Sunshine Award

The Sunshine Award!  I had no idea what this was until Samantha Halkias Bivenour tagged me in it from her blog!  My heart skipped a beat when I saw that she tagged me in something!  I didn't know what it was but I truly felt honored!  It turns out that the Sunshine Award is an award from bloggers to bloggers.  It gives bloggers a chance to be recognized by other bloggers, as well as to share a little bit about themselves.

I am new to the blogging world this year but Samantha has definitely been my biggest inspiration to start a blog myself.  She was one of the few that I actually followed and I saw how she has been able to write from her heart and what its like to "feel whole".  I saw how she was able to share her journey in life and it got me thinking that I could benefit from doing the same thing.  So THANK YOU Sam for inspiring me and thinking to tag me in this award!  

When you get tagged in the award you must answer the eight questions that your nominator asked you, and then tag the next person with a different set of questions.

Sooo here are Sam's questions!

1) What would be the first thing you would do if today was your last day?

Well, as much as I want to go scuba diving, ride in a helicopter, hike the Grand Canyon, go to Hawaii, etc. before I die, I really would want to be with my loved ones on my last day.  So Joe and I would head back to Ohio and I would want to hold my niece as much as possible and just be with my family, reminiscing on good times and laughing as much as possible. :)

2) What is your favorite gift you've ever been given?

For my high school graduation my mom made me two scrapbooks from when I was born to the present.  They were filled with all kinds of memorabilia and pictures.  It is something I have been able to reflect back on good times and share my first 18 years with others.  It also helps me remember important moments.

3) Who is your favorite character on Friends? Why?

Chandler!  He’s extremely sarcastic which I find very funny.  He speaks his mind and makes fun of his friends all of the time even though he loves them dearly.  His relationship with Joey cracks me up. He is very witty and finds humor in just about everything.  He is also very good to Monica and treats the ladies nicely. 

4) What do you consider your biggest accomplishment to date?

Graduating college! I was scheduled to graduate early for my class, Decemeber of 2010, but a semester before graduation I decided I didn’t like the direction I was going in.  So I took two years off and I started working; I of course lost my desire to be a student again.  I did not want to go back, but I knew it was what I was supposed to do.  So I went back and graduated this past December, and boy it felt good!!

5) What is the song that best describes your life?

Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. I can relate because I feel like I go through the motions a lot with “society expectations”, get a job, make money, and live life.  Well, I’ve always wanted more out of life but sometimes I feel stuck, like I don’t know how to change and make it better.  I want to be a better person and make the most out of life, but sometimes I just don’t know how.  That is why I have started this blogging journal to help keep myself more accountable.

6) Dogs or cats?

Definitely a dog lover!

7) What is a quote you live by?

“Everything happens for a reason” As cliché as it sounds, it’s so true!  Life does not always go as we planned and hoped for.  It’s life and we are thrown curve balls.  I truly believe that everything happens for a reason because there is a greater God up there that may have a better plan, we just don’t know it yet.  So when we are thrown those unexpected curveballs, yea they suck at times, and I am sure the last thing you want to hear is “everything happens for a reason” but maybe in a week, month, or year, you will say, “oh yea, now I see why that happened, I am so glad it did because this way is so much better!”  There have been a zillion times that this happened to me and I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.  

8) Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Oh boy!  This is a hard question for me as there are so many things I want to accomplish and different directions I can see my life going in...  In 10 years I will be 35, so first I hope to be happily married to the love of my life with maybe three kids by then?  I hope we would be living close to family as family is important to me!  I would love to be my own boss someday so I could have the flexibility of working from home to be with my kids while still having a successful career.  I would hope to be an independent Health Coach consultant where I would have individual clients that I work with, and I would also go into company’s to give seminars and workshops.  

I also hope I am still blogging and possibly writing a book by then, as that is on my bucket list!  In ten years, we go through a lot, especially in our mid 20’s and early 30’s.  I hope all of my experiences make me a better, stronger friend, sister, aunt, daughter, and potentially wife.

Alright, time to pass the Sunshine on!

Jenna McCambridge:  A dear high school friend.  Her blog is Clothed In Confetti.  This lady is all about the fashion advice.  She posts her amazing fashion tips and finds and it is a must read!  I am not good at throwing outfits together, so her blog is a site I frequent quite often!  

