Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store

I started prepping for Christmas pretty early this year - I had probably half of Christmas bought by the end of September. I was done shopping, with a few small exceptions, by Thanksgiving, and everything has been wrapped since the beginning of December. It's been a VERY different Christmas season for me as a result - there's been no stress at all when it comes to gifts. And in other ways, it's been really different too. I have had a really hard time making a list of things I "want".

And because that is CRAZY unheard of for me, I had been thinking I wanted to blog about it. But how do you make a post about that? An interesting one at least? But seriously, all I could think was that this was a very different Christmas for us. For example, last year, in October I got a new wedding ring, simply because I wanted one, not because mine was lost or anything, but because I wanted one. In November, Jake got a new laptop. Didn't need one - we just wanted him to have a new one. And we bought a new sectional for the living room. Because we wanted one. And then we still spent the same amount of money at Christmas. In fact, I think we went a little over budget. We spent a TON of money last year. And as a result, it feels weird to not have gone so nuts this year. It's a good weird, but still - it's weird.

And then, I saw this picture on Facebook and it totally summed up what I've been thinking.

Last year, at the end of the year, I made a summary of all the things I had done in 2012 on Facebook and set two goals for 2013.

Just two goals - to be sealed to my husband, and to get pregnant.

And I have both of those things.

My marriage is better than ever. And I got to go to the temple with my husband this year. I was able to see him receive his temple endowment, and we were able to be sealed to each other. I have had the chance to have him give me multiple priesthood blessings. And those are things that I would never have imagined possible 2 years ago. Last year I sure wanted those things to happen, but I wasn't sure if they'd be accomplished so fast. And I can say them now! Talk about a great present!

And not only did we get pregnant, but we stayed pregnant. It's been a great pregnancy, and we are SO close to having a baby, and not just being pregnant anymore. That's an AMAZING gift!

Add to that that I am now a stay home wife, and soon to be a stay home mom. I was able to quit my job. That's something that I have ALWAYS wanted and is an awesome gift. Let alone to be able to stay home with our first child. I am so grateful for Jake's support in me staying home and his ability to provide for us.

And on top of THAT, Jake & I just finished funding our 6 month Emergency Fund. The one we have been working on for 3.5 years. We have enough money in savings that if Jake lost his job, and wasn't able to find work ANYWHERE, not even at McDonald's, we could make it for 6 months. Paying all our bills, staying debt free, not getting behind on our mortgage - be totally fine. And if Jake was able to get a job, even if it was super part time or whatever, it would help keep us afloat even longer until he finds another job. That financial peace of mind is HUGE for me. It helps me feel more at ease about staying home and not working. And I've wanted this for so long - I am so grateful we finally have our fully funded account, and that it happened right at Christmas time is even better!

So yeah, I have thought of a few presents that I want, and there's a surprise under the tree that I don't know exactly what it is, but other than that it's a fairly simple Christmas for me. I got some things for Jake that I am excited for, but nothing like years past. Because we stayed in budget. I want to give him the moon and buy him a new motorcycle or something super awesome, but that's totally not in the budget. And as hard as that is for me, because I LOVE giving gifts, it also feels good to know that we can afford to give the gifts we have given.

So even though this is going to be a "small" Christmas in comparison to other Christmas's when it comes to physical gifts, I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite Christmas yet. 

Updated Crazy Cool

I haven't posted my goals in a while - last time I posted them was in April. A few things have changed since then, so I figured I should post new goals! These are things that I want to have accomplished 1 year from now, so by August 1, 2014.

1. I am a mom.
2. I'm a stay at home mom.
3. I am down to my goal weight of 152 {100 total pounds lost since starting in January 2012, 140 pounds total lost}
4. I have earned my Young Women Medallion as a leader.
5. We have a fully funded Emergency Fund.
6. Jake & I have been to every Salt Lake & Utah County Temple together
7. My hair is as long as my extensions were {naturally}
8. We are still debit free {not including the mortgage}
9. I have completed a Half Marathon since giving birth
10. I have made a baby blanket for Kaycee

I'm well on my way to being a mom - almost half way done! We are well on our way to having a fully funded Emergency Fund, and it's in the works for me to quit my job at the end of December. I started working on my Young Women medallion, and am doing good to be able to earn it by the time I have been in for a year. My hair is growing like a weed, so that one shouldn't be a problem at all. The half marathon is going to take some training, but I can totally make that happen! And by working out while I am pregnant and getting back into the swing of things as soon as I get medical approval, I will be able to get my weight down. And I am going to make Kaycee a blanket as a Personal Progress project, so that will kill a few birds with one stone! Yay for accomplishing goals!

In a rut

I bet you've noticed I am blogging a lot more. Goal is to do 17 posts a month - that'll get me at my goal of 200 by the end of 2013. So I have been blogging about everything we do, everything I read, blah blah. I stopped blogging about my weight loss because it wasn't as exciting each month - only losing a few pounds a month didn't seem like anything to blog about. Until it hit me - my weight loss slowed down once I stopped blogging about it. I don't think thats a coincidence. When I know that I don't need to "report" my month on my blog, I have been SERIOUSLY chillin' on my results. Lots of cheating, on the weekends mostly. Lots of days of sleeping in. Lots of eating more calories than I know I should during the week. Equals not lots of weight loss. So guess what - time to start talking about it on the blog again.

I started a DoTerra cleanse - talked about that last week. It cleans out everything in your body - toxins, gunk - stuff you do not want in there. I was so excited to do this cleanse to give me that extra push to get the last few pounds off. As of last Monday, I was at 163.8 pounds. That's 3.8 from original goal, and 18.8 from the adjusted goal. And then I ate SUPER bad between my birthday, Clint coming home, Super Bowl and spending so much time away from my kitchen and my routine. I went 4 days in a row without a workout. I didn't know I could even do that haha. Apparently it's not as imbedded in my routine as I thought. And I got on the scale this past Monday and weight 174.0. Yep, I gained 10 pounds in a week. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I sucked drinking my water, so I figured it would go down after a day or two. On Tuesday, same thing. In fact I think it said 174.2. Oh good. So it ISN'T just going to fall off. Great. I busted my butt for months and in a week gained 10 of it back. Talk about guilt tripping myself. I have been SO hard on myself this week, and I hadn't really realized that until this morning after I finished my workout.

