90 Days in Review

What? 90 Days are already over? Didn't I just post my 90 Day Goals on here?  Time to see how I did.

I went back and read my original post with my goals, and realized that somewhere between writing them on my blog, and writing them on the giant poster I hang in my room to remind me of my goals- I missed a few things.  So my summary may be slightly different than my original post.

Let's do the "worst for first and the best for last".  (So that I end feeling good about myself and not totally lame!)

SPIRITUAL:  Interestingly enough, this was my worst area.  I don't know what happened.  I think I may have bit off a little more than I could chew and for some reason it was my Spiritual Goal that suffered the most.
Attend the Temple Every Month. While I did attend the Temple once- I was obviously two short of my goal (3 times going to the Temple).  I am, however, proud to do that simple math (3-1= 2) as a result of my Mental Goal.  But we will get to that later.
Study My Lesson Daily And while I struggled to do this daily, I did study my lesson much more frequently, and even started a facebook page for my class to get updates about the lesson.  So while I didn't meet my goal, I definitely improved. :)
Meditate Before my Morning Prayers. Man, this sounded awesome when I planned it!  But finding a few minutes to pray before I get going in the morning is hard enough- without adding meditation!  I did find that the times I was able to meditate before I prayed (probably once a week for the whole 90 Days)  my mind was much clearer and my prayers were way less rushed and much more sincere.  I would like to revisit this goal and see how to make it work in my life. (you know, like waking up earlier)

FINANCIAL:  This one may actually tie for "worst for first".  While I didn't ever effectively budget, I did cut back on some spending.  In some areas.  For instance; I am wearing "elf" lip gloss right now because I lost my Lancome lip gloss and new that spending money on lip gloss seemed to be in the "unnecessary spending" category.  My lip are pretty mad at me.

PERSONAL: Here is my first Life Changer.
Connect with my Children Daily love this one.  It made the difference between me letting Macie watch TV while Blake is at preschool and me playing My Little Ponies with her.  It made the difference between me getting upset with Riley and yelling at her at our 12th store looking for shoes- and me actually holding her in my arms while she cried about how hard it is for her to find shoes that don't hurt.  It made the difference between me nodding while Blake launches into a long story about about how bees carry pollen from flower to flower and actually listening to my brilliant son and asking questions.  Loved it.
Daily Calendar this one also made a bigger difference than I expected it to.  I just wanted to get more organized, which this definitely helped, but I ended up getting much more out of it.  Apparently planning and writing things on the calendar help with my depression.  It helps to see all of the great things I have planned.  It also helps my anxiety to know when things are going to get done.  I have been lazy since 90 Day Goals ended and haven't done it- and can already feel the anxiety.  So I am making that one permanent.
Read and do The Magic. Ok, this book was definitely the most life changing part of 90 Day Goals.  I seriously want to buy a million copies of the book and give it to everyone I know.  (But since that would conflict with my "no unnecessary spending" goal, I guess I will let you go to Amazon yourself and buy it.  Right now.  Go ahead, I will wait.  Have you bought it yet? Seriously, finish reading my post, then go back and get it.) It is such a powerful book on Gratitude.  It gives you a short daily lesson on gratitude and then an activity to practice having more gratitude in your life.   It is really hard to describe in writing- but practicing gratitude (and I believe there is a big difference between being grateful and practicing gratitude) has literally changed some very difficult things in my life.  From relationships that are broken to finances to healing my body, every aspect of my life has been blessed by learning how to practice gratitude daily.  *sigh* I feel grateful just thinking about how much my life has changed!

MENTAL: This goal was surprisingly more enjoyable than I anticipated.
Learn 10 New Technical Things I am finally loving my iphone because of this goal.  In fact I just discovered that if you tell Siri a movie title it will tell you all of the nearby theaters and times that it is playing! (Way better than my Fandango app!) I feel pretty good about that part.  As for me and my Silhouette; we are still not any closer to getting along.  In fact, I think I need to read The Magic to apply some of it's principles to heal my relationship with my Silhouette.  (I am embarrassed to admit that after our last falling out there were tears and even some name calling.  I don't know why technology hates me so much.)
Play Sudoku Daily I am also pretty proud of this one!  I went from taking 45 minutes (with my worst time being close to two hours!) to under 10 minutes to complete a game on the "easy" level!  So I can finally check "fear of numbers" off of my list. (Ok, just the numbers 1-10, that is as high as Sudoku goes)  I am already thinking that next 90 Day Goals I will try another Math thing.  Maybe going to a second grade class and playing "Multiplication Around the World"! (Notice I didn't say division or anything past the 4th grade, I am still way to intimidated for that advanced stuff.)

