Weekly Wins - Last One of September

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Hey hey party people! Congrats, we've made it to Friday and the weekend is right around the corner. I'm starting today listing my weekly wins, because it makes my morning a lil bit brighter thinking about the good going on instead of worrying about the stressful things in life.

Here are some weekly wins:

|| My last BODYATTACK on Wednesday nights was 10 people strong and totally awesome. I taught well, gave cues well, lifted the energy, did a cheesy dance, tuck jumped my heart out and people loved it. The class has been fun, but it's time to move on and move closer to home.

|| The new quarterly schedules have been finalized and I'm super stoked about my Monday BODYATTACK class closer to home. Bigger gym, more members and now I have TWO days off a week to do my own workouts.

|| After a few random checks, I found that CMT HAS ALL SEASONS of the DALLAS COWBOYS CHEERLEADERS available to watch online. This show has been my guilty pleasure for YEARS and it's fun watching the first seasons and seeing how different it was back in the day. I know this is so trivial but having a guilty pleasure back in play makes me smile.

|| Babyspice received a job offer and accepted a new job which is super fabulous. I'm way proud of her persistence and this new job is perfect for her giving heart. She's using her extra vacation time and planning a trip to see me. YES! YAY! WOOP! CHEERS! SISSY!

|| Our downstairs bathroom is 99.9% done and I'm am thrilled. It has been a TRIAL getting everything updated [broken flanges, mismatched water intakes, bad drywall, horrible flooring, not true corners, vanity drama] so finally have it so near completion makes me ecstatic.

|| I have learned ONE of the FOUR new releases for launch in two weeks. #oneisbetterthannone

|| Le Husband and I discovered a delicious restaurant near us, it is PHOtastic. Super flavorful, very well priced, closed to our house and totally hits the spot when a quick filling dinner is needed.

That's it for me, what are some of your wins this week?

Three Lil things

I've seen this lil quiz post circulating in blogland and finally put down my answers. How many can you guess?

Three favorite of my favorite foods

soft serve ice cream cone

sweet potato fries

sushi

Three things I'd never give up

food

chapstick

teaching group fitness

Three favorite cocktails

champagne

bellini

wine

Three favorite movies

UP

Home Alone

The Negotiator

Three favorite simple pleasures in life

warm clean sheets out of the dryer

first sip of coffee on a quiet weekend morning

le husband's hand on my leg while we chill on the couch

Three things always in my car

a knife

chapstick

lotion

Three things I always have on me

phone

chapstick

nail clipper

Three things I regret not doing/doing

not cutting someone out of my life earlier

not pursuing sports broadcasting with more ambition

wasting time on stupid moments that don't matter

Three most recent places I've traveled

Virginia

Ohio

Florida

Three most often used makeup products

tarte shape tape

mascara

eye liner

Three things that make me cry

remembering my maternal grandmother and thinking about how she wasn't at my wedding

sports moments

being away from my family

Three things that make me smile/laugh

hanging with my sisters

le husband's laugh

corny jokes

Three places I want to visit inside the US

Montana

Napa

Maine

Three places I want to visit outside the US

Ireland

Bora Bora

Germany

Three blessings in my life

family

husband

health

What's New With You {September}

Linking up with Shay

What we're eating... big mishmash of food right now. I've been getting CleanEatz meals during the week for lunch or dinners depending on if Le Husband is in town. My weight is up in the high zone right now, so I'm looking into counting my macros to get back on track. Football tailgate food is my nemesis this season. 

What I'm reminiscing about... my family weekend. Sportyspice and I put our heads together two months ago and concocted a surprise for Babyspice's 30th birthday. Everything went according to plan [thank goodness] and it was truly a magical weekend back home with my family.

Brady Bunch

What I'm loving... the fact I PASSED the NASM CPT exam and studying is over and done. Y'all this has been a gargantuan undertaking and it was such a stressor on my life. Finally, it is complete and I am a certified personal trainer!

What we've been up to...  hmmmm, "we" haven't really been up to anything together, except the house. Le Husband traveled a ton for work this month and I studied like crazy for my NASM exam. Still doing minor things on the house, the next big order of business is the master bath and then the kitchen, ugh. We each had travel on a weekend and also visited his family in Gatlinburg last weekend.

What I'm dreading... Le Husband's trip the first weekend of October. I'm not joining him in Vegas and it's kind of crushing my spirit to be left behind. Someone give me something fun to do while he is away. #greenwithenvy

What I'm working on... getting hired as a trainer. EEEEEK!

