WWIII.5 You're still Alive....Now SURVIVE

Today I get to run the muddiest, dirtiest race in Southeast Texas. I am so excited to run this race! It is called the WW3.5 Mud Run. It has 3.5 miles long (which should be interesting since I haven't ran in a while) with over 20+ obstacles along the whole route! Brian is going to be my photographer and take pictures while I am going over the obstacles. He gets to ride on the back of a 4-wheeler that goes along beside them.

I can not tell you how excited I am to get muddy and play in the mud without somebody telling you to get out. You all remember when you were little and your mom would put you in a frilly dress and then you would go towards the mud and she would tell you to get back. Well....NOT TODAY MOM!! I am going to play in the mud all I want!

Here are a few of the obstacles that are supposed to be out there. I have already seen a lot of the obstacles in person, so here is just a glimpse!

Looks like fun huh!!! On the ship they are going to have a net you have to climb up and on the grenade looking thing, you are going to have to climb over it and it rolls just a little bit!

Can you tell I am beyond Excited!!!!

I will have pictures and a recap whenever I come back this weekend! I hope everybody has a muddy, messy weekend ?

Question: Have you ever done a mud run? Which one? Did you like it?

Exciting News!!!!

I have such exciting news about a review/giveaway coming up!! 

You will have to wait and see what it is though! I love these people that are letting me do this review and can not wait to show everybody what it is!! 

You will have to keep checking back to see!!!! 

Here is just a little hint though. 

See if you can guess what it is? 

Hint 1: No, it doesn't have to do with running a race in New Orleans.

Biking and Easter Goodies

I had a great Easter weekend. Brian had to work, but I went and helped out with my church's kids Easter egg hunt. I took pictures of the kids with the Easter bunny and then of them hunting eggs. They split the older kids from the younger kids so the younger kids did not get trampled. It was a lot of fun watching them reach for the eggs. It brought back memories from whenever I was a little kids. I would always go to my grandpa's shirt pocket first because that egg always had the money in it. :0) 

The Easter bunny rode in on a motorcycle. I have to say that was the coolest Easter bunny I have ever seen!

Even though I was behind the camera most of the time I was still able to get a picture with the Easter bunny too.

After I got in from the Easter egg hunt I saw that the Easter bunny had come to my house a little bit early. And I got this from it.....

I had a chocolate/caramel bunny in it, but it was one thing that went first. I love that Brian's family does this every Easter! The Easter bunny also decided it was time for him to leave so he rode through the middle of town like this....

Only in a small town will you see this!

 

I also decided since it was a beautiful day outside that I wanted to eat something sweet and healthy. So guess what I got.....

YEP!!!! That is right....Watermelon. I LOVE watermelon so much. It is so healthy and filling! 

Today, Brian was working in the barn on his boat and look what he found....

He found 3 little kittens. Two like this one and a little white one. The mom took off to the back of the barn and these kittens were so tame. I was so surprised. Usually the only cats we have around our house are wild. Brian wouldn't let me keep one, so I put it back close to it's mom. 

We decided since it was a beautiful day today that we would also go for a bike ride. I have always loved to ride my bike and have just started getting back into it because of my knee hurting from running. Biking has been proven to be better on your knees, feet and legs than running. If you are running on roads like I am that are not smooth and not flat, then it can start hurting your knees pretty bad. I am taking some time off from running half marathons and biking/swimming more. I am still running, but not near as much. I am going to try and use this time to get my body in shape in other ways. 

Before we headed out on our bike ride! I am the smart one that wears a helmet and compression shorts whenever I ride. Since we live on a pretty busy street I am always looking around me and being aware of my surroundings. I usually never ride with my ipod because of the streets being so busy and there being lots of holes in the ground. 

Overall, it was a great Easter weekend and a great bike ride. I am going to try and run 3 miles tomorrow. It has been a while since I have done that. Stay tuned because I have some cool race news about this Sat. I am REALLY excited about this run! 

