Have you ordered your Mother's Day Gift yet???

I found this cute store on a blog site and loved all the products! So I ordered my Mom's gift today, sorry, I'm not telling what I ordered just yet, in case my Mother decides to read my blog this week...:S Anyways, if you're looking for a great gift idea for your Mom, or maybe for yourself, check out this site! Enjoy :D

http://www.thevintagepearl.com/

Another Favorite Thing

What a wonderful way to start my day. I got to work this morning and as I was picking up my purse from the floor of my car I heard a little tap tap on my passenger window. There stood Stephanie, one of the other Exec Assistants here at Overstock.com and in her hand was a beautiful bottle....this bottle....

It's one of my favorite perfumes, DKNY Be Delicious, and it was just for me! My old roommate Jeanna brought me a bottle back from one of her cruises a few years ago and I LOVED IT! It's a perfect perfume for Summer time and it goes perfectly with Bath & Body Works' Tahiti Sweetie lotion, one of my favorite lotions :D It's just a favorites kind of week!

A New Favorite Thing

So I purchased this on a whim this weekend and I absolutely L-O-V-E it! I'm not big on having my finger nails polished, but I am digging this color. It's very sassy and fun and makes me feel like SPRING! YAY for Spring! It's called "Stolen Kisses" in the Nicole line of colors by OPI and I picked it up from Walmart. Enjoy!

Sunday Ponderings

Have you ever noticed how you can wear the same size jeans as someone else, you can be the same weight or the same height as them but the jeans won’t look the same on you as they do on them? The same principle applies spiritually. You can hear the same lesson, sit through the same sacrament meeting, even study the same scriptures, but the lessons you learn, the teachings that prick your heart and who you become spiritually will not be the same as the person wearing your identical jeans. We are all unique, we all learn differently; we all reflect what we learn differently. So there really is no point in comparing ourselves to those around us.



At the end of last year President Belnap came to our ward and had us all “pledge” to not partake in any self destructive behaviors. I would venture to say that that includes spiritually as well as physically and temporally. The only one you should compare yourself with is you. Continue to better yourself every day, but don’t allow yourself to be too self critical. Build yourself up through personal worship; through scripture study, temple attendance, personal prayers & service. Get to know you, not the worldly you, but the Child of God that is your true self. Only then can you truly understand your whole potential.

A Working Girl's Dilemma-UPDATE!

So I responded and agreed to lunch, but I pushed it off until next week due to a busy/unknown work schedule. I also had some stuff happen with a friend last Friday and I think that it started to really hit me last night and today I've been feeling pretty down about it. So I'm sitting here at work, just doing my thing and I get a call from the front desk, "Come get your flowers!" "Flowers?" "Yeah, you got flowers." "Ok, I'll be right up." As I'm walking up the stairs to collect my flowers names flash through my mind of who would possibly send me flowers. I get up there and see these:

Beautiful!

And yes, they are from the co-worker. (I think that I need to come up with code names for all of these people....suggestions?)

A Working Girl's Dilemma

Dilemma….guy asked me out….guy I work with….don’t know what to do….



I hate it when I have to take the time and look at everything from both sides. Or rather when I don’t “take the time” but just have all sides of a situation hit me all of a sudden. I’ll be brushing my teeth and all of a sudden I’ll see where I could be in 3 weeks.


