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January 27, 2010

"NO" Guilt


Are you one of those people that thrives off of staying busy?

Do you find yourself always saying "yes" when asked to join, commit, volunteer, etc.?

Do you feel like you could be a founding member of a group called 'Over Committers Anonymous'? ***

Me too!

I've always been one of those people that loves to join in. I hate to miss a good time or an opportunity to help someone out. In fact, about 5 or 6 years ago, one of my friends and I actually joked about starting a group called Over Committers Anonymous (OCA) but then figured we were just adding to our own demise because we would never be able to say "no" to the invitation to join our own group.

But lately, I have really been striving to be intentional in the way I spend my time and who I spend it with.

This, however, comes with an overwhelming feeling of guilt about saying "NO"!!!

Just the other day, a friend called me looking for a baby sitter for her cousin's baby. This particular baby is extremely LOW maintenance and she knows that I really love cuddling this sweet little girl. But she needed someone for the ENTIRE day, and I already had plans for the morning. For a moment, I even considered backing out of my morning plans just so I didn't have to say no to the babysitting job (a little backwards I know). And after I told her I wouldn't be able to do it and hung up the phone, I felt guilty!

I even ended up calling her back to tell her I could do the second half of the day if she needed me to.

Why is it so hard to say 'no'? And why do I even have to have a reason to say no? Couldn't I just say "I don't think I want to do it"? (even though I would have liked to watch this particular little cutie pie).

Do you have "NO" guilt???


January 09, 2010

Curling: the making of a future Olympian


On Friday night my friend Bobby organized for a group of us to go to a
local indoor ice rink and attend a "Learn to Curl" clinic.

At first, I was really skeptical. I'd seen curling on t.v. and, to
be quite honest, it looked like a joke.

People in sneakers shoving huge rocks across ice while others used
brooms to "sweep" it into position. I mean, SERIOUSLY?!?!
The whole "sport" was a joke, right?

But I went anyway. And I am SOOOO glad that I did.
We had such a fun night.

The evening started out with a 30 minute classroom instruction session.
And then we moved out on to the ice.

Here I am trying to move one of the stones.
Each of the stones weighed over 40 pounds!!!

Now that we were on the ice, we were taught how to put our feet in the starting block, how to use the brooms for stability when throwing your stone, and how to NOT fall over when actually throwing the stone (you wear a silicone liner on the bottom of one shoe to make it super slippery...and it works! It was extremely hard to stay on your feet when that thing was on)

After a lot of practice in form and function, we were finally let loose to put all the steps together.

Here I am pushing off out of the starting block

Here I go sliding, and forgetting to let go of the stone!
Once you let go of the stone there was almost NO chance of staying vertical!

And last, but not least, here is me after I released my stone. This is also where I spent a good portion of the evening, on my butt on the ice.


This must have been a picture of my 4th or 5th try because most of my first throws ended with me sprawled out flat on my belly across the ice.

It was SO hard, but SO fun. We laughed really hard all night long and will have some great stories to tell for a long time.

Oh...and I almost forgot. NBC-17 was there to film the whole evening. AND they will be airing the footage locally during the 2010 winter olympics. There were quite a few times that they had the camera pointed right at me, and one time particularly that I did that graceful spread eagle across the ice move. So keep your eyes peeled during the olympics, maybe you'll see me!

January 02, 2010

new year challenge


"...forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead." Philippias 3.13

I came across this verse in my daily devotion on new years day.

It struck me as so perfect for a verse to take me from the hardest year of my life (2009) to, what I hope to be, one of the best years of my life (2010)!

So my challenge (NOT resolution) to myself is to to look forward to the joy and blessing that lies ahead for me and not dwell and the hardships of the past.

This, in no way, means that I will "forget" what I have learned by coming through those rough times, but I am choosing not to dwell on how crappy it has been.

Help to keep me accountable to this! This is me formally giving anyone and everyone permission to gently "remind" me to dwell on blessings and not on hardship!

Won't you too look towards how He is blessing YOU this year?!?!

NYE 2009

New Years Eve has always been a big deal for me. I think it's because its one of those holidays when people DON'T go home to families but instead opt to celebrate with friends.

This year my friend Eric had a bunch of us over for a pot luck dinner. He made some super yummy beef and veggie stew and everyone else brought fantastic yummy sides.

After dinner at Eric's I stopped over at my friends Rob and Meredith's house for their annual party.

And finally, around 11 I landed at my friend Jason's house for a quiet countdown with friends. It turned out to be a really fun night.


Back row: Lori, Me, Erin
Front Row: Laura, Jay, Jason, Su-Anne, Bryan

New Years day couldn't have been better. I got up at 8 (who know's why I didn't sleep in but oh well), cleaned the house, went to "Virginia" to cook breakfast with Jason, Su-Anne and Erin, went to the gym and ran 4 miles (yes, 4 miles and I kept breathing the entire time), and then landed at my friend Todd's house for the rest of the day/night to watch all of the bowl games with great friends.

What an absolutely perfect two days with friends. I wish every day could be so sweet!

I am really excited about 2010 and how great it is going to be!