Sky Is The Limit

If you're in my line, I'll go around the side, and still bring it

Sky is the limit
So out of my way
You can't get me down

There's nothing like a clear peace of mind
To overcome the hardships in life
To sort out the wrong from the right
Someone's in line, but they can't get me down

I got my own self by my side
And mentally I gotta be free
I see the wickedness coming full speed
But, I hold together like the ball needs the seam

I'm trying to do something not nothing,
You're trying to hold me back and that's fine
Nothing you say or do is worth my time
Good day to you, I respectfully decline
And now I'm coming stronger than ever
You say I'm a fool
I say whatever
I'm in it for the good vibes together
And the love lasts forever

Nothing you can do to me now
Nothing you can say to me now

Now it's been seven years running
Backyards and front yards and at the eight - seven
Some hit the scene with a bang and that set it
While some they didn't really work hard to get it

Dream on they say dream on you're weak,
But my hand's still high cuz in my mind I've achieved
IV set the pace for a dream
6500 all the living I need

There's nothing you can say to me now
Nothing you can do to me now
Nothing you can say to me now
Nothing you can do to me now

Weekend Canoe Trip!

This weekend was our first official outing since I started event planning for the "young adults" group at my church. It was small, but we had a BLAST! We went canoeing at Heavner Canoe & Kayak Rental in Milford. I LOVE me some canoeing. HOWEVER, my sister Kayla & I can never be partners again. It was the worst! haha

Here's some pics from the trip.

As you can see, we had a great time! I cannot wait until the next one!!! 

Sometimes...

Sometimes... You use the right lens, remember to put on the right filter and create photo GOLD!! That is what happened here: 

And a little bit here too:

What can I say? Sometimes I'm just the bomb at scenery... 

It happened again...

Time for another round of "Things That Happened While I Wasn't Here." This past weekend we did a big family trip up to Mackinaw City, or Hangtown as I like to call it. There was FIFTEEN of us up there.

Left to right: Dustin, Me, Grammy, Wes, Papa Dale, Uncle Mike, My Dad, Brenna, My Mom, Daisy, Aunt Jenn, Kayla, Tyler, Staci & Sam

We crossed the Mackinaw Bridge over into St. Ignace for a car show & to explore a little. (I feel like I didn't really get to explore much though. Felt really rushed because everyone wanted to do something different.) So when the bulk of us got across the bridge we sat down for dinner here at this fancy diner I don't remember the name of... haha oops. But the food was delicious, and the service was pretty quick for a group of 15! 

While we were waiting for our food me, Tyler & Daisy went out for a walk on the pier and found this gem:

Now I say "gem" because it is a very known fact in my family that my sister (their Mom) is a HUGE Michigan fan. Me, I'm a state fan, so anytime I can rub it in her face I DO! (though I found out after my precious little niece Daisy sings a song that goes "Michigan State is the team we HATE" on the bus, my eyes peed a little)

Here's a few more from our short time in St. Ignace.

Yea I know... St. Ingace is pretty much the bomb-dot-com... You should definitely go there sometime soon :)

Easy A

“Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80’s movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80’s movie, preferably one with a really awesome musical number for no apparent reason. But no, no, John Hughes did not direct my life.”

Emma Stone - Easy A

Maybe a little TMI, but I don't really care...

It's about to get really real up in here blog world, because the point of this blog is to talk about me & what's going on in my life. (Who doesn't love to talk about themselves all the time, right?) Anyways, I feel like if I just skipped over this I wouldn't really be embracing the blog and that just defeats the whole purpose in my opinion.


So last night started period #3 in 6 weeks. This is very abnormal for any female, but me especially since mine are normally about a month & a 1/2 apart. Normally. I have had just about enough of this... well let's be serious, I have had BEYOND enough of this. It really is a situation. So the first thing I did this morning was call my main doctor because my insurance is DUMB and I need a referral for any other doctor I may want to see. I gave Lisa all of my information and asked if I really had to come in just to have them give me a sheet of paper stating I could go to my other doctor, or if she'd just do me a solid and send it anyway. Lisa is the bomb & just did it anyway. Then called me back about a 1/2 hour later & told me I didn't need one anyways. MAKE. UP. YOUR. MIND. 


