Merry Christmas to YOU

I want to take a minute to wish all of my blog readers a very Merry Christmas. I have been enjoying spending time with my family and friends during my visit to Tampa. I will have lots to blog about when I get back home. But for now, know that I am thinking of each and every one of you and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year! May you always be blessed by His love!

Merry Christmas!

I officially have a church home

I have been attending church at Mount Paran Church of God since last September. I had not joined the church because I was planning on moving and wasn't sure where my move would take me. Well as God would have it, I ended up moving only 5 minutes further from church than I was before. I really love the church and was really glad when Amanda & I found our townhome so close. The church community is incredible and I knew if I stayed close to the church I was going to become a member.

I attended the new member orientation last Sunday (14Dec2008) and officially became a member. I thoroughly enjoy the church and the messages that Dr. Cooper delivers every Sunday. Becoming a member and actually knowing that I now have a church home is a great feeling. I know God is going to use me however He sees fit to advance His kingdom and I cannot wait to experience the life God has in store for me.

You can visit the church website here: www.mtparan.org

The end of another GREAT camp!

December's camp absolutely FLEW by, I cannot believe three weeks is gone! During the months of November and December we had 'mini' boot camps out at the park. Due to the holidays, the camps in November and December were each three weeks long (as opposed to four). It ended up being 15 workouts instead of the usual 18. Even though our campers have had 1 less week and 3 less workouts, we have still seen tremendous improvements in their overall endurance and health. The campers never cease to amaze me with their positive attitudes and consistent pushing forward. We battled some not so ideal weather conditions this month. The first week was cold, the second week was wet and the third week was a little warmer, but still damp. The campers still showed up and gave their all. They make my job easy :)

The first day of camp, the campers are timed in a mile run and then see how many sit-ups, push-ups and tricep dips they can do in a minute. The last day of camp they do the same routine, this measurement is an awesome way to see improvements. We see leaps and bounds in the endurance and strength of our campers. It is a true testament to our program! My first month as a bootcamper was back in April. My first mile time was around 10:40. The end of my first month, my mile time was 9:08 - huge improvements!!! I had not timed my mile since the end of my second camp, but up until yesterday my fastest mile was 9:08. I ran the mile yesterday as a "rabbit" for my roommate. She wanted to get under a 9:00 minute mile and my job was to make sure she did. During the run I stayed just far enough ahead of her so she could see me, I kept watch to make sure she was staying with me. When I crossed the finish line the time called out was 8:45 - I was ecstatic!! I just ran my fastest mile EVER!! Amanda crossed 6 seconds behind me at 8:51 - her fastest mile also, absolutely amazing!!!

At the end of every camp we take a picture with the group. Here is our "graduation" picture for the month of December. Congrats to all of our bootcampers on an awesome end to 2008!!!

One more game...

Saturday was by far the highlight of my college football season! The gators played a tough game against Alabama and they came out on top in the end. That was probably the most nerve racking game I have watched all season (I missed the Ole Miss game, lol!) I was watching the game while getting ready for my company Christmas party, so thankfully my full attention was not on the game. I started out feeling good about our "A team" showing up, but quickly began to get nervous when Alabama took the lead for the first time. Those nerves did not get any better until the interception in the 4th quarter with 2 minutes to go. I LOVE my Gators, but MAN did that game make me nervous. Nonetheless it is on to Miami on January 8th to take on Okahoma!

Way to go boys! GO GATORS!!!

