Day 8!

I feel like I actually accomplished things today! It all started because I couldn't get back to sleep when Ray left around 6 this morning. So instead of waiting until I did fall asleep, I decided to get up, eat some breakfast, and start my day! But first, I had to watch Army Wives (duh! it was a new episode last night!)... After that I popped in the dvd and off I went into the workout! It felt a little different doing it so early in the morning, but it was a great way to start off my day. I was showered and doing laundry by 10, which is very unusual considering I had been sleeping until 9 these past couple weeks.

As far as the workout is concerned, I do feel as though I am gaining endurance and things are coming a little easier for me to do. However, I have been doing the girly pushups (on your knees) and tried to do normal ones today... yeah... that's not happening.... I'll try it again tomorrow though. Other than that, things went pretty well!

Basically the rest of my day consisted of laundry, vacuuming, dusting, dishes, etc. It's nice to be able to relax the rest of the day instead of putting off the workout until the very end. However, as productive as my day was, I still didn't get everything done I wanted to. I didn't go to the post office, or Wal-Mart which I HAVE to do before I leave town. I guess I'll just have to get that done tomorrow! Oh, my friend and I are going to a Zumba class tomorrow... which us luck!

Dear 30 Day Shred:

Ugh! I feel like I'm totally failing at this whole thing! I didn't do the workout again today (I say again because I didn't do it on Friday). However, Ray and I did do a pretty mean bike ride today... so I guess I can count that.

Now, when I say we went for a bike ride today, I should also mention how windy it was! I wish I knew what the speed was, but I don't. All I know is that it was not an easy task on our way back. All-in-all, we guesstimate we bike about 8 miles. And one of these days I'm going to pay attention to the time we start and the time we end.

Speaking of biking, I really want clipless pedals! Ray has them on his bike (he got them mostly for the trail biking he does), but I want some so I can actually keep up! I mean, I keep up just fine, but I've done my research and clipless pedals can really help your endurance. Basically it makes better use of your energy and effort. So I went ahead and told Ray that I'd like to have them as a birthday present. So here it is people! Written down for all to see! He should have no excuse for not knowing what to get me for my birthday, hehe!

Well, I'm going back to MO in less than a week! So that means hard-core cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping for Ray, haha! I definitely have a working to-do list in my brain of things I need to get done before I leave. So much to think about!! Ok, off to bed! G'night all!

Day 7 with Jillian

Ok, getting a little back to posting normally again. Today is day 7! Woot woot!  I'm a little disappointed in myself that I didn't workout yesterday, so I really tried to make today's count. I don't know if it was the humidity or what, but I think I sweat more today than the first couple of days. I actually feel like I'm getting stronger, at least in my arms. My legs feel like they can take more, and I think there might be abs underneath my stomach! I'm planning on doing 3 more days of the first workout, and then move on to the second level. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Ray did the workout again with me today. It's fun to have him there next to me!

Today Ray made pancakes for breakfast (this is the benefits of having a hubby who gets up at the crack of dawn) and then we headed out to run some errands. Then we went to the beach for a couple hours. It was overcast, but still a great day because it was only a little windy and a great temperature. There was even some kind of junior surfing competition going on, so that was cool to watch! We stopped by a consignment store on the way home, but didn't see anything we couldn't live without (I'm currently on the hunt for an entryway table and don't want to spend the $150 for one at Target). When we got home, Ray mowed the lawn and I gabbed with Rachael for a bit. Then we did the workout, ate some dinner and then went to meet up with Ray's car club people. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but they really do just stand around and gab and gab and gab and gab and gab and GAB! about car stuff! The guys were pretty nice, I had met some of them already through Ray's auto-x races. After that, we came home, cozied up on the couch and finished "Shooter" That's it for our Saturday! Next time I'll take pics of the beach and make everyone jealous though! ;)

Loves! XOXO

I know, I suck...

I was supposed to post last night after my workout but, again, I didn't do it until late at night (11 pm) so I just went straight to bed. The workout was good. I felt good after I was done and everything, but my knee was kind of bothering me, so I didn't add extra weight on it when I was doing certain exercises. I actually woke up today with my arms sore as well as my hamstrings. Oh well, at least I'm still feeling it!

