I'm here!! Really :) I didn't fall off the face of the Earth!

Hello :)

So, I've been neglecting this a bit, but really, it's paid off.  I got 98% (49/50) on my Stats Midterm, and all my homework assignments have been in the high 90%'s to 100%, the house is still clean, I've been making it to church, and I even had some hang-out/visit times! So I've been busy, but good. I'm kinda tired after the crazy week/weekend I had, but life is good and I'm going to get a good sleep tonight and get back on track.

So I had a good hang-out with a friend and we went for a wonderful supper and then a drive and just re-connected (we both have crazy lives so it had been months) and that was awesome.  That was about a week and a half ago now, and then I was busy prepping for the midterm and getting assignments done, then on Friday I was the assistant photographer for a lovely wedding and we had lots of fun shooting in the mall, and I can't wait to see all the photo's, but mine were pretty sweet, and I did post up a few samples even though I'm busy and won't be working on the photo's, they all go to Lauri, but if you're curious, they're here and they're cool, and while you're there you should "Like" my artist page... just saying :D 

So then I was pretty tuckered out, and Saturday was stats homework, house cleaning, and early to bed so I could get to Church in the morning.  And we did make it, and it was really good.  Good message on God's value system versus ours, and hoarding, and all sorts of stuff, and it was really good, and the worship focused on the fire of God and stuff.  Yeah!  Anyhow, so we made it to church (yeah for 3 Sundays in a row!) and then we got groceries, then another friend came over for lunch, and then we played games, and then we chatted till past my bedtime, and it was all good. :D

Today I went to school, got the wonderful news about my awesome midterm mark, and got my assignment done and handed in, then came home and kinda just vegged, watched Francis Chan clips, like this one:

(And man were these good little messages..... I do not want to live my life like that, but some days I'm sure I start to grab the beam instead of doing something awesome!)

And then I went upstairs and sang with my mom while she practised songs on the piano, and then we had supper, and now I'm blogging then heading to bed.

Oh, and we have a new set up for our dining room making it far more effective.  Before we had two tables both covered in food and sihes and generally just being used for storage of things, and not being used as a table, so we sent one table home with Ryan's brother and his wife, and the other table is in the living room as a games table, and then we have shelves and a "new" (hand-me-down) table that is functioning as, yeah, you guessed it, a table! *Gasp* Wow!  It's pretty exciting over here anyway :D

So I just figured I'd share a couple photo collages I put together for my project... I've been taking photo's, just hadn't had time to do anything with them until today...

 So here's one, this is for this week... well, I guess for last week (gah this month is flying by)... I went for a walk to Blockbuster to pick up the Lord of the Rings extended Trilogy Blu-Rays set, complete with "The One Ring"... and I walked all the there and back in my new Vibram Five-Fingers shoes, which I LOVE!... if you're wondering what those are click here... I totally never want to wear anything else.  But anyways... so I walked/jogged (since the mosquito's were REALLY trying to eat me) all the way there and back and was so proud of myself.  And I did it all dressed up all cute and french-y... You can't see it here, but I'm wearing my Eiffel tower earrings... and I decided to take a shot of the "field" I walked through, and of the construction mess on our road.... So yeah, that was one of my little adventures last week :D

And this is a collage of one photo I took while I was dying my hair the week before last week.  I tried the foam/mousse stuff, and I liked it.  My hair is pretty much the same as it was, minus the darker-ish roots that were coming in... but yeah, I thought the photo was kinda fun, and decided to totally play with it, then liked so many of the versions I decided to make a collage.  Really, one of these days I will just post one photo and be done with it.  I will try.

So that pretty much sums everything up for right now... I don't want this to drag on.  I hope you are all enjoying your summer and God bless!!!!

Whoops, A Little Late...

Gah! So, I really did take the photo's last week, since that's the week this picture is for, and did most of the work on them last week too, I just never got to my blog.  So this is 2/52 for my 52 Week Project! (Oh and no, I don't wear glasses... don't have contacts, don't have any eye problems... but I always thought glasses were so cute, so I nabbed a pair of my parents reading glasses for this project, and now I want glasses... haha. I just think they are so cute and intelligent looking.)

I'm actually really enjoying my Stats class and wish I had started summer school sooner.  I love having one class to focus on, and it goes at such a great pace.  I got my first assignment done and in on time, and have already started on my second assignment, due Friday, and I'm keeping my notebook all organized and up to date too.  Feeling so great about this class!

