Monthly Archives: July 2010

Hey friends! How’s your Saturday going? We have been having a blast with the Gardners! Last weekend they took us on an adventure in the city and this weekend we’re doing it up country style!

While we waited for the Gardner’s to arrive last night we snacked on some h’ordeuvres

Fresh tomatoes from my in-law’s garden!

Our last log of venison sausage and cheese! Of course there was some beer involved. Look what Brian bought home for me!

When the Gardner’s arrived we headed out for our first Logger game of the season. It was a good came but the Logger’s lost

After the game we headed up to one of the most unique bars in the area, Leo and Leona’s. Brian use to frequent this bar when he was a young 21 year old. Leo and Leona’s was going to have to close down because Leo had died and Leona was getting too old to keep it running (she died just last month actually) but a group of local people saw the importance of keeping this historic small town bar open. It serves as a gathering place for the small farming communities on the ridge. One of owners just happens to be a long time friend and one of my professors for grad school. I’ve been up there several times but Brian hadn’t been since they reopened. We knew the Gardner’s would like it as it has a ton of fun antiques throughout the bar.

Today I got up and taught Zumba while the boys went out for breakfast and Shannon went out for a run. She’s doing a triathlon in 2 weeks! When I got home and cleaned up we head up the other ridge to visit Vernon Vineyards. This little vineyard was AWESOME. It is literally located in the middle of no where. The scenery is gorgeous and the wine was really unique and delicious. We sampled a few wines and then bought a bottle of their North Folk wine to share out on the lawn.

Then we headed to the vineyard for a little photo shoot with the empty wine bottle.

Gardner said my shot was the best! Then we sojourned onwards to Viroqua for lunch. I had been hearing through Twitter and Facebook about a new cafe that opened in Viroqua called the Optimo Cafe. I was excited to try this place as their advertisement states locally grown fresh food. I’m sorry to say I was pretty disappointed by my experience. There seemed to be very few people dining yet we had to wait 30 minutes to be seated. The hostess was very kind and said it was because they were backed up in the kitchen. We finally got seated and the server asked if wanted anything to drink, but we didn’t have any menus so we didn’t know what to order. She got us our menus and they seemed to have a fine selection of beer and wine, even some from Vernon Vineyards. The boys ordered some beer. I ordered an ice tea which I never got We all ordered something different for our sandwiches which all came with salads. I was very hopeful when I received my salad. It was very fresh and had beats on it which I love! I also got their sunshine dressing which was very good. I’m not sure what was in it but I really liked it.

Brian gave me his beets and cucumbers so don’t think that’s how much you get! I ordered the raw veggie stacked sandwich. It came on home made bread which was delicious but the rest of the sandwich was not so good. There was some lettuce, a slice of tomato, and some chopped up veggies sprinkled with shredded cheese. There was what I believe to be pesto sauce on the sandwich too but there was WAY too much it was actually dripping oil out the end…yuck! I do look like I’m enjoying it from this picture but I was REALLY hungry!

Gardner got a veggie burger which seemed like a bunch of boring beans smashed together. Brian got what claimed to be the best grilled cheese ever but was also slavered in pesto. The service was pretty poor to. When the girl delivered our food she brought us the wrong sandwich for Shannon and then didn’t even seem to know what she was delivering. In all fairness this restaurant recently opened so maybe they still have some kinks to work out. The atmosphere was very nice and it was located in this really cool indoor market filled with all sorts of interesting things to look at and buy. Still I left feeling pretty unsatisfied with my meal. We explored the cute little town of Viroqua for awhile and then headed home.

Well, the Gardner’s just got up from a nap and we’re headed out for more adventures! Hope your day is going swell!

Hey! Happy Friday! Hope it’s a good one!

Well, I did it! I ran 7 miles!

And do you know what? It really wasn’t that bad.

The first half was a little tough, I remember thinking, “this is going to be long.” But it started raining at about mile 3. It was pretty much the perfect rain for running. Very light, just a enough to cool me down. After that the miles just flew by! I was surprised when I would check my Garmin and see just how far I had gone. I thought my time was pretty good too. I am suppose to run my long runs at a minute slower than “normal.” I find that kind of hard to do so I just take it easy and don’t push myself as I would in a shorter run. I also took two walking breaks to drink some Gatorade.

After my run I fueled up with a green smoothie and some green tea.

