thankful thursday

Thank you to my friend Donna for introducing me to Thankful Thursday :)

Here's what I'm thankful for today..

- a new baby girl named Zoe for my beautiful assistant & friend
- a secure job
- great friends to eat naughty desserts with & laugh & laugh
- silly ipad games

What are you thankful for?

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workout guilt & being the best

I am my own worst critic.

I will always have much higher expectations of myself than everyone else.

This is true at home, at work, in my relationships & of course in my fitness.

I have had to remind myself over the past week that I am running this half marathon because I want to. Because I enjoy running & I enjoy challenging myself.

I missed two of my scheduled training runs this week & I felt immeasurably guilty. I felt as though I had let myself down, that I was lazy.

Today I ran twelve kilometers & I was stoked to shave up to thirty seconds off each km, renewing my confidence in my mental & physical ability.

As I sit here with aching legs, I have to remind myself to go easy sometimes! I think that many people & many women in particular are just so hard on ourselves that we forget what we are trying to achieve. We don't need to strive for perfection as that is completely unattainable.. an immeasurable goal. We just need to try to be the very best that we can be.

When I set my goals for 2012, I resolved to BE THE BEST THAT I CAN BE.

We are about to hit the sixth month of the year, so this is a pretty timely reminder to myself.

Best of luck this week in being your best too :)

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a day in the life..

I often wonder what other peoples work days are like.
I'm not sure if this makes me boring or nosy.

In any case.. this is today in my work life. I run a residential property management department for a well known real estate agency.

9.00am.. Check my emails on my iPad & return some overnight voicemail messages.

9.30am.. Routine inspection. What a nice late start to the day! Met my tenants onsite, house looks great & no maintenance, perfect!

10.30am.. Vacate inspection & condition report update. My tenants have left the home in great condition, just a couple of very minor cleaning issues. The tenants have moved interstate so I organize my cleaner to attend the next morning, before new tenants move in.

12.00pm.. COFFEE TIME!

12.05pm.. Make it into the office! My plumber has popped in to see me so we have a chat & I show him my pictures from my Thailand holiday. I receive authorization from an owner to re advertise his property & go ahead & list it. Return all my emails & calls. Schedule a bunch of open homes for the next few days. Download my tenant rent payments & receipt them.

1.30pm.. Hungry! Pop into Coles & pick up ingredients for a rocket, fetta, walnut & balsamic salad. Yum.

1.40pm.. Eat whist organizing paperwork for new tenants & organizing maintenance for a couple of properties. Lots of paperwork to do!

3.20pm.. Attend an inspection I scheduled earlier today, what a lovely gentleman who attends. He likes the home & I hope he goes ahead & applies to rent it.

4.30pm.. COFFEE!!

4.35pm.. Arrive at my last open home & turn on all the lights, open windows etc for 4.45pm start time.

5.35pm.. I've typed this blog between viewers & now I'm locking up this home as the final people have just left :) a pretty good turn out in the end & this home should be rented by the weekend.

This is a fairly typical day in my job, lots of travel time & lots of meeting people. I like that my work doesn't involve sitting at a desk all day long though sometimes I do have full days in the office. There's lots of legislation compliance involved in residential property which means lots & lots of paperwork.

I am in the very lucky position in that I love my job. I love my bosses & my assistant (who is on maternity leave). I know that not many people can say they love their job so I don't take it for granted! I have the freedom to manage my own time, implement my own procedures etc. Love!

Now I'm off to my bfs to watch the football.. Go Queensland!! :)

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i love saturdays

Since training for the half marathon, I have not been going to Bootcamp.

This means that I have reclaimed my Saturday mornings & I love it!

This Saturday I woke up about 8am with sun peeking through my window. I stretched out in bed & relished the luxury! I text my bestie Max to see what she was up to & if she wanted to go for a morning walk at our old haunt, Kangaroo Point cliffs. Yay for impromptu BFF catch up times :)

We had such a good hour & a half power walk from KP to the botanical gardens, Southbank & through the city. I love living in Brisbane & I have been adoring the weather of late!

Later I met my bf for coffee & then laughed my way through dinner with my family..

What do you do when you wake up without plans?










& here is me!


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grandmas

I love my grandma.