I hope everybody else had as great of a Easter weekend and Monday as I did!

Question: What else do you do to get in shape besides running? 

I bike, swim, walk my dogs and do a few workout videos. 

Easter, Birthday and Blackberry Time

This has been a crazy busy week for me! So much going on!  Read below and you will see why!!

Ever since I can remember from when I was a little girl I have always picked blackberries that are around my house. I love blackberries and especially when they are fresh! They are so good! That did not change anything this year. I went outside and saw so many blackberries that were ready to pick. I was so excited!!! Brian did not know that blackberries start out being RED, so whenever he saw me picking them, he said, "Wait, those are poisonous." hahahahahaha Silly city boy did not understand! haha

I started picking them and ended up with this....

yum yum yum!!!!
The next day I went and cleaned my brothers house and then babysat my nieces! I love watching them, because they are so much fun. I surprised them with a little Easter project.

Sorry they are sideways. We were stuffing eggs and they were relaxing from school!

Today, I surprised Brian with a little Easter gift.......

 He gets one egg each day. The biggest egg he got to open up today and guess what was inside.....

PEEPS!!! He loves peeps and he also likes the big egg! We decided to have a little fun with the eggs. haha

Milly was not a fan of being put inside of the egg.I think she is thinking, "What are you doing to me now?"

After I gave Brian his surprise we decided to die Easter eggs. We didn't get to do this last year, but now we can and I was so excited to do this. Brian said he mainly hunted plastic eggs growing up, but I always did plastic eggs and real eggs.

All the pretty colors waiting for the eggs to finish boiling.

 TJ and Milly really wanted to eat an egg. I gave one to them eventually!

I even got Brian in there to help me with the eggs. He was not a huge fan of this, but I had fun!

All of our pretty eggs. I was so proud of us for doing them.

Last, but not least, this past Monday was my birthday and Brian and I got to go out a couple of days later for that. We went to Saltgrass and then went and saw the movie Soul Surfer. It was a fabulous movie! I loved it!

We decided to have a little fun before the movie starts. "Who should I go to prom with?"

Brian got me a $25.00 to Barnes and Noble and some Cadbury bunny eggs. That is the great thing about having a birthday near Easter!
My sister-in-law Marci got me a new suit that I needed and took me out to lunch and then I got some jewerly, and some Banana Republic shirts from my mom and dad!
My other sister-in-law Karen got this for me.....

I love love love this purse! She did very good! 

Thank you Karen! Very good taste!













And last but not least, my father-in-law got me a bracelet from Haiti when he went on his mission trip.

 These bracelets are handmade by women in Haiti from paper that they roll together.

Here is the story from Haiti about these women.
Overall, my birthday was amazing! I have such a great family and do not know what I would do without them!
I am going to go run this evening and do my Jillian Michaels workout. Hopefully she doesn't beat me up to bad today! I hope everybody had as great a week as I did! It was amazing!

Remember what we are celebrating this weekend. We would not be here if it was not for ONE special person. Remember what HE did for you and I!

Happy Easter everybody!

Couponing to the Extreme

I just recently started clipping coupons and no it was not because of the TLC Extreme Coupon show. My husband and I decided we should start clipping them to try and help us save money. Recently, I have found lots of different tips, tricks and sites for clipping coupons and getting them organized. 

I found this website on Facebook called The Krazy Coupon Lady and found out that there is an organized way to clip coupons if you try hard at it. My friend the other day sat for 3-4 hours and clipped coupons for her family and ended up saving around $112.00 on groceries and necessaries.
If you have not seen TLC's Extreme Couponing....Go check it out. It is amazing how much money these people save and how much they get for their money.

Here are a few tips/tricks I have found that work for me as well as for other people.

1. Brand Name items: Love them or Hate them?

You do not have to always get the brand name items. There are some brand names that I am stuck like glue too, but some off brands are the same if not better than the name brand items. 

