Family

It has been a little while since I wrote.  I have been struggling with many things this week.  I have sorta been following my new goals.

I have been doing good  with saying my prayers and I actually have felt the power of prayer working in my life.  I have been doing okay with my scripture reading.  Not meeting my reading goal every day but doing better than I did before setting my goal.  I will continue to work on this.

My bad eating habits are very hard for me to break.  I did so good my first week.  This week I have been struggling a bit.  I am still doing better than I was but I can do better.  I feel like my struggle is in the evening, I work so late and by the time I get home I am starving, and tired and those two things together make it very difficult to eat healthy in the evening.

I have been doing good with my professional goals, I am very proud of myself.  I have been doing well with my relationship goals too!

I am doing okay with my physical activities.  I didn't go walking today, I was so tired.  I hope dad doesn't give up on me.  I am doing my walking about 50% of the time, this is better than 0% so it is an improvement but I can do better.

I think my depression is worse than I thought.  I am looking forward to having a visit with my doctor next week.  I hope that I will be able to have a good conversation with him about what I might be able to do to help myself get over my slump.

I went to a funeral today.  My dear friend Laura lost her mom to cancer.  This was a good opportunity to ponder on my life and the relationships I have with my family.  I love you all so much and feel so blessed to have such amazing supportive family.  I am grateful for my mom and dad.  I hope that I can continue to build loving relationships with my great husband, children, parents, and siblings, in the end it is all we have.

My family brings me such joy!

Walking and Talking

I started my day out the best way.  Walking around the block with my Dad!  He is my new workout partner and he is the best!

I had a good day.  I thought it would be so stressful because of some issues going on at work but in the end nothing happened today.  This does not mean that it is over, it actually will get pretty nasty at work and probably this week.  That is why I need the prayers, to help me handle a very stressful situation.  But I am so happy that is was a calm and happy day.

I also enjoyed a wonderful night with my parents and siblings with their spouses.  I am so blessed to have caring loving parents who treat their kids to dinner!  The only thing missing was Scott, he was in S.F.  and I wish he was here with me to enjoy this night.

I am keeping it short tonight.  I am grateful for students who were happy to see me after a couple of weeks of Christmas break!

Being Renewed at Church

Today was a great day.  I haven't felt so much relief in going to church for a long time.  I think it all has to do with my state of mind and beginning fresh and new.  I have hope that this is a changing point for me and that by giving my burdens to Christ and taking one day at a time I can feel peace and joy as I did today.  Pray for me.  I need your support and good thoughts to be sent my way.  I am having a very difficult period at work.  I know this will change with time and it will get much easier but in the next couple of weeks I am facing a difficult trial.  I need to remind myself I am not in this alone and that my Heavenly Father knows me and what I face.  Through Christ I can do all things.

Thanks for reading my spiritual thought of the day.

I did fairly well with me eating today, probably because it was Fast Sunday, not really, to be honest I rarely fast.  I have never really been a faster, I have not had any real experiences when I felt my fasting really did any good, except that I donate money.  I think to understand and have power in a gospel principle you have to feel it work in your life.  I have really tried fasting with a purpose in the past but just haven't really felt that my effort made a difference.  I guess I should work on this.

I have been drinking my water today, I made a healthy turkey (left overs from thanksgiving) tortilla soup (I did have two bowls and felt very full, I don't like feeling that full).  I helped Alice make cookies in order to help cheer her up (it worked) and ate one cookie.  Pretty good for a Sunday.  Usually on Sundays I eat a lot.

I was reading my blog from the past and realized that I acknowledged blessings in my life each day.  I am going to do that again.  It really helped me see the silver linings and hand of God in my life each day.

I am grateful for my Savior.

Baptism and Depression

Saturday January 3, 2015

Today we had a baptism in the family.  Since the only ones that are reading this are my family than you already know this.  Talon's baptism was special and it reminds me of why I live in Utah.  I am so happy I was able to be a part of his day.  Some days I really wished I lived far away from Utah but today I felt happy to live here.

Alice is really depressed.  This is a very unusual mood for her.  Usually she is very excited about her life and experience she is having in Grantsville.  I feel very bad for her.  I hope she can over come this challenge she is now facing.  She is not happy about having to move.  She is very comfortable living with us, we have done our best to treat her like a family member and I know she feels the love we have for her.  It has been so good for us to have her in our life this year.  It has helped me understand what Elle may be experiencing and therefore it has helped me have even more compassion and empathy for Alice and Elle.  The only difference in Elle's experience is that she has not become attached to any of her families the way Alice is attached to us.

