So here I am. A week shy of my 51st birthday and no real clue of what the future holds for me. I’ve done a great job wrapping up my former life here in Oklahoma to be ready to move to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with David.

And I wait.

It’s kind of odd to have no real point for each day. Once I got the house all packed up there was really nothing left to do. No contestants to recruit, no plans to make.

I love to read and I read a lot, all the time, even when I’m super busy. I was reading a book that talked about kettlebell swings and how they are the perfect whole body exercise. Wow. I did a little research on the internet and I realized that this was something I could do anywhere. I also realized that it was something that, if not done properly, could probably really hurt me. Bad.

So I contacted my friend Jon Conneely a.k.a. Coach JC and asked if I could get some instruction in how to do this exercise. I’ve known Jon for several years as he was the official fitness coach and big time supporter of the Mrs. Oklahoma International Pageant.

What I didn’t know was how quickly I would fall back in love with iron and power when I walked into his training facility.

Coach JC set me up with Coach Jaime to give me one on one instruction in proper technique for kettlebells.

It’s been tough and I’ve been sore but I love this piece of iron called a kettlebell.

You know Nickelback sings (with apologies to Blake Jackson and Afton Fisher whom I always think about when I like a Nickelback song):

You know it’s never too late to shoot for the stars
Regardless of who you are
So do whatever it takes
‘Cause you can’t rewind a moment in this life
Let nothin’ stand in your way
Cause the hands of time are never on your side

I want to thank Coach JC and Coach Jaime for believing in me. Let’s face it. I’m kinda old and it’s been many years since I’ve been in the gym with heavy iron. But they don’t think I’m ridiculous for wanting to do this. They make it seem like anything I want is possible which, coincidentally, is how I feel. 🙂

I’m excited that I’ll be able to take the knowledge that I’ve learned these past couple of weeks along with me to Saudi Arabia and be able to master the kettlebell. I plan to be able to progress far enough to get the Kettlebell RKC Certification.

This makes me excited. It gives me a plan for a future that I’m in the dark about.

Against the grain should be a way of life
What’s worth the prize is always worth the fight
Every second counts ’cause there’s no second try
So live like you’ll never live it twice

Yeah. 🙂

When we all got together in Oklahoma City for my see you later party at the beginning of August, Teddy Good wasn’t able to join Brookie and visit with us. David and I call Brooke and Teddy our middle child because they fall in age between Brandon and Geoff.

Brookie was our first Mrs. Oklahoma International in 2007 and, while they felt like family right from the beginning, they’ve only secured that position  (firmly in the middle of our hearts), over the past four years. Because we didn’t get to see Teddy and the boys, we knew we needed to make a Teddy B (for Brookie) Good Road Trip to Walters, OK.

Along the way, we stopped in Oklahoma City to have lunch at the new Tucker’s Onion Burgers (@TucksOKC) and have a mini-tweetup.

This tweetup may have been small in number but was large in personality. @peneplain (the vegetable gardner), @boyledad (my birthday twin), @PaulaKPorter (my other twin) and @LyndzeeVieweg (my mini-me) joined Nikki and me for a fun time of getting to know each other and eating fabu food.

We then continued on towards Walters with Lyndzee in tow.

It was so great to visit with the Good family.

We got to see Corbin

Ian

the newest addition, Gypsy

and, of course, Teddy. 🙂

We had some fabu pizza that I had flown in from Edwardos in Chicago. We sort of had to cut it with a sword but it was yummy. 😉

Brookie had a cake made for me because it’s my favorite and it was yummy! I love the crown around the top and the zebra that matches my blog. The crown plates and napkins were awesome, too!

It was so much fun to spend time with everyone!

Then we went back to Lawton and spent the night in the coldest hotel room EVER!

What would an overnight road trip be without a pancake the size of the table top? We wanted to go to IHOP, a personal favorite of Lyndzee’s, but by the time we realized we were past it, we were really far past it. So we drove until we got to Chickasha and found a greasy spoon called Mama Carol’s. The server was SO nice in her flip flops and she delivered the goods:

An enormous pancake. We ate. A lot.

