2016!!!

It's 2016!!! Since my last post was in like May, I figured I better just do a full year recap to get everything caught up!

Summary:

WORK-Jon and I still have the same jobs (surprisingly, its already been like 8 months and neither of us has been bored out of our minds yet! well at least I havent, we'll see about Jon haha) I recently went to full time which has been great, it's nice to have the extra income and keeps me busy (which i sort of dont love, but being busy helps with my anxiety)

CHURCH-Jon and I are both the 2nd counselors in the YW and the Elders quorum, Jon is also the emergency preparedness coordinator in the ward which has been interesting <-- i'll get more into that later

HOUSE- YOU GUYS I painted my front door red,

                                                   

 idk why but i've always wanted to. And it turned out perrrfecttt. i mean LOOK AT MY CUTE HOUSE. I can't wait till I get some shutters put up (that's the next project) It'll be complete! ooh it just gets me all tingly inside.

FARM- LOOK AT MY GARDEN>> 

LOOK AT WHAT I'VE CREATED. To say i'm proud of myself is an understatement. I've already made some zucchini bread and it was to die for. (it was my first time ever too!!) anyway, it's been fun to grow our own stuff, and eat it! I feel so self sufficient. It wasn't the most bountiful garden ever, but it was great practice, can't wait for next year!

As for the animals-If you've read any of my posts before you know we have a relatively high turn over rate for animals... haha here's where we currently stand-

Penny-

 My sweet little baby girl, she found a new home on Christmas eve, I was feeling bad she was always in her kennel since I started working full time. So she is happily living in colorado with a stay at home mommy and spunky little girl who will dress her up and play with her more than i could :) She will be missed (only by me) but having a dog hair-free home has been reallly nice.

Hank- 

Jon finally decided to fill the void from Jasper and got a dog. He was free off KSL and has turned out to be a pretty good dog actually. A few months back we came home from work and he had a broken leg, we assume he got kicked by one of the horses. My brother splinted him up and and he's been healing quite nicely. He is almost back to 100% use.

Jessie and Jack- 

They are coming along SO GOOD! it's a lot of fun to have horses, although Jessie has been a little bit of a turd lately, since i've been so busy I havent worked with her much, but i'll do better. Jon and I each got saddle blankets for our horses for Christmas so a few days ago i saddled her her and she didn't like that too much, haha but we'll work on it :)

The cat- Still doesnt really have a name, and so desperately wants to be an inside pet, but im not too worried about her being outside in the cold- she is staying awfully plump. I think she's finding plenty of food- plus I give her scraps. 

She loves mac and cheese.

That's all we have right now, but it's enough.

So that's pretty much our life in a nutshell as of lately.

As for my brain.

When Jon got called as the emergency preparedness coordinator I sort of had a panic attack, and immediately assumed the end of the world was happening like tomorrow and we were all going to die.

Sometimes I get a little crazy.

But i've found that one of the best ways to keep my crazy under control is eating healthy and exercising. Who knew?! I came up with a little method to help me stay motivated to do these things.
You can check out my weekly motivator on>>> THIS POST

Sooooo to recap memorable life events from this year-

-We hit our 3 year mark in marriage! Woo hoo!! and we still love each other!!

(anniversaring in lava)

-We started new jobs

-I killed a deer

-I started photography

- i lost the last of my grandparents

We miss you Grandma!!!

-I coached 5th/6th grade volleyball!

-We added a prize to the annual LaRue family trapshoot (now i have motivation to participate next year)

One of the biggest highlights of the year though was having everyone to our house for Christmas! and most everyone for new years! (too bad i'm not good at taking pictures of people while they're at my house. But here is some:

James first experience with>> Jozie's Pockets

Jon took Hannah's little brother out tubing in the field, and Hank had the most fun of all of them chasing the tube and was very sad when they stopped.

Other fun activities

My dad doing his weird squatty thing.

Annddd that's about it! It has been a great year and we are looking forward to 2016!! And now for the best part of the blog:

Quotes from Jon-

(There's quite a few, since its been so long)

"You really are so close to perfect, except for all the things you need to work on."

"Do you realize how much prettier the world would be if everyone had the same hair length as you?"

"Did you forget i went to beauty school?"

"Sometimes i wish i had a lisp, but i'm glad i dont."

"The more i speak italian, the better i get at it!"

"How does one smell so smelly?"

"I knew you would betray me today..."

"Be nice to me or i'll breath on you again."

"Hunter's safety was probably the best class i ever took. Well, except for my bowling class."

(Him telling me about a lady he works with who came to work one day without makeup and apparently looked unrecognizable) Me: Hopefully you didn't tell her she looked tired. Jon: No, I just told her she looked like the plague.

"You can't do dishes AND work out in the same night!"

"I just want to grow things!"

"How many more people would keep the commandments if the punishment was raging diarrhea for the rest of eternity?"

"Based off your home videos, i never wouldve guess you'd be this pretty. Like, no one saw this coming"

(talking about a centerpiece i bought from the D.I.) Jon: It's so ugly! Me: nuh uh! my mom saw it and first thing she said was oh my gosh that's so cute!

Jon: Yeah, well, your  mom is nice, and she lies.

The end!! Happy new year everyone! May your dreams be big and your goals last longer than 2 weeks!

 Keep it classy- always take pictures in front of camp trailers.

Who knows when i'll write next- but see ya then!

