Blogging challenged

Since I have been a little blogging challenged for the first year of my blog, when I saw my friend Jenna was doing a blogging challenge, I decided this may be just what I need! She linked with another Jenna for the challenge so I have decided to do the same! I am a day behind so I am going to combine days one and two here!

Day 1: Tell us about you!

My name is Shannon. I am 26 years old and live in a very small town of 200 people in northwest Iowa about 45 minutes from Omaha, Nebraska. I currently work in Omaha, so I am not completely sheltered from the world in my little town. I was born and raised in a small Iowa town as well, and it is a lifestyle I have come to appreciate after living in Omaha for 7 years. I met my boyfriend of 3 years in Omaha, and we decided to move to his home town, where we just bought our house, to get out of the city and closer to his family, since mine lives 3 hours away. He has a little boy named Brayden who we get the pleasure of staying with us every weekend. He is 6 years old and so incredibly smart and grown up! Being a "step-mom" may be one of the hardest things I've ever done, but he makes it so worth it. I love him with all my heart. Here is our little family!

I also can't forget Carleigh! She is our 3 year old cat. She can be a little stinker sometimes, but she can also be the source of a lot of entertainment.



Day 1: Tell us about your blog!

I started this blog when I was just turning 25. For some reason, 25 was really hard for me. I call it my pre-life crisis. I thought that blogging would be a good way for me to document the things happening in my life and a good reflection back on what I have accomplished. I pretty much failed at blogging for the first year as I just turned 26. However, I really want to get back into it and have just started up again. That is one of the reasons I chose to do this challenge because I hope that it will get me interested and involved again. This blog is primarily about my life, random thoughts I have, and I hope it will be a place where I can share the crafts and crocheting projects I do. I love pinterest and have been trying a lot of things on there and would love to share them here as well. We also just bought a new house which we completely gutted and re-did. It is still a work in progress, but I am going to show our progress as well. I guess I am a DIY kind of gal. Thanks for stopping by! I hope to get to know lots of people through here!

Fitting in getting fit

Obviously this is what every person in the world struggles with: weight and working out. It's so hard!

• Wake up in the morning already way too early
• Get ready for work
• Go to work
• Sit on your butt in a chair in front of a computer for 8 hours, (which is really 9 hours because you sit while you stuff your face with food over lunch too)
• Come home and cook, eat some more, clean up, and then it's time for bed already (or maybe catching up on the DVR).

Basically, getting up before work is NOT an option and by the time I'm off work, all I want to do is go to bed. So the girls at work and I decided to start walking over our lunch break, which has been great! Not a ton of exercise, but it's better than nothing.

I have been doing really good at maintaining my weight ever since I got pretty sick about 3 years ago and lost a ton of weight due to not being able to keep any food in my stomach. (I know they say that's not healthy to do, and it's obviously not, but it sure worked for weight loss!) I was worried after I got my gallbladder out that since I was finally healthy for what felt like the first time in a very long time, that would all change, but have been proud of what I have been able to maintain. Now maintaining isn't good enough...to me.

So we discovered that the gym at work offers group fitness classes and some of them are over the lunch hour! We have determined this is the ONLY way we are going to get workouts in due to the above mentioned reasons (which may not be very good reasons, but they are our reasons nonetheless). So we eat lunch at our desks and then walk over to the gym for the 50 minute sessions of pilates or yoga. I have done pilates before but this was the first time for yoga. I must say, I really like it! They are pretty similar, but pilates has more movements with it's poses and yoga seems to be more about stretching and they are both about core building, which I need!

