Category Archives: Friends

What a Difference Some Help Makes!

Crown HeaderGood morning!

Do you know how hard it is for someone like me to ask for help????

I am not sure where I got the crazy notion that if I don’t do something completely, like as in 100% on my own, I somehow can not take any pride or credit for a job well done! Where the heck do crazy ideas like that come from anyway!!???

I went to Brave Girls Symposium this year, and I learned SOOOOOOO MUCH!! but one of the things that I learned that I am really striving to take action on is that you do not have to go through this journey, called life, on your own. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have an INCREDIBLE husband who stands by my side through thick and thin, and I have family members who I would take a bullet for – no questions asked, but to ask for help in any other area in my life??? Forget about it!

  • If I am having trouble with my fitness goals – “figure it out!”
  • If am having trouble staying on task with my nutritional goals – “suck it up, buttercup!”
  • If I am struggling carrying all of our personal finances by myself – “you had better work harder!”
  • If my house looks like it could be on the next episode of hoarders – “sorry, you made this mess”
  • If I want to take my business to the world but have no idea where to start –  “Others have magically done it on their own, why can’t you?”
  • If I feel that my mental health is suffering – “If you say anything they will just confirm you are crazy!”

LIES!!! ALL OF IT!!! LIES!!!

You, my friend, myself included, are not an island!!

We are a tribe!!!

You need me, I need you!

No one was ever meant to walk through this journey, we call life, alone. That is why the Universe created others all around us! So we can support each other, cheer each other on, and lift each other up, whenever, wherever, and however often we need it! This is what makes the human race so INSANELY AWESOME!!! 

Audrey Hepburn once said,

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

I have always been a big fan of Audrey Hepburn, but it is only now, at 40 years old, that I realize how important, and RIGHT ON this message is!!

In the past month, I have reached out to an AMAZING woman to seek out her help as a life coach, I have started seeing an extremely KIND and GENTLE man to help me with my anxiety, and I have recently reconnected with someone from my past, someone who has always been a second mama to me a real, in-the-flesh, WALKING ANGEL!!! I can honestly tell you, in just one month’s time, because I was willing to reach out for help, as well as put myself out there to help others I have an overwhelming sense of joy, hope for the future, and really just a sense of quiet peace!! Anyone who intimately knows me, knows that that is INCREDIBLE!!! 😉

I challenge you to ask for help. What do you need today? If you can’t find someone to help you, reach out and help someone else! I guarantee that goodness will come back to you!

Here is to living a BEAUTIFUL CREATIVE life! 🙂

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

The Big Gala!

Good evening!

This is going to be a short post this evening! I have a to-do list that seems to be a mile long, but I promised my sister, Alexa, that I would share some pictures as soon as I was able to locate them. Well, I found them!! GO ME!!! 😉

My sweetie and I

My sweetie and I

I should probably tell you what these pictures are from. For those of you who may not already know, my sweetie and I had gastric bypass surgery this past year. My sweetie has lost 150+ pounds, and I am floating around a 95 pound loss. Anyway, every year the center where our FABULOUS team of doctors, nurses, nutritionists, physical therapists, psychologists, and counselors all do their day to day magic, host a big gala for all of their patients who have had the surgery.

My sweetie looking dapper in his tie! ;-)

My sweetie looking dapper in his tie! 😉

Needless to say, this was our first year going, and I have to tell you I was really nervous because I had no idea what to expect! Everyone gets all dressed up, and goes to the convention center here in town for a formal sit-down dinner. There is a professional photographer there and you basically get to share your stories with others, see you how your friends are doing, and pretty much just show off the newer slimmer, trimmer you!! It was like prom night for formerly obese people – ok, so that may not sound so glamorous, but trust me IT WAS!!!

Myself & BobbieJo! One of my FAVORITE peeps!!

Myself & BobbieJo! One of my FAVORITE peeps!!

We really did have an amazing time!! I look forward to going again next year, after I have been out of surgery for over a year! I can’t wait to see what I look like then!!

Anyway, we have not gotten our professional pictures yet, but I will be very happy to share those with you when I get my hands on them!!

Here is to a FABULOUS night! 🙂

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

A Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

Good evening!

Whew! Things have been fairly busy here, but I wanted to stop in the middle of my to-do list filled evening to touch base with you and let you know how everything is going here!!