It is interesting how situations in life can cause us to go into a depression.  I have been depressed for the past year.  Looking back at my year I can see the progression of my depression.  I have even considered going to the dr. and seeing if maybe my dosage of my medication I take should be increased.  I have just been waiting to snap out of it though, hoping that it will pass, that perhaps I am just feeling a bit down.  I think the first step in getting the help is to recognize that you are actually depressed.  I hope by beginning to exercise and become more physical, it will help me greatly.  The other thing that will help me is admitting that I have a problem.  Because I know that I can over come this, my past experience has shown me that it is possible, I have hope that with a bit of time and help I can get past this bump in my journey in life.

Today my eating was a bit all over the place.  I did so well, choosing healthy this morning and at the luncheon not eating any sweets and only a little soup and I have been drinking lots of water, but once I got home from picking Alice up in SLC I went crazy.  I was hungry, my family was hungry, and while making dinner for everyone I had a couple of handfuls of chips, I ate dinner until I felt very full, almost sick like.  I realized that I have to be prepared!!  When I just go by the seat of my pants I can tell I will struggle.  After dinner I made a menu and grocery list to get through this week (everyone is back to work and school).  I took Alice with me shopping (she was soooooo, sad the whole time) and I stocked up on healthy supplies, no junk food.  Tomorrow I will prep my week's menu and snacks.   I know I can do this if I plan ahead!  I also enjoyed a two mile brisk walk today.

I took a before picture yesterday.  I will be downloading it and posting it maybe tomorrow.  Thanks for all the support, I love my family!

Quiz Question!  Which is my favorite??

Happy New Year! Its NEVER to late, set your goals today :)

Today is Friday January 2, 2015.  Here I go again.  I stopped blogging for some time.  I have missed it.  I love blogging.  It means nothing to the world out there but it is very therapeutic to me so I decided to resurrect my blog and document my journey this year.  I feel like for me it will help me achieve my goals that I have set this year.

Goals:

Health - Eat Healthy and Exercise Daily
All of my goals are important, but I feel this is incredibly important to my future.  I want to feel better.  Right now I feel like crap on a daily basis.  I struggle with my depression.  My body hurts.  I know if I make a conscious effort to change some of my bad habits it will change my life.  I want to be a healthy grandma and be around to see my children grow into parents.  I don't want to just be around I want to be healthy and be around!
I am starting this day at 188 lbs.  I hope by making important changes to my lifestyle I will lose weight and feel great! I hope this blog will help me stay motivated to do what it takes to be healthy!

Professional- Increase my knowledge and skill in hair coloring
                     - Study and learn a new hair cut every month in 2015
                     - Increase my eyelash/waxing business to 8 clients a month

Spiritual- Meaningful, Purposeful Daily Prayer Morning and Night
              - Read the Book of Mormon 5 to 10 minutes daily
              - Complete with Love my visiting teaching every month
              - Prepare weekly meaningful primary lessons

Relationship- Honest Open Communication with Scott
                    - Love without conditions
                    - Forgive quickly (don't become offended)
                    - Think and speak kindly of Scott
                    - Be completely LOYAL to Scott
                    - Have more fun with Scott

Personal- Read on book per month
              - Speak kindly of others (no negativity!)
              - Do one secret deed or service to some in need each month
              - Regularly blog

Financial- Build my Eyelash/Waxing business to 8 clients per month
               - Save $500 per month $6,000 this year for retirement
               - Give 10% tithing on all income.

I love setting goals!  Some years I achieve my goals some years I don't.  I feel like I have been very reasonable with my goals.  You don't see it here, but I have written in detail how I will achieve my goals by breaking it down and developing a plan.  I will be using Scott's model.  S.M.A.R.T.  which stands for: specific, measurable, achievable,  realistic and timely.

I can't wait for each day to begin because I will be getting closer to achieving my goals :)

I hope you will be entertained and inspired by my hard work to realize my dreams!  I hope everyone has a dream or goal this year.  I would like to be your cheerleader as you strive to become a better person.  Even if we don't have a perfect year it will be amazing because we will have become better for trying!

P.S. I already found my health partner (that was part of my plan).  Thanks for joining me on this healthy journey Dad!  I will be taking a beginning picture (YIKES!)  I really want to document this amazing journey to better health!
             

                

Sleepless in Seattle

Scott and I had a great weekend in Seattle WA.  It has been a while since we have had the chance to have  a weekend without kids and a million activities that pull us in different directions so this was a long needed break from the real world.

