Random Musings on a Rainy Monday

Happy Monday!  It's rainy & cold here & my tolerance of cold weather is running thin.  Very thin!  But that's ok because I PR'd my deadlift in the 14.3 Open workout today, so I can't complain!

I pulled 185# for 10 reps in the WOD today!!  I've never done that before!  :)

And I totaled 100 reps!  I'll take it!

I discovered a few things in my travels to Atlanta over the weekend…

1 - Cruise Control is the bomb dot com!  My corolla never had cruise, so I've never really had the pleasure of crusin' it on road trips.  Consider me changed!  It's a must have for any interstate driving.

2 - I really dislike windshield wipers!!  I already knew this, but it was just reconfirmed on my drive home last night.  Windshield wipers & rain the whole way!  Just something about the repetitiveness gets on my nerves!  I don't like repetitive noises either.  Sends me over the edge.  You can imagine how well that worked in a classroom right!? ;)

3 - Justin Timberlake's new song completely reverts me back to my former middle/high school self! This song comes on the radio, I find myself swooning and suddenly I'm 15 again!

It just has such a 90's/N'Sync vibe to me {ps #teamNSYNC #NSYNC4life} & I can't get enough!

4 - CrossFit Kids is going to be SO much fun!!  I was initially a little nervous about the amount of work it might be, but after this weekend's course, I'm so, so excited!  As a former teacher, there were all these demands - grades, tests, standards to meet, etc.  But with CrossFit kids, it's so relaxed!  The most important thing is for the kids to have FUN {what a concept!} and have fun while moving!  There's no barbells or weights until advanced kids or teens, so you know they're safe, it's all about having fun and teaching proper form.  And really, they have years to get the form down, so there's no pressure! I'm very excited!

Here's to a quick work week…I saw my husband for all of 7.5 waking hours over the weekend, so hurry up Thursday!!

Five on Friday

Happy Friday, y'all!  I'm linking up with April & Christia for Five on Friday today, so let's get right down to it :)

1 - I'm headed to CrossFit Atlanta this weekend to get my CrossFit Kids cert…

It should be a fun weekend, although I'll really miss my boys!  I've really enjoyed reading all my material for the weekend, all the research about the benefits of kids being active & I'm excited to learn some new stuff {and fun games}!  We're hoping to launch CrossFit Kids at CFP starting this summer!

2 - Monday & Tuesday of this week I spent my afternoons on our patio.  It was so beautiful out!  I ate my lunch out there, soaked up some Vitamin D, watched Berk dog run around...

And even let Benny out to do a little exploring!  He was getting waaayyy too comfortable…

It was chilly yesterday & not the warmest today, but I have high hopes those temps will be returning sooner rather than later!

3 - I got to spend my Wednesday morning hanging out with this sweet friend…

Ashley (+ baby boy) & me :)

We'd been planning it for about 2 weeks & I was so excited, it was even on my to do list for that day…

We got mani/pedis & lunch at Brixx & just caught up on life!  She's my longest friend & I'm so thankful to have known her all these years & know that our friendship will continue!  We don't talk every day, but we just pick up right where we left off.  I'm sure I'll be calling her with lots of questions whenever we have babes of our own, Ash is a pro now ;)

4 - I saw this in my Instagram feed the other day & pretty much died...

Congrats!  We're all skinny!  Hahaha, I personally work more towards being healthy & strong {so much more freeing than trying to be skinny all the time!}, but still, that's funny!

5 - 27 days until we're back to this magical place…

With a few of these in hand...

Happy December!!

Happy December friends!!

December!  Can you believe it!?  I definitely can't, but I do love this month, so I welcome it with open arms!  

I loved Rachael's post on December today!  It's easy to get caught up in reflecting this month & then looking forward to the next year…but we've got 31 whole days this month to make count!

I just love the hustle & bustle of this time of year….the shopping, the parties, the family time!  I love walking in to our tree & wrapping gifts & ornament exchanges.  I hope to make this month count more than ever, though.  I don't want to over indulge on food, just to look back & feel bloated.  I don't want to over indulge on plans just to look back & feel tired.

So there's 2 main things I'm going to do this month - 1) keep my workout routine.  No extra slack days this month!  2) build in some rest time with Brandon & our families.  I want to not have tons of plans when our families are here, I just want to be with them & enjoy!

I started a 10 day cleanse yesterday to keep me on track!  I don't really care if I don't lose a single pound from it, but when doing something like a cleanse, it helps keep me focused.  "Should I eat that?  No I'm on my cleanse right now!"  Keeps me motivated, working, you know?!

This could be a good look for Santa, right!?

Anyways…we had a wonderful little Thanksgiving!!  We ate yummy food & played with nieces, nephews, & dogs, went shopping, napped, and just enjoyed one another!  I did a terrible job taking pictures, per usual.  But here are a few…

Wells wearing my slippers :)

Ya know, just doodling!

