and sometimes you just need an orchestra

every once in a while I have my music cravings switch to something I put on the back shelf.
Yelling music has been a NO WAY lately... Until today.
I had to have some Manchester Orchestra. At my job we rarely listen to anything outside of worship music so it was weird to all of a sudden feel like my day wasn't moving without something out of the blue. I don't do any screaming music much more than that but I was craving it today. And I must say that its just as lovely as I remembered :)

On a different note, I'm signed up for classes. I am going back to school for a degree in Elementary Education. Wow. I start the second week in January. I'm excited but super nervous too. It feels like such a big thing right now but I know that soon enough it will be routine again and I'll be dreading all the fun homework all over again :)

I'm off to figure out what books I need.

Starting Now

Tomorrow starts 21 days of change. I am changing my workout habits, eating habbits and free time habbits.
I am commiting to working out 6 days a week, on the 7th I am doing yoga.
I am going to be doing a mixture of running and weight training. I need to get a hold of my focus again.
I am cutting sugar out. If I know what I'm about to eat has sugar in it, not goin in my mouth.
No fast food. I'm sick of feeling like crap
I will be drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day.
I plan on doing this longer than the 21 days of course but its been said that if you do something consistantly for 21 days it becomes a habit. If I can make these small changes now it will change everything for me.
I am going to make time every night to read again. I have tons of amazing books but I just haven't been making enough time to read any of them.
I am also changing the way I spend my money. I want to go to Chicago this summer. The Sox are playing the Cubbies and I want to be there. I love the idea of Chicago. I also like the idea of being able to play with my money a little bit. I don't want to always have to stop and think, "Is this going to drain my account?"

I am making changes.

extended weekend

These are two of the main things my extra long weekend have consisted of. The other two are Gilmore Girls and sleeping, thank God.

I absolutely love the fact I have 4 days off in a row. Every year I would have had to drag myself back into work on Friday but instead I had the chance to lay around, be lazy and catch up on my z's :)

I don't do the whole Black Friday shopping anymore. People have become too mean and there wasn't anything I needed badly enough to get up at midnight and fighting my way to a parking spot, fighting my way into a line, into the store, into the aisles, and into the checkout. Rinse lather repeat as you hop from store to store. Bleh. Nothing could convince me to do it this year. I don't know why all the fun of it is gone, but it definitely is.

I did have the pleasure of this little guy helping me put the finishing touches (robots) on my tree:)
One of my favorite things about my tree is that I have included some old play cars that belonged to my Grampa. Liam loves my Grampa just as much as I do, he also likes checkin out all the toys.

This little boy is full of love and lets you know it all the time. Melts my heart every time I get to see him.

Tomorrow I am spending the day with my camera and then its back to work for me. I'm soaking up every last minute of this that I can. I love my job but I also love sleep :)

Tis the season of flannel

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Ragamuffin

I'm only in the first chapter of Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning but I have to say, read it. Read it now. The revelation about grace amazes me.


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Green reward :)

Tonite after working out for an hour at the gym, I came home and made a big yummy salad.



Mix of:
Iceberg lettuce (lots of it)
Mini peppers
Cherry tomatoes
Broccoli
Mini cucumber
And for a dressing some balsamic vinegar and lime juice

Holy Moses is it yummy!



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Some Sunday Afternoon Editing

I spent a good part of the day editing some pictures for a calendar I'm putting together. Some won't be used, just wanted to play with them a little...

Grace

Sometime I am just flat out amazed at God and the love He has for us. His grace blows me away.

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. -2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

His grace is sufficient for me. My weakness is an opportunity for his power to be glorified. How amazing is that. That is a word that proves perfection is NOT what he expects from me. I once heard Lisa Bevere say "Holiness isn't God asking you to be perfect, it's God asking you to be His." When I am resting and operating in His grace my weakness is an opportunity for Him to display His power and authority.

Blows. My. Mind.

It just let's me soak in His love.
How amazing is He? Seriously :)

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that good ol' exhausted feeling :)

Tonite I am completely exhausted and I love it. I had such a productive day at work and when I got off I hit the gym instead of making an excuse and going home.

