Hodge Podge of Updates

Last night I had my first taste of Cross Fit.  And holy smokes is it intense!  It taught me a few things…

1.     .   I’m wayyyy out of shape.  I did modified easy version of what the rest of the class did and my legs still feel like jello this morning!
2.      .  Sometimes Usually it feels good to get a good butt-kicking work out
3.      .  I want to go back for more!

I have to wait until the first week of March to take their on-ramp classes.  But I am so excited to start and get this booty of mine in shape! 

In other news, don’t forget to follow me for a chance at my 50 followers Giveaway!

And last but not least, don’t forget to Link Up for Crafty Scrappy Happy’s 1 Year Blogiversary Mega Link Party!

Feel free to link up anything and everything Crafty, Scrappy and/or Happy!  No giveaways or etsy shops please.Check out other links, be inspired and make some new friends!Grab a button if you would!And check Crafty Scrappy Happy for features all next week!!!!

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High Five for Friday!

Hello lovely people!  TGIF!!!  I love Fridays.  And today is no exception.  I am looking forward to sleeping in, having a productive craft day on Saturday, hanging out with my hubby and my puppies, seeing my parents, and just some basic relaxation.  This weekend I plan to work on another casserole holder for my mom.  It was part of Christmas present....just now getting to it.  Whoops!  Sorry mom :)  I posted pictures of a previous one I made here (scroll down to see it), but this time I promise to take pictures along the way and post a little tutorial.  And side note: I'm super excited to try out my new sewing machine!  How terrible is it of me to have gotten such a wonderful gift, and still not used it yet!?  That will soon change my friends.

But enough about all that, it's time for High Five for Friday! I'm linking up to Lauren again over at From My Grey Desk.  Here are my 5 favorite things from the last week (in no particular order)

1) Getting to babysit this little cutie patootie over the weekend!  

Check out his Mom's blog here.

2) Getting (semi) random flowers from my parents!

This is me trying to be artsy 

3) Our new media cabinet for the loft upstairs

4) Accomplishing my goal of running 5 days out this week :-)

Pinned here

5) Um...baked donuts?!?! YES Please!!!

Pinned here

What are your top five from the week?

Linking up with Lauren!

Wednesday Pinterest Picks

I have been pinning a lot the past week in the For The Home section and also the Fitness section.  So I thought I would link up today with The Vintage Apple and show you my top 10 Pinterest Picks for this week.  Here we go!

Pinned here

Oh Martha...you're so smart.  Pinned here

Why did I not think of this?!

Love this

Best expression ever!

So sad, but so cute.  Pinned here

Good advice.  Pinned here

Maybe a little more than half?  Pinned here

Yep, that's the goal...via

Awesomeness

Happy Wednesday!!

Linking up with:

Healthy Living and Some Randomness

This morning I went on a jog, which is a huge accomplishment for me since I'm soooo not a morning person.  But, when I exercise in the morning, I've found it helps me be healthier throughout the day.  When I got home I had some Green Juice.

It looks kinda nasty when it's in the glass, but it actually tastes pretty darn good.  I recommend it.

And this morning while getting ready I got to use the new eye shadow brushes that my sister got me for Christmas.  They are MAC brushes and they are aaaamazing!  I never realized what a difference good brushes could make!  Now I know I sell Mary Kay... so I may sound like a traitor, but Mary Kay has amazing skin care, and makeup.  MAC has amazing brushes.  Anyways, she got me the 224 and the 213

224

213

Good brushes make such a difference.  If you are in to makeup at all...I suggest investing in some good brushes.  You'll be glad you did.  

Finally I packed myself a healthy salad for lunch in this adorable little tote that my parents gave me for Christmas

I apologize for the complete randomness of this post...but I just felt like sharing :)  Tonight is craft night again with the girls and we are going to attempt some No Sew t-shirt scarves!  I'll be sure to take and post some pictures from that for tomorrow.  

Happy Tuesday!!

