Long Weekend Recap

Good morning friends.  Long time no chat, huh?

The last you heard from me was on Friday before the start of my 4 day weekend.  What a weekend it was!  Of course because I'm a procrastinator I hadn't packed a thing until I got home from work around 7:45pm which means I was scrambling to put a bag together so my dad and I could hit the road.  Rushing means forgetting things usually and forget things I did.  Nothing I couldn't survive without but definitely things that would have been nice.  Like my laptop for example.

This campground is really for people who don't really like to rough it.  We had fresh water and sewer hookup, cable, and Wifi.  See?  Not really roughing it.  I still went out and did things in nature though, don't you worry!

Saturday the weather wasn't the greatest when we woke up so instead of fishing we ended up driving around.  It was while driving around we were able to stop some deer!

Driving around only lasts for so long though so after grabbing some ice-cream {who cares if it was only 40 degrees?!} my dad and I ended up back at the camper to relax while watching TV / reading a book.

Sunday the weather was much better so my dad went fishing with a friend {who is retired and lives at the campground all summer}.  Bo and I were left at the camper to chill.  A little day drinking and a lot of book reading occurred.  Had Bo been a better day drinking buddy I think more of that would have occurred.

My mom joined us Sunday afternoon after she returned from her road trip to Minnesota where her parents attended a wedding.  By my momma coming up it allowed me to go fishing Monday with my dad and our "guide" John {the retired friend}.

We caught some fish, 20+ keepers to be a little bit more specific.  The weather was pretty much perfect and I had a blast.  We even fed a bald eagle!  I have a video but I would really like to know if I can upload it without sound because our commentary throughout the video is unnecessary.  Anyone know if that's possible?  Or does anyone know if I can create a picture from the video?

We went to a late lunch with John and his wife at a local drinking establishment.  It was probably one of the best bar burgers I have ever had!  And on Mondays it's hamburger day so everything was cheap.  I'm talking 5 people ate for less than $30 cheap!

Around 7pm my momma, dad and I {Bo too} headed out on a drive looking for some albino deer.  We started off seeing regular old brown ones like crazy.  But just as we were finishing our drive I spotted an albino on the side of the road and made my dad pull over so I could snap some pictures.

These are wild deer however they are pretty tame and do not run from cars very easily as you can see.  We weren't exceptionally quite while sitting on the side of the road snapping pictures and yet they never showed signs of spooking.  Good thing though or I wouldn't have been able to snap as many pictures as I did.

My dad went out fishing one more time Tuesday morning, this time for muskies.  They were successful and caught three, one being 39.5'' long!  While my dad was fishing my mom and I were packing the camper up so we could head home.

It was a great weekend and I really didn't want to come home.  It definitely felt good to sleep in my own bed though rather than on the camper couch.  Thankfully I only have to make it through 3 days of work until the weekend again.

On a side note before I end this post I wanted to point all of my readers in the direction of this post by Sarah from Venus Trapped in Mars about how to fix being a no-reply blogger.  I really love receiving comments from all of my readers and it breaks my heart when I go to respond to those amazing comments via email and I can't because the one who left the comment will never receive it.  I'll be honest, I forget to go back and respond to comments in other ways besides email.  So please, if you can, be sure to use an email address when you comment so I can send my response to your comment via email!

And one more side note...weigh in Wednesday happened.  I didn't post yesterday but I do want to track my weigh in on the blog so here goes.

Starting weight {highest weight recorded}: 206.6 206.8

Last weigh in, Sept. 18th: 206.6

Wednesday's weigh in: 206.8

Gain of 0.2

Not the worst considering I haven't worked out and haven't cared what I've been putting in my mouth.  But this coming week things are changing!  I don't work until 11am now so I have plenty of time in the morning to get to the gym for a work out.  And because I get home so late I can make my own meal pretty much.  It's time to start cracking down on everything and get back on track.

Okay, no more side notes...I'm out of here!  Have a great Thursday peeps!

Weekend Shenanigans

I would say happy Monday but let’s be honest, no one is really happy that it’s Monday.  I know I’m not.  Especially when I found out it was raining this morning which means it’s the perfect day to lay on the couch under a blanket with a good book or movie.

