A Busy April

Donkey agrees, it was quite the busy month.

Total Running Mileage: 23.25 miles

My mileage is still pretty measly, but with the purchase of two new pairs of running shoes and some new running motivation (running friends & groups) I have a good feeling for May.

Fitness Classes:

My work schedule does not really work well with the fitness classes offered at the gym. There may be a few nights I can squeeze in Zumba but other than I’m going to have to get creative in my workouts. Hence why I foresee a lot more running in my future, (it’s a great solo fitness activity).

Class-of-the-month: Sexy Yoga & Dance

Race of the Month: The Dirty Girl Mud Run – Atlanta, GA

Announcement of the month: What’s next for the Alabama’s?

Hello Texas! [We still have a few months here in GA].

Army Moment of the month: Graduation!

J. graduated from his Army Officer Basic Leadership Course – which was a 5 month course that brought us to GA in the first place.

Since we already here in Fort Benning, he has decided to add on a few more smaller schools such as Ranger, ARC (Armor Reconnaissance Course), and maybe even Airborne.  Which is why we will be in GA a little bit longer than we originally thought.

My not-so-favorite Army Moment: Saying goodbye.

We Army Wives have grown really close over the last few months, so it was really hard to say goodbye when our first Army Wife had to move on to their next duty station.

It’s inevitable that we will all have to leave at some point, but saying goodbye was really sad. Kait was my first real friend here.

 Special Visitors:

Not only did we get to spend a lovely week with my parents this month, we also had a quick visit with J’s sister. Yay for family!

And let’s not forget the epic 2.5 day road trip to Daytona Beach to visit my Grandma!

***

April Aftermath:

April was a busy busy month and I think things might be slowing down just a wee bit this month. I don’t have anything huge and exciting planned for this month, except for that whole turning 29 thing. Eeek. LOL.

Stay tuned, as you just never know what crazy shenanigans are happening over here!

The Dirty Girl Mud Run [Atlanta]

On Saturday I embarked on an adventure of endurance, strength and filth.

Before:

After:

The Dirty Girl Mud Run kicked off in Atlanta, Georgia and I was so excited to be there representing FitFluential out on the course.

And in true Fitfluential [and Linzi] style, I ran this race with a girl of whom I’d met only once, and randomly at that [we met on a college campus while I was working an expo for my running store job and within a few minutes of meeting she had signed up to run this race with me]. True story.

Yay for fitness friends!

As you might know, I am a mud running veteran. I’ve got two Dirty Dashes under my belt, but I honestly still did not know quite what to expect at The Dirty Girl race.

All I knew is that this was going to be a women only race, and it was sure to be a good time had by all.

A huge shout out to my friend (and photographer) Emily! I would have been so lost without her to keep me company on the 2 hour drive from Columbus to Atlanta.

We arrived at the expo to pick up my packet roughly two hours before my wave start. Thank goodness we did, as the packet pickup lines were loooooooooong!

And not to mention is was in the upper 80’s! It was so hot that I was actually daydreaming about diving into the mudpit.

After I picked up my packet I was on the hunt for my running partner. We found each other in the crowd and quickly got pumped up about the adventure we would soon be going on.

Oh yeah, and a few pre-race photos were taken. We had to get some clean ones in there before all the dirty ones to follow. LOL.

There was a super fun vibe going on at the start line. The music was blasting, and everyone was cheering and dancing. I was pumped!

Soon enough we were lined up to start the race, and then we were off!

We actually ran about a half mile through the park before we hit our first obstacle which ended up being a tower of hay bails that we had to climb over.

After that we continued running on in the heat to find our second obstacle involved an army style crawl through mud under a netting. Yay we were finally getting dirty!

Our third obstacle was a love a much desired pit of mud. We watched as several of the women were prancing through it and coming out fairly clean.

So we decided that we wanted to get as muddy as possible, and just dive right on in.

Okay… ready…1,2,3….Dive head first!!

Oh yeah! We had mud everywhere after this!

Ewww…..muddy!

Next up was the tire run.

All was going well until Sheena proclaimed “This will be fine as long as I don’t eat it…”

Well right back up she went! The tire run was actually harder than I imagined it would be and I’m surprised that I didn’t fall.

We ended up skipping one obstacle after the tire run. The line was backed up by like 40 people and I could feel my skin burning from the sun.

