So...

So...

I have most certainly NOT been adhering to my New Year's goal of regularly updating this blog. Unreliable internet access at home is to blame (or partly to blame). But it is frustrating to try and write a blogs and post photos with a super slow cell phone internet connection.

However, things are looking to change as we have started house hunting! Once we get in a permanent place we are going to get a landline and hopefully high speed internet.

We've officially been "House Hunters" for six days and already I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. We've seen a few houses, but none of them have fit the bill for what we want. Even though my new mantra is "Be patient, be patient," I'm starting to think we'll never find what we want! Is a house with a place for a horse or two on 10-20 acres so hard to find? Well, yes if you add in all the other criteria we're looking for:

• Dishwasher
• 3 beds, 2 baths
• Attached garage
• Open floor plan
• Up-to-date (well, at least NO WOOD PANELING)
• Man Cave room (preferably in a finished basement)

Already I can understand how people get very emotionally attached to house--you see pictures and you start thinking about all the things you could do with the property-- I better stop now.

We're going to see about five houses on Saturday morning so we'll see what there is out there.

Also, I haven't been logging my workouts either. Not sure why I stopped-- I still work out most days of the week, but I really haven't felt like taking the time to write those down everyday.

Happy Wednesday!

As white as snow...

So--  not much going on in Michigan these days. It's still snowing as you can see from the scene behind my office.

My office isn't much better than the landscape outside-- the photos haven't come in to hang on the walls, so everything's pretty stark.

On the upside, it's a HUGE office.

My Workouts:

January 10-Four Fast Miles (Yoga Focus)

January 11-Walk Your Way Slim

January 12-Total Body Time Crunch

January 13-Get Moving for Weight Loss

Shovel, shovel

Alright, so I didn't meet my goal of blogging here at Get Moving Goode last week. Just a minor slip up, I will get back on track.

There weren't too many interesting things going on this week, unless you count the rogue smoke dectector that went off at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning (it took me 10 minutes to get the thing to turn off-- I had to unplug it from the electric wires and then wrestle with the rigid plastic cover to get the thing quiet).

Will was out of town on Friday, and this was the scene I saw outside when I let Kobe out at 5 a.m.:

I figured it would be good to shovel the stairs to prevent my klutzy self from slipping:

So I got my first experience wielding a snow shovel...

While Kobe watched from a distance:

 Only a few minutes of shoveling and sprinkling salt later the stairs were fairly clear:

At least they passed Kobe's inspection ;-)!

My Workouts: 
January 4- 2 miles from 5 Day Slim Down

January 5-2 Week Turnaround Cardio , Karen Voight's Yoga Focus
January 6-2 Week Turnaround Strength, PM Yoga Conditioning for Weight Loss
January 7-AM Yoga Conditioning For Weight Loss
January 8-The Firm's Cardio Sculpt Blaster, AM Yoga; Backbends
January 9-The Ultimate Workout-Cardio and Flexibility

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s a new year so it’s time for some new goals. Yes, goals. Not resolutions. Why? I don’t keep New Year resolutions. But, that doesn’t mean a new year can’t be a time for new goals. Actually, according to dictionary.com, there’s a big difference between goals and resolutions.

But before I get to that, let’s talk about this totally cool photo of me driving two Belgian Draft horses. I got to drive them (and just not hold the reins... although the driving took place in a wide open field under close supervision from Mr. Courtney. I did ride horses for years when I was a kid, but I haven't really been around them since graduating from high school.) Anyways, Will and I got to go on a sleigh ride before Christmas at Four Green Fields Farm in Rodney, Mich. The farm offers sleigh rides and wagon rides for private parties and on the weekends (plus a corn maze and pumpkin patch in the warmer months). Visit the website for more information!

Let's get up to date!

As you dear readers remember, in May my hubby and I moved from South Carolina to the great state of Michigan. As you probably recall, I spent a good part of the summer stressing over how to find a job and navigating all the stairs at the cottage.

It is with a very happy heart that I can report that I found a job (HOORAY!) and now that we have fairly reliable internet access at home I will try to get back to updating Get Moving Goode a few times a week. The next few posts will hopefully get us up-to-date.

First things first: my job! I am employed as a recruiter with a state university and have been in Southeast Michigan for the last month and a half recruiting high school students. Navigating in unfamiliar territory is always challenging, but I was really glad to get out and see parts of the state I’ve never been to before.

