Happy Halloween

Hubby and I threw this together..I think it's pretty good

The shirt in my costume is an XL and I feel like I'm swimming in it.  It's so long and baggy...which is awesome.  I remember when I went into XXL shirts and they were still a little tight.  I always said one of the first things I'd do when I lost weight was buy a sexy Halloween costume.  Obviously, this ain't it but sexy wouldn't be appropriate for work anyway.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with my zombie look.

I hope all the bloggers affected by Hurricane Sandy are relatively unscathed.  We had a full blown emergency deal at work associated with it yesterday so my workday started with a call at 4:45 and it was nonstop.  I know I've been pretty absent from blogging lately and I'm working on rectifying that.  I even have a post inspired by another one of my fitness instructors but that's going to have to wait for another day.

Tonight, we've got trick or treating with the girls which is always fun.  Hubby and I are leaving for Atlanta tonight for his brother's wedding.  The girls are staying with my parents.  I've packed nothing.  Ugh.  I'm wearing a blue dress that I wore to the last wedding I attended and I had bought a cute pair of silver shoes to go with it.  I wore said shoes to that wedding and now I am one shoe short of a pair.  So I get to go out tonight and try to find a replacement pair.  And yes, I'm going right after work looking like the above picture.  It's gonna be awesome.  Really ticks me off about the shoe though.  So it's work, shoe store, pack for me, pack for the girls, trick or treating with friends, home, bath, to my parents house and off to the airport.  Yikes!  Hope we get all that done with time to spare.  :)

OK...off to catch up on work so things don't blow up while out of the office.  

Not Enough Hours In The Day

There really just isn't.  Our schedules the next couple weeks are just jam packed.  The weekend was good, the concert was fun but I drank WAY too much.  Seriously...didn't drink that much in Vegas.  Ugh.  Completely flaked on my eyebrow appointment so I have to call today to see if they'll reschedule it.  We did the house clean and grocery shopping done so that's something.

We've got another busy week ahead.  We have a Student of the Month breakfast at the school for Lori on Wednesday morning.  Wednesday night, of course, is Halloween and the trick or treating fun that comes with it.  Late Wednesday night, we're catching a flight to Atlanta for Hubby's brother's wedding.  We'll be in Atlanta until Sunday afternoon.  Another week where I'm only in the office for 3 days.  Needless to say, I've been working some long hours to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Speaking of work, upper management approved my move on Friday so now it's just HR and logistical hoops.  I admit...it makes it feel like all the work I did in my old role and putting up with the nonsense in my new one really paid off to have them willing to accommodate a request like this.  I'm also impressed with how quickly they're moving to make things happen.  Steve (Boss' boss and mentor) says things will slow significantly here as HR has no vested interest but since I have remote access to work, it doesn't really matter how long it takes as long as it happens.  Knowing I'll still have my job and Hubby will have a new, better, nice paying job is just such a good feeling!

Hubby's friends are throwing us a going away part on 11/10.  Hubby is leaving 11/18 or 11/19 depending on  flights.  It'll be nice to give him a good send off.  :)  I'm working on a honey-do list of things I need him to do before he leaves like fixing a kitchen drawer and going through his office.  That may be all he gets to since he'll only have a week or so.

My plan is to hit the gym tonight and tomorrow night and that's probably going to be it for the week.  *Sigh* While I'm not digging only getting 2 workouts in a week lately, at least I'm still doing it that much.  It'd be very easy to just let it go but any workouts is better than none, right?  The eating has been terrible.  I'm just not focused on it.

Alright...must get to work.  Thinking of all you bloggers in the northeast that may be affected by Hurricane Sandy.  Be safe!  And as a tribute to you...a little Monday DEMotivation:

Discussion With Boss

Thank you for all the comments on yesterday's post.  Yes...we've really struggled the last couple years and it's definitely nice to be moving debt free!  So we're starting to hammer out some details.  I spoke with my boss and my boss' boss yesterday and both are very open to the idea of my working from Jacksonville.  It needs to go up another couple levels for approval and some corporate billing adjustments would need to be made, hoops would need to be jumped through but it turns out we've got a couple of offices in Jacksonville where I could get a desk and that may make it easier to approve.  I'll just have to wait and see how this shakes out. 