So we just zig-zagged through the park until we made our way to the next obstacle.

The net climb was one of the hardest obstacles in my opinion. It was like 30 feet high and a bit scary once you hit the top and had to climb down.

But we both conquered it like champs!  

There were a few more obstacles after the net climb, but it wasn’t in range of our photographers. We had to scaled down the side of a hill and then scale back up it.

Then we had one final run to the final pit of mud.

And head first again! It was too fun to just dive right in.

We sped to the finish line and were jumping with excitement when we had finished!

 

We were hot, sweaty, muddy and happy! Go Dirty Girls!

It was so tempting not just give her the world’s biggest muddiest hug…lol but I played nice and we faked this hug for the camera.

We then headed to the shower area. Girls only!

I appreciated how the race catered to women, as it was a women’s only race.

And I was completely in awe of the gigantic shoe donation pile.

It was an awesome feeling to throw our shoes into the mix after the race and know they will be going to good home.

Then it was time to celebrate our accomplishments with a nice frosty Busch beer. Mmmm…nothing ever tasted so good!

My experience of the race was a positive one. It was so fun to run with just women, and I think they made the obstacles challenging enough but with easier options for those who maybe weren’t feeling it.

There was definitely an abundance of water stops [thank goodness] as I think we would have passed out due to the heat. And the volunteers were amazing!!

The running portion of the race was actually more than I expected. But I’m glad, I still wanted to count this race as a workout. And I think it was judging by how sore I was on Sunday morning!

And the t-shirt and necklace we received were a fun girly touch.

It was such a fun race and I was so glad to have been given the opportunity to do it. I wish I had connected with some of the other FitFluential people out there, but it was kind of a mad house at the race start I didn’t end up finding any of them.

I can honestly say my Dirty Girl Mud Run experience was a great one! And even after two showers I was still finding dirt on me!

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this campaign. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Back to Reality

Holy smokes has the time flown right on by! I was out gallivanting around with my parent’s last week and found myself completely unplugged this week just trying to catch up on life.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from my adventures last week.

road trippin’ glasses

lighthouse

daytona beach

grama ‘n me

rockin’ the beach hat and glasses

   bingo!

a little more sun on the way out

outlet malls

aromatherapy yoga

margaritas!

best southern cookin’  [ezell’s catfish cabin]

goodbye’s suck.

The week went by so quickly… and honestly we snuck in as much stuff as we could into that short trip. So fun! Sad to say goodbye, but I know I will definitely be back home this summer for my older brother’s wedding!

***

Happy mud running friends! Wish me luck as tomorrow I embark on an adventure full of fun and mud.

I’ll be back next week with a full report of The Dirty Girl Mud Run –the Atlanta Edition.

I Tweeted and I Liked it

I mentioned awhile back that we were expecting some special visitors here in the south…

Well well well… My parents landed in GA on Saturday and we’ve been having blast showing them around.

One of the things on the schedule was to check out a fun play at the Springer Opera House. I thought the show ‘I Tweeted on My iPad (and liked it)’ sounded right up my alley.

All I knew about the show was that tweeting and Facebook-ing during the performance were highly encouraged.

Before the start of the show the event staff was very helpful to make sure all the audience members were able to access twitter and Facebook on their smart phones.

Yes, they made sure we ‘liked’ the shows’ Facebook page so we could add photos and comments on their page during the show. So fun!

The show had a Saturday Night Live-esque feeling to it. There were small skits that were hilarious and typically involved some kind of joke about technology.

In between each skit they would show a large screen behind the actors with a live twitter feed and Facebook view so you could follow what the other audience members were saying about the show.

There were also opportunities for the audience to vote for certain outcomes of the skits via twitter or Facebook. This audience participation aspect really made the show that much more fun. I felt like we really were part of the show!

One of my favorite scenes was that making fun of Angry Birds.

Oh man…the photo isn’t that good but you can imagine the rest. Too funny!

The show did a great job of touching on the issues that the new age of technology has brought (ie..texting while walking/driving, You Tube videos, the lack of face to face personal interaction, to name a few…)

I mean if you think about life 10 years ago we really have come a long way. It’s funny to think about a life before cell phones, Google, digital cameras etc….

We had a blast at the show and I was glad to be able to experience another fun touristy Columbus activity.

***

Now I’m off to explore more of the south with the fam….be back soon!