And I'm feeling great about my eating healthier.  I just checked in on my scale today and I'm down 4 pounds!  This is exciting, but even more than that is just knowing that I'm putting good food in my body and am feeling better.  I still need to be more regular about exercising, but I do do a bit of a walk to get to class and back since I park about 2.5 blocks from my class... which is great except for getting rained on lately.  I love the rain, when I get to curl up next to a fire with a book.  I like overcast and light/spotty sun for going for walks and being outside, and with all the rain and the mosquito's, walks have been out.  So I'm looking up little at-home exercises to do, and am really going to try to do my yoga more, and occasionally go over to Colevin and Ebony's to use the fitness room there (gotta love ellipticals and recumbent bikes!).

We made it to church, albeit late, this past Sunday! Woot! It was really good.  Community is definitely where it's at.  Now if only we could find a couple people to regularly hang out with and build relationships with and it would rock.  We left early to go get groceries and work stuff, and things, so we could have a bit of a games and pizza birthday party for Ebony, whose actual birthday is today. (Happy birthday Ebony!!).  I'm still not doing great on my Spiritual Life changes... I got some pamphlets at school about certain things, and one was goal setting, so I think I'm going to do a proper goal setting thing, and have those printed out and on the wall so I'm reminded of what my goals are and can more easily work towards them, with clear direction.

The house is staying rather clean, which is in itself rather a miracle, and very exciting.

I'm having a great week and will post again, since I want to do this goals thing, plus I need to do this weeks portrait project.  And maybe I'll stick with just one image this time. Haha.  So for now, goodbye.  I hope you're all having an excellent week, and that you had a fabulous weekend!  And I leave you with this, my motivation song and the song that reminds me of what should be the most important life change I make, my Spiritual Life and improving my relationship with God:

Summer Class

So yesterday I started my summer class.  For the month of July, and the first week of Aug. I will be taking Stats 141 every MWF, 9am-Noon.  The professor seems good, so I'm hopeful I'll get through this.  Lots of note taking and assignments, and I already have my Midterm on the 20th!  This is gonna be such a fast month.  Eeep.  But yeah, kinda nice actually, to have something that's a set schedule, since it will help me keep track of my life better.  When I have nothing really structured in my life it gets even more messy than usual.  So that should be good.  I'm trying to schedule my life better to meet my Life Change Goals.  And I need to set actual, proper goals.  So I'm scheduling house-chores to specific days of the week to spread it all out and keep anything from building up and getting overwhelming.  For Mondays I've scheduled the bathroom cleaning, which I got done, and it didn't take long and was basic.  So nice.  I'm going to try to plan meals in advance like my sister-in-law Beth seems to be able to do, so we can eat at home more, which is healthier and cheaper.  So I had planned and half-prepped for our stew supper we had yesterday the evening before, and just stored the chopped up veggies in the fridge. So I got supper made, and swept the kitchen floor, and tidied up while it cooked.  We were both tired by the end of the day since we'd had maybe 5 hours of sleep so we watched a movie and near the end of it the stew was finally done and it was SOOO good!  I think it was my best stew ever.  And we had our ancient grains bread with it.  Amazing.  We finished the movie, I washed up all the supper dishes, and we basically called it a day then.  All in all the day turned out well, but we need to get better about getting to bed Sunday nights... we always want to extend the weekend, but then we pay for it on Mondays.

The weekend.  Ummm... so the weekend was good.  Saturday we went to the Farmers Market.  It's still early in the season for most fruit and veggies, but we got some farm eggs, some homemade beef jerky, some of the most amazing saskatoon berry jelly (and when we go next time I'm tempted to try her unique Carrot Cake Jelly), and some awesome coconut almond cookies.  We also got some hormone free, free range meats from Red Tractor Meats.  That was the stew beef I used.   Really good.  Can't wait to try the Chicken Cranberry Sausage I got, and Ryan got Rodeo Burgers, which are bison burgers with spices and black pepper.  So we had fun there, then we went and picked up some veggies at the grocery store for the stew and while Safeway doesn't have the best Organic section, I'm trying to get as many of the Dirty Dozen foods (the 12 foods that contain that most amount of pesticides, and you can't really wash it out) in Organic if I can.  The fruit is so good in the organic section.  We had some of the best grapes ever, and even the celery was really tasty.  Then we came home, and Colevin and Ebony came over and we played more board games and made chicken taco's for supper.

