Last Chance!

One month ago, I attended my first 5 Club meeting with Jon Acuff. 

He's motivational, inspirational, REAL, and downright hilarious.

Since that meeting (and since I've read his books) I've decided to stop hiding from my dream and start going for it.

And you know what happened?

Progress happened.

All of the sudden, other bloggers are retweeting me. People are sharing my blog posts. I MORE than doubled my blog views from the first 6 months of the year in only 25 days.

And all it took was a little push from this local author and speaker.

If you are ready to punch fear in the face, and learn how to get on the fast track to awesome, get up super early with me tomorrow!

Register here. It's from 5 am to 7 am. It's free. It's early. It's worth it.

Why I'm A Christian

Ok, this post is not actually a thorough explanation of why I am a Christian. But, it's a story, that might help you understand.

I've had kind of a no good very bad day. I kind of had that day yesterday. And had a couple of those days last week. And heck, for the past 2 months, I've had some serious down days.

Let's go back to last week. I call my insulin pump supplier to order more supplies and to switch over my insurance. (because supposedly, I "only" had to wait 5 months for them to start paying for my diabetes supplies.)

To make a long story short after speaking with a bazillion different people, and after a lot of frustration, and a few tears, it turns out that they are not going to pay until January 1, 2014.

My blood sugar levels are MUCH better controlled while on the insulin pump. But because my supplies are SO expensive off of insurance, I wouldn't be able to afford it. (No one would.) And I'd have to go back on shots.

Going back on shots means taking shots 6 times per day. That means interrupting my daily life 6 times every day to go to the bathroom, draw up insulin, and inject myself. I'm a busy person. Sometimes I miss a shot. Or sometimes I'll skip a meal so I don't have to take a shot. Or sometimes I'll just downright not take it "because I don't wanna."

None of those are healthy. I knew it would take a LOT of work to try and control my diabetes while on shots.

So I call my doctor's office this morning, to explain the situation and confirm my off-pump regimen. She says she will confirm with my doctor and then call me back.

She called me back this afternoon.

Someone JUST donated the EXACT amount of supplies I would need to cover me until my insurance starts paying for my supplies.

If that's not God saying "Hey, I'm looking out for ya, kid."....I don't know what is.

I'm a Christian because my faith gives me hope. Because I believe that I am always taken care of. And I like those feelings.

Sunday Depression

In the last 5 Club meeting with Jon Acuff, he said something to effect of this:

You should work towards a dream that doesn't make you dread Sunday nights.

He is right. I'm trying. What about you?

It seems hard doesn't it? Maybe even impossible? But I don't think it is. Maybe it's my stupidly optimistic nature. But if other people do it, why can't I?

Speaking of The 5 Club, if you're ready to work on that goal, come to the next meeting with me! It's this Friday at 5 am :) Register here.

Trying Not To Be A Facebook Creeper

Do you ever get on Facebook and just mindlessly click around until you end up deep in the Facebook forest, unaware of how you even got there?

Yeah, me too.

Tonight, Facebook land brought me to the page of a little boy I used to babysit.

Except.....he's not little anymore. He's 14. 

I babysat him when he was 2.

I really want to send him a message, and tell him I'm the reason he learned to say "excuse me" after burping (because every Friday night, we had burping contests, and we always said "excuse me" afterwards). 

I want to remind him that even though he was a hellion at bedtime, I was still the only person that could get him to go to sleep in his own room instead of his parents' or brother's bed. 

I want to tell him he is the reason I want to name a future son of mine "Landon."

But I won't. Because that's probably creepy to a 14 year old boy.

I'll just hang on to my sweet memories (he was really just the sweetest little red head ever) and stalk his Facebook page for the next few years to make sure he's not getting into trouble :)

Hahahaha. Just kidding.

But seriously.

Everyone likes flowers. Even if you say you don't.

Maybe I'll ruffle a few girl-feathers....but I have to be honest here.

I don't believe you when you say you don't like it when your boyfriend or husband or whoever buys you flowers. 

Are you REALLY saying you will roll your eyes in disgust when your significant other surprises you with a lovely bouquet? 

Are you really saying that it annoys you that he was thinking about you, and he decided to buy you some romantic roses?

REALLY?!?!

I get it. Not all girls are "girly girls"...but you can't possibly be appalled by flowers. 

