the Bells. I was talking to my big sis about this one the other day in the car. I think it's one of the only songs I am always in the mood to hear. I particularly love the Transiberian Orchestra version, but it also great performed by pretty much anyone.

3. When do you open presents?

Since we got married, hubs and I have been alternating where we go for Christmas day each year. That's usually when the presents get opened - with whomever's family we're with. We open presents from each other whenever we feel like it - sometimes as early as the 23rd, but usually we open them on Christmas eve, or whatever the night is before we go where we're going.

This year I have no idea what's happening since we're planning to stay home on Christmas day. Since we'll have such a tiny wee one, we're not planning to bring him around to any big family functions. We will be opening some gifts with my immediate family (sisters, parents, bro-in-law) on the 23rd, so that'll probly be our big present opening day.

I Mustache You Some Questions

I scheduled this to post as of Tuesday night. Some time sensitive answers may have changed by the time this goes up on Friday.

A zillion years ago - and by that I mean a few weeks ago - my friend Hilary, who writes at Embrace the Neon, tagged me to answer some kinda fun questions. Hilary is quite possibly my very oldest friend - as in, we became friends when it was still socially acceptable to befriend someone by saying "do you want to be my friend?"

Read on if you share my interest in random tidbits about other folks lives...

Four names that people call me (other than my real name):

Ryssa, Lyss, Sissee, Lyssa-face

Four jobs I have held: 

Barista, Speech & Debate Coach, Intimate Apparel Production Coordinator, Yoga Instructor

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:

Scrooged (JUST watched this the other day), The Princess Bride, Pride & Prejudice (the Kira Knightly version), Dirty Dancing

Four books I’d recommend: 

I read like a child. Consider yourself warned. These books would be considered "fun" or "light" or even (some of them) "trash". The Princess Bride, The Hunger Games, One for the Money, some of the books in the middle of the Sookie Stackhouse series. Stop before you get to the end though, for Pete's sake, save yourself.

Four places I’ve lived:

Tuscaloosa, AL, Stockton, CA , Florence, Italy (for a month, but it counts), Playa Del Rey, CA

Four places I’ve been:

I've decided to choose the most random places I've been: Columbus, OH, Peachtree, GA, Russelville, AR, Tucumcari, NM

Those last two were courtesy of this road trip of awesomeness and Interstate 40

Four places I’d rather be right now:

Is it weird to say I'd rather be at the hospital? Yes, but I think I have a great reason for wanting to go there.
Bed, surrounded by cozy pillows
Laying on the couch
Basically laying down anywhere. Sitting in this chair is uncomfortable.

Four things I don’t eat:

Capers, and along that same line - lox, banana peppers aaaaaand ripe tomatoes (have to be underripe)

Four TV Shows that I watch(ed):

Orphan Black, Walking Dead, Parks & Recreation, Sherlock

Four things I am looking forward to this year:

This is going to be a little one-note #sorrynotsorry: Meeting my son, no longer carrying him around in my body, low key Christmas at home, taking adorable pictures of the little dude.

Four things I’m saying:

"He's good"
"Ouch"
"Good girl, Panda. You scared the bad guys"
"Still no baby"

Four people I’m tagging to do this next:

Claire, Amy, Alyssa, Rachel

Seven Days of Yoga; Week 49

Thor is due any day now. He's done cooking as far as I'm concerned and I'd much rather snuggle him than lug him around in my abdomen anymore.

But this is what I've been doing for exercise this week...

Wednesday Panda and I walked about 3 miles. It was a little rainy, but I wore a giant bright red Bama sweatshirt (Hubby's) and we treaded carefully over the slippery areas. We got home just a little damp. Panda needed to towel off... which is one of her favorite games ever. I'm convinced it's the only reason she'll tolerate getting baths.

Thursday afternoon I went to vinyasa flow. It was tough - as are all classes not geared specifically toward pregnant people, but I got a solid yoga flow on, so I felt really great after class.

Friday I took pregnancy yoga. Since I was 40 wks that day, I got to pick how intense our class was. I said to go for the tough stuff and do a labor inducing class. Obviously that didn't work, as I am still pregnant.

Saturday I took the day off in favor of an evening walk with my honey and Panda Bear. We only did a mile and a half. I was a little disappointed because I'd planning on it being my exercise for the day.

Sunday I opted for more walking instead of prenatal yoga. I did 2 miles in 40 minutes at a 1.5% incline. I felt pretty good afterward. Then I did some yoga stretches on my own.

Monday hubs worked from home so we went to the gym together in the early evening. I walked another 2 miles on the treadmill, upped the speed to 3.5 so I could walk to the beat of my music, and increased the grade to 2%. I actually worked up a bit of a sweat, which was a nice change from how I've felt about most of my workouts lately.

On Tuesday I decided to go to cardio barre. I was a little worried it would be too hard, but a friend of mine is just a few weeks behind me in her pregnancy and she's been going every week, and I took the beginner class. It was easier than I thought it would be. I definitely still needed breaks and it was a good thing I didn't attempt an advanced class, but I got a pretty great workout in... and then I proceeded to scarf down a cheeseburger for lunch. :)

How was your week?

Yoga Baby; Week 40

Week 40

Whelp, we made it. Today is Thor's "due date". The Universe decided we would do the full 40 and maybe a little extra, so here we are...

Here's what's happening with me and the little guy...

Cravings: No cravings. I get hungry and so I snack on whatever's around and then I don't want meals because I'm full of snacks.

Aversions: Just don't ask me what I want to eat after I've had a snack. The answer is nothing. 

Energy:  Sometimes my energy is actually really good, but don't expect me to want to stay up past 9pm.

Seven Days of Yoga, Week 48

Wednesday evening I accompanied hubs to the gym. I did 30 minutes on the treadmill at 2.5 mph (just a touch above painfully slow, but at least I'm walking, right?) and followed it up with 20 minutes of recumbent biking. I wore 4 strips of KT tape on my belly because it was feeling especially heavy that night.

Thursday morning, we got up earlyish for a quick Thanksgiving workout. I did 40 minutes  on the treadmill, followed by 20 minutes on the recumbent bike. I did not end up wearing tape on Thursday and it worked out OK. In retrospect, I probably should have, but I just plain didn't think of it as we were leaving.

Friday pregnancy yoga ended up being a lot of stretching our vocal chords. We didn't even start actual yoga until halfway into class, but everything we did felt great.

Saturday morning we went back to the gym for more walking and biking. I did 30 minutes walking at 2.7 and 34 minutes biking. My little sister met us there and did almost the same workout I did, except she managed some running while we were on the treadmills. It was nice to have her next to me to chat with while we cardio'd.

Sunday afternoon I was back at my regular prenatal yoga class. I missed it last week.

Monday I went back for more pregnancy yoga. It was a lot of talking again, but we did do some stretching - a lot for me, actually, since I mentioned it feels like baby's head is burrowing into my hip.

Tuesday it was pouring rain most of the day and I spent the day at my parents' house. I didn't get much exercise at all, but it was a weird day, so I'm ok with that.

How was your week?