Blake Shelton Concert!!!!!!!!!!!

"Seriously I have to yield to this S##T" I say as I am driving my black Jeep onto I-5 after a delicious dinner of enchiladas and a blended pomegranate margarita!

It was six thirty and I knew we were going to get into key arena in about an hour. We get into a parking stall and start walking to the venue in a sea of plaid shirts and the most "Country" looking people Seattle has probably every seen. The three of us included of course. I am wearing the white dress I found just last week and loving how well I blend in with all the others. We find our seats fairly easily and start getting excited for all the fun that you can just feel is going to happen tonight.

Dia comes out first and though I find the sound system for her to be terrible because I can't understand a word she is singing I enjoy her performance with her dancing around the stage in her bare feet. She does her few songs and then they set up for Justin Moore. Ronni and I decide to go get a drink and as we are walking to the concessions I can feel guys checking me out. Which is flattering considering all the other beautiful people around us. As I am standing in line I am looking at some people's choice of clothing and am once again so thankful for my dress even if I did feel like I was showing too much cleavage for my comfort. We get back to our seats and that's when it happens. Justin Moore gets on stage and gives an AMAZING performance which leaves me screaming and knowing my voice will be gone in the morning.

Blake comes on and gives such a great performance filled with the best of his songs and all his Blake Shelton Humor to go with it. I remember that I just couldn't stop smiling and thinking how cool it was that I was here right now enjoying the show. I was definitely living in the moment the whole night! Then with maybe twenty minutes left to go in the show MIRANDA LAMBERT comes on stage and sings baggage claim. I was jumping up and down and screaming at the top of my lungs!

The whole night was filled with lots of singing, screaming and dancing and I can honestly say it was the BEST CONCERT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO!!!! Even with the annoying guy behind us saying he wanted Justin Moore to come back during the whole show (The guy obviously doesn't know when to say I have had enough to drink) I had an amazing time and I am so happy that Ronni and Liz came out and shared the experience with me! I think I got home at 3 am so it was a long and amazing night.

Cheating On My Blog

Yes its true, I am cheating on my blog a little. I have decided to create a blog in wordpress to see if I find it any easier. Not that I do not think blogger is super easy to follow because I do, but if I am going to become a daily blogger I need to do the right thing for me. So I have created another blog based on my happiness project. I will re-post to this post to explain how I felt the process went.

Okay so here is my new blog site http://christinashappinessproject.wordpress.com/

There are a few things I am liking about wordpress:

1. There is a thing called zero to hero that walks you through the process
2. You get to see what the blog forms can look like and click on it and it transforms you blog to that style and if you like it you can then activate that style and if you don't like it you just click the x and keep looking
3. The dashboard is simple to look at and read

Here is what I wasn't the biggest fan of:

1. Setting up my blog was confusing at first
2. Took me awhile to figure out how to tag a post
3. You have to pay to change up your font and size of the text

So all in all I think that maybe it's not better or worse then blogger just different. I do think I will keep using it though for now and see if maybe I get more followers!

Chamomile Tea

One of my favorite things in life is having a hot cup of tea! It can be any kind honestly but at night I usually reach for Chamomile. Calm and Relaxing and a great companion while I am catching up on the blogs I follow.

Today was one of those days where I was able to do things but I felt very at peace with life. I wasn't in any hurry for anything and I managed to stay active while still enjoying my relaxing day!

It reminds me that life is what you make it and today I am so proud to say I made in enjoyable. This however is not always the case. Most days I can find a way to feel rushed or annoyed without a problem. I am trying to learn to just take a deep breath and take it all in before reacting. Be strong and dependable and someone who is not easily rattled. This is my goal.

Tonight I was searching through the happiness toolbox and came across a lady who had a blog she has just started this year. I am very excited to follow her progress and her posts bring a smile to my face. I have her on my blog roll on my happiness project blog (Christina's Happiness Project in the header)

Its 10:00 here and I just finished my evening yoga session. I think I shall curl up in bed and start reading my latest book Twelve by Twelve. Its one of four I am reading right now along with the audio book I listen to before I fall asleep each night. Good night everyone and I hope everyone wakes up to a peaceful Tuesday!

Do It, Don't Talk About Doing It

So I have started my mini challenge for March which is a test drive for myself to see how my happiness project may turn out. So I have been on the toolbox website a lot in the last few days and I have stumbled upon a lady who has the best commandment list I have read yet. Some of her commandments hit so close to home that I just knew I had to get them down on my blog.

