Fruit Stripe Gum

Remember it?

I'm chewing it right now.

Do you remember how that amazing flavor lasted for only approximately two minutes?  Well now they claim that the flavor lasts longer.  Right on the package.  And you know what?  It does last longer.  About a whole minute and a half longer.  That's almost double!

These awesome zebra action tattoos are on every gum wrapper.  I have this one on my hand right now.

What Is It About CrossFit?

I got my first taste of this phenomenon called CrossFit exactly three weeks ago when I began a six week long CrossFit bootcamp. 

It's brutal. It's exhausting. It's wonderful. The first two weeks I was pretty sure that I wouldn't make it through the whole thing. The soreness of my body after each class would last for days, and as soon as I started recovering, it was time for the next class and I'd start all over.

After the first class of week three, I was surprised at how sore I was not the next day. I'm getting stronger! 

I can't decide what it is about CrossFit though that keeps me going back. It's hard stuff. Last night for instance, there were several times where I thought I was just going to pass out.  By the end when we stood up to stretch, I started seeing stars. 

Would I feel differently about it if half of the class wasn't made up of disc doggers?  We do all of our warm ups and line drills in a different room, and for some reason even though it's mostly just physical torture that happens there, I can't wait to get back and do it again.  I don't like exercising. But I love CrossFitting. 

Last night my workout consisted of the following:
Line drills for warmup
20 burpees
40 situps
20 pushups
100 jump rope singles
50 squats
25 jumping pullups
20 wall balls
30 lunges w/ 10lb weight overhead
20 more burpees
Then for 'dessert' we got to do 2 rounds of 30 second planks and 30 second side planks and 30 more situps.

It's crazy stuff. But I havent been able to do 70 situps since... well, never. 

CrossFit baby!

Crate Games

Since I started following Susan Garrett's blog, I've been more and more interested in learning her dog training methods. Her blog posts are confusing enough to make perfect sense to me.  It's really interesting.

A couple of weeks ago I recieved one of her training dvd's called Success with One Jump. We quickly discovered that we had more work to do before we could get very far with that one.  So I ordered her Crate Games dvd. 

Crate Games is very basic stuff. It's teaching the dog self control while teaching them to love their crate (which for performance dogs is essential because they spend a lot of time in them at competitions) and to be calm and quiet in their crate while other dogs are working. It's good stuff for Frankie because she can get a little feisty if she can't see me while she's crated at a comp.  It's great stuff for Kirby because he will bark and paw and whine while other dogs are working, whether I'm sitting right there or not.  Jake's an old pro with the crate and will even spend time in his while the door is open, but it's never too late to teach an old dog new tricks.  Plus, Jake likes to participate and needs to use his brain just like every other dog.

I always think about getting a video of training, and I thought about it last night as I worked all three large dogs through the first stage of Crate Games.  But did I pause and grab the camera?  Nope.  Reading about it and seeing it in action are very different, and the latter is just much more interesting to the average person. I'm working on it.

In the meantime, I would highly recommend SG's stuff. Its easy to understand and it makes sense. 

A Gift

I've been given one of the greatest gifts.

A few months back, I went to the ER for pain in my right side.  I feared appendicitis or some such. $2000 in medical bills and months of pain and anxiety later and the only results of my visits were laxitives.  They thought that I was constipated.  The pain persisted and the laxitives did nothing but make me more miserable.  A couple of weeks ago, I finally pressed on.  I went back to the clinic and saw yet another doctor. No, in fact, she's not even a doctor, but a nurse practitioner. She agreed that it was probably not my digestive tract and probably had more to do with my 'girlie parts'. She ordered pelvic and abdominal ultrasounds and the next day I was told that they had found a 5cm mass next to my right ovary.

It took me about 36 hours to fully absorb that news and get my brain to function clearly again. In the time since I recieved this news, my life has changed.  It's amazing how much more I appreciate the little things. I find joy in things that I never had before.  I love to read, but in the past week, that time I spend with my book is more precious. Standing outside in the crisp air while I wait for my dogs to do their business and let off some steam.  Washing the dishes and folding fresh, clean laundry.  Every kiss and embrace from my fiancee means even more than it did before, if that's even possible.

