Gear

TA bought me some new tights for the gym. Actually, he said he and the kids picked them out. They are pretty loud but I am obsessed with them! I couldn’t wait to wear them and was saving them at the same time. He actually bought a complete outfit.

Complete outfit

Bodypump attire. Love these things!

TA bought medium and even though I thought they were a little loose in some places, I would not buy small. They would have been too short. You can find these here. I really like the sonar capris. I may have to get more. Maybe I will try on the smalls. Did I mention the weight loss challenge? Forget that! I will be at Lost Pines for spring break! Mama wants to look...decent....in her swimwear.

I recently tried Fabletics. Not bad. I really liked the capri tights. They spaghetti stringy top was only OK.

The Oscars. I was obsessed with Rosamund Pike. She looked amazing! I have to admit JLo looked fab too. The tan she purchased matched perfectly with the dress she wore.

Anyway, got try on these tights and let me know if you like them as much as I do. I may never shop at Lulu again!

Sunday Brunch

I can never decide where to go on Sundays for brunch. Typically, we end up at either Escalante's or Churrasco's. Both great, but I wanted something different this time.

This Sunday, TA suggested Urban Kitchen. I almost hate to put this out there because I don't want it to get too crowded but I can't help myself! It was great. Best part...FULL BAR!
I had the chicken and waffles. Excellent. I ate the entire plate in record time. TA had the fish tacos. Also good.

The night before, we went to Devine Affair. We had probably the best sea bass we have had in a long time. It is right across the street from Urban Kitchen. We love our neighborhood and our area. If you are on the west side, try both of these places. Small, quaint, and great food.

PSA - DO NOT go to Dry Clean Planet on Memorial and Kirkwood. They ruined one of my jackets and now they will not refund the cost of the dry cleaning. They have given me the run around for too long. I am feeling the need to rage a full on war, but I won't. I will just take my fight to social media. Anyway, don't go there. They suck big donkey balls.

Ash Wednesday

Went to Mardi Gras this weekend. I was ill prepared for the weather so now I am sick. Fever and cold. But I dragged myself out of bed to go to mass and get my ashes for the start of Lent.

On the drive there I was still wondering what I was going to sacrifice for Lent this time. Typically I attend Stations of the Cross but my Friday schedule will probably make that tough. I wondered what I could do. My main idea was taking a few steps closer to God. What can I do to accomplish this?

The first thing that came to mind was my blessings. I forget OFTEN of the many blessings in my life. Did I have it easy growing up? No. Did stuff happen to me that was out of my control? Yes. But now I am in control and I am making this life for me and my family. I think about that all the time as a working mom. Part of me feels like I need to be there more for my children. A bigger part of me KNOWS I need to demonstrate to them the value of hard work and seeing their mom succeed. They need to see me reaching for high goals so they can one day reach for the same. That was the role model I had growing up in my mother.

I digress..

Getting closer to God. Not that hard to do. Thank God for my many blessings and the chances I have now through his grace and love. I do always want to excel at everything I do. That is why one day this blog will be THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME. HAHA! Rarely do I stop and look around at what I have and have accomplished. I am always striving for more! Reaching for higher ground. That’s OK, but there is a piece to that puzzle I hate to admit that I have. That unsatisfying feeling I have when I realize the goal I accomplished wasn’t the highest I could go. I can go farther! I always say I hate losing more than I love wining, so this ties in to that. I am happy. I could not be more happy. I just want the constant feeling of having to overachieve to go away. I can’t be the best at everything. I certainly have tried. People tell me I make stuff look easy. As they are telling me this, they have no idea how many times that day I have beat myself up for not doing better. It happens daily. I think sometimes it is my ultra competitive nature that kicks in but I am not sure if that is really it. I feel like it hampers some of my relationships outside of my family. I don’t want that. That is the LAST thing I want. I need my friends and my support groups.

My goal is to let that go. Giving thanks for my many blessings and praying for God’s grace daily I hope helps me accomplish the ultimate goal of strengthening my faith. I don’t know if it will work. I will give it my best shot. I doubt I will ever get rid of the ultra competitive part of me but I have to try to take it down a notch. I will always want to succeed. I just can’t let it dominate my thoughts like it does now. I will always strive to be better. I just want some inner peace while I am at it.

Work and Fitness

Last week, my company had a conference out of town that I attended. It is a customer specific conference where we have discussions and presentations all day. It is amazing how we get all these very smart and impressive people all in one room all at once.

So many smart people in the same room

Great subjects. Great energy and great passion around all the subject matters. One of the things I stress about at these conferences is my eating. It is not always that easy to find the "healthy" alternative when the main dish on the menu is alcohol. The conference started Wednesday. I got a small workout in before I left town that morning. Wednesday night was not good. Lots of food and lots of booze. I know I don't HAVE to partake but....

Thursday morning I am feeling gross. I snuck out of one of the sessions and did GRIT Strength in a little corner in the hotel gym. I really pushed myself and I have the bruises to show for it. They didn't have a free straight bar so I had to do the clean and press with a curl bar. OUCH! My thighs! I went up in weight and I could feel it! Thirty minutes, and I was done. Ran back to my room, showered, and returned to the conference. I know I got a good one because I was sore the next day.

