Day Sixteen And We Are Lean And Mean!

We're not really mean, we're very nice.  We're also not very lean...YET.  But we're getting there.
Notice the pattern of lying titles?  At least they rhyme nicely...

Grace's muscles are sore from running the half marathon...but she didn't take any arthritis medication today.  WOO HOO! Also, her left elbow is crazy sore so she can't do the half-locust pose (for those of you who don't do Bikram...you lie down on your stomach and put your entire arms under your body then raise your legs up.  It hurts your elbows. Lots and lots).  For those of you who don't know,  Grace has crazy looking hyper-flexible elbows (see picture for reference).  Ya know all those poses where you have to lock your elbows?  Grace totally doesn't.  BUT in her defense, she was told by a teacher that it was more important to have her arms by her head and palms glued together rather than elbows locked.  So ha!

Elbows not locked

Elbows locked

Kassy had an awesome yoga day! She made it to her favorite class of the day! The 6:30PM class. HECK YESSSS!!! Since she got there right in time she grabbed the last spot in class and it wasn't up against a wall this time! It was in the front row so she was able to do all the poses correctly.

50% sale off yoga clothes at Pure Bikram Yoga today!  WOOO HOOOO.  There is nothing better than yoga AND shopping at the same time!  Grace got a shirt.  Kassy was sad cause there were no size smalls left in anything but the shirt that Grace bought...All you yoga people, stop stealing Kassy's size smalls!

Fifteen And We Are Seen....Back In Yoga!!!

Yea, yea, we know we copied yesterday's status kind of.  We don't care.  Fifteen is hard.

Carbohydrates,
     You are my new BEST. FRIEND. EVER.
     Pasta and bread, be ready to be absolutely demolished.
           Sincerely,
       Grace

So you know how Grace was limping like crazy?  Well, she figured she wouldn't really be able to do much of yoga at all today because her arthritis was so bad.  Grace was very, very, wrong.  It was her BEST DAY EVER.   She was amazed.  She thinks it's the carbs.  Really? you ask.  The day after running a half-marathon?  Shouldn't Grace be exhausted?  Why yes, yes she should be.  But apparently Bikram yoga is the most amazing thing this world has to offer.  She had her best day AND she is no longer limping like crazy OR in much pain.  Her hip feels completely better and her SI joints are feeling waaayyyyy better than they did before.  Bikram Yoga, Grace is in love.
To those of you have have arthritis - you need to try this.  Seriously.

Not only that, but Grace was super crazy energized and productive after class today.  Man oh man, this is amazing!

Things to note about Grace:

• Grace needs new sports bras.  Lots of them.  There are just too many laundry days.
• Grace can sweat like a river now! Wooo Hoooo!
• Grace can stretch with her hands flat on the floor
• Grace's brother in law (*cough* Jordan *cough*) laughed at her for not knowing that you need carbs to work out.  He is in big trouble!
• You know that box of girl scout cookies from yesterday?  Practically gone.  Hey, they're carbs, right?  I NEED to eat them...

Oh hey, look who showed up at Yoga today....Kassy.  She has been MIA all weekend cause she went to visit her family in Laredo. But she's back!! Be excited!

Today's class was the most humid, smelliest class ever. (Kassy understands that this should not bother her because people are in there sweating and getting into awesome shape all day, but she is still not a fan.) When she put her towel over her yoga mat, sweat from a previous class got all over the edges of the towel that go over the mat. Gross! Lesson learned! Get a thinner towel that does not go over the mat. Enough ranting though, that is Grace's job!

Kassy had a good yoga class, even though it was a bit difficult to jump back in after being gone for three days, Nora pushed her to do her best. Kassy is now in full swing again ready for two-a-days starting tomorrow! (Except Thursday, which she will only be at the morning class, read below to see why.)

Things to note about Kassy:

• Kassy&Grace will both be eating POLLO BOWLS from Taco Palenque cause Kassy is amazing and brought them from Laredo! (Kassy will not be eating hers tonight cause she accidentally left it in the fridge at work..boooo!)
• Kassy LOVES Mexican food! She ate more this weekend than anyone ever should! She enjoyed herself very much, but yoga today was difficult!
  
• Kassy's business cards came in today! They are so RAD! They are red,white and black with black edges. (Photos will be posted soon!)
  
• Kassy will be showing some photos at an Art Show on Thursday. (Shameless Plug!) So if you are in the Austin area, its from 7pm-midnight at the United States Art Authority [2906 Fruth St. 78705].        
• Tons of awesome bands and artists! Only $2 to get it in, and it goes The Revival Fund! [The Revival Fund provides temporary financial assistance to Austin-area musicians and their families in times of crisis to help them get back on their feet and making music again.]
• Kassy had an AWESOME day and will be up and going for the 5:45AM yoga class soon.
• Kassy gets more flexible by the day. Yay for Bikram Yoga! <3

Even though its day 15, we haven't taken 15 classes.  Here is the count:

Grace: 13 classes, but one of those was the really lame one where she left half-way through.  So 12.5.

Kassy: 11 Classes. (... insert disapproving look here...but be super excited when she catches up this week!!! :D )

(As of today, Grace is in the lead!)

oh two-a-days, you best be ready for us.  (Can you tell that is Grace's favorite phrase these days?)

Calling All Readers!

So...we know a lot of you reading this either do Bikram regularly or have never done it ever in your life.
We thought it might be cool to showcase some of you guys and what you're doing concerning yoga.  SO...if you send us a picture of yourself and some things about your yoga experiences we will totally give you your own honorary posts.  Do it.   You can send it to kassy.grace@gmail.com.  Then you can tell all your friends to come look.

Examples of pictures to send:
      -You dripping in Sweat
     - You looking pretty and not sweaty
     - You doing some crazy awesome yoga pose
     - You doing some boring looking yoga pose
     - A picture of the massive amounts of girl scout cookies you have bought because they are amazing and you do yoga so you can eat all you want (don't worry - this has been done before *cough*)
     - Any random thing you want


Examples of things about yourself to write:
       - How long you have been doing yoga
       - Whether or not you are doing the 60 day challenge
      - Your most awesome yoga complete wipe out during the middle of class
      - Anything you want to whine about (Grace is really good at this one)
      - Your favorite Bikram positions/least favorite
      - Your accomplishments and failures
      - The funniest thing a teacher has ever said in class
      - How Bikram yoga makes you feel
      - If you are a teacher, how long you've been teaching and why you are doing it
      - Why you started doing Bikram yoga
      - If you did Bikram yoga and hated it, why, and if you changed your mind
      - If you have never done Bikram yoga but want to
      - Again, any random thing you want to write about
  


Also, you don't have to write all elegantly or anything....you can even just send bullet points of things  you want us to say and we will make you sound like you have A PhD in English from Harvard.  Cause, ya know, that's just how amazingly awesome at writing we are.

Sarah Ousley, Natalie, Kristin, B Lane, and all the rest of the people we personally know - you are required to do this.  And if you don't, we are gonna make up some crazy stories for you and make you sound ridiculous.  HA!  Now you have to.....


Do it, do it!  We want to showcase your stories too!!

Fourteen and Grace is seen....running the half-marathon.

Did you read that right?   Did whiny Grace ACTUALLY run a half marathon? Why yes, yes she did.  That's almost as unbelievable as Kassy being awake at 5:45, but it's true!  We promise!



Grace ran her first ever half- marathon in 3:01:58 with her wonderful Aunt Terry who came all the way down from Sherman, TX for the Austin Livestrong Marathon.  Grace has really bad arthritis and can barely walk.  She actually could barely walk around mile 9 - but she made it all the way to 13.1 miles and finished strong, running across the finish line (more like limp running, but we'll ignore that fact because none of you actually saw it happen so we can pretend she was sprinting across the finish line like a mad woman).


Evidential proof that Grace finished:

Also, because Grace just ran 13.1 miles, she bought the absolute best thing on Earth:

That's right people...thin mints.  See 'em and weep!

Also, Grace learned a very important thing from this marathon.  You know how she's been feeling faint for so many classes?  After eating a ton of carbohydrates the night before the marathon, she realized that she almost never eats carbs.  Eureka!  You need carbs if you're gonna be doing a lot of exercise.  So bread and pasta, you are Grace's new best friend.  Being awesome and not feeling faint in Bikram, here Grace comes.