So, back to the dilemma. Somehow I turned a simple shopping trip at our company store into a lunch invitation from a co-worker that I recently met. I’ve been down this road once before with a coworker. I went out with him, we kept it all hush hush at work, and then it ended, and then it was awkward, ok, it still is! Here’s what went down: I picked up some items for a charity event from him last week, our first meeting. He told me that I was not what he was expecting; he was expecting a “older” woman. We laughed and then I headed out. Friday I went to our company’s associate night at our store. I got there about 45 minutes before my friend showed up so I looked around, tried on LOTS of shoes, found a new pea coat that’s adorable and will make me get rid of the blue one that I’ve had since 8th grade that comes nowhere close to fitting and then just hung out by the door waiting for Rebecca to show up. He saw me waiting, came over and talked for a little while. He asked who I was waiting for; when I said a friend he immediately asked if it was a guy or girl. I didn’t really think about it, except for the fact that Friday night is supposed to be only for associates and family members, but I responded that it was a girl. I was relieved that he didn’t seem to see a problem with this. So Rebecca got there and she had her niece with her, we started looking around for some bedding and he saw me wandering with Rebecca’s niece and was very accommodating when I asked for a place to put our stuff so we didn’t have to haul it all over the store with us. We got done shopping and went to check out and who should check us out but this particular guy…go figure huh?! We chatted about the charity items and he made some remark about me not responding to my e-mails and I said that I do, I just sometimes take longer than other people. So in all my wisdom as I was pulling into the next stop for the evening I responded to his last e-mail that he had sent two days prior and just said thanks for helping with the charity items. About 2 hours later I got a response from him asking me to go to lunch with him this week. Uh…possibility?


So these are the scenarios that flash through my mind. #1. Our lunch goes really well, we laugh a lot, we have a good time together. We become friends. Not awkward, it’s actually ok. #2. Lunch is great, he asks me out again, we start seeing each other…and then it doesn’t work and it becomes awkward cause he’s my contact for Charity items. #3. Lunch is HORRIBLE, I feel weird, I don’t know what to talk about and then it’s just odd from there on out. #4. I decline his lunch invitation, hurt his feelings and he acts weird from there on out. #5. I decline his lunch invitation and miss out on any opportunities with him. The problem with seeing all of these possibilities is that it inhibits me from making a decision either way. I basically freeze. I just don’t know what to do. I hate making decisions like this. Do I go, do I not go? Other co-workers would say “Run the other way, don’t personalize work!” Some would say, “What could it hurt? One lunch doesn’t determine anything.” So I ask the universe the question…what should I do?

Dating...Utah Style

This weekend a few friends and I had the opportunity to partake in an adventure! The adventure by name is….SPEED DATING! Yep, that’s right. For our Multi-Stake Activity we went speed dating. It was pretty entertaining. First sign that we live in Utah-WAY to many girls! They had long tables set up on the sides of the gym and they told the girls to sit on the insides of the tables and the boys to sit on the outsides of the tables. Well, the tables filled up with lots of girls, filling every seat. In the end Kristy and I sat at a round table at the end of the gym and the boys would rotate through. Now, on the boys’ side of the tables there at most 3 guys to a table of 4-5 girls. So it was one big poligadate! (P.S. My boss informed me today that he learned a new word from my status on Facebook. That word was nothing else but Poligadate, and he decided that it doesn’t sound very fun!) Kristy and I stuck together and for the most part it worked well for us. We were able to protect each other from MOST of the crazies. One snuck through at the end of the night though when as we were walking out of gym and into the foyer he chased after Kristy to ask her when they were going to carpool to Oregon together. Keep in mind that we had a. talked to a lot of boys that night and b. talked to this particular boy early in the night, so Kristy was having a hard time remembering who we talked to about what. She somewhat went along with this topic of conversation as the rest of our group stood back and just laughed! He went on to ask her who she liked better, him or his brother, who we had also apparently talked to. (If you say so!) She was very diplomatic I felt in her response of, “I liked you both the same.” His response… “Well, can I make out with you first, I don’t want sloppy seconds.” SAY WHAT?! Yep, that’s right, he doesn’t like sloppy seconds. Okay, first question in my mind is what girls are you dating that will a. date BOTH brothers and b. MAKE OUT with both? Second question, why do you think that Kristy is the kind of a girl?! Really??? You obviously didn’t pay attention when you were talking to her!