Carly Goeman: This girl has got it going on!  She is already very well known in the blogging world as she writes about creative ways to live healthy.  She shares clever recipes and workouts that can speak to everybody!

Here are your questions ladies....

1. If you had to get another, or your first tattoo, what would it be of and why?

2. Where has been the favorite place you have visited, and why?

3. Wine or beer?

4. If you could invent a holiday, what would it be?

5. What do you do to recharge?

6. What did you learn from your mother?

7. What do you love most about the city you live in?

8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Leap of Faith...

Leap of Fatith, the act or an instance of believing or trusting in something intangible or incapable of being proved.  Well, I'd say I am taking a big leap of faith as I have made the decision to move to Dallas, TX.  I am completing my number 21. Open up and follow my heart.  I have been very skeptical about dating again and opening up my heart to someone after things I have been through.  I definitely closed off my heart and my feelings for a very long time.  I felt numb and I was honestly okay with it for awhile because I wasn't feeling pain anymore, I wasn't getting close to people to allow myself to feel pain.  Well, after awhile I realized I didn't want to live that way anymore, life is too short! So completing number 21 was a big goal for me this year, ya know, to really open up my heart and be transparent with someone again.  Of course its a daily thing, but my heart is finally happy again, more than it has ever been, and I'm going to follow it to Texas.  Some people may say I am crazy but that is okay because its my journey, not theirs. :)  

Don't worry, I found a really awesome job and career path I have been wanting to go down for a long time.  So with that being said, I am completing my number 23. Pursue a career in health and wellness.  I have accepted a position with MyFitFoods at their newest location in Dallas.  I will finally be a Nutrition Coach, which is what I've wanted to do for years now!  I have had a lot of self-doubt and I thought I wasn't good enough or knew enough to be able to do it, so I never pursued it.  One thing I really admire about Joe is his ambition and confidence, not only in himself, but he wants all his family and friends to have the same mindset about themselves; he doesn't believe in settling for less.  So he really has encouraged me and helped me believe in myself!  I stepped out of my box and put myself out there, and look what happened?  It was a lot easier than I expected and I am so excited to begin this journey!  It is happening a lot sooner than expected, I get to Dallas March 30th and begin working April 3rd.

It is definitely going to be very hard to leave family, as I am a family oriented person, especially with my new niece just being born on Monday!  I am already so sad about that :( I hate not being here to see her grow, but hopefully I'll be back here soon!  I know that this is what I need to do for me and for my life at this time.  Home is always here and we can always come back this way.  

Change is always scary at first, I like this quote by Birdiee Pruitt "Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but it's the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up. And it will..."  Well, I will miss everyone here in the midwest, but I will keep everyone updated on my yearly transformation in Texas. :)

"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakens."

-Carl Jung

Welcome to Texas. 

Garbage in, garbage out...

Well, with spring slowly approaching, yes very slowly, worse than snail pace, it's about time to do some spring cleaning. Now, I am not just talking about cleaning out your closet and getting rid of stuff you don't need, even though that it super important and I already did it this year!  Yes, I know it feels sooo good to get rid of stuff you don't need anymore and donate to those in need. Well, today I am talking about our influences.  What are we feeding our minds?  Who are we associating with?  What is our environment like?  Well, today I am going to touch on what are we feeding our minds?

Well, I have never been the type of person that watches the news, reads the newspaper or a lot of magazines.  It's not that I don't care about what goes on in the world, but I always hated how I felt after reading or watching certain things.  As we all know, the news is filled with negative, horrible, scary stories.  They hardly ever touch on the positive things in the world.  I like to think I have a big heart so I would always feel so sad and depressed after watching the news, and so I immediately thought I am not going to do this anymore.  I mean who really wants to hear about young kids and families dying in a car crash or randomly getting murdered, etc.... Well, family, friends, co-workers, have always come up to me over the years asking, "have you heard about THIS..??", my answer is always "no, I have not".  They proceed to tell me and I sometimes feel ignorant for not knowing, and guilty that I should keep up with the news a little more, ya know?  And then I think, if we are constantly filling our minds with

what is wrong and terrible in the world, then our minds are forced to only traffic in the negative, and then we proceed to worry and be fearful.  Well, I don't like living that way!

