My New Path

On August 17th  of this year, on this blog, I announced that not only had zombies invaded the golf course, but that I was finally going to do something with this:

After thinking on it, pondering it, getting certified to do it, and then mulling it over for way too long, I finally announced it here on the blog in a rather vague way that I was going to forge ahead and do...well..."something" with it.
...And then for once in my life, I didn't think about it too much, I didn't worry about people saying NO! or about people not believing that I could do it, or even about what other people might think at all.
Instead, I turned off my brain and I JUST DID IT.

And now, 3 months later, I'm smack in the middle of my own holiday boot camp and I was hired yesterday at a local gym as their newest personal trainer. I'm in a kind of very pleased shock that I didn't have to:

Pretend to be someone I wasn't (remember...I'm new at this and very much have no practical experience...and I've been very up front about that through all of this),

Change my appearance to please others (remember the pink miniskirt interview?),

OR...

...even worry about someone telling me no! or not liking me (can I finally be at that point in my life where I can live with the Nos and not let what other people think about me affect me negatively...or affect me at all?)

So these are my questions for you today:

1. Are you so afraid someone will say no that you choose to not even ask the question? Ok then!!... tell me>>>>What's the worst that can happen?  GIVE ME AN EXAMPLE, please!!! Some situation in your life that you're afraid someone will say no! Then give me the worst that can happen if you do overcome your fear and ask the question or do the "thing" you're so worried about.

2. Do you feel you've reached a point in your life yet where you are starting to let your "you-i-ness" all hang out? What's the most recent thing you've done that you would have never done in younger years for fear of what someone else might think?

Blogger Meet Up

Whoa baby...I still didn't manage to get my goal of a minimum of 7 hours of sleep last night. I'm having a hard time telling the kids that I can't be here in the morning with them AND also not tuck them in at night, but really!!!...my bedtime is before theirs!

I was so excited when Kim left me a comment one day saying she would attend my new boot camp even before I had it all set in stone. What a great supporter!! If you've met her in person you know she's a beauty inside and out!! Who doesn't love a tall leggy gorgeous blonde WITH a heart of gold?! Anyways, yesterday she was in town and dropped on by my Holiday Bootie Buster Boot Camp. You can check out what she thought about it on her blog HERE and enter to win her giveaway.

Happy Tuesday All!!!! Boot camp today is called Tone your Tush Tuesday...
And by tone, I mean MURDER     =D    bwahahahahahaa!

Monday Morning Dance Party

Oh brother! What a bad night of sleep. 4:30am comes too early after nights like that. Fortunately they are few and far between these days. When I finally did get back to sleep around 3:45am, I had a dream that beat all dreams. Alien ships were surrounding my home (which happened to be a mansion with floor to ceiling windows on all sides) and the military had a bunch of large helicopters flying back and forth trying to decide how to approach the aliens. This fully detailed dream had me running to try to find a hiding spot with all those windows. I can tell you now that when I move, I'm sticking with regular windows :-)
So....anyone want to tell me what THAT dream meant? What am I trying to hide from in real life. Am I becoming too transparent? Was I really abducted by aliens and it was no dream at all?

This MMDP is dedicated to Kim from (Just) Trying is for Little Girls, who will be at my 6am boot camp class this morning. I can't wait to see her!

I can't sleep at night, I toss and turn...

Thanksgiving Week

Let's see...I know some stuff happened this week, but it's all become a bit of a blur. Last night the kids were with family at a big cousin sleepover, so I took advantage of the alone time to watch a non-Disney movie, drink some wine and relax. Just as I slipped into bed sometime after 11pm, I received a distressed phone call from the wee girl that one of her stuffed animals was MIA. After searching my car, them searching the car we transferred her to, and listening to a LOT of tears, we came to the conclusion she must be at the meeting place where we shuffled kids and sleeping bags and favorite stuffies around. I promised her I would go find said stuffy and I assume tearful baby girl eventually fell asleep without "Pinky" because I did not get a second call. Unfortunately for the runaway lamb, I had one glass of wine too many to be able to drive to her until this morning. With coffee in hand, I made my way to her last known location and prayed for the best. Prayers were answered.

She didn't even get rained on.

We had a nice and relaxing holiday at Mom and Dad's. I say relaxing in that I did nothing but heat up some corn for Thanksgiving dinner. Mom probably didn't find it quite as mellow. She did pass down the best family chocolate pie recipe to Mai...

Grampy and Mai made some cute name card holders...

Jack was addicted to the Weird Facts app on my iPhone and decided to prove one of them wrong...