Sunday I was really tired and didn't get up with my alarm, and so we were running late and chose to go to the Alliance church since they have a 11:15am service so we wouldn't be walking in to church late.  So we actually made it to a church service this Sunday, but I did miss Community.  It's just kinda hard to appreciate other Churches when you're used to Community.  Everything else feels way to human-scripted.... but we did go to Church, and it was good I guess.  Hopefully next week I'll get my butt out of bed sooner.  Gotta work on this getting more sleep thing.

So today I'm going to the farm for the morning (so I'd once again better get a move on!) and then I'm back home working on school stuff (gotta transfer my notes to my new notebook and by doing that I'll review the notes and things we covered last class, plus I need to read through the next section so I know more or less what he's gonna talk about and am a bit familiar with it.  I may even start on my homework assignment that is due next Monday.  It'll be good to get out to the farm today and breathe in some horse for a bit too.  The new trainer has arrived and I need to take pictures of all the new horses for their stall cards.  So if I get all my school stuff done I also need to work on photo's... I still have to finalize my shots from the E-session I helped with, and then all these new horses and stall cards, plus some work on the TopNotch website.  Busy busy, but hey, this is just more practice so I can develop good time management and discipline and efficiency.

So off I go!  Have a great Tuesday everyone and bless you in your going out and coming in!!

GOOD MORNING!

Well, so even though I went to bed nearer to 1am, I was awake before my alarm, though I was snuggling one of my kitties, so I couldn't sit up to look at the clock so I just lay their giving and getting kitty cuddles till the alarm actually went off.   And even though I think my alarm is super loud, the music doesn't wake Ryan up, so I was able to get up with my alarm and go eat my toast with marmalade without disturbing him.  I'm now thinking of going and doing some stretching and yoga now, and after that I'll have my morning fruit smoothie, and then if Ryan's not up, it'll be time to get him up, so we can go out and explore the local farmers market that we've never been to.  Gonna try to get some yummy, healthy, locally-grown, typically more organic food :D  I'm looking forward to that.  Then I'm looking forward to getting some exercise since I was kinda bad the past two days with my health goals... but we had a good visit and then some great board-gaming, so it's OK.  Then more games!

So I hope everyone has a great morning, or in some peoples cases a great afternoon! (Oh and this: ! is an exclamation mark... it's my only complaint so far with this font, that my exclamation marks look like l's or something.)  Have a marvelous weekend everyone!

A Blessed Life

Hey there!  So yesterday was a bit of a slow start... we had power-outage surges a couple of times around 5:30 am that woke us up, and since the alarm was gonna go off for 6am, we didn't get back to sleep, though did we ever want to.  So it was an earlier start than the already dreaded 6am, and while I got up, I didn't wake up for several hours.  Didn't help that we had the window open for the cats all night and it was cold down here yesterday morning!  So I did not do my yoga, though I did sweep all the upstairs, vacuumed down here again, and washed counters, etc... so I did move about a bit.  I finally woke up while tidying the house, then decided to get into a cute summer outfit all colour-coordinated. 

 

But yeah, my house is so nice and clean right now and I am loving it.

Here is our TV room all cleaned... I pulled everything out, and off, and vacuumed EVERYTHING, and Febreze'd all the cushions, and washed all the blankets, and yeah, it's totally awesome.  We have a totally awesome TV room anyhow, but having it clean it incredible!  So yeah, except for my spare room (maybe I'll take a pic of that as it is now, and then when I get it clean I can post before and after pics), the house is clean and I seriously want to keep it this way.  It's so nice.  So why, oh why, do I let it get SO bad...... *Sigh*.... But not anymore.  Nope nope.  The house is gonna stay clean.  It's not gonna get gross anymore.

Oh, and on Wednesday we made our own pizza's for supper.  So good!!  I used a veggie mix that had red and orange peppers, onions, zucchini, eggplant, tomato, mushrooms, and green peppers.  It's a Europe's Best frozen veggie mix.  The only thing with them that I'd do next time is chop them up a bit more... they are kinda big cubes so it was hard to distribute around my pizza.  I used a garlic and basil tomato sauce for the base, and topped it with some cheddar, mozza, and feta.  I cooked up some chicken breast in some fajita mix, and added some of that, and as a treat I added a layer of honey maple ham on the bottom... but just a thin slice.  It was SO good.  Never thought eggplant and zucchini would go well on pizza, but it was good.

But yeah, anyhow, it's now Canada Day (HAPPY CANADA DAY!) and we just sent our guests off to continue their road trip.  We had a great visit.  Ryan's mom, and his grandparents, came and stayed the night.  We had a wonderful dinner at the Sawmill yesterday evening, and an almost good breakfast at The Loft this morning, save that they screwed up grandpa's order and he had to order something else, and only got his food after we were all done.  And they didn't even discount it. :P  But the food was good, as always.