We're debating moving before or after Christmas.  In a way, I want to be here for Christmas as the new place would be half unpacked and a mess.  On the other hand, if we stay for Christmas, we won't have Hubby here and that's no bueno either.  Hubby spoke with the relocation team yesterday and it really is a nice package they have so the logistical aspect should be pretty smooth.  I told my sister (who lives in SC) and she's excited as we'll only be a few hours away.  Turns out Hubby has a friend who lives in FL (a couple hours away) so at least we'll know SOMEONE who we can maybe hang out with every now and then.  :)

I really don't have any other news as I will obsess over this move for the next 2 months.  LOL.  I still have to get one more 5k in this year...I'm thinking the "Shun the Sun" 5k to fight skin cancer.  We'll see.  I can tell you that working out at the gym is going to take a serious backseat after Hubby leaves as I just don't think I'll have the time.  On the bright side, they have several LA Fitness gyms in Jacksonville and my membership is national so there ya go.  Not so great side, I had already signed up for the Color Run and am not sure I can get a refund.  I must look into that.

Hubby and I are meeting some friends tonight for a Cowboy Mouth (I'm not sure if that's right) concert at a local casino.  I have never heard of them but Hubby and another friend love them so I'm open to it.  Also, a night out is always nice.  We had a sitter lined up but my mom offered to watch the girls instead and who are we to say no to free babysitting?  We also have the Fall Festival at the girls' school.  We'll be there for the first half hour and then my mom's going to finish it out.  We didn't plan this well. Tomorrow is eyebrow waxing time and I am hellbent on cleaning my house.  Hope y'all have an awesome weekend!

Friday Funny...

BIG News!

Hubby got a job... in Jacksonville, FL!  We're moving!

Holy cow!  It's all happened so fast.  He had an interview Monday, a soft offer on Tuesday, the official offer letter yesterday and is accepting today.  They want him to start by November 26th so he'll be leaving about a week or so prior to that.  The girls and I will be moving out during their winter break at school.  There's SO much to do!  We had been saying that the next time we moved, we wouldn't take any of our old furniture or stuff with us because it's all such a wreck but this is quite a bit sooner than we expected and the company is paying for relocation so might as well take as much as we want.  I hate uprooting the girls halfway through the school year but I just don't think I could handle being a single mom until summer.  :)

We've never been to Jacksonville before so we're really not sure what to expect.  I grew up in the south so I'm familiar with a lot of the downsides of that but we've been wanting to get out of Arizona for awhile...we've been wanting to move closer to my sister in SC, closer to the beach, etc...this fits all those requirements.  I'm excited and REALLY NERVOUS!  As for my job, it is what it is.  Hubby will be making enough money to where I don't need to find anything right away.  I'm talking to my boss' boss this morning to see if they'd maybe consider letting me work from home but I doubt they'll go for it.  We shall see. We also need to decide if we're moving before Christmas or after.  It's such a terrible time to be moving.  The relocation package includes a realtor (we'll rent for awhile) so I'm hoping they can help with locations and schools and things like that.  I'm a little overwhelmed by everything we need to get figured out preferably before Hubby even gets out there.  My awesome mom has already offered to help me with the girls while I'm on my own so that'll ease the load quite a bit, just knowing someone will be able to pick them up from school.

So that's the big news...less exciting news... I had the girls' parent/teacher conferences yesterday.  My youngest, Lori, is doing exceptionally well.  She's the youngest one in her class but in the advanced reading group and is making terrific progress.  She's also student of the month for November!  Maddie is doing well in spite of the lazy ass teachers she has this year.  Seriously...they're not incompetent...they are just lazy.  It's very frustrating but Maddie is doing good so that's all that matters.  On the one hand, I'm anxious to get them out of here so Maddie can have a better situation but on the other hand, Lori's doing so well that I'm worried about the transition.  Also, I've heard Jacksonville schools suck but the county next door is good so we'll have to look into that.  Still so much to think about!  The hardest thing about moving is leaving my mom.  She helps us SO much with the girls...it's going to be a really different experience being completely on our own with them.

I've been taking it easy on the exercise front this week.  I took Monday off, did spin on Tuesday and Zumba last night.  I think that's it for me for this week.  I feel good that I've worked out at all as I usually take a little time off after one of my events but not this time.  Staying in a groove.  Hope y'all are having a great week.  I'm sure I've got ten things for TTT wrapped up in this post somewhere.  :)

I Am A Warrior!