Grace was totally gonna be amazing and both run a  half marathon AND go to yoga today, but then her arthritis kicked in and she was limping all over and she thought it might be a good idea to take a little rest.  She made best friend with an ice pack instead.  And then hung out in a hot tub for awhile.

Kassy drove home from Laredo last night super late after Grace had gone to bed (*cough* Grace is a wimp and fell asleep at 9 pm *cough*)  but because Grace had just ran the half marathon bought her THE BEST MEXICAN FAST FOOD EVER as a congratulations.  Grace could have kissed her.  

Yoga people on Monday - be prepared to see a limping Grace and a lot of making-up-to-do Kassy!

Unlucky Thirteen

Grace didn't go to yoga today.
Neither did Kassy.

Grace was sick - she had a fever last night and slept for 12 hours straight.  But today she feels alright...no fever.  She just is giving it a rest since she was sick yesterday and is running the half marathon tomorrow.
Be prepared for a lot of whining tomorrow about how 13.1 miles is just too many.  About 12.1 too many. Maybe 13.1 too many.
But, she is running it with her Aunt Terry who is awesome!  They are super excited.  We got our bib numbers today and it's gonna be super fun (unless, of course, Grace dies along the way or something).

Grace probably won't go to yoga tomorrow either, but she thinks running 13.1 miles is a pretty good excuse.  She's had to sit out for a lot of poses in too many classes.  But don't worry - she will make up these two missed days next week by doing a couple two-a-days.  And they will be AWESOME.  She is determined to not have to sit out for any poses this week.  Just wait, Bikram yoga, Grace WILL get the best of you.

Twelve.....Days of Christmas???

NO!! Twelve days of YOGA!

Grace went to the 5:30PM class today. She had to leave class early. ACTUALLY LEAVE.  Let me tell you people, for those of you who don't know, you dont leave a Bikram yoga class. It's all quiet and hot and there are tons of people and you really really aren't supposed to leave.  Unless you're dying, maybe.  Why did she leave?  Cause she felt super super sick.  She felt fine all day.  She drank tonssss of water.  She even ate!  Not to mention that fact that she told herself "I'm gonna have an awesome yoga day today!" and ate a banana with peanut butter about an hour and a half before class to make sure she didn't feel like passing out.  It didn't work.  She thought she was gonna faint.  Then she thought she was going to throw up.  In short, Grace might be sick.  NOOOOOOOO!  (Also if Grace gets the flu she will whine about it like crazy on this blog so for your own sake's you oughtta start praying for her to get better...)  Also, she is going to bed at 8 pm.  THAT is just ridiculous.

Sad yoga day.

BUT Grace wants to make up the lost yoga class with a double day next week.  She might have to have a couple of those....it depends how she feels tomorrow.  And she's running the Livestrong Half Marathon in Austin on Sunday morning....so we shall see.   Is a half marathon and yoga in the same day okay?  Grace doesn't want to die quite yet.

Don't start giving up on us beloved blog-readers!  Cross our hearts and hope to die we are going to go to yoga 30 times in 30 days.

Kassy is leaving to Laredo this weekend to photograph the WBCA festivities (if you don't know what this is google it! It's AWESOME! Martha Washington Parade, Carnival, Jalapeno Festival, etc.).

She stopped by Precision Camera on her way home from work to buy a replacement tripod. For those of you that don't know, Kassy is a just graduated from UT with a photography degree. HOOK 'EM!  :)

As she was on her way home she saw this awesome piece of art from the Lamar bridge and immediately made a U-TURN to pull over and photograph it. (This is when having a camera with her at all times works out realllly well! - Her new years resolution was to always have a camera with her! It's going awesome if you were wondering! :D  )

She did not make it to yoga today because of work/leaving out of town, but thought she would leave you with the photographs from today.

Also, she does intend to have two-a-days next week to make up for this weekend and last week's sick day. That should be fun! Be ready to read about one exhausted yoga-er!

MUCH LOVE!!!!! Have an AMAZING weekend!!!
(And if you don't, start your own blog so you can whine about it....highly recommended by Grace)

11:11.... Make a Wish!

