Progress

I have changed my lifestyle. Or perhaps a better description of my current status is I am changing my lifestyle. I, by nature, tend to be lazy. I was not a lazy child, I wasn't even a lazy teenager; however somewhere between high school and college I forgot that I liked being active. So after 7 years of being pretty sedentary, with occasional burst of activity, I decided enough was enough.

It took several months of "practice" for me. Some people decide to get healthy and they do this dramatic turn around. I planned that. That is NOT what happened for me. I decided to get healthy and it literally took me like 4 months of slowly adding different elements of healthy living to my life for me to get to a place where there was a marked difference between who I am (or who I am becoming) and who I was.

I started with adding some activity to my life. I started going to Zumba, then adding some walking, and maybe a fitness video. Then I upped my water and cut out (as much) soda. Then I added more fruits and veggies into my diet, then I cut out some processed food. It took a while- and I am no where near where I want to be, but I am closer now than I was months ago.

I say all this to say that one of the things I am learning through this journey is that sometimes you have to take things slowly, painstakingly slow at some points. I tried to make a dramatic change in my lifestyle and all I got was defeat. Only when I took things slowly did I start to make some headway.

I compare my fitness journey to my running (if you can call it that). I am the SLOWEST "runner" you have ever met. No really, I promise, I am. I use the term running loosely, but it is running none the less. I can power walk faster than I run, but power walking does not offer me the same benefits that running does so I run... at a whopping 13-14 min per mile. YUP- I'm THAT slow. But I have learned to EMBRACE it. I don't like to run with people, because I worry about slowing them down or about me running too fast and then not being able to finish my goal. I run by myself because I run for me.

It has taken a while to get here, and I still have a long ways to go, but it is the fact that progress is being made that matters; not how much progress.

So that being said it's time to go out and make some more progress... week 6 day 1 of C25k. Check it out if you're looking for a place to start.

Begin With the End in Mind

Recently a mom group I am a member of on Facebook posted a video of Dr. Brene Brown discussing her "Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto" with Oprah. I was laying in my bed watching the video and I decided then and there to sit Ryan down and come up with a list of important traits, lessons, and truths we would want not only Eli but any future children to know/have. We had discussed this several times when we dedicated Eli at church, but never got around to it. This week we did.

The whole idea of a parenting manifesto is important to us because we believe you must begin with end in mind. Being an early childhood teacher I have heard countless parents tell me "Oh you know, boys will be boys" or "They are just children do you really expect them to _____" or some other excuse for a child's poor behavior or lack of self control. And while yes they are children right now they will not be forever. We view parenting as not raising a child, but raising a young man (in the case of Eli). I won't say "boys will boys" because he will not always be a boy, one day he will be a man, and we want for him to be a man of self discipline, determination, honest and integrity. These are things you instill in children at a very young age and reenforce their entire life through.

That being said OF COURSE we will let him be a little boy and play in the mud, climb trees, and all the other things that come in the miraculous package that is "little boy-dom" but we will not allow him to be too rough, too wild, or any other thing that people excuse as "boys being boys".

Now, we by no means, believe that we have this down cold. We know that we will slip, loose our minds, say and do things we will regret and that Eli (and any other children we have in the future) are little individuals who will make their own choices no matter what we teach them. We do not, for one second, think that this is the end-all, be-all of parenting, or that we have more than a slight clue of what we are doing. We just believe that if you aim for nothing you will hit it every time, and that's not good enough for the precious child(ren) God has entrusted us with. This is our aim. Our parenting manifesto.

You are a treasured gift. Above all else WE want you to know that you are loved unconditionally. You were fearfully and wonderfully made by a God who makes no mistakes. We will show you you are loved and treasured by the way we treat you, our actions and our words. You are lovable and worthy of love. We will model this for you by practicing self-compassion and embracing our own flaws as well as yours. In our home everyone's thoughts and opinions are valued. Our home is a safe place to be who you are and we will help you set boundaries so you can become who you want to be. You are enough. Just as you are. We will practice showing you this daily by monitoring my words and actions towards you and most importantly towards ourselves. This will be a family built on honesty. When we mess up we will own it, apologize and learn from our mistake. We will be a people of our word. We will work hard and we will celebrate in our victories and our defeats, both are necessary in life. Kindness is important. We will be kind to each other, kind to people outside our home, but most importantly we will be kind to ourselves. We want for you to be joyful so we will practice gratitude and service.We will teach you to be courageous and where true courage emanates from. We will pray for you daily. There will be times when you are hurting, know that more than anything we will want to take away your pain, but instead we will come alongside you and teach you how to feel your pain and overcome it. This will be a home of laughter and silliness. We will sing and dance together-no matter you skill level! This is your safe place. We will be authentic with you and allow you to learn from our mistakes. We will model Godliness and humility. We will put God before all else in our lives. We will practice forgiveness with ourselves and each other. We wish that we could do all this perfectly, but  and we will model self-compassion when we fail. We want you to know that we see you, really see who you are and we value you. You are our most precious gift. You are important. 

