Fargo Marathon Weekend: Day 3

First things first, I weighed in this morning expecting a gain. I didn't gain, but lost 0.2 pound. A loss is a loss, so I'll take it! That is one stick of butter off of me somewhere. ;)

About two blocks away from the finish line

5K, 10K, and "Go Far Challenge" medals

The Fargo Marathon Saturday morning 10K race was a big deal for me to complete! I was so excited that I didn't sleep well the night before. I woke up at 5:30 AM and quickly got dressed and had a bite to eat along with a big glass of water. My mom walked the 10K with me along with one of her co-workers (such a sweet lady who sometimes reads my blog...Hi J!). The morning was a little rainy, but it didn't rain at all during our race. We walked through old neighborhoods where I grew up, saw friends along the way and had fun! Mile marker 4 was right by my parents' home, so my dad and son were outside cheering us on along with my aunt and uncle at the end of our block. At about mile 4 1/2 I got tired. I kept moving, but was ready to just be done with it. Someone cheering everyone on had some great music with the perfect beat playing and I picked up my pace and by mile marker 5 I was on a roll. I went ahead of my mom and then jogged into the Fargo Dome to finish the race when a lady passing me cheered me on and said, "Come on, Girl, you can do it!" I jogged in with her (thank you whoever you were!!) and felt awesome!

At the end of the race, when I was walking by myself, I had quietness that allowed me to reflect on the last year and where I was just a year ago. I got a little choked up thinking about just how far I've come in the last year and just how proud of myself I am. I try hard to keep that pride at bay and be grateful for the blessing that the last year has been to me, but in that moment I felt like shouting, "I've lost 86 pounds in the last year and look at me now!!!" I didn't, of course, say anything at all, but I'm sure the smile on my face when I finished the race showed everyone just how happy I was to be there, finishing my first official 10K. My finishing time was 1:43:02, which was a slower pace than what I was hoping for, but I was just so happy to finish it.

Races complete!

For completing two races during the weekend events, I earned a third medal for the "Go Far Challenge"!


Next year I hope to RUN the 5K and 10K!

We Remember: Memorial Day 2011

For my husband, grandfathers, uncles, cousins, brother-in-laws, sister-in-law, and many friends who have served our country and those who have supported them, waited for them at home, and served along with them...I thank you.

Fargo Marathon Weekend: Day 2

Friday evening was the 5K race! My husband had signed up to walk with me, but he was out of town for business so couldn't attend. Instead, my dad walked in his place (and joked that he got to be 34 for the day)! We ended up walking with my cousin's wife and the three of us stayed together for the walk most of the time. We walked past my elementary school and neighborhoods of friends. So many people were out in their yards and the streets cheering us all on and playing music for us. It was so fun! We were walking fast enough to pass many people, so we were weaving in and out of the pedestrian traffic quite a lot, so at times we got seperated. At the end we got seperated, my dad got ahead of me and I got stuck behind a large group of people and my dad ended up beating me to the finish line! It rained before the race, but cleared just long enough for us to walk. The cooler 60's temperatures were perfect. My official time for the 5K was 49:01, which is the fastest I've walked a 5K! I usually do it around 54 minutes. Next year, my goal is to run it!

Fargo Marathon Weekend: Day 1

I've been home from Fargo for just a few hours and am still on a high from the weekend events! I had so much fun participating in the 5K and 10K and cheering on fellow participants, too! Since the weekend was just so full of fun, I'm going to write about it over the next few days.

Day 1: I got to Fargo on Thursday after a long drive from Omaha through a lot of construction that caused delays turning what should have been a 6 1/2 hour drive into an 8 hour drive. Once I got there,  I headed over to The Fargo Dome to pick up my packets and check out the expo which was full of every kind of product a runner would need!

  Picking up my packets!

 Between the two race route maps that I was going to participate in.

T-shirts, bag, and bibs for each race! My 10K bib said "Full Marathon" on it! We went back in the morning to check it, but they had run out of 10K bibs, so printed the last few on Full marathon bibs! I guess because my last name starts with a "W", mine was one of the last to be printed!

