Search This Blog

Monday, February 20, 2012

photo challenge: Movement

Today I began my 8th week of training for my 1st 5k race!
This is quite the personal accomplishment for me, in the past the only time I would consider running would be away from something scary or towards something yummy! The thought of running for "fun" never crossed my mind.  However after my 1st son was born I was really struggling to loose my "baby" weight and my husband in an act of encouragement suggested we start running together...In a moment of desperation I agreed. Thankfully he knew of a plan that would not kill me, so I was introduced to the "couch to 5k" running. I can not rave enough about this plan, especially if you've never ran before, because its very "do-able" its a 8 week plan that starts off as simple as run/jog 60 secs, walk 90 secs, repeat until you've been at it for 20 mins. Seriously, anyone can do this, and week by week the intervals change and before you know it you're running for 30 mins straight!!

The 1st time I attempted this program I believe I made it to week 3 before I quite making running a priority and allowed myself to get busy with other stuff. Fast forward 2 yrs into the future, baby #2  has been born and once again I decide to start the C25K program all over again..this time I made it about 2 weeks in before our life got super crazy with packing and moving to VA.
Well I guess the 3rd time is a charm, like I mentioned at the beginning of this post I have made it 8 weeks in & am now able to run/jog for 28 mins straight & I am registered for my 1st 5k, the Shamrock 5k on March 17th.

As a reward to myself for my dedication and also as a way to motivate myself to keep running, I went to a specialty running store,Off n' Running, this past weekend and got fitted for running shoes.
When I started running I began to experience throbbing pain in my knees, I just chalked it up to being out of shape, but come to find out my pain was caused by the lack of support in my shoes, allowing my feet to roll inward as I ran. Who Knew?!?
So now I have to run in shoes with crazy support, some of the ones I tried on looked like old lady orthopedic shoes, thankfully the Sauconys I ended up with don't look too bad, However long gone are the days when I chose my running shoes based on how "cute" they looked, whammy :(

I have come to have a sort of love/dislike relationship with running. I know some runners talk about  experiencing a "runners high"while running but I have to get there yet... maybe I never will. Running hasn't gotten much easier for me either, I still have to get on the treadmill and tell my brain to shut up and just keep going! But with the hassle has come some rewards! I have lost 10 lbs and drop down a size in my jeans :)

Here are a few "keys" of success for me:
1) I am blessed with a gym membership that includes childcare! 
2) I made achievable goals / rewards - my 1st goal/reward is: loose 10 lbs = get a haircut :)
3)being okay with the process, I know that I am not going to run a marathon tomorrow or get to my ideal weight in 3 months.
4) blabbing about it on Facebook, this may sound odd but seriously knowing that almost everyone I know, knows I'm doing the c25k encourages me to keep going when I want to quit!



Saturday, February 18, 2012

photo challenge: Something New

A major event taking place during my 30th year is the start of Venture Christian Church
Eric & I moved to Danville, VA in september of last year to begin this journey that has become Venture. Truthfully I had never heard of "church planting" until I had graduated College and good friends of ours were involved in starting a new church. When I stopped to think about it, it makes sense, all the churches around had to start somewhere. Now that we're involved in Church planting I feel like I hear about new churches and people we know or know of being part of a church plant, its like when you buy a new car and then all the sudden you start to see the same make & model all over the road when before you purchased it you never noticed them. Okay, back to Venture.
Our 1st offical Sunday or our "Launch" as its known in the church planting world is April 1st
just little over a month & 1/2 away and things are really starting to get exciting and BUSY ~
A lot goes into starting a new church.

In January Venture introduced itself to Danville by hosting a night of Free Bowling open to everyone!
We had a great time meeting new people and watching families enjoy a night of fun.

We have 2 more community events coming up in March along with some "preview" services building up to our 1st official Sunday morning service.

This Journey has been trying at times, but its during those times that I've seen God move.
I am learning to daily live out Philippians 4:6-7 NLT
"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds 
as you live in Christ Jesus."
Take notice how this passage does not say "Tell God what you need and he will give it to you" instead this passage tells us to remind ourselves of what God has done for us and we will experience God's peace. I think this is important to understand.  What this passage says to me is that God wants me to come to him with my concerns, but he is also asking me to trust him And when I step back and remind myself of how God has taken care of me in the past, I can experience the peace that comes with knowing HE is in control, not me, THANK GOODNESS!
I know without a doubt that we have been called to Danville for such a time as this. Our continued challenge is seeking God's will in all of this and making sure Venture is the church God has called it to be and not allow ourselves to get in the way of that.

