Work, School, and Shingles!

I have been so busy since I started my new, amazing, amazing job, that I hardly have time to think, let alone even blog. This is the best job I have ever had and I love what I do. Working in the low income housing industry is very interesting and never the same from day to day. I work with a great group of women, of course there are days when everyone is ill with each other, but that happens in an office full of women. I am excited for the opportunities that this job is going to bring for me and the travel opportunities that come along with it. I really can't say enough good things about it.

My summer quarter in school started this week and I think this one is going to be the hardest one I have had yet. I am getting into my upper level HR classes and now I am having to read about case law and state regulations and laws, which is alot to take in. I am also having to take a Lit class and I hate having to take English classes in any form. I should only have three more quarters before I graduate with my Associates Degree and then I plan on going back to get my Bachelor's and hopefully my Master's. I have worked so hard for this, I just pray that I can continue on to complete my long term goal. Now if I can just get Wade back in school to finish his last 2 semseters of RN school, we would be a household of college graduates!!!!!

I guess all the stress from school and starting a new job took its toll on me and I now have SHINGLES. I thought shingles was something only elderly people got, boy was I wrong. I woke up Wed. morning with this rash on the right side of my forehead, I went to work not thinking it was really anything, but my boss told me it looked like shingles and made me go to the doctor. Sure enough, he told me as soon as he saw it what it was and loaded me up on medicine and told me do not go back to work for 48-72 hours, which of course meant Tuesday since we are closed Monday, thankfully I can work from home and not have to use sick/vacation time. Within 24 hours this rash had turned into huge blisters on my forehead and I looked like I had a 3rd degree burn. Thankfully I got it treated early enough that it is now starting to dry up and as far as I can see, as of now, it has not spread anywhere else. I do not itch, but since this is a virus that attacks your nerves, the whole right side of my facee feels like someone has punched me 50 times in a row. Needless to say, I am so gonna learn how to relax a little bit more so something like this does not happen again, since the doc told me it is usually brought on by STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been a long time......

It's been quite a while since I got on here to share anything about myself, but alot has been going on in my little world!!!! I got a new job with a wonderful company in Birmingham called Summit Housing Partners, LLC. This company owns several apartment communities all over the southeast, Texas, and Oklahoma. I have really found that working is this field is very exciting. I am working as a compliance officer, auditing files, approving applicants, yearly reviews and any updates that need to be done. It is alot of work and I am excited about some of the traveling that I will get to do with this job. I am still working towards my HR degree because I am almost done and I see no sense in stopping now! Wade and I celebrated our 4th anniversary last week, of course we both had to work, but we made time to have a nice dinner together Saturday night and spend some much needed time talking and just being together. We spend so much time with other people we never just get time to talk to each other! My diet and exercise has slacked a little bit and I am starting to get upset with myself over that because I have no excuse for it, but being lazy. Now I have no choice......we ordered our bridesmaids dresses for Wade's sister's wedding and they are not flattering for fat girls.....so I have 5-6 months to lose at least 50 more pounds to feel comfortable in this dress. I posted a picture of the dress below, so if you are interested you can see what I mean!

The dress we are getting is red.....its very pretty....but so a skinny girl dress.....at least skinnier than me!!!

Things are starting to look up!

Over the last two weeks my life and slowly but surely started to pick back up and move along alot better than I would have ever thought they would. Sure there are still some parts of my life that need some work and still a few things missing, but I am happier than I have been in a while. I have always heard that God does not shut a door without opening a window, and I now finally believe that! I decided to set another mini goal in my diet and I am trying to reach it by June. I want to loose 50 pounds by June. I am working my way through several DVDs including, Zumba, Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, Walk Yourself Slim. I have decided to do a week of each one and alternate it with the gym and walking around my neighborhood so that I do not go into burnout mode on just one thing. If my scale is right I have lost 8 more pounds since my trip to the doctor on the 11th.

I finally decided the best way to solve the worry and stress in my life is to turn it all over to God. I have been watching The Church of the Highlands online, since I live so far from it, and I have really been enjoying it. For the last 7 weeks he has preached a series on Getting Through A Bad Day and it was like he was sitting in front of me speaking directly to me. Everything he touched on I could relate to and was a lesson that I needed to hear. So yesterday morning I woke up and decided that everything that I have spent the last 3 months worrying about and stressing over was out of my control anyway and there is already a plan set for my life, so in that moment I decided to turn everything over to God. I handed it over to him and I feel like I have never felt before! I now know that God will provide not only for me, but for my family and that is the best feeling in the world! I cannot wait to see what He has in store for Wade and I and are future, there really are endless possibilities.

I cannot wait for this weekend because I get to go home and see my family for Easter, almost my entire family. I wish my little brother could be there and my nephew Sean, but I will be so happy to see my grandmothers, my mom, dad, 2 of my nephews, my wonderful baby sister, my older brother, my sister-in-law and my favorite Boy Friend in Law! Hope everyone has a happy and blessed Easter!

When it rains it pours......literally!

Its been kinda dreary in my life these days, it seems like all bad things come in 3s. It rained for about 2 or 3 days after being beautiful, and of course my roof leaked AGAIN. The dieting has not gone so well this week for me either. I have had no energy to exercise, but I went to the doctor today and did find out I have lost another 3 pounds, which is a plus. Dr. G decided to put me on low dose BP medicine while I am dieting because my BP was up the past two times I have been in there. I tried to tell him that stress could play a big part in it, but he did not really want to hear it! He was proud of my weight loss success though. I am excited that I have ordered some ZUMBA dvds to change up my workout, I could not find a class anywhere near this small town, so I ordered the videos to do at home, I am also excited about the warm weather so that I can get outside and walk around my neighborhood more. Hopefully I will be able to overcome this hump in the room.

On a much sadder note, my good friend Michael is fixing to lose his mother to cancer. Cynthia has always been such a wonderful woman and like a mother to all of us that ran in the same circle together. She developed cancer last summer and just went downhill from there. The worst part is, Michael lost his father almost 11 years ago in a motorcycle accident and his brother in law died unexpectedly last year. This family has had so much tragedy and heartache over the last 10 years, I pray that God will bring them through this and heal their hearts.

Slowly but surely coming along, and some of my new creations

Its been awhile and things have been going pretty good for me. I have been working hard on the weight loss things and I am now down 25 pounds, which means I have 3 pounds from meeting my first mini goal I set for myself. I could not be more proud of myself and now to set my next mini goal. I would like to lose another 10 pounds in the next month, so hopefully by Easter I will be down another 10 pounds. Just hope my Easter dress fits, actually I would feel awesome if it was too big!!!! I have upped my workout routine, but not going as many days as I was. I am trying to burn anywhere between 1500-2000 calories per workout and I try to go at least 3 days a week. Since it has been so nice on the weekends I have been walking my entire neighborhood too, which is about 4 miles from start to finish and when you are pulling a 50lb dog, that is quite a workout. I have not felt this good about myself physically in a long time and I am only feeling better as the days go by. I have decided not to take any pictures of myself until I can tell a difference. There have been several people who have told me that they can already tell a difference, but I do not see it yet. I guess it will have to be pretty significant for me to see, but some of my clothes are already fitting better!

For the past couple of years I have found a hobby in making cakes. I started off on a whim when I bought a guitar cake pan and decided to see how good I was at decorating it. People have always told me that my desserts were good taste wise, but I had never really decorated anything. After about two hours of working on this cake, I finally finished it and decided to give it to my father in law for his birthday. Everyone seemed to like it, so I decided to try a few more, and I seemed to get a little bit better and better. I did not take pictures of everything I have made, but I have some photos of a few. I want to take some classes to get better and learn how to do things like sugar flowers and all the decorations and add ons with fondant. Wade thinks I could really make something out of this, I have sold a few to some friends down here and made one for my brother and his sister-in-law and they all seemed to like what I have done. I have made everything from a standard white cake to a carrot cake and I can do just about any kind of home made icing, I am excited to say I can now also put photos on cakes or any other screen print. I have also done cheesecakes, pies and cobblers. It would be a dream of mine to open a bakery somewhere if I had the money to do so, of course I have also always wanted to open a wedding dress shop as well, guess its good to always have dreams!!!

Here are some of my cakes

Brayden's First Birthdaycake

My Father in Law's Guitar Cake

My future Brother in law, Jay's cake

Lindsey's 18th Birthday cake -Strawberry

My brother and his sister in law's cake

Shonnie's Carrot Cake

Jannah's guitar cake

Kelsi's Red Velvet Cake

Fun Weekend, Lent, and Life in General

We had a pretty fun and busy weekend this past Valentine's Day weekend......we got to spend sometime with my large and spread out family over dinner Saturday night, its rare to get all of us together since we are spread all over the state and in North Carolina, but we managed to almost do that, with the exception of Chris and his family. My grandmother always treats us so well on holidays, even ones like Valentine's Day. We started out heading to the Cheesecake Factory but with two small kids its hard to make that 2 hour wait, so we ended up at Sweetdaddy's, to the dismay of my little sis! It was a good time and I enjoyed visiting with my sister, brother, sister-in-law, nephews, and of course my favorite boyfriend-in-law! I cannot get enough of the two little boys I am so blessed to call my nephews, Jacob and Colyn, I might be biased but they are just precious and so special to me! Jacob does not like for me to take his picture but I did snap a few of Colyn and I am adding one of Jacob from about a month ago when he came to spend the night with Aunt Kayla and Uncle Wade.

After dinner with the fam, we headed back home for a good friend's birthday party. I never thought moving to Sylacauga that I would make such wonderful friends, who have become pretty much like family. Most of these people Wade has know his whole life and has always been close to, so it is hard to be the "outsider" of the group, but they have all made me feel so welcome and like I have been around for years. I thought I would share some pics of the people I have come to love so much.......

Sunday was a pretty lazy day for me and Wade, although he did pretend to run out to the store real quick and came back with a Valentine's Day present for me. I was not aware that we were exchanging any kind of gift since we do not usually do anything for Valentine's Day because he is always at work. He bought me a "funny" card and one of my favorite DVDs to add to my collection! We cooked dinner together and he did the dishes for me too! All in all it was a pretty good day!

Wednesday as most people know was Lent, and although my visits to the catholic church have been few and far between since my Paw Paw died, I decided this year to give something up for Lent. It was hard for me to find something this year since I have given up most of my vices like fast food, soft drink, and tea. After much thought and lots of suggestions to give up facebook and texting (yeah right!) I decided to give up smoking. I have tried several times to quit, even here recently, and it is something that I really want to do, so I am hoping that Lent will be my starting point, wish me luck!

I have been going to the gym at least 4 days a week for a little over a month now and I am so excited that I have worked myself up to burning 1400 calories a workout! I can workout on the elliptical machine for an hour now, which is AMAZING, since a month ago I could barely stay on it for 5 minutes. I am slowly but surely making my way to where I want to be!

My Sister, My Friend

I am probably behind everyone else in the world on my movies for the most part, but tonight I watched My Sister's Keeper. Let me first say it is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen, and next to Steel Magnolis, one of the saddest ones. I could not imagine living the life either one of the girls in the movie did, but I do know what its like to have an amazing little sister that I do not always appreciate like I should.

I was almost 8 years old and the only girl when Christina was born, and I was not excited about her at all. It was not the idea of having another sibling because I loved having my little brother, he was my most favorite person in the whole world, and my older brother and I got along pretty well; but something about her coming really upset me. Over the years as she grew up and I became a teenager, she annoyed me more than ever, always wanting to get in my way (so I thought) and being such a tattle tale. I never fully appreciated what a blessing she truly was to me, until we were to the point that we fought all the time and never really spent anytime together.

She has gotten older and has her own life, and now she is the one who has no time for me! It's funny how the roles have reversed and I am the one doing my best to be a part of her life. I always loved her because she was my baby sister, but it was not until a few years ago that I realized how much I liked her because she is my friend. I could never imagine losing my sister in my life and I am so proud that she has grown into such a wonderfully kind young woman. I never tell her enough how great I think she is, but I always hope in the back of her mind and heart she knows that.

"If you don't understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to ring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child." - Linda Sunshine