I did Fire 55 today - one of my favorite Turbo Fire workouts. It's 55 minutes of SUPER intense cardio. It is SO hard. I love it though. The music rocks. The stuff she says to motivate you is awesome. I love the choreography. I just feel like I can't breathe when I'm done. And today was no exception - it was just as intense as ever. I'm doing my cool down stretch, sweat dripping off my face, and I realize that in my mind I am saying some pretty negative stuff to myself - that I didn't go hard enough, that I didn't burn enough. That I need to do another workout tonight. Wow wow wow. I NEVER talk to myself like that - it's always super cocky conceited things I say in my head "you did AWESOME you sexy beast! Way to go Ash - you seriously rocked it out!" and then today "I totally suck". Time to write down some goals, time to stop beating myself up. Time to get back to how I was before Thanksgiving.

Since Thanksgiving, I lost 1 pound. Because I would lose, gain, lose, gain, lose, gain. You get the idea. I wanted to lose over Thanksgiving. Didn't. Wanted to lose over Christmas. Didn't. Wanted to lose over my birthday. Gained. I'm frustrated with myself. I was SO close to my goal and I've taken a few steps in the wrong direction. I'm not 300 pounds - I caught myself before it got to that point. But I have definitely been screwing up lately and it's time to go back to "lose" mode.

I ate a lot more calories each day in January than normal - I was eating around 1800. Used to eat around 1400. Because I figured I could eat more and still lose, just at a slower rate. Well yeah that's kinda true, except I didn't stick to calories on weekends, skipped workouts so it makes sense that I was at the exact same weight at the end of the month. And I think I binged two or three times in there. Yeah makes me feel better knowing my body isn't broken - I know EXACTLY what I did wrong last month to not see the scale move.

So this month, the scale is moving. This morning, it was at 170. I think the next 7 pounds {to get me back to where I was last Monday} will come off faster than normal - it won't take 3.5 weeks to lose it {since 2 pounds a week is safe}. So by the end of February, I want to be at 160. On the dot. Goal now is 150. Yeah 145 would be nice. I know people who started at the same weight as me and ended up in the 130's. Awesome for them. That isn't my goal. 150 is goal. And then tone tone tone tone tone. I'm still doing ChaLean Extreme, so I am already working on the toning but I want to lose a little bit more weight too. Once I'm at goal, I will be strength training more often but right now I am keeping with my cardio/strength training schedule I created.

Calories - I'm going back to no more than 1500 a day. Preferrably around 1400, but it depends on how intense my workout was that day. I am LOVING my heart rate monitor - I have been burning a minimum of 450 calories a workout - usually its around 550 or 600. Plan is no less than 450. If I haven't burned that many by the end of a workout, then I gotta keep going or I will have to workout when I get home and I HATE that, so it means I REALLY have to push myself during my hour workouts in the morning.

I am really cracking down on my eating - really following the "Eat Clean" diet from Tosca Reno. It works man. If you haven't read that book, read it. Now. Amazon, Half.com, Wal Mart - I don't care where you get it but read it. My body feels SO different today {Thursday} than it did on Monday {when I was recovering my eating hangover of last week}. Eating HEALTHY, clean, natural foods helps. And yeah, I eat a TON of food when you look at it all laid out because healthy clean foods are usually pretty low calorie. So I get to eat a LOT of food and still stay at my goal calorie number.

Ice Cream is getting "banished" to the weekends. I bought some low fat creamies & skinny cow ice cream sandwiches at the grocery store last week and had been eating at least one a day, if not more. Not anymore. One of Fridays, one on Saturdays. If I work out that day. So if I skip Saturdays workout, I skip my ice cream sandwich. And they are only 140 calories for the sandwiches, 105 for the creamies, so it won't undo my work I have been doing all week. Before, I would go to JCW's or Arctic Circle for ice cream on the weekends. Yeah don't worry, that's only like 1000 calories. And that's assuming I don't get any food.

It feels really good to realize why the scale isn't moving - why my clothes aren't getting bigger. I am not doing anything to lose, I have been doing enough to maintain. Until last week, then I did enough to gain. Gah. But I learn from my mistakes - mistakes are proof you are trying. And I am trying. And from here on out, I am going to lose again.

I bought a pair of Lucky jeans a week ago at Costco. For $30. I LOVE Lucky jeans - always have. I had a pair in high school that I liked, but there was this pair - the "wonders" that I REALLY wanted and my mom told me if I got to goal size {29 or a size 8} she would buy them for me. Well, it never happened. I had a pair of 30's I got online and they fit - barely. But they didn't fit. They buttoned. Barely. I wore a hoodie over them to hide my muffin top. And that was ok in my mind, then. Not anymore. I want my jeans to fit, and look good, while I'm getting dressed and I don't have a shirt on to cover my muffin top. I want my clothes to FIT. And those 10's fit pretty well right now - by the end of February, they are going to fit AWESOME. By the end of March, they are going to be lose. And by the end of April - April 30, they are going to be too big and I am GOING to be wearing size 29 Lucky jeans. And I am GOING to weigh 150 pounds. I'll do a post every Friday about how the week went. Because doing it once a month was too long - I would forget. And doing it on Friday will help me stay focused for the weekend. Since it's Thursday today, I won't post tomorrow but next Friday - be prepared for pictures and updates and for that number on the scale to have DROPPED!

Taking a step back

Last night our ward had our monthly Relief Society activity. Betsey Richardson, the 2nd Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency, came up with the idea a few months ago to do a silent fireside. I had no idea what that entailed, but she kept mentioning how awesome it was when they did it at Girls Camp the year before so we decided to do it as our January activity. Ok, amazing to say the least. We had a soup & salad dinner with dessert in the Primary room and then went to the Relief Society room for our silent fireside. It was amazing - the Spirit was so strong and it was just amazing.

One of the activities that we did was to write down our testimony in the little booklet that we got to take home. I've had the opportunity to bear my testimony quite a few times in the last year, but this was the first time in about a year that I actually wrote it down. Because the evening was focused on attributes & characteristics of Christ that we want to work on in ourselves, I tried to focus my written testimony on Christ. Sometimes I feel like I have a really simple testimony, but I think we all feel that way. The things that I know, I REALLY know. All night I kept thinking I wanted to write my testimony down again, on my blog, to remember where I'm at right now in my life spiritually so here goes.

I know that Jesus Christ is my older brother. I know that He is the best older brother that anyone in the world or universe could ever ask for or imagine. I know that He knows everything about me - my likes, my dislikes, my fears, my trials, my obstacles, my hopes & dreams - everything. I know that He knows who I am. He knows my name. He knows that I like to be called Ash. He loves me. An awful lot. He chose to die for me. And because of that, I get the chance to live with him again someday. And I can make that happen by being righteous, which makes Him happy and in a VERY small way repays Him for all that He has done for me. I know that He is aware of me and the things I am going through. I know that He is my comforter & healer. I know that He makes it easier for me to handle hard things in my life. I know that He has faith in me - that He knows that I can do hard things, even when I don't think I can. And I know that following in His footsteps will give me more happiness and joy in life than anything else ever could.

