Blown Away.

Do you ever have what I like to call 'oh me of little faith' moments? Well, I do. One of my favorite blog posts of 2011 was finally being able to talk about this football season and what the Lord taught me. That may have been the first time that I experienced a desert season with joy and the expectation that the Lord had a plan.

I'm not going to rehash that here today...today is about another time the Lord has blown me away recently. I've already told you all I committed to go to Haiti the day I found out there was a trip. My heart for that country has grown of there years and since I flippantly said I'd go if my church did, I knew I had too when I got the chance.

With the lofty goals I set for this year I felt a little scared at the idea of raising $900 plus buying a passport, getting vaccines, meds, etc. But I sat down and wrote out my prayers. I talked specifically with the Lord about my fears, my anxiety, and my needs. If I was going to go to Haiti I needed Him to clearly keep marking my path for me and encouraging me along the way.

The bible says more than a couple times that when we submit our requests to God we're called to have faith and believe he'll do it. So I set out to do just that and had a little 'help me with my unbelief' clause at the end.

The Lord continues to blow me away. With 24 hours of deciding to go a group from another church offered to do a fundraiser for me and and 2 friends offered to help support me financially. My family agreed to put money towards my expenses and trip as part of my Christmas, and bought quite a few of the supplies I needed.

I started to doubt myself when I went to the first meeting and the Pastor leading the trip said it was a mostly man trip, because we'd be laying 35 pound cinder blocks 12 hours a day. But as I sat in the back and thought 'maybe I should get out of this' that same Pastor who I haven't spoken to in years walked right up to me and said 'Becca, I was so excited to see your name on the list for this trip. I couldn't be happier to have YOU, specifically, for this trip. You're the first one we approved to come'.

Ok Lord, I get it. Here I am, send me?...

But it gets crazier still friends.

My application to go to Haiti held the question: what are you most afraid of when you think about this trip? For those of you who have been following this blog faithfully you know my health has been a bit of a struggle the last 2 years as my doctors and I have fought through how to treat my severe case of IBS. Combine bathroom related problems with a 3rd world country and you pretty much have my worst fear. But I told the Lord I was committed...

So I marched my butt down to the doctors office on my Monday lunch break with my speech all prepared. It was going to go something like this: 'I'm going on this trip Doc, so give me whatever you've got because I don't have time to be sick I've got a church to build'. Can I just say that the Lord delivers me more than I ask for or imagine, on the regular. Not only did my Doctor help me make a stomach plan (Can I get a whoo hoo?) BUT he also agreed to write my prescription for my malaria meds (when I find out which antibiotics are recommended for the region I'm going too) - and said he'd do it via the phone so I didn't have to pay for another appointment.

What a blessing! The health center was going to charge me $50 to write the prescription. Ah, and while were talking about the health center... that's where I was told to go for my vaccines. Mind you, I was also told I'd have to wait in line, outside before they open, in the ghetto, to get them done. They don't take insurance, and each shot was going to cost me 50 bucks plus a 30 dollar 'administrative fee'...oh and that's per shot, per round (hep shots are series shots..). They also said there was one other option in town to get my vaccines but the first time would be $185 and I'd have to go 3 times to finish my vaccines. Ouch.

I was prepared to do it. I was in this trip for the long haul. But when I look back at how simple my requests were to the Lord they can be summed up by this, 'Lord, meet the needs I don't even know I'll have yet. Meet me where I'm at and meet me everywhere I have to go to get to Haiti and show your people love'...

Just before finishing up my consultation with my doctor he said, 'Hey Becca, what vaccines do you need?'. I responded Hep A and B - but that when I'd called the office they said they don't do international travel vaccines. To which he said to me, ' we do hep a and hep b, and we can get em done for you today while you're here'. I was thrilled not to have to wait in line at the health center so I got both shots done....

That's not even the good part! When I got back to the office I logged into my insurance policy online and looked up the cost for those vaccines with my insurance (since I wasn't going to be able to use my insurance either of the places recommended to me, I'd never checked). Are you ready for this? $22 a shot. Instead of $80-$120 a shot. Now when you think about the fact that I need 3 rounds of these shots, that's a TON of money. He probably saved me, what, 500 bucks?

Oh me of little faith...I feel so grateful the Lord gives me more than my little faith can imagine.

