Monthly Archives: February 2014

Finding My Voice!

Good morning!

I am so tired this morning! I feel a little like I am just spinning my wheels and not really getting very far. Actually, now that I’ve said that out loud, that may not be so very true. I am almost out of debt, I can feel myself getting physically fitter little by little every day – even though I am not losing weight consistently, I have less than a month to go before I get to go to Brave Girls’ Camp, something I have been dreaming about for the past few years! So, maybe I should start over!!

Good morning!

Life is good! I could still afford to go to bed a little earlier tonight! 🙂

I am taking a new Brave Girls’ class called The Walk. I am currently busy in the middle of doing week one’s homework, and watching week two’s lessons!! It is a little overwhelming, but taking every portion one step at a time has really seemed to help! I have just got to work on staying focused. With so many other things going on, and so many other responsibilities calling on my time, it has been a little tricky to manage, but I am a firm believer that you get to decide what you spend your time and focus on! Right now, for me, that focus is about taking time to put myself at the top of my to-do list, and figure out who, what, where, and how I want to be. It is all good stuff! 🙂

It has been nice spending time in the art studio doing my class homework, but I am really wanting to carve out some time, somewhere, to get back to my own arting! I haven’t made a piece in a while, and I can feel my inner Chrissie started to fidget, as if she is just on the verge of throwing a hissy fit because she hasn’t taken any stress free, non-thinking time to play! I will have to make sure that I make that a priority!

You may have noticed a little bit, that I am struggling with my blogging. I am over thinking it.

What will people like?

What do they want to read?

What will draw readers?

etc. etc.

I’ve decided to knock all of that craziness off, and just use Beautiful Creatives as an outlet for my voice. Plain and simple. No agenda. An online journal of my journey to get from where I am to where I want to be. Day by day. If I end up being the only reader of my words, then that is ok. I have done my best. I am constantly learning, and I know that there is always room for improvement, but the only person that I should be competing with is myself.

Is today’s Christina doing better than yesterday’s Christina?

Even if the answer is “Yes” by only a hair, then I am going to count that as a success!

If you do happen to stumble upon my blog, and you like what you see, I would be so honored to have you follow my, and share your comments! I think we could ALL use a few more cheerleaders in this life! 😉

Anyway, I am off to go get ready for my day job! I have a meeting first thing this morning, and I need to make sure my freshly washed gym clothes make it back into my gym bag so that I am ready to work out at lunch today! That has been a great addition to my schedule within the past two weeks, but since time is running short, this morning, I will have to tell you about that another day!

Here is to an AUTHENTIC VOICE kind of morning!

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Just Checking In!

Good morning!

I am running behind this morning, as it seems I am most mornings nowadays!! So, this is going to be a quick post!

This morning, I am being fiscally responsible, paying bills, getting organized, etc. etc. Last night I filed our taxes and found out that we are getting a nice refund back – enough to finally push us completely out of debt!!

YEAH!!

My husband and I have been actively working on getting out of debt (non-mortgage debt) since September 2012, and we are SOOOOO CLOSE that I can almost taste it!!! 🙂

We have been following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, and it has literally changed the way we deal with money and credit!!!

Being debt free is not something we are going to take lightly.

It is going to change the way we do everything!!!

I really can’t wait!!

I do not ever want to be in debt EVER again!!!! Dave Ramsey says, “You become a slave to the lender.” and man, do I believe him!!

I will keep you posted! Now back to getting on with my morning!

Here is to a FABULOUS day! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Getting Snowed In!

Good morning!

I am not sure if you know this, but a good portion of the Pacific Northwest was snowed in this past weekend. Snow, in and of itself here is quite the novelty because it happens so rarely, and when it does it never lasts more than 24 hours at a time. Not this time however! YEAH!

Our city was having such a difficult time keeping up with the snow coming in and clearing the roads that they put a ban on driving unless you had chains or studded tires, which we have neither. So we decided that it would be fun to go for a walk and see what was going on outside, and boy am I glad we did! 🙂

Everything was just covered, and it somehow made everything extra especially beautiful! 🙂

My sweetie and I instantly reverted back to our five-year-old selves and couldn’t help but play in the snow.

Unfortunately the snow was very powdery and would not form a snowball if our lives depended on it, but we still managed to end up COVERED in snow!! 🙂

Snow angels anyone???

This snow was so deep and soft that when I fell back to start my snow angel it literally felt like a cold pillow – it was AWESOME!! I couldn’t get Jason to join me – he has such a hard time getting warmed up after being cold that he wasn’t willing to risk it!!

This is a view of the creek by our place! 🙂

It was so quiet out here, besides the random car that would come by maybe once every 5 or 10 minutes, it was just so peaceful to listed to the wind, and the creek burble by as the snow just continued to fall.

