What Reminds Me of Fall

For months, my husband Michael anxiously awaits the start of football, while I quietly wish it away. This time of year signals FALL to me. That is, when my husband is glued to the television, laptop, or our iPod all Sunday long and occasionally Monday and Thursday nights. If he wants to watch a college game, then that also means he will be watching games that day as well. Ugh, I can't wait to have my husband back in February...after the Super Bowl. :)

Up for the Challenge

In my attempt to return to more frequent blogging, I decided to take on The SITS Girls' Fall Back Into Blogging! Challenge. I thought this would be a great way to do that. I decided to skip my 3-mile run tonight and asked my husband so I could have at least 30 minutes to write a blog post.

So, the Day 1 Challenge is to share a story about your greatest school memory and include pictures. (And boy, do I have a picture for you!) My husband would quickly attest to the fact that I am a strong-willed and highly independent person...almost to a fault. I am the wife who does not let her husband fix her breakfast and bring it to her in bed. No sir! Strange, right?! I am also the wife, who upon arriving home a few days after giving birth to her first child, would not let her husband fix her meals, help her in/out of bed, nor bathe. No sir! "I can do it myself," I would say. Ugh, those gray hairs he has are probably my doing, I am certain. ;)

Well, my road to being Ms. Independent started in preschool. My mom was the one who often fed us breakfast, got us dressed, and brushed our hair before sending us off to school. I have three other siblings. I am the second child, one of two daughters. I have two brothers, one older and one younger. I clearly remember awaking one day and telling my mom that I wanted to choose my outfit for school, fix my own hair, and choose my own earrings to wear. I remember being pretty adamant about it...almost bratty. (Not that I still am. ;)) So, my mom decided to let me do what I wanted after much frustration. I chose my favorite dress which was a satin-y pale blue dress with a shrug, my favorite plastic earrings, and styled my hair.

Here's the end product. Did I mention it was also school picture day?! Ah, forever in our memory. My husband thinks it's a cute picture, but every time I look at it, I just think of it as the beginnings of a strong-willed and highly independent person. A person, who would later learn that it's ok to let others help you.

Lost and Found

I debated for awhile to return to blogging because I thought I didn't have anything to write about. I just enjoy writing. My husband Michael encouraged me to restart it so I could have a place to document my thoughts on parenthood, running and eating.

Some of the major events since my last post?! Chunkin is 22 months old, opinionated, chatty, and independent! Time flies, right? Seems like life spun around much more quickly since then. My oldest is 4 years old and in preschool. She's currently learning how to ride her bike and will soon join me on short runs. :) In regards to my husband Michael, since we've been married, he's come up with different ideas for starting his own business. Today, we are the proud owners of Southern Scrubs, LLC. Check out our website at www.southernscrubsla.com.

And as for me, I'm still enjoying my time as a stay-at-home mom. There have been many challenging days but I haven't missed any precious moments this time around when it comes to the girls. We've crawled, said our first word, tried our first bite of a kale chip, pottied and wiped ourselves ;). So many things...I'm still running too. I'm currently training for a half marathon on November 17. Surprisingly, I'm not enjoying my runs on the treadmill as much I did. I may have to change my blog title someday.


Recently, my sister has picked up running and asked that we occasionally run together. So, each Saturday morning since late August, we've been running 3 miles together in my hilly subdivision. It's nice to have conversation with someone while I run, as well as breathe in fresh air and look at other things besides straight ahead. I also plan to put on my big girl panties and join the local run group. I've got 15 miles scheduled for this Saturday. I told Michael that I just can't run that distance on the treadmill unless I have to.

Another new love of mine?! Beachbody's Turbofire! ("You.are.NOT.TIRED!", screams Chalene in her video.) (I'll share my awesome results and review of this program in a later post.) In the past, I haven't been successful with sticking with fitness DVDs. I've tried Slim in 6, only to give up within the first two weeks. I've also tried Jillian Michaels' DVDs such as Yoga Meltdown, No More Trouble Zones, and 30 Day Shred. I like Jillian's style of training and the DVDs were great, but it was hard to stick with strength training and ensure that I incorporate it into my regular exercise routine. Running took priority as far as my workouts went but I hit a plateau and felt burnt out. I needed to change my exercise routine because I was no longer losing weight and not seeing any changes in my body. The post-baby body was still there. :( At the end of last year, I thought I was stuck, so I sorted through all of my pre-baby clothes and donated them. I figured I needed to be happy at my current weight. Then, I read a review about Turbofire from one of my favorite bloggers, The Fitnessista, and was sold. She reviews Turbofire in one of her Focus On posts.

I also cleaned up my eats. Some of the biggest changes include giving up my love of Coca-Cola, although I may have an occasional Coke Zero. I stopped adding chips to my plate when eating sandwiches AND cutting out sweets. I'll save this topic for another post. :)
 My goal for this blog is to capture all of my precious moments as a stay-at-home mom or SAHM. The clock is ticking and my kids are growing fast. I also want to share my health and fitness successes with the world, celebrity crushes (because don't SAHM stereotypically watch TV all day and eat bonbons?), recipes, and whatever else I feel like sharing.