Overwhelmed and Versatile Blogger

I am officially overwhelmed right now.  I should expect that it's going to happen, because it does every year around the holidays.  This time of year always makes me anxious and stressed.  There is so much pressure to do and spend, it just makes me crazy.  Christmas cards, presents for kids that have everything they need and most everything they want, gifts for relatives, dance recitals, Christmas parties, continuing education and end of year tax stuff.  Top that off with business being slow (like it always is in December and January), and dealing with the home inspection for our under-contract house and it makes a great combination for one stressed out me. 

I know this will get better, because it always does, it's just the trudging through this season that is diffucult for me.  I need to refocus on the giving part of the holiday--not so much the spending part.  My world will not end if the xmas cards are not out until the week before xmas.   Those bills will still be there next month and I can catch up then--I'm not heading to poverty tomorrow.   SUAR's post the other day was timely and gave me some great ideas on how to focus on others during this season.  Small things matter and are sometimes more appreciated than the big, expensive things.

Now on to a more fun topic--Carrie from Maine Mom on the Run has tagged me with the Versatile Blogger Award!  Thanks Carrie!

So now I get to share with you 7 things about me and then tag others so that they can share as well.  I'm not sure that I have 7 worthwhile things to share, but here goes!  And I know I can't top Carrie's senior photo--so I won't even try!  lol!

1.  As you may have guessed from the start of this blog--I am a Grinch.  I dislike the the holiday season.  In fact, I dislike almost everything about it.  I hate the commercialism, the music that starts in October, the gross overspending, the useless crap we buy--just to give a gift!  I hate that 80% (my guess, not a published fact) of America puts themselves in debt just to 'keep up with the Jones' at Christmas time.  I hate the crowds, I hate the swapping of gift cards--the list goes on and on.

2.  What I do like about Christmas is the getting together with family.  I enjoy buying gifts for a needy family that we adopt both at home and at work.  When the kids get older, I would like us all to work a shift at a soup kitchen or help with Habitat for Humanity or something like that.

3.  All three of my kids were born via C-section.  The first and the last were breech and once you have one c-section at our local hospital, all subsequent births are c-section.  Which was fine by me. :)  I was lucky enough to not have to face my fear of actually giving birth and pushing out a baby.  And no cone-head babies either! *bonus!*

4.  I was adopted at 4 weeks of age.  I have since located my birth mother who is about as French as one can be (French-Canadian that is).  So I am as French as my name might suggest.....  I know the name of my birth father but have not met him.  He doesn't know I exist and it would make things difficult for my birth mother.   And that is ok.  He's the one missing out. :)

5.  I hate confrontations and/or arguments.  Hate them.  I will avoid them at all costs.  I will often give up my position in order to avoid conflict.  Which can be a bad thing because after some time of doing that, I get really angry and blow up.  Then I feel better but then almost instantly feel bad about it and feel guilty for saying what I said. 

6.  My favorite color is red!  I never wear it, but it is my favorite color. 

7.  I want to make sure I visit Australia, Hawaii and Alaska in my lifetime.  I don't really care about visiting Europe, but would go if the opportunity arose.  Other places that I would like to see--Iceland, Figi and New Zealand.

Ok, so not so exciting, I know.  Now to try to find someone who has not already been tagged...
Lisa @ Getting it Done on the Run!
Terzah @ BQ by 40
Sarah @ Runner Girls Blogspot
Shannon @ Tough Chik
Carla @ Pierces in Bama

Feeling the stress of the holidays?

How do you bust through that feeling?

Hope your hump day is fabulous!  (Here in Maine it's a crazy 55 degrees!!!)  :D  Monthly recap on the agenda for tomorrow.

Long Weekend Update/Cyber Monday

Ok, so Thanksgiving and the weekend following it are officially my *favorite* holiday of the year.  I love, love, love the four days off in a row!  With absolutely nothing to do, since I flat-out refuse to shop anywhere on Black Friday.  What riduculousness that is.  I don't care how little money I have, I will not ever wait outside a store at crazy-stupid hours of the morning to save $20 on a Xbox.  No. Freakin. Way.  I would rather pay more.  Or not have it.  I mean, seriously people!  It is just stuff!  It's not like there is a big sale on years of your life, or get-healthy-points or cure your diabetes!  90% of this crap you ran out to purchase will end up in the trash or at Goodwill 6 months from now.  Good thing it was $10 cheaper.....  And so begins my hating of the Christmas holiday and the disgusting consumerism that goes with it.