I rested for a bit then did a quick clean of our house, I’m so glad I spent some time deep cleaning on Monday! I showered and then headed out to Wal-Mart to buy some grocery supplies for two experiments I did this afternoon as well as some random cheese the husband wanted. While there I found some really cute clothes, at Wal-Mart of all places! I got a cute, little, cotton, summer dress, a skirt, and some really great workout clothes. The workout clothes were perfect for me, a longer pair of shorts and a really cute top. I might have to go back and get more as they were pretty cheap and I’ll be teaching so many more classes this fall, I gotta look good while I teach right?!

So, I did two baking experiments this afternoon. This is very rare for me as I usually don’t bake. In fact for one of the recipes you needed a round cake pan. I wasn’t even sure I had one. After digging around for awhile I found two both still wrapped in their original plastic! I’m sure we got them as wedding presents and we’ve been married almost four years! I’ll wait to show you what I made later as one is still in the oven and the other is waiting to be glazed but I will give you two hints. Both recipes were featured on two of the blogs I read and here’s picture of one of the recipes in its beginning stages!

The Gardner’s should be here soon. Can’t wait for a fun weekend! See you later!

Hey blog readers! How’s it going today? Good I hope, it’s almost Friday right?!

Not much new to report around here. What I really wanted to write about today was my run that I have planned for tomorrow. According to my half marathon training plan I need to do a 7 mile long run this week and tomorrow is the day! Right now 7 miles seems SO FAR! Of course for the triathlon I had to run 6 miles and did a few training runs of that length. Last week I ran 6 miles no problem. But I really can’t remember the last time I ran more than 6 miles, probably the last time I trained for a half back in 2005. I seem to recall one time last spring when I was still doing a run/walk program I ended up doing 7 miles but didn’t think too much about it. But 7 miles? Running the whole time? Yikes! I wasn’t really sure where I should run, did I ever tell you my home town is only about 2.5 miles wide? Of course it’s a lot longer than that but you can only go so far  east or west before you run into the bluffs or the river. I mapped out what I thought would be a good course on MapMyRun.com and just keep thinking, “I’m going to run all the way to Shopko and back?” Today it seems unfathomable but not impossible. There seems to be a break in the humidity, this morning it was actually cool out. I’m hoping for more of the same tomorrow morning. I’m going to get up early to get the run in right away to beat the heat (and rain?) and so I can have more time in my day. I also plan on bringing a water bottle with Gatorade and eating half of the energy bar I bought last weekend.

So those are my big plans for the morning. Tomorrow night the Gardner’s are coming to town. We are planning on going to a baseball game and then taking them up to a fun local bar. I’m teaching Zumba on Saturday morning and I think Shannon will be attending my class. Then we have more adventures planned for the afternoon and into the evening. Should be a fun weekend I’m really looking forward to it!

Tonight I’m teaching Zumba at one of the hospitals in town. I’m subbing for the regular instructor. I’m a little nervous because I know the participants are use to a certain style and we all teach different. At least at the Y they use to different instructors. Oh well, I feel well prepared so I can only do my best! I’m also toying with the idea of attending an Aqua Zumba training in August. It just happens to be on my ONLY free weekend in August. I was kind of liking the idea of having a completely free weekend but I also kind of want to take this certification plus I need the credits to maintain my other certifications. We shall see!

Have a good Thursday!

Hello friends! So it’s the middle of the week already huh? Hope life is treating you well. Things have sailing along smoothly for me these days.

Yesterday I went out to lunch with my friend Carolyn, or as I like to call her my “other mother.” Remember that last time she took me out? This time we went to the Three River’s Lodge. I had never been there. Before our last outing I had checked out their lunch menu and thought it sounded it pretty good. I mentioned it to Carolyn and she said next time we would go there for sure! I had the Door County Orchard Wrap. From their menu:

“smoked chicken, celery, crasins, red onion, walnuts, grapes, field greens, whole wheat wrap”

It was so good! It didn’t look very big but I was only able to finish about half of it. I also chose the wheat berry salad for my side. I have no idea what was in the salad except for wheat berries (which I had always wanted to try) but it too was delicious! Now I am obsessed with wheat berries. Be prepared to see a recipe involving them soon. The restaurant itself is located in the Radisson hotel and over looks Riverside Park and the beautiful Mississippi river. It was SUPER hot yesterday but we were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the nice cool air-conditioned restaurant. The lunch prices were pretty good to. For both us ordering a sandwich with a side and ice tea was under $20! I brought my camera but didn’t feel like taking pictures I just wanted to enjoy my lunch.