I did it!  I finished the Warrior Dash!  I really had no idea how long it would take me so I didn't know what my goal as far as time should be.  Honestly, I just wanted to complete all the obstacles and actually finish and I did.  I finished in 1:26:16.50.  Not terrible!  My official ranking was 2636 out of 3202 people.  I didn't come in last!
Place        Name                              Bib #        Age  G     Rank      Age Group Time        Pace
2636 Amanda Johnson 77328 31 F 536/713 30-39 1:26:16.50 26:58/M

I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to try it and I have a feeling this isn't going to be my last one.  The official pics aren't in yet and spectators couldn't really get to the obstacles to take any but to give you an idea of the types of obstacles we did...  There was a lot of sloshing around in water, a tar mud pit that people lost their shoes in because it was so sticky, military crawl under barbed wire, a balance beam, rope climbing up a stiff ravine type thing, a wall climb, cargo net climb, lots of hills, jumping over fire and a final mud pit.  So how'd I fare?  Well, I climbed the wall like it was nothing!  Seriously...hoisted myself up over a 15 foot wall with a rope...gave a big ol' whoop at the top for that one. I also finished all but one of the rest of the obstacles in dignified fashion.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I got totally stuck in the last obstacle...in the mud...had to be towed out with a rope.  At first I was seriously angry and embarrassed about it but that quickly passed as I realized that it was a tactical error on my part, not a physical limitation or having anything to do with my current size.  I'm proud of how I did in this race and how far I've come physically in the last 2 years.

After the race, we showered (I found mud in the darnedest places!), took a short nap and then hit the casinos.  We walked around all night, gambled, drank and hung out and I felt pretty good...not sore or anything...until I woke up the next morning.  Yikes!  My quads hurt, my back between my shoulder blades hurt and for some reason (I'm guessing from the ropes) my hands ached!  Then the 5 hour drive home just made all those muscles stiffen up.  I skipped the gym last night to recover but will be hitting up the spin class tonight.

Overall, we had such a good time.  It was so nice having BFF, her husband and Hubby there to cheer me on and celebrate with me after.  Giant check mark off the Goal List for 2012!

So without further ado...pictures!

Early Friday Post

I'm leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning so won't be posting again until Monday.  This is it... a day almost all year in the making.  One of the goals I set for myself 2 years ago is finally being realized.  I'm really excited but also really nervous.  I've picked up some new followers so just wanted to lay out what I'm doing again.  It's called the Warrior Dash.  It's not as crazy as Tough Mudder but it's tough enough for me.  It's 3.3 miles with 12 obstacles interspersed throughout....things like climbing walls, a mud pit and jumping over fire.

Anyone have any good tips about climbing a wall?

So am I ready?  I sure hope so.  I feel really good about my fitness level right now.  I haven't been running lately, instead focusing on strength training and the like but I've done 5k's before and this isn't much different as far as distance.  I've also been adding some cardio like kickboxing and spin so I think that'll help.  I hope it's enough.

Otherwise, it'll be pretty much laid back in Vegas.  We're hitting up a haunted house while we're there and I'm sure there'll be lots of drinking and revelry.  :)

In other news:  My youngest started kindergarten this year...she's turning 5 in November so she's a little early and we had her assessed and agonized over whether she was ready, went back and forth, blah, blah, blah.  Well, they're doing some assessments this week to give parents an idea of how the kids are faring so far and what they may need to work on.  The math packet they did came home yesterday and she scored as high as you can so I'm feeling good about that.  It makes me think we made the right decision.  Parent teacher conferences are next week and I'll be interested in hearing how she's doing.

So this is what's jacked up in America...my new workout buddy who I've been dragging to these classes with me is trying to get in shape.  She's thin...crazy thin but I'm more "fit" than she is, make sense?  Anywhoozle, she tagged me on fb about going to Bodyworks and her friends all started in with this nonsense:
"Why are you working out?  You're already so thin!"
"You don't need to lose weight!"
"You're gorgeous!  You don't need to work out!"
Mmmmmkay.  That's real supportive.  I know on the surface it sounds nice.  And they're right...She's thin and pretty (not "hot" pretty but attractive...moving on).  But why are we discouraging people from trying to be healthy and working out and exercising?  REALLY?!?!  She posted on fb because she was proud to got to the gym and has stuck with exercising for a couple weeks and the response she gets is "Why are you doing this?"  Wake up America!!  Attitudes like this is why we're getting fatter!!!  Stepping off soapbox...

