Here is an update on some big news that has occured in the past week:

- I had an interview for a potential job last week.

- I worked at a volleyball camp all of last week, working long hours with the longest day being 15 hours.

- At a midnight showing of "Dark Knight Rises" on Friday, there was a massive shooting that has killed 12 people and injured many others. What drives people to do such cruel things, what pushes them over the edge, will always remain a mystery to me. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I can't imagine how awful this must be. I also think about the suspect's family and what a strange and terrible situation they are now placed in as a result of this. And the suspect was a bright individual with his whole life ahead of him...only a year younger than I am. What makes screwing up your life (and everyone else's) "worth it"?

Had a little diet slip up yesterday during lunch, and our water isn't working, but it could be a whole lot worse.

Today is the first day of a 30 day "healthy food only" diet, with the only exceptions being ice cream and a wedding we are attending in a few weeks.

As I have found myself increasingly busy, and less able to keep this blog updated, I have seriously considered discontinuing the blog. However, I think it is important to me to document the events of my life, significant and insignificant, so that at a later date I can reflect upon them. I think it would also be neat to one day have my children read parts or all of my blog and see what life was like for me growing up, both the important milestones and the day to day occurances. I got an idea from Pinterest, of all places, to do a daily documentation in one sentence or less. They suggested to write it on an index card, and then to start over the next year using the same index cards, so you can see what you did a year ago on that exact day. Then as the years go by, you can look back at what you did 10 years ago on that day. I thought the idea was interesting and fitting for me as I generally don't have a lot of time to blog. I am going to start doing one sentence posts and include at least one picture as well. On the occassion that something particularly big or important happens, I will actually do a full length blog post, but for now, I will stick to one sentence a day...starting tomorrow.

I haven't had a lot of time to blog recently, so I think the best way to catch you all up is to post a bunch of pictures I've taken over the past couple of months. There is a lot of beautiful here in North Carolina.



Red Neck Deer Blind

Asheville, NC

Preserve near our house

We got just a tad bit of rain last week



Part of my birthday present from my hubby

From my coworkers



Wild Turkeys



Happy Valentine's Day!!

Here are ten things I am loving right now...

1. My hubby, Benny
2. My puppy, Stanley
3. All of my wonderful family and friends (I am so blessed)
4. Desserts (duh!)
5. North Carolina winters
6. Basketball coaches canceling 6AM practice (mmm...sleeping in...)
7. P90X (yup, we're still "bringing it")
8. Pre-season triathlon training
9. All other foods that aren't dessert, but more specifically bacon and cheese
10. The "Love Songs" station on Pandora (right now, "Faithfully" by Journey is playing *le sigh* )



I LOVE this picture!!

Growing up, I always looked forward to Sunday mornings. I would always try to be the first one up so I could be the first one to read the Sunday morning comics. I thought it would be fun to have a Sunday morning comics themed series of blog posts. There won't always be illustrations (but I'll try to do as many as I can to make it entertaining), but they'll always be short, light-hearted and funny stories.

Earlier this week, we had the Family Feud on the TV in the athletic training room. I was working with one of my male student-athletes who was doing rehab. He also happens to be from a non-English speaking country.

The question on the game show was "Name something that starts with 'doggie' ".

He blurts out "doggie style" which initiated a bunch of laughter and joking reprimands like "You can't talk like that in here" and "We know what's on your mind right now."

His response: "I'm sorry. I don't know much English. That's the only 'doggie' I know."

Well, at least he's learning the important parts of English...

Hey all,

I've been working hard on a new blog. My dream for it is to some day be a place where I can showcase my hats that I will make for my (hopefully) millinery business. It is also a place where I can merge all of my creative outlets into one giant outlet. Those outlets also include fashion and acting. Maybe one day when I actually have a house to call my own (or maybe even a house that I live in for more than a year or two at a time), I'll also post pictures of some of my renovations, DIY projects or new additions to the house.

Right now, it is just a couple reviews of Red Carpet attire from recent awards shows, but in the near future, I hope to add pictures of outfits that I have put together, pictures of other people wearing outfits they have put together, stories about attempts to become an actress, and of course, hats!!!

I want to get a digital SLR camera for my blog to help to blog look nicer (and just to take nicer pictures for my own personal enjoyment). Does anybody have any suggestions for quality, but still relatively cheap cameras?

Anyways, without further ado: actfashmillinery.wordpress.com

So there's not much to say here, because I'm still being my glutonous self. After having an amazing first week of the year, losing 3.5 pounds, I'm only down a total of 2.6 pounds for the month. Granted, its better than nothing, but its not the 4 pounds I was looking for. Good thing I gave myself some wiggle room time-wise. I figured I might have a week or two that wouldn't go as well as planned...or a whole month.

