Resolution or No?

As the new year is quickly approaching, the big question is whether or not you make those new years resolutions or not? I haven't really been a fan of making resolutions because I think if you want to change something, you don't need a new year to do that. With that being said, every year I always try to  pick out a few things to focus on at the beginning of each new year. This past year I wanted to focus on being a better person. As part of that I adopted a soldier, that ended up being several soldier, and it was one of the best things I have done with my time.

So I challenge each of y'all to decide on something to work on the next year. I personally am going to work more on being a better christian, continuing to work towards that fitness goal I have set and getting my life together where ever I end up. If you are still struggling to find ideas, I found this article and thought it was worth the time to read.

I want to wish you guys all a very Happy New Year!

Spread The Love Link-Up Party

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The day has come for the much anticipated link-up party.

The link up is at the bottom of this post :)

One of my acts of kindness for the link up party was writing letters to the residents at one of my rotations. My last rotation before the break was at a long term care facility for veterans in Truth or Consequences, NM. Now I had been to this location before and had gotten to know most of the residents pretty well already. Since the rotation was before Christmas, I decided to write Christmas cards to all the residents. I am talking about over 125 cards thats were delivered at mail call the week before Christmas. Unfortunately, I was gone when the letters were passed out, but I am sure that they were enjoyed even if it was only for the 2 seconds while they read it.

I also did the typical, donating food to a homeless person standing at an intersection in town, but mostly I just tried to be more kind and considerate in general. Whether it was holding the door for that continuos line of people rushing in the mall for last minute shopping or letting the person with 3 items check out in front of you at the store. It was nice to make more of an effort to do all the little things that we should be or are doing all year for people. It is certainly something that I want to continue out the year doing and bring into the new year.

Parents

My parents are both teachers at a small school (I am talking 57 kids from Pre-K to 12th grade) in Eastern, NM. Well the Pre-K students made gingerbread men that mysteriously went missing from their classroom. So my Dad agreed to take the bullet and pretend to steal the gingerbread men and made a big ordeal about it razzing the little ones. I guess their teacher had told them, that if they bake more then theirs would come back. Of course they couldn't leave the little ones hanging, so they made giant gingerbread men for the little ones. Just as the story goes, as soon as the new men were baked, theirs returned--a happy ending for all.

They also shared that their kindness has been repaid to them as well. One of their sweet little 8th grade students remembered that my Dad liked chocolate covered cherries and that Mom liked Almond Joy so she paired each of those with a sweet hand written note. I love hearing about people sharing their kindness, especially young ones.

Laker Lover and her family

Laker Lover and her family have been busy being Santa's little elves. They did several acts of kindness including: buying Starbucks for the car behind them, making food baskets for families and wrapped up gifts for children in need in their hometown. She said it was really sad seeing all the families that were not as fortunate as her family, but it really helped to remind her of how blessed they are and how much she enjoyed being able to give back.

I can't wait to hear about yall's Acts of Kindness!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I hope you are all having a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones. My family and I are currently celebrating this joyous day in Kansas. We had to fight a snow storm on the way up here, but thankfully we made it all safe and sound.

God Bless You ALL and remember the real reason for the season!

Oh and I will be posting the my link up tomorrow! I look forward to hearing all about yall's random acts of kindness during the holiday season.

Birthday Announcement

Today is two of my absolute favorite lady's birthdays, Mother Dearest and G-Ma.  I am lucky to have two of the best people and wonderful role models I know in my life as family. I would not be where or who I am today without these two women. I love you both and hope you have the wonderfully blessed day that y'all deserve. 

Just a friendly reminder folks that you have exactly ONE week until the Spread the Love link-up ends!

Happy Hump Day!

A Christmas Miracle

If y'all haven't seen this video yet, watch it. It may or may not have made me cry in the middle of public. The world needs more companies and people like this today.

Happy Holidays!

My First Ever Link-Up PARTY Y'all

For awhile now I have wanted to host a link-up party so I finally did it. Here goes nothin' ... 

Sometimes I get so caught up with everything going on with life that I forget to take a step back and remember how truly blessed I am. This is especially easy to do as we are rushing around trying to get everything settled for the holidays before we get off work or out of school. We are over consumed with finding the perfect gift for our loved ones and making sure we all have the best that we sometimes miss out on the true reason for the season. So in the spirit of the holiday season I am going to host a link up for others to help spread a little Christmas cheer. It is super easy and a GREAT opportunity to give back as we remember the reason we celebrate this season. Whether it is to the less fortunate or a random stranger, it is all about the thought that counts.

Here is all the details . . . Sometime between now and Christmas do some kind of selfless act, that's it! It can be as simple as paying for the person behind you at Starbucks, sending an extra Christmas card to a neighbor, drop off a batch of cookies to a friend, visit a nursing home, buy an extra toy for a child, donate an old coat, etc. There are endless possibilities to be explored and I am sure y'all are a lot more creative than I am, so start a thinkin'. Then, after Christmas I will host the party and everybody can link-up with their stories. Now don't you miss out on the fun just because you don't have a blog. If you do have a blog, you can send your description/story to me and I will gladly write it up and post it for you. Oh and I am having a few minor technical difficulties working the link up so I will post that as soon as I get it working :)

Have a great week lovelies!

Chase Those Dreams

Turkey Trot 2013

Washington & New Mexico--My run ended up being a little bit longer than a normal 5K, I ended up running my way home from Washington to New Mexico. It was a little cold and a little tiring, but I finished. Now if y'all believe that nonsense, you are crazy. Haha I did end up running one in Washington while I was there last month since I was not sure if I would have time this past weekend, but luckily I was able to squeeze in a run yesterday afternoon as well.

