When in Dallas...

I've been in Dallas, Texas since Monday. Mostly inside due to lots of rain.

I've been attending a financial/investment conference with my boss. It's been awesome.

Why, you ask?

Because Eric Whitacre.

We're leaving tomorrow, and I just can't wait to get home to my hubby and two cats! :)

Busy Busy Bee

I just want to take a moment out of my day to share with you how busy my schedule is going to be this weekend and next week.

First of all, I'm going to Tampa tonight and tomorrow morning/afternoon to attend Living Proof Live with Beth Moore.  Well, I'm not going with Beth Moore of course, because we're not at that level of our friendship yet.  I'm going with my BEST FRIEND Hannah :)  And some other people. haha

Then, tomorrow night, I get to have to go grocery shopping, do laundry and clean the apartment.  Knowing my husband, I will probably need to do some deep cleaning of the cats' litter boxes at some point as well.

On Sunday, Tyler and I are attending LIFE CHURCH (seriously, I love that church so much) and spending some QT together the rest of the day, because I'm going to be out of town ALL WEEK next week for work :/

Monday morning, I get to have to wake up at 3:30 AM (just shoot me - maybe I shouldn't even go to sleep Sunday night) so that my boss can pick me up by 4:15 AM and we can get to the airport in time to make our 6:30 AM flight to Dallas, TX.

I'M FINALLY GOING TO TEXAS, Y'ALL!  I mean, I've been in the Dallas airport before, waiting for a connecting flight, and I've driven through Texas before on my way to New Mexico, but I've never actually been ALL UP IN Texas, if you know what I mean.  I'm seriously gonna be all up in Texas's grill.  It'll be great.

Tuesday - Thursday, I'll be attending workshops and seminars about investments, how to be a better administrative assistant, and marketing at the HD Vest Connect2015 Conference.  By Thursday night, I predict my brain will be the consistency of porridge.  Just wait.

Then, Friday, we're flying back to good ole Florida where I will probably face plant on my own bed in my own apartment, make my husband cook me dinner, and make sheet angels in my sheets (it's like making snow angels, but in a bed. Duh.)

Saturday morning is my friend, Ashley's, baby shower!  Yayyyyyy! Hopefully I will make time to get her a gift before the shower, and hopefully I will remember to go to the shower after the aforementioned week has turned my brain into mush.

So that's my week.  Jealous, anyone?

Oh, and at the conference in Dallas, I get to see President Bush & Eric Whitacre.  Guess which one I'm more excited about!

Four

Four Names People Call You
1- Tina
2- Chrissy
3- Aunt Chrissy
4- Boo Boo

Four Jobs You've Had
1- Server
2- Retail/Cashier
3- Office Manager
4- Babysitter/Nanny

Four Movies You've Watched More Than Once
1- Pretty Woman
2- She's The Man
3- Stick It
4- Sleepless in Seattle

Four Books You Would Recommend
1- Jane Eyre
2- Mark of the Lion Series
3- The Phantom Tollbooth (Love that book.)
4- The Jackie Faber Series

Four Places You've Lived
1- Winter Haven, FL
2- Graceville, FL
3- Dothan, AL
4- Schieder-Schwalenberg, Germany (for about 6 weeks)

Four Places You've Been
1- Niagara Falls
2- Sistine Chapel
3- Germany
4- The Swiss Alps

Four Places You'd Like To Go
1- Australia
2- Greece
3- London
4- The Eiffel Tower

Four of Your Favorite Foods
1- Sushi
2- Spaghetti
3- Ice Cream
4- Chocolate (Yep. I'm a girl.)

Four TV Shows You Watch
1- White Collar
2- Longmire
3- Between
4- Dark Angel

Four Things You're Looking Forward To This Year
1- Family Reunion in Tennessee!!!! :D
2- My One-Year Wedding Anniversary :)
3- Losing Weight (please, please, please, please, please...)
4- Christmas. Every year. Always. I love Christmas.

