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