Because I'm happy.......

Wow! I knew my life had been super busy, but I just realized how long it's been since I posted! It's been nice to have slowed down a little. 

A lot has gone on since my last post, happiness, sadness, grief, stress, celebration... The list goes on! However I'm sure this doesn't make me much different from many of you. In a given week some of us can go through these given emotions quickly I would imagine. 

A lot of my posts on here have been about motivations and being and staying positive. I honestly believe that when you think negatively that's what's going to happen. I have a lot of positive role models in my life and simply, friends who know how to tell me to "snap out of it!"

When I'm feeling stressed, my absolute best friend, Heather always knows how to get me to really put it into perspective. A few weeks ago after letting me vent she says.... "Do your shoes match?" And I'm thinking of course they do!  So she says well there's one thing to be positive about. And of course she continued like she always does to make me find some positive things going on. We all need somebody like this. I hope you've got yourself someone or a few like I do!

I've been reading a new book, called Captivating. Y'all I can't tell you how much I love it. I take it everywhere... Just in case. And I seriously can't thank my friend JoAnne enough for letting me borrow it. One of the things I've really had a hard time with, and I'm sure you do to, is being so hard in myself. I am in fact, my worst critic. The book talks about how we expect so much of ourselves and we are harder on our selves than we are on anyone else. I always wonder why that is??  

I clearly remember my first year teaching, a veteran teacher told me- "Jena, you can't get it all done.  You probably never will be able to.  Learn that now before it's too late!"  I really think about her wisdom all the time- but like I learned from my talented mother- I like to try to do it all. And many times I like to try to do it all by myself. Yes I know I'm OCD!

I find it's easy for me to get wrapped up trying to get everything done, turned in, checked off the list. That's just how I am. But the simple joys come from memories made. I've learned too quickly how precious life is. Unfortunately, we aren't in control and we have absolutely no say in when someone might be taken from our lives whether it be temporarily while things are resolved or permanently to heaven. 

Enjoy the people you have. Love the life you live and be happy while you do it. Surround yourself with people who love, motivate and support you in life. 

Here's a little photo dump of some of the people I love and have been making memories with lately!

           Cooper River Bridge Run 

              My favorite 3 (almost 4) year old!

         Easter with the fam

         Tiny's Tee Ball game

         This sweet face found us some good luck!

      You aren't supposed to look pretty after a 5:30 am workout!

           Baby shower!

        Oh and y'all this sweet face steals my heart every time! 

Be positive! Remember- it's all good!

Fall down 7 times, get up 8

One of the most common sayings these days is, "the struggle is real.." And boy is it.

We all have different struggles. They come in many forms. Some struggle with making time, food choices, getting to the gym, doing homework, cooking healthy things, choosing what to wear, relationships, commitment, etc etc..... The list goes on!

My most favorite man in this world is my daddy and he's always said to me, "People have a time!"  And they do. We say that too each other pretty often now.  For sure people have a time and sometimes it's us!  

That saying that anything worth having is going to be hard work is crazy true! Anything you really really want to achieve or do takes total commitment and willingness to fall down or get knocked down a few times but always, no matter what get back up!

Some days I have to remind myself they this new lifestyle and commitment to being healthy really hasn't been that long considering the span of my life. And yes there are a zillion struggles. I've had to take some time and go down on some of my weight lifting to really work on my form, but I know it's for the best. I haven't been on the scale in over a month for various reasons. Most of all- I won't allow that number to mess with my head. I bought jeans a size smaller and that's enough victory in itself! 

I struggle to eat right consistently. The chocolate. The peanut butter and chocolate! It's my weakness! And when it's something my mom has made, it's only like 500 times harder to resist. Some days I do, and some days I don't. It's just reality. I know a little bit won't hurt, but a little bit won't help!

