Workout Plan #36,518

Since about mid-March I've had little to no motivation to work out. Or eat healthy. Or be a productive human being in general. I was doing so well with the ABC's and then I hit a wall and quit doing anything remotely good for myself. But something about swimsuit season and my ever-growing love handles made me decide it was time for a change. I cooked up yet another new plan that will hopefully be easier to succeed with than the ABC's, and is a little more structured than a plain old workout tally. Check it out:

Admittedly, I probably went a little bit overboard. Carl walked in on me cutting out 64 little colorful squares and made fun of me for about 10 minutes for finding a way to involve arts and crafts in my workout program. Make all the fun you want, but it really does help motivate me and I think that's what matters most. Here's the plan:

16 weeks of workouts-

Week 1: 7 workouts

Weeks 2-3: 6 workouts

Weeks 4-6: 5 workouts

Weeks 7-10: 4 workouts

Weeks 11-13: 3 workouts

Weeks 14-15: 2 workouts

Week 16: 1 workout

Every week has a square with the name of a workout video, and I get to put a color square on top of each one as a means of checking it off once I've completed the workout. Once I reach the end I'll have a beautiful hodge podge of colorful squares! Let's not talk about the fact that I have enough videos for a 16 week program... in my defense, some of them are included twice.  The weeks with less squares have harder, more muscle-intense workouts (those killer Jackie and Jillian videos), whereas the longer weeks in the beginning involve more cardio than muscle training. Since it seems like I start to lose motivation to work out hardcore once I start seeing any sign of results I decided to make the program get progressively easier in terms of time commitment. As you can see, I'm 1/3 of the way into week 2, and so far things are going great. I'm thrilled to already have the hardest week behind me. Wish me luck, and I'll keep everyone posted on my progression. I've already lost 5 pounds!

Okay, that's not true. But I feel like I've lost 5 pounds, even if the scale is a stupid jerk. 

Allison Bussells

This afternoon was a pretty big one for me. I said goodbye to almost 25 years as Allison Wonus and finally got switched over to Bussells. That's right, I'm officially a Bussells! I bit the bullet and paid a visit to both the Social Security office and the DMV. Let me take a moment to discuss the fact that the SSA office in Charleston is only open between the hours of 8:30 and 3. What the heck!? That's all well and good for all the retired elderly folks out there collecting their benefits but for anyone with a job it's really the pits. Luckily, I had the afternoon off and rushed on over to stand in line and make this marriage official. When I took my ticket and the estimated wait time was 100 minutes I got somewhat discouraged, but they kept things moving at a nice pace and it only took about a half hour. I figured I'd try my luck and hop on over to the DMV to get my license changed while I was still feeling motivated and again, it was miraculously quick. I didn't get yelled at, spat upon, or anything! (I'm always a little intimidated by the disgruntled employees at these type places).

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July! Aside from the sweltering heat wave that typically comes along with it, July is one of my favorite months. For one thing, it's my birth month- I'll be 25 in 5 days, yikes! Plus there's usually lots of trips to the beach, cookouts, fireworks, and tomato sandwiches:

I've had a least one of these every day of the past month. They never get old!

July 4th is also pretty near and dear to me because on this day 5 years ago I brought Melman home. I gathered up some of my best Melman pictures to share, so enjoy!

Melman was born May 12, 2007. Here he is with one of his sisters, just a few weeks old.
I'll be honest, I'm not really sure which one is him...

This was maybe two weeks before he got to come home. What a precious little angel. 

Melman and Liz- best friends from the start!

He came home and quickly started a lifelong tradition of stealing other dogs' food. 

Look how little he was!

He's lucky he's cute...

...because he frequently finds his way into mischief.

This is one of his lesser offenses.

Melman and Riley have always been best buds. I think they would have been devastated
if Carl and I hadn't gotten married.

Ah, true love.

Here's to another 5 years with Melman! I promise not to dress you up in silly costumes anymore.

I'm Alive!

