This kid...

 Let me tell you a little bit about this kid:

Between Feb 2012 and May 2012 she had 4 (or 5, can't remember now) ear infections and then got tubes.

Between May 2012-November 2013 she hardly went to the doc, maybe a viral thing here or there, nothing major.

December 2013 - went to the doc to discover she'd gotten some pneumonia. The doc heard some wheezing/crackling. Took some medicine and cleared it up

February 2014 - now - She's been to the doctor 6 times since February 27th. She's been on every antibiotic available, had 2 x-rays, and has had pneumonia in her left lung and now in her right. She's taken steroids and breathing treatments and she's had the flu during that time as well. 

Today's appointment - at the last appointment the doc told us if she heard wheezing again she would be going on a daily asthma medicine. I was convinced going in to the office today it was an ear infection. I was wrong. She heard the wheezing again and this evening we start a daily asthma medicine, for how long? I don't know. Doc said she should grow out of it by the time she turns 5. She's hoping that is the underlying cause for all the wheezing, but if it doesn't help we will have to go see a pulmonary specialist. But in addition to that we also have to add 2 more antibiotics, a steroid, and breathing treatments 3x/day to knock out the pneumonia/wheezing. 

But let me tell you one more thing about this kid : She's the bravest, coolest, and best 2 year old I know. No crying today. at.all. Not during the breathing treatment and not during the x-ray. I'm so proud of her. I love her to pieces and am just praying for her to get better. 

15K

So today I ran a 15K, that's 9.3 miles. Going into it my personal goal was going to be to finish in 1 hour & 45 minutes

Here's the breakdown of what happened:

Mile 0-1 - hey, this isn't so bad... But it's a little chilly outside. Oh man, 12/min mile pace, that's not good, oh yea I didn't start at 0 at the start line so I should probably take off 1 minute.

Mile 1-2 - maybe I should've listened to some music! starting to warm up a bit, except I can't feel my chin!

Mile 2-3 - okay, getting into a good pace... Almost finished with the first 5K

Mile 3-4 - oh how I hate this mile, I just have to get past this mile and it will be okay

Mile 4-5 - whew, almost 1/2 there. Okay, mile 5-6 will be a 'run hard' mile! Just pick up the pace for one mile!

Mile 5-6 - okay, time to kick it up a notch for one mile! Ouch, this hurts a little

Mile 6-7 - glad, that's over. Only one more 5K to go, I think I can actually feel my chin again

Mile 7-8 - oy, this is a tough mile to get through too, fatigue is setting in. And do I have to pee... Oh no, I am not using one of those port-a-potty's! I'll just not think about it... Do you wanna build a snowman...

Mile 8-9 - oh crap I think my feet have a mind of their own! My feet just keep moving and my legs are trying to keep up! Almost there!!! I'm getting hungry

Mile 9-9.3 - I see the finish line!!! Kick it into gear!! Oh... Cookies

Official Time: 1:40:31 :)

If I Had a Nickel

I'll get to it tomorrow...

To use the old phrase, "if I had a nickel" for every time I said I'll get to this tomorrow, well our student loans would probably be paid off.

One of my best friends has a favorite band. Skillet. Two years she made strong-armed me into going to Winter Jam with her to see them. I've never been a huge concert fan, but it was only $10 and there were lots of bands, so I thought it would be fun. I've been a fan of Skillet since. Last year I had some money on a gift card for Lifeway Christian and they had Skillet's CD Awake on sale, so I bought it. Since then I have found one of my favorite songs. One Day Too Late.

I recently hung this sign in my cubicle:

For the first day it was super motivating. I kicked butt and got everything crossed off my to-do list. However, since then I can't say it's done me a lot of good. I try, I want to do the things I'll say I'll do today rather than wait until tomorrow. I think it's something we all struggle with. There are days where we just don't feel like doing anything and sometimes that's okay. For me, I have been in this place for weeks now. Laziness has taken it's toll on me. It really got to me this afternoon, I was ignoring work, ignoring my bible reading, and ignoring my training for the Mini. This afternoon, I had enough. So what came next?

I did one thing for work that I was waiting until tomorrow to do.
I caught up on my Read-Through-Bible plan that I was 3 days behind on.
I did my 4 mile run that I didn't want to do.

So, if Today is your Tomorrow, what's one thing you can do today instead of tomorrow?

