Ring My Bell

Today definitely feels like a Monday. I am tired and busy and just wish I could crawl back in bed. But, I can't... So I might as well just enjoy the day. At least we only have 2 more days until the long weekend! Plus, my sister and her family arrive tomorrow and I am so very excited! I can't wait to spend 5 days with my wonderful little niece, nephew and my sister and her hubby. :) On Wednesday, my mom, Charles and Mike's sister will get here. It is going to be an awesome Thanksgiving!

This past weekend was soooo busy. We decided not to go to the last home football game for East Carolina. We just had so much to do and everyone is just so burnt out from the games. Of course we won. We always win when I don't show up to the game. :)

On Friday evening, we got home and I made the Roasted Chicken, Garbanzo Beans, Tomato and Paprika dish that was on my meal plan for last week. I ended up following the recipe exactly and it turned out really good. I cut up the remaining chicken and split it between some salads for lunches this week. I am not planning on making anything new until Wednesday night since we need to make some fridge room for Thursday's meal.

This was our counter last night as I was preparing our lunches until Wednesday. I love getting ahead on Sundays!

Huge To-Do list!

Saturday morning, I woke up (due to Franklin's pestering) and started to check off things from my to do list. I wanted to give the weather a little time to warm up before going on my run. At around noon, I headed out with Franklin for my 3.2 mile run. I wanted to have a "practice run" to see where I was at with my time for Thursday. All I really care about is finishing the 5K in under 33 minutes.

This is the beginning of my run and just continues to go up.

I know I have mentioned that my neighborhood is pretty hilly before, but seriously, if it weren't for the hills, I would have probably finished in 30 minutes. I ended up trying to run up the first hill, only to completely tire out when I got to the top. There are 3 hills within the first mile and I find myself walking at least 3 times. Once I get past those, I can usually go a pretty long time without walking. I pushed stop on my RunKeeper at 3.06 miles and was at 32.27 minutes. I had an average of 10.36 min/mile. I should be able to make my PR on Thursday without any problems, I hope. :)

Such a trooper!

I got back from my run, completed a few more things on my to do list, showered and then headed out to run errands. We wanted to get the grocery shopping done for Wednesday and Thursday, so we weren't trying to do it on a busy evening. Then we met some friends for dinner and to watch the ECU game.

I took this weekend off from drinking since I felt like I needed a break. Every weekend I head back into the week with an extra 2-3 lbs on the scale. I decided to try a weekend without any beer or wine and sticking to my normal "during the week" eating to see if it made a difference. I definitely felt better on Sunday and was able to accomplish a lot more, but it seems that my weight still fluctuates quite a bit on the weekends. Maybe it is just that I am not on such a strict schedule on the weekends so my weight kinda floats around. It is hard to tell if the drops in weight are there to stay when it bounces around like that.

Yesterday, I had all intentions of getting another run in, but we spent most of the day helping some friends move into their new apartment. I ran up and down 3 flights of stairs more times than I can count and even tried to make it into a little cardio for the times I didn't have boxes in my arms. I was definitely huffing and puffing for several 30 min intervals, so I feel like I certainly got a good work out in. Plus, my butt and arms are feeling nice and sore today.

I am going to rest today and tomorrow so that I will be ready to roll on Wednesday and Thursday. My runs always feel best on my 2nd day of running in a row, so I will run on Wednesday morning to ensure that. I am really excited to run on Thursday. It has been a while since I did a 5K and I know it is just going to make me feel great heading into this holiday weekend.

Stupid Bell Training

So, recently, some friends were telling Mike and I about bell training your dog to ring a bell on the door when they need to go out (apparently we were the only one's unaware of this...). We thought it would be a great way to train Franklin since he was new and we know Deluca so well that we can just tell when he needs to go out.

Franklin picked up on this so quickly. Probably after only a day or two. We ring the bell and say "outside, Franklin, do you want to go outside?" and then open the door to the back yard. After only a few times, he would use his little nose to ring the bell and we would stop whatever we were doing to open the door and let him outside.

Now, he rings the bell NON-STOP to go outside. I am fine with him ringing the bell even if he doesn't have to go to the bathroom, even if he just wants to go play, but it is constant. He loves being outside and I am thankful that he does, but I can't handle the bell ringing every 5 minutes. And, with the temperatures getting cooler, we can't just leave him outside. So, now what do we do? Take the bell away? I feel like we have to stick to it... but  we have to figure something out to stop him from ringing the bell all.the.time.

It is pretty cute to watch though...