I think I love the snow covered trees the best! 🙂

This weekend actually saw two snow storms come through, one right after the other. This walk and all of these pictures were taken after snow storm number 1, so it even got much MUCH deeper than this the very next day!!! 🙂

To keep warm, Jason and I had to put an obnoxious amounts of layers on, as neither one of us have proper snow attire!

I am not sure how many layers Jason had, but in this picture I am wearing, leggings, jeans (ones that are 5 sizes too large), a belt to hold all of this up, a tank top, t-shirt, long pajamas, sweater, jacket, scarf, another jacket (again 5 sizes too large), winter socks, galoshes, and two pairs of gloves! I felt a little like the kid on the Christmas Story – heaven forbid if I should fall down – I would NEVER have been able to get back up without some serious help!! 🙂

Catching the falling snow on my tongue! (NO, not pulling a Miley!!) 😉

Jason was getting some much needed movement, AKA running, in the snow! Between the two of us, he was the one who was getting the most stir-crazy!! There were moments I thought he was going to just pop right out of his skin!! Me being a homebody, I was in COMPLETE HEAVEN!!! 🙂

Don’t we look happy???

We were pretty much not allowed to drive all weekend, which equaled 3 days in total, so we made due by trying to do as many fun activities as possible. We played Phase 10, Yahtzee, read books, competed against each other on Wii Sports, caught up on some Hulu, raced to see who could put an extremely colorful 500 piece puzzle together fastest, baked some goodies, made a big pot of chili – my sweetie’s favorite! I took a short nap – which is something that I NEVER get to do!! 🙂

All in all, this was a pretty AMAZING weekend, one that I am sure will not happen again for quite some time – the last weekend like that for us was in 2008, so I am going to have to revisit these pictures often and just remember what an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT stay-at-home weekend this was! 🙂

Here is to looking for the MAGICAL MOMENTS in every day life! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

California Vacation, Day 3!

Good morning!

Here are the pictures from the third day of our California vacation! I had planned on sharing these with you last week, but I have had a bit of a crazy past few days – I am sure you can understand!! 🙂 We spent this day at California Adventures, which neither my sweetie nor I had ever been there before, and if we had to do it all over again, we would DEFINITELY go to this park first, and Disneyland second! 🙂 Our feet were pretty worn out from the day before, but we wanted to make sure we didn’t miss ANYTHING! 🙂

So without further ado, here are those pics! 🙂

This is us ready to start a really fun day!! If you look really closely, you will see that Christopher has poked his little head into the middle of this pic – matter of fact, I do not have one single solitary picture of Jason and together on this day where Christopher did not “photo bomb” us. Grrrr!! I will make sure that his butt-kicking is swift and just!! 😉

Of course the “boys” had to have their picture taken with this sweet car!! Boys will be boys!! 🙂

Another photo bomb!

Lynette and Jason!

I really love the magic that runs through this place!

It made us both feel like kids again! 🙂

We had to remind Morgan not to “stretch” her too much!! “We don’t stretch people, it’s not nice!” LOL!! Still makes me smile!! 🙂

This Hollywood back drop was sooooo cool!! 🙂

This was the ride that we were all soooo excited to get on!! So, it was the first one of the day!!! 🙂

We were scared!!! 🙂

Megan and Mom! How cute! 🙂

Morgan getting ready to do the fun buggy bumper cars!! 🙂

He also got a big kick out of the fact that the lights were also the bugs behinds!!! 😉

It was funny to see Jason and Chris in a kiddie ride – they seemed to be enjoying themselves! 🙂

Morgan was having the BEST day! 🙂

My sweetie and Megan!! I just love these two!!! 😉

Radiator Springs! I LOVED how we felt like we were literally walking right into the Cars movie here!! 🙂

I think this was called Bear Mountain??

Jason in car heaven!! 🙂

I’ve never seen a man get sooooo excited about tires before!!! I love you, papa!! 🙂

I can’t remember what this ride was called, but we waited in line for SOOOOOO long!!! It was upwards of 2 hours, if not a bit longer!!! We were seriously needing a place to sit and take a break!! 🙂

This picture sums it up! This is EXACTLY the moment you know you have been waiting in line too long!!! 🙂

This ride was so fun that we went down it twice!! The first time down, Christopher got doused…and I mean from HEAD TO TOE!!! It was AWESOME fun!!! 🙂

O-M-G!!! This is how to make brownie points!!! I really do LOVE this man!!

Our feet were hurting, we were tired, but we really didn’t want this vacation to never end!! Jason and I are already talking about going back again, just the two of us!! I can NOT wait!!! 🙂

Here is to making a lifetime of some really FUN memories!! 😉

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

California Vacation, Day 2!

Good morning!

If you missed day’s one post, you can find it here!