I Love Flying

To me flying represents a journey, new places and freedom. Okay maybe the latter is only for the birds. However, today was one of those, "I don't love flying so much" days! Kind of like when I flew 6 different times in 4 days, I didn't EVER want to see a plane again after those flights! Todays flight was only a 2 hour flight from Philly to Atl, but it was just one of those flights. We taxied from the gate and were immediately parked on the tarmac for 20 mins due to bad weather in Atlanta - AWESOME, 20 extra minutes on a stuffy plane (in the middle seat no less). Whatever - there is nothing I can do about air traffic control or the weather for that matter, so I'll just read my magazine and listen to my iPod. We take off after our 20 minute delay (the delay was actually 20 minutes - imagine THAT!!!) as soon as we level off the guy in front of me decides he wants to sleep, his seat comes back and is suddenly much closer than before, grrr! I forgot seat backs go back that far and airplanes already don't have much room! Okay so again, nothing I can do but adjust, no sense in interupting peoples sleep. Except for this guys sleep consisted of him pushing back on the seat every 10 minutes, a little annoying but not too bad, except for when I am leaning forward, reading my magazine on my tray table: back of his chair & front of my face - another AWESOME!!! I finally gave up reading and went to sleep (chair back up of course, so as to be courteous to my behind me neighbor). I woke up to a not-so-fun descent through dark clouds and rain. We landed to soggy conditions at 5:30pm - GREAT, what would have been a 45 minute commute just got extended (or so I thought).

From de-planing the trip got better, maybe because I was finally on the ground at home, who knows! We made it to baggage claim and our bags were already circulating on the belt - YAY for Delta's baggage crew! We got the car out of parking and our commute was pretty quick, little to know stopping and little traffic! Wohoo!!!

So, a not so good flight ended on a good note. I made it home successfully from my first ever business trip (I will blog about that later!) AND I get to get up and go work out in the morning. I sure have missed boot camp! Life is good, tomorrow is FRIDAY!

And a GREAT Thanksgiving with the Fam!!!

I spent an entire week in Florida with my family for Thanksgiving this year. This meant that I got to see a lot of my friends and family. I got to spend an entire two days with Hannah! She is a bucket of fun these days. She is 17 months and is a full fledged walker, and runner sometimes! She is a very happy little girl, she kills me with her laugh. I am really truly blessed to have such a beautiful niece! I just wish she would slow down on the growing. It really hits home everytime I see her and she has grown so much. That is one of the biggest downsides to living in GA. I miss my girl!!!

I also got to spend two days with LeAnn and Jaylene. Jaylene is a total camera ham! She is adorable AND she knows it :0) She will be two in about a week and she is growing up WAY to fast as well. It is really hard to believe that she is almost 2!!!! She is talking very well these days and is a ton of fun to play with! I am very blessed to have such a beautiful and energetic God-Daughter. I miss you guys & love you SOOO much!

I also got to spend a lot of time with my parents and brothers. I went and stayed with Rob on Friday night and we got to do some brother-sister bonding/catching up. On Saturday the family was over to watch the Gators mop up FSU!!! Go Gators! We drank some beer, cooked out on the grill and screamed for our Gators.
Overall it was a really great holiday and I cannot wait to go back for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope you had a blessed holiday!

A Wedding

Thanksgiving took a different (but good) twist for me this year. I was in my cousin’s wedding on Turkey Day! It was unusual (well apparently not too unusual, as there were 3 weddings on the ship that day) not only because it was on a holiday, but it was also on a cruise ship. I had never been on a cruise ship, much less in a wedding on one. It was a blast!

We drove down to Ft Lauderdale on Wednesday and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that night. We got up bright and early on Thursday morning to get ready for the wedding. I was amazed at the cruise ship; it was like a floating city! Once I got on the ship I was really bummed that I wasn’t going on the cruise. The wedding was beautiful and went off without any disasters! Unfortunately, my family and I had to leave the ship so the rest of them could go to Cozumel!!!

Congratulations Kasey & Cory! Welcome to the family Kasey!

A Gator Game

My parents have had season tickets to the Gator games for a long time, and I usually try to make it to a few games each year. Ever since moving to Atlanta I have found it harder and harder to make it down for the games. I was really bummed because I thought I was not going to make it to G-ville for a game this season. Well, as luck would have it, I found myself driving through G-ville on Saturday the 22nd, when the Gators were playing Citadel. I was on my way to Tampa for the Thanksgiving holidays. My brother was also driving down from Charlotte and called me to see if I would want to stop for the game. Is he CRAZY, of course I would!!! So I met my bro in G-ville, we bought tickets from a fellow Gator, and then stopped at The Swamp (THE place to go before any Gator Football Game) and had a few beers before heading to the stadium.

