hi there

First off, thank you everyone for the kind words about my grade - Looking back I feel kind of silly for announcing it to the world but, thank you for all the nice congratulations!

Now for what I really wanted to talk about. My company is doing a Wellness program this month across the entire organization (all 40,000 employees) called "10,000 Steps." While my company is trying to promote wellness within its employees they also are donating 25 cents for every 10,000 steps the company takes collectively, up to $100,000, to diabetes research around the world. Each employee who signed up got a pedometer and this past Monday started the official counting of the steps. All I can say is WOW - 10,000 steps is a LOT of steps. I have never worn a pedometer before so this is a new kind of tracking for me and I am happy to say Monday I hit 10,122 steps and yesterday I got 10,985. I would like to say that was easy but that was a lot of running and elliptical time in there. I am thinking if you don't work out there is no way you can get to 10,000 steps! On Monday Bret ran in the afternoon and got his total steps up to 9,000 but yesterday he didn't even break 3,000 - it really is crazy! If you have ever worn a pedometer and measured your steps how did you do? Did you find you took more or less steps than you thought you would. I have decided my company is mistaken because they believe 30 minutes of activity alone should get you to 10,000. ummm... yea, I ran for 20 minutes this morning and got to 4,000. So I don't know about that... But, it is for a great cause and hopefully it will help bring necessary money to diabetes research so they can progress!

Did anybody watch Michael Jackson's memorial service yesterday? I had set it to record on the DVR because I figured people would be talking about it today so I didn't want to be left out. I am not going to lie, I did fast forward through several parts but all-in-all I thought it was a very sweet ceremony and I hope it brought some additional peace to MJs family. Little Paris about broke my heart though, very sad. :( After the ceremony I thought to myself "ok, now the world can move on" so, imagine my surprise when I turned on the Today show this morning to find it was yet another special about Michael Jackson... I guess I was naive to think he could rest in peace and the media frenzy would move on. My bad.

I got a new recipe this morning from Jillian Michaels - If you like fish I think it sounds pretty yummy. I will never cook it because I would be making it just for me but maybe yall have 2 or 3 people around you guys that would enjoy this yummy fish recipe!

Chili-Rubbed Tilapia With Asparagus and Lemon

Ingredients:
2 pounds asparagus, tough ends trimmed, cut into 1" pieces
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1 pound fish, tilapia, Pacific sole, or other firm white-fish fillet
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation
Bring an inch of water to a boil in a large saucepan.

Put asparagus in a steamer basket,

place in the pan, cover, and steam until tender-crisp, about 4 minutes.

Transfer to a large plate, spreading out to cool.
Combine chili powder, garlic powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt on a plate.

Dredge fillets in the spice mixture to coat.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the fish and cook until just opaque in the center, gently turning halfway, 5 to 7 minutes total. Divide among 4 plates.

Immediately add lemon juice, the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, and asparagus to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, until the asparagus is coated and heated through, about 2 minutes. Serve the asparagus with the fish.

Makes 4 servings.