Surfin' WWW

In an effort to celebrate the fall season and to venture away from his usual biscuit, the Bloggie Doggie thinks he will have some Oreos. (Editor's Note: No Oreos were harmed during this photo. (Rest easy Connie.) When the Bloggie Doggie got the package, it was already empty. Which explains why it was just sitting abandoned on the table...)

Let's talk pushups....Oh. My. Goodness. I am beginning (even though it's Wednesday), week 6 of the 100 Pushup Challenge. This is the last week before I am supposed (to be able) to do 100 consective pushups. Here is the schedule for the week:

Day 1: 42, 35, 32, 30, 42
Day 2: 22, 20, 17, 15, 42
Day 3: 20, 17, 15, 14, 42

No those are not typos on Day 1. Let me tell you how hard it was today. I couldn't even do them all. I made it until that last 42 and then only squeaked out 21. It was tough I tell you. Tough. I think I'm going work on Day 1 a few more days until it comes just a little bit easier for me.

I am a self-professed internet addict. And a news, weather & sports junkie. Those two things can be a dangerous combination. I really have this extreme need for staying in touch and on top of all current events. But I'm not the only one. I got an email from a friend who said her laptop was having a problem and she was afraid of being without her internet and email. The exact words she used were "I'm attached....it's scary." Anyhoo, regardless of how much time you are on the internet, we all check various sites for the latest. But, what sites do you head to first? I'm going to assume we all check email first. And then the Me and My Good Life blog (ha ha - I crack myself up.) And after that, what www do you read? My personal surfing order goes something like this: ESPN, MSNBC, NOAA, People. Then there are various blogs I check. What about you?

Online Surveys & Market Research

Visit Me and My Good Life early and often people! Ciao!

Unlabor Day

Happy Monday people! And Happy Labor Day. Jordan thinks it should be called "Unlabor Day"...

It was a great weekend for college football. It's nice having it on in the background all weekend. And, we get a bonus game tonight - UT plays at 7pm I believe. Alabama looked pretty good as did USC and Georgia. Memphis didn't fare too well, although I heard they looked better than they did last year. An Ole Miss fan told me that their team looked completely different under their new coach Houston Nutt. Arkansas won....but barely. Good grief.

Gustav is making landfall this morning. It's a category 3, which is good. Well, not good, but better than a 4 or 5. It's just so sad to see all those people evacuating ... AGAIN. Haven't heard much about Hanna, who is still a tropical storm, but I think is expected to be a hurricane and hit Georgia/South Carolina by the end of the week. And check out the other two centers which are labeled "high" and "medium" potential for formation. These would be named Ike and Joaquin if they amount to anything.

Today began Week 5 of the PushUp Challenge. Day 1 was very hard people. I thought my arms were going to fall off. Seriously. Here's the week's schedule:

Day 1 - 30, 24, 22, 20, 30
Day 2 - 15, 14, 12, 10, 30
Day 3 - 12, 12, 10, 9, 30

Enjoy your day off people. The Bloggie Doggie hopes you take it easy today. Just like him....

Welcome to our world Molly Kate!

In honor of the world's newest member, today's post will be in PINK!

After a very long day and tough labor, my friend Anne delivered the most precious baby. Molly Kate was born at 6:22 pm and weighed in at a most petite 5 lb, 14 oz. We got to meet her last night. She is beautiful and tiny and precious. Happy Birthday Molly! Welcome to our world!

Snippet of a conversation earlier in the evening while we were at home waiting, just knowing that at that exact minute Anne was working so hard to get Molly here:
Jordan: "I'm so nervous. I'm about to have a cow."
Cooper: "You mean CALF."

I was afraid for awhile yesterday that Cingular was going to cut my phone off because I received and/or sent no less than 200 messages yesterday. I'm sure they thought I was a member of the drug cartel or something. But technology is amazing, and it helped keep a lot of us informed with updates, sometimes exactly when they were happening. Anne's husband didn't want to leave the delivery room, so he would text me some info and I would call the other family members that were in the waiting room. The texting played a pretty key part in the day's events.

It was a long, amazing, and very emotional day.....

Today's Flashback Friday features the precious baby Bloggie Doggie just a day or so after we got him. I think he was about five pounds too!!