What I'm excited about... Thanksgiving and more family time. I know, I'm a month early but I am so stinking excited to see everyone again. ANNNNNNNND Sportyspice will have her gender reveal. EEK! YAY! BOY OR GIRL!?!?

What I"m watching/reading... not too much reading, need to work on that soon. Watching the trashy bravo shows when I need something mindless and I'm really excited for fall television to come back.

What I'm listening to... alllllll the Les Mills music as next month is LAUNCH!!!

What I'm wearing... the weather is still nice and warm down here in Tennessee so I'm sporting all the short sleeves, tanks, shorts, capris and flips that I can. I'm not ready for the briskness so I'm hugging the last lil bit of summer I can.

What I'm doing this weekend... heading downtown and on the boat for the UT vs Georgia game. It's going to be a fun time and we have friends in town so I'm looking forward to fun, football and food!

What I'm looking forward to next month...  we have a wedding and actually a couple of open weekends which is great. More work on the house before the holidays show up, woohoo! Also so a fun new teaching schedule which I'm super excited about. I needed the gym up and I'll actually have a day to do my OWN workouts during the week, woop.

How was your September? Anything awesome? We celebrated our four year wedding anniversary this month and seeing other wedding anniversaries in September always makes me smile. < 3

Weekly Wins: Finally Fall

|| Fall has finally arrived, which means I'm excited about the new season. I'm a summer girl, through and through, so I despise when people try to make fall happen early [stop trying to make fall early happen, ha]. I understand people further south and west need the relief, but I love me some hot days and get sad when the first crips shows up. Now it's officially fall so time to get ready for new clothing [!!!], football tailgates, potlucks, cool nights and scarves. woop

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|| This post happened, woohoo! I've been exhausted from my studying and trip over the weekend so computer time has been very limited. Launch for new releases is coming up so I've also been getting ready for allll that fun. Yay for two posts this week, ha.

|| Kickball on Thursday nights has started and it's so much fun. I know it might sound trite to y'all, but the friendships formed from playing kickball is just something so incredible and I'm glad we have another group. They are fun and we win a lot. 

|| I'VE STARTED THE PROCESS TO GET HIRED AS A PERSONAL TRAINER!!!! EEEEP

|| My weekly purchased meals have been BOMBdotCOM this week, yum.

|| The water is working in my office, halllllleeeelluuuuuuu! 

|| Twice during the week I've slept for five hours straight. INCREDIBLE, so thankful to have sleep again.

|| THIS MEME! #hahaheeheehahaho

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How was your week? What are some wins?

Surprise Birthday Weekend

Oh what a weekend it was. Yes, I now today is Wednesday, but I was way too exhausted to get any kind of post up for Monday. My body is still recovering from the crazy week that was study time and there was no rest this weekend because, HELLO, family time!

Friday I headed to the gym to waste time before my flight. It felt really good to BE at the gym after passing my NASM PT exam. Everyone was super excited for me which was super nice, too. I had a fantastic workout, showered and changed then headed to airport. It's so nice having MAYBE a five minute wait to get through security, cheers to tiny airports :)!

Flight was a lil delayed, but thankfully not as much as expected. I was meeting my family at dinner so I had to dress fancier than normal on the plane. Super fun wearing my felt hat to cover the crazy hairs.

 Thankfully the flight was super uneventful, I even had my own row and we landed pretty close to the expected time. I scurried to a cab, so I could meet the famjam at Ruth Chris' for the big 30th birthday dinner. The family was done eating when I arrived but they had ordered my meal and it came quite quickly.

Oh yes, I SAID FAMILY because we flew SPORTYSPICE in from Arizona as a surprise. I wasn't able to see the exchange happen but saw video and it was so perfect. Lil Babyspice had NO IDEA! After a month of planning it was so nice for everything to come together for the special moment. Being together as our family of five was so incredible, I can't even describe the feeling.

 Once dinner was over, we all headed home for some drinks, hang out sissy time and prep for the next day. Everyone was pretty tired so it was a midnight bedtime with an early morning. Sportyspice and I jumped up early, headed to Trader Joes to grab a few snacks for the fiesta. The party was at a winery and we had all the girls sign up to bring bread, cheese, fruit and crackers to share, we just wanted to get a few extra special pieces.

