Are you the type of person that sees a new week as a clean slate?
A fresh start?
A new beginning?
I love the Mondays for this very reason!
I love opening up my planner on Sunday evenings, or Monday mornings, and planning out a new week. I like setting new goals for myself each week. Small attainable weekly goals, sometimes seem much more manageable than larger yearly goals, right?
A {JOY List} is a list of things that bring you joy. Things you love to do, but don’t make time for, let alone schedule in to your day. This list might contain things/activities that don’t cost a dime, but it’s okay to include things that do cost money, if they bring you JOY. Doing at least 3 things from your JOY List each week, can make a huge difference in the amount of JOY you feel in your life! Taking time for ourselves, can work wonders to improve our moods, increase productivity and a sense of well-being! I challenge you to put together a JOY List of your own! Here are 20 items on my personal JOY List. These things all bring me JOY on some level!
We’ve got this great bar/restaurant called the Garage, here in Salt Lake City. I drive by the Garage almost every day, but I had never been in to eat, drink and be merry, until recently. A few weeks ago, I met some of my best friends from Zumba, for brunch at the Garage.
We met around 11:00 am on a cool, but sunny Sunday. We were seated close to the wood burning stove, which was nice. One of the things the Garage is known for, is their great patio, which you would never think, due to the location of the Garage. Next to an oil refinery, in a busy industrial area! It was a little too early, windy, and cool for us to sit on the patio, but next time for sure! The inside of the Garage is great, exactly what you would expect a local bar would be! Especially one that is a favorite of Harley riders out for a weekend ride!
I chose the Veggie Omelet, which comes with Country Potatoes. Just after we arrived the bar got very crowded! I’m not sure if the bar was short-staffed, or if it’s not usually that busy, but the poor waitress was crazy busy. Our food was a little slow getting out, but we didn’t mind. We could tell she was doing her best. My Veggie Omelet was really good! Tons of veggies, great portion size, and it was served hot! I loved it! Several of the other girls ordered the Garage Benedict and the Huevos Rancheros, which both looked fabulous! And the portions were ginormous! No complaints from any of us!
I can’t wait to go back for Taco Tuesday, to hear live music on the patio on a Saturday night, or brunch on a Sunday morning again!
Is it really October? I can’t believe how fast this year is flying by! Craziness, I tell ya!
I also can’t believe I haven’t posted in so long. And I really don’t have any reason why I haven’t. I did have my 30th high school reunion last month (I know, I know, I can’t possibly be old enough! wink!), and the planning for that took up a lot of my extra/free time. I will have to do a post about that soon, and show some of the fun decorating type things we did. It was a great time, and I loved seeing so many friends and blasts from the past!
I’ve been toying with the idea of hosting a Holiday Boutique before Christmas. Have you ever hosted a boutique? Any thoughts or advice? I’ve been trying to get my craft on, and get some things ready, but my creative mojo seems to be hit or miss lately 🙂
I have become obsessed with embroidery. And tea towels. And boxes with embroidery thread sorted by color (I’m weird). Carl has been on a different work shift the past few weeks, so he tries to get to bed before nine. That is way to early for me, so I have been spending some time stitching up a storm.
Fun stuff! I’m a total novice and don’t really know what I’m doing, but it has been a really good stress buster and relaxation tool for me these days!
Welp, no idea if anyone is out there reading anymore, but thanks for stopping by if you are! I hope you are having a FABULOUS Wednesday!
What have you been doing this fall?
Any college football fans out there? If so, what team do you root for?
Well, it’s finally here! The most wonderful time of the year!
I bet you thought I was going to say Christmas, right?
Well, I do LOVE Christmas! But today is the first day of college football, and the first day of Utah Football Tailgating! I couldn’t be more excited! We have such a fun group, and we always have a FABULOUS time!
Yesterday, I took a look at my 2013 Summer Bucket List and realized I was seriously slacking! It's the end of summer, kids are going back to school, the night's are getting cooler, and football games are on the horizon! And I still have a bunch of items on my Summer Bucket List to check off! Let's see what kind of progress I have made:
I was able to check a few items off my list back in July when I scheduled a weekend away at The Canyons in Park City. We discovered a new hike, rented bikes, and dined out al fresco on the patio. What a fun weekend! But since then, I haven't done too much! I did attend an outdoor concert with some friends. We saw Kenny Loggins at Red Butte Gardens, which was a great night!
My company has a night at the Salt Lake Bees, (our local Triple-A baseball team) which was last Saturday night. Summer + Baseball + Fireworks = FUN!
Not sure what I am looking at?
