An early resolution

I realize people are already jumping on the Christmas bandwagon, and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. And here I am talking about resolutions and it's just the beginning of November - but really, anytime is a good time to start a new resolution to your self. And writing about it just helps to solidify it.

Ok, so what is it!?

Reading books.

I know everyone and their mother has already read The Fault in Our Stars, but I just ordered it this weekend, and it's supposed to be here today. I can't wait to run home after work and get started - so many people have raved about it. Now it's my time to see if it's true :)

Amazon

Last year after Christmas, I read about 1 book a month for about 4 or 5 months. To some, that's not much, but to me, that's a good steady pace. This year, I hope I can keep that up a little further into the year. So I'm going to finish off this year with a bang - one book this month, and one next month!

Any suggestions for a December book?

Eleven Things

This morning I was cruising through my Blog feed and came upon Chelsea's 11 Things post, so I figured I'd take a stab at it. Eleven questions, couldn't be too bad. So here's how it works:

1. Post a photo of yourself

2. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

3. Create 11 new questions and ask people to answer them.

4. Put your answers, or link to you answers in the comments.

5. Make sure to include a link to Chelsea's blog too! 

http://thepapermama.com/

1. If I had to change my name, what would I change it to?
Dang. Thanks for a super hard one right off the bat. Honestly, I love my name. And I'm really going to miss my last name if I ever get around to changing it to Heffelfinger.

2. Are you a collector of anything?
Earrings, nail polish, hair products...ok these might not be collections like stamps, or figurines or old music albums, but I subconsciously collect these things. I'm not even sure why. I probably wear the same 3 or 4 pairs of earrings, I NEVER paint my nails and when I do, it's the same 2 or 3 colors (so why do I have a collection of 30+colors???) and hair products...well, I've just never found anything that really works well enough to stick to it. So I've got a cabinet in the bathroom over flowing with half empty bottles, sprays, creams, etc.

3.What is your first thought when you wake up?
Weekdays---Gahh, I hate this.
Weekends---Pancakes or waffles??

4.Do you prefer sweet or salty foods?
This is a total toss-up. I love both really. I have a bad sweet tooth, ice cream, Twix bars, fruit juice, Skittles...you name it, I probably like it. But I can crave ChexMix, a warm soft pretzel, chips and salsa. I can snack like nobodies business.

5. Name one thing you miss about being a kid.
Being blissfully unaware of worry. Looking back on my childhood, I feel like I spent way too much time trying to be mature, wanting to be independent and responsible. I wish I knew then to cherish the time when I didn't have any worries.

6.Are you a morning or night person?
I think I would consider myself to be an afternoon person. Mornings are rough. Sometimes I wonder how I even got to work. And evenings, well they involve cooking, which isn't my favorite, and I'm typically yawning by 9pm so I'm not exactly your ideal party girl. But I can rock 11am-4pm like non-other.

7.List 5 items on your life's to-do list.
     1. Use my scuba liscense some where other than Rocky Point, Mexico.
     2. Have 2 babies.
     3. Find a job/career that I enjoy.
     4. Travel to all 7 continents.
     5. Treat my parents to an amazing vacation.

8. Share one thing that people may not know about you.
Yikes. Umm. Ok, my ideal career would be to own a shop, much like Gussy Sews.

9.What is your all time favorite song, movie, and book?
Song - Probably...James Taylor's, Fire and Rain.
Movie - How to Lose a Guy in 10 days.
Book - most recently, The Hunger Games.

10. Do you have any hidden talents?
Baking cookies. Not to be rude, but I LOVE my chocolate chip cookies. And I think they are better than everyone else's :)

11. Are you a really clean or super messy person?
I would consider myself a neat-freak. My house may be dusty, or have some footprints on the floor, but it's pretty much always put away.

Ok, your turn. Answer these 11 questions, either in the comments section, or send me a link to your blog with your answers in the comments. It's fun! Trust me!

1. Would you rather go camping, or to a resort?
2. Share your most favorite memory from 2012.
3. What's your ideal way to spend a free afternoon?
4. If you could hop on a plane today and go anywhere, where would you go?
5. What's your favorite physical activity to stay in shape?
6. Do you have any hidden talents?
7. What's one thing that you are most proud of yourself for?
8. When you lay down in bed at night, what's the last thing you say or think about before falling asleep?
9. Name your favorite memory from high school.
10. If you could hang out with a celebrity for the day, who would you chose and why?
11. Tell me something I don't know about you.

Ramble and Workout #4

Sam and I spent last weekend with the Heffelfinger clan celebrating an early Thanksgiving. It was great fun, lots of pies, lots of laughter, oh, and dog fur. Dog. Fur. Everywhere. But a wonderful time, I'm so thankful to be a part of the family.