We are in the middle of week 3 of P90X. Its going well so far. I feel stronger and I have found out I actually do have muscles hiding in there some where and they are coming out (or at least I like to believe they are starting to show their face around here). The workouts are getting easier and I'm not constantly sore anymore like I was for the first 10 days. The only workout that still kills me is the plyometrics one, but more from the "My hip flexors are on fire and I've only done 2 exercises" stand point than the "I'm completely exhausted after only 2 exercises" stand point that it was when we first did the workout.

Last week, I also started an off-season triathlon training plan to start prepping for some in-season training. The only problem I have with it is that even though the workouts are only about an hour long, I just have no time for anything. I'm lucky if I have time to eat, let alone workout. I definitely don't have any time for some of the fun hobbies that I want to start doing to destress. Just ask Ben. I've basically been a hot mess for the past month. Only 5 1/2 more weeks of basketball!! And only 12 more days until my next day off (its been 16 since my last day off, in case you lost count)!!!

Hey guys! Happy Tuesday! I have been really busy at work recently (seems to be a recurring theme), so I haven't had much of a chance to blog. Believe me, you aren't missing much. I am also starting a new blog for my creative endeavors (acting, fashion, and millinery), so I don't have to bore you with the gruesome details here. I am still keeping this blog to talk about triathlons, running, and my life in general. Once I get the layout of the new blog just how I like it (I already have blog posts about the Golden Globes!), I'll post a link here. Hopefully, that doesn't leave you hanging too much.

I grew up in Wisconsin, so today's Ten For is Wisconsin Fun Facts from 50states.com.

1. Wisconsin's Door County has five state parks and 250 miles of shoreline along Lake Michigan. These figures represent more than any other county in the country.

2. Devil's Lake was established in 1911. The facility has become one of Wisconsin's oldest and most famous state parks. It leads the state parks in attendance.
----> I went camping here with my dad once when I was younger.

3. In 1882 the first hydroelectric plant in the United States was built on the Fox River.

4. Wausau is the ginseng capital of the world.

5. The American Birkebeiner, a 52K cross-country ski race between Cable and Hayward, is the largest on the North American continent.

6. Mount Horeb is the Troll Capital of the World and home to the Mustard Museum.

7. Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells is the nation's largest water-themed park.
----> I've only been here once or twice or a ton of times.

8. The nation's first kindergarten was established in Watertown in 1856. Its first students were local German-speaking youngsters.

9. The original Barbie is from Willows. Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.

10. The first Ringling Brothers Circus was staged in Baraboo in 1884.

A few more because I had a hard time picking just ten...

Two Rivers is the home of the ice cream sundae.

The Republican Party was founded in Ripon in 1854.

The Hamburger hall of fame is located in Seymour.

The National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward is shaped like a Muskie.

Mercer is the Loon Capital of the World.

With an average of 2,500 performers, Milwaukee's Summerfest is the nation's largest music festival.

Eagle River is known as the Snowmobile Capital of the World.

Sturgeon Bay is the Shipbuilding Capital of the Great Lakes.

Sheboygan is the Bratwurst Capital of the World.

The falls in Niagara has the same geological feature as Niagara Falls, New York. (I don't get this one. They're both waterfalls?)

Green Bay is the Toilet Paper Capital of the World.

Last semester, one of my co-workers and I were weight training during lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This semester, we decided to mix it up a little bit and do P90X every day (Monday through Friday) instead. She had done a few workouts before, but I had never even seen a workout, let alone actually done one...until yesterday.

Our first day consisted of chest and back. Who would have thought that the only chest/back exercise is push-ups, with many different variations of course. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit.

For those of you who don't know how P90X works, it is a serious of one hour(ish) workouts that are supposed to be performed daily for 90 days. For yesterday's workout, there were 12 different chest and back exercises (6 of which were different variations of the push-up). You would set a goal for number of reps and then you would try to achieve that goal (hopefully, and then some) within the alotted 40(ish) seconds. You go through all 12 exercises and then do them a second time around, but in a slightly different order to create muscle confusion. This is to help prevent muscles from adapting and plateauing at a certain level of performance.

I can hardly do one push-up, let alone many push-ups over and over again. I set a goal of 12 reps for each exercise and achieved and surpassed that goal every time except for on two exercises, the diamond push-ups and the decline push-ups. I was pretty ecstatic...

...until today when I realized I couldn't lift my arms above my head...or even above my waist for that matter. I couldn't even wipe my butt after a nice corn-inflicted poo. Ok, maybe that was a little TMI. Oh, and we still have a workout today already. No off days. On tap is plyometrics, which I'm hoping is more lower body than upper body. Pretty sure I couldn't do a plyo version of a push-up without face planting.

Have any of you done P90X or Insanity? What are your thoughts? Did you like it? Did you survive all 90 days? What were the results?

I'm not going to sugar coat it, I actually think the E! commercial for the Golden Globes Red Carpet Event has a really catchy tune.

Retarded, right?

