High Five New Friend Weekend Warrior Friday!!

We made it to Friday! High Five!

Wait. I look a little tired in that one. Here's a better one:

I'm joining in a couple of Blog Hops today. I'm feeling very social:

So, hop along with me, and let's talk about the greatness that is Friday!

Okay, actually the great part is this weekend. I'm super psyched. Turbokick and Piyo training. Oh yeah, oh yeah...

But first, I have some questions for you:

Question 1: What was the best part of your week?

For me it was probably my workout yesterday. It was one of those magical, spiritual, "everything's okay" kind of workouts. I wrote about it a little...

Question 2: What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Two days of fitness certifications. Hanging out with energetic instructors. I hear there's some kind of game on Sunday... but I'm not really interested... (don't hate!)

And.... Go.

High Five Blog Hopping Friday (of awesomeness)!

High Five!

Don't forget to join us for the Weekend Warrior Blog Hop!

So. This week.

I had a plan. It didn't go exactly as I had hoped it would. But that's okay.

I spent most of the week dealing with The Sickness. Sniffles that turned into a full on "What is all this stuff in my head and chest?" I even took a complete day off on Tuesday and rested. The rest of the week, I didn't do much cardio. I had wanted to spend the mornings doing Turbo and Hustle, but cardio just wasn't much fun. I didn't even run. At all.

But I *did* do my strength workouts. Chest and back on Monday. Shoulders on Wednesday. Legs on Thursday. Friday will be biceps and triceps. Then on Saturday, I hope to run. Possibly.

Today marks exactly one month until my 38th birthday. I get a little weird around birthday time. Like, "How on earth has it been 20 years since I turned 18?" I mean, I didn't *feel* like we were living in the dark ages... but we didn't even have internet, cell phones (well, the only people with cell phones were the kids on "90210"), DVR (I used to record all my soaps for the week on a VHS with a timer, and watch them on the weekends. Dark ages).

Wow. Now I feel even older.

Seriously, though, I do remind myself around this time that, overall, I'm happier, healthier, and in better shape than I was at 18 (except I had fewer forehead wrinkles then...)

Who has fun plans for the weekend? We're once again planning our crazy, wild, Friday night with a Redbox movie night. I know, we're crazy....

Have a great weekend!

High Five Blog Hopping Friday!

High Five, It's Friday!!

Doing some blog hopping today:

I'm SOOOO glad it's Friday. So so glad. I love Friday. Have I mentioned I'm really happy it's Friday?

When people ask me what "plans" I have for the weekend, I realize what I tell them may be a bit disappointing.... but it's exactly what I want to be doing:

- Cleaning and organizing around the house

- Reading a new book I just got

- Having movie night with my husband (the closest thing to a date night we get these days)

- Working out

- Doing my meal prep for next week

- Taking one, maybe two, naps

- Probably doing some parenting in there as well. 

What are you up to this weekend? Hope it's something fun. Yes, naps are considered fun in my opinion!

Oh, and any ideas for movie night? We'll be Redboxing it.. but I don't even know what's out right now.

Happy Friday!

High Five I Love Coffee Friday!

One of my favorite things about winter is the Starbucks Holiday cup. So I gave in and got a holiday beverage this morning:

My hands were too busy to high five. Sorry.

My daughter is either teething, or sick (or both, poor thing), which is making her very demanding, especially during the times most people sleep. Hence the coffee.

My P90X2 arrived this week. I haven't had a chance to try much of it yet, but I did do "X2 Recovery and Mobility" this morning. It has a 20 minute long foam roller sequence. I went to heaven.

However, after 3 sun salutations at the beginning of the workout, Tony says, "Just skip coffee and do three of those in the morning." Tony, not funny. Not funny at all.

He's also his typical self, and I'm glad to have a whole new set of Tony-isms to memorize and repeat. "If you don't have a bar, get a broom stick. If you don't have a broom stick in your house, that's weird." (I'm paraphrasing.)

Speaking of P90X-ish things:




I love it.

I really don't have a coherent train of thought to share with you today, so I'll just sum up some things:

1. Starting a BB challenge group January 2. This will be a small group (limited) of highly focused folks who really want to see a difference. This will be 30 days. Want to know more? Email me at uberlibrarian (at ) gmail (dot) com, and we'll see if you qualify.

2. I've become completely obsessed with the Ryan Gosling "Hey girl" meme, to the point that friends and I (you know who you are) have been doing some variations (some with David Boreanaz). Observe some of the original:

Here's some from the librarian version:

And here are some of the ones we've come up with:

Oh Jenn.

And some DB...

From my girl Missy. 

