Loved

Hey friends!

It's been a while since I have written on the blig blog.  We have been quite busy here in Memphis! Just wanted to share this piece I created for a friend's baby shower. She loved it! 

And I'm just sitting here typing this while listening to Josh Groban. Oh gosh, how I love him.  You all know how much I love October and I just can't believe there are only 3 days left of this glorious month. 

Peace & blessings y'all!

hey there pt. 2

When I wrote my previous blog post, somehow somewhere in the process I didn't save the text.  Good thing I can always write another one right? (Here you go, RED :)

Just wanted to update our friends and family on our oh-so-exciting lives.  But really. 

Jeremy is still working for Valero and his hours our finally back to normal. Glad to have him back. 

I recently took a job at a treatment center for women with eating disorders and I LOVE IT. I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT, I LOVE IT. What an awesome opportunity I have to work there.  Seriously, I'm taking every opportunity to learn about therapy and my favorite part, we speak PSYCHOLOGY there. That's my kind of lingo. In college most of my research papers focused on medication combined with cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of eating disorders and body image.  

Our house is slowly coming together.  Our living room is practically finished and our little garden is producing cucumbers! The challenge with your first garden: how do you know when your cucumber is ready to be eaten? They don't look like the ones at the grocery store! Any advice??? I'm ready to reap the benefits of Jeremy's labors! 

Remember that time I tried to be funny and made a MEME about not being in Primary?? Well guess what? Since I put that out to the universe, the universe has brought it back to us and we have officially been called to teach in the PRIMARY! *Take a moment to laugh*

Also, we have been called to teach Cub Scouts! I'm excited to teach all of our old Cubs. Our scout program combines two wards and we ended up moving into the other ward! It's been fun seeing our scouts at church. 

{Orange County, California. December 2013}

hey there

MEME time

That moment when the bishop calls you into his office to give you a church calling....

JK! We all love serving in the Primary :)

house tour

It is a dream come true to own this house! We finally made a video. I know a lot of people have been asking to see it so here it goes!

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our house. It is perfect for us. 

It might be too big for us at the moment but we will fill it up with bambinos soon (No, we are not expecting at the moment...MOM).

Life

I don't really have anything specifically to write about tonight. But I did want to write in my blog. Life has been pretty crazy for us. We purchased our first home all while my husband was working 12 hr shifts (7 days a week) with his shift eventually switching to night for a little while. I'm a creature of habit, I have to have my daily routine planned. So when my schedule changed with the house buying/moving process, I was jiggin out.  LITERALLY. I took a few days off work to start moving into the house.  My angelic mother came into town to be with me during the process.  I thank my lucky stars that she was there with me because she was able to calm me down...a lot. I don't like change. I never have. I hate moving but it's funny because I have moved so many times in my life.  Even though this process was a happy and joyful one, I still managed to get overwhelmed with stress, anxiety, and depression. 

I continually had to remind myself of the many blessings in my life.  My life is beautiful and I have everything to be thankful for. But adversity will always be there to try to make you focus on the negative and doubt the positive choices you have made.  It's always important to step forward in faith and to never doubt.  Blessings aren't always wrapped in pretty packages but can be disguised for you to find its true beauty.  There is beauty all around us, we just need to make sure our eyes are open and looking for that beauty. 

Okay, maybe this might be too much and it's not my usual post but I felt like I really needed to write this out. Or maybe I should keep to writing in the mornings and not so late into the night. 

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

Medals

So many things are happening! I haven't had a chance to really sit down and write down some thoughts. Yesterday Tara and I ran the John "Bad Dog" McCormack  5K! This race went through downtown and finished on Beale Street. Tara has never ran a 5K before so it was sooo much fun to do this with her. We have been running consistently for the last couple of months and she has been on fire! We have been running/working out every day after work.  I'm so proud of us.  This is the fastest 5K we have ever ran.  The best part is that we left with medals! I got 2nd place in my age group and she got 3rd for hers.  How awesome are we? No, really. We are sooooo happy.  

But the best part of the day was when we were reaching the finish line and gave each other the best high five. The reason for this is because EVERY SINGLE TIME that we did a high five during our runs we would NEVER get it right.  Talk about awkward high fives. 

Also, I have finally finished paying off my school loans! Can I get a woop woop???? I always hear about people talking about paying off their loans 20+ years after they graduated. I'm glad though that I was able to make this a priority in my life during this time so early after graduating. DEBT FREEEEEEEEEEEE.

And we finally bought our very own washer and dryer! I never knew how wonderful this concept would be. Gone are the days of hauling my clothes across our complex. Gone are the days of making special trips to the grocery store to get quarters. Gone are the days of devoting TIME to do our laundry. Now, all I do is pop it in the washer ANY night of the week (not just the weekend) and TA DAH! Clean clothes! I'm in heaven, what a wonderful idea. 

These next few weeks are going to be extremely busy for us. We are looking for new place to live.  J will be working 12 hour shifts every S I N G L E day for the next 6-8 weeks.  I guess we will just need to take it one day at a time. Bless it. 

Oh, Vincent

It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done. 

Van Gogh

Saturday Finds

J found an art gallery here in town so we boogied over to DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS.  Much to our surprise we found out it was family day and so we got in for free.  Everybody was there with their children and then there was us two-the ones who accidentally stumbled into gallery on a random Saturday. This is where the nerdy side of me comes out because my heart was incredibly happy as we were looking at all these photographs and paintings! It reminded me how much I miss the MOA on BYU campus and being  able to look at art whenever the heck I wanted. MANNNNNNNNNN. During my senior year of college I took an art history class which I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED. Well I liked the subject, my professor-not so much. My favorite paintings were from Impressionists. I love studying art and learning about the different movements. I'm lucky to have found a man that loves art almost as much as I do because I'm really slow walking through galleries. I have a need to look closely at all the colors and brush strokes. Beautiful. After the gallery we walked around the "gardens." I can't wait for Spring to get here so I can see in its full glory.  