To add fuel to my Monday hating fire only about the first 30 minutes of work were really busy.  Since then I’ve been checking Twitter and reading up on some blogs on my phone.  Thanks to all of the blog reading I was doing I saw everyone posting about their weekend shenanigans and decided I wanted to join in on the party.  So here we go!

Friday after work I went to Phil’s Round 2 with my parents for a fish fry {it’s a Wisconsin thing ;) }.  It had been 2 weeks since I had their fish so I was especially excited about going.  The whole meal is just amazing; from the coleslaw to the fish, to the beer battered French fries!

Coleslaw gone, Fries hiding under the fish :)

Saturday morning I woke up to fresh snow on the ground.  Despite the fresh snow on the ground it was time to pick up flea and tick medicine for Bo to help prevent him from getting any as it warms up and through the summer so my parents and I left earlier than normal for our chiropractor appointment in Antigo to make a pit stop in Birnamwood to visit the vet’s office.  We also traded in our empty case of glass bottles of Sun Drop at the grocery store there for a new full case.

Mom and I had chiropractor appointments at 9am but thanks to our pit stop in Birnamwood being so quick and the roads not being terrible we arrived early for our appointments so we were adjusted and out of there before 9am.  Since we were in town we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few things.  I ended up picking up some makeup removing cloths, a file organizer for work (which I forgot to bring with me today), Venus razor refills (those suckers are expensive!), and Breaking Dawn Part 2 on DVD.

We hit up the grocery store next.  I added a few things to the cart like Skinny Cow ice-cream bars, frozen meals I can microwave for work, minced garlic, and Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb seasoning.  Those last two items I was most excited about because I would be making Garlic & Herb Beer Bread with them once I was home.

Our final stop was Fleet Farm for a new collar for Bo.  The one he had was beginning to fall apart.  We went from blaze orange with a reflective strip to red.  There’s something about a red collar on a black dog that just looks sharp if you ask me.

The first thing I did when we got home was start baking my beer bread.  I got the recipe from Jen who blogs over at That’s What She Read {Go check it out, it's awesome!}.  I didn’t follow her recipe exactly because when I was mixing everything together I was following the original recipe for plain beer bread and I wasn't paying attention didn’t realize that for the Garlic & Herb Beer Bread it changes slightly.  Everything still turned out pretty darn tasty though so I would say it was a success!

Garlic & Herb Beer Bread

A lot of lounging around the house watching TV or reading HP #2 occurred after that until I made a last minute decision around 8:30 to go to Homestead to see a band (Tuscan Road) play.  I knew the band would be playing weeks prior but I hadn’t fully committed to going until that night.  I decided I would go without specific plans to meet anyone there.  I figured I would know at least some one there, and I was right.

It wasn’t the most fun I’ve had on a night out but it wasn’t the worst either.  After stopping at one other bar with some friends I called it a night and was home by 2am.  Bo even came to snuggle in bed with me for a little while which was nice.  He used to sleep with  me every night when he was younger {HA! I say that as if he's old, he's only 2!} but then I think he changed his mind about that arrangement after I went out a couple of nights and wasn’t around for him to go to bed with.  He now sleeps with my parents every night.

Sunday was a beautiful day as far as weather went but my yard was a mess thanks to all the melting snow and rain we had gotten the day before {yup, it snowed in the morning and was raining in the afternoon, wonderful Wisconsin weather}.  I took advantage of the nice weather and cleaned out my car.  My mom volunteered to vacuum my car for me which I was grateful for since that’s my least favorite part of cleaning a car.  My car is now ready for someone to buy.

My mom got a new vehicle {GMC Terrain} a couple of weeks ago so we’re selling the car I’ve been driving since I was 16 and I am driving the car that was my mom’s until I buy a new vehicle of my own.

I also did some much needed laundry.  It seems as though the laundry fairy skipped my house a week or two so I was in desperate need of doing laundry.  I meant to do some other chores around the house but I was lazy time got away from me so that didn’t happen.

I ended the weekend on a great note watching the Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM).  The first hour or so was awesome because Chelsea was texting me throughout.  But with her being on the East Coast she called it a night before they were over so I lost my texting buddy.  It was through our texting conversation that our friendship was once again solidified {not that it needed it!} because we would be thinking the same thing about so much of what was going on during the ACMs.  It’s almost scary how much we’re alike.