I also got my fitness class schedule from the YMCA for fall. Since my hours got cut at the church I work at I told the director at the Y I was open to as many opportunities as could fit in my schedule. So starting in September I’ll be teaching Zumba every other Tuesday, Group Cycling every Wednesday, and Group Cycling and Group Strength every Thursday. Plus I’ll teach back to back GST and Zumba classes on the Saturday’s I’m free. In addition to the Y classes I’ll be teaching three Zumba classes a week at the dance studio. So on my busiest week I’ll be teaching a total of 9 classes! Crazy isn’t it! I’m either going to get really fit or be completely exhausted! Right now I’m really happy about getting to teach so much. It kind of reminds me of when I was a teacher. I only had to “prep” for two classes meaning I taught the same thing to different people. I feel I’ll be able to do this with my fitness classes. Prepare one Zumba class and teach it all week since different people attend the classes (I think). We shall see I might be regretting it come winter!

Other than that I’ve been enjoying the lazy days of summer. I love not having to work at night. Last night Brian and I went grocery shopping, made and cleaned up after dinner and had time to watch a movie we had DVRed. Nice!

Hope your week is going well and I’ll catch you later!

Hey friends! Are you surviving Monday?

I was going to get up early to get a 4 mile run in but had a hard time sleeping last night and shut the alarm off. I ended up waking up at 7am, not to bad. But after I took care of the dog and woke up a little I didn’t get out for a run until almost 8am. It was already so hot! It was only about 69 degrees but the humidity was 90%! The sun was beating down on me. But I survived albeit a little sweaty! I made myself a nice icy cold green smoothie with Amazing Super Food! I swear I can feel the natural energy coursing through me! This was demonstrated in my massive house cleaning adventure this morning. It usually only takes me about an hour to clean the bathroom and do the floors but today I got sucked into deep cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom. 2 1/2 hour later I have a nice sparkly house! Well, almost. I still have dusting to do.

So, a few posts back I was lamenting the fact that even though I feel fit an athletic and have accomplished some pretty amazing goals this summer I am no longer “thin.” Much as I do want to be a certain size and wear the clothes stored away in my basement I am tired with all the mind games, focus, and energy trying to get thin takes. I do want to be healthy and I think for the most part I am. I make wise choices 90% of the time and don’t deny myself treats. I do need to work more on moderating my indulgences, paying attention to portion sizes as well as my hunger level. So, I’ve decided to stop all this fat talk and move on. I am going to stay off the scale and perhaps only weight myself once a month. I’m not going to track all my calories on SprakPeople and instead pay closer attention to hunger levels and making choices that fuel my body. I tried this before and felt like I didn’t succeed, not really sure why that was. I need to cherish and love the body I have. I need to recognize the amazing things it can do and honor it by feeding it nourishing food. I’m still going to check in with SparkPeople for recipes and workout ideas, it’s such a great site!

I have to run a few errands all around town. I’m going to attempt to do this all by bike. We shall see, it could be a bad decision. It’s 84 degrees, with a hear index of 86 degrees 50% humidity. What a hot summer! Catch you later!

Hey friends! I hope as your weekend is ending well. I’m hanging out with the dog watching Extreme Makeover Home edition (and perhaps shedding a tear or two).

Yesterday, after I left you, Shannon, Brian, Brian, and I headed out to a restaurant called Shamrock’s so the men could prove their manliness by eating some insanely hot chicken wings! Unfortunately my Brian said his stomach wasn’t feeling too good due to the fact that he drank a Bloody Mary earlier with some serious horseradish in it. The other Brian decided not to do the wing challenge either. Bummer!

One of the things I LOVE about Shannon is we have similar eating habits. After scouring the vast menu I had a few ideas of what I wanted to have for lunch. It really hadn’t been that long since I had my breakfast spring roll so I wasn’t STARVING and I really wasn’t sure what I was feeling like eating. I asked Shannon what she was thinking of having. Turns out we had similar ideas of ordering a half order of naked (no skin or bones) wings and maybe another appetizer. It was perfect as we ordered different apps and split them. Perfect! I also ordered a Smithwick’s.

After lunch we were going to try and go to the Fluttug but traffic  was REDICULOUS! We decided to try and see the event from a bridge but we really couldn’t see much. But we did get a beautiful look at the St. Paul skyline and the mighty Mississippi.

We headed back to the Gardner’s house where we all took a nap and sat on their patio reading and relaxing. It was HEAVENLY, just like being on vacation! Then if was time to get ready for the Barbecue!