I'm sharing all this because I know somebody's at that struggle point. Or you're ready to give up on whatever it might be- whether it's weight loss and fitness goals, educational goals or relationships. Really evaluate it. What matters most to you will rise above the rest. And most importantly pray. This week I heard that the most powerful prayer you can pray is "Help!"  And I completely believe this!

I could never have imagined my life being like it is now or having the adventures, trials and accomplishments that have come my way. 

The struggle IS real! It's real for everybody. And people have a time. What matters is how you react to it and handle the struggle. Will you fight it and fight for you? Or will you let it beat you down! Go get what you want. And let no one stand in your way!!

Enjoy a small photo dump from my recent life!!

  

            Field Trippin fun! 

    Fun day at Little League Opening day! Just a few of my favorite players!

         Tell me you couldn't eat her up!

          Rainy day field trips! 

      Have I mentioned how much I love her? 

My comfort zone

After my awesome stretching and workout today I was feeling awesome and ready to take on the world of course! Nothing made me happier to come home and shower and get into some comfy clothes. Everybody loves being comfy right?

So as I was digging out some pjs I found these....

These are Old Navy pajama pants from probably before 2005. I can remember loving these things. They are a size xxl and after numerous washes and wears haven't managed to totally fall to shreds. However they are close. There are numerous holes and weird colored spots in them.  They were my "go-to" comfort clothes. When I was sick I wanted these on. I'm sure my mom and dad got tired of seeing them. 

So I decided to put these bad boys on tonight. I wanted to be comfortable after all. Much to my surprise, they didn't even come close to fitting me- 

I was pretty stoked because they looked really horrid on me. I know- weird. I needed to find these tonight just to help remind me of the journey. We all know there's hard parts in every single struggle and that's true for weight loss journeys as well. 

Like these pants that were my comfort, food was comfort too. It was a way to bring together many, reach put to others and it was a way my family stayed connected. I don't know how I really figured out it was time to get out of my comfort zone but I have to push myself daily to get to bigger and better things. 

Both of these quotes sum up my thoughts about doing things outside your Comfort zone. 

GRIT is probably one of the biggest jumps out of my comfort zone ever. I still remember that first workout. And thinking I might die. After a short break I got back mommy regular schedule for GRIT last week- and I still felt like I might die. It's hard work, it's worth it and it's a push that I couldn't imagine for myself over a year ago. 

You can't do what you've always done and expect a different result. It just won't happen. You get out what you put in. And that my friends is a fact! 

Ps here's a photo dump from the last month

Music to my ears!!

        My. Favorite!

The new kicks!

And I leave you with words of wisdom from the great Libs "comfort zones are like warm blankets in the winter. Once you are all bundled up it is hard to move from that spot but eventually to accomplish anything you have to!"

The numbers.....

I've been thinking about a lot lately. Most especially my progress, lack of at times it seems and how numbers really play with my head. 

I'm not sure why but that number on the scale plays with so many of our heads. Especially us women tend to let us bother us in more negative ways than most men do. I for one am guilty for being consumed with the number on the scale. It's a mental game. Seriously it plays games with our minds and somehow manages to cause us to measure our success  and failures depending on the number we see. It's taken me a long time and I'm not fully there some days, but I am better understanding how much that number on the scale has no value. I found this a few weeks ago and it really struck me:

This is completely true and how often do we forget it?  

I could never tell you how much I weighed in college or really anytime before about the 2010 time frame. All I know was that it wasn't a healthy number. I do know I was wearing size 24 pants and some days they felt too small. I watched most of my friends eat and drink what they wanted and they never seemed larger than a toothpick and it was hard for me to grasp just how hard I was going to have to work to even be healthy, much less feel "skinny". 

I stepped on that scale in January 2013 and that number said 250. I had seen larger numbers before but I also knew it was in my best interest to see a smaller number. Most of you are aware of that journey I embarked on. Unfortunately somewhere along the way I let that number on the scale really mess with my head. If it was higher than previous weeks it really got to me and made me feel like a failure. 