Only BFFs can have this kind of conversation :)

My man Jason Aldean won Male Vocalist of the Year (Go Jason!) and my other man Luke Bryan won Entertainer of the Year (Yay Luke!) so it was a great night.

What were you up to this weekend?

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday people!!  Um, right about that...who's ever really happy it is Monday?  Not me.  Especially not today because work was kind of really crazy thanks to the winter storm the East Coast got (banks closed early / weren't open Saturday = lots of catch up work on Monday).  But to find the silver lining in everything the day did go by pretty quickly.

Going back to Friday night though...  After getting home from work and while waiting for my brother to be done working I ordered my Maybook which I won from the giveaway Jenna hosted.  I am so excited to get it!  Once my brother was home from work my family went out for a fish fry at a near by bar.  I enjoyed a cocktail or two with my meal and even brought home a piece of fish to eat for lunch one day this week (probably Tuesday).  We were home by 8:30/9 and I debated about going out but ended up staying in and working on my blog.  If you follow me on Twitter you may have noticed I have been having a little bit of technical difficulties since making the move back to Blogger from Wordpress.  My comments on blog posts previous to the move are not visible at all and while comments made on posts after the move are visible on my blog I cannot see them from my dashboard.  I'm learning to deal with it but it is still a bit frustrating.

Saturday morning I was up pretty early so I could go to town for a chiropractor appointment and to get my hair cut.  No big changes in the hair department, just trimmed everything up.  I did have my hair styled before leaving so it would be done when I wanted to go out later in the day.  Note to self: research hair styles before the day of so you have a picture to show the stylist.  While I didn't hate my hair and Chelsea and Jodi thought it was cute it wasn't what I had pictured in my head when I was describing it to the stylist.  But I have no one to blame but myself for that one.  And honestly after I started having fun later in the day I didn't even think about it!

Around 1:30 I hit the road to my friend Jodi's house to have a little girl time before heading to a chili feed at her parents' bar.  We were there from 3 until 9!  We had such a fun time just talking and catching up.  Spur of the moment after finding out that Chelsea and Dan were going to see it Jodi and I decided to see Identity Thief at 9:50.  I really enjoyed the movie and laughed throughout the whole thing.  One of my favorite lines is "What are you a Kenyan?" because I work with a man from Kenya.  I made it home by 12/12:30 but it felt like it should have been much later.  I think sitting at the bar for 7 hours messed with my head a little.  Usually I'm at the bar later in the evening until the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday was a lazy day as a result of my late night out on Saturday.  I ended up taking two naps, one shortly after getting up and one after lunch.  So much for cleaning and doing laundry.  I definitely need to learn how to balance being lazy and being productive on the weekends.  It is so nice to not be in school and have to worry about homework any more but that doesn't mean I have to sit around and do absolutely nothing every weekend, right?

And here we are, back to Monday.  It sure is Monday... (Anyone know what song those last four words are from?)

Talk to me...

What was your favorite part of the weekend?

Are you good at balancing being lazy and productive on the weekend?

I'm a Graduate!

Happy Sunday readers.  I hope you all have had an enjoyable weekend.  Can you believe we're already half way through December?!

My weekend was a good, no great, one!  Yesterday I graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point with my bachelors degree in business administration with a concentration in management.

Cody & I

My friend Cody and I were lucky enough to graduate on the same day so we had someone to hang out with the hour before the ceremony started.  There were a total of four of us graduating yesterday from the collaborative degree program (people I have had classes with).  A lot of our fellow classmates graduated in May, including Chelsea.

Holy crow, she did it!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend Chelsea's graduation ceremony so I had an idea of how the ceremony would go yesterday.  It lasted about two hours.  The most boring part was listening to them call names of fellow classmates that you don't know so you just sat there watching them walk across the stage and shake hands.

Unfortunately, it rained all day.  Yeah, it's December in Wisconsin and it's raining something is wrong if you ask me.  Raining means there were no nice outdoor pictures with family.  We did head outdoors under the overhang at the entrance so we didn't get wet but the background looks really dreary, nothing like in Chelsea's pictures.

