The Weekend Recap!

I hope you had a great weekend! It was a 5 day weekend in my world!

Friday, I took off to help my sister and mom prepare the TWINS' nursery! How cute is this?!

My mom and a good family friend prepared and put together the quilts. Seriously...I want one.

The elephant humidifier's name is Elliot. Hello El.e.ot! :)

 

I took a cat nap while my sister and mom put together the cork board frames in the top photo. :)

And I was extremely happy with the turnout of the elephants and the Born Together Friends Forever triptych!

On Friday night, my sister treated us to a movie--Pitch Perfect 2! So great! I give it two thumbs up, especially how hard it made my mom and sister laugh!

...


Onto Memorial Day...every other Memorial Day (before last year), I spent the day cleaning or working at the pool, being lazy, or who knows, really! Not really acknowledging what the day was really for.

Then I started CrossFit.

You don't have to participate in CrossFit to make the choice to recognize what the day is for, but it's what flipped the switch for me.

Last year I participated in "Donny" (21-15-9-9-15-21 deadlifts and burpees...definitely harder than it looks!) This year was Memorial Day "Murph." Besides Cindy and Karen, Murph always gives me a gut wrenching feeling.
This time was different. I was very excited! I set 1 expectation for myself and 1 only...to keep going!

What is Murph?

Run 1 Mile
300 Air Squats
200 Push Ups (eeek!)
100 Pull ups
Run 1 Mile

I had this thought in my head the entire time, my grandpa's brother died serving our country and my grandpa and numerous friends of mine have dedicated their time to serving our country so I was going to work extra hard for them. Because they never gave or give up.

I got out to run the last mile and was OK until the last 500 meters. My brain, legs, and feet were screaming to stop. And sure enough I wanted to so bad. But that thought kept popping back into my head...My grandpa's brother, my grandpa, and my friends surely didn't stop so why would I? This run was killing me, but...it could ALWAYS BE WORSE. Attach the encouragement that filled the gym and this workout was done and I was so happy to have done that much in respect to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Read the story about Murph HERE.

Catch Up and a Note From Mother's Day!

 

I hope you had a great weekend! Mine was spent catching up on laundry, cleaning, attending an Herbalife training, meeting with customers, visiting my mom, and spending time with Collin's family, and somehow winning a game of cards...which NEVER happens! You could tell by my awful "poker face" when I was about to lay down my last card in 7's Rule! I'll try to work on that! :)

 

This is my friend, Amy. She is so wonderful. She has lost over 30+ lbs with Herbalife products, putting her at -180lbs so far! WOW! Keep up the great work, Amy!

 

A note from yesterday:

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing and strong mom! She has taught me kindness, patience, optimism, and that if I want something bad enough, I'm going to have to work hard for it. I could never thank her enough for all that she does for me. I can't wait to see her as Grammy C!  I would also like to wish a very Happy 1st Mother's Day to my wonderful sister who is extremely successful and has be a great role model for me, and will be an **AMAZING** mom! It's crazy to think in less than 2 months, we will be welcoming two little boys to our family! I'm so excited and I know my parents, extended family, and friends are too!

10 Reasons Why Graduating College is Awesome

I see a lot of posts about college graduations today! Congrats to you all! It's one of the best things that is going to happen to you at this point in your life! Here is why...

1. Ultimately, being in the "real world" is NOT that bad. Getting paid to do what you've spent the last x amount of years preparing for is actually nice! Even if the job is not what you studied, getting paid plus benefits is amazing!

2. No more of that Sunday tension. I always had this feeling on Sunday's...do you know what I'm talking about? The feeling that I had so much to do, to prepare for the week, ect. I was overwhelming myself. None of that. Now you can go to bed without having some major homework or project due in the near future. No more homework, which means that once you’re off work, you’re really off work.

3. You are officially a business professional. Saying you're a "college student" gets you a weird rep with anyone outside of the college bubble. I never figured out why until I wasn't in school. There really is no specific reason.

4. With that. You get more respect from adults in the business world, yet they understand you're still in a learning phase. You should always be in a learning phase, but it'll get you the "I just didn't know" pass for a while.

5. IMO, high school graduation was just plain sad. I was not happy about it one bit. I see now that I could've and should've been excited! But at that point in time, it was hard to adjust not being around the 74 other people I had been around for the last 15 years. College graduation is something to be excited about. Treat yourself to something fun. College is tough.

 

6. No more spending trillions of dollars on tuition every few months. Or on textbooks, for that matter.

 

7. You don’t have to pack up your entire room and move every summer. Unless you choose to do so...

 

8. Instead, you make cool new grown-up friends. But keep those college-made friends. They are some of the best! (Shout out to Alyssa, Amanda, Raine, Sam, Erin, Brandon, Meg, and Ryan!

 

9. Freshman Fifteen? Sophomore Still-Packing-On-The-Pounds? Junior Giant? The real world is considerably healthier than college. Amen!

 

And last, but NOT least...

 

10. Duh, no finals.

 

To be honest, I miss college quite a bit. I called my good friend and old roommate, Alyssa, time and time again right after and even up to a year after I graduated in tears because I missed it so much. My point here, the real world is actually really fun. If you're still in college, have fun. Don't stress. I wish I would've relaxed more and actually enjoyed my 3.5 years in college. I did shortly after turning 21, but the 3 years before that were spent stressed, angry, lost, and completely confused. I am definitely "that person" that wishes she could go back and change a lot of things in college, but they don't cloud my thoughts and they were the reason I am where I am today. And if I would have changed some things, I may not have the wonderful friends that I made in college or the job that lead me to Ames. Congrats to all of the college graduates over the next week+! You definitely are just getting started!