When I was reading the Compound Effect, there was a chapter on influences and Darren Hardy touches on this.  He finally made me not feel bad about not watching the news, because he is a hater as well!  I finally did not feel alone!  He encourages us to go on a media diet.  Basically weed out all of the negative stuff that basically just leaves you depressed and unmotivated, and add in all of the inspiring, wonderful beautiful, incredible things that DO happen in this world.  Because there really is a lot of GOOD that happens, and we often miss it because the media tends to focus on the negative.  We basically have to search for the positive stuff, kinda sad isn't it?  Well, start your search!  Think about what matters to you, what you want to know about, and subscribe to those instead!

I like what he says in chapter 5, "controlling what our brains consume is especially difficult because so much of what we take in is unconscious...we need an extra level of vigilance to prevent our brains from absorbing irrelevant, counterproductive or downright destructive input".  ahhhh so true!

I am sure a lot of us have unconscious habits and routines, especially when it comes to reading and watching the news, we probably don't think twice of it because its what we are used to, or what we grew up doing.  Not just the news, anything, music, TV shows, books, etc. I am definitely guilty of it! But do you really like the feeling you're left with afterwards? Probably not.  

I think it's important to look and see what we are feeding our minds.  Is it something that we can learn from, grow as a person, feel optimistic, positive, feel better on the inside, help us shine a light to others...or does it leave us feeling sad, lonely, depressed, pessimistic, negative, plain unhappy?  I know what I need to cut out...what garbage can you get rid of? Do some SPRING CLEANING!!! 

February Recap

Well, I have been a little behind on my blogging as my personal life has been a bit hectic!  I still wanted to reflect on February as February was a great, busy month!  I was out of town for half of the month, so I feel like it was a bit crazy.  It was an amazing month, as I got to visit Joe in Dallas, and spend a good amount of time there.  However, my routine was thrown off so it was hard sticking to some of my daily goals I set for myself at times.  Some of the things I can cross off my list are.

47. Learn how to braid my hair

Alright, you probably cant tell that well in the picture but I taught myself how to do the fish tail braid.  Yes, I am sure manyyyy people can already do this, but I never took the time to learn!  It really wasn't too bad!  I still want to learn other braids, but this was a good start!

45. Play 20 Questions

When I was in Dallas, Joe and I had a lot of great conversations, as always.  We can talk about anything and everything, so he was the perfect person to complete this goal for the year.  Even if you know someone really well, there is always something new to learn!  Some questions I remember us asking were, what super power would you choose, if you got another tattoo what would it be, if you died tomorrow what would you do today, whats your biggest fear, your biggest goal, etc... it was fun to ask silly and serious questions, and we both learned a lot about each other!

10. Monthly Fitness Challenge

I got all the way to 40 pushups, with no girl pushups the whole month!  I may have missed some of the days over the weekends, but then I would do two sets on Monday.  So yea, not perfect, but I made it through each day and got to 40!  I need to keep doing this because pushups are truly such a good workout.  Back to basics y'all! (can ya tell I was just in Texas?)

13. Bake something every month

I baked these for Joe for Valentines Day because he loved them over Christmas.  These rae not mine as I forgot to take a picture, but i used waffle pretzels, with a combination of hershey kisses, reese cups, peanut m&m's and peanut butter m&m's.  They were all pink for V-Day :)

Well, yes this month was busy but I followed my budget, read my devo every morning-for the most part as I missed some days on the weekends, I sent an encouraging text each day, and did my daily stretches.  After this month, I realized it is so easy to fall out of a routine and soooo hard to get back into one!  I am the type of person that needs a routine or else I will drift off course.  Getting back from vaca has been harder than I thought with trying to get back into my routine.  I feel like you need a vacation from your vacation, as I felt exhausted the first few days after getting back.  Well, now its time to get down to business and remember why I started this journey this year.  I want to live a fulfilling life!  I want to make some progress and profound transformation.  I do not want to let another year go by without accomplishing my goals.  Sometimes that means hard work and time dedicated to that.  I can't keep sitting back and watching days go by without accomplishing anything and saying "I'll do that tomorrow".

I had a nice vacation, but now I am back in reality and I need to remember what I read in Compound Effect, about setting a routine and replacing bad habits with new, rewarding habits.  So I am going to go do some yoga right now and refocus my mind and energy into something positive.  I will envision my life and the direction that I want to go in.  :) 

Quarter of a Century...

