Tag: wordpress

Thankful

TGIF; Thankful #8

Movin' it with Michelle

Happy Friday, y’all!!!!!

I hope you all had a great week. Mine started out rough, but thankfully ended on a pretty good note. My recliner and I have a hot date tonight, so I’ll keep this post short.

Today I am thankful for:

  1. Operational Laboratory instruments. BOTH our broken down instruments were repaired today and up and running!  After several long weeks of manual procedures vs. automated, this girl is a happy camper.
  2. Weekends with no plans. While typically I love being busy doing fun things on the weekends, this weekend we are just winging it and may just chill at home.
  3. Kind people. Part of my job as a supervisor is to do daily rounding of each section to make sure the work is getting done and everyone and everything is running smoothly. I check on people, they don’t check on me (which is totally fine), but today I had someone come over and check on me as I was coverslipping slides (which I have been doing nearly 8 hours a day, every day, for the last 3 weeks). “Michelle, you doing ok? Hanging in there? It’s almost Friday!” she exclaimed. And my heart warmed. It’s nice to be cared about, too.
  4. Fridays. Simply said.
  5. Farmers Markets. I love getting fresh produce and products from local companies. Our hospital hosts one every other Friday and I love supporting our local farmers and getting healthy produce for my family.

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Do you have plans this weekend? Does your community have farmers markets? What are you thankful for today?

Cheers,

Michelle

moving forward, Thankful, Thursday

Is it Friday yet…and TF#7

Movin' it with Michelle

 

Anyone else feel like 2019 has been off to a rough start? Between 3 weeks of Bronchitis, getting slammed with a 500/month house payment increase  this year as a result of a mistake in our escrow last year (WTH?), and the never ending debt we have incurred due to moving to Florida (we didn’t get any relocation assistance and moving across country is crazy expensive), and ongoing vet bills for my Sammy (he had two bouts of cancer last year and I just found a couple possible more bumps), we just can’t seem to catch a break. I had hoped at my age I’d finally start to feel “comfortable” but nope…ah such is life. It’ll happen eventually, right?

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Which is a perfect Segway in to my thankful post…because I do always TRY to look on the bright side. So here goes…

  1. Bacon Cheeseburgers. Yup, this girl that eats healthy 90% of the time has a secret weakness for bacon cheeseburgers. It is my favorite comfort food paired with crispy French fries and after the week I’ve been having, I treated myself to this amazing indulgence today at lunch and had no regrets. Ok, I regretted it a little after I started to fall in to a carb coma an hour after eating it, but hey…it was worth it.
  2. Hot showers/running water. After a long day at work I love to take a hot shower and destress. Sometimes I cry, sometimes I sing, and sometimes I just shut my mind off.
  3. Rest days. My legs aren’t quite as sore today, but that good ole right knee that gives me constant issues still isn’t happy with me.
  4. Friends that check on you when you are quiet. These friends are the best, because they can hear you even when you aren’t talking. They just know.
  5. Rain. We had quite the storm roll in at around 3 am this morning and while I am not thankful for the early morning wake up call, our grass looks greener already.

How has your year started out? What is your greatest weakness in regards to food? Thanks for all of your likes, comments and shares. I love this amazing community!

Cheers,

Michelle

half marathon training, Thankful

Wednesday’s Thankful #6

Movin' it with Michelle

Ok guys, I am not going to lie. I am going to have to dig deep to not be a little repetitive in my thankful post today, because I am having a bit of a struggle compiling my list. Sunshine and my dog are a given. Today was a rough day at work, and I’ll simple put between instrumentation and staffing issues this year, I snapped. I snapped at doctors, snapped at coworkers, hell I even snapped at myself for snapping and quickly apologized to the victims of my snaps, LOL.