Next month we are going to add in more cardio days to get a good variety in our workouts but I'm actually starting to get excited about it, which isn't something I've been used to since high school probably. Here is what I found helps:

1. Buddy system! There is no way I would continue to keep this up if I didn't have people here to work out with that hold me accountable.
2. Time of day. I'm not a morning person and my evenings are too precious to me after working all day. I am lucky to get an hour for lunch which leaves enough time for a decent 50 minute workout. Granted, I may have to go through the afternoon sweaty, but I always bring things to fix my hair and make up and I know I can't smell THAT bad! :-)
3. Self esteem. Getting started kind of stinks, (and sometimes even day-to-day, my motivation is lacking) but once you get that feeling of accomplishment after your workout, it definitely makes me feel better about myself and wanting to keep going.
4. Afternoon snack. I usually try really hard to not snack in the afternoon. I eat a 110 calorie bagel with peanut butter when I get here and then my lunch. The thing about working out over lunch is I eat lunch before I go and by the time we're done, I'm starving again! Why this is a good thing is that I always WANT to snack in the afternoon, but now I'm actually hungry because I burned calories! So I have been bringing fruit and healthy snacks and feel better about snacking now that my body is actually asking for food and it's not me just wanting to put food in my mouth.

I don't know if I've actually lost weight. I stopped stepping on the scale a while ago. I should probably start again. But I do feel better about myself. My other motivation, other than the obvious, is the fact that someday soon there will be a wedding and I don't want to have to worry about it then. The other motivation is that our first yoga instructor was pregnant and she was one of those pregnant people that was nothing but belly. I want to be HER when I'm pregnant! :-) So I want to maintain it this time for real and I finally reached a point where I think I'll be able too. We have a good system that is working for us now and I'm super excited.

I will try to keep my progress updated here as well and maybe put up some of my favorite poses and stretches. That is one thing about yoga, I am constantly stretching which feels so good and I think releases a lot of built up tension which is probably why I feel so good afterward. I know there is a science behind it all, but this is the science of Shannon! :-)

Unruly Crafters

My grandma Manfull taught me to crochet when I was somewhere around 4th or 5th grade. She was always crocheting or knitting something growing up and I have a lot of things from her that she made. After she passed away, that was a skill I never wanted to forget because that is one of the things I can say I learned from her. So I have been trying to make random things just to keep up with the skill. Here are a few things I have made and have pictures of.

A rug for the living room

A winter hat

A tree skirt for mom

Recently a friend passed this along to me about a great cause called CLICK for Babies. They are collecting crocheted or knitted baby hats made with purple yarn to raise awareness to prevent infant abuse. The baby hats will be distributed in hospitals to new born babies as an initiative to help educate caregivers about normal infant crying, how to cope with crying and the dangers of reacting to crying in frustration by shaking or harming an infant. I will have to post pictures of the finished hats when I get them done!

By now you are probably wondering how "Unruly Crafters" relates to any of this. I'm getting there! There is this awesome site called ravelry.com which is a place for people to post patterns and finished projects of things they've knitted and crocheted. So if you are looking for a pattern, you can view pictures of what other people made with that same pattern and advice they have about completing the project. It really is a handy site! And where I plan on going to find patterns to make the above mentioned baby hats!

Every Olympic year they have an event called the Ravelympics. I've never participated, but my friend is this year. Basically it's a little "contest" where people see how many things they can knit or crochet while they are watching the olympics. No money is exchanged or formal awards given, other than people are named winners. The owner of the ravlery.com site received a letter from the General Counsel of the US Olympic Commitee asking them to change the name of their event because it was derived from the word "Olympics" and they aren't an official sponsor and not allowed to use that word. Ok....I see where they are coming from.

By the way, view the letter HERE. You have to see it.

So did you notice the part that caused the outrage? Asking to change the name of the event isn't a big deal in itself, but they went on to completely bash crocheters and knitters and it has caused quite the outrage. Here is the excerpt:

The athletes of Team USA have usually spent the better part of their entire lives training for the opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.  For many, the Olympics represent the pinnacle of their sporting career.  Over more than a century, the Olympic Games have brought athletes around the world together to compete at the Olympic Games and represent their country in a sport that means everything to them.
[…]
We believe using the name "Ravelympics" for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country's finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work.