And Happy Marathon monday!!

Sexy Yoga & Dance

I’m not scared to try a new fitness class, but I will admit that when I saw the new Sexy Yoga & Dance class added to the Army Gym’s schedule I wasn’t exactly sure what to think.

I think I was more curious than anything what exactly this class was all about. And you know me…I can’t just wonder I need to know!

So with one brave army wife friend in tow we headed to Sexy Yoga & Dance yesterday to see first hand what it was all about.

The class is a women’s only class that is taught in very dimly lit room. The ambience was very inviting [lots of white Christmas lights and candle light] when we walked in.

The teacher had us arrange our mats in a circle as she sat in the middle and instructed us.

The first half of the class was done on the yoga mat. Basically regular yoga moves were spiced up a bit with a few erotic moves and encouragement to feel our bodies.

The teacher wanted us to feel comfortable with our own bodies and in the space of the room, and pretty much anything goes mentality.

The yoga moves we did were sensual, but actually felt good. Imagine doing Cat/Cow but adding in hip rotations.

Once the yoga segment was over we ditched the mats and headed straight for the mirror. We began by shaking our hips and doing some sexy hip hop dance moves to get warmed up.

At some point during the dance segment it began to feel like we were at a pole dancing lesson (minus the pole). She had us grinding against a wall and being sexy to the music.

It was interesting to say the least, but not necessarily my cup of tea. I appreciated the yoga segment as it felt good to shake things up a bit, but my sexy dance confidence just wasn’t ready for what she was throwing at us yesterday.

I am glad I went and checked it out first hand, and now I know what it’s all about. It was fun to try something new, but I’m not so sure that I will be adding this class to my normal rotation.

***

Happy Thursday!! And thank you for all your kind words on my last post about moving to Texas. It’s going to be an adventure!

Lone Star

I’ve kept y’all on your toes a bit about the next move in our Army adventure. Since we are only a day away from J’s graduation I felt it appropriate to spill the beans today.

You probably already guessed it by reading the title of today’s blog post. Yes, we are moving to TEXAS!

It’s taken a little while to get used to the idea but I have been pleasantly surprised by Georgia. So I think I’m warming to the idea of liking Texas too.

And if all goes as planned – we will be stationed in El Paso for a few years. Which means I can actually unpack some of the boxes that have been piling up since October of last year.

It’s crazy to read back on my post about moving from Idaho to Georgia (I remember writing and rewriting it many times). I was outwardly optimistic, but inwardly I was in such a different place.

Now I sort of know what to expect for our future move. LOL.

We still have a little while left in Georgia. We hope to be moving to Texas sometime in the early Fall, but with the Army you still just never know. [Really just depends on what training school's J adds on after this point].

Now I am just going to appreciate all the little things here. As the guy’s gear up for graduation tomorrow…I gear up my little heart to start the goodbye’s to some of my close friends here who will leave before us.

That’s the part about moving that sucks. Saying goodbye and starting all over again.

Though change is a good thing, it’s definitely hard. Moving to Texas will be yet another adventure that will make me stronger and provide me with some new perspective.

***

Where are my Texans at? Shout out please! Tell me all the goods about Texas, longhorns, etc… I seriously don’t know anything about Texas.

Easy Peasy Pinterest

I like to claim that I’m not the crafty type, but I’m sure after viewing my kitchen chair makeover you may wondering why I would say such a thing.

Maybe the more correct statement to make is this: “I wasn’t the crafty type until… Pinterest came into my life. Ha ha!

Today’s easy craft was one I kept seeing on Pinterest… the cutesy little yarn letter.

You start with the letter block, which I found at Michael’s. Of course we went with “A” for Alabama.

And all you need is some yarn in your desired color, a hot glue gun, and some patience.

Gluing the bottoms of the “A” were the hardest because they were very small and the yarn did not want to stay put.

The key is to keep wrapping and gluing, wrapping and gluing until you are happy with the look.

I thought this little project added a fun little pop of color to our living room. And I was happy with how it looks on our mantle.

I think anyone can be crafty — it just takes the right project to build confidence. I would have never in a million years thought I would be blogging about crafts!

But I am happy to say that if I can do it, so can you! Easy peasy!

Happy crafty Wednesday!

What are your favorite easy peasy pinterest inspired DIY/craft projects?