My gym is starting a weight loss competition next week. I'm signed up for it. Can't wait to bust my ass working out once it starts :)

It's funny, as soon as I heard they were going to do this, I kinda slacked off. I didn't want to lose weight until it started. So last week I didn't really watch too much what I ate and I didn't workout as hard as I've been. I LOST ABOUT 5#!!!! For cryin out loud!!! I watch what I eat and workout like crazy and I lose nothing. I take a week and don't give as rats ass and I lose almost 5#. CRAZY!!! LOL!! Ah well, I'll kick ass in the competition!!!
     

My first race

I did it! I ran my first race. It was a 2k, starting out easy. I had a GREAT time!! I ran the whole way and didn't stop to walk at all. I wanted to, but I had the best coach running alongside me :) my wonderful hubby was there cheering me on and giving me the encouragement I needed to keep running. He is a half marathon runner so this was a piece of cake for him. I wanted to make this a "super" run so I wore my superhero gear and my Superman cape. It was awesome!

 Here's my gear, can't see the cape, but it's there :)

And here I am with my pretty girl :)

Here's my super amazing hubby who coached me through,

Here I am at the gym waiting for the race to start,

Here is the front of the race shirt,

And the back,

I had an awesome day! I survived my first race even though we had -10 degree wind chills with a high only in the teens. Typical winter weather here. I didn't even notice the cold while running :)

I'm looking forward to the next race!! Going to try a 5K in a few months. Gotta get training hard at the gym!!





































 

Biggest Loser

I'm watching The Biggest Loser that I DVR'd on Tuesday night. Hubby & I went to a basketball game so I missed it. There's more drama than I like to see in this episode. I'd rather see the workouts and challenges than all the bickering. Bob seems like he doesn't care too much for Dolvett. But even with all the drama it's still an encouraging show. Makes me want to hop in the car and go to the gym :)

Not too much to get everyone caught up on in my life, been working, going to the gym, doing a little remodeling in the house, oldest son was chosen to be employee of the month at his job, youngest son is still at his military training, Brigit is still the sweetest little doggie in the world..... life is great!!!

My gym is going to be having a Biggest Loser competition. I'm looking forward to it. I still have the problem that I'm not losing weight. I'm losing inches and toning, but the scale stays the same. I'm hoping that being in the competition will be the extra push I need to step it up a notch and make the numbers drop on the scale as well as on the measuring tape. Competition or not, I'm planning on being Wonder Woman for Halloween this year ;-)

I ordered a boxing workout book tonight. The Gleason's Gym Total Body Boxing Workout for Women I love boxing and kickboxing. I'd like to move our heavy bag upstairs but I'm not sure where we'd put it. I'm hoping tomorrow, since I will have the house to myself, I'll be able to sit down and get some kind of workout schedule figured out. I have a folder full of workouts and I've made myself some spreadsheets of workouts, but I need to figure out what workouts to do on what days, schedule workout times and STICK WITH IT!!! I'm back to the getting off schedule thing because Steve's job flip flops so damn much. I need to make a schedule for myself and keep it.

Speaking of schedules, I suppose I should get to bed so I can get up at a decent time tomorrow morning. I love sleeping in, but I end up feeling blah all day when I do.

So, goodnight everyone. Sweet dreams!!!

My new "toy"...

My brother-in-law heard I was looking to buy a gun. I had posted a few that I wanted on Facebook and one of them was a gun he had. He offered to bring it down for me to try shooting to see if I liked it and if I wanted it he would sell it to me. I really liked it and he made me a good deal so my hubby bought it for me. It's a Ruger 9mm. I can't wait to get out for some more target practice!! Eventually I'll take the class and apply for a concealed carry permit.

:-)



Testing

Testing out another Blogger app for the phone. Had to delete the last one.





Added a pic from my phone.

Now I'll see if I can add from picasa
Nope can't add from picasa.

posted from Bloggeroid

Fun at the gym :)

Well, we've been at Anytime Fitness for almost two months now and I'm loving it just as much today as when we joined. Even though my weight isn't dropping, I'm slimming and toning. Yesterday I wore pants that I haven't wore for a long time, and they were baggy on me :) so that tells me I'm doing something right...lol.

I was always a bit scared to join a gym. I thought it would be full of people who were extreme athletes and I would be very out of place. I was way wrong!!! The people there are very nice and they're all after the same thing, getting healthy, fit and feeling good about themselves. It's a very fun and inspirational atmosphere, and it makes me wish I would have joined a long time ago!!

