5 Years Ago

Five years ago I received a wonderful gift. My baby boy, Aidan. I cannot believe how quickly the last five years went by. I was lucky enough to be able to stay home with him after he was born. I got to see all the firsts that every parent hopes to see. Even through there were trying times,like the "terrible twos", times were pretty good. Although there were times that I felt like I was failing as a mother and wanted to run away from home, I am so glad that I didn't. When I think about all the women out there who are desperate to pledge the "mommy club" but just are not able to, I am so thankful for the gift of my healthy, happy, wonderful boy, Aidan.



Happy Birthday Aidan! You are such a bright light in my life. You keep life so fresh and interesting. When I look at your smiling face, I can't help but smile myself. Your excitement over the small things in life make me excited about the small things as well. I will never forget the "Shrek" birthday we had for you this year and how you insisted on wearing your "ogre ears" when we sang Happy Birthday. Today your daddy gave you the whoopy cushion that you loved playing with at the store. Your excitement over that silly gift just made my heart do flips. I wish I could freeze time for just a little bit to really get to enjoy all our time together. Just know that I love you so much!

10 years later

Have you ever had one of those days where it seemed like all the progress you had made to becoming the person you want to be was gone. It's like realizing you started sprinting toward your finish line and then after a few steps got too winded to finish the race, so you sat down on the track and had an extra large piece of chocolate cake. What you don't do that!?! Just kidding. Kind of. Anyway, I had read over some of my old posts a couple of days ago. They boasted about all the progress I've made in my addiction to television, lack of exercise, and the like. Well I am sorry to say that I'm back at the starting point. Television has become a staple in our daily lives again. You wouldn't think so since it's summer and most shows are repeats but nevertheless I watch constantly. In May I found out that a team I was working so hard to be a part of didn't choose me so I stopped exercising so hard. In return my body is back in a gelatinous shape. Although I said that I'm committed to running a half marathon by September I have barely trained. Cardiovascularly I'm not ready. I gave my husband a big party for his 30th birthday. I decided to dig up all the pictures of his past birthdays and make them into a collage, when I came across this picture.



It was taken spring break 2001. I was 19 and my husband and I had just started dating. Seeing this picture and what my body use to look like sent me into a shame spiral. I thought to myself, How did this girl who's diet consisted of frozen waffles, pop-tarts, bagels, and ice cream look like this? Yes I know that she hadn't given birth or entered her 20's let alone be almost through them, but I still somehow deluded myself into believing that I still looked like that. Well... to be honest I thought I was pretty close to looking like that again. Just a few more crunches......

You must be thinking that I'm a vain and shallow person who only cares about looks, but that just isn't true. What I care about is feeling good. Being healthy and in shape. The kind of shape that will keep everything in your body functioning to it's best and to live a very long vital life. And when your body starts to ooze out of the top of your pants you just don't feel your best. On the plus side, today I'm eating more vegetables than ever before. I can run a couple of miles without stopping, something that 19 year old girl never would have attempted.

I don't know if I'll ever even look remotely close to that girl again, but I sure as hell am not going to give up on creating my best body so that I can live my best life!

Zippity Do Dah

The last two days have been absolutely fantastic. Tuesday night was the All-Star baseball game. Every year it's right around my husbands birthday so he gets to watch it. (In case you didn't know,I mostly control the remote) Although it was not something I would have chosen to watch, it was a fantastic game. And as a bonus our team, the National League, won!!

Wednesday we woke up to head down to our zipline adventure at Camp Kern. It was a little cool out in the morning and combined with the high humidity caused it to be very foggy out. We got lost on the way to the camp. I started to freak out a little. If you know me I almost always have a little freak out when things don't go according to plan. And things don't go according to plan often. We did make it there. When we arrived we met the other people on our tour, a dad with his two young teenage daughters. They were a little quiet, but still fun. It took a few minutes to suit up in the gear we needed to wear, which BTW weighed 15 lbs, and off we went to our zipline adventure.