THANK GOODNESS FOR GPS!!!

To tell you the truth, I was really nervous about traveling. Not because I was scared of staying in hotels and driving, but because I was scared of packing on the pounds eating out at restaurants. I’m really proud to say that I didn’t gain any weight and actually lost a pound or two. This is credited to portion control—I usually ate at take-out restaurants where the portion size is limited. Here’s where and what I ate a majority of the time:

Subway
It will be awhile before I eat at a Subway again since the veggie and Swiss sandwich on wheat with honey mustard dressing was on the menu 80% of the time for lunch. I avoided chips and sodas, and ordered a ham and cheese sandwich on occasion to mix things up ;-). Kudos to the sub shop for offering healthy fast food options!

Panera
Can you really say anything bad about a restaurant that serves bread with everything? Usually I ordered a half and half: black bean soup and a classic salad, turkey (hold the mayo), garden vegetable soup with Greek salad. It’s also great that Panera posts the calories in an item right on the menu board.

I also made sure to NOT look at the pastry case… that took will power.

Wendy’s
Plain baked potato and small chili for under 3 bucks. Not bad, not bad at all.
Whole Foods
Loooove the salad bar! And the olive bar. And the bakery.
Breakfast
I made sure to stay at a hotel that provided breakfast—so I usually ate raisin bran with skim milk, or peanut butter toast.

The Car
I made sure to have healthy snacks in the car like almonds and dried apricots, plus bottled water (and I saved all the bottles to bring home to recycle-I did I did I did, so don’t judge). I also grabbed an extra banana from the hotel breakfast bar to take for a snack.

Coffee Shop
Inevitably, there were times when I had a couple of hours in between visits and college fairs, so I would head to a coffee shop to take advantage of the free wi-fi. My drink of choice is a decaf, skim cafe au lait (or misto for you Starbucks fans) or a simple decaf coffee sweetened with Splenda. Although I'm back to trying to avoid artificial sweetners.

Another tip that I learned from other college recruiters is to stay at an extended stay hotel that has a kitchen. That way you can buy healthier meals and you won’t have to go out to eat. It’s also a good idea because you can buy pre-washed lettuce and dressing and fix your own healthy salads (not to mention you can pick-up salad add-ons at the grocery store’s anti-pasto bar.) One week I purchased whole wheat rolls and boxed soup and ate that a couple of nights for dinner.

I'm off to hear my husband scream at the college football teams on the TV-- hope everyone is having a great weekend!

(Part of) My Summer in Pictures

Step Up!

Living in a lake cabin has its ups and downs, and this is illustrated no better than in all of the stairs on the property. Case in point: Last weekend I made the weekly run to the grocery store and arrived home with the husband nowhere in sight with a trunkful of food (fortunately only 4 bags and a cooler, but they were heavy bags!):

Upon unloading the groceries I faced a staggering climb down these:

Now, that's not so bad, but keep in mind I had to make another trip up and down, carrying at least 15 lbs. worth of stuff!

(I do have to say that my legs are looking a lot more toned ;-)).

We also have two other sets of stairs in the house (not to mention 3 more staircases outside connecting the decks). This one leads to the loft/bedroom area:

And there's another spiral staircase that leads to the basement/laundry room:

And it's guarded by this guy:

Big Rapids doesn't have much in the way of job opportunities. I've been checking the newspaper and the university's employment site. I really hope I find something soon because I'm getting BORED!!! Kobe and I walk 3-4 times a week at the park, but that only takes up so much time. There's usually not much on TV, and I'm quickly reading through my books.

I finished reading The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, The Hunger Games, and The Lost City of Z (all were excellent). I've moved onto to reading Outside 25: Classic Tales and New Voices from the Frontiers of Adventure.

Will and I did have a couple of excursions last week. We went to the football coach's house for a cookout with the incoming freshman class, and went out to eat at the Blue Cow Cafe for our anniversary on Friday. The Blue Cow was very good-I got the pan-seared duck breast and Will got the whitefish filet. WE finished our meal off by sharing the fudge brownie sundae (it was so good!). Guess it's a good thing we can burn off all those calories by climbing all these stairs!

I'll leave you with a lake view and a super cute photo of Will and Kobe.