Gardner made some crazy burgers stuffed with barbequed pork and cheese! Shannon bought bison burger for Brian and myself as we don’t eat much beef and it sometimes disagrees with us.

The burgers were INSANE! We also ate leftover food from the tailgating party. I didn’t take any more pictures the rest of the evening. It was a great night of hanging out with new and old friends and eating good food!

This morning we headed back to the Black Dog for coffee and a light breakfast (since we were still pretty full from last night!). I had a bagel with lox (sorry no picture) a rare and delicious treat. Then we headed back home as the Gardner’s had a wedding to attend this afternoon. I pretty much read the whole drive home, I haven’t read a book for fun since before grad school so I am really enjoying some pleasure reading, without my high lighter in hand!

When we got back I started the laundry and headed to the Co-op to get some fresh produce for the week ahead. As I was headed to the checkout counter I was stopped in my tracks by a sale display. Look what they had!

AMAZING GRASS SUPERFOOD! This has been all the rage in the blog world since I’ve been reading healthy living blogs almost a year ago. They didn’t sell them anywhere near La Crosse! I actually ordered some online once and Gardner brought me some from Whole Foods once but I was reluctant to buy any more. I was so excited to see this being carried locally and they were having a 25% off sale. I resisted the urge to buy a big tub of it as I’m still not sure how much I would use this. The Co-op has always carried Larabar’s but we don’t always get the yummy flavors I see in the blog world. I got Peanut Butter and Jelly and Cinnamon Roll!  These were also on sale of $0.99! Can’t wait to try these products. I LOVE the town we live in but being a smaller town in the Midwest we don’t always get all the products or have some of the stores that I see in other parts of the country so it’s exciting when new products come to town.

Our weekend with the Gardner’s went too fast but the good news is they are coming to visit us next weekend! We have lots of fun things planned for them!

Have a good night and hope you’re ready to tackle another week!

Hey blog world! What’s happening on your Saturday morning? It’s only 11:00am and I feel like I’ve ton so much already! Fortunately they have all been fun things!

We headed up to the Twin Cities area as soon as Brian got done with work. the first stop on our adventure was Miesville to see the Mudhens’ last home game of the season. Of course some tailgating ensued.

From left to right Shannon, Brian, my Brian, me, Barb, and Lori. After awhile we headed into the game.

Once the sun went down the temperature cooled off and we enjoyed a great night of baseball. The Mudhens won 10-1! The game didn’t end until almost 11:00pm. We headed back to the Gardner’s place in St. Paul for a good night’s sleep.

This morning Shannon and I got up and ran 6 miles while the boys went fishing! It was good six miles. We went around lake Phalen twice! Lot’s of people were out running and walking. After  some much needed showers we headed down to the St. Paul’s Farmer’s Market.

But first we stopped at the Black Dog Cafe so I could get a coffee (what has come over me lately?) it was delicious!

The farmer’s market in St. Paul is HUGE and there were a ton of people there. I didn’t stop to take many pictures because I didn’t want to hold up the line of people traffic but the produce was BEAUTIFUL and everything looked an smelled so fresh.

I bought a Driving Force,  homemade, all natural energy bar that I’m going to save for my 7 mile run next week!

For breakfast I had my first ever spring roll!

OH MY GOSH! I LOVED it! The flavors were amazing and I thought the texture of the rice paper was really unique. I will definitely be on the look out for these back home. Shannon bought some food for our cookout tonight and then we headed home. I enjoyed a little cantaloupe when we got back. I’m just loving the photo opts in Shannon’s kitchen!

Isn’t her  kitchen cute!

Well supposedly the boys are going to take part in a wing eating competition and then we might head down to Flugtag! Should be an adventure!

I can’t seem to connect to the Internet here so hopefully I can get this blog posted to you in real time!

Hello friends and hello Friday! I hope you have some fun things planned for this week, I sure do! More on that later!

Last night the husband and I went on an impromptu date! It was pretty rainy and gloomy out. Brian was going to go watch a friend play in a softball game but didn’t think the weather would hold out. I checked out the movies playing at the Rivoli, our local cheap theater.

Robin Hood just happen to start at 7:10pm and was a movie my husband was hoping to see. I can’t say I had a huge need to see this movie but I thought it would be fun and it was! Very good movie and good story about what happened to Robin Hood before he became a legend. The movies are pretty cheap there about $3 for adults because they normally show movies that have been out for awhile and are about ready to head to DVD. But we ended up spending about $18 because we treated ourselves to some special treats!