When I got there I hopped on one of the cross ramps (cross trainer?) and worked my butt off for an hour. It was one of those workouts that every time I wanted to quit and just be done for the night I got my second and third and fourth wind. When I stepped off I felt so accomplished and happy :) And that feeling will be one that I remember on a day that I want to skip a workout.
This is the workout I did tonite:

Time (Minutes)	Ramp	Resistance
0-5 (Warm Up)	4	1
5-10	6	5
10-15	Reverse! 12	4
15-20	12	4
20-25	8	7
25-30	Reverse! 14	5
30-35	14	6
35-40	9	8
40-45	6	9
45-50	7	7
50-55	Reverse! 13	4
55-60 (Cool Down)	6	4

I am off to go clean, read and sleep :)

off to see the wizard...

or the gym gods...I'm feeling back to myself (minus a stuffy nose off and on) so that means I'm also off to work out.
I need to get into the habbit of doing this and the only way to get there is to start now :)
The downside of this? We got our first snow yesterday :( BOO I thought we were doing so good Montana? What the heck??
Anyways I'm off, hope you are having a great sunday

It's been a while

The past couple weeks have been so busy that I haven't been able to write, even though had intentions to I just never got the chance.

I will say that I absolutely love my new job. On monday I will have worked there for 3 weeks and it has been such a change. I know there will be frustrating days, there are at every job, but I have been so blessed with it. There has been one downside to working in an office with kids, I have been sick all day yesterday and today. To whoever created Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom liquid medicine, I would like to send you a thank you card. It's the only thing that has helped me breath and lets my head have a break.

So today has been spent in bed watching Psych season 2 and the first season of Castle. Which I def know has helped ;) Today I wanted nothing more than to be outside in the beautiful weather (that everyone keeps reminding me we had) doing some photography. It always seems that the days I'm dying to shoot I am not able to. But maybe tomorrow this junk will be gone and I'll be able to get out again. Tonite I will spend some time going through all this new amazing music and cleaning up my space. I had big plans for the weekend but they will all need to be put on hold. I need some rest and to get healthy again.

So these last couple weeks I have practically fell off the fitness wagon. I went to the gym once this last week. It may have been a great work out but it hasn't been consistant enought to make any difference. I need to make it a priority. It's just not something I'm ok with putting off anymore. I've done alot to start making myself a priority instead of being a footnote but this is one thing that just is difficult for me to get into the habit of. I've made it too easy on myself to come up with excuses. Needs to change.

I haven't been looking at blogs in the last two weeks either. It's crazy getting caught up on weekends. I feel like this will be a good one to get caught up on blogs, a couple books I'm trying to finish, and if I'm feeling better tomorrow, some recipes I've been wanting to cook.

Oh and speaking of cooking, last weekend I made this soup for my family. I lightened up the recipe a bit but it turned out great and tasted a lot like the Zuppa soup from the Olive Garden.

Via
It was perfect for a fall weekend.
Well I'm off to rest. Hope you have a restful weekend as well :)

A Few Of My Favorite Things

Today is my day to clean, clean, clean and do a little bit of cooking too :)
While I was cleaning I remembered why I love Mrs. Meyers Clean Day products. I worked at World Market for a summer when I was home from college and first was introduced to this line there. I LOVE the lavendar scent. It makes me happy to clean.

The other cleaner I like to use is Method Wood For Good wipes. They also smell good and make my furniture look great.

Right now my iPhone is being updated... and taking forever... and people keep texting me and interrupting it. It has to start all over again. So while I'm waiting for it I thought I would look at some new cases for it. I love the one it's wearing but I like to switch it every so often. The one that it is in right now is from Tech Candy. When I was in Red Lodge this summer, a friend and I found the cases at a little shop. I have the Bordeaux Case and I love it. Grey just makes my heart happy so I usually keep it in that one, but once in a while I'll change it to orange too :)


In about 5 minutes here I am going to start cooking dinner. I came across a Lemon Chicken recipe on Pinterest (love love love Pinterest). It looks amazing and we have a bunch of lemons that need to be used up.


These past couple days I've been pretty good about working out, and I love how good I've been feeling when I get done. This morning I did this workout (also found on Pinterest but was without a source).

By the end I was ready to go home and have a nice big glass of cold water. I think I will do this one other day this week too. I have been getting in the habit of writing out a workout schedule, it makes it a lot easier to go and do it. I am the queen of excuses when it comes to making it to the gym. But I need to change my habits and lifestyle so I have been MAKING myself go. Eating healthy is the other part of it. I do pretty well when I have a plan but when I'm on the go and didn't prepare something I turn to junk. I feel so much better, and my skin, Holy Cow! my skin. It has cleared up so much. I am so happy about that. I have been drinking way more water and been taking these multi-vitamins from Complete Nutrition.They are super good about sending out cupons and stuff in the mail so I can keep it pretty cost effective and still make sure I am getting the vitamins I need.

