A new Kelly tradition?

Several months ago, ma and pa decided that they wanted to sponsor a few scholarships for two of the local graduating seniors from good ole Escondido High School. The original intentions (or at least what I thought the original intentions were) that they were going to go to a football playing boy from mom and dad, and a cross country or track running girl from Bonnie, Molly, and Shawna. Because of technicalities however, the only requirement this year was that we were to pick a boy and girl both involved in sports (though of course running was going to earn them golden points from the Kelly girls anyway).
So the school sent Mom and Dad a bunch of packets which included the autobiographical essays, letters of recommendations, grades, names, addresses, financial status, basically anything you can want to know about these kids- were probably all included.

And of course, the names of the recipients of these scholarships had to be submitted one week before spring break, when Molly and I already had a trip scheduled to go out to California. Therefore, Molly and I dubbed the first weekend in April as "Scholarship weekend" and we met up with the family in Cali for a quick weekend retreat.

Though the three of us spent several hours reading about, and laughing with, and crying for (ok not really), ranking, and ultimately choosing two "winners," we still found time to squeeze in other exciting adventures. . .

Lunch with Aubs and her friends, before we hit the nail salon for some much needed pedicures.

Brooklyn's first hot tubbing adventure (that lasted maybe a good minute).

Cayd's baseball game.



Setting up, and playing with the newest Kelly backyard toy!


And spending quality time with the baby we don't get to see enough.



Choosing the scholarship kids was much harder than I anticipated. We all had different opinions, and wanted to help so many of them. It made me realize how lucky I am (though I really already knew this) that I had such a good upbringing and such a great family that would do anything for me. There are a lot of kids out there that have overcome so many sad or scary things in their short lives so far. For some examples, to help us "remember" the different papers we read, they ended up with labels such as "dad with cancer," "alzheimer's mom," "druggy mom," and "hungarian immigrant." Nothing that I could have remotely related to when I was that age. . . or even now!

Of course, to go with some of the sob stories, we did have a bit of fun teasing some of the very dramatic teenage girls we got to read about- as with the somewhat "odd" kids as well. Though I strangely enough loved "theatre boy with my matching birthday" and we didn't know whether to laugh at or cry for "girl that felt like she grew up in a prison," it was a tough decision and we didn't want to end up making the wrong choice. After several discussions and rereads, we ultimately did a little facebook "stalking" and are satisfied that our final picks are not "freaks."

I am proud to be the daughter of two parents that would choose to involve us in an activity like this, and I hope that it is a new Kelly tradition that continues.

It's about time

Every time something happens to my car (which is quite regularly) I swear that it is the final straw and I am going to get a new one.


Then I don't.


And a few months later, something else breaks. And I swear I am going to go get a new car.


Then I don't.

And a few weeks later something else breaks. And I swear I am going to go get a new car.


Then I don't.


And a few weeks after that, it happens yet again. . .



and this time- I did!!


It's a Honda CR-V. I showed up to the car place "just to look" because I really had no idea what I wanted.

and looking turned to buying. . .



Good bye little blue bug!!

Oldie but goodie. . .

I was browsing through some of my pictures and came across this one. . .



a few months ago I was kind of dating a guy. One night in random conversation he told me that it was surprising that we were dating. Afterall, I wasn't really his "type."

My next question of course being what exactly his type was. . . in which he responded

"I usually date brown haired athletic girls."

. . . I should have known from that point on that I was probably better off without him.


(and if you couldn't figure it out. . . I'm the brown haired girl on the left)

More specific huh?

60 minutes. . . think you can endure anything huh? Not so easy. . .

Several people have asked me to be more specific on what each workout consists of. Though I will not keep you informed everyday. . . I will give you a few examples of some of the classes I have attended. Keep in mind. . . some of it may not sound so tough- but its just one of those situations that you cannot fully comprehend until you are there. So you'll have to believe me when I say- it's tough!