Hey girl.
Have a great weekend....

High Five Post Thanksgiving Holiday Friday!

Happy Friday! Here's your high five!

This picture is from a different day. I am *not* at work right now.

How'd you do?

I ran 4 miles, ate a lot (but no food coma) and had a great time. I didn't clean a darn thing.

So, right now, I'm going to list 5 things I'm committing to during the month of December....

1. No food comas.
2. Working out 5 times a week.
3. Do at least one thing to get me closer to my big goal (which is a secret) every day.
4. Spending at least 10 minutes EVERY DAY one-on-one time with each kid AND my husband. EVERY DAY.
5. Budget with my husband (we are starting the Dave Ramsey plan. This is the month. Our first budget.)

So, do you have big goals for the end of the year? Are you finishing strong? Or just trying to make it through? Post them here!

Have a happy weekend!

High Five Hallelujah It's Fitness Friday!

Did I get enough words in that title? 

Here's your high five!

Hop on over to Fitness Friday today to meet other folks who *love* fitness....




5 things that are awesome:
1. I actually enjoyed a run yesterday. Shocking. It was raining earlier in the day, and I was afraid my plans for an outdoor run were thwarted... but by the time it was lunchtime running time, the rain had stopped and it was *perfect* running weather. I ran 2 miles with no walk breaks, and didn't feel like I would die. In fact, like I said, I enjoyed it. I guess this is why I keep running, for runs like this. Yay!

2. We get an extra hour this weekend. Oh hallelujah. I know it's just an hour, but I need it. I'm excited. I'm ready for Fall and Winter. Remind me I said that in January.

3. "Salted caramel" Cream of Wheat. My glorious breakfast this morning. I am obsessed with the whole "salted caramel" thing, but since I don't have room in my calories or budget for Starbucks, I don't partake much. So, I mixed a little sugar free Torani syrup in with my Cream of Wheat this morning, and some salt, and it was SO GOOD. I'm still reeling from the awesome.

4. Did I mention it's Friday? I am so ready for the weekend, even though with two small children, the weekends are often as busy as the week. I have a ton of housework to do, plus the parenting... but I just feel like I need to catch up.

5. David Boreanaz. I'm just thankful he exists.

I love you, too Sarah. In your mind.

High Five Time to Get Positive Again Friday!

It's Friday! High five!

My hand is huge.

Today, I started out in a TERRIBLE mood! But, since I believe we can *decide* what mood to be in (and I preach it), I decided to do my best to turn it around.

This morning I had planned to do some yoga. My back has been bothering me and I'm pretty sure it's because of some tight hip flexors.

However, my little princess had a different idea. She started fussing at around 5 (alarm was set to go off at 5:15). I snuggled with her, but every time I tried to escape, she fussed some more. So I laid there with her, not able to go back to sleep, until 6, when I just decided we should both get up. I was not happy about this.

Then I get to the kitchen and it's a MESS. This may be weird, but I can't *stand* a messy kitchen in the morning. It puts me in a bad mood. So there's strike 2.

Then I found out a little bit of disappointing information. Also, the Rangers didn't win last night. All these disappointments were starting to get to me.

Also, I think my hormones are going a little crazy.. doing that girl thing they do...

So, I'm on track here for a grumpy mood and a yucky day.

I stopped and realized, I need to "check myself before I wreck myself."

Source

I'm happy to say I made a successful attitude shift. Let me tell you how I did it.

1. Embrace the suck.
I took a few moments to fully embrace the suck. I cried in the shower. I had a pity party. "Why me?" "This is so unfair!!!"

The key, however, is that I limited it. Once I got out of the shower, the pity party was over.

2. Count your blessings.
I moved on to the next step. I counted my blessings. God (or "Universe", if that's who you prefer. I'm not getting into a theological discussion here..) has been quite good about helping me with this lately. If I'm thinking, "My kids are driving me crazy!", my attention is brought to someone who's kids are sick or, heaven forbid, have passed. Suddenly having two wonderful healthy (crazy) kids is not as bad. Or if I'm grumbling about having to walk across campus, someone passes me who's limping and obviously having a much harder time than me. If you're open to it, these things are everywhere. They are humbling and help get your mind right pretty quickly.

3. Laugh about something.
I have a few things that I pull out when I'm grumpy that just make me laugh. A funny story, a funny tv show, anything... Just laugh a little... and *let* yourself.

I think most people take themselves too seriously. I really believe you can always find something amusing. Try looking at yourself. I think I'm hilarious. Even on bad mornings, I can find something funny in the situation.

Whatever you have to do to get a big, sincere, laugh- well, do it. You will immediately relax (trust me).