I tried this organic beer from the Lake Front Brewery in Milwaukee Wisconsin. It was really good! Brian got some fancy beer that they had on tap. It was a fun night but the air conditioning was not working in the theater and Brian was sweating bullets by the time the show was done!

Today we are going on an ADVENTURE! We are heading up to St. Paul Minnesota to spend the weekend with our friends the Gardner’s! Remember our trip this past spring? We always have a fun time when we’re with the Gardner’s! Tonight we are heading to a small town baseball game. We plan on tailgating before the game and I have been a mean lean chopping machine all morning preparing the dishes I’m going to bring.

First up Curry Honey Hummus from Ashley. If you like curry you’ll LOVE this. So flavorful. Very east to make and I had most of the ingredients on hand!

Plus all the veggies I chopped up to go with it!

About two weeks ago, before I left on the mission trip Brian and I attended his family picnic. There was a TON of food. I surveyed all the salads most of which had pasta and mayo. I saw one that I thought looked the healthiest, but you never can tell. It had rice and beans and veggies in it. When I sat down and ate it I kept proclaiming how good this salad was! Turns out Brian’s cousin who was sitting right next to us made it! And it was VERY healthy! She said it was from the Eat Clean Diet cookbook. She said she would be happy to share it with me. I won’t reprint the recipe here because of copy right laws and I haven’t been able to find a link to it on line. Let’s just say it’s full of veggies of every color and the only dressing on it is olive oil and lemon juice. It is SO GOOD!  And pretty too!

Of course I had to sample some for lunch along with my last In a Jiffy Curry Chickpea Burger

Before blogs were even invented I use to journal. I journaled A LOT! Almost every day actually. I have about a dozen had written journals that I kept throughout my years growing up. I’m trying to get back to the practice of hand journaling for my own spiritual nourishment. That’s what led me to revisit some of my older journals and look what I found! This was written EXACTLY 10 years ago today!

July 23, 2000

“We left this morning before the sun had even reached the land and drove in the early morning light to Centennial Park where we prepared to do what we had worked so long and hard for. I stood nervously and excitedly in the thigh high water as Sally Edwards slapped my hand and I cried. 7 months ago I couldn’t run 2 blocks and I certainly didn’t think I could do this triathlon. We counted down from 10 and then it all began, splashing, kicking, swimming. Then onto the bike were I kept a comfortable pace for 12 miles and then ran starting out slow but then picking it up and picking off people as I speeded into the finish line. It was totally amazing. 2,200 women all celebrated life, health and themselves. It was awesome. I never thought I be into this. I loved it. I want to do another one soon! I feel like I could do anything now..and I’m going to..anything I set my mind to.”

Wow! I’m glad I wrote that down and saved it! I can’t believe I’m still doing triathlons!

Thanks for all your comments on yesterday’s post. I’m still thinking about what I want to do and how I feel about the whole fit but not thin issue. I’ll keep you posted!

I have to pack up the doggie and take her over to grandma and grandpa’s house then pack up our car! Maybe see you later!

Hello! Happy Friday Eve ! I hope life is treating you well today! I had a 4 mile tempo run scheduled for today but I woke up to this.

I’m not sure if you can really tell from the picture but it was POURING out! I rolled back over intending on snoozing the rainy morning away but after five seconds knew I would regret it. I got in my running clothes and headed to the Y to run on the treadmill. Even though I HATE running on the treadmill it was totally worth it! I had a really good run and felt great afterwards. That’s usually how it goes, I never regret a run I take, even a bad one, but I usually regret missing out on a run. When I was leaving the Y and group of women had just come back from running outside! They were soaked! Now that’s hardcore!

I’ve also been indulging in a little bit of this lately.

I use to drink about half a pot of coffee a day. About a year ago I gave it up because I heard there were a lot of health benefits to not drinking it. I also use to over load my coffee with fake sugar. I’ve had a few cups here and there in the last year whenever the mood struck me but nothing regular. The last two mornings it just sounded good to me! I put real sugar in and and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not sure if I’ll go back to my daily habit. I guess I didn’t notice any difference between drinking it every day and not. I don’t really want to become dependent on it again though. I pretty much had to have it in the morning or life was not good!