We flew up on Friday and stayed until Monday evening.  Seattle was a beautiful city.  I understand why they call it the Emerald City.  It is a city full of hills and green trees everywhere as it is snuggled in-between the Olympus mountain range on the north the Puget Sound on the west and Mt. Rainer on the south-east it was amazing.

The weather was perfect to take in the sights.  The only rain we experienced was a little bit on Friday night and I suppose it just isn't a trip to Seattle unless there is a little rain.  We visited a fun attraction called the underground city where we learned that in the 1880's the city burned down and was rebuilt higher but the old walk ways were left for people to use so it was kind of like walking around in a deep trench.  We walked along the board walk and went window shopping.  We were able to see a Mariners VS Twins baseball game (probably my favorite activity).  We went to the Space Needle and had brunch at the top as it rotated around the city (takes 47 minutes to make one complete rotation) twice.  It was so beautiful!!  One of the best parts of the trip was that we were able to meet up with a couple of Minnesota friends and  as we spent time with them it felt like no time had passed since they sat  at our kitchen table and shared a pizza on a Friday night just like old times.  I miss my friends that grew to be family in Rochester.

The girls were on their own to fend for themselves.  They did a great job of helping one another and keeping the house somewhat clean  (Actually Emma did a great job, Elle not so good).  Emma also took Elle into SLC to the Hogle Zoo so she could start her training for her volunteer job this summer.  Emma made it to church Elle didn't.  Over all it was a good weekend because the girls were alive  (which is all I was really hoping for, after all Elle is only 14)...Emma on the other hand was annoyed that her sister was so lazy while we were gone.  I had to remind Emma that Elle was only 14 and when she was 18 like Emma I am sure she would become a very reliable person like Emma has become.

I now know that Scott and I can now take trips without the kids and come back to a house that is not a disaster and I know that the girls will treat each other kindly or at least not kill one another!!  I declare this trip a success :)

Scott doing his window shopping at his favorite store.

Kevin and Scott hanging out after the underground tour.

From a park up on a hill in the expensive part of town...oh I think every part of the city was expensive!

From the Space Needle, one view of a 360 degree view!

Another view from the Space Needle.

Take me out to the ball game!

LDS Temple.  It was beautiful :)

Princess Emma, Princess Elle, Princess Ava and Princess Aurora

Happy Birthday to Emma!!  My baby girl turned 18 today!!!!  Wow, I am so amazed at how fast time flies by when you are having fun.  Emma has been a gift in my life and I am so blessed to be her mom.  I love that girl.

Today  a friend of mine had to have surgery and she is new to the area.  She and I met at school.  She was a client of mine and we hit it off.  Her name is Anika and she is the one that helped us find our horse and then she has come down to work with Emma and Phillip a couple of times.  Because she doesn't know many people and I really like her I offered to watch her 3 year old Aurora while her husband took her into the hospital and stayed with her.  I took the day off of school to help her out and to celebrate Emma's birthday :)

Our trip to the Zoo was so much fun.  It always bring back many great memories when I go to the zoo.  Tanner LOVED LOVED LOVED the zoo and because Tanner loved the zoo that meant his sisters learned to love the zoo.  Who wouldn't love the zoo if you had a big brother who knew more about the animals then the zoo keepers knew about the animals.  We never made an outing to the zoo unless we could just sit and observe the animals, we never ever just walked through quickly, we would always have to map out how we were going to walk through and decide which animals we were going to observe before we even got to the parking lot.  Now I know this blog isn't about Tanner but just understand he has been a great influence on his sisters over the years.

The main reason we went to the zoo today was actually to teach Emma how to drive there by herself.  She has to take her sister into the zoo on Saturday so she can start her training for her zoo volunteering job this year, so we decided to make a day of it.

My niece Ava was at our house this morning and Aurora really enjoyed her so we invited Ava to join us at the zoo also.  Scott and I set out (with Emma driving) to take a 3 and 5 year old as well as a 14 and 18 year old to the zoo.  It was soooo much fun.  Elle and Emma enjoyed taking pictures of gorillas pooping into their hands and then eating it (it was like watching a train wreck...I just couldn't look away!) and seeing the tiger fake attack their mother as it leaped out of the pool and clawed at the glass while I was standing mere inches away from it and let out a terrifying scream, because after all it scared the crap out of me!  They also enjoyed as a bird pooped right on their mom's head and face as we walked into the stinky  bird house.  And finally I think both Emma and Elle enjoyed seeing their mom run two little girls to the bathroom like a bazillion times (really, seriously it was 10 times to the bathroom so the girls could tinkle in the potty).