Thanksgiving kisses!

The granddogs getting some love!

A little football action with Uncle B & daddy!

Gluten free pizza for the win!!

Abel loves him some Huckleberry!  Sweetness.

Yesterday was pretty busy gearing up for another busy week, but it ended just like this & I'm so thankful for that!  :)  Love my boys...

Five on Friday

Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!  Happy to be linking up again with April, Christina & friends!  Join me!?

1 - I noticed over on my blog archive on the right side of my blog that I have a measly 50 some posts this year.  Womp womp!  I guess that's what you get for taking 3+ months off blogging!  :( Lesson learned!

2 - How delish do these look!?

Orange Chocolate Coconut Clusters

I just pinned this recipe to my Paleo Pinterest board & I'm pretty sure they just went on my "to make for Thanksgiving" list!

3 - Speaking of Thanksgiving, I'm so, so excited for next week!

Brandon & I along with my siblings & their families as well as both of my grandmothers will all be down in Georgia at my parents house!  It's been a while since we've all been at their house together.  It will be loud, there will be 5 dogs, lots of air mattresses, and my heart will be full because we'll all be together eating lots of yummy food :)

It'll be nice to get away, too.  A mini family vacation couldn't come at a better time!

4 - Thanks so much for all of the kind words & SuperFit love!  I was definitely nervous going into my first competition, especially since it was sprung on me last minute & I hadn't been training too hard for it!  At the end of the day, it was a great experience & I felt so encouraged just to be in that environment!!

I shared my new Front Squat PR today on Instagram…

That was 115 lbs right there, almost my body weight!  For 2 sets of 5, so I was pretty pumped!  As I mentioned in the SuperFit post, I really am not sharing these things to brag, but to encourage anyone out there who might see them!  

There's a Facebook page called Women of CrossFit = Strong that posts tons of CrossFit stories from different women of all shapes & sizes who are doing something for themselves (for once!) and changing their lives, their bodies, their self image.  It's so encouraging!  And that's really what I hope to be, encouraging!

5 - Saturday, Brandon & I are celebrating our anniversary with a Spa Day, dinner & a little Christmas tree shopping!  I've never been so ready to have him home & for a relaxing day together, just the 2 of us!!

Happiest of weekends friends!

Big Huge Super Fun & Exciting Announcement!!!!

Friends!!!  I have a Big Huge Super Fun & Exciting Announcement to make!!

I have been {sort of} patiently waiting to make this announcement since January!!!!  January!  That's 4 whole months y'all!!!  Seriously, this has been the hardest {and worst kept} secret to keep from social media because it is life changing and so, so exciting!!

It's definitely contributed to my lack of blogging/blog content over the past few months as there's been so many days I've wanted to write about this venture so far, but I just couldn't yet!

But, now I can!!  The time has finally, finally, finally come where I can make my Big Huge Super Fun & Exciting Announcement that I have been holding in for 4 long months!!!

No, I'm not pregnant :)  Guess again!!

Brandon and I are going into business with our brother in law, Warren.  As of this month, we will be opening the doors to CrossFit Pineville!!!!!!

Crazy right!?!  So here's the {semi} quick & dirty back story on how all this came about....

Brandon and I are both obviously very passionate about health and fitness!  Unless you're new here, you've probably figured that out after reading about the races we've been in, the workouts I've done, the diet (or lifestyle really) I follow, etc.

We've always dreamed of being in the health and fitness industry, but just really didn't see how that might ever manifest itself since we both already had well established jobs in other fields.  However,

we were finally turned on to CrossFit towards the end of last year {even though a few of our friends have been preaching it to us to no avail for quite some time!} thanks to a killer workout at our friends' box {box = CF gym} in Michigan.  So much so that we were looking to get involved in a CF here and Brandon started looking into getting his CF Level 1 Trainer Certificate.

At my nephew's 3rd birthday party, Brandon was talking to Warren {who is not technically our brother in law, my brother Josh married his sister Callie, but for all intensive purposes it's so much easier to just call him our BIL :) } and they landed on the topic of CrossFit.

In talking with Warren, he'd been involved in CF for almost 2 years & had been coaching some classes up at CrossFit Huntersville for about a year.  He mentioned to Brandon that he'd been thinking about starting up his own CF, but just didn't have the money to do it at that point.  We left that party and that was sort of where the conversation stopped.

But about a week later, B finally told me about this conversation with Warren and thought maybe he should call him....Warren's CF knowledge, passion for health & fitness, & capital + our passion for health & fitness & our capital....this could maybe work!

Brandon and Warren met for dinner in mid January while I was out with some girlfriends and decided that night to go for it!!!  Let'd do it!  Let's open our own CrossFit Affiliate!!