So I did Bodyworks Monday, Spin Tuesday and Cardio Kickboxing yesterday.  I'm taking today and tomorrow off to rest up a bit (my knees are a little sore) and get ready for my trip.  I hope y'all all have a great weekend.  Keep your eye on the news..."Woman Drowns in Mud Pit at Vegas Warrior Dash."  That'll be me.  (Special Note to AZ Ladies: I made Hubby promise to post on here if I die).

And an early Friday Funny:

Rough Start

It's been a rough morning.  The coffee maker at work is broken so we went to Starbucks (I know...Bad Panda!).  I paid for my sin as a nonfat, no whip pumpkin latte dribbled down my white shirt once I was back at my desk.  Then I picked at a hangnail on my toe and it started bleeding.  Then the ice machine broke as well (seriously...this building is going to hell in a handbasket) so I'm drinking lukewarm water.  And to top it off, we've got visitors coming in at noon.  Two sets of visitors are coming tomorrow.  So a day and a half to get done what would normally take a week.  And I'm blogging because I just feel like avoiding it all.  *SIGH*  One of those days.

So it's a rough start to the day.  But Holly got me thinking about Hubby and I wanted to share his NSV for him (whether he likes it or not).  So for anyone new, Hubby is banded.  He had to lose weight to get the band and then once banded, his port flipped so he had to have a port revision so his journey didn't even REALLY start until 6 months after his first surgery.  I can't say for sure how much he's lost...he apparently doesn't believe in scales anymore.  I can say his portions have reduced significantly, and while I think he could use a fill, he's doing pretty good on his journey.  He's dropped a couple sizes and while still a big guy, he's come a long way.  Anyway, when we decided to go to Disneyland, he jumped into high gear to lose weight for the trip.  He was worried he wouldn't fit.  He carried this worry with him all the way to the gate.  He had already resolved that if he got to a ride and he didn't fit, he wouldn't let it upset him and ruin the day (we all know how this goes...go to a restaurant, don't fit in a booth and then just want to go home and wallow?  we weren't going to let that stop us at Disney).  Well, that didn't happen.  He fit on every ride we went on.  He was able to ride with the girls and walk around with us all day long.  Did his feet hurt at the end?  Absolutely.  But we took very few breaks during the day and he was a trooper.  He was able to FULLY experience the day with our girls and it's a trip we'll never forget.  He was able to make lasting memories and not worry about being left out of it because of his size.  THIS is why he's losing weight and getting healthy.  THIS is why he got the lapband and started eating paleo.  It was so he could LIVE and be a dad to his girls and a husband to me.  He had a rough start...but he's making it good and he'll succeed.  I have no doubt.

100!!!

No...not pounds.

PUSH UPS!!

So I could come up with all kinds of qualifiers for this...they're just "girl" pushups or whatever but not going to do it.  I did 100 freakin' girl push ups last night!!

So that's one goal I can check off my list.

I came back to work yesterday to gifts.

My first "professional gift" from a vendor.  

A friend from work was in a baking mood this weekend so he gave me a pumpkin loaf and roll.  Proud to say I only had one tiny slice of the roll.

So things are pretty crazy this week but proud of myself for getting back to the gym last night and even prouder to be able to check one of my goals off for the year.  I still need to find another 5k...starting see more of them pop up around here so hopefully this won't be a problem.  I'm doing spin class tonight...it's been awhile..hopefully it doesn't kill me.  :)

Crazy week here at work so I'm reading...maybe not commenting much...but I'm reading.... 

Back From Disney

And we had such a great time!!!  I realize I've been MIA this week but between getting ready to go and then the trip, blogging took a back seat.  We got into Anaheim around noon on Wednesday and hit Downtown Disney right away for lunch and sightseeing.  We did Disneyland Thursday from a half hour before the park opened until it closed.  The girls had such an amazing time and the only thing I wish we would've done is stayed another day!  I've been pretty upfront about our finances on here so one day is all we could muster but what an amazing day it was. I've got pics below (we're also buying some from the photo pass thing which had good ones of the girls with the princesses and the whole family with Mickey).

From a weight loss perspective, I stayed exactly the SAME from when I left.  Not bad.

I've got 4 days of work before heading to Vegas for the Warrior Dash.  I am freakin' out a little but excited too!  I'm hitting the gym today and tomorrow but I'm afraid that's it.  I've got a business dinner (yep...a business dinner) on Wednesday and then Thursday I'll be packing.  I'll be trying to catch up on reading when I can but comments may be lacking until next week.

Before pics, a Disney DEMotivation for this Monday morning.

And now pics!