Liebster Award Time

If you've been around these parts of the blog world for a while now you probably have seen me do this a time or two already. But who am I to say no to an award? And it never hurts to share a little bit more about myself with my readers. So here we go!

One of my new favorite bloggers Tammy Jo from You Wouldn't Call It A Drinking Problem... nominated me for the Liebster Award. What is the Liebster Award you may be thinking? Well it's used by up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers to promote one another and make new friends in the blogging community and bring more attention to their blog.

The rules of the game look like this:

Thank the person who nominated you and link them in your post.

Tell 11 random facts about yourself.

Answer the 11 questions provided by the person who nominated you.

Choose 11 blogs you like and link them in your post.

Write 11 questions for these bloggers.

Let your nominees know!

11 Questions from Tammy Jo

1. What is your favorite color? Red, without a doubt.

2. Favorite number? 8 - it was the number of my favorite NASCAR driver {Dale Jr.} for a long time and it was also my softball number on the varsity team. I'm also okay with 88 now since it is Jr.'s new number since he's been with his new team.

3. What is your favorite place to eat? Red Lobster hands down. We don't have one in town so it's always a special treat when we make a road trip to eat at one.

4. If you could be an ice cream flavor what would it be and why? Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - a classic flavor in my opinion so it never gets old and it's old reliable.

5. What is your favorite Christmas movie? Don't hate me but I'm not a big fan of Christmas movies and I don't have a favorite. But if I had to choose one I would say A Charlie Brown Christmas just because I love Snoopy.

6. Favorite Christmas song? Again, please don't hate me but I'm not a fan of Christmas music. At all. I avoid radio stations after Thanksgiving like my life depends on it because I do not like listening to Christmas music.

7. Siblings? One younger brother who just turned 21 last month. Lord help me I feel old now.

8. Do you prefer multicolored lights or solid on your tree? I could go either way depending on how I wanted to decorate. I think white lights are classic and can give a more sophisticated feel but multicolored lights can be lots of fun and you can go any direction with your decorating.

9. If you could have a movie about your life what aspect would you want it to be about? Oh gosh this is tough. My life is rather boring without a whole lot going on. Maybe if I got my act together it could be about me blogging and my adventures in online dating {yes, I'm dipping my toes in it}, trying new recipes and learning to cook, and of course living on my own for the first time {when that actually happens...}.

10. Have you had any kind of surgery? I had oral surgery when I was 18 to have a dental implant put in. I still had a baby tooth when I was 18 because there was no adult tooth to push it out so I had it pulled and now have a fake tooth attached to the implant.

11. Do you have a nickname? My aunts and uncle on my mom's side calls me Amos or Amos Magoo. I don't have any nicknames from friends though.

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. I didn't go away to school which led to me living at home all through college.

2. I'm an avid reader and seem to really love the paranormal stuff {Twilight, The Mortal Instruments, The House of Night series, etc.}. I'm also a sucker for a good romance novel. {Probably because I have no romance in my life haha!}

3. I've been single for 3 years now. Most of the time I'm more than okay with the single life but I'm also beginning to think it's time to try dating.

4. I'm a NASCAR and football fan. Of course I'll root for the Packers but I also love the Broncos {Go Peyton & Wes!}, JJ Watt {he's from Wisconsin}, and other random players on different teams. College football is not something I go crazy over.

5. My family just put our Christmas tree up this weekend and no other decorating has been done.

6. I avoid eating Jell-O because of a memory from childhood of being sick after eating it. I will do one or two Jell-O shots in the name of alcohol though.

7.  I used baler twine to tie bows on three presents. All three presents are alcohol. Hey, I'm from Wisconsin!

8. I curse the shoe gods every time I shop for new shoes because they seem to never have my size. The curse of big feet I guess.

9. I'm a die hard country music fan.

10. I'm in a long distance relationship with my best friend. Her husband moved her to Maryland because he's in the Marines. But hey, free place to stay when I vacation!

11. I'm closer to some of my blogging friends than I am with people I know in real life. When you click with someone distance doesn't matter.