• Do It, Don't TALK About Doing It- I am so famous of talking about the things I want to do but I never actually do them. This just screams at me "Hey Christina are you reading this? K good cause you need to start doing things you lazy ass!!! Maybe you should start by writing a post about it. At least that would be a step for you. But then Christina you need to actually go out and do something!!! Got it?? K GOOD"
• Do Challenging Tasks In Small Steps- All too often I have a great goal in mind but I want it to just happen and when it doesn't happen fast enough I get frustrated. So when I read this it just clicked. For everything I really want I should make a list of small steps that will help me achieve them.
• Growth Is The Key To Happiness- BINGO my first splendid truth for my happiness project had just slapped me in the face!! I think for the most part happiness is something you create for yourself. There are times when things can make you happy but for the most part its how you see a situation that makes it happy for you or not. But the more you understand other people and situations the easier it is for you to appreciate them and be happy because of it. In order to be happy I must grow in my knowledge of life!

So all I can say is thank you lady from Australia for waking me up and realizing how great of a life I have to live. I just have to go out there and live it now!

February Expenses

So I just went through all my expenses for February and compared them to my income and was shocked to find out that I am indeed spending less then I make. Not by much mind you but still I am. This was not what I expected. I thought for sure it was going to be way higher then my income so I was very happy. Now my goal is going to be to lower that number and make a huge gap in between those two numbers!!! I am really happy I decided to read your money or you life. I am finding it to be extremely helpful and cant wait to start graphing out my stuff!!!

Right Here Right Now

So tomorrow is March 1st and I get to go through all my final things to wrap up February. This includes the inventory of my spending that I have been keeping track of and then plotting it on a graph so I can watch my progress... I also get to start my mini challenge for my happiness project which is solely based on health because i feel like its just a subject that needs to be addressed now instead of in a year...

I feel like February got away from me a little and I want to once again jump back in the saddle and get going on the right track... The only major goal I have for March besides my mini challenge is to spend less then I did this month... I do believe that the tracking is helpful and I pray that by May first I will be moving into a nice apartment somewhere between Lynden and Ferndale... But as we all know only time will tell!!

Happy Me

I just did a few posts for my Simple.Minimalist.Christina blog and realized how happy I am that I have found these blogs as a way to get all the info I have been looking up into one place. Plus I find it funny how so me my blog is. Why is this you ask? Well let me tell you... I don't just have one blog but four total. Yep that's right four blogs I am keeping on top of right now. This is my main blog for my everyday thoughts and feelings and then I branch off to my other three because I like to have order and separation to things. And I love it! Keeps my thoughts organized and if I ever get anyone who wants to follow me they have the choice of following me for that certain topic or all of it... I do love giving people that option as well!

Mini Happiness Project Challenge

I have decided to make March a mini Happiness Project Challenge. I will be posting everything about it after tonight on my Happiness Project blog: http://christinashappinessproject.blogspot.com/. I am only going to be focusing on one topic and only have resolutions for that one topic... This topic of course should come as no surprise because its a huge topic that millions of people are trying to deal with everyday... Weight and how to get healthy.

I will be posting my resolutions for this challenge hopefully Sunday or Monday on my blog. This is something I am very excited about and I think it will be good practice to see how a whole year of resolutions is going to feel like... Stay Tuned!!!

New Workout App

I came across a new workout app today on my phone. Its called workout trainer by skimble (http://www.skimble.com ) and you can access it through your facebook account. Its a really neat app because it goes through an entire workout with you. I did the Front,Back, Side to Side workout tonight and I know I will be feeling it tomorrow... But here are the reasons why I am loving this new app

• It didn't want to know my weight when I joined
• There are plenty of workouts for free that I can't see myself getting bored anytime soon
• I can upgrade to the Pro Workout Trainer at anytime
• Some of the exercises even have videos you can watch on youtube
• They break down their workouts into sections so I can search for yoga workouts for example
• There is a corresponding website to the app so I can add when I do treadmill/Walking outside exercises
• Hello its an app on my phone! I take my phone everywhere which means I now can workout anywhere!!!

Anyways I think this app may be the thing to get me back in gear with my getting my butt into shape!

Oh Happy Day!

So I bought this simple guide to a minimalist lifestyle book on amazon this month to see if it would have a different approach from the other very massive book to simple living I had bought back in January when this tiny 71 page book showed up on my door step. I thought oh gee this was a huge waste of money; but then I started reading it.

This book is the best and most basic and understandable book to becoming a minimalist I could have ever hoped to receive. It's like its writing just for me to understand because I didn't get lost once. The author Leo Babauta writes a blog called Zen habits; http://zenhabits.net/. He has created an almost amazing how to guide for people who want to know about how to become or live a minimalist lifestyle by compiling all his information into this e-book that he created and I am so thankful for it. I plan to go back through it one chapter at a time and follow through with what it advises. Which brings me to the best part; he isn't trying to push his "Style" of minimalism on anyone else just gives you ideas that help you to find your own "style".

There are also tons of amazing quotes in this book that I plan on sharing as I post about what I did with each chapter of his book. Thanks Leo for such an amazing and simple e-book!!!