Hey, I'm going to Haiti!

And I won't be coming back with any of the heps. ; ]

Love,
B

Cleaning Bug 2012 (and more Batch Pad pics)

Ok so I was happy to read that I'm not the only one who has had the cleaning bug so far this year. I found this great post on The Secret to Success is Support's blog Friday. I love a good blog post about being organized more than the next girl - but I especially love that Gigi took on her closet clean out with a friend.

When I returned from 8 days away in Indianapolis for Christmas this year, I literally came home and started cleaning. My friend Kayla can testify to this, since she picked me up from the airport and witnessed the beginning of the whirlwind. She came with nothing and left with 2 kinds of dishwasher soap that just didn't work out for me (but I couldn't throw them away, they were practically new!), a tray (that was gifted to me but doesn't go with anything in my house), and a few other randoms.

With my yard sale coming up for Haiti (don't know about Haiti yet? check here) I decided January was the perfect time to go through EVERYTHING in the Batch Pad. And so, it began.

When my Mom was here last spring we did a big overhaul on the garage which included ditch all the boxes and changing what needed to be stored to plastic totes. Did you know that bugs love cardboard? Hince, I won't store any of my stuff in actual boxes anymore. Yuck.

I had an entire tote of office supplies. I believe I've previously confessed my obsession with office supplies? Anyway, they've been in that tote for an entire year without me desperately needing them (or with my buying more because I forgot I had some) - so, I went through them and either, saved, tossed, or relocated them so they would get used up or gone quickly.

Anywho, friday night I came home from work and decided to stay in since I wasn't feeling well. Most people relax when they're sick yes? But not this girl. I go to work.

This is my walk in before (please reserve judgement):

Not hoarders worthy, but certainly not looking awesome.

An hour later when I determined to pull every single thing out, my room looked like this:

My best friend couldn't fly in from Indiana for this - but I did FaceTime her in on my ipad from the floor of my closet for the fun. This cleanup went on way past midnight on Friday night and included finally vacuuming and dusting out my closet before I started returning only the things I wear/use. Whew.

I'm happy to show you that progress was made and my closet now looks like this:

Ta da! I mean, I know there's still alot in there, but honestly, I got rid of ALOT. I made about 8 garage bags of things for my yard sale, too 4 bags of trash out Monday morning from all my bathroom and junk drawer clean outs, etc. I really did good about only keeping what I wear (which obviously is still a pretty decent amount). I will say, however, that another benefit to doing this was figuring out what I still want to add to my wardrobe, or what needs to be replace (like my poor very faded black cardigan).

If you feel like you're in a wardrobe funk this might be the perfect way to remember what you have hiding in your closet, and revamp all at once.

Also, I cleaned the whole rest of the house as well so I thought I'd share at least one picture from the main floor while I'm at it (hopefully more pics to come in the near future!)...

Anyone else caught the cleaning bug in 2012?

Love,
B

12 Things I'm Already Loving in 2012 - v2.

Last weeked I told you 12 things I'm already in love with about this year. I loved your responses and I loved how I felt about celebrating and appreciating a great start to this year. I don't know if this will be a weekly post per se, but expect many more 12 things posts in 2012. I want to make sure I keep my attitude in check and remember to be thankful.

1. Motivation. I feel so motivated to reach my goals this year. My 2012 goal was to lose 20 pounds...the I decided to do it BEFORE my trip to Haiti, in April. Totally doable. Losing 3 pounds this week to start it off? Feels good.



2. Outdoor workouts. Iv'e scheduled in a couple outdoor workouts per week. Because I'm lucky enough to live in Tampa, FL and the weather here is beautiful. Monday night I was headed to the gym when I switched directions, headed to the bayshore, and finished my workout by walking to the end of the pier to appreciate this view.

3. Being an Aunt. Even though my sweet niece, Noa, lives in North Carolina - I love sending her letters and getting pictures of her from my sister. I love being an aunt.

4. Goodreads. I don't care enough to find a bunch of friends but it's fun being connected to my blog friends who have set goals for 2012 reading lists too. I've been reading consistently... 5 books down...45 to go.

I'm going to combine these next two...

5. Shopping. I let myself do a little shopping this week. Which goes well with 6. Having the chance to wear my new sweater because it's chilly-ish for Florida this weekend.

