End of the Month...

...but not the end of regular posting.

My goal this month was to blog every day. (I have heard from a few people that I love, but have little contact with that they appreciate more frequent posts.) I missed 3 days this month. Yesterday being one of those days. (I was so caught up in party prep for Bob and Michelle's 3rd annual Halloween bash that I totally forgot.)

I made my most requested party dish, guacamole, and Witches Fingers cookies that took a lot of work on Mark's part as he had to shape them for me. He has way more artistic ability than I do! I also did all the prep work for tonight's dinner as, from past experience, I knew I was not going to fell great today after last night.

Turns out that yea I was tired today, and felt completely dehydrated with a touch of a headache, but I actually felt pretty good all things considered. It was really nice though to not have to do much for dinner.

We had a lot of fun last night! Mark and I totally did not coordinate our costumes I went Roller Derby and he went Samari, next year we will be on track with each other again. I LOVED my costume! So much so that I may put it on every few days and do a little twirl in the mirror. :) I found an actual Roller Derby clothing site and got the perfect skirt, top and accessories.

There are pics, but as usual are on Mark's camera and I have to wait for him to edit and upload before I can post any of them.

One of my other goals this month was to take more pics for my posts...well that just didn't happen. I have not ever been great about keeping my camera with me and until I find the charger that is not going to change. Dead camera does not take pics very well!!

Even though the month is over I am still going to try and post every day. It seems the more I post the more things I find to spout off about. :)

My Hunter

Mark got a deer today! His first kill. Not bad considering this is only his second season! We are going to have a ton of meat on hand! I am so excited for him.

I love it that he will decide to take on something new, spend time learning/training/doing whatever he needs to to be good, and then goes out and does it. And he does it well!

I love you babe! Good job!!!

Working Out

Sometimes an important part of a good workout program is knowing when you need to skip a workout. Being sick for two weeks, trying to shake what is left of the cough, sore from working out earlier in the week...wanting to spend time with Mark...skipping was just needed tonight.

Why do I Work Out?

I get asked this questions a lot it seems. Why do I work out, and what do I want to get out of it.
For a lot of people it is about being a certain weight or size, or wanting a flat tummy, or thighs that don’t rub together, etc…

For me it is a bit different. Don’t get me wrong I love feeling like I look good and that my tummy at least looks flat in my clothing, and I like being able to purchase smaller sizes, but that is not at all what drives me. (I honestly don't even know how much I weigh and clothing size depends on what store/brand I'm shopping so I don't put a lot of stock in it.)

What drives me is knowing that I am healthy and strong enough to enjoy my recreation such as mountain biking, playing sports, hiking, or whatever else I decide to take on.

I feel my best ie. Healthiest, sexiest, strongest, most confident when I’m working out, pushing my body and it is responding and able to handle what I’m throwing at it. I love knowing that if I decide to try something my body can handle it!

I want to be as healthy and active as possible for as long as possible… I want to still be enjoying life when I’m 90!

These are the things that drive me and keep me motivated in my workouts!

What Do You Know For Sure?

I know that every person that is part of my life if part of my life for a reason.

No matter how seemingly superficial or insignificant the connection is, or how deep, meaningful and life altering the connection they are all important to me.

Maybe we take long walks together and I fall asleep with you every night, or:

-we only ever IM on Facebook and post funny comments on each other's wall, or smack-talk on ffb message boards

-you are who I call when I need a night out, want to go to an Usher concert, or I need a shoulder to cry on

-you have gone through all the ups and downs of the adoption process with us and never fail to offer your love and support

-you trust me to babysit your children

-we only talk once a year and see each other even less than that

-we vacation together and see each other several times a week

-you have hot soup waiting for me when I come home at 11 pm from the ER

-we only see each other once a week to play sports

-we will only ever talk to each other when we are at work

-I read your posts on your blog and you may never even realize it

-we send each other random texts or emails out of the blue for no particular reason

-you have been part of my life since the day I was born

-I have been part of your life since the day you were born

...whatever the connection is it means something to me and I treasure it.

I forgot to post yesterday...Oops!!!

I started out early in the morning to have breakfast with my good friend Lesley and her fiance Trevor. I’m so excited for their wedding this summer!!! As always it was really nice to visit with them and catch up a bit.

