Stumble Upon

Hey Everyone


Well, Sunday is quickly turning into what it always does: “I want to nap all day” day. I laid down at 1:00, planned to sleep til 1:20. At 1:20 I reset my alarm for 1:40 and at 1:40 I set my alarm for 2:00. By that time I gave up on resetting the alarm and just slept. I got up at 2:15. Obviously I should have given up on the resetting bit a long time ago. Unfortunately now I feel like a zombie and it’s started pouring again which just makes me want to go back to sleep. Or sit around eating all day. Where do these thoughts come from?

I got in late last night, I think it was around 12:15 and then I was up this morning by 6. It’s funny, that doesn’t sound like much to me but for those of you that can’t count, that’s 5 hours and 45 minutes. Obviously not ideal but more than I thought it was before I actually counted which makes me think I don’t really need this sleep.

However, I had an usual amount of trouble while getting ready for church this morning.  Perhaps this is due to lack of sleep?

Mascara on and...

"Achoo"... lovely

And then there was the problem of what to wear

Cute, right?

Yeah... no, not so much

I have no idea what this is.  I've had it before several months back when I was training for the marathon.  It's sort of like a bunch of pimples but  you can't pop them and they're really itchy - oh, and it's only under one arm.  Gross, right?  I don't know what really solved the problem but I tried to wash my underarm with facial cleanser and then when I ran I put glide on my underarm.  I guess I know what I'll be doing again...

Since that was out of the question I ended up with this

And ended up being super hot.  Jeans and summer in Florida just don't mix.  Even inside...

This morning I found this wonderful and magical website. Have you ever heard of “Stumbleupon.com?” It’s pretty magical. You input several of your interests and then the website comes up with articles and websites and videos according to your interests. One of the interests I selected with Holistic Health and I’ve seen several websites now about natural household remedies and one on herbal remedies. I don’t know how I feel about herbal remedies because I’ve never tried them but just based on head knowledge and how I base many of my other eating decisions, I would much rather use something that occurs in nature than something that chemists create in a lab.

One website on natural remedies provided a caveat that I really appreciated:

“Know when you need something more conventional. Alternative medicine can be a fantastic way to prevent illness or treat more common ailments, but there’s no shame in going to the pharmacy if the alternatives aren’t working for you.”

Stumble Upon lets you give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to each website that it shows you and the more you rate the more tailored the articles will be to your interests. I don’t know if there is any way to revisit the sites you like though. There probably is a “favorite” button somewhere but I can’t find it so I feel like I’m just breezing through these articles and won’t remember much of what I read.

A few times I’ve been directed to very decadent recipes – Hello, twix mini cheesecake muffins? I’m not sure what interest I selected that led Stumble Upon to select these recipes for me. Sure, they look good but there is absolutely nothing redeeming about these recipes. Also they definitely not vegan. However, I feel bad giving them the thumbs down. They’re good recipes I’m sure… just not for me. At all.

And then there are videos like this:

I mean, common, who doesn’t love a dancing walrus? It’s just that’s not what I want stumble upon to show me. I’m sorry for giving you the thumbs down walrus :(

After watching random videos like the dancing walrus, I decided to stop by the gym… hey, I gotta get my moneys worth outta that thing. Besides, it’s like 100 degrees outside.

It was sooo crowded. My gym has three different centers around town. We have the main facility which is huge, one on the west side of town and then a women’s center. I usually go to the women’s center because it’s so convenient. It’s 15 minutes away from my house and literally 2 minutes away (walking) from the dance studio where I work.

On Sunday only the main facility is open and I just happened to pick the time when they were having a zumba class in the open basketball courts. That meant lots of loud music and lots of yelling and clapping. I’m glad they were having fun, and honestly it wasn’t that bad but wish I had picked a different time.

I did a mile on the elliptical but for some reason the ellipticals at the main center seem really hard to me and I can’t make myself do more than a few miles. One time I did 8 there… not sure how that happened since I can’t seem to do two at a time anymore.

So then I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. After the treadmill I was going to ride the stationary bike for about 30 minutes but they were all taken or broken. There are so many there I don’t even know how that’s possible but by the time I got to the third one and it was missing a pedal I just gave up. I regret that decision now just a bit but there’s always tomorrow ;).

