I'm Officially A Dirty Girl!

I had some fun things planned this weekend including the Dirty Girl Mud Run.  This weekend had perfect weather, so I'm glad I had outdoor events planned although I got sunburned yesterday! Ouch!

The Dirty Girl Mud Run took place bright and early on Saturday.  Even though I didn't know anyone in real life running the Dirty Girl, I had met a few people during the FitFluential/Dirty Girl Twitter chat, so I met up with them.  It involved one of those awkward, first-time-meeting-and-I-think-that's-you-from-your-Twitter-photo moments ;o)  That ended immediately and we had a great time!  Parking and registration were a breeze at 7:15am.  Check out the awesome swag from the race:

I think the shirts for this race are so cute!

I dropped off my bag, checked out the vendors (where I won an awesome cowbell by the way), chatted with a work buddy and his family, and people watched at the start line.  The Dirty Girl is a great place to people watch, as the ladies had some pretty cool costumes.  I wish I had photos, but I checked my camera with my bag.  Usually I run with a fanny pack to put my phone, camera, chapstick, etc in, but I didn't want to take any chances after the Run For You Lives Zombie 5K incident!

Clean and at the Start line!

Colleen, Kristin, Karen and I were signed up for the first wave - 8:15am!  There were about 7,000 women signed up for the Dirty Girl Mud Run this weekend, but you couldn't tell because they did a good job of spreading out the masses between waves.  Our wave was not too large in my opinion.  Even so, at the beginning of the run, my shoe came untied putting us behind EVERYONE in our wave for the first obstacle - climbing a mountain of hay barrels!  After that, we decided to pick up the pace so we wouldn't have to wait behind others to finish each obstacle.  I loved all of the obstacles - I didn't think any were strenuous or intimidating.  It was definitely a good race for people of all athletic abilities as you could go at your own pace.  One thing I would change (and yes, Dirty Girl did ask for suggestions on Twitter!) would be to add more mud - only my hands, knees, and shoes were muddy at the end.  It did make for easy clean up and a less messy ride home though, but I wanted to get dirty!  They also imported the mud which is great because Georgia doesn't have black mud.  Instead, it has what we call red Georgia clay and it stains your clothes like no other!  I was thankful for the imported mud! ;o)  Oh, and we finished the 5K and all 11 obstacles in about 35 minutes.  We must have been booking it because that is so fast for me (my best 5K time is right under 30 minutes unless I'm on a treadmill). 

"After" photo

After the race, we grabbed our bags and showered off.  At the Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K, they literally had hoses attached to a contraption, so the water would continuously pour down on you.  Because of this, I wasn't expecting a full on spa at the Dirty Girl, but I was quite happy with their showering station.  There were plenty of hoses and the water did not continuously run - therefore no water was wasted (They ran out of water at the Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K.) 

shower stations

After we were as fresh and as clean, clean as we were going to be, we put our stuff away and headed out in search of food and refreshments.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find any!  We saw a vendor giving away Busch beers, but we were in search of our complimentary cosmos as well as some food - we were starving!  We never found any, so we headed off to Einstein's (not the bagel place) in Midtown for some yummy food.  That would be my second suggestion to the Dirty Girl team - larger signs/more obvious stations.  I wasn't too disappointed though because I had some yummy chocolate milk, blueberry oatmeal with cinnamon and some multi-grain toast at the restaurant.  Delish!  It was so great to meet you Colleen, Kristin and Karen!  I had a blast running with you and chatting over breakfast post-run! 

I did get some photos at the last obstacle in front of the Finish line.  I guess one group started crawling through the mud, so everyone else thought that is what you were supposed to do.  It was fun to watch!

My one suggestion for Dirty Girl participants - sign up for the earlier waves.  Parking and registration were getting a little crowded even by 9am!  I heard on Twitter that the line for bag check was over an hour long around the afternoon waves.  It makes sense since those were the waves that sold out in Atlanta.  So skip some sleep and run early because you can always nap later!

