I was thrilled when I read that Pubsgal had passed this super awesome award my way:

Here’s what I get to do:

1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER!
2. Choose ONE of the following options of accepting the OMB award:
   • Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.
   • Write about your most embarrassing moment.
   • Write a “Soundtrack of your childhood” post.
   • Make your next blog a ‘vlog’/video blog. Basically, you’re talking to the camera about whatever.
   • Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc)and post it.
3. Pass the award on to at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers as yourself. Don’t forget to tell them.

Consider item #1 DONE because I AM excited and it IS the coolest award ever!

In deciding what to do for item #2 I knew that the first option was out because I don’t drink. And I figured there’d be no fun in the last option since I pretty much look the same right now as I do when I first wake up. (I don’t wear makeup on a daily basis – only special occasions) So I was torn between sharing my most embarrassing moment and doing a video blog.

And then I remembered this….

An embarrassing moment caught on video!

Now I get to pass this award on which is difficult because there are soooo many great people out there who I would LOVE to see embarrass themselves…hehe. I chose the following people…most of whom I’m relatively new to following and all of whom I’m incredibly inspired by on a regular basis:

Tara
Jess
Sean
Lynne
Shelley
Chad
Carla
Amy
Meegan

In other non-blog-award news, I did something to my leg earlier tonight. I was all proud of myself because I ran for a solid mile and a half before stopping to walk. Then when I left the gym I noticed this pain in my left leg with every step I took. I must have pushed myself too hard or something. I’m icing it, and will just not exercise/run again until it’s better. I don’t think I pulled a muscle or anything, but I don’t know. I’m gonna baby it. I have my first training with the running coaches this Saturday, so hopefully it’ll be better by then. I had also planned on doing the Mayfaire 5K this weekend, but I’ll just have to play that by ear now.

Edited to add: I know I’ve been slacking on blog commenting and I’m sorry. I’ve been planning a family reunion which is now just a couple weeks away, so I’ve been busier than usual. I promise I’ll visit you all soon! xoxo

154.2 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
49.5 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(5) 5Ks finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

I’ve been meaning to tell this story now for a few days, but have been otherwise preoccupied, so here goes.

Thursday night we went to the fair. Now, I have to tell you I was SO looking forward to going to the fair this year being 43 lbs lighter. In years past, there were a lot of rides that I just wouldn’t fit on, namely any ride that locks you in over your head/chest. So in past years I’d just settle for rides that didn’t have the over-the-head locking mechanism. It was just always kinda sad for me because I love roller coasters and scary thriller rides. So, needless to say, I was super excited to go this year 43 lbs lighter in anticipation of riding some of those rides, and one in particular: The “Speed” ride.

I’ve seen this ride in action before and it looked spectacularly scary. My kind of ride! It takes its passengers about 121 feet in the air while spinning them around and the entire arm also spins an entire 360 degrees.

It’s considered a ’specialty’ ride at our fair, which meant that you couldn’t use your armband to ride it. (We purchased armbands for unlimited rides). This ride only took tickets…ten of them for $11. I paid my $11 and waited patiently in line until the attendant told me ‘hop on up’. So I did. Here he is ‘locking me in’ my seat:

I fit! I really fit! So, I asked him to be sure, “I’m locked in, right?” and he said “yes” and came over and gave it another push to be sure.

Whew.

Ok, here we go.

The ride starts and awaaaaay we go! It was AWESOME. When we got all the way to the top, I was literally hanging there, looking down at my husband and kids and just thinking about how incredibly awesome that moment was. Here’s a picture my hubby snapped of me in that moment:

It didn’t last long.

We did two whole spins and then felt the ride slow down. The girl behind me said she didn’t know why we were slowing down, the ride was much longer than that. When we came to stop, the attendant came right up to me, pointed, and said “you gotta come off, you’re not locked in all the way”.

WHAT?!?!

He said, “yea, and I don’t want to get sued.”

I said “Well, I don’t want to DIE!”