I wrapped up week 4 of the push up challenge. Looks like I have to retest this weekend before moving on. I took a peek at what's ahead for week 5. Be very afraid.

Enjoy your Friday. Give a little hip hip hooray for Molly today people!

Half Way There

This week begins Week 4 of the six-week Hundred Push Up Challenge and it looks something like this:

Day 1: 16, 13, 13, 11, 16
Day 2: 16, 14, 14, 12, 15
Day 3: 20, 15, 15, 15, 18

It appears that this is a little bit of a step back week, but still challenging nonetheless.

Don't worry people. I knocked out my 69 pushups this morning!

Stayin' awake for the U. S. of A.

Who stayed up to watch the US women win the gold in beach volleyball!? Very exciting - they are so good. They're cute too - it was fun to see how excited they were after their win. They even gave a shout out to the Prez. I did NOT stay up to watch the women win the semi in the regular court volleyball. I believe their game started at 1am central time. Ummm, no thanks. Would love to see it, but just not possible. They play the winner of the Brazil-China match on Saturday. But I'm not sure when it's going to be aired - Friday night maybe? Uncertainty here people. I really, really REALLY love the Olympics, but my sleep is suffering. Killing me. The beach v'ball game didn't BEGIN until 10pm. Yawn.........

Speaking of volleyball, both Jordan and Niece M. made their teams! Hooray for them!! (And Nephew T. has earned yet another skull and crossbone.) Nice job peeps. I'm proud of all of them!!

While the Captain is a professed fan of the Me and My Good Life blog, he does not love it enough to read it on a DAILY basis. This has been known to hurt the Bloggie Doggie's feelings very much. So after I have nagged and nagged about his not reading my blog when he does catch up on all this blah blah blah nonsense and ramblings all these thrilling posts and exciting current event updates, the Bloggie Doggie is very excited. See? Look at the excitement just radiating from his cute puppy face. And, even though I cut it off in the picture, I'm certain his tail was wagging in pure joy.

More pushups for me this morning. I'm working back through week 3. I also did a "Stretch Max" show. I don't like this girl as much as the girl on my regular "In Shape" show. This chick drives me a bit nuts because she prefaces every move with "Now what you're going to do is....". She says that before Every. Single. Move. Quite annoying.

Google is taking it to the high jump today.

We've got two more days before the weekend. Hang in there people. Peace. Out.

There's more to see

Still watching the Olympics? Phelps is done and the pool is closed, so now you can turn your attention to the beach, track and court. ESPN gives you a great overview on the must-sees for this final week. They even rate the events based on "Fan interest, on a scale of 1 to Phelps". Worth a read.

Some funny shots of Michael Phelps with his new pals. Since Kobe and LeBron rooted him on, it's only fair that he catch a basketball game....Eight gold medals was enough I.D. to get him in the locker room.

We watched the women's beach volleyball last night. We're playing for gold Wednesday night I believe. Those girls are good and it's been fun to watch. (And, continuing to support their fellow USA athletes, Kobe and LeBron were in the stands watching the v'ball game too.)

Speaking of volleyball, Jordan and Niece M. are both going through tryouts (last night and tonight) for their respective teams. Keeping our fingers crossed and wishing them lots of great spikes and digs.....And I must toot the horn of my football playing Nephew T. who earned a skull and crossbone on his football helmet last night during practice for a great hit. I'm proud of my peeps!

On my exercise front, I tackled some kick boxing this morning. I have been trying to do more of a stretching/Pilates workout on my Pushup days and more of a cardio workout on my non-Pushup days (which is today). I completed week 3 of the Pushup Challenge yesterday. Yes, I'm a few days off, but I had some sort of pulled muscle in my shoulder last Friday which was Week 3/Day 3, so I had to move it forward. Yesterday I did a total of 78 pushups. So now I have completed week 3. I'm debating whether to go forward with week 4, or repeat week 3. I managed to do all my pushups each day, but it was a bit tough. So I may give week 3 one more shot. In case you were wondering, 78 pushups is a lot of pushups....whew.

Perhaps one of my favorite Googles so far.....Have I told you how much I heart these things?

The Bloggie Doggie says have a ball today people.

It's Pillsbury, not Milk Bone

Good Morning Jordan! I heard you had a biscuit. May I have some please?