I made it home in time for the Steelers game at 10, and then watched the Hawks game so I could get a good look at Lynch since I have him in two leagues but had not felt confident in starting him yet.

After that I got a quick 30 min workout in, did laundry, dishes, and cooked dinner all before Mark got home around 6:30 or 7. I spent the rest of the evening watching Sunday night football, reading a book, and chatting with Mark and completely forgot about blogging!

A few thoughts from yesterday’s games:
-STEELERS WON!!!! It was ugly, but it is a win!!!

-Commentators say the dumbest things! A few quotes that made me wonder what the heck they were thinking, “This would be the time you really want to shove it in” and maybe my favorite of the day “No one gets deep penetration like he does.” Maybe I’m immature, but really guys, that was the best you could come up with?! Sounds more like porn than football!

-Don’t even get me started on Favre. I have zero respect for a player that has so much pride that he won’t sit out when he is obviously hurt and can’t make throws like he should! And, the commentators kiss his a$$ saying what a hero he is to play hurt and what an iron man he is, and what focus he has to not let the whole Jenn Sterger thing distract him on the field. How about you don’t leave suggestive voice mails and send pics of your junk to female employees…ever heard of sexual harassment?

-Fines and Fees for hits…I saw several tackles that weren’t yesterday because the guys were too scared they would get a flag, fined or suspended…blatant tackles that should have been made that weren’t. I won’t even get started as I have already made me feelings pretty clear.

Fantasy Football Update:
BOTS – 3-4…getting close to .500 and it seems I am really good at beating the #1 team, but no one else. Just call me the spoiler. I did have a great day yesterday in this league despite having McFadden on the bench and he had a 40 some odd point day!

Jock and Jill Straps – 0-7, can’t win…Cuttler is my QB…enough said.

PS Grid Iron Gang – 2-5, Cuttler was my QB because my starter was on a bye…he killed any hope I had of winning, that and I had Denver’s D at home against Oakland…who knew Oakland would score 30+ points in the first quarter!

Recipe of the Week

Mark did the grocery shopping at Costco last time, and I love it when he goes without me. He always comes home with the most interesting stuff...stuff I would not think to buy, but usually end up loving.

Among the many new and different things this time he came home with a Costco sized bag of Quinoa. I have NEVER cooked with Quinoa, nor can I even pronounce it. But, Mark knows I love to cook, and love to try new things, so this was a fun challenge.

My first recipe was a hit!

Quinoa with Asian Flavors

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 cup quinoa
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 clove garlic
2 green onions, chopped

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in quinoa and allow to toast for 2 to 3 minutes, then add chicken broth, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until all liquid has been absorbed, 25 to 30 minutes. Fluff quinoa with fork and top with green onions before serving.

Conversation of the week

I overheard this conversation between two of my co-workers:

Co-worker #1 – (talking about her daughter) “I don’t know why she wears a thong…you would have to search for days to find it once she puts it on.” (kind of mean I thought, but I kept my mouth shut)

Co-worker #2 – “my underwear look like a parachute, you could jump out of a plane and land safely.” (made me almost spit juice on my computer)

Co-worker #1 – “I bet Jen is shaking her head in disgust.” (more like shaking with laughter)

Co-worker #2 – “Jen probably wears a thong.” (Blushing!)

I find it a bit troubling that they would even care to speculate about my underwear!

What Do You Know For Sure?

I know that my happiness and satisfaction in life is my responsibility! Sure others can have a huge impact for better or for worse. Ultimately though, it is up to me to determine how I’m going to view things, respond to situations, and if I’m going to dwell on the negative or look at the positive. It is up to me to take responsibility for being happy and satisfied!

Proud Aunt!!!

I am such the proud Aunt! My 6 and 8 year old nieces ran a 5K trail run this past weekend and did awesome!!! Emma, the 8 year old, has run a few races before, but this was Sophie’s first trail run, and I think her first 5K as well.

These little ladies have so much determination and support from my sister and her husband that they can’t help but be successful! They both finished top of their age division and Emma finished 57th out of 127th overall! My sister said that once the race started Emma took off and she didn’t see her again until the finish. She was out there running with the adults by herself like it was nothing.

I am not a runner, never have been and never will be so it amazes me that my sister and brother-in-law run marathons, but it amazes me even more that the kids love running as well!
So proud of them all!

