Thoughts on Thirty

Well, the inevitable has happened.  I'm 30!  I thought it was going to be terrible and horrible and I would be supremely depressed.  The other day I was talking with my boss and he commented that thirty was no big deal for him, it just came and went without him caring that much about it.  As he was saying that, I was remembering that he married his high school sweetheart at age 21 or 22.  So, as I accusingly pointed my finger his way I said, "But, you were married when you turned 30."  And he said, "Well...yeah, that does make a difference I guess."  And that's what I used to think.  What if I'm 30 and still not married?! Oh the horror!

Well I'm here to tell you that I DO want to get married.  I DO want to have children.  More than anything else I have ever wanted in my life.  But I do not wish that it had happened for me years ago and that I was turning 30 with those things.  My life is following the Lord's plan and obeying His time-table for me, not mine.  And I'm at peace with that.  Therefore, turning 30 is ok!  In fact, I'm pretty much the same today as I was yesterday when I was still 29, right? :)

 AND let us not forget that a birthday is a birthday, no matter how old! So I get to be spoiled today, get to eat cake and awesome food and spend the day feeling love pouring in from all sides.  AND I get to spend the evening with amazing people.  I'd say turning 30 is pretty much as awesome as turning any other age!  Let the life-progression continue. Happy day.

Guess What?

Guess what world...I got a computer!  My old computer kicked the bucket sometime after my last blog post.  Therefore, no posting.  But alas, I have returned to the world of writing whatever the heck I want and not caring who reads it!  Not that anything I ever write is shocking, but it could be. (Probably not.)

Today lets talk about Sunday, my very favorite day in all the land.  Why is that, you may ask?  Sunday is a rest day.  A book day, a sleep day, a make cookies day, a go for a walk or a pretty drive day.  Sunday is a peaceful day, a happy day, a contemplative day, a thoughtful day.  Sunday is a take a breath and relax day.  BUT more than any of those things, Sunday is a worship day, a learning day, a study day, a renew your covenants day.

I get excited when the week ends and it turns to Sunday.  It's a day different from all the rest.  It means I get to rest, but I also get to be productive.  I'm not talking about vacuuming, grocery shopping, or getting a car wash.  Those things are done on Saturday (or pushed to Monday).  I'm talking about more meaning-full productivity.  Everything and anything that has to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is of course a part of my everyday life.  But, on Sunday, I get to emphasize it, I get to think about it just a little bit more.  I get to learn and worship and participate more than any other time during the week.  And one of my favorite parts is spending time with others who are bent on doing the same things.  I love the companionship of friends at church who are there for the same reasons I am.  I love Jesus Christ and I know that His gospel is true, and so I am there to do the things that He has asked me to do.  And I am lifted and strengthened and filled with the most amazing things that empower my life and keep me moving forward in the right direction.  The same comes from studying the scriptures on my own time, which always happens much more on Sunday than during the rest of the week.  So let us save Sunday for the best things in life, and wait for it each week with much anticipation and excitement!  For it is the best day of all the days.

Oops?

Well, I either haven't posted for weeks on purpose or on accident, and I'm guessing it's probably a bit of both.  My family was in town for a week and that took up all of my time, meaning I didn't have time to post OR to focus on being healthy or exercising.  Which is a lame excuse, because if I really wanted to make it a part of my life then it wouldn't matter if I was on vacation or family was visiting or there was a party with tons of great food, etc etc etc.  BUT I'm happy to say that this week, I'm starting to get back on track.  I went running on Monday night, went to the gym for an hour on Tuesday, and went running again on Thursday morning.  That's my 3 times/week minimum, but I did some good workouts instead of just 20 minute chunks, so I'm feeling good about that.

I decided that I'm going to make a gym chart.  I used to have one with an old roommate of mine and we loved putting stickers on it every time we went to the gym.  I know, it sounds childish, but it really does help!  I bought fun sparkly stickers and I'm going to make some rules for myself.  3x/week is the minimum for gym attendance. (Although all the working out doesn't necessarily have to take place at the gym, but at least once a week does.) So when I say "gym attendance" I really just mean working out.  At least once every two month period I'm going to have a "boot camp week" where I have to work out every single day except for Sunday that week.  My goal is to get to the point where I WANT to exercise every single day except for Sunday.  I want to be healthy and in shape and able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting light-headed, haha.  Good goal, right? :-)

Don't worry, I'll post next week, I promise.

Week 5 Update

Alright, I have to be honest.  The last 3 weeks have been...shall we say...iffy?  I have had it in my head that I want to eat less and exercise more.  But executing those thoughts hasn't really happened.  My original goal that I set for exercise was to do it for at least 30 min 3 times a week.  This past week I exercised one time.  Not so great.  AND I have been eating pretty much whatever I feel like.  While I eat pretty healthy on a normal basis, the added goodies I throw in are just too much.  I need to cut down on those!  This week my sister Tiffany came to stay with me.  She is staying for 6 weeks and I'm so excited to have her here!  So, of course this past week was a bit out of control.  We were so excited to be together we were just a bit frivolous.  We just wanted to hang out and do fun things and EAT fun things and just have FUN!  And we did for the entire first week.  And then at the beginning of this week we thought, "Okay, that's enough. Time to be good."  And for the past few days I have been doing pretty well!  I went to the gym today and got a pretty good workout.  It felt great.  I'm determined to be back on track.  Although, I am happy to report that I have not gained any weight for the past 3 weeks, so I have just maintained that 199.6 I weighed in last time I posted numbers.  yay!  That is all.

