Lately

Here's what's been going on as of late…

1 - February is off to a great start!  We had family in town last weekend for my niece's 8th birthday! 8!!  Seriously, where does the time go!?

Wasn't she just this little baby?

Throw back - 2006!

2 - This past weekend we randomly stumbled upon this beauty at Home Goods & brought her home! The TV stand, not the cute cat statue ;)

A "grown up" TV stand had been on my wish list for the house since we moved in, but it wasn't a big priority.  We happened to randomly stop by Home Goods Saturday & couldn't leave without this piece!  It was a steal!  Getting the new TV stand meant we "needed" a new sound system.  So we swung by Best Buy & got a sound bar as well.  Happy Valentine's Day to us!!  :)

3 - I just love this song, don't you?  The video is really sweet, too!

4 - I printed this printable from Rachel at Kincaid Parade to frame in our bathroom!  It's a great reminder for us right now.  The weeks can seem very long at moments when Brandon's away & hours are long at the gym.  Don't get me wrong, it's so rewarding!!  But 5+ years of B traveling every week have gotten very old, for him more than me even, and it takes a lot of work owning your own business. But it is all a Great Work and we cannot come down right now.

5 - In case you hadn't heard, it's Snowpocalypse 2014 here in the south!!  It started yesterday & is supposed to continue through tomorrow!

It's pretty, that's for sure!  Be of course the whole world here shuts down.  We cancelled our 7pm classes last night, early classes this morning, & all our PM classes tonight.  Doesn't look favorable for tomorrow either!

6 - I guess the snow couldn't have come at a better time, though.  I seemed to have come down with some sort of head cold!  Yuck.  And honestly, I'm not home that often, so I'm soaking up this snowed in time & making the best of it!  Although, I wish B was here to be snowed in with me!

My cold wasn't that bad Monday, but yesterday I was really feeling blehh.  Typically I'm of the mindset to sweat it out, but I decided to nap it out yesterday & stayed home from the night classes. I slept so well last night & am feeling much better today!  Still super stuffy, but well enough to do an at home WOD!

I started with Man Makers!  Woo buddy, they're good!!  Jump out to plank, pushup, row on each side, jump up, squat clean thruster = 1!  I did 5x10 with my 10lb dumbbells & I was sweatin'!!

Then I did this WOD I found on Pinterest (by the way, CrossFit Pineville now has a Pinterest Page!) so I don't end up Fat Michelle while stuck at home!!  Did it in 17:23, care to try & beat me?  :)

This is what I looked like after, haha!  Just keeping it real for y'all... crazy hair, sweat, I love it!

7 - I need to be better asap, I'm in a local team CrossFit competition this weekend called Squad Gauntlet!  It's a 4 person team & I'm doing it with some friends from the box!  Should be really fun :)

8 - B & I have a fun little date night afterwards to celebrate Valentine's!  We're not super into the holiday, but love a reason for a date!

9 - I will not be eating lots of chocolate this Valentine's since we're doing a 6 week Paleo Challenge at the gym.  It started this past Monday & it's been great so far!  It's nice to exercise a little self discipline!  I'm sure I won't miss the chocolate that bad!  Mind over matter, my friends.

10 - I have nothing else for you, but I couldn't end on 9 :)

Oh blogging...

I have such a love/hate relationship with blogging lately!  I think it's really all in my head, I feel like if I can't blog more than once a week then I just shouldn't blog & then I get months behind & then I haven't blogged since Christmas & now it's February & well, here we are.

Here I am, somehow months behind, but somehow still wanting to come back!  I put so much pressure on myself to blog & then it begins to feel like a chore & I end up just skipping it all together. I do most of the social media work for the gym as well….so maybe there's little left in me to blog after that!?

I should really figure out how to get over all of that, though!  It's all pressure from myself.  So silly, really!  What the heck!?

And I really don't know where to go from here…most likely a few picture dump/catch up posts?? That way I don't feel like I completely skipped Christmas, New Years & January in general?  Haha

Here's a short recap of January & I'll be back later this week to picture dump recap Christmas :)

We celebrated NYE with 2 other couples!  We went to Napa on Providence (very good!) & then to Bradshaw Social House (our neighborhood favorite!)!  Our friend Lauren is preggo so we had a built in DD ;)

Fun dress & NYE nails!

Richy Rich!

My fav!

Happy 2014!!!

 The first weekend in January we hosted Fight for Fitness as part of the Greater Charlotte Health & Fitness Expo!  It was a long, but great day!!  We got to meet lots of CrossFitters from around Charlotte, give back to a local charity & show tons of people that CrossFit can be for anyone!

If you haven't noticed, it's been super chilly this winter!!  At least for most of the country!  We don't use our heat at the gym so there have been many a cold day at the box!  I wear lots & lots of layers, sometimes my ski pants, and more layers.  I'm SO ready for warm weather!  I can't wait to sweat ;)

This view doesn't get old though!

This spunky nephew of mine turned 4!!  4!?!  He was just born, I swear.

We attempted to go to our 1st Panther's game of the season!  I say attempted because we failed miserably at going.  This was the 2nd round of the playoffs & tickets were stupid expensive!  I was very sad about that on the way home, but it turned out we didn't do so hot & B made the most delicious bacon sliders while I snuggled white thing & watched the game from the couch.  Not too shabby after all!

