February's 14s Check-in

So for those of you keeping track at home... February was apparently a month to slack!  Not only did I fade in my 14/month goals, I also didn't track them all that well, like I said, slacker!  

I will comment that this month I had a big win in that I've found a way to deal with an ankle issue that I've had for a WHILE, amazing how a little ankle brace can make the world of difference.  I am no longer in pain after walking / zumba-ing / jumping rope / etc.

14 Jump Rope Workouts / Month... January I had 4 jump rope workouts, and as I mentioned above I didn't track this month well at all.  As I look back at my calendar I only see 3 mentions of jumping rope - clearly the wrong direction for meeting my goal, but I'm staying hopeful for what I can do in March  #stillnoproblem #itotallygotthis

1. February 12: Jump Rope @ home
2. February 14: Jump Rope @ home
3. February 25: Jump Rope @ hotel fitness center

14 Stretching Workouts / Month... This one I simply did NOT track this month - I had such a great start with this goal and I really think writing it down would have helped me more but I can't go back in time and fix this, I can look forward though!  

Our local elementary schools have a "Word of the Week" on their signs, and ours has said "FLEXIBILITY" for quite a few weeks now.  At first I was disappointed that it wasn't changing but now I'm using that as my motivation to get moving and get more flexible!  

I'm going to take a new approach towards this goal and really focus on doing some stretches every day, ideally when I wake up.  I found this article: http://www.rodalenews.com/easy-yoga-poses and so I'm going to start here and see how this goes.  I will also do a better job of tracking that I do this (I'm the only one who is going to hold myself accountable) and that I keep up with the foam roller.

14 Language Lessons / Month... Total 0 - My only complete success in January faded away to nothing!  I have no excuses, HOWEVER I have new motivation to get on this one... Mike and I will be flying to Barcelona this June - we just booked ourselves on a Mediterranean cruise!!!  I am SO excited and think that might be just the ticket to get me re-motivated on this language goal!

Overall...

I didn't do so great in February with my monthly goals, but I am consciously working to make this a really great year and so far I can say that every day is better than the last.  I have lost weight, I'm active at least 4 or 5 days a week, often times more.  I'm still cooking a lot at home with Mike and just enjoying married life.  

I'm excited for March as I see it as a chance to redeem myself with these monthly goals!  I'm also looking forward to hitting the Woodmont Fitness Center with Kris - we're planning on getting up to the gym hopefully twice a week and we've challenged each other to a 30 day Burpee challenge (I hope it goes better than the 30 day Plank challenge that I started in February).

February Fun - A Look At Wedding Details Part 5

Our AWESOME Bridal Party and VIPs!

I'll be honest, we have quite a few VIPs in our lives - and there were so many people who we knew we wanted to be at our wedding, but when it came to picking our bridal party - it was so natural to keep it all in the family and so that was what we did.

So let's take a look at who we have in that picture up above... 

starting with the flower girls and ring bearers:

 

From the left: Isabella Cogill, Stephen Cogill, Owen Mack and Kylie Cogill

Owen fit right in with these Cogill kids and made friends pretty quick.  He and Stephen played the role of Co-Ring Bearers... Stephen carried a big pillow with the letter K and Owen carried the sign we had borrowed from Matt and Dana's wedding that read "Here Comes the Bride".

Kylie and Isabella were beautiful flower girls - their dresses had ruffles just like mine which turned out to be a really neat look and I just loved having them carry the large sunflowers.  Bella was a trooper, after having a bit of a growth spurt after buying the dress shoes we couldn't find a larger size (in PA or GA) so she rocked shoes that were a bit too small!

They all did such a great job and really made the day so fun!

Dan Edson and John Cogill were our groomsmen, Danny taking on that critical role of "Best Man".  These guys did a great job helping Mike relax and enjoy the day.  I don't know all of the details but I believe they made it a point to watch College GameDay and also cooked a delicious breakfast including 3 pounds of bacon smoked on our new Traeger!

I grew up with three awesome brothers, and no sisters - lucky for me my older brothers married two amazing ladies who were up to the challenge of standing with me on my wedding day.  I couldn't choose just one so I went with "Co-Maids of Honor".  

These girls were awesome, helping with every last detail from picking up my dress super last minute to getting up and partying with me in our Wedding Day Zumba.  They also put together a beautiful toast that I am glad we have on tape because it was too good to only hear once! 

We needed some quality music for our ceremony, 

so we asked Ryan Cogill and Alyssa Krauss to play a duet for our processional

 

They performed Jesu Joy of Man's Desire, and then Ryan switched over to the trumpet to play a duet of the Trumpet Voluntary with John Cogill when I walked down the aisle.

I always knew I wanted my little brother to play the trumpet when I walked down the aisle, and I was so excited to have some additional performers with him - this was just another one of those details that made our day so extra special.

Alyssa also performed a solo of the Ave Maria during the lighting of our Unity Candle.  I'm pretty sure she decided on that song while I was getting hair and makeup done - I'm very glad she resisted the peer pressure to play the Notre Dame alma mater!

We had Dan's beautiful wife, Lindsay Edson read for us - 

The best part is what you can't see in this picture - 

Lindsay was wearing some beautiful cowboy boots for the occasion!

Last but not least we asked Jim and Tim to be our ushers... I was excited to have this option so that Dan and John could hang out with Mike and not worry about doing double duty.

These guys did a great job of escorting our guests to their seats while our DJ was playing some super fun music by a band called the Vitamin String Quartet - they do string variations of pop music!

 You see here Tim stepped in and brought the video camera, Mike and I did not hire a videographer but I couldn't resist having our ceremony caught on tape.

Parents aside, I think this covers all of our VIPs with a special shout out to Kyle King who took ownership of the video camera during the ceremony!