Can-Do Challenge-Slow Down

As I mentioned a few Sunday's ago, the next few Can-Do Challenges will be coming from a book that I bought as a result of a college class that I ended up dropping and I was unable to part with this book!

I hope that these are as helpful and beneficial for all of you, as they were for me!

Stress Free For Good, written by Dr Fred Luskin & Dr. Kenneth R Pelletier, is a book that has seriously changed my life and how I manage myself :-) I hope that you all have the opportunity to read this book, and if not, please read my posts because they really do help :-)

The fifth life skill written about in this book is: Slow Down

Purpose:

~Put less strain on your body

~Free up more energy to accomplish your tasks
~To allow time to appreciate your life

Practice:

~Do a common activity slowly, carefully and with focused attention

Tips:

~Sometimes speed up what you are doing so that you can notice how uncomfortable that feels
~Practice doing something the usual way and then slow down and practice again
~Observe that food tastes better when eaten slowly
~You will find that family and friends will appreciate you more when you slow down to talk and listen to them.

Application:

~When waiting in life
~When rushing to an appointment
~When you notice you are driving too fast
~When you feel impatient
~When you feel bored

Life Skill:

"Slowing down and being absolutely focused on what you're doing is one of the most effective ways to manage stress and manifest both health and happiness" (132).

Again, all of this information comes straight from the book...I have paraphrased and generally it is not verbatim-I only chose a few items that have really helped me, that I hope will help you :-)

One year ago, today!

One year ago, today, Sweeter proposed to me!

He had asked my mom on the 6th and so my mom new it was coming. 

She scheduled a day of pampering for me.

Boy did I have another thing coming!

We started the day off with a trip to the Clarins counter in Bloomingdales for facials and makeovers

Then we went to a spa in my home area and met up with 3 of my best girls and their moms for an afternoon of pampering

Everything from champagne and cheese and crackers

To pedicures!

It was an amazing day!

I waited for my Sweeter to arrive and we went to a holiday party with my parents and their friends.

While I was introducing him to all of my family friends, mom was walking around behind us telling them that he was proposing that night!

Everyone knew but me!

Before we left the party, we kissed under the misletoe! 

It was such a special night!

You can read our engagement story here!

I love you Sweeterfan!

Thank you for making me the happiest gal on the planet!

My BIG Surprise

Drum roll please....

For the past few weeks I have been contemplating making a huge change in my life.

A change that I wasn't sure I was ready for until recently. 

A change I never thought that I would have to/need to/want to make.

I'm moving!

I'm moving from one part of the state to another.

I am leaving my family and my friends, my job and my life.

All to start a new one with the man I want to grow old with!

*I have never lived more than 30 miles away from my parents.
*I was accepted to college in a different state and I decided that I didn't want to go because I wanted to be close to home.

*The day I moved into my dorm, my freshman year, I cried, I sobbed actually, and told my mom that my brothers needed me at home and not to make me leave.

*The longest that I have ever been away from my mom is about a month.

*I have never moved all of my things out of the house I grew up in.

I'm excited

I'm nervous

I can't wait to start my new life!

I've rented a U-Haul.

We have an apartment to move into.

So, lets hit the road, Jack!

I am starting a new life with my Sweeter and I cannot be more excited!!

I know that this experience will be a huge adventure and I am so excited to go on this journey with my Sweeter!

It's Friday!

1. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?

Usually we open on Christmas

2. What is your favorite Christmas cookie (or candy)?

Ribbon Candy...I think they look so elegant and they are tasty too!

3. What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever received?

I plead the fifth...

4. Christmas song that you love?

I love love love Sleigh Ride and Madonna's Santa Baby

5. How many trees do you put up?

Usually just 1...do people put up more than 1?

So, I had to run to catch BART this morning...I heard it coming as I was entering the station, so I had to run to make the train {I would not have been a happy camper if I didn't make it and I had to wait 10 more minutes for the next train.

I jumped on the first car that I could, I made it! 

I usually like to be in the first or second car because there are always seats in those..the middle cars are always packed {fyi}

So I started walking through the cars to get to the first one. I came to a door where a woman was standing up against it. I opened the first door and went to open the second one {where she was leaning} and the train started to move, so she ended up falling back onto me. She wasn't paying attention because she was listening to her iPod.

I felt terrible, at first, then I realized that it was partially her fault because she was leaning up against a door  and listening to her iPod so she wasn't aware of her surroundings.

So basically, moral of the story...don't lean up against a door on BART :-) And if you decide to, pay attention because people can walk through them and you may fall! Ha!

Italia- Firenze {Part 4}

**My Last Italian Adventure Installment. 
I hope you all enjoyed re-living my experiences with me! **

I went to Italia in the summer of 2008. I studied Art, Music and Culture in Firenze for a month.  

From now on, my adventures were mainly shared with my two roommates: Jodi and Stephanie, people in my program, Bev or random people we met along the way!

Now on to my Firenze adventures--a lot of site seeing, staying up late, and wine! How to travel in Europe when you are 20!

I have decided that I will take you along my journey based on the places I went :-) 

Last but certainly not least!

Firenze

{I will need to break this into a couple of posts...I was here for a month! What can I say?}

The Duomo. 

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore

At night.

During the Day

Isn't it gorgeous...from all angles and at all times of day!

Wow!