Helllllooooooo, long lost blog! I can't believe it's been two whole months since I've been on here. I'm a little ashamed. The problem was that every day that went by without updating meant that I needed to have something a little bit more exciting to say than the previous day in order to make up for such a long absence. According to that rationale this post had some big shoes to fill, and so the whole thing quickly spiraled into a big, slightly terrifying ball of procrastination as the task grew ever more daunting. The good news is that we've had a pretty exciting summer so far and I've got lots to share (pictures, pictures, pictures!). Here goes nothing-enjoy!

I'll pick up where I left off, which was the end of April. That weekend we had our good friends Nick and Caroline visit us from Columbia for Nick's birthday jamboree (another congratulations to them on their recent engagement!!!!). Poor Caroline was having some serious wisdom tooth issues but powered through it like a champ and we had a blast! The highlight of the weekend was this fun little festival that we happened upon called Bunnies and Bluegrass at the Firefly distilleries on Wadmalaw Island. Somehow I had absolutely no idea that Firefly was based out of Charleston, so it was really neat to see the whole set up about a half hour from home. We were able to sip on local muscadine wine and enjoy live bluegrass music and great company.

Photo Recap:

Out to birthday dinner Friday night at El Bohio, a yummy Cuban restaurant on James Island.

In front of the muscadine vines at Bunnies and Bluegrass. Had they been fully ripe, I think
we may have lost Carl for good.

Caroline, Meaghan, and I- about to start lounging on our picnic blanket with the delicious wine.

The next weekend was Cinco de Mayo, which we celebrated on Folly Beach with Liz, Katherine, Alex and a few of their friends and friends' friends. The more the merrier! It was a beautiful day and the beach was packed so I was somewhat surprised at the amount of weddings we witnessed that afternoon. Everyone loves a good beach wedding but for the life of me I could not figure out why so many people wanted to get married among the drunken masses that are inevitably involved with Cinco de Mayo. There was literally a break-dancing competition not a half block away from us that has to be in somebody's wedding video. Not to mention, Carl's creepy mustache was enough to make any innocent flower girl cry:

A couple of restraining orders and complaints from local schools later, and the mustache is finally gone.

Shortly after that was Mother's Day weekend. We packed up the dogs and headed to Irmo, where Julie and Ernie had rented a boat for us to have a lake day! It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend and so nice to get out on the lake, even though the water was still quite chilly.

Julie, Caroline, me, and Liz enjoying a Mother's day mimosa on Lake Murray.

Next came my much-anticipated Boston trip for Jessica's graduation. It was a whirlwind of sleep deprivation, sight-seeing, and some serious celebration. It's hard to believe that 3 years have gone by since we graduated college and Jessica started law school. Everybody send her well wishes as she spends a sickening amount of time preparing for the bar exam. Here's a few pictures from the long weekend:

Boston. I crack up every time I see this picture because it looks like I just photo-shopped myself onto a postcard.
There aren't even any cars on the road!

With Jessica at one of the bars right next to Fenway Park.

Me and Liz in front of the capitol. 

At Jessica's graduation party

The next weekend was Memorial Day Weekend. We packed up the dogs again and this time made the trek to Sunset Beach, NC, where we stayed with our friends Ted, Pearman, Findlay, Becca, Marshall, and Beth. It was a gorgeous and awesome weekend, but somehow I neglected to take any pictures except for this one:

Patriotic and tropical jello shots, made by yours truly. 

Whew! That brings us to June. The amount of time I've put into this massive recap is enough to teach me a lesson about slacking off on the blog (ha! get it?). It's also made me realize how great a summer we've had- and it's not even halfway over. I have a feeling we'll look back on this one with nostalgia when we're old and arthritic, cursing ourselves for abusing our bodies and not taking quite enough pictures.

The weekend before last we flew up to D.C. for some quality Louis and Aditi time. I think that they are secretly professional tour guides on the side because we managed to see absolutely everything, all in the span of about 56 hours. My calves were so sore by the end of the trip from hiking all over the city and I was exhausted for the entire following week, but it was completely worth it. Aditi has most of the good pictures to herself on her camera, but here were a few that I managed to snag off of Carl and Louis:

The four of us in front of the main Smithsonian building (I think)

Me and Carl

Me and Aditi all gussied up on Saturday night, shortly before I got to sample my first ever Jumbo Slice- it was epic.