Sorry loving followers!!! Our internet was down yesterday!!! But we're up and running again! :D

Grace doesn't really know why people wish at 11:11.  Kassy is all about it. (Grace's favorite time of the day is 12:34!).  It's the only thing we could think of for day 11 that was relatively okay...Eleven is Heaven was just too obvious...Seven Eleven didn't make sense.  Creative Genius, where you be?!

Grace's wish is that she got more sleep.  She's tired.  Exhausted.  She fell asleep on the bus.  She fell asleep in drawing class.  She almost fell asleep standing up waiting in line for coffee.  She fell asleep on the bus again.   Coffee did not wake Grace up.  Isn't that the whole purpose of coffee?!  She is MAD.  Again.  Probably she's just cranky cause she doesn't get any sleep.   Okay, okay, enough whining (but only for now...expect it to start again after like 3 sentences...).  

Grace went in at 5:45 am today.  Grace is ridiculous?  Grace is dedicated?  Grace can't make it at any other time in the day? Grace is whiny?  Grace is the coolest person to ever walk on this planet?  All apply.

Kassy’s intention was to go to the 5:45AM yoga class today, but woke up shivering and drenched in sweat. She thought for sure she was going to get really sick and decided to sleep in. 

She woke up for work, showered and arrived on time, feeling much better than earlier. She had a great day at work and went to the 6:30PM class. Since she drove straight from work, she realized that she forgot a hair band. Luckily one of the girls in the locker room had an extra one. (People are so nice sometimes!!)

She also forgot her Gatorade, but this time she was equipped with cash so she went to purchase one. Jen/Jenn(if you read this tell me how you spell your name please :D ) was working the front desk, and she knew Kassy from the blog (how rad is that!!!!). She was super nice and explained how opening an account works. Kassy purchased her Gatorade, left the change in her account, and walked into class.

Surprisingly, the class wasn’t as jam packed as the previous 6:30PM class Kassy attended. She was lucky and got the best spot in the house (look below to see what that spot is). Nora, her awesome first yoga instructor, taught the class today.

Things Kassy has learned about yoga so far:

1.       The 6:30PM class is her favorite, despite the fact that is impossible to find parking!

2.       She is wayyyy happier and more flexible at 6:30PM than 5:45AM.

3.       The best spot in yoga class is second row under a fan J

4.       Right when you think you’re giving 100%, push a little more. 

Sorry no pics today guys!! Much LOVE! 

-Kassy&Grace <3

Ten And We're In!!!........At 5:45 AM

Well, we're back at it at 5:45 AM.  AND we're a third of the way through our challenge! WOOOO!

Our teacher today was Nora.  As you may recall, she was the first teacher we ever had, and she's basically amazing.  Part of the reason we're sticking to this self challenge of 30 days is because when we told her what we wanted to do she was SUPER supportive and told us how excited she was for us and totally encouraged us, which is exactly what we needed on our first day from the first person we told.  Here is a picture of her cool self after our class....
Nora, thanks for motivating us to keep going - here we are at day 10!

5:45 wasn't early for Kassy cause she went to bed at 7:45 pm.  Grace, on the other hand, went to bed at 1 am (no awesome pajama parties to speak of...just lame homework).  When the alarm went off at 5, she wanted to cry.   But Bikram yoga called, and today ended up being a great yoga day (thank goodness...otherwise Grace would really have cried over not sleeping for a terrible yoga day).   Grace could take the heat and didn't sit out for any positions...Kassy was awesome as usual and was actually up at 5 am.  "Is that a mistype?" you ask  No.  Its not.  It really is the truth....we promise. 

This is Kassy's empty second water bottle and Grace dying for water after finishing an entire bottle of gatorade and a thing of water.

Also, going at 5:45 am means prime parking..woo hoo!  We took a picture to document he amazingness of our parking spot.  (Note the Bikram Yoga sign that is incredibly close to where we are parked..)

Day 11, we will be getting the best of you tomorrow.

To The Nines!