This past weekend, my sweetie and I got the opportunity to go with our sister, Nette, and our niece and nephew, Megan and Morgan, and a few of their little friends to a really cool pumpkin patch out in the country! It was pretty cool in that they had a really large and intricate corn maze, tractor rides, pumpkin chucking, corn shooting, a zip line, a pitch black maze, mountain ‘o hay bale, and all sorts of neat things for the kids to do!! Jason and I really did have a lot of fun! It was perfect weather, the sun was shining, and the kids all had a great time too!!

In all honesty, I am still really beat from this weekend, and I have what feels like a mountain of things on my to-do list that needs to get done tonight, because my busy week is really just getting started!! So, instead of cutting it too short, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of the pics from the pumpkin patch with you!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

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

A Good Day for a Great Sunday!

Good afternoon!

My sweetie and I are having a really great Sunday, and thought we would just share a bit of it with you! 🙂

My sissy, Alex has asked that I share a couple of pictures of Jason and I, and here I am being a good girl and getting them out today before I forget!! 🙂

I knew my sweetie was a hottie before, but he sure is looking good!!! You go, Babes!!! 😉

and yes, here is your truly!! 😉

and here we are together!! I love you, Sis!! I hope these pics makes you happy!! 😉

On a side note, there are only two days until surgery, which is rather surreal!! I am going to spend the rest of the day getting some chores done around the house and have some quality time with my sweetie, and my two hair four-legged girls! Tomorrow, my sweetie and I are going with a group of friends to hang out at the ocean, and later tomorrow evening my two youngest sisters will get here to spend the next couple days with us while I am having surgery! YEAH!!! I love my peeps!!! 😉 So, long story short, I will have plenty to keep me busy between now and 2:30 on Tuesday!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

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

My Adventures in Blueberries!

Good evening!

Last week, I had gotten a phone call from my girlfriend BobbieJo to see if we wanted to go pick blueberries with her! Jason and I immediately jumped at the chance, and the date was set for Monday evening to get together and go have some fun gathering our berries!

We went out to this awesome little farm out in Keizer! The farm worked on an honor system. They provide buckets so that you can fill them, weigh them, and then you drop the appropriate amount of money into a locked box!! It was so SA-WHEET!!!

This was my first time going blueberry picking! I was really so excited to learn how to choose the right berries and get started! BobbieJo and Jason were old pros at it, having picked all sorts of berries ever since they were really young! Someday when Jason and I have our little farm, we will get all sorts of experience picking all sorts of fruits and veggies – I can’t wait, but I realize I am digressing! Back to that evening! 🙂

By the way… I was told that this is the PERFECT blueberry!! I know it sure was pretty and it DEFINITELY tasted perfect!!! Matter-of-fact, I ended up eating so many blueberries that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to fill my bucket! SOOOO YUMMY!!!! 😉

I was so proud of my bucket of berries, until I look at BobbieJo’s and Jason’s buckets! I guess I hadn’t realized that all blueberries should actually be BLUE!! As you can see I had quite a number of reddish berries in my bucket! Oopsie!! Oh well, I still thought they tasted good!! 😉

Jason picked soooo many blueberries! He filled up his own bucket and then helped me fill up the rest of my bucket! Thanks, Babe! 🙂

Here is BobbieJo busily, and happily “clean picking a bush”! She was single-mindedly determined to get this little bush cleaned of all of it’s ripe berries!! She has way more determination than I do! I think I actually got bored with this bush after about 1/2 an hour! I am sure my flitting from bush to bush must have driven poor Miss BobbieJo crazy!! 🙂

I had to take a picture of a couple of the slugs out there! There were so many out, and the later it got the more there seemed to be. My theory was to watch carefully where I stepped, and to just keep moving so no one would get any funny ideas to slither up onto my foot! *SHUDDER!*

Here is BobbieJo and I showing off some of our bounty for the evening! ok, so I realize it doesn’t look like much, but this was a newer bucket! 🙂 Jason and I ended up going home with two large bowls chocked full of these little blueberries of goodness, and I think BobbieJo had a large bowl all of her own too!!

Well, it was getting late, so BobbieJo and I then made a date to finish the blueberry prep at her place in a few days! Well, that new date was today!

After enjoying lunch and some really great stories and chatting with some friends, Jody, Julie, Marty, BobbieJo, Ashley, and Mark, it was time to get busy in the kitchen taking care of our blueberries!

BobbieJo found this great low-sugar recipe in this really cool Taste of Home book!! YEAH!!!

