My husband is very proud of his new social networking site.  Please check it out http://www.tilojavideo.com/

Back to The Busy!

So, tomorrow (Jan 10) I start back to the real world.  I start my last leg of my Master's schooling.  If I survive the next 5 months as a Counselor Intern at Denham Springs Freshman High School and pass my Comps exam in March, I will be a proud owner of a Master's degree.

I have enjoyed my month and a half of sloth.  However, my body has not.  I have so many L-Bs to lose it isn't funny.  A seditary lifestyle can really change a person, so I have to fit that into my schedule.

Also, I am reading the bible through this year.  I have the YouVersion app on my phone (from youversion.com) and have selected a reading plan.  I read the selections each day and can't wait to be able to say I have read the whole bible.  I have read most of over the course of my Christian walk...but not all.  And I definitely want the experience of reading the bible through each year, for the rest of my life.

In addition, I am trying to enjoy casual reading more often.  I am on the last book of the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series.  I loved those books but I am ready to check that off my to do list and move on.  Those are slow reads for me for some reason.

So make the list:
Study for Comps
Complete Internship with a smile
Lose weight
Eat right
Exercise
Read the Bible through
Read for fun

One Year Anniversary

Theo and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary downtown on October 23, 2010.  I surprised Theo with a visit to the Old State Capital and a picnic on the levee.

The fountains in front of the Shaw Center proved to be a fun photo-op before we headed to the capitol building.

 

Before entering the beautiful building, my husband, who thinks he is a model, had to stop and practice his skills.

This is the mock station to the left of the entrance to the building. 

The beautiful spiral staircase in the entrance always catches eyes.  Theo was mezmerized.  He also pretended to be the governor giving a speech!

Finally, We headed to the levee for a picnic lunch. We ended the day with dinner at Monjouni's.  Best bread pudding around!

1 bag of Excitement

So, on a typical grocery trip, I have a basketfull of groceries, spend $120, and get home and realize, I don't know what to cook for dinner.  So, I checked out the Kraft website to try out the One Bag, Five Dinners.  I was amazed.

The website gives you choices of Chicken and Beef, Chicken and Pork, Chicken and Seafood, or Healthy Living bags.  It gives you 5 recipes to cook and a shopping list to get ingredients for all the recipes.  The shopping list suggests specific brands, but of course, I purchased Great Value brand when I could.  I spent $70 but on top of the grocery list, I bought spinache, tomatoes, and cucumbers (for salads for lunch during the work week), tuna, extra chicken, cereal, milk, manwhich, extra ground meet, hamburger buns (for sloppy joes I had been craving) and yogurt.  So, I probably only spent $50 or less on the actual recipes.

One down side, the Friday recipe is usually a frozen pizza.  I skipped this purchase.  But we have cooked our first dinner.  No-Fuss Tex-Mex Roll-Ups.  Not only were they delicious, but they took less than 30 minutes to cook.  Since it's just the two of us and we've been eating spinache salads for lunch, they fed us two nights!  I highly recomend trying the One Bag Five Dinners for your family!

Tonight's dinner, Quick-Fix Cheeseburger Meatloaf! 

LCA - Learning and Bonding

This weekend was the Louisiana Counseling Association conference.  I fully expected to go there and learn a good bit from the presentations.  I was not disappointed by any of the presentations.  The biggest shock to me was the benefit I got in bonding with my classmates in my Graduate School program.

I learned a lot that I had in common with a few of them that I never got a chance to talk to before.  They introduced me to Pinkberry.  It was good.  I had never heard of it before and was unsure of the concept until I tried it.

In other news, I got a chance Sunday to go to the opening night of the So You Think You Can Dance tour.  It was fantastic.  It left me wanting nothing.  They performed all of my favorite dances.  Can't wait for the next season of So You Think You Can Dance now!

Wellness...More Than Your Scale

Wow.  The theme of this week has been that I must take care of myself wholistically so I can function as a counselor.  One of the girls in my cohort had a client she reported on that was tough on her emotionally.  Then, Wednesday I had a girl come in and our session was tough on ME emotionally.  Which made me realize that I can't do a job where girls come to me with issues as important as sexual abuse unless I'm taking care of me.  I literally cried most of the way home because it is so tough to hear.

So, I need to revisit my wellness plan I had to make 2 years ago at the beginning of my Master's program.  I picked out the most important aspects to help me with the demanding emotional aspect of my job.

1.  I will begin working out again, at least 3 days a week.

2.  I will read at least one chapter of a book that is designated for RELAXING, RECREATIONAL reading each night before bed.

3.  I will wake up on time so I can read my bible and pray for at least 30 minutes each morning.

What will you do to incorporate wholistic wellness into your life?

Even When It's Unknown! ACK!

So, two weeks into my Practicum experience, I'm enjoying it.  I'm a semi-St. Amant Gator.  It's not as great as being a Central Wildcat though!  I went and visited and realized how much I missed everyone (even though I already knew it.)

So, onto the Unknown.

I have been on my Sabbatical and got my first paycheck reflecting just that!  Man, did that one hurt.  Every month, God shows how He's faithful when I start doubting and don't know what He's going to throw at us next.  But His plans are always good.

Right now, we're waiting on His next big solution to a BIG problem.  Having faith is easy to say but hard to do.  When we don't know what God's solution will be, Ouch.  It's easy to have faith in the after-fact.  But right now, when we're living in the Unknown, and only God knows where the story comes to a conclusion, things are hard and questions are pondered.  But in the end, Theo and I both know that God is in control.  And the best thing is, when I start to doubt, I can feel the Holy Spirit remind me that God has NEVER failed me.