All of this, and I hadn't even known what was happening to my body yet. The only news I was told was that this unknown thing was growing inside my body. 

This morning, I had another doc appointment. Up to this point, I was sure that surgery or something else invasive would be the next step.  But to my surprise, I was told that it was shrinking. My doctors are not concerned at this point. It will be a waiting game, but my mind is at ease. 

I've been given a gift.  Not only the gift of good health.  But the gift of a clearer mind and a stronger, more acute ability to appreciate my life for what it is.  Life is a God given gift. It can be taken from you at any time, so don't take for granted the little things that make up the whole!

Frosted

Back to Basics

Over the weekend, I recieved my Susan Garrett dvd in the mail. I was really eager to watch it, so when Red took off to go fishing, I popped it in and took a look-see.

Within the first five minutes I realized that I had a lot more work to do before we could even begin many of Susan's techniques.  I was really impressed with what I saw, though.  But what I can't wrap my head around is how you train a dog to understand the cues.

One thing that really grabbed me is something called 'Shadow Handling'. It helps to teach the dog where to be in regards to your arm and position.  Essencially, once your dog fully understands the shadow handling, you can run around sporatically and move your dog from one side to the other with just your hand position. It was cool to watch.  But I haven't the foggiest idea how to get my dogs that far.

I had a tug rope and grabbed Kirby to work first. The exercise we did (which was from the dvd) was having him sit, walking away, dropped the tug, and when he looks at the tug, I release him to get it.  When he had that, I'd move out further and toss the toy out parallel to me and again when he looked at the tug I released him.  Then I pulled out a jump and set it out in the living room and introduced Kirby to it. Then I put him in a sit and tried to guide him over the jump using the tug toy.  He didnt want to jump it.  So he went around instead.  I said 'oops' and took him back around and put him back into sit.  We did that about 5x.  Eventually he decided the easiest way to the tug was over the jump (which was about 5 inches off the ground).  Big 'YES!' and some tugging to reward.  He loved that and went over the jump every time after.  Then we went back to the first exercise but included the jump. I put him in sit, threw the toy on the other side of the jump and released Kirby when he looked at it.  He did well.

Frankie was a different story.  We took a beginner agility class last spring and we struggled through it.  Frankie's brain seems to only be registering the end result, and she will plow through anything in order to get there the easiest way. We've struggled through the same problem with disc as well. Eventually she will do what I ask her, but she bawls me out for it. I've learned that when she's squabbling at me during training, it's her way of telling me to hurry it up so she can have her toy. When I ask for a sequence, she barks at me, knowing that she has to do a few tricks to get her frisbee. Frustration maybe?

She was familiar with agility jumps, so I started her on it right away.  I used a tug rope for her as well.  Put her in a sit.  She sat there vibrating with energy.  Her goal: Get the rope.  My goal: Get dog to jump over the jump.  I faced away from her next to the jump, held out her tug and released her when she looked at it. She broke and made a dive through the air for the tug... plowing right through the jump in the process. I yanked the tug away before she grabbed it, said oops and put her back into a sit.  Fixed the jump.  Tried again.  Same result.

I am not sure if I should try using something of less value to her?  Maybe that will slow her down enough to use her brain?  She doesnt seem to acknowledge that the jump is there.  And as long as it falls apart when she plows through it, she doesn't feel the need to launch her body up and over it.

The Aussies and I are going back to basics.  The basics of obedience that is.  Heeling is something we have to master in order to get to the shadow handling. Sitting and staying in a sit until released.  The tug seems to be the perfect reward and motive for Kirby.  For Frankie, it may be too much.

Hutch DIY

When we moved into our house three and a half years ago, I hadn't put any thought into any projects.  Except, of course, my long coveted privacy fence in the backyard.  Which I still don't have.  As I matured a bit and grew into the house, we started making changes to make it into our own.

