This week kicked off my exercising regime, I started by going to my friend Sally’s CX30 core class.

Followed closely by an hour long body attack class…

It hurt like a b*tch.  Well, not that day – but the next day, and the one after that….and the one after that! lol! I’ve only ever done one kind of group exercise, water aerobics, the average age of the class was around 75 and you were under water, no one ever saw you working out or sweating like a beast.

This? This is different, the skill set ranges from beginners (like me) to hard-core, ultra-fit exercisers like my friend Sally who takes the class. In short – I was pretty terrified before I went! I’ve not done any form of exercised (organised or otherwise), since my surgery in December, so I think this could safely be considered as jumping back in with both feet!

I can’t way it wasn’t tough, it was hard, but it was fun.  I took a lot of the ‘option’ moves, those that are easier than the hard core ‘full’ moves – I figure I’ll build up to those!

Back at home, after class (and a shower – ick!), preparations were in full swing for the 4th July BBQ that we’d planned for, later that day.  We ended up with eleven adults (two of which are pregnant), four kids, three dogs and a heck of a lot of food!

The bbq was a success, people enjoyed my cupcakes (Theresa even pointed out that I made my frosting from scratch, with real cream cheese – as opposed to using shop-bought frosting), we all had good fun chatting, catching up (some people I’d not seen for a while!) and it was nice to be able to introduce some new people, to some ‘old’ people!

I don’t remember what we did on Tuesday, but, I’m sure it was riveting!!

Wednesday brought with it a trip to Hobby Lobby for scrapbook convention, water aerobics (trying to get back in to it!) was cancelled due to a huge storm over head, so, instead, I made Col chicken Kievs for the first time (he’s been at me for a while to make them for him!) and just as we were finishing, the doorbell rang! It was time to babysit little Michael, so his folks could go to Colin’s leaving dinner.

Michael, as I’ve mentioned before, tends to only come over to our house when he’s being left by his parents.  Thus, he’s developed an association, my house means being left by mummy and daddy – so, he screamed for a few minutes after they’d left (which is normal), but before long, he was playing and content to watch Thomas the Tank and Yo Gabba Gabba.

Friday (again, no clue what happened Thursday!) we were up at 5.30am.

Scrapbooking convention day had arrived!

I know, I sound like a right dork, going to a scrapbooking convention.  Anything that is succeeded by ‘convention’ automatically draws giggles and groans.  However, I went last year for the first time (With my friend Helen) and I loved it.  Last year, it was held in Houston.  I left my brother Rowan with Col while Helen and I went up to the Galleria and scrapped! We did 4 (ish) classes then, this time, I did 9 and she did 10 (she did a Disney one that I didn’t want to do).

Col decided to drive me to the Woodlands (it’s just over an hour from us) and, en route, we called in to a Denny’s for breakfast (where I had a super healthy breakfast and he had a super unhealthy breakfast!)

Shortly before we pit-stopped at Denny’s, we discovered I’d forgotten my purse (stupid Las!) so, we needed to find an ATM to ensure I could spend a stupid amount of money on stuff I didn’t NEED, rather wanted! Once we’d remedied that small matter, it was onwards to the convention.

I quickly discovered that the Marriott hotel in the Woodlands, has seriously, seriously bad signal, so I was pretty much incommunicado…leaving me with two things to do…spending and scrapping!

During the classes, they have spot-prizes, I ‘won’ five of them – in separate classes, most of them were pretty useful and very well received!  We enjoyed the hotel restaurant both days (the happy hour prices weren’t bad at all, especially given that the food was pretty good and the portions not too skimpy!)

We even did a 4 hour, late night crop, where we did our own scrapbooking (I mainly finished projects from the classes from that day).

The crop was a lot of fun and I accomplished a lot!

Col picked me up when I was done, we had a quick dinner at the Pei Wei Chinese before heading home for F1 Quali.

Sunday started with breakfast at the Maddens new digs! Sam cooked up some bacon, eggs and pancakes, which we all covered with a generous helping of maple syrup.

Breakfast was quickly followed by a fantastic Silverstone Grand Prix and the arrival of the Van der Waals for a delicious roast chicken and lamb dinner and a game of ligretto (it’d been WAY too long!) When we got home, it was Top Gear, tea and some of the lovely Delia’s – eh, I mean Emily’s scrumpie cake for dessert! Yum!