I want to leave you with song called "Skeleton Bones" by John Mark McMillan
One of Venture's core values is "cultivate renewal"
I can't help but think of renewal when I hear this song :)

John Mark McMillan - Skeleton Bones from john mark mcmillan on Vimeo.






Sunday, February 12, 2012

photo challenge: Hands

"We came into the world like brother and brother; And now lets go hand in hand,
not one before another." --William Shakespeare

Today for my photo challenge of "Hands" I want to share about my boys, Beckham & Weston. 
this picture was taken on the day that Weston was born. If you can tell in the photo Beckham is trying to shake/hold Weston's hand. Beckham was super cute and introduced himself to Weston, saying "Hi, my name is Beckham, I want you to play monster trucks with me." It was P R E C I  O U S!
When Eric and I found out that our 2nd bundle of joy would be a little boy we were so excited for Beckham to have a brother. I'm pretty sure Beckham would have made an awesome big brother to a little sister just as much as he does to Weston, but when I think of Brothers I think of best friends. 
We look forward to the boys sharing a room and having bunk beds, playing sports together, running around the house playing pretend.
Sometimes being in the ministry means you have to move from time to time, I grew up in the military, so we moved every couple of years and I know first hand what its like to have to move and feel lonely until you make new friends,  but Beckham and Weston will always have each other :)
I love watching the boys interact, catching Beckham being sweet to Weston, or asking if Weston can come play in his room. Weston ADORES Beckham, no one can get Weston to laugh the way Beckham can, but Weston doesn't always let Beckham get away with taking toys from him, If its something Weston wants he will "fight" for it,  lets just say that even though Weston is the "little" brother he can definitely hold his own!

One of the main reasons I decided to talk about my boys when the challenge was "Hands" is because they love to hold hands, its super cute! Often when I set them next to each other to take their picture they will hold hands without me prompting them to. It melts my heart. 
here they are holding hands on Christmas Eve 2011 before we left for Church
I also caught them holding hands on Halloween too
"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero" -- Marc Brown

We recently moved Weston's carseat over to the seat next to Beckham in the van so its easier for people to climb in and out of the backseat, Beckham's one complaint was "Mom I can't reach Wessy's hand"




Thursday, February 9, 2012

photo challenge: Inspiring Person

Today I want to tell you about someone who inspires me, my Mom. 


My Mom is amazing for countless reasons and once again I find myself struggling for the right words, the following are just a few of the things that inspire me:
She is a strong woman of God 
She is a fighter, and does not accept defeat
She is super creative, I get all my craftiness from her
She was brave enough to be okay with me being mad at her when I was younger
She taught me about Jesus
She cried with me when my heart got broken
She made sure I had positive male influences in my life when my Dad wasn't around
She taught me to be a good steward of what I have been blessed with
She walked me down the aisle on my wedding day
She loves animals and allowed me to have lots of pets
She encouraged me to do the things I didn't think I was capable of
She always makes sure my Birthdays are special
She got up with Weston every night for the 1st 2 weeks of his life so I could recover
When faced with a task she gives it her 110%
She is an amazing "Grammie" to my boys

I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights. -- Adabella Radici

My mom is also an inspiration to her community. She is the center director of an amazing ministry called Hope House. Hope House offers opportunities for young moms to receive mentoring and parenting classes, along with supplies like diapers and formula. My Mom meets with a number of young woman face to face each day offering help, guidance, & encouragement. 

Love you Mom!!
(mom surprised me with Tickets to WICKED for my 28th birthday)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

photo challenge: Favorite Color

"Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow" 
Yellow by Coldplay

I'm not sure I would boldly say I have a "Favorite" color, when I was younger I loved blue and I still do, but recently I have found myself gravitating towards the color yellow. I think yellow is such a happy color and I love to use it as an accent.  A little pop of yellow here & there, my favorite combos are Yellow & Navy or Yellow & Gray. Since moving to VA I updated my kitchen decor and now have a Yellow & Gray color pallet
I made 3 valances for my kitchen out of a table cloth from Target!