I am sure as we grow our manifesto will grow and change, but here is where we start. Beginning with the end in mind.

**We used several of the same wordings as Dr. Brown. I am not that eloquent with words. See attached video.

Ryan's Next Step

Well Ryan officially started the Houston Fire Academy last week. Check out my handsome hubs in his training gear! Ignore the clock behind his head- I never claimed to be a good photographer (although that is one of my personal goals).

Why don't men ever smile in uniform? I guess some questions will forever go unanswered. Oh well...

One of the best parts of Ryan being in the academy is that he gets home around 5:30 every night! That's 2 hours before he use to get home! That means he is home to eat dinner with me and E (at a decent time) and help with bath and bedtime routine! YAY! YAY! YAY! After doing all those things alone for the past 16 months I am thrilled to have help! Also he will have every Friday off; now he will have to spend a lot of his time "off" studying (especially once EMT school starts- next week-hopefully) but he will be around!

However the BEST part of Ry joining the Academy is he is finally happy. When Ry left the Corps he felt very lost. He didn't really want to leave the Marines, but with the election of President Obama and the subsequent cuts to the military his job was eliminated. He debated for a long time about changing his MOS (job) within the Marines or even transferring to the Warrant Officer program in the Army but in the end he felt that with the atmosphere of the federal government being what it was/is staying in wasn't a choice for him. His first 6 months out were kind of a blur; he half-heartedly search for a job within the Metroplex and I searched across the state for a public school teaching job. I finally found one in Pasadena so we moved to Houston. This was a HARD adjustment for us. Leaving Fort Worth (a town which we loved) to come live in my hometown was challenging. Ryan wasn't sure what it would be like living this close to my parents and siblings, he was worried they would be too involved, or that I would become too involved in their lives. It took us several years to navigate those tricky waters, but now it works well for us. Ry pursued several different careers once we moved; he did a prerequisite semester for nursing (thinking that he liked to help people so nursing would be a good field), then he switched to Instrumentation and Electronics (so he could work at one of the MANY chemical plants here in town) and then ended up with a job in maintenance at M.D. Anderson. Going from a Sargent in the Marine Corps to a maintenance man was a shot to the ego, but he knew he had to provide for me and our growing family. So he took that job with a humble spirit and a thankful heart. He was never truly fulfilled there and that broke my heart. Several people talked to him about joining the police/fire department and he just brushed it off, until one day a good friend of ours sat him down and really talked to him. Ever since then he had a fire in his eyes again. He had a goal, a career CHOICE, and he did everything he could to prepare to be his best.

So as we start this new adventure please keep us in your prayers. It is another season of adjustment for us, but I am learning to just take it one day at a time. If there is one thing being a Marine Wife (for even my brief 2 years) taught me it was that the unofficial slogan of the Corps is Simper Gumby... always flexible.  

Bacon Pie

My husband is not a "healthy" eater. It took several years of marriage before he would eat anything green. He is a meat and potatoes kind of guy; so when I would try to convince him to eat quiche he looked at me like I was crazy.

Then one day my cousin Jill was telling me that she makes "sausage pie" for her twins. What is sausage pie you ask? It's quiche! Her soon to be 4 year old son just calls it sausage pie! I was explaining what sausage pie was to my husband he looked at me and said "Why have you never made that for me?!" SERIOUSLY?!

So now "breakfast pie" is a staple in our house; and since I am on a budget and had bacon (but no sausage) we had bacon pie. Make this soon. It's yummy. Your husbands will thank you, trust me!

