the me in 2012

I have been thinking so much lately, thinking about where life has brought me, where life has been, where I've been, who I am....just thinking.  With New Years approaching I've been also thinking a lot about resolutions.  I have never really made any resolutions and the reason is pretty terrible.  You see, I have always had goals for life but didn't want to say, "This year I will________" because I was afraid of setting myself up for failure.

This year all of this thinking has brought me to a point where I'm excited to make some resolutions.  Success, to me, has always been measured by my accomplishments and physical things.  Graduating college, getting my teaching credential, getting married, landing a teaching job, working on my masters, buying a new car, taking trips....

This year I want to take this image of success and tear it down.  When I measure my success solely on my accomplishments in this matter, life doesn't feel hole some.  One book has had a major impact on my thinking lately...

As I've read through this amazing book so many of my weaknesses have been brought to light, God has been speaking directly to my heart, and God has challenged my thinking.  This book has made me vulnerable and opened up my heart.  My goals for this year are very different than in years past as they are centered around me and not my accomplishments, but who I AM.  They are a work in progress...

Goal #1: LOVE who I am, and love me for me.  

A big weakness of mine is to compare myself to everyone else.  I worry that I'm not doing enough or being enough because of this and it causes me to loose focus on who I am.  

               

"When I get an overly idyllic view of someone else's circumstances, I often remind myself out loud, "I am not equipped to handle what they have-both good and bad.""

"When I compare myself to others and focus on wanting what they have, it quite simple wears me out trying to figure out how to have more, be more, and do more.  That's why Jesus instructs worn-out people, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30)."

Goal #2: Not be so hard on myself.

I have this vision in my mind of who I am supposed to be but this vision comes from everywhere else.  This goal along with goal #1, but when stress hits or something doesn't go quite right my mind enters into this state where all I do is harp on myself.  This year I want to daily remind myself that I am ME, accept that, and ask God to help me love me.  I have to give up some expectations I have for myself and realize that I do my best each and everyday, and that is enough.  

 Goal #3: Stress LESS

My life is defined by business, and it is eating away at me.  I'm still working out the kinks on how this will unfold in my life.  I'm praying and asking God for his vision for me, asking God to show me how to weed out the unnecessary, and giving over my schedule to Him.

Goal #4: Shine!
This past month I have been inspired to live out the life that God has called us to, serve Him and love others.  I want my love for Christ to shine through me.  My goal is to pray that God would bring more opportunities in my life for me to SHINE for Him and inspire other. 

Shine Your light so all can see it
Lift it up, 'cause the whole world needs it
Love has come, what joy to hear it
He has overcome
He has overcome

Happy 2012!

christmas part 2

Welcome back to part 2 of our Christmas!  If you didn't read part 1 click here, pronto!

We squeezed in as many memories as we could in just two and a half days with family.  Here's some more memories...

Drinking lots of mimosas in the morning, along with crepes, oh can my grandpa make some good crepes!

Drinking coffee out of our rooster mugs!!!  Seriously?!?!  I promise that I will let you all in on the rooster joke very soon!

Taking pictures with Bubba, the giant cactus in my grandma's backyard.

Trying out the halo braid on my cousin, how cute is that?!?!

Spending lots of time playing with this little one.  He fell in love with Daniel and followed him around, begged us to play, and even played tricks on me-my husband is teaching him while he's young. 

Going out to dinner and cheering to our amazing family.  My family was joking that he looked like he could be our son, so this is our future family picture.

Taking lots of self portraits with mom and grandma.  

She gets it from her mamma!  

Taking a crochet lesson from grandma and making this beauty-an infinity scarf.  Holy smokes, it was super easy and I did it in just about 2 hours...and it's super warm!

Drinking lots of homemade lattes, making foam mustaches, and wishing that we never had to go home.  

christmas part 1

Greetings from Reno!  

We went from one state to home back to another and are loving every minute of it.  I didn't realize it but it has been forever since I have blogged last.  As soon I got around family for the holidays everything else faded, and all that mattered was soaking up every ounce of time.  A huge blessing for the husband and I is this vacation.  He has from Christmas all the way till New Years off work!  We're making the most of our time and are now in Reno visiting great friends of ours for New Years Eve.  

I wanted to show you all how we spent our Christmas and ended up taking lots more pictures than expected.  So, to ensure you don't feel overwhelmed I'm breaking it up into two posts.

On Christmas Eve night we loaded up my parents' car (and I mean loaded it up), we had gifts and bags in every corner of the car.  Then we drove to Arizona to my grandparents' house.  My grandma is the cutest and has been baking for a week in preparation for our trip and welcomed us with cheese platters and wine.  