Speaking of tomorrow, and this whole week, I have a very open schedule. This all could change and it probably will but I’m a little unsure of what to do with myself. Productive productive productive, that’s my wish for this week.

Well, I could probably go on talking about nothing really but before I bore you to death I’m going to quit now. Don’t forget to stop in tomorrow for Music Monday! I’ve got some fun songs to show you! :)

I should go to title making school

Happy Saturday!


I’ve had a very full week and it’s nice to have most of the day to relax. I originally planned to wake up early and go for an early morning run but when my alarm went off and it was pouring outside I turned over and went back to sleep. I had been expecting the rain and was going to run in the rain anyways but my half unconscious, groggy, just awakened self is not very good at coming up with reasons to do things I don’t exactly want to do. It’s only my fully awake self that is good at pushing myself to do hard things.

So I slept in until 7:30… and I feel lazy. What is wrong with me? I guess I got my morning mojo back if 7:30 feels late to me. I slept for about 10 hours last night which was heaven, but I certainly don’t feel refreshed. It’s like I got too much sleep and now I’m just groggy. Also, my stomach is feeling unsettled. That probably means I had too much chocolate hazelnut butter last night (true story) but it’s making all of the plans I had seem pretty impossible. Clean? Do P90X? Go to the gym? Yeah… how about lay in bed all day? Of course whenever I do that I just feel awful by the end of the day.

This evening I’m going to be babysitting for a family I’ve never babysat for before. I’m always nervous the first time around. Of course I want to make a good impression and I’m not the most outgoing person so I always struggle to find things to say to the parents. I’m watching 1 year old twins tonight; that is a first for me. I probably won’t be there long before it’s time for their bedtime but I’m sure everything is more complicated with twins. You can’t feed them both at once… well, okay, you probably can but I don’t know if I can and then you have to change one and then change the other and then put one down and then put the other one down. It just seems so complicated, although, I guess technically I do it all the time just with siblings of different ages.

If nothing else, it will be an experience. Hopefully a good one :)

Even though I didn’t feel like it I did P90X arms and shoulders. I kept it on pause the whole time and just skipped scenes to see the titles of the exercises and then did them without the DVD playing along. I like P90X but sometimes I just don’t feel like listening to Tony Horton’s voice. My music is better.

Then I forced myself to go to the gym.

I’m always (mostly) happy once I’m there. It’s so quiet on Saturdays… I guess cause all these other people have lives, but anyways, I like it. I can jump from machine to machine and there’s hardly anyone to bother. Note: By jump from machine to machine I do not literally jump from elliptical to treadmill, although I might have to add that to one of my workouts. Some days it’s just easier for me mentally to do a mile on the elliptical, 10 minutes on the treadmill, a mile on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the bike, mile on the elliptical – yes, that was my workout for today.

Some days I’m able to completely focus on my workout and really enjoy it. Today was not one of those days. I thought about chips for a good portion of the workout, no lie. So of course I had to stop at the store and buy some chips. I try to stay away from chips because I could eat a whole bag in one sitting. I sometimes have chips when I babysit but I rarely buy them. I think I’ve bought chips on all of 3 occasions. Well anyways, after the gym I stopped at Publix and bought… you guessed it, chips. I got other things that I needed too but I ended up with Stacy’s Multigrain Pita Chips because they’re sooo good and then I bought veggie sticks. I know there are really not any redeeming qualities about either of these choices but I could have bought worse. Here’s hoping I don’t inhale both bags in one day.

I have about an hour until I have to leave to go babysit so I’m going to go and try to make myself look presentable, time to make a good impression!

Rainy Day Dilemma

It’s been raining a lot here and apparently it’s supposed to be rainy all weekend. That means… my first real run in the rain! I’ve only done it once before and that was only like a mile. I’m ready to suck in up and go for it!

In the meantime, I’m feeling like snuggling up in bed and reading for the rest of the day. My only problem is that I have so many good books I want to read and I can’t decide. If only I knew how to read multiple books at once – and I don’t mean switching back and forth, I’ve got that one down.  No, I mean literally read more than one book at a time. That would be a cool super power. Just imagine how handy that would have been during college.

One of my favorite authors ever is Madeline L’Engle. I don’t care that most of her books are technically children's books, they're so good and I’m obsessed. I haven’t read the Wrinkle in Time series recently so I’ve decided to read through them again. Then I “liked” Free Books for Kindle on facebook and everyday they post a ton of free books. Very tempting. I could easily add 10 books a day to my kindle but then I would just get depressed cause I wasn’t reading them.

