If you ask any of my friends, they will tell you that up until recently, I was the person who would wrinkle their nose at people who ran. For fun. Those crazy people, you’d never catch me running unless someone is chasing me. Ha right!?

Yeah. I’m totally eating crow on this one. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m the huge jerk there. Yoga? Yes, any day of the week. But running? Ick.

Until recently. I caught the bug. I even joined the gym again. I used to actually go and work out and then with job change after job change I just stopped. I started yoga and went after my teaching certificate and that was a wonderful journey that I’ll continue on for the rest of my life but I’m expanding. I got realllllly sick in January, before having that nasty flu was cool. I’m a hipster like that. I lost 10 pounds because I didn’t eat for almost 2 weeks. Which isn’t an exaggeration for writing purposes. I was just that sick. The kind of sick where you go to work, get sent home, and don’t even remember GOING to work. I was sick the entire month of January and once I got healthy again, I had to make up for all that lost eating time and I gained that 10 pounds back and those 10 pounds brought some friends.

So after some peer pressure, I downloaded a calorie counting app, joined the gym and here I am, workin’ on my fitness.

Right as I was starting to work out, an awesome opportunity fell in my lap: a morning of play with Soleil Moon Fry and Target. Hello, I love Target! And I loved Punky Brewster but who didn’t? Of COURSE I said yes! The kids had a blast playing fun games and running around in their C9 gear.

Who didn’t love the parachute when they were a kid? Best day of the month when we got to play with that sucker.

So how cute and teeny is Soleil Moon Frye? And her kids were sweet as pie too. The event was a blast and everyone looked so adorable running around in their C9 gear.

The event was sponsered by C9 by Champion for Target. If you didn’t know, C9 by Champion is the new line of workout gear sold at Target. It’s afordable and it is so dang comfy. The new line of tennis shoes are like walking on air. I wear them all the time and so does Mike. He actually traded his regular slip on Vans for his C9’s. He’s even started running with me because he likes wearing them so much.

We’re having a lot of fun pumping up our lifestyle  with some fitness. Which is something I never, ever thought I’d be saying. And I don’t mind that I might actually be closer to a bikini this season, closer than I’ve been in about 12 years anyways.

Like I said, I never thought I’d even be talking about running in a positive way but I guess it’s just not all that bad. In fact, I’m throwing around the idea of doing some kind of marathon, starting off small and working my way up. If I can do days full of yoga for good causes, I can certainly keep up with my fitness for the best cause of all, my health.

Any tips from runners or anyone in general who’s in better shape than me? I’ll take it!

*Full disclosure: C9 for Target didn’t request a post but they did send me and my kid C9 gear to wear to the event. All the opinions and statements here are my own.

The first question I want to answer is the 5th question on the list:

What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?

Because why not start with something happy? I’ve got happiness in spades right now and not that fake happiness that you have to post online to make everyone believe you have your shit together when really, you’re far from it and actually, everyone notices but no one has the  balls to tell you because you’ll just accuse them of being unsupportive when they do.

Unsupportive, is that a word? Spell check says no but I have a few bras that say yes.

Anyways.

1 Thing: Obviously my first thing is my boys. I mean, duh. Everyone is getting along fabulously since the move. It’s taken my son little moments to adjust to the changes but he’s doing well. They get along and have fun when I’m not with them (most days) and I don’t think I could ask for more at this point. The fact that I’m now mother to a 12 year old freaks me out but no matter how hard I’ve tried, I can’t stop time. I need a time turner necklace.

Another thing: Work. I can’t ever say before this that I’ve been happy with a job. Just straight off the bat, happy. Every job has it’s problems but I can’t think of any that prohibit me from saying how much I love my job. I love working for Starbucks. I love my partner family. I am incredibly lucky to go somewhere 8 hours a day and genuinely enjoy the people I have to interact with. There’s no drama, there’s no gossip or hurt feelings. We just have fun. We laugh a lot and we like our customers and when you’re around other people who enjoy what they are doing, it changes everything. As Alanis would say, “I’m broke but I’m happy.” Also, I have an addiction to coffee and coffee mugs. I’m pretty sure they don’t make a rehab for that, not that I’d go anyways.

Third Thing: Reading. I’ve thrown myself violently back into reading. I set my goal to 100 books to read this year and I want to make it. I can lose hours in a book and as you tell yourself that you don’t have that kind of time, well I can say that I don’t either. Except I do. Sometimes I put my phone down and pick up a book in my Kindle instead. And that’s ok. You make time for the things you love and the things that make you feel good and books are one of my things.

“People always ask me why I reread books if I already know what’s going to happen. I tell them it’s like watching a movie you’ve already seen, only better.”

A Fourth Thing: My dragons. Look, I know that any kind of lizard freaks some people out. I used to be sitting right there with you going, “EWWW!” but WE CAN ALL CHANGE PEOPLE. When Ant first showed me how calm and awesome bearded dragons were, I changed my mind. I love animals and having pets and I knew we were going to end up with some. And we did and we love them and they are just as much a part of our family as any other pet we have. It’s funny to me that people will support you getting a cute dog but when you get anything weird, it’s easier for them to not acknowledge that. My beardies are my babies and even if you like them or not, they are seriously awesome. And soooo cute. Yes they are. Honestly, I have two more different reptiles that I have been looking at so our herp family will expand sooner or later. Just not to snakes. No snakes.

The Fifth Thing: Baseball is back. Like I’d leave out the Dodgers on a list of things that make me happy. You don’t even know ow me if you thought I would. I’m stoked about this year. New changes to the stadium, new season seats in a better section and the team has more money to spend? It’s going to be awesome.

