Zum-baaaa

Recently I've become mildly obsessed with Zumba, a latin dance inspired workout class. Okay, considering I was dancing in the middle of a Mexican restaurant last weekend I would say I've become VERY obsessed.

Matt thinks I'm crazy but is really happy to see me so happy. AND my gym usage has more than doubled since our club in Lakeville has started offering Zumba classes. It has gotten so popular that the group class on Sunday nights had to be moved into the gym. This was the first time that has ever been done in Minnesota. And the one on Wednesdays has gotten so big that they have to hand out wrist bands to the first 100 people.

If you haven't heard of Zumba yet, check out this video done that aired on the Today Show introducing Zumba a few years ago.

Okay, so why am I so into Zumba you ask? Honestly it's one of the most exhilarating, wonderful, freeing experiences that I've ever had! After a long hard day/week/whatever I enter Zumba class, start moving to the music and immediately feel this incredible overwhelming joy. I actually almost cried one day because I was so happy to be in Zumba, releasing all my stress and just dancing to the music. There is no pressure, no need to make your dance steps perfect, you just have fun and move!

And besides the incredible high and exhilarating feeling it produces, it's a kick-butt workout! Awbria, my rockin Zumba instructor at Lifetime told us in class last night that you can burn up to 1000 calories in an hour of Zumba. Many of you have read my previous post on 99 minutes on the stair monster well in 60 minutes of Zumba I sweat even more and it's a heck of a lot more fun! It seriously doesn't even feel like a workout!

I'm even considering trying to become a Zumba instructor and do it as a side job! Yes, I love it that much!

My favorite song right now that we dance to is by Shakira and it was the official song for the 2010 World Cup. I think it's called "Waka Waka This is Africa" or something similar. Here's a video of some people doing Zumba to that song. It's the closest one I could find to the routine that we do in class.

So seriously, if you like a great workout and love to move, this class will change your life! Go check it out now!

Zumba!

A fish tale

After much anticipation, I finally made it up to my in-laws new cabin on Lake of the Woods in Canada. It was a day that Matt had been waiting a long, LONG time for. Seriously, pretty much since the first day we met he's talked about wanting to get me up to Canada. I really do believe that if it hadn't been February when we got engaged that he would have wanted to propose up there.

The Lake of the Woods area has such special meaning and memories for Mattie as it was the place him and his family vacationed at for most of his remembered life. That, coupled with the fact that Matt is such a huge nature guy makes the Sioux Narrows area pretty much heaven on earth.

So you can imagine his excitement when his parents purchased a rustic little cabin on half of an island on Lake of the Woods. I'm still not quite sure if who's lifelong dream it really was, Matt's dad's or his? (It's probably a little of both!)

Since the purchase, all of the Leibrocks have been anxiously waiting for the snow to melt so that they could go up there! Matt went up first with his family over Memorial Day weekend but due to an insane schedule at work, I wasn't able to go. But I finally did get my chance just a couple of weeks ago! And I do have to admit that despite my hesitation over the 6 1/2 hour drive, it's definitely worth it!

And as it turns out, I'm OBSESSED with fishing! That's all I wanted to do the whole time.

Gripping the seat in anticipation as we headed out to the secret walleye spot

Matt was definitely in his element

The biggest fish I ever caught! Now I know what some of you fisherman are thinking, that's tiny! But when you're used to catcing Blue Gill and Crappies this guy is gigantic. And no, I still won't hold it even with a steel glove on! : )

Now that's a good lookin live well!

Honestly, I could have fished all day if they would have let me!

And my first Northern! Okay, so maybe that was the biggest fish I've ever caught...

We did do other things besides fish, like decorate Matt's side of the room with teeny bopper posters. We even covered his pillow in Justin Bieber stickers. He's a Belieber!

Hehe! The best part about it was the Matt didn't know that Grace and I did that. And when he ended up coming in for bed the generator was off so the whole cabin was dark and so he slept the whole night wondering what those sticky things were on his pillow! Hahahahahaha

I've also got a bunch of really great scenery pictures that I took with my old school Nikon. But since it's an 35mm camera I have to upload the pics from a cd. But stay tuned!