Questions for my Nominees:

1. Why did you start blogging?

2. What commercial do you hate and why?

3. Who would you want to play you in a movie and why?

4. Favorite part of your day?

5. How did you meet your significant other or how would you like to meet them if you're single?

6. If you could be a drink, what would you be and why?

7. Special features on a DVD, watch 'em or skip 'em?

8. Slippers or fuzzy socks?

9. Vacation place on the top of you wish list?

10. Same accessories every day or new ones to go with each outfit?

11. Pets?

Nominees:

I'm going to break the rules {cuz I'm feeling rebellious} and nominate anyone that wants to participate!

Leave me a comment if you choose to do so! I want to find out more about you.

And with that I'm off to bed because unlike some lucky people I have to work 4 days this week.

Sigh...

WIW: 12/18/13

As much as I would love to say that I've been getting my butt kicked by Jillian Michaels every morning, I can't. After completing the level 1 work out Monday morning I was experiencing quite a bit of lower back pain. Driving to work that morning was rough so I decided to make an appointment with my chiropractor for Tuesday morning {even though I had just seen her Saturday morning}. And while my back has been feeling better since then it's still not 100%. So I made the decision to take a second day of rest from the 30 Day Shred. I would rather prevent further injury than push through just to make a work out happen. Side note: my back problems are not a result of the 30 Day Shred work out and my back didn't bother me during the work out except for one of the ab exercises.

After taking the weekend off from the Shred and then taking Tuesday off as well I was expecting to see a gain on the scale this morning. Some how a miracle happened though and I gained less than a pound, even after indulging on pizza at work last night.

Which brings me to my next point. I seem to be all or nothing when it comes to working out and eating right. Either I'm working out consistently and not eating right or I'm eating right and not working out. The bright side is that I know I can do both. But the dark side is that I haven't done them together. I need to work on incorporating both into my routine. And of course I pick a fine time to want to do that with the holidays coming up.

I hate to say it but it's looking like I'm going to be starting fresh January 1st. I would rather start today because yesterday I said tomorrow but being realistic I don't see that happening with the holiday schedule coming up. This doesn't mean that I'm going to completely slack off on the weight loss but I know I won't be putting in my best effort until after the holidays are over.

That's all I've got for you this week. 2013 didn't turn out to be my year {completely my fault} but I'm definitely going to be making 2014 mine. No ifs ands or buts about it!

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Week's Weigh In, Dec. 11: 206.6

Today's Weigh In, Dec. 18: 207

Gain: 0.4

Overall Loss: 0.7

Don't forget that there is still time to enter Fluffy Santa's Christmas Cash Giveaway!

Grey's Anatomy: Get Up, Stand Up

Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy was the mid-season finale and boy did they ever leave us hanging wanting more! Be warned there are spoilers below so if you don't want to know what happened stop reading now!!

First of all I have to say how freaking happy I am that they're finally bringing Shane's guilt about what happened to Heather to life. During the whole episode all I kept thinking was how much I did not like this character any more. But the writers came through at the end when they showed Shane having a break down during surgery. Can't wait to see what happens next now!

Another "finally!" moment during this episode is that Cristina and Meredith are hashing things out. Unfortunately it's happening on the wrong day at the wrong time. Way to go April for standing up for herself and her wedding day by telling her bridesmaids to just shut up because it's her day. Hopefully once the new episodes return things continue in the right direction with Cristina and Meredith.

And then we have my favorite Grey's couple Alex and Jo having quite the moment outside the barn where April's wedding will be taking place. Total "awww" moment right there. And damn is Jo pretty! I think I may have a girl crush on her. And maybe I'm jealous because she gets to make out with Alex...

But the moment of all moments comes during the ceremony. Jackson decides to take Mark Sloan's advice and "say it loud and go from there." He tells April he loves her and wants to know if she loves him too. My jaw hit the damn floor when that happened. And of course we have to wait two months, two months, until we can find out what happens.

Like I said, they left us hanging and wanting more! Hopefully the rest of the season is just as good as this episode was...

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Don't forget to enter Fluffy Santa's Christmas Cash Giveaway for your chance to win some cash!

Fluffy Santa's Christmas Cash Giveaway!

Hi guys! I've teamed up with Santa {aka Fluffy aka Ashton} and some more elves to give away $200 CASH via PayPal. Who doesn't love some extra cash around the holidays?

See the details of the giveaway below. Best of luck to each of you!