Today I am going to share some pictures with you from day 2 of our California vacation. This was the day that we spent the entire day at Disneyland! Jason had only been there once, for all of two hours, and really didn’t remember much of anything there. I hadn’t been there since I was 12, so we were both really excited!! 🙂

Day two begins!! We are all amazingly smiley for being so tired!! 🙂

We met Mary Poppins, and Bert on Main Street. I was shocked to know that Megan and Morgan didn’t know who Mary Poppins was. Now I know what we will be doing on our next Auntie night!! 🙂

I was having fun taking all sorts of pictures on Main Street, but as you can see in this picture, all Morgan wanted to do was to hit the RIDES!!! 😉

My sweetie and I talking about how to pose for this pic!! 🙂

SIDE NOTE: Megan and I were TOTALLY EXCITED because we both picked up this fancy-schmancy polka dot dress!! I think I will have to plan a fancy date where we are dressed to match and get some pics!! 🙂

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the Main Street shops!! The building facades were just so INCREDIBLE!!

Another one!

Yep! Here is another one!! 🙂

I just love this pic!! We look like the Clampets!! 😉

Our first ride of the day!! 🙂

Next up was Space Mountain, which was a HUGE hit!!! We ended up going back to this ride again later that evening!! 🙂

With everything going on at the park, my sweetie finds the largest marble EVER!! It was totally cool!! 🙂

Pretty soon the kids were in on the action too!! 🙂

I can’t remember which ride this is from, but I think our expressions are priceless!! 🙂

This is Morgan waiting for the Matterhorn! 🙂

Haunted Mansion is up next! 🙂

Happy kids!! 🙂

Ooh! This was the Indiana Jones ride, which was SOOOO EXCITING until…

The ride stopped halfway through, which meant we had some picture time!!! 🙂

Even though this ride stopped, it ended being ok, because as soon as it was back up and running, we got to ride again!! IT WAS REALLY WORTH IT!!! 😉

Patiently waiting for the African Safari ride to be done with – too much sitting, not enough screaming!! 🙂

In the afternoon we had decided to split our group in half! Only about a half an hour later, who did we happen upon getting on the train while we were waiting to get on the train??? These cuties!!! 🙂

We introduced Christopher to the penny arcade, which he had never heard of, but he really liked it, and talked about going back every time he found a penny! 🙂

Jason, Chris, and I stuck around for the Disney Parade, which was my first!! The music and energy is SOOOO INFECTIOUS! It really made me feel like a little girl again!! You know the one who could imagine anything!! Yeah – she made an appearance that night!! 😉

So so so so soooooo much fun!!! It was a long day and we were tired, but we knew we were heading to California Adventures tomorrow, so we were ready!! 🙂

I will share those pics with you tomorrow!!! SO MANY MORE TO GO!!! 😉

Here is to a MAGICAL day!!! 🙂

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

California Vacation, Day 1!

Good morning!

We have all made it back from our California vacation in one piece and in all honesty had an ABSOLUTE BLAST!!! 🙂

As I was sorting through all of the pictures that I had taken, I realized that I was going to have to split this post into three, one for our day in Hollywood, one for our Day in Disneyland, and finally one for our day in California Adventures! 🙂

Our first day in California we decided that it would be fun to go to Hollywood, California, since most all of us had never been there – I think I was the only one who had! So we decided to go get some walking in and see the sights! 🙂

We decided that this wax statue of Marilyn Monroe was probably the coolest thing we say! She was so lifelike that Megan kept thinking that she was going to move and freak her out! 🙂

We spent quite a bit of time looking at all of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! As soon as the kids found someone they liked, they immediately dropped to the ground, around the star, and yelled, take my picture, take my picture!! 🙂 This is Megan and Morgan with Godzilla’s star! 🙂

Morgan and Christopher with Slash’s star! 🙂

Megan and Lynette with Tinkerbell’s star (of course!!) 🙂

When the kids saw Leonard Nemoy’s look-a-like, they couldn’t believe it!!! He was SPOT ON!!! All the way down to his voice and accent! It was really REALLY cool!! 🙂

And of course, this happens WHEREVER Jason goes! He makes new friends!! 😉 These two girls were so cute, and sooooo very professional! I appreciated that they were just way cool and didn’t make any of us feel skeevy! Jason didn’t even know her leg was where it was until I pointed it out in the picture!! It sure made him blush though!! TOO CUTE!!! 😉

Once we made it over to Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Jason had to geek out with the gang from Star Wars!! 🙂

Here are the rest of us kids geeking out with the Twilight cast! 🙂 That is me, Morgan, Christopher, and Megan! 🙂

Now, for the life of me I can’t remember what these guys were called – I am sorry Morgan, I know Auntie Chrissie is SOOOOO OLD!! 🙂 But the kids had fun taking pictures with them! 🙂