We tried to keep as much of the guest list a secret as possible and it was fun watching Babyspice's face light up each time someone entered the room. Once everyone arrived at my parent's house we all caravanned to a gorgeous winery twenty minutes west. It was thankfully a GORGEOUS day and we arrived early enough to grab a two tables.

The day was spent wine tasting, snacking, eating cake, taking pictures and just celebrating our darling 30 year old. She has a fantastic group of women who support her and we were so thankful they all took time out of their weekend to join in our plan. Everyone was so wonderful during the planning process and I was beyond thankful everything worked out so well in the end.

Happy happy happy birthday, sweet darling girl!

As evening rolled around people began heading home, with one friend staying with us for the evening. The four of us headed out to dinner while my parents went to different functions and it was so fun being back at our 'family' place. The rest of the evening was spent watching movies, drinking more wine and just chilling out together.

Sunday morning I was up early again to head down south to visit my bestest friend and her brood. It was a morning full of kids, feedings, naps, chatting up, hugging and advice. I'm happy with life in Tennessee now, but man do I miss my gal. So glad things we were able to catch up for a short time.

Too soon the morning turned into afternoon and then evening and we were eating dinner then getting ready to head to the airport. The weekend was such a whirlwind trying to get everything perfect but also just being together. We hadn't just been a family of five in so long and I just tried to soak up all the moments because we all won't be together again until November. I'll be honest, I cried when they dropped me off at the airport, I just did not want to leave. It was quite sudden and unexpected, but hugging my dear family peeps broke my heart again. Being a grown up can stink, but I'm so thankful to have something so special.

I miss you family, so much! Can't wait for Thanksgiving, it's going to be so fun!

Weekly Wins: I PASSED & Family VISIT!

YES, y'all, YES! I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT! I PASSED MY NASM PT CERTIFICATION!

Last night I retook {see the first try here} my NASM PT certification test and saw those four beautiful letters, P A S S ! After seeing the words failed in June this was such a welcome relief. Y'all, I cried in the car again. This time tears of joy because this has been such a long few months and SUPER long week studying like crazy. Which is part of the reason I've been silent all week. The other reasons had to do with with Irma and September 11th looming. I just didn't have to drive to come here with everything else so serious. But also, I've been so immersed in studying I've barely made the rounds reading blogs, on Instagram or even Facebook. I hated tell everyone, here and IRLI failed last time and was determined NOT to do it again.

So I studied. And I bought the NASM APP. And I studied some more. I stopped taking extra classes. I didn't sub for anyone but my favorites {yes, that's how it can work}. I spent at least four hours at work studying, broken up throughout the day. I credit my passing to the NASM APP and the fact my job is so chill right now I can study away without being bothered. The past few days have been extremely stressful, both mentally and physically and I'm so grateful it is over. Thank you to everyone for cheering me on when asked. For believing in me. For answering my texts when I freaked out. The support here is incredible, I'm so so so so lucky. YAY WINNING!

Another big win for the week: Today I'm flying back HOME -- yes home -- to celebrate Babyspice's 30th birthday. Sportyspice and I put our heads together last month and put together a fun winery picnic with some of her nearest and dearest friends. She knows part of the fun planned, but we have a few things up our sleeve and I honestly just can't wait to BE HOME and hug on her. It will be nice to see family and sleep in my old bed, too. Cheers to a fun VA WEEKEND!

Cira a few years ago. I want her arms!

What are your weekly wins? Would anyone be interested in a weekly wins link up? I know Fridays are kind of saturated, but I personally enjoy celebrating the 'wins' of the week, especially after a long one. Any takers? Let me know in the comments!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! Lots and lots of love and cheers!

Weekly Wins

A little late today, but ain't no thang. Late seems to be the theme as I forgot to set my alarm last night so jumped up 20 minutes late this morning. Big win getting out of the house in 20 minutes, with breakfast.

>> All from everyone yesterday with our four year anniversary. Someone commented it seems like I was JUST building up to the wedding and now here we are four years later. WOW! So thankful we chose each other!

>> FINALLY sharing the news about Sportyspice and lil bean. Gosh it's been hard to keep the secret!


>> Last night I had dinner and drinks with a new/good friend since Le Husband was out of town. It's so nice to find someone who I can relate in so many different aspects of life. She's wonderful, her husband is a friend as well and we just get each other. So grateful for new friendships.

