Auntie!

The H side of the family has a lot of grandchildren.
When GAH and I started dating, his sister had 3 children - a 5 year old boy, 3 year old boy, and a new born baby girl. About 2 years into our dating, his brother had his first son. We went to the hospital the next day to meet the baby boy. I have no experience with new borns, so I was terrified of holding the baby! The family loves to make fun of me for this. Oh well!

On January 2, 2011 we welcomed another boy to the family and what I consider my first official nephew (GAH's brother's second son)!
Mom went into labor ~8am and had her baby at 12:26! It probably helped that she had been 3cm dilated for the last two weeks.
Congratulations H Family!Enjoy!
-ELH

Book Review - Fall 2010

Piiholo Ranch Zipline, Maui

It's that time again...
Fall book reading season started Sept 7th and finished Dec 31st. I read 15 books!

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett - I listened to this book since it was read by John Lee (one of my favorite narrators.) It was long and I definitely enjoyed it. This is the first book in a series of three that focuses on 5 families starting in the early 1900's focusing on WWI and will follow them for the next ~90 years. Recommend

Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver - I'll be honest, it is a hard book to start. I was confused for the first ~50 pages or so, but stuck with it and enjoyed it. It is a historical fiction with Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, and Leo Trotsky. Recommend!

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova - very interesting book about art. Recommend!

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri - great book of short stories. Recommend

Double Comfort Safari Club: LDA #11 by Alexander McCall Smith - Since I am not book #11, I feel obligated to continue the series...good if you have started the series, but not really worth it to start.
The Lost Art of Gratitude: SPC #6 by Alexander McCall Smith - See above :)

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - this is her third book and honestly wasn't that great. The story was drawn out and the conclusion was disappointing. Skip this one and read her other two fantastic books!

Vision in White by Nora Roberts - book 1 of the Bridal Quartet - great series for girls who love weddings and fast reading. Recommend!!
Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts - see above
Savior the Moment by Nora Roberts - see above
Happy Ever After - see above

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos - great book and a continuation of characters from Love Walked In (need to read). Highly Recommend!

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner - another book about a plus-size girl who hates her life until she looses weight, falls in love with the wrong man, finds the right man, and has a best friend whoes a flake and goregous. Skip this one.

Last Night at Chateau Marmont by Lauren Weisberger - The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing are much better books, so you can pass on this one also.

Enjoy!
-ELH

3 days in a row

So I sort of fell off the workout train the last few days. We were in ABQ visiting family and friends and eating tasty food!

The past three days have been full of workouts!
Wednesday - 5ish mile run - 1st half = 23:24. 2nd half = 23:04. Total time - 46:28.

Thursday - ~45min run/walk with Molly (5 year old lab mutt) and GH - both are trying get in shape! When we got back I did the compact chain (From Stephaine's Boot Camp) with 10lb weights. 10 reps -> 1 rep.
Compact chain is a long series of exercise performed back to back in just one seamless movement.

-push-up
-leaning forward row
-bicep curl
-alternating lunges
-triceps extension
-squat with shoulder press

Friday - repeated Wednesday's run - 1st half = 23:00. 2nd half = 22:30. Total time = 45:30! I finished the workout with a walk/run with Molly and GH in the neighborhood. The loop is probably 2.5miles and we did it in 51min.

Now it is time to rest up for New Years Eve!
I made chocolate pots and sea salt olive oil ice cream! Pics coming...
Have a great time tonight!
Enjoy!
-ELH

Workouts

Tuesday - ~5.5mile run in 48min. It was 24degs but with the wind chill it felt like 8! We did a different loop that was more protected by trees - running over 32 sucks!

Wednesday - Boot Camp!
2min of pushups - 35
5min of plank

2 times....each exercise was done for 4min (definitely a good workout!)
-superman (face down), hop up fast like you are a surfer, squat surfer jump
-3 mountain climbers, on the 3rd one, keep your foot up near your arm and do a pushup.
-table top (2 min on each leg) - feet flat on the gnd, butt down, arms behind you with your hands faced towards your feet, stretch up, keeping one foot flat on the ground the other foot points straight out, hips up, and head back. Probably a bad description :)
- squat jumps into a pencil - fast
-abs - pike position with your arms crossed over your chest, feet off the ground ~6inches and criss-cross your legs back and forth.

