A Sweet Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  I had a very relaxing, fun 3-1/2 day weekend with my family.  I did a lot of baking, which is pretty much the only thing I took pictures of this weekend.

My Dad's favorite, Pecan Balls.

Chocolate Mint Dreams and Sugar Cookies.

Cheesecake!

Also, a word of advice: if you are going to the movie theather soon, do yourself a favor and watch Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  I think it's one of the best movies made this year. 

I'm writing this post in bed, at 12:34am.  I just got out of the shower after being on the treadmill for one hour.  No, I didn't run for an hour (wish I could say I did), but I was pretty sweaty afterwards, and that always feels good.  Sorry if that was a bit too much for any of you :)

So these past few months literally flew by.  I tried to keep doing full-time online school while working full-time and got completely overwhelmed.  So this coming semester I will be doing school part-time.  I will also not be studying accounting anymore, for which I am very grateful.  Hey, at least I know what I don't want to do.

I'm absolutely loving break and this no school/homework thing.  I kinda forgot what it was like to come home from work and just be able to relax without having homework in the back of my mind.  I really think I could get used to this.  Another good thing about break is that I've been getting back into exercising.  The eating less will come, it's so hard around the holidays!

And I'll leave you with a recent photo of me.  I was trying to take an outfit photo in the mirror, but it really didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.  How do you guys take photos of outfits during the wintertime when it's dark at night when you get home from work? 

On Self-Control

I've sat down to write this post so many times, but then I get distracted, or busy.

A few years ago, I finally got myself off the couch and started exercising regularly.  I also started eating less, especially less sugar (which was a big deal for me since I've got such a sweet tooth).  It's a little harder to be active during the wintertime in the Midwest, but thankfully, I really didn't gain anything over the last couple winters.

I started out this summer pretty well.  I was eating less, and was much more active.  My sister and I ran three 5k's from late April to early June.  My two sisters, one of my brothers and I had tickets to go to California at the end of July, and my pants were beginning to get a little big (big yay!).  I even have a stack of clothes I bought that were a bit too small, but I was anticipating fitting into them soon.

And then, I stopped exercising regularly and started eating more.  We've been doing a lot more with friends in the evenings and going out for frozen yougurt or meals.  In addition, school has started, filling up more of my time.

Part of the reason I haven't been exercising is due to lack of time.  But the larger part is due to my not disciplining myself to go for a run, or do a Jillian Michaels DVD, or go for a walk at least.  I've never liked exercise, so when I get out of the habit of exercising it becomes easier and easier for me to continue simply sitting around.  This happens quite often and when I do start exercising again, it's with the intention that it'll be permanent and I'll lose more weight than ever.

So, here's to trying again.  I'm hoping that blogging about it will help me stick to it this time.  I've been exercising this week and eating less sugar - hopefully I won't stop this time!

Summer Saturday

That three day weekend and another week flew by.  I must say I had a great time all three days last weekend.  My diet got killed and so did my exercising.  It was totally worth it though.  I think.

Frozen yoghurt came to Eastern Iowa (yay!) so of course we had to get some.  Friday night, Saturday night, Monday night and Wednesday night.  Yes, this was a part of the diet killer. 

Don't be fooled by the look on my bro's face - he was actually very happy to get some froyo.

Saturday my sisters and I met several friends at a waterpark (I know, you're thinking, do they even have those in Iowa?!).  We had a great time swimming, sliding, and sunburning (is that a word?).  And to those of you who wondered, yes, there is a rather sizeable waterpark in Eastern Iowa - who woulda thought?

Sunday evening we attended the wedding of some friends.  The wedding was beautiful, the food was delicious, the company was delightful and the dancing was amazing.  And I didn't take a single picture.  I'll have to see if I can get some from my brother's camera.  The wedding was about 1-1/2 hours away and we didn't get home until 2 am.

Monday we had a cookout with friends, then went to watch fireworks.  There was a carnival going at the park at the same time, and every person that you never knew lived in this area was there.  The night involved sidestepping and weaving through lots of people, running into friends we didn't know were there, and talking in the parking lot for about an hour waiting for everyone else to leave so we didn't have to waste gas waiting in line. 

Then it was back to real life again on Tuesday, and the rest of the week flew by.  It was dinner and froyo (again!) with my siblings last night and today, I have studying to do.  My summer class ends tomorrow and I need to get some papers written and a quiz taken.

Also, that resolution to not shop for clothes until my trip - I did stick to it last week, but I'm really wanting to reverse it.  We'll see if I can keep it up.  And here's my Friday outfit.

26 Days

26 days until my two sisters and I leave for an 8-day vacation in Cali!  We got our tickets last month, and I can't wait to go.  We've gotta work out our schedule (fyi, 8 days sounds like an enormous amount of time until you start trying to fit 2,957 activities into them), book hotels and reserve a rental car.  I'm hoping we'll be able to have 2 or 3 days doing nothing on the beach.

I started out this spring exercising and eating a bit better, but I dropped the ball a bit this past month.  In addition, my sister and I are hoping to run a half marathon in late September.  So we'll see how much weight I can lose in these first 30 days of training (I started last Saturday and so far it's going really well!). 

To go along with that, I'm going to try not to do any clothes shopping until vacation.  I'm hoping blogging about it will help keep me from dropping the ball like I'm very prone to do.  Maybe I'll even finish that skirt I started sewing a couple years ago...  So here's to the new month of July and shopping my closet!  And to start the month off, here's a couple of my outfits from the past week.  They're selfies so they're not so good.

Have a good 4th of July!  I'll hopefully be spending time with friends at a waterpark, going to a wedding, and having a cook-out - should be fun times!

An Introduction

Well, here we go, I've decided to try out blogging.  Here's a few things about me:

 - I worship Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
 - I live in the USA in the state of Iowa.
 - I'm the oldest of six children.
 - I'm Armenian.
 - I love reading blogs and decided to try starting one of my own.
 - I'm 24, and just started online college courses in January of this year after working full time since graduating high school.  I'm still working full time, and while school + work gets a bit overwhelming sometimes, it's great!
 - I love to knit, sew, bake and cook.  I hardly ever do anymore, though.  Life has gotten busier than ever, and I'm loving it!