My last “date” of the evening was a young man who by commenting on how cold it’s been lately informed me that he’s a newspaper delivery boy and he never graduated high school, that he had his own house at 18, but lost it, and is now so far into debt and has so many bills that he can’t save up $65 to pay to take the GED test. Yep, that’s what the weather led to! Oh, but he would still like to take me out sometime…. Yeah, I don’t see that happening anytime soon. I almost wrote him a check to go take his GED test! He did, however, loudly announce that Kristy and I were BEAUTIFUL women, so point for him!


Our friend Jason who was also participating in the activity reported that all the girls were either Bonnie or Jen or Jenny! He did say that Kristy and I were the most “normal” ones of the bunch.


All I can do is look back at that evening and laugh. The joys of the life of a YSA….

2010 Thus Far...

Ok! There is so much to write about these days that I’ll have to admit, I’ve been keeping away from writing. 2010 is such a fabulous year! I’m loving it! Since I wrote my goals for 2010 I’ve already hit the 10 pound mark! I’m down (as of Friday) 12.4 pounds, good enough to take 2nd place in Overstock’s Biggest Loser competition. WOHOO!!! Now just to maintain... I have been having some problems with my knee the last couple of weeks, so running hasn’t been happening as much lately, but I discovered Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred and I LOVE IT! I’m totally addicted to it. I try to run for a little bit before doing it, but even if I don’t run the work out kicks my butt! I’ve also been trying to get back to Yoga on a semi regular basis. I went last night, but can’t tonight or tomorrow  So I think that I need to get BL’s Yoga workout so that on the nights I can’t get to class I can still do it at home! For anyone looking for some new work outs I highly advise getting the 30 Day Shred and getting into Yoga! You’ll love it after the initial shock!



As for the Temple attendance goal….3 down, 10 to go! Look at that train get a move on! It’s been awesome! My friend Kristy is doing it with me. It’s been a wonderful experience to share with her and it’s helped to make our friendship that much stronger. We went to St. George on January 23rd (right after I ran my first ½ Marathon of the year, ouch!) and then we went to Mt. Timp on January 26th for our Stake Temple Week and on February 6th we went to Oquirrh Mountain, it was gorgeous! Still to come this month is Provo and Jordan River. I’m so excited! I’ve felt that I’ve grown in my spirituality so much already this year, but I’ve also noticed that Satan has upped the ante! He’s trying to tempt me so much more now, and I just have to remember to crush him! Tonight is our ward temple night for the month, so I’ll be attending Timp again :D


To be honest, I haven’t really started on my personal training certificate yet, BUT I am working with a girl to help get her started on weights and I have two more people in my life that have started running, so I feel like I’m influencing people for good. :D I’m absolutely loving running (don’t worry, that only took 3 years!) and pushing myself to shatter my self-imposed limits.


Overall I’m feeling really good about life right now. I feel like 2010 is a year of so much promise and a huge opportunity to grow and to make my relationships with my loved ones stronger. There are a few other things that I have on my goals list for this year, but I don’t want to share them just yet, gotta keep a few things in my pocket for some surprises later in the year!

2010 Goals

So I know that it's a bit early for New Year's Resolutions, but these are some things that I've been thinking a lot about lately. So I decided that I had to write them down and get them out there or I'm sure that I'll forget ones as the holidays swing into full gear, plus it just makes me excited for new beginnings! So my first goal for the year 2010 came to me during Sacrament meeting one Sunday and then that evening it was reaffirmed to me during a fireside that I attended with my friend Tiffany. I've decided to travel to and attend a session in every temple in Utah. That means 13 Temples in 12 months, that shouldn't be too difficult. I'm actually really excited to do it! I have a couple of friends who are going to attend with me, but I just realized that one is leaving in July, so we might have to do it in 7 months….oh dear.

Goal Two is really the same old goal that everyone has every year…loose those excess 10 pounds already! We're actually starting a Biggest Looser session at work tomorrow that runs until February 12^th, so just enough time to get serious about excising and eating healthy again. Under this goal would of course include things like running another ½ marathon and two 10k's. It's time to get my butt back in gear and make it smaller :D

Goal Three is one that I tried to start this year, but failed to really get it going. I'm going to get my Personal Training Certificate before the end of the year. I know, that gives me a long time to do something that shouldn't take that long, but I'm being generous with myself. Realistically I'd like to do it in the first three months of the year and then be able to start working with individuals, but we'll keep the time line as the end of the year.

I'm sure that there are more goals to come, but for now, these are them :D

Inspirations

I'm sitting here watching The Biggest Loser Season Premiere and I can't believe what I'm seeing! It scares me how big these people are and how much baggage they are carrying. I'm so glad that this show started again tonight cause it's always such an inspiration to me. This season it's three fold for me, I'm excited to get up in the morning and get my butt to the gym tomorrow (since I did miss this morning!). I'm also feeling the need to get in gear on my studying to get my training certificate so that I can get out there and help people that are in the same situation. I'd love to have it by the end of the year, that's my goal anyways! The last reason that I'm so excited about this season is because I'm sitting here with both of my parents watching this and just hoping that it inspires them too! They are doing awesome though right now, getting themselves to the gym and eating healthier. Hopefully we can all continue on our quest to be healthier. Happy Biggest Loser Season everyone! MWAH!

Flexing Your Muscles

You've heard the saying that practice makes perfect, and you know by experience that lacks of practice leads to a deterioration of talents or skills attained. For example, if you work out for one month, 5 days a week, you'll notice that your endurance will increase. You can run further and faster, life more weights, swim harder, bike faster, the hills aren't as challenging, but you know you could push yourself harder and not want to die mid hill. After one month you stop going to the gym you go back to your old habits of grabbing McDonalds or ordering Pizza instead of that salad and you live a relatively sedentary lifestyle. One month passes and you feel the desire to return to return to the gym sparked by the 5 pounds you put back on. You try to pick up where you left off and mid work out, you actually want to kill yourself for taking off that time. You've lost so much of the progress you made. Your form is shaky, your breathing is harder, you sweat more and your muscles hurt more! That basically describes what I'm up against in the dating world. One of my friends made the comment that she didn't know how to flirt anymore, and I'm right there with her! After taking so much time to define ourselves and to figure out our jobs, our roles in our families and in our wards we seldomly flirted just to flirt. Now that we're at a point in our lives when we really need to have exercised and perfected that skill, we're basically back to where we were when we were 16 and just starting to date. Hopefully this skill is more like riding a bike than like trying to lose those freshmen 15 and we can recover with some time to flirt with Mr. Wonderful before it's too late!

Inheriting Traits

 

I don't cry very often, especially in public, but this weekend of July 4^th I found myself near tears a couple of times as I listened to and participated in singing some of our Patriotic songs. I had the sudden realization Sunday morning that this is a trait I've inherited from my father. You see I've only seen my Father shed tears a handful of times in my life, while my mother on the other hand could and would cry at the drop of a hat! I remember sitting in church singing a hymn and noticing my father wiping away tears. I didn't understand than that he was being moved by the Spirit. Now that I'm older and understand the workings of the Spirit I'm always touched when I notice my Father crying, and it's usually always while a song is being sung or performed. I have a deep love for music and there are a few that move me to tears on a regular basis, but it's through the Spirit that I truly hear and feel the words of a song as a prayer of the heart. My Father is an incredible man (as a man with 5 daughters has to be!) and sharing this trait with him is something that I will always treasure!

Yummy Yummy Dinner!

Tried this last night, not only is it easy, but delicious!

Pecan-Crusted Chicken

1 large egg white
2 tablespoons minced toasted pecans
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 small (1/4-pound) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of visible fat
Low-sugar, low-fat honey mustard salad dressing or dijon mustart to taste (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a small nonstick baking sheet with olive oil spray.

In a small, shallow bowl, beat the egg white with a fork.