Before the rain hit Rachel and I did stadiums.

 

 You would think by this time that I would get the hang of these self timer photos

A little better, other than the "I'm still mostly asleep" look on my face

Today was so much better than Wednesday. I’m not sure if it was mental, physical or both but I rocked it today. Wednesday I was dying and skipped my last two but today I did it all with time to spare.

Then I headed out to watch C

For 5 hours…

He’s really fussy and will only play with a toy for about 2 minutes before he starts fussing again. He doesn’t like to be held and he doesn’t like to sit and he doesn’t like to be put down… it’s difficult. I wasn’t sure how 5 hours with him would go but everything went really well. He started fussing as soon as his mom got home which made me feel really bad because overall he was pretty happy with me.

I had originally planned to hit the gym on the way home but my desire for caffeinated coffee won out. I have to have my last cup of caffeinated coffee before 3 or I won’t be able to sleep at night. Well, the coffee was great and I’m mostly glad I stopped at home but now I don’t want to go back out again. It’s rainy, I’m sleepy and my bed is just so comfy.

I read a quote… somewhere this week. It’s specifically about running but really you can apply it to anytime you don’t really feel like working out:

We rarely regret the runs we finish, only the ones we skip

Okay, so I totally botched it… but that’s the gist of it.

After repeating that quote several times to myself I finally pulled myself out of bed and hit the gym

All I felt like doing today was cardio so I walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill and read A Wrinkle in Time

30 minutes and 3 miles on the elliptical – watched The Real Housewives of Orange County reunion… part 2. Part of me hates all those shows and then part of me loves them because there’s always drama. It doesn’t matter when you tune in, if you’ve never watched any episodes before or watch them out of order – there’s just always going to be drama and I guess train wrecks are entertaining to watch? Because I am a horrible human being…

20 minutes on the bike while reading

I was actually really enjoying myself on the bike and I would have stayed for a lot longer but Rachel told my dad she wanted to use the car and that if he brought it to her at the gym that I would give him a ride home. So nice of her to volunteer my services. I agreed and said I would text him when I had about 20 minutes left to go. Then he texted me when I wasn’t even half way through and told me he was 10 minutes away. I did the bike anyways and then picked him up and brought him home. I think he said “well, I didn’t want you to have to wait for me”… as if I couldn’t find something to do at the gym ;)

I stopped at The Fresh Market on the way home and picked myself up some Kombucha! They were buy one get one free so of course I bought 6 of them. If I wasn’t so tired I would go and look up the link to the place where I read that you should only have a small serving of Kombucha a day, not a whole bottle. It’s going to be really hard to limit myself I think.

For dinner I made myself some roasted brussel sprouts. I had a bunch that were about to go bad so I cooked them all up. I’m probably the only person who does this but I usually eat my brussel sprouts with mustard. Today I decided to try them with guacamole but there wasn’t enough to cover all of them… so I added in some mustard. That sounds really crazy but it tasted so good! If you don’t like brussel sprouts you should totally try them with guac and mustard.

One of my favorite things about blogging and reading other healthy living blogs is that it makes me feel much more normal. I am telling you, I can count the friends I have on one hand that have a similar lifestyle to the one I’m trying to lead and who wouldn’t think I was completely out of my mind for coming up with a meal like that.

That being said… I still sometimes worry about things like pregnancy cravings. Are they real? If I’m eating stuff like brussel sprouts with guac and mustard NOW what the heck will I be eating when I’m pregnant? Disclaimer: I am not, nor do I plan to become pregnant anytime soon.

Is there any foods or combinations of food that you have and love that other people think are really weird?

You are getting very sleeeeepy

I’ve had a whirlwind of a week. My body is letting me know that sleep is a top priority tonight. I intend to fully indulge… well, at least until 5 am tomorrow morning. The indulging part involves going to sleep around 8:30. Ah, seriously, one of my most favoritest things to do.

On Tuesday I was really productive during the morning and then I headed out to the gym for a bit before teaching 2 dance classes.

