So, what does it feel like to be in the same vicinity as hundreds of other bloggers? A bit of overwhelming. And more than a little awesome!

Last night we attended the welcome party to decorate our name badges, pick up our swag, and hang out. Unfortunately, I’m the genius who left her camera’s memory card in her netbook and therefore have no pictures. Sad face.

Even just getting into the night I already had a chance to meet such fabulous people! Katy, Jen, Jenn, Matt, Sana, and so many more that I’m blanking on as I try to quickly get this thing typed. After mingling for awhile, our two other roommates – Heather and Amanda – arrived and a group of us headed out to dinner. We ate at Bo Brooks - a local seafood joint recommended by a local.

They had so many delicious sounding things on the menu, but when I see a crab cake then I know that’s my meal. I adore crab cakes but will only order them when close to the ocean and at places that will know how to make one – with lots of crab meat. Since the platter sounded huge, I went for a crabcake sandwich with a side of the potato salad.

Now that’s what I’m talking about in a crab cake! Little filler. The sandwich was fantastic and the potato salad was…special. Katie and I both ordered it and spent a good portion of our dinner trying to figure out what made it taste so “special”. We believe a sweet and sour relish of some sort. Interesting.

The rest of the night consisted of chatting and checking out our swag bags. They know how to treat us well. New New Balance sneakers and running capris, bags of Larabars, pistachios, oat packets, a box of Fiber One cereal, coupons to try a ton of free products, socks, a Jillian Michaels book, and quite a few other neat items.

We finally made it to bed in order to get rested before a busy day of working out today. The fun all started with a 5K fun run at 7 am!

I took it easy on the run since I know I have more fitness fun coming my way. It went around the harbor and was just a beautiful run. Why can’t Atlanta look like this?!

I think running with a bunch of bloggers makes for the best “race” ever. You get to hang out with tons of friends after…and then eat yummy food.

Attune Foods sponsored a breakfast with a bunch of cereal and fruit. With Starbucks coffee and hardboiled eggs on the side. Quite satisfying to fuel up for the day!

Over breakfast I ran into Courtney and Gabriela which I was so happy about. I couldn’t wait to meet two of my best blog buddies this weekend! I look forward to having more time with them later.  I need to remember to be better about pictures though! Seriously. What is up with my photo forgetfulness at one of the things I want to remember most?!

The fitness fun continued into the day. First up, I attended a kettlebell demonstration. At first I thought we were going to have the chance to workout with the kettlebells, but instead Jenn and Lisa shared a bunch of training ideas, tips, safety measures, etc about kettlebell training. And I really want to do a kettle bell workout now. It looks so hardcore!

Then finally the time had come. CATHE!

She hosted a leg blast challenge.We did a ton of lunges, squats, and kicks using regular bodyweight moves and also some moves with sliding paper plates and resistance bands around the ankles. I could feel it! And after getting nice and sweaty, the moment I had waited for arrived – meeting her. I have worked out with her DVDs for almost a decade I loved getting the chance to see her in person.

Even after all that, I still had not filled my fitness obsession quota of the day and hung around for the trampoline class.

Those trampolines give quite the workout. I expected it to be a fun little activity, but my legs told me otherwise. The entire class you basically bounce up and down in a squat position. Completing that right after Cathe gave my legs a nice burn. If only I could bring a trampoline home with me on the plane. It’s just a wee bit large for my carry on. 😉

Well, I guess I will leave off there. So much to share and not enough time. I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

• Are you good at remembering to take pictures?
• What fitness activity it out there that you would love to give a try?

So, last night I ran a little errand to pick up some dry cleaning. I had two of my favorite dresses finally cleaned (*cough* because I didn’t wear them 3 or 4 times each over the course of a few years without taking them to be cleaned or anything like that *cough*).

I planned to wear one in particular to the Fitbloggin Harbor Social on Friday night. I pulled the dress out of the packaging and zipped it up. It fit! Then, I turned around and looked in the mirror. Ohhh…no. Not going to work. The nursing boobs have struck again and taken a previously classy but fun clothing item and turned it into an “I’m-working-the-corner-how-much-you-got-for-me” item. Sigh. Okay, I will try the other dress. It’s strapless and shouldn’t have a problem with in-your-face cleavage. Wrong. I don’t understand how cleavage happens in a strapless dress either.

Okay, then. Plan B. I pull out my other dresses I own – all 3 of them. They are all a bit on the “too big” side and left me feeling frumpy. Grrrr. I turn to Peter with puppy dog eyes and he sends me up to the stores to try and find something.

It’s been a “hot minute” as my sister would say (<-- any of you say this apparently popular phrase??) since I have shopped for real clothes. The only options I had were Target, Ross, Kohls, and TJ Maxx. I started at TJ Maxx. It had a few nice dresses, but none were a fit or style really flattering to my body when I tried them on. Okay. I will try Kohls. What the heck is up with their stuff? It was all either way too stiff/serious looking or high-school-trashy attire. On to Target. All their dresses looked like beach cover-ups and were partly see through. On to Ross, which is where I found the redneck dimension of my little town and promptly walked out afraid after seeing the rack of dresses. Oh, the hideousness!

As my night and dress venture wore on, my confidence wore down. I began critiquing my body more and more harshly in the mirror as I tried on the handful of dresses I found. I began feeling negative about my appearance and that I won’t look put together enough for the social. I even started feeling down about having to miss two workouts this week and believing it affected how “in-shape” I look. Things obviously verged on spiraling out of control. I teetered on a slippery slope. And for what? For a dress! Even though I have a jeans/cute top that I feel great in!

So, I sucked it up and told myself to turn it around. I made myself list out reasons to feel confident no matter what I end up wearing tomorrow night.

I Will Be Confident Tomorrow Night Because…

• I believe in my worth and that I’m more than my appearance. People aren’t really going to pay attention to my fashion, but my persona. I think I’m pretty nice and friendly.
• I feel so great physically and know I have made great progress. Those dresses did fit after all! And I think I look pretty good in my jeans.
• I have come so far. Not only physically with my body after baby progress, but more so mentally over years of learning what matters most in who I am.
• I will have kicked butt with some fun workouts earlier in the day and nothing boosts confidence like a fun sweat.

On a whole, I am confident in who I am for way more reasons than those, but for tomorrow night, these work. Plus, if all else fails, I can think of how much these guys love me and that’s all I need.

I’m going to miss those little faces!!!! Time to eat them up one last time before hitting the road! See you all tonight from Baltimore!

• How do you get past those “nothing to wear” confidence challenges?
• How often do you go to the dry cleaners? aka tell me I’m not the only one who puts it off so badly