I think they went a little too far. Personally, not to stereotype, when I think of people who knit and crochet, I think of my grandma! Little old ladies sitting at home with the TV on, watching the Olympics and knitting a sweater. I realize there are plenty of not old ladies who do as well, but that was the point of this event: to support the Olympics and have a fun friendly NON-PROFIT competition for those who wanted too on a free membership site. They are trying to portray people who sit at home and crochet/knit little baby hats to bring awareness to infant abuse as forming this huge event to disrepect Olympic athletes. I think it's all a little far fetched. All they had to do was ask them to change the name, which I can understand, but I also don't find to be a big deal either. Just my opinion though! I found it to be sad since there is so much excitement when it comes to the Olympic games and athletes.

Chapter 26

So I started this blog almost exactly a year ago when I was turning 25 and having a minor pre-life crisis as I like to call it. =) Now, I just turned 26 last week and I am happy to report it went MUCH better than 25. I was dreading it, but once it got here, not a big deal at all. 25 was a decent year. It had it's ups and downs which is to be expected. We took a great vacation to Florida, Josh and I both got a new jobs, Brayden finished kindergarden, and we bought a house! Unfortunately Josh's grandpa was diagnosed with cancer and lost his battle all this year, which was incredibly hard on the entire family.

I know "Chapter 25" wasn't all that exciting here with my entire 9 posts, but I'm going to try to get better. I'm pretty sure I said that last post too. I have been revisiting my interest of pinterest (haha! I just reread that and didn't even notice how clever I am!) and have got a lot of cute ideas from there I think I could post about. I recently just did this to my bathroom. I didn't think of taking progressive pics for here at the time, but my cat keeps trying to lay in the baskets and making the towel bars fall off the wall, so I may get another opportunity to put them back up yet again!

I also found some cute things for the 4th of July that I'd like to try, but it is really unfortunate the holiday is on Wednesday because that means I would have to come home Tuesday night from work and cook, which I don't forsee happening. But who knows. I might give it a try! There are some cake balls (which I've never made before) and wouldn't mind attempting.

So my goal for "Chapter 26" is to keep up-to-date on here (so Jenna doesn't yell at me). I really do enjoy blogging, but with all that ended up happening this year, things got crazy! I had a new job, Christmas, and bought a new house all within a month. I'm looking forward to another great year ahead that I can capture here and share with you all! =)

To ER or not to ER

Ive experienced some pain in my life and this wasn't the worst pain I've had by far, however on Friday when I started having sharp stomach pains in my lower right abdomen, I began the debate of "am I being a baby?" or "better safe than sorry." The pain was significant, but I was sure I could handle it and it would go away. Then people started telling me lower right means appendix and if it bursts it could be very bad. New year, new deductible, ER on a Friday night. What to do?

The "better safe than sorry" won the battle and after Josh's persistent urging to get me to go, we got in the car ER bound. Checked in at the desk and claimed my bench to lay down in the waiting room until the nurse called me back. First went the elderly man with his jacket on backward. He must have been in a hurry. Then the elderly lady who must have been in a car accident that day and refused to go to the hospital from what I could overhear. An hour passed and I should be next, until the guy who comes in with chest pain. The nurse tells us all waiting that they have no open beds. Finally they decide to triage us waiting and get our blood work started. She took me back where I had to ask for a bucket because I got sick and I think she finally realized there was some validity to my seemingly non-urgent stomach pain. She then let us wait in the family room with a much bigger couch.

After two hours in the waiting room, they finally have a bed for me. My nurse comes to put in an IV because they already suspect appendix and surgery but because the pain was so low and I'm female, wanted to do a female exam as well. In the meantime while she makes small talk, I tell her where I work and as luck would have it, she's a current masters student! That may make for an awkward future meeting in the hallway as she was fully engaged in the process of my female exam!