7. Brilliant friends. When I had an investment dilemma this week - I knew just who to call (thanks Jon).

8. Scheduled travel. My trip to see my best friend is less than 3 weeks away.

9. Groupon goods. Got a camera for super reasonable to tote to Haiti with me.

10. Good hair days. I've actually had like 2 this week. That's fairly remarkable for me.

11. Baseball caps. Couldn't live without them.

12. The blog. I'm loving blog world lately.

So much to be thankful for and enjoy about this fabulous year.

Love,

B

Pizza on the Grill & a Hockey Game.

It's no secret, I am a football girl. I come by it honest, in my family football is THE sport. I spent much of my childhood running the field, pacing the sidelines, and screaming in the stands. It's also not a secret that I know little about other sports...any.other.sports. But, that's not because I don't enjoy them.

I was given four club level tickets last minute on Wednesday for Thursday nights Tampa Bay Lightning game against the Carolina Hurricanes. I was thrilled. The only thing I love more than attending sporting events is attending them with free tickets! (this is not a joke, I'm probably the cheapest person you know). Plus, what's not to love about any full contact sport? I'd much rather watch football and hockey than tennis or golf! Can I confess - I like it when they fight? (I guess it's a good things my parents don't read this blog - they would not be proud of that statement)

I already had plans to make pizza on the grill with my neighbor, Edmund. Lucky for him, I ended up getting tickets and he happens to love the lightning. I had bought all the fixings so naturally I still wanted to try out my grill-friendly pizza stone (a gift from my bestie, Auburn, who also joined us for the game). I put together a cheese and mushroom (yuck) per Edmund's request and topped the rest with just cheese and pepperoni (fine, I like my pizza like a kid).

Let me pause here to say - I need to stop trying to combine too much fun into one night. After working til almost midnight Wednesday night, planning a day that involved a full day of work, cooking for 4, and getting us to a hockey game on time - was more than I should have determined to do. So as a result this pizza cooking experience was experimental. The first one was undercooked. Edmund and I ate it anyway and it wasn't so bad (and thankfully, neither of us got sick). The second one was better - but we ended up putting it in the oven on broil to try'n get Brett fed before we had to leave for the game...next time, I will do this at a more leisurely pace. Oh, and not make my pizza so thick!

The game itself was really fun - although sadly lacking in enough fights for my personal taste. Aubs and I snagged a few pics. I was called out for my blue and white (even down to my purse) because lucky for me, colts colors and bolts colors are the same. That made it easy to be rather festive.


For those of you who put in your vote on my shoe dilemma on facebook I went with the majority: Michael Kors (the top pair). Thanks for the imput, you sure do know how to help a girl in a fashion crisis out!

Love,
B

Personal Style.

'Fashion fades, style is eternal' - Yves Saint Laurent

On a lazy Saturday afternoon between workouts and chores I was chatting with my roommate about style. I was sharing with her my surprise when people say they like my 'sense of style', I've never really thought of myself as someone who has one. Stay with me on this - to me you can define your friends style, right? Most people's style can be tied up with a neat bow. One of my sister's is trendy while the other is a bit more ...bohemian? My 'style' if you will, is not really defined. I'm not classic but I'm not trendy. I'm not hippie or bohemian or edgy.


I chalk this up to the fact that I don't dress for style - I wear what I like. I wear what works for me (and sometimes things I love that I later realize don't actually look good on me at all). I think the most important factors to anyones personal style are that they know how to dress their body, and how to incorporate their personality into their wardrobe.


When I think of the people who's style I most admire, they are people who can look put together but effortless in one outfit. Probably my favorite example of this is Lauren Conrad (yes, of the Hills). I love her, always have. But as she's developed herself as both a fashion designer and a brand in and of herself, she has that perfect blend of natural style and a hint of personality. Here's a few examples:

Photo cred.

Photo Cred.


Photo cred.

Whose style do you appreciate and what defines your personal style?

Love,

B

It's Ok Thursday, Again.

It's that time again. Time to justify all my quirks. Whoo hoo...


So this Thursday I say it's ok...


...to read at stoplights. Hey, how else am I going to get 50 books done in 2012?


...to loathe morning workouts, even though you feel 100 times better on days you do them.



...to be over zealous about reaching all of your 2012 goals (they're year long goals, don't have to do them all the first month).



