My favorite things & Weekly Phone Dump

Happy last week of June. Whattt?!?!? No!!!!  I know that you’ve been waiting for my weekly phone dump, so here it is. Enjoy the randomness of my phone’s life.

Wowo was scared of the termite man….pitiful guard dog.

The loudest bird EVER

Have finally perfected my pie crust.

She loves sleeping beside Wowo…my poor couch.

Stovetop chocolate pie success

Meeting my new niece!

Izzy and Wowo sleeping

Cute cute cute

LOVED the pink icing

I want all those K-cups.

Izzy disaster

Hide and Seek in my closet…..

She still loves the tp roll

Beautiful sunrise

Helping me change the sheets..

I’ve learned that several of ya’ll are vying to earn the weekly “favorite/funny” picture of the week. They all crack me up; however, this person knew how to get to the top spot….perhaps you need to be a science nerd to appreciate this….or a science teacher.

I died…

Don’t give up, losers, there’s always next week   😉

My favorite blogger, Janae, did a top 3 favorite things survey for bloggers. I figured, why not!? However, in my typical fashion I broke the rules and sometimes only listed 1 favorite instead of 3…..come on….

❤

So, people that know me in real life….let’s see how well you really know me!?

1. All-time Favorite Running Shoes:

-Brooks Pure Cadence 1s…lets not discuss their discontinued status…

2. Favorite running song(s)

-I don’t run to music… but I currently love these artists in my car and spin class: Ryan Macklemore & Lewis, AWOLNATION, Imagine Dragons, Robin Thicke, Pitbull….I could keep going….

She’s just jealous I didn’t mention her…

3. Favorite app:

-Instagram!

4. Favorite races:

-No brainer…Tough Mudder

5. Favorite dessert:

1.  My choc chip cake and TCBY. This self-serve fro-yo stuff is crap…thank goodness there is not a TCBY close to my house.

Ha…that’s awesome. I don’t know anyone who could put that away, though.

6. Favorite foods:

-Peanut butter and  Shrimp.  Ummm, no worries, not together.

7. Favorite store to buy clothes:

-Franscesca’s Collections

8. Favorite TV Shows:

Biggest Loser, Big Brother (it starts Wednesday!!!!!!!!), and Bachelor/Bachelorette.

9. Favorite WorkOut Mantras:

-Unless you puke, faint or die, keep going.  -Jillian Michaels

-What doesn’t challenge you doesn’t change you

-You never regret a workout.

10. Favorite vacation spot:

-Hmmmm, not really a spot, but a cruise around the Caribbean. Philip and I are expert cruisers….I’m available to plan your vacay for a small fee….like a free cruise… 😉

11. Favorite color:

-Really? Do I even have to state my answer?

12. Favorite way to relax:

-Cooking/baking

No!!! That’s not true regarding my cooking at all. Promise!

13. Favorite sleeping position:

-Curled up on my right side

14. Favorite time of day:

-Early, early morning…

Change that to 5am…

15. Favorite pic of you and your spouse/sig other:

Yes, of course, our wedding pics and vacay pics are my favs, but this pic is special and speaks “1,000 words”. I threw P an awesome surprise b’day party that took 5 months to plan.  More than 80 people kept it quiet and it was a huge success. This pic was snapped as soon as he walked in the house, the lights were turned on, and everyone shouted “surprise”! So fun. Ummm, I can throw one heck of a surprise party…again, I’m available for hire. 😉

Well, there ya go, maybe you learned something about me! Any surprises!? Feel free to answer some of the questions about yourself in the comments!

Life Lately & Weekly Phone Dump

Ohhhh, have you missed me?!!? I can’t tell you how many texts/e-mails I received since I’ve been MIA for a while. I guess it’s safe to say that I def have more than 2 readers. 😉

I’m alive and well and def not on vacation. My life has actually been more like this lately….

I know, I know, we are all swamped with jobs, life, etc. I swear summers exhaust me more than the school year. But lets not even mention the s-word again for a while… I spend my days at the gym and my nights working for SkoolPad and baking creations (I hope all the fathers loved their treats–thanks for all the orders).