Emily from Beauty and the Greek

Ash from A Step in The Right Direction

Elise from 9toFit

Jess from Living on Sweet Tea

Valerie from Fabulous Chick Gets Fit

Amy from Living N Learning

Nina from The Nina Show

Frugalattes 

Aubrey from ALG Uninterrupted 

Alicia from Brew Mama

Jess from The Girl Who Thought Too Much

*Giveaway will run start at 12am on Dec 16th until 11:59pm on Dec 20th.

*Winner will be chosen through Rafflecopter once the giveaway is over. 

*The winner will receive the $200 via PayPal as a gift from Ashton. 

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WIW: Jillian, you suck!

Thank God it's finally Wednesday. Like for real. Yesterday I kept thinking it was Wednesday so every time I reminded myself it was only Tuesday I died a little inside.

But then after work I did a happy dance when I saw that I had a package from Amazon waiting for me at home. Saturday night I ordered three Jillian Michael's DVDs {1 of 3 arrived yesterday} because getting to the gym has been rough for me. As in it hasn't been happening. So I figured having some work out DVDs that I can do at home would make skipping going to the actual gym not as bad.

I look so excited in that picture from last night. And I was. Until I actually did the damn thing this morning.

Level 1 is HARD for me. And because I'm at home doing it alone I find it really easy to just give in to not push through and completing each exercise. So maybe it's hard mentally rather than actually physically. I can most definitely do all of the exercises, it's just a matter of pushing through the mental road block I have.

I give my girl Ashton from A Fluffy Girl a lot, I mean A LOT, of credit for completing the whole 30 Day Shred. {She's my inspiration for taking on this challenge. If she can do it, I can do it!} And there's also Tammy Jo from You Wouldn't Call It A Drinking Problem...  who has also been an inspiration to me. I don't know what I would do without these two gals to talk to on Twitter and read their blogs.

And I can't forget Carolyn from Fitnasty For Life. She's been extremely helpful to me by giving me meal ideas and talking about all the struggles that come along with weight loss. She's full of great advice and I'm not sure what I would do without her. She completed a Ripped in 30 work out this morning and she said it wasn't as dreadful as she thought. This girl is a rock star if she didn't think it was as bad as she thought.

Well now that I have thanked everyone and their mother I'll get to the weigh in stats.

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Weigh In, Dec. 4: 207.2

Today's Weigh In, Dec. 11: 206.6

Loss: 0.6

Overall Loss: 1.1

Not a huge loss but considering last week was a huge fail in the work out department I won't complain. Slow and steady wins the race anyways, right?

I'll be following this calendar that Ashton put together when she was completing the 30 Day Shred. Once the new printer is hooked up and running {mine took a shit on me, insert grumpy face} I plan to print it off so I can draw huge X's through each day I complete.

Unfortnately it is time for me to get ready to make some money. If you don't hear from me again it's because I died after trying to complete day 2. :)

 

Grey's Anatomy: Man on the Moon

I just finished watching Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy and all that is going through my head is, "You were right. They're setting us up for Cristina to no longer be on the show." I mean what else could it be when Cristina and Meredith start fighting over the smallest things? And based on the short preview for this coming Thursday's episode {mid-season finale} things are only going to continue to head south with the two of them.

And sticking with the whole Cristina vs. Meredith thing, as soon as the sheep died {Meredith put a 3D-printed portal vein into it} I knew that Cristina's surgery on the baby would be successful. Everything in this show seems to have Cristina and Meredith facing off. I'm not a fan considering through 9 seasons they've always been each other's person. But it looks like things went up in smoke in a hurry.

Shane is sleeping with Cristina now. Ugh. I really don't care who he sleeps with {although I think this is a rather strange direction to take their relationship} because all I care about is they seem to have just swept what happened with Brooks under the rug to never speak of it again. Seriously. Did we all forget that he's the reason Brooks went down to the basement and ended up dying?? I really want there to be some closure with that whole ordeal.

And thankfully Richard comes to Bailey's rescue and talks her into taking the medication for her OCD. I am not a fan of this version of Bailey. I know she's stronger than they're portraying her this season and I'm not sure why all of a sudden we had to spring this on her. And does OCD really come on so suddenly? There has to be something more to this whole change in plans for her.