Bacon Pie:

Here's what you need:
4 strips of bacon- We like the thick cut stuff
1/2 yellow onion- chopped
8 oz Velveeta
1-2 tblsp of milk
1 pie crust

First brown some bacon. I  like to chop the bacon before I fry it. My mom crumbles her's after she's fried it. Either way works.

Then put the cooked bacon on a paper towel to drain. Pour off all but a little of the grease. Add 1/2 of a chopped yellow onion. Saute that until the onion is soft and nice a caramelized. (I didn't get a picture of the onion :(- SORRY! ) 

Next chop up 8 oz of Velveeta. I use the 2% milk kind. Put it in a microwave safe bowl and add a splash of milk.

 Put it in the microwave for a minute and then stir. If it's not melted put it in for another minute and stir. Continue till all the cheese melts.

 Next beat 6 eggs. Add the onions, bacon, and cheese sauce to the eggs.

I used store bought crust, if you wanted to make homemade pie crust GO FOR IT! I'm sure it will be amazing, but I am not that dedicated tonight so store bought crust it is.

 

Pour the egg mixture into the crust.

Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes, or until the eggs are set.  When you pull it out it should look something like this.

And that my friends is bacon pie. You're welcome. Thanks for sharing Jill!

Just don't tell my husband it's a quiche.

Time to Problem Solve

Let me follow up to my previous post... it's time to problem solve. To sit down and look at the (rough) numbers and figure out where to cut, what to cut, and how to cut. This should be fun. There are several areas in our budget that are what we call "nonnegotiables": things like the mortgage, light bill, water, insurance, ect. Things we can't change right now even if we wanted to. But one of the areas we can change is our FOOD!

I actually like to cook and so sometimes I get excited over making a particular meal and will spend extra money to get stuff to make something that I didn't plan on cooking. This has gets to stop. From now on I GET to become an expert at meal planning.

In the past I attempted to meal plan to help loose weight, now I get to meal plan to save money! So feel free to join in, give me recipes, advice, tips, whatever! I am open for suggestions. Here is my week 1 of meal planning  this week will be using up a lot of the food I have in the freezer and veggies from my dad's garden (keep in mind E doesn't eat much table food so he also will have to have baby food):

Breakfast:
cereal
 smoothies
 yogurt with fresh fruit
eggs and toast

Lunch:
PB & honey sandwich with fruit and carrot sticks
leftovers
salad with turkey breast

Dinners:
 Teryaki Chicken and Fried Rice
My cousin Jill's Breakfast Pie (I'll post the recipe- you will probably LOVE it) with a green salad
Meatloaf with mashed potatoes (from my dad's garden) and brussel sprouts
Family dinner for July 4th
Mini Meatball Sandwich with oven fries (with the same potatoes)

Snacks:
*These are mainly for E*
peanut butter crackers
Nutrigrain (or the off brand) bars
cheese
fruit

I will keep you posted on how this goes! HERE'S TO PROBLEM SOLVING!

Also besides making some cuts in the budget I am going to really be utilizing my Mary Kay business to provide for my family. So if you are interested in hosting a party (or want to refer me to someone who may be) please let me know. I have some awesome hostess rewards! :)

$$$$

Have you ever felt like you take 1 step forward and 2 steps back? That's how I feel at this moment.

I graduated from college in 3 years with a pretty darn good GPA, I went on to get a job and have since pursued oportunities to better myself (and my pay) within my chosen field. I am currently in grad school pursuing my Masters in Education Administration in hopes of one day being an assistant principal or principal. I did all the "right" things, but it seems like we can't get ahead financially.

I KNOW MONEY ISN'T EVERYTHING. Let me make that abundantly clear. But as I sit here in my hot warm living room (our air conditioner broke yesterday) I wonder how we are going to afford to fix it and money seems to be a BIG thing. 

I KNOW that God will provide for us to get by. He always has, but honestly I am getting tired of just getting by. I know I should be thankful, but right now in this moment I am not.

Ryan is pursing a career change and we are so excited about this new opportunity with the Houston Fire Department, but in the mean time is means some MAJOR financial changes in our life. While he is in the academy and in his probationary year we will have to cut back in a major way, which seems easy enough, unless you consider that we already live relatively meagerly. I know that we will make it work, and I know that we will be stronger because of it; however right now, in this moment, I am FREAKING OUT nervous. I am scared, I don't know HOW it's going to work. I think Dave Ramsey said it best when he talks about how when there is any kind of financial trouble a woman gets scared in a place men don 't even have.

I guess I should stop complaining and worrying and get into problem solving mode, but right now I'm just not there yet. Here's hoping I'll get there soon.

Child-like Faith pt 2

"For when I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; but when I became a man, I did away with childish things" 1 Corinthians 13:11

I believe child-like faith is a good thing when it refers to certain areas of our faith; however like this verse in 1 Corinthians says when you become a (wo)man you have to put away childish things and start speaking, thinking, and reasoning like a grown up.

For me that means no longer compartmentalizing my faith.

In college I  had a beautiful friend named Heather. She was a strong Christian woman and anyone who met her could see that she put her relationship with Jesus first. We were in Sigma together and because we lived our lives together I saw her fall sometimes. I saw her when she made mistakes, big ones sometimes and small ones. This never made me loose respect for her. Because her faith was the most important thing about her I also had the honor of seeing her humble herself before the Lord and ask forgiveness and turn away from people and situations that compromised her faith. Unfortunately my friend died of a brain aneurism almost 3 years ago. However in her short life she impacted more people that most of us do in a lifetime.

I want to live like that.

I believe with all my heart one reason God blessed me with knowing Heather was so I can see what it means to live life God's way AUTHENTICALLY. So I know how to show my faith, but still be real.

It's not about being a "perfect person" or even a "good" person, but it's about the people around me being able to say that when they say me mess up, which they will do if they spend anytime with me, that they saw me be humble, confess my sin, and try to do better.

Thank you Heather for your impact of my life.

Here is a link to the blog she wrote while she was still with us http://jacobheather.blogspot.com/ read the last entry entitled Rain. It will give you a clue about the type of person Heather was.

Child-like Faith?

I have been in the midst of a deep internal struggle for the past several months. I was raised in church, I became a Christian at a very early age and, by my "nerdy rule follower" nature, did all the things a good Christian kid is suppose to do. I went to Sunday School and memorized the verse of the week. I went to children's church and sang all the songs and answered the questions, I went to children's choir on Sunday night and sat through the "big church" sermon with my parents, Tuesday nights my mom and I (with other ladies) cooked dinner for the men's Bible study group (which my dad helped lead most of the time), Wednesday night was AWANAs, and then back to church on Sunday. When I was a child being a Christian meant inviting my friends to church, not telling lies, and being a "good kid".

Then I got to a teenager, and no teenager wants to be a "nerdy rule follower", so my faith changed a little. I still went to Sunday School (but no no one asked you to memorize scripture) and we went to "big church", sat with the youth and mostly listened to the sermon (although there was a significant amount of note passing involved). Sunday night was youth choir (and with all this choir I STILL can't sing) and then church (with more note passing) followed by Sunday Night After Church activities on school holidays. Tuesday night Men's Bible Study dinner preparing, Wednesday night was youth service, Friday night "hang out" activities and then start it all over again. As a teenager being a Christian meant being better than everyone else who wasn't a Christian; not being a "bad kid".

Of course I went to a private Christian college and although I studied religion (I was a religion minor) I never really followed any of my beliefs. I did pretty much what every college kid does, but I went to church on Sunday (and chapel on Monday and Wednesday- thanks ETBU). In college being a Christian meant being able to put on the Christian "show" whenever I felt it was appropriate.

How heart-breakingly sad. How terrible of me to split myself into 2 different people.

Now I am, for all intents and purposes, as scary as it is to admit-a full fledged grown up. Complete with a husband, child, job, mortgage, car note and student debt up to my eye balls. And what does my faith mean now? I know it is now something I can no longer compartmentalize and be a Christian at church and just the same as everyone else everywhere else. This has been my stuggle these past several months. If I TRULY believe in my heart of hearts that Christ was who the Bible says he was, and if I TRULY believe everything the Bible says shouldn't there be a radical difference in the way I handle myself EVERYDAY. When the pharmacist is ugly while trying to get medicine for my screaming baby, when the child in my classroom is having a meltdown 19 days before the state mandated test, when my husband and I are at each other's throats? Shouldn't there be a difference?

I mean if I believe what I say I believe where is the proof?

I think this post has been long enough, and I have to get off here and get ready for work. I will post again tonight the conclusion I have come to. :)

Eli vs the sippy cup

So on Saturday we decided to take the bottle away. Eli has been drinking water out of a sippy cup since he was 6 months old and transitioned to cow's milk beautifully. He did great the first day, yesterday was a little worse, and today he is acting like he has no clue what to do with the straw cup-- he keeps blowing into it. He is determined. He was playing yesterday and Ryan said "bottle" in a sentence and he threw down his toy and RAN to Ryan crying "bot bot, bot bot!" Poor baby's heart was broken when he realized daddy meant sippy cup. Momma's staying strong, but so is Eli. We might have a battle of wills going on for a while.

Standardized Testing

No truer words have ever been spoken. My educational career has mostly been spent teacher grades pre K-1st. This year I entered a whole new world of compartmentalized 4th grade! I teach ONLY math and science! This has been a whole new adventure for me, and it's mostly because of that lovely standardized test we have to give in April. I remember my teachers in school using the phrase "...and on the TAKS test.." over and over and OVER again and I thought if I ever become a teacher (which I had no plans of doing) I will never say that to my kids. I'll just teach them and then they will pass.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ok, now that all you teachers have stopped laughing and picked yourself off the floor I will continue. I was WRONG. DEAD WRONG.

This stupid test is more pressure for teachers than kids now and there is something wrong with that. I do believe we need accountability standards, but not in this format. Not teachers having to explain why Johnny Student didn't pass and Susie did, or having to justify themselves as a professional just because so-so teacher had a higher passing rate.

I am not saying it's like this at any school I have taught at, at both Jessup and Dabbs I have had understanding administrators who are believe just as strongly that they system is broken; but their necks are on the chopping block too.  We all have to answer for our kid's performance and the kids.... have no responsibility. No one calls them in and demands answers as to why they scored this or that. No one sits the parents down with the district representative and demands to know what the parent's plan of intervention is.

I'm just saying when E does something great (like say a new word) I would like to think that it's at least partly because his momma has worked with him on that word for months, and vise versa if E decides at 6 years old that he wants to throw a temper tantrum at Wal Mart I am also responsible for that behavior.

Just sayn'

AND now I will stop preaching.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY E MAN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI! My "little man" is 1 year old! Who would have thought it would get here so soon! I cannot believe how amazingly blessed we are to have this little boy! He LOVES bath time, cuddles, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and playing outside. He has 4 teeth, can dang near run, and never sits still unless Mickey is on. He is a great sleeper, both a night and during naps. We are REFUSING to take milk out of a  sippy cup or eat much table food. He will drink water all day out of a sippy cup but not milk. Once he gets a suck of milk the cup is THROWN from his sight! He also will not let you feed him anything but purees. If you put something chuncky in his mouth you better hang up that meal, he doesn't trust you to feed him anything else. He will also not allow you to feed him anything other than purees if he sees it. He will throw any food he doesn't like the look off right of his tray! As far as solids goes he like Cheerios, an occasional whole grain waffle, strawberry cereal bars, crackers,and SOMETIMES a little bit of chicken. He is definitely a stubborn little guy! His stats at his one year appointment are 21.4 lbs (36%) and 29.5 inches (54%). The dr is very happy with his progress, she said because he is sooooo active she doesn't expect him to put on much weight this next year. I am proud to be this little man's momma, just look at him, who wouldn't be!

Back to the Grind

Allow me to start of this post with a ROLL TIDE! BCS Championship Game Day is here! I truly hope Bama wins, because my husband will be inconsolable if they do not.

Ok, on to other topics. Today was back to work after 2 weeks off. Ugh. I planned last night and packed my lunch, laid out clothes for work, laid out work out clothes, set my alarm for 4:30 (DOUBLE UGH) and then checked the weather- 39 degrees projected for 5 am. Ummmm NO! I don't do cold! So we changed the plan to still get up at 4:30 but do a quick yoga video, have some quiet time and then start a peaceful morning. Wellllllllllllllll my alarm didn't want me to go back to work either because it didn't go off and I woke up at 5:50. Luckly I had most prep work done so no yoga, no quiet time, just get dressed and out the door at the last possible second. Oh well. I left work around 3:30 and came home, changed and was about to head out the door to run and was struck with gut wrenching anxiety.