I also take the Vita-Clear vitamins from Pro-Active (another life saver).

I really like seeing a change (and feeling one too) when I start taking care of myself. Its such a great feeling. Well I'm off to cook, then to church. :)
{PS None of the companies or products were sponsored nor was I paid anything to write about any of it- I just like the stuff}

Chemicals

John Mark McMillan's album {titled Economy} that will be out November first sounds absolutely amazing. It's one of those ones I just want to listen to over and over again. Actually I have been...
On The-Drop
And it's free streaming

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Last Day Of School

You know that TORTUROUS feeling when the last day of school goes by super super slow.
That. Is. How. Today. Feels.
It's my last day of work at a job I have been at since 2005. And I want that bell to ring and just run outta here with my backpack. I made the mistake of finishing up my "to do" list about 20 minutes ago. I only have cleaning left to do. If I hadn't processed my time sheet already I would just bite the bullet and lose a couple hours.
In the mean time, here are a few things that are helping me through this tough time :)
1. This Dress (just found the site Lace Affair and I've fallen in love
2. Adele and her amazing voice, particularly on "One and Only", I've loved Adele's music for a few years now but man that song just gets me everytime.
3.My Tiny Initial Necklace from etsy (I have the B). I'm wearing it today and it makes my heart happy...

4. Relevant Magazine's free streaming music The Drop
5. The fact that in 5 hours I will get to settle in and just chill, watch a movie and catch up with my friends. It will be nice to take a quick little rest before I jump into a new job. I'm so excited!

Here's to the next 2 hours hurrying up and getting over with :)

I still follow the Life Journal online devotion readings everyday. I just don't always write in the format that I used to. It gives me something to "chew on" throughout rest of the day and something to meditate on while I pray throughout the day. Today, reading in Nehemiah 9 I came across this:

¹ On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. ² Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. ³ They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. ⁴ Standing on the stairs of the Levites were Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Kenani. They cried out with loud voices to the LORD their God.

 This is something that stopped me in my tracks. How often do I spend my prayer time confessing and repenting? A lot of the time I just think of the things I've done wrong or messed up on and ask God to help me fix them. I never bring them before Him and actually repent. It's a big part of what we are called to do when we come before God and I've been slacking. Scripture usually paints a picture in my head. In this one I see thousands of people on their feet crying out and weeping to God for their sins. They also confessed the sins of their ancestors. They brought all the wrong that was done before God and asked for forgiveness. They wanted a clean slate. I want to be able to come before God and not only ask him to wipe my slate clean but to also forgive me for what I have done. Forgiveness He gives. 

Make like a tree

I used to hate gold jewelry. I thought it looked tacky and couldn't stand to wear it. I am now getting to the point where I am attracted to a lot of gold pieces. About a year ago I picked up some larger gold leaf earings from World Market.

 (The picture makes them look silver/ irridescent but they are actually gold... sorry sometimes my iPhone doesn't quite understand me...)
They were definitely something new for me, being used to wearing pretty small studs, but I loved them. The only problem was I always felt like I needed to wear a necklace with them but couldn't find the right style.
Enter my birthday present from my friend Steph, or who I refer to as Pancho. She is amazing. And her amazingness covers the Anthropolgy gift card department as well. When I was browsing the online store I came across something I saw that I could not live without :) Enter the perfect gold leaf necklace. That was made for me. And my gold leaf earings. And makes the world a better place. Period.

It makes my heart so happy.Do you know what else makes my heart happy? Tomorrow will be the last day at my job. I am starting a new one on Monday, working for a couple that is like my second family. I just love them and am so excited to work for them. I have worked at this place since I was a sophomore in high school. It's time for a change.
Something else that makes my heart happy is the book Plans Purposes & Pursuits by Kenneth E Hagin.



This book is so full of truth. Authors that can list their own mistakes and successes so you can see how God works in others lives can give you such a good example for living. I am about halfway through it right now. After spending some time reading last night I just spent some time with God. He has been just dumping His love on me the past couple days and it is so refreshing. Sometimes when I don't know what to pray anymore I just start praying scripture. I was reading and praying Psalms 138 and 139 and man, I just got lost in His love. I've missed that feeling. I am so thankful for a God that just lets us rest in His presence. He amazes me everyday :)



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