One con about our home is the livingroom/dining room layout. There is really only one way to arrange it, and it's tough.  Especially for someone like me who when in high school, would spend an entire school night awake in my bedroom, pushing furniture around and rearranging things, from dusk til dawn.

So to make little changes is the only way I can 'rearrange' the room without actually moving anything. 

In the corner leading to the kitchen there is a built-in hutch type thing.  It's all attached to the wall.  And it's a mess.  It's the same color as the wallpaper, it blends right into the corner and is basically used as a catchall because nobody notices it. 

It's always been a little bit of nuisence to me.  It's in a weird spot and since I have no sense of style or design (truely, you'd be shocked at what I think is design smarts) I have been afraid to paint it or change it.  When I try rearranging stuff to make it look better, it ends up looking the same anyways, so I end up stuffing crap back into it and shutting the doors. 

But today, I finally got up the courage to paint. 

It was a long process to get started, which is why big DIY projects turn me off halfway through.  I just get bored.  I want immediate results.  I started withremoving the glass doors, stripping the shelves of 'stuff' and washing all of the surfaces I intended to paint.

You can see where the baby gate has scratched paint off the edges and where the dogs have jumped and smudged dirt and chipped off paint.  It was ugly.  Once I got painting, I started having fun and the creative juices started flowing.

I decided to also replace the hardware on the two drawers since one of the handles was bent down and both were scratched.  But the ones I found were white and they wouldn't pop like I wanted them to against a white paint job.  So I took a page from some other blogger's diy books, pulled out my Frogtape and added a small square backsplash for the hardware.

I ran into some trouble when I went to choose paint colors.  I never ask the advice of employees of the home improvement store I go to, mainly because I normally don't like what they present and I'm the kind of person who will take it anyways so as not to make them feel bad.  So when this gal kept hoovering and handing me color swatches, I started to sweat a little bit.  I had my camera along with photos of the hutch so I could keep it fresh in my mind. The colors she kept suggesting never strayed from a 'caramelly' color because it was universal and 'I'd always love it'.  But there is no carmel in the room and it just didn't fit our country style.  I wanted something bold and dark.  So once she left, I snagged two colors, Stone Grey and Winter Mood, and I ran to checkout. 

Once everything was painted and dried, it was time to start putting the 'stuff' back on it.  I had a picture in my mind of the finished product when I started this project.  But what was in my mind and what it ended up looking like were very different.  Mainly because I didn't own all of the pieces that were in my finished product image and really, it just wouldn't have fit our style. 

But I'm happy with finished hutch. 

I'm still debating on whether I should add something to the two sliding doors below.  They are very bright white with 'Winter Mood'.  What do ya'll think?

I left the doors off on purpose so that it wouldn't remain an unnoticed space.  It seems to have more of a purpose now.

Linking to Metaphoric Monday at BNOTP! and Make It Monday at Cottage Instincts!
DIY Day at ASPTL

Power of Paint Party! at Domestically Speaking
Remodelaholic's Anonymous Fridays!

Help for Haiti

The devastation in Haiti right now is beyond anything most of us can even begin to imagine.  I have seen articles and news stories on this disaster everywhere in the past couple of days.  But I didn't know how to help.

I am a long time follower of Ree the Pioneer Woman.  Her's is the first blog that I ever needed to check multiple times a day.  Pre-Pioneer Woman, I thought blogging was stupid and a waste of time, and here I am now, 2 years later, with one of my own.

Ree is doing something very special.  She is having a giveaway today.  She will make two $500 donations to the two winner's charities of choice, so long as they are directly helping Haiti right now.  On top of this, she will donate 10 cents for every person who enters this giveaway.

So go, right now, and enter the contest.  It's free, and even if you don't win, your entry will be another dime in the bucket.  And go a step further by posting a link to this giveaway on your own blog.

Help Haiti.