A big fat thank you to my work!

One of the perks of working for a large company is definitely the awesome company suites that we have at local sporting events. Since I started working for Thomson Reuters almost two years ago, I've had the good fortune to sit in the company suite at the Metrodome and Xcel Energy Center.

But recently I got to enjoy a Twins game with my co-workers at the new Twins Ballpark!

Check out that view!

As fabulous as the suite was, and it was quite fabulous, we even had the opportunity to rotate and check out the game from the premium dugout seats. We had four tickets behind each dugout and I was so excited that I got to sit behind the visitor's dugout for almost the entire game. It was so hot out that not many of my co-workers wanted to leave the nice air-conditioned suite for too long. But I didn't care if it was 110, I wanted to sit behind the dugout! It was such a thrilling experience to be right in the action! The only thing that could have made it more perfect was if Matt had been there too.

It doesn't get much better than that! Except maybe if Joe Mauer would have been catching.

And no, this was not zoomed in.

I'm not sure how I will ever be able to sit in the upper deck again. Definitely once in a lifetime. Or maybe twice, if I ever get lucky enough to use our company tickets again : )

The boys are back in town

Carson, corson, keerson, carquard or whatever other crazy nickname Matt and his friends come up with, it's always excited when those guys get together.

Believe it or not, Matt's still super close with a lot of his high school buddies and they try and get together as often as they can. But because they are boys, they never take any pictures.

So here are a few pics of the last time Carson was in town and we all went to the Twins game:

The boys, Matt, Mike and Carson grabbing a drink before the game

The quick pic I made them stop for in front of this cool hat/flag thing they had going on

Why is it that boys never take pictures????

So Dak Attack!

One of the best things that Matt and I did all summer was take a weekend trip to South Dakota. We were actually making the 7 hour trek in order to attend my good friend Lindsey’s wedding. Lindsey and Kody are an absolutely wonderful couple and we were honored to be a part of their special day.

The wedding took place in Pierre, South Dakota which if you remember back to 5th grade geography, Pierre is actually the state capitol. However, if you have ever visited Pierre you probably know that it doesn’t seem a whole lot like a traditional state “capitol.” With a population of around 14,000 it’s smaller than most Twin Cities suburbs. But the small town feel really adds to its charm. For example, when we got into town around 9 p.m. on Friday night we had a heck of a time finding a sit down restaurant that was still serving dinner that late!

And although it’s only a day’s drive away from the Cities, in many ways it feels like you’re on the other side of the world. The vast plains, hills and rock formations definitely feel more like the Wild West than the Midwest.

On Saturday morning I miraculously awoke at 5 a.m. feeling super excited and ready to start the day! For any of you who know me, you know that morning is not my best time of day. So to be completely awake at this early hour was needless to say a rarity. After I woke up, I started begging Mattie to get up because I knew that if we hit the road we just might have enough time to explore some of South Dakota’s sites before the wedding. Afterall, we were only 2 hours from the Badlands and 2 ½ hours from the famous Wall Drug. We had already come so far, how could we miss an opportunity to see these places? Besides, when would we be going back to South Dakota????

Anyway, he relented and we had a fabulous adventure!

Here we are at the awesome corn palace in Mitchell!

Honeslty, what was he thinking!

Matt gave him a stern talking to! ; )

Us at the really neat saloon in the 1800s town we visited at 6:30 a.m.! I was worried it wouldn't be open yet but the hours were "daylight to dark" only in South Dakota!

Oh the simple life...

This is NOT funny!

Oh no!

The spectacular Badlands

It was impossible to truly capture their beauty

Yes, the sign really says "BEWARE Rattlesnakes!"



Little video we made driving through the Badlands

Now who could forget the real reason we were in South Dakota, Lindsey and Kody's wedding!!

The absolutely stunny bride and her handsome groom.

Matt and I enjoying the reception. It was a really nice wedding and we couldn't be happier for the new Mr. and Mrs. Karschnik!

A boy and his cat

As a kid I remember reading a book called "A boy and his cat." I'm not remebering exactly how the story goes, but I know that it talks about the special bond that this young boy shares with his cat. Now everytime I see Matt and Fibi hanging out together I'm reminded of that book. It's quite clear that the two of them share a very special bond!