On my last day in Firenze, Stephanie and I climbed the stairs of the Duomo to the top. Zia told me to go early in the day and to go on a cooler day.  She was right...and we didn't follow her instructions....it was hot and there wasn't a lot of air circulation...it was totally worth the heat exhaustion! Do it, if you are there! You won't be disappointed!!

 All of that graffiti!

 We were getting hot!! It was warm and the stairs are narrow!

 The paintings of the ceiling of the Duomo! Isn't it neat?! They have the lowest part be the depiction of Hell and as you move up the done, you get into Heaven! So beautiful!

Yes...the stairs were ALL that steep and ALL that narrow!

The view from the top!! That is Santa Croce

San Lorenzo. 

I had to walk by this every day to get from class to my house. 

And you can see all of the tents and umbrellas on the right hand of this picture...

that is the open air market where I bought 2 leather purses, a leather jacket {my red one form my engagement pictures} and many many other souvenirs!

I figured...when will be the next time I come back? I might as well buy everything in site! 

Wells Fargo was loving me!

Of all of the things to do in Firenze, make sure you climb the stairs of the Duomo! 

 It is amazing and you will not regret it!

Italia, you have my heart, and I will go back and visit you some day!

I promise!

Grazie Mille!

A Wee Bit

  {one} if you were granted three wishes, what would they be?  1) to not have to worry about money 2) to live a long and healthy life 3) to always see the light at the end of the tunnel {two} who is your favorite author? I really like Jeannette Walls
{three} what crowd were you involved in during high school? the friends with everyone crowd ...so, not popular but everyone was nice to us! and when new people would come, we would take them under our wings
{four} what is your favorite thing to do when you have time to yourself? read catch up on my shows tidy up
{five} do you have any hidden talents? if I have a talent, I am going to show it off!!
{six} can you fake any accents? ha! NO!
{seven} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper? yes...in an obituary :-(
{eight} have you ever been arrested? no...I'm a goody two-shoes! {nine} what is your favorite job you’ve had? this is a great question... the first answer that came to my head: the job that I have now..I am an MA for Pearson Education I really like it!
{ten} do you have any scars? nothing attached to any cool story...
I wish you all a happy hump day! Now I am off to celebrate the holidays with my work!

Italia- Firenze {Part 3}

I went to Italia in the summer of 2008. I studied Art, Music and Culture in Firenze for a month.  

From now on, my adventures were mainly shared with my two roommates: Jodi and Stephanie, people in my program, Bev or random people we met along the way!

Now on to my Firenze adventures--a lot of site seeing, staying up late, and wine! How to travel in Europe when you are 20!

I have decided that I will take you along my journey based on the places I went :-) 

Last but certainly not least!

Firenze

{I will need to break this into a couple of posts...I was here for a month! What can I say?}

Piazza de la Republica--this is one of the original walls of Firenze. the city was a square and as it expanded so did the walls. This is one of the original walls still located in its original location. There is a fountain, a carousal and lots of restaurants in this little Piazza.

Funny story about eating in Italy...
The hosts at the restaurants stand outside on the street and greet the people as they walk by and they convince you to eat at their restaurant.  We were walking by a restaurant in this Piazza, just to the left of this photo, and two hosts started bickering about where we should eat! One of the guys even went so far as to insult the other hosts mother! We were dying laughing! We decided to go to the guy who was insulted and NOT to the guy who did the insulting...wrong choice...Jodi found a rollie-pollie in her salad!! More protein, I guess??


When we were in Firenze, we studied art, music and culture. So we spent most of our time when we were in our group going to museums, learning a bit of Italian, seeing performances and listening to music.


One of the shows that we saw in our first week in Firenze was the Momix. It was one of the coolest shows I have ever seen, still til this day!


If any of you have seen Cirque du Soliel, it is very similar to that show. The difference being that Momix is more dance focused while Cirque du Soliel is more acrobat focused. It was soo neat!

It was in the Boboli Gardens which is located on the opposite side of the Ponte Vecchio. We were crossing the Ponte Vecchio just as the sun was setting, so we stopped for a photo shoot! ;-)

We were too excited for the show to start!

It was dark, so the only a few pictures came out. Isn't this neat!?

Like I said in my post about Verona, if you come across something in Italia that is "good luck" you want to make sure that you do it!

There was a hog-I am not sure of the symbolism- in Firenze that we need to touch his snout and drop a penny in the fountain {water came out of its mouth}

Until next time, Buon Giorno

Top 2 Tuesday

Top Two Christmas Ornaments

I only have 1 ;-)

So I have a story about an ornament...I don't have a picture of it though because we don't have a tree at my house.

So when I was in 1st grade the gift we made our parents for Christmas was an ornament

It had my school picture inside and I was so proud of it.

On Christmas Eve my family went out to dinner and my ornament was carefully wrapped in a bag with a chocolate inside-under the tree.

We got home and the dog had gone wild and tore apart the bag! 

I was soo upset!

I cried because I was soo proud of my gift!

My mom saw how upset I was and looked inside the bag and there was my ornament.

The dog had only eaten the chocolate!

I was relieved! ha!

And still, to this day, that ornament hangs on our tree!

And how cool are these!!

{bridesmaid gifts?! I think so...}

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Taylor at Undomestic Momma is having a giveaway--go check it out and enter to win!!