Anyway, we've also had dinner out on our patio quite a bit, as well as outdoor restaurants. My favorite thing in the summer! And I've gone to he Bountiful Farmer's Market, but not the Salt Lake Farmer's Market. Still so many items left to check off!
I think we will do an outdoor movie night soon, which may also involve making s'mores over the fire pit. Boating is out of the question, due to my ACDF surgery. Too much jarring for my neck, riding in a boat. Bummer. We may still get to a Drive In Movie, and the Utah State Fair is still about a month away. So, I guess I might get more than half of my list done! 🙂
Oh, and I did finally pick a summer theme song! Well, I actually picked two. I love them both, and they are both songs that we do in Zumba, and they make me happy and just feel like summer to me.
26 years ago today, I said "I Do" to my best friend. I don't know where the time has gone, but I swear it doesn't seem like it's been 26 years. I've been with Carl longer that I've been without him. The years haven't always been easy, but they have been so worth it. I can't imagne holding anyone else's hand through this crazy thing called life.
We've raised two pretty fabulous kids
Lived in countless apartments and two houses
Had 3 dogs and 1 cat
Way too many cars and jobs (me!)
Spent countless hours in the car together on road trips to baseball, basketball, football, softball games and cheerleading competitions
Argued and made up
Survived huge windstorms and house floods
Been through tough times and good times
Laughed and cried together
Every single thing has been worth it. You've been by my side every step of the way, and I love you evern more now, than I did 26 years ago!
Happy Anniversary! Here's to 26 more years together!
Happy Friday! I am so glad that Friday is finally here. What a long week!
So this month is my 8th Anniversary. Anniversary of what, you might ask? Well, this little blog of mine turned 8 years old just about a week ago. Crazy!
Eight years ago, I didn't know anything about blogging (I still don't), but I decided to start documenting what was going on in my life. I was an avid scrapbooker at the time, and my son was getting ready to start high school. I felt like I wanted another way to document everything. My very first post can be found HERE. Totally cracks me up! My blog has taken many twists and turns over the years, focusing mostly on scrapbooking and my kids, moving to crafting a bit, taking an almost two year break (very sporadic posts), and ending up back to where it is now. Pretty much where it began. Just me and my thoughts and my life. Still documenting things, both big and small, exciting (to me) and non-eventful (to you), happy and sad.
It's been fun to look back on some of the posts and remember a specific time in my life. I'm so glad I decided to start a blog 8 years ago. Even if I am the only one still reading it!
Pretty crazy to go back and look at some of the posts! So much has happened in the last 8 years! So much that I didn't even blog about!
All in all, I'm really glad I started this blog! It's nice to be able to look back on the years! And it is always nice to connect with others via the internet! Thanks for coming along on this ride with me!
HAPPY FRIDAY!
And now, I have a couple of questions for you:
Do you blog? If so, for how long?
Do you like reading blogs? What are some of your favorites?
Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear from you! Leave me a comment!
WOW! I can’t believe it’s already been twelve weeks since my ACDF Surgery in May! On the one hand it seems like it’s been longer than that, but when I look at how far I have come in a short time, it is crazy!
I mentiond that I had been in pain since last November, and it was hard to even imagine what being pain-free would feel like…..well, it feels pretty freaking FABULOUS! Although, I’m not 100% pain-free yet, I’m pretty close! And being able to get back to being active is the BEST part!
My x-ray from my first follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon, showing the plates and screws that now reside in my neck:
According to my neurosurgeon, my neck is stronger than ever now. The part that takes time, is the fusion part, which can take up to a year to complete. It involves making sure that my new discs (cadaver discs + my bone shavings) fust together with my spinal cord, etc. I will be going in for follow up x-rays every few months, in fact I go in tomorrow.
I’m hoping to be released to up my exercise a bit, which includes running more. I have been walking like crazy and slowly jogging a bit, while trying to keep my neck somewhat stable. No hard core running yet. I’m not able to go boating, or mountainbiking yet. Nor am I able to play golf, go on rollercoasters, etc. What I have been doing is “light” zumba (what is that?), yoga and walking. Baby steps! I’m just thrilled to be able to get those endorphines going a bit! It makes all the difference in the world to me!
I’ve had such wonderful support through all of this! My husband and daughter have been willing to go walking with me anytime I wanted and my Zumba friends all kept me and my family fed during the first few days of post surgery, as well as keeping me motivated to heal and get back to class. And to those that have sent emails/comments/messages to keep my spirits up…THANK YOU! I am very blessed!
One day at a time! It’s all good!
Happy Thursday friends! We are so close to Friday and the weekend!
Have you ever had a major surgery that put you out for weeks/months?
What is your favorite way to get fit in the summer months?
