Sunday, February 28, 2010

Spiritual Sunday

I said I would post every Sunday about something I experienced or felt during the week or at church. Well I forgot last Sunday and almost forgot today.

It probably would've been okay to forget today, because as of right now I can't think of anything. I didn't teach today so I was able to go to RS, but of course that means I had stinker face with me. He actually didn't do too bad. He has the worst tantrums though when he can't have something he wants, like sweet lady's scriptures or used tissue. But even though he is stinky (today this word had two meanings), I still enjoy the spirit of RS.

Today's lesson was on knowing that the Lord is here with us and that we are never alone. I haven't been feeling that way lately so my mind was blank on similarities in the lesson. One thing we talked about was Love and how to love everyone. I haven't had too many problems with this lately, but it was a nice reminder.

We had a crazy busy weekend and I am exhausted. One of the main things I realized today is that to really get something out of church, that is special for me no matter where I am at in life, is to get sleep before! We got home last night at around 2 am (Starcraft night for the men, loooong night for the women.:) Jared got up with the baby, but I got up an hour after him. I am so tired. Ryan took a nap during Sacrement meeting and I think that Jared and I both dozed off as well.

If my body isn't alert, I may miss something that the Lord wants me to hear. I guess that is how I felt today. Our goal is to go to bed earlier this week, which will be easier now that the Olympics are over! I love the Olympics, but I am glad they are done so we can get some sleep now.

Anyway, I hope next Sunday's post will be better. I will post tomorrow about all the stuff I need to get done this month before Ryan's 1st birthday party! So fun! :)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Week 6

I am officially on week 6 of my working out! yay me!

So far on week 6, I have really been bad, but it's not my fault. I woke up with a stiff neck monday morning and can hardly take care of my son, much less exercise. I am still hurting today. :( But the good news is my weight is the same.

The things that have been going bad are my eating habits. I have been eating too many sweets! Normally I don't have them in the house, but Jared has been eating out more since we don't have anything "good." So I buy stuff for him, then eat it too.

I feel like having a husband is like having a second kid. At my last grocery trip, I bought spaghettios, mac 'n cheese, frozen burritos, popcorn, chips and salsa, and some other stuff that I can't think of right now. He even doesn't like sandwiches because we have wheat bread and "white bread tastes better with sandwiches." Guess what, if I bought the icky white bread, it would go bad because he would still not make sandwiches to take to work. He would also like Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. I refuse to get that, too!

The things that are my fault are the Oreo's I bought and the Valentine's candy I bought for 50% off! Mmmm! I will not buy sweets any more. Since I can't diet, I really need to get my sweet addiction under control, so I can make the most out of the time I am putting into exercising. So that is my new goal! As soon as the sweets are gone. :)

I think that after this I am going to one or two weeks of the dancing DVD I have and then it is P90X. Yep, I'm going to do it. I am so scared, but it will be good. I would love to be a size 6 before I get preggo again! I think this will be awesome for that.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Mom Jeans

I don't think that I wear mom jeans. I just wear jeans that don't flatter my body. Why would I do this? Well I don't spend money on clothes AND I have a weird body. It's funny how most of us have weird bodies. I'm not saying that any of YOU do, but well, let's be honest, who LOVES shopping for jeans? If you do, can you come with me, pretty please??

Would you like to see some examples of my awfulness?!

Exhibit 1: Saggy butt, too long legs, low waisted miserableness. These are the jeans I pretty much wear ALL the time. WHY? I really don't know... they are even too big for me.

Exhibit 2: I bought these jeans back in Septemberish when I was sick of wearing only one pair of jeans (does anyone else do this?) I don't know what I was thinking. They are too short (trying to make up for the too long ones up top), and I think hug my knees too much creating a little person look. They also are low waisted, meaning the pockets are super low and if not for my awesome temple garments, my crack would be hanging out (TMI?)

HELP!

Oh I seriously need it. I am willing to spend $50-$80(if they are PERFECT!) on some everyday jeans that I can dress up. I've emailed Jae from How To Not Dress Like A Mom, so hopefully I have some coming my way.

What I need to know is:

1. Where do I go?
2. What shape should I go for?
3. How long should the pants be to look good with flats and a little heel? (How much touching the floor?)

I really want to start looking good. I have a lot of things to overcome with shopping. I think things look cute, but I COULD NEVER WEAR IT! How lame is that? I am limiting myself, and I am not sure if I can get out of it, but I think if I have some jeans that make ME look hot, I might have some hope.