Success with One Jump

I recently ordered a training DVD of Susan Garrett's.  It's called Success with One Jump.

I'm finding that more and more disc doggers are using key agility handling strategies in their disc training and routines and with Frankie, I'm getting to the point where we need to be able to communicate better in order to improve.  Frankie will probably never be an agility dog.  She's a spaz and I'm impatient.  It's not a good combination for agility success, really. 

But I was also interested in this DVD for Kirby.  I do plan on at least giving agility a shot with him.  We both have a lot to learn before that happens though.  I read a lot of reviews over this DVD and the majority consensus is two thumbs up, especially from beginners.  I have a couple of agility jumps here at home, and I'm definately not above learning with Kirby in the living room.  Bring it on.

I can't wait until it arrives! 

I Bought It

I bought something today.  For me, myself and I. 

This blog matters to me, and I want to do more with it.  I have recently been searching some other blog hosting sites and determined after my research that blogger is where it's at, so that's where I'm staying. 

So what did I buy?  I bought the rights to my name. 

My blog is now hosted under "www.MusingsofaMinnesotaGirl.com."   
Things will be changing around here.  *evil grin*

Random

Today, I'm sick. It all sort of started last night...

Yesterday afternoon I spent a couple hours at the clinic for something else.  But I think I may have picked up something while I was there.  As I laid down to go to sleep, I could feel... something.  My nose was clogging.  This morning, I'm tired, my nose is running, my throat hurts and I can feel... something... brewing behind my face.

Great.

So for today, since I have nothing better to say, I'm going to copy and paste an email sent to me this morning, called 'Wisdom'.  Enjoy.

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone, just so I know not to answer when they call.
18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?
19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Coors Lites than Kay.
Happy middle of the week day, friends.

Maggie the Magnificent

When I arrived home last night, I was pretty gung-ho to start some new work with my dogs.  I had spent quite a bit of time researching some of the best ways to go about shaping the behaviors that I was going to work on, especially with Kirby.

Well, in typical Emily fashion, when I arrived home, I dumped off my stuff on table, let dogs out, turned on the TV and allowed and hour and a half to pass me by.  I had plans, dammit!  I had meant to go running immediately after work, then come home and clean off this dadgum 6ft tall bookshelf thats driving me insane, and then spend the rest of the night working with my dogs. 

It didn't happen that way.  By the time my motivation actually kicked in, I managed to get the shelf knocked out.  Then I stood there, hands on hips, trying to decide which dog to work first. 

Trying to decide which of the big dogs to work first.  I'm a little ashamed of myself.  I always said that if I ever had a little dog, they would not be one of those dogs whose only job in my life is to be a cute dress up lap dog.  And short of the dressing up, that's exactly what I've allowed Maggie to be since she arrived. 

So while she danced in front of the big dogs as I stood there with my hands on my hips, I decided that Maggie's reign as the cute dog was over.  I put the big dogs away and got to work. 

In my own defense, I have never been sure of Maggie.  As far as I can tell, she's a Corgi. What I don't know is her real age, if she's mixed with anything, and since I dont know her lineage, I can't tell if her legs really are that messed up or if she just has the stubby, crooked legs on another breed.  Bassett?  You tell me.  It's her legs and her sweet & silly nature that make everybody she meets melt over her. And everybody who comes in contact with her, including myself, underestimates her capabilities.  I shouldnt' have been taking pity on this little dog for the past couple of years.

Maggie has shown us that she's perfectly capable of not only keeping up with the big dogs, but overruling them at nearly everything.  Her only fault is her fear and her flight reaction.  If I set a coffee cup down on the coffee table, Maggie will bolt at the sound.  Obedience training and even sports have proven to build confidence in dogs, so I see no reason not to give her a shot.  Corgi's rock at agility, and as long as Maggie is showing me that her legs are fine and capable, it's going to be our new goal.  She's got a lot of heart, and she's proven over and over that she can adapt and conquer.