...to be weird about giving out your cell phone number, even though you have (as the verizon guy announced) 850 phone numbers already.



...to lose sleep if you didn't finish everything on that days 'to do' list (and yes, every day has a list)



...to be stoked to make homemade pizzas on the grill and go to a hockey game tonight.



...to LOVE getting free stuff (in this case - 4 club level hockey tickets).



...to be proud of yourself every day that you remember to take your vitamins (celebrate the small things, right?)



...to obsess about your budget. I love love love budgeting. And saving. (the saving part is pretty new).



...to love Kona coffee. I can't even drink other coffees anymore. Even Starbucks has lost it's edge for me.



...to love Sam's Club, even though you're single and you don't need family sized everything.



...to love clean sheets!



...to save your In Style for the weekend because it's the highlight of the month.



...to get a route 44 sonic diet coke every day during happy hour. (yes, every.single.day.)



Hey, it's ok.



Love,

B

Weekend Recap.

The weekends come and go too quickly it seems. Monday always sneaks up on me and usually trips me while it's at it! Whew. But this weekend really was just what I needed!

Friday night we hit up Fly Bar downtown for dinner. It's this great Tapas place I've recommended on the blog before if you live in the Tampa area. But it's seriously one of my favorites. Lucky for me it's also Kayla and Jessica's fav too. So we met up for dinner and then hung out on the roof top deck for a bit.

I managed to get in bed at a decent hour so I could start Saturday fresh...


Kayla and I met for a mid morning walk on the Bayshore and did a leasurely 3 miles while catching up on life and what 2012 might hold for us. You may already have noticed how stoked about this year I am!

After our walk we headed to the local Starbucks to sit outside and enjoy out drinks (I got a skinny peppermint mocha) because I had a few Sbux giftcards from Christmas and I was dying to work on my latest book. We sat across from each other and read for an hour or so...making this morning productive to both my goal to drop another 20 lbs in 2012 AND my reading goal (On Sunday I finished book #5 of 50).

The rest of Saturday afternoon was spent getting things done around the batch pad. I came back from Christmas vacation with a list of things to do through, clean up, and clean out. With my Haiti yardsale in the works, it's good motivation to declutter! But honestly, I created a monster in myself - because I am LOVING the purge that's happening now.

I tackled the garage this weekend - cleaning out totes, organizing my yardsale piles, sweeping out, and spraying to make sure no bugs find their home in my garage this winter. I have to tell you a funny here though. Not too long ago, I ran over my broom with my car. This happened because I use to keep in the corner of the garage and I didn't realize it had fallen over, when I backed my car out right over it and this happened:

Oops! The funny part though, is that the other day I was in such a cleaning frenzie, I didn't want to stop to go to Target and buy a new one. So I was hunched over holding the two pieces of my broom, sweeping. This is how my neighbor, Bob, found me. I have a VERY friendly block and I absolutely love my neighbors. In fact, on Saturday, I spent a good part of the day hanging out, outside, with my neighbors. Anyway, Bob got such a kick out of my and my broken broom that he said he'd buy me a new one if I was that poor. : ]

Don't worry though, I did get a new broom - so I won't acquire any sweeping related back problems, I hope.

While in Indy I picked up a Colts sweatshirt for one of my other neighbors, Billy. Billy and his wife Alice have been so good to me since I moved into the neighborhood. They're generousity inspires me. And they've rallied all the neighbors to contribute to my yardsale for Haiti - which really touched me. Billy and I both love to grill so we have many a chats about football while we were cookin'. He's been extra supportive of my Colts this year and I wanted to make sure he had the colors to wear! He was THRILLED. He loves his new sweatshirt.

Saturday night I did a little babysitting (working towards my financial goals for 2012 - what can I say) which really meant reading and watching Netflix all night while the kiddos slept.

Sunday I got a morning workout, did a few things around the house, went to church, and had my first missions meeting! I'm getting so excited about my trip! Hopefully you caught my Haiti update post on the blog yesterday. If not, feel free to read that next. I also got to FaceTime with my bff - and finish the night (and my 5th book) while babysitting Sunday night as well.

I'm feeling good about this year...it's been productive, but in a relaxing sort of way. And it's only just begun.

24 days til my next trip!

Love,
B