{"id":423,"date":"2013-04-02T17:14:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T17:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/?p=423"},"modified":"2013-04-02T18:34:49","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T18:34:49","slug":"easter-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.blessedinthemess.com\/blog\/easter-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hola Amigos! Since my last name is going to be “Diaz” next year, I thought I would practice some Spanish on you.\u00a0 Not impressive, I know.<\/p>\n

Remember how I told you April is insane for me?\u00a0 Well, it is only April 2nd and I am already feeling the pain.\u00a0 But it’s all good because I had an AWESOME weekend! I flew out to Maryland this weekend to visit my brother and sister-in-law and of course my NIECE! Ahh, she is getting so big!\u00a0 I am maybe kind of obsessed with her.\u00a0 Can you blame me? My parents and little brother were out there all week before I got there, so we were able to spend Easter all together (we missed you Ben!).\u00a0 So in other words, this is a post where I tell you all about my weekend.\u00a0 If you could care less, might as well stop reading now.\u00a0 I won’t be offended, promise.<\/p>\n

\"Brynn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I love spending time with my brothers when I can, there is something special about sibling relationships.\u00a0 We can all pretend we are kids and just be goofy, stay up watching stupid TV shows, beat up on each other and laugh until we come close to peeing our pants.\u00a0 I mean… who wouldn’t want to hang out with this too cool 16 year old?<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to tell you about my flight in on Thursday night though, it was so fun.\u00a0 So, because I forget every time to check-in 24 hours before my southwest flight, I almost always end up with a middle seat all the way at the back of the plane.\u00a0 Which is totally fine, I’m not afraid of sitting between strangers.\u00a0 There I was walking through the aisle desperately scanning for an open seat and the flight attendant ahead of me motioned for me to come towards him as he had found me one.\u00a0 It was in the middle of two guys who I guessed were around my age both with heavy country accents.\u00a0 So I sat down, and within 5 minutes I knew this would be a fun flight. The guy to my right was fresh out of college and his first comment to me was “Did you know they serve alcohol on flights?\u00a0 How awesome is that? I am totally going to get drunk! Are you going to get drunk?!”\u00a0 Oh boy.\u00a0 To be young again. Ease up killer, its an hour flight.\u00a0 The guy on my other side was extremely polite and pretty quiet at first.\u00a0 By the end of the flight, I am pretty sure every one surrounding our seats hated us.\u00a0 I don’t think I have laughed that hard in a while, I don’t even remember half the crap we were talking about but we just kept laughing.\u00a0 I also found out that the nice country gentleman to the left of me was good friends with THE BAND PERRY! Which is one of my favorite country bands! How cool is that?! I know what you are thinking.\u00a0 He was probably lying, I thought the same.\u00a0 But he showed me a bunch of pictures on his phone of them together, super cool.\u00a0 He also claimed to have some kind of hunting TV show on A&E?\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 In any case, they were both very nice, made for a very humorous flight and I have no idea what their names are. I love meeting people, it’s my favorite.<\/p>\n

Friday night my family and I just hung out at my brother’s house most of the day and then I made a yummy dinner for everybody.\u00a0 I love cooking for people, that is also my favorite.\u00a0 I made chicken breast stuffed with cheese, spinach and tomatoes.\u00a0 For a side we had grilled veggies and a simple spinach salad.\u00a0 They were pleased, that made me happy.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday, my parents dropped me off at one of the local Crossfit gyms.\u00a0 I figured while I was out there, I would give the 13.4 open workout one more try. This week, the workout was a progression in threes of a 95#\u00a0 clean and jerk and toes to bar.\u00a0 Let me preface by telling you that until I tried this for the first time on Thursday at my home gym, I had never cleaned or jerked that much weight…like ever.\u00a0 So I was already super intimidated by this workout, as I am with pretty much any Olympic lift.\u00a0 I can swing my toes to a pull-up bar all day, but I struggle with putting that much weight over my head.\u00a0 With help of my coach at home, I completed a pretty pathetic 11 reps but I was excited to get a PR.\u00a0 I was hoping that after doing it once already and then having the pressure of being at a new gym would motivate me to get more reps, but I just could not get the movement right.\u00a0 Lots to work on before next year.\u00a0 It was frustrating and humbling workout but I am glad I gave it another go and was able to check out Montgomery County Crossfit, really great people!<\/p>\n