So basically, the place where we do yoga is the COOLEST PLACE EVER (refer to picture).  They gave us quarters!!!!  Grace got out of yoga class, and as she was leaving she said goodbye to Kathy, the manager at pure bikram yoga, and Kathy said "wait!  I have something for you!"  And then handed her a roll of quarters with a note that said "For Grace & Kassy!  Way to go w/ your challenge so far!  Keep on sweatin'  =] Pure BY!"   QUARTERS?!?  From our yoga place?!?!  This is the most incredible thing ever.  We love them.  We also love being able to do laundry.    And now, with our clean clothes, we can dress to the nines to go to yoga.  Hence the title of today's post.  Oh hello there, creative genius....Welcome Back.
Also next time we see Kathy we're totally gonna take her picture and put her on the blog so you can see her and her awesomeness.

In yoga news, Grace could not take the heat today.  For some reason, the room just felt waaayyy hotter than it normally does.  She sweated.  A lot.  I don't even think you can call it sweating...more like draining the body of all possible liquid in the form of rivers.  Gross.  And she sat down for a couple postures.  But not too many!  At least this time it wasn't because she didn't eat.  But she drank a gatorade in like the first 20 minutes of class.  Ridiculous.  She doesn't even like gatorade.  Although when you're sweating that much, she has to admit it kind of tastes like heaven.  A lot.


 Kassy had the worst day EVER. Her alarm didn't go off and she was 2 hours late to work. She didn't take a lunch break because she was already sooo late. She got home starving and decided to cook and was so exhausted that she was in bed by 7:45PM (if you know Kassy, you know that for her to be in bed before 2AM is unheard of!) Needless to say, there was no yoga for her today. She plans to make it up by going twice sometime this week.

Just because our awesome yoga place gave us quarters, don't think you're off the hook.

8 And We're Great!

We know, we know, the titles are getting worse and worse as time goes on.   We don't really care that much though, or we would just be writing COMPLETELY lame titles.  Guess that whole creative geniuses thing isn't working out too well for us.

Happy Valentine's Day.  Or Single's Awareness Day, whichever you prefer.

Also, the title is a total lie.  Grace is exhausted.  Grace has puffy eyes cause she is allergic to everything known to mankind and tried a new mascara...BAD IDEA (picture below..you should have seen it last night - this picture makes her look like she's just being whiny but she says since it's her blog she can whine all she wants).  Grace's neck hurts...she thinks she may have done some yoga poses in the wrong position yesterday...whoops.  Either that or she's just working her neck muscles and they're mad at her.  Take your pick.  So on top of it all she's still pretty bad at this....but she doesn't care. It's only been a week.

In not-very-much happier news, today was also a bad yoga day for Grace.  She started class and then when she started seeing black spots, realized she had only eaten one energy bar at 7:30 AM.  Class was at 3 PM.  Grace, when will you learn? The sweat dripped into her puffy eyes. Stupid allergic reaction-causing mascara.  Stupid sweat.  Stupid not eating. Grace is mad!

In happier news, Grace had Nora for a teacher again.  Nora was the first teacher we ever had, so that was pretty cool.  Too bad Grace couldn't do half the class cause she forgot to eat.

BUT... yoga made Grace super productive today.  She drew.  She did homework.  SHE ATE (and cooked what she ate - broccoli and chicken).  She took out the trash.  She cleaned a little.  She's considering doing laundry.  And tonight she will be shooting the first part of her photo assignment.  After yoga today, she is, in short, on FIRE.

See the picture below?  That, in English terms, is called making yourself a Japanese Ham Sandwich.  After class Grace was stretching her legs some more and tried to do this.  In the shower.  Let's just say she almost slipped, and therefore almost died.  She knows you were all thinking about doing this in the shower as soon as you saw the picture.  She decided to warn you. 

Kassy had an awesome yoga day although she was pretty tired because she stayed up designing business cards last night. 

She had a yoga instructor that she had never had before, which is always a nice change of pace (even though all the instructors say the exact same thing everyone has their own way of saying it).

She went to the 7:30PM class because she had work all day and didn't want to wake up for the 5:30AM class. 

Only downer of the day, her brakes are acting up and sound AWFUL. She needs to go get her car checked tomorrow. Hopefully it's not anything tooooo serious/expensive.

In other news.... Yoga was her Valentine this year! <3

[She knows the photo/photoshop work is cheesy! haha that's the point! :) ]

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! 

SUCCESSFUL DAY  8!!

A Week! A Week! A Weak?