Purpose

I've had friends in the past share with me that instead of doing a bunch of resolutions they have a Word for the year. Last year I tried to do my own thing and do monthly pledges... well if you look through my old posts you'll see that didn't last :). I made it through about two months before I gave up on those, oops! So this year I have decided to adopt a word for 2014: PURPOSE.

Last week Paige's daycare was closed which forced me to take almost a whole week of vacation to stay home with her because Jeremy was out of vacation time for the year. I cannot be more grateful for last week. It was an amazing refresher for me, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. The main goal I had last week was to go through a Goal Planning Workbook that was created by one of my best friends Victoria over at Creative Home Keeper. (All you have to do is sign up for her for her monthly newsletter and updates and she'll send it to you free!). As I started going through the workbook one of the first things mentioned is to make sure you have your Mission Statement handy. I had never done a mission statement before, I've had many friends do one, but to be honest I always thought it was weird, until I made one. After going through a short e-book (Victoria's Goal Planning Workbook will direct you there) which helps you name and prioritize your roles it became evident that I wasn't living with a purpose. Sure, I know my purpose is to love God, my family, and do what the Bible tells me to do, but am I really living that way?

So as I developed my Mission Statement by identifying my roles and prioritizing them I realized that things need to change. I'm tired of waking up each day doing the same thing because it's routine. I want to have a purpose every day. I want to find God's purpose for my life. I want to work for a purpose. With that said here is my new Mission Statement:

My mission is to:

Love God wholeheartedly and glorify him daily. To spend time with him daily through prayer, devotion, stillness, and worship.

Love, respect, and serve Jeremy unconditionally. To be his best friend and help-mate.

Be an inspiration and role-model to Paige. To be Jesus to her by showing and teaching her Love, Grace, and Discipline.

Work at whatever I am doing with all my heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. To make a difference where a difference can be made. To make my workplace my mission-field.

Happy Anniversary

I imagine when most people think about how they will celebrate their wedding anniversary they think about romantic trips, fancy dinner, or flowers. Well I am forever inclined to think about IndyCon and Boardgames from here on out for our anniversary :)

When I first met Krista Daulton I had no idea what I was getting myself into... but I'm so glad she reached out and we have become such good friends. The first time I went over to Krista and Adam's house for "game day" I was a little (okay, A LOT) overwhelmed... but don't tell them that (oops... too late). There were so many games I had never heard of and I felt like everyone had played every single game, except me.

As Krista will attest to this... I've come a long way. We attended our first IndyCon 2 years ago and only went for 1 day. We had a blast, but the day went by so quickly because the games are typically 1-2 hour games. I stuck with the people I knew (Krista, Adam, and of course Jeremy) and didn't try too many new games. Last year we went for all three days and had a great time. This year again, we did all three days.

So the difference this year? Even though I go in to almost every single game knowing I'm going to lose, I still go in to have fun. I understand rules of most games better now than I did last year. And it's much easier for me to pick up on new games. My brother, sister-in-law, and 2 other friends came for all three days this year too which made it more fun!

What all did I play this year you ask? Let me recap for you:

Day 1:
1. Trajan - really enjoyed this. Jeremy and I got to IndyCon a little early because Adam wanted to play this first thing and asked us to join. It was a very fun game and now that Krista and Adam have a copy I look forward to playing again.
2. Lifeboats - Interesting negotiation game. You need to have the mindset going in that no matter what happens you will still all be friends at the end of the game
3. Tzolk'in - This is a very deep game with a lot going on. I think too much for me.
4. Wits and Wagers - Every year they have an annual Wits and Wagers tournament. They ask questions about boardgames, teams write down answers and you bet on which team has the most correct answer and you get payouts of 2-1, 4-1, 6-1, etc. We had a team of 4 girls and were getting our behinds kicked, so what did we do, bet it all on the last round of course... oh and guess who won... that's right, we did :) Scored a free copy of Wits and Wagers: Party Edition!!
5. Fistful of Penguins - This game is so fun! It's a quick 'filler game' with penguins and dice!
6. Crokinole (x2) - Learned this for the first time to play in the annual tournament... got creamed in the first round of the tournament by the guy who won!
7. Pillars of the Earth - I love this game. I don't think I've won yet, but I still love it!

Day 2:
1. Guildhall (x2) - 2 thumbs up from me on this one! I really enjoyed it.
2. Pillars of the Earth - Again... love this...
3. Le Havre - Krista has been talking about this game for a while. So we finally had time to sit down and play it this weekend! It was almost too long for me. However, I did enjoy it and almost beat Krista on my first time playing :)
4. Agricola - I WON! Whoo-hoo! Maybe I should put in a disclaimer that I played with all new people. But I think this was only my fourth time playing. This is a fun game, but takes a lot of advance planning which is hard for me to do!
5. Tichu (x2) - Annual tourney. Krista and I made it to the second round before getting beat! But we both got a Grand Tichu! (If you really want to know what that is just e-mail me... too complicated to explain!)

Day 3:
1. Stone Age - I played this game for the first time last year at IndyCon and have been wanting to play it ever since! Finally got to play it again this weekend and I am still just as excited about it this year as I was last year! This game is so fun! Jeremy just bought the iPhone app!
2. Ticket to Ride Africa - Ticket to Ride is one of my favorite games. The Africa expansion added a new element with Terrain cards, but they were hard to use in a 5-player game. I think Jeremy and I will play again and see what we think with just two people.

So Happy Anniversary to an amazing husband! I love you so much and had a great weekend playing games all weekend with you!! I look forward to it again next year!!

March Pledges

Oops... so I'm a couple days late on starting my March Pledges... but nevertheless I have been thinking about them. Surprisingly it's getting harder to do this! I felt like January was great, like most 'resolutions' January is the easy month. It's continuing that motivation that is hard.

As far as my February Pledges, well they didn't go quite as planned, in fact it was pretty bad. But I'm not giving up. I feel like when I do these pledges it gives me something to strive for daily. For me, it's Living Purposefully... does that make sense?

Anyway here are some pledges for March, you'll notice quite a few are carried-over from February.

Daily:
1. Read my Bible daily - I'm sad to say I got a few days behind in February, I think I have 3 days to catch up on.
2. Pray Daily
3. Continue to get up when my alarm goes off - I actually didn't hit the snooze button once in February... there were, however, a few times when I turned my alarm off and reset it :)
4. Going back to brushing daily. Someone once told me it takes 21 days to start a habit and only 3 to break it... that is so true!
5. Drink at least 32 oz of water daily... although ideally I'd like to see that at 64 oz.

Weekly:
1. TURN OFF THE TV!! I definitely have my shows that I watch. I know that Thursday nights the TV will always be on. Lately we have added Family Night Movie night to Friday night, which means, I'd like to keep the TV off Mon-Wed.
2. Workout 5 times a week. The 30-day shred was great... it would've been even better if I hadn't gotten sick for a week last month. I will officially finish day 30 on Friday March 8th, although it won't be consecutive, I'm still proud of myself for doing it within a month and a half!
3. Count calories 5 days a week. I have got to start doing this! This will help my goal of fitting into my "conference" outfit in two months!

Monthly:
1. Learn to knit - I started to do this in February, but unfortunately Maggie and I had very opposite schedules this month and we weren't able to get together to work on this! But I'm not giving up! I have yarn and needles and by golly I will knit something before the end of the year :)
2. Total Money Makeover - I'm so proud of Jeremy and I last month. While we did go over on a few budget items, that's totally expected the first couple of months as we are learning how much we need month to month.
3. Read 3 books - these, of course, being the three I pledged last month: Harry Potter, I have Loved You: Getting to Know the Father's Heart, and I Want it Now

This month will present a few challenges especially in the calorie counting and exercising as it is a very busy month! But writing these out really helps me keep them in the front of my mind!

Happy March!!

Look at mama and listen

"Paige, look at mama and listen..."

This usually results in Paige running in the opposite direction... maybe she thinks she is always in trouble when I say that? Which isn't the case... usually I just want her to pick something up or ask her to do something.

Last night the issue of running in the opposite direction and usually whining before she even heard what I had to say kept wearing on my patience with her... I was getting so frustrated, and the more she didn't stop and look and listen the more upset I got, which continued to get her more upset because she could hear it in my voice.

Today I am reflecting back on this continued cycle of me saying look and listen and her running and whining/crying and it gets me thinking...

Annie, how many times has God said to you "Stop, look at me, and listen... I have something to tell you/ask you" and how many times do I run in the opposite direction afraid of what I'm going to hear.

I am not perfect, and neither is my daughter (shocker, right?) but are my reactions to her disobedience showing the same love that God shows me when I continually disobey Him??

Reflecting today on God's Love and how I can show my daughter His love through my actions

Lord, please give me patience when trying to teach my daughter how to listen...