So here we are!!  It's been a long, and fun and crazy experience already....and we're just getting started!!!

B and I spent my birthday weekend taking our CF Level 1 Trainer Course!

And we passed!!!

We have our location in Pineville & are currently working to get it WOD {Workout of the Day} ready!!

This past weekend, I took a Kettlebell course down in Atlanta and received my CF Level 1 Kettlebell Trainer Certificate!!

You can look up CrossFit Pineville and like us on Facebook here.  

Our website should be up and running in the next week or so & we hope to be open for some free workouts by the middle to end of this month!!  So if you're in the Charlotte area, I better see you in for a trial workout!!! :)

We are so excited for this adventure we're embarking on!  We feel so blessed and thankful that we're even able to do this!!

I'm so glad to have finally shared my Big Huge Super Fun & Exciting Announcement with y'all!!!  Super exciting, right!?! :)

Oh the place you'll go...

Over this summer, I've seen a few other bloggers recap all the places they've traveled alongside their significant other.  I've loved seeing all the places each blogger had been & I like the idea of keeping a log of all the places Brandon and I have traveled...so I thought I'd follow suit!

A few places are obvious repeats (MI, VA), but each trip was unique so I wanted to document the repeats anyway.

Hopefully, as we travel more over our lives to new, different, and exotic places (a girl can dream right!?), I can come back and update this post :)

Since March of 2009, when I first met Brandon, we've traveled to...

Matoaca, VA - Lake Chesdin - June 2009

My cousin Ashley's HS graduation - and the first of many trips to the lake

Myrtle Beach, SC - July 2009

A first for B, although I'd visited many a time!

Folly Beach, SC - September 2009

When my love affair with Folly Beach began

Crowder's Mountain & Chimney Rock, NC - September 2009

Hiking on Labor Day

Grand Rapids/Hudsonville, MI - December 2009

Meeting B's family for the first time!

Crystal Mountain, MI - December 2009

Squeezed in a little skiing while in the Mitten :)

Beech Mountain, NC - January 2010

A little local ski day trip!

San Juan, Puerto Rico - April 2010

My Spring Break & a very memorable trip - where we got engaged!!

Atlanta, GA - June 2010

A weekend in the ATL & the Tigers vs. the Braves

Matoaca, VA - Lake Chesdin - July 2010

Back to the lake - my family vacay

Hudsonville, MI - August 2010

Our Michigan wedding shower :)

Folly Beach, SC - September 2010

Labor Day Weekend at the beach with good friends!

Blacksburg, VA - VT - October 2010

Central Michigan vs. VT

MTNs of NC - November 2010

A weekend in the Mountains 2 weeks before the Big Day!

Negril, Jamaica - November 2010

Our Honeymoon!

Hudsonville, MI - December 2010

Our first married Christmas in Michigan

Myrtle Beach, SC - December 2010/January 2011

New Years at the Beach

Greenville, SC - February 2011

A weekend away

Atlanta, GA - March 2011
Visiting my Parents

Coco Beach & Orlando, FL - April 2011

Spring Break & my first visit to Universal Studios!

Blacksburg, VA - VT - May 2011

My cousin Erin's College Graduation

Durham, NC - July 2011

Durham for the night for a Durham Bulls Game

Corolla, NC - OBX - July 2011

Family Vacay in the Outer Banks

Grand Rapids/Husdonville/Muskegon, MI - July 2011

B's Company's Summer Work Party & my first helicopter ride!

Nashville, TN - August 2011

Traveling with B up to MI for a long weekend with the fam

Hudsonville, MI - August 2011

Long weekend with the fam

Virginia Beach, VA - September 2011

Another Labor Day at the Beach :)

Detroit, MI - October 2011

Our friends Ryan & Kelly's Wedding Weekend

Black Mountain & Mt. Mitchell, NC - October 2011

Hiking & Camping

Asheville, NC - November 2011

Our 1st Anniversary Trip and a visit to The Biltmore!

Rothbury, MI - December 2011

B's Company's Christmas Work Party

Hudsonville, MI - December 2011

Michigan after Christmas

Naussau, Bahamas & Key West, Florida - April 2012
B won a cruise through work so we took it over my Spring Break from school!

Matoaca, VA - May 2012
Up to the Lake for E&R's Engagement Luau

Folly Beach & Charleston, SC - June 2012
Our favorite spot

Blacksburg, VA - VT - June 2012
Erin & Ryan's Wedding Weekend

Virginia Beach, VA - July 2012
July 4th at the Beach!

Carolina Beach, NC - July 2012
Family Beach vacay


Unless I've somehow left out a trip that I just can't remember, that's every trip we've taken together!  Each has been so fun and special in it's own way...so here's to many more trips together, babe!