This past weekend we stayed in Charleston so that we could go to Charleston Beer Garden, which was pretty amazing. Our admission paid for a commemorative pint glass and pint glass coozie with which to sample beers from 10 different craft breweries. Carl and I showed up and were first in line, out of an estimated 10,000 people that showed up to the event! We are so dedicated. There was also some great live music, delicious food truck food, "beer school" classes, pretzel necklaces, and lots of other freebies. We had a blast and I so hope that they have another Beer Garden next year.

With one of our fellow beer samplers who chose to dress the part. Please note the fact that Carl is wearing his red College of Charleston t-shirt for the third set of pictures in this blog post, and my pretzel necklace has dissolved into just the string, which I neglected to remove from around my neck. We are a mess.

Be back soon, or at least before another two months goes by!

Six Months

Carl and I will celebrate our six month anniversary this Sunday- can you believe it!? October 29th feels like a lifetime ago, but at the same time it seems like I blinked and here we are. Some pearls of wisdom I've learned in the past six months:

*Marriage is nothing like it is on sitcom TV. But then again, is anything in life? I hate to say it, but we're pretty boring on a day to day basis. We've come to terms with the fact that something exciting doesn't have to always (and probably won't) be happening in order to enjoy each other's company. We also like to pull pranks... and by we I mean me. I'm already plotting my next good one.

*Changing your name is really annoying. So much so that I haven't officially done it yet. I changed it at work so I do sign Allison Bussells at least 20 times a day, but the government still knows me as Allison Wonus. The problem is that we keep buying plane tickets, and the name on your ticket has to match your i.d. The other problem is that I'm lazy. I WILL become a Bussells officially when I get back from Boston, I'm determined. But my email address and countless other usernames will have to stay in my maiden name for the time being- I'm telling you, name changes involve a lot more than they used to.

*A lot of people assume that as soon as you get married you plan on spitting out babies. And while we do look forward to having some very cute and short children one day, we still enjoy being reckless and irresponsible. Not to mention, the dogs are quickly chiseling away at the baby fund. Next time you see me and I've gained weight, don't get your hopes up. I'm not pregnant!

That's about all I've got! And in case you missed it on Facebook, we made a little splash on The Wedding Row as well as Reese Moore's blog. Here's the various links:

http://theweddingrow.com/allison-carl-thomas-bennett-house/

http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20583551616/allison-and-carl-on-the-wedding-row-another

http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20392663294/love-these-boys-how-can-you-not-adore-these

http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20694747666

http://reesemooreweddings.tumblr.com/post/20825708570/allison-and-carl-with-allison-and-carls

Here's to another wonderful six months, and hopefully by the time a year rolls around I'll have gotten my act together and changed my name!

Great Friends and Good Reads

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great start to their week. This past Friday I got off work a little early and booked it to Greenville to spend a weekend with some good friends. I've never actually been to Greenville, aside from driving through it on my way to Clemson, and I wasn't let down. I didn't have a single bad meal, all the bars that I remember going to were fun, and of course I was amongst great company.

Out celebrating Katherine's birthday! Katherine, Liz, Alex, and me.

On Saturday we went to the Upstate International Festival of Beers, and it was truly life-changing. Carl was a little bummed that he missed out, especially since my brother, Nick, made the trip down to crash our girls weekend (he had no idea what he was getting into!) and enjoy the beer fest. Basically you just pay to get into the festival and are given a little sampling mug to take to the various brewery tables and pick which one of their beers you'd like to try. It went something like this: stand in line, sip, stand in line, sip, dance, eat pretzels, stand in line, sip, sip, sip. I was a little shocked to see multiple people with babies in attendance- what the heck, get a babysitter! Between the loud music and a huge crowd of drunk people, those poor babies will probably scarred for life. There were also a few pregnant ladies, but Nick pointed out that they were probably DD's for the day. Still, that seems like torture. Let it be known that when I am pregnant, any person who dares drink beer in my midst will feel my wrath.