When I started training with David one of the first things he asked me was this- "Do you care about the number on the scale or do you care about how you look and feel?"  Obviously I've never forgotten this message. And I remind myself of the conversation often. He reminds me how I did such damage to my body for many years and it's not going to all be fixed in a years time. These are the things that keep me moving and motivate me when I'm feeling like I'm going nowhere. 

Along the way though I've found some numbers that do matter- last week David measured my body fat. I have no previous measures of that which really bums me out but that number surprised me even though I wasn't sure what to expect. I was proud of it and look forward to watching it decline. 

Another number I'm proud of- squat weight! That's right. About 4 weeks ago a good friend advised me to look into the 5x5 strength training program. I asked him a million questions about it and did some reading of my own and of course went to David about it. He gave me the heck yeah and on we went with it. Not long after that we maxed out one night. My one rep max was 135. 

Here's the picture from that night-

I didn't successfully make it with the weight shown. 

So here we are 4 weeks later on this program and I'm squatting 135 on my working sets. That's 3 sets of 5 of theses ladies. 

Today's bomb workout! Tibs & Libs!  This same weight is also my deadlift weight!

That's a number I'm proud of. I'm stronger than I ever thought and even greater than that happier than I ever imagined possible. I am truly blessed with the best friends and family and motivators ever! I mean that!

Not every day is perfect. Honestly this past week was pretty rough. And I know that's not the last time things will be hard. Last Tuesday was the day I got my big boy plates in squats! I won't ever forget that day and it's not because of the orange plates but it's because of the overwhelming amount of support and encouragement I felt in the weight room that night. David was behind me, literally, the whole time and so many people in there were excited for me. I couldn't wait to share that news and excitement!

Now that my rambling is over I hope you've found some encouragement here. Find what makes you happy and stick with it. Not only that find your support crew. Find the people who you know you can always count on to pick you up when you're down, make you laugh and find something positive to lift you up! Here's a few of mine:

Team camo!

These girls! It never gets old!!

Not to mention I am so blessed with sweet messages like these!

So maybe my scale has gone up a little. The number has been lower than it is now. But this progress matters far more when compared to that stupid number on the scale!

Random ramblings of playing catch-up!

I've been contemplating for weeks really what my next blog post was going to be about. I have a million ideas and things I want to be able to look back and remember as well. So here's is a photo dump of the last month's amazing ness!

First of all, I got to throw two of my beautiful friends a gender reveal party! I knew for 5 whole days before anyone else. Keeping that secret from my best friend was hard, but the look on her face was priceless. This was one of the happiest days of 2014! Here are a few more pictures from that.....

Not much longer a sweet and precious little girl joined the family of Aunt Jena! Here is my newest and only niece thus far- 

Emma stole my heart in a matter of seconds! She is adorable and I even got to get in more snuggles last week! 

We managed to (well almost) managed to surprise Heather with birthday dinner last weekend!

Even had a little snow in the south. 

Overall it's been a less busy few weeks with a lot of fun things happening and new recipes being tried! Check out these things I've been whipping up:

Trying new recipes is one of my favorite things to do. 

Over the last month a lot has happened and even changed for me. Things and people too are constantly coming and going. These are things that I can't control. However I can control how I react and how I let these things effect me, my attitude and what comes next. My best friend and sister Heather posted an awesome blog recently about finding the positive. It really made me think and has allowed me to put forth a greater effort in finding the positive and pushing away the negative thoughts as much as possible! 

Todays good: an awesome work with two people I adore and who help me reach my goals more than they will ever know!

The Sunshine File....

I've been teaching in my own classroom for 5 years. Before that I completed an internship, worked in a childcare center and took part in numerous field experiences. I can confidently say Winthrop did a great job of exposing me to lots of classrooms throughout my education there. 

I was also a member of the Palmetto State Teachers Association. At one of our meetings I remember getting a flyer with a poem about a sunshine file- see picture below

I found a yellow folder and started putting various things in it over the years. 