Pics are out of order...this is Sohpie, my sister, and Emma after the race.

Sophie...looks like she is having a rough time. Beth said Soph was not happy to find the downhill was harder than the uphill...her little legs were shot!

Emma off and running with a smile!

Sophie and Beth on the trail.

NFL Fines and Suspensions

I have been asked several times the last few days how I feel about some of the hard hits in the NFL (and college) that happened over the weekend. And, honestly I have mixed feelings about it.

First let me say that my well wishes go out to Rutgers player Eric LeGrand and his family. I hate to see someone get hurt, especially when it is as life altering as being paralyzed from the neck down.

Before I proceed with my opinion about fines and possible suspension let me state again that I HATE to see players at any level get hurt on the field.

I have given the whole concussion concern in the NFL a lot of thought this year, mostly because I spent a month and a half this summer recovering from a serious concussion. (No I’m not trying to compare my concussion to those that football players receive as there is no way for me to do that until I have the opportunity to play at that level and get hit like they do.) It amazes me that players come back as soon as they do after a concussion, especially since I know how out of it I was, how bad I felt, and how hard it was for me to think straight for weeks on end after my concussion. I didn’t feel “normal” for 6 weeks and I didn’t have to come back to the fast pace of a game and make split second decisions that impact my team, fans, community, and ffb managers all over the world.

Having been through a concussion myself I would love to find a way for the game to be played so that no one is hurt like that or worse paralyzed! However, I’m not so sure that fines and suspension are the answer. The NFL handed out $175,000.00 worth of fines to three players today and is informing teams as of tomorrow that suspensions will be handed out in the future for vicious hits. I can’t say I’m totally on board with this strategy.

I would be all for fines and suspensions if I thought the hits were intentional and the players making the hits are purposely trying to seriously hurt people, but I just don’t think that is the case. I think the days of purposely “head hunting” or trying to “take people out” are/have been pretty much over in the NFL. For one if you are blatant about it you get penalized during the game, there are already fines handed out for “dirty” hits, and no one wants to risk hurting themselves so badly while purposely trying to hurt another player that they will miss games due to injury.

By nature football is a violent sport. You have 22 grown men on the field and their job is to tackle each other and stop each other from scoring. 22 full grown men running at each other as fast as they can with the intent to tackle each other to the ground…yep injuries are going to happen, but that does not mean the tackles are “dirty”.

The pace of the game is so fast, plays happen so quickly and opposing players shift and move so fast that some hits can’t be controlled at all. I see it time and time again…a player commits to a course of action and the person they are trying to tackle shifts or moves and all of a sudden you are missing the tackle completely or grabbing a shoe string when you were actually going for a tackle around the waste, or you aim for the chest/waist and they lower their head and now it is head to head.

Are there acceptations…absolutely! There are some players that get pissed off or don’t like someone and they want to make them hurt, and there are some long-standing nasty rivalries out there, and in those games they really do want to hurt each other and they put a little extra on each hit. In those rare cases fines and/or suspensions may be appropriate. But the true “dirty” player and/or “dirty” hits are few and far between in my opinion.

I will be the first to admit I like dirty, hard-hitting, grind it in the dirt football! I grew up on it and love it and would be sad to see that style of football fade away…so yes my opinion may be clouded by that. There has to be a way to balance letting the guys play and making sure it is as safe as possible. I just don’t want to see so many rules and penalties that guys are not able to, or are too scared to make plays for fear of losing money or being suspended.

Steelers Post Game Thoughts

And that is a STEELERS WIN folks!

Ben looked great I thought. Yes he threw an INT, but most QB’s do at one point or another. And, after that INT he was spot on the rest of the game. He could have gone either way…totally rusty and off, or totally on and ready to prove himself. I’m glad he was totally on. Can’t wait to see how the rest of the season goes. I won’t even start thinking SB yet…ok maybe I will think it a little…I think they could do it this year again.

How did I do with my predictions…

My Predictions: What Really Happened:
2 Passing TD’s 3 Passing TD’s
1 Defensive TD 0 Defensive TD’s
1 (maybe 2) Rushing TD’s 1 Rushing TD

Not too shabby considering that is the first time I have EVER tried to predict what would happen in a game, at least I got the total number of TD’s right if you don’t count the maybe on the rushing td prediction. I’m still no good at predicting final scores though.

