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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Love

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres" 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

How does one love like this? How do I get to a place where I can love fully without my own selfishness or lack of patience trying to throw things off track? I would like to think that I live up to the standards God has placed before us in the scripture but I know I don't. I fall short, as do many. But why? What causes us/me to do this? Besides the fact that we are human and we are not perfect.

Oh how I wish I could love others the way God loves me. I am most certainly a work in progress. Any chance we can speed this process up, Lord? It would be much appreciated.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Biggest Winner

The Biggest Loser has inspired people around America to get off their tushies and lose weight, eat better and exercise. I never really got into the show until last season when a former classmate from Vanguard University, Shay, was on the show. Although I am not close friends with Shay, I did chat with her a few times. I was inspired by her story.

Weight has always been a struggle for me. Last year I embarked on a weight loss journey and lost 34 pounds. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. I have to admit though, I gave up. Towards the end I hit so many plateaus that I became frustrated and disappointed. I've since gained back 10 of those pounds and I feel down right.. yucky. I am still (mostly) ok with how I look but my body just feels a little off. I feel a bit sluggish and I am tired a lot.

A couple weeks ago I noticed a friends Facebook Status update was asking if anyone wanted to be part of a 6 week fitness challenge. The challenge is through my gym, Ramona Fitness Center. There are teams made up of 5 people each. The team that loses the largest percentage of body weight will win $2500.

I quickly jumped at the chance to be on the team. Sure, it would be nice to have $500 awarded to me but what I am really looking forward to is the motivation. This isn't just me now.. I have 4 other people depending on me. We have a facebook group where we leave comments/posts to eachother, encouragement, accountability. I am looking forward to this new challenge. So, first weigh in is today. I am nervous. I don't know why, but I am. I guess the scale at the gym is a little more intimidating than the one under the sink in my bathroom. Not to mention a whole lot more public. Yikes!

So, here's to a new journey with my team:
Weapons of Mass Reduction~
Bonnie
Charisse
Crystal
Summer
and trainer, Michael.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Karate Kid

A couple weeks ago my nephew, Justen, had his first karate Tournament. THIS auntie was beyond proud of him. This is the first thing in Justen's life that has put the spotlight on him in a good way. He has faced so many health problems in his short life and it was so awesome to see him so exxcited about this.

In the first round the did some moves and got scored based on how well they did them. There were two other kids in his group. He got the highest score out of all three of the kids. When he realized he won a gold medal in his first competition, he was beyond excited. So was I. I thought it may be rude to yell out "that's right ladies and gents...that MY nephew with the gold medal". Is that poor sportsmanship?:)



He had 2 more sections to do. One with weapons and one trying to break a board. He ended up with Silver medals from both of those competitions.
I loved watching my brother, Jim, with Justen. He got down and looked Justen in the eye and reminded him to stay focused, do his best but most of all had fun.

At the end, he wasn't able to break his board but he looked at us and said "but I had a lot of fun."
Hang onto that attitude my little man! You made "Tee Tee" very proud.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Day

Say what you want about this day.. a commercialized money maker type day that the greeting card industry lives for, it's about girls, it's dumb... whatever your opinion, you are entitled to it.

I honestly have mixed feelings about it. It isn't my favorite holiday but I always sorta hoped I would have a valentine someday. Call me a hopeless romantic. I chalk it up to watching endless hours of Romatic Comedies like 27 Dresses, Never Been Kissed or The Holiday.

This year was different though.. I actually had a Valentine. I tried to play it off with " eh we don't have to do anything to big". Jared didn't buy it though.

Of course I had to work on Valentine's Day so we celebrated on Saturday. We spent a few hours at the zoo, checking out the sites. I have to save my favorite exhibit is the Tigers. On this trip we got up close to the Tiger. She was perched on a rock but decided to grace us with a closer look by moving in front of the window.



The plan (we all know how much of a planner I am) after the zoo was to eat at the Corvette Diner in Point Loma. We were both pretty hungry so when we arrived and saw the crowd, my heart dropped. We got the little buzzer thing and found out we had a 40 minute wait. We headed outside to discuss if we wanted to wait so long and I promptly burst into tears. This was not how my plan was supposed to go at all.

Jared, being the amazing guy he is, wrapped his arms around me and became my voice of reason. As I stood there in tears,trying to be okay with the delayed plan, the Sesame Street theme song started to play. We both started laughing and decided 40 minutes wouldn't be so bad. We ordered the largest appetizer I have ever seen. I mean, this was a meal all in itself. It was soooooo good.





In addition to the ginormous appetizer , we both got burgers. Jared got the "Rory". It may sound gross but it had crunchy peanut butter, bacon etc on it. Honestly it was de-li-ci-ous. Trust me.

Sunday we met up for church like we usually do but before we grabbed our usually coffees, Jared made me close my eyes. When I opened them I was greeted with a card and these:

Gorgeous! Of course I got all teary eyed ( I refused to cry due to the water works from the previous evening). First of all, I have never been given flowers from any guy. Second, I love red roses. They are my absolute favorites. And three.. A beautiful card from a guy who isn't so into cards. it doesn't get any more special than that.
We had a simple afternoon watching tv and I headed off to work. About an hour or so after I got to work I got a text from Jared that said " can you come outside for a minute". I did and there he was with a big smile on his face. He had a big box of chocolate covered strawberries from Shari's Berries. As if the weekend hadn't been amazing enough, he had that one last little surprise.