Also, I would like to thank FitFluential and Dirty Girl for this awesome experience since I won free entry into this race during the Twitter chat.  I will definitely be participating in next year's race as well!  It was a blast!

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Happy ROYALversary!

Today marks the one year anniversary of my favorite couple - Will and Kate!  Can you believe it's been a year already since the Royal Wedding hoopla? Time flies!  I must admit that over the past year, I have fallen more in love with Duchess Kate, her fashion, and of course her super-cute, Disney-esque romance with Prince William.  And since Kate and I are practically besties now (read that post here and my Girl Crush post on Kate here), I thought I would dedicate a post to (hopefully) one of the greatest love/Cinderella stories of our generation.  I hope they keep up the good work!  Here are some of my favorite moments/photos from there first year together:

This is one of my photos from the Will and Kate wedding party I went to last year at Fado.  I wanted to steal the cardboard cutout of Will and Kate!

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Random Rhinestones: Presents, Plants, Paintings and More!

So this is another Random Rhinestones post - one that does not have an overall theme.  Today I wanted to talk about 5 random topics - a cute gift idea, one of my favorite plants in the WORLD, my room makeover, the new book I'm reading (50 Shades of Grey) and this interesting home decor idea of Diamond Candles!  Check out my vlog below:

Do you have a favorite plant?  Have you read 50 Shades of Grey?  I'd love to hear your thoughts whether you love it or hate it!  Have you heard of Diamond Candles?  Would you be willing to try them out for $25?  Let me know in the comments below!

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It's Like A Day At The Spa...

Photo from here.

This weekend I am participating in the Dirty Girl mud run: Atlanta.  I've only done one other mud race before.  You can read about it here.  While running through mud is quite difficult, it is also a total blast!  The Dirty Girl will be slightly different than my first race though...

First, this 5K is girls only!  That's right...no boys allowed.  (Well, guys can be spectators of course.)  All of the eleven obstacles have cute, female-themed names like PMS (Pretty Muddy Stuff) and Utopian Tubes.  It is not timed, so all types of runners/walkers are welcome with no pressure.   I think I also heard mention of commemorative necklaces, firemen and cosmos at the finish line during the FitFluential/Dirty Girl Twitter chat the other day?! And, after the race, there is a big party with shopping, eating and celebrating.  Get excited, ladies!

Photo from here.

Second, this will be the first race I am doing alone - no mom or friends!  As mentioned previously, I participated in the FitFluential/Dirty Girl Twitter chat.  During the chat, I was one of five lucky ladies to win registration to a Dirty Girl mud run!  Even though I didn't know anyone else signed up, I couldn't pass on such an amazing offer and a super fun day with a ton of other ladies, could I?!  Thankfully, I met some FitFluential ladies through the Twitter chat and will be meeting up with them bright and early on Saturday!  This adds a whole new level of excitement to the race - my first time getting to meet fellow FitFluential people in person and just meeting new people in general will be so much fun!

If you are interested in running, registration is open until the Friday before each event.  Here is a list of other Dirty Girl events taking place across the country:

Scranton, PA - May 5, 2012

Indianapolis, IN - May 12, 2012

Chicagoland, IL - June 30, 2012 and July 1, 2012

Twin Cities, MN - August 4, 2012

Hartland, WI - August 18, 2012 and August 19, 2012

Buffalo, NY - September 8, 2012

Denver, CO - September 22, 2012

Be sure to check back on my blog Monday for a recap of my Dirty Girl experience! Gooooo Dirty Girl!

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Which Way To The Beach?!

Photo from here.

An exciting thing happened last week - my Tone It Up Beach Babe DVD arrived on my doorstep!  I immediately had to check it out.  For $30, you receive two disks with a total of 7 workouts and some behind-the-scenes footage.  

The first DVD has three workouts - Surfer Girl (24 minutes), Bikini Sculpt (40 minutes), and High Intensity Interval Training routines (20 minutes).  Surfer Girl and Bikini Sculpt are both awesome full body workouts.  I've been doing Surfer Girl the most and especially love that you get to BOOGIE mid-session! :o)  The HIIT routine is great for those Tone It Up morning Booty Call workouts (aka quick cardio session before you start your day). 