Anyhoo, I loved having four days off!  It was great!  We ate, we played, we exercised and with no work in sight, it was awesome!  I think I got a really good start to the HBBC (Holiday Booty  Buster Challenge).  Here is the week's recap:

11/19--5 miles run = 5 points
11/20--1000 yds swim = 3 points
11/21--30 min spin + 20 min weights/stretch = 4
11/22 rest
11/23--30 min spin + 20 min weights/stretch = 4
11/24--6 miles run = 6
11/25--2000 yds swim = 6
Plus 1 point for a day of 7 fruits/vegetables. 

I'm pretty sure I won't win anything, but I do like keeping track and trying to accumulate as many points as possible for exercise and healthy eating.  You can still join in as a late sign up!  You won't be eligible for prizes, but the real prize is the healthier you!

I do not participate in Black Friday, however, I do enjoy Cyber Monday! (and small business Saturday--since I own a small business and all...)  Cyber Monday has been my time to grab good deals on mostly American Girl Doll stuff as this seems to be the only time of the year their stuff goes on sale.  So I got my ass up at 4:00 a.m. to look on the website to see what was on sale this year.  Previous years I have gotten beds, outfits, strollers etc. but I had to get up early so I could get through on the computer.  This year, there was really nothing good.  What a bummer.  All the stuff Princess wants is not on sale.  Figures.  So, I wasted about 4 minutes of sleeping time to check.  Back to bed I went.  I'm going to try to get a few things from Dick's later on for Manimal and Hubby and maybe some clothes for the girls. 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday and didn't mess up your training/exercise schedules too much with all the good food!

How is your holiday shopping going?  Black Friday?  Cyber Monday?

Are you doing your own HBBC?  How is that going?

Still no word on my two winners of the Chica Bands--Stacey L and Sara.  If no one responds by Wed, I'll pick two new winners.  Also, I'm still giving away a can of Chocolate Dipped Peanuts--so far Christi is the lone entry!  They are from Girl Scouts and are yummy so enter here by Wed or Christi gets them!

Gobble gobble and two winners!

As I sit here on the couch in a post-turkey coma, messing around on the computer, I remembered that today is the day that I choose the winners for the Chica Bands giveaway!  Before I get to the winners, I join the rest of the world and share with you what I am thankful for today.

1.  My family--my husband and my kids are the reason I do everything I do (well, most everything).  It's hard to imagine what my life would be like without them in it.  Pretty sad and lonely for sure.  I love them all and consider myself very lucky to be a wife and mom.

2.  I am so thankful for my health.  It is so easy to forget how important our health is.  The ability to walk, talk, think, see, smell, taste, run, breathe--all of it. 

3.  I am also very thankful to have had the opportunity to attend college and earn the degree that I did in order to have the job that I have now.  I am so fortunate to be able to make a good living doing something that I love and help others at the same time. 

4.  I am thankful to live in a country (even as messed up as it is) that is free.  Women have opportunites and freedoms here that you will never see in other countries.  What luck that this is the country I was born in. 

Ok enough of that kumbaya stuff. 

I am racking up the point for the HHBC this week!  6 miles done today.  I had planned on getting up for a Turkey Trot but the entire house slept in until 8:30!!  8:30!!  That is a freakin' record for sure.  Unheard of that everyone stays in bed, actually sleeping, for that long.  It's a Christmas Thanksgiving miracle!  So, since I didn't make the trot, I decided to do twice the distance on the loop around my house.  It was a little chilly but was fine after I got going.  Swimming with the kids and maybe another run is on the schedule tomorrow.  I could be in some serious shape if I didn't have to work everyday!  These 4 days off in a row really gives me plenty of time to do all the exercise that I care to do.

Sara and Stacey L are the winners from the Chica Bands giveaway!  Congratulations!!  email me your choice of bands (up to $17) and mailing address and I'll send the info along to Chica Bands.  bouchard@midcoast.com

Multiple Things Monday--Want Some Nuts?

Just a collection of thoughts I have had recently.

--American Music Awards were on last night and I watched, like I was a 17 year old.  I didn't know who half of the presenters were but I did recognize most of the artists.  Is is just me or did Kelly Clarkson and Christina Agulara (I can't spell that name...) look like 10 lbs of sausage stuffed into a 5 lb casing?  Kelly was always a little heavier but Christina was always a stick and now she is borderline chunky.  I wish their stylist would tell them that stuffing their larger self into a smaller dress does not make you look smaller.  Just sayin.

LMFAO continues to make me laugh loudly.  Their performance at the end of the show was silly and a little raunchy, kinda like 10-year-old-boy humor, but had me laughing and enjoying it.  I'm not sure what that says about me, but oh well.