Really, I think that most of ya’ll have missed seeing Izzy pics rather than hearing about my life!! Eeeee, she’s still a sweet, little fluff ball and is growing more mischievous by the day!

Enjoying the view

It’s still her fav toy

Traveling to her first vet appt

Cuddling with wo-wo

Izzy stir-fry

Obsessed with the d-washer

She stayed in that bag for over an hour

This past weekend Philip and I finished Baby B’s puzzle!!!!!!! 1,008 pieces in 20 hours! It’s a miracle!

Actually, the miracle is the fact that all the pieces were accounted for and only one suffered some Izzy tooth damage. My biggest fear was that we would be missing a piece due to that busy kitty. She only “stole” one piece and, luckily, is still too small to do much damage.

We also celebrated our anniversary this past week!! Our great marriage is truly my life’s biggest blessing. I am so blessed to have such a really great man love me so unconditionally. I am a lot little crazy, energetic, full of ideas, always on the go, etc, etc and he lets me do my thing while completely supporting me. Most recent example….getting little Izzy and booking a wild excursion on our upcoming cruise vacay! Details to come!

My exact words..”ruin my make up with cake and you will die”!

We actually got dressed up and went out to a nice dinner when I got off work that night. Yes, I actually went out in public without a baseball cap and sweaty clothes on for the first time in weeks. Not a joke. Wow, and he still loves me!? ha. Um, I could tell that I’ve only been wearing workout shoes for the past month b/c I could barely walk in my cute heels. I kicked them off as soon as we got home and Izzy was obsessed with them for some reason.

Philip brought home a bag full of fresh veggies given to him by an employee. I spent about an hour turning that bag into five different meals for the week Sunday evening. So far, so good! Meaning so far Philip hasn’t complained! 😉

Lets discuss what happened to be on TV (lifetime) when I was slicing and dicing the veggies.  Pretty Wicked Moms –do you have any idea what I’m talking about!??!?  Watching this will make you feel sorry for the future of our country, but better about yourself. Seriously, it’s reality TV at its finest (insert sarcasm), but really caught my attention because these are southern women (Mississippi, Birmingham, and Atlanta). It features six cut-throat, perfectly groomed mothers in a raging “mommy war”. They will stop at nothing to one-up each other since they all strive to be the prettiest, the thinnest, the richest; and their kids to be the smartest. It’s really insane. Here are some of my fav quotes from the most recent episode.

Homework: watch this tomorrow night (Tuesday) and report back to me! Local readers……people this crazy really exist and live close to us!!!

Ohhh lord, yes I did….

Two more random pics from my phone….. I happen to think the polka dots on Nike’s new line are super cute. BUT those shorts cost $15 more than the regular shorts! I refuse to pay more for p-dots. Wow. Those dang Wicked Moms drop $100,000 on their toddler’s b’day party and I won’t buy $40 shorts. Winner.

Well, let me really  embarrass brag on myself with this story. Bath and Body Works discontinued my fav lotion in December. Rude. I’ve been sparingly using what little I have left–until now!! That store has a BIG sales event every June when they bring back all discontinued lotions (plus some extras) from the past year as a final sale item. Side note…they sell the $11 bottles for $2.75!! Anyway, a local BBW got in 35 bottles of my beloved lotion, but would only let me hoard have 5 of them. I won’t tell you how many I tried to buy, but I will tell you that my mom did some purchasing for me at a B’ham BBW. Muhahaha…cheating the system! 

Wow. See what I mean??  I feel better about myself already. Those women pay $200 to have their dog’s fur flat ironed and I hoard $2 lotion. Fabulous.

And what post of mine wouldn’t be complete without some exercise talk/pics? Cody found this tennis ball during one of our runs and carried it for 4+miles. He is still obsessed with it. I don’t get him out for more than 4 miles since we’ve finally hit the 90 temps!! yay!! I swear he would walk/run all day if I would let him.

 

The winner of the text/pic that made me laugh the hardest this week goes to:

Why did I laugh so hard at this?!?

The most motivational image goes to:

I choose gym!! You!?!  Well, that covers my life from the past week. Thrilling, I know!  Thanks for reading! 🙂

A 30-minute mile & Weekly Phone Dump

Soooo how is everyone doing on the Streaking Challenge?! While a lot of people have joined me in the challenge, several have broken my heart said that running is boring and they are not interested in it. Never, ever, ever. WHAT!?!