\"MCCF\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After that workout I hit a trail for a ten mile run behind my brothers house that was BEAUTIFUL.\u00a0 I swear I do not belong in Illinois, I belong somewhere where I can run in regional parks and trails on a daily basis.\u00a0 Oh and this trail I was on also had these little fitness circuits every half mile! How awesome is that?? There were rings and bars for pullups\/dips, benches for step ups, stretching devices, you name it.\u00a0 Way to go Maryland, way to go.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Picture<\/a><\/p>\n

That night we took a drive to go walk around the inner harbor in downtown Baltimore and of course have some seafood, YUM.<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday we went to my brothers church, which was a really cool experience.\u00a0 My Brother and Sister-in-law are both deaf and they go to a deaf baptist church near their home.\u00a0\u00a0 There were announcements, prayers, hymns and a sermon just like any other church but of course all done in sign language.\u00a0 Super cool.\u00a0 I was so blown away by this church, they do not have an actual ‘church’ to hold a service in, so they use the property of another hearing church.\u00a0 All of their services are done in this little trailer on the Church property and that thing was PACKED!\u00a0 It was a very powerful service, enjoyed every minute.\u00a0 I couldn’t help but think of all the fancy churches I have seen with their basketball courts and huge facilities etc.\u00a0 All great of course, but in my opinion THIS is what it is really about.\u00a0 None of the fancy stuff, just a room where people can come together and celebrate God. You don’t need more than that. You could feel the strong community of these people the second you walked in, it was awesome.\u00a0 I am so happy that my brother has a community like that to surround his family with.<\/p>\n

