Story #4

So far this year I have worked hard to achieve my exercise daily goal.  For as long as I can remember, I have had the worst cardio!  In 8th grade we had to run the mile in P.E.  Guess what my mile time was (cue the breath intake and astonished face)?  It was around 17 minutes.  My P.E. teacher asked me afterwards if I had asthma.  Nope.  Not to my knowledge.  At least I've never had any asthma attacks or anything to prove that I do.  I must have super weak lungs or something though haha.  Maybe I should get it checked out, but it hasn't caused me too much trouble minus getting short of breath way too easily.  Anyway... that's why I need to do some type of exercise to work my lungs out.  So far I've done pretty good at exercising daily since I've made my New Year's resolutions (minus Thursdays when I go to my parent's house [... which I can and still should exercise on Thursdays.  My parents have their own little gym in the basement, so there's no excuse for me not to exercise!] and the past couple of days when I've been sick).  I have definitely been starting out slow and just speed walking, but hopefully I can eventually turn that into a light jog, and then maybe run a mile under 17 minutes hahaha.

Story #3

This is a tough question. I don't know what I would consider to be my most proud achievement. I think right now in this point in my life with a newborn and adjusting to two kids, I would say the most proud achievement I've made is not giving up. For the most part, the adjustment to two kids hasn't been bad. Myla has done better at the adjustment than I thought she would, and she has been such a loving and helpful big sister. Aria has been a pretty good baby (at least for me... she likes to cry with some other people haha) as well, so I've been lucky there as well.  But let's be honest, it's exhausting having kids and it feels like a never ending exhaustion, even if I get a 20 minute nap in to reenergize myself. But I am proud of myself for hanging in there. It's hard work being a mom, but the blessings are worth it!

Story #2

I don't think I quite understand the question... aren't all goals made for the future because of things past or present that you want to change?  So I guess I'll just answer what my goals are haha.  How fitting, seeing that it's only been a couple of weeks into the new year.

1. Read something gospel related every day.  I have such a hard time with this, and I don't know why!  Especially the scriptures.  I know, I should love the scriptures, but the weird English language just doesn't capture my attention, so when I do read I couldn't tell you what I just read.  But, like many other things, I think being consistent in reading will at least help.

2. Get ready every day.  I feel super lazy and don't feel like doing anything when I'm stuck in my pajamas all day, or when I don't get make up on.  And it's really easy to do when I'm just at home with the kids and don't plan on going out.  "No one's going to see me" is usually my excuse, but then I don't feel like doing the list of things I have written out.  Waste of make up and hair product if you ask me, but at least I'll feel productive and energetic.

3. Exercise daily.  I don't mind going on walks, but other than that I don't like exercising.  Maybe I need to branch out and try something else out like Pilates or zumba or something, but I haven't found any type of exercise I like.  Running—kill me now.  Swimming—that means floating around the lazy river at 7 Peaks, right?  Sports—eh, not my thing.  Weightlifting—I got my babies and that's enough weightlifting for me.  Yoga—I've done it in high school P.E. and I don't really understand it.  I guess for now I'll just stick to my walking.

4. Write in blog weekly. I have a hard time thinking of things to write about, but luckily I have these questions to help me along for an entire year! Writing on the blog is more of a journal for me. I have a journal I write in occasionally, but it just so much faster to type, and I like being able to spice up my entries with pictures.

5. Work on calligraphy. I want to write quotes in pretty cursive, but it is definitely harder than it looks! I was introduced to this when I went to Pinner's Conference 2 years ago. I feel like I haven't really found my "style" (or maybe I have and I don't like the look of it), so I want to be able to find a style I like and practice that.

#52Stories

In my stocking this year from my mother-in-law, Tina, I got this little ring with notecards on it with 52 questions. Tina got a couple of these from Pinner's Conference this year (so sad I couldn't go :() from the Family Search booth. These questions are supposed to be for your posterity's sake so they know more about you as a person and to help you complete your personal history. So I decided since I have a hard time coming up with things to blog about, I'd answer these questions (more for me and for my posterity, so if these posts get boring, I won't be offended at all if you don't read the answers to these questions). So. I'll answer one of these a week since there are 52 weeks in a year. I figured I'd do the first question today, and then some time later this week I'd answer the second question since we are already into the second week or the year.

Question #1: 

Wow.  The first question is hard haha.  The only thing I can think of is the one time I got scouted for a talent agency up in Salt Lake, and I went and auditioned.  I've always thought it would be fun to act in a television show or something like that, but a few of things have prevented me from chasing that dream:

1) Being a stay-at-home mother is the first thing I wanted to be, and I think it would be hard to work out of the home, or even run/work for a business within the home.  I don't know how working mothers balance their children and work at the same time.  Kudos to you.

2) The standards of the movie industry and mine don't align.  Let's be honest, how many active LDS actors/actresses are huge celebrities?  Sure, there are people like Kirby Heyborne, but they're mostly in LDS films.

3) As most of you know, I am on the shier side and don't like to be in the spotlight or do things when all eyes are on me.

So, as the story goes, I went up to SLC, did a cold read where my mother/father was dying in the hospital and the agent was really impressed, especially since they (the agent, my dad, and my sister) left the room to have me read through it and practice by myself and I was already in tears when they came back in the room.  Let's just say that I cry really easily (I am pretty good at holding in tears... I don't like to cry, especially in front of people).  The agent had me do a second cold read where I was angry, and that was a disaster.  I'm not good at being angry haha.  But the agent said he would love to have me enroll in their classes and began to list a bunch of people who went through their agency (such as "Napoleon Dynamite"... that was the only guy he listed off that I knew haha).  I ended up not enrolling in their classes, and I can't say that I regret letting that opportunity "get away".  I love the staying at home with my two little girls, and I wouldn't have it any other way.