I am not a fan of wearing yellow clothing, again just accent pieces, I have a yellow scarf that I L O V E and my in-laws got me this awesome yellow crossbody purse that is big enough to hold the essentials (iphone & wallet) when I am lucky enough to get to leave the house without the diaper bag in tow. 




Tuesday, February 7, 2012

photo challenge: Something Funny

Today's challenge is a photo of something funny and a few things came to mind:

#1. A few months ago Eric & I got to check out one of the old warehouses in the historic tobacco district in danville, the building was huge & at one point it served as a hardware store, while I was exploring I came across this sign taped up on the entrance way into the office area. Obviously someone had a problem with Snow White & did not believe in the age old adage, whistle while you work. 


#2. This product is for real, I snapped this picture at Dick's Sporting Goods, my only question is does it work? because I am one of those people who get EATEN alive by mosquitos, and swell up, it ain't pretty, although I must admit they usually don't attack my face

#3. When I need a good laugh I can always count on ellen to deliver! I think its hilarious when she puts an ear piece in a celebrity's ear and tells them what to say, I love the original one with Dennis Quaid at starbucks, to this day Eric & I will still quote him "Dennis Quaid is here!!" 
She has done this prank with a couple of different celebrities but of course my favorite would be David Beckham. Enjoy!

Monday, February 6, 2012

photo challenge: Books

After taking the day off from blogging, enjoying some time with family & friends, I'm back!
Today's photo challenge is...
 
B O O K S 

the older I get the more I enjoy reading! which is kind of funny since the most recent series I've read and LOVED is geared towards teens. In my defense I know of many other adults that have also enjoyed the Hunger Games series  :) 
I enjoy reading non-fiction as well from time to time, some of my favorite authors include, Donald Miller, Brennan Manning,  & Rob Bell. The downside to reading non-fiction for me is I feel like I have to read slow and meticulously because I don't want to miss anything, and sometimes I have to re-read certain passages a few times to allow the content to really sink in.  However there is just something about picking up a novel and getting lost in the characters & story.  I'm also a pretty picky reader, if something doesn't catch my attention quickly, it is highly unlikely that I will stick with it! 
I do however like to read the book before seeing the movie, especially on for new releases. That is actually how I came about reading The Notebook; The Twilight Saga; Eat, Pray, Love & The Help. I saw previews and decided to read the book 1st. I think its interesting to see how the story transfers from the book to the screen. I'm usually satisfied with the movies, I understand there is no way they can fit the details of a whole book into 2hrs (or less) Sometimes I'm disappointed when they may leave out my favorite part or minor character. I wasn't too thrilled with Eat, Pray, Love the movie...I love me some Julia Roberts, but the movie definitely fell way short of the book in my opinion. 
Now onto The Hunger Games, I read this series of 3 books (the 3rd, Mocking Jay not pictured) in a  week! I just couldn't put them down. Eric & I were flying to VA for a job interview so I decided to look for a new book for the trip, I had heard people talk about the Hunger Games, so I thought it was worth a shot. I actually read the books a few months before I had even heard that there was a movie in the making. Which I am super excited about :) I'm also one of those crazy people who think its fun to go see movies during the midnight "premiere" showings!! I love the atmosphere and excitement! Well I used to be one of those people until recently when a certain little man came into my life and still wakes up in the middle of the night multiple times, sleep has just become too valuable. 

Another quirk about me is that I DO NOT buy the books with the movie edition art work on the cover, I want the original artwork. I once heard a comedian say that he thought it was genius that they started marketing the book using the actors from the movie based on the book, when people see the cover and say things like "oh I didn't know Brad Pitt was in this book" haha


Saturday, February 4, 2012

photo challenge: Leaves

we moved from IN to VA mid September and I'm pretty sure it was the most beautiful fall I've EVER SEEN!! Yes there are trees in IN but mostly cornfields and everything is so FLAT, nothing like Danville VA.  Everywhere we would go I was mesmerized by the beautiful fall colors and the changing of the leaves. It seemed to have lasted forever, locals told me that this was a bit of an unusual fall and the leaves were keeping their bright red and orange color longer than usual. I tried many times to take pictures of the fall landscapes but none of the pictures I took could ever do it justice!

we are blessed to rent a sweet little house surround by beautiful trees, I enjoyed sitting on the front porch admiring the beauty of a Virginian Fall. Fall is by far my favorite season, I love sweatshirt & jeans with a cup of pumkin spice latte in hand, type of weather.
H O W E V E R
All that beauty came with a price! Eventually my beloved leaves turned brown & crispy and fell to the ground. It took us (mainly Eric) close to 20 hrs to rake/blow/drag ALL those leaves to the front curb! Thankfully in Danville you aren't required to bag your leaves for pickup, instead the city comes by with a giant hose and sucks them all up, all you have to do is get the leaves to the curb, which we learn is much easier said than done!! When all was said & done our curb leaf pile went from the corner of our road all the way across our yard to our neighbors fence. It was at-least 3&1/2 foot wide and was taller than my waist! It took the city 3 trips by to get them all! I also tried taking a picture of our CRAZY leaf pile but that photo definitely did NOT do the mass of leaves justice. And there is still a decent amount of leaves looming around our yard, we need to do another round of leaf clean up!

So if you ever get a chance to visit Virginia in the Fall I would highly recommend it and if anyone would like to pay for professional leaf removal service for us I would highly appreciate it! :)

Friday, February 3, 2012

photo challenge: Happiness

one my favorite song lyric's comes from Ben Harper and goes a little like this:
"But you put the happy in my ness, you put the good time into my fun"
So naturally when I thought of trying to capture "Happiness" for today's challenge I thought of my handsome husband, Eric! (I always had a thing for redheads)
now here is where I feel my lack of ability as a "writer" begins to show up, I've always had a difficult time trying to express my thoughts through writing and honestly how does one put into words their feelings for the person they love?!  So I have decided to make a list, lists I can handle

Here are just a few of the many ways that Eric puts the happy in my ness  (in no particular order)

*He loves Jesus with all of his heart and is willing to follow him even into the unknown
*He listens to me ramble on about stuff I'm pretty sure he doesn't care about but he acts totally interested
*He is Brave and does not give up easily
*He works hard to provide for our family so I can stay at home with the boys
*He loves Scrubs, which isn't my favorite show, but I love watching him watch it because he laughs so hard which makes me smile 
*He is Beckham's best friend (& I'm pretty sure Weston adores him too)
*He knows pretty much everything there is know about anything, I will get all excited because I've learned something new, share it with him and his response is "yeah, I know that" He just knows stuff, its pretty cool
*He researches EVERYTHING about a major purchase before buying it to make sure we are getting the best deal available
*He tells me I'm a good Mom
*He can find anything on the internet! this may sound funny, but for some reason the internet & I aren't the best of friends so if I can't find something I know Eric will 
*He can deep fry a turkey....if you have not had a deep fried turkey for thanksgiving you have not lived
*He has more faith in me than I have in myself sometimes
*He will wear a costume, We have some awesome friends that have a big costume party for Halloween, we used to go every year when we all lived in IN (now we're in VA & they are in IL) Eric was always a good sport about dressing up & he still is, this Year Beckham wanted him to be Captain America 
here we are as "peace & quiet" haha
my superheroes

We have been married for 7yrs, and just like any other marriage we go through seasons of stress, busyness, joy, & excitement. But regardless of where we are in life he still puts the good times into my fun and there is no one else I'd want to spend my life with!
Love ya Babe :)




Thursday, February 2, 2012

photo challenge: Smile

I have always been someone with a "thing for teeth" by which I mean, teeth are the 1st thing I notice about someone, Especially celebrities and TV personalities. I must admit that at times I can be harsh, I often think if a celebrity has money than why in the world would they not fix their teeth!?
Maybe I'm so sensitive about teeth because I spent a large majority of my life having mine worked on!
I got braces right before I turned 6 and didn't get them off until I was in 7th grade!! YUP my mouth was that messed up!
Here is a picture of me before braces, awh aren't I cute? 
I know you all are probably like "what? her smile looks fine" well those there are my baby teeth and as soon as those bad boys fell out and my adult teeth came in my mouth was a HOT MESS because there was NO ROOM for them, everything was so crowded, I had teeth coming in under my tongue! 