After teaching I headed over to The Fresh Market that is right behind the dance studio. The Fresh Market is kind of our lame version of Whole Foods. I guess you would call it a gourmet grocery store. They do have a lot of healthy choices but not necessarily in the same way that Whole Foods does. I don’t really know how to explain that… one thing I really like about Whole Foods is their hot bar. I don’t think that’s what it’s called but hopefully you know what I mean by that…

There are so many delicious, healthy, vegan and vegetarian dishes. Fresh Market has a deli counter… maybe that’s what it’s called… but they only offer your usual fare, just fancied up a bit. A lot of potato salad, pasta salad, fried chicken, etc… basically nothing I can have.

I was stopping by to pick up something to carry me over until dinnertime. I ended up with a Naked… Gold Machine rings a bell. I also got a banana and then I found…

This wonderful thing.

This is only my second time trying Kombucha but I really enjoy it. I’ve looked online before and to brew my own Kombucha tea all I need is a starter… which is all of $5 or so online. Obviously this would be the smart money saving way to go. Now that I’m typing this I’m realizing that I really should do that. Buying the bottled Kombucha is really a waste of my time and money. However, there’s a good chance I will be back.

I somehow got roped into participating in a drama for church. This particular drama is about 10 minutes long. It was performed on Easter and the team was asked to do it again last night (Wednesday). So… I had a practice last Wednesday and then on Tuesday we had another practice and then we performed it last night.

On Tuesday night I learned a whole dance (well, okay, it wasn’t a very long dance) and then I ended up being a part of a double cartwheel too that I had to learn.

Even though it was really crazy that I learned the whole thing so fast I ended up having a really great time and I’m glad I was asked to participate.

Yesterday I woke up early and packed up for the day. Right before I walked out of the door I got a text from Rachel letting me know that she couldn’t do stadiums. Since I was already dressed I forced myself to go. Of course my natural reaction is “oh, I’ll just stay at home. I have a crazy day, I should just relax before the chaos starts” but I sucked it up and did stadiums by myself. Yeah, I’m a beast.

I’ve described this workout before but if you missed it…
I run up and down the stadium steps 7 times – each set of steps has 180 steps
Then I run up the bleachers 3 times
Then I jog out to the car
It’s killer!

I drove home, showered and headed right out again

I had a great day with C. He was the fussiest baby when he was younger but now that he’s able to sit up on his own and is starting to scoot around he doesn’t mind not being held.

He especially enjoyed my necklace

Oh, and my banana case… (basically everything that was not actually a toy)

After babysitting I had to stop in at several stores. I stopped at Target to return some bathingsuit tops that I bought that ended up being too long… and in the meantime bought myself more workout gear – this is a serious addiction and I may have to find myself some help soon ;)

I was going for the “I run at dawn and dusk” look

I tried them on together to show my mom when I got home and she was like “oooh, sooo cute!” – I’m not so sure I’m going to continue taking fashion advise from this woman. She always tells me things look good when I wasn’t intending them to look good: like when I throw up my hair so it’s out of my eyes when I wash my face. For the record, unless I was very worried about being seen I would never wear these blindingly neon clothes together. One at a time only!

I also stopped in at Walmart and Michael’s to pick up last minute items for the performance last night. When I got home I relaxed for a few minutes, choreographed a solo for the performance and then headed out again. We had a last minute rehearsal and then the performance. It all went really well… well, except for the part where I stumbled when I was supposed to be dancing but I don’t even care. For the short time we had putting it together I was pleased.

This morning I soooo did not want to run. I told myself to not think about it and just do it and that’s what I did – I got out by 6! I didn’t go fast by any means but you know what, I didn’t take any breaks either. I can’t wait to get back to where I was pre injury, but for now, I’m happy.

But so tired! I think this was supposed to be a “phew” face

And the dangggg it’s hot out there face!

I got to babysit this cutie for the first time. I’ve watched her brother before but I haven’t been over there in a long time – since before she was born! S is such a little sweetie. She just giggles and laughs at you.

After watching S I hit the gym and then headed over to play with C and W. These boys are so much fun. W is scooting himself all over the floor and he is so pleased with himself. I’m not so pleased, you have to watch him soooo closely now.

All in all... a good day :)

I hear my bed calling my name...

Back to the grind

If you didn’t catch my post yesterday (I know you didn’t cause it has 0 views) go check it out now!

If your workout playlist feels old and you’re looking for new music then I think you’ll be interested.