So, that was it for my “Speed” ride experience. I mean, I heard it click in, but I guess it wasn’t ” locked”? I think I’m lucky it didn’t come undone while I was 121 ft in the air?!

After I got off the ride I quickly walked to my family and went on to finish our fair experience. I was trying not to be upset or embarrassed, but truthfully I was both. How could I not have been? I didn’t even think to ask for a refund or anything either, I was in such a hurry to move along, ya know?

Well, I can tell you one thing. I WILL lose the rest of this weight so that I never have this problem again…and you can take that to the bank!

Here’s the video of me going around in it and quickly coming to stop. You can even hear my husband say “that’s it?” He didn’t know why it was stopping so soon either.

80.6 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(3) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Let me warn you right now – this is going to be a very long post. I am still computer-less at home for the moment. We are having a local PC shop build us a new one, which is new experience for us, I am excited about getting our new system just the way we want it at a lower price than the box stores could’ve given us. Hopefully it’ll be ready to pick up tomorrow or Thursday, so until then I’m stuck blogging from my phone or from my work computer as I’m doing now…don’t worry, though, I’m on my lunch hour

First things first, yesterday’s weigh-in results:

I weighed in yesterday at 215.4 lbs which is a 2.6 lb loss for the week. This brings my total weight loss so far to 40.6 pounds!

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stoked about this. I’m SO close to being out of the 200s now, I can hardly believe it. By the way, I’ve decided how I’m going to reward myself once I do hit the elusive “Onederland”…DAVE MATTHEWS BAND tickets! They’ve been my favorite band for 18 years, yet somehow I’ve managed to go all this time without ever once seeing them live. (oh the shame of it all!) Every summer my sister goes and every summer it’s another excuse as to why I can’t, but not this year. I’ve got the money put aside so the day I step on the scale and the number staring back at me begins with a 1 instead of a 2, I’m ordering tickets. OH YEAH! If that isn’t motivation enough to stay on track, then I don’t know what is.

Now onto some fun stuff. You may recall this post back in November when we first started working on the float for my daughter’s clogging team. Here’s what it looked like back then, before we started:

and here’s what it looked like the day of the Edison Junior Parade on Valentines Day:

Pretty awesome, huh? Our theme was “Winter Wonderland” and we have been working on it almost every weekend for the past few months along with several other clogger parents. Here is a picture of it all lit up during the Edison Grand Parade this past Saturday night (see all the cloggers in there dancing?):

And a few more pictures to share…we had SO much fun.

Here I am with Madelyn, my little clogger, right before the Junior parade on Valentines Day. Please note, I live in Florida where heavy coats are not usually required, I’m wearing it to coordinate with our winter theme. (I walked alongside the float, so I had to be in theme). I bought the coat and scarf specifically for the parade…Note: The coat is an XL and was way too small for me…I couldn’t close it any more than what you see in the picture, but I bought it that way on purpose…maybe by next winter it will be too large!

Here’s a closeup of the ‘igloo’ portion of the float:

Can you believe there’s a truck in there?

And here is our title “Clogging on thin ice for Mr. Edison”:

For those unfamiliar, the Edison Festival of Lights is a 3 week celebration of Thomas Edison who resided in Ft. Myers during the winter months. The festival is our way of honoring his innovative legacy and includes many events including the junior parade, the Grand parade, a Day of Discovery, and a 5K run.

For the Grand Parade, a couple of the moms made these really cute lighted snowflakes for the walkers to wear…here I am sporting mine:

And now a video, that is so incredibly embarrassing, but we had a lot of fun. You’ll get a kick out of it, I’m sure! (I’m the one in the white/black coat with hot pink scarf).

Laughing yet? See, I told you you’d get a kick out of it! I’m pretty good at the air guitar, aren’t I?