 

Now my run in Washington started out as an innocent 5K (my longest run at that point in my life) and ended up being 4.44 miles because homegirl here got lost. That's right, I took a wrong turn, ended up running through a residential area, through town and back across the interstate to my starting point. Luckily around mile #2 my legs went numb and I was able to just enjoy the scenery. My run yesterday was not as exciting, but equally as enjoyable. I ran down the road by my grandparents house in Silver City. Both of my ventures were not well photographed so I combined them below.

Pre-workout run in Washington!

The pretty new Shoes Miss Football called me out on.

Started the run by the barns at my grandparent's ranch.

Finished it at the top in the middle of no where! :)

New Mexico--Laker Lover participated in the Turkey Trot on Saturday morning after a busy day of Black Friday shopping the day before. While the rest of her family embarked on a 10-mile bike ride, she took on the Navajo Nature Trail in Artesia. She said the run was pretty enjoyable despite the frigid, cold weather.

New Mexico--Next up on the list was O-Chem Friend in Santa Rosa. He had a busy holiday weekend balancing his family time and on-call schedule at work, but was able to join in on the fun Sunday night. Unfortunately the sun sets so dang early he wasn't able to get any pictures from his journey during the day, but he got us some nice night time shots. He said his run was windy and cold, but he still enjoyed it and felt like he could run another 5K. [He is obviously the craziest one of us all.] He also added a picture of some of his favorite running tunes he listens too. GREAT job friend :)

Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving and long weekend!

A big thanks to Laker Lover and O-Chem Friend for joining in on the fun.

Give More

It Is Perfectly Okay and Normal

First off, I apologize for the language above. Secondly, can I get an amen sista? With so many changes and big decisions I have coming up in the next 6 months of my life, I am trying to embrace this concept. Y'all know that home girl here is a full-blown type-A personality that likes to have all major choices planned out, so this is a lot harder than you would think.

In the past 6 months I have finished the didactic portion of my pharmacy career, traveled to 3 different states across the western United States for clinicals, met new friends, attended weddings, and had to say good bye to loved ones before I was ready. The only thing I know about life is that it is unexpected and the only thing we can do is trust in God to direct us through it all as he does time and time again.

This weekend I am driving back to NM (~1600 miles) with my dad to start my next rotation bright and early Monday morning. So for now all I can do is embrace the craziness, hope for the best and pray  I am able to hear God direct me on the right path. With that being said, I could really use some extra prayers over the next few months.

Have a great weekend loves!

2013 Turkey Trot

Well even though my friend, Miss Football, officially called me out on her blog, I am jumping on the bandwagon and doing her 2013 Virtual Turkey Trot. You can learn all the fun details here. Since I am going to be sucking eggs for 3.1 miles, I wanted you to have the same offer. Ya thats right, I am that kind of friend.

Basically all you have to do is run a 5K (which can totally be running down a dirt road, on a treadmill or through the city streets) sometime between Thanksgiving and December 1st, document the efforts, send me your progress and I'll blog about it for you so we can all join in on Miss Football's fun idea. Oh and did I mention that if Miss Football and Almost Gypsy Soul get people from 10 different states to compete they are donating money to the Salvation Army for the holidays. It is pretty easy, fun and for a GREAT cause, so... NO EXCUSES!

P.S. I have already recruited Laker Lover and O-Chem Friend for the cause, so come the heck on!

Smile

I love this quote for so many reasons, but seriously one of the best things you can do for a person is turn a bad day into something good. Whether it is a small gesture or long talk with an old friend, make somebody's day better today! We are all fighting our own kind of battle and you never know how once simple smile can be contagious.

Smile on my friends, smile on!

Mrs. Texas Comes To Visit

This past weekend, Mrs. Texas and her mom came to visit. It was the best weekend I have had in a long time and here is all the pictures to document the fun.

We started out the morning at the Capital building and grounds. It was beautiful around there and great to see all their memorial areas. 

After we toured around the capital we headed downtown. There were lots of cute little shops to browse through before we went to breakfast at Darby's. It is a local restaurant that was featured on Diners, Dine-Ins and Drives, so that was pretty cool. After our lunch we decided to go walk them off and ended up around the Capital Lake. It was perfect timing and so peaceful.

Since we are in the hot spots for microbreweries we had to go visit one out of respect. ;) Fish Tale is a local favorite. Literately 15 minutes after we sat down the entire room filled up. There is where the grand inspiration for the evening showed up.... Tacoma Comedy club. For those of y'all who haven't been to a comedy club, GO. It was a great night!

I was doing really good taking pictures, then we left Olympia and I stopped. After we saw all the sites in Olympia we toured down to the outlet malls south of town then headed north to Tacoma before we headed to Seattle for the normal sites.

The weekend was filled with lots of laughs, lots of fun, and lots of great memories.

Good Stuff

Hang in there loves, it is almost the weekend!

Fall at It's Finest

I am only going to be up here for a month and y'all will stop seeing my tree pictures then. But until I have to go home, y'all just keep enjoying nature's beauty!

Have a wonderful week loves!

Washington Trip: Final Installment

The last leg of our trip was in Vancouver, BC! It was another great part of this terrific trip. Neither one of us had ever been in Canada before and we were both looking forward to that alone. We started out our trip at the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It is certainly a must see if y'all are ever in the area. The bridge itself is pretty awesome, but the entire park it is located in is a fun time. After the bridge we headed into town, checked into the hotel then went downtown to shop. The next morning we finished up in downtown then headed to Granville Island to their public market. It was very cool and very similar to Pike Place in Seattle. It was a fun way to spend the morning before we headed back to the good 'ol USA.

The trip was  blast and I am so happy that I was able to spend the time with my mother.  This weekend Mrs. Texas and her mother came to visit and we have had the best time! They headed home today and I am trying to regroup before Laker Lover shows up on Friday! Have a great week loves!