Overall, it was a good weekend.\u00a0 I was of course sad to leave Brandon, Bethany and Brynn- but I am crossing my fingers we will seem them again soon.\u00a0 Ready to get back to the grind this week \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Stay blessed in the mess!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hola Amigos! Since my last name is going to be “Diaz” next year, I thought I would practice some Spanish on you.\u00a0 Not impressive, I know. Remember how I told you April is insane for me?\u00a0 Well, it is only April 2nd and I am already feeling the pain.\u00a0 But it’s all good because I had an AWESOME weekend! I flew out to Maryland this weekend to visit my brother and sister-in-law and of course my NIECE! Ahh, she is getting so big!\u00a0 I am maybe kind of obsessed with her.\u00a0 Can you blame me? My parents and little brother were out there all week before I got there, so we were able to spend Easter all together (we missed you Ben!).\u00a0 So in other words, this is a post where I tell you all about my weekend.\u00a0 If you could care less, might as well stop reading now.\u00a0 I won’t be offended, promise. I love spending time with my brothers when I can, there is something special about sibling relationships.\u00a0 We can all pretend we are kids and just be goofy, stay up watching stupid TV shows, beat up on each other and laugh until we come close to peeing our pants.\u00a0 I mean… who wouldn’t want to hang out with this too cool 16 year old? I have to tell you about my flight in on Thursday night though, it was so fun.\u00a0 So, because I forget every time to check-in 24 hours before my southwest flight, I almost always end up with a middle seat all the way at the back of the plane.\u00a0 Which is totally fine, I’m not afraid of sitting between strangers.\u00a0 There I was walking through the aisle desperately scanning for an open seat and the flight attendant ahead of me motioned for me to come towards him as he had found me one.\u00a0 It was in the middle of two guys who I guessed were around my age both with heavy country accents.\u00a0 So I sat down, and within 5 minutes I knew this would be a fun flight. The guy to my right was fresh out of college and his first comment to me was “Did you know they serve alcohol on flights?\u00a0 How awesome is that? I am totally going to get drunk! Are you going to get drunk?!”\u00a0 Oh boy.\u00a0 To be young again. Ease up killer, its an hour flight.\u00a0 The guy on my other side was extremely polite and pretty quiet at first.\u00a0 By the end of the flight, I am pretty sure every one surrounding our seats hated us.\u00a0 I don’t think I have laughed that hard in a while, I don’t even remember half the crap we were talking about but we just kept laughing.\u00a0 I also found out that the nice country gentleman to the left of me was good friends with THE BAND PERRY! Which is one of my favorite country bands! How cool is that?! I know what you are thinking.\u00a0 He was probably lying, I thought the same.\u00a0 But he showed me a bunch of pictures on his phone of them together, super cool.\u00a0 He also claimed to have some kind of hunting TV show on A&E?\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 In any case, they were both very nice, made for a very humorous flight and I have no idea what their names are. I love meeting people, it’s my favorite. Friday night my family and I just hung out at my brother’s house most of the day and then I made a yummy dinner for everybody.\u00a0 I love cooking for people, that is also my favorite.\u00a0 I made chicken breast stuffed with cheese, spinach and tomatoes.\u00a0 For a side we had grilled veggies and a simple spinach salad.\u00a0 They were pleased, that made me happy. Saturday, my parents dropped me off at one of the local Crossfit gyms.\u00a0 I figured while I was out there, I would give the 13.4 open workout one more try. This week, the workout was a progression in threes of a 95#\u00a0 clean and jerk and toes to bar.\u00a0 Let me preface by telling you that until I tried this for the first time on Thursday at my home gym, I had never cleaned or jerked that much weight…like ever.\u00a0 So I was already super intimidated by this workout, as I am with pretty much any Olympic lift.\u00a0 I can swing my toes to a pull-up bar all day, but I struggle with putting that much weight over my head.\u00a0 With help of my coach at home, I completed a pretty pathetic 11 reps but I was excited to get a PR.\u00a0 I was hoping that after doing it once already and then having the pressure of being at a new gym would motivate me to get more reps, but I just could not get the movement right.\u00a0 Lots to work on before next year.\u00a0 It was frustrating and humbling workout but I am glad I gave it another go and was able to check out Montgomery County Crossfit, really great people! After that workout I hit a trail for a ten mile run behind my brothers house that was BEAUTIFUL.\u00a0 I swear I do not belong in Illinois, I belong somewhere where I can run in regional parks and trails on a daily basis.\u00a0 Oh and this trail I was on also had these little fitness circuits every half mile! How awesome is that?? There were rings and bars for pullups\/dips, benches for step ups, stretching devices, you name it.\u00a0 Way to go Maryland, way to go. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That night we took a drive to go walk around the inner harbor in downtown Baltimore and of course have some seafood, YUM. Sunday we went to my brothers church, which was a really cool experience.\u00a0 My Brother and Sister-in-law are both deaf and they go to a deaf baptist church near their home.\u00a0\u00a0 There were announcements, prayers, hymns and a sermon just like any other church but of course all done in sign language.\u00a0 Super cool.\u00a0 I was so blown away by this church, they do not have an actual ‘church’ to hold a service in, so they use the property of another hearing church.\u00a0 All of their services are done in this little trailer on the Church property and that thing was PACKED!\u00a0 It was a very powerful service, enjoyed every minute.\u00a0 I couldn’t help but think of all the fancy churches I have seen with their basketball courts and huge facilities etc.\u00a0 All great of course, but in my opinion THIS is what it is really about.\u00a0 None of the fancy stuff, just a room where people can come together and celebrate God. You don’t need more than that. You could feel the strong community of these people the second you walked in, it was awesome.\u00a0 I am so happy that my brother has a community like that to surround his family with. Overall, it was a good weekend.\u00a0 I was of course sad to leave Brandon, Bethany and Brynn- but I am crossing my fingers we will seem them again soon.\u00a0 Ready to get back to the grind this week \ud83d\ude42 Stay blessed in the mess!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t