Weekly Motivator

So i'm probably the most unmotivated human on earth.

 Wait, that's false, I'm actually super motivated to do lots of things, but only for about 5 minutes. I reallllllly struggle with STAYING motivated.


I get SUPER gung-ho about a new idea and dive in head first! Then a couple days later I crash and burn.

For example:
Baby clothes business- a couple years ago i got the brilliant idea to make cute baby onsies, adding tutus, sewing on beads for necklaces.. etc etc. So i went to the DI and bought like 10 onsies, then i went to walmart and bought like $20 worth of fabric and craft supplies, then i spent like 3 hours cutting, sewing, gluing, etc, not a single one came out like i imagined it, my house was a mess, and i still had like 8 onsies left that i hadnt done anything with. Everything went in a box and was put away in my closet for like 3 months. It was always in the back of my mind but i had no desire to continue anything, then my sister-in-law's mother-in-law was hosting one of those little craft boutique things, and i was like this is a great opportunity to work on some more stuff and sell them at the boutique! Women love all that glittery fluffy baby crap! Well I was there for like 5 hours and sold one thing. crash and burrnnnn.

Insanity (also any other kind of work out ever)- again, super excited about finally getting some muscle back (since i lost it all the second i stopped playing volleyball- like a million years ago it seems) So i go super hard for like a week, then find a million excuses not to continue.

Some of you may remember a post i did right before thanksgiving on instagram. It was about me trying to gain 15lbs by my birthday (end of January) I was going to do this by eating more and working out. I made 3 monthly charts, with set work outs and meal plans. It was all set and ready to go!!! I was gonna do it!!! Pretty sure I didn't even make it through the whole first month. I actually lost like 2 pounds. Needless to say, I STRUGGLE.

This list could go on and on, just ask my husband.

The point is- I needed a change!!

Some of us have the luxury of money for things such as a personal trainer, a gym membership, tons of protein and weird supplements from the organic isle at Fred Meyer, Some of us, do not. (and I managed a gym, so trust me, i know the argument about "how much is your health worth to you, do you realize if you stopped eating mcdonalds you could afford a gym membership?" blah blah blah. YES. I KNOW ALL OF THIS. But i also know that if you just eat healthy, drink enough water, and exercise, (as a generally healthy person) you will be generally healthy. Which is all i want. I do not want to bulk up, i do not want to lose weight, i do not want to look good in a bikini, i do not want to do any of the things that are all over posters and billboards and social media. (Not that there's anything wrong with those, they're just not MY goals) I just want to be healthy. And i know how to do that. I just struggle with doing it.

Does that make sense?

I have found that avoiding sugar, and over processed food, drinking lots of water, and doing SOMETHING physical everyday is what makes me feel the best.  Sounds easy enough right? Then why is it so hard?!?!?!


So I finally came up with a way that i HOPE will help me stay motivated.

Just so we are all aware- this is NOT me trying to be a beach body coach, lifestyle coach, diet expert, or anything of the sort. This is just a simple idea I came up with, to help myself and any other extremely unmotivated failures like myself. (I have also found that this structure has really helped with my anxiety. Bonus points!)

I came up with this idea because i began to notice that i only stayed motivated for about a week. I could stick with something i decided on doing really well for the first week but it went downhill after that so.... I present to you-

The Weekly Motivator!!
It started out like any other idea i have. All at once. I stayed up way late (like 10:30) typing up a bunch of ideas on my laptop and creating the vision, then the next day i went to the dollar store and bought all the craft supplies i needed to make my project beautiful! Came home from work and spent like 2 hours putting it all together trying to recreate my magnificent vision- which of course didn't come out like i planned at all so it turned into something very simple. But that is okay! The point gets across!

Here is my weekly schedule!

(i just used a dry erase board with popsicle sticks and a little magnet on the back)


How it works:
I came up with 5 topics-
Diet
Exercise
Spiritual
Service
Challenge



For each topic i came up with 4 or 5 things (depending on how many weeks in that month) i have to do that week that relate to that topic. For example,
under "diet" one stick says *eat an apple everyday* simple. the one i picked for this week says *no sugar*
Exercise has random workouts i have to do everyday or yoga, or insanity, etc. Spiritual has things like, read 30 min of scriptures each day, read a general conference talk each day, etc. Service has things like make dinner for a family, bring treats to someone, help Jon with outside chores, etc. and last i did a Challenge. The challenges are just things that I personally would consider hard. Things that are just a challenge to me. For example, keeping my house spotless for a week. (we'll see how it goes) another was try not to say anything negative all week or not to pick at my fingers. And I have to do these things everyday. (except the service ones, and some of the challenge ones, those are just one a week, or a couple times a week) But what's great about it is, its just for ONE WEEK!!

So you see, i can pick *do insanity* but I wont get burnt out because I'm not setting some ridiculous expectation to do it everyday for the next 3 months. I just have to do it for one week. And I can do things for one week no problem!
Then, on sunday night, you take them all off and pick 5 new sticks for the upcoming week! I really think this method has a lot of potential because you wont get bored! if there are certain topics you really like, stick them back in the pile to draw for a future date, if there are ones that you don't like, get rid of them and add new ones! This way you are always switching things up each week and month!

If anyone decides to do something similar text me and tell me how it goes! I'd love to hear about your experience!

So what do you think? My mom thinks it's a good idea.

Well, wish me luck! Hopefully I'll stay motivated longer than a week!