Next a CT scan which of course was inconclusive and they decide to admit me. This was my first overnight stay in a hospital and possibility of emergency surgery. Josh went home to get my glasses and such and came back to spend the night with me. This was happening at 11:00 at night. I hadn't eaten since noon and was starving but since surgery was a possibility in the morning, they wouldn't let me eat. However, with the help of Phenergen and Morphine I drifted right to sleep. Sleeping in a hospital is next to impossible because someone will wake you up every hour for some reason or another. I got about 6 hours of sleep but it felt like I had been asleep forever.

Finally around 7 the surgeon comes in with his passé of about 4 people. Scared to death by all the people I was pleasantly surprised when he said they weren't going through with the surgery. They made me eat lunch and dinner and get up and walk and finally discharged me around 6 Saturday evening. I was never so happy to leave a hospital.

Overall I'm happy I decided to get things checked out and happy to know its most likely viral however, still another expense to add onto recovering from Christmas, buying a house, and just shelling out $500 on a second appraisal. But doctor bills are interest free so it will be fine! I am thankful for no surgery and hopeful my next overnight stay in a hospital will be more planned and for a happy occasion if you catch my drift! :-)

Moral of the story: always go with better safe than sorry!

Life in the fast lane

I know I have been bad about updating this, however life has been moving way too fast for pit stops! It's been a roller coaster but a fun one! Usually I say I can't believe it's a new year already, but the last couple of months have been such a blur that I can!

So I just had to look back to see the last time I posted. September! Oops! Let me try to remember:

October: This was not a good month for us unfortunately. Josh's grandpa was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer and the prognosis wasn't good. This month was full of lots of tears, evenings in the hospital, and late nights at his grandparents house when we weren't at the hospital. This same month his grandma had a heart attack so there was a good amount of time we were having real discussions with God trying to comprehend. The good news is that since then, his grandma has been doing well and his grandpa has begun chemo and at least has the pain under control for the most part. While we still have ups and downs with that, I feel as though we've all been able to come to the point of acceptance as much as can be expected.

November: This month a coworker accepted a new job and her last day at work was November 4. This will begin the 3 month stretch of AGAIN doing 2 jobs. Thankfully I applied for her job and was offered the position! Truly a blessing. It was a step up from my old job and a lot more money and an extremely easy transition. Also this month we decided to begin exploring possibilities of sometime in the future buying a house. We looked up 3 houses in areas we were interested in just to see if there was anything out there. I didn't expect to like any of them. As luck would have it, we both fell in love with the very first house we looked at. It had been listed for $60k and just recently reduced to $45k so the price was right. The elderly lady who had been living there had to go to a nursing home so they just needed to get what she owed on the house and needed to pay off some medical bills and then the rest would go to the nursing home since she had to get rid of all her assets. They accepted our offer of $35k! The house itself is in good shape but the inside hasn't been updated probably since the 70s and that is not an exaggeration. The bathroom has green tub, toilet, and sink. All the carpet is floral print or red checkered and wall paper on every wall. But with Josh's skills, he can do all the updates for just the expense of buying the materials so we can update it just how we want!

December: This month mainly consisted of keeping my head above the water. After a month of doing 2 jobs things start to pile up. I officially started in my new position this month so at least I was finally getting my new pay! We were supposed to also close on our house this month but instead it consisted with us fighting with US Bank and deciding to switch to a new bank. Oh and then throw Christmas on top of all that. But we did have a wonderful Christmas!

January: We're only 5 days in but things are already happening. We spent the new year at home just the three of us and it was perfect. They finally did the second appraisal on the house that we had to do since US Bank wouldn't release the first appraisal to the new bank even though I was the one to pay the $400 for it. So hopefully now we just wait for the paperwork and close this month! Also they interviewed and offered my old position to someone who starts on the 24th!

I think that sums up the last quarter of a year pretty well. I think overall I have truly learned to be so thankful for all the blessings in my life because I have been blessed with so many. For the first time in a long time, all feels right with the world, like it's finally my time. Last year was full of other peoples weddings and births of other peoples babies and while I was so happy for all my friends, I was beginning to wonder when good things were going to start happening for us, especially during October. But God had a plan and now He is providing for us.