Listing 5 things that make me happy was easy. I know a lot of people can’t say the same but taking a few minutes to think of 5 things never hurt anyone.

I hope you have 5 things that make you happy too.

I could go on and on about how awesome my kid is but what’s the point? He’s pretty freaking awesome and that is obvious anytime you look at him. 6th grade has been good to him, by far the best in a long time. He has the typical issues at this age and I swear his attention span is getting shorter but what are you going to do? He just took home his class’ Dr. Seuss Reading Award for reading the most books in his class. A year ago, he’s the kid I couldn’t even get to look twice at a book so this is a huge accomplishment on his part.

I’m proud.

And I just adore him.

Even if he drives me as crazy as he can on a daily basis.

That’s love. That’s life.

That’s what all the people say.

Happy birthday sir. You’ve got more swag that I ever will.

(and then I took the coolness out of swag, didn’t I?)

So the other day, I was happily stuck in a Pinterest worm hole, as most of us tend to be when on that site, and I came across an interesting pin that was titled “30 Questions to ask your spouse“. I’ve found that a lot of pins like this tend to incorporate some kind of Bible verse or something similar and that just isn’t my bag of chips. I opened this one and found a list of 30 questions that seemed pretty interesting. Since I feel connected to my not yet spouse, I thought, “hey, I can blog the shit out of those!” which was a weird thought to have since I haven’t blogged in…. 4 months.

I lost that loving feeling people.

It happens to the best of us ok? It happens to me a lot. Blogging expectations that I put upon myself with no pressure from anyone else is really stressful! Actually, I just don’t care all that much but I do miss writing and sharing and in regards to the promise I refuse to make? It means that I might use this space more. If I feel like it. Don’t get your hopes too high and stop looking at me like that.

I’m not that blogger who has every post sponsored and I don’t want to be. I wouldn’t turn down sponsored work but I want to leave my footprints here too. So if you see a post that someone paid me to write, deal with it or get on. If no one ever reads this, that’s ok too. When I first started blogging, people reading me wasn’t the point. So I feel like I came full circle because I’m back to just not giving a shit if this gets read or not. I just want to talk about things, people, and places that I love. And I don’t like Tumblr all that much so here we go.

Here’s the list of 30 questions:

1. List 20 random facts about yourself.
2. Describe 3 legitimate fears you have and explain how they became fears.
3. Describe your relationship with your parents.
4. List 10 things you would tell your 16 year-old self, if you could.
5. What are the 5 things that make you most happy right now?
6. What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?
7. What is your dream job, and why?
8. What are 5 passions you have?
9. List 10 people who have influenced you and describe how.
10. Describe your most embarrasing moment.
11. Describe 10 pet peeves you have.
12. Describe a typical day in your current life.
13. Describe 5 weaknesses you have.
14. Describe 5 strengths you have.
15. If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
16. What are your 5 greatest accomplishments?
17. What is the thing you most wish you were great at?
18. What has been the most difficult thing you have had to forgive?
19. If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?
20. Describe 3 significant memories from your childhood.
21. If you could have one superpower, what would it be and what would you do with it first?
22. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 15 years?
23. List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.
24. Describe your family dynamic of your childhood vs. your family dynamic now.
25. If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be and what would you eat?
26. What popular notion do you think the world has most wrong?
27. What is your favorite part of your body and why?
28. What is your love language?
29. What do you think people misundertand most about you?
30. List 10 things you would hope to be remembered for.

I probably won’t answer them all. I’m not even going to start from the top. And I didn’t even know that I have a love language so I need to google that or something before I answer that one. I just think that the answers to most of these questions are constantly changing for all of us and I know I’m not the same person I used to be. In fact, I think I’ve changed so much in the last few years. I feel like my online personality has changed, I was afraid to be me when it was me that people liked. I stopped being raw and honest and I want to get back there. Because, damn. I liked me before and I like me now and maybe some of you will too. I’m not here to kiss any ass or make people like me. I’ve got an abundance of genuine relationships in my life and I couldn’t be more thankful for that. I’m just interested in what I might even learn about myself by answering these questions. And sharing a bunch of other junk along the way.

Join me?

Questions borrowed from here.

My family and I had the amazing opportunity to go to a screening of Wreck It Ralph this week. It’s always a treat to see movies in advance and this one, we got to see at the Disney Animation Studios in Burbank.

I’ll be perfectly honest here. When I first saw the previews for Wreck It Ralph, I wasn’t too stoked. It looked ok, but nothing I would rush out to see. As more previews came out, I got more interested in it but still wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw it.

I was very pleasantly surprised. By the end scene I had a grin as big as Cheshire Cat. Wreck It Ralph was absolutely AWESOME! Disney brought out all your old video game favorites for this movie. There were so many gaming character cameos that I began to lose track. As per most awesome Disney movies, there was a great message about accepting yourself AND lots of fun jokes for kids and parents.

If you aren’t sure about this one, I’ll break it down quick without revealing any spoilers. Ralph is a bad guy. But he wants people to see that he’s way more than that. This movie is his journey to proving to the other characters around him that he can be a good guy. How he gets there means some tough choices and a lot of fun along the way. The concept is that all the characters in the game can travel to each others games by an electric cord subway system. Sounds crazy but it’s absolutely clever and fun to watch the characters jump games.

We loved Wreck It Ralph. No doubt about it. If you’re looking for a family friendly movie to see this weekend, this is it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Wreck It Ralph is in theaters now!

The only compensation I got for this post was the opportunity to attend the screening. Since I love movies so much, that was enough. Now stop reading and go see the movie!