So they are off to Saskatchewan now, and we're gonna go get some snacks and drink stuff, and then we're just gonna be at home playing games!  And I was thinking yesterday about just how blessed I am.  Seriously.  I mean, this year has been pretty awesome in some regards already.  For my birthday Ryan drove me to Vancouver for the weekend so I could see Cavalia!  It was SO amazing!  Then the end of April/beginning of May we flew to the coast for a good week of visiting with family, and I got to meet my newest nephew, and play with my nephew Jack, and I even got to see my beautiful niece for a bit and my energetic oldest nephew Lucas.  And it was so awesome to see everyone and visit.  June we were in the mountains.  And next weekend we're gonna go see Dralion! Cirque Du Soleil's Dralion Video Trailer!  So yeah, that's super exciting!  And even with this summer class starting up on Monday... I mean, as much as I'm kinda like, "Ewwww, Math Stat's", really, here I am, getting to go to school so I can accomplish my dream of being a vet, and I can take this summer class, and I got into all the classes I need to for my last year of pre-vet, and I have a wonderful husband who supports my dream and works very hard so we can pay for my schooling, and amazing parents who are helping me, especially in providing accommodations and advise/support too.  So I can't even really complain about school, because it's a privilege and a blessing.  And we just got to visit with family again yesterday and today.  And we have an amazing trip planned for August to the mountains for Ryan's early birthday... gotta love those group-deal things, like groupon and livingsocial.  We're going here for 2 nights in a 1 bedroom suite with a gourmet kitchen in it, and we're getting 2 dinner theatre tickets, a float trip down the Bow River, bike rentals for the two days, and a 5pm late checkout, for, ummm... $470, or something like that, when it's usually all close to $1000.  Yahoo!  So that's gonna be a great little trip for Ryan.  He LOVES the mountains and is a bit upset that this summer class has ruined our July camping options... but hopefully this will make it up. :)  So yeah, we're blessed, I'm blessed.  I mean, flip, my life is really pretty awesome!  And I love my kitties!

-----------------------------------Day Goes On---------------------------------------

Haha.  So I never really got this thing done, and I just finished up that last part, and it's now midnight, and I'll just fill you in on the rest of the day quick then post this and wonder if anyone can get through all of this.  Yeesh.  :D
So yeah, we started games around 11am, and we finished playing games around 11pm.  Yahoo!  We stopped to make supper (shepherds pie) and that was about it.  We were more than a little crazy near the end.  It was hilarious!  We played 7 unique games, and 8 game plays total.  We played Colossal Arena, Citadels, Guillotine, Alea Iacta Est, Ave Caesar, Smallworld, and Elfenland, then played another round of Colossal Arena while waiting for the fireworks to start.  We had played everything else at our place, then we went to Colevin and Ebony's to watch the fireworks from their awesome 9-story view.

Oh, but on our way we figured, mmm, Starbucks would be nice.  But they closed early for the holiday (something I appreciated as a staff member but not so much as a customer, go figure) so then we're like, hmmmm, Second Cup is close and they have later hours... and we head over and the lights are on and we're excited and we get out of the car and we see the sign that says All Holidasy 7am-11pm, and it was just turning 10pm, so we were stoked.  Then we pulled on the door.  It was locked!!  The two girls behind the counter looked up and gave us a funny look.  We're like, ummm, Hello, you're sign says 11pm, and it's 10pm!?!?  What's up?!?  But all we got were funny looks as they cashed out the till.  So now I'm all "Super Grrrrrrr" at them.  At least, if you're gonna close early, write it on a piece of paper and tape it to the door. "Canada Day Hours: ---pm" (fill in the blank).  How hard is that.  Seriously.  Instead, you get my hopes up.  Ugh.  Anyhow, rant over.

So we went and watched the fireworks, and we could see not only Spruce Grove's really awesomely, but also some ones in the country, and the ones from Edmonton even!  So that was awesome, though I even got a few bug bites up at 9-stories.  Not impressed.

Now it's totally bedtime.  We were all so tired.  Ryan is already asleep.  I just kinda needed to wind down a bit.  Oh man, so many games, and we were getting so intense.  Elfenland has never been so heated and crazy!  I think we're totally being affected by our multiple playings of Colossal Arena and Smallworld lately.  Games were more laid back before those ones came on the scene.  But it's awesome, so who cares?