Our seats were awesome! We were in the south end zone on the goal line, about 30 rows up from the field!! It was Mr. Two-Bits last game; he is officially retiring (never fear, Albert will be carrying on the two-bits tradition)! And it was the last home game of the season! We won (of course) 70-19, and posted more than 700 total yards, AMAZING!! The game was AWESOME and I am SOOO glad I got to see my boys play (in person) this season!

On the way out of the stadium I stopped to take a picture with a gator statue. This statue was put at the stadium a couple of seasons ago and I have wanted to take a picture with it since I first noticed it. I finally got my picture! The perfect ending to the perfect game! The only thing that would have made my day better is if I would have actually got to meet Tim Tebow, lol!!!

workouts to last a lifetime

Over the past week I have found myself working out EVERY single day. This isn't really that uncommon, especially during the week. I normally workout every morning, during the week, with boot camp. However, this past week was an exception to the norm. I of course had my normal workouts Monday through Wednesday, but all the fun began with two very tough workouts on Thursday. We started out by running 4.5 miles in the morning, with a workout we call long run (45 minutes of straight running). The next workout was sprints on Thursday night. (My lead instructor, Hollis, and I have a one day per week 'mini camp' that we run at Quintiles). The sprints were tough, but combine that with the long run from that morning and we were beat! Little did I know, that was only the beginning...

Friday morning all the instructors dressed up in camo garb for our 'Wingman' workout (aka Top Gun). It was an awesome dress up and workout, but it was TOUGH!!! Check out my camo face, I won the instructor dress up contest, GO ME!!!! Each Saturday morning there are at least two or three boot camp parks that are running free Saturday workouts, we do these as a preview to people interested in our program, as a makeup for campers enrolled in the program who may have missed a workout or for anyone just looking for a great kickstart for thier weekend. Well, Saturday morning was our first 'Saturday workout' at Terrell Mill Park (the park where I instruct). We had a great turn out (about 21 campers) and a really good workout. After we finished the workout I went and helped out with Cobb County Habitat for Humanity. I mostly painted for the rest of the day. The houses we were working on are in the final stages of completion, so it was mostly cosmetic work. Definitely not the fun part, I like having a hammer in my hand ;0) however, it was still totally worth it to give my time to such an important cause.

The weekend ended on Sunday with a 10 mile hike down into Tallulah Gorge. The weather was COLD (the high was 52) but it was beautiful. We took a moderately difficult trail 4.75 miles down to Tugaloo Lake where we stopped to have lunch. Once we all finished our lunch we hiked the same 4.75 mile trail back out. The way back up was more difficult because we were going up hill and I had managed to rub a blister on the ball of my foot on the way down. This was my first hike with the Atlanta Outdoor Club (AOC) and it was incredible. I will definitely be investing into some good hiking equipment (small backpack, camelbak, good shoes, etc). I am looking forward to many more hikes with the AOC and also will hopefully be able to try a little backpacking, camping, canoeing, rafting, overnight backpacking and ***hopefully*** some skydiving!!! I can hardly wait for all these adventures! I will try and post some pics of the hike later in the week.

With all the excitement this weekend, I took a much needed rest from working out today! I will be back in full swing tomorrow morning. That swing will carry me into the weekend and into my drive to Tampa on Saturday morning! I cannot wait to see all of my family and friends whom I have not seen since my birthday in August! I miss you all and can't wait to see you!!!

Movin' on up!

I officially have a roommate! On Saturday I moved out of my apartment, that has been my home for the past 2 1/2 years, and into a town house with my friend Amanda. I was originally looking at buying a house, but decided against it if I am going to be going back to school. So Amanda and I decided to rent a house together and save some moo-lah!

With the help of some AWESOME friends (Thanks: E, Lawson, Jillian, Amanda, Trudy, Cynthia & Kevin!) we began the moving process around 8:30am. Lawson and E were the moving muscles ;0) the rest of us just stood and directed them, lol!! Cynthia brought doughnuts to give everyone energy! We took a total of three trips (multiple cars each trip) and had the move complete around 12:30 (thanks for cancelling your soccer Lawson, I feel so special!). After the last load we all went Long Horn Steakhouse. We had awesome food, shared jokes and laughed at Kelli's lack of a filter.