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

I went for a pre-chocolate pie for breakfast run and then tried to stretch out my sweaty self while the "kids" played with their remote control helicopters which were a hit with young and mature alike...

My run, by the way, was fantastic. I'm glad I've taken some time off to let my left leg get some needed rest. I'm trying to slowly bump up my mileage in order to start the 18 week RLRF training plan around Christmas to get me ready for Eugene.

Boot campers still showed up (mostly) during this holiday week. Mai was my "assistant" this week and got up at 5am every day of her holiday break to help me with boot camp play in the bouncy houses. I tried to snap a few pictures for the boot camp web page we're creating, but my iPhone camera is just not giving me great pictures. My 6 o'clock class refused to be photographed in their early a.m. state, but some of the 7a.m.ers were game for some quick shots as they played in the bouncy obstacle course...

Our workout yesterday...

and our favorite song on yesterday's playlist (don't watch this if you don't want to get an eyeful...that means YOU, Mom!)

Girl, look at that body.
I work out!
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah!

Monday Morning Dance Party

Mai walked by and said this song is not very "danceable". HA! I guess this morning is couples only...

Just For Fun...

..and because it's rainy and cold here today...I'm imagining being in Hawaii...
learning to surf...

It was one of the very first times I realized that you can't sit back and wish you could do things...you. have. to. Just. Do. It.

You don't have to have someone to do it with you, you don't have to depend on a partner to make you feel more comfortable in a new situation - you CAN do things solo.

You don't always look pretty or coordinated trying new things...but in the end, you still DID it!

• When was the last time you tried something that scared you?

• Or tried something on your own when doing it on your own was the last thing you wanted to do?

• What's on your list that you need to JUST DO IT?

Three Things Thursday

1. My November Thanksgivings Page has fallen by the wayside. I'm thankful for many many many things, and those things are keeping me B.U.S.Y. Too busy to update my blog busy. Sheesh...I don't think that's ever happened before.

2. One thing I did want to add to my Thanksgivings page was this...


I LOVED THIS STORY SO MUCH!!!

3. Boot Camp. Oh boy. Where to start? I feel like this first week has been a cyclone that has followed the whirlwind of the previous month of preparation. I ended up with 4 people in my 6am class and 7 people in my 7am class. Although those numbers are low...after speaking with another boot camp owner in town, I had prepared myself to only have 2 or 3 people in each class the first month. 11 people is plenty!! ...For now :-)  Some come 3 days per week and others 5 days per week and I love that with the small classes they are all bonding with each other. It makes such a difference to have friends to meet you at your workout...even if they're new friends.

I have felt pretty at ease with the class itself, but I've sure worked myself up good over the darn building alarm system. I actually had a full blown anxiety attack about it the other night. I'm sure it was a little bit of all the other stress that led up to it, but the anxiety settled on that damn alarm and I layed in bed half the night stressing out. I can't believe I set it off the first two mornings. Imagine laying in bed all nice and cozy and asleep at 5:30am and some idiot boot camp lady sets the building alarm off. And then she does it again the next day, too! This is not some normal alarm either. It has cars shaking on the street when it goes off. Finally...today...I got it turned off correctly. Today is a Thumbs Up Day after that success :-)

I'm going official in the new year with this, so I HAVE to decide on a permanent boot camp name by like...now. I'm giving myself over the weekend and then we've got to have some signs made up and get the website up.

I'm definitely adding a third class at 8am and then after January ends we'll see where to go from there. I can't believe this is all happening. Two summers ago, I remember sitting in the back yard with my Jack Canfield Success Principles book and mapping out what it would look like to have a bootcamp and then after two years of worrying if I should do it, if I could do it, if I was ready to do it...and on and on and on...one day>>> I just did it. I should Just Do It more often.

Monday Morning Dance Party

It didn't hit Mai until late last night that Mama is not going to be here in the mornings to wake up with her and take her to school anymore. Boot Camp starts today and she wants me to CANCEL it! So with the mama guilt having already hit me more than a week ago, this put a nice touch to my anxiety last night. Not a great night's sleep, but I'm Hangin' Tough...



That Donny Wahlberg really did it for me in this video, but my heart truly belongs to his brother.

L.A.D.

Long @$$ day. Whoa baby. If this is what I've signed up for, I'm in trouble. Mama ain't used to this kind of busy. After working all morning, I had my practical interview today. It went really good. I traded in my pink mini for all black today, but I wore happy socks, my favorite cap and hoop earrings. I figure if they don't like it, I don't need to be working there. At the end of the workout I put the interviewer through, she told me I did great, that she liked me, and she especially liked my "bubbliness". HA! Who knew I had it in me?
Mai can't take a non-blurry picture to save her life...