Alex and Jo are still my favorite couple but I'm afraid something big is going to happen between them. Jimmy {Alex's dad} is back and dealing with hallucinations as he detoxes, trying to get clean once and for all. Alex is pissed right away when Jo tells him and wants to kick him out of the hospital but doesn't. And we see Alex come to Jo's rescue just like he did for his mom when he was a kid. I'm not expecting a miracle between Alex and Jimmy but I'm hoping this whole situation can be resolved so Alex and Jo can go on being my favorite couple. I guess only time will tell.

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Weigh In Wednesday: I Can't Believe It!

Good morning! I'm in a good mood this morning thanks to some quality time with Bo {and the fact he let me sleep until 7:30}. Better yet we're approaching the half way point in the work week. I'm ready for the weekend people!

I stepped on the scale this morning for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I thought for sure I would see a gain after that wonderful Thanksgiving feast my grandma prepared. But nope! I managed to STAY. THE. SAME.

I can't believe it!

Stats

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Weigh In, Nov. 20: 207.2

Today's Weigh In, Dec. 4: 207.2

Overall Loss: 0.5

And for those of you that saw me posting on twitter last night about not being motivated to go to the gym this morning, I didn't go. But I plan to go tomorrow and Friday morning {to accomplish my gym goal for the week}. It may sound like an excuse, and maybe it is, but I decided to run an errand this morning rather than tomorrow morning. Either way I'm going to get my two gym days in for the week. Don't worry.

5 for Five: December Goals

I'm back after taking an unexpected week off from blogging last week. Between a day off to spend with my best friend and Thanksgiving the week just felt exceptionally short when it came to blogging.

Today I'm taking a look back at November. While overall the month was a good one between looking at apartments, my best friend being home from Maryland for two weeks, and it being my first month student loan free. But goal wise I didn't do so well. At all.

1. Get my healthy lifestyle on track. Yeah that was a fail. I didn't meal plan at all, went to the gym maybe once, and I definitely wasn't drinking 64oz of water a day. So of course I didn't lose three pounds.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7am at least three times a week. Fail! I really love to be lazy in the morning, especially when cozy comfy flannel sheets are on my bed.

3. Put more time and effort into blogging. I won't say I completely failed at this but I surely could have done better. At best I was blogging twice a week.

4. Clean my bathroom and room, then keep it that way. Fail, again. My mom ended up cleaning my bathroom over the weekend so I'm going to work on keeping it clean but I didn't clean it so I'm not counting this as any sort of accomplishment. And my room? Yeah, still a mess.

5. Read 4 books. I was able to read 2 books during the month. The Book Thief took me all month to get through, something I wasn't expecting. I was able to breeze through The Single Woman's Survival Guide: Letting Go and Moving On in a day so that helped me reach the half way point at the end of the month.

Like I said, goal wise November wasn't a good month for me. But I've set some new goals for December and am going to take a slightly different approach to accomplishing them. For November I just set those goals and then winged it when it came to actually accomplishing them. So for December I want to set goals for the month but then setting weekly goals that will help me accomplish my goals for the month.

1. Lose 3 pounds.

• Drink 64oz of water 4 days this week. Today through Friday is a good starting point for me, hopefully not too overwhelming.
• Go to the gym 2 days this week. I have three chances to get to the gym before the weekend. It can be done.
• Limit Mountain Dew to one can per day.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7:30am at least three times per week.
Last month I set my goal for 7am but that was just a bit much for me. I seem to be able to handle 7:30 much better so we're going to go with that for this month and see how things go. I have three days left to get it right so wish me luck!

3. Clean my bedroom and pack away summer clothes.
This week I'm going to start with catching up on laundry and putting away those clean clothes.

4. Put more time and effort into blogging.
I'm going to shoot for posting 3-4 times this week. I have some things I've been meaning to blog about so this shouldn't be a problem.

5. Read at least 4 books.
Yup, it made the list again. I know I can read 4 books in a month. And with BBC taking a break for the month I will be choosing the books myself so hopefully I can find something that grabs my attention so I can't put it down. I've already started Catching Fire {for the second time} but past that I have no books on list to read. Any suggestions?