2. Double and Triple Coupons:

Check out the stores policy first, but sometimes you can double and triple your stores coupons. If you look up the sales first, you can apply a coupon to that sale and save even more money!

3. Sunday/Local Papers:

If you do not already have a subscription to your Sunday paper, check into it. It only cost us $1.75 to get a Sunday paper and it is full or coupons in it!

4. Necessary Items:

This is kind of tricky to explain. Only clip coupons for items that you normally use or that you know you are wanting to get. If you do not normally buy Chocolate milk, but there is a coupon for it, do not worry about that coupon. Give it to somebody else that may use it.

5. Do not go to the extreme!

By extreme I mean, do not store toilet paper underneath your kids beds or buy 50 Yoplait yogurts unless you truly use that many in a week or have a big family. They will go bad eventually.

6. Take it easy!

When you first start out, it is going to be overwhelming. You will see all these coupons and not know what to do with all of them. Get your grocery list organized and get your mind organized to what you need to buy. 

 7. Check the amounts.

Many, many, many coupons will say, "Save $1.00 when you buy (3) of a select item". Make sure that whenever you go to keep that coupon you are planning on buying 3 of that item. For example we buy lots of cereal and I found a coupon where I saved $1.00 if I bought 3 of the same brand. That worked great for us, but maybe not for somebody who does not use that much cereal.

Here are a few websites that I got from different blogs and ones that I personally use that are great! They always have different coupons on them, so make sure you check them out each week. 

http://www.retailmenot.com

http://hip2save.com/  

Totally Target

Frugal Coupon Living

The Krazy Coupon Lady

Target

Coupons.com

Redplum.com
Smartsource.com

If you like some things on Facebook, you can sometimes get free coupons, such as Yoplait (which I just used the other day).

 TJ loved playing in the water sprinkler today!!!!!!!

I have been collecting some coupons for a while now and am planning on going grocery shopping with my husband within the next couple of weeks. I will make sure to let everybody know how much I "hopefully" saved.

********Other news**********  

I started my Jillian Michaels dvd Monday and it was TOUGH!! She is a beast!! I was sore yesterday whenever I got up. I ran 2 miles that day also and am planning on running 2 miles tomorrow and doing the dvd again. I did ride 2 miles on my bike while Brian ran next to me. It was so pretty today and we did not want to waste the day. 

Question: Do you coupon any? What or where are some websites that you have found good coupons on?

Check out this awesome giveaway....Allied Medal Hanger

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Many years ago a little girl was born to a family of all boys. Her brothers played with her and made her strong because she had to defend herself around them. That little girl grew up tumbling, playing sports and having a great life provided by her parents. Her family loved her very much and supported her in everything that she went through.

Ignore the picture on the left. That is my husband.

Growing up my mother always tried to put me in frilly dresses and I never liked that. I would have a nice dress on and then go play in the mud.

I was a blonde hair brown eyed baby! 

Growing up, I played many many sports. Just to name a few, cheerleading, volleyball, basketball, track, softball (a little bit), tumbling and drill team.

8th grade year Cheerleading

Freshman year volleyball

Although I was never a girly girl (that is what I get for being raised with brothers), I knew how to dress up every once in a while.

I went to college and had a great time and then married the love of my life! Now, I am celebrating my birthday and could not be an my blessed for the family and friends that I have in my life!

Did not notice that his eyes were closed!

I hope everybody else has a great and blessed life and day, like I do! Going for a run and then working on my Jillian Michaels dvd!


Check out this awesome Auria Earphones giveaway at Running With Sass!

My Week Rewind

I have not blogged in a while because things have been pretty busy over here. I am going to give you a little rewind on my week so that you can see how busy it has been. I have been working out a lot, but I am waiting on my Jillian Michaels dvd in the mail to come in. I couldn't find it anywhere. My friend Heather at Running with Sass has been working on this dvd and it got me interested. Whenever I get it in, I will let you know what it is, but for now, you can stay curious.

