Weight Loss Challenge

Well hello there!! Lately I've been listening to Disney movie songs through Pandora, and I've been waking up with my brain singing the songs! Haha. I love that we have access to things like Disney songs over the internet, because it brings back so many great childhood memories.

As a married adult wife I still LOVE and adore the Disney movies, songs, and of course, Disneyland!!! My husband and I try to sneak away to Disneyland as often as possible. THIS is one of the songs I've recently had stuck in my head. The best memory of hearing this song is that when we were younger, my dad used to sing this song to us. He was the BEST at singing this song, and he totally played the part. We all loved it.

On another note, my family, husband, and family friend, Deron all decided to start a weight loss challenge!! Now, we've tried this before. In the past we decided we would do a weight loss challenge, but all of us ended up giving up or forgetting about it, so we failed.

But this time I upped the ante!! We all put in $50, and the winner of the weight loss challenge gets the entire pile of cash. We are all very motivated to get some extra cash, LOL. 

Let me give you a little back story about the day we started the weight loss challenge: 
So, last Sunday the 18th, my sister's boyfriend got our family, and his family together because he was going to propose to my sister!!! It was such an exciting day! She had no idea, and was totally surprised and in shock. The family was waiting at Bailey's BBQ in Julian for the celebration afterwards. She said, "Of course!", and now I am a maid-of-honor and my wittle sister is getting married in April of next year!!!! I am so excited. She's the same age I was when I was engaged, and she will be the same age I was when I was married too. It's awesome. I'm so happy, and excited for her and her fiance, I couldn't be more proud of them!

Anyways, since all the family was there for the big event, we were all able to take our measurements for the weight loss challenge. Turns out my sister and her fiance want to be part of it too, which works great with their wedding coming up in 8 months! So, we took our measurements: biceps, thighs, hips, waist, chest, weight, and BMI. We also wrote down what our 8 week goal is. 

I am so ready to win this weight loss challenge. Since my marriage I've gained 15 pounds! This is the heaviest I've been in my life, and it is NOT okay. I'm already realizing that it's WAYYYYYYYY easier to gain weight then it is to lose it. My plan is to exercise 5 days a week (maybe 6), eat less with portion control, and eat healthier too. I want to loose 2 pounds every week, and we have 8 weeks to get to our goal. 

You may be wondering how I went from talking about Disney songs, to my sister getting engaged, to weight loss...well it's because I feel like our motivation can be THIS song, since Gaston is so strong, and superior. ;D Or maybe I am just scatter brained...

Yay for the WEIGHT LOSS CHALLENGE!!

-Em

Announcement

Once upon a time there was a girl named Emerald, she met a pirate named Jeffrey, they married, and lived happily even after. The end.

You may have noticed that I wrote "happily even after" instead of "happily ever after". Well that is because our Pastor at church was teaching a series on marriage about a month ago, and the title of his sermon was "Happily even after". It really made sense to me! All of us romantics love to say "happily ever after" because that is what our fairytales tell us, but in reality, marriage is tough! We married peeps need to figure out how to stay "happily EVEN after". If you're interested in the sermon our Pastor preached, click THIS.

Okay, I kind of went on a tangent, because that's not really what I am blogging about...what I really wanted to blog about was a very cool, exciting announcement!!!-- you may remember from a few blogs ago that I stated that I would have an announcement to make around October/November. Well, my wonderful, amazing husband let the announcement slip to his parentals, so now the cats out of the bag. <-- okay, so I looked up why we say "the cats out of the bag...and if you're curious about why we say it, click THIS...interesting, I know.

Okay, anyways, so my hubby told his parents, then I told mine because I couldn't keep them out of the loop, so here we are. Jeff and I have been trying to figure out what we want to do once our apartment lease is up in December of this year. It's really expensive where we live, and we were looking for other places around Irvine that would cost less, but still be nice. Wellllll Irvine is expensive, so we didn't find much. A couple weeks ago we were traveling up to Hume Lake for our annual Sparrow family camping trip! On our 6 hour drive, we started talking about next steps and goals in our marriage. 

