For those of you following along...

One of my sisters-in-law is a personal trainer in Santa Monica, California and despite the stereotype, she actually very down to earth... and so are her clients.

I've been meaning to call her since my bad experience with the trainer at my gym and I finally got a chance last night. With the time difference, my son's bedtime is her kids' dinner time...

In the midst the kiddie chaos at her house, she gave me a wealth of info, including some helpful pointers and common mistakes. She even set up an exercise program designed just for ME and promised to follow up with updates. The whole program can be accessed online through her website. Online personal training rocks! After our call, I was totally motivated to get movin'

Unfortunately, I was up too late (being all jazzed and whatnot) and missed my spinning class this morning.... Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow :-)

For those of you interested in following along, my husband has two younger brothers. Each of them are married with kids, which means I have two... Count'em, one, TWO sisters-in-law. One family lives in California and the other lives three-hours away in the same town as my mother- and father-in law.

My mother-in-law (secretly) always wanted daughters, but instead got daughters-in-law. I'm sure in her fantasies of shopping, getting pedicures, and lunching together, she imaged that her "daughters" would all get along...WRONG!

While I adore and get along just fine with both of them, my sisters-in-law cannot stand each other. Something about conflicting parenting styles or some such... I guess it also doesn't help that our mother-in-law has nicknames for each of them. Strictly behind their backs, of course.

Having opted to breast feed her children past a year old, limit fast food and juice consumption, and generally care for the fitness and well-being of her children, the personal trainer is the "Earth Mother", but I like to call her "Cruchny Munchy". I guess it helps that she lives in Santa Monica and is therefore always up on the newest forward-thinking, environment-friendly, celebrity baby trends.

The other one thinks breast feeding is "icky" and doesn't understand why anyone would do it. (personal choice) She also feeds her daughter junk food and soda by the ton... well, except for the time she completely forgot to feed her daughter dinner and wondered (out loud) why the kid was eating so many lollipops...

Her nickname is the "Make It Easy Mom". Before she had children, I was told that her nickname in the family was simply "the brat". Lovely.

I know it sound like I'm bashing her or taking sides. I'm not. She would tell you all this and more herself if she knew you, as she is unabashedly opinionated and, like me, doesn't care what anyone else thinks of her... These qualities actually make her a very amusing person to talk to.

I just shudder to think what MY nickname could be...