After pictures were taken my family headed to Chili's for lunch.  As we were waiting for a table I opened gifts from my family.  My parents gave me a Pandora bracelet and three charms.  The top charm in the picture below is a zen charm to remind me to always do what makes me happy.  Next is the ice love, white heart charm which is to remind me of the love my parents have for me.  And the final charm from my parents is the graduation hat to remember the day by.  The next charm, red stepping stones, is from my aunt and uncle.  And the final charm, faith hope and love, is from my grandparents.  This charm has an anchor (hope), a cross (faith), and a heart (love) on it.

We enjoyed an awesome lunch together.  I had the Cajun pasta with grilled shrimp, my favorite item at Chili's.  We followed up with two chocolate lava cakes.  Sooooo good!

My parents and I stopped at the jewelry store on the way home to make sure the size of the bracelet was okay and to learn how to open the bracelet and add charms.  (We couldn't figure it out at Chili's!)

Once home after FaceTiming with Chelsea (sad she couldn't be at my graduation, or even in town for it) I slept all afternoon since I did not get a whole lot of sleep thanks to going out the night before unexpectedly.

Perfect graduation day in my opinion other than the poor weather.

Unfortunately, I am not completely finished with school yet.  I still have three finals to take, which I should have been studying for today but that didn't happen.  I spent my Sunday watching football (Packers beat the Bears!), decorating Christmas cookies (made some green and gold ones even!), and trying to enroll in benefits at my new job.  I ended up needing to email a human resource person because I had questions so that's still not complete.  (Frustrating...)  Being an adult sucks sometimes.

Stars, boots, Christmas trees, snowmen made with cows, and cow bells

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my last part-time work week at my new job.  I'm looking forward to going full-time and next year having PTO time and holiday time.  And hopefully once I really get into my job (I'm doing the very tip of the iceberg of what I'll be doing right now) I will enjoy it so working all day every day won't be a bad thing.  With that said, I'm off to bed to get back into my good sleeping routine!

Have a great night readers.  I'll leave you with some questions.  :)

Do you decorate Christmas cookies?  What kind of decorating tools do you use, colored sugar, or icing with decorating tools?

What was your favorite weekend event?

Catching Up

Happy Friday readers!!  This week seemed to fly by for me which this summer has been an unusual thing to happen.  It's been over a week since my last blog post but Wednesday through Sunday I was in the land of minimal cell phone reception, no WiFi, and honestly hanging out with friends, enjoying some beverages, and seeing country music artists perform took more importance over updating my blog.  I had a blast with Chelsea and some other friends that I met up with there.  I took hardly any pictures so doing a recap would be kind of boring so I'll skip that and just let you know I had a blast.

Thanks to the craziness that was last week this week has been catch up for me.  I'm still not on a great sleep schedule.  Sunday through Tuesday every night I was waking up between 2 and 3 am which is not a normal thing for me.  I guess my body adjusted to the late night bed times and was trying to tell me I was trying to sleep too early?  I've been able to make it to work on time this week though so I'd say I'm handling it pretty well.

Oh!  I just remembered that I took my business law final (online summer course that started July 16th) on Wednesday last week and found out Friday night (I think?) that I got an A- in the class!!!  Now the only thing left to do to finish up my summer semester is prepare and present my internship presentation on either the 20th or 21st of September.  It has to be 10 minutes long which is a bit daunting to me because I'm not a great public speaker.  I haven't begun working on it yet so I need to really get the ball rolling on that one if I want to prepare it ahead of time and be able to practice it and get the timing right on it.

The only thing I'm bummed about because of not blogging since last Tuesday is that I missed two Weight Loss Wednesday posts that I was supposed to do.  It's a double edged sword with that one.  I haven't been focusing on weight loss at all, like haven't even stepped on a scale in I don't know how long, so what would I really be able to post about anyways?  But at the same time I committed to posting about it once a week (that's not that hard) and now I haven't followed through.  There's always next week though!

So that's a quick recap of what's been going on with me in the last week and a half.