Keep in mind, there will be days you may have to do this more than once. Some days *are* overwhelming. But, I promise, it's worth it. Choosing a positive attitude really is much more fun!

So, I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll leave you with a question, because I love hearing from you:

How do you shake yourself out of a funk? Share your tips!

High Five What Happened This Week Friday

Happy High Five Friday, everyone!

You can even see my nails are painted. I'm high maintenance today..

Once again, time for my favorite Fitness Friday Blog Hop:



Hop on over. Jill's got a great post today about trying different things. I've never heard of pace tattoos before. Cool...

So, today I'm going to go over the Top 5 things that happened this week. You may have heard these before...

5. I ran my last half marathon for a while. Oh my. I know I already told you and told you about it.

4. I did my best to ignore bad news stories. 
Apparently, lots of bad things happen every day. I won't list them here. I do my best to stay positive. But for some reason, this week seemed worse than most. Here is what I looked like most of the week:

Source

3. I was on Nightline.
Seriously. There was a story about Beachbody and P90X, and the footage was from when I was in Los Angeles this summer at Summit. You can see me getting my picture taken with my bff Tony Horton and about 3:30...
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/p90x-star-workout-14758432

2. I had my first Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha.
It was my reward for finishing the half marathon that I didn't really want to finish. I went all out- full whole milk, whipped cream. The only thing missing was the salt- they were out. It was good, but I think I had built it up in my mind a little too much. I don't think anything could have been as good as I had imagined this drink would be.

And the number one thing that happened this week:
1. Friday arrived!
Yay! Have you ever had a week that just crept slowly by... like a very slow turtle? That was this week. Friday arrived and I was amazingly thrilled to see it.

Source OMG yes...

How about you? How was your week? Do you have fun plans for the weekend? Tell me, I'm nosy!!

High Five I love to talk Friday!

Happy Friday! Here's a high five!

Good hair day today, but I'm really noticing how much I look like my mother..

Today I'm participating in my favorite blog hop, so come on over! Or "Welcome!" Whichever fits...

(P.S. Head on over no matter what and you can read Jill's race recap from the Chicago Marathon last weekend!)



Speaking of races, I have one tomorrow. It's my third and last half marathon of 2011. I don't know why, but I'm a bit nervous. It could be the fact that my husband will be out of town all weekend, so I will be running the half (thanks to a good friend who is coming who will hang with the kids while I run) and then parenting solo for the rest of the weekend. I am really hoping for a nap. 
But hopefully after doing this twice before, the recovery will be a bit easier.
My goal is to beat the last race's time of 2:30:34.
This time last year, I had a 6 week old baby, and was just starting to work up to running again. I was about 15 pounds heavier than I am now. 
I'm pretty proud of the progress I've made since then. 
Here's the formerly 6 week old baby, today, being ridiculously cute:

And here's me (with my other baby) just last night, getting excited at seeing some abs...

In summary- I'm doing my race tomorrow, and then I'll run a little less, but I'll keep running. And I'll see if I can get those abs to pop a little bit more while I'm at it...

So, what fun things will *you* be doing this weekend? And do you think I should clean my mirror before I take any more pictures?

High Five Deep Thoughts Friday!

Whew. It's Friday! Here's a High Five for you!

Join me at my FAVORITE blog hop today:




Hop on over and wish Jill good luck as she prepares to run the Chicago Marathon this weekend! WOW!

This has been a good week for me, fitness wise. Well, really, it has been a good week in a lot of ways. I'm a big believer that you should count your blessings, and ignore the things that *aren't* (or at least, don't focus on them).

So, I'm going to list 5 things that blessed me this week.

1. My kids.

2. Great workouts.

3. Beautiful weather!

4. Good friends.

5. Tasty coffee.

How about you? What blessed you this week?

Have a wonderful weekend!

High Five 5 Thing Friday!

 High Five, it's finally FRIDAY!

Crazy eyes

I think I can say I have the best friends in the world, or at least, people know me, when one of them says *this* makes them think of me: 

Yes, it's me. And you.

So, I'm trying to get back to regularly participating in my favorite blog hop. It's right here:



I love talking about fitness. I love reading about fitness. I love making new friends. It's really a win-win.
So, 5 things, in no particular order of importance:
1. I'm still kind of high from having a successful race last weekend. Two weeks from tomorrow is my next race. Running and I are friends again. Thanks everyone for your support and your nice comments! 
2. I've been doing a lot of work on my mindset. I've been listening to The Power, the sequel to The Secret. I am a big believer in the Law of Attraction, so I'm loving this.