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My thankful post for today:

  1. My ability to still run off the stress of a bad day even when my legs feel heavier than the sandbags I filled for Hurricane Irma (click link to check out my first month of adventures in FL) back in 2017!!!! I’m in week 9 (having missed 3 weeks due to bronchitis) of training so I can’t quit now!
  2. My husband, who on days like today is extra sweet, extra supportive, and even had dinner ready when I got home from my run.
  3. The fact that my daughters come to me with their problems. The fact they feel I am a “safe zone” shows me I’ve at least done something right despite the struggle of the preteen/teen years.
  4. The roof over my head, and food on the table. I often find myself for wanting more, when really I have all that I need.
  5. HUMP DAY! We’re almost to Friday, y’all!!!

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What are you thankful for today? Do you have a favorite day of the week?

Cheers!

Michelle

moving forward, Thankful

Thankful #5

Movin' it with Michelle

Today was a pretty hectic day, so this post will be short and sweet.

Today I am thankful for:

  1. The ugliness in my life, for it helps me appreciate the beauty.
  2. Two years ago today my husband returned on U.S. soil after being deployed to Iraq for a year. So I am so thankful he came home safely, again.
  3. Quick dinners for busy nights. I made a large batch of meatballs on Sunday so I didn’t have to cook today! Winning!
  4. My dog. Even after the hardest day at work, he’s there at the door to greet me and he makes all the “yuck” go away.
  5. 70 degree evenings. I’ve my slider opened and am listening to the sand cranes wiz by while they sing their evening songs.
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My Sammy, begging for food more times than not, LOL

 

What are you thankful for today? Do you have pets? How is the weather where you are at?

Cheers,

Michelle

moving forward, Thankful

Thankful #1

Movin' it with Michelle

My friend Maria over @RunningFlaps is posting daily 5 things she is thankful for. While I will be realistic that I won’t post every day, I am going to make a concerted effort to post daily. This will one, help me in my goal of writing more and two, help me appreciate my daily life. Here goes…

  1. I am thankful for my family. They spoiled me with cards and flowers for my birthday yesterday and we have a fun filled weekend planned to celebrate my 46 years on this planet.
  2. I am thankful for my job. While I don’t love it, it helps provide for my family.
  3. I am thankful for living in Florida. Tomorrow I will get my first taste of Vitamin “Sea” in almost 6 months and I really need it.
  4. I am thankful that my almost 3 week cold is finally starting to go away. While I still have my cough, its loosened and lessened and I will celebrate small victories.
  5. I am thankful for the hundreds of Facebook messages, texts, phone calls and messages wishing me a happy birthday yesterday.

What are you thankful for today?

 

Cheers,

Michelle

goals, moving forward

New Year goals and thoughts

Movin' it with Michelle

I started out my 2019 with a nasty cold that has left me down for the count the last two days. Thankfully we were able to ring in the new year with some new friends that are also from the Chicagoland area, and are now Florida transplants as well.

I wanted to start my new year out with a run and list of goals for the year, neither of which have happened yet. So here’s my first draft, or more so a rough draft of some goals I have this year.

  1. Run at least 2-3 per week, and do core daily, even if that’s just a plank daily. I still have the #sixpackbysummer goal, and summer in Florida starts in just a couple of months. I am almost at my weight loss goal from last year, so I will continue to maintain and maybe lose an extra lb. or two.
  2. Sign up for more races, because to be honest its hard to keep my running motivation if I don’t have a race coming up. Our next half is the end of February in St. Pete, Florida. No goal time for that race, just want to finish strong. I missed last week’s long run, but hopefully this cough will be gone by the weekend so I can make up for it.
  3. Love myself more, and put myself first more. It’s always been about my family, my job, etc. etc. I need to make it more about me, cuz hey, my 46th birthday is right around the corner and I don’t have all the time in the world anymore.
  4. Write more, really write…I always wanted to write a book/cook book but here another year has passed and I haven’t pursued either. Again, time isn’t something I can waste anymore.
  5. And lastly, figure out how to make a living doing something I love. Not that my job isn’t important or that I dislike it. But I am ready to either move up in my career, or move on. But of course there are those bills to pay, so we shall see. I am not giving up hope.

What are you goals for 2019? Do you do resolutions?

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Happy New Year everyone!