Tonight I'm going out to dinner with my parents, another couple, our neighbor, and another woman so I won't be home much.  I WILL be getting laundry started though as I haven't done that since the weekend before last so I'm running out of clean clothes to wear which is not a good thing.  Tomorrow I need to set up for Chelsea's bridal shower, attend the shower, and then the bachelorette party later that evening which we are doing a wine tasting, dinner, and then drinks.  I bought a dress yesterday for the day so I will be sure to post pictures once I'm all done up and ready for the day.  Sunday my mom is hosting a Miche bag party so I will have that to go to in the early afternoon but other than that Sunday is my relaxed day.  It will feel good to finally sit still and get caught up on everything (laundry, blogging, etc...)

I hope everyone has been having a great week!  Hope to see you leave some comments now that I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Weekend Recap - Part 2

Happy Monday morning readers!  Is there such a thing as a happy Monday morning??  Guess it depends on what you have going on for the day and how you look at things.  Today I'm going to finish off my weekend recap with what I did yesterday.  This post has pictures so hopefully it won't be as boring to read!

Sunday

I woke up at 8am but stayed in bed watching NCIS season 4 until 9am, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning.  Muffins were on the table by that time so I ate (alone because everyone else ate earlier) then spent some time with Bo before jumping in the shower.  My parents and I went to Green Bay to eat at Red Lobster (soooo good!!), and do a little shopping.

Our first stop after lunch was Lambeau Field to look around in the Packers Pro Shop.  I finally for the first time in years have a piece of Packers clothing that is my own!  Thanks mom :)  It's a long sleeved, but light, t shirt with a hood.  I can't wait to wear it so hopefully it cools off soon!

I was in the market for some shoes I could wear on an every day basis so I can keep the shoes I use to work out in nice so DSW was our next stop.  My old fitness/everyday shoes are pretty beat up so I was happy to find some shoes in a women's size that fit and I liked.  Having big feet is a challenge when it comes to finding shoes that look good on them.

I also had a $10 off coupon for American Eagle but was disappointed when I didn't find anything I liked, especially because the jeans were on sale.  I have until the end of September to use the coupon so I might look online to see what I can find.

We hit up Yankee Candle even though the store in our own mall is bigger than this one.  I bought myself a candle in my favorite scent, Pumpkin Buttercream.  We had fun smelling the "man scents" and making my dad smell them.  He's not into candles like I am but he was a good sport and went along with it.  It was actually amazing how much some of the stuff smelled like what it was named after; 2x4, mowed grass, etc.

Once we walked around the mall and didn't find any other stores to go into we jumped in the car to do a little driving around.  We ended up finding a Dairy Queen and stopped for ice cream.  I had the blizzard of the month, M&Ms Brownie.  It was good but I couldn't finish it all.  Those brownie pieces filled me up more than my usual cookie dough does.

Our last stop was Wal-Mart.  Great place to go while you're out of town when you have one where you live, right?  We needed new shower liners and as I was getting ready in the morning I had found a $40 gift card from my boss at work from Christmas that I hadn't used yet.  I went in hoping to find Gossip Girl season 4 on DVD but sadly they didn't have any of the Gossip Girl seasons.  I walked out with just some Post-it stickies.  Thanks again mom!

After getting home I fired up the laptop to look online for Gossip Girl season 4.  I found it for only $14.95!  I ordered it along with books #8 and #9 in the Pretty Little Liars series, all for less than $40 so my gift card covered everything.  Successful online shopping makes me happy.


Because I ordered books #8 and #9 in the series I started reading Pretty Little Liars (#1) after dinner.  I've read books #1 through #6 once already but it's been a while so I wanted to get them all fresh in my mind again and try to read them back to back.  I own book #7 but have not read it yet.  Chelsea has been borrowing the books and powering through them and is almost to book #7 so finding the gift card for Wal-Mart came at the right time for me to order the next two books.  There are 12 books total in the series.

Reading before bed has always been something I enjoy doing but NCIS was calling to me so I ended the night with Gibbs, Tony, Zeva, McGee, and Abby instead of more reading.  Maybe not the smartest move considering NCIS can be action packed and make you think but oh well you only live once, right? :)


Questions for you...
Ever read books that a TV series is based on, like Pretty Little Liars?


Do you ever buy TV series on DVD?