That's right, I turned the big 25 a week from today!  25 years young baby!  I had an amazing birthday as I got to get out of this cold weather and spend it with my boyfriend in Dallas!  He planned a lot of special things for me and it was truly one of the best birthdays I have ever had!  I do love birthdays, even though that means we are turning one year older, but I like to think we are just getting wiser!  For real though, I love that birthday's bring people together!  Think about all of the birthday parties and gatherings you've been to, whether it be for yourself or for others.  It usually brings loved ones together, and even reconnecting with people you have not seen in awhile, or making a new friend.  There is usually great people, food, dessert, gifts, singing, possibly some dancing, jokes, stories, laughter and most importantly love.  Birthdays SHOULD be celebrated!  It's a celebration of life!  Even though we didn't do much to be brought into this world, we are still here, alive, breathing, and it is one day out of the year to truly dedicate and celebrate that. 

Well, this birthday has made me think more than usual.  It was the first birthday I really wasn't looking forward to.  I mean I was looking forward to where I was going and what I was doing for my birthday (way more than others), but for some reason I was not too excited about 25.  Not because its "old", because it's not old by any means!  It may be in my own head but I feel like I haven't met the society standards that most people have met at 25.  It can be easy and BAD to compare your walk of life with others, but it just seems like most people my age already have their stuff figured out, ya know?  Or at least they do a good job of pretending!  I tend to get down on myself because I don't really have my life figured out- well, when do we ever, but I feel like I am late to the game with figuring out what my passions and goals are.  I mean I just finally graduated college at 24, while most people from my class graduated three years ago.  I am just now figuring out what I want to do while others are already pursuing and fulfilling their dreams and passions.  I get down on myself because I don't own or have a place of my own, I don't have a thriving, prospering career, I am no where near ready to start a family, my savings account should be bigger, and my future has so many un-knowns right now! BLAH! 

I tend to go through these waves of depressing and self-doubt cycles.  I dwell on the past and my unknown future and since I am not satisfied, I get down on myself and stuck in this depressing state of mind.  I then have no motivation to do anything to change it-I just keep thinking well this is as good as its going to get because you're not good enough to change and succeed.  It's actually quite annoying and I am tired of it!  Especially because this year is all about SELF TRANSFORMATION and improvement, so I need to fight off these negative thoughts and cease the day! So, I should STOP being so down on myself and comparing my walk of life to others.  It is MY walk of life after all, and it is not supposed to be perfect or like anyone else's.  I may be behind the game in some aspects, but then again, not really! I have already accomplished and experienced a lot in life, stuff that people will never experience in a lifetime and I am only 25. I need to think about those things instead of dwelling on everything I haven't done in life.  Because in all reality, I have a whole lifetime ahead of me to fulfill all of my dreams and goals!  I am no where near being behind!

It can be difficult at times to live in the social media world that we live in.  We see and hear about everyones success and accomplishments whether it be in their careers, love life, family, weight loss, fitness, etc.  Instead of taking it as encouragement, we sometimes take it as a little overwhelming because others are accomplishing things we haven't yet.  If you don't struggle with that then great, but at times, not all the time, I can.  So I am trying to remember that this is my life and I am the only one who can take responsibility for it and the choices I've made.  I vow to make the most of it and be grateful for the life I have been given!  So cheers to being 25!  It's going to be one hell of a ride this year and I can't wait to see where it takes me!  Here are some pictures I wanted to share from some birthdays over the years!

Joe and I before going to the Rascal Flatts concert this year in Oklahoma!

My birthday last year with the family.  We got a little silly!

Co-workers from the Boathouse Restaurant made me feel super loved back in my management days! :)

Hats and sashes should be required at all birthdays! :) Shoutout to my boo K-lowe!

I turned 21 in Spain and made new friends and life long memories here!

Throwback to 2006 when my cousin Josh brought the first grandbaby into the world for the Brader's, and it brought the whole family together!!  Literally, there was over 30 people waiting for Bella to be born!

Throwback to our sweet 16!

So yes, birthdays are fun and worth being celebrated.  It was fun to reflect on some of my birthdays and birthdays of  loved ones!  What are some of your favorite birthday memories?