I was every so happy the Red Zone showed a lot of the Steelers game. There were just as interested in seeing what Ben and Colt McCoy would do as I was apparently. I got to see more of the game than I thought I would.

My only regret…dropping Mike Wallace from two of my Fantasy teams! Now that Ben is back I think his numbers are going to be great, but I just didn’t have room on my bench to hang onto him until Ben came back. Maybe I should have re-thought that, but oh well, he has been picked up by other managers already so what’s done is done. However, I do have Ward still and think his numbers will jump considerable now that Ben is back in the game.

As for FFB…too soon to say how this week will end up. I still have players going tonight and am in some really close match-ups, would like to at least pull out a win in the Battle Of The Sexes league so I can have a 3 game winning streak, but it will be close. Funny thing is I’m up against Michelle in that league so even if I lose I’m losing to my best friend, which makes it less frustrating for me. Oddly that same reasoning does not work when I lose to Mark…HMMM.

Work Out Update for last week:
Tuesday – Chambers Bay with Bishop
Wednesday – Dodgeball
Thursday – Tracy Anderson
Sunday – Tracy Anderson (fit it in between the afternoon game and the evening game.

So once again met my goal of 4 workouts a week.

Steelers Pre-Game Thoughts

Ben is back today! I was all set to not like him and hope he would end up going away at some point, but I will admit I'm excited he is back and after seeing multiple interview with him...I really want to believe him. So for now he gets a pass from me. However, one more tiny little mess-up and I'm done with him...I may resort to letter writing and phone calls to the head office to share my feelings if he screws up one more time.

Now for the game...I think Ben is lucky he is making his come-back against the Browns! Colt McCoy is the unluckiest rookie starting a game ever! I predict Ben comes out on fire...throwing like crazy, setting the run game up for a huge day and as always the D will crushing! I'm going out on a limb here...2 passing TD's, 1 defensive TD, 1 (maybe 2) rushing TD.

I was going to go to Hooters to watch the game, but don't really want to go alone (Mark is hunting) and I'm in the most comfy shirt, boxers, and knee highs...my couch and the red zone (I will at least see every Steelers scoring play) sound really good today!

Busy Friday Night

Friday Night happened to be Joey's B-Day party at Doyles, Mt. Tahoma's homecoming, and the grand opening of a bar in Tacoma. All of which we had been invited to. So Mark and I hit Doyles for long enough to have a drink and eat dinner and chill with Joey for a bit. Then, even though neither one of us went to Mt. Tahoma we ended up at the game with a bunch of our friends that did go to Mt. Tahoma. I was really looking forward to watching a live football game, but what a bust...game was crap...Mt. T was getting annihilated, so we left after the half-time show (what a joke that was!) and went to Fever a new bar that Bob's sister and husband are managing. You get a free burger basket with the purchase of any drink and let me tell you the fries are the BOMB!!! We did all that and somehow managed to be home around 10pm!

Mark and I at the game.

Mark being silly!

Mark, Dave, Alex...Dave and Alex are Mt. Tahoma alum along with Bob and Josh. I think there were more alum at the game than current student body! No wonder considering the football team stinks! (Sorry guys!)

Friday Plans

So glad it is Friday! I am feeling so much better today than I did at the beginning of the week.

Tonight we have a B-Day party, a football game, and a bar grand opening to go to. Busy night for us, but will be fun!

Sorry...no funny quote or conversation to share...was kind of out of it all week with the cold.

Fun with the Nieces

Tuesday night Mark had Rebekah and Emily for a few hours while their Mom was busy and decided it was time for the girls to carve their first Jack-O-Lanterns. He took them to H&L produce and got them each some nice big pumpkins to carve.

I came home to find pumpkin guts all over the dining room table, but I didn’t mind because it meant roasted pumpkin seeds! Which also brings me to my recipe of the week…

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Rinse all the pumpkin pulp off the seeds, pat dry and spread on a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil and Worcestershire sauce over seeds and sprinkle with Sea Salt. Use hands to mix up and make sure all seeds are coated. Roast until golden brown, I think it took about 20 to 30 minutes. Use a spatula to turn during roasting.

The verdict? Mark and the girls loved it and I would rather snack on that then popcorn!

Pumpkin Guts!

Carving the eyes.