So here we are at the end of our final Colossal Arena game!  Good times. :)

Other than that, all I really have to report is that I've been pretty bad about my eating the past few days, what with company and our own private party, but I'm hoping to get back on track tomorrow.  Tomorrow we're hoping to check out the local farmers market, get some exercise at Colevin and Ebony's (they have an exercise room in their building), and then we're gonna play even more games!! Woot! 


So I hope you all had a marvelous, wonderful Canada Day!  Cheers and goodnight!

1/52 - The Project Begins, plus: Yoga beats up Sarah!

So I finally got the self portrait done for week one of my 52-Week Self-Portrait Project. Since I've been madly cleaning my house the past few days I decided to kinda do a housecleaning photo, but in style. Haha. I couldn't quite decide on the photo's, so I did two of them. Here they are: My Sexy Housewife Cleaning in Style photo's! And no, I do not clean the house like this for real. I clean the house in sweats and a t-shirt mainly. But this was fun.  (And I kept thinking that if someone came to the door and I had to run answer it, they'd be mighty surprised to see someone done up like this at 8:45am... haha. Especially with the cleaning gloves on.  Totally completes the outfit, don't ya think?)

As for my day so far... I got up early today, which is a huge struggle for me. I am seriously NOT a morning person. But I got up right after Ryan left for work, so around 6:10am (yeah, I know, ugh) and had breakfast, watered plants, and then did my beginner yoga video. I haven't done my yoga since before Christmas... I used to do it with my awesome sister-in-law Beth, but then they up and moved to England and are having a grand 'ol time, and I'm stuck here in Alberta with no yoga partner. So I haven't yoga'd (as if that's even a word) in months and months... and even though I was taking modern dance the semester after Christmas, sitting around these past two summer months have totally made me lose any gains I had made in fitness by taking that class. So let me just say, that yoga video whomped my butt! Yikes. Oww. Uhhh. *groan* I am so out of shape that a basic beginners yoga video totally owned me. I've really got to get back at it. So I am going to try to get up in the morning with Ryan and eat breakfast and do yoga before continuing my day. And hopefully someday soon it won't hurt so much during and after, and I hope to touch my toes again soon too... I've just got to somehow keep at it. Which can be hard when it's so dang tiring, and then it's discouraging... to see how far I've slipped back again. But I won't ever get fit if I don't do something about, so for now it's yoga, and walking (hopefully Ryan's ankle heals up soon so I have a walking partner) and the occasional bike ride, and I'll eventually move up to the extra yoga and the crazy lower-body workout that are also on my video.

In other news, my house is almost really clean. Except for the spare room. Don't even mention the spare room to me. But everything else is awesome :) I've dusted, vacuumed, wiped, washed, and tidied, and I love having all this space! I can actually sit in my couch! So yeah, been doing good on that, and the eating front is still going quite well, though I did have a bit of ice cream (Jack's softserve, so can you blame me) with Ryan when we went out on Monday... it had been a warm day, I'd gotten a fair amount done. It was SO yummy!! And on Monday we went back to Beerhunters, a pub here in town, for supper... we'd been once before a while ago, and thought we remembered it being really good. And we weren't disappointed. Awesome food. It's a pub, so we'd avoid it later in the evening, if there were any games on, etc... and the service is lackluster, but the food is totally good. So yeah, I got a break from cooking, but other than that I've been good and have been making meals at home too. Look at me go! Hahaha... :D Anyhow, that's enough for now.

How's everyone's summer going? Any big plans for Canada Day? We're just gonna be chill'n and playing board games. Should be good. Have a great day everyone!!

Checking In - It's Been A Week

OK, so here I am to account for my week. Did I make those changes? How'd I do so far?

First, the Health and Fitness.
I found a site called LoseIt.com and I joined and have been keeping track of everything I eat and watching my calories, and adding any exercise I've done (not much). Because of that I've been making way better food choices and besides half a mini cupcake at the wedding I've avoided my downfall: the fatty, sugary baked goods. I've been drinking more water, haven't had my usual sweets and sugary drinks, and have been eating more fruits and veggies... still not enough, but an improvement. It's been good, though man occasionally I really wanted chocolate or cake or something. And I've been a bit tired, since my body was used to running on sugar, but I'm sure in a few more days it'll sort itself out, and be the happier for it. I was planning on getting in more exercise, but then Ryan sprained his ankle, and we haven't got out for our planned walks, and he was home for a couple of days, so we mainly hung out.

On a side note, we went and saw Green Lantern and loved it! Out of all the comicbook movies we've seen this year (Thor, X-men, and Green Lantern) it was hard to choose a favourite since we liked them all, but we think Thor's at the bottom, and we feel that X-Men and Green Lantern are so different... in part because X-Men is a return to familiar characters (though their earlier renditions, it's still Xavier and Magneto and Mystique, etc...) and a familiar Universe, and it was really well done, but we might have liked it in part because of the familiarity, and to get more backstory, while Green Lantern was fresh, and more fun. We laughed a lot. But it also had decent character motivation and depth enough to understand why the characters did what they did, for the most part. X-Men has always shone in that regard, and even more now... you totally understand Xavier and Magneto's story, as well as Mystique's, and so many others, and why they do what they do and believe what they believe. But enough about movies... for now.

But yeah, so I'm doing OK there, and am hoping to have lost a fair amount of this extra unhealthy weight by the end of this year, and will have hopefully taken advantage of the fitness facilities at school and gotten in shape too.

Spiritual Life... ummm... no real improvement in this area this week. Though I read a great couple of blog posts recently on trusting God: one by my awesome sister-in-law here on how Gratitude is the Essence of Trust, and one here called "Daddy Save Me". They got me thinking. And so I did pray a smidge, asking that I get a fuller revelation myself about this kinda thing. We didn't make it to church, and I can't even blame it on staying up late partying at my cousins wedding the night before since we left kinda early... we just didn't really try to get there. Oooops. And my Bible still hasn't been out. Though I'm slowly trying to read Designer Genes, by Ken Harrington, and it's got lots of verses in it. Ha.

Procrastinating and Housework. Well, we did get some of the house clean over this past week, but this morning I procrastinated and wasted time online, and so now I have a lot to do this afternoon. I need to clean my bathroom, wash a few dishes, wipe the kitchen counters, do some laundry, and tidy the office up. Tomorrow is vacuuming. Tonight Ryan is going to help me clean the TV room. We only have a couple more days to get this place clean before Ryan's mom and his grandparents come for a visit and we want the house to be clean. Then we really want to find a way to keep it clean, which will involve breaking off many bad habits.

Relationships With Others. Well... I did have a good visit with my Aunt Shannon at the wedding, and did visit with a few other people. I also hid behind my camera a fair amount. We've had Colevin and Ebony, Ryan's younger brother and his wife, over for games the past couple nights, since it's a totally affordable entertainment for all of us, and we need to watch spending.

Oh, that's something else I should be watching... money. Haha. Though the eating out less and less sugar and crap foods will certainly help in that area. Hmmm... maybe gonna have to think about adding some sort of savings goal or something, but for now, I think I've got enough stuff on my plate.

We're hoping to have a games night on Friday, since the house should be all clean, and we've got the time, and the games. If you don't really know us, we're board game fanatics. All started with a game store in Victoria, BC called Interactivity. It's on Fort St. near the Bay Centre and it's owned by a guy named Jack, and he's amazing and knows so much about board games (and we're talking Euro-board games here, not Monopoly and things like that) and he's part of a gamer group and so they play all these games, and he knows what is playing well, and what isn't, etc. And it's his passion. And he got us hooked on these Euro-board games. I'm gonna have to do a post on the games we have and stuff at one point. They are so good. But yeah, board games. And a games night. So I might be social!

So all in all I did enact some changes, and in some places I'm still in a rut, but for a first week I guess it's a start. Baby steps are still steps. And next week I hope to report even better things! And tomorrow I'm also hoping to start my 52Project, where I post a self-portrait (a photo I took of myself, either from arms length, or using a timer, or a remote, and having conceived of the concept and done the post processing myself as well) every week for a year. And it has to have been done that week. Looking forward to that project too. I need to get back into actively doing creative things, like writing (even just this blog) and my photography, and maybe even more painting and sketching and things too... since it's such a part of me, and will hopefully help keep me sane when I start up school again.

And just to finish things off, here's the Queen, meeting and greeting a whole bunch of troop horses. <3 Love :) The photo is from here.

OK, Time For Some Change!

So maybe it's a little late in the year for resolutions and all that jazz. Who cares?! I am, as of now, gonna try to make some changes. Changes in habits, changes in health, changes in life. Time to step it up! My life is just flying by and I'm wasting so much of it just sitting around doing nothing. Well, nothing important; nothing exciting; nothing good for me.