In a small bowl, combine the pecans, parsley, and salt. Spread half of the mixture on a sheet of waxed paper. Dip 1 chicken breast into the egg white to coat. Place the smooth side of the breast on the nut mixture. Press to adhere. Place the breast, nut side up, on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the second breast and place on the baking sheet, not touching the other breast.

Bake for 20 minutes or until no longer pink. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve with honey mustard dressing for dipping, if desired.

Makes 2 servings

Per serving: 183 calories, 28 g protein, 1 g carbohydrates, 7 g fat (less than 1 g saturates), 66 mg cholesterol, less than 1 fiber, 379 mg sodium.

Pillars of Strength

Today is Mother’s Day, and while it is almost the end of Mother’s Day, I wanted to write down the feelings that are currently whizzing around in my head. I thought a lot about my Mom today. This is the second Mother’s Day that I haven’t seen her in a row now. I’m excited for her to come home soon! She taught me a lot over the years. She taught me how to walk and talk (even though I still managed to screw that up for a number of years until a professional was brought in to fix it!). She taught me how to make Sunday rolls (drool worthy!). She taught me how to juggle a million different things while making my friends and family know that they are things that really mattered. She taught me how to love and how to respect people. She taught me how to drive (okay, with a little help from Dad!). She taught me how to love the Savior and how to serve him. She taught me to relax every now and then (diet coke with my feet up—I prefer Mountain Dew, but again, Dad had to be sprinkled in there somewhere!). My Mother is a pillar of strength in my life. My Mother is an amazing Woman, but I have been blessed to have many other examples of amazing Women in my life.

This weekend I ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Salt Lake City. Three years ago it was my first 5k, now I’m training for a ½ marathon! However, this is still one of my favorite races. You don’t run this race competitively, you run it united. The Susan G. Komen Foundation is a foundation for the research of Breast Cancer. This year there were 18,000 participants at the event, many of them were survivors of Breast Cancer. My family has a strong history of Cancer, lots of variety even, but this year while I was running this race I was thinking about my Aunt Wendy. She’s another amazing woman in my life. She recently fought breast cancer and every time that we talked about it she came across as “no big deal, I can handle it”. I’m sure that behind closed doors she had her moments of doubt and worry, but when it came to the people that she loved she didn’t want us worrying and stressing about her. Aunt Wendy has always been someone that I looked up to. She was always on the move. She has become a very successful Real Estate agent in the Seattle area and loves to Travel! While battling her cancer she went on a cruise! (My kind of woman right there!) She’s my Dad’s baby sister, but I know that he respects her. I remember her coming over for dinner on Christmas and just taking a genuine interest in us. She always impressed me as being strong and determined, but knowing who she was and also showing those around her respect. She is a pillar of strength in my life.

I got to spend some time with my sister Shannon last weekend. She married her adorable husband Erik almost two years ago and they frequently invite me up for dinner. They are always willing to share their dating/marriage wisdom with me, but it isn’t what they say that really impresses me. It’s how they treat each other and how they both lived their lives before meeting each other. Shannon was 36 when she married Erik and had lived most of her adult life in Utah, part of the time with roommates and part in her own place in Bountiful. I was still very young when she went away to college, but I knew that she loved me and I missed her. It wasn’t until I was in college in Idaho that I really started building a friendship with her. I would occasionally get to come to Utah for a weekend here and there and I’d spend most of those times with Shannon. If it wasn’t for those weekends when I could run away from college life I probably would have gone nuts! We didn’t even do things that were that spectacular, but I always had a good time with Shannon. She showed me how to be happy even when life wasn’t what you had expected. She showed me the importance of having and exercising faith. She’s still teaching me about forgiveness and unconditional love. I know that she is going to make a wonderful mother and that her kids will never have to wonder if they are loved or who to turn to when they need help. She is a pillar of strength in my life.

