Color Me Rad: 5k Benefiting the Ronald McDonald House

I decided to do something stupid over the weekend.



Super awesome swag

I ran a 5K! It was an event I did with some of my derby girls. I'd signed up for it months ago with the idea that I'd do the Couch to 5k training and be all kinds of in shape for it.



I was feeling rad

Needless to say, that didnt happen. I think I ran on my treadmill twice. I was really worried I was going to get out there and die.



Clean and pretty before the race



Our group consisted of me, my hunny, my derby wife Steph, her sister Jen (who is also one of my teammates), Jens husband, one of our refs and one of our new Psychos.



We're hardcore



The wifey wasnt planning on participating but a last minute dropout left a space open for her. The race was sold out.

All in all, I did better than I had expected. I ran most of the race, walked part of it and only really ran out of breath once. It was great to have my hunny right there with me cheering me on.



The best part of the race. You can see how much color was in the air (and on the people)



While Im super proud of myself for finishing, It made me realize how out of shape I really am. I have got to start working on my endurance if Im going to improve in derby.



Me and the hunny. Aint we cute?



After we crossed the finish line, there were people handing out waters, granola bars and color packets. I, of course, grabbed Sunnyland teal and Steph grabbed Arkham green.



Being tainted with each others team colors



Wifey love.



She got more color on me than the race did. 



The aftermath

After a bite to eat and a good long shower, I picked the kids up from their dad and took them to a birthday party. After dropping them back off with their dad, I went home and passed out. 

Not a bad way to spend a saturday.

<3 licia="" nbsp="">



Work Weight Loss Challange

I had gone out to lunch with a few of the girls that I work with the other day, and we got to talking about losing weight and our resolutions for the new year. I had mentioned to them that I was going to try to lessen and then give up soda as one of my resolutions, and that I wanted to start walking on my lunch breaks (its honestly not safe for me to walk by myself before or after work, and I'm not really able to take the kiddos with me on a power walk, so my lunch breaks are my best option).

So we got to talking and decided to start a weight loss challenge for all the girls in my office who were interested. It would be a period of 3 months ( so January 3rd till the end of March), and everyone would chip in a dollar a week (a total of $12 by the end). We could decide how we want to lose the weight (i.e. we can set our own programs to whatever suits us the best), and at the end of 3 months, we'd all weigh in again and whoever lost the largest percentage of weight wins the money pot!

I'm super excited about it, because this way we can all motivate each other, and we're all working towards a common goal. Even if I don't win, I'll still win because I've lost weight!

I didn't do my walk today because Mike came to have lunch with me (today is his last vacation day off, so we took advantage of him being close :D), but I start tomorrow, and will be doing some stretching and exercising tonight to get ready.

And who knows, maybe I'll make myself a pair of legwarmers :D

~~Love~~
~~GG~~

Finding Myself: The disease of "Perfection" by Single Dad Laughing

I read this blog post over at Single Dad Laughing 

(I also read this one and cracked up because "the cat came back" was always

one of my favorite songs as a kid)

 after one of my lovely ladies from Punky Moms posted it on her facebook,

and really felt compelled to share my thoughts on it.

Read the post. I'll wait.

Seriously.

Go.

Do it NOW!!

Ok, done reading? Then lets proceed, shall we?

It really amazes me that this is something that hasn't been addressed before. The images that we see all day long on the internet and TV do nothing but make us thing we're too fat, too lazy, too poor, and just plain not good enough.

Now, trust me when I say this, I have had serious issues with "perfection", and still do from time to time. Luckily for me, I was raised with a fairly good self image, with a truly loving and caring family, so that was never that much of an issue when I was a child.

But we all feel it.

Everyone gets the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome, and I have been known to spend money I didn't have just because I didn't want to tell my friends/family/coworkers that I didn't have any.

I've looked at myself in the mirror and felt ugly.

I've watched my children and felt like I was a bad mother.

I've looked at the wonderful man in my life and felt like I was not good enough for him.

Now, in my heart of hearts, I know that all of that is total crap, but its very difficult to keep it from creeping back into my mind, like the nasty little bugger it is.

Its really difficult to hear stories of people being bullied (including grown adults)
and know that it could easily be avoided or stopped if they had just
had a better self image.

It goes back to the "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" idea.

Someone can tell you you're ugly, stupid or not good enough all day long,
but if you know that you are wonderful, beautiful and amazing (which EVERYONE is)
then their words can do absolutely NOTHING to you.

Its like Dan says, make someone feel perfect by showing them that NOT being perfect is OK!

We've all been there, we've all done that, felt that, experienced that.

I know that when I first separated from my ex husband, it was very difficult not to fall into the
"what ifs" and the "I should've"'s, but thankfully I had my awesome mom, and eventually my boyfriends mom and family that helped me through it, and helped me realize that it wasn't my fault.

Yes, you did read that right.

It wasn't all my fault. It wasn't all my ex's fault either. It happened, and nothing was going to change that, but all I could do was be the best mom and daughter that I could be.

And it seems like that is the first step, realizing that when things happen to you, you can either let it destroy you, or grow and learn from it. I chose the latter.

This is never easy to admit, and much harder to do on a web based blog that people I don't know will read, but I feel that its important to show that even though I'm working on my "Inner Goddess", I'm not perfect, and just like everyone else, I have my times of weakness.

I hope that you all read this amazing post and start to follow SDL. His posts are alternately amazing and funny (and sometimes amazingly funny), and his message is wonderful.

Be a little more "Real" today, and help cure the disease that's called "perfection".

Much Love!!
GG

Finding Myself on a Friday

Hello all!

I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to everyone about something that is very important to me.

Me.

No, seriously. This isnt going to be some rant on how awesome and fab I am. Frankly, its the opposite.

I've been working really hard on several aspects of my life, and havent really gotten very far with it,

so i've decided to start this new series of posts entitiled

"Finding myself on a Friday" to be able to be held more accountable. 

Now, I know you're probably thinking, this blog is mainly about crafty and DIY stuff,

why the sudden need to share?

Because, its my blog and I can.

LOL! Just kidding!

Its because I want a way to vent, rant, and update on my progress with the things that are important and necessary for me to do, and this is the best way I have.

Plus, it gives you, as my reader, a chance to get to know me a little better!

Win/Win, am I right?!