This is BobbieJo in teacher mode, which is kind of fitting because she does happen to run a daycare!! and I figure if she can handle kids, she could definitely handle us!! 😉

Here is our stack of supplies! Thankfully BobbieJo has ever single kind of ingredient on hand in her UBER-ORGANIZED kitchen!! So she was able to help us fill in the blanks!! 😉

Julie and I spent most of our time sorting blueberries!! She is so cool, and has been a lot of fun to get to know!! It is amazing how much she and I have in common, actually it is kind of a little spooky! In the BEST POSSIBLE WAY!! 😉

The fabulous Miss BobbieJo did all of the pureeing and cooking, and if you take a peek behind her, you will see just a glimpse in her cupboard of the aforementioned UBER-ORGANIZED kitchen!! 😉

Here is my sweetie, enjoying watching the progress! He is just happy since the blueberry jelly we made is really low in sugar!

Here we are, Julie, myself, and BobbieJo!! I know that all three of us had such a fun day getting to know each other better, and making goodies in the kitchen, that we already have plans to do this all over again, but this time with blackberries!! I seriously cannot wait!!!

Until then…

Here is to a FABULOUS evening! 😉

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

A Splash Bash Kind of Sunday!

Good evening!

WARNING: this is going to be a photo-centric post. OK, you have been forewarned!!! 😉

Today was our church’s annual Splash Bash, which by the way, just happened to be my sweetie and my first, Splash Bash!! and let me tell you…it was

SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!

So what is a Splash Bash? Well, it is a community get together at our church, where there are 5 large water features brought in for the afternoon. Then everyone in the community is invited to join us for some Summertime fun, getting wet, having a delicious dinner and some yummy desserts, spend some time getting to know each other, and generally just have a CRAZY-ZANY DAY OF FUN!!! 😉

The weather today wasn’t as hot as it has been this past week, which would have normally been a downer, but it turned out to be really quite a great day for our water-filled day!!! It was overcast, which meant it was not too hot to be outside, and there weren’t any sunburns to be had -YEAH!!

So, I took so many pictures of today, and really am excited to be able to share them with you, so let’s get this party started!!! 😉

There were these 5 AMAZING blow-up features that were brought in for the afternoon! 3 of them were water features and 2 were regular blow-up type rides, where kids could climb, slide, jump, and play!

 

I did not get wet today – being a “Dry Girl”, and wanting to take pictures – I knew that getting wet was not going to be feasible without ruining my camera! Seeing this ride kinda made me second guess my decision to stay dry!!

You had to run, jump, slide, splash, and try not to fly off the end of the slide!!! That appeared easy for most of the people that were playing on this slide, however, when it came to the big guys playing on the slide – they really had some difficulty stopping and would occasionally go flying off the end!! There were between 3 and 5 adults standing at the end of the slide to try and “catch” the men before they went flying! It was quite funny for all of us bystanders!!! 😉

 

Jason patiently waiting, and wet, in line for his turn! 😉

There was no falling gracefully when it came to this slide!! It was also funny, because when a larger person jumped down the left-hand-side, and a small person was waiting on the right hand side for his turn to go up – the right hand side person sometimes got catapulted into the air! Kind of two rides in one, if you ask me!! 😉

Here is Jason and Bethany, trying to stop Zach from flying off the end of the slide!! Beware if you should happen to be standing behind this group because they splash created when the slider hit the wall was HUGE, and you were almost guaranteed to get wet!!! Lesson learned the hard way! 😉

See what I mean? This was Jason and his splash!! 😉

 

Here is the fearless BoobieJo!

She really impressed me with her ability to fly down this slide!! She had the most graceful slide out of most anyone who slid down this thing!! At least she was able to stay right side up!!! YOU GO MISS BOBBIEJO!!! 😉

 

They also served dinner, and afterward had a HUGE buffet of pot luck desserts!! It was soooo hard to behave myself and enjoy a treat in moderation!! Thankfully Jason was there, and was able to help me keep my dessert intake into perspective!! Thank you, Love! I couldn’t do it without your help! 😉

If the awesome rides were not enough, they even had these cool water shooters that, of course, my sweetie found and quickly proceeded to get into a water fight with these really little kids, who just thought he was the coolest adult every!!!