I visit her every Thursday for dinner, which is one of the highlights of my week.

Last night she asked me to post a letter for her, which she sometimes does.

I noticed that the letter was a reply paid letter to a children's cancer foundation.

Later on that night, I decided to open the letter & see what was inside.
I can imagine that this might seem like quite a bad thing to do. But I wasn't snooping & I didn't have any unpleasant intentions.
I wanted to ensure that my grandma was not giving away all of her money or being taken advantage of in any way.
It's easy for us to forget how much we change in our senior years. Not only do our bodies age but our minds age also.

I was looking out for her. It's so important to look out for our grandparents, to take care of them in any way that we can & to remind them OFTEN that we love them.

There is an advertisement on tv at the moment which is for Anglicare or something similar, where home helpers & carers visit the elderly. Once scene shows an elderly lady sitting alone in her house & staring out the window. She is saying to her daughter over the phone 'yes dear, I'm keeping busy'.
This ad breaks my heart every time I see it & I immediately call or text my grandma to check in.

SO if you happen to read this post, please consider it your timely reminder to give your grandma or grandpa a call, drop by & see them, or send them a surprise delivery of flowers or sweets. You will make their day! Remember to look out for them. Pop a reminder into your phone to call them once a week.

And PS, I am very happy to post on my darling grandmas $15 cheque for children's cancer. What a sweetheart :)

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half marathon training

Right now my life consists of:

- running
- running
- working
- eating
- hot boyfriend
- running

One of my biggest goals for 2012 is to run the Gold Coast Half Marathon on July 2nd. I am well into my training regime now which consists of four weekly runs ranging from a 35 minute run to an 18 kilometer run.

I am enjoying the training though it is a commitment. I like that I can just wake up & go without any travel like when I'm doing my Bootcamp classes.

I'm REALLY enjoying being able to eat lots of carbohydrates to supplement the distance running as I am a carb lover :)

Please wish me luck as I continue to train, I'm hoping to stay free from injury & also to increase my pace.

I'm thinking of saving up & rewarding myself with a Lorna Jane spree after the run.. A good spree.. Maybe $400 - $500? That's pretty easy to spend..

I will update on my progress!

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lust have it may

The latest craze in the beauty world seems to be beauty boxes. After seeing my friends Mel & Tegan receive theirs for a few months, I decided that I wanted in. Knowing that the girls had done lots of research into their boxes, I didn't really bother with my own & signed up to Lust Have It along with them.

My first box was in February, so this is my forth box & I am in love with them! Each month a little box full of beauty samples arrives on my desk & they are good quality products.. I've already found some winners that I will be or already have purchased.

Here is my May box..




The items are..

1. Model Co lipgloss.. My colour is called Striptease & is a very pretty sheer pink/apricot.

2. Evo The Therapist Calming Shampoo & Conditioner.. I used these this morning & so far I like them. The shampoo seemed to have hints of an aftershave scent & it was like I was washing my hair with a hot boy.. Unfortunately the conditioner didn't smell quite as good! At work, my receptionist commented that my hair looked particularly shiny & straight today so I will credit that to these products.

3. Bioderma makeup remover.. This works well & seems to be quite gentle despite the fairly strong smell. At $39.95 for a full priced bottle I don't think I would repurchase this product but I will certainly use this little bottle all up.

4. Calvin Klein Sheer Beauty perfume.. I love perfume samples, especially the ones in little spray bottles like this one. This scent is beautiful & my bf loves it so I may add this to my dwindling perfume collection.

5. Lust Lust soap.. OMG I want a huge bar of this soap just to carry around its me at all times.. It smells AMAZING! My bathroom smells so good like fruity frangipanis & when my bf kissed me goodbye early this morning while I was still sleeping, I could smell the scent on his skin. Not very manly but ohh so scrumptious!

6. Bump Eraiser.. I haven't used this product as yet but it smells like tea tree & seems similar to the Brazillian Beauty treatment for ingrowns but more of a paste.

7. Nicole by OPI polish.. There's no name on the bottle but mine is a lilac glitter & I am loving it! Wearing it right now..




If you have thought about subscribing to a beauty box, I would suggest you visit www.lusthaveit.com.au ASAP!!

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