Sugar in My Ears

Here's the latest:
In May I sprained my ankle pretty bad while at the gym and am still in recovery.  I'm in physical therapy now and finally getting better.

I moved out of Rachelle's house.  Although I am very grateful to Rachelle and Grady for letting me stay with them, and I love the boys very much, I was very excited for this opportunity.  When a girl from church announced that her landlords were looking for tenants I took a look at what the offer was.  The more I read the FaceBook post about the rental the more it felt excited about it.  I spoke to the landlord and pretty much wanted the room before I even saw it.  It was one of those things that just felt right and good and I knew I needed to take this opportunity before it passed me by.  I'm so glad that I took the room, even though it's like a 1/4 the size of my old room.  My roommates are great, the house is nice (despite a few unwanted critters), and I have a POOL!!!

A week after I moved in I woke up on Saturday at about 4am with pain right below my ribs.  At first I thought "indigestion."  I drank some water and lay down again in hopes that the pain would stop or I could just fall back alseep and sleep through the pain.  This did not happen, about 20 minutes later the pain was so intense it made me want to vomit.  I called Grady (fantastic brother-in-law that he is) and he took me to the emergency room.  After some poking around my stomach and an ultrasound it was discovered I had gall stones.  I went almost 24 hours without any food or drink, had to be cleared by the cardiologist, then finally went in for surgery.  I woke up and the nurses, mom and Rachelle had to keep reminding me to breath.  Apparently this was a side effect of the pain meds and I was in a lot of pain but they couldn't give me a anymore because of the whole "not breathing" thing.  

Sarah was awesome, she came and stayed with me for a few days and took care of me while I was in recovery.  I made her swim in my pool with some of our nephews and made her take a nap with me and made her pancakes.  Poor Sarah had it rough.  I'd like to say I'm fully recoved and back at the gym but, alas, I am not quite there yet. 

Finally, we recently had a family campout.  It was so great to be able to camp with almost everyone and we all hope to make this an annual event.  The area was really nice, Christopher helped the kids do slack rope walking, he and Angie set up a treassure hunt for them and we were in an area were it was ok for the kids to wander around mostly on their own.  There were also rocks and small cliffs the kids played on and climbed. Saturday of the campout David set up his repeling stuff and I got to do that.  It's been a long time since I've done it so I didn't start from the highest point.  

Can't wait to go camping with the family again.

Three things you may not know about me:

1. Sometimes I think something is hilarious, until I say it out loud
2. I love making up puns (ok, if you work with me then you probably know this)
3. I want a basketball for Christmas or my birthday so I can start playing again

Thank you for reading!

2012 Goals Part 2: Beauty Sleep

My next goal for this year may seem simple enough but it really isn't, at least for me.  So I'm going to the gym at least 3 days a week and afterwards I'm so tired and exhausted I can barely function.  Seeing as I'm still at work afterwards this is not a good thing.  


I'm tired of being tired all the time.  It's time for me to grow up and take responsibility for myself.  Over the years I have read many articles about getting a good night's sleep and one repeating theme is not reading in bed, no watching t.v. in bed, no electronics in bed.  If you read or watch t.v. in bed then your body will think that's what it's supposed to do in bed instead of sleeping.  Plus reading and watching t.v. stimulate the mind and will prevent you from being fall asleep.


So now my new goal is to do no more reading or movie watching in my bed.  I have an area set up in my room for doing this and it's about time I started using it.

Some Financial Advise (for those who want/need it)

Over the last couple of years I have learned some very valuable lessons.

1. Just because your credit score is amazing they will through money at you

That's right, need a loan or a credit card? Need to raise the limit on your credit card? They'll let you do it, all because you were never late with paying your student loan. Well here's a piece of advise, even if they throw the money at you, don't take it. You may feel you need that money ASAP but you don't. This brings us to advise number 2

2. Purchasing what you want, when you want it.

When you see something you desire it's a good idea to not impulse buy. Impulse buying, no matter how little the cost, is what can break you. I'm still guilty of doing this in part, when I see food I'm craving I buy it, I have the tendency to nickle and dime myself into living paycheck to paycheck. When you want something don't just go for it, take some time to think about it. Even if you can afford it at the don't just splurge you may end up with unexpected expected in the future, like a $300 door repair on your car.

3. Following a budget can make life more fun.

Creating your budget is the easy part. Make a list of all your regular expenses. This includes car insurance, phone bill, car payments, student loans, credit car payments, etc. Also include the cost of gas a month and any miscellaneous expenses like entertainment money and food. And don't forget to put money away in your savings. Now that you have your budget comes the hard part...sticking to it. There are times that you may want to deviate from your budget but sticking to it will get you closer to any financial goals you may have. If you've had your eye on a new t.v. or laptop or car or trip to Europe you can save up faster if you follow your budget. Plus when you go out with your friends or significant other your not quite so worried about how much money you can spend. Follow your budget and you will never live outside your means, you will never need to live paycheck to paycheck again.

That's all the financial advise I have for now, make of it what you will.

2012 Goals Part 1: Gym Time

So I've been going to an MMA gym for their U-Fit class since November. Even though this membership is a bit more expensive than a regular gym I definitely prefer U-Fit. When I started in mid November I drove the half mile down the street to the gym, had no more muscle ton, and couldn't even come close to doing a push-up. Now, about 2 months later, I can jog to the gym taking about 10 minutes, I haven't tried lately but I'm pretty sure I can do at least 1 full push-up, I jog back from the gym and I have some muscle ton back, in my arms at least. I know a half mile in 10 minutes is not a big deal for some, but for a girl that hasn't done much exercising since she was 21, that's a pretty big feat.

I haven't lost any weight yet, but I"m pretty sure that's because I eat crappy food all the time. However, my goal for this month is to start eating healthier. The coach today told my co-worker and I that his goal for us this month is to lose 5 lbs and be able to do a hand stand push-up. YIKES! That seems like a daunting task but I'm willing to put my best efforts into getting this accomplished. With going to the gym 3-4 times a week and eating healthier I'm sure I'll be back in good shape in no time at all.

Update

It's been quite a while since I started this blog, or added anything to it for that matter. In fact the last time I posted Christopher was either at the beginning or the middle of his mission. He has now been home for about a year and a half. Laurel was supposed to be a part of this blog but she never posted and now she is married to The Chad. So now it's down to me and Sarah, Christopher too if he wants.

Here's an update, last year I lost my job due to loss of work for the company, I started working for SmarterTools temporarily in October and was hired on permanently in January, Yay!!! I've made a lot of new friends and continue to learn new things here at work. I offically moved in with Rachelle and Grady last December and have been free loading since. Haha just kidding...sort of.

As many of you may know I was diagnosed with Wolff Parkinson White Syndrome (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4785) when I was 21 and have recently seen a cardiologist. I will be getting an EP study and Ablation (http://www.capitalcardiology.com/electro.htm) done in December. I'm very excited and optimistic about getting this done.

Also this year I have started tennis lesson, which I LOVE. They will end in December, which makes me sad, but I have improved a lot on my playing. Jeffrey started lessons the same time as me then Daniel wanted to try the Nate wanted to watch and our awesome coach let him join his big brothers in playing. Then when Rachelle had to take the boys to their lessons one week she took Anthony with her. At home he started picking up the badmitton racket and wanted to play. So our awesome coach gave Anthony a racket that he could play with and he has joined his brothers a couple of times even though he is barely 2 years old. Anthony also like to play on my team when Grady and I play against Rachelle and coach.

This about sums up my life so far. I'll try to get Sarah to post something soon. I should probably put some more updated photos on here too...maybe later.

My family

Dad & Mom

Rachelle m-Grady

Daniel

Jeffrey

Nathan

Anthony

Rick m-Lucy

Wendy m-Jacob

Joseph

LeeAnn

Catherine

Joshua

Emily

Robert m-Bettie

Levi

Riley (not born yet)

David m-Erica

Christopher

Laurel m-The Chad

Sarah

Ryan

Frog Pants!

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been wanting to come back on here and add stuff. So after extensive searching through my 4 different email accounts received and sent messages I was finally able to locate my login for the blog.

What's new with us single Ward's you ask?

Last year I gradually lost hours at work and ended up for about three months or more being lucky if I worked more than one day every other week. The job market is tough so finding a job was not at all easy. Of course I stopped answering my phone if I didn't have the number already saved in my phone (bill collectors, blah). I finally got a break and was offered temporary work at SmarterTools (Grady's company, but he had nothing to do with my hiring...I think). As my time there was coming to an end I was getting nervous wondering what I was going to do about work. I had tried all the job posting sites and two employment agencies with no luck. At the beginning of December I was offered a permanent full time job at SmarterTools, AWESOME! I was dreading having to find a new job especially since all my office skills lie in the administrative area and quite frankly after about 7 years of doing that kind of work, I'm sick of it. I was quite relieved to be offered a completely new, non-admin, position at the company. I have now been here for almost three months (WOOHOO!!!) and I love it! I love working with the guys in support, very interesting convo's at times and I've always known this was a great company. Needless to say, I'm very grateful for this job opportunity and I'm definently learning tons of new stuff.

On a more personal level: saving lots of money and will be able to completely pay cash for a car in April, living with Rachelle and Grady and their kids (it's great love the boys) in Phoenix, miss being able to see Wendy and her kids, miss hanging with Laurel and I guess Sarah too and Deana (still working on making new friends on this side of town). Sad that I don't get to see my new nephew for a while. Keep getting sick but excited to finally get insurance in May! This new singles ward I'm in is pretty good.

That's all for now from me. I'm working on gettting Laurel and Sarah to add their own comments, we'll see how that goes.

Instant Messenger

I've just set LaM up on IM for the first time, now she's just having fun with it. So beware!