One of them being babies. Both my family, his family, and everyone else we talk to want us to have babies already. Sorry to disappoint you all, but we are not ready for babies! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, and ADORE children of all ages, including babies. All my life, growing up, I wanted to have lots of babies really young, but when Jeff and I got married, I realized that I wanted to spend lots and lots of time with my awesome hubby. I want to be selfish for a few years and have Jeff all to myself! So, we aren't having babies anytime soon, but we realize that we will probably start trying in a couple years. 

I'm going on a tangent again...what I'm trying to say is, while we were talking in the car drive to Hume Lake, we were saying how we have no attachments right now. Our apartment lease will be up in 5 months, we have no children, no pets, nothing. He owns his business, which allows him to work from home, or anywhere else he chooses, and I am selling Nerium, which I can take with me anywhere. Soooooo, to get to my point, we decided that starting in January of 2014 we will be traveling!!! 

Not just once or twice, literally, traveling non-stop. Remember my blog about Spring cleaning in Summer? Well, really, I'm spring cleaning EVERYTHING in our home. I am selling all our belongings (except for sentimental values) and we are going to save the money we make from selling everything, and travel from state to state, across the USA! I am SO excited!!! And since I have Nerium that I'm selling, and Jeff has his own business, we have the ability to travel and make monies at the same time! I've already started planning our first few trips for next year! 

I really feel like this is something the Lord is telling us to do, because normally I would NOT be the type of person to sell all my belongings and just get up and go. I am a planner. I like things to be in order, and I like to have a home to go back to. So, I really believe that there is something more to us traveling then just traveling. I believe that the Lord is going to be preparing us and teaching us along the way in all our travels. It's going to be a wonderful experience!! By the way, if you have any suggestions on places to go, or places to stay, let me know! Also, we will take any and all prayers. :D

So there you have it. That was my big announcement. I couldn't be more excited, and happy!! Life is what we make it, right? So why not make it an adventure?

One last thing...this is totally unrelated to this blog, but I forgot to add this in my last blog about Arizona...

This was on a desk, in the corner of the living room of Grandpa Jerry's house...it was so bizarre and hilarious, I had to take a photo of it. LOL!!!

Love, Em

Arizona...The Grand Canyon State

My hubby and I just got back from a 3 day trip to Sierra Vista, Arizona!! Random city, I know. We went for Jeff's grandpa's 85th birthday!! It was great to see Jeff's side of family and spend time relaxing with everyone. Grandpa Jerry is 85 and still really sharp. He's witty, and funny, and still golfs! Oh, AND, he still has brown hair!! Impressive, I know.

Below is Grandpa Jerry with my mama-in-law, and then grandpa with his girlfriend, most of his children, and their spouses

The trip to Arizona was a long one...it took us 9 hours to get there because of traffic, and pit stops. The scenery was beautiful though!

When we got there the sun was setting and the sky looked like sweet cotton candy. 

I guess during the very hot Summer season Arizona gets monsoon weather too! It is so cool to see lightening storms, and be standing in rain while it's still 90 degrees outside. I wasn't able to catch a picture of the lightning, but I have a few photos of the rain. 

Arizona is called the Grand Canyon State, and I really wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but we didn't have enough time. But, we were able to visit two different cities that have a lot of history to them, which was fun. I LOVE historic cities that celebrate the past with original buildings that still stand, and reenactments of the past times. The two cities we visited were Bisbee & Tombstone. Bisbee is an old copper mining town, and Tombstone is literally an old ghost town. They claim the ghosts still haunt the streets and buildings (which I am skeptical of) but nevertheless it was fun to take a few photos! 

Tombstone has one building that is still standing and has been since the late 1800's. My hubby and I got to take a tour in it. At first is was cool to see the inside with all the old items being shown. When we were on the main floor it was an old theater with the seating still in tact, but as we went down below the theater area, we realized it was also a prostitution home! When I started seeing naked women in old photographs, I quickly decided I no longer wanted or needed to see the rest of the building. It makes me sad to know that women had to sell themselves just to survive, and I don't want any part of that. So, Jeff and I left after that, but overall it was fun to know and explore some of Tombstone's history!

Our Arizona trip was a great mini-vacation, and it was wonderful to see Grandpa Jerry and the rest of the family together again. 

Now I must work on my Nerium business. Don't forget to check out my website for Nerium!! You can click on THIS to find out more information about this product. :) If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at thesparrowteam@gmail.com 

Thanks! Have a great night!

-Em