Four Things You're Always Saying
1- I can't even. (Yeah, I'm that girl.)
2- Seriously.
3- I'm hungry.
4- That sentence has a typo. (I'm a grammar nazi. #sorrynotsorry.)

#WeightLossChallenge #Week1

Well, the exercise challenge didn't really take.  Obviously.  Exercising is hard, y'all.  Seriously.

Anyway, this month is the weight loss challenge which is supposed to be eating healthy & exercising.
Before I get into that, let me just update you about my life real quick.

• First of all, my hubby lost his job last month.  That put a damper in my exercise sails real quick.  The stress of money makes me want to lay in bed, eat, and watch TV.  But I worked longer days & even picked up two Friday shifts last month.  AND I also did some tutoring.  BUSY LIFE.
• Secondly, my mom had me take her to the ER this past weekend because she was experiencing some upper back and chest pain.  Luckily, nothing came up in her EKG or blood tests, but that was a late night for both of us.
• This past weekend, Tyler and I went to the beach with his family.  I tried to eat healthy despite the pizza and carbs that seemed to be everywhere, but it was hard.
• OH, and let's not forget that I had to go to the doctor's office a few weeks ago due to a *cough cough* that I had developed.  I missed going tubing for my friend, Brittany's, birthday.  It was a sad day.

Needless to say, I'm starting to get a little discouraged.  When I'm not working, I just want to crawl in bed.  And we got another cat.  Did I mention that?  Yeah, and we're keeping JoJo and our new cat in separate rooms until they get to the point where they can look at each other without hissing and growling something fierce.  It's times like this I wish we had dogs.  (Don't say a word, Hannah.  haha)

So that's my latest update on my #30DayChallenge failures.  But there's no way to go but up, right?  Let's hope so.

Hope everyone's having a great day!

#ExerciseChallenge #Week1

Okay, so this was an incredibly busy week, but such is my life.  I really do try my best to go to bed early, wake up early, exercise, take a shower, make breakfast for me and the hubs, make lunch for me and the hubs, go to work for 10 hours, come home after tutoring, bible study, church, band practice, or whatever else I have going on after work, cook dinner, clean the kitchen (and whatever else needs to be cleaned), exercise again, do my bible study, spend time with husband, and go to bed early.

I really do try...but it ends up more like: sleep through the alarm, throw on clothes, throw leftovers or a random assortment of food in lunch boxes, toss Tyler some pop-tarts for breakfast, drink an Atkins shake, go to work for 10-1/2 hours, barely make it to tutoring, bible study, church, band practice (or whatever else), get home by MAYBE 8...eat a sandwich for dinner because I'm too tired to make anything, and who has time to clean?  Lay in bed shortly after and watch an episode of a tv show in order to "spend time" with my husband, then fall asleep because I'm so tired.

How is exercise supposed to fit in there anywhere?  Ugh, I hate it.

So, let's recap.  Pretty sure I gained weight this week.  I "exercised" a total of 1 hour this week, because I ran (read: walked somewhat briskly) the Lake Myrtle Trail.  With some friends.  :)

That means I'm already 1-1/2 hours behind my goal, and it's only the first week!  Who am I?  Grrrrr....

On a completely unrelated note, I could REALLY go for some Ben & Jerry's "The Tonight Dough" ice cream right about now...

Have a great week y'all!  Pray for me...I'm really gonna try and bump that 1 hour up this week!

#30DayChallenge

Guys, not to brag, but I'm a genius.

That is to say, I'm really good at coming up with these awesome plans for my life that I rarely ever follow up on.  Character flaw?  Maybe.  Okay, yeah, pretty much, but this plan I REALLY want to follow through on.

Let me start back at the beginning.  So I was watching this show on Netflix called "30 Days," and basically every episode, a person from one background/culture/belief system would spend 30 Days immersed in an opposing lifestyle.  The four episodes I watched were: a conservative Christian living with a Muslim family in a majority Muslim town, a conservative Christian veteran living with a homosexual in the Castro district in California, a health-nut mom who binge-drank four times a week to get through to her 19-year-old college-partying daughter, and an atheist living with a non-denominational Christian family.

These episodes really had me thinking.  A lot.  Mostly about how Christianity and today's culture don't mix very well, but also about how Christians don't know how to LOVE their neighbors in truth AND mercy (they're either "loving" them by unmercifully shoving the truth of scripture down their throats or "loving" them by watering down the truth or casting it aside altogether in favor of "tolerance").  So I was like, "Hey, I should create a Bible study centered around all of this and introduce it as a small group at the church I'm currently attending..."  But the more I meditated on that, I realized it would be too much of a commitment for me at this point in my life.

BUT here comes the exciting part.  I was praying all afternoon and evening for God to show me how He wanted the concept of 30 Days to impact and effect change in my life, and He woke me up at 2:00 AM this morning with the answer!

Thus, #30DayChallenge was created.  Physically, my body is a mess.  I've gained a ton of weight and developed some pretty unhealthy habits lately, and I keep getting sick and missing work as a result (not cool at all).  So something needs to be done about that.  Spiritually, I'm incredibly undisciplined.  If I could change any area of my personal spiritual walk and my relationship with my husband, it would be that we would pray together more.  Also, I've felt for a long time now that God has gifted me with the ability to write and a passion for doing so.

ALL of that to say, each month for the next 8 months, I'm taking on a #30DayChallenge to sharpen one of these areas of my life.  I'm pretty excited about all of them.  Take a look:

• May - #ExerciseChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)
• June - #WeightLossChallenge (Exercise + Healthy Eating)
• July - #DrawingChallenge (1 drawing per day - I'm pretty excited about this one)
• August - #GuitarChallenge (Learns 3 chords & 1 song per week - hopefully Tyler will help me on this one)
• September - #LoveMyHubs (Going above and beyond to show Tyler how much I love & appreciate him)
• October - #DevotionalBlog (Writing a total of 20 devotional blog posts - 5 per week)
• November - #NaNoWriMo (Yep, I'm finally going to participate - and hopefully finish writing "Camp Tandy"!)
• December - #PrayerChallenge (30 min./5 times a week)

I'm going to try and write one blog post a week to chronicle my progress, but I can't make any promises.  lol  I'm really excited to see what God shows me through this process, and hopefully I can cultivate some healthy habits that will last me for the rest of my life!

Your prayers and encouragement would be greatly appreciated during these next 8 months, and if God lays a #30DayChallenge on your heart, I encourage you to consider doing it.

So here we go!

Laptop Love

Happy Easter everyone!

I hope you all are having a FANTASTIC day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Church today was amazing - we started off in all black, and by the end of the service, the band came out wearing all white.  We did a song at the end of the service called New Creation - I tried to find the YouTube video link, but I can't find it. Sad.  Anyway, my friend Brittany and I came out with paintbrushes and got to paint the singer while he was singing the song!  It was so cool!  There were also two people there playing drums with glitter and water - LEGIT.  I can't wait to watch the video once they get it uploaded to the church website.  Don't worry, I'll let you know when that happens.

Then, Tyler, his friend Billy and I went to Tyler's parents' house for an Easter cookout complete with hot dogs, hamburgers, deviled eggs, sweet corn on the cob, and homemade banana pudding.  Mm mm, good!  As we were leaving, Tyler's grandma gave us a LAPTOP to take home with us.  I was ECSTATIC.  I can't believe how much I've missed having a laptop.

I FINALLY GET TO BLOG AGAIN.  LIKE, A LOT (I bet you're happy about that, Hannah!).

And hopefully soon, I can start CONSISTENTLY updating my two books! :)  Although, I am kinda over I.T.D.S. right now.  But Camp Tandy for sure.  It's happening.

Right now, Tyler, Billy and I are chilling in our living room watching some random YouTube videos of people drifting.  Fun...  I'm trying to decide if I'm hungry again yet, but I will say it is nice to be in some pj's right now!

Anyway, hopefully there will be another post soon.  Hannah has inspired me to start posting regularly on my blog, because then people may actually start reading it more.  *fingers crossed*

Have a good day!