(I later found out that no one saw it because I didn't actually hit the publish button - oops!)

I had a great weekend. I feel recharged and ready to get back out there today and get some things accomplished. …Which is good since today is going to be CA-RAZY!
Up first: 6 mile run and 2 mile walk with Mom followed by normal post run stuff – shower (always a good idea), breakfast, stretching, foam rolling

I made a Green Monster for the first time in... well, a long time.   

I opened up the fridge and found....

BUGS!!!

Oh wait a minute...

The culprit:  Flax seeds!

Yummy!  So refreshing... now if only I didn't look half dead

I used spring mix today (red and green leaves) and didn't peel my apple.  Thus, the puke green color.  But it tasted just as good as always!

Ingredients:  orange vitamin water zero, almond milk, lemon juice, ground flax seed, amazing grass greens powder, protein powder, maca powder, a few handfuls of spring mix greens, frozen pineapple, mango, peaches and an apple.

In a short while I'm going to head out to babysit for a few hours then head straight to teach from 4:30-6:15.

After teaching I plan to hopefully grab a quick bite to eat and then I'm off to drama practice from 7:00 - ??? 

Hopefully earlier than 11:30 like last time.  My body cannot handle that.  When I get home I'll probably flop into bed like a zombie... wait, do zombies sleep?

Part of me wants to lay in the sun all day napping like Smokey

But then I remember that I did that all weekend and it's time to get a move on.  Good start to the day, hopefully the rest will follow suit.  Happy Tuesday!! :)

Introducing: Music Mondays! - a day late

I couldn't figure out why this post had no views.  I mean, I know people usually have plans on the 4th of July but... really?  Well, apparently I never hit the publish button.  Oops!  So... music Monday a day late!

Hey everyone! Happy Independence Day!!!
I hope all of you have something fun and relaxing planned. I relaxed all this weekend and now I’m ready to do something other than sit around all day. Will that happen? Who knows but I’m feeling like the biggest bum ever so I’m really going to try to make something happen. If I really can’t think of anything, the gym is open today until 8pm so I can take my books and/or kindle and walk on the treadmill or ride the bike while I read. Boom, problem solved.

So, I have this great taste in music (doesn’t everyone think they have the best musical taste?). No one has ever heard most of the music that I listen to. This could mean that I have a horrible taste in music that no one enjoys… or it could mean that I really have this awesome taste in music and no one has discovered all the music that I like.

This gave me the great idea to share some of my favorite music with all of you. Monday will now be “Music Monday” – get ready to have your world rocked ;)


Today I have 3 songs to share with you

The first one is my current favorite song. This is not the official music video but I’m also pretty obsessed with this dance so I thought I would share this version. I tried learning the dance. In fact, I legit spent about 45 minutes trying to teach myself one part of the dance and I failed miserably. I haven’t completely given up but I’ve just come to accept that this guy is really awesome and has some really awesome dance moves… and that I do not.

Bag Raiders - Sunlight

This second song is a little more mainstream and you may have heard it already. Coldplay has been one of my favorite artists for quite a long time. This song is one of their new songs off of their EP which has two more tracks on it. I haven’t heard either of the other songs so I can’t speak to them but they’re probably pretty great too.

Coldplay – Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

And lastly… I’m not really a fan of this video but I’m obsessed with this band. I just wish they would change their name so when I put it on my facebook people wouldn’t judge me.

The Naked and Famous – Punching in a Dream

Time to kick start my day. Laundry, here I come!



6 miles: done! 7:53, 7:45, 8:02, 8:05, 8:24, 8:35

And I’m back!

Yeah... it totally looks like I peed my pants

Ideally I would be running faster at the end but I’m pretty pleased. Pre-injury I was mostly running everything under 8:15 and could do a 6 mile with all sub 8 minute miles but this is much better than the 9:15s I was running the other week on the beach. It was so beautiful out this morning too, foggy, not a soul in sight (well, except the guy on the bike that made me jump out of my skin when he greeted me) and cool. Okay, so cool is maybe an over statement but for this time of year 68 is pretty great.

I’m glad I went but right now I’m kind of kicking myself. I’m sitting in bed having my chia and flax seed oatmeal, drinking coffee and icing my shins and I only have 30 minutes until I have to leave for church. Oh and I have wet hair. I’m not exactly sure why I thought I had enough time to fit in a run but oh well. It’s done and the endorphins are flowing.