I have struggled to find Maggie's 'currency' (thank you, Zak George).  The thing that Maggie cares about above all else.  It's only recently that she began showing an interest in a squeaky toy, and thats only when the big dogs arent around.  I got her to sit and lay down with her dog kibble.  But it doesnt have that high of a value to her since she gets it everyday.  Maggie is definately a greedy, food driven dog though. 

So I used ham.  Really thinly sliced deli ham.  I sat in the middle of the floor cross legged and let Maggie smell my hand and the ham.  Then I put out my other hand.  I didn't offer it to her as though I had something in it, I held it flat and out, so it was virtical, like a wall.  Maggie automatically touched it, thinking that there might be ham in it.  Immediate praise ("Yes!") and a tiny piece of ham from my other hand.  *Since Maggie is sound reactive, the clicker shuts her down.  So we'll be using word praise in place of the clicker.*

Having tasted the ham, she started dancing and offering sits and downs.  She's so hard to resist.  She is the epitomy of adorable.  But I just patiently waited her out.  She sniffed at my target hand again.  Praise, reward.  I would say that we only worked for about 4-5 minutes.  Once she appeared to understand, I switched hands.  Then switched back again.  The last couple of 'touches', she was looking at the ham hand, but touching the target hand with her nose, which signaled to me that she understood exactly what I was asking. 

In my world, this is huge.  I'm not a dog trainer, and I can only claim to half understand shaping as a training method.  Tonight: a video, hopefully!

Kirby Drills

This morning, Susan Garrett posted her famous 'Puppy One Hundred' (well, it actually stretched into 135, but who's counting).  The puppy one hundred (and thirty five) is a list of things to teach your puppy/dog before you begin working on agility or putting your dog on equiptment.  This is especially excellent if you have a puppy or younger dog who you plan on training in agility, but they might be too young to actually start some of the physical stuff (waiting for growth plates to close, etc). 

My lovely Kirby...

...he is mature enough to begin the more physical training.  Um, er, mature enough physically I should say.  He still does this:

So I can't say much about his mental maturity at this point. 

Moving on...  **eye roll**

Because I wasted so much time in the beginning trying to push Frisbee onto him, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into an agility career for Kirby, so he still needs to learn all of the basics required of an agility dog.  Susan's puppy one hundred (and thirty five) is a perfect place to begin. 

Kirby and I completed an obedience class this past fall and learned some of the basics and it put us on the right track for clicker training, shaping, positive reinforcement, etc.  SG's list takes it a step (or five) forward.  For the past couple of months as winter reared it's ugly head and the holidays sucked up much of my time, the pack and I have been hibernating mostly with our spare time, with short walks every other day and 2 minute nano training sessions as often as possible.  Kirby's been getting stuck with a lot of boring basics, such as sit, lay down, don't chew on my arm, take, out, paw, etc. Not his fault, its mine for being lazy and not wanting to use my brain long enough to think of better, more interesting things for him to do.

Now that we've grown accustomed to the cold time is on our side again, the Aussies especially have been getting more walks and Kirby has become my funny running partner.  I would like to take a handful things from SG's list each week and work on them.  It's a goal.  It might work, it might not.  I dont plan on working them all every night.  But mixing them up and pulling out 2 or 3 for each session.

For this week:
1) Smack da baby. We do it, but not frequently enough and it really does work on Kirby.
2) Hand targeting. It's good shaping work and lets face it.  It's fun!
3) Recall from distraction.  Kirby is easily distracted. His recall is pretty good... But we haven't done enough distraction work.
4) Walking on a loose lead. Very basic. We worked on it in ob class and he did well... most of the time.
5) Duration sit. Kirby's got a great sit. But he needs work on sitting until I release him.
6) Chase games. Kirby loves to chase his toys. He will think we're playing instead of working.
7) Back up. I'd like to teach it to all of my dogs.

I'm debating signing Kirby up for a beginner agility class in the spring. I took Frankie through a beginner class and so I know how to introduce a dog to obsticals and we have some of the basics at home.  Weave poles and jumps and that.  But I dont think I want to go there yet. 