I'll be back next week to check in and see how I did this first week of December. {where did 2013 go?!}

• Do you have any tips for motivating yourself to get things done? It seems I struggle to motivate myself to get up in the morning and to accomplish the tasks that I know I need to get done.

Weigh In Wednesday and 5 for Five

I'm going to let this post kill two birds with one stone. This means I'm mixing my 5 for Five post with my Weigh In Wednesday post. Why? Because I wasn't prepared for this week at all so I'm a bit behind on all the things I want to write about. So let's quit wasting time here and get right to it.

1. Put more time and effort into blogging.
This isn't going so well. Obviously. I'm only posting about twice a week it seems. I haven't taken the time to commit to this goal. I need to plan ahead at least a day in advance or things fall to pieces. Since I'm posting this update midweek already it's going to be tough to show progress by the beginning of next week already but I will do what I can. Some progress is better than none.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7am at least three times a week.
Again, not doing so well. Going to bed at a decent time and being able to get up when the alarm goes off go hand in hand for me. I am not the type to spring out of bed when the alarm goes off every morning {obvs} but I do know it is easier for me when I get enough rest. In theory, I should be getting enough rest since I'm sleeping about 8 hours a night. But that doesn't seem to be the case since I'm still always snuggling deeper into my flannel penguin sheets when the alarm goes off. I'm going to try my hand at getting to bed earlier than 11pm the rest of this week to see if that helps my mornings. Maybe I need more than 8 hours of sleep every night?

3. Clean my bathroom and room, then keep it that way. 
I haven't touched either room yet. I still have over a week left of November to get this completed. Cleaning is never fun but it definitely needs to be done. Maybe I can try tackling one smaller project {packing summer clothes away} at a time rather than looking at the daunting task of organizing and cleaning both rooms in one session?

4. Read four books.
I'm over 60% done reading The Book Thief {November's BBC book choice} so I'm not completely failing at this goal. But I do have another three books to go. I'm hoping I can breeze through The Single Woman's Survival Guide once The Book Thief is finished. I have my third book, Serena, waiting on my Kindle as well but I don't have a fourth book even picked out yet. I guess I'm hoping when I finish the first three I'll be able to find something fairly quick and something I can dive into and finish quickly. It might be a struggle to read four books by the end of the month but I will try my best. The fact that this goal is challenging me is surprising. I love to read and thought this would be an easy one to complete.

5. Get my healthy lifestyle on track.
Failing big time at this. I even had quantifiable sub goals that would help me achieve the big goal but lack of effort to plan has lead to failure. It's true what they say, failure to plan is planning to fail. I succeed when I plan my meals and mentally plan to go to the gym at least a day in advance. I fail when I decide to wing it with my meals and go to the gym if I get up early enough. I'm even losing the mental battle to drink water and avoid my beloved Mountain Dew. Why? Because I have the poor mindset that if I'm failing at meal planning and going to the gym then why bother. But I'm not giving up. I will succeed. I can do this.

Stats

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last week's weigh in, Nov. 13: 207

Today's weigh in, Nov. 20: 207.2

Gain: 0.2

Overall loss: 0.5

And with that I'm going to blow this Popsicle stand. Enjoy your Wednesday! Be happy we're at the half way point!

Grey's Anatomy: Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

I finally sat down to watch Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy yesterday morning and was immediately sucked in to the story. This episode felt like how they used to be. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen and so thankful I recorded it so I could skip the commercials. I hope there are more episodes like this to come!

This whole episode focused on Callie, either with the lawsuit against her or with her relationship with Arizona. I have a renewed interest into the Callie and Arizona relationship after this episode so well done Shonda.

Callie ultimately won the trial but for a while there it was little shaky. The professional snowboarder Travis Reed {who was suing Callie} and his girlfriend used words Callie had said to to them or around them against her. When you hear what she said from Travis or the girlfriend you think Callie is guilty. But then they flashback to show you how it really happened. When you see what was going on when Callie says those things you realize that Callie is just a passionate surgeon and that her words in no way admit guilt. Makes you want to be extra careful with what you say around people now, doesn't it?

During the episode we see flashbacks to when Callie and Arizona were still happy together. We find out that they were trying to have another baby, they had a miscarriage, and Arizona was unsure if she wanted to try again. We also see the reappearance of Callie's dad. He's all ready to blame Arizona for leaving Callie but then Callie admits that she asked her to leave because Arizona cheated on her. Callie's dad admits that he cheated on her mother but they worked through it and because if it he has Callie. Callie softens and goes to ask Arizona to come home.