So here's some of the things that need to change:

Fitness and Health
I need to get in shape. Ryan and I have a passion for the outdoors; for hiking and scrambling, camping, climbing, backpacking, and I love to ride, and I also love to dance. But right now we can't enjoy much of that since we're both overweight and out-of-shape. I am at least 40lbs over my ideal weight. That's the weight of a pack for a decent length backpack trip! If I lost that, backpacking would be so much easier! And I'd have more energy for things, and just be more comfortable, healthier, and happier. I want to be able to run around the house playing tag with my kitty-cat Janey who loves that game, and not be out of breath after running from the living room to the TV room and back. Yeesh! Plus I just don't eat healthy. I love my sweets, baked goods, and cheesy breads too much, and I avoid my fruits and veggies. I don't want adult-onset diabetes or other health problems when I'm older. I've got to start being more healthy.

So the challenge is to eat far less sweets and far more fruit and veggies. To get some form of exercise every day, whether it be my yoga video, a walk, a bike ride... anything. To not spend so much time in front of the computer or watching movies.

Spiritual Life
So here, I gotta admit, I've been sucking. Never been good about reading the Bible, praying regularly, or doing devotions. Only thing I do do is play worship music or listen to Christian music and Shine.fm, on a fairly daily basis. Ryan and I have even been really bad about getting to church, being apart of the Body, making connections, tithing, etc... This is not good. This is supposed to be the most important part of my life, my relationship with God, and here I am slacking big-time. No wonder I have less joy in my life. No wonder I struggle with small things more and more.

So I am really going to try to make more of an effort to get to church and more of an effort to get into the Word and be praying as well. I have got to learn to hear from Him. And I have got to start dealing with all the crap (areas of unforgiveness, offense, past hurts and woundings, and anything else bogging me down and helping keep the wall up between me and others, including God.)

Procrastinating and House Work
Anyone who has known me for a while knows I can be quite the procrastinator. And I procrastinate the worst with house chores. Right now I'm not in any classes, and I only work part-time, so I should have lots of time to keep thins house clean. Ryan works long hours in a hard job, and he does it to provide for us... he's putting me through school , putting his dreams on hold while I pursue mine... and so the least I can do is make it so that he comes home to a clean house.

Mess is tiring. It really is. You look around, see mess, and it's draining. It also makes it harder to do things, like have supper ready, etc, when the kitchen is a mess. I really need to step up, and make a more concerted effort to keep the house clean, because I have the time, and it can be a way I show my love and appreciation to my husband for all the hard work he does. Plus it would just be nicer for me too. A clean house is nice.

We have just developed such lazy bad habits about the house. Clean clothes pile up everywhere because I don't have a good habit of folding them as they come out of the dryer and then putting them away. Dishes pile up because we have a habit of sitting in the TV room and watching a movie or a show while we eat, and so we don't do the dishes right away. That and we don't have that face-to-face time during meals to visit either. But the table is usually cluttered, and it's comfier on the couch, so off we go.

I plan to try to make a concerted effort to do at least one area of the house a day to ensure that the house stays cleaner, and to get better about folding clean laundry and doing dishes. That's the plan. Just gotta stick with it.

Relationships With Others
I'm an introvert. And, as mentioned in the spiritual life section, I also have some issues (ha, don't we all?)... one of my biggest issues is Trust, the next is that overwhelming feeling of loneliness even in a group and the feeling of not belonging. I'm a very walled-off person. This is bad. I don't let people get too close generally, and I don't like people to see the real me, to the point where some times I'm not sure who is the real me. Where does the posturing, the hiding, the masks and persona's end, and I truly begin?

That all makes is rather hard to have real relationships with other people. And we need real relationships. You need people to walk with, to talk with, to be held accountable by... We need mentors; we need, as women, women friends, and as couples, couple friends, and so on... We need relationships in which we are able to be real. And love the real person, ourselves, and our friends. Thank goodness we have God's love and grace to extend to ourselves and others. And we need to practice that extension of love and grace, to everyone. Who better to practice it on then friends, and on ourselves?

So I need to stop hiding in my basement, pretending Facebook makes the cut as far as having relationships go. I need to learn to be a friend. I need to learn to be real, and trust others... trust that the real me isn't that bad. That's it's safe to be me. And that it's safe to get to know others. I need to be open to connections. Open to going for coffee, or going for a walk with someone. And invite people over (which, if I stick to my house-chore goals, will be easier to accomplish, since right now there's no where for anyone to sit)... Hmmm... revelation?: Maybe part of my messy-house thing is a hiding thing, since then I have an excuse not to have people over??