The activity last night made me really realize that I am seriously slacking when it comes to building my relationship with Him. And it's not that I am rebellious or whatever - I just got sucked into the humdrum of daily life and got busy and haven't made it a priority. I don't read my scriptures at night. We don't hold Family Home Evening. I compare & judge. I covet. SO bad. And while that makes me sad that I do so many things wrong, I am grateful for the Atonement so that I can change and constantly try to be better and be more like Him. I have proven to myself time and time again that I can change - we changed our finances, I became worthy to have a temple recommend, I lost 125 pounds - I can change. In big ways. I can become better at the things that are my weaknesses.

And its all great timing - I got an email yesterday about Camp Do More. They don't need volunteers this year after all, so going to Camp won't be free. It'll be around $400 just to get in the doors, let alone how much I will pay for my food, my hotel & gas to get to and from Vegas. So Camp Do More will have to go on my bucket list for another year, but not this year. Which means I have an "opening" on my list of 10 Crazy Cool things to happen this year. Coincidence? I think not.

I usually try to have something on my Crazy Cool that is measurable - that is something I can check off. A "to do" rather than a "to be". So this is going to break that rule, but at the same time it means it will always be something I am trying to get better at and striving to work on. So since I try to write my goals in current tense, as though they have already happened, here goes:

I have a loving relationship with my Savior that leaves me feeling confident enough in myself that I

no longer feel the need or desire to binge, covet or compare myself to others.

Kinda reminds me of this:

Yeah I like that. I want to be able to say that. I want that enough that I think that might be my new Push goal. In case you didn't know, your Push goal is the one goal out of the 10 that will make all the other ones happen. It doesn't mean it's the highest goal, or the most important to you - it just means that by accomplishing that goal, it will help your other goals happen.

And I changed my goal to be a size 8 in silver jeans. If I get pregnant, which I really am hoping I do, that won't be happening this year. So my replacement goal for THAT crazy cool is that I write down everything I eat in my phone. I'm great about doing it on days I eat healthy - it's the binge days that don't get written down. But not anymore!!

And last but not least, I am taking "going on a cruise" off of our list. Yes, I want to go on one but I don't want to feel rushed to hurry and go now before we get pregnant and then not go to the place we wanted to go to. So that will get pushed back to goals for a few years from now. I am wanting to replace that one with a goal to post on my blog 200 times in 2013. Yes, 200. I want to post more of what happens in our everyday life, not just the big things and REALLY use this as a journal. 200 times breaks down to about 4 times a week. That's totally do-able.

So recap - here is my 2013 Crazy Cool list:

1. I have a loving relationship with my Savior that leaves me feeling confident enough in myself that I
   no longer feel the need or desire to binge, covet or compare myself to others.
2. I write down everything I eat in my phone.
3. We have $13,000 in our Emergency Fund.
4. We {Jake & I} have performed an endowment session in every Utah & Salt Lake County Temple.
5. I am sealed to my husband.
6. I have posted in my blog 200 times in 2013.   
7. We are still debt free.
8. We have a fenced backyard.
9. I stay home to be a mom & wife.
10. I am a mom.

I really like those!! I feel like they all fit with my priorities - they all aline with my top 3 priorities. And I just realized I never posted those either. Dang I really gotta blog more haha. So I am doing a 30 day "Push" program with Chalene Johnson. Everyday she emails a video and you have a "homework" assignment based off of what that days video is about. One of the first days you make a list of your top 3 priorities, and then you make your crazy cool list the next day. So my top 3 my relationship with the Savior {#1}, my relationship with Jake {#2} & my health {#3}.

And just putting it out there now - I'm deleting my Facebook & Instagram accounts. I compare and covet like none other when I am on it. I always want more "likes" on the things I post, or I get jealous of something awesome that happened in someone else's life or whatever. Facebook is a superficial way to stay in touch with people - for me at least. I can follow people I barely know from afar rather than building relationships with people. If I delete it, I will have to actually work to have relationships with those people that I want to remain "in the loop" with. So yeah, I'm deleting it. And then things that happen in my life will end up on the blog, since that will be my media outlet. And I won't be wasting time looking at Facebook & Instagram all the time. Definitely feel good about this decision. I'm sure it'll throw people off, and I'm not suggesting everyone delete it or whatever. It's just not something I want anymore. I'm sure Jake will keep his Facebook - that way if something needed to be communicated to the masses we could do it through him. I'm just done with wasting my time on it, and more than anything with coveting from it!

200 posts in 2013. Man that's a lofty goal. Something I will have to push for. Something WORTH pushing for so I can remember all the things that happen. Get ready to get an OVERLOAD of stuff going on in my life haha!!

OH and I almost forgot.... JAKE IS GETTING THE MELCHEZIDEK PRIESTHOOD ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud of him!!!!! And Clint comes home 2 weeks from today!!! Lots of exciting things coming for us!! Woot!!!

Oh and PS I'm definitely not pregnant :( Maybe next month!!

Can't believe I'm doing this...

***I am going to preface this post by saying that I cannot believe I am posting this - because it's pretty personal. And there is stuff in here that I wouldn't tell many people, but I am NOT good at writing in my journal so on the blog it goes because I want to remember what's happening in my life right now.***

So I have zero patience - anyone who knows me even a little bit well could tell you that. So when people get pregnant and they wait until they are 12 weeks or 15 weeks or whatever to tell people, it blows my mind. I can't IMAGINE waiting that long to tell the whole world something that I am so excited about. And no, I am not announcing I am pregnant. I wish.

I'm 5 days late. And I just "knew" I was pregnant, but the two tests I have taken, a week or so apart, both confirmed that I am not. And it's not a big deal - this is our first month of not preventing. I REALLY didn't think we'd get pregnant so fast, but for some reason seeing that negative, twice, had me pretty depressed the last few days. Enter the desire to binge. Which in a way is AWESOME - I figured out my trigger {depression} - I figured out WHY I want to binge. And now I can do something about it!