>> Tonight we have a reservation downtown for our anniversary dinner. Nothing huge, owning a house and planning for big trips later has us being smart about dollar bills right now, just cards and time spent together. #qualitytime

>> Tomorrow is college football SATURDAY, woohoo! It's going to be a day of all football as we head down to Neyland Stadium to tailgate on my grandfather's house boat, stay for the first half then bike home to get ready to watch the BUCKEYES at home. YES, FOOTBALL!

>> I helped a semi back up and down the short road in front of work and didn't break anything, WOOP!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Dearest Flordia friends, please be safe. This thing is no joke and please heed the warnings if you are asked to evacuate. During my Katrina relief work EVERYONE I talked to spoke about how they wished they had left or were glad they did. I love you all tons and there are lots of hotels here in Tennessee you can stay in or stay with us. Reach out to us or others if you need to go somewhere. LOOOOOOVE!

F O U R

Four years married. Four years ago we pledged to each other, in front of God and our families, for better or worse. Four years ago we committed to walk life together, no matter what. Four years ago we smiled and celebrated and cheeresd!

Oh my love, year three to four has indeed been a for better or worse. The beginning of year three brought our month in Europe, something we had talked, talked, talked about and FINALLY made happen. Those were some of the happiest days of my life, eating, traveling, exploring, drinking, lounging, releaxing, learning and loving you. We had THE BEST TIME EVER. Having you as my life partner there to experience everything made it so special.

Then we moved. We moved with excitement, anticipation, hope and a plan. We were ready. Then life happened. And one week turned into one month. Then two. Then three. Suddenly we were looking at six months of a change which was unlike anything we expected. It was hard. So incredibly hard. We were so frustrated and so angry and so immersed in the darkness we forgot to take care of each other.

We forgot why we said "I do." 

And then the clouds broke with sun streaming through to finally shine down. We bought our FIRST HOUSE and have been pouring ourselves into making it our home. The sun reminded us of our why, of our reason for choosing each other forever, of nine seven two thousand thirteen. The best day every because we became one as husband and wife.

Year three into four can only be described as our learning year. We learned who we are at the core, separately and as a couple. We learned what hurts each other most and what is needed when times are really, really, really tough. This year we learned words hurt, a lot. But, words can also chase away a bad day, rescue each there from that feeling of drowning and words like YES, can change everything. We learned how easy it is to turn on the mean and how hard it is to swallow pride. We learned that coming unyoked is tough because the load is not carried equally.

Life is better as we start year four. Easier. Happier and more put together than year three. I chose the picture above for a few reasons. A representation of walking TOGETHER through life, the good and the bad. A moment where you carried something for me so quickly and easily. We are in step, our eyes on the same destination and we are together.

My dearest husband, thank you for choosing me. After the hard days, after the easy days, and even after the days we don't treat each other the best, thank you. Sleeping next to you at night I know we can conquer anything. I have learned we are truly a team if we work together and I've learned I wouldn't want to do life with anyone else. Happy anniversary!

year one, year two, year three

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Before I go, I have to share one more thing. I am so excited to FINALLY announce, SPORTYSPICE and her husband are pregnant with their FIRST CHILD, due sometime in early March. We found out she was pregnant VERY early, back when she was here in July and it was the most special moment getting to hug her and share in the news all together. I am so thrilled for her and her husband and can't wait to give the belly a rub in November. Oh, and let me mention -- because girl deserves props -- she placed 2nd in a bikini fitness competition last weekend! My idol right now :)!

*linkingupwithkristen*

C U R R E N T L Y

celebrating four years of marriage on Thursday, wow! mushy post to come on this topic, of course :)!

watching reruns until my shows come back. bring it NCIS/Elementary/Blue Bloods

welcoming a new teaching schedule for fitness classes next month and I'm SO EXCITED.

preparing for my big retake of the NASM PT exam. egad!

photographing myself on Instagram story. #imeannothingelseisgoingon

anticipating some wonderful news dropping tomorrow.

hoping Florida is not hit as badly as predicted with Irma. #stayawayhurricanes

loving how America has come together for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. JJ Watts foundation has raised over 18.5 million dollars because of social media, can you believe it? (If you're still looking to donate, might I suggest his foundation or food banks instead of the Red Cross? Not wanting to get into a debate, but they are pennies to the dollar compared to other organizations giving 100% to those in need.)

remembering how loved we felt on our wedding day. such fond memories.

*linkinguphere*