We've been taking a few pictures while at the gym and thought I'd share a few here.

Here is our oldest son at his trainer assesment. When we signed up we were given a free health assesment to see what our fitness level was.

Here's my mom at her assesment,

Here is my sexy, running man hubby,

We celebrated our anniversary this year with a gym date. It was awesome!! While we were doing medicine ball situps on the decline bench, one of the guys that work there handed us his gloves and pads and showed us how to add punches into the workout. WOW!!! What a workout that was!! I told him we were celebrating with a gym date and how much I loved working out there and he said he wanted to see it on the board before we left. So here is what I wrote on the board,

Here is a pic of Steve and our son on the bikes. Sorry it's blurry, I was on a machine while taking the pics...lol,

My muscle man, pumping iron!

Here he is on the bike again,

And Steve got the camera so here's one of me working my legs :)

And one of me telling him to give me back the camera...lol

So, that is some of our fun at the gym. Our son that is in the military sends me lists of exercises he has to do there and I make up workouts of them to do in between the weight lifting and machines. My favorite so far has been the frog jumps. They got me so winded I could hardly breathe, I really felt like I was working my body hard with those. I would like to try them in the school gym to see if I can make it all the way across the floor. :)

If you're thinking of joining a gym, I highly recommend you go for it!! One thing I like about Anytime Fitness is the fact that it IS ANYTIME! I make one payment a month and I can go there anytime I want, I can go on a regular schedule set for the week, I can go in the morning before I start my day, I can go at night to end the day, I can go when I'm bored, I can go when I'm stressed, I can go when I need a boost to my self esteem, I can go when it's too hot outside to do anything, I can go when it's raining.... the list of when's can go on and on. The best thing about it is that even though we are on a budget, we make that one payment a month and that's it, we can go whenever and not have to bring any cash with us. We make this our family time when we can all be there together, and my hubby and I also make it our "date" time when it's just he and I.

I have found that since going to the gym I am much more relaxed, I can move around better, I feel better, I have more energy, I'm walking taller because I feel good about myself, I'm more flexible and I'm stronger physically and mentally.

It has been a great experience and I'm looking forward to what is waiting for me on our new journey.

Do you smell fish???

I love to eat fish. I hate the fish smell left in the house after cooking it. Even washing the pan right away doesn't help much. But, I did come up with something that does help, my homemade air freshener. It has a dual purpose, it freshens and adds moisture to dry winter air in the home.

What you need is:

Cinnamon Sticks
Whole Cloves
Dried Orange Peels
Dried Lemon Peels
Coffee Filters
Twist Ties
A Big Pot
Water

Fill the pot with water and get it started boiling on the stove while putting together the filters. Take one coffee filter and add each of the spices. Fold the filter so all the spices are covered, if you filled it too full you can add another filter over the first one to help keep the spices inside. Twist two twist tie ends together to make one long twist tie. Tie that around your bundle of spices to keep it closed. Pop it in the boiling water, let it boil a few minutes then turn the heat down so the water simmers. Keep adding water when needed to keep the pot full. I usually make three bundles to boil, gets the house nice and spicy!!

mmmmmm.....smells yummy!!

EDIT: I should add that you can use any spices you like. Another one of my favorites is Star Anise, smells like licorice :)

Anytime Fitness

Just realized I never posted here about my exciting news. I joined a gym in October and after a couple weeks I was told I was chosen to be the member of the month for November. It was so cool!!!

I really enjoy the gym and I'm so glad I joined. I'm really toning up. I'm still doing the usual though, not losing weight, but losing inches. I'm sure the weight will eventually start dropping, but I'm very happy the clothes sizes are dropping!! Maybe I'll finally get to be my favorite superhero for Halloween next year :-) That would be awesome!!! (for those that don't know, it's Wonder Woman!!)

Opening day of deer season here today. I heard some gunshots off in the distance when I took Brigi out for her walk this morning. It's a sad season this year. Our youngest son is still in training and is missing his first opening day hunt. My hubby had his first season off work in a few years and was looking forward to being out there opening day, even though he was going to miss his hunting buddy terribly, then earlier this week a guy he works with broke his ankle at work. So my hubby has to fill in for him and work straight through til Thanksgiving. It sucks, but you gotta do what ya gotta do. There will be time to hunt when our son gets home on Christmas Exodous. :-)

So once again it's just me at home :-/ I'm getting some cleaning done and calming the energy in the house. Weird stuff going on again. Earlier today I heard Zak's guitar strum downstairs in his room. Just once, like someone ran their thumb across unplugged electric guitar strings. All the cats were up here sleeping so I know it wasn't them. There's just a weird feeling in the house today. I was snapped awake by a strong scent of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. It's not the first time I've smelled them. I don't know what it's from though. Whatever it is it has to be good, right? I mean, how can chocolate chip cookies be bad??? LOL!

