Wednesday we are not friends

Before I get into my pile of homework I brought to school with me today I wanted to give my readers yet another post!  I seem to be on a roll with keeping up on the blog so why stop now right?!

Anyways... This past Friday I posted about getting enough sleep and my poor habits that lead to me feeling less than 100% - you can read it here.  Thanks to all of your lovely comments about how you figured out when was the best time for you to hit the hay and how many hours of sleep you need I decided I would try my hand at getting to bed by 10:00pm to wake up at 5:45-6:00am.

Sunday night I managed to get myself to bed by 10:30pm - not bad, still 7.5 hours of sleep.  Monday night was horrible, I didn't go to bed until after 12am.  Why?  Because I decided since I was sitting around at home all day Tuesday I didn't really need to worry about getting to bed at a decent time.  I still got 8 hours of sleep but I still felt pretty tired throughout the day.  One of those weird things where even though I got "enough sleep" it was at the wrong time of night I guess.  And now last night I got to bed at 10:30pm - not the time I was shooting for but again not bad.

Thanks to the lovely Caitlin @ Going 26.2 I know that it takes 2 week to form a new sleep habit so I need to be patient to see if this 10-10:30pm bed time is working out for me or not.

Even though I'm still feeling tired in the morning and throughout the day I am noticing that I am getting out of bed in a more timely manner than I was before so that's improvement!

Besides talking about my sleep habits I also just wanted to throw it out there that I'm really starting to dislike Wednesdays.

As mentioned last week in my Mission Accomplished! post I have gym Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - Monday being in the classroom and Wednesday and Friday being activity days.  Because I also have class from 5:30-8pm on Wednesdays I have to workout and then stay at school until class is over that night.

It sucks!

I do my best to freshen myself up by using dry shampoo, body spray, facial cleansing wipes (which I also use on my body), and of course a change of clothes but it still doesn't make me feel the greatest for staying in public.

Yes, there is a locker room but I'll be honest, I've never been in it and I'm not comfortable taking a shower - if there is one - at school.

It's times like these that I wished I lived in town!  I would then be able to go home after gym to shower, eat, and do homework until it was time for class at 5:30.  Could this also be a bad thing as I would then be distracted by the TV and doing other things?  Definitely, but look at me now - I'm blogging instead of working on homework!

There!  I feel as though I've told you all about the important things going on in my head right now.  Oh wait!  There is more but I'll save that for another post because this one has already gone a little long.  And let's face it, I need to get down to business homework.

Questions for you...

Do you have a least favorite day of the week with your current schedule?

Currently listening to...

Redneck Side - Justin Moore - album: Outlaws Like Me (Can you tell I like Justin Moore yet?)

Getting enough sleep??

Good Friday morning!  I am a few hours away from the start of my weekend and I am pumped.  I would actually be more pumped if I wasn't feeling so tired right now.

Things just fell into place for this blog post to be about sleep today. 

We'll start at the beginning though with last night.  After getting home from class and watching some TV with my mom (Castle marathon to catch you up before the new season starts) I watched three of my DVR'd shows before going to bed which happened after 11pm.  It's fall so all of my favorite shows are starting back up and there are still those shows that are in the middle to end of their season already that I'm still trying to keep up on.  I love having a DVR so I can record the shows I would be missing because I'm in class or because I'm watching a show on another channel.  But there is a downside to a DVR...it can only hold so many shows at a time!  So, if you don't watch what you record pretty soon you're running out of room to record new shows.

With my night classes I don't get home until 8:30ish twice a week so that is definitely cutting into my TV watching time, forcing me to rely on my DVR to record more shows than ever.  Not necessarily a bad thing because then I can watch them when it's convient for me.  On the flip side though I usually spend time that could be devoted to homework by catching up on the week's shows.  Being more disciplined about doing homework before watching TV is something I'll be working on this semester.

Maybe I'll reward myself with being able to watch one TV show for completeing the week's work for one class when I am home?

Anyways, moving on...

Because I stayed up past 11pm watching TV I got about 6 hours of sleep which doesn't seem to be enough, or isn't at the right time of night, considering when the alarm went off at 5:30am I hit snooze like it was my job for an hour until finally getting up at 6:30am.  Ever notice that getting say 8 hours of sleep, say from 10pm to 6am feels totally different in the morning than say getting 8 hours of sleep by going to bed at 1am and getting up at 8am?