The girls with their Jack-O-Lanterns.

I hate being sick!!!

I hate colds, especially when they are on the verge of being more than a cold! I have had a wicked sore throat, sinuses that are killing me, and have been coughing stuff up for days! I went to the Dr. Monday, you know it is bad when I go in to the Dr as I like to let my body work through things on it's own, only to find it is viral and there is nothing they can do. Mostly I wanted to make sure I didn't need antibiotics in case it was strep, that is how bad my throat hurt!

So for the last 4 days I have skipped workouts, (ok I did do Chambers Bay with Bishop last night and at a faster pace than usual because it was dark before I finished, but it did help get the crud in my chest moving!) been drinking hot tea and eating chicken noodle soup (or plain white rice with butter because it is the only thing that sounds good), lounging in my pj's a lot in the evenings, and taking NyQuil every night. While I despise having to take any form of medication, I would rather use natural remedies or just let my immune system do it's thing, I am ever so thankful for NyQuil otherwise I would be up coughing all night and would be exhausted on top of being sick.

Thankfully it seems to be working because I feel a lot better today. Sore throat is pretty much gone and my sinuses have calmed down. What has not gone away is the cough and the rattle in my chest. We have Dogeball tonight, and I'm playing at full speed like I usually do...I will sound like a dying sea lion, but oh well.

I will say being sick as an adult really sucks! As a kid you could stay home with a cold and lounge in pj's, watch movies, and my favorite part...play with new paper dolls! But as an adult I have to be pretty sick to stay home from work and stop functioning in every day life.

What Do You Know For Sure?

Be content with who you are, while always realizing there is room for improvement. I am not perfect by any means, but I am pretty happy with who I am. At the same time my improvement list is long and that is ok. I don’t beat myself up about it. Keep enjoying life, enjoying who I am, and taking time to reflect and improve.

FFB Update

This season is making me crazy! The one league that I have an amazing team in and I can’t put together back-to-back wins, the league I was responsible for starting I can’t win in at all, and the new league that I’m in is now starting to get interesting and frustrating due abandonment issues with one of the teams.

Jock & Jill Straps – Another lose…I am now 0-5. At this point I think I’m going to start throwing games just to see if I can score in single digits. I was up against Mark this weekend and much to his delight he annihilated me! And, as if totally grinding me into the carpet was not enough he wanted to score even more points to move up in the league. Bad, bad, bad!

Work League – Another lose drops me to 2-3. It was my special privilege to lose to the 10 year old this weekend! Well in truth we are tied right at this moment, but he has two players going tonight, and I am done, so he will beat me easily.

BOTS – This is the only league I won in, convincingly I might add, and against someone who is supposed to be REALLY GOOD at FFB! My QB has not even played yet and I’m so far ahead that I don’t even need him to play in order to win. Best part is this was one of the wins I really wanted and it should pull out of last place! 2-3 in the league and I’m beginning to think this league is my best chance at a .500 or maybe even a winning season. It will depend on how I survive the next few bye weeks.

Overall I’m 4-11…not great by any means.

Did anyone watch the Raiders game? That was way more exciting than I thought it would be and they won!!! For once I was a Raiders fan…I can’t stand Philip Rivers and was glad to see the Chargers lose!

Football Sunday

Today I got up showered, put real cloths on, did the whole hair/make-up thing and met Michelle at The Office, a new sports bar downtown, to watch football and drink some beer. The first couple of hours we had the place to ourselves and the bar tender was the best. My laptop would not connect to their Wi-Fi, so she let us use her laptop so we could check our stats while we were there.

A few beers, good food, watching football on multiple TV's, Kaleena popping in for a bit all makes for a great Football Sunday!

Now...home in pj's on the couch watching Sunday night football and Mark is cooking. Life is good!

Work Out Update

I did pretty well this week:
Monday - Zumba
Tuesday - Massage so no work out
Wednesday - Dodgeball (that is enough of a work out!)
Thursday - Tracy Anderson
Friday - No work out
Saturday - Zumba warm up then walked a 5K (more on that later...once the pics are ready)
Sunday - Is football day...no work out will be happening!

My goal is 4 work outs per week and I feel like I did that. No work outs do not mean I'm always in the gym lifting weights, but really to me it means I'm doing something active that makes me sweat and I feel it the next day...so mission accomplished!