Oh Mattie.

Fire up the grill!

One of my favorite things about summer is grilling. Matt and I fire up the grill no less than 3 times per week.

Here is a meal that I was especially proud of. It was my first try at making kabobs and they turned out great!

The ingredients: filet minon (we don't mess around!), mushrooms, red and green peppers, onions, yellow squash, zucchini and pineapple

All assembled and ready to grill. Thank goodness we had Matt's parents and sister Grace over to help us eat all of this!

And another culinary first, I cut up my very first whole pineapple! I have to admit, it was a bit intimidating. But except for a minor almost faux pas (I didn't know you had to cut out the hard center part, luckily I called my mom and she set me straight) everything turned out great!

Stay tuned for more summer adventures to come! (I have tons of photos on my camera, just need to find the time to download them and write the blog posts! : ) )

99 minutes on the Stairmonster

I've been reading a lot more blogs lately. And apparently so have most people since I'v come across a lot of stats lately that talk about how the traditional web site is on the decline and social media is all the rage. Turns out that the most common activity that people do online is visit social media sites, it's even higher than email!

Anyway, before I get on a tangent before I even start my blog post let me try this again. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and one of my new favorites is the Prior Fat Girl. Jen is a local Minneapolis girl who has been tracking her weightloss journey via her blog.

I recently came upon a post where she decided to do 99 minutes on the Stairmaster. After reading her post, I wanted to try and do 99 minutes on the Stairmaster too! Call me crazy, but I love finding new challenging ways to push myself past my own limitations. I often walk 99 minutes on my treadmill (I like that after 99:59 it just stops, kind of like it's saying "you're crazy to walk this much, time to get off now!)

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous to attempt this challenge. The longest I had ever gone on a Stairmaster was 30 minutes. And I vividly remember thinking I was going to die after that experience. There's something about that machine that totally kicks your butt in such a short period of time!

And just so you're not confused, I'm talking about the machine where the stairs rotate and you need to keep climbing, not the whossy stairstepper where you just happily lift your feet up and down in a bouncy cheer-leader type motion. The Stairmaster, or Stairmonster as Jen the Prior Fat Girl calls it, means business.

So I went into Lifetime, armed with my book and headphones prepared to conquer the Stairmaster. After climbing for about 20 minutes I started to seriously wonder if this was humanly possible. Then around the 40 minute mark I was absolutely convinced that I wasn't going to make it. But somehow I dug up the will power to step my way all the way through the 99 minutes. In fact, I was so into finishing the paragraph I was reading in my book that I missed the 99:59 mark and by the time I looked back at the counter it read 1:02!

So I guess that means I will have to do it all over again! Ha!

Now who's next? Anyone else up for the challenge?

Sweaty me feeling very empowered by overcoming this challenge!

You might find this gross, but I don't care. I've never sweat so much in my life! And I was really proud of it! : )

Nice long bath was the perfect reward!

Attention all married couples

If you haven't watched the movie Fireproof, you need to! It truly has such a phenomenal message and is really convicting.

I first heard about the moving from one of my favorite shows in the whole world, 19 Kids and Counting (it was actually on an episode of an episode where they were still 18 Kids and Counting but that's not important). During the show the whole Duggar family went to this Christian film festival where they got a sneak peak of the movie. The main star is the guy from Growing Pains, Kirk Cameron, who actually is a devout Christian. After the movie the family got to meet him and pray with him that this movie would touch many lives, it was pretty cool!

Another cool thing that I took from that episode was the fact that the kissing scenes in the movie were actually filmed between Kirk and his real-life wife Chelsea. I thought this was great since I personally feel like actors and actresses seriously screw up their marriages doing intimate scenes with other people as part of their "job." Where else in the world is this okay? "Sorry honey, I spent 5 hours today making out with my co-star and pretending we are in love but it doesn't mean anything, because it's my job." Right.

Just look at how many celebrities end up hooking up with their co-stars? Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe after Cruel Intentions (now divorced), Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams started dating after The Notebook (now broken up) and even current Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart just to name a few. In fact Kirk and Cheslea first met on the set of Growing Pains, Chelsea played "Kate" Mike Seaver's love interest.