As a side note Leo posted some resources for this book and I know eventually I am gonna want to check all of these out so here are the links for them. Then I also added some blogs I have stumbled upon through the other blogs.

• http://www.becomingminimalist.com/
• http://simpleorganizedlife.com/
• http://www.simplicityandsuccess.com/
• http://everydaysimplicity.blogspot.com/
• http://www.theminimallist.com/
• http://unclutterer.com/
• http://noimpactman.typepad.com/
• http://www.wisebread.com/
• http://simplifyyourlife.tumblr.com/
• http://www.bemorewithless.com/
• http://adventuresinvoluntarysimplicity.blogspot.com/
• http://www.365lessthings.com/
• http://minimalistlifestyle.wordpress.com/
• http://unconsumption.tumblr.com/

Why I Love My Job Some Days!!!

Every once in awhile at work we serve plated dinner's during events... I love these days because there always seems to be extra just for us!!! Wednesday was no exception. We got a full feast for dinner including yummy salad, steak and salmon and for dessert we had a caramel apple pie!!! Of course we are women and classy women at that and did not eat our entire plates but were able to share the love with our fellow co-workers... But it just goes to show that some days its good to be me!

Cattyness

I am not sure why but I have this unique way to bring cattyness out of people... At work things are a little hecktic right now and we are all just not being nice... My goal is to stop my own participation in this act of cattyness... I am going to attempt to show up to work and just do as I am told and be with myself and not try and get involved in what others are doing or saying unless it involves me... I don't want to be that person anymore who people want to talk about behind my back... If I don't do anything to upset them they wont talk and that's my goal!!

February Goals

So I got off track a tiny bit at the end of last month, but I am back and in full swing again... That's the whole point of this year... No regrets about going off course just as long as you get back on when you realize you have strayed.... Here are my goals for this month

1.Sort through my storage boxes

2.Finish reading Happiness Project

3.Read and go through Your Money Or Your Life

4.Keep reading Simple Living

5. Do my Running Program

walk 3 minutes run 1 minute

walk 2 minutes run 2 minutes

walk 1 minute run 3 minutes

Get a good mile time!

6.Follow my 20 minute rule for 2 hours a day

Anyways Its a long list but I'm gonna get through it one way or another!

Christina's Commandments

I have started creating my own personal commadments for my Happiness Project. Here is what I have so far

1.Be Christina

2.Pay Yourself First

3.Listen More Then You Speak

4.Will It Matter In A Year?

5.Don't Buy To Impress

Some of the commandments I am pondering right now are

1. Try Something New

2.Smile Even When It Hurts

3.Breathe

4.No Judgement

5.Act The Way I Want To Feel

6.Appreciate The Moment

7.One Thing At A Time

Half Way Point

Its January 16th and I'm half way through the month and I just wanted to check in with myself and see how I am doing...

*Health-162-158.2 (-3.8 pounds)

-The no pop thing flew out the window on like day two but I am sticking to diet for the most part...

-Exercising is going really well I am keeping up with the working out at least three times a week thing so YAY ME!!!

*Finances

-I am following the 31 Days to fix your finances religiously and loving every minute of it...

-I have opened up two separate high yielding savings accounts to help me get even further...

-I have made my long and short term goals

*Minimalist Living

-Finally got one of my books so I am starting to dig into that at the moment

-Gone through all my clothing for my first initial clear out

-Starting to go through my scrapbooking supplies as well

-Still need to go through everything and see if I can make outfits out of everything

*Bible Study

-I have done a bible study once every week so far... Planning on doing this weeks on Wednesday...

So all in all these past 15 days have been amazing and I can't wait to see what happens next!

Resolution #3

My third resolution is probably the same as everyone else. I want to become a healthy person and loose 15 pounds by the 1st of next year. If I loose more its just gonna be a bonus. But the goal is to be healthy not skinny. So for the first month my goals are simple. No pop that isn't diet and work out three times a week for 30 minutes each. I am hoping to hop on the Tread tonight to start things off.

Then in Feb I am hoping to start the Insanity Workout for 90 Days so that takes me to May and when I get there I will come up with more. Plus every week in Feb I am going to try a new meal and see if Its good enough to combine into a weekly meal rotation.

Resolution #2 & My 5 Core Values

So for my second resolution this year I decided that I would once and for all get my finances in order. No more guessing what I have and spending wildly on anything and everything I think I need. I ordered some books through Amazon today to help get me started as well as following the Simple Dollar Blog I found and love. I can't wait for the day when I can say I have zero debt!

As for my first steps in going through this process I have started the 31 days to fix your finances. Day one was all about your five main values and I just wanted to share mine on here

1.Freedom/Independence

2. Fulfillment

3. Growth

4. Spirituality

5. Health