Still waiting. I would love a bite of that hot, flaky biscuit.

Yoo-hoo!!! Biscuit please.

OK, I'm just going to lay down right here, but don't forget about me.

My Push Up Challenge was extra hard this morning. Maybe the hardest day so far. The schedule called for 16, 14, 14, 12, 15. It. Was. Tough. But I did it. That's a total of 71 pushups. I rest about 90 seconds between each set. Hard right now to envision doing 100 without stopping.

I forced myself to go to sleep last night before the Olympics were over. I was so tired and just needed the sleep. I did catch all of the swimming, but gave up on the gymnastics. Phelps swims tonight.

Today's Olympic Google masthead

Make a difference today people.

Phelps is Phantastic

I continue to be amazed by Michael Phelps. He is just so awesome to watch isn't he? He won his 9th gold yesterday which ties him with 4 other Olympiads (one of which is Mark Spitz) for the most Olympic medals in history. I heard last night that he is supposed to eat between 8,000 and 10,000 calories a day. Yet, he still weighs only 195. Here's a great little article that breaks down each of his swimming strokes.

We are all just totally digging the Olympics. Cooper was actually watching France vs. Korea in boxing last night. I am really enjoying the swimming this year - maybe more than I have before. I also am anxious to see the track and field.

I have begun Week 3 in the Hundred Push Up Challenge. I had to retest at the end of week 2. I'm proud to tell you people that I completed 16 pushups! If you will recall, my initial test resulted in 10 pushups. So there is some improvement there. And, the Captain actually said Sunday that he 'noticed some definition in my triceps'. Wowie! The week's schedule looks like this:

Week 3
Day 1: 15, 12, 12, 10, 15
Day 2: 16, 14, 14, 12, 15
Day 3: 20, 15, 15, 12, 16


It looks most intimidating don't you think people? I completed Day 1 this morning. I also did my In Shape show which was Pilates and Yoga. I have begun to really like the pilates, but the yoga is not for me. There are all kinds of odd moves and they each have names. One of them is called "upward facing dog" and "downward facing dog". Which look like this:

The 'dog poses' are, of course, the Bloggie Doggie's favorite poses. He gives them his own individual spin, but they look something like this:




And, for today's Google post......I heart those Google people I tell you.....I'm obsessed with these little things.....






And, for those of you who do not live in Jonasville, I must remind you that the brand new Jonas Brothers CD is released today! Jordan has been waiting for this day.....She is certain that there will be a line outside Target this morning of people waiting to purchase this little item and it will be extremely difficult to find one. I am pretty certain I will be able to accomplish this mission with no trouble.

The kids (and their mother) did survive the first day of school. Jordan came home talking nonstop about her day and how much she liked her teacher much better than she thought she was going to. Cooper was beyond quiet. He did say he had a good day and the only other thing I could get out of him was "recess was awesome". I also found out that he didn't go to the bathroom all day long because of The Belt Situation. I was very upset about that and cried to the Captain when he got home. I am now on the lookout for a pediatric urologist who will put in a catheter. Or an organ transplant surgeon who can operate on him when his kidneys fail. Or a psyciatrist for me new belt. Stay tuned ...

Make today a great one people and cheer for the USA!!!

Flashback Friday

The staff at Me and My Good Life are excited to announce a new feature on the blog. Friday will now be "Flashback Friday" and will feature a photo of the Bloggie Doggie from his puppy years. It was actually the Bloggie Doggie's idea. Perhaps he was tired of the papparazi (puppyrazi?! Ha Ha! I crack myself up) and suggested digging back in the ol' archives. Anyhoo, here is the first installment of Flashback Friday....


Awwwww - Washn't he the cutisht thing you've ever sheen?



Today is a neato day. It's 8-8-08! How cool is that! Today is also the opening ceremonies of the Olympics! Let the games begin! Showing the Olympic spirit are those uber creative folks at Google. I heart those guys I tell you.

For the first time in over a month, I'm proud to say I have no Favre report. The only slightly related story is that the Jets cut Chad Pennington, but we all saw that coming anyway either with or without Favre probably. It's still not right. Brett Favre is a Packer. And it will be hard to see him in green and white instead of green and yellow. I wish it had ended differently. I'm at least glad it ended. Does it matter that he's still number 4? It's all just wrong.