Total side note...ND won their game today!!! So Happy!!!

Something is up!

I don't know what the problem is but I'm making posts and they are showing up all out of order and with wrong dates. Sorry for the technical glitch! I really am posting every day...they are just showing up as older posts and out of order for some reason.

First Dodgeball Game!

Dodgie Style had its first two games tonight. Our first game was against Trainwreck, which a spin-off of our team from last year. Andy decided he and his friends wanted to have their own team. We managed to schedule two practices before our first game and Andy's team joined us at both practices. During practice the games were pretty even, so I was wondering how we would do against them...guess what...we did great! Our first win of the night and it set us up to head into the second game of our doubleheader.

Bring on the Wonderballs! Of all the teams we have played in Dodgeball, Kickball, and Softball they are our favorite team! Always competitive, but always really nice and fun to hang out with after the games. They are a pretty decent test of our skill set as a team and we beat them 7 games to 1 in a 20 minute match!

Pretty much we owned both teams tonight and it felt great!!!

Shout out to Kev and Kaleena for being MVP'S, Kev for game one and Kaleena for game two. Good job guys!

Can't wait to see what next week brings!

Recipe of the Week

So I totally stole this recipe from my sister and her husband...props to Beth and Brian for creating such a odd yet yummy mix for healthy enchiladas! Actually we ate them more like a soft taco than an enchilada, but I guess when you are the one cooking it you can call it what you want.

Yummy Enchiladas or Soft Tacos...take your pick. :)

Corn Tortillas
Kidney Beans - drained
Pineapple chunks - drained
Green Enchilada sauce
Cilantro
Onion
Chicken - I added that on my own...I don't think chicken was part of the original recipe, but I could be wrong about that.

Put all in a crock pot and cook for a few hours (I cooked mine on low for 4 hours because the chicken was cold and I wanted it good and hot!)

Warm tortillas and fill with mixture from crock pot.

I suppose you could add sour cream and cheese on top with a little more enchilada sauce on top if you wanted to make enchiladas, but we went plain with the tortillas and the mixture from the crock pot.

Sorry there are not measurements on how much of each...I just did it until it looked like there was enough of each thing to taste good. If you are a structured cook (sort of like me) embrace the lack of measuring and just eyeballing it...it was sort of freeing!

Conversation of the Week!

(First let me just say I did make a post yesterday, but due to technical difficulties it is not showing. I really didn't miss a day!)

Happened in Zubma class. A little background - there are a few Mom's that bring their 7 to 10 year old boys to class and let them sit in the back of the class. I am not a fan of this as it is a class full of women shaking everything they have to songs like "Put Your Back Into It"! Needless to say they sit there with grins on their faces the entire class.



Monday night one of the boys says, "Hey babe, I want to see you drop it low." My response, "In 10 years I would slap you for that comment."



I hope that by the time he is old enough to buy a girl a drink he has better lines than that!

What Do You Know For Sure?

One of my favorite Oprah questions is What Do You Know For Sure? Every time she asks someone that it makes me think about what I know for sure for me and my life. One thing I know for sure is...

Life is just too complicated, messy, and challenging to judge others. I truly believe the majority of people are not malicious and don’t plot and plan to be hurtful or mean, and are trying to live their life the best way they can. Sure they will make mistakes and do hurtful things and sometimes do flat out mean things. But, I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and not judge lest I be judged myself.

Does that mean I will roll over and be hurt again and again…not at all! I have ended friendships/relationships that were not healthy, but I do realize those involved have a life path that I have not walked and I believe they are doing the best they can with what they have to work with both externally and internally. Sometimes I just can’t be part of their life journey.

BTW - Stay tuned for further What Do You Know For Sure? posts this month, along with a quote or conversation of the week post every week as well. All part of helping me blog every day!

Fantasy Football Update

I did better this week! Won in two leagues and lost in one and tonight's game will not help or hurt me in any way.

Work League (Made up of co-workers and the 10 year old son of a co-worker, 6 teams total) - No surprises there…I was pretty much going to win no matter what. BTW – the 10 year old won last year and is off and running again this year…makes me sick!