Cheers,

Michelle

 

Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Today is a new day…Never a wordless Wednesday

Movin' it with Michelle

My day started out like any other.  My alarm went off just before 6 a.m. although I had been up since 3…WHY?  I had terrible nightmares of being tortured and I kept trying to scream for help, yet my scream wouldn’t develop in to any sort of sound.  So I kept trying to scream until I woke up in cold sweats and had to walk around the house for a few minutes to calm myself down.  Where do these dreams come from? You just never know, I suppose.  I maybe fell back asleep for a few minutes, but as I reached over to push the snooze button and peaked down the hall to my eldest daughter’s bathroom I realized she had overslept. Crap…there goes my 8 minutes of snoozing (like it really matters, right?).  I got up, woke her up, and prodded down the hallway to wake up my youngest.  She’s always smiles in the morning, but something was off today…I asked her several times if she was ok?  “I’m fine, Mommy.” We got ready, had breakfast, and did the routine of drop offs as we’ve done for the last 3 weeks.

This...the happiest girl in the world even when she is sick.
This…the happiest girl in the world even when she is sick.

And then I got the call from my neighbor who takes my youngest to the bus.  She had developed a fever, had the chills, and I needed to come pick her up. I of course had just made my last turn before arriving to work.  I pulled over, called the lab and my boss letting them know I needed to stay home.  Thankfully I work with amazing and understanding people.  So after my 30 minute commute back home, I picked up my youngest and we spent the day on the couch watching Disney movies. Her fever broke around noon and her appetite came back briefly. We settled back in to our movie watching with my worry alert brought back down to normal and I found myself daydreaming a lot, and thinking even more about this whole thing they call life.

Since retiring from the Air Force in 2011 after 20 years of service I have fought to search for my niche in life.  I think I have found it between all my hobbies of running, writing, cooking and photography but still find myself just another 40+ year old woman that is trying to reestablish herself.  We tend to lose ourselves in our kids, our marriages and our careers but what really makes US, well, US? Having had been through a lot in my life and overcoming more than can be even put in to words I created my FB page that stems from this blog.  I have spent the last 2 1/2 years posting, reaching out to others to remind them they are #more and #worthsomuch and to always #keepmovinforward.  It was MY way to give back to the world because I know…I know what it means to hear those words, read that story or hear that song that touches you RIGHT at the VERY MOMENT you need it to.  I know.

But since the changes of FB algorithms my reach is down to nil, and the time I spend “talking” to others trying to inspire with my every day life has fallen on deaf ears.  I’ve collected the data, studied the stats and compared the amount of time I spent posting anecdotes, quotes, work outs and recipes to my page.  And WOW…the numbers are truly nuts.  I will stand by the fact that if I can touch ONE life, help ONE person, my goal is complete.  But I can’t do this when FB hides the posts of everyone who refuses to pay to promote. Out of nearly 11k followers on FB, I am lucky to ‘reach’ even just 100 people.  And this number continues to decline.

Yet for the better part of 2 1/2 years I didn’t blink an eye at getting up early to post something to start people’s days, another lunch time post normally and after work I would try and motivate with my work outs or an inspirational post.  At the end of the day there would be a real life adventure, or a truth post, and I would bid everyone goodnight.  And it made me happy, every, single, day to reach people.

Pic credit: Pinterest
Pic credit: Pinterest

But with the changes, I can’t keep spending that much time in a venue that doesn’t value my posts ‘worthy’ of being seen.  So tonight I posted my last longish truth post letting everyone know I was still there, but that they can find me here.  I have a lot to offer, I think…I believe.  I just have to find the right outlet.  I just want to help people…I want to be that voice that says, YOU CAN.  Don’t give up.

So I’ll be blogging more, and FB’ing a lot less…because I know I have things to say and share.

Here’s my day in photos….Thanks for being here, y’all.

For dinner, shrimp over romaine hearts, avocado, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes!
For dinner, shrimp over romaine hearts, avocado, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes!
1:3 interval training, ran one minute hard, 3 at a steady pace for 21 minutes.
1:3 interval training, ran one minute hard, 3 at a steady pace for 21 minutes.

 

Keep Movin’ forward!!!