 

Jason even jokingly started to refer to this cute little guy as his “arch-nemesis”, and would feign pain and fear whenever this little cutie was able to figure out how to work his water shooter!! LOL!!! Jason is the cutest oversized ‘4-year-old’ that you have ever seen!!! 😉

 

Then the calvary AKA, Zach, came in to save the little kiddos! and Jason and him spent the next half an hour or so hiding amongst the large rides, and trying to ambush each other and douse the other with cold water!! I apologize to any innocent bystanders who may have been harmed in this afternoon of fun! I try to keep him check, but alas, there are times when he has the uncanny ability to just run amok!! 😉

This is the face of a man who knows when he has been beat!! LOL!!! 😉

 

and of course, just to prove that I was really there, I decided to slip this little pic in to the mix!! 😉

It really was a great day, and maybe, just maybe, next year I may even convert and become a ‘get wet girl’ instead of ‘dry girl’, but I am NOT going to make any promises!!! With that said, we are both pleasantly tired and ready to have a nice quiet evening at home!!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

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

We Found Our Church Home!!!

Good afternoon!

I am sooooo excited to write today’s post!! To say that my sweetie and I have had a good day is SUCH AN UNDERSTATEMENT!!! Just look at these two happy faces!!!!

It has been a FABULOUSLY BLESSED day!!! 😉

Many of you may not know, but my sweetie and I have been searching for our church home for a LONG time now!! Having, myself, grown up in the church, and having met my sweetie while in church, I have seriously felt that we needed to find a church home. A place where we can find other Christians to call friends, and to grow spiritually in the body of Christ. I am so happy to report that we think we have FINALLY FOUND it! OUR CHURCH HOME!! 😉

This church is called Relevant Life Church. It is a small church that I happened to stumble across while looking at one of my girlfriend’s pics on Facebook! Can you believe it??? I couldn’t either, matter-of-fact this church has been here FOREVER, and I practically drive by it every day to get to work!!! 😉

What impressed me right away was when we walked in, there was such an atmosphere of love and acceptance! It was very easy to feel God’s love in this building!! Everyone was so friendly and welcoming. They made sure that both my sweetie and I knew where everything was, to make sure to answer all of our questions, and to help us feel right at home!!!

My sweetie and I were both impressed with the pastor and the sermon. Pastor Kevin has a way of delivering the message which helps make the lesson feel personal to you, and very applicable to your everyday life! After the service, when one of our new friends, Bethany, asked us how we liked it, my sweetie quickly replied, “Did you hear me snoring?” “No,” she replied, looking at him a little oddly. Jason responded, “Then I didn’t fall asleep, it was a good sermon!” (I just love that crazy man!!) 😉

I also loved that after the service, almost everywhere you looked there were small groups of people praying for each other. The feeling in the building is so hard to describe, but the best way that I can describe it was a feeling of unconditional love, joy, and acceptance!! This is what I have been praying for!

It was also obvious to us that this is not be one of those churches where you either have to be really old, or married with young children to fit in, which Jason and I are neither!! The ages of everyone there really varied, and those that were there had an air of artsy-hipster-let’s-have-fun kind of -people AKA OUR KIND OF PEEPS!!! 😉

After the service, my sweetie and I were fortunate enough to be able to go out to lunch with a few people from the church. There were 7 of us in total, My sweetie, myself, BobbyJo and her husband, Mark (who we also happen to know from the bariatric support group we attend), our new friends, Bethany, and her husband (who happen to be the church’s youth pastors),  and another first time attendee visiting from out of town, J.B. We had so much fun just gabbing away!! We ended up there visiting for sooooo long! It was really like we have been friends forever, and just needed to sit down and catch up!! I am really excited that I will have some new friends to go antiquing, used book store shopping, discount bag/vintage shopping, or maybe even camping with!!!

God really is sooooo good, and I am truly feeling so happy, and sooooo very blessed that I happened to stumble upon this little gem of a church!! I can’t wait to go again next week, and make sure that I didn’t dream this place up during my sleep!! 😉

In the meantime, I am going to go enjoy the rest of this lovely sunny day with my sweetie!!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

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

Chunky Dunker’s Night!

Good evening!

It is that time of week again, Chunky Dunkers!! WHOO! HOO!!! ;-)

Chunky Dunkers is a group of friends who get together every week to cheer each other on as we all work towards our own personal health and fitness goals. Some of us want to lose weight, some want to become more flexible, some of us would love to be able to run a mile, and some of us would just be happy if we could just reach our long-lost toes!! ;-)

The name Chunky Dunker’s came from my sweetie and my two youngest sisters joking that we don’t skinny dip, we chunky dunk, and after all of the laughter finally died down, we realized that that would be the perfect name for our newly created support group!! We have been going for about 8 months now (if not longer), and it is still a group that I get excited about meeting with every week.

I try to post the Chunky Dunker’s post every Wednesday evening between 7 and 7:30, Pacific Coast time, and after I post, we “meet” in the comments section of this post where we can all share hints, tips, ideas, recipes, and encourage each other to keep on keepin’ on!