By getting up at 6:30 this morning I only had a half hour to get myself ready and on the road to make it to work by 7:30.  A half hour is not enough time for me to get ready without feeling rushed, and potentially forgetting to take something crucial to my day with me.  If I would wake up at 5:30am I would have plenty of time to get ready, and even have some chill time to check email, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever I feel like doing with that time.  But in order to wake up at 5:30am and not feel like complete crap because I am soooo tired I need to start getting the right amount of sleep.

This brings me to the question of the day.  How do you know what the right amount of sleep is for you?  I can't remember a time in my life where I felt like I was waking up refreshed from getting the right amount of sleep, or if I do I don't recall how many hours of sleep that actually was.

Alexis over at Daily Ramblings was just talking about this yesterday.  For her 7.5-8 hours of sleep per night isn't enough.  As she put it her body needs a solid coma to functiont he next day.  Read her entire post here.

Getting the right amount of sleep is an essential part of leading a healthy life because let's face it, when we run ourselves down and don't get enough sleep we're more likely to get sick, be irritable, and a whole bunch of other bad junk.

So, I'm asking for your help readers...answer me these questions.

How did you find out what the right amount of sleep was for you?

What are your tips to making sure you can get that right amount most of the time?  It's not a perfect world so I realize that there will be times that getting the right amount isn't in the cards.

What's your typical bedtime, or that range you usually hit the hay during, and what time is your usual wake up call?

What I'm currently listening to...
Sunshine Babies - Justin Moore, album - Outlaws Like Me (I miss summer & flip flops!!!)

Little Bit of Life

*Big Yawn*  Today has been rough bcause I am so tired from being out at the fair last night.

After work yesterday my mom dropped me off at my great aunt's house where I was meeting up with my aunt Pam.  Eventually we made our way to the fair.

First stop was the sheep barn to take pictures of the boards for a co-worker who wasn't going to the fair.  The boards are for the 4-H club my boss' children belong to.

Shoot For The Hoops

Riverside 4-H

Next up was dinner.  We went to the baked potato booth.  It was in the exhibition building which was sooo hot! Just standing in line we were both sweating.  We gladly booked it out of there with our potatoes to find a place to sit and eat them.  We ended up in the beer tent at a picnic table.

After dinner was consumed we made our way to the grandstand to find a place to stand for the Craig Morgan concert.  He's an amazing singer and his show was awesome, as we expected it to be since we saw it in June.

It's definitely interesting to see how many different kinds of people come together for the common love of a certain artist.  The group in front of us, which I went to high school with, was super into the concert but seeing them walk down the street you wouldn't guess that they would like country music.  Well, except for last night since they were decked out in their "country" gear haha.

After the concert we made our way back to the beer tent to enjoy a cold beverage.  I'm not a beer drinker simply because I get very full feeling from them and more than one is a chore to drink.  I tried the Mike's Hard Lemonade - Cranberry Lemonade despite not being a cranberry fan.  After the first few sips I didn't think it was that bad.  I wanted to try the Limeade flavor but they didn't seem to have any at the two bars (within the beer tent) that I went to.  If only they had the Berry, or Black Cherry Lemonade flavors, then I would be loving the beer tent even more!

We ended up leaving after one drink because we both had to work the next day.  I was home by 11pm but instead of going to bed right away I started watching the movie Country Strong, for like the 5th time.  Actually, I've probably watched that movie more than just 5 times.

Now I'm tired beyond belief and am trying to plug away at my work while listening to Justin Moore on my iPod.

Tonight my aunt and I are going to the fair again to see Sawyer Brown.  After tonight I'm not sure if I'll be going again.  I've been missing Bo since I didn't get to see him yesterday, and I won't be able to see him again today.  And despite being only 21 as tired as I am I feel like a grandma who can't handle going out late like I used to haha!

Question for you...
Do you go out on work/school nights?  How do you deal with feeling tired the next day?

It's time to wake up!

Every morning when my alarm clocks (yes, plural) go off I think to myself, "It's time to  get up....oh I'll just lay here a minute longer..."

So, last night I had this awesome idea.  I made myself a playlist of a few songs that I could use as my alarm clock.

Good morning to you too boys :)

I forgot to make sure the volume was turned all the way up on my iPod, and when I reset my alarm on my iHome I forgot to make sure the actual alarm was loud enough.  I ended up turning my first alarm (5:30am) off because in five minutes I would be hearing my new wake up playlist.

Next thing I know my second cell phone alarm, third alarm total, was going off at 5:45am and I can barely hear my wake up playlist.  The boys were serenading me back to sleep rather than waking me up for the day!  But I know for tomorrow now because I'm not giving up on being woken up to those boys. ;)

My question to you is what is your wake up routine like?  Are you a snooze button user?  Do you ever sleep much later than you would have liked?