So clearly there's a connection here. And not to mention the dozens of stories that we hear about so-and-so cheating on their spouse with their co-stars. Not cool. Anyway, before I get off on too much of a tangent, the fact that this movie respected marriage enough to have two actual married people partake in the intimate scenes impressed me. And this is before I even knew what the movie was about!

After the Duggar episode, I saw the Fireproof book at the bookstore (the book was actually written after the movie, which is sort of strange). I saw that it was in the Christian book section and that it had a fire on the cover so I thought maybe Matt would read it on our upcoming trip to Mexico. Well turns out I ended up reading it and I absolutely loved it!

It was raw, it was real, and it made me realize that my own marriage, your own marriage, could be in that situation in a split second if we let it. Embarrassingly I saw so many similarities between myself and the wife in the book. I can be so ungrateful, I can be so demanding, I can be so disrespectful to my husband, and on and on. It was a hard dose of reality that I needed and it inspired me to go and buy the movie and watch it to remind myself just how quickly things can spiral downhill. Our marriages need to be fireproof and they are definitely worth fighting for!

After reading the book I immediately went out and rented the movie, then bought the movie because I loved it so much. I begged Mattie to watch it with me but he was absolutely convinced that it would be some lame Hallmark style movie with really bad acting. And if you know Mattie he can be a bit of a movie snob. He basically avoids watching anything with actors with skills beneath him. I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get my point.

Anyway, being the wonderful husband that he is, he eventually agreed. And much to both of our surprise he absolutely loved it as well! He could definitely relate to things in the movie, and we both vowed to each other then and there to do whatever it takes to make our marriage fireproof as well.

It was an eye-opening experience for us, and I hope it will be for all of you as well. In this culture where the divorce rate keeps rising and marriages are entered into like a contract where "if you hold up your end of the bargain, I will hold up mine," this movie was a refreshing dose of true reality. Reality from God's perspective. Not man's.

Worst Blogger Ever!

Well it's official, I haven't posted anything in more than 2 months which I'm sure makes me the worst blogger ever! If any of you are still out there reading my blog, and don't worry, I wouldn't blame you if you gave up on me, I'm finally posting again!

Here are the top things that have happened since I last posted:

April- Matt and I took a fabulous vacation to Mexico with two other couples. We had a blast just relaxing in the sun, sipping pina coladas and enjoying spectacular food. It was definitely the epitome of a lazy vacation.

Here's the view from our room in the gorgeous resort in Cabo!

Also, after one particular night with some Cuervo we thought it would be a wonderful idea to give Matt a mohawk. I still laugh thinking about it! But I secretly thought Matt looked really hot with a hawk, it kind of suits him. Maybe I have a bit of a wild side in me somewhere. ; )

I seriously love this!

We really did have quite a fantastic time but are honestly looking forward to more active trips in the future. Turns out you can have too much sun , too much food and too much tequila! Next up we are thinking of exploring New York and D.C. over our first anniversary weekend...

The happy couple (and Matt when he still had normal hair!)

May- Was pretty much a blur for Matt and I. For me it was a lot of work, work, work. And for Matt it was a lot of work, working out and jury duty. Yep, Matt was on a jury. It was actually a pretty high-profile case. Check it out.

Matt actually enjoyed the trial, he thought it was pretty cool that he got to hear witness testimony, listen to the prosecutor and the defense attorney. The only major downside was that he had to keep working at UPS on the overnight shift during the case so between that and 8 hours a day at the court house he didn't really get a whole lot of sleep. I was worried he was going to kill himself working so hard! But oh well, that's all behind us now!

We were really lucky to take a weekend trip over Mother's Day to Philips, WI where my Grandma grew up. We had a really nice time sightseeing and of course eating with my Mom, step-dad, Grandma and Aunt. It was a nice little get away. Plus my Aunt Nancy gave me a lot of phenomenal Mary Kay products that I'm absolutely in love with! My skin has never looked better!