If you would like to join us, please feel free to do so by speaking up in the comments section, or feel free to be an anonymous reader – that is alright with us too!!

So, without further ado…

Tonight’s topic: You Don’t Have to Like It, You Just Have to Eat It!

This is an ongoing theme in my house, “You don’t have to like it, you just have to eat it.” Sometimes eating healthy can be rough, bland, boring, expensive, inconvenient, time consuming, and just plain not fun. So when I am eating something healthy and I would really rather be having, say… I don’t know, fried chicken? pizza? a massive steak? My sweetie will remind me that, I don’t have to like it, I just have to eat it. What he means is that the nutrients, and good for me vitamins outweigh my grouching and complaining about something that I may not be in the mood for. Kind of like choosing to take that 1/2 hour walk you have been dreading, instead of spending another half hour wasted watching yet another television show! The benefits of the walk far outweighs the temporary discomfort of actually taking the action!

Now, if I can only remember that on a daily basis, I would be doing a lot more of the things I know I should be doing in my life!! So, how about you?? What is something that you should be doing, but really don’t want to?? Could this statement be applied to your situation?

“You don’t have to like it, you just have to eat it!”

I look forward to seeing you all in the comments section!!

Here’s to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

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

 

Chunky Dunker’s Night!

Good evening!

Welcome to Chunky Dunker’s Night here at Christinaville! Chunky Dunker’s night is a casual, but fun group for people from all walks of life to get together online to support one another in their health and fitness goals, whether it be to lose a few pounds, or to do one situp; I am very happy to welcome you here every Wednesday evening, where we “meet” in the comments section to catch up, share hints, tips, and ideas and to just encourage each other as we go through our health &  fitness path together!!

Well, this week…ok, let’s face it, I am not doing so hot on my consistency, so I am sure my weight is not quite heading down in the right direction yet. I do great throughout my workday, where I have pre-packed lunch box ready for my healthy breakfast, snack, lunch, and snack to get me through my day. I have always had an easy time drinking my water, it is generally about the only thing I drink, so that is not a problem. The places where I am really struggling is dinner, and the weekends, and not getting enough exercise, hardly any, matter of fact!

Dinner is hard, by the time I get home, I am hungry, and if I’ve had a bad day I want to comfort myself with food, if I have had a good day, I want to celebrate with food. We are doing better at cooking healthy meals for dinner, but I am sure that our portions are still much too large. As for the weekends, I find that I do not enough structure in my days to make sure that I am eating regularly – I have a very bad habit of skipping snacks and meals, and ending up so hungry that I don’t care what I eat as long as it is yummy, and if it is a comfort food, all the better. At least in the moment – not so much for trying to lose weight!

As for the exercising??? Well, in all honesty I am so sore all the time. I know this can’t be a new story for everyone, there has to be others out there who feel the same way, but my knees, ankles, feet, and now my lower back seem to almost constantly hurt. It really is a problem. You know the ironic thing is that I have an indoor pool at my house. I could swim every evening – if I WANTED to!!! Maybe that is the problem, I haven’t gotten sick enough of being overweight to really take some serious action on getting it taken care of!!

But, I am recommitting myself to get back on my own wagon, and to get moving, even if it is just for single digit minutes at a time!!! I am worth it, and I really can do it – with patience and CONSISTENCY!!!

Go Chunky Dunkers!!!

🙂

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

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

Happy New Year!

Good evening, and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Jason and I rung in the new year by spending it with our good friends, Dawn and Errin! We had dinner, chatted, giggled, crocheted, played a few serious rounds of Wii sports, watched a movie, and really just had a fun time. Jason and I didn’t even get home until almost 3 in the morning!!  We played Wii so hard last evening, that when Jay and I woke up this morning, we realized that we were REALLY sore!! It motivated us to play again today!! 😉

Jason and I were able to get our place almost completely cleaned like we were hoping to do, which is really help make this weekend feel extra special!! We have so much hope for this new year. Out with the old and in with the new! I feel a lot of changes coming on this year. Things that Jason and I have been talking about for a long time, but have never felt it was time to make said changes. I think this year will be the year to take the leap of faith and create the life that we have always dreamed of making. I can’t wait to see how it all falls in place!

I am so thankful for all that God has blessed Jason and I with, and am certain that he will be with us throughout this new year as well!!

How have you rung in the New Year? Do you have any plans or resolutions for 2012? I would love to hear from you in the comments section!

I wish you all a VERY HAPPY and a VERY BLESSED  2012!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)