The parades were a blast! It was a totally new experience for us because it was my daughter’s first year on the team. Being in the parades also helped me realize just how far I’d come in the last five months. Five months ago, there was no way I could have walked in those parades. NO WAY. Especially the grand parade which was rather long and we were moving FAST…jogging speed. The route itself was about 3 miles long, but you have to remember I was jumping all around, dancing, and working the crowd along the streets. It wasn’t just a casual walk. We got home that night and my feet had blisters because of the shoes I had on, but I was so thankful for the positive changes I’ve made in my life over the past 5 months, because had it not been for that, I wouldn’t have been able to have enjoyed that experience with my daughter. How’s that for a non-scale victory? We’ll be in yet another parade in 2 weeks!

Gosh, I told ya this was gonna be a long post…and truth be known, there’s so much more I want to write…it’s been really hectic around here the past few weeks. Please forgive me for not coming by your blogs, but without a home PC and as busy as we’ve been, it’s really difficult to do. Just a couple more days and things should be back to normal around here.

Edited to add: I can’t believe I forgot to post this part, but we won “Most Outstanding” float in both parades!

64.35 miles walked/jogged/ran since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 500)
13.9 miles biked since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 300)
(2) 5K finished since January 1st. (2010 Goal: 12)

Steve, over at Log My Loss, set a goal to walk 750 miles this year and he is right on track to achieving that goal. (!!!) Well, I’ve been so inspired by this that I’ve decided to follow his lead and set a similar goal for myself. I wanted it to be S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely) so here’s what I came up with:

Yep, I am hereby setting a goal to walk 500 miles between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. That’s right around 10 miles a week. Hopefully having this goal will help keep me focused, especially as I start training to run a 5k.

Speaking of 5k’s, I wanted to give a little update on the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot I walked. I found the website last night that gave the official D-chip finish times. If you click on that website, be sure to change the event at the top to 5k “walk” instead of “run”…I was bib# 1566. Anyway, I had originally posted that I finished in 56:57 because that was the time as I crossed the finish line. For official times, however, they measure from the time your foot crosses the start line to the time you finish so I actually finished in 56:55…so I was 2 seconds off in my initial blog. My official pace was 18:21. I also learned that I came in 219th place out of 282 participants.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend so far. I’ve been channeling my inner geek as I work on a certain Christmas present…it’s been challenging, but hopefully seeing the person’s reaction will make it all worth it.

Whew, what a busy weekend! My eating has been great this weekend, although I still didn’t start C25K yet. (Lacking motivation here, big time.)

Friday night we went to the “Hoedown” that my daughter’s school has every year. It’s basically a fall festival with games, food, auction, etc. and my daughter was performing there with her clogger group (She’s the brunette in the center looking toward the camera):

I chose not to eat there because there really were no healthy options. Well, that and the fact that the food lines were outrageously long! haha

Saturday we had another performance to go to at a retirement community. It was probably the best one so far! The audience (of mostly elderly folk) got so into it! They were clapping and stomping and even yelled for an encore after they were done! I loved that crowd…it’s so awesome to look around and see how their faces just glow up once the dancers start. Here’s a video if anyone wants to see: (The music cuts off halfway through inadvertently, but they kept dancing like nothing had happened-my daughter is in the front row closest to the camera)

Every year the cloggers make a float because they’re in 5-6 parades a year (starting in February). So today was “paint day” where we started tearing off the cloth that was still on it from last year’s western theme and gave it a fresh new coat of white paint. I can’t reveal what the theme will be this year, so I probably won’t post any more pictures of it until parade time. (Don’t want to tip off any competing teams )

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow’s weigh-in. My “sneak peek” today had me at around 19 pounds lost total. Dangerously close to the 20 lb mark! I guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow. Sorry I don’t have much weight related to talk about tonight…my weekend pretty much revolved around clogging…hehe. I guess that’s part of being a mom! I’m happy though because even though we were “busy” I didn’t let that be an excuse to make bad food choices. I’m off to go read some blogs and then to bed at a decent hour. I might get up and go to the gym in the morning. (I really, really want to) G’night all!

Walked about a mile last night with my family and got 2 miles in this morning at the gym and I feel good great. My breathing is a lot better and the coughing is all but gone, thankfully!

Gotta go for now, just wanted to share a little James Brown this mornin’.