Motivation!

Sometimes, like many others I have talked to over the years, I am just unmotivated to do a lot of things… unmotivated to work out, clean the house, do my homework… and then sometimes, all I do is productive things and dog on myself if I even take 5 minutes to lay on the couch and watch bad reality TV. I have always wondered what the secret is for those people that hit the gym every day at 5am and then again after their 8 hour work day, how some people keep their house sparkling clean every day, and how some of my classmates seem to do nothing in life but focus on school. Well thank you, MSN living, for the “9 Secrets of Motivated People.”

1.       When you make a plan, anticipate bumps. I need help in this area specifically. I have made a lot of plans and had a lot of goals, and when something happens that throws me off for the day, the next day is ruined too. Also, the rest of the week. And then it is over.

2.       Channel the little engine that could – really. MSN says that a person’s drive is often based on what they believe about their abilities, not on how talented they actually are. People that believe they are self-efficient do a lot better with goals than those who do not believe it. Maybe I should take this to heart, and believe it myself more!

3.       Don’t let your goals run wild, but work on them every day. I have always been told that if you set your goals too high, you may not ever reach them and will get discouraged. Maybe that’s a big part of my problem too. Even if I don’t really think a goal is unreachable, maybe it IS unreachable for that week or month, or year. I need to set smaller goals, maybe start with just making daily goals instead of trying to make goals for the year.

4.       Go public with it. This is something I actually do try to do. If I’m going on a diet, I try to tell my family and friends so they know not to ask me out to dinner and my roommates usually try to go on the diet with me, or vice versa. The only problem is that it only lasts about a month and then it’s over.

5.       Lean on a support crew when struggling. This is something I need to do more, and I think I need to do this more in life even when I am not talking about motivation. We all need to do this. I keep things bottled inside for so long that I sometimes just blow up, and I really always hate myself after I do it. I need to just lean on someone, like my mom, when something inside is eating me up instead of trying to deal with it myself.

6.       Make yourself a priority. Put yourself first, and be selfish, even though it doesn’t feel right sometimes. This can be totally hard sometimes but it can be done! At least it is hard for me to do… I tend to feel guilty when I put myself first for something but do not have to feel like this all the time!

7.       Challenge yourself – and change things up. I definitely agree with this, when on a diet, eating the same healthy salads gets so old day in and day out for lunch and supper. It’s good for the first week or so, but then after that… give me something bad for me! Changing things up and learning new recipes is something that could help stay on track!

8.       Keep on learning. I do truly enjoy learning about new things and love to “learn something new every day” Here is a fun little fact of the day blog to check out.

9.       Remember the deeper meaning. The article says that you are more likely to realize a goal when it has true personal significance to you.

Here is another article about goals!

Over too quickly!

I am so unbelieveably saddened that Spring Break is already over. I swear, time just flies right on by me! Better not blink, because you will miss out on too much! It is week 11 of my second semester in dental hygiene school... it feels like just yesterday was my first day in the clinic! Soon we will finally be working on each other and then soon after that, real patients! So exciting yet so nerve racking. I hope enough people out there trust me enough to work in their mouths!

Over break, I really did not do much of anything but relax. I did a few papers, worked, and did some housework, but other than that and catching up on some neglected TV, not much of anything. Yesterday, I went with my little sister to see the new move, The Hunger Games. I enjoyed it, although cried a lot. I read the books a while back so I was pretty excited to see the movie, however gruesome it might be. After the movie, we went to eat dinner with our parents and she was telling our mom "Sissy cried like someone died!" which, if you have read the books or went and saw the movie this past weekend, you know.... thats exactly what happened. She caught herself after the thought rolled off her tounge! Speaking of the Hunger Games, the soundtrack is actually pretty cool and I am definitely enjoying listening to the songs.

This week looks like I will be doing a lot of studying for the class I'm doing the worst in, have a test on Thursday... not looking forward to that. I just cannot make myself study as hard as I need to for this class, it is just so uninteresting and furthermore, it just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Which is why I need to study it more, but... catch 22, really. Ugh, vicious cycle!

Hope everyone has a great week!!

SPRING BREAK!

Like many others I am sure, I am so excited for this upcoming week. Spring break! Woo. I am not actually doing anything besides working and some research papers, but I am excited to have to think a little less throughout the week!