Weekend Recap - Part 2

Happy Monday morning readers!  Is there such a thing as a happy Monday morning??  Guess it depends on what you have going on for the day and how you look at things.  Today I'm going to finish off my weekend recap with what I did yesterday.  This post has pictures so hopefully it won't be as boring to read!

Sunday

I woke up at 8am but stayed in bed watching NCIS season 4 until 9am, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning.  Muffins were on the table by that time so I ate (alone because everyone else ate earlier) then spent some time with Bo before jumping in the shower.  My parents and I went to Green Bay to eat at Red Lobster (soooo good!!), and do a little shopping.

Our first stop after lunch was Lambeau Field to look around in the Packers Pro Shop.  I finally for the first time in years have a piece of Packers clothing that is my own!  Thanks mom :)  It's a long sleeved, but light, t shirt with a hood.  I can't wait to wear it so hopefully it cools off soon!

I was in the market for some shoes I could wear on an every day basis so I can keep the shoes I use to work out in nice so DSW was our next stop.  My old fitness/everyday shoes are pretty beat up so I was happy to find some shoes in a women's size that fit and I liked.  Having big feet is a challenge when it comes to finding shoes that look good on them.

I also had a $10 off coupon for American Eagle but was disappointed when I didn't find anything I liked, especially because the jeans were on sale.  I have until the end of September to use the coupon so I might look online to see what I can find.

We hit up Yankee Candle even though the store in our own mall is bigger than this one.  I bought myself a candle in my favorite scent, Pumpkin Buttercream.  We had fun smelling the "man scents" and making my dad smell them.  He's not into candles like I am but he was a good sport and went along with it.  It was actually amazing how much some of the stuff smelled like what it was named after; 2x4, mowed grass, etc.

Once we walked around the mall and didn't find any other stores to go into we jumped in the car to do a little driving around.  We ended up finding a Dairy Queen and stopped for ice cream.  I had the blizzard of the month, M&Ms Brownie.  It was good but I couldn't finish it all.  Those brownie pieces filled me up more than my usual cookie dough does.

Our last stop was Wal-Mart.  Great place to go while you're out of town when you have one where you live, right?  We needed new shower liners and as I was getting ready in the morning I had found a $40 gift card from my boss at work from Christmas that I hadn't used yet.  I went in hoping to find Gossip Girl season 4 on DVD but sadly they didn't have any of the Gossip Girl seasons.  I walked out with just some Post-it stickies.  Thanks again mom!

After getting home I fired up the laptop to look online for Gossip Girl season 4.  I found it for only $14.95!  I ordered it along with books #8 and #9 in the Pretty Little Liars series, all for less than $40 so my gift card covered everything.  Successful online shopping makes me happy.


Because I ordered books #8 and #9 in the series I started reading Pretty Little Liars (#1) after dinner.  I've read books #1 through #6 once already but it's been a while so I wanted to get them all fresh in my mind again and try to read them back to back.  I own book #7 but have not read it yet.  Chelsea has been borrowing the books and powering through them and is almost to book #7 so finding the gift card for Wal-Mart came at the right time for me to order the next two books.  There are 12 books total in the series.

Reading before bed has always been something I enjoy doing but NCIS was calling to me so I ended the night with Gibbs, Tony, Zeva, McGee, and Abby instead of more reading.  Maybe not the smartest move considering NCIS can be action packed and make you think but oh well you only live once, right? :)


Questions for you...
Ever read books that a TV series is based on, like Pretty Little Liars?


Do you ever buy TV series on DVD?

Weekend Recap - Part 1

Weekends always seem to fly by, especially during the summer when there is so much going on.  I hope everyone had a great weekend like I did.

Friday

Friday after work I hung out with my BFF Chelsea.  We went to the Wisconsin Valley Fair to see Rodney Atkins perform (sorry no pictures).  It was a good show, but not the best I have ever seen.  After the show we walked to the other end of the midway so I could get the best cheese curds at the fair.  They lived up to the expectations I held for them from last year so all is good in the world.  By the time Chelsea and I walked back to the other end of the midway she and I decided we needed monkey tails as well.  I go for simple and just have mine dipped in chocolate.  Chelsea gets a little crazy and gets crunch put on as well.  We called it a night at the fair pretty early since we had an early morning coming up.

