Celebrating the Victories

Almost a month later... sheesh! Okay, I'll have to work on that once a week posting thing. ;) I'm up to a MINIMUM of 72 ounces of water a day. Not quite 3 liters, but still a huge improvement over nothing but coffee and diet coke (I still have my coffee, but have been without soda for almost 3 weeks now. Yay me! DH and I have been following (fairly closely, but not religiously) the 17 Day Diet plan for the past few weeks and I am down 13 pounds! YAY ME!!! Just now, I added a reminder to my phone to do my 15 minute pickup today. I'll keep that going to help me remember every day. Exercise... still lacking a bit. I have started taking the stairs at work. A couple of times every day I walk from the 4th floor to the basement and back. Doesn't seem like much, but it is enough to make me huff and puff and any more than that and my knee gets pretty sore. It's an improvement, and that's worth celebrating. :) Yay me! All in all, not too shabby. I feel pretty great, and I'm just going to keep feeling better every day. YAY ME!

Where Have You Been?

Hey there! Long time no type...  Rather than try to recap and play catch up, I'm just going to start where I am today and move forward from here. Everything will fill in eventually, at least well enough to get the gist of things. So... where am I today? Sitting on the couch with ice on my knee recovering from knee surgery (again). Moving forward from here I want to set some goals to help me get some focus and growth. I've been stuck for a while. Stuck in my anger, stuck in my clutter, just stuck. I'd like to... Strike that, I am going to get myself back on track with a fitness plan that will do good to my body and spirit. This will take baby steps, cause I'm pretty out of shape at the moment. First goal, drink water. I've been sucking down the soda like it's the only choice I have. Starting today, I will drink 3 liters of water every day. I've done it before and I felt good when I did. I'm going to hold off on any exercise goals until after my post-op doctor visit on Monday. While I've been at home this week I have spent quite a lot of time sewing hexagons. I'm going to make a goal to keep that up. I will spend 2 hours (minimum) every week working on my hexagon quilt. The clutter (ugh) is overtaking me. This is both mental (emotions that I am allowing to pile up) and physical clutter (paperwork is the worst!). My goal for dealing with this is to spend 5 minutes each morning in meditation and 15 minutes each evening cleaning up. That should help me get going on both types of clutter. Doesn't seem like much time to spend, but it will help and is doable. One more goal for now. That is to post to this blog at least once per week. Checking in here will help me stay focused on the things I'm working on and give me a place to be accountable for my progress. That's it for today. I'll check in again soon (by next Saturday if not sooner). Remember... Beauty and Joy are all around. Take time to notice and appreciate them. See the Beauty! Feel the Joy!

Well that’s gonna leave a mark!

Shortly after my last post, I experienced a traumatic change in my life in the form of a break-up. It has taken quite a while for me to come to terms with it. That seems a little ridiculous to me when I look at the fact that we had only date for about 7 months. Ridiculous or not, I had to go through all of my emotions.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I was able to dig out some of the rubble and find my happiness. I knew it was there inside of me, but had let it get buried in the grief. When this dig out happened, it was not only a light inside of my heart, but also a light bulb above my head. I had sort of forgotten that MY happiness comes from INSIDE OF ME – not from any outside source. I’m glad to have remembered this important fact.

So here it is, going on three months since the awful day and I can honestly say that I’m doing pretty well. Before too much longer, I’m going to be doing great!

I just had knee surgery a week ago to enable me to get back to the activities that I want to be doing, and I am doing well physically also. It’ll take a little time for everything to heal up completely, but that’s part of the whole process and I can’t wait to get back out there and be fully engaged in life again.

The reason for this rambling post is the realization that:
As I go through life, I’ll get a few scrapes and bruises along the way, but if I keep myself sheltered from that, I will miss out on many wonderful experiences. So, I now have a few new scars (on my knee and my heart) but, I have enjoyed the good times and learned from the not so good times and, I continue to grow into a stronger, better person because of it all.

Tomorrow is another day

Got a call today from the manager who interviewed me to let me know that I did not get the job. :( She said a lot of nice things, but the end result is that I got beat out by someone with loads of experience who is willing to take an entry-level position. It was a tough day for me.
A friend of mine at work is going to finish her degree this year and she has approached me about petitioning our company for some cross-training. We spoke to our manager and the HR folks on Monday and they seemed receptive. Hopefully we can get this to work and get the chance to learn, gain experience, and get exposure in the business side of our company.
On a happier note, I found some training plans for running and my daughter has decided to jump on board with me as well. We are going to do the 5K race portion of the Ogden Marathon (hopefully my sister will be joining us - wink, wink, nudge, nudge). I did this race last year; it was my first ever. This year I am going to run the whole thing!

The Interview

Well, I had an interview yesterday... I think it went well. :) They said they'll be wrapping things up in a couple of weeks, so I wait. Knowing that I've done the best I could do, I now have to trust that things will work out how they are supposed to (however that may be).
Things are going well. Getting ready to start planning the schedule for the golf league. That's part of the new plan... not waiting until the last minute to get things done. We start golfing at the first of April.
Had some quality time with my daughter this weekend. She really shocked me when she was complaining about her boyfriend "taking his parents for granted". She said that it was making her mad when he would fight with them and that she thinks he gets/asks for more money than he earns by doing chores. It made me feel good to know that she appreciates our relationship and doesn't resent my way of doing things (at least not all the time).
I took my car to the shop this morning and had to leave it for a few hours. It was a beautiful morning, so I walked home. It was so nice. I always love being up and about first thing in the morning, but sometimes it is hard to remember that when I am cozy in my bed.
That's about it for now. I'll come back and let you know the outcome of things when I find out!

So... What are you waiting for?

Wow... long time since my last post.

My thoughts for the last little while have been about waiting. It seems that I have spent an awful lot of time in the past 6 years or so waiting for something or other to happen. Waiting for things to change, come together, and get better. Well... I'm tired of waiting! I need to stop waiting and go live the life I want.

In the spirit of that thought, I jumped feet first into an opportunity that came my way this week. I will be fulfilling the membership spot that my company sponsors in the local Women in Business Association for the upcoming year. How great is that? I'll get to meet new people and do some networking. I'll also get to enjoy lunch out every other month. Who knows what cool things I might learn and what other opportunities might come as a result of this experience?!? I'm very excited!

I am (and have always been) a huge procastinator. I figure this is just another side of my "waiting" problem. I've decided that my theme for 2011 is "What Are You Waiting For?". It applies to everything, really. Projects I've been wanting to work on, my search for a job where I can use my degree, relationships, all sorts of things.

Well, there you have it... I'll be sure to keep you updated on how this all plays out in the upcoming year.