Archives for December 2013

12/25

Things That Are My Jam: Christmas Edition

Our collection of Christmas cards

I almost didn’t send any out this year because I didn’t have time to make custom ones…

but I sent one out anwaybecause I know how exciting it is to receive one.

White Russians (my favorite winter cocktail)

In these glasses my roomie bought… because she KNOWS me.

These wristbands I ordered for my Bootcampers and clients

Watching It’s A Wonderful Life tonight, like every other Christmas Eve

and this puppy.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody out there!

posted by Ami McMullen 2 Comments
Filed Under: Christmas, Jam

12/22

TRX Bootcamp Holiday Party 2013

For the entire year, my bootcampers and I get together each week. I lead them, they work hard, and we have a good time. However, we’re all tired, sweaty, and not looking our best because it’s either 6am and we’ve just woken up, or it’s 6pm after a long day. I wanted to make sure we all had a chance to get together, dress up, and NOT think about burpees, so I threw a Holiday party and hired my friend, Missy to photograph it… so we’d all have proof that we clean up nicely! And here it is:

Pretending to eat like an animal… and getting photographed while doing it.

Can’t win ’em all…

Ashley couldn’t attend, but got everybody together to get me a gift.

Every trainer’s ideal gift: A Lululemon gift card!

Thanks, Ashley for organizing that and thank you to my bootcampers!

Can’t wait to go shopping.

My man-friend wrote the sweetest RSVP decline on the Evite, unaware that

everybody else could see it. Everybody thought it was amazing, as did I, so they re-read it.

Major points were scored.

Kennedy helped hand out all the gifts while I did acknowledgements.

Expressing my gratitude to work with such amazing people each week.

Jennifer and Hill hosted the party. Couldn’t have done it without them!

Even my mom came to support me!

Thanks, Mom!

Complete photo album on my Fitness Facebook page.

Thank you SO much, Missy for these beautiful photos!

posted by Ami McMullen 4 Comments
Filed Under: bootcamp, Christmas, holiday, Part-ay, photography, TRX

12/17

Book Buzz: Dearie – The Remarkable Life of Julia Child

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Guys, this book is SERIOUSLY good. I didn’t know much about Julia Child until I saw the movie, “Julie and Julia” a couple years ago, but it left me intrigued. I saw Dearie on Goodreads not long ago and ordered it for my Kindle. The great thing about this book is that it’s one that you don’t feel you have to dive into and read until completed. You can pick it up here and there and you feel good about picking up where you last left off, even if a couple weeks have passed. It’s one that makes you just want to get cozy and settle in for a fun story… and then start learning how to cook French cuisine.

This book goes in massive detail of Julia’s life: her upbringing in Southern California, her time working for the CIA (before it was called the CIA), and her travels all over the world. The thing I loved the most though was her apparent gumption and attitude:

“NEVER apologize!” she says to those who have ruined a recipe.

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The love story between her and her husband is also one that will draw you in…

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…and what’s really amazing is that most of her life’s successes didn’t happen until much later in her life.

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Get it. Read it. You’ll love it.

Side note: I don’t usually pay attention to how big/long a book is, but when I was talking about it to one of my clients she immediately said, “That book looks like it’ll take a year to read. I’ll read it in retirement!” So then I had to look: 15,000 pages! Now in Kindle pages, that sounds way worse, but I’d never actually paid attention to how many pages each book had, I just looked at the percentage as I was reading. Well after reading this book for about two weeks (about 5 hours total of reading, probably) I looked down and was only %30 through it! Soooo just be prepared, it’s long, but worth every minute! The good thing was that the story was actually over at %65 (10,000 pages). The rest of the book was saved for Acknowledgements and bibliography. : )

posted by Ami McMullen 2 Comments
Filed Under: Blogger Book Club, Book Buzz, GoodReads.com, reading

12/11

Playlist! Chill Christmas Tunes

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I love Christmas music! I don’t get tired of listening to it, but there are sometimes that I’m not in the mood for loud/fast songs that yell at you. Sometimes I want mellow Christmas tunes for the snowy drive home, slow songs that can be playing while I bake treats on a weekend afternoon, or some that I can sit in the glow of the Christmas tree lights and chill to. So I made this playlist. [Read more…]

posted by Ami McMullen 3 Comments
Filed Under: Christmas, life, music, playlist

12/10

Things That Are My Jam Right Now

Canada mittens and beanie, from my man-friend.

Or should I say mittens and “toque“… like the Canucks do?

Or should I say mittens and “toboggan” like most Louisvillians do?

This new Kindle cover:

This pretty hot chocolate:

With these girls:
(after bootcamp on a snow day!)

This amazing berry cobbler my buddy Mariah made yesterday:

And as always, Tango!

(if you can spot him!)

Happy Tuesday!
What’s your jam right now?

posted by Ami McMullen 3 Comments
Filed Under: Canada, Jam, Tango

12/09

Podcast! Fitness and TRX

photo via

A couple weeks ago I had the privilege of joining VO2 Multisport

and chatting with Angie Fenton for Get Fit Louisville.

And I got to hold a microphone!

We covered topics from TRX to climbing,

dancing, and women in fitness.

Listen in here.

To download this podcast (and the other 6 episodes) for free, check them out on iTunes.

posted by Ami McMullen Leave a Comment
Filed Under: dance, podcast, rock climbing, TRX, women

12/07

Grown Up Snow Day!

We rarely get snow here in Louisville. It’ll snow a couple times a year, yes, but hardly ever accumulates to anything. Yesterday we received a few inches in a matter of hours! The kids got out of school for a snow day (and even though I’m not in school anymore, it’s still exciting when school gets cancelled) and we decided to hit up the park/golf course near our house if it kept accumulating. We wanted to wait until the evening so we’d have the max amount of snow to work with. We sent out a mass text to our buds, ordered a couple pizzas and waited to see who was up for joining us…