Winter Cleaning

I know it's supposed to be Spring cleaning, but I wanted a fresh start to the new year.  Hence the Winter cleaning that began this weekend.  Yes, that’s right, I said began.  The cleaning process is definitely not done.  I never really thought we had that much stuff, until we started cleaning everything out.  Holy smokes we have/had so much STUFF!  The major cleaning started with the bonus area upstairs.  We have sort of a “loft” type area upstairs that we use as our office area.  We have our desk/desktop computer, bookshelf, 2^nd tv, Wii, files, all that sort of stuff up there.  But lately (over the past month or so) that area has started accumulating all sorts of random things.  And it was really starting to bug both of us that it just looked like such a mess.  I admit that it was probably 90% my fault and my things (mostly craft supplies) that was creating the mess.  But my hubby is so wonderful and never said a word about it, just agreeing that it needed to be dealt with :) .  So this weekend was full of purging, and organizing and cleaning.  I finally got all of my Mary Kay products organized, and now I just need to label the bins and drawers.  And to give you a visual of how much stuff we actually had…my car now has 8 TRASH BAGS in the back for Goodwill, plus some other larger stuff for Goodwill that couldn’t fit in a trash bag!!!  My trunk (of an SUV) is now full of Goodwill items.  How in the world did that all fit in our house?!

Saturday morning I went for a nice long walk with Linda and the dogs.  I hadn’t seen her since before the holidays, and we had some catching up to do!  It was a really nice day out and felt good to get out and get some exercise.  Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning, and Saturday evening, my parents came over to finally do Christmas.  We got some great presents!  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!  Also thank you to the Berger family and the King family! John also got to open some early Birthday presents.  I got him a new golf bag, and a new luggage set :)  My parents stayed for dinner, so we got to have some nice hangout time with them.

Luggage Set I got for Hubby

New Golf bag I got for Hubby :

Sunday was of course more cleaning (this is going to be an ongoing theme for a while), a trip to DSW for John to spend some gift cards (can you believe that I went to DSW and didn’t even try anything on?!  Maybe this living simply resolution is kicking in!) he ended up with two new pairs of dress shoes.  Then he went over so some friends of ours house to watch the Purdue basketball game.  Sunday night ended with a quiet night in with the puppies (one of which got a bath and a haircut this weekend), with some left over Fat’s (we went out for Hubby’s birthday on Friday night) and a movie.  We got Your Highness from Netflix.  It was……..interesting.  Not really my cup of tea.  We’ll just say that we were both glad we didn’t pay to see it in theaters.  Now, Mission Impossible 4 – which we saw in theaters on Friday night after dinner, was a great movie.  So much cool technology, and lots of intense chase scenes, which I personally like better than the shoot’em up type scenes.  We both recommend that one :)

 

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Anyone else starting the new year off with some house cleaning??

Just Keep Running...

I know it's supposed to be "swimming"...but I'm not a swimmer.  I'm not really a runner either, but I run/jog far more often than I swim.  Last night, in an effort to stay on top of my New Years resolution of exercise more, I went for a jog with the puppies. Not a very long jog, somewhere between 1.5 and 2 miles, but it's a start.  I haven't really jogged/run since the half marathon that I did back in October.  So, I very quickly learned that my lungs are wayyy out of shape!  Sheesh!  And, although I'm pretty sure this picture is completely accurate:

Pinned here

I have to remember that getting in shape and making new healthy habits is a slow process and nothing happens over night. Which also makes me remind myself that:

Pinned here

How is everyone else doing on keeping their resolutions?

2012 Resolutions

I know it seems a tad bit late to start making New Years resolutions, but in all fairness, I had these picked out before the new year, I just didn't have time to post them!  I wanted to post my resolutions because it seems like that will be a good way to hold me accountable.  You know that feeling of - Now that you've told someone, it's real and you have to keep your word - kinda thing.

I'm not sure what the difference is about this year, but there is something that really makes it feel like a fresh start.   Maybe it's the fact that I knew my resolutions before the new year started?  Maybe it's that I'm finally settling into married life and feel much more confident about where my life is going.  Who knows!  But I do know that I'm excited to get started on my resolutions and see my progress throughout the year.

So without further ado, and to start my accountability as soon as possible, here are my 2012:

1. Make better food choices - i.e. No more cinnamon toast for dinner when hubby is away.  I really want to start making more conscious food choices.  I want to teach my body that food is fuel not comfort or reward.

2. Exercise more often - So often in the past I've thought that if I'm not about ready to keel over at the end of my workout, then I didn't do enough.  Now I'm sure that's how one would get into model-esq shape, but that's not my goal.  I'm trying to learn that doing anything is good: taking the dogs on a walk, going for a short jog, biking, playing tennis.  My goal is to get out and do something more often.  Every little bit counts :-)

3. Drink more water - Kinda goes along with the health theme here.  Water is good for your body and metabolism, it cleanses, helps your skin, and helps curb appetite.