Anyways, this week Brian and I started off by going to one of our friends t-ball games. It was the cutest thing ever. To get the ball, they would all run towards it and basically jump on each other until one of them got the ball. We specially went to watch this little boy....

Isn't he a CUTIE!!! I took some pictures with my nice camera for his mom and am working on editing them a little bit right now. They are so precious though.

That night my brother came into town and we went to dinner with him for his birthday that was coming up two days from then.

I was looking pretty rough that day, because I was tired! Do you see any family resemblance there? haha I gave him a cookbook (I know, great gift for my brother) that I bought to support a scholarship fund for a boy that died from prostate cancer. My brother knew the guy in school and even played some baseball with him. It has a lot of hometown recipes in it by people that we all grew up with, know and love.

Then on Monday, Brian and I took a surprise trip to Louisiana to visit his family. The did not have a clue we were coming and we even called his mom to make sure she was at work and Brian hung the phone up on her after she answered. We didn't want her to know we were coming. We saw everybody and Karen even cooked us a delicious meal from the Jillian Michaels  Ripped in 30 meal plan. It was delicious! Thank you Karen!

We got to see Brian's grandpa who I love to death. He is so sweet and funny! Brian gave him one of his old trooper hats and his grandpa loves it! You can see it on his head in the picture!
After we saw his grandpa, we went to see his dad who has not been feeling to good lately. He was off work and we were excited to see him too. After chatting with him for a little while I decided that I wanted to get a snocone! If you have not tried the snocones where his family lives, you are missing out! They are DELICIOUS!!!!! I have not had a better one ever!

I went to the snocone stand and got a strawberry wedding cake with cream. Ohhhhhhhhhhweeeeeeeeee it was SO GOOD!!!
I made sure and got a kind that Brian doesn't like that way I could savor it all! He normally gets chocolate with cream though.

YUMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

It tasted so good in my tummy! 

Tuesday, I started working on a flowerbed that is on the other side of my house. It had so many leaves in it from them piling up over the years. Nobody has taken care of that flower bed and I was getting tired of the way it looked. I worked on trimming bushes and vines and small oak trees for hours. I do not really have a before picture, but this is kind of what it looked like....

Sorry, it is sideways. 

Just imagine leaves being all in that flower bed and those pushes being much much bigger. It was driving me crazy. This is how it looks now. Sorry, they are all going to be sideways. I am not sure why it turned them this way. 

We picked all those leaves up put on the burn pile. The picture above with all the vines use to cover that trailese, but we trimmed it completely. It was even growing all the way onto the house. 

It was a lot of work and I am glad we are almost finished. We still have to buy some mulch and put that in there so the weeds won't be able to grow. Oh and I found this little guy inside of the flowerbed also. 

It kind of freaked me out at first and I made Brian come out there to help me see what it was. We think it used to be a rabbit. Luckily there was no snakes found in this cleaning process!

Also this week I tested out some more of my baking skills and I made a keylime pie. I have never made one before and I was cooking a good meal and wanted to try it. I didn't take a before picture, but this is what we had left whenever I thought about taking the picture. 

I am about to make another one in just a little bit, because it was so good!!! 

Thursday I subbed for an 8th grade class at a school close by and I was so nervous about that. I am not certified for 8th grade and I was scared they would walk all over me. But you know what....IT WAS GREAT! The kids were so good and every time the principal came by he was so impressed at how the class was working and not talking. He wants me to come back and sub and they even told me I needed to put my application in there, but that was before they knew I was not certified to teach that grade. Oh well. It was a fun day though. The kids were really funny! 

Overall I had a great week and I had even better news yesterday, but I can not tell ya'll just yet. Let's just say, if you are the praying type, be praying for me at the beginning of next week. I am going to need it! I will try and tell ya'll if it is good news. If it is not, I am not sure if I will be able to talk about it. 

I hope everybody else is having a great week. It is beautiful here! Get outside and do something productive today! :0)