I have never been a woman prone to worry, but having a child changes things. After I gave birth I had pretty bad postpartum depression. I talked to my dr about it, he suggested waiting a while before we did medication. Then my anxiety kicked in. I have had anxiety since then; about the silliest things.With the help of my family, friends and very mild medication I was able to overcome my postpartum depression and I am learning to cope with my anxiety. So today when my anxiety hit I sat down and thought why am I so nervous? What is it I am afraid of? Immediately I realized I was scared I couldn't do it. I knew the run I had planned was easy and within my physical capabilities, but what I was afraid of was failure of spirit. It is hard to keep going when your legs are tired. It is hard for me to run alone and alone I was. I looked down on the floor and there was my cell phone and a picture of E staring up at me. I knew I could do it; I was still scared, but I laced up my running shoes and walked out the door.

And guess what I did it. It was challenging, but what in life worth having isn't?

Today I realized that I can choose to pass down fear of failure to my son, or I can choose to show him that even when things are hard, you do it. When things are scary, you do it. When you plain JUST DON'T WANT TO, you do it anyway.

New Church

Today we visited a new church. We were actually very impressed. It seems to be a lot like our old church in Fort Worth and that is what we are looking for. Hopefully it will work out. Little man did okay in the nursery. He did have a couple of crying spells (so they say), but overall very successful.

Speaking of little man here he is enjoying a whole grain waffle for breakfast- more of it may have ended up being eaten by the dog on the floor than he actual ate, but hey it's a start with table food.

Today after church I went to lunch with my momma, sister, sister in law and niece! What a fun girls day! We ate, we laughed, we ordered dessert- YUM!

Tomorrow starts a new chapter in my life-OPERATION: LOOSE THE BABY WEIGHT- for real yo! I am starting BACK on the C25K program. I had a lot of success with it the summer before I got preggers, so I am dreading excited to start running again. But seriously I am NOT a runner. God saw fit to make me 5 foot tall and have short legs, He did not create me to run; He did create me to take care of my body though and running has always been the #1 way for me to loose weight. So tomorrow morning 5 am me, my running shoes, my iPod, and the road have a date. I will be running Mon, Wed and Fri (barring weather) and doing Zumba Tues/Thur at our local rec center. I LOVE Zumba. I have a friend from college who is a Zumba instructor and has made an amazing transformation by doing Zumba. I AM excited about Zumba!

So since tomorrow's run is gonna come EARLY I am off to bed (a.k.a read The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest- if you haven't read these books do so NOW- they are SO GOOD!)

Play-off Saturday

Ryan and I have developed a system of alternating who gets up with little man in the mornings . Today was his turn, that means I got to sleep till 7:40! That was uh- mazing!!  The Texans won their playoff game today, and the three of us bad a good time watching the game . unfortunately I have a horrible migraine . I hate these blasted headaches. Before I was pregnant I had some fabulous medicine to help, however I let the prescription lapse and now I am without pharmaceutical help. Excedrin migraine takes the edge off, but it still makes it hard to be on my momma game!

It' s times like this that I realize how lucky I am to have a husband who is willing to pick up my slack and entertain a VERY busy baby while momma lays on the couch ans watches them . I am one lucky gal!

We are visiting another new church tomorrow . Last time we tried little man got so upset they paged us twice. After the second page we decided it would be best to leave. Hopefully tomorrow goes better, I would really love to find church we feel like we could raise E in .

New Year, New View

wow I am a bad blogger . One of my personal goals for this year is to blog everyday- even if it is just to say I really need a nap! So that being said here we go...

I have never been a "resolution" person, but this year it seems like the perfect time to reevaluate my life and set forth a new path so to speak . So here are my personal goals for 2013:

1 Put my spiritual life first . I had a "revelation" the other day . I am raising a son (duh), I have always realized that this means I have a responsibility to always remember that while he may be a little boy he is not just a little boy, he is a man in the making  I have to set the foundation for him to become the type of man he should be.My revelation was that I am setting the example.for the type of.woman he will most likely marry . Wow, when you think about the implications to that statement I am very convicted . I need to be the type of woman I think would b worthy of my son powerful thought .

2 I will put my health second. That means eating better, exercising more and taking time for me to refuel.

3 I am starting on my masters . I plan to start in Feb with Lamar university . I am so excited!