Photoshoot with B

While I planted in my garden and in my planters around the house last week this silly boy was too interested in eating my dirt, stealing my gloves, and tossing my plastic planters into the air.

Although at the time it was annoying, it was still cute to me to see him content and playing by himself while I was busy. I'm sure other Lab owners would agree that this breed of dog isn't really the "play by themselves" type. They are loyal to their owners, full of energy, and usually like attention or play from others. Bronx literally follows every step I make, inside and out. Its probably my fault for allowing him to do it when he was a puppy and I didn't train him not to, so now I can't even go to the bathroom by myself (TMI - sorry) or turn stop suddenly when walking without him bumping into me!

So after I was finished with my flowers - I grabbed the camera and let B ham it up for me! :) I think he is the most adorable pup in the whole world....I am a little bias though!

 Its so funny to me that he knows what the camera is. He always sits or lays down for me when I pull it out like he knows he needs to pose sweet for Mommy! 

 He was a little over having his picture made at this point. He just laid down on the porch with a big huff and ignored me!

Yep...he was finished. Done. Over it. He finally just rolled over and looked up at me like "umm, would you get out of my face with that thing now!"

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

I know that Easter has so much more to do with bunnies, eggs, and pretty dresses but I usually don't feel the need to express my religious beliefs on my blog so with that said, here are a few shots of my Easter decorations this year. I'm really into my flowers and gardening and I usually start digging (no pun intended) deep into that routine around this time of year and it takes away from any actual holiday decorating that would occur otherwise. Hence, I go decoration crazy at Christmas because I have no outdoor tasks to keep me busy! :) 

 This little egg tree was a Dollar Tree grab from last year. I just painted the pot white (it was an ugly green) and tied a bow on the top. This is in my spare bathroom. I also have one in my bathroom, but I guess I didn't take a picture of that one.

 I have on on the window seal in the spare bedroom too! I think they are just too cute!

My mom gave me this little bunny banner. He is hanging on my laundry room door. Most people come into our house from our garage - so I put it here so it would be seen. 

Happy Easter y'all! God Bless! I hope I wont be so slack after Easter and have lots of fun pictures to post from our family gatherings this weekend!

Spring has Sprung

Happy Spring!
A quick little trip around our home - showing off our pretty spring blooms! These are the first flowers I've planted this year and I am in love!

Workout Mania

It hurts to type. It hurts to walk (especially in these sandals I wore to work today). It hurts to laugh and don't even mention bending down! It hurts so bad but feels so good at the same time. Is that possible? Ha!

You see, I live with a teacher. A teacher that teaches physical education. A teacher that teaches physical education and is serious about it, like really serious. Like, so serious that sometimes I'm sure he's a drill Sergeant and not a PE teacher. Okay, maybe I stretched that a little, but when he's coaching my work outs I sure feel like he's a drill Sergeant!

I won't lie - I need the workouts and I need to get this bod toned up. Hello....its almost bikini time!! Sometimes, though, I think he forgets I'm a girl. I think he forgets that I can't run 5 miles, lift 30lb dumbbells and my stamina sucks. I think he forgets that he is helping me work out and not actually working out himself.

Yesterday I did the following;
20 minutes of alternating running/walking. I did 1 minute running and 1 minute walking.
50 push-ups. 25 standard women's push-ups and 25 hand clap women's push-ups.
20 Stair Sets - this is something Dave sort of made up for me. I run our set of 6 steps up, do a squat jump and back down the steps, squat jump then repeat.
25 reps of 3 different ab workouts
We did some weight lifts - I have no idea of the names of those but they were pure hell.
I finished with a cool down walk

An hour afterward....I was showered and in the bed! I felt good but I was worn slap out!


It it weren't for Dave, I wouldn't work out. I just don't have the drive and the push to make myself do it. I can do it and I want to do it but I desperately need someone to push me and encourage me to finish my sets and reps. I'm fortunate to have my very own personal trainer...cause people pay top dollar for that service but I'm pretty sure I'm going to tell Mr. Trainer to go easy on this gal tonight....cause I'm seriously close to dropping dead today after that workout mania last night!

Tuesday Tidbits

I'm such a slacker, on the blog. A slacker filled with more randomness than any one person should be. Any who, here's my brain dump from this weekend. 

I spend most of my weekend doing a lot of

 I didn't get everything on my list done, but by this weekend everything should be sparkling and like new again. I'm pretty much a FREAK about my house and I love for it to be clean all the time, but I really, really love it when its extra clean after a good spring cleaning. 

I used a lot of new cleaning tips using vinegar that I picked up recently from the blog Ask Anna . I have a pup that licks all over everything in our home and I like to keep the chemicals to a minimum in our home. These vinegar cleaning tricks really do work! You can find out how to use vinegar to clean your bathroom HERE  and for the kitchen HERE.

We did escape the cleaning for a few hours on Saturday night. We grilled some burgers, had dinner together and then headed over to Charlotte, NC for a rockin' night of country music performed by this guy; 

source

 

 David has been working so hard with his team. They have won their past 6 games! A lot of late practices and extra work outs have really put him in a slump lately. He was so drained of energy this weekend so we skipped church on Sunday and I let him sleep in. At 12:30 I did go back in to check on him...I was a little worried. I don't think he has slept that late since college! 

Bronx and I managed to take several nice walks this weekend in between the thunderstorms. Its nice to be able to have fun walking and playing with my pup while exercising at the same time. And boy does he keep me moving,  I literally have to run in order to keep up with him sometimes! 

And just because he's so darn cute....

 This is literally how he sleeps. He always takes my spot because I'm the first one out of bed.

