new blog! Ive moved my blog to WordPress....you can find it at thatrunnerchick.com!!

What a lack of pictures! An hour on the bike yesterday, and a skip of Whittle My Middle (too full from ice cream, how terrible is that!). Two hours on the bike today, and Whittling to come tonight!

An uneventful weekend, other than the fact the local grocery store finally started carrying Sabra's Carmelized Onion Hummus (my favorite!). So lunch tomorrow includes that with baby carrots!

Was going to make Angelas (from OhSheGlows) spelt veggie burgers tonight but they are being pushed til tomorrow night. I will be on chickpea overload!!

The weekend is officially over...I know, because I am signing off the internets to grade a stack of paper about 3 inches tall!!

I havent updated sinnce Tuesday! Not that anything new and exciting has really happened. We placed a new offer on the house on Thursday and havent heard back yet. Monday, hopefully.

Been trekking forward with Whittle My Middle.

And its been super cold here. Like, wear-my-jacket-while-teaching cold!!! Also having a girls night at a nice restaurant in Franklin with some of the gals from school on Friday. I am looking forward to it, they are a fun bunch.

Update with workouts later! Just wanted to let you all know I am alive, just forgot to udpate!

The Biggest Loser

WOW. watching the most recent season of The Biggest Loser's initial episode right now.

I am absolutely DISGUSTED by what the shows producers are making these people do. Do their weigh-in in front of the entire town? How demeaning! And you can see how absolutely humiliated these people are!

Showing their starting weigh-ins on tv 6 months after theyve actually started is one thing. Theyve already lost a ton of weight before the show is aired.

This season, its just cruel.

Im really fired up about this. I cant believe this actually happening on national television right now!

Not much going on today. A 45 minute run when I got home from school, another round of Whittle My Middle before bed, and a gym session postponed until tomorrow.

School was A-OK, its a little tough, the first day back after vacation, but Im pretty confident the kids will wind down and be back to normal by Wednesday. Got a call from the Assistant Principal today--my first formal eval is sometime next week!! Its different in this school system, I get to pick the date, the time, (so essentially the class period and the lesson plan I want him to evaluate), and send him a lesson plan for that class beforehand. In the city, the A.P.s just stopped by without warning and did the eval right then without saying anything!
Any other teachers who read this...what does your school do?! I almost feel like its unfair...its like theyre asking to come to your most well-behaved class and set you up to have a really in depth lesson plan. Im a little nervous about it, not sure why, the AP is literally one of the nicest guys ever!

One more thing about school...and kind of regarding my last post about Pauly D and Michael Cera. A new thing has taken over my classroom...the Jersey Shore fist pump. Yup, thats right. Although it can be distracting, if its placed and timed correctly, its hilarious.

And lastly, I cannot believe that The Taco Bell Diet exists. Or that people believe that just by changing your diet to only Taco Bell, youll lose weight. Other factors at work here! Ugh, AMERICA! come on!

Watching Law and Order before hitting the hay!

Jersey Shore (The Situation is not in this blog post)

Pauly D gave Michael Cera a Jersey Shore makeover. Check out the collar under the t-shirt! In one word....awesome.

Whittle My Middle

So today was Day One ofWhittle My Middle . It was a sad, sad day. My core is so weak! I cant believe that before Ragnar I was doing the plank for over two minutes at a time!!

But, as my husband likes to say, you have to start somewhere!! I also convinced him to do the January challenge with me, since he has required core work for his training anyways!

Went to check out a house today. I, of course, fell in love with it. One floor, spacious kitchen, awesome basement, nice backyard. Basically perfect for what we need. However, it needs all new flooring AND a new heating system. We do happen to do the best plumber this side of the Mississippi though....cross your fingers that it works out!!

Not much else going on during this last day of winter vacation. Rode my bike, watched the snow fall, finally saw the new Harry Potter, started WhittleMyMiddle.

Kind of excited to get back to school....I did a lot of lesson plans (SEVEN!) over vacation. Excited to start the Pythagorean Theorem and Radicals with my Geometry classes...two of my favorite aspects of that class! And slope with my Algebra students. I love all things Algebra. Ive missed it over these last 2 weeks!

Started the year off right with a 45 minute run yesterday, and a viewing of Avatar (which surprised me in how good it was, usually I dont like sci-fi and I dont like violence, but the movie was amazing).

Today, I wake up to a "winter wonderland" (that was sarcasm, its really an annoying shovel demanding snow), so Ill probably be riding my bike. And watching The Half-Blood prince. Because my one goal of this winter vacation was to watch the new Harry Potter movie when it came out onto OnDemand!!

Today, I am going to post some of the blogs I read religiously. These are all on my Google Reader, and Ive read (almost) all of them for around 2 years (!!). Some of them I know in real life (and they are all triathletes). Unfortunately, for those I dont know and just read, Im also a creeper. So my goal is to comment more on these peoples blogs. And be less of a lurker....

