Award…
Feb 26th
I’ve never gotten an award on my blog. Never! So last week when Diana over at Hormonal Imbalances let me know that she had given me one… I was SOOOO happy! Really. You don’t know how happy I was. I was literally bouncing off the walls happy. Crazy I know.
The rules for accepting the Sunshine Award are as follows…
1. Put the logo in my post or within my blog.
2. Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within my post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blogs.
5. Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award!
Ok… I’m going to try to pass this on to 12 bloggers whose blogs I read on a regular basis. I try to comment on them as well… but sometimes the comment love just doesn’t happen because I want it to be personal and from the heart. And sometimes I just don’t have time for that. Sad but true.
Anywhoooo… here are the nominees for the “Sunshine Blogger Award”
You know… to be honest, I thought it would be harder to come up with 12. It was hard for me to LIMIT it to 12. I just hope the nominees appreciate the award as they receive it. 
300/450…
Feb 25th
To the average reader the numbers 300 and 450 probably don’t mean very much… but to me they mean everything… at least today they do.
Today is my 300th post on this blog in just over 2 years. And honestly for the first year or so, I really didn’t do much posting. In fact I think there was a span when I didn’t post for more than 2 months. So to be up to 300 now in this time, I’m thrilled.
And another 300 “milestone” is that I almost… SO CLOSE… have 300 people/groups/businesses following me on Twitter. If you want to join in the fun… add me. I can’t say that I’m the most entertaining person in the world — but I would love to be Twitter friends with you!
The other part that I’m SO happy about is that I have finally attained more than 450 comments! I joined the SITS girls to share in the comment love — not only because I love writing on my blog, but also because I am fascinated by other people’s lives and what they are doing to make things meaningful. Through this, I have met some awesome bloggers that I now tweet with on a regular basis. How fun is that! OMG… really, SO fun! I’m also hoping to go to one of their Bloggy Boot Camps later this year.
Anyway… for this milestone, I wish I could have a giveaway — but I just don’t have the backing behind me yet to do anything like that — so y’all will just have to leave your comments “free”ly and not expect anything in return… as much as I would love to provide it to you! Oh, but I promise, I will show you the comment love back… it might take me a while, but I am VERY committed to reading the blogs of those that read and comment on mine. It might take me til the weekend to catch up — but I’m going to get there!
As part of the celebration – and the reason I started the blog – I have finished my page that tells about my weight loss journey. Complete with pictures. I couldn’t be more proud of it — and I truly hope that my story… in any small way that it can… will inspire someone to try something new, try becoming healthier, try living life to the fullest and not missing a beat in it all. Because after all — that’s what life it really about!
Thanks so much everyone for inspiring me!
WW Wednesday Update…
Feb 24th
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know my story… or at least part of it… and why I started this blog started in the first place. (By the way, I have my pictures in my weight loss journey back up on the blog here. The story is coming soon.) Since reaching my lifetime goal though, I’ve become distracted – not only here on the blog (losing your purpose for blogging is VERY hard… just so you know), but also in general terms of life.
I’m not saying I’ve lost my life purpose… because that’s still becoming clear to me, but I’ve lost that little push to workout daily… to eat right at every meal… to be the example to everyone. And now I’ve got that little voice inside me keeps saying that “you’ve got to get back on track… you’ve got to get back on track…” Or maybe that’s just my Weight Watcher’s leader….
What I’d like to do is become one of those skinny girls that you see out with their friends at local restaurants… bars… pool halls… wherever. You know the ones… they have a SUPER fast metabolism, and incidentally are also SUPER young… and can eat or drink seemingly whatever they want.
So not fair. I totally missed out on that. Boo.
Anyway… what was I saying?
Oh yeah… that I’ve seemingly lost my blogging purpose. Right.
So I am trying to get back on track… not only with what I am writing about (thanks to the Lady Bloggers Society – I am getting a plan of action in order) but also with the food that I have around me each day. And for this, I desperately need to go to the grocery store. So desperately. But I fear going to the grocery store because those Oreos have been calling my name ever since a couple of weeks ago when I was discussing them in a wonderful frozen format via Twitter with Gitzen Girl.
Seriously… frozen oreos are the best… or maybe frozen chocolate covered oreos… Mmmmm….
Ummm… sorry I just slipped into an Oreo food coma there and distracted myself.
So now you can see why I haven’t really been losing weight… all the distractions in life. They surround me, they surround you… we all just need to power through here somehow. Just how for me is yet to be determined. I’m working hard at it though– and trying to stay the course as much as I can. So far the week has been good to me.
And I promised my Weight Watcher’s leader that next Wednesday I would come back to a meeting. That I would see my friends there and catch up with everyone. I’m a little scared about weigh in… I don’t know why… after all I know what the number says on my scale at home.
So there’s my update on the Weight Watchers course.
How are you doing?
Post it Tuesday…
Feb 23rd
I was going to write some “letters” to various people/products today… but then this past week I saw “Post It Tuesdays” on Jessica’s blog (ATL Mom’s Guide) and was inspired to change my post to participate with SupahMommy’s group. Enjoy!
