Ouchee

I forgot I even had a blog but I couldn't help but share what the "effects" of having a personal trainer have been for me. So I'm determined to get in shape and have started meeting with a personal trainer. In the past I haven't had good experiences with personal trainers. The first time I met with one we did calf exercises for an hour. Who in their right mind would have someone just starting to exercise work on one muscle for an hour? Guess who couldn't walk the next day?... The next time I met with a personal trainer, he showed me how to do these very difficult squat/lunges with one leg in a rope. It made me very dizzy and guess who almost passed out?... The girl working out next to me asked me if I was OK. I decided that Id' try it again, despite my bad experiences, to help keep me on track. So my second week back at the gym I met with my personal trainer, Katie, and we did an intense lower body work out. I don't think that personal trainers realize that us fatties can't do the same workouts as them. Not that I didn't do it, because I did. But I think that they should consider that we haven't used any muscles for a while so we might not be able to walk the next day if we do the same exercises as a super fit person. And you bet your bottom dollar I sure felt it for the next week. The day after I could barely walk. Stairs were terrible and I live on the 3rd floor in my apartment complex and work on the 3rd floor at work but luckily they have an elevator there. I was in denial that the 2nd day it would be worse because how could it hurt any worse!? I didn't know that I could be so sore. Anyways I kept going to the gym to help stretch my muscles but the soreness didn't go away for about a week. So now this time that I met with my personal trainer I was thinking oh this will be great. We'll do an upper body work out and I'll be sore but at least I'll be able to walk and get around. Wrong. I never realized all the things that you need your arms for! When you can't even touch your face, a lot of things are difficult. I have to hunch to eat or drink because I can't bend my arms. It hurts to tuck my hair behind my ear, put on chapstick, putting on a bra (most difficult) and even straightening my arms hurts. I did some of the same work outs I did yesterday to help stretch them out but as soon as they sat again for a minute they were even more stiff. My triceps are what hurt the most and I'm pretty sure they tripled is size since Monday. Most of the time I just laugh at myself because I can't do anything. I just feel like an idiot that has delicate arms. Haha! Anyway, if you see me in the next week bending and hunching over to tuck my hair behind my ear you'll know why!

Change

I've been thinking about this past year and I'm pretty much in the exact same position I was a year ago, even two years ago, maybe more. It seems like nothing has changed. I'm still the same person I've always been. I mean, I am freakin awesome but I do have some flaws. You'd have never guessed, would ya? While ringing in the new year I've contemplated the new year's resolutions I want to make. Getting in shape has always been on the top of the list but I've decided not to even put that on my list this year as much as that desperately needs to happen. All I want to do this year is be fit spiritually. I feel like if I do that everything else will just fall into place. That's what I hope anyway. After all these years of making resolutions to be better I don't think I've kept a single one. And why? It's because I don't change. I just go along with life expecting change to just happen. It's almost like I expect my circumstances to change me but I have to change me. I have to change myself. No one is going to do it for me. That's why I want to be spiritually fit this year. The only thing that can help me is the gospel, specifically the atonement. I need to take it and use it and create a new me. Still me but a better me. The enabling power of the atonement is what will help me become the person I need to be. It's not a bunch of friends, a rockin bod, a boyfriend, stylish clothes, or even the greatest vacation that will change me into a better person. In order to actually complete my new years resolution I have to change myself with the help of the atonement. Its a good thing I know the atonement works or this would be an impossible task. I'm so grateful for my testimony and for my knowledge I have of Christ. He is my Savior, my brother and my friend. This year I'm going to make the atonement my focus so I can actually accomplish my goal of becoming a better me. 2013, lets go.

Next Chapter

I'm not a great blogger. In fact, you might have noticed that it's been a long while since I've posted anything. I blame it on Summer. I mean who wants to be sitting at a computer typing away while there is so much fun and sunshine to be had outside. I really didn't even spend all that much time outside this summer. I actually did sit in front of the computer and type away, at work. I feel like that is all that I did over the entire summer break. I did have a few, few, trips to the lake but the summer went by so quickly that I didn't even have time to think about anything fun, yet plan some fun and actually do it. All the same, I did have some fun over summer break, just not my usual jam packed full of fun summer. Here are a couple fun things I did.
1. Manti: Saw the pageant, went to the temple, hung out with my good friends Kenz, and Kaylee
2. Tucson: Went with my fam to watch my little, yet taller, sis play in the western regional softball tournament.
3. Brennan: He finished his mission and came home on pioneer day. What a fun reunion. It had been three years since we had seen each other.
Well, that concludes my list. I'm sure there were other things that I did but it seemed like summer when by in the blink of an eye. Summer break needs to be at least twice as long maybe even three times longer. I'm sure you would agree.
So anyway, this blog is called next chapter because that's exactly where I am at in life again. I'm back in Provo, about to start my Junior year of college. This chapter of my life might be the similar to the last one but I fell like this one is going to be different. Even though I am sitting at home on my computer on a Friday night, I feel like this School year is going to be so much fun, full of hard work at school and exciting times with the roomies. I already love them, at least the ones I've met so far. I still have two more to meet. My room roomie and me are almost the same person. I'm sure we'll be besties in no time. Our apartment already feels like home. Cant wait to see what happens in this next chapter. I'll keep you posted!

Old...

I know that I am not old but I feel like I am developing a few habits of the elderly. Along with frequent naps and sometimes feeling computer illiterate, this past Friday evening I was home reading the newspaper and watching news clips online while my roommates were getting ready to go to a dance party. They invited me to go along with them but I decided I didn't want to go; I would rather stay home and catch up on current events. Now, as a 24 year old college student I should be going out with my friends and roommates and meeting new people and having fun but instead I find myself at home alone. I know many youngsters enjoy the news but most would let the news wait and head out and party.
While I was attending SUU, it was a different story. I was the one hosting the dance parties, rock band parties, game nights, movie nights, and everything else in between. I feel like those years I had so much fun and now I am just old and boring. I contribute it to many things but mostly because the fact is I am getting older. I was just talking to a friend about how we wish we could have just stayed kids forever. No big decisions to make, your parents provide everything for you, and life is just grand with the only worries being if you were going get your spot in the lunch line or not. Those days are long gone. There is a lot to be enjoyed by getting older but I don't feel like I am old enough to be getting older. I am almost a quarter of a century for pete's sake! haha! I was perusing facebook today and saw pictures of kids from my neighborhood back home going to prom. I remember when they were born so how can they be old enough to be going to prom? And how old does that make me? Old
Another elderly trait I possess is my lack of memory. If you know me, you know that I have one of the worst memories, next to my mother that is. Love you mom! haha I have very few memories of my childhood, or even high school for that matter. I can't remember much these days so I hope I'll be able to remember my own name in 20 years...
Today in ward conference we were having a lesson in combined relief society and priesthood, where, of course dating was mentioned and all those who were under 25 were asked to stand up. Then all those who were over 25 were asked to stand up. Wow are there a lot of old people like me in my ward. It is kind of scary knowing that my life could continue in this single life kind of way for the next 6 years until I am 30. I better stop reading the news paper on a Friday night.
I know I am not that old but the years seem to be zooming by.
Another factor in my staying home on a Friday night is that I don't make friends very easily. I am pretty awkward person when I am in a group of people I don't know. I never know what to say or when to say it. I have been out playing with my roommates and have had people over for dinner or games but I feel like out of all the people I have met this school year, I have had nothing in common with hardly any of them. I do love my roommates to death and we get along great but others in my ward or surrounding groups of friends I just don't seem to connect with. I have always felt like I was in a league of my own. I am a pretty well rounded person. I dabble in a little bit of everything so you think I could talk to just about anybody but that is not the case. I am somehow in this in between category of (sorry to stereotype but I am) popular/cool/jocks to weird/nerds/awkward people. I do posses qualities of most of those stereotypes but since I've moved to Provo I haven't seemed to fit into a group. I am hopeful for the future though. I have a wonderful summer to look forward to surrounded by friends and family and will be in a new living situation in the fall. Although that has yet to be determined. Even in my old age I can change and begin a new year making some friends and who knows after 20 years I might be able to remember the fun times ahead.

Since it’s been a long while since I have updated my blog I’d thought I’d share about recent events. So first off, I got accepted into the elementary education program at UVU. Yay! So I know what I’ll be doing for the next 2 years. More school… yay...... But at least my life has direction. I was a little worried I wasn’t going to get in. Since I am a transfer student they took my last few credits at SUU to show my GPA (I don’t know why they did that, why not just use all my credits…) which were classes like organic chemistry and calculus two which I failed, hence why I changed my major, and I had to take the praxis test and my scores weren’t in yet. I also had to do a group interview which I hated. I have really bad conversational timing, especially in groups and even more so in groups that I don’t know so the group interview was awful. I had to fight to get a word in the conversation. It went ok but I never want to do it again. But it all worked out and I got in! I really don’t like school at all, and probably would have just stopped going to school if I didn’t get in. Good thing I did get in or I’d end up living in my parent’s basement the rest of my life.

These past 2 months or so I have been doing a lot of driving. I think I have only stayed in Provo for the weekend once, maybe two times since January. In Feb I went to a missionary homecoming, a wedding, 4 wheeling all in St. George, and took a trip to Vegas with my 2 best friends. This month I went to Wedding in Vegas, the Blue Angles air show in St. George and just this past weekend went to the St. George temple where my best friend Mary got here endowments and went to Monster Jam in Vegas. All of it was a lot of fun.  

I am very excited for summer to come! For one, I won’t be in school! I have a job lined up so I won’t be as broke as I am now, I get to do my favorite thing in the world, wake surf, enjoy the good weather, play softball, hang out with the family, see my brother after three years of not seeing each other because we’ve both been on missions, and just live it up every day. I live for summer so I get really excited and want it to be summer right when it first starts to get above 50 degrees. Summer cannot come soon enough but I’ll just have to wait out the next 4 weeks of school and pray that the water in sand hollow warms up sooner than normal this year : )

Monster Jam

 Sand Hollow

 My Birthday Present!