My sunshine file followed me back home where I started teaching. Today, I was adding to my file when I really took notice of how explosive it was. I took it out and shared its meaning with my assistant. She quickly responded, "that looks like a great snow day activity. You should take that with you!"  

So earlier tonight I opened it up to start to peek through. I made it through the file tonight and was excited and surprised at the things I found and discovered. 

Not only were there years of memories from students but also thank you notes from former parents of kids I had worked with. I found drawings from 2008; astonished that even then I was an Mrs. Oh kids!

I laughed, I cried and enjoyed reading them all. 

There were heartfelt thanks from students; notes that said "you rock" and the never ending "I love yous!" There were kind words from my co-workers, partner teachers, instructional coach and principal. 

Seriously going through those was a complete joy! Here's just a small sneak peek of what I found. 

I never doubted my childhood dream of being a teacher. I don't want any career that doesn't involve children and making a difference in their lives. 

I was talking with my trainer today about how you aren't always sure that you really make a difference in someone's life but when you know it's a great feeling...

That sunshine file really brightened my day, made me thankful for the memories, students and families who I've had the joy to be a part of their lives and the many more to come. 

I encourage you to start a sunshine file. Maybe you don't teach or have random sticky notes that say "I like your new shirt" but there's something that means a lot to you and brightens your day when you're having a hard time. 

Try finding those things and remembering them when times get hard. We aren't promised an easy life; but a life full of God's promises... One worth living!

Love Stories are my favorite.....

I seriously am sorry for my lack of consistency with this blog.  It's one of my goals to try to update at least once a week for the next month in order to help keep myself accountable and help others who might be reading this.

Since the last day of 2013, many awesome things have happened. After celebrating a new year with some friends and family I got the special joy of being a part of one of my best friend's wedding day! I truly consider it a treasure to have such awesome friends like Leigh and Brandi, among others, who have been around for a long, long time.. consisting of good and bad but the truth of the matter is... they're still here!

Leigh and Kevin had a beautiful wedding- Friday night at rehearsal I was the stand-in bride and got to marry Kevin a few times and cut up with Mr. Howard along the way too! It was way less stressful than being the real bride! Saturday I spent most of the day chilling and hanging out with Nathan while the girls go ready, took care of a special covert mission and got ready for my duties of programs/guest book! The wedding was beautiful, everything was perfect and the party after was THE BOMB! (Yes, I know I'm old)
Check out some pretty sweet pics from this event!

Jessica, Me & Brandi at rehearsal

Sweet groom's cake!

The "brides" haha

My "fake groom"

All the girls

Kristen (Kevin's sister), Me, Kevin and Brandi

Love these girls to the moon!

Winthrop girls reunited!

My love for these two travels the seas-- literally!

Party time!

Covert mission complete!

Love love love!

Can't forget Mitchell!

Let's just say- this was an epic weekend full of fun that may or may not be disclosed! Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Bradfield! Love you both!

School started right after this weekend.  It was hard to get back into the swing of things, but I quickly learned that schedule and routine is what keeps me going and happy.  

Monday, the 13th my bestie AkA sister Heather was set to get the gender info sealed up in an envelope about her precious bundle of joy.  I met up with her that night to capture the news and was forced to keep it a secret until Saturday, yesterday... Of course I had to get some help with a few things and had to let a few individuals in on the secret.. but no one at the party knew what the gender was going to be.. except for me! It was truly a joy to spoil my best friend and her hubby and the babes with the party and to get to see the genuine look on their faces when the balloons flew out! Def. one of the most favorite things I've done for someone else!  Doesn't hurt that I love these two so much!  

Stay tuned tomorrow for the gender reveal party update plus more..

Feel free to comment on here or on FB about any particular subjects or posts you want to read about.

January 4th- Leigh's wedding day was my one year marker of this life change... Coming up--- see how my life has changed and what I'm up to!

Love you guys!