We spruced up our downstairs half bathroom with some floating shelves we got for Christmas!  I just love our little Westie figurine from B's mom!!  I think it's the cutest thing & goes so nicely with the bouquet from my bridal portraits!

We hosted an "After Holiday Party" for all of our CrossFit Pineville peeps that night.  Sadly, I didn't take a single picture!  Too busy enjoying everyone's company outside of the gym & in regular clothes & makeup!  Ha

I've told a couple people lately, and I think it's true with the CrossFit community in general, but there are so many people at our gym that, otherwise, I most likely would have never met in my life.  We're different for different reasons, but CrossFit made our paths cross & I've gotten to know them.  Really, I'm so glad to have met these people because I just love them!  It's such a joy to know them & I truly look forward to seeing these people every day!!

Brandon & I competed in War of the WODs the last weekend in January!  We both competed individually, a first for both of us, B in RX Men & I did Scaled Women.  I was definitely nervous, but it was such a fun day!!  We each did 4 workouts that day & boy was it exhausting!

I finished 18th out of 30!  I was pretty happy with that, as I landed out of the bottom 10, but really I had no expectations & just didn't want to come in last!  Haha!  I did take 7th place in one of the workouts & I PR'd my hang clean at 120 lbs (the top pic)!  That is my body weight so I was excited :)

Brandon finished in 6th place overall out of 40 men!!!  Isn't that awesome!?!  The top 5 went to the final WOD so he just missed it!  I'm so, so proud of him!  He took 2nd & 5th place in 2 of the events that day!

B's been traveling a lot for work, which is a little stressful knowing how much he wants to be at the box!  Right now we're just putting our head down & doing a good work!

This guy is my snuggle bug & I just love him to pieces!!  We snuggled up tight during the snow last week!

Phew, ok, January recapped!  Hopefully I'll have Christmas recapped sometime soon…maybe before Valentine's!? ;)

M.I.A

Missing. In. Action.

That is what I have been lately!  Sadly, most of the action hasn't really been too exciting, ha!  Just the regular old stuff.  Work, working out, playing with fur babies, cooking, cleaning....it's a glamourous life really ;)

Last week we celebrated Valentine's Day!  I am spoiled with somewhat of a romantic husband, and he definitely speaks my love languages!  I posted "The Story of Us" last year on Valentine's Day, so feel free to read up on us if you like :)

B & I cherish good quality time together, some in part due to the fact that Brandon travels 3 nights/4 days a week.  So for Valentine's Day this year, a nice dinner in, some wine, our sweats and Grey's Anatomy sounded like a perfect evening!

And perfect it was!

B spoiled me with flowers at school, in addition to the gifts he'd already given me!  (We're so bad at waiting to gift each other!!)  See...I told you, spoiled!

I got him a coupon book!  Yep, you read that right.  Haha, a coupon book!  A real one, too!  From the cutest website called Datevitation.com.  You should definitely check them out for a unique gift!

B now has 10 super fun dates that he can cash in whenever he likes (some require more planning than others) like breakfast in bed or visiting a nearby winery!  I'm so excited for him to use them up :)

We were super surprised to see some snow this past Saturday!  They were calling for us to get some, but we were skeptical.  We were sitting on the couch doing our taxes, looked up and the ground was almost completely covered from the down pour of snow that started!

B dog loved it!!  He was sprinting around the back yard!  Crazy dog.

We braved the roads that night and headed out for dinner to celebrate our friend Greg's birthday!  The roads weren't too bad and, per usual, good times were had by all :)

I was so thankful to have this past Monday off!I had a super productive day, if only every week could be 4 days!

I took a crack at the above workout I found on Pinterest on my day off!  Kicked my butt :) in the best way possible of course!  I dare you to try it!  And if you do, tell me your time!  I finished in 16:35.  I'll have to try and beat that again soon!

I'm so glad this was a short work week!!  Even so, it felt so. long.  Bless it!  Is it bad that I already feel like I'm in survival mode!?  Just trying to survive til spring break...til summer.  Yikes, it's probably too early for that :/

At least it's the weekend!!  Cheers to that!  

Happy weekend friends!!!

Snow Day Confessions

Ok, confession #1 - It's not actually snowing!  But it's sleeting/freezing raining and it was enough to get an early dismissal from school!!  Don't you love the south?!  Amen.

Confessions #2 - I was so hoping for an early dismissal!  Snow days are for the birds, because snow days = make up days & make up days suck!!  This way, we don't have to make up a day and I was home from a quick trip to target in my yoga pants before school even normally lets out.  Score!

Confession #3 - I am constantly wearing my hubs shoes to walk Berkley.  Weird?  Probably.  Convenient?  Very!  His shoes are bigger (obviously) & slip right on and off when I have to take Berktits outside.

Confession #4 - Yes, I just called my dog Berktits.  We have weird names for our animals!  Don't ask :)

Confession #5 - I need some new slippers, but I'm picky and can't find any I like.  This results in me wearing socks all the time because I - a) don't like to walk around barefoot because my feet get cold and b) then I can feel all the dirt on my hardwood/tile floors.  Gross!

Confessions #6 - Clearly I don't mop enough!  Whoops.

I'm all linked up with Leslie from A Blonde Ambition for her Friday Confessional!  So confess to me & tell me a little something I don't know :)

We're off to the gym before they close early tonight, then hanging out with cone head :)  Happy Friday y'all!!