Here's us, towards the end of the festival if you can't tell.

See my little sampling mug?

I definitely plan on making another trip to Greenville soon. What a fun weekend!

Aside from visiting new places, I've also been a busy book reader lately. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I finished The Book Thief, which was amazing. Maybe it's because I  felt gipped in the World War II history department all throughout school, but I've always had an interest in any and all World War II fiction. The Book Thief is about a little German girl and the impact that Nazi Germany had on her childhood, as narrated by death, or a grim reaper-esque character. Sounds really uplifting, right? It actually had a surprisingly perfect mix of sad moments and laughable scenes, especially given such a heavy subject matter. Two thumbs up.

I also read The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory, the author of The Other Boleyn Girl. I'm sure there's a lot of criticism about her interpretations of history, but I really enjoyed this book. For all of the Shakespeare and accompanying history that I was force-fed as an English major I somehow couldn't remember learning about Mary, the queen of Scotland (aka the other queen), who was held captive in England throughout the middle years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, when it was up in the air as to whether she would ever get married and have a son to be heir to the throne. Whenever I read books about royalty I can't help but think how lame it would have been to be pretty much everyone else back then. If you weren't some sort of nobility you had to slave away your entire life for someone else, only to get beheaded or hanged or die at the hands of some disgusting disease. I guess we've got it pretty good now!

Last night I finished Jodi Picoult's Lone Wolf, also a great read. I've always been a big Jodi Picoult fan, although the last few books of hers that I've read have been somewhat similar in terms of the story being told from multiple perspectives and hinting at some plot-twisting secret that doesn't come out until the very end. I will say, the ending is never what I expected so she's got me there, and her subject matters are always different. She also does a thorough job researching her book topics and shedding light on flaws in the legal system as well as sticky moral dilemmas. In this book two children are forced to decide whether or not their father, who suffered severe brain trauma in a car wreck, should be taken off of life support or kept alive in a vegetable state. He had dedicated his life to the research of wolves, hence the title, which meant that I learned a lot of cool wolf facts along the way. Definitely a tear jerker- don't read it in public.

Whew! I feel like I just wrote three very incomplete book reports. I didn't want to give too much away, though- there's nothing worse than starting a book and knowing how it ends. If you have any good book suggestions, let me know... unless it's Twilight. I refuse to read those books.

Beach Day

As a resident of a coastal city, the amount of time I actually spend at the beach is something of a disgrace. It's about a half hour drive from our house without bad traffic, so by the time I make it out I feel obligated to spend at least an entire afternoon there, which is a pretty valuable chunk of weekend to dedicate to wind, sand, and water. This isn't to say that I don't like the beach, just that a lot of the activities that I so enjoy partaking in at the beach can also be done at our neighborhood pool or backyard or on the couch (ahem, day drinking). Yesterday, however, the stars and planets aligned just right and we packed up the Subaru for its first trip to the beach:

Look at the trunk space!

Carl manages to go to the beach all the time with just a surfboard and towel, but for some reason my involvement makes things a lot less simple. Two beach chairs, two beach bags, a cooler, a bocci ball set, a surfboard, some road rage and 3 stops later we arrived at the beach! 

I hunkered down with a jumbo bag of boiled peanuts:

Once the sun came out we started up a game of bocci ball:

The boys all called each other before hand and agreed to wear their red shorts.

And then the thing that you always hope doesn't happen at the beach (but statistically has to), happened to poor Carl:

Seagull poop to the face.

The reason he doesn't look as upset as you'd expect is because even though I scrambled to get my phone to capture the moment (such a good wife I am), the shock had worn off and the poop wiped and when I said, "act like you just got pooped on by a seagull," he took a little light-hearted offense. So really what I captured was his reaction to my obnoxiousness. 

All in all it was a great day! If sunburns were a measure of beach day success then yesterday is a chart-topper.