Thanks!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

My List

One of the things on my organization post was to make a list. This list would be for things that I want to do or accomplish and it can be a month from now or years from now. The point is to put it on the list so you don't forget about it. I remembered something yesterday that I wanted to make, but completely forgot!

I wanted to make a tied hanging dish towel for the oven because Babykins ALWAYS pulls it down. The towel ends up on the counter so messyish. When I remembered, I thought, how in the world did I forget about that project? It turns out I have a million projects in my head and it really isn't that implausible to forget a few of them.

So here is my list. I will add to it or subtract it as I go so this post will be ever changing. Yay for remembering what I want to do!

(It will be a small list for now since time is limited.)

Make hanging dish towel thingy
Put up a shelf in the office with vacation memorabilia
Buy non-mom jeans
Finish Blog Books
Make a jean quilt
Make a budget (Desperately)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Epiphany!

I haven't had many of these on my own. Many of "my" great ideas come from other mommies, or bloggers, or friends. I just had one now that I have to share!

You know how my office is my biggest trial in unpacking? That I just can't get organized because there is so much to do?!

Well, here is the epiphany!

Why in the heck am I worrying about organizing the past before I can organize the present and future?!

So from this day forward, I am going to focus on organizing stuff for now. Even if that means I need to put everything that isn't a month old or less in a box and throwing it in the closet. I am so excited to get started!

Just Do It

I don't want to work out today. I really, really don't. I was so happy yesterday and today I just feel like I want to quit because it takes so much and I'm seeing so little. But I know that isn't true and I do plan on working out. But I just want you to know, I really don't want to. Okay, now I am going to get my sweat on.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

There is so much that I've been wanting to blog about. Seriously, like 15 times a day in the past week I have said to myself, I need to blog about this! But when I finally get a moment to sit down and write, my mind is completely empty. The brain of a mom, right?

I want to start out with some spiritual stuff. I think from now on I am going to do a Spiritual Sunday. The last time I wrote, I was very depressed about my calling in the primary. As I look back, I really have no idea where those feelings were coming from. The feelings were so real, but looking back on the memory of where they came from, it doesn't seem THAT bad. I've been to my class twice since I wrote, and it went well. I taught last week and the problem girl wasn't there, but I know it would have been fine if she were there. The kids were great as always and I really felt the spirit with me. I prayed during my lesson and after, and prayer is so powerful. I know I had some assistance that day. Last week I was just observing and that was good too. I went to Relief Society and got to be with Ryan. Let me tell you! I was wishing I was in the primary!! What a stinker! lol. He is getting more and more independent and I had to be in the halls with him about half the time. Jared does better with him at church, and I might just have Jared take him even if I go to RS since Daddy does a better job. :)

Jared was called to be the Assistant Secretary in the Elders Quorem. He heard this past Sunday that the Secretary might be closing on a house soon, so he is worried that he will be the Secretary. I know that he will do a good job though. We are both doing pretty well in our callings and trying to incorporate the gospel in our lives more. I know that we will be blessed and as we are, hopefully, we can share these blessings with others.

MIND

I have SO many things I want to do. Seriously, it's ridiculous! Of course all of my decorating has to be a craft project, so I can't just go and buy stuff. I am stalled on Ryan's room since I ran out of money this month. I am so excited to finish it though. I have everything I want to do in my head.

I work part-time for my sister-in-law at The Ribbon Retreat, on the wholesale site, and in the past had been putting the check directly into our checking account. Well, we don't have a US Bank around here so Jared had to take a bit of time off work to go and deposit it for me in Provo. I hated that! So I opened a savings account at American First Credit Union in the Macey's here. I LOVE banking while grocery shopping; whoever came up with that idea is a genius!

Since I have started doing this, I decided to keep the money set aside for certain things. Every three or four years all the girls in Jared's family go on a cruise. It is such a blast! Right now I am saving up for that with my own money. It's kind of nice to have a purpose instead of having it go straight to bills. After I save enough for that, I am going to buy a desk for our downstairs area. After that, maybe a camera! Who knows! But it is so exciting to watch the money build up towards a goal, not just saving.