Krissie at "Questions for Dessert"
-I started reading her blog when it was mainly a weight-loss focused one. Now she is a runner (!!) and it awesome to be able to see (read) someone BECOME a runner.


Amy at "Amy's Quest to Skinny"
-This blog is a mish-mash of weight-loss/running/food pictures. My kinda blog! She has an adorable dog and she eats some good-lookin' food.

Dede at Dede Griesbauer.com
A good friend of mine who writes funny posts and gives an insight to her life as a pro-triathlete living in (wintry) Boston

Elaine at "Tri Girl Pink"
-This blog is by a fellow Massachusettian (?) triathlete. She posts her trial and tribulations getting back into running after injuries (i kid, i kid, thats only one aspect.) She also LOVES Splish and posts hilarious swimsuits.

FatBridesmaid at "Fat Bridesmaid"
-This blog, along with Questions for Dessert and Token Fat Girl, Ive been reading FOREVER!. This is also a weight loss blog, mixed with tales of a sassy girl living in the city.

John at "JohnHirsch.org"
-This guys a pretty bad-ass triathlete/public defender from NYC. And RI. And he posts crazy things.

Kath at "KathEats"
Fantastic foodie journal!!

Kim at "TetaEqualsBooby"
Hilarious triathlete from Boston who doesnt mind talking about the chafing issues that occur when a female rides a bike.

Mary at "Tri-ing To Do It All"
Another triathlete from Boston, who quit her job as a teacher/librarian and is now becoming lifeguard!

Judi at "Miles and Madness"
She posts about training, cross racing, and her freaking ADORABLE dogs!!

Lori at "Token Fat Girl"
One of the blogs Ive been reading forever. Recently married (like myself), she posts about every-day life and weight-loss.

Angela at "OhSheGlows"
She owns the company OhSheGlows but she blogs about much more than that. Life, exercise, being healthy. She is also the creator of WhittleMyMiddle, which will come in a later blog!

Roni at RonisWeigh
One of my favorite blogs of all time. Ive been reading it for years. Her blog started as mostly weight-loss (and she has lost a ton of weight), now its mostly about maintaining. She posts her daily food log, as well as recipes and pictures from her OTHER endeavor, , which I love. Ive gotten some fantastic recipes from there. Like the "they-don’t-know-what’s-in-there”-pizza-sauce. She also became a runner, owns her own business, and posts a lot of food pictures (my favorite!).

PWess at "TriWessWorld"
Tales of a triathlete (who happens to be coached by my husband)

Steve at "Steve in a Speedo"
Hilarious tales of triathlon! He does a ton of give-aways as well.

2010!

Okay, Im going to do it. Though I am not big on resolutions, this year I have 2. 1) is what i was referencing in that first sentence. Im going to update this blasted thing every day. EVERY DAY! With workouts, and food pictures, and hilarious tales of like working in a public school. and 2) Im going to buckle down on training. Because lets be serious, Hyannis is in less than 2 months! And Im doing Baystate Marathon come hell or high water (or in our case....poorness...which brings me to my next update:)

We are looking at houses. Yes, I said it. We are really doing it. What a NERVEWRACKING activity!! We got pre-approved for our mortgage, so we're okay on that, but the process of looking at houses, making offers, making sure theyre not trying to steal your money, is hard!! We keep making lists of questions to ask sellers (aka real estate agents). Sunday we are going to check one out in an adorable, small (4300people) town thats about 15 min away from here. Fantastic riding right out the front door, so we'll see!!

Wednesday Dawn and I headed into Boston to check out the museum of science's Harry Potter exhibit. It was an epic adventure. First of all, it took about an hour to find a parking spot in the Cambridgeside Galleria parking lot, because the MOS lot was FULL! (harry potter is kind of a big deal in these parts I guess....it was PACKED!). We saw multiple almost fights, one lady demolish the side of her BMW SUV to get a spot, and I got to pull Mandrakes out. (If you dont read/havent watched Harry Potter before, ignore the Mandrake part). I, however, did not get sorted by the hat. Unfortunately there were about 6437829 children under 11, diminishing my shot of getting to the front and being declared a Gryffindor.

Rung in the new year with my husband and dogs, watched The Hangover (ridiculously funny), ate homemade pizza and drank from Harpoon UFO's, it was perfect!

2009 In Review

2009 was a good year...



I went to New Orleans:





and North Carolina:





and Lake Placid:




and Hawaii:






I went on an awesome training weekend in VT with some awesome friends and did an unbelievable amount of hills:





I watched Brian jump off a balcony:





I graduated from massage school and became a licensed massage therapist:





I did a triathlon, didnt drown, and placed in my age group:



I got a really awesome camera and took pictures of our adorable (winking) dogs:






I raced from CT to Boston:




I started teaching again:





Anddddd, I got married!: