Self-Discipline

Eric and I were talking last night about discipline, whether it's learning to play guitar, drums, eating healthy, exercising, etc... It could be anything. As we were talking he went and grabbed this book that he's been reading, handed it to me and told me to start reading a particular section that's been challenging him. I did and 10 min when he came back I was sitting there with a pen and notebook in hand taking notes. Obviously I was challenged too! ;) Here are some notes:

"The most reliable evidence for the power of self-discipline is to observe the wreckage caused by it's absence."    How true?! He talked about what if you don't FEEL like doing something. Can you MAKE yourself do something you don't want to do? Absolutely! He says, "How you behave or act, ultimately controls how you FEEL." So, figure out what you WANT: to play an instrument, to be happy, to be healthy, to be free from bondage, etc...Find the end result that you want. Then "discipline yourself to act in the manner in which you WANT to FEEL."

How often do we go by how we feel vs how we want to be?! Our feelings are wishy-washy. Not that they aren't valid, but they won't get us anywhere. Definitely not where we want to go. Don't rely on them.

Figure out what you want, how you want to feel, how you want to look, what you want to do....then DO IT. Pretend you're already there. lol  This challenged me so I thought I'd share. :)

weight frustration. Can I catch a break?!?

Right now I'm feeling like I take 1 step forward and 2 steps back. I've made changes in my eating and I'm not seeing changes. I actually did think I felt a difference in my pants on Wed but the scale didn't show it and although i know that's not what you should be tracking, I can't help it! I joined the fitness center in Tuscola on Tues and I really like it. It's small but the machines are great and classes and online food tracking is included. I don't know if I'll utilize that but I like the fitness center. 

     I guess I'm just trying not to get discouraged and to keep going. I prob need to make bigger changes but I wanted to start small so it wouldn't be too overwhelming and quit. God help me persevere...

     I'm also praying about another job. I had my second interview at Lane Bryant yesterday and they're supposed to let me know today if I got it. I'm just not sure if this is a good thing or not. They pay better than Old Navy, but may not give me the flexibility O.N. does. Pray for me if you think about it. Eric and I have been talking (not enough praying) about it and are trying to decide if it'd be a good fit.

FRIENDS

Close friends are hard to come by. 

They let you bare your heart without apology or fear of ruining their day. 

They value your thoughts, opinions, and ideas even when they don't agree.

They can agree to disagree. :-/

They are sensitive to your feelings even when they have to be brutally honest and share their heart. 

They correct in love.

They let you share your deepest, darkest secrets and fears without judgment. 

They celebrate your victories and cry with you when you lose.

You can count on them to be honest, loyal, & sensitive. 

They challenge you to be a better you, and encourage you to reach for your dreams.

They will pray for you at a moments notice and continue praying even when you don't ask them to.

They know your real potential. :)They see things in you that you can't see in yourself.

They believe in you. 

They love you even when they don't like you. ;)

You can trust them with your heart.

You don't have to wear makeup or change out of your sweatpants for them to walk around walmart with you. haha I like that one

They are still there when you make the wrong decision and blow it.

Some people never get to experience this kind of friend. I have been blessed to have more than one. I don't know why, but God has given me more than I deserve. You know who you are. To my closest of friends...thank you. Thank you for sharing your life with me and allowing me to be a part of yours. I would not be half the person I am without each of you and what you have added to my life. I love you and pray that I can be the kind of friend that you've been to me. <3

IT'S MAYYYYYYYYYYYY!! That means it's almost summer, WOOHOO! I'm so ready for it...in some ways. Not in the getting in a bathing suit kind of way but in a sun, sand, water, beautiful weather, hanging out OUTSIDE with friends kind of way. :) Cookouts, ice cream, watermelon, cold beer or frosty cocktail by the pool, swimming IN the pool, laying out BY the pool...These are just a few of my favorite summer things. I get excited just thinking about them. :)

My birthday is next month, I'm stoked about that. July 4th is always stinking hot but I <3 the fireworks.

What I'm NOT happy about?? Missing my BFF's grad!! That blows big time BUT I know we'll get to see each other later this summer/fall and we'll get to spend more quality time together then. I have to be ok with that.                   

I love you Lauri! I hope you have a great time at your grad and grad party, and have quality time with your family and friends. :) Cheers to YOU!

Highlights of my week

1. Well, this was a super busy week so it wasn't perfect but I'm back on the eating better train and it feels good. Nothing drastic just small tweaks that will hopefully make a bigger difference in the long run. I have to do something that I can do for the rest of my life and not just for a few months so it'll take time and I've succumbed  myself to that fact.

2. HAVING MONDAY OFF WORK!!! WOOT I got to take Blake and Ava to see Hop, which was cute, and I don't get to spend a lot of time w/them so that was cool.

3. Tuesday night we went on a double date with Greg and Hannah. Tuesdays' you get a movie AND popcorn for $6 so we decided to take advantage. :) We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings  and went to see Scream 4....stupid, stupid, stupid. Nothings' changed since the other 3 movies so although parts of it def scared me, I say DON'T SEE IT! I love scary movies but this one has run it's course and then some! lol

4. THE ROYAL WEDDING!! How awesome and intriguing to watch how the royals do it. from Kate's beautifully simple and elegant dress to the TWO kisses on the balcony, and all the hats in between! haha Wow, it was so cool to see not so much the outfits as those HATS! Watching this spurred me to want to have a royalty party with a throwback to old Hollywood style for a little glitz and glamor, seeing as how the royal family doesn't do that but keep it more elegant and plain dare I say? I think this would be a super fun party so if it happens I will def post pics. ;-D

5. On Friday I got to leave Old Navy an hour early so I came home, put my zebra snuggie on :) and checked the mail. I got a receipt saying we only have 2 more car payments left for my car and I was  ecstatic!!!!! So I called Eric and he was so excited that he couldn't concentrate on work anymore and came home. haha (It was 4:45, but he usually works til 5:30-6:30). We've been really trying to stick to our budget so when something gets paid off we are so stoked and it gives us new hope for the future :D
Neither of us are great with money and although both of us prayed we'd find that in our spouse, it was not to be. :( BUT we have found that when we're on the same page we can get 'er done!  I'm sad that those words just came out of my mouth. lol

6. Friday Night = Date Night!! We wanted to celebrate and also just spend a night out together so we went to Olive Garden since we had a gift card, and then went to Cakes On Walnut. Its this cute cupcake place in Chambana that serves cool ice cream flavors and drinks as well. We like watching Cupcake Wars and I just love cupcakes, they're so cute and perfectly put together. Adorable. I had the lemon cupcake w/lemon frosting and sugary lemon zest on top and Eric had the dark chocolate w/ choc frosting w/ filling. Mine was def better as we shared. It was so fun to sit there together and talk about anything and everything. Sometimes at home we can sit side by side on the computer, phone, watching tv etc...and never say a word so it's really nice to spend QUALITY time together. We both had a great time;)www.cakesonwalnut.com

coffee, small group, and Things :)

I'm having a great morning, relaxing, drinking a specialty coffee from Lulu's, the store in Peoria. It's vanilla cupcake and almond icing flavored, THEN I'm using dark choc cream creamer. Hmm too rich you may say? I think not. The coffee flavor is very subtle so it works beautifully and gives me my choc fix, which I've been craving for no particular reason this week. ;-)

     Sometimes I blog to vent, sometimes I blog to share a story, sometimes I blog to share a laugh sometimes I blog just to blog :), and sometimes I blog b/c something challenged or spoke to me and I want to put it on 'paper' so I don't forget it. It's more to encourage or challenge myself more than anything, and this is one of those times. 

     In our small group this week which is talking about faith, Andy Park encouraged us to follow through. He was talking about how often we have the knowledge about something but never actually use it. I wish I knew how to connect the xbox so i could watch it again right now b/c I've already forgotten a lot, but I saw myself in a bunch of scenarios. I've said before that I have an issue committing and following through with things and this just enforced it. I love learning new things, spiritual or other, but what good is it if I don't USE it? I need to start putting my knowledge into practice. Period. It's time to 'get off the couch' and start DOing.

     On another note, last night was so much freaking fun. :) We laughed til we cried and I laughed til i peed a little. True story. That part wasn't cool. At least it was just a trickle. haha Carolyn and Chad had a bunch of us over and we had a Chipotle Fiesta! It was de-lish! Then we played our own made-up game of Things, and it was HY-sterical! We had things like, Things you shouldn't eat w/your mother-in-law (lol), to Things not to say to Nelson Coblentz, to Things you don't want to hear in an orgy. Wow, a wide range right there...Also, Things you don't want to see on a beaver,(I'm pretty sure that was for Tanya, haha) and Things you don't want to hear on your wedding night. (Your sister sure looked good in her bridesmaids dress) lol 

Anyway, it was so fun. 

     Tonight we're going with Eric's fam to an Easter dinner theater thing. It should be good. I hope it's like a passion play. Anyhoo, that's all for today. Peace out PEEPS~ :)

A weekend in Peoria

Wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged! It's hard to blog about nothing! This past weekend we went to Peoria. We drove down with Troy on Friday eve and cooked out once we got there for dinner. It was de-lish! Then we got out some drinks and started playing cards til it got clapped out. lol 

     We ended up sitting on the floor talking about anything and everything. Laughing, crying and opening up about whatever we wanted to share or get advice on. ( i love those times) Eric was so tired he went to bed and at 1am we finally decided to call it a night as well.

     The next morning I was up before 7 and was SO excited to get the day started that I couldn't sleep! The others were laughing at me b/c we were all planning on sleeping in but seriously, I was too stoked about the day to sleep. I was ready to shop and spend the day with the girls! haha I went upstairs and was like Are you guys ready to go?! Tanya & Ang just looked at me and said, Are you serious? They had just gotten up. I, on the other hand, had showered, dressed and was ready to Go! lol You have to understand that I was finally OUT OF ARCOLA, in a bigger city!! Holy cow was I happy, and had more energy than I had in a WHILE! haha So, after the girls showered and got dressed ( the boys teasing that they better make an effort and come back a "10", lmao) we left to hit the town! The first stop was Lulu's, a super cute little shop that specialized in unique homemade jewelry and just a bunch of fun stuff, like a huge wine glass that holds an entire bottle of wine! haha I wanted to buy it but Ang made me turn around and put it back. I think she was afraid I was gonna fill it up in the store. lol 

     From there we went to the mall where I had to exchange some stuff and we shopped around for a while. They had a Lane Bryant so I was pretty happy. :) I was impressed with the mall, I'd def shop there again!

     We ate at a cute little cafe that Tanya & Lamar had been given a gift card for called Over Easy cafe, and it was amazing. We were also starved so that may have made a difference. haha ;) On our way to the next stop we were laughing so hard because me and Lauren, MAYBE Ang;) were dropping fresh hot air biscuits and it was rank up in there. I was a little worried about sharting at one point but got it worked out then. lol Then we went to Charming Charlies...the Ikea of jewelry! Everything is color-coded. Seriously, I had to walk around once to just get over the magnitude of it all THEN go back through and shop. LOL I bought 1 necklace, but I could've spent hundreds and then some! Awesome store! Oh, we also had to stop by Old Navy because it was freaking cold outside...flurrying and WINDY!...and I was in short-sleeves and flip flops! ugh, it was so miserable.

     When WE left C.C. we decided to hit this Goodwill that was supposedly a "really nice" one. Hmm...I don't know what they were smokin but...It was like the clearance rack at goodwill, if that paints a picture. Epic FAIL! he he 

     We grabbed an ice cold Diet Coke from McDs (that makes me smile) then went back home to change and pick up the guys for dinner. We went to 5 Guys Burgers, which was AMAZzING!! Love that place! Then we went back home, cracked open a drink and watched the Hangover. We laughed So hard! I had to tell Troy to shut it because he kept quoting the movie, line for line! After that we decided to play the game of Things by making up our own game. haha It was Legen...wait for it...DARY!! We laughed so hard we peed...i guarantee it! It was hystrical. We hit the sack around 2am and proceeded to sleep in then have a lazy day on Sunday. It was great. No, Awesome! Just what I needed. I weekend away with friends, laughter, and shopping. In that order. Thanks T&L for a fantastic weekend at home...away from home ;) Can't wait til round 2! I will get through many days thinking back over the highlights of last wknd, like Things you don't wanna hear your mom say,..(I can't repeat it, but you know what it was).Things you may see driving through Arthur,...two goats givin it to a beagle, and I can't remember all of the others, or lets face it, I can't SAY them. lol   ...What happens in P-town may need to stay in P-town...LOL