Each day, we start with a mile run around the park. So on day one, upon finishing my mile, I was partnered up with a girl and we basically had to lift this long plastic pipe filled with rocks or sand (or something insanely heavy) back and forth over our heads from shoulder to shoulder. Then we had to hold it over our heads for seconds/minutes at a time. Then we (finally) got to drop the pipe and were down on our bellies for 10 push ups then onto our backs for 15 sit ups (yes- sit ups, NOT crunchies). Not too tragic huh? Till we repeat that set 15 times. . . yes 15 TIMES! Then we circled up and did a variety of ab exercises while he pulled a few people in at a time to lay on the ground and bench press a good ole bootcamp style log. Yup. . . I bench pressed a log.

Day 2 was cardio. We ran our mile, and then upon finishing, had to turn around and run back to find the last person, before getting to turn around and go back. When I got back, he had us in a circle doing jumping jacks, high knees, mountain climbers, etc etc. While we are doing that, he is explaining a 5 pt course where we would run sprint, then bear crawl, then sprint, then run backwards, then sprint from cone to cone to cone. Then you repeat. So we go right from our circle to doing that several times. I'm not good with distances, but the other end of the park is maybe the length of a football field?? So randomly he'd say- "sprint to the cement path!- and hurry!" (by that time nobody is really sprinting- but that's ok). Then you would come back and go right back into that 5 pt circuit. Then we lined up to do some sprinting, crab walk, and wheelbarrow relays. We did some suicides (basically more sprints) and randomly he would just say "sprint to the cement path- and hurry!" And off we'd go. (That happened probably 4 times throughout the workout).

The leg day was seriously the worst. We ran our mile and when we returned he had tires sitting out waiting for us. Picked up a tire and were told to hold it over our heads to do 150 squats. Yes- our warm up was 150 squats! When that was finished, you got to put the tire down, but did lunges until everyone else was finished. Then we circled up and did (2) squats, then some kind of minute long leg exercise then we did (4) squats, then some kind of minute long exercise. We continued that pattern til we were doing (36) then (38) then (40) squats. Then we were frog leaping up a hill doing a squat in between each leap and at the top of the hill we had to sit against the fence (no chair of course) for a minute or so.

Most days I don't know how I survive it. The thing about each day, is it is NON stop. He NEVER has even a 30 second break- you are running from activity to activity and there is always something to do next. It is exhausting!!

Currently, I can barely walk, barely sit down, and can hardly hold my arms up-- but I will forge on. . .

My first battle wounds

Nothing too tragic. . . just some skinned up fingers (more on the other hand, however it is virtually impossible to take a picture of both of your own hands).


Here is my bootcamp update.

I am fully committed and LOVING it.

Ok- during the actual workouts, I sometimes want to cry. They are seriously insane.

But afterwards you just feel so awesome for surviving.

It's only been two days though.

I might reconsider in about a week. Or perhaps. . possibly tomorrow.

This morning I woke up and found a surprise on my porch. . .

It was my grocery shopping!!

Yes, this most definitely does sound like another groupon find.

Dad got it for me! I got to pick "farm fresh" healthy food to have delivered right on my porch.

I managed to find some of those not so healthy purchases they offer as well. :)

They deliver to my house Mondays at the weee hours of the morning. Wouldn't that be a fun treat to start my week off each week?

The food is kind of expensive though. . . so it probably won't happen.

Maybe every once in a while just for the fun of it.

Afterall. . . I am now an official winderfarm customer-- the "cool" ice bag proves it!

Thanks dad!

Yes Sir!

Dad kept buying me all those bakery, and cupcakery, and pizza groupons. As a result I had to buy this one.

Bootcamp.

Monday thru Friday, every day, after work, for the next month. I'm pretty excited. A bit scared too. I hope to love it. But I won't really be able to afford it after this. So maybe I hope to hate it a little too.

Not only did I talk a friend into going with me, but she actually let me count it as her birthday present. No worries, I gave her a water bottle to go with it. By the sounds of it, she'll probably be needing it too.

We signed our life away on a waiver already that was filled with all kinds of rules. Then my favorite part. . .

BREAKING THESE RULES WILL RESULT IN DIRECT PUNISHMENT, A GRUELING EXERCISE OF THE INSTRUCTORS CHOICE.

By next month, I will be a whole new Shawna (or maybe half the Shawna that I already am). Ha ha

That way, I can continue to enjoy those prized gifts from my dad. :0)