I wasn't too pleased that the 5K shirt (and medal) says, "Uffda" on it. For those of you who don't know, you can read about the phrase HERE. Other than that, I love the shirts and the bag is nice, too!


Tomorrow I'll write about my 5K!

Weekly Weigh-in!

I weighed in today with a 2.6 pounds loss! I lost a daily allowance point, too, so I'm now down to 32 points per day. My total loss is now 86.6 pounds! I'm looking forward to 90 pounds, but am looking forward to 92 pounds even more as that will take me out of the 200's and into ONEderland! I'm so close!

This coming weekend I'm walking the 5K and 10K in a marathon, so I'm excited about that! Hope the weather will hold up so I don't have to walk in the rain. I'm sure I'll share pictures early next week once it is all done and I've recuperated. :o)

Earrings Give-away!

Hollee over at Dandelion Wishes is having a give-away for some super cute earrings by Relaxed Beauty! Go check them out and enter to win!!

Cleaning House

Happy Sunday! This morning I weighed myself just to see where I was to know what to expect on Tuesday at my WW weigh-in and things look promising! :o)

Something that is a constant battle of mine besides my weight is my house and cleaning it. I do an okay job most of the time and sometimes even do a fantastic job at keeping it clean, but I'm always striving to find simpler ways to get it done. Today I sat down at my computer with two books at hand. Fly Lady's (aka Marla Cilley) "Sink Reflections" and Sarah Mae's "31 Day to Clean."  Both books are full of great ideas to not only clean your house, give a simple schedule to get it done, but also talk about focusing on family and faith while taking care of your home. Combining the ideas from both books, some of my own, and some from friends and speakers I've heard, I came up with a schedule to get my house clean and keep it that way! Most of my readers here are the ones who do the cleaning, so I thought I'd share it. (You can click on it to make it bigger)

The second line is my weekly laundry schedule. I'll wash one person's laundry each day along with towels, bedding, and extras. Of course there will be days when I'll need to wash extra bedding or someone will need that one specific shirt washed, but this will be my general schedule.

The third line in pink is my weekly schedule. Each day beyond the lower schedule I'll work on certain things throughout the week. If you want to know more about Monday: Home Blessing Day, click HERE.

The 35 boxes with chores listed focus on detail cleaning. It is on a five week rotation rather than a monthly schedule because not all months have the same number of days. You'll notice that I kept Sundays as my day of rest. I have a hard time with this and often find myself scurrying about to clean on Sundays to be ready for Monday to come along. No more of that! Sundays are for church, to rest, enjoy my family and have some quiet alone time, too.

So  why did I choose to write about cleaning on my weight-loss blog? I have found that as I shed pounds I also want to shed clutter from my house. They seem to go hand in hand for me. Letting go of the weight both in pounds off of my body and pounds out of my home has been freeing and I would love to see you all shedding the weight, too!

We Want To Know Wednesday and my Weekly Weigh-in!

First things first, I weighed in yesterday with a whopping 0.6 pound loss! Woot! A loss is a loss. That takes me to -84 total, though, which I'm pretty happy with. Hoping to lose at least one pound this next week for my 85 pound mark!

Now I'll get to the "We Want to Know Wednesday" hosted by Impulsive Addict, Janette, Mamarazzi, and Seriously Shawn.



This week's questions come from Janette

{1} What game show have you always thought you could be on and totally WIN!
{2} Do you have a tattoo(s)? What are they and what made you chose them? If not, would you get one, yes/no/why?
{3} What is your favorite piece of jewelry that you own?
{4} What is your driving pet peeve(s)?
{5} What was your favorite sitcom growing up that you wish was still on?


{1} The Price is Right! I remember watching it with my mom and my grandma's favorite game was Plinko. I'm pretty good at guessing the prices of things, so I think I could win!

{2} I have no tattoos. I have thought about getting one in the past, but just never did. Maybe someday I'll get my starting weight tattood on me somewhere to remind myself to never NEVER go back!

