Whoops

So I totally forgot to blog yesterday. Doesn't help the fact that I wasn't feeling too well yesterday, but I still could have at least remembered! Sometimes having lupus gets the better of me, which is frustrating. I don't like having something having the ability to beat me, I should be stronger and better than it.

Enough about that though, I hate talking about it. Right now I am listening to Hannah talk on the phone to her friend while they play Club Penguin online. When did I get old enough to have a kid talking to her friend on the phone, basically hanging out? Everytime I glance at her really fast, she looks so much older to me. We also just recently got her a new bed since little sis needed a bed. So we went with a full and I took Hannah out to Target to pick her bedding and we got these really cool teal, dark blue and grey colors that really mature up her room. Wow. My baby is growing up. She's going into 3rd grade! Craziness.

Granted she still has her moments where the little girl shines through, like when she whines or talks like a baby. But she really is maturing more.



This was taken at Brent's parents house in Texas while we were on vacation a few weeks ago. They had been playing with the water hose and I went out to take pictures of them. They really do grow up so fast.

Day 3

How's that for an original title?!? ;)

I really actually have nothing funny, witty or creative to say :( Although I do have to say my newest obsession is Pinterest. I just *love* it! I now have all kinds of crazy ideas for decorating the house, some yummy new recipes to try (glazed donut muffins, um heck yes!) and some new style of clothes I want to buy. It's really given me a great boost of creative juice, which I sorely needed.

Speaking of, I am heading there now :)

Day Two

I'm not even more than two days into my challenge and I have already thought about what I want to do for my next 30 days. I want to write hand written letters. One a day for 30 days all to different people. Lucky for me I have a lot of relatives, so it should make it relatively easy, but I'm going to throw some friends in there as well. Don't you miss the days of getting a handwritten note? I used to look forward to my mom getting the mail everyday just to see if there was something in there for me. Nowadays it's just bills and HOA notices, nothing to get excited over. Unless you are a finance person and like doing bills *shudder*, but that's just the English major in me talking ;)

I've also already thought about how I can use up my immense cache of note cards and stationary and what exactly I can write about. I'm almost too excited to wait, but first I must conquer this month's challenge. Only 28 more days to go :)

30 Day Challenge

365 day projects, 30 day projects are all the rage right now and I have to admit I found them, one, rather daunting, and two, curious because I could never think of something good and solid that I would actually do for that length of time.

Well as I said in my last post, I've gone through a lot of growth these past few years and especially these past few months I have been drawn to reconnecting myself with what I love and enjoy. Hence my burst of photography and now my latest craze, Pinterest. I'm trying to reach that creative soul that used to exist in me. I want to do things that mean something to me, something that gives me oomph in my step and brings joy to my heart.

I've jumped in head first into Catechism classes to reconnect to my spiritual heart and man alive has it ever! It's so refreshing to be around people who truly and honestly believe and you can see how much it affects them. This passion, joy and wonder at the great things we are given by God, it's truly a blessing. I feel more alive and blessed because of it.

But back to what I was trying to say, these 30 day projects, well I have decided to do one. It took me awhile to decide what to do because for some reason taking a picture a day was extremely daunting to me (crazy since I seem to live with my camera, but oh well). Well I figured I would do a blog post a day for 30 days! It reconnects me to my writing days and it will help leave something behind for my girls to remember me by as well. Poor things, lol! So here is day one, whooo hooo!

Hopefully this will be a great project for me and I can't wait to decide what to do for my next 30 day challenge!

Personal Growth

I have to say that these past two years have been the most in personal growth, I think I have ever had.

I grew up just knowing who I was, what I liked and was always just sure confident in myself. I knew I was smart, pretty, a perfectionist, an athlete, a singer, a writer, a reader and a Catholic. To say I was cocky was putting it mildly. I was good at the things I loved and I reveled in it. For those that know me now, this would probably come as a complete shock.

Then I went to college. I went to Texas A&M because that was where Brent was. Was it my first pick? No. Was it ever on a list of colleges for me? No. I wanted to go to either The University of Texas or Notre Dame. But I chose to apply only to A&M because that's where Brent was and that was the choice for me (again note my complete confidence about being admitted because I did not apply to any other college--yes modesty was not a word I knew back then). And I hated it. Because I took the AP test for English I already had credit for freshman English so I was able to take the sophomore level of English. I got a professor that basically told us that we did not know how to think for ourselves because we had been taught all our lives to write an essay based on a topic given to us by our teachers (not true in my case, but probably true for most). We had to write essays based on topics we came up with ourselves, which I actually was excited about since I did that in high school and always did well. Yeah I didn't do well in college. Well I take that back, I didn't get the A+'s I was so accustomed to, instead I got low B's and high C's, gasp! For most these are great grades, but you are talking to a perfectionist here, one that always did overly well without much effort. It ticked me off to no end. That teacher frustrated the living hell out of me. I should also mention that I took a Geology course, one that was supposed to be an easy A course. I show up to the first day of class to find out that our professor was unable to teach the course and instead we would be getting the head of chemical engineering's Geology professor. Who then proceeds to tell us that he will not be altering his tests for us, we would have to learn the same thing as his chemical engineers, but he would give us a break and grade on a curve. Again imagine me, getting back a grade of a 50 which amounted to a high C.

So here I am at a college I didn't particularly want to be at, with just Brent and my roommate, classes that I expected to ace through and I just sank. Quickly. I did enjoy aspects of my time there, but not like I should have. I totally let it bring me down rather than standing up to it and fighting. I regret every moment of my college experience because I didn't truly take part in it, experience it, enjoy it. I am glad I went, I just wish I would have realized the blessing I had.

That whole experience just threw me and I stopped really growing or believing in myself. I lost sight of the things that I loved and lost sight of myself in it all. I just sleepwalked through life.

These past two years however have changed that. Something in me snapped, I don't know whether it was the diagnosis of lupus or just being sick of feeling sorry for myself. It was lame and I had to change it. I know me stepping back from the SOS group and the PTA helped me realize that while I was accomplishing a lot, I didn't truly enjoy it. It wasn't something that fueled me, my passions; something that would help me grow and prosper spiritually, emotionally and mentally. I needed to get back to the original me, the one that loves softball, loves reading and writing, loves listening to music and singing and loves taking pictures and being a part of church.

That's where I am now. I'm investing time in myself by starting a photography business which means reading all about it, practicing, talking to other photographers, looking at pictures online, etc. I'm also writing this blog, playing softball and volleyball and I volunteer at my church. I've never felt more alive, happy and incredibly blessed. I found me again and it's been wonderful :)

Maybe it's time to try this again...

Since the beginning of the year, I have been mulling over the idea about trying to blog again. Lately I have noticed that all my creative juices have left the building. While pondering why that would be, I realized that I haven't been actively pursuing my hobbies and creative outlets. I had become so wrapped up in helping with the PTA or running the moms group, that I had abandoned all my loves: writing, reading, crafting, scrapbooking and photography. So in an effort to bring them back into my life, I have read 5 books, am working avidly on my photo skills and am now starting this blog back up.

So only time will tell if I actually keep the promises to myself about being more creative :)

So yeah...

Apparently blogging has not been my forte as my lack of posts indicates ;) I do however do a semi-decent job on our family website updating pictures so I have at least that going for me, right?!?!

Let's see what's new in our household, minus Maddie turning a year old and Hannah entering kindergarten, not much! It's the same old same old here, me running around like crazy trying to get everything done, Brent working hard and training a new girl in his office and the girls being their undeniably cute selves! I wish I could say more, but I'll just post more pictures instead ;)