The day I love to LOVE

                    

{Watercolor valentine I made for J last year for a class project.}

Valentine's Day is really a day when we eat chocolate all day long.  We aren't very big on celebrating this day because we show our LOVE for each other all year long! CHEEESSYYYYYY. But really. So instead we went to the dollar tree and decided to spend $4 on each other. Why $4?? IDK. It was a spontaneous thing and why wouldn't you want to go to the dollar tree when all you see is people walking out with heart shaped balloons! We got each other stuffed animals, chocolates, and balloons! J also got me the Naked 3 palette that I have been googling over for the last couple of months! Perfect for Valentine's Day with all its rose hued shadows! We also made little candy goody bags for our coworkers and random people. I love surprising people especially when they don't expect it! 

I'm a very lucky girl to have this guy love me for the rest of my life. 

Choose Joy

"Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine." Gordon B. Hinckley

One day I was having a not so good day. Nothing bad happened but for some reason I was feeling depressed and sad. FOR NO REASON. In an attempt to snap out of it, I decided I should paint. I love painting and quite frankly, painting makes me happy. In trying to keep my goal of an art project every month I decided to start this watercolor/ink painting.  Now all I need is the perfect frame for it to be placed in our home! This will be a constant reminder to always CHOOSE JOY in my life because your happiness is only determined by you and no one else. 

new glasses, same nerd

During all of our christmas shopping I lost my glasses considering that we went to 4 different stores that day.  After weeks of not being able to see crispy clear, I finally got me some glasses! Literally it is such a beautiful thing to have your sight. My whole world changed. It was incredible. I know I'm going on about this, but imagine living in a foggy world and all of the sudden everything is recognizable.

This time around I went with a different style.  My last pair looked like they belonged to a librarian. My new ones are bigger with a rose colored frame. And the best part is that they actually fit my face! You know what I mean??? Maybe you don't, but sometimes it's difficult to find frames to fit this face of mine. 

Anyhow, I started working out every day now so I think I will start blogging about that too. Anndd I've actually been sleeping 8 hours every night...which feels so good but somehow still doesn't seem like enough. 

So on that note, time for bed.         Have a good week!

Old Town, San Diego

These are some of my favorite images of when I went to Old Town.  

Seriously, I love that place. I have the best memories of when I was a child visiting there with my family. We had some churros, the best homemade tortillas, and visited the Mormon Battalion. 

We have officially taken down our Christmas tree and decorations yesterday on January 11. And because of that, our house looks extremely boring.  

Tomorrow I start working out with my co-worker after work (too many "work" words in this sentence).  We have a gym at our work and we are going to start USING IT! I'm reallyyyyyyyyyy excited. I love having a workout buddy. Since she has never worked out before, I will have the opportunity to teach her some stuff! We plan on running a 5k together. 

I love having home teachers come visit us! Mostly for selfish reasons. 1) Forces us to clean our home top to bottom. 2) They come bearing gifts in the form of cookies. Yummy!

13.1

Ahhhh, this blog post has been in my draft section for MONTHS. I MUST PUBLISH IT TODAY. 

Real quick, let me update you on my half marathon all the way from OCTOBER.  The weather was perfect for running-cloudy, cool, and not hot. Note to other future half marathon runners: do not use the on location restrooms because it will be backed up forever and you WILL start your race after the official start. Although my training wasn't exactly on point, I still managed to finish my race at 2:37.  That's pretty good to me! I'm incredibly proud of myself for doing this.  My knees didn't give out either and I had been praying that they would not give me a problem. Running a half marathon has always been on my "bucket list" due to my physical limitations (a.k.a bad knees, hips, and ankles).  During the race I couldn't stop smiling, that runner's high definitely kicked in. 

Start of the race, look at that goofy smile. That girl doesn't know what she got herself into.

This was taken right after I finished, STRONG WOMAN! 

I couldn't move at all. I collapsed right after this picture. And I wouldn't be able to walk for weeks after either. 

Running across the finish line cheering!

Mama Ruth, this is my medal I was telling you about........

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2 0 1 4

 There's something refreshing about starting a new year. It gives people hope to start a new year by establishing goals and becoming better.  

This year we started it out with a BANG!

Okay. so that's a little cheesy. 

But really, one of our goals this year is to try new activities. 

Activity #1: Shooting. 

You can guess who's idea this was.  At first I didn't want to do it. But how could I refuse my husband especially when the gun rental is free on that particular day?  I'm not a gun advocate (no, this isn't a political view) so I was really hesitant to do this. Somehow after a while you get used to the sound of shots being fired. By the end, I was a pro! J and I really enjoyed this activity and I'm glad we did it! It was really exciting. 

J & I are at a really good place in our lives.  We love where we work, location, our church friends, and our beautiful home.  No, I'm not saying that our lives are perfect but we do feel very blessed with what we have.  As I've been thinking about my goals for 2014, I want to make sure that they are goals that stretch and improve me. 

2014 Goals: 

• Run a half marathon 
• Work towards saving for our first home. 
• Pay off my school loans. 
• Attend the temple every month.
• Read the New Testament.
• Work out at least 4 times a week. 
• Get in good shape and lose 20 lbs. 
• Finish an art project every month. 
• Open up my own Etsy shop. 
• Become a better wife.