It really was an unforgettable Valentine's Day. The gifts were wonderful but what I really love the most is having Jared in my life, having the incredible family that I do and have friends that are more family than friends. Sure we should show love every day of our lives but having one day that shows a little extra love isn't so bad. :)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Unwelcome Guest

There I was sitting in bed, reading and minding my own business, when I thought I felt something on my hair. The natural reaction to that feeling is to sorta shake out your hair a bit. I didn't see anything around me so I figured it was just my hair tickling my ear.

I thought I felt something sort of crawl on my back but I assumed I was overthinking it. Usually once you think something is crawling on you, the feeling stays for a while. But then I felt it... a little prick or bite or something along those lines. I felt around in the back of my shirt and felt nothing so again, I just thought it was all in my head.

A minute or two later I swore I felt something crawling on my back. I knew there had to be something. This couldn't have just been my mind this time. More crawling then two more little bites or pricks. I flung my blankets to the side, jumped out of bed, ran to the bathroom and peeled off my shirt in probably 10 seconds flat. I shook my shirt and there it was on the floor. A pincher bug.

My work shoes were laying on the bathroom floor because I was too lazy to put them away conveniently in the bathroom so I grabbed one and beat the living daylights out of this pest. I'm sure it was dead after the first blow but I beat it repeatedly just to make sure the job was done.

Pincher Bugs, Earwigs.. no matter what term you use, I hate them. Maybe hate isn't the right word. Loathe. Despise. Detest. Any of those will do. It was creepy and gross and just thinking about it again gives me the heebie jeebies.

Yuck.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Disneyland

Part two of Jared's birthday gift was a day at Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure. We stayed the night at the Hyatt then made our way to the Happiest Place on Earth Thursday morning.



The day couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny with some clouds and in the 70's or so. We waited maximum 5 minutes for most rides and maybe 15 minutes for Peter Pan. I can't even put into words how much fun I had.. seriously.


I was so excited to see "Burt" from Mary Poppins. I wanted blurt out "It's a jolly holiday with you burt.." But I refrained.


No trip to Disneyland is complete without experiencing the world famous Jungle Cruise. meet our tour guide, Jerry...



My Strong man workin it in Toontown..
We happened to run into Goofy at one point and took a picture with him for Peyton. She was so excited when she met Goofy the first time she went to Disneyland.
The last picture of the day.. with the Big Cheese, himself. We were tired but in a good way. And yes, Mickey does have ears. We both just happen to be tall enough to cover them :)

I Love Hockey!

For Jared's birthday gift I planned a little trip to Anaheim.

We kicked off our mini-vacation by going to see Jared's favorite sports team: The Anaheim Ducks.

Trying to park at the Honda Center (Formerly known as the Anaheim Pond) made me feel like I was trapped ub National Lampoons European Vacation when they are stuck in the roundabout. 3 U-Turns later, we made it in.

We found our seats pretty quickly. Funny, I didn't think I ordered sky-box tickets! OK so maybe they weren't that high but good Lord they were pretty far up there! Clearly the seating chart on ticketexchange.com doesn't give you a clear picture on where your seats really are.
No only were the seats high but they were steep. Jared, being the loving boyfriend that he is, let me cut off the blood flow to his hand hold his hand until I calmed down and adjusted to the height from which we would be watching his beloved Ducks.


The guy next to Jared got increasingly drunk chatty throughout the night and the ,loud, obnoxious, know it all.. er uhhh.. character behind us seemed to have a great time bantering with said chatty cathy. The.Whole.Time. I have to say though.. it made for some entertaining eavesdropping.

Of course, what hockey game is complete without atleast one fight? Within in the first 5 minutes gloves came off, sticks and helmets were thrown to the side and 2 guys were in boxing stances ready to go for it. It was so cool!


Hands down, my favorite part was when the Ducks scored their first goal. Jared yelled,jumped out of his seat, and threw his hands in the air.Whoa whoa whoa!! Who is this man showing such excitement, joy. Such enthusiasm? Don't get me wrong, he isn't a stone cold individual. I've just never seen a reaction like that from him. I loved it. For the record, he had this reaction for all 3 goals the Ducks scored.


Final Score: Ducks 3, Redwings 1
By the way.. I'm gonna have to start watching more hockey! It was SO fun!












One Word.







Really?...

Monday, February 1, 2010

The Zoo

It's been a while but I am back. I have to try to play catch up now.
When you were younger did you ever day dream about your future? Did you hope that you would find your soulmate and you would go places together? I know I sure did. I wanted to walk around places holding hands and stealing kisses here and there. I love all of the firsts I am experiencing with Jared.

This wasn't the first time I'd been to the zoo, obviously, but it is the first time I went with my Jared.

Our first stop was to see Jared's Twin the monkies. I love their playfulness!


I really have no idea what this animal is called but I think he falls un the "so ugly it's cute" category. What do you think?

If I had a bigger purse I probably would have snatched this little guy up and taken him home. precious or what?!
This is not the jungle cruise people, these are real Hippos
Your typical "Where's Waldo" moment. Which one is the tree and which one is the deer?
Did you know that Koala's sleep so many hours because of the Eucalyptus they eat? It takes a long time to digest..Zoo Fact!
Dumbo, Is that you? What big ears you have..
Have you ever heard a Lion Roar? not in the Lion King or those buttons you press at the Zoo but an actual roar from a lion. We DID! It was UH-MAZING! He was snoozing away then got up and just started roaring. He probably went on for 2 minutes or so. The crowd was in awe and we all started to applaud when he was finished. Talk about an unforgettable moment.
Unfortunately for her, the lioness was attempting to nap while he went on and on in lion speak.
And my most favorite picture of the day: