Goals for 2014....and Remember 2013

As the year came to close, there was a lot of reflection on how 2013 went. Of course then sitting in Sacrament meeting today a lot of people were reflecting on 2013 and commenting on how great or how not so great 2013 was. I've decided that since it's 2013 I will list 13 things I did or learned in 2013.

1. Driving in snow.... so not my thing! I learned that you don't hit the brakes when you hit a patch of ice...yes this California raised girl did that....it didn't go so well haha
2. Driving 3 hours to the temple is totally worth it... EVERY single time!
3. Living on my own wasn't all it was hyped up to be.... moving in with roomates... totally a better option!
4. Kidney stones really are painful and if anyone says otherwise they obviously don't know what they are talking about.
5.  Became an owner of a 2013 Honda CRV and absolutely love it!!!
6. Sent one of my best friends, my cousin Chelsea and my little brother Chad off on missions for the church. (I am currently now writing 5 missionaries ....used to be 7 but two are home and my other cousin gets home in February!).
7. Quality time with family in Utah and Cali over the summer=the best thing ever!!! I love spending time with family!
8. With the help of my roommate/friend who experimented with my hair (and I let her ;)) I was bold this year with colors and had purple and pink in my hair. Everyone said they love it but I think I'm good with it and want to go back to original colors haha.
9. Reading my scriptures and praying daily make my days go by so much easier and better. If I don't I've noticed a huge difference in my day!
10. All those body mechanics in nursing school weren't just a simple read....they are meant for real life. And even though I do bend and move correctly I somehow managed to hurt my back but it's getting better with time and rest and not lifting more than 15 pounds.
11. I took on a new motto this year: Live Every Moment, Laugh Every Day and Love Beyond Words. True words to live by :)
12. New Mexico started to grow on me more.... learned to love and appreciate it more.
13. Spending Christmas in Hawaii with my family was the best ending to the year I could possibly ask for. (Don't worry my Christmas posts will be coming soon!)

2013 in New Mexico is where the Lord wanted me to be. That may be the same for 2014, who knows.... haha I feel like a lot is going to happen this year in 2014 so hopefully it's a year full of fun, laughter and lot's of new things!

My goals for 2014 are:
*Continue to read my scriptures daily
*Attend the temple often and do more temple work for my ancestors
*Take more weekend trips away and try and see family more this year!
*Eat healthy and work out daily
*Strengthen my relationship with family, co-workers and friends
*Continue to trust in the Lord and let him guide me through this life

I love you all who read this and I hope that this year brings you lot's of love, happiness and peace.

Happy New Year

I really can't believe it's already 2012!!! Crazy how time flies!! 2011 wasn't as great of a year as I had hoped it to be. It was fine but it was a very trying year for me. With that said....my goals from last year are still the same.

1. Learn one new song on the piano
2. Move
3. Start Working
4. Crochet a blanket (Finish my Blanket)
5. Learn Spanish
6. Read the Book of Mormon twice
7. Eat healthy
8. Maintain a healthy weight
9. Attend the temple monthly
10. Give service daily
11. Read 10 books: one from each of the following categories:

1. Health/Nutrition
2. Holocaust
3. Lifestyle/Relationships
4. Autobiography (haven’t decided who yet)
5. Church History (2 from this category)
6. Meditation
7. Politics
8. Italian Culture
9. South American Culture

 Although I read some books from some of those categories... I'd like to do it again. And I plan on learning Spanish by reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish. We'll see how that goes, I will let you know! Those are my year long goals but here is my my short term goals for the month:

*Exercise daily
*Move
*Attend the temple
*Start reading a church history book


I still need to post about my Canada trip. Hopefully I will get to that later today! I can't believe the first week of the new year is already almost over!!! Crazy how time flies!!

30 Day Challenge

Every year in the month of November I challenge Facebook friends to write on their status every day one thing they are grateful for. Last year I only had about five friends who took up the challenge (out of like 300 friends..that's sad) and posted what they were grateful for. I debated doing it again this year but I need to do for me. I need to remember all my blessings and be thankful. I hope all of my readers will join in, even if you don't have facebook or you don't want to on there, at least write down 30 things you are thankful for. I will post all 30 of mine on the blog the last day of the month but check out my Facebook wall if you want to see my daily posts.

I have loads of other things to blog about but this was something I wanted to do real quick. Remember what you are thankful for and thank God daily for all the wonderful things He has given you :) Happy November!

Hello Motivation!!!

So I have been doing this personal challenge.... and the past few weeks have been difficult in trying to get motivated to keep going. Thankfully I have some wonderful people in my life who are constantly rooting for me. I have to give a shout out to my cousin Carissa though. She is constantly amazing me with her sweet words of encouragement and motivational pep talks. We help each other out a lot!! Thanks Car! I've been doing pretty well at eating right and I even make the whole family eat right with portion control. My brothers hate it but hey it's working for me and I'm losing pounds so that's good. Don't worry I always make a little bit extra for those growing boys so they don't starve :)

I issued this challenge way back in May and while I didn't really reach that goal, it's still a work in progress. My goal is to workout every day M-F and on Saturdays when Bret doesn't have Soccer super early in the morning or Saturday evenings when it's not too hot. During the week it's not problem because everyone is at school and I have plenty of time to do it in the AM. So anyways, my cousin and I are challenging each other and motivating which really helps. It's nice to have a buddy doing it with you :) I wrote down my schedule for this week and so far so good!!! It's been a crazy week emotionally (see last post) but I'm doing good! I really should write more about my progress here but it's embarrassing when nothing happens. Oh well. I will keep you all posted on my progress! Hope you all are having a great week!!