And in the Funny How Kids' Brains Work department, I share this little tale: Jordan has an old laptop that only runs some games and Microsoft Word. On her list of things to do she had "Can you put the internet on a disk and run it? Ask Daddy."

Let's talk exercise. I completed the last day of Week 2 of the Push Up Challenge. I think I have to go retest before moving to Week 3. It is getting harder and harder. I did another In Shape show this morning. I've been doing those 3 or 4 days a week and am really loving them. Today was tai chi and kick boxing. The tai chi was a little odd. There wasn't a lot of stretching, but lots of breathing and "pushing the negative energy out of our body" whatever that means. The kick boxing was tough. I even worked up a little sweat. I looked like Rocky Balboa I tell you. You should have seen me with my upper cuts and jabs and weaves. You would have laughed your head off been very impressed.

TGIF people.

I have no title for this post

I know you have all set your alarms to get up extra early this morning to see if I completed Week 2/Day 2 of the Hundred Push Up Challenge. Well, hit your snooze and roll over, because I completed all of my push ups. Thank you very much. It's getting a bit harder each day. I guess that's the plan. And at this point, I cannot see my doing 100 consecutive push ups. Because push ups are hard people. They are not fun at all. Stay tuned.

Today is Lucille Ball's birthday. I Love Lucy is my all time fave show. I. Love. That. Show. I got the complete series for Christmas from my MIL. The kids started watching them at night and have made it through the entire set and have started again. I love to hear them laughing at the shows while they watch them. Even now, hen I watch them, I will laugh like I've never even seen it before. It's still hilarious time after time. I remember when she died. I was working at the radio station and it came across the wire that she had died. Tom P. came in to my office to tell me about it before he announced it on the air. He didn't want me to just hear it on the radio. I think that was 1989. Anyway, I heart Lucy. Funniest lady ever.

Good grief. Make this stop already. Can anybody even keep up with the Favre saga? I'm so over it. The Bloggie Doggie is bored with it too.

And finally, I've never really followed the NBA. Every once in awhile, I will watch the playoffs, but really no interest. This year may be a different story.....

Thanks to Connie for sending me this uber cute photo.

Make it a good one people. Peace. Out.

Pushing ahead to week 2 of the challenge

I know all of you bloggerphiles were very curious as to this week's push up challenge schedule....Sorry to leave you hanging.....Here 'tis.....

Week 2
Day 1: 9, 8, 6, 4, 7
Day 2: 11, 9, 7, 7, 10
Day 3: 10, 10, 8, 8, 10

I'm determined to stick with this. Even though it is absolutely no fun.

I completed Day 1 this morning. Along with a In Shape show called "pump/stretch". Man I wanted to stay in bed an extra hour, but I got up and pumped and stretched and pushed up. I'm glad I did.

Go exercise people.

Random thoughts on a hot morning

There is not a lot going on this morning...other than the oppressive heat.

Jordan spent the night at Mom's last night with my niece for their Girls Night. Anytime Thing One or Thing Two is missing, the house feels unbalanced. Much quieter. But unbalanced.

I completed Week 1/Day 2 of the Pushup Challenge this morning. It's not gonna' be easy at all and there is nothing fun about it. The only good thing is that it doesn't take very much time to complete. And hopefully I'll gain some upper body strength and a little arm and shoulder toning which wouldn't be all bad.

An update on the Great Tomato Project....as you can see, part of the plant looks good but part of it is awful. However, on the good part, there are about 10 blooms. And this morning I saw A TINY BABY TOMATO!!! The dead bloom had fallen off and there he was - a teeny weeny baby tomato. We'll see if he can make it to term. Since I don't have extensive tomato growing knowledge, I don't know if this Topsy Turvy grower thing really does better than good ol' ground planting. I would think that maybe I am having to water it more since it's a free standing container of soil - I think that may dry out quicker. Who knows. Anyhoo, I water him every day and am trying to pull off the dead parts so the healthy part can grow better. Stay tuned.

In sports news, Brett Favre has asked the NFL to be reinstated. Now the ball is in the Packers court. I really like Brett Favre, but have not really been a fan of how he has handled this whole retired/unretired thing. Guess it is a lesson for all of us: Better think through a situation pretty darn good before you make some kind of major decision. I guess everybody is entitled to change their mind, but when he said he was retiring, they moved on to another QB. So it's not fair for that guy to now play second fiddle. Anyway, will be interesting to see where he ends up. If anywhere. I'm personally tired of hearing about it.