Ok, I understand that running isn’t everyone’s “thing” and that’s FINE. What if you did a workout that had you run a mile without you knowing that you ran a mile!?  Mua-ha-ha!!

I did these two tire flipping circuits this past week in bootcamp classes and with clients. Some of those people were truly shocked that they had run a mile by the end of the circuit. Maybe I have some new streakers!?!

As you have probably guessed, each circuit took about 30 minutes. The time flew by, though, at least to me….

And what post wouldn’t be complete without some cute Izzy pics and some random pics from my life? Enjoy!

Cuteness

The rainbow after the rain

I cannot keep her out of there

You don’t want to know…

Cody destroyed her one Catnip toy

A real cat toy!!!

Af and Lac still visit me daily

The laundry basket…the perfect napping spot

Snoozing next to dad

Hide and Seek!!

My attempt at a green thumb…

So far they are still alive…

WIAW & WOW #10

Life with Isabelle…..crazy!!!! She’s adorable, but you can’t take your eyes off of her for 2 seconds. I went on a panicked, 15 minute hunt for her the other afternoon only to find her asleep in the 1/2 bath’s trash can!?!?!  She is such a baby in her routine….eat, poop, play, sleep, repeat. This is definitely a good mini training for Baby B! Minus the whole ‘lock her in the laundry room when I sleep and go to work thing’. 😉

The toilet paper roll is still her favorite toy. She now has one in every room.

She also loves straws as much as the dogs love her. (Yes, sweet Cody is smiling for the camera!)

Today she added a new toy to her sad collection:

I don’t think Cody was smiling at that moment…

Moving on to Jenn’s weekly endeavor…

Actually, this is ‘what Philip ate this past weekend’. By now most of my two readers know that I love my slowcooker due to its simplicity and perfect results.  (Minus one nightmare lasagna experiment…don’t ask).  Well, there is another kitchen tool that I love due to its crazy cooking speed.

Meet the Pampered Chef Grill Pan. It’s amazing!! Life changing.

Ok, that’s a stretch.  Seriously, though, Philip made his steak in 3 minutes !!!   He cooked it for 1:30 per side.  Yeh, it’s too rare IMO, but he killed ate it.

The next night he cooked his burger in 4 minutes! I think his craving for raw red meat has been fulfilled.

  

While I am not a red meat eater, I have used it to cook chicken breasts and fish filets. I prefer my food to be dead cooked and it still took less than 5 minutes!

It is pricey (I was fortunate to get mine at a huge discount), but it’s worth the dollars if you want food to taste like it’s from the grill, yet done in a matter of minutes with no clean up. There are a lot more meals/foods that can be prepared on the pan–it comes with a recipe book. This was just a product FYI for you. It promised a steak in 5 minutes and it delivered.

Onto Work Out Wednesday!  While I’m not sharing any ground-breaking exercises with you (ummm, you have to be a 5am group ex member for that stuff!), I do want to share with you an awesome video sent to me by one of my bad-a, Iron man, 5am-ers. (Yes, that’s a word!).  I get asked almost daily how I workout in the 4am hour daily. I wrote this post discussing how I remain motivated but, I honestly don’t know how not to start my day without a sweaty workout.  I tell my new early-am participants that it takes 3 weeks to create a habit so they need to stick with the early rising.

They soon realize that I am always right. Anyway, if you are in need of some get-your-butt-out-of-bed-and-workout  motivation then this video is for you!!

Heck, changing your routine may be exactly what you need if you are in a fitness rut. Remember one of my top workout rules: Remain uncomfortable!!!

Lastly, I can’t conclude without mentioning Oklahoma. Life can be so cruel, yet so amazing simultaneously.  While 24 deaths are way too many, it’s amazing the number wasn’t quadrupled. The Boston bombings shook me to the core as a runner and this disaster has affected me as a teacher.  Please continue to pray for those in need.

Happy Wednesday, friends! Does anyone have any crazy hiding/sleeping spot stories from their pets!?