{3} Ohhhh! I have a great love for jewelry so I have several pieces that are favorites. I would say my wedding band because it is simple and reminds me of our humble beginnings.

{4} My driving pet peeve the the accelleration at yellow lights around here. Yellow means slow down and come to a stop if you can, not speed up and end up running a red! That and texting while driving. DON'T do it!

{5} Growing up I loved The Cosby Show! I don't necessarily wish it was still on, though. I wish Friends was still on, though! :o)

We Want To Know Wednesday...Something New!

Don't worry, my weight-losing readers! This is still a blog about my weight-loss journey, but I thought it would be fun to join in something new every once in a while to keep things fresh around here. I'm sure you're all just so excited each Tuesday when I post my weigh-in and cling to the computer to see when I'll post about my latest healthy food find! Just kidding, of course, I know you have better things to do in life than hang on my every word. So I wanted to join in on something I found this morning called "We Want to Know Wednesday" hosted by Mamarazzi, Seriously Shawn, Impulsive Addict, and Janette. Feel free to join in on your blogs and link-up with them!







Here are the questions:

{1} If money didn't matter, where would your perfect vacation take place? Briefly describe.
{2}What's a bad habit that you have (or had) that is/was hard to break?
{3} If you weren't on a diet or counting calories, what would you like to have for dinner tonight?
{4} If you had the chance to interview anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and what's one question that you would ask?
{5} Describe yourself in 6 words.

{1} If money didn't matter, I would love to go to England. With all of the royal wedding buzz lately, I've really wanted to go even more! My husband is leaving to go there in a few days, too, so maybe that has something to do with it. Twinges of jealousy that he gets to go to England while I stay here in Nebraska!

{2} A bad habit that I've had to break is eating junk in the evening. I used to eat HUGE bowls of ice cream or candy almost every night. No more.

{3} If I weren't on a diet or counting calories (neither of which I'm doing, btw...Weight Watchers is for LIFE!) I would eat chicken Parmesan...yum!

{4} If I could interview one person and ask anything, I'd interview Jean Nidetch, who is the founder of Weight Watchers about her struggles with her weight and her entrepreneurship that started Weight Watchers. Her story sounds like something I could relate to and I'd love to pick her brain!


{5} Six words that describe me are Christian, Loyal, Enthusiastic, Creative, Girly, and Bold

May Vlog: What's in a Name and My Purse

The Monthly VLOG Challenge for May...



Emmy Mom @ One Day at a Time wants to know...Is there a name you can't stand and why? And along with this do you like your own name?

Shawn and Mamarazzi also asked This or That questions:

Ocean or Mountains?
Sweet or Salty?
Early Bird or Night Owl?
Edward or Jacob?
Book or Kindle?
Manicure or Pedicure?
MAC or PC?

And finally the Show and Tell portion: Beth @ Living a Goddess Life wants to know: What is in your handbag/purse?

Okay! So did you love this? If so, please do it, too, and tell them I sent you! It is fun!!

BTW, Connie @ The Young and The Relentless sent me!


Edited to add at 10PM to answer a common question in the comments:

I'm originally from North Dakota. I lived there until I was 25 and then moved to Oklahoma before moving to Nebraska where I've been nearly 5 years. So, yes, I'm from the North and have a bit of a funny accent. When I go up to visit family and friends in ND, though, I now hear their accents, so I know that I don't have it as thick as they do and I do refrain from phrases like "Yeah, sure you betcha" and "Uff da" and I call soft drinks "soda", not "pop". 

Weekly Weigh-in!

Starting Weight: 292
Last Week: 211
This Week: 208.6
Weekly Loss: -2.4
Total Loss: -83.4

I'm happy to report a 2.4 pounds loss this week! I lost what I gained last week over Easter weekend and managed to lose just a little bit more, too. I now weigh what I weighed in late 2002!

For my friend who compares pounds to sticks of butter: 83.4 pounds equals 333.6 sticks of butter!



My son's 5th birthday party last week was a blast, thank you to those who wished him a happy day!