 After spending a great day with the best two girls in the world (that would be Emma and Elle) and having two little girls wear me out we finally got home.  I bathed Aurora because she wanted to take a bath in my bathtub :) and then after two minutes of watching Spirit with Emma and Elle she fell sound asleep!  I wish I could sleep like that.

I am grateful for Emma and all the beautiful memories she has given me.

Attack of the Mosquitos by Emma

     At 2:00am Tuesday morning my little poodle Sandy decided he had to pee. I, of course, was very unhappy with this but I couldn't let the poor thing suffer....plus he'd just end up peeing up on my floor which would make my Mom and Dad very unhappy. So I got up, turned on the light by the back door, opened the back door, noticed a big mosquito on the door frame, grabbed a flip flop, killed it, went outside, and hooked the chain on Sandy. As I stood and turned around I saw a sight to behold. There, on the door and door frame were a bunch of mosquitos. A bunch of BIG mosquitos. There had to have been like 30 of them and they were all the size of a golf ball. It was a terrible sight, so I screamed (which I'm surprised didn't wake my mother seeing as her room is closest), ran inside, and tried to shut the door but it didn't shut all the way, staying about 2 inches open. In my room I contemplated my options. I could wake my Mom or my sister and tell them to let Sandy in, I could suck it up and walk into the swarm, or I could leave him out there for another six hours until Elle got up. I decided on option two, thinking I was old enough to handle a few bugs and not call for my Mommy. But I couldn't go out there without my battle outfit on. I put on  a pair of jeans, and a sweatshirt and put the hood up. Then I walked out of my room and towards the back door and realized there were tons of mosquitos flying around the computer room where I had turned the lights on before letting the dog out. I then ran outside, let Sandy of the chain, threw him through the door, ran inside, slammed the door (again surprised I didn't wake my Mom), screamed, made it half way to my room before I stopped, dropped, and rolled, terrified that I had bugs on me. Once I got into my room I stopped, dropped, and rolled again for good measure. I changed clothes and jumped under the covers afraid that some might have made it into my room. I then didn't let Sandy onto my bed for about 10 minutes fearing he had mosquitos attached to him, when I did finally let him up, I rubbed him down to make sure he was clean. Then I pulled the covers over my head, even though I was dying of heat  I didn't dare pull the covers off in case I was attacked again and stayed like that all night.
     And for the record, at least 6 mosquitos have been killed today. Ew.

     The End.


     (Good story, huh?)

I like to fail forward :)

Today I made a few mistakes in school.  I actually like making mistakes, it helps me learn by learning what not to do....

1.  I cut the biggest whole in a haircut (boys short taper) just as I was feeling so proud of my job and was finishing up with some clean up work.  Good thing this boy was 7 and he didn't know the difference as I was forced to cut his hair very, very short to cover up the bald spot.  :)  He loved his haircut at the end and I guess that is all that matters....also that I learned that little 7 year olds are very wiggly and don't get to proud of your work until the clippers are turned off!

2.  I waxed a woman's eyebrows, mustache, and inside of her nose today but as I pulled the stick out of her nose I didn't have a very good grip on the stick and the stick stuck as I half pulled.  Needless to say it cause this woman some pain....okay maybe a lot of pain.  She was very, very sweet about it all and even told me that she would love for me to do it again.  But still it was very embarrassing and I felt badly that  I  inflicted such pain on another human being.

I have decided to cut my hair short.  I won't be doing the cut until next week but I am very excited about it.  I will post pictures as soon as I get it done and I even think I might surprise you all with a new hair color!!

I am grateful for TaCO TUESDAYS!  I have decided that every Tuesday I will buy tacos from Cafe Rio for dinner.  It was fast, cheap and delicious.

These are my new sparkle finger nails.  I love them, even though some people have been shocked by my choice in color and asked me if I was going to be working on the corner of Main and Hale now. 

(the answer is NO)

My new sparkle toenails!!  Just as pretty but in pink :)

Making the Cut

I had a another great but tiring day.  I am now looking forward to going to pick Scott up from the airport.  I got to cut my instructors hair today.  He always lets one of the students cut his hair and today it was my turn.  I think I did a great job.

I think my favorite part of cosmetology is hair cutting.  I also really like coloring hair but my favorite is hair cutting.  There is nothing like a really good hair cut :)

Lyle before the hair cut....

and after the cut!  Didn't I do an awesome in job?

I am grateful for my health.