When I don't eat well, that contributes to my depression, which makes me want to binge, which makes me depression, enter vicious cycle so time to fix that!! If worse comes to worse, I can always ask my Dr. to put me back on a mood stabilizer to help with my depression but right now that is the VERY last option. I haven't been writing in my gratitude journal much at all and I know that really helps me not feel depressed. Focusing on all that I have and being grateful has made a world of difference in my personality the last few years. I haven't been reading my scriptures, which also contributes to my depression. I like having a close relationship with my Heavenly Father and I can't do that if I am not reading my scriptures. And I feel guilty for not reading, and guilt always starts my depression spiral. I have been "comparing" myself a lot to friends and people I follow on Instagram - "well my abs don't look like that" or "yeah my arms definitely don't look that toned" or "my jeans are nowhere near that size" and my personal favorite "she weighs HOW much? You fatty!". So I am going to limit how much time I spend on Instagram & Facebook. Those are the two sites that seem to really get me "comparing" and making myself feel bad for not being smaller, more athletic, more toned, better eating habits, blah blah blah. And I have LOTS of my before pictures on my phone that I can turn to that remind me how far I have come. So I have a plan of action to help me with the binging!

Back to not being pregnant... So I just kinda sorta got a feeling when I was in high school that I would have a hard time getting pregnant. Like since I was probably 16 I have thought that when it was "the right time" I would have to really fight to have a baby. So when I prayed about it at the beginning of 2012 and felt really strongly that I needed to lose weight first, I figured that might make my "feeling" go away. And it's made it go away some... I used to be 100% convinced that I would need medical intervention to get pregnant. Now, it's more like 50/50. Some days, I feel like the Lord will bless us for the hard things we have overcome and the changes we have made to be more righteous and that we will just have kids without any trouble or miscarriages or anything. Yeah I don't know how many amazing, kind hearted, loving people there are in the world who have a hard time getting pregnant but I know it's a TON. Just because I have lost weight and gone through the temple and done all these great things doesn't mean that the Lord is going to hand me the rest of my life on a silver platter.

So maybe we will have a hard time getting pregnant? Or maybe we will get pregnant easily but not be able to hold onto the baby and have lots of miscarriages? I don't know. And that's hard for me - to not know. I am very goal oriented, with timeframes and deadlines. Things need to be accomplished at a certain time, and I like to know what the time frame is. Not knowing when Jake will go through the temple has been super hard KILLING me and that's probably EXACTLY what the Lord wants - for me to learn patience. And I have a pretty good feeling that having a baby will be the same way, because I am not learning this whole patience thing very well apparently {I had to wait a while, without a time frame, before I could go through the temple too, before we bought our house, etc.}. And I'm started to get to a place where that's ok if the Lord wants to take his time. Really. I'm not 100% ready to let go of trying to control everything but I am getting there. Because there are some awesome things we can do in the meantime.

We changed our budget this week so that we are living off of Jake's job 100%. We have been saying for a while that we needed to do it, and we made a new budget so that we can ACTUALL do it. It's different from what we were doing before, so it's definitely going to feel weird the first few months of limiting how much we spend certain places but that means that 100% of my income goes towards funding our Emergency Fund. We already changed my direct deposit so that it goes right in savings and we aren't tempted to spend part of it before we transfer the rest to savings {I HATE pulling money out of savings - I always feel really guilty about it so having it go right in should help a lot}. By saving 100% of my income, we will have our fully funded Emergency Fund by July 1st. What an awesome thing to have for Independence Day - we will be able to declare ourselves financially stress free in case Jake were to lose his job!

I can continue to work on losing weight. Right now, I am kinda in a weird place where I want to tone my legs and my arms and build muscle and all that jazz but I don't necessarily want to work on my abs because having a baby will kinda ruin that {temporarily!} anyway.  But in the meantime, until we have a baby, I NEED to be working on them to get my body in as good of shape as possible so that I have something to work towards after baby. I am smaller now than I was in high school. I am smaller now than I was at our wedding. So it's not like after a baby I can say that I want to get back to my high school body. I want to want to get back to where I was when we found out we were pregnant. So continue to workout I shall!

I really want to be sealed before we have a baby, in case of a miscarriage for one but I just really want to be sealed first. It's coming - I know I have said that so many times but it really is coming. So it's not that bad that we aren't pregnant yet - we want that to happen first.

We I want another dog before we have a baby, which means we need a fence so that the dogs can play outside {this is gonna be a bigger dog, since Max is little}. That's coming - and financially it's a burden but because I am able to work {where if we had kids I wouldn't be} we can make that happen before we have kids.

We want to go on a trip. Preferrably a cruise but at this point, we just want to do something other than St. George or Vegas haha. I would like to go somewhere... different. Somewhere we may not be able to go to again for a long time.

I am grateful that we aren't pregnant yet. Even though I feel so ready, and I want it SO badly, obviously the Lord has something else in mind. And I trust the Lord - I know what He has in mind for me is SO worth the wait. But I don't know what He has in mind- and THAT is what is hard for me. Not knowing what He wants me to learn, and how long it will be before we are able to be parents. And I think I sound super whiny - I have SO many friends who have been trying for years with no success. We've been "trying" for a month. I shouldn't even be stressed. But because I have had that "feeling" for 9 ish years, I am worried about whether or not we will be able to get pregnant in a reasonable amount of time on our own. But it'll all work out - I'll keep you posted on what happens from here on out with our goal of expanding our family!

2013 Resolutions

New Year means New Years Resolutions. I know a lot of people think New Years Resolutions are lame but I love them. It's a new year - a fresh slate. A chance to change and become something different. Yes, you can do that any day of the year but something about the first day of the year makes me REALLY want to change, set goals & do my absolute best to accomplish those things.

Let's start by going over how I did with last years resolutions. Items in green are items that I accomplished!

1. Finish fencing our backyard {and hopefully get another puppy!}
2. Go on {or book} a cruise
3. Finish our fully funded emergency fund {6 months of expenses in savings}
4. Get back to the same size jeans I was wearing while Jake & I were first dating {that was 2 pant sizes away from where I was on January 1, 2012. I have passed that goal pant size by 3 pant sizes!}
5. Participate in an endowment session in every Salt Lake and Utah county temple {Almost - just missing Bountiful!}
6. Plant a tree in our yard
7. Participate in a 5K
8. Keep my Jeep clean, especially on the inside {vacuum regularly} Technically, I keep it REALLY clean since I don't have it anymore ;) but really, I did awesome at keeping it clean before I sold it and I am doing really good at keeping the Mazda clean too!
9. Work on being a better "housewife" - work on my cooking, become better at keeping the house clean and organized, etc.
10. Focus on taking life one day at a time and not getting stressed/upset about things that I can't control

Not too bad considering it was the first year that I accomplished ANY of my New Years Resolutions! I read in "Push", the book written by Chalene Johnson, that goals should be written in present tense, as if they have already been accomplished. New Years Resolutions/Crazy Cool items are:

1. I am sealed to Jake
2. I wear a size 8 in Silver Jeans
3. We have a fully funded emergency fund {$13,000}
4. We have a fully fenced backyard
5. I have attended Camp Do More
6. Jake & I have performed an endowment session, together, in every Utah & Salt Lake County temple
7. We have been on a cruise
8. We are still debt free {with the exception of the mortgage}
9. I am a stay home wife & mom, which means that...
10. I am a mom

These goals make me excited! These are things that I WANT to accomplish this year. Things that I am willing to work INCREDIBLY hard for, because I want them to happen! And guess what? They WILL happen, because I know how to make my goals happen. I know how to break them down into bite size pieces to make them accomplishable {is that a word?}. And these things are GOING to happen in 2013. 2011 was a great year. 2012 was a FLIPPIN AMAZING year. 2013 is going to be my best year yet!

P.S. I love that the things I didn't accomplish in 2012 are on my 2013 list. That was not planned. Apparently what I want in life hasn't changed over the last year - I still have the same priorities and want to accomplish the same things. YAY for consistency!!

Becoming Certified

Well, I did it. After 6 months of falling head over heels in love with all things Turbo, I have become a Turbo Kick Instructor. Last Saturday {December 15} the Uh-MAZING Shukria Stewart certified me and 13 other people to go out and bring Turbo to the world. Ok just to Utah. But still. It was epic.

The day before the certification, I was talking to Brynne {who is also a certified instructor} about how I was going to be REALLY tired for the 8 hour certification the next day. We had a Christmas party that night for Jake's work and it was really fun but we ended up getting home around 11. That is LATE for me people. I go to bed REALLY early since I usually get up on the early side to work out. Brynne just kept telling me that it would be worth it and that my body would have enough adrenaline to make it through the day. She was right. I didn't get too tired during the training, but when I got home I CRASHED on the couch haha. There were only at a few spots during the training where I could feel myself getting tired, but I used all the Chalene Johnson sport psychology I know and talked myself out of thinking I was tired. Worked, just like it always does.

We were trained in Round 52. It is a SUPER fun round, I really like it. 51 is my favorite of all the round I have learned, but 52 is sneaking up for a close second. We did a full workout half way through the training of Round 52 and Brynne, Sabrina & another previously certified Turbo Kick Instructor came to do it with us. Can I just say that I LOVE working out with Brynne? Having her teach is AWESOME, but getting to do it next to her, with both of us focused on the workout and not trying to que, was just AMAZING. I absolutely LOVED it. I found out the day before the training that she is no longer teaching at XSI in Lehi - they canceled all the classes. ALL of them. What kind of gym does that?! I cancelled my membership as a result. Anyway, I knew I wouldn't get to work out with her again for a while so I really pushed myself and it was AMAZING! I was INSANELY sweaty haha. I love when I get a good sweat like that though - I have had WAY too many fall off the wagon days lately & that helped me remember to focus on improving my health, not just the scale. I don't feel good when I eat junk, especially tons of it, but Turbo makes me feel awesome - even if for a while I am not breathing ;)

Right before our workout. I bought a new workout outfit specifically for the training and was wearing my black & hot pink nikes, so I matched my shirt!

Me & Shukria at the very end of the day. Exhausted & sweaty to say the least!!

She had the funnest TurboWear clothes on all day. I just might need to invest in some of it haha

At one point during the workout, Brynne & I slap the floor. I smacked it too hard and jammed my thumb - the one on the right in the picture was swollen & turning a little bit blue. I couldn't feel it most of the day haha. But hey, I ROCKED that part of the workout!

After the workout, I drove home from Spanish Fork & stopped for Cafe Rio. Gotta love Cafe Rio on a night when you just can't handle the thought of making dinner! I put the music for Round 51 in my CD player in my car {old school, I know! It's like the 2nd time I have ever used that CD player} and ROCKED out the whole way home to the music from 51. Seriously, that Turbo Round is AMAZINGLY fun.

Marked it off my Crazy Cool List!

 Now I just need to find somewhere to teach it at! I found a place in Saratoga Springs, right next to my work, where I could teach but it would end up costing me money and that isn't smart haha. So I am just patiently waiting to find somewhere to teach at. And in the mean time, I can continue to get in BETTER shape so that I can queue well, work on my form & technique so that I am a good example of how to do the moves, and get more muscle definition so that I can have that motivational physique like Chalene, Jenelle, Shukria, Brynne & all the other awesome Turbo Peeps I look up to!!! But I am OFFICIALLY a certified a Turbo Instructor!! WOOT!!!!

Thanksgiving 2012

Last week was Thanksgiving - where has time gone?! Thanksgiving was the earliest day it could have been - the 22 & it just did NOT feel like it could possibly be time for Thanksgiving already! Jake, as usual, had a 4 day weekend off of work so I asked for the Friday & Saturday off so we got to spend the 4 days together. To say it was much needed time together would be a GROSS understatement. It was WONDERFUL getting that much time together!!

Thursday morning started bright & early! I knew that I didn't want to deprive myself eating wise, but I didn't want to go over board and be sick either. And I knew I wanted to get a work out in to help me reign it in a little bit. So I recruited my mom, Jeannene & Lauryl to do Turbo Fire with me! Usually I lift on Thursdays though, and I didn't want to miss it, so I woke up and did Lean Circuit 2 of ChaLean Extreme and then I went to my mom's to get our sweat on. We did Fire 45, one of my favorites that I haven't done for a while.

 

I cannot BELIEVE how sweaty I got - SO proud of myself!

After our workout, I came back to my house to shower & get Jake & my dad before heading over to my parents for breakfast & Thanksgiving Lunch! I always have protein right after a workout, and read in a LOT of places on Beachbody & through amazing Beachbody coaches how important it was to still get in my Shakeology to be sure that I curb cravings and get some awesome nutrients in me, so I had my Shakeology before I got in the shower!

I'm obsessed with Shakeology - for reals. LOVE it!

After I got all showered, we headed over to my parents house. My mom made turkey bacon and regular bacon for those who wanted it while I made egg sandwiches for everyone. It's Jake's recipe & I have been in love with them ever since he made one for me 4 years ago. SO yummy, and with egg whites it's very low calorie! Started out my Thanksgiving REALLY healthy!

Pepper Jack cheese on top... MMMMMM!

Messing around in the bathroom :)

We watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade & flipped through all the ads in the paper for Black Friday sales, then played Scattergories as a family. SO much fun - I forgot how much I like that game!! After we got through 6 rounds {I won - BAM!} we all went to the kitchen to make the side dishes. It took 30 minutes, tops. Record timing. That's what happens when you have 4 girls in the kitchen I guess haha. We sat down to eat & I dished up my plate - the way that I read on my blog friend's Instagram - make continents. Seperate piles of food. So I did! I read on Beachbody that half your plate should be a salad, so I did that too with a salad I brought. That salad was so good BTW - almonds, craisins, sunflower seeds & spring mix lettuce with vinagrette dressing. MMMMM!

One of our family traditions is to go around the table and say what we are grateful for. We set a rule of 3 things. Jake's were his wife, his family & his job. Mine were my family {Jake specifically, my sisters and the relationship I have with Brynne, my parents and that they get along and can have Thanksgiving dinner together despite being divorced for 11 years}, the gospel {that I have been endowed and can wear garments & that Jake is so close to getting to go through so that we can be sealed} and for Turbo. So technically it was 3 things haha.

After dinner, we needed to rush to Jake's parents house. Not before a few pictures though!!

My sisters {Jeannene has her arm out to hold a spot for Brynne who was in New Port with Blake's family} & me with my mom & step dad

Us girls with my dad

Just the girls

3 of the 4 sisters!

My amazing little family!

Pup didn't want to cooperate for pictures - hope he does better for family pictures this weekend!

2 year difference - crazy huh??

 We were running about an hour behind schedule and we held up dinner at their house, but they were super nice and didn't mention our tardiness at all! We got there and they pulled all the food out of the fridge and we sat down to eat. So 45 minutes after we had eaten 1 Thanksgiving dinner, we had our 2nd. And I lost all willpower haha. Jake's mom makes this AMAZING pistachio marshmellow salad. I hate marshmellows but oh that "salad" is to die for. I had way too many servings. And we brought some pretty good rolls from Kneaders that I ate a few too many of. Yeah it was bad but oh that food tasted good! After eating we sat down to let it digest and flipped through pictures. That was SO fun - I love looking at pictures period, but getting to see so many pictures of Jake growing up and seeing family vacations and everything was just so fun. It made me feel like if I focused enough, I could remember what happened on those trips too. Then we went to the movies to go see Lincoln. Really good movie. Really long movie. But really good movie!

Then we went back to mom & dad McClellan's and had some pie. And yep I still had no willpower. Apple pie with vanilla ice cream sounded amazing to me and I am NOT an apple fan. And who can pass up pumpin pie?? Like I said, it was bad. But oh it tasted good! And the old me would have eaten way worse. And it's one day a year. Don't judge. After we finished our pie we headed back to our house to let Max out and then get some sleep - I was exhausted and fell asleep for about 5 minutes during the movie haha. Which means I did not end up going Black Friday shopping. 2 years in a row I missed out because I was tired. I must be getting OLD haha!

The next day we slept in and then decided to go check out the new Outlets in Lehi at Traverse Mountain. And we bought stuff haha. I had thought we wouldn't spend much but nope I was wrong. After we left there, we went to Scheel's in Sandy and looked around. The last time we went was right before closing so we didn't get to look around the entire store. We still didn't get to look around the whole store and we were there for probably 2 hours - this store is GIGANTIC! We found the duck hunting stuff and spent a little while looking at that stuff though - Jake wants to start doing it and I am SO excited! I love that he is going to have a hobby!! Outdoorsy too, makes him my rugged redneck ;) After Scheels, we went to Applebee's just the two of us and got some dinner. It was SO nice getting to spend the day just the two of us!

Our loot from the day after Thanksgiving shopping - a shirt & basketball shorts for Jake from Under Armour, 2 shirts at Maurices for me, a duck call for Jake & 2 pairs of sweats for me from Scheels, a pair of Nikes for Jake at the Nike store {we got to use Liz's discount - THANKS LIZ!} & an iPad cover from Wilson's leather. Yeah we went a bit crazy haha!

Saturday we watched a few football games and decided to go shopping again. We started at Cabela's and got Jake some more stuff for Duck Hunting and then went to Old Navy to look for some boots. I noticed they were having a sale on jeans so I decided to try on the size 10's and see how they fit. And I was stunned. THEY WERE HUGE. HUGE! I came out of the dressing room and apparently had a weird look on my face because Jake kept asking what was wrong. I was CONVINCED something was wrong with the label. So I grabbed another pair of 10's and an 8 and went back to the dressing room. The other 10's weren't as big, but they were a bit big. So I tried on the 8's and guess what. They fit. THEY FIT!! They are a bit snug, but I AM A SIZE 8!! SINGLE DIGITS!! Can you tell that makes me SO excited haha? That was one of my Crazy Cool goals too! I want them to fit a little better, but they do fit. WOOT!!!

The picture I put on Instagram to commemorate the day!

After Old Navy we went to get some crafts at Crafty Wood Cutouts in Orem and then got some lunch at Costa Vida. We came home & I did my crafts while Jake watched his YouTube videos that he subscribes too & then we decorated for Christmas - the crafts I bought were Christmas crafts and I wanted to get them finished before we did all the decorating. I will post pictures soon of the house all decorated!

It was a long day and we went to bed fairly early. I came in the bedroom after turning off the tree to this - could my life be any better?

Having these 2 boys in my life is just amazing. I love my little family!! Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Refocused

I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I have been eating a lot of sugar and that I needed to nip that in the bud. Well that'd be an understatement. I have been eating a TON of sugar. Almost every day, whether it be ice cream or a shake or frozen yogurt or a piece of cake or a brownie or whatever. I've also been eating out a lot more - and not making as many healthy choices as I used to. Problem has been identified. I do AWESOME during the week but really "splurge" on the weekends. And it's time to stop.

I work pretty dang hard during the week - waking up at 5:30 AM 5 days a week so that I can workout is no easy task. I didn't use to be a morning person, and I don't think I will ever truly love waking up before the sun, but I can't think of a better way to start my day. I work really hard during my workout - I am LOVING ChaLean Extreme and really noticing a change in my muscle definition. Still love Turbo, and I am so excited for my half marathon in 13 days. And then the weekend comes and I totally blow it. Like I said, eating out has become AWFUL for me - I know what healthy options are available at all the places we go, and I haven't been choosing to eat those things. Until today.

As of today, I am recommitting to my goal. I have had a mindset of thinking I am done and time to just maintain - I am 16 pounds from goal and that is pretty dang close. Lost 114 pounds overall. But I am not at goal weight. Or goal pant size. I am close, and I have come SO far and I am NOT going to quit now. I want to lose another 16 pounds. If I lose more, great. And that is going to happen by Christmas Day. Originally I had wanted to be at goal by the end of this month, but I am pushing that back a little bit. Partially because losing the "last" little bit can be harder, partially because I have been slacking and partially because I am gaining muscle and the scale is slowing down as a result.