Strength

Last night the disc dog club hosted it's annual bash and awards gathering.  I believe the purpose of it though is just for everyone to be together again.  As a club, we haven't all been together now since September, and we won't all be together again until March. 

It was a blast!  And so good to see everybody again.

But what do you expect from me, people?  How's a girl to concentrate when she's faced with this all night:

Look at that tiny pink mouth and the little pig nose!

And the tiny... er, huge Aussie paws!

Be still, my heart...

I was forced to repeat that to myself over and over last night.  Nobody has Aussie fever like Emily has Aussie fever.  And little Skyver/Booger/StevenTyler/Rush/Aero here didn't do anything to help quash my fever.  If anything, he sent it through the roof.

Luckily, Red Rocket Man had my back.  Every once and a while (okay, ever four seconds or so) he would toss his ball at my face and ask me to throw it, which usually was able to knock me back to reality for a sec.  I heart you, Rocket.

The torture of the night was knowing that there were still 3 of Skyver's siblings who were waiting for homes, and that until they found homes, they would be living in a cold barn in northern Minnesota.  Yeah.  Don't get me started.

But it's okay.  When I got home, I was greeted by my own puppies.  And the baby of my little pack and his spastic older sister are enough Aussie for me.  For now.

**The look on Red's face this morning when I showed him Skyver's picture on my camera was priceless.  With a look of horror on his face, he says "Is he here????"  I've never seen an Aussie baby have quite that effect on a grown man before... :o)

Hollywood Cookie Diet & a Wal-Mart Boycott

Yes, you heard me.  I said hollywood cookie diet. 

As I drive to work in the morning, I am usually listening to the local country station on the radio.  This morning was no different.  A radio ad came on for what I originally thought was the 'Hollywood Cooking Diet'. I was intruiged. I would love to learn some new recipes.  When they repeated themselves, I understood that it was indeed not a cooking diet, but a 'cookie diet'. 

"Replace up to two meals a day with up to four cookies, and have a sensible meal as your third meal of the day."  They have a website and everything. I thought it was a joke at first. They even had a code word for a discount.  It was 'New Rear'.  What a crock. But it was no joke.

How many people do you think heard that commercial and went off to stock up on cookies??  It's insane!  I'll bet I could write a book full on nonsense, title it as 'Lose 50lbs in 50 days' and become a millionaire overnight.  People will do just about anything to lose weight.  I've tried a few crazy diets myself in an effort to lose a few, but even I'm intelligent enough to know that replacing meals with cookies is a fast train failure and pose even worse health risks. There aren't any nutrients in cookies.  You can't survive on cookies.  WTF?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Red and I decided this morning that we are boycotting Wal-Mart.  I read a news article this morning about how Wal-Mart is dumping unused clothing, shoes and winter gear in dumpsters.  They hire a contractor to take giant garbage bags full brand new clothing and dispose of them.  But that's not the worst part.  First, Wal-Mart purposely destroys the articles of clothing (cutting out the fingers of gloves, the sleeves off jackets, etc) so that people can't dig in the trash and use the items.  Why not donate them to some charities who can use them? 

A gal commented on my FB page after I wrote about the article and our plans to boycott.  She said how while the story is true, the reason they do it is so that people don't take the items and try to return them for money.  Okay, well cut the tags off them, mark them as donated (a permanent marker 'x' on the back collar or something?) and train your always rude, pissed off customer service staff to recognize the donation mark. 

There is no excuse for this conglomerate of a company to act the way they do.  I am always hearing of questionable business ploys from them. I won't go into detail.  But I won't be shopping there anymore.