Anyways, I'm ready to kick off this awards season, except for one minute detail. I won't be attending. I KNOW, RIGHT?!?! I miss my yearly interviews with Giuliana (we're practically besties now) and seeing all my friends and co-workers all spiffed up.

Le sigh.

I know. My husband-ager failed me again. He said he's "still working on it" and is "still learning" how to be a husband-ager. If he keeps this up, he'll be demoted to just "husband" or "the homeless guy who sleeps on my front porch".

I kid of course.

To get you all hyped for the Golden Globes like I am, here's flashback to last year's recap! Remember to watch Sunday night!!

I apologize for being absent for the past month or so from blogging. I have been under a lot of stress recently, both from my parent's divorce and work. I have also been crazy busy with work, keeping the house clean, taking care of Stanley, traveling, etc. and just haven't had a whole lot of time. Now that work is starting to be on a regular schedule again, I hope to be able to blog a little more frequently.

Although, I'm not going to make any promises.

Today (if it stops raining) is the first day of tennis practice (the other sport I provide care for). I have a nice two month overlap between basketball and tennis. I don't think it will be too bad as I only have to cover home tennis matches (no practices or away matches), and I will be getting help covering those from my co-workers. Regardless, I think my level of business is going to get worse before it gets better.

Also, you are probably wondering about my one week cleanse. I didn't get a chance to weigh in on Day 7, but on Day 6 I had lost 3.5lbs. Don't worry. Despite the fact that I was sick all weekend and hardly ate anything, I still managed to gain back 2.5lbs. Losing weight is a silly thing.

The cleanse wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

The easiest goal for me was drinking 64oz. of water a day. I didn't feel like it was any more than I usually drink. I think for me the problem is that I exercise a lot for distance running and triathlons, but I still only drink 64oz. of water those days. I need to work on drinking an increased amount on work out days instead of maintaining the 64oz. a day that I drink on the average off day.

The hardest goal was surprisingly limiting my caffeine intake. I typically have a 16oz. thermos of coffee in the morning and a Diet Coke with dinner, so in comparison to other people (or in comparison to my college self), its not that much, but the withdrawal symptoms are still brutal. Plus, its just a habit to throw together a cup of coffee with my quick and easy Keurig in the morning. I was kinda expecting it to be more difficult to give up sweets knowing my sweet tooth. I honestly didn't think about sweets that much until they were standing right in front of me. It was hard going into the kitchen wanting a snack without a thought of what I felt like eating and then seeing the left over Christmas cookies.

What I took away from this is that I am most definitely a grazer (I had a pretty good idea about this already). I feel like I would be pretty successful with dieting if I had a food plan. Its easy for me to say no to something if I know it strays away from "The Plan". But when diets leave food choices up to the dieter (like say Weight Watchers), its harder for me to say no to bad foods, essentially screwing myself over when I've eaten a day's worth of calories for breakfast.

The best part about this diet is that I didn't have to count calories. Keeping tracking of caloric intake/output can getting confusing and stressful. There are plenty of other things on my mind that the last thing I want to think about is "So, did I eat that granola bar this morning or yesterday morning?" or "Exactly how many calories are in an apple anyways?" I think this diet work despite not counting calories for two reasons. When I made eating a certain number of fruits and veggies and drinking a certain amount of water a priority, I felt more full sooner. I didn't have as much room in my stomach for more calorie dense foods. Second, I typically have a pretty unhealthy diet (I'm a triathlete, I can eat whatever I want, right?). When I replace bad food with good food, my body will naturally respond positively and will gravitate towards a healthier weight. Ben and I have discussed in the past what a healthy weight for me should be. He keeps telling me that the weight I was meant to be is the weight my body wants to be. With my unhealthy diet, my body likes 130lbs. With the healthy diet, my weight plummeted 3.5lbs. in 6 days. Just think where it could be if I ate healthy all the time! Not that 130lbs. is unhealthy for my height (BMI = 22.3), but if eating unhealthy maintains my weight at 130lbs., maybe it isn't healthy for me.

I have 14.5 weeks left until the cruise...and 11lbs. left to go!

I don't watch a lot of TV due to how much I work, but when I never miss an episode of the Kardashian saga. I know, smutty reality TV, but its a huge guilty pleasure of mine. Of all of the Kardashians, I feel like I have the most in common with Kourtney. Here are ten similarities:

1. We are the oldest sibling (if you don't include her step-brother).
2. We are both short and small.
3. Our significant other's mother's name is Bonnie
4. We both have only one brother (again, if you don't count her step-brothers)
5. We both have a college degree
6. We both lived with our significant other before getting married (still waiting on Kourtney...lol)
7. Our biological parents are divorced and did so when we were in our early 20's
8. We are both indecisive, especially when it comes to eating.
9. We love steel cut oatmeal.
10. We went to private, Christian high schools.

Source: Kardashian shows on E! and here.