No - we are not weak!  We are stronger than ever, and have 7 days of yoga in a row to prove it.  (And yes, we know the title doesn't EXACTLY make sense...but we don't care...we still fancy ourselves as creative geniuses) :D

Can't believe we made it to the 7 day mark without missing a day.  Yaaayyy for our first milestone!

Kassy apparently rubbed off on Grace, because Grace didn't go to bed until 5 am due to a rockin' pajama party at Jenna and Adam's house.  Don't worry - you will see pictures in a later post.  Anyway, bikram class was at 9 am.  So Grace is going on 3.5 hours of sleep.  She's blaming Kassy for setting a bad example.  Kassy wears it's a good example.  She's wrong.
        She DID, however, touch her head to her knees while stretching for the first time today. Woo!
        Also, she totally has better posture now.  Mama would be proud.

This is Grace after a shower.  You should all feel privileged that she saved you from seeing the sweatiness.

Today was a great day for Kassy. She bummed around, had a lazy Sunday and went to the 5:30PM yoga class with all the other people still recovering from Saturday night shenanigans :)

She remembered her water and wallet today (to pay for yesterday's water) and didn't get corrected during rabbit pose for the third day in a row. EXCITING! 

It was an intense class. Everyone was dripping sweat (I know these details can be gross! But its over 100 degrees in that room what do you expect?!). During one of the poses Kathy (the yoga instructor) said "Can you all hear the rain? The bikram rain that is" and everyone started cracking up.

Only down side of the day was that Grace had to go to the morning class so we were split up which was lameeeeee.

Didn't take pictures at yoga today, so here is a picture from Friday night downtown.

We feel like you ought to know what we look like while not dripping in sweat :)

Day Six, We're Back Together And Better Than Ever!

- Yesterday we had to split up and it was heartbreaking.  Today, we were reunited in our sweat.  It was beautiful.

-   It was Grace's best day EVER.  She is super excited because yesterday was such a bad bikram day.  She did every single pose better than she had before.  AND SHE NOW HAS A LAMP POST!!

- Kassy went to bed at 6 am (she's just crazy), but since we went to class at noon she still had a good day.  (*cough* SHE FORGOT WATER AGAIN *cough*)

- Since Kassy forgot her water, she had to run up to the front desk and ask to buy a water...too bad she also forgot her wallet.  But the guy at the desk was super nice and let her take a water and said she could pay them back tomorrow.  And THEN he said "hey, are you the girl from the blog?"  WOOOO HHOOOOO! We're known by the yoga people!!! His name is Jeff, and he is now our most favorite person ever cause he knows who we are.  FROM THIS BLOG.  Incredible.

- There was a guy in class today with a TOP HAT that had RABBIT EARS.  We don't even know what to say about this.  It was the most amazing thing we've ever seen.

- Also in class, three guys who sweated like rivers were all next to each other.  The teacher talked about how worried he was that they might drown someone.  And the fact that he forgot his snorkeling gear.

- It was a packed room  so we had to split up in the room.  Grace chose a way better spot than Kassy because she was super speedy and took the best available.  Kassy was pushed up against a mirror and couldn't do poses when any part of her body need to be on the left.  Ya snooze, ya lose. Kassy says "lesson learned" (But that obviously doesn't go for the whole bringing water thing).

- Grace has super bad allergies to Cleo.  But now they're gone.  She's not taking any medicine or anything, and today in class the instructor told a sneezing girl that bikram yoga helped allergies.  Who knows?  Maybe yoga has cured grace of itchy skin and sneezing.

See you tomorrow!

Day 5 And We're Trying To Survive....Literally.

This is hard. Really hard.

Today was lame cause we couldn't make it to the same class, and going to different classes is just not the same.

Grace couldn't do any of the standing poses today because every time she stood up she felt like she was going to faint.  But she did all the floor poses, so that was good.  She thinks she didn't drink enough water today.
      She almost missed class because she was taking a nap. Whoops.
      All of her workout clothes are dirty.  ALL OF THEM.  Literally.
      She can almost stretch with her leg flat on the floor and her head touching that leg's knee. Woo hoo!
      She reeeaaaalllllyyyyyy didn't want to go to class today.  But she did!  Five days in a row!