4. Take care of my skin - Along with more water which helps your skin, one of my resolutions is to make sure I wash my face morning and night.  Sometimes I get lazy (especially on the weekends) and don't take off my make up, or just use some astringent in the morning instead of washing my face.  My new goal is to take the couple extra minutes and let that amazing Mary Kay 3-in-1 cleanser do it's magic on my skin! (Shameless plug...)

5. Live simply - This is my final resolution for 2012.  Live simply.  And by that I mean getting rid of all the clutter we have in the house.  All of the things we keep but never use.  And also, organize!  When things are organized, everything runs smoothly.  Along with the "purging" of unnecessary items, is to stop purchasing unnecessary items!  There will always be things that we want.  But are they things we need?  Probably not.  So, part of this resolution goal is to make use of what we have and only purchase what we need.  I think my SIL put it best saying that living within a budget is actually really freeing.  Instead of pondering over whether or not you should buy that new purse, or new pair of shoes.  You don't even have to think about it because you know it's not in the budget and you don't need it.   

So those are my 5 2012 resolutions.  Hopefully writing them out and posting here for all to see will help me stick to them.  I'm really excited for what this year will bring.  I know it will be lots of new adventures!  What are some of your resolutions for the new year?

Let the Countdown Begin!

Some months ago, my friend Linda and I decided that we wanted to do something to get in shape/stay active.  But we both knew that motivation was hard to find! (Seriously, where did it go? If someone finds it, please return! Thanks!)  With that in mind, we decided that having each other as a motivation buddy/workout partner would probably be our best bet for sticking with our  new plan. What was our new plan you ask? Well, let me tell you!

First, some background:
To me, running was always the best form of exercise.  I thought this, because it's probably one of the exercises I disliked the most (go figure huh?).  Growing up, I was a sprinter.  I played softball and never really had to run farther than around the bases.  I always hated running the mile or mile and a half in PE.  I dreaded it to be honest.  My endurance was made for short bursts of energy = I have no endurance. Or maybe I should say HAD no endurance.  That has recently changed (woohoo!!)!  I started trying to run when I was attempting to get in shape for the wedding.  I mean, who doesn't want desperately to be in the best shape ever on a day that big?!  I never went more than a couple miles.  Which for me, was a huge accomplishment.  After doing that by myself for about a year, I got pretty bored.  Music got old, trying really hard to motivate myself got even harder, and the couch just looked better and better.

Once Linda and I started talking, we realized we both had the same goals, and the same problems.  So naturally it didn't take me long to figure out that we should make a goal together, and help motivate each other.  It's way easier to motivate someone else, than it is to motivate yourself!  So, one day back in May, we decided together that we would start training for.....wait for it....... a half marathon!  Wait, wait, wait...half MARATHON?  Did I just say that? The girl that could barely finish the mile in the required time in school is going to try for 13.1 miles?  YEP!  That's right, I did say half marathon.  I did some searching online, and found a training schedule that we could follow, and then we decided on the river trail for the location of our runs.

So, the obstacle was the fact that the training schedule began at 3 miles the first day....uh........yeah, ok, sure....Neither of us had ever run that far at once.  But, we had to start somewhere!  And after all the chatter about "How are we gonna do this? I don't think I can finish! I'm so tired already (at a half mile)!" We managed to finish the first day,....and the second,...and the third.  Before we knew it, here we are today running 5 miles twice a week, and 8-10 miles on the weekend.  Without stopping!  We  hit some other road bumps along the way (pun intended), but we rearranged our schedules, and made things work when we needed to.  Having Linda there with me the whole time has been the one and only reason that I have kept up with this.  Knowing that I had a scheduled time to meet her, and that she was expecting me there all those days is what motivated me to go.  Otherwise, I would have had all sorts of excuses I'm sure!

Now it is October, and our race is at the end of the month.  October 30th to be exact.  2 weeks away!  I'm super excited that we've come this far.  We started with alternating walking and running every couple of minutes to get through 3 miles, to being able to run 8 miles with out stopping at all.  It has been a very rewarding experience.  And I'm so glad I was able to accomplish this goal with such a fantastic person!  We have become really close friends and now, instead of thinking about all the running we have to do, I look forward to getting to talk with such a good friend for an hour and a half+ (with some running thrown in there ).

We have come such a long way and now I'm really nervous excited for our race.  And a tiny part of me is excited for it to be over (shhhh).  So, 16 days and counting!!