Next step was to make an appointment with my lady doctor. He asked when I wanted to come in and I sarcastically replied "yesterday." I got right in with an 11:45 appointment and I was all set to give my doctor the "it's my body & I'll do what I want" talk about birth control to regulate my "monthly visitor" but she had other plans. Her plan was to "collect a sample" (A.K.A. inflict more pain than childbirth) of my uterine wall and have pathology analyze it. I honestly don't think I have felt worse pain. Any cramp I've ever had has been NOTHING compared to this pain, and it didn't just stop once she was done with the procedure. It lasted for about 2 hours after I left the doctor's office. 


Oh & did I fail to mention that as soon as I got back to work I pretty much busted my butt getting all the shipping done??? Yea that happened. That is also when I started to feel a little bit better. I say it was the aspirin, my aunt says it was all the heavy lifting helping her with the shipping. I'll call it a tie because there really is no clear way to tell. ;)


I have to go back to the doctor's on the 10th to see what pathology found. Hoping that it's nothing serious, but if it is I can handle it. I'm tough! And have no fear, as soon as I find out I will be sure to let you all know. I know you will be on the edge of your seat until then. :)

Reality

Today, you not only get a daily quote, but a daily quote with a picture. 

Yep... I'm THAT nice!

Am I not turtly enough for the Turtle Club?

Took this one of my niece Daisy at the Fresno Zoo a little over a year ago I believe. She was 4 and of course had to play in the turtle shell. Too afraid to feed the giraffe, but haaaaaaad to play in the turtle shell. haha love those blue eyes!

Trust

A man who trusts nobody is apt to be a man nobody trusts.

Harold MacMillan

Things that happened while I wasn't here...

Have you noticed the same trend in my blogging that I have? I do great all week, then BAM the weekend hits and I fail miserably to keep it up. I'm just to dang busy (and it's to stinkin' nice out) to sit inside and blog. So instead of feeling bad about it and counting it as a fail, I will just catch you up every Monday on the tings that happened while I wasn't here. :) Yep, I'm a genius!

Here goes nothing!

Friday night was great, yet disappointing all in the same second. I'll start with the great. My cousin Sam & I decided on Monday of last week to throw together a surprise party for my baby sis Kayla. Though, she's really not a baby any more, she's 22. But she'll always be MY baby sis! Anyways, we made a flyer and decided to have it at Sam's house, since we normally go there on Friday's anyway, and have drinks, food & a bon fire. Oh and did I mention the chocolate mustache lollipops? Oh yea, that happened! 

Pics or it didn't happen...

ME

Birthday Girl Kayla

Ashley

Brenna

Mark. (He already had a mustache, so he just needed the stick:)

We really did have a great time & Kayla was really surprised. (although a little let down because she thought we were going to California Pizza Kitchen all week.) SORRY KAY!

The downside of Friday is... actually I don't even care about the downside. Those that showed up had a good time and those who didn't missed out... BIG TIME!

Saturday: Was cleaning day... Yippee... 

Conversation with my Mom Friday night:

MOM: "Remember we're cleaning tomorrow... starting at 10, so I will be waking both of you up about 9:30. Pass that along to your sis please" 

ME: "Why can't I just wake up at 10?" 

MOM: "Because I want to start at 10..."

ME: O_o 

We got almost everything done, and I will agree that the house needed a good cleaning. Ever since Kay stopped being the maid we've gotten pretty lazy in the cleaning department. So we cleaned, and it looks gooooooood!


Then we all went to Makenzie's grad party (I feel so old!!!) and can I just say... The food was so delicious! I remember now why I don't mind going to grad parties! The food! haha On a serious note, CONGRATULATIONS to Makenzie for graduating high school! So proud of you girlie! Woohoo!


One more thing for Saturday, man I was busy! It was also My good friend Mallory's birthday and she invited a few of us over to her house for a bon fire. Highlight of the evening? 

Sh'e smiling here, but the engagement was short-lived.

The  fake engagement between Sam & Matt that carried over from Makenzie's grad party, to Mallory's B-day bon fire. It. Was. Hilarious! Sam may not think so, but the rest of us did. We even went as far as to take some mock engagement pictures. (which Sam FAILED to post to Facebook, so I cannot share them with you, I'm as disappointed as you are trust me!) We could have had a whole wedding all at Mallory's. We had a pastor, witnesses, a piano player, THE WORKS! I have a feeling Sam would have drawn the line though.


Onto SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! Not a whole lot really happened on Sunday. I got up & went to church, passed out fliers for the canoe trip I planned and had a BBQ at my house with Jon & Amy. And swam with my niece & nephew, they think they are SOO cool because they can swim underwater WITH THEIR EYES OPEN! haha they're wearing goggles, so does that really count?? 


Last thing I want to add to this post is more of a request. I have a blog friend named Lauren & she is currently about 30 weeks pregnant with her first child. 

Ted & Lauren - Borrowed this pic from her blog, aren't they the cutest?

They're having a baby girl. They found out recently that one of their daughter's ventricles is not working properly and just kinda stutters. What I remember from her blog & twitter is that this is a new development with baby Brimley, and that the Dr. appointment the month prior showed no sign of heart troubles. It's a very scary time for them and they really don't have a lot of answers as to what exactly is going on (you know how Doctors are, they like to keep you in the dark sometimes) It is possible that the heart issue will resolve itself and they will have a happy, healthy baby, but it is also possible that it will not heal itself and Baby will need surgery right after birth. It's really up in the air at this point, and all they can do is wait.


Anyways, back to my request. If you're the praying type, or just want to make an exception for me, please send a prayer up for Lauren & Ted to have the strength & wisdom to handle the path that they are on with the current health issues Baby Brimely is having. And throwing in a prayer to help heal that precious little baby never hurts. I know our Heavenly Father already has a plan for them, but prayer never hurts. 


So thanks in advance for the prayers for the Brimley family, I appreciate it & I'm sure they do to. :)

Stereotypes

This pretty much sums it all up. ;)

Trick

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. 

Ingrid Bergman 

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean.

Dag Hammarskjold

Lucky Ducks!

Lucky you! You get 2 today!

My cousin Sam won the prized ukulele at the October Spencer Bell Legacy show. 

Here's the front...

...And here's the back!

What a lucky duck!! Now she just needs to learn how to play!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Yesterday was my younger sister's birthday. Every year on all of our birthdays we go out for a birthday dinner. Although now that we're older if it's not our birthday, we gotta pay our own way. Oh the downside of getting old... older, I mean. Ha ;) We all pretty much have our set spot where we're going to go. Except Brenna, she's a wild card. I always choose Mongolian BBQ because HELLO it's the bomb-dot-com & Kayla always picks Outback Steakhouse. Equally delish, however I get a free meal email from Mongo every year at my bday... so they win. 

Since I have a (self-diagnosed, which is a whole other post in itself.) potato allergy, I have been trying to limit my potato consumption lately. So it's always an inner struggle on which side I choose when we go out to eat. There really aren't a whole lot of sides these days that AREN'T potato. It's always a given that we are going to get at least one plate of Aussie Fries, so this go-round I decided to skip the uber delicious garlic mashies and just get Mac-A-Roo as my side. It was seriously the hardest thing ever to give up my spuds. They really make the chicken taste so much better! Sigh... I guess next time I'll have to get a steak instead of chicken. Darn you potato allergy!!

The good side to Outback on your birthday is you get free dessert. And we take full advantage of Kayla's free b-day dessert yearly!

 

 Let me break this picture down for you. You see, Daisy likes to steal your bite of ice cream right off your spoon before you can lift it out of the bowl, resulting in Tyler's look of death right at this moment. She's a sneaky one, but even sneakers get caught sometimes! Hence this picture.

 

 My mom on the other hand, is just trying to enjoy some ice cream but can't because she has to 5-year-old muchers trying to get their share of the goods! CAN. YOU. BLAME. THEM?

 

 Daisy asked me to take a picture of her, posed like this, then looked at it & said "OHHHH I have a mustache!" I lol'd.

Finally you have the birthday girl sporting the oh-so-rad sunglasses that her SUPER AWESOME sister, A.K.A. me, got for her. (For no reason at all, I may add) Then the joke of the evening was "I mustache you a question, but I'll shave it for later" Leave it to Beba to bring the corn. haha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAY KAY!

Duets

This may have been the cutest thing I saw all night! Ben Graupner w/ AnnaBeth during the Spencer Bell Legacy Show October 2011

Change

All change is not positive. 

Just as all movement is not forward.

Ellen Glasgow

It's About To Get Real...

So, I've noticed I don't normally talk about current stuff going on in my life. (I also noticed I start a lot of sentences with "so".) I post photos & quotes, and stuff from the past but I tend to skip the current. I honestly think that it's a problem for me. I don't know why I don't want to talk about it, it just seems easier (for me) to talk about past events. 

Well that all changes today suckahs!

I know I've talked in at least one previous post about the diet I'm doing, and I figure one way to keep up with the current events in my life (because I swear I do stuff, I'm not a hermit) is to log my daily diet life and work from there. It won't always just be diet related, but you gotta start somewhere!

The diet I am on is call Fat Loss For Idiots! Ironic, I know. It is a paid membership but I think it's only a one-time payment of 40 dollars. Believe me people, it's worth it! The best way to explain this diet is it's a high protein, low carb diet. When I say low carb, I mean low bread/potato carb. You get a lot from the vegetables and other foods on the diet. It's an 11-day cycle and then you have 3 free days. You select foods from their 2 lists and the program will generate a 11-day, 4 meal a day meal plan. The one main rule you always have to remember is "eat until you're satisfied, NOT full." It's a lot easier than it sounds and the long you do it the easier it becomes. 

I've been on this diet since January and I'm down 20 pounds. I know what you're thinking! "Six months and you've only lost 20 pounds!" Yes, that is my total weight loss, BUT I also had a 30 day cooking challenge in there and a 2nd month that I really didn't stick fully to the diet, and I maintained that 20 pound loss. So I'm really doing pretty good! (And if you know me, you know I am weak and I give into food temptation easily!)

I am currently back on the diet full-time and am so pumped about losing even more weight! I can honestly say that I'm not doing it for vain reasons. I don't particularly care what people think of the way I look. I'm doing it because I'm 5' 3" and weighed 237 pounds. That's WAAAAAAAAAAAY unhealthy! Thankfully I don't have any weight related health issues, yet. But I am acting now to prevent them in the future as best I can.

So today, is Day 2 in the cycle, and it's fruit day. So 4 meals of this:

I'm pretty much in heaven!

Lego

This is Michelle. And she has a Lego man on her face.

Brave

I'm not funny. What I am is brave.

Lucille Ball

The Adventures of Lego Man!

I have been going through my pictures and I found a bunch I had meant to post last October after the 2011 Spencer Bell Legacy Show. Friday night myself, my cousin Sam, Michelle & Steph had some fun with the Lego Man Steph had in her purse. He was a boxer, and had a double sided face. One side was happy smiley & the other was a punched in the eye with a bruise sad guy. Pretty fun. We had a great time with him.

Without further delay, here is The Adventures Of Lego Man!

He showed up to the bar beat up.

Then we had some drinks

Then he decided Michelle's lip was a good place to sit.

She disagreed, and tried to snort him.

He ordered more cocktails.

Ate some chips so he wouldn't be sick.

Tried to steal this cake, but we told him NO!

Had MORE drinks

Passed out

Got sick

Drunk dialed his ex-girlfriend

Pole danced.

Tried to snort some pixie stick. 

But he couldn't reach it so he asked Steph for a dollar bill.

Pixie Stick diving challenge.

Pixie stick surfing.

Put on his feather boa to dance some more. 

Ate the pixie stick

Watched Double Scale perform.

Washed his hands...

...With soap.

Hid in the flowers from his ex-girlfriend, who he drunk dialed and invited to the bar. OOPS.

I think we all know what he's doing here...

Creepin on me... Rude.

Snuck into the women's restroom.

Signed the tye dye mural.

MORE DRINKS.

Mooning...

Limbo... 

Raffle...

Checked Michelle's teeth for cavities.

And was finally cornered by his monkey lovin' ex. Man was he in some big trouble!!

Haha, well there you have it folks. The Adventures Of Lego Man. Maybe next time we can continue our adventure!