Monthly Archives: April 2016

We Were Enchanted

I can’t believe we’ve been married for thirty seven years. Yes, 37 years! It seems like so long and, well, wow.

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I wanted to do something really different. I love mountains and David suggested we go to a guest ranch in either Montana or Wyoming. After a short search and trying to figure out how in the heck you get to one of those states (the usual airlines we fly don’t fly there), I said, why not a guest ranch in New Mexico?

Because I love New Mexico like no other state. It has the most different kind of beauty. David said that would be fine with him and I started searching for a guest ranch to visit. I discovered Concho Hills Guest Ranch, made the reservations and grew excited for our trip.

When we arrived, we were given the Bar B room, or Barbie! I was pretty excited about this. Marilyn and Tim (the owners) knew that I am the reigning Mrs. Southwest International and they thought I would like that. I did!

The first day we got familiar with the horses and went on a ride.

I rode John Wayne.

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David rode Captain Jack.

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He looks so awesome on a horse. 🙂

We climbed the rocks to see if we could find arrowheads or pottery.

We ate lots of great food and enjoyed magical scenery.

We enjoyed the company of our hosts, Marilyn and Tim Norris.

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All in all, it was a great trip and a fun way to spend our anniversary!

21 Day Cold Shower Challenge

Say what? Yes! I participated in a 21 Day Cold Shower Challenge with Ben Greenfield. I stood in a shower of the coldest water I could have for 5 minutes every day for 21 days. Not only did it benefit the Brain Trauma Foundation, I actually liked it!

I’ve been listening to Ben Greenfield’s podcast for quite a while now. His topics are so interesting and I’d heard at least two on the subject of cold thermogenesis before he announced the challenge.

Some of the benefits of cold exposure are:

Lowering body fat
Increasing hormone levels
Improving sexual performance and fertility
Lowering blood sugar
Cutting food cravings
Improving adrenal function
Fixing thyroid issues
Enhancing immune function
Improving deep sleep quality
Increasing pain tolerance
Reducing inflammation

I had already been doing two minutes a day since hearing the first podcast so I figured it would be easy enough to take it to five minutes. Plus, it had the additional benefit of raising funds for the Brain Trauma Foundation.

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The participants were all joined in a private Facebook group to share our daily experiences. We were encouraged to take a photo to post. After a couple of weeks, I thought mine were boring so I got some shower caps to liven it up.

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It was a fun experience and something I continue to do. We raised $3,644 for the Brain Trauma Foundation. So it was a great experience all around.

If you are interested in health and sports fitness and endurance, I can’t recommend Ben’s podcast enough. It’s always loaded with interesting and fascinating information!

Awesome engagement!

Snapchat is such a great platform to me. Although it’s my smallest network, it’s definitely my most engaged network. Yesterday, I had a lengthy discussion with a woman in The Netherlands about concussion and CTE. This morning, I had a new follower who coaches football for first and second graders in Texas. I talked to him about CTE and Flag Until 14. I even had one person who follows me be so interested that I was working against CTE that he googled me and found out I was a powerlifter as he is! So, anyway, I love snapchat. smile emoticon

Book Review: The New Guy

The New Guy by Amy Spalding
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a really cute book and I liked it. Jules is looking forward to senior year when she would work on the school paper and work on her dream of getting into Brown University for the following year. Alex comes to school and changes all that.

Alex is a former boy band member and he likes Jules. When TALON (an in school TV station) starts and Alex is a part of it, Jules is devastated and breaks up with him. She then plots and schemes to get TALON shut down so the newspaper, Crest, can exist after she goes to college.

Through her single minded focus to make the paper win over new media, Jules puts her relationship with Alex in jeopardy but also all of her relationships with all of her friends.

I laughed a lot while reading this book because it’s cute. I highly recommend it!

View all my reviews

Texas International Pageants

It was so fun to attend another of the International state pageants. Lyndzee and I drove to Texas on Sunday.

We met up with our friend, Denise, and her four year old, Caitlin. Caitlin has been obsessed with pageants for at least two years now. She knows exactly how she will wear her hair and what her dress and earrings will look like when she’s finally able to compete.

I don’t think I know another four year old that could do so well sitting in a pageant audience but I was confident in Caitlin. She was enthralled.

She wanted to meet and take photos with all the queens she saw.

She chose her dress that she wore and the outfit her mom wore.

The pageant was great. It was nice to see two of the three International title holders and watch the new queens be crowned. Although I didn’t get a chance to stick around (we had to get back to Oklahoma!) to meet the new Mrs. Texas International, I look forward to meeting her at Nationals in July.

Congratulations to the new Texas International queens! 😀

Listen To Your Mother Rehearsal

We had our first rehearsal for Listen To Your Mother this past Saturday at the American Banjo Museum in Bricktown, OKC.

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What an amazing get together! I met my fellow cast members and heard their stories. There were tears and laughter and friendships being made. I can’t wait for the world to see our show. It’s going to be held on May 1 and the Will Rogers Theater in Oklahoma City at 3 p.m. This is when you will hear our stories as we read them. Tickets are already on sale!

Here’s a video showing pieces of our first rehearsal and giving more information about the event itself.

My story is my why. The explanation of why I feel it’s my mission to let every person in the world know that it’s not “just” a concussion and that helmets don’t protect against concussion.

I hope you’ll join us! I feel humbled to be included among such amazing people. 🙂

National Walking Day!

Every day on snapchat, I encourage people to walk. If you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ll know walking is one of my true passions in life and that David and I have been walking for at least 11 years now.

Well, Wednesday is your chance to get started on a walking program. It’s National Walking Day!

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The American Heart Association has the following suggestions for how you can participate in National Walking Day.

Take a walk on April 6! (We encourage a 30-minute walk.)
“Donate” your minutes walked that day at #AHALaceUp. Whether it’s 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour, post your minutes on social media using the hashtag #AHALaceUp and help us reach a total “donation” of 100,000 minutes walked across America! Follow our updates all day.
Want to encourage friends and family to join you? Planning a walk at work or school? It’s easy! Get the free National Walking Day toolkit with tips and promotional materials here!
And follow @american_heart on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for news and tips on fun ways to move.

I hope you’ll give it a whirl. It’s so easy and you’ll feel great afterwards. See you there! And don’t forget #AHALaceUP. 🙂

Lauri Rottmayer

Catch the Rottitude!