I have also made some headway in my office! Yay! I worked on it for 20 minutes yesterday, just making it more liveable, and it worked! I have decided to do all of the easy stuff first instead of the hard stuff. Before I just wanted to get the hard stuff out of the way, you know shredding all our old documents in our file cabinet and organizing the cabinet. Right now all of our documents go into a bag, yes, a bag. Not even a nice bag. A plastic grocery bag. We have 2 1/2 of them right now. The first two are tied, but have ripped so you have to be careful carrying them. See how desperate I am in need of some organizing? But this shouldn't come first, otherwise nothing might get done! I realized this yesterday so instead my next task is organizing my scrapbook/craft table. This should be much easier and hopefully I can get it done in a day or two. (Progress, not perfection, right?:)

BODY

I am still going strong on the working out! I am so proud of myself. It can be really difficult to keep doing it, especially with a baby, but I know how important it is and I am keeping at it. I'm even up a pound since my last post. :( But that's okay. My new work out isn't too bad aerobically, but the toning parts kick my trash. I started doing the push ups regular style and my abs, sides, and arms hurt so bad! It's a good bad though, so I'm excited. I have two more weeks of these work outs and hopefully a few more pounds lost and an even smaller waist.

I wish that I could diet right now to get the maximum results, but nursing won't allow me to do that. So I am just accepting that I am going to put forth the effort and what comes comes. I'll be pregnant again before I stop nursing, so I can't diet then. I have to keep focusing on eating healthy and exercising and I know it will all work out.

Thanks for letting me ramble! Hopefully the next post will have something more specific. I hope you're all doing well in all of your endeavors. Women have such hard jobs! But I'll admit, it's fun too. :) We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Pop Art

Okay! I think I might have done it!

Here is what I wanted to do again:


Here is my picture I started from...



and then add a little pop art!





I think it looks really good. I changed the picture I was using and made the green a bit darker and then played around with it more. I'm so glad it turned out! Now I want to do this to at least one more to put up on his wall!

(By the way, his room is turning out SO cute! I can't wait until it's all done so I can post pictures!)

Day 24

Just because I haven't blogged about it, doesn't mean I am not doing it! I am still working out! Although I did not work out last Thursday until yesterday. I had to get Ryan's room painted so he could go back to sleeping in there! But let me tell you, painting IS a work out! My arms and back hurt so bad, so I guess I was still exercising.

I have started workout 2 on my DVD, Shed 5 Fast by Lindsay Brinn. It is easier and harder in some ways. The aerobic exercises seem easier and the toning is harder. My inner thighs are killing me, which is so awesome! I can't wait to slim these guys down.

I started working out at weighing between 138-141 pounds. I am now about 135 pounds. I am including a picture taken this morning as well as the one on my very first post on this blog. I was 143.5 pounds then and wearing my capris a bit too high! You can see my lovely stretch marks and tons of skin, but I do feel like I am skinnier. I haven't felt it yet in my clothes, but I'm hoping to in these next few weeks.

Before (wearing pants too high :)

After

Before (I wasn't flexing my abs; I would've looked a bit skinnier)

After (We're getting there!)

I'm feeling great! Those of you who are working out as well, how is it going? Please comment here or on Facebook. I love workout buddies. :)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Organization

I was going to do a post to recap where I am at with my goals at the beginning of the month, but can you believe it is almost the 10th already!? Seriously, time flies nowadays! Hopefully I will still get around to this before the end of the month, sooner the better.

My very first goal for my resolutions was:

"1. Be more organized.

This is with my time, as well with everything important in my life. I really haven't totally unpacked yet from the move and I just feel like everything is scattered. By the end of the month, I want to have my office completely unpacked and organized.

I want to have a weekly schedule where I sit down on a Saturday or Sunday and write down my goals for the week. I've always worked best by thinking about stuff weekly. If it was something two weeks in advance, I would completely forget about it and put it out of my mind. By writing it down, I will have more of a chance of getting it done."

Well, my ward had a class on organization tonight, and I would've have been silly not to go since this was my number one resolution! I am so glad I went because I got a lot of helpful hints, especially for my office which is still plaguing me!, and some confirmation on what I am currently doing.

The number one thing was prioritizing. I feel that I have done this really well so far. I have my priorities and I am able to move them around if need be. For example, I am working out everyday, but if something comes up and I have to skip it, I skip it, but I am right back on it the next day. It just depends on how important stuff is and I don't beat myself up about it.

I took notes on some of the stuff I wanted to use or remember. Writing it here will definitely help me, and maybe it will help some of you as well.

1. Use Microsoft Outlook or a calendar.
I had forgotten about this. I had one at work and why not have one at home? I am horrible with dates that are over a week in advance. I plan everything weekly so I am more prone to forget or think a date incorrectly. I have a hard time using planners and paper calendars, so I am going to give an electronic calendar, that automatically reminds me of stuff, a try. (Although we don't have Microsoft Office on any of our computers, so I'll have to get creative with this one.)