Today I had an appointment to see a specialist about my IBS. Unfortunately, I have to have a procedure done that I'm reeeeeally not looking forward to. Honestly, I just really hate feeling like I'm 60 years old when I'm only 22. Seriously, when I was in the office, it was mostly people over the age of 60. Ugh... so irritating. Luckily, I have a husband who is very supportive and tells me things are going to be ok, even when I feel so low. He's truly amazing and I am completely blessed to have him in my life.

Tonight we went to a going away party for a friend of ours who I am very sad to see go. She's going to school in Kentucky, but has a very good friend still here, so I think she'll still visit often. She was basically the second girl I met when I got here last summer and was so friendly and welcoming. Basically, she's awesome, haha!

Tonight, I'm taking it easy. Yeah, I know I should do the workout. But I'm going to snuggle on the couch with my man tonight. Yay for the weekend! G'night all!

XOXO

PS: Magma is recovering well and is actually laying on her box (like in this picture) as I type this. Here's a pic of her from about a week ago. I know some haven't seen a her since she was a kitten!

Day 5, yesterday

Ok, so I know... I didn't write yesterday. But it's not because I didn't do the workout. It's that I didn't do it until 10:00 pm and then I went straight to bed.

I had to get Magma to the vet yesterday morning by 9 to get her spayed. Boy was she not wanting to get in her carrier... I think she knew where she was going. I had to leave her there for the day (my poor kitty! abandoned!) so I came back home and did a few things around the house. Ok, let's be real Suzanne, I didn't do much yesterday. I filmed a video, edited a little bit of it, and then headed out the door to take one of my friends to the airport. If there's one thing I learned from her, it's that traveling with a 4 month old and a 2 year old is NO small task! God bless her, and all other parents who have traveled by themselves with their kids!

By the time I got back to the house, Ray had already picked up Magma. All I can say is that it must be so scary for an animal to go through surgery. They don't know where they're going, what's happening to them, will the weird feeling of medicine ever go away. We kept her in her travel carrier until about 8:30, then let her out (the doc said to keep her in a quite spot and not let her out until then). The poor thing could hardly walk! And she was so drugged up she couldn't really focus on things. She seems so scared. On a side note, it was kind of funny to see her eat and drink, because she laid out flat on the floor and used her paws to keep the bowl near her, hehe!

After we put her in the garage for the night, I did my workout and Ray observed. It was actually a good thing though because he could help me with my form and cheered me on! I'm a lucky gal! Then, like I said, I basically went straight to bed.

Then this morning I woke up around 6 to help Ray give Magma her medicine. I was so surprised at how not-injured? she acted. She still walks gingerly, but she's back to her little "mews" and loveable self. Which actually surprised me, because normally after she gets shots, she's pretty moody for the next 24 hours. Well anyway, Ray went off to work and I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't.

For those of you who aren't friends with me on facebook, I got an awesome email from a career placement company saying that I wasn't qualified for the position I applied for. Awesome. I'm not qualified to run a copy machine. I'm. So. Happy. So basically, I couldn't get this off my mind, so I decided to watch some episodes of Army Wives on Netflix. Three episodes later, I realize I'm pretty tired, so I take a nap. Waking up to my own snore at 11, I figure it's finally time to get up. I played with Miss Magma for a while, got dressed, and now am finishing lunch. Because I have been so lazy, I decided "No good leftovers for you." Instead, I'm having tuna on crackers and yogurt topped off with a water. (I know, I sound so healthy! But I might add a cookie to that....)

Now, I'm getting ready to leave to go see Felicia and we're going to hang out and do girly things. I really have no idea what we're going to do besides take back a hand towel I got at Target. Will write more tonight after the workout (if it's not too late again). Loves!