--My house is under contract!  Woot!  We got the price we wanted and the buyer is really excited to get in as soon as possible, so hopefully, the home inspection will go without issues and we will be done with this before 2012.  I really don't want to pay another 3% to Obama's whatever it is that this extra fee is going towards.  The 6% to the realtor is enough.

--The trip to Goodwill with my Girl Scout troop this weekend was really great!  We learned a lot about what Goodwill does and how they help others.  As a bonus, my daughter found this little treat for me:

She saw it and just about interrupted everything to show me.  It was only $1.50 because those items with a yellow price tag were 50% off!  Ha!  How's that for a deal?  Sadly, I was about 3 steps away from getting an actual pair of UGG boots in my size!  A woman just in front of me picked them up for her daughter.  Crap.  I followed them around the store just to make sure she wasn't going to put them down.  I kinda have wanted a pair now that they are 5 years out of date, but I just won't pay $130 for a new pair. 

--I swam 5000 yds last week!  Wow!  It's so convenient now that my local Y pool is open again.  Not to mention the kids want to go swimming all the time too.  They are old enough now that they swim with their friends and I can just do my laps.  It's perfect.

--I got a 5 miler in on Saturday.  It was really nice out.  I do have to remember that I don't have to dress extra for the wind.  Somehow, the wind doesn't really make it any colder once you get going.  I overdressed a little but it was still a good run.

--I signed up for the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge.  I had meant to sign up earlier, but just forgot so now I'm in the Late Sign-up category.  Whatever.  Basically, you get points for the exercise that you do and at the end of the challenge there are prizes for those with the most points.  Sounds like fun and maybe some prizes too?  I'm in.  If you are interested, head over to Run to the Finish and join us in the late sign-up group!  It runs until January 6. 

--I ordered a bunch of nuts/candies through Girl Scouts for my office about one month ago.  I didn't quite realize how much I ordered until the order came in:

This might be a little much for our staff of 12....  so I have decided to offer up a can of Double Dipped Chocolate Peanuts to one follower!  All you have to do is tell me what your favorite Thanksgiving Day food is and you are entered into the drawing.  I'll draw a winner on Nov 30.  So now that's two giveaways I have going on!  Extra enteries for the usual things--blog, fb, tweet etc.  Get entering!

--Lastly, I want a new look for this blog.  Anyone who has recently updated their blog look, please shoot me an email to let me know what you found easy to do or what troubles you had or any advice.  I would like to have a bunch of pictures at the top with the blog name embedded in them.  I'm not sure how to do that with blogger's templates.....  Hopefully, sometime before the end of this year I can come up with something new.

Happy Monday!

Glorious Friday!

Today is Friday, the most glorious of weekdays.  Doesn't just saying that 'Today is Friday!' make you feel awesome?  It does me.  Firstly, we got an offer on our house!  Yay!  Double Yay!  I hope this goes through and goes through quickly.  That would really be a weight off my shoulders.  It will be nice to have just one mortgage and hopefully, a smaller one after we roll the money from the old house into the new house.  Confusing, huh?  Glad I don't do my own taxes....

After I get out of work at noon, I'm heading over to our new Y pool to get my swim on!  I'm so excited that I don't have to drive far anymore to swim.  I'm also going to try to join the 100 mile club at our pool.  I have yet to sign up but I think that you just log your swimming miles and once you get to 100, you get to join the club!  I think you get your name on the wall and a t-shirt or something like that.  I don't really care about the stuff but I like trying to reach a goal.  I'll have to try to go more than once a week if I'd like to reach the goal in the next year.  Or swim more than a mile.....

We don't have much on the agenda for activites this weekend.  Tomorrow I am taking my Girl Scout Troop to Goodwill to donate clothes and take a tour and see how Goodwill uses the donations to help people.   A nice lesson right before Thanksgiving. 

I also plan on getting a run or two in while the weather is still cooperating.  The weather here has shifted from an unusual 55ish deg to the normal 40 deg.  But definately still runnable.  So I'm going to take advantage.

Are you a member of the 100 mile club?

Do you do your own taxes?

Sign up for the Chica Bands giveaway here!  It's a good one!

Happy weekend everyone!!

WTF Wednesday PIG Edition

I really only have one WTF thing for today but it is a doosey.  WTF is up with men in prominent positions--football coaches/church leaders--molesting children?  I am talking specifically about the Penn State thing that has just been all over the media for the past few days.  I almost had to turn the tv off last night when watching the interview by Bob Costas with him.  It was really disgusting to hear those questions being asked and to have him hesitate and dance around the answers.  It was pretty telling.  I can't imagine why his lawyer ever let him give that interview.  It is pretty apparant (to me) that he is guilty as charged.  What a freakin' pig.  I mean pig, with a capital P. I. G.  I hope everyone involved goes down and goes down hard. 

