Personal Trainer, Email & Dates - First Things First

Hello and happy Tuesday everyone! Today is the seventh week of our First Things First link up, and obviously I'm excited about it! We are loving this link up, and every week we're getting a few more people to join in with us! I'm definitely already anticipating some new link-uppers for this week as well!

However, some slightly sad news to announce, is that Hallie won't be co-hosting this with me for a while, because her wedding is coming up so soon! So she needs a little break to keep her sanity :) So today, I'm hosting all on my own, and looking for up to 4 co-hosts for the next 4 weeks! If I get more, we'll do multiple co-hosts in a week. If you're interested in co-hosting this fun link up, let me know in the comments below. You must submit at least TWO new ideas for 'first' topics, and please make sure you're not a no-reply commenter, so I can get back with you!!

This week's topics are:

First thing I do at the gym
First Date with Current Significant Other
First email address

And check out this cute new button!

First thing I do at the gym: 

Um, well since I haven't really been to the gym since I was about 16 years old, I have zero idea what the first thing would be. Probably find a machine that's the furthest away from everyone else as possible, so that I can embarrass myself in front of fewer people... Maybe the elliptical or something like that? Maybe I'd be lucky enough to get myself a personal trainer?!

However, I have actually been really considering getting a gym membership lately - which would be the first one in my life! And now that I've got a sparkly ring on my finger and will be wearing a gorgeous white dress in the not-so-distant future, I figure that's even more incentive than ever! So maybe I'll do some research this week, and find the right one to join this weekend?! Any tips and/or advice?! Or Tally friends - favorite here?!

First date with my current significant other: (aka my FIANCE!)
Most of you should know by now, we actually met on an online dating site back in May 2011. So we talked and chatted and phone called and emailed and texted and instant messaged for two weeks before ever meeting each other IRL (In Real Life). Well then our first IRL meeting was a random Thursday night when we both happened to be at the movie theater at the same time, with different people. His movie was starting five minutes after mine ended, so we said a quick 'hello' and gave each other a slightly awkward hug, and then went on our way...

BUT, our first real date was that next Tuesday after a long Memorial Day weekend for a lunch date! He had texted me that morning and surprised me by asking if I actually wanted to meet him for lunch that day. I of course said yes, even though I was so so very nervous about it! (I was just glad I had on a really cute dress and was looking good that day!) So we had a very romantic first date at Zaxby's on our lunch break during the middle of our work day :) Don't worry though, he did at least pay for our fancy meal! My heart was definitely pounding, but I quickly found that it was really easy to talk to this cute, freckly boy across the table from me. Since we had already learned so much about each other in those first two weeks of chatting, it made the transition to real life so much easier. At the end of our short lunch break, I wished I could have stayed and talked with him so much more! But unfortunately, we had to go back to our offices for the rest of the day.

It was such an easy, and casual 'first date,' that it ended up setting the tone for those first few weeks of us dating. It made things really simple and easy, and we could just do 'normal' things and not put too much pressure on ourselves! Seems like it worked out pretty well for us now :)

Not from our first date, but it is one of our first pictures - July 2011, at the twins' 5th birthday party.

First email address:
Well, I think this was when I was in 6th grade or so, so that was probably around 2000. (That hardly even sounds like a real year to me for some reason right now?!) It was back in the days of super slow dial-up internet, and the days of AOL. (Who loves the movie "You've Got Mail?" I do!)

Anyways, I somehow managed to escape the trend of crazy/wacky screen names all the other 12-year-old girls were obsessed with like "2Cute4U" and "MrsTimberlake88" and some other mess like that...  Mine wasn't too ridiculous though, but just enough to make me still sound like a silly pre-teen girl. For some reason, 'my number' back then was 17, so I had to include that in my email address, which was: HalieBaby17@aol.com . See? Not so bad, right? But eventually it did start sounding to silly to me, so when I was a senior in high school, I got a new, more 'grown-up' one to show how mature I was: Halez2006@yahoo.com . See? Mature meant my high school graduation year baked into my email address :) It wasn't until my senior year of college that I moved on from that one, and finally created a 'real' grown-up one, using just my name and some logically placed punctuation :)

If you'd like to join in on this fun link up, check out the super simple 'rules' below, and get to writing!

1. Write your own post about this week's topics
2. Please be following me!
3. Put the new button on your post or somewhere on your blog
4. Link up with me!
5. Visit some of the other links, and share the love with them on their posts!
6. Spread the word on Twitter and/or your Facebook Tweet

Remember to let me know in the comments below if you're interested in co-hosting, and leave at least two new 'first' topics  (Make sure we haven't already covered them yet!) And if you'd like to prepare for next week's link up, those topics will be:

1. First breakfast of choice

2. First dessert of choice

3. First beverage of choice

Looking forward to you writing your own post to join with us throughout this week, and reading all of your fun answers!