When I was in college my sister Dani was diagnosed with Leukemia. I remember feeling so helpless and honestly, angry with the Lord. I didn’t understand why he would let something like that happen to someone so good and who still had so much to do in this life. At the time her youngest was only 6 months old. Looking back at the situation now I know that she is the only one that could have endured that with the kind of faith that she did. It was through this traumatic situation that our family became closer. We finally realized that we can’t take each other for granted and that we would be willing to do anything for each other. I’m more like her than I think that she knows. We share some of the same passions. I actually was studying from the same teachers that she had studied from at college when she was diagnosed. She used to be very firery (if that’s a word, but anyone who knows Dani, especially when she was younger, knows what I’m talking about) and full of…well…fight. Growing up with Dani around I always knew that she would fight for what she knew to be right, and she wouldn’t give up on it either. While marriage and family and health have quieted her some, I still know that if given a reason to fight she will, and she’ll win! That’s how she beat the Leukemia and that’s why she’s a pillar of strength in my life.

My sister Nicole is one of my best friends (I think that all of her sisters would say this!). She was always there for me when I was in high school and college. I can’t tell you how often we’d talk. She definitely got Mom’s nurturing side. She’s still the one that I talk to constantly and that I miss all the time. I was lucky enough to be there to help her when she had her first baby, Tyler, almost 10 year ago! Then I was there when she had Nick, almost 6 years ago, but then when she had Zoe she had to do it on her own. We had just moved to Utah a year before and she is still in Washington. Zoe was born premature and I remember hearing my Mom talk to her on the phone. I could tell that she was scared, but I knew that Nicole would figure it all out, and she did. I think that going through that alone was something that she had to do. I believe that it showed Nicole that she can do anything, it made her stronger. Yes, Mom was just a phone call away, but through that experience Nicole became Mom to her sweet little family and an example of strength and faith to me. Her love of life and practicality of each situation is refreshing and encouraging. She is so much like our Mom sometimes it’s scary! (I’m sure that she’d say the same of me!) Nicole’s faith in the Lord and her ability to overcome any situation is why she’s a pillar of strength in my life.

I have not always gotten along with my sister Suzanne. When she was in high school we fought all the time! What are sisters supposed to do that are that age right?! When she went away to college is when I finally started to recognize all of her amazing gifts and talents. I regret not getting to know her better when we were younger, but yeah, I already covered that. She recently referred to herself as a jack of all trades, master of none, but she’s isn’t totally correct in that. While yes she is extremely musically talented and very creative, she is a master mother! Her little boy adores her (so does her Husband!) and he is so intelligent and insightful. Sometimes I just have to stand back in awe of some of things that he does and says. Suzanne has an uncanny memory and her little boy has inherited that. You can tell him something and he will remember if forever! On her birthday she wrote that she didn’t picture her life as a mother with a full family. She pictured it singing Opera and travelling. While she would have been an amazing Opera singer and could still be, I know that she is right where the Lord wants her to be. She is an example to me of having the courage to try new things and to reach outside of the box while continuing the work set out for you. She doesn’t really let anything stop her from exploring new territory! She’s done music; including the French horn, tuba, drum major, opera singing, broadwayish musicals, choirs and instructing voice lessons, become a digital scrapbook designer, makes and sells children’s clothing and is a budding photographer, to list a few. I do believe that she inherited our Father’s need to learn new things and put them to use and to just figure out how things work. Suzanne’s drive to expand her horizon while being a fantastic Mother and wife is one reason why she is a pillar of strength in my life.

There have been many more women in my life that are examples of faith, courage, strength, honesty, love and respect to name a few. To all of those women, and to these women in particular, thank you for making me who I am today and the kind of wife and mother that I hope to be in the future. I love you all!

Feeling Good!

My sister Shannon has bought me a new purse for my birthday for the last two years and they have been FANTASTIC! I was so excited that I'd almost made it another year with the same purse when low and behold, it started ripping! :( So off to Target I went today in search of something cute and I found this:

I'm so happy with it! It's totally springy and light and cute! It's not as big as it looks, but I adore it! Happy Spring shopping! :D