We are dorks…
Feb 22nd
I don’t talk about work very often at all because, frankly, it’s really not all that interesting. I work in finance and really most days are simply boring. Paperwork in, paperwork out. Staring at my computer {blankly} trying to solve problems. Really, I think I would lose any readership I have or could potentially have in the future if I even thought of writing about work days. That is unless you thrive on the paper processing, fighting with copy machines and talking to endless customer service agents that make you want to rip your hair out.
So yeah. Bo-oh-ring.
But not last week Wednesday. It was like a scene from “The Office.” My boss likes doughnut holes. Yeah, you read that right… doughnut holes. So he and the coworker with the birthday this week decided to do an economic “experiment” loosely surrounding the theory of the “Law of Diminishing Returns.” The hypothesis was that as we ate the doughnut holes we would become less satisfied with them.
These are said doughnut holes early in the day… and by early I mean when I got there. At this point, a 1/2 container had already been consumed. Yes, you do see that there are 7 boxes of these lovely creations in our break room.
We ate them… and ate them… and ate them… ALL.DAY.LONG. Seriously. The law of diminishing returns DOES work in full effect with doughnut holes very much. We had more than 1/2 of them on Wednesday, and we were SO sick of them. It was horrible. But then the leftovers were there on Thursday.
So what were we to do… we had more doughnut holes on Thursday. Which I must add… were gross. I don’t want to see another doughnut hole for a VERY LONG TIME. It hurts to see them in the store. It feels painful to think about the number of them that I actually ate (even though my coworkers totally out ate me on this one… rightfully so!)
In the end my boss stated that if we were to do this experiment properly, we had to have a set timeline to eat a certain number and rank them on how satisfactory they were.
I’ll tell you now. I won’t be participating in this type of “experiment” anytime soon.
Yuck.
(Just for full disclosure here… if any script writers from “The Office” or any other show related around office work are reading this… keep in mind that this was OUR idea and catastrophe - contact me before incorporating this idea into any of your scripts! Just sayin’… credit should be due.)
Dreaming of things…
Feb 20th
I feel kind of funny putting this in writing today. Why? Well… I think I know what I’m going to be writing about tomorrow… and then none of these things matter. Really. God has been laying some serious stuff on my heart which I am hoping to share with you in a post tomorrow — umm, if I can put it all into words. I think.
Anyway… I had another blog post in mind for today – but I need to do a little “more” to it, so it will likely appear sometime next week. It’s about horoscopes — and specifically MY horoscopes for 2010. It’s entertaining me….
So this morning as I was browsing around the confines of the internet (whilst skipping my workout thank you very much!) I discovered that I *want* a lot of things. So I decided to put them into a post to see how many of them are just simply “fad” types of things for me… or something that I will truly want to purchase in the coming futures days, months, years… you get the idea.
The first thing I want (or rather will need soon…) is a new car.
I love the VW Jetta — but would go for anything newer and with more working parts than my current vehicle has at the moment. I think it’s the squealing of the vehicle (not to mention snide looks from other drivers/passersby) when I am not hitting my gas pedal. Yeah, and no one know what’s wrong. Fun times.
A new television (or 2…) would be nice. The one in my bedroom wakes me up with the “crack” thing that it does. Annoying. My dad has said if he had to deal with it, it would have been trashed a long time ago. I really do like the television in my living room, but unfortunately things do not last forever and I fear that it’s life may be coming to an end someday soon. I hope not. But it’s getting “up there” in it’s TV life.
A new camera would be nice… I’ve done a little research and the Nikon D90 would be more camera than I think I would ever, in my entire life, need. I want to take much better pictures than I can with my point-and-shoot… so this may be something I will start saving for. Merely $2 per week for the next year… and hope that I can find a good sale.
Along with the new camera, I’d like to get the Adobe Creative Design Suite. It would be helpful for some projects that I’ve been working on… and potentially to start my own design firm one day. Or at least more easily be able to help others with their needs. And be able to edit the photos with the pictures I’m taking with the new camera.
Finally… the last thing that I am dreaming of is either the Kindle or the Nook. I’m not sure which would be better… or which I would prefer. I’ve seen the kindle in action on an airplane — although it wasn’t a personal demonstration… and I’m pretty sure that the person next to me would have wanted me reading with them… so I refrained from being TOO nosy — and I know I can see a demonstration of the Nook at my local B&N.
Ultimately my question is… would I really ever use it… and is there an option of a “library check out” kind of thing for books I don’t want to buy — but want to read? (i.e. you get the book for 2 weeks and it disappears/locked up after).
So maybe you dear bloggy friends can give me some advice. Yes, besides telling you about all of the things that I am dreaming about here – I need advice. If you have/use any of the specific items above… can you tell me if it’s worth it — or would recommend an alternative?
Meet the nephew…
Feb 19th
I know I promised this a while ago… well, a month to be exact — but finally the day has arrived. I promise I won’t celebrate every month he gets older (I’ll leave that to his mama… but I don’t think I’ll be able to talk her into starting a blog quite yet.)
Without further adieu… my “lil’ buddy” (aka the nephew)…
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lil’ buddy content… just hangin’ out
We were trying to wake him up (he HATES tummy time) and this picture makes me laugh every time…
I think it’s the raised eyebrow that get’s me.
I’m beginning to think he might not like me taking so many pictures of him…
But this one is my favorite… my brother with his son when lil’ buddy was a day old.
He’s so proud.
Happy one month lil’ buddy!
You are so blessed!
Just a small town girl…
Feb 18th
There are times that I really love my town… Summers are great here — beautiful beaches, great places to walk (sidewalks everywhere) — a fun and vibrant downtown shopping district… and well, pretty much when it isn’t snowing I’m ok with it.
But until yesterday I had no idea that I was living in one of the happiest places in the United States. We were featured on ABC News last night… see for yourself!
Even with the economy the way it is (we may be living in a “Norman Rockwell era”… but we are not oblivious to our 16% unemployment situation), the people that live around me are optimistic. We believe that things can’t be this way forever (nor will they be)… and we believe that by investing into people — just like the news piece effectively says — that we can bring out the best in them and they will strive to be the best that they can be.
It’s not how I planned it…
Feb 17th
Back when I signed up for the 25k in January, I really thought I could do it. I really thought that I had it in me. I thought I could run for almost 3 hours and survive.
Did you know I went crazy back then? I really did. I know that there are many, many people that can run for 3 hours and feel great after. I however, run for 15 minutes and want to throw in the towel. Not to mention that I am the SLOWEST runner of anyone that signed up for the running program at my club. OUCH. So here I am… trying to train by myself – in pain from the jaw issue – and not wanting to do it. Hmmm… can anyone guess what I’m about to say next?
I am no longer running the 25k in May — wow. I wrote it. I’m ok with it. I’m actually deliriously happy about it.
And while I am not running myself into a crazy oblivion… I am still going to challenge myself and run the 10k. I can totally accomplish this — and feel like I can try to improve my time over my one and only 5k. So in other words… I want to essentially finish in under an hour. Maybe I can really strike a crazy fancy and make my goal to be 55 minutes. I don’t know why, but it sounds better than an hour.
In all of this, I discovered something about myself. I do things to “impress” other people. I have the accomplishments set to show other people that I can do anything… but guess what — I know I can do anything… after all I lost 160 pounds without trying to “impress” anyone. I did it for me. I did it for my health. And if I am brutally honest with myself – I did it to have new adventures that I knew would not be possible without losing the weight. {Some of these adventures I imagined have not yet come to fruition… but I have faith.}
I can do anything… and that’s what I want to share with the world. It’s possible. Because if I did it — a girl that procrastintes in most things, a girl that has very little self-control and a girl that scares easily & will run from the unknown — ANYONE can do it.
I think…
Feb 16th
…about what life would be like if things were different, but I know that changes nothing. I am going to start accepting myself as I am and what I have. No more “wishing” for what I could have. God will provide these things if and when the time is right.
…about how I feel so insecure about so many things, but yet I try to be the picture of confidence. I need to acknowledge to others that I am hurting — and also begin writing more about these “hurts” so that I can find the root causes of these insecurities.
…about how I procrastinate at EVERYTHING, even when important things need to be accomplished. I’m not sure how to fix this in myself… other than actually NOT procrastinating.
…about how I need to read more, but instead pick up my computer to Tweet, blog or simply waste time on Facebook. I will re-commit to reading, whether it’s the Bible — or a book I’ve been dying to catch up on.
…about where my next travel adventure will take me — and whether or not I can afford said trip. I will start to save money for this trip each week in my piggy bank. Even if it’s only one dollar each week.
…about the goals that I set for myself at the beginning of this month and how each one of them has been broken. Well… the daily ones at least. I will start working on these goals again… starting today.
…about going back to grad school — not for finance (my current field of choice) but for something that will inspire me to inspire others to be better people. To encourage the world to see things in themselves that they didn’t even know was possible. I’m just not sure what grad school program to enter for that kind of thing. **If you have any suggestions on this one — I’m all about it!**
…about the possibility of moving out of my hometown all the time. Out of the life I have known forever and into a place that will bring me a sense of adventure. Without selling my home, I’m not sure how I can make this happen.
…that I cannot fail at anything that I honestly put my heart into. (More on that tomorrow…)
…I am more thankful than what I can possibly even write for the family & friends I have that support me in everything. Not only my real life friends… but also my bloggy friends out there. Your comments keep me going and make me smile. I appreciate your comments and love even though we have not met.
…that I will be working to read more blogs — not only to make more friends (especially friends from SITS) — but also to learn more about writing, the craft I have begun to love and want to continue to develop to achieve my dream of being published someday.
…I am going to re-commit to conquer the hard things in my life again. Recommit to being the best I can be. Recommit to losing the weight that I have gained over the past 2 months and get back on plan (I know… I’ve said this before!) Recommit to working out daily… recommit to counting my WW points… recommit to feeling better.
…that I can do this – ALL of this.
