Guest Post-Ms. Mia Maree!

While my hubby and I are taking a few days to get some MUCH needed R&R Ms. Mia Maree has offered to fill in for me. Be sure to stop by her adorable blog and say hello:-)

Hi Everyone!
My name is Mia and I blog over at MsMiaMaree! That is where I like to say stilettos meet football. Being the girly girl that I am I went and married a football coach. Boy do we have stories. He doesn’t get me sometimes and I don’t get him, but we make one heck of a team! I blog about everything. Fashion, Beauty, Life, Books, etc.

I am one of Mrs. Lauren Mobley’s newest followers and I am so drawn to her blog because of the goals she set for herself. I love her 30 before 30 list! This has made me start crafting one of my own.

I’m 25, so my before 30 list can span the next 5 years! This has made me start thinking about shorter goals for myself specifically this Spring.

Musts for this Spring:

1. Take Full Advantage of all the gorgeous bright colors this season has brought to the Fashion World. Tangerine = my favorite!

 

2. Are you tired of being so pale? I’m very much looking forward to days out in the sun! Wear Sunscreen!!

 

3. Buy a colorful pot and plant an even more colorful flower!

 

4. Looking for some great beach reads? Join goodreads.com and explore the entire book world and connect with friends! You can find me on there: msmiamaree

5. Get some fresh air! Go on a walk, browse local flower gardens, get a bit of exercise!
 

6. Plan a Summer Trip. I get antsy this time of year stuck inside at a desk. Give yourself a break and plan a fun summer vacation. On a budget? I can guarantee there is a cool place tucked somewhere close to you. Make it a day trip and explore your city! These sometimes end up being the best trips!

 

I hope that gave you some Spring inspiration! Hope to see you guys over at MsMiaMaree or catch up with me on Twitter! (@MsMiaMaree) Thank you Lauren for letting me hang out today! You are too sweet and I am glad I found you in this wonderful blog world!

Many thanks to the fabulous Ms. Mia Maree for stopping over here today! Be sure to send some love her way on her precious blog!

30 Before 30-Blogging Daily

At the beginning of the year I created a "bucket list" of sorts. This is my 30 Before 30 list. It includes a hot mess of random things I want to accomplish before I am 30. As is often the case with bucket lists, you start off pretty gung-ho about things. The goal becomes not to do them all before 30, but to do them as soon as possible. One of the goals I set for myself was to blog daily for a month. I figured this wouldn't be too difficult of a task since I love sharing my adventures.

I started trying to keep up with this soon after I published my list. Then, life got in the way (as it so often does) and I missed a few days. No biggie; I'll just start over. So from mid-February until last weekend I had kept up with the blog by posting every day-wahoooooo!

My hubby teased me and said that while I couldn't see to find the time to finish folding the laundry, I was somehow able to find the time to write a post or two. Why is that, you may ask. . . because it's fun! It such a great outlet for me to write about everything that is going on in my life. I love having the opportunity to share the ins and outs. The fact that people read it is a bonus! It never gets old for me to hear from someone that they read my blog. What an honor!

Now that I'm in the habit I hope to keep up with my regular posts. I can't promise it will be everyday because it is nice to just shut down technology once in a while, but I hope to keep up with it fairly regularly.

To my sweet hubby. . .

Truth

Kickin' Some 5K Booty!

Well, folks, I did it. I ran my first ever 5K! Let me just take a quick minute to celebrate- wahoooooooooooooooo! About a year ago I got into running. I started on a treadmill at our apartment complex's gym. When we moved to the house and I didn't have the treadmill anymore it dawned on me how much I enjoyed, and now missed, running. My sweet husband recognized this and used his Craigslist sleuthing skills to find me a used treadmill. With the kidney revolt it was put on hiatus for a while. When I finally got the go ahead from my doc I laced up my shoes and hit the treadmill again!

With the new year I made a set of goals for myself to accomplish before I turned 30. One of them was to run an entire 5K. Now, I've walked quite a few in my day, but never run one. I starting my own version of training and began scouring the internet for a local race I wanted to support. Many 5K's are run in support/honor of a cause or a person, so I wanted to my first full one to be a cause I was interested in.

About a month ago someone I went to high school with posted about a 5K taking place in my hometown (about 10 minutes down the road from where I live now). This was the Angels of '97 5K. This is an organization very near and dear to my heart. It was started to honor five students from a local high school who all passed away before their graduation in 1997. The organization now honors other local teens who passed away before their time. The 5K, along with a silent auction and all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner, race money to fund scholarships for teens at the local high schools. In fact I earned one when I graduated in 2006! I couldn't imagine a more perfect race to be my first:-)

I woke up early Saturday morning a ball full of nerves. I'm still not exactly sure why I was freaking out so much. It's not like this was my first time ever running. Regardless, I grabbed something to eat and was out the door. I was about ten minutes down the road when I realized I forgot my headphones. Mother of pearl. There was no way this thing was happening without some musical motivation, so I turned the car around.