Even though this was a birthday present for my husband, I got to check off #89 Go on a zipline adventure off my list. Such a fun day!!

In Training

What a whirlwind the last couple of weeks have been. I started training with my friend, Tammy, for the Air Force 1/2 marathon that is this September. We started out really good the first week and now we've both become total slackers. I think the trick is to train with someone who is the opposite of your personality so that you stay motivated. For instance, I need a drill sergeant that will give me consequences for not showing up and running the full time. With less than 10 weeks until the run there is no more time to procrastinate. I am going to complete those 13.1 miles without stopping. I am vowing to run the entire way. Let's hope it doesn't kill me, but that's why we train right?

Ed's 30th birthday is coming up on the 14th and we are going to go on a zip line adventure to celebrate. I am so excited. Going on a zip line adventure is on my list. I've been terrified of heights ever since I fell out of my neighbors tree house in 7th grade. This will definitely be interesting.

On an adventure

I renamed my blog, "The list: An adventurers guide to life". I debated about this title for a bit. When I think of an adventurer I think of an Indian Jones type character wearing khaki clothing and a musket, driving a jeep through the jungle, looking for some rare bird, or discovering a new plant that will heal the world. Not to say that the people who fit that description are not adventurers, but we all are. Each day is a new adventure. Each day we are given 86,400 seconds to create any adventure that we want.

I read a quote that really spoke to me. "People say that what we are seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think this is what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive." - Joseph Campbell.

Someone once poised an interesting situation to me. Say you were given $86,400 at 12:01 am that you had to spend everyday, how would you spend it? But here's the catch, At midnight the money disappears. You cannot save a penny. You have to spend the money everyday. We would get pretty good at spending the money and putting resources in the right hands. We wouldn't let that free money get wasted. So why are we wasting our time as if it were not as valuable?

As for me, I'm sure I will have some time wasting activities, but I will make sure I get the value that I really want out of my day. After all we all are on our own adventure. Even if it doesn't immediately look that way from the outside.

Better late than never

Can't believe its almost June and I'm just now getting back to my blog. I wish I could say a lot has happened since March 1st. I had been working on checking a couple goals off my list, but only managed to check off one,#81 Be able to do the splits. It took several weeks of stretching, lots of ice packs, and advil, but I can finally do my right split. YAY!!! I also took a couple of dance classes where I met a few new and wonderful friends. (It's always nice to meet people with similar goals)

There is one goal that I had really focused most of my energy the past 12 weeks, but it just didn't work out this time. Needless to say after all that time, energy, and dedication, I'm a bit bummed. There is always time to try again though, next year.

Right now I am focusing on work. I have a new kitchen remodel that I am working on for my design business. I should have my design website up and running shortly. I am training to run the Air Force 1/2 marathon in September. (p.s .I have almost completely abandoned running so it's going to be very hard) I am also drumming up more Arbonne business to get to my next promotion.

Even though not everything has been going my way, God is still so good!

No TV. Check

We made it all the way through February, through snow days and grumpy child attitudes without watching TV. I will admit that I watched more than one movie a week towards the end, but still no TV. I will say that the last week of February I started feeling much more positive than usual for no reason what so ever. I've just been feeling really up! My family has connected so much more with the television off. Even on the 1st we watched only one half hour show. I don't expect to watch much television, with the exception of NBC's Thursday night line up. I really feel like we conquered a huge problem!


I don't feel as accomplished as I desired. I was hoping that at the end of February I would have so many more items checked off my list. Some of those items are not checked off for lack of trying. The rest will just take more time. And that's ok. There is just something about seeing your goals checked off. Knowing that you completed something you set out to do, and completing them quickly. I guess that just the world we live in. Instant gratification feels so much better than waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I know that for the things that I want I need to work hard. I have been exercising one to two times a day to check off #39 Get in my best shape. I've been stretching a lot for #81 Do the Splits. I've been running on my treadmill for #12 Run a half marathon. I haven't done enough to complete my #1,2,and 3 promotion goals with work.

Which reminds me.... I need to get back to work!