Carli’s Christmas Pics

Hey Everybody, here are some pics from Christmas.  I had a great Christmas!  I got clothes, jewelery and even a Leopard Print Snuggie.  The pic of me in the snuggie makes me look 400 lbs, but it’s sooo warm and comfortable. I love it!  I was even brave enough to post an earlier morning pic of me with no makeup!  And, my Big Little Sister is a very brave hair stylist; her Festive Holiday Hair is a must see.  Hope you enjoyed your holiday.  I’ll be taking a little a break from blogging until the New Year Begins.  I’ve got BIG plans for 2010!  This is my year, just wait and see.

My Niece

My Niece Kissing the Doll from Me

Big Little Sisters Hair

Me and My Little Sis

Me and Nyah

Nyah and Niece Under the Tree

Me in My new Snuggie

Back of My Big Little Sisters Hair

Half Marathon

Hey guys, I’ve kind of just been in chill mode trying to balance everything during this busy time of year.  I do have some great news.  I went back to the doctor and my medical issue is cleared up, the problem and the pain is gone.  I’m so thankful.  I’m moving right along with my plans for my fitness DVD, I make my first financial investment towards it Jan 1st.  I have to pay for the original music tracks that I want to play in the background during the DVD workout.  I’m also working on my list of goals for 2010, one of which includes a 1/2 marathon.  Yes I said it, a Half Marathon, 13 Miles.  The Go St. Louis race is in April.  I’m going to register  for it before the end of the year.  I may not be able to run the whole time by then, but I’m going to give it all I got.   My goal will be to finish the race without passing out, puking, collapsing or coming in last place. …I think I can manage that….  Today, I went shopping with a friend who really helped remind me of the little changes that have happened after I lost weight.   When we were walking in the store he said, “I always had to slow down and wait on you before you lost weight; now you move so fast I have to hurry just to keep up with you!”  It’s thing like that help encourage me to stay on the right track and live a healthy life.

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Little Sister with her dolls

Let me start with the real stuff first. When it comes to eating healthy, the holiday season sucks.  It’s almost impossible.  Today we had a holiday breakfast, a Christmas lunch, Christmas “easter eggs” (egg shaped chocolates with cake inside), Christmas cookies, gooey butter cake, and the list goes on.   And if I’m being totally honest, I had a little bit of all of it.  I couldn’t resist.  Isn’t that terrible?  At least at the new new job, it just a holiday thing, and not like my other job with the year round Food Cube.  I did eat a salad at the luncheon, but does that even count? I’m not going to stress over it too much, because most people, even those who don’t have bad relationship with food, struggle with making healthy choices during this time of year.  I’m going to try to work out tomorrow, but my knee is really bothering me;  I feel like I’m 80 years old.  If nothing else, these last few weeks of physical problems, has taught me not to take my body for granted…Anyway, I’ve mentioned before that I’m a mentor in the Big Brother Big Sister  Program for underprivileged children. 

The other day, my little sister from the program had me laughing my butt off!  She said, “We’re out of school until January 3d, can I spend the night until we have to go back? I said…ummmm Sweetie, let’s just do Friday night and go from there.  LOL!  Today, I picked her up and took her shopping for her birthday.  She decided that she wanted a baby doll.  Now, I normally leave controversial issues like race and politics out of my blog just to keep the peace, but this was so heavy on my mind that I had to talk about it.   When we got to the store, there was not ONE African-American doll on the shelf, in the whole store!  Can you believe? Come on now people, it’s almost 2010.  I’m sure you have looked at my pictures and you know that I’m Black, and it just so happens that my Little sister is too.  And it’s not that I didn’t want her to have a white doll, I just wanted her to have a choice to choose a baby that looks like her.   My Big Little Sister and I had this same issue last year at a different store.  So we wrote a letter to the manager addressing our concerns.  Today, I called her to vent, and she told me to go back to the store from last year.  I was so happy I did.  They had a wide variety of dolls.   They had black and white and in between.  I was happy that they took our concerns seriously, and did something about it.  My Little sister picked one of the beautiful brown babies, I don’t know what race the baby is, but I like that she was able to choose whichever she liked best.  I will send a letter to the manager again, but this time, thanking them for giving my little sister the opportunity to choose.  I’m sure I’ll get some comments on this post like …why should it matter….people are people…etc etc.  But I’m open to an honest discussion. 

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Hey everybody, I’m trying to make my website better, so it might look a little weird for a while. There may be strange videos or weird overlapping pictures, I’m playing around with different templates.  Please be patient and sorry for any inconvenience. You can still download the couch the 5K podcast/MP3′s.

New Week 7 Podcast

Hey Couch to 5K Runners, the new Couch to 5K  Week 7 Podcast/mp3  is now linked.  The old one was 3 minutes too short.  Enjoy, and happy running!