I like the new changes of Blogger. Well, so far anyway. I just came back after being gone from here for a while so we'll see how it goes. But so far I'm liking it :-) 

I was just in the kitchen getting some lunch and I happened to look at the calendar. My poor hubby has to work 9 days in a row. He's on a 4 on 4 off 12 hour shift that alternates days & nights. The last 3 days of this stretch is on nights. That's going to be hard on him to switch over without the 4 day break in between. I'll have to be sure to treat him extra sweet during this time, he will deserve and need it. <3

I have to take Brigi to a rabies clinic today to update her shot. I haven't told her where we're going or what for. She's smart and will know what that means :-) She's been sleeping all day. She's not a morning dog at all. I'm going to have to take her back to our regular vet soon, she has more tumors growing :-( I want to get them off as soon as possible.

It's such a cloudy, dreary day out there today. Looks like it could start raining anytime. I hope the rain hold off until Brigi & I are back home later.

Have a great day everyone!! I'll try to get back into a blogging mode and update more often. :-)
















  

been a while...

...wow! It's been a while since I've been here. Alot of changes at Blogger. I'll have to check it out another day though. Too tired tonight.
               

My soldier…

 

                         

DailyOM - Finding Your Next Step in Life

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The next stage begins......

Our youngest has graduated high school this past weekend. I'm so proud of him!! His future plans are National Guard & college. He's been in the Guard since last October and has enjoyed it so far. He leaves for basic training in a couple weeks, then when he graduates from there he goes to another base for AIT. He will be gone until mid December. We are going to miss him ALOT!!!! But at least we still have Zak home so we aren't completely empty nesters :-) I'm glad he's home yet, I'll be needing him this summer to get me through this!! 
Another big change this summer is that I will be working. I got a part time job in a sub shop, and possibly a day or two a week at the school I work at during the school year. I had an interview today at a cell phone store, but after going through the interview, I don't think it would be the job for me. I'm not the pushy salesperson type. And since most of your pay is commission based, I probably wouldn't be making much...lol. I went down to the sub shop today and was shown around. I really think I'm going to like it. It's at a water park with a dinosaur theme. The small sub shop is in the middle of the Dinosaur Crossing, Lost World outdoor water park, and Jurassic mini golf course. It's funny, I used to work at Dragon's Den mini golf, now I'll be working in a dinosaur mini golf area...lol. The sub shop and bar are connected and the bar is where you get the clubs to the mini golf. 
Some major changes coming up real soon. I'm looking forward to it, and also feeling a bit sad about it. But I'm the "change is good" type so I know everything will be good. It just blows my mind how fast everything went. Seems like my guys were just tiny babies, and now they're all grown up and ready to face the world head on. 
Zak & Ty, your dad and I love you so much and we are so very, very proud of both of you for all you have accomplished so far and we look forward to the great things we know you'll do in the future!!! 

CoffeyBuzz | Lissa Coffey | Spread the Buzz

CoffeyBuzz | Lissa Coffey | Spread the Buzz

Zombie Dog!!

Ty and I had to run to the store quick to get marshmallows for his birthday smores pie he wants and Brigit was laying on the couch when we left. Zak was home but he was upstairs. After we left Brigit must have missed us and got off the couch and went to wait in the kitchen by the back door we went out. We came home and she was sitting there waiting and Zak was just walking in the kitchen and found her too. Then the silly girl rolls over to have her belly rubbed. 

I'm so happy to see more life in her tonight. She's such a little sweetheart and it's so hard to see her laying there not being her usual happy self. 

 

My day...