Then we drove back to Oklahoma City to drop Lyndzee off and then back home. We had so much fun. Thank you to the Good family for sharing your evening with us and don’t forget us when you’re famous!

xoxo Lauri 🙂

hee hee hee

Not really.

Last month, when I decided to get a storage container from PODS, their social media gal, Jennifer, saw me tweeting about it. She asked me if I would be interested in writing a guest post on their blog about my experience.

Well, as I always am when someone asks me to guest blog, I was honored. And excited! I’ve never guest posted on a commercial blog before.

I wrote two posts for them Cowboys and Aliens and Are We All Becoming PODS People?

I was excited to share my experience and will probably do another one or two posts if they will let me. 🙂

Jennifer told me that she was going to send me gifts to thank me for writing the blogs and they arrived the other day.

It was a BIG box and I wasn’t sure what it could be.

When I opened it up, I found two awesome RED lawn chairs and two PODS travel mugs.

Fun! I adore red and coffee so these are good gifts for me. I won’t be able to take the chairs or Frank (St. Francis there in the middle) with me to Saudi so I will probably be making a trip to the PODS warehouse to load a few more things into the container before I leave. Maybe that will be another post.

Jennifer told me that I was the first customer guest blogger they had had on their blog. If you have a PODS experience, I know they are looking for more contributors.

Thank you, Jennifer! This was fun.

I’ve been Lauri for as long as I can remember. Well, except for when mom was mad at me. Then I became LAURA SUZANNE SHEATS!

She even called me that on my wedding day. After I had a new last name. 😉

I went to the eye doctor yesterday. I filled out the form with my given name because that’s how my insurance company has me listed. But over to the right it asked: Preferred Name.

I wrote Lauri.

When they called me? They called me Laura. Not just the first girl but the one who helped me pick out my new glasses, too, who’s name coincidentally was Laura.

Well, I am Lauri. Please don’t call me Laura unless you’re mad at me. That’s how I know. 😉

I am Lauri Rottmayer (excerpted from an interview with Alan Weinkrantz.) 🙂

I’m not really a car person. I mean, I love my Jeep but when we went to get it, I didn’t have an idea of what kind of car I wanted at all. I just knew I needed a big car.

Not since I was eight and saw the Stingray Corvette have I fiended for a particular car.

I wanted that car for a long time.

Now, I think I may have found just the car to occupy that “oh I MUST have it” spot in the car part of my heart.

The 2012 Chevy Camaro.

Yummy! THAT is a hot car!

I have no need for a car right now. In fact, I’ll be selling my beloved Jeep to my brother before we take off for Saudi. But I want that Camaro.

I told David the other day, in the course of conversation, that when I come back to Oklahoma to visit, I will rent that hot Camaro to drive during the course of my stay. His eyebrow raised – high – but he didn’t say no.

Yesterday, when I was walking Rabi, I saw a red Camaro. Oooohh la la! Love it!

It just confirmed to me that I will, some day, be driving those hot wheels! 🙂

As I was going through the Big House, packing up and throwing out, I realized there was some pretty heavy stuff in there and that a dolly would sure be handy to have. We didn’t have one so I asked on facebook if any of my friends did.

As she has in so many instances, my friend Janice bailed me out and told me I could borrow her dolly.

She is a swell dolly. A SUPER dolly, in fact, and I was able to do incredible feats of strength using her.

Well, everything is moved out, packed up, thrown away and I took Dolly back to J today. Along with Dolly, I also returned my garbage picker upper stick.

That made me sad.

For around 3 years, J and I would walk the neighborhood and pick up garbage while we did it. J gave me a garbage stick and we called ourselves the Old Bat Patrol. We even had t-shirts!

I used to joke that we served the neighborhood by picking up garbage and protected ourselves with the pointy garbage picker uppers. 🙂

I loved the time I got to spend with J every morning. She’s so grounded and you know I’m kinda “out there”. I’ve never had a friend like her and she is so special to me.

J, I will miss you so much. Thank you for bailing me out when I was locked inside of my house, when we had to cut that enormous branch off of my tree, when I need a dolly and every other time.

I love you my friend!

xoxo Lauri 🙂