The second DVD has four workouts and behind-the-scenes footage - Summer Arms (12 minutes), Bikini Booty (10 minutes), Bikini Abs (15 minutes), and Long & Lean (10 minutes).  These routines are great for working out specific body parts.  We all have our "problem areas", no?  I like to combine them with a routine from the first DVD as well.  

Photo from here.

Some things I've noticed during the workouts include:

The DVDs include a warm up pre-workout and stretching post-workout.

Water breaks are included throughout the sessions.

The girls do the workouts right along with you...and they feel it too!

The beach scenes are gorgeous and calming...especially the crashing waves during water breaks ;o)

There are cute one-liners for some good chuckles aka extra ab workouts!

The DVDs are a great way to sneak in quick workouts throughout the day!

I've really been enjoying the Beach Babe DVD the past few days.  I definitely recommend them especially for people with a busy lifestyle or a tiny apartment.  You only need water, a mat (optional), and some weights.  My 5 pound weights from Target have been great.  Karena and Katrina also give tips on how to make exercises more difficult as your progress (or easier to start out with), so you can use this DVD no matter what level of fitness you are currently at.

Interested?  You can purchase the DVD here and "like" the Beach Babe DVD Facebook page here!

Photo from here.

What is your opinion on workout DVDs?  Do you plan on purchasing the Beach Babe DVD soon?  Or, if you already have it, let everyone know what you think about the routines in the comments below!

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Weekend Recap: Birthday Parties & Giving Back

This weekend was pretty eventful, so I thought I would do a blog post about it.  First up was David's family birthday dinner on Friday night.  We had a delicious dinner of ham, rice & beans, steamed veggies, fruit, and lasagna (had to add David's fav).  For dessert we had some yummy caramel brownies and birthday cake.  I always enjoy making David's cake!  While it wasn't as awesome as last year (or take nearly as many hours!), the cake was still quite tasty!

25th Birthday Cake

26th Birthday Cake - pre-golf flag

Saturday, we woke up early to head to South Atlanta to volunteer with some friends.  It was National Volunteer Week, of course!  We drove around to different areas passing out lunches to the homeless.  All of the locations were around bridges.  It was so crazy seeing these little shelters people have built under highway bridges.  You would never even notice them from the roads.  We walked up a hill under a bridge and on the other side there were tons of tents set up in a little community.  It was devastating to hear their stories and see their living situations.  It makes me thankful for everything I have, but it also makes me sad that I can't do more to help.   

Group Shot

I don't know why, but I like this candid shot...

Tilae organized the group to go that weekend.

David and I

Sunday, I took David out to eat for his birthday.  We went to California Dreaming which we have never had before.  David got the house salad with a croissant, NY Strip and mashed potatoes.  I got the citrus marinated chicken with creamed corn.  The croissants, mashed potatoes and creamed corn were all recommended to us from David's family.  It was all extremely delicious.  David's favorite part was actually the house salad.  I loved the croissant and creamed corn.  Mmm, mmm, good!  It's interesting that the bread was on the appetizer list instead of free.  I guess this is good for those that have a hard time resisting all of the free bread at restaurants?  After, we traveled to Menchie's for some frozen yogurt.  I need to make better choices whenever I'm creating my frozen yogurt masterpiece.  More fruit and less candy, you know?!  Jeez!

Did you have a good weekend?  What did you do?  Let me know in the comments below!  This upcoming weekend I am running the Dirty Girl Mud Run!  I cannot wait!

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Could You Survive The Fame Game?

Photo from here.

I literally just finished Lauren Conrad's new book, The Fame Game and decided I had to do a post about it!  If you read this post, then you know I own and love all of her books so far.  I was completely sucked in to her first trilogy, L.A. Candy.  If you haven't read it, it is very similar to Lauren's reality show, The Hills and even gives some fun background info on reality television - for example, the producers would text the girls topics to discuss and directions while the girls were on camera so they wouldn't have to step into shots!