I am not going to let 16 pounds disappoint me. I have lost 114. 16 is nothing. I can totally do this. Between my half marathon training wrap up and Turbo Fire, I know I can do this. And for the first time in my life, I will not make a New Years Resolution to lose weight. I will have a New Years Resolution to tone, or to maintain, but not to lose. Because I will have lost all the weight I want to lose.

To make that happen, I need to do a few things. I need to rededicate my efforts in my nutrition on the weekends. I am totally fine with "relaxing" a little one day a week, but I have been completely falling off the bus lately and my body can feel it so time to just "relax". Saturday is the hard day for me, but knowing I will let myself splurge a little bit should help me control myself the rest of the week. That means NO eating out, except on Saturday night {if we decide to}. And I need to decided whether I want to "splurge" on dinner, or dessert. But not both. One or the other. That will also help our finances but it will definitely help my nutritional goals. Workouts have to happen on Saturday. Period. I LOVE my strength training routines I am doing, so I will let Saturday be "just" a strength training day. No cardio, unless I want to. But I HAVE to lift on Saturdays. Except next Saturday, since its half marathon day. I won't lift that day haha.

And the biggest thing I needed to do was tell YOU about this - if I don't tell someone, put it on the blog, make myself accountable, it won't happen. So here it is. For anyone to read. I am GOING to lose 16 pounds over the next 2 months and 10 days. That will be my ultimate Christmas present to myself - weighing 160 pounds is something I have ALWAYS wanted to be able to say and this year, it's gonna happen!

Crazy Cool If...

For my 24th birthday, my sister Brynne got me one of the best books I have ever read called "Push" by Chalene Johnson - the creator of all things Turbo. It is a a "diet and exercise" book, but it is also a book about goals and working towards the things you want in life and how fitness plays into that. Seriously - AMAZING book. I highly recommend it! The book has 30 chapters, and is designed to read a chapter each day. It is the end of July and I am STILL not done with the book - but oh I love it.

One of the first things that she has you do is list 10 crazy cool things that you want to have happen this year. 10 things that are like crazy - out of this world - but would be SO awesome if they happened. Attainable but hard things. And you write them in the present tense, like they have already happened. I made my list back in January and have really been giving it a lot of thought lately and changed a few of them and thought I'd post them!

It'd be crazy cool if...

• I am a certified turbo instructor
• I weigh 160 pounds
• I am a size 8
• We have a fully funded emergency fund (can pay all bills and remain debt free for 6 months if Jake lost his job)
• I have performed an endowment session in every Utah temple
• I have attended Camp Do More
• I have run a half marathon
• I have been sky diving
• I am sealed to my husband

Some of those we are really close on - the turbo instructor should be happening before Halloween {hopefully!!}, I should be at my goal weight by Thanksgiving, goal pant size probably around my birthday  {which means I may end up weighing less than my goal weight}, sky diving hopefully for my 25th birthday and HOPEFULLY sealed by Christmas!!! That would make this the most EPIC year of my life - I will have lost over 90 pounds just this year and 130 pounds overall, and become sealed to my amazing Jake. I look at wedding dresses all the time, since we are going to have professional pictures taken and I am going to rent another wedding dress {it'll be like our second wedding day!!} and that REALLY motivates me to work out! I love our wedding pictures, don't get me wrong, but I have changed SO much since then and want the new pictures to really show all those changes - my weight, my attitude, my complexion, my hair, blah blah.

On our wedding day, I was SO stressed. Like it's unmeasurable how stressed I was. I hope I never, ever feel that way again. And it was my fault because I was a bridezilla and had to have everything perfect and because I was so stressed I was SO snappy and rude leading up to the wedding and at times on the day of the wedding and my skin was broken out and I just feel mad at myself that I acted that way towards other people on my wedding day. I am dang lucky Jake still married me haha. And that my sisters still talked to me afterwards. So I want to get a "do over" and have our sealing day be absolutely perfect, in all the ways a wedding day is perfect - with mistakes, and smiles over someone being a little late rather than coming unglued about absolutely everything. And more importantly, I can't wait to know that Jake is mine beyond this life. That death can't seperate us. That our kids will be born to parents who were married by the property authority so that we can be a forever family. And that is a goal worth working towards!

Jake + Ashley = Landscapers!

We bought our house almost a year ago - crazy how time flies! When we were waiting to close on the house, it looked like this: 

This was taken from Jake's phone as a panoramic picture

It looked like this the day we got the keys, 2 days after closing:

Notice the lovely dead grass

By the end of fall, we were able to get the yard looking like this:

GORGEOUS green lawn - Jake worked wonders!! 

I have known, since we looked at the house, that I wanted to plant more shrubs/trees in the front yard, but the timing hasn't been right. Apparently, you should plant right around Mothers Day and since we bought the house at the end of July, we decided not to plant anything last year so it wouldn't die in the winter. Mothers Day is this Sunday and I couldn't wait any longer so I planted trees and bushes today! 

We figured out shrubs we wanted last Saturday and price matched between Home Depot and Cook's Landscaping, a nursery in Lindon by my work. Cook's has awesome stuff but Home Depot was cheaper so we ended up buying everything from there. I woke up this morning and got in the Chevy and drove to Home Depot to get my stuff. The cart thing I was pushing was so hard to steer by the end - I could barely see over it haha. I had someone help me load it into the truck, drove home slower than ever, and then unloaded it all and I was ready to be done haha. The trees are dang heavy, and there was 3 of them to unload out of the truck. 

Yes, I was doing this by myself ONLY BECAUSE I couldn't wait any longer to do it. If I had waited until Saturday, Jake would have got roped into helping me but I just decided to be tough and do it on my own. I am sure I will be feeling it tomorrow though - seriously my arms are stiff haha. 

Here are some pictures of the yard today, before I started: 

Pretty proud of how green the grass is - Jake is seriously a pro

Empty flower bed - the plants in there are our neighbors 

The bushes are dying

Another view of the flower bed - not a whole lot in it

I dug out the 4 bushes and threw those away, and dug 2 holes to move the dwarf Christmas trees. I don't know what kind they are, they just stay little and they were already here and they haven't died so we decided to keep them! Then I ripped out the old weed paper, which was SO hard because the dirt on top was really heavy and it made a huge mess and then I started digging new holes for the new stuff! 

A Weigela - pretty small right now but should get to be up to 2 feet, nice and small for this spot and when it blossoms its PINK!

Japenese Forest Grass - nice and small for this spot. It'll be green in spring and summer and bright red in the fall! Chose it for the nice pop of color!

So from right to left is a Weigela {very small at the moment}, one of the dwarf trees, Japenese Forest Grass, another dwarf tree,  another Weigela {same thing - very small at the moment} and an Emerald Green Arborvitae {it's an evergreen tree haha}

View from the other side - you can also see the bushes under the window!