So began my many years of dental work! 
not only did I have braces I also had orthodontic headgear!! ahhh, thankfully I didn't have to wear my headgear for long and never in public, just at home and I was supposed to sleep in it too. Oh man was it uncomfortable. Braces had their upside too, for those of you who also had braces you remember how much fun it was to get different colored bands, you could even mix & match colors and have themed bands for different holidays, you know red & green, or orange & black...the worst choice of color for your bands was white, it just looked like you had something stuck in your teeth,yuck!
           
Thankfully all those years of being a "brace face" or "metal mouth" paid off.
I am very thankful that my family was able to afford to keep my mouth in braces! If I could change anything about my smile I would love to have my teeth professionally whitened! Now to the next generation...my boys, I'm pretty sure there is no hope of them not having braces! In fact we recently took Beckham to his 1st dental exam and I decided to ask the dentist his opinion and before I could even get the question out He assumed I was asking about braces and responded with "absolutely without a doubt he will need braces" What I've been told is that even though it may not be the "prettiest" you want your baby/toddler's smile to have a lot of gaps, because then they will have room for their adult teeth. Unfortunately Beckham has a beautiful gap free smile :(  Better start saving now!! The good news is Orthodontistry has come a L O N G way in the last 24 years

Here is a picture of Beckham at the dentist, he said he needed "Batman" glasses because it was too bright, not sure what made them batman glasses but hey, whatever works!
So there you have it! I hope you've enjoyed my pictures & crazy hairstyles, hey I was a child of the 80s, what do you expect?

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Let the Challenge Begin

Welcome to day ONE of my 30 day photo Challenge! I am really excited for this challenge and a challenge it has been, I've been looking over the list of the 30 "things" I am going to try and capture through photos and I have had a hard time coming up with some ideas for some of them, others however have been a no brainer and I knew instantly what I wanted to do for that day. I have decided to do this challenge a little differently then it was intended...I will  not be using only "new" photos taken specifically for this challenge, the majority of them will be "new," however a few of the days call for photos of people or places I don't have access to at this time. Some days will have more than one photo too. With all that being said, lets get started!

Day One: Favorite Food

okay so right out the gate I had a hard time coming up with an favorite food, let alone a photo of it! lets just say I like FOOD, plural. I asked my Husband what he thought my fav. food was and his reply was "Pizza." I do love me some pizza, but I don't think its my favorite, I think a major part of the appeal of pizza to me is the connivence of not having to cook and even when we "make" the pizza at home all I have to do it preheat the oven and grab a pizza from the freezer! I do have a favorite pizza topping though, its BACON!! I love Bacon on or off of pizza :)
back to the Challenge...
After racking my brain I chose FRUIT!
I Love Fruit, but I'm also very picky about my fruit, I like fresh fruit, I am not a fan of anything canned unless its mandarin oranges & pineapple chunks. I LOVE berries, all of them! I'm kinda picky when it comes to apples, Honeycrisp are my #1 choice followed by a crispy red delicious and granny smith, if the apple isn't crispy I'm not eating it! There really isn't a fruit I'm not a fan of however  I've heard it said a time or two that a tomato is actually a fruit, not a vegetable, something about the seeds and what not, if this is true then tomatoes are my LEAST favorite fruit, in fact I hate tomatoes....I can handle pasta sauce and pizza sauce, and even salsa but tomatoes in non-sauce form, FORGET IT!

Loving fruit comes in handy, especially when you're trying to eat healthy, everyone in this house loves Fruit (especially my 3yr old Beckham, if we allowed it, he would eat fruit and only fruit all day) But Veggies, thats another story, we are not really big into eating vegetables, I have the same feeling towards veggie as I do fruit, I don't like canned veggies! We're getting better though, I am trying to prepare one vegetarian meal a week, so far so good, Eric has actually liked the dishes I've prepared and that says ALOT this man would like his steak with a side of steak, not unlike Ron Swanson from Parks & Rec. "You had me at Meat Tornado"

By no means am I the healthiest eater, actually I have this really annoying habit/weakness, almost instantly after finishing a meal I have a craving for something SWEET!! I'll spend all this time counting calories and making healthy food choices in preparing meals and then go out and have Dairy Queen for dessert! yikes!! 
But I'm really trying to work on that, if you take the time to look for it you can find some decent dessert alternatives, right now my favorite are diana's bananas banana babies
Fruit covered in chocolate!! PERFECTION!!