This set me back in time, which I had so carefully plotted out. I had it in my mind that I would get there with 30 minutes to spare to pick up my race day packet, stretch, and get in the zone (hey, I've warned y'all from the beginning I'm too Type-A for my own good). Fat chance that was going to happen now.

Anywho, I arrived with just enough time to grab my packet and head up to the starting line. I turned on my running playlist and got ready for the start. A few minutes later we were off! It was a great run and aside from the hill in the first mile I felt awesome! It didn't hurt that I had this cute kid as my leader:

About halfway through I realized that I was definitely going to be able to run the whole thing. That momentum was enough to help me pick up the pace until the end. My final mile pace was 8:10 and my final time was 25:23. WAHOOOOOOOOO! I finished first in my age group and 32nd overall. I still cannot believe it. God truly pushed me to keep going and it showed in the end.

Will I be doing this again? Heck yes. I'm already on the hunt for another! If you know of a good one in the Charlotte area, let me know!

30 Before 30

I'm sure we've all made unrealistic resolutions that we hope to accomplish in a short period of time. The problem arises not in making the resolutions-it's wonderful to set goals-but in trying to accomplish this in an unrealistically short amount of time. Well, after David and I completed our Reverse Engineering I got to thinking about some long-term goals I have. Some for our marriage and family, others for my career, some for my faith, and so on and so forth. Then, I started jotting them down and this list was born. This is a list of 30 things I hope to accomplish before I am 30.

1. Add to our family
2. Go on a trip somewhere I've never been
3. Go on a hike with David
4. Run an entire 5k
5. Read The Scarlet Letter
6. Read the Bible all the way through
7. Tour a brewery
8. Go to a farmer's market and make a meal from only the food I buy there
9. Buy a new car
10. Attend a local festival
11. Go on a mission trip
12. Do a big project on the house with David
13. Paint a room in our house
14. Get pictures taken of us now that we're married
15. Bake a cake from scratch
16. Watch an entire show on Netflix from start to finish
17. Try one new recipe a week for a year 
18. Go to a winery
19. Host a backyard cookout
20. Pay it forward
21. Complete one Pinterest craft for every season 
22. Pursue higher education
23. Host a dinner party
24. Attend a beer festival
25. Post every day for a month
26. Write a letter a week for one year
27. Attend a professional sporting event
28. Watch the sunrise and the sunset in the same day
29. Keep my nails painted for an entire month without picking off the polish.
30. Host a giveaway on this blog

My hope is that by posting it on this blog I won't be tempted to let these things fall by the wayside and become lost in the hustle and bustle of life. I'll keep y'all posted as I go!

New Year, Better You

"New year, new you"

I have lost count of how many times I have heard/seen that phrase in the new year. I don't know why I'm surprised either. It's tradition to see the new year as an opportunity to start over. To tell you the truth, though, it kind of bugs me. Why are we so obsessed with starting over? Why can we not just take the old experiences and grow from them?

Starting over can be a good thing. Some times we need to get away from a past event that may have been negative. Some times we just need a fresh start. But, we don't need to forget about that event; we should take it and build upon it.

A few weeks ago I wrote about what a roller coaster 2011 was for the Mobleys. Even though it was a scoach cuckoo, I wouldn't change it for the world. All of our adventures were stellar learning experiences that helped build our faith and our marriage.

My question for y'all is, how are you taking 2012 and making it a better you? Not a new you, because you should never lose who you are, but a better you? Are you going to the gym more? Eating healthier? Reading the Bible more? Communicating with loved ones more? What? I'd love to hear about it!

Chasing Dreams

My sweet momma brought me back a page-a-day daily devotional in the midst of the great kidney revolt. If I remember correctly, it was another one of her great Cracker Barrel finds (we're big on the Cracker Barrel in our family). And it truly is great! Every morning before breakfast I flip the page and ponder it while I eat my eggs. Some mornings it's a Bible verse, other mornings it is a comment. The comments vary from advice to questions. Today's comment really got me:

Go after your dreams-God created you to live them!

As I sat there munching on my eggs (side note: there is something truly awesome about starting the day with scrambled eggs), I pondered this. What dreams do I have? Have I shared those dreams with David? Am I living a life that coincides with those dreams and God's will for me? Why not?  Needless to say the questions started pouring in a lot faster than the answers. 

I've always been good at reaching goals (helloooooo quintessential Type-A, oldest child personality), but not so good at setting them. A lot of it is the fear of failure. I was always so set on doing well that I didn't want to give myself the chance to fail. David and I had a conversation the other day about someone we know who has never challenged themselves, and so by default has always been the top dog. Well, what happens when that person is placed in a situation where they are no longer the top dog? How will they succeed if all they know if being the big fish in a little pond? I don't want to succeed just in my little pond, I want to succeed in the ocean

Today I decided I wanted to start setting goals that aligned with my dreams. I'm going to set goals that challenge me to grow in my faith, marriage, workplace-everywhere! Updates to come soon, but until then. . .

What kinds of goals/dreams do you have? Are you really living them out? I'd love to know!