Finale

So, that's the big areas of my life I am hoping to progress in. Time for some re-conditioning, some re-training, some old-habit breaking and new-habit making! And I'm going to try to blog about how this stuff is going, and other things that pop into my head or heart, like things I've read that I really liked or that were eye-opening, healthy (and occasionally not so healthy, since everyone needs a treat once in a while) recipes, and so on and so forth. And I'll hopefully add some photo's occasionally, like if we take a trip, or if the cats are being cute, or something. I may try to do a once-a-week self-portrait project too.

So, off to try to clean a portion of the house and get some exercise and do a devotion or something! But before I go: What are some things you are wanting to make a change in, and how do you plan on accomplishing this change? God bless and take care!

*** None of the images used in this post belong to me. The Running Rhino can be found here (and by the way, I would love that shirt, hint hint, haha), the Potter and Clay picture was likely from CrossDaily.com, or from a newsletter who got the image from there, etc. The house-cleaning cartoon is from here. And the picture re: Relationships with Others is a picture from Cirque Du Soleil's show Varekai, off their site.

Wow, Once a Year Blog Posts :P Ugh...

Well, here I am... School has been consuming my life, and I really don't take the time I once did to do things like write. Which is odd, because I've found the time to play numerous games of solitaire and Bejeweled 3 lately... but I don't schedule myself; my life. Which I should. I wish I were more disciplined. If I could schedule school time, and me time, and house time, and husband time, I'm sure I would feel less frazzled. I'm in awe of people who can accomplish this... who can ensure that everything and everyone gets some time, nothing builds up to be overwhelming, and they themselves get productive time. I am a procrastinator. I'm trying not to be, but it's such an ingrained habit now... but I'm always kinda guilty about procrastinating, so I don't take useful time for myself (writing, painting, etc...), nope, I play solitaire. Then I haven't done what needs to get done, and I also haven't done anything really me, and I'm left tired and overwhelmed.
I would love to be writing again... and all the empty canvas in my spare room calls to me... and I've got 5 classes this semester (first really full course load since I started back), and I'm having trouble focusing. I like my classes. I just can't seem to care about them enough. I had a bad dream last night that I failed my Animal Physiology final. Not a good feeling. I've worked hard the past 3 semesters to get my GPA up... and now I'm scrambling in a couple of classes to keep from dropping my GPA right back down.
I am looking forward to this summer. Getting myself back on track. Visiting family on the island, seeing my nephews and my niece (hopefully) and hopefully also getting to the mountains this summer again. Need to get a good job for the summer to. I am hoping I can get something that pays well enough that we can have Ryan be able to change jobs this summer and do something that doesn't exhaust him so much and have him out of town so much. It would be nice to see him more. It's tough, being married but during the week living separate lives and being disconnected... then trying to integrate our lives in the short weekend, when we're tired. It's definitely a drain on us.
Hmmm.... guess what? I now drink more tea than I drink coffee! Crazy, huh? Yeah, it kinda just happened, or snuck up on me, or something... Starbucks had their "Tea Time" when tea lattes were 50% off, and my school's coffee started to taste gross (changed their supplier, etc) and so I had some black tea, and realized that tea is good. I usually before was never much of a tea drinker. Didn't really like the stuff. Now I love a good rich black tea, or a chai latte... I think the Rutherford Teahouse helped with my tea thing too... I took my sister-in-law Beth there before she left for England with my brother, and we had a delightful black tea and finished off the 2 pots... yummy. And we went there because I had a groupon coupon for there too. I love groupon, and all those other deal things... you can occasionally get some awesome, useful deals :D So yeah, I'm a tea drinker now... but still won't touch green tea. Sorry, but it still reminds me of either boiled green vegetable water or boiled hay/foliage water... blech. Just not my cup of tea... hehehe. Like white tea, love black tea... maybe I'll be brave and try rooibus or whatever it's called, when I'm out at the coast, but I don't think I'll ever like green tea.
I love my kitties, they are a blessing to me, keeping me company and giving me snuggles. I miss Donovan and Beth but I am glad they are having this adventure of theirs :) I love my family, near and far, immediate and extended. My husband is a blessing to me too, working hard to support me in school, helping out when he's home even though he's tired, calling every day to see how I'm doing :) I can't wait till he's home this weekend. Looking forward to seeing a movie maybe, going to a dance performance (mixing school and a date), and just hanging out. Maybe playing a game with Colevin and Ebony.
Well, there's my catharsis entry. Maybe next time I'll be more interesting and less blah, blah, blah, and whiny... :)
At least I took the time to sit down a write this... though I must admit there were about 5 games of solitaire interspersed in between writing... *gasp*
Yeah, yeah.
Anyhow, hey, look, a post! Going to try to go for more than 1 post a year, really I am.