New Me Day 1

I recently had a friend tell me he needed to re-evaluate things because he was "blah". We talked about it for a while and I started thinking about my life. My life is really good right now. My family, my job, our ward and stake are incredible, I even love our new town. But there is one thing that I would change. I haven't been taking good care of my body. I don't drink or smoke, but I have been eating out waaaaaaaay more than I should and eating a ton of junk food. I haven't been exercising or doing anything active at all. I know that if I take the time to take better care of myself then I'll be happier and that translates to a happier family.

Because of this I've decided to set a goal: Get Healthy and Stay Healthy. I know this isn't going to be easy. There's going to be a lot of mistakes and backtracking. It's the "stay healthy" part of this goal I'm worried about. This is a lifelong change I want to make. There will be a lot of steps along the way. Here's what I've come up with so far. 

• Exercise at least 4 times a week.
• Focus on Cardio right now because that's the fat burner. Add weights into the routine in a couple of months.
• Learn how to eat healthy.
• I know the basics, eat fruits and veggies, grains that kind of thing, but when it comes to making a whole meal, I freeze. Hence, the step below.
• No more eating out on weekdays. Only eat out once a weekend.
• Be kind to myself. 
• This is the most important step. There are going to be bad days. Days that are busy and there isn't enough time and days where I just feel crappy. That's okay. This is a lifelong journey that I'm starting today. I'm not going to be perfect and that's okay.

This list will grow and evolve as I do on this journey but it's a start. I've decided to document my journey here (which absolutely terrifies me!) every Saturday. This is a really hard post to put out there, mostly because everyone that reads this blog right now knows me and has heard about a million of declarations like this from me over the years. I imagine you reading this and rolling your eyes right now. But I started this blog to put myself out there, as an outlet for me to share my thoughts and my experiences. So that's what I'm doing. Here's to Day 1!

*BEWARE* Scary Day 1 pictures below!!

And Then She Turned 19

Today is my daughter's 19th birthday. She's an amazing girl. She's got a huge heart, she's full of compassion, kindness, love. She works hard and finds the joy in life. She's a wonderful artist and I love seeing her art work. I'm enormously jealous of her talent!! She loves to bake and is wonderful at that too. In fact, I'm hoping there is banana bread when I get home from work. I planted that seed right before bed last night. (My evil genius has no limits!) She works hard and (mostly) doesn't complain about it.

I married her dad when she was 6 years old and she was pretty sure she didn't need a step-mom. I was pretty sure she was still hoping Mom and Dad would get back together and who could blame her? Anyway the years that followed were happy, sad, full of joy and heartache. When she wasn't with us, I wished she was and when she was struggling, I cried because I couldn't go to her and give her a hug. She's been through a lot in her short life. And through it all she's been able to keep her compassion, sense of humor, and her ability to find joy.

She came out for an extended visit this summer and that turned into moving in. And I couldn't be happier. We spent years trying to build a relationship with each other. And in the past few months, it's blossomed! She is even more awesome than I ever knew. My favorite thing she does is when she wanders into my room and sits down on the bed next to me. That's when I know she wants to talk. I *love* those moments. They are precious and our time for them is limited.

She's at a crossroads in her life. She's making big decisions right now and trying to find her direction for the next few years. I have no doubt she will find her way and do it with her typical excitement for life. She's an adventure seeker and after all, what is life but the best adventure we have?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORDIN! I know you are supposed to make a wish, but my wish for you is that where ever you go and what ever you do, you find your true love and joy.

I love you!!

Baby Jordin

Jordin about the time she came into my life. That's her older brother next to her. (More about him later).

Letterboxing in Harper's Ferry this summer.

Beautiful!

Just another Saturday...

*My apologies to anyone who also reads my daughter's blog. You've probably already heard this story.

The family went to IKEA on Saturday afternoon. I have to say I wasn't fully prepared for the experience I was about to have. Let's start at the beginning. Jordin needed a bed and dresser. Jay needed a desk, so I, in my infinite wisdom, suggested we go to IKEA. I had heard it was a great place to get inexpensive furniture that looked nice. So we piled in the Suburban and off we went.

Once on the highway, I realized Jay didn't have her seat belt on. She's had an aversion to seat belts for a couple of years now. Being tired of this battle I decided to hit her where it hurt. I told her that if I had to tell her to put her seat belt on again I would take her phone away for a week. 

We got to IKEA-land and I immediately started to question my wisdom. It was insanity. At this point I have to say the inventors of IKEA are genius. They laid out the store so you HAVE to walk through the entire thing to check out! To those people, I say you are brilliant. And probably responsible for driving several parents crazy from hearing, "Ooooohhhhhh! I want that!!" a million times in the 15 hours it takes to get from the front door to the check out. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. 

After paying Greg and Jordin started loading everything into the car and found that the mattress and box springs we bought weren't going to fit IN the Suburban, so they tied it to the top of the car with the twine provided by the store. Anytime we're driving with anything strapped to the top of the car I get nervous. As we're pulling away, I ask Greg if he's sure it's secure. He sighed the sigh of the unjustly questioned and said it was fine.

Being a control freak woman, I decided to keep an eye on things in the side view mirror. After the 3rd 5th 10th time I asked Greg if he was sure it was okay, he told me to let him know if it looked like it was starting to float. I immediately told him it looked like it was floating. Sighing another sigh of the unjustly persecuted, he pulled to the shoulder of the highway and tightened everything down and off we went again. 

Still nervous, I kept watch in the mirror. I had just finished telling Greg that it looked like the box springs was being pulled up by air when we all heard a weird noise. I looked back to the mirror in time to see the box springs floating vertically in the air behind us! Greg pulled to the shoulder and backed up as much as possible. Then hopped out of the car to try to get the mattress and box springs off the highway. The highway was four lanes across. The box springs landed right in the middle of the highway and the mattress made it all the way to the other shoulder. 

I don't think I can really describe the feelings going through me as I watched my husband defy death by running across the highway 4 times. Although the point where he stopped and did something resembling jumping jacks to make sure the cars barreling toward him knew he was there was interesting. Miraculously, both the mattress and box springs were fine (although the corner of the mattress did get run over by 1 car).

So now Greg and I are standing on the side of the highway trying to figure out how to get everything IN the Suburban because that's our only option. We had to fold down the middle seat (aka: where the girls were sitting) so everything fit. We wrestled both items into the car, moved Jordin to the front seat with me and Jay sat in the back squished in with the furniture boxes. I just kept praying we would make it home without catching the attention of any cops. Because the only thing that could make the day any crazier would be a ticket.

The best part of the day? When we were almost home Jay says, "Hey Jordin, remember the time your mattress got run over by a car?" We didn't stop laughing the rest of the way home.