Hanging with Mom while she gets ready for work!

    

How to Cope Being a Coach's Wife

I came across this article today and I think its relates to me and to this blog and its also something I would like to be able to read again in the future. I have copied and pasted the article on the actual post, but the actual website can be found here.

Instructions

1. Coping with your spouse

   • 1
     Prepare to communicate frequently about schedules. Then, prepare to scrap it all and juggle things on the fly. It's going to take considerable effort to coordinate your normal family commitments with the district game schedule. So flexibility and patience will be vital if you hope to avoid missing kids' dental appointments and talent shows because he forgot the local college scouts were going to be on campus to recruit that day. This can be extremely frustrating, and leaves many coach's wives feeling that their spouse is selfishly putting his job and athletes before his family. Try to remember that much of your spouse's work requirements are set by other people, so he often cannot avoid late hours and weekend work. Though this sort of flexibility is part of life with a coach, you have the right to ask and expect him to choose time with family over work when the choice is his to make. If he will do that, you'll find it a lot easier to deal with the occasional family trip that has to be canceled due to an unexpected bid in the playoffs!
     
   • 2
     If you are already sports savvy, great! If you're not, try to learn the basics about the sport your husband coaches. Most coaches don't care if their wife knows enough to fill in for the local sports announcer or only enough to know which team to cheer for, what matters to them is that you care enough to learn about something that is important to him.
     
   • 3
     Even if you don't share your husband's enthusiasm for the sport, appreciate his commitment to the kids he coaches. That's probably part of what you love about him, anyway! Most coaches genuinely care for their athletes and work extremely hard to help them be successful.
     
   • 4
     Understand how important your support is to him. When a game is not going as well as he hoped, or when his team's just clinched a spot in the quarterfinals, he's probably going to want to know that you're in the stands to cheer him on. Just as you would like him to be present at important moments in your life, try to be present for his.
     
   • 5
     Respect the superstitions and traditions that make him feel prepared, no matter how crazy you think they are. If he won't wash his "game socks" all season or insists on a pre-game breakfast consisting of a footlong chili cheese coney and key lime pie, just try to go with the flow. Some coaches feel that breaking traditions are dangerous in the midst of a winning streak or in the face of a losing one, so provided it doesn't potentially harm your guy (and provided he's willing to stash those socks in the garage and not the house!), don't sweat it.
     
   • 6
     Talk early and honestly about how he likes to handle both victory and defeat. You might think that a big win would automatically open your husband up to talk about his excitement and confidence after the game. For some, a win does just the opposite; it creates tension about securing the next win. On the other hand, when even the lucky socks don't produce good news in the win/loss column, your husband may want to immediately move on to planning for the next game where others may want to re-hash the loss over and over again. You'll want to know what your coach needs from you.
     
   • 7
     Find and nurture your own interests, career and hobbies. You'll find at any level of coaching that you will spend a significant amount of time either alone or with your kids without their father while he is at practice or at games. Don't spend that time resenting his absence, instead treasure that time as your own to do with as you wish.
     
   • 8
     Learn to collect praise and to ignore criticism. Coaches find early in their careers that their every move is subject to scrutiny from a variety of sources. At every level of coaching, your community will feel justified in both their praise and criticism of your spouse. It's a fact of coaching. So, in order to cope as a coach's wife, you'll need to develop tough skin.
     
   • 9
     Learn to bite your tongue. While everyone else may feel entitled to discuss your husband's performance, you'll never have a good opportunity to fire back. As great as it might feel to respond to difficult fans when they are critical of your husband, you'll never do your coach a favor by indulging yourself with that one well-placed come back.
     

Read more: How to Cope Being a Coach's Wife | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2303661_cope-being-coachs-wife.html#ixzz1przXCWUi

Confessions

All You Need is Love (I love her blog!) had a really good post a few days ago about her confessions for the week. It was a great post and inspired me to do the same for this week.

Confession # 1: I'm totally ashamed of this but, my dog WILL NOT drink water from a bowl. The only way he drinks water is out of the toilet (gross, I know) or the hose pipe. I have tried all types of bowls and nothing works. I clean the toilet daily (he is confined to using only our spare bathroom toilet) and I embarrassingly ask guests to not do # 2 in that toilet because my stubborn pup uses it as his drinking fountain.

source

Confession # 2: I am in love with the TV show, Secret Life of the American Teenager! My husband thinks its lame that I watch a high school show, but I love it.

Confession # 3: I'm not a big fan of painted toenails. I prefer the natural look on toes. Of course they must be clean and manicured toes, but I still don't like to polish mine. Sorry Mom.

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Confession  # 4: I consider myself  to be in position # 2 in my husbands life, and I'm okay with that. Baseball has always been his first love. Whether he is playing or coaching, that's his first passion and who am I to stand in the way of that. He won't admit it, but then again, I'd never ask him to. I'm cool like that.

Confession # 5: I just paid off my car loan and it is going to feel so amazing to not make that payment every month....but now I have new car fever and want another car or a camper. I'm not picky. Ha!

Confession # 6: I'm so horrible at math that I never do any calculations without a calculator. Not even simple stuff. Its sad, I know.

Confession # 7: I use twitter on the daily, but I still don't know how it all works. I learn something new about it everyday. I also don't like being limited to 140 characters. Like, what if I got some important news that's 144 characters, geez.

Confession # 8: I was late to work every day this week except for Wednesday. Not that my boss ever says anything, but technically work starts at 8:30am, so I try to follow that unwritten rule of being punctual. However,  I have been taking work home with me every night, so what the heck!


What are your confessions?

PS: I love comments! Leave one!