This week has been pretty chill for me. My roommates and I have been updating our apartment with some new decorations, mainly because we love to do it, but also because Sikeston's downtown is having a St. Patricks Day fair downtown where we live and we are figuring that a lot of people will probably be coming up to our apartment to see it (and use the bathroom) and we want it looking perfect!

Also, I don't know if I have spoken about it yet, but I have a new job at the Manpower office in Sikeston doing some administrative work, and I really love it! I am super stoked that I was able to get it, and I make pretty good money doing it! My roommate, Taylor, works here too and got me the job. So blessed and thankful!

Short blog this week, nothing too much going on! Hope everyone has a great weekend and an awesome spring break if you are at MSSU. What are everyones plans?!

Two weeks in review

I am such a bad blogger. I always have been. The only blog I was good at was Xanga. Who remembers that.... OLD SCHOOL!

Anyways, I had one of the worst weeks, last week, that I have had in a very long time. It seems that life does that sometimes though. I failed (barely, one was a 72% and the other a 74%, still failing in dental hygiene school, though) two tests, something in my car blew up while driving on the interstate and I had to sit on the side of the road wait for a tow truck, I then had to cough up money for car parts that I didn't have, my grandmas washer was leaking and no one knew and almost fell through the floor so she had to go live at my parents for a few days (doesn't directly effect me but it was just one thing after another, you've had those kind of days/weeks before), and a few other things that I have pushed far back in my memory. I just had a really bad week, not only in school, but at home, too. It was awful. Oh, and I completely forgot to blog.

I was determined, however, to not let this week be the same. I succeeded! This week has actually been super relaxing. I have a lot due school-wise, but I can handle that! This one one of those weeks where I was just going through the motions, which normally, I would probably complain about.... "nothing ever changes..whine whine" NOT THIS TIME! I enjoyed very much having nothing extra happening in my life!

Tomorrow is a big day, lots of things going on! School, work for a few hours at my new job as an admin assistant at Manpower, going to see my sister give a speech since she is running for an office in our schools pep organization, and then a little free time to make some potluck type food for our game night gathering that my Sunday school class is getting together to do! Tomorrow is filled but should be a great day!

Anyways, a little update about Operation Space! I taught again last Wednesday, and had a great time again. Kids are kids and sometimes they don't like to listen or mind very well, but I think they enjoy their time learning about Christ! Hopefully they'll get something out of it!

No real title here

Wednesday was my first time teaching Operation Space and I think it went pretty well! A friend at church and I both taught together. We only had 6 kids... but I think that was just the right amount to be able to handle. There were different activities during the hour we had the kids, including a memory verse, an "action cube" game where the kids rolled a action cube and whatever picture it landed on a story was read and the kids had to determine if the people in the story obeyed God or not, 2 craft projects, and snack time. One of the crafts was pretty simple, just coloring the planets, cutting them out and gluing them on black paper, but one kid was super creative and instead drew a sun, cut it out, and then glued all the planets on the sun to signify the "planets orbiting the sun." I was so amazed at the creativity! The kids were pretty good and attentive, but at times it was difficult to get everyone to listen so I can't really imagine what it would have been like had there been a lot more kids! I might have had a meltdown or something, although lets hope not. Anyways, next Wednesday we are teaching again, so keep us in your prayers! :)

In other news, I bought a new lamp today. I have a real and truely almost sick but totally amazing obsession with lamps. I bought it at Annie Laurie's Antiques in Cape Girardeau.

Tomorrow is one of my friends wedding in Ste. Genevieve, MO. So, thats exciting! Not much else is going on in my life at the moment. Hope it stays that way for a little while... it's kind of nice!

Pets help us deal

In a recent article I read online by Reuters, a new study shows that pet owners with chronic diseases tend to have healthier hearts than people living without animal companions. Read the article here!

In 200 Japanese people, scientists found that those who had a pet, any kind of pet, had higher rate variability than those who did not. This means that their hearts responded better to the always changing bodies needs. As in the heart needs to beat faster in stressful situations, etcetera. When the heart does not change to the surrounding environment features, this causes a higher risk for dying from heart disease.

Erika Friedmann, one of the professors at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, said that this particular study is a step forward from what is already known about the connection of pet owners having better heart health. Although no one is quite sure why there is such a big connection.

Although, yes, having a pet can make you feel better and have a healthier heart, but it is not going to cure you or make all symptoms go away, but it sure can help!

I think a lot of us have heard before how much pets help us live longer and be happier people. Who knew they could also help us deal with chronic diseases? Actually, me, I did! I was diagnosed at 21 with Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), which includes Lupus and also diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I never understood how true it was that pets can help you cope. My family had just gotten a puppy in March of that year, and I was diagnosed in October. My dog helped get me through the absolute hardest time in my life! I was pretty depressed about being so young and being diagnosed with something that I would have to deal with the rest of my life and he helped me get through the day. Truly. I started a blog during this time, although I didn’t do many posts, but if anyone wanted to read it, go here. Also, just to clarify, I actually have been about 70% better than I was when I was first diagnosed. I don’t know what happened, maybe it was the big cocktail of drugs they put me on, maybe it was the love from my puppy, but I do very well now and live a pretty normal life! Something I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be able to say again! Read more about MCTD.

Lovely Days!

What a week. And what I mean by that is, "Wow! What an awesome week!" I had a snow day, a class cancelled on Thursday, didn't have much due... pretty easy week!

Let me fill you in on what I did on my snow day, which if I might say so myself... it was a pretty productive day!

It all started on Sunday after church. I asked a crafty lady, Teresa, at church if she would like to go to the antique mall that afternoon. We had talked about it a few weekends ago, but hadn't went yet. She was all in, so after we ate lunch, we headed to the Old Timer's Antique Mall in Dexter, MO. When we got there, I gave her and my mom the low down on the kinds of things I was into, what I was looking for in my apartment, and had them on the lookout. I needed an old small vintage vanity mirror tray for my bathroom, was looking for a clock or something decorative for above my TV to put between the two paintings I have up there, and almost jokingly, that I was in the market for a new vanity/desk.

Going around the store, I found so many amazing things that I loved. I found so many larger vanity trays, but couldn't find any smaller ones. Finally, Teresa found a small vanity tray! I was so excited. It was just want I wanted, with the gold coils around the edges. Perfect. Although, at this point, I had already almost decided that I just had to have a larger one as well. I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to put it, but I had to have it. Here is the larger one I bought!

and the smaller one...

Anyways, so we were just about through the entire store, which I think at this point we had been there about 2 hours... (an awesome 2 hours I might add.) And I spotted it. An older desk, so sturdy, almost perfect although painted pretty crappy colors, but a perfect frame and exactly what I wanted to use as a desk/vanity area in my bedroom. More so a vanity, let's be honest. I loved it, I knew I wouldn't love the price though. Furniture like this isn't in my price range, usually ever. Everyone else always finds the deals on furniture, I never seem too...

But I did! The going rate for the desk was $69.50. If I had the money, I would have paid much more than that. It was too good to be true though, that is an extremely low price for such a well-made piece of furniture. My first question, what in the world is wrong with it? I couldn't find a single thing... I mean c'mon, it even came with a free chair. The desk ended up being an old sewing machine desk, but I guess whoever owned it previously had plastered in the part where the desk would open for the sewing machine, so now it's just a flat top instead. Lets just say, I definitely purchased it! The man that helped me carry the desk outside to the car said that the piece actually came in only 2 hours ago. I am pretty sure this piece was meant to BE MINE. Here is the desk before I got my hands on it...

And I forgot to take a before picture of the chair, but the picture on the left is the seat cushion before and the entire chair after I recovered the cushion and painted the chair high gloss black!

And then... after about a 10 hour day of sanding, painting, repainting, and touching up... here is my almost entirely finished product! I am on the market for some new to me vintage hardware for the drawers!

Up close picture. This was while it was still in progress though!

(Please excuse the crappy iPhone pictures)

Anyways, I ended up doing a lot of productive work on Monday for the snow day, and I absolutely loved every minute of it! Now I'm excited about my next great find!

On another note, just in case anyone is really into my life or something, my busy weekend ended up going very well and really smoothly. I did, however, miss seeing the movie, Courageous, so that I could make it in time to my friend's engagement party but hopefully I can borrow or rent it and watch it sometime soon! The Meeting at church was a lot of fun and great fellowship. We learned a lot about each other that many didn't know before, and the different ages that were there enjoying each others company was great!

Great things are going on in my life right now and I just seriously could not be more excited or happy! YAY LIFE!