Kassy had to rush like crazy to make it to her class on time after work.  But she made it!  AND she had an awesome class, probably her best yet.

We decided to take pictures of our favorite pose, and this is the one we want to be able to do perfectly at the end of the 30 days.  You make your leg a lamp post (or, ya know, just stand on one leg and lock your knee...making it a lamp post sounds cooler though) so Grace can't really do it well at all.  Kassy is pretty good though.  We don't know what it's called.  We should probably figure that out.

Kassy



                                        
                                            Grace



We're not sore anymore!  Woo hoo!

Cleo the Cat

Since this is technically a roommate blog, we felt that Cleo needed a little blurb, since the cat is part of the household and therefore kind of a roommate.  Here are the things you need to know about Cleo:

- Cleo was caught in our parking lot by Grace, Lauren, and Hank at 3 am.  Lauren and Hank are our neighbors and friends.  Cleo was a runaway and just hung out around the apartments and got in tough cat fights.

- Cleo was first named Sanky.  LAMEST NAME EVER.

- Grace renamed Sanky Cleo (short for Cleopatra) a few days later with the help of her sister Molly.

- Cleo is polydactyl, so basically the coolest cat EVER.  7 toes on each front paw, and 5 on each back paw.

- Cleo had her first vet visit, and a gender identity crisis ensued.  Everyone thought Cleo was a girl.  He was not.

- Cleopatra became Cleopatro.

- If he could do yoga we would take him to Bikram with us.

-  He's so cool that we still keep him and love him even though Grace is so allergic to him she was going to have to get allergy shots and Kassy hates cats.

Annnddd.....we adore him.  Coolest. Cat. Ever.

Day Four And We're Running Out The Door!

Day four of Bikram was once again way too early and way too cold.  5:45 am and 19 degrees do not make happy yoga-ers (that's the best I can do of combining the phrase "happy campers" with yoga) out of us.  Plus we woke up a little late so we were rushing to get there.

Kassy went to bed at 3 am.  BAD NEWS.  Grace told her that was a terrible decision.  Grace was right.  Day four was definitely the hardest day for Kassy.

Grace had a drawing class at UT at 8 am.  Bikram class got out at 7:15.  BAD NEWS.  Grace had to rush home, shower super super super fast, get dressed and ready and get all of her art stuff together and leave for class. Kassy was amazing and drove her, but she didn't have time to blow-dry her hair and so she is wearing a hat.  She was still 15 minutes late.  (But on a lighter note, she was the third student to come to class out of 12...the other 9 were either 30 minutes+ late or sick with the flu).

Two of our friends were also in the class with us today!  Kristin is also doing the 60 day challenge, and our friend Brittany just started on Monday too, and has gone every day since.  We never thought we would see other friendly faces this early in the morning.  We were going to take pictures of them to put on here so you all could see them too, but we had to rush out of class to get home so Grace could go to school (lame!).  (And Brittany left yoga early so we would have had to leave and chase her to take a snapshot...we will get her next time though!).

Grace sweated less, Kassy sweated more.  I know, I know, this kind of information is riveting.  I'll try to tone it down.

Grace still can't do half the poses right.  Her knees will not be "lamp posts."  (Every time you have to stand on one leg and lock your knee the teacher says to make your leg like a lamp post.  Grace doesn't have lamp posts.  She just has regular knees that like to bend when she needs them to be locked).

Kassy still can't hold her ankles right for the rabbit pose. If you want to know what it looks like, google image it.  Anyway, the teacher has come up and told her how to hold her ankles every day so far.  Let's see how many days she can get in a row!

In other news, three of the teachers at the yoga studio we go to are in a National Championship yoga competition!  One is the 1st place Illinois person, one is the 1st place Texas person, and the third is a 2nd place Florida person.  So basically we may know the best Bikram yoga people in the nation.   They are going to be downtown doing some things tonight, so we are going to try and go and photograph it, being the cool photogs that we are.  If we go, there will be a post about it.

Kassy has now seen the sun rise 2 days in a row. Absolutely unheard of.

Grace has had more gatorade in the past two days than she has in her entire life combined.

Both of us have ridiculously sore legs.

Yay for SURVIVING day 4!

  

Day Three And Our Legs Hate Us!!!!

This morning came very early.  5:15 early, to be exact.  It felt even earlier for Kassy, who didn't go to bed until around 2 a.m.  Anyway - yoga started at 5:45.  The only one both Kassy and I could make it to was this session...so far we've only gone to the sessions at 7:30 p.m.  We are super proud of ourselves for going though, because it was cold outside and raining when we woke up and going to yoga did not seem very appealing.  But we went!  And so it goes that we only have 27 days left.

It was awesome today, though.  We both felt super energized and are excited for everything we're going to get done today.  Unfortunately it was 26 degrees outside when we left so we were FREEZING walking back to the car cause we were both soaked in sweat.  

Grace drank more gatorade than she ever has before, and even though she generally hates it and thinks it tastes like salty sugar water, it was delicious.

Kassy has not seen the sun rise in months. She has been otherwise occupied (aka passed out in bed)

Note: Our pictures will get cooler as time goes on.  We know they're all the same pose. Expect fab photos in the  upcoming days. (I mean, as fab as you can get whilst dripping in sweat)

Two For The Money

So day 2 of our 30 day challenge was awesome.  Things to note:

- We sweated wwaaaayyyyyy more than the first day
- We each learned how to do a position correctly that we didn't do correctly yesterday
- We found out the pronunciation of Bikram:  Bee-KRUM (We figured knowing how to pronounce it was pretty important so we asked the receptionist after class)
- We learned (*cough* Kassy learned *cough*) that it's very important to bring water and/or gatorade (just a note...Grace brought both *cough*)
- Grace can't stand on her toes. At all. Not one bit.
- Kassy is super good at the thing where you stand on one leg and hold your other leg out in front of you straight so your legs make an "L."  (Grace can't do that either)
- Grace can't drive after yoga.  (Yesterday, she left the car in drive but had the E-brake on and tried to pull the keys out of the ignition after parking at the apartment.  It didn't work until she put the car in park, obviously.  Today, when trying to leave the yoga place, she hit the accelerator while the car was still in park accidentally instead of the brake.  Vroom Vroom!  Apparently bikram impares her driving abilities, but only while parked).
- We're going to need a lot of quarters for all the laundry we have to do (donations are encouraged).

Pictures to come once Kassy decides to be cool and put them on her computer.

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As promised, here are today's photos! Cause I am wayyy cool and put them on my computer quickly!!

30 Days of Bikram Yoga

So Kassy and I have a friend, Natalie, who signed up to do 60 consecutive days of Bikram Yoga here in Austin; it's a huge competition between Austin and San Antonio to see which city can get more people to follow through with the 60 days.  We thought that was awesome, so we decided to challenge ourselves and sign up for one month of unlimited bikram yoga sessions and go every single day for 30 days on our own, since we were too late to sign up for the 60 day challenge.  Neither Kassy nor I have ever done Bikram yoga, and I have only ever done about three sessions of yoga during high school, like 5 years ago, so it's a big challenge for both of us.
Let me tell you a little bit about Bikram yoga;  it is a modified version of "regular" yoga with only 26 positions.  It supposedly helps you deal with stress better and makes your bodily systems work better, more so than other forms of yoga - who knows?  But anyway, it is done in a room that is heated to 105 degrees F and each session is 90 minutes.  So it's basically ridiculously intense and you sweat A LOT.
It's gonna be incredible.

We started yesterday, and let me tell you, it was serious stuff.  We were both sweating like crazy within ten minutes and the poses were really difficult.  We both managed to actually do almost every pose  and breathing exercise (although not all very well) and the teacher even complimented us after class about how well we did for our first time!  The place we went was AWESOME.  Our teacher was named Nora and she gave us complimentary yoga mats and towels to use for our first time, cold gatorades, and powder things to mix with water to restore electrolytes etc. after the class was done.  We weren't expecting any of that at all, and it was so thoughtful and nice of her and the staff to do that.

After class we were both feeling super energized and healthy and everything, so we went to Wal-Mart and bought chicken and broccoli to make a super healthy dinner and we got gatorade for our next few days of classes and yoga mats so we won't have to rent them from the place.  We're both super excited about what is yet to come, and how much we are going to improve!

Yoga Day 1 = Success!!!!

Before:

After: