Harder then I thought

It is barely lunch time in Austin TX and I already have had to change many negative thoughts in my head into positive thoughts. I guess I am making some progress in that I just thought the negative ideas and did not say all the ugly thoughts that were running rampant in my head. So I might have to take up one of Anne's ideas for how to stop the negativity by accessorising every outfit with a rubber band permanently attached to my wrist.

In high school and sometimes in college I would write NO on my left hand in permanent marker. I thought it would be a constant reminder that I was not suppose to eat lots of junk food and I thought that when I would go to reach for it I would notice the NO and put the food back. Surprisingly that worked really well, the problem came in that I had to explain to people why I had NO written on my hand. I was very embarrassed to admit that it was to keep me from eating so instead I would make up a lie about how it was to keep me from getting on facebook or something silly like that.

Writing things on your hands has actually become pretty common placed over the last few years, so who knows if anyone would ask me anymore why this is a NO on my hand. Taylor Swift is known for having the number 13 on her hand whenever she performs. Personally I find that a little weird, but then again who am I to judge?

So the positive project survives another day~!

Day 2:
-i woke up this morning to my ihome playing one of my favorite songs "Strawberry Swing" by coldplay. listen to it if you are not already familiar with it, because it will change your life.
-a cold rainy front has come into Austin and it is finally acceptable to wear sweaters again and that makes me very happy!
-this afternoon i have a coffee date at starbucks with one of my youth and that means i get to have a peppermint latte!

Picture Day 1

Old family photos on my side table.

Positive Project

Welcome 2011! I know you are going to be an awesome year filled with lots of fun adventures, meaningful time with family, and lot of laughs with friends. Last night I planned a lesson for the youth in which I talked about the meaning of Epiphany. Epiphany actually means manifestation. With old magazines in hand, the youth and I cut out words, phrases, and pictures of things we wanted to achieve and change in this new year. Later in the evening I was talking to one of my best friends from college Anne and we both realized that we have been viewing things through a very negative lens.

So in the spirit of the new year the two of us have taken on the Positive Project. Everyday we are going to find three things in our life that are positive. While this is not a very difficult project, the challenge is going to be to do it daily and continually. In order to encourage me to be successful I am going to try and also do a year long photo project where I also post one picture everyday to my blog. This will definitely be more challenging, because I have a very bad history of not uploading pictures. But it will be rewarding years to come to have a year of my life documented in photos.

Anne and I are on a mission, so wish us luck!

Day 1:
-going on a long walk around town lake
-the newest season of The Bachelor starts tonight
-truly enjoying a day off from work

Waiting for Superman

This is one of the most amazing movies I have seen in a while. As I walked out of the alamo drafthouse thinking that I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be one of those amazing teachers that I had just heard about. But then reality set in. I am not a teacher, nor do I think I possess the skill to be one. Even though this may/may not be true I want to help make a change. Watch the movie, and tell me what you think.

Is there ever enough time in the day?

This is a question that I constantly ask myself. Is there ever enough time in the day for sleeping? Is there ever enough time in the day for getting the mountains of work done that you need to tackle? Is there ever enough time in the day for simply going on a long walk?

The answer is that there is NEVER enough timein the day to get everything done. So, how do you decide what take priority. Recently sleeping has not been high up on my list of priorities and because of that I am truly feeling exhausted today. I sometime dream of being able to crawl under my extra large desk at work and take a little cat nap. But unfortunately today that is not an option, because there is so much to do!

Don't you remember those days when you were young and you resisted your afternoon naps. Why did we not understand or realize that one day we would cherish those naps and grow to love them? Until the time I am able to once again take long afternoon naps (a.k.a. quiet with fan time) I will just wish I could be like these people.





and of course there must be a fan!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

It really is no secret that I am horrible about putting pictures up online. I am not sure why I am so bad about uploading the pictures. I think it has something to do with the fact that it is a very slow and tedious process, and I would rather be spending my time doing something else. But for all you out there that are waiting on me to upload pictures I promise to do so soon, and I mean very soon.....but please don't hold your breath!

When I moved into my apartment I knew that I did not want to paint the walls, because it would be a huge pain to repaint them when I was ready to move. So instead I opted for covering my walls in pictures. Like this one -



I choose to buy these inexpensive frames from IKEA because I wanted to spend more money on being able to get nice prints to put in the frames. In order to keep some continuity I choose only black frames, but they do vary in size and shape. Ideally I would love my apartment wall to look like this:



or even this



I can remember the first time I saw anything like this was on an episode of Tori Spelling's show with her husband. They were shooting in their house and Tori had this wall of black photo frames, all shapes and sizes covering an accent wall in living room. Not long later I was filling in for my sister when she could not babysit for her regular family and they too had a wall covered in an assortment of picture frames.

So when I began to think of a way to decorate my apartment I decided I wanted to hang picture of all the places I had traveled. Now every time I look at the wall I am filled reminded of amazing experiences and filled with happy memories.

How would you cover the wall of your apartment?

New Computer New Start

Wow, where has the time gone? It is hard to believe that it has been six months since my last post. A lot of wonderful and exciting things have happened, and over the next couple of weeks I hope to share with you all some of the fun adventures I have been on.

Last weekend my computer had a sad sad death. It was five years old and was nearing the end of it's life. After a few panicked hours of wondering whether it would come back to life, and another handful of panicked phone calls to friends near and far which included a suggestion to submerge my computer in bags of rice, it became apparent that my computer needed to be replaced.

So here I am blogging from my brand new macbook pro!



This computer is really inspiring and amazing, and it is motivating me to get back to blogging. So WELCOME BACK! I am here to stay and can't wait to share all thoughts, inspirations, and ideas with you all.