I can see rare exceptions. Let's say your family is starving and living in a cardboard box on the side of the road. If your man comes to the box with some flowers from Kroger, I'd be pissed, too. "Hey man, you could have spent that $12.00 on, I don't know...FOOD."

But for the most part, shouldn't you be grateful that he thought about you?

I mean...they're FLOWERS. He's not bringing you something gross. Flowers are pretty, and are a general expression of love.

I also have to note, that I think some girls say that, because their dudes DON'T get them flowers. NOT EVEN FOR VALENTINES DAY! (a travesty!) 

So fellas...maybe you should step up your game a little bit here, and stop making your girl bitter.

So, girls, tell me what you think? Are you a flower lover? A flower hater? Why?

Guys, do you buy your girl flowers? Why or why not?

Answer in the comments below!

When Your Sister Gets Married

When your baby sister gets married...

Even if you've known it would happen for a long time..

Even if you love her husband-to-be...

Even if they've dated for years...

Even if you are super happy for her...

Even if you've already seen her in her wedding dress...

You will still cry like a baby when you see her walk down the aisle with your daddy.

I know this from personal experience.

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Justin Hollis! I love you both, and couldn't be happier to have been part of your big day. :)

Me and my baby sister :)

How I Got Kicked in the Face....and the Unexpected Sequel

Once upon a time, there was a girl that got kicked in the face and spent a month and a half recovering from the mother of all corneal abrasions.

As with most tales of victory and triumph, there's always an "almost" win. There's always the two steps back. There's always that moment when you feel like the main character is about to have their moment in the sun. (and then you realize there is still an hour left in the movie so something else is definitely going to go wrong.)

Well, folks. it turns out, there's still an hour left in my movie.

Friday's doctor's appointment (that I talked about here,) was about as bad as I was expecting it to be.

I have a recurring corneal erosion. Which basically means, The top layer of my cornea was violently ripped off and my wound looked just as bad as it did on day 1.

(Ok. I have a flair for the dramatic. But I have to make you all feel sorry for me.)

And also, I have to have laser surgery to permanently fix the problem. So there's that.

Now, the actual wound was not as bad as day 1. My vision was something like 20/60, as opposed to 20/4000. (No, I'm actually not being dramatic there.) And I didn't have to have an eye patch.

They did put a contact lens bandage on my eye, but it came out over the weekend. (during my sister's bachelorette party, at that.)

I slept almost all day Sunday.

I took Monday off and slept the whole day. (I woke up around 3, and did some little chores for Brett, because I love him and he takes good care of me.)

And then it was time for my follow-up appointment.

According to my eye doctor, my eye looked "mucho better!"

Needless to say, I was really super excited to hear that! 

I go back on Thursday for another follow-up. And hopefully, after that, there will be no more steps back.

Now, I have to prepare myself for an endocrinologist appointment tomorrow morning that is sure to be awful. Did I mention, that over the past couple of months I've been battling my blood sugar levels? ALL OF THE EYE TRAUMA DRAMA!

I was SO CLOSE!

I have just 20 days before my follow-up appointment for my corneal abrasion that happened about a month and a half ago.(Catch up on that story here.)

Things were going swimmingly!

Until last night. 

My eye turned red and the pacific ocean started pouring out of it and it hurts really bad and now I'm going to the eye doctor this afternoon.

How Many Jobs Have YOU Had?

I am slightly embarrassed to even be making this post. 

But I need to know I'm not alone here!

Brett...wonderful wonderful Brett, is 32. He's had 3 cars. Three cell phones (I think...maybe 2 or 3.) And this is the real kicker...TWO. JOBS. I mean, that's impressive, right??

Then there is me. I'm 26. I've had 6 cars. Ten cell phones (that I can remember...I feel like there were more...) And here is the real kicker....

Are you ready?

Since I started working, 11 years ago.....I've had....

Eighteen jobs. 18. Eighteen. 18. EIGHTEEN.

And that's not including all the little side jobs I've done, on campus jobs in college, or internships. I mean...wow.

Now, to be fair, and to try to justify any of that ridiculous number, I have pretty much always had more than one job at one time. Some of them were just summer jobs and some of them were with businesses that failed.

But still. Eighteen is a lot. 

Am I in the minority here? Please someone raise your hand and tell me you, too, have held an average of 1.6 jobs every year for the past 11 years.....