Since we celebrated with the family early, Sam and I will be volunteering at Hope Cottage in Flagstaff on actual Turkey Day. I think Jeanette's project got the ball rolling for us, and spending our time helping others has become somewhat of a theme the past few weeks. Hope Cottage is a shelter in town that offers a home for men, women, and children. It's so easy to forget how fortunate we are, and with the help of the Happy Day Project, it made me realize that it's not hard to spend a few hours helping others. Or even a few seconds! I'm still carrying around a Blessing Bag!

So, on another note. Dry. Skin. It's only November, and already my skin is peeling, cracking, flaking, and down right itchy. Like so, so, so, itchy. I'm pretty sure my bones are itchy. It's. That. Bad. I think it's worse this year than last year even. I could literally bath in a vat of Vaseline. Do you have an recommendations for helping this issue?? I feel like I'm dying.  No exaggeration here. My bathroom is overflowing with tubes, and jars, and bottles of lotions, cremes, and pastes, that don't seem to help. Help Me!

I'm really on a roll with this rambling. I have to share this with you. It's important. Especially if you have curly hair like I do. I've talked about BirchBox before here, but I'm going to remind you that it's AWESOME. It's basically like Sephora, but online. Anyway, I pay 10$/month to get a box of samples, which so far, has been awesome, pretty much guaranteed to come with at least one full sized product, and great coupons, and fun stuff that I wouldn't normally purchase. Ok, so today through December 15 you can buy and Miss Jessie's curly hair products for buy 1 get 1 free! Most of her products cost $22.00 or more, so this is a steal! 

While I'm going on about random things, I'll put up Workout #4. I taught this last night in a class called Stretch and Tone. We do about 30 minutes of toning, and 30 minutes of foam rolling. Here's my toning workout, it's a good one, focusing on cardio, core, and upper body. We used a BOSU, but you could easily do it without one.

Workout #4 

Warm Up:

30 Jumping Jacks 

Cardio:

I use the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia...trust me, it will rock your world. 

Single squats throughout the entire song (Ouch) 

Pulsing squats during the chorus (there's 3)

Core:

:30 Left side plank (Feet on the BOSU)

:45 Mountain Climber (Hands on the BOSU) 

1:00 Crunches (Sitting on the front of the BOSU)

:45 Plank jacks (Hands on the BOSU) 

:30 Right side plank (Feet on the BOSU)

Upper Body:

Repeat this 2X while standing on the bubble side of the BOSU using 5-8 lb weights: 

4 bicep curls

4 front raises

4 tricep extensions

4 rows

10 push ups 

Repeat Core, then cool down! Simple! 

And that's all for today. Happy Tuesday! 

Love it/Hate it

This post has been sitting in my drafts for two weeks now. I guess that says something about the topic though. Blogging has become something to me that I never expected, it's an outlet to express myself, it tests my creativity and technical skills, and then nags at me at the same time. I love it, and yet I hate it.

I read a lot of popular, money making, reader collecting, blogs and I imagine the writer's fingers flowing like water over the keyboard and elegant words appearing on the screen like magic. They probably never use the backspace button, and they know every punctuation rule by heart. Their thoughts must be perfectly readable, relateable, and enjoyable the instant they think about them and start pressing those keys.

I restarted this post three times before giving up and hoping that those of you who read this will understand what I'm trying to say.

Have you ever just wanted to be good at something? Or maybe you think that you could be good at something but you're too afraid to not be awesome at it? I hate that feeling. My fingers want to write, but my brain keeps saying "that's not good enough, try again" every time I get a sentence down.

Such a lame feeling.

This has to stop. The blogs that are filed under "Amazing Blogs" in my mental filing cabinet had to start from somewhere. THIS is my Somewhere. This is where I'm starting.

I read somewhere that all good writers are constant, and that's what makes them good. My philosophy is that writing is like exercising - you should always mix it up, your muscles don't want to memorize the workout, they want something new and surprising and fresh. Writing shouldn't be constant. I shouldn't be constantly happy, or constantly sad, that would be weird. My writing should dictate ME, and I'm not constant. If anything, I'm constantly changing and therefore my writing is constantly changing.

The blogs that I come back to over and over again are the ones that show the writer's true colors. They have good days, bad days, inspiring posts, and posts that merely show an inspiring quote written by someone else. The blogs that I love are written by HUMANS. Just like me -- not constant at all.

A good friend of mine just ran her first full marathon. Yowsers! I can guarantee that prepping for that run, and actually running was a love/hate feeling too. The pressure to get a really fantastic time, and the thought that merely finishing the race would be more than most people ever do in a lifetime are two thoughts that pull at heartstrings. Just like this whole blogging thing does to my heartstrings. I want to be SO successful (whatever that may really mean) and yet just knowing that I'm able to share my thoughts and life with my readers should be rewarding in and of itself.

At this point in the post, I'm really hoping this isn't coming across as whiny...it's just me thinking out loud....thinking in type... whatever.

Doing things in life isn't about doing them perfectly. It's about doing, it's about trying, it's about being yourself, and doing things YOUR WAY.

Happy Friday friends and family!

PS - I'll be adding new Christmas items to Floral + Ivory this weekend so go shopping!