Day 3 and 4 of 30 day shred

Ugh, while my YouTube video is taking 30 minutes to upload, I guess I'll blog a little.
Yes, I know I have been away for a couple days and I'm supposed to be updating daily about my journey with Miss Jillian. Well, Sunday I could hardly walk. I don't know if I should have taken the day off or not, but I went ahead and took it off. Ray and I went and visited our friends in Jacksonville and saw their baby who is so adorable! (We hadn't seen her since she was like 4 hours old, and now she's 6 weeks!) Then Sunday night I made fettuccine with some little shrimpies tossed in (delicious!!!). Little did we know we were celebrating four months of being married - awww! But like I said, "little did we know" because we didn't realize it until last night, haha!

Monday morning I was supposed to get my dress altered, but Ray didn't have to go into work until about 10, so it through everything off! (Yeah, that's it... I'll blame it on that, lol) I did my workout and felt pretty good. I wasn't really looking forward to it I guess you could say, but once I got going I really pushed myself and felt really good after! Side note: Magma likes to crawl under my belly while I'm doing push ups and doesn't mind being squished at all, crazy cat! Anyway, it wasn't until I was calling the vet to schedule Magma's appointment that I remembered about the alteration appointment I missed. Luckily, she had openings that afternoon and got me in right away. Last night I finally uploaded the "Couples Tag" to my YouTube page (which took 2.5 hours to upload!!!) and we watched The Dark Knight. I guess I've never linked my YouTube page on here before... so here you go! http://www.youtube.com/user/MissSuzieQLovesYou

So that brings us up to the present. I had to make myself get out of bed this morning, purely because I have no energy today. I checked my email to see if I had any responses for the job I had applied for, and of course I did not... surprise surprise. I ate some breakfast, let that settle, and then popped in Miss Jillian to the dvd player. (Why am I doing that lately? I'm calling our cat Miss Magma too!) I was actually very excited about working out today, then halfway through it I just want to shoot myself in the foot, punch myself in the face, stub my toe, ANYTHING to not finish the workout! I'm only on day 4!! Ugh! This cannot happen... I'm bound and determined to finish this stupid program. I know I'm going to read through this later and ask myself why I was so hostile in this blog post. It was just a sucky day for working out. I think it's the no energy thing. Hopefully tomorrow is better!

Well, now I'm going to mop the floor and do some other cleaning around the house. See you tomorrow!

Day 2 of Ms. Michaels...

I almost forgot to write! No worries, I remembered!

So today I woke up way later than I had been this week, which is to be expected since it's Saturday. But that never really stops Ray - he's always up and going no later than 7. It actually works out well though, because that's his time to play his video games and I have no problem with it because I'm still asleep :)

I even talked him into doing the workout with me today, it didn't take much convincing though (he's pretty easygoing, I'm lucky). Today went by faster than it did yesterday, I guess because I knew what to expect and what was coming next. I woke up with my arms pretty sore, but that wasn't too surprising since those muscles hadn't been worked in so long. Right after the workout was done though, I was already feeling soreness in new muscles, mostly in my quads. It's a good kind of pain though, if that make sense. It doesn't feel as if I overworked anything and I don't want to do it again tomorrow... it's like my muscles are remembering what they are able to do and I'm excited about doing it again! Well I don't know if "excited" is really the proper word, but you know what I mean.

After our workout we went to Harker's Island. It was a beautiful day for a drive and it was good to get out of the house. If any one has been to Harker's Island, there's not much there... a visitor's center, a museum, and there's a couple ferries you can take to get to Cape Lookout. We've already been to Cape Lookout, so we weren't looking to do that, but we did look around the visitor's center. Did you know that whales go through here?! I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, but I was! There's an anchor right outside the visitor's center from a ship wreck (I don't remember what year), and there looked to be some kind of huge bone laying next to it on the platform. Ray said it looked like a whale bone or something, so we asked, and sure enough it was! The lady said it was a piece of where the head connects to the spine, or something like that. Regardless, they said it came from a whale 40-50 feet long! Crazy! Now I want to see one, hehe!

Well, we came back home, ate some dinner and watched a movie. Now Ray's asleep on the couch and I'm finishing up things here. Well... see you tomorrow! (Not literally "see" but you get the idea!)

Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred

Since I haven't posted anything since Monday, and since Ray fell asleep at 9:30 tonight, I really have no reason not to post.

For those of you who came to my blog from YouTube, you came here for a specific purpose so I'll get on with it... Today I started Jillian Michaels: 30 Day Shred. It was definitely difficult to put it mildly. Well, I don't know if it was so hard or it's just me thinking about how hard it's going to get! It's only a 30 minute workout, but there's three different levels you work your way up through throughout the 30 days.

I guess I should talk about why I decided to do this. Quite frankly I bought it on a whim, so to say I had been wanting to do something like this would be a total lie. But now that I have it, I'm doing this for myself. I know that sounds selfish, but it's the truth. I figure if I can complete 2 full weeks, then I can get through the whole thing. I don't think I've ever done something like this before, trying to follow a workout routine. We'll see how it goes I guess!

I'll try to write more later... this has taken me almost an hour to write. But since I said I was going to do a daily blog about this, I'm sticking to my word! G'night all!

Osama bin Laden is dead!

It is still strange to read those words at the top of news articles, hear it on news casts, and see it on facebook posts. I'm still shocked. I honestly don't know if I have the words to explain how I am feeling right now. Confused. Elated. Shocked. Patriotic. In disbelief. Proud. Joyous.

But I still have so many questions, and it doesn't really feel real to me yet. (Maybe this is because I heard about it through facebook posts.) Ray had to be at work at 6 this morning, so we called it an early-ish night last night. We don't have cable, so we wouldn't have seen it on tv. We worked on thank you notes last night until we went to bed, so we didn't get on the internet (and no, I don't need any more lecturing about how it's been almost 4 months and we still don't have them all done - I know! And I feel horrible about it!). When I got up this morning, I checked my facebook and there were all these posts about how bin Laden was dead, God bless the USA, Can we have our troops home now? etc, etc... No... it couldn't be.... I thought as I went to Fox News. There it was: "BIN LADEN DEAD, Navy SEALs kill Al Qaeda leader; body buried at sea." WHAT?!!! was probably my first thought. My second thought was, why did they bury him at sea? My third thought was probably something like, how in the heck did this happen?! I watched Obama's speech first, some other video footage they had, and then went to some other news outlets before coming here, to my blog.

I searched for videos to find out why they decided to bury him at sea, and when I found out it was to prevent shrines or other statues being built in his honor, I thought... "now that makes sense." Then, hearing and reading that they upheld the Muslim tradition to bury him 24 hours after death I was like, ok... sure..... And then the news reports said they carried out all the tradition of bathing him and wrapping him in a white cloth and all of that.... I'm sorry, this may come off a bit harsh, but I quite frankly don't give a crap how they "cared" for his body! Float it down a river of poop for all I care! He doesn't deserve that. He doesn't deserve anything.

Who knows, maybe that information was just released as a way of trying to create good PR with the Muslim world, and they really didn't do any of that. I honestly don't see any military member agreeing to wash and wrap his body, but that's just me. Maybe it all really did happen...

One emotion that I can express, is my sincere gratitude for every single member of our military. It is because of their service we have come this far. When I was in school and professors would ask if we should leave the middle east, I was always torn. If we left then, would our efforts have been in vain? Would our troops think their efforts were in vain? I know we have done good over there. I know we have accomplished more than most people realize. And now I know, our servicemembers' efforts were not in vain. Everything lead up to that moment, when bin Laden was killed.

I sometimes wonder if I would be as patriotic as I am if I hadn't married a Marine. Maybe it's because I'm getting older and think about how I want our country to be when I have children. Maybe it's because my parents taught me to be proud of our country, honor and respect the flag, and honor and respect our military members. I remember my mom telling me once she got goosebumps when our National Anthem was playing, and it seems I get them every time now as well. So to answer my own skepticism, I think I would be as patriotic (but marrying him sure didn't hurt my patriotism!).

Ok, so it feels real to me now! God bless our troops. God bless the US Navy SEALS. God bless America. It is a great day to be an American!