Next we did some arms work with bands.
Supermans keeping your arms at 90deg.
Abs
Stretching
It was a great workout!!

Thursday - travel day... I did walk from the C terminal to baggage claim instead of taking the train.

Friday - off. Errands and baking to do... pics tomorrow.

Enjoy!
-ELH

workouts

Workout update -

Saturday - 5mile run in 24deg weather! I did this in 41 minutes! This was the third time I have done this loop the last few weeks and I have progressively gotten faster at it - 45:30, 42:30, and now 41. Going to do it again tonight...


Sunday - Pilates and some weights. I really like the Ana Caban videos. She is a great instructor.


Monday - Boot camp with The Boot Camp Girl - Stephanie Dignan. I have been doing boot camp with Stephanie for almost a year and I love it. It is challenging every time I go. The work included:
Active stretching
2min of pushups (nose to the ground) - did 39 (my new record)!
5min of plank - my record is 20min...
Abs
Plyometrics - 3 min of mountain climber, 3 min of frogs, and 3 min of shoulder press with a squat jump.
Resistance bands mixed in between the plyometrics working on shoulders, arms, and back muscles.
Abs
Side raises to work on your obliques - I am terrible at this. It works my arms more than my sides. Maybe I already have great obliques!
Stretching
Usually we do a mile run, but it is too cold and dark. My best mile is 6:57!


On another note, my wedding dress came back from the cleaners/preserving place. I have decided to sell it. We don't really have the space to store it and I know if we have daughters, they won't want to wear it. I am going to keep my veil. It is preserved in a separate box!


-Enjoy!
ELH

Random stuff

I am going to try and be better about blogging....

So let's start with some random things....

I have been caffeine and soda free for 11 days! I did have sweet tea vodka with soda water last Friday with girlfriends. I have also curbed my drinking for the last week. I guess it is sort of an impromptu cleanse and realizing that the last two months have been full of lots of drinking and eating. I wonder why?!:) I do feel better, but get tired ~1pm. I think I will continue this until Christmas week. My mom loves Starbucks and we like walking ~1mile to the coffee shop.

I still haven't changed my name. It sort of seems like a daunting task.

We are in the middle of job/career changes - needless to stay, I am feeling the stress. More on that once stuff is settled.

Christmas shopping is done! And has been done for a while. For GAH's family we do gift baskets with an adult beverage and personal ornaments for the children. This year the baskets are full of small things from Maui! I got a few things in Maui for my family as well.

We did decorate our tree with all the ornaments we got from our rehearsal dinner. It looks beautiful! (I'll post pictures later...)

I am signed up for the Publix Georgia Half Marathon in March! 2011's goal is to do a marathon. A friend of mine started posting her workouts on her blog - I might take this up to keep you posted on my marathon training.

It is freezing here a few miles below the Mason-Dixon Line. I need to get a better winter coat. I have a wool pea coat that goes down to my knees, but in 20deg weather, I am still cold.

I will leave you with pictures from the Gobble Jog 2010...

Enjoy

-Not quite ELH!

Gobble Jog

The last two Thanksgiving mornings, I have participated in the MUST Gobble Jog. I run the 10k (6.2miles) and then walk the 5k (3.1miles) with various family members.
Last year, my time was ~56min. My goal was somewhere around 50min (~8:10min/mile) and try to be consistent with my splits.

My official finish time was 50:58.80 (average of 8:13min/mile)
67th woman out of 660
14th in my age group, out of 104
Pretty good!

Splits by mile from my watch-
1 - 8:02.89
2 - 8:17.33
3 - 8:20.72
4 - 8:27.94 - slowed down to pace myself, probably too slow
5 - 8:09.85
6 - 8:10.92
6.2 - 50:59.54

The was the first race that my splits were not all over the place, so I am happy about that!

The 5k walk took us ~56min!
It was a fun morning. The rest of the day.....not so much fun:( Ended up getting a pretty bad migraine that resulted in vomiting. Fun!
My new family took care of me and the day ended on a happy note!

Happy Holidays!
ELH