So now that everything is moved in, my house is a DISASTER!!!! Amanda & I got the living room furniture arranged last night and completed the kitchen today. This whole combining two houses thing is really a challenge. Condensing all my CRAP into a smaller, er, shared space has also proved to be a challenge! Aunt Marcia, you are right, I have A LOT of stuff!!! I was able to sift through my things as I was packing, so I have at least one truck load of things to take to Goodwill! The closet was another story, after sifting through the clothes that no longer fit, I STILL have a closet full, I think I officially own more clothes than a department store (there should be some kind of limit on women buying clothes!!!). Now that the down stairs is completely unpacked, the only thing left is my room. This will prove to be the biggest challenge, I will post when that task is complete! It may be a while, lol!

I absolutely LOVE my new place and hope you will all be able to drop by for a visit! I will be able to bring Rebel & Remi up here after Thanksgiving and I am VERY excited about getting my boys back. I know they will be just as happy in their new home as I am!!

On that note, Happy Birthday, Rebel!!! He is 4 years old TODAY!!!

Our nation is in trouble...

And no, it is not because of who was announced as our president-elect, Barack Obama. Nor is it because McCain/Palin did not win the election. Our nation is in trouble because of the state of the economy, because of the housing market, because of the war, because of the stock market, because of our oil crisis, and the list goes on. Yes, our nation is in trouble. We are also in desperate need of CHANGE. Obviously what has been done in the past is no longer working. Will that change come through Barack Obama? Only time will tell. The election is over, the ballots have been cast and counted: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be sworn in as President and Vice President come January. There is nothing more that can be done to change the outcome of the election. No amount of complaining, bad mouthing, or anger will change the fact that Obama will serve as our president for the next four years. The only thing we can do right now is get on our knees and PRAY. Pray for our nation, pray for other nations, pray for each other, pray for our current president, but most importantly pray for our leaders who will be sworn in come January!

It does not matter who you supported prior to the election. We need to support Obama NOW! He has a long, and difficult, road ahead of him. Do not begin to criticize him before his job even starts! We need to come together and put this nation (and our president-elect) in GOD's hands!!!

Gators swamp Dawgs...

One of the most anticipated games of the Florida Gators season is always the Florida/Georgia game in Jacksonville (a.k.a. "The World's Largest Cocktail Party).

After last year, the Gators had a point to prove and boy did they ever!!! I found out the Atlanta branch of the UF Alumni (Atlanta Gator Club) has viewing parties for the football games. I have wanted to go all season and I finally got my chance. I couldn't have picked a better game. I went with some friends to Sidebar to watch my Gators play in what turned out to be one of the best games of the season!

I was very excited and nervous for the game, I had to face many UGA fans last year when they beat us and I did NOT want that to happen again (didn't think it would, but the thought still made me nervous). My boys proved they still have a chip on their shoulder and came out swinging. They did not stop swinging until that clock was at zero!!! They rocked the field, in the air, on the ground, scoring touchdowns and not once did we see a trailer park dance on their way to a 49-10 victory!

The watch party was awesome!! Sidebar gave out free Orange & Blue shots at half time and the Atlanta Gator Club raffled off some cool prizes. The place was packed with NOTHING but Gators, I felt like I was at the game (ok, the next best thing)! We spent the entire 3 hours cheering, screaming, high-fiving, eating, drinking & just hanging out with some of the BEST fans on the face of the planet! It was AWESOME and we will definitely be back for another game this season. The only thing that would have made the day better is if I would have been watching #15 play from the 50 yard line!

I am SOOOO proud of my boys & proud to be a Florida Gator!!!! SEC Championship, here we come!!!

I have succumbed to blogging...

I don't have kids, unless you want to count Rebel & Remi, but still have found myself wanting to start a blog lately. I am far away from my family and friends and am finding it harder and harder to keep in contact with everyone. So in an attempt to keep my family & friends in the loop of my adventurous life (and for my own entertainment), I have started my very own blog! I will try and post stories, happenings and exciting adventures on a regular basis (no promises)! :) I hope you all will find enjoyment in my ever exciting life stories!

I will attempt to keep you all up to date on the latest and greatest exciting things going on in my life! You can't wait, I know!!!

Welcome to my blog!!