Good thing Callie didn't go inside that hotel room because guess who's standing inside all wrapped up in a sheet?  Yup, you guessed it, Murphy. But Arizona tells her to get dressed and leave. I'm sure Murphy's heart is broken!

I'm interested to see how things plays out in coming episodes. Will Callie have issues dealing with the fact that she had she not lost that envelope with information on the clinical trial for the Petersen hip she would have never gone through with the surgery? Will Callie find out about Murphy and be pissed at Arizona all over again? Guess we will have to watch and see!

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Be sure to check out what Kelley has to say about this week's episode of Grey's as well!

Weigh In Wednesday: I've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Woot Woot it's HUMP DAY!

Sadly, this hump day feels like a Tuesday since Monday I was off thanks to Veterans Day. And then Tuesday had to go and be a Monday impersonator, making me stay late at work and everything!

But I'm not going to let that bring me down. I'm going to have a positive attitude today!

The stats for Weigh In Wednesday:

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Oct. 30 Weigh In: 204.8

Nov. 6 Weigh In: 204.8

Today, Nov. 13 Weigh In: 207

Gain: 2.2

Overall Loss: 0.7

Well...

Those stats aren't pretty but they're real life.

I haven't been focused on healthy eating or working out so I knew it was going to happen.

I strongly dislike my starting weight and if I gain next week I will be so upset with myself. So the goal is to not gain any more! I'll take no change on the scale but I will not allow a gain next week.

That being said, I need to focus and start doing what needs to be done to achieve one of my November goals. It was the first goal I made, get my healthy lifestyle back on track. I can do it, that I know without a doubt. But right now things aren't looking promising unless I pull my head out of my ass and do something about it.

I didn't meal plan this week but I can still make smart choices about what I'm eating.

I haven't been to the gym yet but there is still time.

I drank water like it was going out of style yesterday and I plan to again today.

I can do this!

One thing I know that's lacking and would help me A LOT is a buddy. I know it has to be my choice to make the changes necessary but a buddy to check in on me doesn't hurt. It helps me to know that someone is going to check in with me. I don't want to tell them that I failed at going to the gym or that I ate like crap all day.

Any volunteers? :)

I'll leave you with the inspiration for my blog title today.

 

I've lost that loving feeling with the gym. Anyone want to help me find it?

Grey's Anatomy: Two Against One

First of all, thank you veterans past and present for your service and sacrifices!

Now let's talk about Grey's Anatomy.

Thursday's episode Two Against One had me all kinds of frustrated.

Bailey

Something is going on with Bailey without a doubt.  She has some obsessive behaviors; something with pulling on her fingers, not adapting to a change in what OR she'll be operating in, and being extremely thorough when closing her patient. But then at the end of the episode it was like they wanted you to doubt that there was something wrong with her when she actually found rotting apples in Tuck's soccer bag despite Ben not being able to smell it earlier in the day.  But then they hammered it home that there has to be something wrong with Bailey because she went crazy with pulling on her fingers.

Think this is something to do with Ben quitting the program he was in to come home?

Or maybe this has something to do with whatever she had when her patients were dying after she operated on them?

Either way I was like w-t-f is going on here?!

Ross & Yang

Ross aka sharky is kicking butt lately! This week he came up with a way to save a baby's life. Only problem is it requires using Meredith's 3D printer. I'm really liking Yang as a mentor to Ross but it still bugs the crap out of me that Ross hasn't come clean about what happened with Brooks!

Cristina & Meredith

This relationship is frustrating me the most out of everything going on right now! The two talk abut it's definitely not the Cristina and Meredith talk we're used to. And quite honestly I'm not a big fan of Meredith right now.

Meredith is being reckless and trying to push too hard in surgeries, which Alex figures out is because of her desire to prove that she's a great surgeon. But then we have Derek swooping in at the end and justifying her thoughts on what she wanted to do. Ugh! In this situation I think Derek needs to get the facts before blindly backing his wife.