 UVU Baseball 

 Las Vegas Temple

Kenz, Me and Mary

New Years Resolutions

New Year’s Resolutions for 2012:

1.       Be Healthy

2.       Budget

1. I’m certain that many of you, like me, in years past have had the New Year’s resolution to lose weight. As far back as even the 7^th grade, I remember having this as my new year’s resolution. Has it ever happened? No. All who know me know that I’m not grossly obese where I can’t even move and I’d have to be lifted by a crane to leave my house, but, I do have a lot I could lose.  As of late I have been thinking of my health in general. I don’t take very good care of my body. I’ve never been a regular exerciser and have never had a well-balanced diet. (Ramen noodles don’t give you much balance, according to the label anyway…) I just want to live a long and fruitful life. Already at 23, almost 24, I am worried about constant heartburn and swollen ankles. So I want to change my lifestyle. I want to be healthy.

Over the years I have tried many things: more exercise, less carbs, calorie counting, weight watchers (which worked for a while until I stopped doing it), juicing, and the list could go on and on. I do well usually for a couple of weeks then go on back to my bad habits.

I have found that I do not do well with extremes, like juicing, or with strictness in my diet. I find that when I decide to limit let’s say bread, all I want is to eat bread. Or when I say no Dr. Pepper I want it even more than usual, which is quite a bit.

So I have decided to simply be healthy. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas break I did really well. I didn’t have a set diet plan but I just wanted to eat better and it worked. I didn’t buy snacks when I grocery shopped and I tried to eat a home a lot more than I usually do. I hardly exercised during that time but put both exercise and eating better together and it should get me on my way to being healthy. I don’t want it to just be something I do but who I am. I want to BE healthy. It is going to be very difficult to change but I am confident it can happen. So no more crazy antics or yoyo diets, it’s going to be healthy me. Yay : )

2. Not once in my life have I budgeted. You may ask how I have survived this long. Well, my take on finances is to make sure the big bills are taken care of and then use what’s left for what I need and then survive without until the next paycheck comes. Yeah, not really the best way to handle my money but its worked thus far. But now that I am currently jobless things are definitely going to have to change.

I really quite loathed my last job and finally gave my two weeks’ notice two weeks before Christmas. I had wanted to do it for a while but I hadn’t found another job and in all actuality I was getting paid for sitting at my desk for 4 hours a day. So I stuck with it for a few months. One Sunday I was pondering on the subject and decided it needed to be done. I was really nervous to tell my boss but I felt really good about it otherwise. So it is the beginning of a new year and I have no income. Strangely enough I feel fine. I have some $ that I can use to get me through for the next little while but it will only last me a short time. My plan is to try to find some piano students to teach and if that fails I’ll get a job, even fast food if it comes down to that.

So since I won’t have any extra cash with no pay check to count on every other week, I need to tighten down on my finances. I thought that with living in a bigger city I would be spending most of my extra money on shopping since I had more of a selection than Wal-Mart, but that was not the case. Also in a bigger city, there is a wider selection of places to eat. So that is what I did all the time. Eat out. If I would have budgeted I probably would have been able to eat out and shop. But now with my first new year’s resolution to be healthy, I won’t be spending nearly as much on eating out.

So there you have it. My goals for this year, 2012. I’m hoping next year they won’t be the same as they have been for the past umpteen years. Who knows, maybe next year I won’t even have to worry about  a new year’s resolution. The Mayans could be right…

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

(Don't worry, its just sparkling cider)

25 Days of Christmas

Why Hello!

My, it has been a while since I have blogged. I've have been swamped with school so I haven't had much time to think about blogging.
But here is a post about Christmas! Yay! So I decided I wanted to do a Christmas count down thing or more like a Christmas bucket list for the 25 days leading up to Christmas! I found a bunch of fun ideas on Pinterest and came up with a few of my own. So here it is!

25 Days of Christmas Countdown!

1.    Write missionaries
2.    Paint nails Christmas colors
3.    Hot coco party/movie
4.    Gingerbread nativity
5.    Send Christmas cards
6.   Make Christmas Mix CD
7.    Bake cookies, take to someone
8.    Make paper snowflakes
9.    Christmas lights drive
10.  Read a Christmas story
11.  Paint pinecones for decoration
12.  Make reindeer droppings (whoppers)
13.  Picnic by Christmas tree lights
14. Scripture chase, scripture paper chain
15.  Fondue feast
16. Caroling
17. Go to the Messiah
18. FHE Attributes of Christ (scategories like game)
19. Sledding
20. Shovel snow/rake leaves of a neighbor
21.  Go to a Movie
22. Watch Joy to the World DVD
23. Game night, minute to win it Christmas style (mash mallows through a wreath, stack cups with one hand, nutstacker game, cookie from your forehead to your mouth w/o using your hands,open present with ski gloves, etc…)
24. Read Luke 2
25. Write testimony of Christ in Journal

The ideas is to do one of these a day for 25 days until Christmas. Hopefully I'll be doing them in this order somewhat but most likely a few will change. Oh I see one already, tomorrow I'm going to the messiah. :)
So I just thought this would be fun thing to do to celebrate Christmas time.
I'm going to figure out how to put pictures on here soon so I can show you all the fun things I'll be doing!