My goal is to keep this updated and catch up on all I've missed in the blogging world. Especially when the new girl comes I am sure I will have much more free time! I'm happy to be back!

Big City vs Small Town

So lately I have been having this debate, mostly in my head, about which is better: big city or small town? This has mostly stemmed from my frustrations of city life lately. I know that each place has it's own pros and cons and that is what I've been trying to weigh. I will for sure be in my place for another year, but after that we will be moving and I'm trying to decide where. I love Omaha and will stay in the area, but am unsure if I want to continue to live in the city. I realize Omaha isn't New York City or LA by any means, but when you come from a town that has a stop light festival to celebrate what was up until recently the only stoplight, it's a pretty big city. So in an effort to help put things in perspective, this is what I have come up with so far.

Pros to living in a big city:
1. Everything is so close! I have 3 Walmarts all within a 5 mile radius of me. I have about 10 different options of grocery stores I can choose from. Any other kind of business you need, it is most likely not too far away.
2. Job opportunity. Regardless if I live in a smaller town or not, I will most likely still be working in Omaha because there is so much more opportunity here for employment.
3. Education. Thinking ahead to putting kids in school, I think Omaha schools would have better educational opportunities than what I had in a small town. More college prep classes, resources, things like that.
4. Not everyone knows your business! I can go into a store and not know a single person in there. No one is in my business, starting rumors, or really even cares that I exist when I am out in public. Coming from a small town, I appreciate this.

Cons to living in a big city:
1. Traffic! I HATE traffic. If I continue to work in the city, I'll still have to deal with it some, but not quite as much.
2. There are so many people. Don't even try to go to the grocery store at 5:00 on a week day. You can forget Walmart on a Saturday. I really don't like to be in crowds of chaos and stupid people standing in my way.
3. Expensive. I think this is obvious.
4. I listed education as a pro above, but I'm also listing it as a con. I can't imagine sending a child to school in a class of 500 or more people. That is just nuts to me. Plus you change elementary schools, middle schools, and there are hundreds of high schools. How do you choose? Public or private? I have NO idea on this one.

Pros to living in a small town:
1. As much as I hated how everyone was in my business growing up, it was kind of nice to know pretty much everyone. If I was ever in trouble anywhere, someone would always be there to help. Sometimes it's nice to walk into a restaraunt and see a familiar face. Maybe I feel like this is a pro moreso because I am currently in the city. I don't know.
2. The people I went to school with, I literally grew up with. We all went to preschool together and some of us day care before that. My friends in high school weren't just high school friends, they literally grew up with me. Our parents even went to school together and friends' parents were like my second and third sets of parents.
3. Freedoms. Especially living in a farming community you could go out to a field or pasture, light up a bonfire, crank up the radio and do whatever you want. (Ok that sounds cliche, but true!) You can't do that in your back yard here!
4. Definitely cheaper. Kind of like above, this is obvious.

Cons to living in a small town:
1. Farther away from everything, mostly the things the city has to offer. Back home we didn't even have a grocery store that was open on Sundays.
2. As much as I loved growing up with my town, I hated everyone in my business, but now as an adult, maybe it wasn't so bad. The jury is still out on this one.
3. The lack of opportunity that I already mentioned above naturally falls into this as well. This goes for both jobs and schools.
4. To continue working in Omaha, I'll have a longer commute everyday, however it won't quite be as bad as rush hour traffic trying to get from one side of town to the other. But definitely more gas.

It's easy to list pros and cons, but harder to weigh them. At this point, I'm not sure what I value more. I have a year to decide what to do but it will probably take me that long to make a decision and then change my mind 5 more times. =) I think as of now, I'm leaning toward smaller town, but I'm not 100% sure what my reasons are for that, just what I'm feeling at the moment. Time will tell and decisions will be made.....eventually! I can't wait to find out what I decide!