Cooper was outside last night, came in, flew through the house, ran to his room, and headed back out to the backyard with his binoculars. I think he was watching dragon flies. We've had quite of a few of those lately in our yard. Anyway, the next thing I saw was this:

So take the Bloggie Doggie's advice, and be on the look out people.

It's a stretch

I took the pushup test last night and was able to squeak out 10 girlie pushups. I'll start the first day's schedule tonight. I actually meant to do them this morning, but I forgot. I did another show that I tivo'd. This was called "Stretch Max" and it was pilates/yoga with a resistance band. Lots of good stretching. I'm so wishing I had found these shows while I was training for the marathon - they would have been great for cross training days. The Bloggie Doggie was sound asleep and snoring the whole time I was exercising very interested in the exercise show and was doing a little meditation himself while I was streching:

Anyway, after I got out of the shower, I realized I forgot to do my pushups. So I'll tackle them tonight. My right shoulder is a bit sore this morning, but I think that's from playing Wii on Sunday. The schedule for week 1 looks like this:

Week 1

Day 1: 7, 7, 5, 4, 5
Day 2: 9, 8, 6, 5, 7

Day 3: 10, 8, 8, 5, 10

Do you remember what you were doing 27 years ago today - maybe even right this minute? Mom, Connie & I were watching Price Charles & Diana get married. I so vividly remember getting up very, very early so we could watch it all. It was just like a fairytale wasn't it? She was just so beautiful. And that day she was becoming a PRINCESS. It just all ended up so sad and awful. And I guess he really only loved Camilla from the start anyway. *sigh*

Yesterday it seemed like my eye and contact were really bothering me. By last night, I could really feel some irritation or something under my lid. And now this morning - wowie! It's really hurting. And my eyelid is even a little puffy, like it's irritated or something. I'm sporting the spectacles today and am hoping I can get in to see the doctor this morning.

Today is the 50th anniversary of NASA. Once again, another little shout out from Google. I love those guys.

And finally, proof that my kid watches too much TV:

Cooper: Do you know where the Joker lives?
Me: No where?
Cooper: I'll tell you....after the break.

Peace out people.

Pushing off to a new week

Back to the work week. I am off later in the week, but today it's back at it. Hard to get rolling in the work mode today since I've been off since Thursday afternoon. Lots of fun this long weekend even though the kids are getting a little tired of each other. Too much together time for them.

No end in sight for this heat. Yowzer. Looks like 95+ every day this week. Ugh.....

I have finally decided to jump on the Hundred Push Up bandwagon. This program has made its way around the blogosphere and I've been thinking about joining in. Since I'm not able to do any walking or running, I'm going to use these 6 weeks to my advantage and focus on strength training. I've got nothing to lose and only upper body strength to gain. I have NEVER been able to do a push up. Even a girly push up. But this is a progressive training program and really has something for everybody. You can do wall, bench, knee or regular push ups. At the end of 6 weeks, you should be able to do 100 consecutive push ups. Sounds a bit extreme, but hey, so did the thought of running a marathon and I did that. I have mentioned it to the Captain and he sounded interested. I'm going to print off the schedule today, take the initial test tonight, and get started tomorrow. It's a three day a week program, so really MWF works better for me. I'll have to shift it a little later. OK, here's to 100 push ups. Wish me luck!

The Bloggie Doggie is not interested in taking the Hundred Push Up Challenge.

Today was Beatrix Potter's birthday. She created Peter Rabbit which I have loved forever. Jordan's nursery was Peter Rabbit theme since I already had so much Peter Rabbit stuff. Very easy for me to decorate. Even Google is honoring her today by changing their logo on their homepage. (I love it when they do things like that.)

I finally finished my book last night. It was ok, but not one of her best. Lots of Morelli in that one. I'm not sure what to start next. Maybe that Lisa Gardner that I have picked up about 4 times. I'll decide tonight. Does anybody have any good books they can recommend or some good authors they've discovered? I'm always open to book suggestions.

Happy Monday people. Go do a push up.