But there, I tried. Seriously...my family doesn't take pictures of me as we go through our days, so this is what I've got :p

After the interview, I spent the entire afternoon walking through neighborhoods and plastering my boot camp flyers to everyone's door. I've been doing this for a week now. I've probably walked over 2 marathons in that time. It's so weird going on to other people's property. The smells can be so strange. Old people have the most distinct smelling houses. I never knew how many people loved their pets so much that they actually put stickers on their front door instructing firemen how many pets and of which variety they are supposed to be saving. More people than I imagined are on oxygen. They actually put up signs on their front door "No Smoking!! I'm on oxygen!". I'm amazed how many people keep such a nice yard. I'm surprised how many people will actually come out to greet me if they see me heading their way.

On my final neighborhood, I parked, headed out and tried to remember as I went, which way I turned as I switched from street to street in this unknown territory. The wind picked up mightily and I thought to myself, this is kind of silly - the wind is going to whisk those flyers right off down the road. I continued this weird and winding path, undaunted as dusk slowly disappeared and the rain started to pitter patter and then came down in a full blown pour. I finally realized that I was now in real darkness with no idea where I parked my car. Hrmph. I made my way back - memory by memory...ok, that's where the lady scowled at me through her window, hmmm...there's where that nice guy pretended he was interested and said he would show up to class on Monday at 6am, there's where I tripped on my own big feet and fell on my face in front of that guy mowing his lawn. Eventually I found my way back and headed home, sopping wet and glad that I only have two more days of this.

Steve bought dry ice for the kids to play with...

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

And now....after that L.A.D...I'm sipping on a glass of wine while I listen to the squeals of two little girls that we banned to below the house. Literally...we sent them under the house to see what kind of rats and bats they might find. They're loving it.

Pink Is The New Black

I don't normally use the words pink, mini, and job interview in the same sentence, but I was feeling feisty yesterday as I dressed for an interview at a local gym.

So many great things going on in my life right now. I also have a feeling of peace about them all and whether they pan out or not, I'm moving in the right direction and it feels AWESOME!
I return to the gym on Friday for a practical interview and then we'll just see what happens. Regardless of the outcome of that and because of the interview, I will probably be getting TRX certified in December and I'm excited about that.

Boot camp.
Hmmm...it has definitely been as hard as everyone has told me it would be during the holiday season. Hard to get clients, that is! The classes are, shall we say, intimate. I have great expectations for the new year's classes, though, so I'm forging ahead and will start promoting the permanent boot camp in the next few weeks. I feel the holidays slipping away all ready. I need to remember to slow down and take a breath.

I've decided my main only athletic goal right now is to focus on the Eugene Half Marathon. I will be following the RLRF program that I tried out earlier this year. Unfortunately, I've done something to my foot with all this pounding of the pavement and handing out boot camp flyers and it is really bothersome, but I hope it's just a temporary glitch on my way to a sub 2 half marathon!
In the WAY back of my mind I am playing around with offering to mentor the TNT tri team in 2012, but I'm still mulling it over... and waiting to see how this next month plays out. Stay tuned!

I'm still giving thanks over on This Page.

• My question to you today, as I have finally made an active choice to follow my own dreams...is...what is your dream for your future and how are you proceeding TODAY with taking a baby step OR a big step towards making that dream come true? - OR - are you in a place where that dream seems too big and overwhelming or unreachable? Talk to me!

Monday Morning Dance Party

Yesterday, I decided to video my workout so I could review my form and put a little clip up on my FB page to show you guys a neat trick to do a one leg sliding deadlift. However, I had no right to be doing any leg work at all since the previous two days had obliterated them. I was grabbing on to furniture for support and wobbling like crazy. I finished the workout but it wasn't pretty, and since form was for $h!t and the camera was angled to cut off the majority of my legs and get a lot of ceiling instead, I ditched the idea of sharing it. I DID find this gem amongst all the rubbish, though,...and since it's MMDP... well, it just felt appropriate:

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

...which reminded me of this clip. Sometimes you just can't help yourself, the beat is too good!



So, without further adieu, in keeping with the 70s theme on this disco Monday, here ya go...now proceed forth and conquer this day with a little boogie in your butt...

November Thanksgivings

I wanted to write so badly this morning, but my mind went blank. I feel a good post in my belly, but apparently it's not quite done cooking yet, so instead, I started a November Thanksgivings Page HERE.

What are you thankful for this first Friday of the new month?