Saturday

In order to sleep longer I spent the night at Chelsea's.  5am came around really quick and it was tough to get moving as it was but had I stayed at my own house I would have needed to be up even earlier to factor in the drive time (30 minutes) to Chelsea's from my place.  

Chelsea works at the YMCA here in town so she of course volunteered to help out at the triathlon that the YMCA puts on every year.  Being Chelsea's BFF I get roped into volunteering as well.  We had to be at the site by 5:30am to be ready to body mark.  It's not such a bad job to write on people with huge Sharpie markers (especially the good looking men hehe...).  I have done body marking once before with Chelsea for a duathlon (spelling? spell check and the internet don't have suggestions for this) but this was a whole new ball game.  So many more participants means so many more ups and downs.  Both arms and both legs of the participants need to be marked.  Needless to say my quads (I think...) are S.O.R.E!

Once our body marking duties were completed we got to relax in our lawn chairs under the announcer's tent.  Our next job was to help find the participants' numbers on the sheets for the announcer.  At first we would call out the participants as they went out on the run course (after completing the swim and bike parts) but eventually we had to focus on just those coming in to finish in front of us.  I don't know the times of any of the finishes but it was still amazing to me to see these people complete the triathlon.

The volunteers and participants got a free lunch of subs, chips, fruit, and a soda or water.  After mowing that down eating lunch Chelsea and I headed back to her house where we slept pretty much all afternoon.  I could not imagine being a participant when getting up early and simply body marking and standing by a table under a tent wore me out so much.  After a few hours of napping I headed home to chill with the family.


I'll finish up my weekend recap with what went on today (Sunday) tomorrow because this post is already getting pretty long.


Question for you...
Have you ever volunteered to help with an event like a triathlon or road race?

Weekend Recap - Part 1

Weekends always seem to fly by, especially during the summer when there is so much going on.  I hope everyone had a great weekend like I did.

Friday

Friday after work I hung out with my BFF Chelsea.  We went to the Wisconsin Valley Fair to see Rodney Atkins perform (sorry no pictures).  It was a good show, but not the best I have ever seen.  After the show we walked to the other end of the midway so I could get the best cheese curds at the fair.  They lived up to the expectations I held for them from last year so all is good in the world.  By the time Chelsea and I walked back to the other end of the midway she and I decided we needed monkey tails as well.  I go for simple and just have mine dipped in chocolate.  Chelsea gets a little crazy and gets crunch put on as well.  We called it a night at the fair pretty early since we had an early morning coming up.

Saturday

In order to sleep longer I spent the night at Chelsea's.  5am came around really quick and it was tough to get moving as it was but had I stayed at my own house I would have needed to be up even earlier to factor in the drive time (30 minutes) to Chelsea's from my place.  

Chelsea works at the YMCA here in town so she of course volunteered to help out at the triathlon that the YMCA puts on every year.  Being Chelsea's BFF I get roped into volunteering as well.  We had to be at the site by 5:30am to be ready to body mark.  It's not such a bad job to write on people with huge Sharpie markers (especially the good looking men hehe...).  I have done body marking once before with Chelsea for a duathlon (spelling? spell check and the internet don't have suggestions for this) but this was a whole new ball game.  So many more participants means so many more ups and downs.  Both arms and both legs of the participants need to be marked.  Needless to say my quads (I think...) are S.O.R.E!

Once our body marking duties were completed we got to relax in our lawn chairs under the announcer's tent.  Our next job was to help find the participants' numbers on the sheets for the announcer.  At first we would call out the participants as they went out on the run course (after completing the swim and bike parts) but eventually we had to focus on just those coming in to finish in front of us.  I don't know the times of any of the finishes but it was still amazing to me to see these people complete the triathlon.

The volunteers and participants got a free lunch of subs, chips, fruit, and a soda or water.  After mowing that down eating lunch Chelsea and I headed back to her house where we slept pretty much all afternoon.  I could not imagine being a participant when getting up early and simply body marking and standing by a table under a tent wore me out so much.  After a few hours of napping I headed home to chill with the family.


I'll finish up my weekend recap with what went on today (Sunday) tomorrow because this post is already getting pretty long.


Question for you...
Have you ever volunteered to help with an event like a triathlon or road race?