You can't sip whiskey gotta drank it!

When I was trying to come up with a title for this post my new favorite song popped into my head and I thought it was kind of fitting.  The title comes from Justin Moore's song Hank It off his album Justin Moore.

So it's been a while since my last post about the Good News & Bad News.  A lot has happened and I'll do my best to summarize all of it without boring anyone to death.

First of all, that good news that I mentioned in my last post that I kept a secret from y'all will be revealed this weekend.  Get excited because I know I am!

Three days after my last post I celebrated my 21st birthday.  My parents and I were on the road so when we had the opportunity to eat a Red Lobster we jumped on it.

[caption id="attachment_195" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Red Lobster's wait staff singing Happy Birthday to me."][/caption]

Wow I don't know how I ever let myself leave the house like that.  Yikes!  But anyways, I ordered my first legal alcoholic drink and was carded for the first time, enjoyed some awesome shrimp, and some awesome dessert.  Red Lobster apparently does nothing but sing when it's your birthday.  No free dessert or anything, boo!

I went out with only my mom and my aunt that night for drinks.  We ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and bar hopped our way home.  No, I didn't enjoy 21 shots but I still had a good time.

Following the birthday weekend I only had a three-day work week as it was time to hit the road to Country Fest 2011.  I don't want to say too much about it now since I have a post in the works with pictures!  But you can read about who I got to see here.  I will share that I fell in love with Justin Moore after seeing him at Country Fest :)

I came back to work on Tuesday, nothing exciting happened that week.

This past weekend I did some fishing with my dad, some farm work, and a lot of reading!  Oh yea, I got a Kindle for my birthday and have been loving it.  I just wish they had more free books haha!

Now it's Thursday night and I've been hoping and thinking it's been Friday pretty much all week.  Like I mentioned earlier my secret can be revealed this weekend and so of course I am looking forward to the weekend more than usual.  Anyone want to take a guess at what my secret is?

In a nutshell these past couple of weeks have been full of fun and not so much healthy living.  That's all changing this month though.  I've once again recommitted to leading a healthier lifestyle and using www.sparkpeople.com to help me.

What's coming up:

Surprise Revealed

Country Fest 2011

I'm getting back into the blogging world so if I've been missing from your comments section be prepared for me to make a comeback!  And if you're a reader of my blog I hope you come back too!

 

If Heaven wasn't so far away...

I'd take my bird dog Bo huntin' one more time.

Those are part of the lyrics to a Justin Moore song that took on a whole lot more meaning for me this weekend.

Friday morning my mom called the vet.  She, my dad, and my brother ended up taking him in that morning.  From the time Duke was last seen by the vet on Tuesday May 31st a bunch of lumps formed.  From what I understand he had some in his lymph nodes, in his stomach area, and one which I had noticed along his spine.  The diagnosis was that Duke had cancer and getting anaplasmosis (the tick carried disease) basically made the cancer flare up and start to show symptoms.

It was determined that the best option was to put Duke to sleep.  The vet was ready to do it during that visit but my parents said they couldn't do it while I wasn't there.  They were given some new pain medication for Duke to help keep him more comfortable until the next day.

Friday night was tough.  I found myself wondering what is harder; knowing they're going to go and having to wait for that time to come, or having them go unexpectedly?  I never came to a conclusion.

Saturday I had an appointment to go to.  My parents went with me and we brought Duke along.  Once we got home we only had a few hours left with him.  We each took some alone time with Duke.  During mine I told him that everything would be better soon.  No more pain, you'll be able to run again, you can hunt all the pheasants, mice, and rabbits you want, and you'll be able to play fetch as much as you want because there will always be a ball thrown for you.

The time came for us to go to the vet.  My brother decided he didn't want to be there so it was just my parents and I.

About a half hour after arriving at the vet we were on our way home.  We took Duke home with us and he was buried next to our first dog Babe.

I went home and laid on the floor on top of Duke's doggy napper for a couple of hours.

Duke is in a better place and our house now feels empty.  This is the first time in 22 years that my family hasn't had a dog.  This is my first time without having a dog in my whole life.  Later this year in October will be the first time in 31 years that my dad will not go to South Dakota pheasant hunting.  We're dealing with a lot of firsts right now.

The selfish side of me didn't want him to go and still wishes he wasn't gone.  But I know he is in a better place now and that my family will heal.

Yesterday was Duke's 10th birthday.  I know he had the best birthday he could have ever wished for.

I miss and love you always and forever Duke!  I'll see you again some day.