2. To-do list for everything.
This is not just a daily one, but a weekly, monthly, even yearly or more! I liked this because I have lots of goals and plans that are far off in advance and just having them written down means I won't forget about them. I already write stuff down mentally for the week, I'm awesome at that, but doing a monthly one would be awesome since my mind is often in overload.

3. "Live each day on purpose."
I liked this quote. Everyday I am just happy if I get one important thing done. That can even be doing the dishes or laundry or going outside for a walk with the baby. I guess this quote has a lot to do with your attitude. We have control of what we want to be; we just need to do it.

4. "Progress, not perfection."
This one was awesome. If you have a big project, organizing a closet or basement or whatever, just make sure to keep going back to it and not letting it just sit. Sometimes I am guilty of saying, I can't do it perfect now, so I am not going to try. I love this quote for my office. I can definitely say I am making progress weekly. :)

5. Don't let the little jobs add up. AND Include cleaning up as a part of every single task.
I like these ones a lot. I need to listen to it about laundry. I always have a load in the dryer for over a week and it's such a pain to have to go into it to get something and it wastes a lot of time. If I had just folded it and put it away right when it was ready, I wouldn't have to spend the time going down the stairs or over to the laundry room to get what I need. So I really need to listen to this suggestion.

I have also learned that if I don't clean up Ryan's high chair right after he eats, I hate myself when I have to clean it before he eats. Dry stuck on food is NOT fun to clean when you have a hungry infant crying and pulling on you. Since I can do this cleaning after he eats, hopefully I can do the folding of the laundry after it's done.

6. 3 Pile Process: Love/Use, Ambivalent, Discard
This is what to use when you are cleaning a big project like a basement, closet, or garage. You don't need to put everything away or in a certain place, just put them in 3 piles and then get back at them later. I think this makes getting started a lot easier. There is less to think about, just focusing on those three things. I already tend to do this, but not so simplified. I will try this with the rest of my office organizing.

7. Mail
Oh mail, how I hate thee! I hate how messy it is and the filing you have to do or whatever. I think I have gotten better and I still hate it. Right now, we don't have a place to put it so it goes on the kitchen island, read, into a pile, taken up to the abyss which is the office and forgotten forever. Yes, it isn't pretty.

We will be buying a table for our entry way soon, and I am going to buy one of these nice thingys. It's a 3 bin thing that you would see on most people's workspace. It helps to separate the mail until you can get at it. The top is to shred, middle is for bills, and the bottom is for filing. I am going to see if I can find a nice decorative one and I think it is going to make the mess that is our office much easier to handle!

8. Magnetic shopping list
I can't wait to use this! While I was unpacking the office boxes I found one, but it is Christmasy and I am still going to use it. I'm am so excited to be more efficient in my grocery shopping!

9. Alphabetize spice rack
Most people already do this. I just learned about a week ago that the grocery store does this. Yes for years I searched and searched for the spice I needed. Now that I am a SAHM, I am so glad I figured it out since I am cooking more and need more spices. So of course it makes sense to do it in my own home. Searching for spices is NOT fun! Now I just need to get one of those circling spice racks!

10. Ice cube trays for jewelry
I don't have a lot of jewelry, but I thought this was cool. If you have a draw you put all your jewelry in and it's all a big mess and you don't have the money for a nice fancy looking jewelry organizer, just use ice cube trays. You could probably even decorate them to make them look fancier for all you crafty ladies out there. :)

That is it for all the stuff I wanted to remember. It was fun and made me so much more motivated to get organized! Hopefully the office by the end of this month. I know I said last month, but progress is what's important!

Here are some websites that were given out:

www.hgtv.com/organizing
www.getorganizedwizard.com
unclutterer.com
organizedhome.com
www.organizedwithstyle.com/blog
getorganizedtips.blogspot.com
www.stacksandstacks.com
containerstore.com/welcome
lifeorganizers.com/cm_articles/16_the_organized_closet
www.thehomeknowitall.com/the_home_knowitall/2007/09/organize-it-the.hmtl

I hope this gets some of you motivated and gives you some fresh new ideas! Good luck!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Photoshop Illiterate

I found this way cute idea on Design Dazzle. I tried to follow it word for word, but my picture turns out looking alienish. I am so disappointed.

Hopefully I can figure it out, because I do think it looks so cool!