❤ Michelle

 

Tagged posts

How well do you know me? 4 things and fun!

Movin' it with Michelle

4 Things You’ve Always Wanted to Know about Me… Or Not

I saw Molly from  ‘s blog, post this and thought immediately, FUN!!!!  Count me in!  How well do you know me?
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4 names that people call me:
1. Michelle                                                                                                                                                                                              2.  Chelle  Best friend calls me this, as well as some childhood friends.                                                                                      3. Mom                                                                                                                                                                                    4.  My last name…it’s a military thing.

4 jobs that I’ve had:

1. Fry girl at Hardees-my first job nearly 30 years ago                                                                                                                 2. Steak flipper at The Great Steak Escape-I had a mean flip with my spatula, I could also peal potatoes faster than most       3. Airmen (MSgt retired) in the United States Air Force-20 years, and the best job in the entire world!                                        4. Currently-Histology Laboratory Supervisor.  Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what this means-check it on online.  It’s a pretty cool job.

4 movies I’ve watched more than once:

1. Chef-my new found favorite movie. Have you seen it?  If not, it’s a must see for foodies.                                                        2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s-what more can I say?                                                                                                                             3. Pretty Woman-BEST. EVER.  “In case I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight.”                                           4. Ratatouille-My favorite animated movie.

4 books I recommend:

1. The bridge across forever-Richard Bach.  Probably my all time favorite book.  “There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.”                                                                                                         2. A light in the Attic. Shel Silverstein. It’s truly a magical book.                                                                                                   3. A return to love. Marianne Williamson.  This book saw me through many hard times.                                                              4. Care of the Soul. Thomas Moore.  #This

4 places I’ve lived:

1. Duluth Minnesota, (born in St. Cloud MN) where I spent most of my childhood years                                                             2. O’Fallon IL, where I learned true independence.                                                                                                                      3. Various areas in the Washington D.C. area-one of my favorite places I’ve lived, although would never want to raise a family there.                                                                                                                                                                                  4.  Anchorage Alaska-Where I found myself, and in turn met the love of my life.

4 places I’ve been:
1.  Cancun Mexico-9 glorious days spent with my hubby for our honeymoon                                                                    2.  Santa Monica California-a little piece of heaven if you ask me.
3.  Corpus Christi, Texas-our happy place even in the toughest of times while living in Texas
4.  Canadian Borders-God’s Country

4 places I’d rather be now:
1.  Italy
2.  The Beach-any will do
3.  Fiji
4.  Disney World/Land…either would make my heart happy

4 things I don’t eat:
1.  Coconut-the texture kills me
2.  Water Chestnuts-see above reason
3.  Lima beans if I can help it…
4.  …Gosh, I eat most everything…

4 of my favorite foods:
1.  Fresh seafood of any kind
2.  Brussels sprouts (with bacon of course)
3.  Sushi                                                                                                                                                                                        4. Anything salty, to include chips, fries, and anything truly unhealthy.  Darn it.  LOL

4 TV shows I watch: (I don’t have cable anymore, and only get one channel, so anything I see is on HULU besides the Fox network)
1. MasterChef-duh                                                                                                                                                                        2. MasterChef Junior                                                                                                                                                                     3. Chopped                                                                                                                                                                                    4. Iron Chef

4 things I’m looking forward to this year:
1.  Running the Grandma’s marathon (my first time at this race) with my sister!!!                                                                        2.  Visiting my hometown of Duluth MN for the first time in 20 years nearly.                                                                           3.  Planning some sort of trip with my family-somewhere with a beach would be great…                                                     4.  Continuing my decluttering goal as well as working on building my blog and writing more recipes for my cook book.

4 things I’m always saying:
1.  “Huh?” -I get distracted easily and my attention span is shot, sorry guys…
2.  “Good Morning” – I say it at all times of the day, and 99% of the time with a smile                                                                  3.  “I know, right” – I think I may be a born again teen with a 15 yr old daughter.
4.  “That’s what she said”…because it nearly always makes the most innocent statement, well…funny!  😉

So now it’s your turn!!!!

If you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged!

❤ Michelle