After purchasing her L.A. Candy spin-off, The Fame Game, I couldn't put it down.  I knew it was a spin-off featuring the evil, celeb-wannabe Madison Parker from the first trilogy.  I thought it would take place during her rise to fame pre-L.A. Candy.  It actually takes place right where the L.A. Candy trilogy ends.  It is similar, yet different, and just as addicting as the first three books.  Without giving too much away, I'll give you a brief description of the four main characters/the stars of the new PopTV hit reality show, The Fame Game:

Madison Parker

When we last saw Madison, she had just been outed by her younger sister on national television- she is not a California socialite like she wants everyone to believe; she actually comes from humble beginnings in a trailer park in upstate New York.  We find out her mom is an alcoholic and her dad left the family years ago.  Madison moved to California at the age of 15 to reinvent herself and make it big.  She never looked back.  So far she has built an amazing life for herself and is climbing the fame ladder one reality show at a time.  Will The Fame Game be just what she needs to catapult her into the spotlight?  Will her little sister and a surprise guest ruin everything Madison has tried so hard to achieve?

Kate Hayes

Kate is a native of Columbus, Ohio who moved to Los Angeles to try to make it big in the music industry.  She had a little help from her ex-boyfriend, Ethan, who posted a video of her singing a unique version of Girls Just Want To Have Fun on YouTube - it went viral.  The Fame Game is helping Kate gain the publicity she needs to get recognized in the industry.  The only problem?  Girl has got a serious case of stage fright.  On a happier note, Kate gets by with a little help from her friends - and her new hunky Australian boyfriend, Luke.  Luke is trying to make it big as an actor and currently has a role as a doctor on a hit television show a la Jesse Spencer on House.  With a breakout role in a soon-to-be blockbuster film, will Luke pick his career over his budding relationship or has Kate actually found a genuine person she can relate to and trust in L.A.? 

Gaby Garcia

Gaby is the comedic relief of The Fame Game.  She isn't particularly bright or beautiful.  On the other hand, she is extremely loyal to her friends, but because of this, she can be easily used and manipulated as Madison and show producers have come to realize.  Currently, Gaby seems to be struggling with low self esteem as she hooks up with random guys constantly and chooses not to eat.  As her tiny body shrinks, her plastic surgery bill grows.  Will Gaby get the help she needs?  Will she ever find true happiness with herself?

Carmen Curtis

Carmen is a "celebuspawn" and has been in the spotlight since before she was born - her parents are big names in the music industry.  While Carmen appreciates her parents hard work, she wants to build her own career as an actress.  While being on a reality show is a big risk for an aspiring actress, she hopes it will give her the "in" she needs to then make a name for herself.  She wants to prove to the world that she actually has talent and can make it on her own.  This might not be a problem since she seems to already have quite the little fan base.  Her dad and best friend, Drew, are nervous that a reality show will have a negative impact on her.  Will Carmen rise to super-stardom?  Or, will The Fame Game get the best of her?

Overall

I definitely recommend reading this book.  All of my friends that read L.A. Candy became addicted to that series and this one will be no different.  While reading the book, I couldn't help but think of real life celebrities that I find similar to the characters.  The following people are not my choices to play the characters on screen necessarily, but they are definitely how I viewed the characters as I read along:

Have you read any of Lauren's other books?  Do you ever think of celebrities as certain characters as you read about them in novels?  Let me know in the comments below!

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#66: Attend Coachella

Coachella 2012 is not even over yet, but I am already planning my 2013 trip - for serious!  If you've never heard about Coachella it is a music festival outside of Palm Springs, CA (similar to Music Midtown if you are from Atlanta) that spans two weekends.  Not only do they have amazing musical performances (see below for a clip) like Bon Iver, Childish Gambino, David Guetta, Dr. Dre & Snoop, Florence and the Machine, Gotye, and more, but celebrities walk around there like it ain't no thing...check it out below! 

All photos are from Day Old News - she discusses celeb fashion, so check her out! Her blog is addicting!