Cristina caved to using the 3D printer without Meredith's permission after trying to do the right thing. Obviously Meredith is pissed when she finds her liver model on the table and Cristina and Ross using her 3D printer for their own thing. I'm afraid this is the beginning of the end to Cristina and Meredith...

The Rest

The rest of what's going on is filler right now in my opinion.

April & Matthew consider having sex before marriage but they decide on waiting after all.

Richard saves his neighbor after refusing to get up and walk with her the whole episode. He now has a new story to tell rather than the old ones he's been repeating.

Arizona removes her wedding ring before joining Leah in the shower.

Owen hopes his new lady Emma will take a job at the hospital.

Callie interviews Emma and the conversation gets a bit more intimate about relationships and life.

Emma decides she can't take the job because the staff would have Owen's back if anything happened between them.

So what am I all kinds of frustrated about?

This thing with Bailey came out of no where and we don't know what's going on with her. Plus how she acts is just frustrating the crap out of me. It's like she knows something is wrong but she's being defensive about it.

Cristina and Meredith should not be feuding but they are. And Meredith's attitude is just wrong. This reminds me of when she was seeing a therapist in season 4 but worse.

And Derek blindly supporting Meredith's opinion of what she could do during surgery, just ugh! While I get that as a husband you should have your wife's back, but when you're doctors you should have all the facts before doing so, in my opinion.

What do you think is wrong with Bailey?

Is this the beginning of the end for Cristina and Meredith?

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<a href="http://onehotsouthernmess.blogspot.com/" title="Greys"><img src="http://i1362.photobucket.com/albums/r681/kdavin3/234f4436-77d9-4687-8b6c-c619b5cf8b9b_zps1b055200.jpg" alt="Greys" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

**Edit**
I just found out that the lovely founder of the Grey's Anatomy link up, Kelley from One Hot Southern Mess, had a rough technology week this last week. First her computer at work crashed and then her personal computer crashed as well. Because of this the linky is not open for collection. If you do write a post and wish to link up, leave the link to your post in the comments!

5 for Five: November Goals

Happy Sunday evening friends! I'm finally getting my blogging butt in gear and sharing with you my November goals. Go me!

Remember when I mentioned using the notebook Ricci gave me as part of the Falling Into Fall swap as a physical journal of my monthly goals and weekly updates on how I'm doing? I'm actually doing it! Again, go me!

I came up with five goals for the month of November. I tried to cover a little bit of everything in my life and I think I did I good job of it.

1.Get my healthy lifestyle on track.

• Meal plan for the week ahead.
• Hit the gym at least three times a week.
• Drink at least 64oz of water per day.
• Lose at least 3 pounds.

2. Wake up and get out of bed by 7am at least three times a week.
3. Put more time and effort into blogging.
4. Clean my bathroom and room, then keep it that way.
5. Read four books.

• The Book Thief {November's BBC book}
• The Single Woman's Survival Guide: Letting Go and Moving On
• Serena
• ?????

Evidently I sent a few more goals than just five since getting my healthy lifestyle on track has four sub-goals.

But besides the lengthy list I definitely think this is doable.

Sadly I was off to a bad start last week.  I think I first made this list of goals Monday morning, four days into November. But then on top of that I let working 11 hours that day get in the way of accomplishing pretty much anything besides downloading The Book Thief on my Kindle and kind of beginning to read it. Yes, that's a big fat excuse because working 11 hours one day does not mean I could not have been successful the remaining four days of the week.

That being said I will not let one week of poor decisions hold me back from making better ones these next three weeks. I'm looking forward to being successful in achieving these goals and am hopeful that one good month will turn into two and then three and so on. I need to get some good momentum going in my life!

I will see you all back here tomorrow to talk all things Grey's Anatomy with Kelley from One Hot Southern Mess!

Blogger Book Club: Olive Kitteridge

I was feeling really pumped up about blogging again last week and then this week I just sort of lost my mojo. Monday I worked 11 hours and didn't get home until almost 11pm and since then I've just been off.  My apologies to Kelley for missing the Grey's Anatomy link up on Monday. And then I didn't link up with Jenn to share my November goals {I have a plan for how I can recover that one though}. Oh yeah, and I missed linking up for Weigh In Wednesday yesterday {you'll probably see that happen tomorrow}.