Christmas morning we woke up and exchanged presents with my parents and grandparents and then headed to my aunt's house where we got busy cooking dinner.  This Christmas was extra special as it was the first time EVER that my mom's side of the family was all together.  We rarely spend holidays together since we're not all in the same state.  My uncle and his kids drove from central CA, we drove in from SD, and all of my cousins and aunt live in AZ.  We spent Christmas day eating, watching football, playing football at the park, going for walks, and sleeping....YES, my body crashed on Christmas day.  After we ate I took a 2 hour nap, then another nap after that, then fell asleep on the way back to my grandma's!  I think that all of the stress from the end of the semester of work and school along with cleaning and getting ready for Christmas finally took a toll on me.  I was able to relax and my body just shut down.  It felt amazing!

I'll let the pictures tell the rest...

All of the cousins with the blankets my mom made.  

Love him!

Jorday, my cousin's son...he's just to cute!

She's ready to shake it!

Piggy back rides

Afternoon walks

Cousins!

My uncle- my goofiness definitely comes from him!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas!

merry christmas

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Peas and Thank You, and she reminded me how imperfect-yet beautiful the first Christmas was.  

Things were far from perfect the night our Savior came into the world.

I’m sure Mary and Joseph weren’t in the best of spirits that Christmas Eve.  They were tired, cold and hungry.  Mary wasn’t exactly self-administering an epidural either.  She was riding, rather uncomfortably, I’m sure, on the back of a mule.  But I’d bet she didn’t turn to Joseph as another door was shut in their face, and say sarcastically, “Merry Christmas, right?”

Things were far from perfect the night our Savior came into the world.

We were undeserving, and yet He still came.

We were undeserving, and yet He still came.

That last line is so simple yet so profound.  Amongst the stress of Christmas shopping, fighting traffic in shopping centers, questioning whether or not you have gifts for everyone, the true reason for the season outweighs it all.  

This Christmas is extra special as my family and I are traveling to Arizona to visit my grandma.  This is the first Christmas ever that all of my mom's family is together for Christmas and the excitement is uncontrollable.  After Arizona we're heading up to Reno to visit good friends of ours for NYE.  From my home to yours I wish you all the merriest of Christmases and I hope the rest of your 2011 is joyful!

Merry Christmas!

a chocolate fix

Christmas lights, The Christmas Story, and basketball, oh MY!  I'm soaking in as much relaxation time this week as well as making joyful memories.  I may have stayed in my PJ's Tuesday till 1pm, watched far too many episodes of Friday Night Lights than I can say without being embarrassed, but decided to make up my own magical chocolate recipe in the spirit of baking.  

Something magical happens when you take dark chocolate, pistachios, dried cranberries, and sea salt...

Melt the chocolate...

Line your pan...

Pour the rich, velvety dark goodness in...

Add in some nutritious pistachios...

Sprinkle with a touch of sea salt and dried cranberries....

and ENJOY!

I let it sit overnight and then broke it up into bark the next morning.  This stuff is SO good and I can't keep my hands off of it.  It's the perfect healthy fix during the baking season.  

This week we had to get in the Christmas cheer so we went out and looked at some lights, it's one of my favorite traditions.  

Our favorite house was themed after "A Christmas Story", too funny!

Another house had a great sign for you to Elf yourself!

Christmas time always means the return of Nathan (and drinking lots of espresso).  We also met up with his family and went to the SDSU basketball game.  

These boys are the sprinkle to my cupcake!  

when kylee comes to play

There is no greater joy than being with the ones you love most.  My heart was overflowing this past week because my beautiful friend, Kylee, came in town again!  You can read all about our adventures this last time she was in town here, here, and here.  I love that her job is based here in San Diego so I get to see her every couple of months.  Although she was in town for a week we both had pretty busy schedules so we squeezed in as many of our favorites as we could.  

First stop was our absolute favorite restaurant, Cucina Urbana.  If you live in San Diego and love food-you have to eat here!  Your mouth and your tummy will thank you.  On the menu was a cheese and board, a gorgonzola mouse vasi with roasted pears, and a pear and arugula salad.  (We LOVE cheese!)

Our last day together we continued on with our tradition of eating breakfast at Claire's on Cedros.  It really doesn't get much better than this: best friends, husband, delicious food, and an abundant heart.  

After breakfast we headed down to Seaport Village.  This is a treasure.  As I'm writing this I just can't get over how lucky we are to live in this beautiful city and see the beauty everywhere.  The weather could not have been better and the skies were so clear for most of the day.  

Our last stop for the day was to a little wine bar downtown to enjoy, you guessed it, cheese!

It may seem like all we do is eat, especially cheese, but we just had to soak up our favorite places to eat at in such a short amount of time.  Festivities that weren't chronicled were:

watching "Elf" 

quoting "Elf" lines over email all week

making dinner together

staying cozy in our PJ's at 7pm at night

planning our trip up to Reno to visit them

laughing over "Whitney" together

sharing a pot of coffee

laughing until our bellies hurt