Lea Michele

Lauren Conrad

Katy Perry

Kate Bosworth

Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger

Fergie and Josh

Emma Watson

Chord Overstreet and Emma Roberts

Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev

Also, Tupac performed...via hologram!  I'm sorry, but I think that is the craziest thing ever!  And this all takes place after I discovered Best Buy sells sunglasses that also record video.  I thought these things only existed in Mission: Impossible movies!?  Check out the performance below.  I wish there was a better video than one with Jimmy Kimmel talking in between clips, but this was the only edited version I could find on YouTube:

Do you enjoy music festivals?  Would you ever go to Coachella?  Let me know in the comments below!

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Go Green!

Photo from here.

Since Earth Day is this Sunday, I thought I would take a moment to share some fun activities you can do to celebrate with your friends and family over the weekend.  Feel free to post what you plan to do to celebrate in the comments below!  I always love hearing new ideas from people.

1.  Participate in a "Keep (your county) Beautiful" event! 

In college, I really enjoyed participating in the Keep Bulloch Beautiful events every year.  I planted flowers, picked up trash along the roads, etc.  There is probably something similar in your area.  (If you Google it, you'll get a lot of results.)

2.    Plant a tree!

Plant a tree, veggies, flowers - anything to help make the Earth a prettier and greener place!  Plus, plants create oxygen which is always a good thing - pretty and practical!

3.  Make a craft from recycled products!

That's right - I'm telling you to go craft crazy.  You know Pinterest is full of great ideas!

4.  Eat organic, locally grown veggies!

This tip actually benefits your body more than the Earth, but it's still a good one.

5.  Wear green and spread the word!

I'm assuming green is the official color of Earth Day - so wear it like it's St. Patrick's Day and go just as crazy...planting trees, of course!

6.  Celebrate Earth Day everyday!

Teaching students about colonization is really interesting because you see how much history has happened due to the Earth's resources - countries want land, gold, oil, etc.  It would be a sad day if we ever ran out of any of these things, so take care of Mother Earth for yourself and for future generations.

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I Want To Go To A Land Down Under!

*** Unfortunately, I did not end up winning the amazing trip to Queensland, Australia, but I will definitely get there someday! ***

 

Photo from here.

The other week I applied for a trip to Queensland, Australia!  Problogger had a competition to bring 10 lucky bloggers to visit Queensland in June, experience everything it has to offer, and blog about it for the world to read.  

I cannot begin to explain how excited I am about this contest!  In the state of Georgia, the middle school curriculum involves learning about Australia's history, geography, animals, etc.  I taught 6th graders all about Australia last year and really enjoyed it.  How cool would it be to experience everything I taught first hand?

Photo from here.

Problogger has already posted the itinerary for the trip (to make everyone jealous of the ten winners, maybe?!).  Below is a summary of the itinerary.  Check it out!:

Day 1: 

meet the native animals, seafood dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean

Day 2: 

tropical island exploration - sail/snorkel/mini submarine, blogging workshop, dinner in Palm Cove

Day 3: 

trip to the world's oldest rainforest, blogging workshop, Mossman River, dinner in Port Douglas

Day 4: 

Great Barrier Reef - sailing/snorkeling/diving/fish feeding, dinner at an iconic Australian pub

Day 5:

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Day, dinner at one of Port Douglas' most iconic restaurants

That means I have the possibility of getting to see/experience the following if I am chosen:

KOALAS! - my favorite animal (tied with sea turtles)
Photo from here.



Palm Cove
Photo from here.



Rainforest
Photo from here.

Great Barrier Reef
Photo from here.

I have a 1 in 50 chance of winning according to Problogger, but I am not giving up hope until they post the 10 winners online on April 23.  This would be such an amazing experience!  It is the kind of trip I created my blog for - a wonderful adventure!  Plus, the ability to see my favorite animals (koalas and sea turtles) and check some things off my bucket list would be beyond cool, no?!

I feel like Australia is on every one's bucket list.  What is one thing you would love to do there?  Let me know in the comments below!  I will keep you posted on this contest, of course!

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