PHYSICAL: Definitely my best area!
No Fast Food apparently I forgot that I had included "no french fries" with this.  While I did totally avoid fast food, I did have the occasional Red Robin fries.  Out of 90 Days, I only had fast food twice! That is pretty amazing for me.  And I have totally noticed the difference.  Not so much in waist (which is where I wanted to see the differnece) but in my wallet, and in my cravings.  I don't have any fast food  cravings.  In fact, most of it sounds kind of grosse to me.  (This from the girl that was on a first name basis in almost every drive thru around.)
Give up all Soda/ and replace it with water I will be honest.  This was the hardest 90 Day Goal I have ever done.  By far.  I am sure you all read my post about it, and cried with me over my loss.  But I am happy to say: I am well into recovery.  I have stopped obsessing about it.  I have stopped craving it. I have stopped waking up at 2 a.m. dreaming about it. I have stopped driving back and forth in front of the McDonalds drive thru listening to "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men.  I have even started to really enjoy drinking water instead.  And for those of you who are curious; I am never planning on starting up again.
Run a Half Marathon I did it!  I can't believe it.  When I set this as a goal I don't think I realized how hard it would be.  I had heard people say "if you can run a 10K you can run a half".  That was not true for me.  I think "if you can run a 10K you can finish a half marathon" would be more accurate.  It was hard.  The training was hard.  When we started the 90 Day Goals, the plan was to make a documentary of the goals (there were quite a few film makers involved in the group) and so we made video journals throughout the 3 months of our progression on our goals.  It is interesting to look back and see me cry after a run that was particularly painful for my back injury.  Or another video after I ran 9 miles in the pouring down rain and hail.  I have videos of me struggling to do 6 miles in the beginning, and then me actually crossing the finish line of a 13.1 mile race!
I learned a ton about myself training for this type of run.  And I am proud to say that I refused to ever give up. I am proud that I set a hard goal and stuck to it!  I learned that I actually really like running.  That I am actually good at it.  (not "fast" good, just "capable" good) And I learned that my biggest fans and biggest support are always my friends and family.


There you go.  90 Days.  It was life changing.  I plan on maintaining a lot of the goals I worked on, and improving the ones I failed :)  Feel free to tell me that you think I am awesome.

A face that only a mother could love

Happy Mother's Day!

My mom recently sent me a card that read in part "I have always loved being your mom"- it made me realize again what an amazing woman she is.  And I realized that maybe you should see some pictures of why "always loving" me may have been so difficult!

For those of you who remember this post from a few years ago-  you can have a good laugh again.

For those of you who missed this last time, back by popular demand:

A Face that Only a Mother Could Love....




We've all heard the Phrase:
A FACE THAT ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE...


Well in honor of MOTHER'S DAY-- I give you a Face that ONLY My Mother could love:



It gets better.... wait for it....


That is right, My Mom LOVED Jabba the Hut! Or as my Family actually called me "The Michelin Man" because my arms and legs and tummy and neck, ok EVERYTHING looked like it was made out of tires like the Michelin Tires Man!


And Now I give you: THE MOTHER that LOVED THAT FACE, and neck, and legs....




There she is, the woman who gave me LIFE (and maybe a little too much to eat! just kidding). This is the woman who let me wear a Tutu EVERYDAY (accept at Disney Land, and I am still a little bitter about that) when I was five just because I wanted to. (I owe her my free spirit for that) This is the woman who made the best birthday cakes of any mom I knew. (I owe her my love of Cup Cakes and the joy of piping frosting) This is the woman who taught me funny songs around the camp fire on family camp outs. (I owe her my love of music... or at least the funny stuff!) This is the woman who helped me highlight my hair when she caught me skipping school having a REALLY REALLY BAD DAY even though coloring our hair was against her rules! (I owe her my understanding and flexibility to not sweat the small stuff) This is the woman who opened my Mission Call and told me over the phone when I was scared to go that she had read it and KNEW that "in ALL the WORLD this is where My Katie should go". (I owe her the strength to open my already opened mission call and GO on my mission - which has been one of the BEST DECISIONS of my life) This is the woman who called home from her Mission in Washington D.C. when Riley was born to tell me she would be able to come home for a weekend and see my newborn baby! I don't think she knew how much it meant to me to show her my new baby girl. (I owe her a lot of tears for that one)

She did ALL OF THAT for that "little" baby girl with a Face that only a MOTHER could love.



Now, she is not my ONLY MOTHER.

I have one more. This woman gave me my GREATEST GIFT ever. A WONDERFUL HUSBAND.



This is JT with his Grandpa Davis (Shauna's Dad) Whom we named Blake after (Blake DAVIS)




JT is the bottom left :) sorry, I didn't have any Baby Pics- so he just gets toddler pics!!




JT is on the left with the cool hat, his little brother is on the lawn mower with the pizza! too cute to pass this one up!




And now I give you the Mother who gave me her son:




There she is: The woman who gave me the Love of My Life. (and because of him, 3 beautiful children- so I owe her a lot of my happiness). This is the woman who I fell in love with first. (that's right, on our 2nd "date" I met his mom and fell in love! I HOPED I would fall in LOVE with JT so that she could be my mother in law! So I guess I owe her the fact that I even Love her son!) This is the woman who welcomed me into her home and family after only 3 weeks of dating her son! (I owe her my immediate acceptance and comfort in her home) This is the woman who shares my talent for weeping! (she may be the only person who tears up more than I do! I owe her a few tears for that!) This is the woman who invites me to sing around the piano with her on Sundays or Holidays (which is better than dessert for me! and that is saying alot. I owe her the love JT has for music) This is the woman who has been an example of Quiet Dignity. (something I strived to attain on my mission with little success-- obviously. I owe her my desire to keep trying!) This is the woman who lets me lay around her pool all summer long, or at least the 3 days that it is warm around here! (I owe her my Vitamin D and the 3 freckles I get each year!)

So there you have it. My Mothers. How blessed am I to have two wonderful women to look up to, be friends with, and love??

Happy Mother's Day. Thanks for "Loving Our Faces."