I should be in bed...

I should be in bed. I should be asleep. I should be dreaming of cupcakes and new cell phones. Yet, here I am. I am sitting on my couch working on my blog, playing on Facebook and Twitter watching reruns of Roseanne. I keep staying up late and going to bed late and wake up early for work. Ugh. Not a cycle I should be repeating night after night.

I am happy tomorrow is Friday. We are going to the Healthy Living Expo on Saturday at the Minneapolis Convention Center. I was invited to taste test some new Yoplait yogurts and check out the other vendors and let y'all know what I think, so look for that post next week on my Reviews and Giveaways Blog.

Speaking of Giveaways...

You might want to go check out my Yo Gabba Gabba tickets giveaway. Just sayin...

Good Night.

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finding my center

I admit it. I let stress get to me. Easily. I let the little annoyances that should stay little annoyances become enormous dust ups in my life. When the girls whine about something in the back of the car, I don't try and shrug it off, I freak out, turn red and scream "QUIET!" Same thing with Jason. I am the master at turning an innocent statement he makes and twist it into the world's worst attack on me or my parenting or my food choices or the color of my socks. Seriously, it's stupid. At work, I deal with tons of different personalities, work ambitions, and really, generations. It's hard, but I love my job. I love my company. Yet, I make myself stressed out over stupid issues. I can't get past the petty arguments, the gossiping, and the lack of teamwork that happens from time to time and focus on the work that we do and the career that I want.

I am starting to feel marginally better from the 2 weeks of Team Weight Loss training. I feel more energetic and I like going. I think it's helping me realize how out of balance my life has been. I am either completely stressed out and a raging biotch or I am a complete slug on the couch. There hasn't been a happy medium.

I want that happy medium. I have to find more time to just focus and find my center. Whether it be a few minutes in the morning, take a walking break during the day, or doing Yoga on the Wii Fit at night---something needs to happen. It has to be something that I can fit into the schedule I have now, I don't want to add more time away from home. Maybe we'll do family yoga sessions? :) I think teaching the girls how to find calm and learn yoga is a good thing. Kaitlyn has a special after-school yoga class starting in a few weeks (we love our school district!) and I really think she'll love it.

What do you do to calm down? Do you use your Wii Fit to do yoga?

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catching up

Photo credit: Bakerella

I took a much needed vacation day today. I was supposed to be off on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day but I had too much work to do so I went in. So, I had an extra 8 hours of freedom just lingering around in my head taunting me to take the time off. So I did. Wee!!!!

I spent most of the day doing the laundry, cleaning up, and updating my blog. Like it? I wanted to remove some of the stuff that I'd been "collecting" lately and tried to make it look cleaner. I am still tinkering but I like it much better already.

So...Friday. Loving the Friday. Because I am part of the Team Weight Loss program at my gym, I am gone Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights until 7ish and that's hard on J and the girls. Being gone 3 nights a week is not ideal but I need to devote some real time to getting fit and if I don't go to the gym at night, I won't get there and DisneyWorld is coming up just in a few months.

So, tonight we will relax, play some Wii bowling (Chloe's kicking everyone's butt lately!) and perhaps watch a movie after the kiddos go to bed. I rented Public Enemies so we'll see if it's any good.

Hey, so have you checked out my Giveaways and Product Reviews site lately? I have a new post about the new lower sugar General Mills cereals and a link to a $1 coupon!

AND, here's a hint to a giveaway that's coming soon...

Have a great weekend!

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About Last Night...Minnesota Blogger Volunteer Event

Last night was cool. Last night was fun. Last night was amazing.

All the cool bloggers... (I'm in the middle in purple-post hair net!)

About 40 of the coolest bloggers in Minnesota gathered in Eagan to meet, network, share stories, take pictures, swap business cards, and to partake in the bloggy goodness that was the Minnesota Blogger Volunteer Event. I had a great time meeting bloggers that I’ve been following forever like Kim from I Want a Minivan, or Darcie from Gust Gab, Kellyn from the Fritz Facts—those ladies were awesome. I finally got to meet Missy the Marketing Mama, who organized this amazing event. I felt like I’ve known here for forever so it was really great to finally meet her. Same with Jen from Prior Fat Girl. I was a little star struck with her because I ADORE her—her amazing weight loss story really inspires me. Anyway, every.single.person that I met last night was great.

I would say that over half the bloggers there wore a scarf of some fashion... interesting. :)

All genuine. All nice. All AWESOME.

And hey thanks! Annie's Homegrown - Natural and Organic Foods, and Red Gold Tomatoes for the great swag.

So, after we gathered and networked and had a great time, we headed over to Feed My Starving Children. WOW. WOW. WOW.

Here’s a little recap from their website:

Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God’s starving children hungry in body and spirit. The approach is simple: children and adults hand-pack meals formulated specially for starving children, and we ship the meals to more than 60 countries around the world.

We all met over at FMSC and heard a little intro about what this organization does and what we would be doing which was making food packs. There were several stations where each person was in charge of one part of the job. I ended up at a table putting labels on the bags with some of my bloggy friends including Kate-Madonna from Girl Meets Geek (LOVE HER!). We had fun and accomplished a lot.