CrossFit

Last night, I became a CrossFitter.  And I managed not to die!
I started a 6 week CrossFit bootcamp.  I figure that, added to my 5K race on the first, will be a good start to the new year.
The class is made up of mostly newbies to this method of training.  Which made me feel a whole lot better, because I didn't know what I was doing either.
I managed to do my first pull up... ever... with the help of a giant rubber band and one of the trainers.  My goal for this class is to be able to do one pullup, unassisted.  I wonder if that kind of strength is possible in just 6 weeks?
CrossFit's version of a squat is merciless.  There's no possible way to cheat.  Added in were pushups, sit ups and more squats.  Tabata squats. 
I'm sore today.  I'll be more sore tomorrow, when I have to go back to class. 

We also began our company Biggest Loser competition again.  I plan on winning this season.  I plan on it.

Stressing About Stress

I stress about my stress levels. Rediculous, no?  I suffer from many anxieties and as of lately, I've been stressing about how stressed out I am, because I have been doing some research and stress kills.  It's not just a theory anymore.  It's proven.  Stress can and will kill a person if they don't get a handle on it.  Knowing that just stresses me out even more, because I recognize how much stress I'm under at any given time. I panic about the smallest things.  The unknown, mostly.  I try to live in the moment.  But I struggle to relax.  My mind is constantly wandering to the 'what ifs' in life.  It's not a healthy way to live, really.

I start a CrossFit bootcamp today.  I am hoping the hard exercise will help me to chill out.  I also am going to try to add yoga and meditation to my daily life in hopes of bringing my stress levels down.  I dont want to die over stress.  And I'm sick of stressing about dying from stress. 

I need to chill!

DELETE

I made the decision to delete my other 2 blogs today.  They no longer exist.  This decision was made because I don't feel right splitting up my life into categories.  This blog is my blog, and I started it to share my life with those who want to read about it.  I didn't need to start a dog blog just because I talk about my dogs so much.  Why can't I talk about them here?  My dogs are my life, and this blog is about my life.  Therefor, if you're going to read my blog, then you're going to read a lot about my dogs. And you're going to read about my new health and fitness journeys.  And you're going to read a lot about books.  And food.  And quality vacuum cleaners.  Because those things matter to me, and it's my life and it's my blog. 

I'm not sure why I thought that people were sick of hearing about dogs.  Or why I felt compelled to move them somewhere other than my main blog.  Maybe because I read so many other blogs and they are so organized and about one subject and they manage to stick to one subject.  Well screw that!  I'm not a one subject type of gal!  I'm all over the place!  I'm unorganized and I'm clumzy and I'm lazy! 

So?  DELETE!  They're deleted.  And you're going to read about dogs and fitness and whatever other crap I feel like talking about, right here!

Gosh rants just make a girl feel good sometimes.  Good stuff.

Hello 2010

G'Mornin' folks!  Top of the mornin to ya!


One of my new years resolutions is to be a morning person. Or at least to try. It could definately turn into a struggle.

My year has started off well.  I kicked it off with my first 5K run ever.  January 1st in Minnesota isn't the ideal time to run outside.  For obvious reasons.  It was difficult to breathe and much of my training was indoors on a treadmill.  Climate control.  It was a brutal race, but I finished and I wasn't last, which were my only goals for this run.  There is another 5K in 6 weeks and I hope to participate.  My goal then will be to beat my time in the first one.

Another resolution of mine is to continue working on my book.  Wyoming Sun was last worked on in January... of 2009.  When I originally set out to write it and share it with you, I had planned on adding to it every week or two.  It's something I need to work on.

I think I've found my new freestyle song with Frankie.  I loved our first freestyle song and I struggle to let it go.  But as we improve and change, our music needs to reflect that.  The new song is quite a bit more upbeat and a little faster.  Frankie and I are only playing disc about once a week these days.  In the next month or two, I'll start to increase it a bit as the new season begins to gear up.  In December it still felt like we were on the downhill slide of the season gearing down.  But with the arrival of January and a new year, it feels more like a new season is going to be gearing up.  That is huge in regards to my mood. 

I recieved my new Flip recently.  In my eagerness to use it... Well, just take a look for yourself.  I ripped into the box before I even got home and got down to shooting some video. The thing rocks.

How did you ring in the new year??