Fast forward and I’m curling my now mostly dried hair. 5 minutes till time of departure and only one side of my hair is curled.

We ended up being 5 minutes late – total heathens, I know. All in all I think everything worked out nicely. That last minute push at the end, dang, I wish that could translate to my racing.

I rocked my zensah compression sleeves under skinny jeans – What, fat calves aren’t in?

I’m feeling in the Independence Day spirit but don’t really have anyone to celebrate with. My family has never been one for celebrating holidays the traditional way. Sometimes I’m okay with that and then other times I really wish we had a fun day planned like everyone else. I’m wanted to go hiking, exploring, kayaking and having some healthy traditional 4th of July fare. Who knows, maybe I’ll make it happen.

I’m trying to plan out the rest of my day and I want to spend it OUTSIDE. It’s so gorgeous outside today, although it’s really HOT. I’m contemplating a long bike ride but that would involve borrowing a bike. My bikes tires are… well, dead for lack of a better word. Reading by the beach also sounds nice except there’s no beach close by. I don’t want to waste this gorgeous weekend!

Morning Mojo

Well, yesterday turned into a massive nap. After missing the gym I decided I would go for an evening run. So in preparation for my run I ate a huge bowl of salad filled with sliced almonds, shredded carrots, an apple, currents, tempeh and tomatoes all slathered in guacamole. While waiting for it to cool down outside some and let the food digest a bit I decided to take another power nap. That power nap turned into a 12 and a half hour nap. Apparently all the missed sleep over the week finally caught up to me. Fingers crossed that I am all set now and will be able to get back to a normal sleep routine.


I originally planned to wake up early and get a run in but no such luck. I need my early morning mojo back! I just can’t seem to make it happen anymore. I thought I would be so excited to get back to running and I am but I still don’t feel like going when it actually comes down to it. It was easier before. I’m not sure exactly why, if it’s because I’ve lost some fitness and it will be harder to run or I’m scared to get injured again or if I’ve just gotten out of the habit and need to get back into the habit again.

Instead of running I partied :). I went to a birthday party for one of the little girls I babysit. She just turned two. I had a pretty good time other than feeling slightly awkward. Everyone else at the party is either a parent or a child. The parents pretty much hang out and talk together or watch their kids and the kids just play. So what do I do? I don’t have a child to watch but I feel dumb being invited to a child’s birthday party and then just standing around talking to the adults.

My other complaint is that all the kids I watch already have pretty much every kind of toy you can imagine. What do I buy for them? The other babysitters at the party bought clothes which is all well and good but does a 2 year old really enjoy getting clothes? I’m pretty sure I didn’t when I was that age but maybe that was just me and maybe getting clothes is better than getting a toy you already have.

Other than the crazy partying I did earlier today has been really low key. As a matter of fact, I can’t figure out what I’ve been doing all day that has taken up the whole day. I did go to the gym for about an hour but I’m pretty sure I did nothing of value other than that. Sad? Or totally appropriate for a 3 day weekend? I’m going with the latter ;)

Friday = Nap day!

It’s a sad day when you reach Friday and all you want to do is go to bed by 8 o’ clock. I am such an old person. I just can’t handle this staying up late thing.

Originally I had today off but last night when I was babysitting these guys

Obviously the toy is much more exciting than I am

Dang, it's hard to get everyone to look at the camera at the same time!

Their mom asked me to stop by for a few hours today. So this morning I took C to stay and play at a gymnastics place. I get paid to jump and run and climb and chase after him for two hours or so. I love my job.

I planned to hit up the gym afterwards but failed. Kind of like this gym photoshoot from yesterday.

I took 3 exactly like this

2 like this

Finally!  Now if only my face wasn't so creepy.  No wonder all the kids think I'm hilarious.

I bring my workout clothes with me pretty much everywhere now because I would rather stop there while I’m out then go home and make an extra trip. However, I often wimp out at the last second and end up stopping at home and making an extra trip later. I should have just gone…

Can I just say, I’ve started to purposely time my gym trips to coincide with Ellen, the show… not a person – have to clarify because when I told this to Rachel she laughed and said “I didn’t know Ellen worked out.” I told Rachel that I love watching Ellen when I worked out but I had a hard time not laughing out loud while on the elliptical. I don’t know why she thought I was talking about a person; that would be such a mean thing to say!

