On Tuesday evening, the women's organization at my church hosted a special evening titled "A New and Healthier You." It was a freezing cold evening (snowy and blowy, with a windchill temp. of 6 degrees!) so I wondered what the turnout would be but about 30 turned out so we had a good group.A darling young mother of five (Jamie) taught the first class on stretching and strengthening exercises and relaxation. Jamie is a great example of someone who turned her passion into her profession, second of course, to being a mother. She took a yoga class four years ago and loved it so much that she became a pro at it. She now teaches yoga, jazzercise, pilates and more, and has been able to greatly supplement their family's income by so doing.
Following Jamie's great instruction, we had healthy refreshments. Amber is our "food coordinator," and you can trust anything she touches to be both beautiful and delicious. She made the darling, smiley-faced melon with the wild "fruit kabob hairdo." I took shrimp and some veggies with a dip I concocted using low-fat cottage cheese and non-fat plain yogurt, blended smooth in my Magic Bullet, and seasoned with dry Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning. The gals seemed to like it. There were a number of other yummy offerings and I don't think anyone missed the extra calories.
The second class was taught by Gaylynn and she made me proud. I say that because a number of years ago she and her husband transferred to MO from UT. She had been pursing a B.S. degree at the University of Utah in exercise physiology. Missouri State did not offer that degree, although we offered coursework to support it. She came to me to see about an Individualized Major (a program I coordinated prior to retirement). She got her Individualized Major, then a Master's degree. She is now the Wellness Coordinator for one of the two large hospital systems here. She also teaches at MSU. She is very knowledgeable and a great teacher. She taught us how to set (and reach) realistic goals, and provided great answers to a number of questions from the audience.
It was a great evening with lots of good information.
Life is life, though, right, and sometimes ya just gotta celebrate. I mean, when your 90-year-old friend looks at the menu and asks, "What is fried ice cream?" and admits she's never tried it, and a second friend says she hasn't either, isn't it sortof in the job description of the remaining two of you (who, by the way, HAVE had it and loved it) to make sure they don't leave this life without adding that experience to their culinary repertoire??!!!! Well, yah! :)
You can see from the picture that we all partook of this not-so-healthy, but very fun dessert, at the Mexican restaurant we ate at on the way home from our trip to the St. Louis Temple today.
We had so much fun and such an uplifting day. I'll just close this entry by saying, "Oh how I love my SISTERS, both biological and "adopted."