I am going to post a pic because I wanted to talk about my necklace. It was a little out of the box for me to wear a necklace like that. I should do that more often. Lots of people liked it. I love gold with black. I used to only do silver or black with black outfits but I am expanding. I like popping a little color with the black outfits.

Post GRIT workout...back to work

Before the evening festivities, I called home twice. The second time, I caught my husband. He sounded so tired. He was studying with the boy and the boy was struggling with his spelling words. Sounded like things were not going well so I hung up. I began to feel bad for not being there to help. I know what it is like to be there alone and studying with one of the kids and they are either not in to it or not getting it and you are dog tired. GUILT! Mommy should be there to help. Does he ever feel like this when he travels? I have no idea. I have never asked him. Maybe I should. Then again, I am working RIGHT NOW! I got out of the room and on with my night. I ran in to another mom of two that I admire that works for my company. We chatted for a while and I felt better. I had to get in work mode before I saw any of my clients so I was glad I ran in to her. We vented to each other and then got in to business mode and took off. I purposely wore tight jeans so I wouldn't over eat, even though I wanted to wear the loose skirt. NO WAY! I am on a mission. They may have been too tight so I better get my ass to the gym more often.

The evening was great. I discussed relevant business for the next 4 hours and logged in that evening to send messages to Asia on the different issues that came up. The next day was easy. Another round of great presenations and only a half day. All the clients looked very pleased with the outcome of the conference and the alignment we gained in that time. I love my job. I am glad to finally find a company to call home. My four year anniversary is coming up at this company. Feels like I have only been here a year. I am still learning every day and excited to learn. That's a good sign. I now feel like I can spread my wings and take on more of a leadership role here.

I am also exhausted but I live to fight another day! I have an extra busy weekend coming up but that deserves its own post.

Crazy Eyes and Ugly Knees

First things first...

My name is Nikki. Welcome to my blog.

This is my first post so bear with me.

I mentioned that I was thinking about starting a blog to my husband while we were on vacation last year. I told him the website name I was thinking of buying and he told me to go for it. So I did. One year later...here is my blog! Yes, I move at the speed of light.

My reason for starting a blog was that I looked for blogs about women like me. Someone who had a family and a thriving career and the battles that came with balancing both of these. I was looking to not only balance, but to kick ass at home and at work. I have finally found a home at my current job. I have a “side gig” as a group exercise instructor at a YMCA near my house. My kids are doing great in their lives and my husband is kicking ass at his job too. Sounds great, right?

On paper, this life looks good. It is good. It’s great! There are times when I struggle to balance everything I do and I was in search for someone who was struggling like I was. I don’t struggle all the time, but there are days when I wish for a cloning technology app. I could not find a voice in the blogosphere to match my needs. So I took matters in to my own hands. I will create one! I will have a blog about being a career woman with a great family who wants it all. Easy! HAHAHA! So easy it only took me a year to start it.

Now I have to talk about my group exercise classes now to explain this post title. I am a Les Mills International instructor. I am certified in Bodypump, CXWorx, Bodycombat and Grit Series. I teach/coach them all at the YMCA near my house. This is really my release. When I have had a stressful day, leading a class is such a great release for me. I will admit, there are days when I walk in and I am not as prepared or not in the mood to motivate. But as soon as I see all my members eyeballing me, looking to me for motivation, the adrenaline kicks in and I am in motion. During my Bodycombat class, I typically tell my class I want them to do their knee strikes ugly. I will say stuff like “This is not a time to be cute! I want ugly knee strikes! I want the rubber band holding your ponytail together to come off!” If you have never taken a Bodycombat class, check it out here. You can see from the front page the look on their faces when they do knee strikes. They look mean! HA! I also tell my class, during this track, that I want to see crazy eyes. I want to look scared to approach them in class because they are doing knee strikes that would break my nose and they are giving me crazy eyes like they are DYING to break my nose. It sounds crazy but it works. I love my members. They think I motivate them but they are the ones that constantly push me to do better and be better. Here are some of us in our custom shirts. Yes, mine says “Khaleesi”.
(Huge Game of Thrones fan. Starts back in April! As Bart Scott said, “CAN’T WAIT”.)

This would not be complete without mentioning that I am a HUGE football fanatic. I went to Texas A&M so I love my Aggies. I grew up in South Texas and everyone there is a Cowboys fan. So am I. If you hate both of these teams, this is not the blog for you. I also participate in fantasy football with some of my grad school classmates. More on them later.

Since this is my test post, I will end it here. More about me as time goes on. I don’t even know if I will be able to keep this up with weekly or even bi-weekly posts. I sure hope so. I am worried about putting too much out there for everyone to see. I hope it doesn’t backfire and this serves as an outlet for me to gather my thoughts, share my experiences and inspire others that go through the same things I do. I am also going to play with the background a little because I initially had a red wine glass in the background but now it is not visible. I love my red wine!

Now, time to be super mom for 3 hours.