The Help

So remember my news years list on how I was going to read 10 books?? Click here to read that. I'm still working on it and I've done a few of them but that has nothing really to do with my post today haha. I've been reading some fictional good-read books and I've FINALLY finished the book called "The Help". I put finally in caps because it was an extremely hard read for me. Weird huh. I love to read but this book was super hard for me to get into, let alone read. I think because it was written in a different way that it was hard for my brain to translate the writing style. Literally, I read this book so slow, that's rare for me. Of course I'm not my mom and finish a book in two hours lol but I consider myself a fast reader and it has literally taken me MONTHS to read this book. Taylor first introduced it to me when I asked her if she had any suggestions on some good reads. Thanks for recommending it Taylor and I'm sorry it took me so long to read!!

 Image found here

I have mixed feelings about the book. There are some parts that I wish weren't in there but overall it was a good read. I guess they are making it into a movie so we'll see how that goes. Overall though, I would definitely recommend it. It gives a distinct point of view on things back in the 1960's. Anyways, now I need to focus on my list and cross off a few more of those books. I started reading Mother Teresa's biography but sadly I've mis-placed the book so I need to find it so I can cross that off too.

Goals Update :)

So remember  these from about a month ago?? I just thought I would give a little update on my progress of my goals. It's going well but like most goals, everything takes time. I did read a health related book that has done wonders. It's called "The Hormone Diet" by Natasha Turner N. D. and I highly recommend it. I decided to do my autobiography book on Mother Theresa and so far it's really good. I'm looking forward to learning a lot of new things this year. I am currently crocheting a blanket for my room... probably won't be the cutest one you've ever seen but it's my first so it'll hold a special place in my heart. It will probably take me a whole year to crochet it anyways haha but that's okay. I love doing it little by little. I also got to attend the temple last month and it's my goal to keep that up. I've added another goal to my list and that's to do a humanitarian service project. I really believe that it's something I NEED to do and it's also something that I really WANT to do. My friend Natalie had written on her blog about it last month and that same day my cousin Carissa did as well. How crazy is that? I had been thinking about it but both of them voiced it before I ever got around to it. Due to the fact that I'm unemployed, Carissa researched and found Habitat for Humanity right here in California! It's not as expensive as going to another country so we are going to plan on doing that and then someday when I'm employed we can go to Costa Rica and do a service project there too. I can't wait!!  Don't worry Natalie... I still want to do one with you as well. It's a new passion I have and I LOVE it! Honestly, what's better in life then giving of your time to serve others who need help more than you do? I think it's one of the best kinds of service we can give and I'm looking forward to it. Besides...that's on my goal list anyways, to serve daily. So I challenge all of you to go out and find some service in your area! Do it! It will make your life SO much better! :)

Biggest Loser=Love

Have you ever watched The Biggest Loser? If you haven't, I suggest you start! Last season they changed a few things up but this season they have changed even more! Now there are two new trainers who identity are still unknown (I doubt they will reveal until after the 4 weeks) and Bob and Jillian are back. I'm sad this will be Jillian's last season but at least I can watch her get in people's faces and yell at them one last time. This season looks like it is going to be intense and after only one episode I can tell which contestants I already don't like but maybe they will grow on me as the season continues who knows lol. 

I haven't been watching since the show started but I have been watching the last few seasons and Koli is still from favorite from Season 9. Doesn't he look great?

I can't wait to see what Biggest Loser has to offer next week.  I am amazed by the transformations of these contestants in just a few short months. This show definitely keeps me motivated because every week I'm pumped up to exercise more and I'm trying hard to lose all of the weight I gained in school. No better time than the present right? If they can do it, so can I and so can you! 

Remember this post when I talked about reading a health book? Well I'm currently reading The Hormone Diet by Dr. Natasha Turner and it's great! (Thank you Carissa for recommending it and Mom for buying it!) I also have read and will probably reread How to Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels.  Jillian inspires me as she has thousands and I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do with the contestants this month. If you didn't watch the episode last night DO!! I was laughing so hard when she told them she wasn't going to yell this season. Five minutes later... yelling haha. Good times!

Bring on 2011!!

Happy New Year!! I gave my blog a new look for the New Year (even though I haven't even had my blog that long! haha) and it will probably change again because I haven't found exactly what I want but it's cute :) I've posted some of my goals for this new year, ten goals to be exact. I'm looking forward to reaching all of them! Here they are:

1. Learn one new song on the piano
2. Move out 
3. Get a good job
4. Crochet a blanket
5. Learn Spanish
6. Read the Book of Mormon twice
7. Eat healthy
8. Attend the temple monthly
9. Give service daily
10. Read 10 books: one from each of the following categories:
1. Health/Nutrition
2. Holocaust
3. Lifestyle/Relationships
4. Autobiography (haven’t decided who yet)
5. Church History (2 from this category)
6. Meditation
7. Politics
8. Italian Culture
9. South American Culture

My goal for the books is to give myself a month for each. Yes I know that there are 12 months but once I get a job I’m going to be busy!! So I wanted to give myself some extra time to finish them all. If you have any suggestions of good books from any of these categories let me know! I’m excited to learn more and read! 

I know I may not reach all of these goals this year but it’s something I’m striving for and looking forward to. Goals aren’t made just once a year, they are made all the time. So as 2011 starts going I would like all of you to make goals constantly because that is what keeps us motivated . Having a goal and reaching it is the greatest thing ever :) Happy New Year! Excited to see what excitement 2011 brings me this year!