Week 4 Update

Well, stay tuned for the "health update" next week, I've decided not to write on any of that this week.

On a different note...

I had the opportunity to visit the Manti, Utah Temple yesterday.  I had never been down to Manti before, and I was so excited to get to see this Temple and go inside and serve.  For more information on LDS Temples, click here.  The trip down to Manti was a ward event and we each chipped in a bit of money and were able to get a big charter bus so we could all travel down together.  Manti is about 2.5 hours southish of Salt Lake City (there is a bit of east in there as well).  It was a great time riding the bus with everyone.  We talked and laughed and got to know each other.  As I was sitting there watching everyone converse and have a good time, I was struck with how blessed I am.  I thought about how grateful I am to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I am so happy to be blessed with the knowledge that Christ lives and that if we keep our covenants and try our best, we can live with him again someday. It was amazing to be on that bus, surrounded by other temple-goers that believe in Christ and have a testimony of his Gospel.   I love being surrounded by people who are trying their best to keep their covenants and be the Christ-like people we should be. It's amazing!

When we arrived at the Temple we drove right up to the doors and the driver let us off the bus.  We had some time before our session started, so we were able to walk around the grounds and take in the beauty of the House of the Lord.  I took a few pictures.

Beautiful Temple on the outside, and it was even more beautiful on the inside.  My first thought as we entered was "oh! I so wish I could take pictures inside!"  I guess I'll just have to keep the images inside my mind :-)  It was a very nice session and I so enjoyed being there with everyone.  I love the Temple!

On our way home we stopped for lunch at Wendy's and then headed back to Salt Lake.  When we arrived at home my SISTER was here!  Tiffany is staying with me for about 7 weeks while she is between semesters at BYU-I.  I'm so excited to have her here!  We spent the evening unpacking and finding places for all of her things, grocery shopping so we can actually eat this week (as opposed to last week, haha) and then we took some pizza to Ryan at his last night at his hospital job.  Ryan and Kara and Sammy and Benjy are moving to Wyoming in just a few weeks.  It breaks my heart that they are leaving, I've never not lived by them as long as I've known them.  It's very sad, but I'm also very excited for their new adventure and Ryan's new job teaching Institute. We had a good time eating pizza and talking.  What a wonderful day!

Week 3 Update

Sorry I'm late!  I didn't get a chance to write about last week on Sunday. So let's see, last week. Uh...can we just skip this update?  Last week wasn't the greatest.  But that's how achieving goals goes, doesn't it?  Sometimes we do well, sometimes we falter or step back.  If we didn't we'd be perfect and wouldn't need to set goals in the first place.  Bettering ourselves is hard work, but if we stick to it, it can be done!

Last week I ate a little too much ice cream and cookies and exercised only one day.  I have a little problem with sugar.  I can stay away from fatty foods or even carbs like breads and pasta and rice if I really put my mind to it, but sugar takes ALL of me to resist or cut back on.  So difficult!  So this week, no more cookies and ice cream!  I went to the gym today (Tuesday) and had an excellent workout with my friend Nikki from work.  It was even fun!  I'm excited to go again tomorrow night after work and then most likely Thursday before the farm and possibly Friday after work as well.  That's 4 times!  We'll see if I can make that happen.  If not, at least 3 times is the goal so if I meet instead of exceed my goals that's still great. :)  I hope everyone has a happy week!

Week 2 Update

Another week full of days 1-7, Sunday to Saturday.  I did pretty well with exercise this week.  I went for a 30-40ish minute walk on Tuesday night, went running on Thursday morning (and by "running" I mean run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes for a total of 20 minutes), and I went to the gym on Friday morning for about 45 minutes, and actually got a pretty workout.  I feel good about that amount of activity for the week!  However, I didn't do so well with the whole eating part.  I sort of let myself eat whatever I wanted over the 4th of July holiday and the weekend while my sister was here.  Tiffany and her roommate Andrea came to visit this weekend.  We had so much fun!  We ate too much and had a lot of fun just doing nothing.  It was a really chill weekend and a great way to end my little stay-cation before going back to work tomorrow.  I had a disaster of a dream about work last night, I guess I'm not really excited about going back.:)  Oh well, such is life.  Go to work, go to work, go to work.  You'd think I'd be used to it by now, huh?  Hopefully one day I can say I actually WANT to do what I do, instead of just HAVING to do what I do.  Although I have been much happier doing what I have to do as of late, so that's nice.  I enjoy working with the people I work with and that's a big deal, so that makes it easier.  Also, I think my second job is helping a lot, it creates a better balance in my life.  For those who don't know, I'm working part time as a tour guide at Wheeler Farm!  I LOVE it.  It is just a relaxing, laid back job doing something that is actually fun and I really enjoy it.  It doesn't even really feel like work most of the time.  It has been a great blessing for me.  Anyway, here's to another week of trying hard to eat better, exercise, and take care of myself!