Zumba: The New Frontier

So I'm avoiding working on my group project that I need to have done by tomorrow. I've spent the last three hours with my friend, Kurt talking, and now that I'm sitting at my computer ready to work on my paper, I realize I need to blog about my adventure last night.

You see, my friend Lindsey has been raving about her Zumba class. Last night, although a Monday night and usually reserved for FHE was Stake FHE. It was classic skating. I would like to point out a few things: 

1. I sprained my ankle a month ago. I know that's a lousy lame excuse, but there it is. And there it remains. I will continue to use it as an excuse to get out of anything else I so choose.
2. I hate Stake activities. I don't really meet anyone new, I just talk to the people in my ward. There's no mingling that goes on.
3. I wanted a chance to try Zumba.

So, I did. I went to Zumba class with Lindsey and Julia.

I have no sense of rhythm and don't dance very well, but I had a lot of fun. I was surprised when the hour was up. (Okay, not totally surprised since I was sweating profusely. I figured that was a VERY good indication of the time.) I hope to do it again, but that whole FHE thing kind of reels me in. I wish I wasn't so loyal, so diligent about going to ward activities. Life was so much easier about a year and a half when I didn't have friends or reasons to go to FHE. I guess I'll keep my life as is and find other times to Zumba.

Stress. Stress. Stress.

You'd think it would be really easy to come up with a talk.

I mean, I think I've spoken at least three times in the past year. 

Every time I do speak, I write about 6 different talks.

But for some reason, this one isn't coming together as nicely. I have a bunch of jumbled thoughts running through my head and I've found some great quotations that I feel like could work together if I could just find the thread.
I'm just not seeing it. 

But here are the quotations I have been running through my head:

If you don’t like where you are, change it. You are not a tree.

***

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Why me?" Then a voice answers, "Nothing personal... your name just happened to come up." ~ Charlie Brown

(Oh, the wisdom of Chuck....)

***

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. Quench not the Spirit"

~1 Thessalonians 5:16-17, 19

T minus 5 days...

How cool is she?

No. I'm not talking about me. Please. I am not cool. Trust me on this.

But my sisters-in-law are.

And one definitely is. She understands my sweet tooth better than anyone. I love talking to her. She takes my phone calls late at night (or did when she was living in California... now I have to schedule in time...) and tells me everything will be okay (or gives me good advice like:  

Life is like the ocean waves - sometimes you are at the top and sometimes you are at the bottom and life continually changes. Always be grateful when you are at the peak and enjoy every minute of it, do not take it for granted and never become conceited 'cause the low of the wave will always come in life, and when it's at the low times, never get too discouraged because it always goes back up. The waves sometimes are long and sometimes short but life is continually changing and each experience added to the book in our life. Some books are are more interesting than others but with the gospel we know that the ending is always amazing. 

See? Awesome.) 

But then I see this post and I realize how grateful I am that she has lived because I get to benefit from her work on Frappucinos.

Love you, Heather.

Break time

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.  

I read this quote today in the office of one of my colleagues. And it's kind of stuck with me. So, I thought I'd share.

On a more serious note...

I think I've mentioned before how I've noticed over the past month that I crave praise. Sometimes, my motives are not pure because I'm seeking validation for what I do. I've been trying hard to not do that--to really do the things I do for the "right" reasons and to not be so insecure that I need that praise. 

Last night was a chance to do that. To do something without recognition from anyone, but because I feel that person needed some attention. And it felt good. 

So, I've been thinking that maybe I should start making weekly resolutions. You know how I did big ones for the year? What I'm saying is... maybe I should pull back and focus on making weekly changes. 

I tell the girls in my Relief Society (I don't know for how much longer I get to say that...) that making huge goals is good--you want to have some direction, but it's the small goals that really get us to where we want to go. It's the daily ones that build our character and make us to become better people. My example is always the one where I was determined to lose weight. That's a BIG goal. So, the smaller goal was to start going for a run every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Two years later and some odd pounds lighter, I'm making the big goal happen. But it didn't happen because of the big goal. It happened because I made a small goal that I could do. 

I'll have to think on this one.

In the meantime, I found this quote that I think I need to print out and put in my church binder so that I see it at every meeting:

[here]

Have a happy Saturday.

The Failure Experiment: Failing #1

Remember when I talked about my experiment for the coming year? To allow myself to screw up and have fun doing it?

My first opportunity came and went. And I failed at allowing myself to fail.

That sounds so redundant.

And repetitive.

Church basketball this week was ugly. I'm expecting myself to be good because the last time I played... well... I was taller and bigger than the Beehives. I could make more baskets. And it wasn't so competitive.

Tuesday night I let my frustration at not performing well bother me. I played too aggressively and I blamed my frustration on the referees (granted, they weren't calling anything... I have the bruises to prove that I received a fair number of cheap shots) but those things are only excuses. I didn't enjoy my failure. Rather I became frustrated by my inability.

So, I see that. I recognize it. And in 2 Tuesdays when we play again, I'm going to be better. Because that's really what the experiment is supposed to do... help me to be better and more accepting of my limitations.

Who's in?

Just found this...

http://brentsicecastle.blogspot.com/

I want to go.

Who's in?

Birthday: Part Deux

I know... You've been waiting to see more pictures of the fantabulous blow out party I had, right?

Well, I have to get through the rest of my birthday first...

So, Saturday (my real birthday) found me up at the usual time of early morning and exercising. After exercising and watching some television, I ran over to the institute to practice some basketball with people from my ward. We ran drills and then played a couple of games of 3-on-3. I thought I was doing pretty good, but I realize that I need to work on my defense more. (We'll come back to my performance on the basketball court in another post).

After that, I went home, showered, ran some errands, opened my gifts from Mom and Dad and K&P:

Then watched the BYU-NM basketball game (was sorely disappointed in the results of that), took a nap, and went out to dinner with my favorite family--the Pages. They drove up from Provo and we went out to Rumbi's. It was wonderful. The boys were great. I should've brought my camera to take a picture, though!

After that, I came back home and Lindsey and Julie showed up to help decorate.

A birthday party in my family isn't a birthday party without the cake... that's right with caramel frosting.

Linds counting out the candles... there were so many....

After that, people began arriving. We amused ourselves with jumping onto the love seat, and then having a "dance" party and mingling.

I caught some serious air apparently.

Only took one breath to get all those candles. I hope my wish comes true!

We had 2 types of cake in honor of E's and mine's birthday... twins. Double the fun!

Me and Heather

Me and the girls

Me and Rachel 

More friends! Who knew I had this many?

Still more.... (Geez, you'd think I was popular or something...)

And more...

My only birthday kiss!

Zak and me.

My neighbors! Seriously, we have the SAME house number. We were destined to be friends!

We had fun eating cake and ice cream, chips and guacamole. 

The party finally ended at 2:00 AM. I was in bed by 2:30 AM, knowing that I would regret having to be up and to church the next morning. But the bishop was kind enough to remind me that I don't get the day off just because my birthday happened.

The best part of church though was that the new EQ president announced that it had been my birthday during EQ. So, I had a bunch of random guys telling me happy birthday for the rest of church until someone 'fessed up and told me what he knew. Someone may have to pay for this one day!

So there you have it. I completed 28 years with a bang. Let's see if 29 can top that!