And then, here in Maine, a prominent reverend of a church just committed suicide.  It was found out that an investigation had begun regarding his having inappropriate sexual relationships with children.  It is just in the media everywhere.  It really seems that you just cannot trust anyone with your children.  In fact, it seems that the ones that should be the most trustworthy are the ones that are doing the assualt.  I just don't get it.  How do these people get away with it for so long?

Ok, enough of that.  It is depressing enough to listen to at night, I'm not going to dwell on it now.  I only hope the victims get the retribution they need/deserve. 

So I started swimming regularly again and that feels great!  Especially as I can't get out to run as much as I had been during the summer.  I am an ok swimmer, I almost completed lifeguard training but never swam as part of a swim team.  My strokes are fine, but I don't really have formal training so I can't flip turn.  Someone had mentioned that I might swim more effeciently if I were to breath every third stroke rather than every time.  I usually breathe each time on my right side.  So I tried (last year) to swim by alternating my breathing side and I just about drowned.  I cannot breathe on my left side well at all.  I swallow water and then get myself all in a tizzy so that I go back to right side breathing only.  I figured what was the point?  I surely wasn't saving any time.

Well this last time in the pool, I thought I would try to breathe every other time rather than every time, but stay on my right side.  So it goes like right arm, left arm, right, left then breathe.  I would do that every other time and I was able to maintain that for 500 yds without fatiguing myself.  I think it might make me a little faster.  I'll have to time myself to know for sure.  Any thoughts on swimming and how to breathe?

Lastly, I really have no plan in regards to my training.  What I mean is when I run, I just run.  I don't really have a plan as to keeping a certain pace or trying to do hills or anything like that.  I really don't have any experience with that so I don't know what to do.  I wonder if I could do much better if I had some plan that I were following.

I just read over this post and realized that it has rambled and jumped around and is basically just blabber.  Sorry about that.

Do you have any thoughts on swimming and breathing?

How about a running plan?

Ever have a crappy blog post? 

Oh yah--don't forget my Chica Band giveaway!!!!  Enter.  Now!

Tough Chiks Unite!

I've been meaning to write a post about the Tough Chik brand for a long time.  I just had to get the thoughts complete and compile my pictures before I was ready to put it all together.  Way back, gee, like a whole 8 months ago, I started my training for my first sprint tri.  At that time I ran across Jennifer's blog, and on it she was having a giveaway for a Tough Chik t-shirt.  That was my introduction to Tough Chik.  I loved it right away!  The styles are cute and flattering, but more importantly, I liked the message of  being a Tough Chik.  It sounds so cliche, but it really made me feel like I Can Do It!  I know I am tough in other aspects of my life--I've completed 8 years of college and received a doctorate, I run my own business, I am a mom of three, my house is kinda clean (most of the time) and my kids are well-mannered and polite.  But somehow, completing a sprint tri or running a 1/2 marathon seemed like something other people did.  As I did more and more running, spinning and swimming, I realized that I am able to do this, and do it well!  I'll never be Chrissy Wellington or Joan Benoit, but I can be in the best shape of my adult life (I don't count 22 as adult....) and telling myself that I am tough, has helped me when I wanted to stop. 

My girls, especially Princess, really likes being a Tough Chik as well!

Is she not the prettiest little girl??

Big Sissy has the same shirt and is just as awesome in hers!

I am addicted to this brand and have 3 shirts, multiple stickers and am now wishing for a visor!  Which I will soon have because I have joined the Tough Chik Team!  What a super idea!  I am so psyched to be on a team! (cause I won't ever be good enough for a sponsor....)  What a great way to get like minded runners/bikers/tri-ers together!  It's for everyone so click here if you want more information.

Run like you are being chased shirt.  Guess I should've put on some make-up.....  Tough Chik can't help everything.  lol

What I see each morning in the mirror when I get ready.

Don't be jealous of my mom-van.....you know you are.

So I just wanted to take a post to thank Shannon for her awesome company and all the inspiration and drive it has given me.  I am jealous of her clever brand and wish I was creative enough to come up with it myself.  I want her company and brand to have great success and sell tons of product so head on over to Tough Chik and join the team or buy yourself an awesome shirt.  Shannon--you'd better let me know if you ever come to Maine, I'd love to help you promote your product at an event.

Disclaimer:
Shannon and Tough Chik did not ask me to write this post and did not compensate me in any way for my glowing report.  Although--you know my address if you have something hanging around you want to get rid of..... ;)  Size M.  Just sayin'.  The only compensation I received was the motivation and feel-good thoughts I get when I have one of the shirts on.