I mentioned yesterday that the scale was not pretty after my mission trip. I’ve been eating healthy for the past five days so I hope my body balances itself out soon. I certainly feel better getting back to my regular eating pattern. I’ve really be struggling with the idea of a feel great weight lately. You may remember that after the triathlon I reflected on how it felt being a bigger athlete and my desire to lose some weight and get down at least in the healthy  weight range. Lately I’ve been feeling this desire to be “smaller” more acutely. I’m just remembering what it was like when I was at my “goal weight.” I loved all the clothes I wore. I loved that I could pretty much shop off the racks. I looked so good. I felt really confident with my body. I even wore a bikini one summer!  I’m still trying to decide if I was truly healthy. I was really fit. I did a half marathon back then but I don’t think I had healthy relationship with food. I ate a lot of low-cal, low-far processed foods. I obsessed about calories in and out. I was also teaching so I was on my feet most of the day versus being mainly at a desk job. I feel like I have a better relationship with food these days. I know what it means to eat healthy and I actually prefer how I feel when I eat that way. I also recognize the importance of indulging once in awhile and to know when an indulgence is worth it. I thought I would really enjoy taking a break from healthy eating while on the mission trip and eat some of those things I don’t normally consume like Lucky Charms. But really Lucky Charms and white bread aren’t worth it to me. A good glass of wine or a fancy dessert now that is an indulgence that is worth it to me.

On the other hand I know that even though I am not at healthy weight (according to BMI) I am really fit. Sometimes I just want to be okay with being fit and not skinny but it’s just too hard. I don’t feel as confident in my own skin as I did when I was smaller. I also sometimes wonder if the participants in my fitness classes question my ability because I’m not skinny. I’ve tried keeping track of calories with SparkPeople but have not been consistent. I’ve even toyed with the idea of going back to Weight Watchers but that really wasn’t working for me either. I don’t really want to go back to being an obsessive “dieter.” I just want to be healthy but also thin. Does that make sense? Sorry for rambling, these are just some thoughts that I’ve been having lately. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I’ll keep you posted on my continuing contemplation on these matters!

Tomorrow we’re headed off on an ADVENTURE! Stay tuned for more fun!

Howdy! It’s Wednesday, half way through the work week! Hope your day is going splendidly! I sure am appreciating a nice quiet week here at the office (never thought I’d say that!).

So, what’s been new with me? Not much really. The husband has been cooking dinner for us since I’ve been home later than usual the last couple of nights. I taught a ROCK’N Zumba class last night and was dripping with sweat when it was all over! This morning was the first time since the mission trip that I had to get up EXTRA early to teach Group Cycling. Again another awesome class, a lot more participants than I expected. Maybe they thought that since class was indoors it would be cooler. It wasn’t! This has really been one hot summer! But on the plus side I always feel like I worked out harder when I’m covered in sweat!

I didn’t really mention this on the blog because I’m not exactly sure who is reading this (why don’t you post a comment some time?) and it wasn’t really public knowledge at the time but now I think it’s safe to talk about it. About two months ago I received the news that my hours at the church I work at were going to be cut down from full time to 3/4 time. Technically the portion of my job that deals with Campus Ministry was being cut from 1/2 to 1/4. This was due mainly to the lack of student involvement as of late and of course money. There’s a lot more to it then that but I prefer not to go into to it. Initially I was going to tell my boss (the priest) that I would prefer to work 1/2 time because I really didn’t see how I could make up the income with an outside 1/4 time job. After discussing exactly what my role would be and what type of hours I would be working I decided to stick with the 3/4 time option, it is after all more money and I really didn’t have anything else lined up as far as work goes. So, I told the Y to put me down for as many  classes as they needed me for (during the times I’m free). I still haven’t gotten a schedule from them but hopefully I’ll be teaching a lot there this fall. Recently I got a call from a gal who owns a dance studio in a near by town. She was looking for fitness instructors to lead classes offered at the same time as the dance classes so that the parents would have something to do. I figured this was a great opportunity and offered to teach three classes a week! I’ve also been looking into teaching at the technical college and at the local hospitals for their employee wellness programs.

I am really going to have my plate full this fall. I’ll either end up  being super fit or going crazy! It’s all good though. I really didn’t think that teaching fitness classes would provide me with substantial income, it was more of just a fun hobby that I got paid for. We’ll have to see how it all pans out and maybe I will be cutting back to 1/2 time at my church job! I just hope I still have time to train for 1/2 marathons and triathlons!

So that’s what’s new with me! In other news, I stepped on the scale this morning (first time after being back from my trip). Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty! But, that’s a post for another day!

We’ve got a fun weekend coming up and I can’t wait to share it with you!