BOTS (Battle of the Sexes league) (made up of 6 guys & 6 girls I only know 4 of the 12 people in this league, Michelle being one of the girls) - I have been really bad in this league! Struggling with QB issues, having 3 of 4 bench spots with injured players sitting in them, and having one or two starters that are off to really slow starts this season. It has all lead to me being in last place sitting at 0-3 and this week I was up against the number one team in the league. He was undefeated and looking pretty good! That is until I beat him this week! Let’s hope I can keep up the winning streak for a few weeks and at least get to 500!

Jock and Jill Straps league (made up of friends ie. Bob & Michelle, Mark, Nolan, Josh and several others 12 teams total.) – I am 0-4 and don’t really see any light at the end of the losing tunnel. This week I managed to only score 22 points…mind you to win you need to be around 120 in this league! My QB is Jay Cutler who was sacked 9 times in the first half and didn’t come back out of the locker room after halftime. I don’t blame him though…if I had been knocked on my butt that many times in a half I would hide out in the locker room as well! Ok to be fair to him the report is he suffered a concussion during one of the sacks and that is why he did not come back out.

Overall I’m 3-12 between all three leagues…not good! I have made all the roster changes I can or probably should. Now it is time to wait and see what happens.

Football Sunday

Steelers post-game analysis - Batch was off...way off in his passing game. And, Reed missed critical field goal attempts...he needs to practice at the windy end more often! I will be sure to call the Steelers office and tell them that! All in all I'm feeling pretty good about 3-1 without Ben. Will be interesting to see if Ben comes back on fire or if he needs a few games to get on track.

Yesterday Michelle and I both had hair appointments. She got a new hair cut and I got a cut and color touch up. Our plan was to get our hair done, swing by one of the many sports bars around and catch the ND game and call it a day. However, Michelle was feeling so sassy with her new hair we decided to do an impromptu girls night out and go dancing so she could have fun with the new cut. We picked up Kaleen along the way, but she ended up not feeling so hot, so Michelle and I boogied until closing! After leaving the house at 9:15 am I finally made it home at 2 am, and had so much fun all day hanging with Michelle!

Michelle getting the new cut styled and dried.

A friend recommend a sports bar in Puyallup we could go to and watch the ND game...on our way there we drove past a Dr's office with a giant heart on a pole outside...very odd!

Fail

Blogging fail...only day three and already I missed a day! :(

In my defence I had no idea that when I left the house yesterday at 9:30 am that I would not get home until 2 am this morning. I will post more about my day along with a few pics later.

In the meantime we are watching the RedZone and catching what we can of the Steelers game. We were going to go to Hooters, but the whole 2 am thing messed that up.

October Blogging Plan

It seems I have gotten lazy about making regular posts. I have fallen into the habit of thinking that unless there is something exciting to tell then there is no reason to blog. Let’s face it…life is not overly exciting every day, nor do I want it to be.

Last time I felt that way posting every day for a month got me back into the habit of blogging. So I am going to do make a post a day for the whole month of October. All 31 days!

My plan for topics:
-Feature a recipe a week: I was doing so good about trying new recipes and then the busy summer hit and Mark grilled almost all our food. Now it is time for me to get back to one of the things I love doing and that is cooking and trying new recipes.

-Weekly Workout Updates: My goal ever since the concussion has been to get back to my regular workout schedule, but again the busy summer was here and that has not happened. My goal is Zumba Monday and Thursday, Tracy Anderson Tuesday, Dodgeball Wednesday. Saturday will either be Zumba or Tracy Anderson just depends on what we have going on and when I can fit the workout in. My goal is 4 workouts a week, 5 will be a great bonus! One caveat - I reserve the right to replace any workout with walking Chambers Bay with Bishop…3 + miles of crazy hills in under 45 minutes.

-Steelers Football: I seem to always have a thought or opinion as of late, so will continue sharing those. I will shoot for pre-game thoughts and post-game analysis. I will probably also include Fantasy Football updates for how I'm doing in my three leagues.

-More Pics: I am horrible about keeping my camera with me, but starting tomorrow (I don’t have it with me today) I am keeping it in my purse and will take pics of whatever I think should be photo documented.

-Dodgeball: Now that Dodgeball has started and I’m the team captain I’m sure I will have lot’s to say about the team and how things are going. I already like being in charge…I can tell you that!

I have a few other ideas in my head, but until I can firm them up, or more like make the commitment to them, I will keep them to myself for now.

Happy reading!