Despite all of those broken plans for blogging earlier this week there was one thing I knew I didn't want to miss.  The Blogger Book Club link up to review October's book, Olive Kitteridge, went live last week and I wasn't even done with the book. I had to renew my library loan on it so I would have time to finish it. And after plowing through most of it Sunday afternoon I finally finished it last night!

I won't lie to you, this book was waaaay outside of my comfort zone. I definitely would have never picked up this book to read on my own. But I am thankful to the BBC for opening my eyes to something new.

That being said, this book was tough for me to get into. It took me a whole month to read 270 pages, which is definitely not the norm for me.  Overall I thought the book was okay but I definitely didn't love it and I won't read it a second time.

Sunday Night Football and a book = my kind of lazy Sunday

Part of my struggle to really like this book was how differently the story was written.  Each chapter was really like a new short story about someone in town.  At some point during each story Olive Kitteridge is mentioned as she is in some way part of each story.  The real kicker was the fact that all of these stories were sad and had no light at the end of the tunnel.

I also struggled with finding the overall point of the book.  I don't know that I found one but maybe I just missed it.

And because I'm all about being honest here on Living n Learning I will tell you straight up that I would not recommend this book to someone.

************************************************************************************************************

November's book has actually been on my to-read list on Goodreads for a while now.  I'm really excited to start reading and I don't foresee it taking me a month to finish it either.

Our lovely leader Kay has chosen The Book Thief by Markus Zusak as November's book because the movie version comes out November 8th. Hey! That's tomorrow!

The link up date has already been set for Tuesday November 26th.  I hope you run out and grab your copy of The Book Thief soon so you can link up and share your thoughts later this month.

And with that, I'm outta here!

5 on Friday: Brain Dump

TGIF! Despite being up early {before 8am} this morning I'm still in a pretty damn good mood because of a little something called PTO. That's right, I get to leave at 6pm tonight rather than 7pm. It's the little things in life really...

I decided to link up for 5 on Friday because I kind of have a handful of things I wanted to talk about and this seemed like the easiest way to get it done.

*ONE*

I woke up rather late Wednesday so I was going to skip my weigh in. But I changed my mind as I was starting to get ready. I just had to make it happen, regardless of if I had time or not.

Starting Weight {highest weight recorded}: 207.7

Last Week's Weigh In, Oct. 23: 205.9

Today's Weigh In, Oct. 30: 204.8

Loss: 1.1

Overall Loss: 2.9

*TWO*

I need to ramp up my reading time ASAP!

I still haven't finished October's Blogger Book Club book, Olive Kitteridge. The link up went live yesterday. {Check out Kay's blog for a review and to link up!}

I also have Serena on my Kindle waiting for me. {Being made into a movie with Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence, sign me right up!}

And I'm obsessed with The Single Woman right now and cannot wait until I pull the trigger and purchase her book!

*THREE*

November is here! November = Thanksgiving = Chelsea comes home!

I actually used another hour of PTO on an upcoming Friday so I can drive to Madison to pick her and the hubs up from the airport.

And then I went and used a whole day of PTO on the following Monday so I can actually spend time with my BFF rather than be at work the whole time she's home.

Having a long distance BFF sucks big time. But we're making it work.

:)

*FOUR*

I'm excited to say that I feel like I'm back in my blogging groove. I may have missed a day or two this week but overall I still feel really excited to blog and like I want to put more time and effort into posting each week.

To celebrate I purchased an ad spot on Party of One.

And speaking of Jenn and her blog, she hosts 5 for Five a weekly link up {read all about it here} that I'm looking forward to participating in during November.

*FIVE*

I'm also excited to say that I'm finding new blogs to follow almost daily. It's almost unfair how many awesome blogs there are because there is just no way that I can follow them all!
I wanted to share with you some of my most recent finds...

I actually swapped buttons with Jess from Livin' on Sweet Tea.

And then there is Autumn from The Unreal Life.

Stop over and say hi if you haven't already. :)

And that my friends about covers all that is going on in my head this Friday morning.

I'm off to get ready for work and put in my eight seven hours. Hopefully those seven hours just fly by because tonight is Fish Fry Friday around these parts. To make that even better, my grandma and grandpa will be joining my parents and I {maybe my brother?}. Yay for family time!