Over Memorial Day weekend Matt and I unfortunately had to split up. I had some work commitments that wouldn't let me be away for too long and Mattie really wanted to go up to his parents new cabin in Canada. The good news for me was that even though I had to work most of the weekend, including all day on Monday, I did get to sneak out of town and attend my Uncle Mike's annual Memorial Day weekend party in honor of Josh. And as a special surprise I was able to help get this billboard posted in his memory.

Then a few weeks ago I gathered some lovely ladies and attended a premier party for the Sex and the City 2 movie. The movie was not so great, the premier party was not so great but my friends were wonderful!

I'm very blessed to have such wonderful ladies in my life!

And finally, last weekend another group of girls and I all got together for my good friend Lindsey's bachelorette party. We are going to her and Kody's wedding next weekend in South Dakota and we are so excited. They are truly a wonderful couple and I couldn't be happier for her!

The girls out on the town. Isn't our bride to be radiant? She looked stunning. And yes, I'm wearing the same dress as in the pic above. But hey, it's a cute dress and I wanted to get some wear out of it! : )

In other news, I joined a book club which I'm super pumped about. We meet once a month which is exactly the kind of time commitment that I'm looking for. I can't believe this is the first book club I've ever been in. I love reading, I love girl time and I love wine, why did I never think of this before!

Also Mattie is FINALLY done with the St. Paul Fire Department application process. Overall I think he did phenomenal. It's super competitive but since the applications opened in November he has become an EMT, passed the written test with a 90 percent and passed the physical test with a 95 percent. We shall see where that puts him on the ranking list. Most likely he won't be high enough up to get an interview (yes, it's that competitive!) but regardless, I couldn't be prouder of him. He's following his heart and going for his dream. We both knew when he started trying to become a full-time firefighter that it wouldn't be easy and would most likely take several years of hard work and dedication. But if anyone can do it, it's my Mattie!

Well I think that's all for this post. We are both so excited for summer and know we will make lots of great memories. And I do pledge to be a better blogger and keep you all updated the exciting things that we are doing as we venture into our first summer as a married couple. So be prepared to get a lot more updates on what's going on in the life of the Leibrocks! Since I know you are all so incredibly interested!!!

Brother and Seesters

Poor Grace has been begging us to take her to MagiQuest to use her Christmas present for the past several months and a few weeks ago we FINALLY got the chance!

We really didn't know what to expect, but had such a great time at Wizard Quest over the summer and were hoping it would be similar. Well it's a bit different, but we still really had fun.

Basically you have a computerized wand and you enter a magical realm and begin completing quests. Every time you find a clue you wave your wand at it and it registers on a computer. After you gather all of the clues you complete that quest and increase your magical powers. We had bought Grace a wand and two hour game pass for Christmas.

In two hours we completed the 12 basic quests, became a master magi and finished the dragon adventure. We did really well and in the end our feet were killing us! There is so much walking involved!

Overall, it was really fun. We enjoyed the challenge and working together as a team. But the clues were really easy to find, which was really different than Wizard Quest. Also the realm wasn't that decorated which made it not quite as cool. But we did have fun so I'm sure we will go back!

Grace was really excited!

She was very powerful with her wand

Getting a bit wand happy and attacking her brother

After we completed our magical quest we journeyed to another fantasy world, Rain Forest Cafe for some much needed rest and relaxation. We got there pretty late, 8:30 p.m., but that got us an excellent table right by the fish tank.

Pretty fishy. I think the pattern would make a nice purse!

Brothers and seesters!

Man and his grill

I'm very happy to report that after six months of sitting in the box in our kitchen, we've FINALLY got the grill put together!

Matt and his Dad tackled the beast a couple of weeks ago. And contrary to what the box claimed, it was not "easy" to assemble. It took the guys about four hours to put it together, but to their credit the instructions were the worst anyone had ever seen!

"Hey, this is harder than it looks!"

But it did get put together, and later that weekend we christened it by cooking up some juicy steaks!

Matt is in heaven

This is all a man really needs, a grill, some steaks and his beer!

My food vs. Matt's food

There has been a bit of a weight challenge going on in the Leibrock house since the wedding. For the past six months both Matt and I have been working hard to become our best "physical" selves.

For me this means losing weight and for Mattie this means gaining weight! So Matt has been eating a lot more and Jess has been eating a lot less. This has been an interesting dichotomy which often results in some odd meals.

Like this one. Can you guess which one is Matt's dinner?

But I'm very happy to report that both of us have had great success! I've lost about 15 pounds since the wedding and Mattie has gained about 15 pounds of muscle!

For all you women out there who are dieting you can feel my pain when I say that men can be so frustrating, eating everything in sight and not gaining a pound. Let me tell you, I would much rather be trying to GAIN weight! But either way, I'm happy that both of us are accomplishing our goals.

13,113

The craziest thing happened to me last Friday. It still makes me smile and shake my head in disbelief!

I was attending the WCHA game between Wisconsin and St. Cloud State at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday afternoon with some co-workers. We were lucky enough to get the corporate box at the game and since the start-time was 2:05 p.m. it was the perfect opportunity to get out of the office early on a Friday afternoon. The game itself wasn't too interesting, it went scoreless until about half-way through the second period and then St. Cloud ended up 2-0 when Wisconsin pulled their goalie right at the end.

The interesting part came in the beginning of the third period when a guy from the suite next to us asked if anyone wanted to get in on an attendance pool. Basically everyone would put in $1 and then try and guess the attendance at today's game. The person who guessed the closest would win the pot. Several of my co-workers and I chipped in $1 and made our guesses.

Now just to give you some perspective, average attendance for Wild Hockey games in that arena is 18,000 to 18,500. And looking around at the stands, I saw that there were a lot less people. I heard someone else guess 17,000 something and I thought that was too high. Then I heard someone else guess 11,000 something and I thought that was probably too low.

So I picked somewhere in the middle, 13,000. And anyone who know me knows that I like patterns and balanced numbers (there's a reason I got married on 9/18/09) so I went with 13,113.

And low and behold, the end of the third period came and the announcer said "today's attendance is thirteen thousand (I got excited) one hundred (oh my gosh!) and thirteen (my jaw hit the floor)." There were indeed 13,113 people in attendance at that game! I couldn't believe it! I had guessed the EXACT number!

Now of course NO ONE believed me and they all thought I must have cheated somehow. (I swear up and down that I didn't, honestly, I just guessed!) In the end they conceded and I won the pot of a whopping $18, which I promptly went and spent on lottery tickets. But that's where the story ends; unfortunately my incredible luck didn't extend to the powerball jackpot. But oh well, it makes a heck of a good story though, doesn't it? ; )

Happy Birthday to Matt!

We celebrated another Birthday a few weeks ago, Matt's! Poor him though, his B-day was sandwiched in between two really difficult tests for his EMT class. But luckily we still managed to find time to celebrate.

On our big Birthday celebration night I made Matt two recipes from the Pioneer Woman web site. This woman had become some what of a phenomenon in the blogging world. I first heard about her from my sister-in-law, Dana. When I found the recipe for Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich I immediately called  her to see if she had ever made it and if she thought Mattie would like it. The first answer was yes, and the second was more of a "duh." A sandwich with steak and onions on toasted bread is right up my meat-n-potatoes boy's alley.

To accompany the sandwich I made homeade onion straws. Wowza, those were good. I have a weakness for all things fried that I can eat with ketchup and boy were these little puppies really really good. I even had another cooking first, I went out an bought a candy thermometer so that I could heat the oil to the proper temperature before putting in the onions.

The web site claims that the Marlboro Man Sandwich (I guess she calls her husband Marlboro man, hence the strange name) and the onion straws are works of wonder. I've even heard people say that if you make this sandwich for a guy he will be groveling at your feet! So of course, I had to try it...

Here's Matt in a completely euphoric state after devouring his first sandwhich; waiting for me to make him a second one. He even said that eating the first one was like an "out of body experience" all he remember is the fabulous taste!

The meal was so good that I didn't even get a picture of the food before we cleaned our plates!

I really enjoyed making this food for Matt, it's so nice to know that he really appreciates my efforts. And even though I overcooked the onions a bit and burnt one of the buns, he still said it was one of the best meals he's ever had in his whole life. Yup, I married a good one. : )