Hairnets are cool.

In the hour we were there, we made:

•    Almost 14,000 meals.
•    Filled 64 boxes.
•    Will feed 38 kids for a year.
•    And our meals will be going to Haiti.

So, there you have it. I had a great time, met amazing people, and most importantly, did a good thing.

It was wonderful. 



P.S. Why no pictures? Cuz I forgot my camera! I’ll try and link up some pictures from Darcie and Missy once I get their OK… Trust me, you will want to see all of us in our hairnets. SEXY.

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Heidi Montag is Fake and I Don't Mean Her Music

So, did you see the new issue of People Magazine with Heidi Montag on the cover? No? Well, here you go:

Ummm, ya. So apparently Heidi went into hiding to recover from 10 (yes, 10) different plastic surgery procedures. She had work done on her eyes, chin, cheeks, butt, boobs, etc. She is 23 years old.

23 years old. 

I am not surprised that she had plastic surgery because she had a breast augmentation last year. It's the fact that she went CRAZY with plastic surgery and had all of these procedures at once. And that a doctor willingly agreed to perform these procedures. On a 23 year old girl.

Why do I care? Well, I only care a little bit. I care about the fact that girls my daughter's age are looking and reading about Heidi and her latest adventures. I care that teenage girls are reading about Heidi and connect with her and want to (gulp) be just like her. I actually care about Heidi herself. She's 23 years old, married to a total loser, and has bought into this Hollywood ideal that fake is better than authenticity. Sad.

It's hard enough to be a young girl in today's society. Having stories like Heidi's permiate our airwaves and printed materials do only bad things to your self esteem. Surprisingly, I am not anti-plastic surgery. I would get nipped and tucked and boobed just like the rest of them if I could. But, I am not 23. I am 37.

I don't have any interest in becoming plastic. Being authentic is what makes the most beautiful you. Sure hope Heidi Montag and the girls that follow her figure that out sooner than later.

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Oh! My Aching Back...

So, about a week ago I was "de-Christmasing" our house and wanted to move the furniture around in our front room. Jason and I moved some furniture and that's when it happened... a pulled muscle in my back. At first I didn't notice it but as the night went on my back started to ache and by bedtime I couldn't move without a lot of pain. It took a week for my back to stop aching in the morning. THEN on Sunday I had a muscle spasm and could barely walk or sit. It was AWFUL. I bought some generic Icy Hot and that helped a lot and took ibuprofin. So, today I am on my way to my doctor and will a) hopefully find out it was just a stupid pulled muscle and not something worse and b) get powerful muscle relaxers. :) I am also seeing a Chiropractor later today too. Jason thinks it's a good idea to see a chiropractor but I am still on the fence. I'll go see what they say but I am hoping it'll heal itself with time and stretching and exercising.

Speaking of exercising...

I made some changes last week that I am SUPER excited about. I signed up for a 12 week group personal training session, called T.E.A.M. Weight Loss. My gym, LifeTime Fitness, is an amazing gym and they offer these sessions all the time and I have been too chicken to sign up. Well, fate intervened! Last Thursday, Kaitlyn and I went to the gym (she loves their kids center) and as I walked upstairs I saw the signs for TWL and it turns out there was a demo session that night. So... I signed up. I knew instantly that this is what I was supposed to be doing. It will be a grueling 3 day a week session for 12 weeks and its costing me a bundle but dammit, I am worth it and I need to do this. So, where does this leave Weight Watchers? Well, I quit my Monthly Pass membership. With TWL, I get access to a nutritionist once a week and they review my food diary every week (see--no getting out of tracking!). So, that starts tonight. I think that will help my back, too. Anyone else have back trouble? What do you do to help it?

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Back on track...the old fashioned way

 
So, I started back at Weight Watchers tonight. I took a few months off from Weight Watchers. I had hit the wall back in October and was basically paying WW to tell me I suck. So, the holidays came and went and now it's time to get back to reality. I thought long and hard before re-upping my WW membership. I am not a big fan of paying for something that I should be able to do for free. But, for right now, I need their help. I need the weekly weigh-ins, the meetings, the corny phrases that I learned at WW meetings ("nothing tastes as good as being thin feels" is a personal fave), and my lovely WW super leader Pam. I also miss my WW buddies at my meeting. We have a pretty steady email group that has become a lifeline for us during the week. I kept in touch with them during the time I was away, but its good to get back to seeing them every week.

So, I went back tonight and had a great meeting. It was great to see everyone and be back in the same uncomfortable green chair. Tonight we talked about tracking. I have a love/hate relationship with tracking. When I am into it, I can track with the best of them. When I am barely hanging on, I would rather eat rats than write anything down. I always know that tracking is important. I always know that tracking what I eat will help. I will track starting tomorrow morning. I have a new tracking notebook from WW that I will use. I like their online tracking tool and can access it on my Blackberry, but I get more satisfaction and am more connected to it when I write it down on paper. So, it's old school Suzi for me.

Tomorrow starts the new week. Here's to getting back on track... :)

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