Believe it or not, I think "getting my mind right" was part of why I was able to get my swagger back and have a successful race. Other good things are happening too. So, I love it.

3. I have been following a pretty strict nutrition plan for almost a month now. I've seen some results, and I'm feeling pretty good. I added a weekly *cheat* meal, which I had last night. I have to tell you, it wasn't the thrill I had been fantasizing about. Do you find when you eat healthy most of the time, any deviations make you feel kind of, well, *off*? What is your theory on "cheat" meals?

4. I have been a parent for over 4 years now. I am exhausted. However, I still get overwhelmed by how smitten I am with my children. No one could have told me how much I would love these people. 

Wow. I grew these people. In my belly.

5. I have been trying to keep up with a few new Fall shows. I actually am enjoying Grey's again. I stayed up past my bedtime last night watching Private Practice and, honestly, mourned the loss of an hour I won't get back. The season finale of Doctor Who is this weekend, and I don't think it will be back for a *very* long time (except for the Christmas special)... and I've quit watching Glee. 

What shows, if any, are you watching?

Have a great weekend, and HIGH FIVE!

High Five It's Friday and I'm HAPPY!

Happy Friday! Here's a High Five for you!

This week has been a crazy week, but honestly- when is it NOT? I had several nights of sleep deprivation, and somehow made it to Friday, so I'm thankful!

I'm back to blog hopping today: Hope you can join me! If you're new, WELCOME! 

I've had a great week workout wise. I even ran twice so far :-) 
Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt my last "long" run before the half on Saturday the 24th. Not sure how it will go, considering the last "long" run I tried turned out to be 4.5 miles. But, I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the race, I just don't know how long it will take me.
What's something cool that happened in *your* world this week?
Have a great weekend!

High Five Thank God This Week Is Over, Seriously!

I mean, really.

I didn't blog much this week. I was SOOOOO busy.

There was my regular job.

There was the parenting job.

So, when it came down to: "Do I use this hour to workout, or to blog"... guess what I chose?

I'm not even going to take a High Five picture. It's that dramatic. But instead, I offer this:

This is *kind of* a high five.

That's all I've got folks. Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope to gain control over my time more next week!

High Five, 5 things Friday!

Happy Friday! Here's your High Five (with a special guest star):

Yes, I am home with my children today while my husband prepares for the new school year. He is an adjunct on the campus where I'm a librarian. It's all very romantic.

Anyway, the kids and I have a fun filled day planned that hopefully will include me *not* going insane.

I did my Chest/Biceps/Triceps workout at home this morning. Added a little Turbofire Hiit (20 minutes). Feeling good. No running today.

Here's our fun Blog Hop Today! Are you new? Welcome! Please post and let me know!



So, today I'll be asking some questions. I'll need you all to answer. Kthanks.

1. What's your current favorite "Can't-wait-to-do-it" workout?

For me, it's weight lifting. I'm kind of crazy about it.

2. The Fall TV Premiere season is coming. I realize not everyone cares as much as me, but if you do- is there a show you're excited about returning?

Well, technically it's not part of the Fall TV season, but Doctor Who comes back tomorrow. I've been literally counting down the days with the same intensity I counted down to my due date last summer when I was hugely pregnant.

Other than that, I think I'm looking forward to Modern Family. Also, I miss Lost.

3. If you have kids, how do you deal with birthday requests?

My son's birthday is coming up and every thing he sees on TV or at the grocery store, he says, "I want that for my birthday!" I think the kid is in for some disappointment, especially since he's requested a Shark cake, and I'm not really much of a fancy baker...

4. Do you allow yourself a scheduled "Cheat" (I like to call it a "Treat")? If so, what's your FAVORITE?

We usually have Family Treat Night on Friday night, where we eat a special dessert. My favorite is chocolate moose tracks ice cream :-)

5. Any special workouts/races/events this weekend?

I am going to run Saturday. No set time or distance. I just want to see if I can still like it.

Have a great weekend! High five!

High Five My Favorite Things Friday!

Happy Friday! Here's your high five!

Got a super fun blog hop going today:


If you're new, WELCOME! Please comment! If you're not new, WELCOME! Comment anyway! 
Today I'll be talking about 5 of my favorite things. It's like I'm Oprah, but without giving anything away. Sorry if you were holding out for a car...
1. A Super Challenging, Sweaty, Workout.
That makes me look like this:

Or this:

Or even this:

But hopefully, this:

2. Doctor Who


3. David Boreanaz, Dancing


4. Ricky Gervais singing to Elmo


5. Cute kids.

What are some of your favorite things? You don't have to sing the song... just tell us some things that put a smile on your face!
Have a great weekend!