HBBC Kickoff

Yesterday began my participation in the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge over on Run to the Finish so to keep me accountable and hopefully motivate me even more, I thought I'd post my beginning stats and some SCARY photos. Wish me luck!

Weight: 171.4
Waist: 35"
Hips: 39.5"
Bust: 37"
Thighs: 24"
Arms: 11"
Neck: 13"

Beating the Winter Blahs...

This winter I am bound and determined NOT to let the crummy E-town weather get me down the way it has in the past few years. In order to do that, I plan on becoming a workout machine, o.k. maybe not really since I do also have a husband, kids, house, job, etc., etc. to take care of. How do I plan on doing this you ask? Enter stage right....The Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge! A friendly competition to keep us all a little lighter during this crazy time of uber amazing goodies and super stressful time management in order to fit it all in!

Basically, the gist is: You earn points for a myriad of things from running/walking to weights to eating all your fruits and veggies (just like mama made ya). For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that all it takes for me to kick it into high gear is some good old fashioned competition. I'm so excited to see what results will come from this, and plan on posting my progress here.

Check it out and let me know if you're going to join in too!

Becoming an Obsession

At the total expense of my house cleaning, laundry washing, project completing, heck even some days showering; I'm becoming totally obsessed with finding great blogs to read on a daily basis.

I've thought of a few reasons for this:

1. I've always been an avid reader, and as I've gotten older, have grown more and more intrigued with reading about real people's lives.

2. I want to be one of those people who others want to hear about. For some (egotistic, I suppose) reason, I have an overwhelming desire to wax poetic about the mostly mundane things that occur in my day to day life.

3. There are just so many cool blogs out there!

I thought I would share some of the really great ones I've discovered over the last few days and weeks.

www.nieniedialogues.com : If you haven't already discovered this AMAZING woman, you've been missing out! As a survivor of a near fatal plane crash, she really has a beautiful perspective on life.

www.fatcyclist.com : The funny, poignant, and sometimes sad stories of an avid cyclist.

www.thepioneerwoman.com : From city girl to country housewife...need I say more?!

There are many many more, and I hope to keep discovering! Feel free to recommend any you think should be added to my list! I only hope that someday I can be half the blogger these and so many others are!

Gratitude

In this month of "thanksgiving," I feel like I have a lot of things to be truly grateful for in my life. I am so grateful for the wonderful man I am married to. Sure, we've had our up and downs; and believe me, some of the downs have been REALLY low, but underneath it all, we really are meant for each other.

I'm also super thankful to have two healthy, thriving, energetic (although sometimes too energetic, lol) boys to keep me on my toes. It is so amazing to me the things they do, say and learn on a daily basis.

I have amazing friends as well. I can't even count the times we've helped each other up when we're down and they are always there no matter what, any time of day. One of my goals in the upcoming year is to work on becoming a better friend.

Needless to say, I'm very blessed and in this season of giving thanks, my goal is to express that and let the people in my life know how much they mean to me. Happy Thanksgiving!!!