So anyways, I watch Ellen, try to stifle my laughter, and generally end up going a lot longer than I would sans Ellen.

Rachel’s dog Tyson is over visiting this weekend. I’m not exactly a dog person but Tyson is really cute. I can only take so much of him though (or any dog for that matter).

I’ve learned that babysitting skills do not necessarily translate to dog sitting skills. I’m fantastic at watching a baby and/or a young child and making sure they don’t get into things – tangle themselves in cords, eat roaches crawling on the floor, etc. Yes, I’m great at these things. I just keep forgetting that Tyson needs the same kind of attention. My room is obviously not puppy proof. His favorite toy in my room is all of the untied trash bags I have laying around. I find him chomping away on already chewed bubble gum that I had thrown away. So gross…

I also have a hard time getting him to stop crying when my mom leaves the house. He likes her way better than me. I don’t know how but I’m pretty sure he knows that I’m not a dog person. Don’t get me wrong, I am never mean to dogs, I pet them and I talk to them, I just prefer cats and animals who aren’t as dependant on me as dogs are. Anyways, he just doesn’t like me as much as he seems to like other people. So as soon as my mom leaves he starts crying (not whining, crying) and I have such a hard time getting him to calm down. I call to him and he won’t come and then he’ll finally wander back to my room and just stare at me while I’m sitting in bed. I tell him to jump up but he won’t. I’ve finally been able to get him to curl up and just chill out for a bit.

Bed hogs.  Where am I supposed to sleep?

Sort of…

Unfortunately, now all I want to do is take a legit nap. I’ve been perfecting my power napping skills and have gotten pretty good at less than 20 minute naps. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to sleep longer though…

Any fun plans for this weekend?  I'm super lame and don't have anything planned.

How many cups of coffee does it take?

I’ve got a busy day ahead. I had a really great day yesterday and ended up being really productive. Ish… my bedroom and car are both still messy.


But on the workout front I rocked it. I dyed my hair and then I went shopping and spent a lot of money. Story of my life.

I shop a lot at Plato’s Closet which, if you don’t know, is a gently used clothes store. I’m really cheap and Plato’s is perfect for me. However, I generally try on 20 items of clothing and find one item that I actually want. It can sometimes be disappointing when you really like something on the hanger but when you try it on it looks like crap… and then that happens 20 times. Yesterday I hit the jackpot though. I would get up and count how many things I got but I’m too lazy. I got a lot.

I also stopped at Target. I bought some workout clothes and went to the gym after Plato’s and wore some of my new purchases. You know that warning that a lot of clothes have, “wash before wearing?” Well… I generally don’t follow random rules like this “don’t remove tag,” “wait 15 minutes after taking to drink,” etc because I don’t understand the why. If the why was explained and I knew that it was really important to follow the rules than I would. Well… unfortunately my disregard for rules left me with a lovely teal tint to my skin. It makes sense, I just never would have thought of it. Apparently the dyes can bleed if you get sweaty and then they might just stain your skin and you might not be able to get the color off of your skin.

I got really crazy last night and stayed out until 11:30 PM. I’m pretty much always in bed by 10:30 at the latest. I’ve been known to head to bed at 8:30 if I’m tired and have an early morning coming up. It wasn’t by choice though. I’ve joined a new drama group at my church. I was sort of roped in without any foreknowledge of how late the practices would go (or that they often go 30-45 minutes later than they’re supposed to). Once I was there and had practiced with them I didn’t feel like I could leave them just because they had a late finishing time. Next time there’s a good chance I won’t be joining them though.

So I got home at 12 and hopped right into bed. I’m not sure why but if I’ve been out driving it doesn’t really seem to matter how tired I feel, I seem to have a harder time falling asleep than usual. It probably didn’t take as long as I felt it did but I doubt I fell asleep before 12:15. I’m thinking more like 12:30. So when my alarm went off at 4:15 (I know, I’m a crazy person) I convinced myself that I would lay in bed awake for a few minutes before pulling myself out of bed. I’m not sure how I’m able to convince myself that this works because it never does. An hour later… I awoke and realized I had fallen back asleep and forced myself out of bed.

All I can say is, today is going to be a coffee day - preferably organic and freshly ground ;).