I ended up needing to dig 2 holes for the Emerald Green Arborvitae because I didn't like where I put it originally. The red bush is a Crimson Pygmy Barberry, then the green bush next to it is a Winter Gem Boxwood, then another Crimson Pygmy Barberry, then another Emerald Green Arborvitae {tree}.

View of the Emerald Green Arborvitae {tree}, Crimson Pygmy Barberry {red bush} and Winter Gem Boxwood

Another view of the yard - left to right is Emerald Green Tree, Crimson bush, Boxwood, Crimson bush, Emerald Green Tree, Weigela and dwarf tree

After digging 11 holes {since I had to move one of the trees} I decided to stop and take a break. I cleaned everything up, swept up all the dirt and was about to go inside when Jake came out to see how it was coming so I solicited his help and we finished! 

A Flowering Pear Tree with 2 Japenese Forest Grass

The finished product: 

Sorry about the shadows - I will take one in the middle of the day soon! I just really wanted to post this today!

I LOVE how it turned out! I can't wait for the bushes to grow and for it to be a mature yard and for the tree to blossom next spring! We are going to wrap Christmas lights around the two Emerald Green Trees this winter! And seriously I love how green the lawn is. Jake is doing awesome at killing the dandelions too! Between the two of us, we are pretty good landscapers if I do say so myself! 

We finished the yard, cleaned up and then had Cafe Rio. I was going to make dinner and be super proud of myself for still cooking after being out in the dirt all the day but I failed there haha. Cafe Rio just always sounds good - I hope they never build one in Saratoga Springs! We will eat there EVERYDAY if it is that close to us! 

In hind sight, I really should have worn sunscreen on my arms. I had a hat on and sunglasses so my face was protected but my arms got burnt down to my wrists where my gloves where - attractive huh? 

Hopefully the red fades quick so I don't have a ridiculous farmer tan all summer long. Yay for having green thumbs, and for completing something on my New Years Resolutions list - I have now planted a tree!! 

The last few weeks

Like I have mentioned before, I don't feel like I have had anything too exciting going on that justified it's own blog post. This is our family journal and I want to remember what we have going on, but nothing exciting has happened {with the exception of my temple trip 2 weeks ago to Draper Temple & Salt Lake Temple - post coming soon!}. Here is a lump sum of updates!

I am doing Turbo Fire! It is the awesomest hardest workout I have ever done. It's created by Chalene Johnson, who also created Turbo Jam. I have been doing Turbo Jam off and on for 4 years {mostly off} and decided the workouts were getting a little old and I wanted something more dancey and that will push me harder - Turbo Fire fits that criteria to say the least!!! Brynne turned me on to it and oh I am so grateful. I am starting week 2 of 12 weeks and it is hard. Oh my gosh. But I have lost 2 pounds already and it's awesome music and each workout averages 45 minutes. Not too time consuming and I can stay home and work out rather than having to drive to a gym. I love working out with DVD's - call me lame but I am NOT a fan of going to the gym. To date, I have lost 56 pounds since I started losing weight {summer 2010} and I have lost 18 pounds this year. Lots more to go, but I can totally do this. It's getting to the point that eating healthy isn't hard. Or as hard anyway. Working out is a habit I haven't had until now and I am so proud of myself for how well I am doing. It is looking like I should be getting my new IKEA dresser soon - Jake keeps losing weight too so I haven't caught up to him but I am close!

We are selling our Jeep Liberty. I have wanted to sell it in the back of my mind for a while and talked to Jake about it and he was all for it. We listed it on KSL last week and have someone super interested in it so hopefully it sells and we can buy our next vehicle - a truck! Jake is a truck man - I am sure you knew that already. We want a truck for pulling our someday toys, like 4 wheelers and such, but we want to pay cash for it so it has made looking for a truck tricky. No rush though, we aren't buying one until we sell the Jeep so we got time!

Pinterest has taken over our kitchen. When I first found Pinterest, I went crazy crafting but now I am loving the recipes. I have found so many recipes that can be tweaked so that I can eat them and track my points but taste good so that Jake doesn't feel like he is eating cardboard! I made a goal to make/write my own cookbook by my 25th birthday and I have SO many recipes already that I will be putting in it. I just need to start typing them on on the desktop, and I never get on that computer since the laptop is way more convenient. I am not wanting to get the cookbook published or anything, just compile a BIG book of recipes that are healthy, are easy to cook and Jake likes to eat! That way, if I have a day that I am thinking "why don't we order a pizza since I have no idea what to make?" I can whip out my book and find something quick and easy and healthier than pizza AND will help us save money by not eating out so much!! YAY for accomplishing lots of goals at once!

Daylight savings just started or ended or whatever and the weather has been SO amazing. Max and I are loving going on our walks through the Ranches, usually around 3 miles, and in the process of going around the neighborhood on foot, I have got SO many ideas on things I want to do for the front yard this spring! I really want to plant a tree - no idea what kind, but I know I want a tree in the front yard. I had always thought we would focus more on the back yard but I want to have a nice pretty simple front yard and a simple back yard that I won't be upset with dogs and kids getting into. But the front yard will have flowers and such. Ya I am rambling. But I am so excited for spring! I have never been a summer person. Ever. EVER. But I am so excited for it this year! Warm weather and camping up Provo Canyon and sand dunes with our 4 wheeler I hope to buy soon and BBQ's and fresh fruit and ahhh can't wait for summer!!

I am still planning to participate in a 5K this spring/summer. I realized a few weeks ago how much I loathe running. Like totally hate. So I started walking instead, so that I am still outside enjoying fresh air and can get Max out of the house and then I do Turbo Fire for my intense workout - I love Turbo Fire. You already know that. Anyway, back to 5K. I want to walk a 5K, just to say that I did it. The other reason I really want to do one is in memory of my Grandpa {aka Beebaw} because of a YouTube video I saw about how life is like a marathon. The video talks about how we have people "running" through life with us, cheering us on, and that some people are closer to "finishing" their race than others. Like me Beebaw - he finished his "race" and I am still running mine. But I loved having him in my "race" and can't wait to do my 5K in his memory!

This Thursday I am going to do an endowment session at Jordan River Temple. After that, the only temple I will have 1 Salt Lake County Temple left - Bountiful! But I want to do every temple in Utah, so I have a few more to go. Between now and the end of the year, I WILL get an endowment session done in every Utah temple.

I think that about sums up new stuff with us. Still hoping to fence the back yard soon, along with the rest of the awesome yard improvements we want to make. As soon as the fence is done, we will be adding a new member to our family - one with 4 legs and a furry tail!