My poor doggie in pain + about 3 hours sleep over the last two nights + another cold, damp, rainy day = a blah, yucky day!
On top of that, my Ty isn't feeling well and tomorrow is his birthday. I hope he feels better, and Brigit feels better and the weather gets better for him tomorrow!! 
I was up most of the night with Brigit again last night. She was very restless. Then at 2:30 she needed to go out and go potty. She couldn't wait for me to finish getting dressed and walk around the bed to pick her up, she jumped down on her own and almost got to the stairs before I could catch her. But I got to her before she started climbing down the stairs and carried her the rest of the way. Now today she jumped off the couch and went out to her chair under the table and jumped up on that. After a little while she jumped down and came over to the couch to sit by me again. Now she's sleeping curled up under her blankey. She seems to be ok while jumping, but I don't want to let her keep doing it. I'll pick her up and carry her as much as I can. I've been "spayed" myself so I know what her little insides are feeling like right now. 
I'm going to rest some more this afternoon then hopefully have enough energy to get the house cleaned up. I'm really starting to not feel well, but I have to get stuff done for Ty's birthday tomorrow. I don't want him to have a sucky 18th birthday!!!!!  






(I'm not feeling very WonderWomanie today)

24 days....

That's it. That's all that's left of my youngest son's time as a high schooler. After that it's on to Basic Training then off to college. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Seems like yesterday we were watching him play his Little League games, now he's all grown up. He's going to be 18 on Sunday. His older brother is going to be 21 next Friday. 21 & 18. When the hell did this happen?!?!  When did they grow up?? Where did the time go?!?! 
I still have to gather pics to make a video for his graduation party. I have some saved in a folder, but they're mostly pics from the last few years. I need to get some of his younger days pics scanned and on the computer. My scanner isn't working, but I downloaded a fun scanner app on my phone. It works alright, so if I can't get the scanner to work, I'll use my phone.  
We got his invitations ordered. We did the same as we did for his brother and had one of his Senior pics put on a picture postcard at Walgreens.com, except I wasn't thinking when I ordered them and I forgot to put the date of the ceremony & party with the rest of the info to be printed on the back. Ah well, we bought a green pen to write the date on them when we fill in the addresses. 
That might be a good project to work on tomorrow since I can't really do much while watching Brigit all day. 
Typing of Brigit, I had better get her out one last time and then get her to bed. She's much livelier tonight than last night. I hope she's even better tomorrow!! 
I hope you all have a great day tomorrow!! 

She's home!!!

Brigit is home!!! She's been at the vet for a couple days. We took her in to get a couple tumors removed, she ended up having four surgeries and staying an extra day for observation. I missed her soooooo much!!!! She's so happy to be home! She's been sleeping next to me on the couch since we got home. 
I have a few pics of her that I will post at the end of the blog. They are kinda nasty so if seeing pics of after surgery bothers you, don't scroll down!! 
My poor girl! The tumor on her neck wasn't as big as the one on her face so it doesn't look so bad. The one on her face ended up being bigger than what was showing so the vet had to take alot off. She looks like Frankensteins Monster :-( 
We took her in to have those removed, but if the vet had time she was going to spade her also. Well, she found out Brigit had a massive hernia and had to repair that before she could spay her. She did the hernia surgery then spayed her. Two tumors removed, hernia fixed and spayed all in the same day. My poor little girl. 
She is doing good and was very happy to see Zak & me when we went to pick her up tonight. 
It's taken me a couple hours to get this far with the blog. Writing in between taking care of Brigit and some other things. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do this tomorrow. I have to work because the other girl already has the day off to go to garage sales. Luckily Zak is home so he can keep an eye on Brigit, but I think she's going to have to stay in her kennel box. I really didn't want to do that, but she's on restrictions and has already got away from me and tried to jump on the chair. She can't do any jumping on or off the couch, bed, chairs...etc. and she can't climb any stairs. I don't know what to do tonight. Do I let her sleep with me and risk her jumping off the bed in the night to get a drink or do I just put her in her kennel with food & water over night. I'm leaning towards kennel. As much as I know how she hates the kennel, it's better than risking her ripping something open. I better get things situated here soon, it's getting late and I have to get to bed. 
Here are a few pics of my pretty girl. It's hard to see her like this, but it had to be done. Now all we can do is help her heal and let her know how much we love her. 

Some Rockin' Trees on Spook Hill

There's a road I like to walk on for exercise. It's on a bluff and very steep, it really gets the heart pumping and the lungs breathing heavily. It has the nickname Spook Hill because it's the road that leads up to a Spiritualist Camp. 
On the way up the hill one day I was admiring the trees growing out of the rocks. Some of them are quite large trees and it makes me wonder how much longer the rocks will be able to hold them. I decided to snap a few pics to share here. 




It's amazing how a tree can grow in such a place.