It's Sunny!

Today is a sunny, glorious Monday!  I've already been to Facebook and checked how things are going for everyone and was surprised to see how many negative comments there are about this morning already!  HOW DARE YOU!  How dare you curse this beautiful day that the Lord has given us to rejoice in!  Things may be going bad in your opinion, but that's only your opinion... I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR NEGATIVITY!  I have this quote for the day:

I just don't deal with the negativity. I can't get involved in that side of it. I don't understand it, and you can't let it take away from your life and what you are trying to do.  ~Rick Pitino

Do I know him?  No.  But I love that he's so blunt about it.  "I can't get involved in that side of it."  And why would we want to???  What good is there that comes from being negative?  One thought like that leads to another and another and then to an awful downward cycle of negativity and depression!  NO THANKS!  Today I choose Optimism and Positivity and Happiness and JOY!  It's sunny here for the first time in WEEKS and I'm so glad to see it!  How dare you guys try to bring me down with your pessimistic ways.  Our purpose here is to uplift each other and bring the happiness that we want to have to others so they'll want it to!

Today I choose life. Every morning when I wake up I can choose joy, happiness, negativity, pain... To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices - today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it.    ~Kevyn Aucoin

I did some research on this Kevyn Aucoin.... do I agree with his Lifestyle?  Definitely not!  But he had his head screwed on correctly and knew what to focus on.  He was a make-up artist born in Louisiana and his whole perspective was that women were already beautiful on the inside, make-up just helped them realize it on the outside.

Great thought, huh?

If our outsides truly mirrored our insides what would yours look like?  Would you like what your mirror reflected?  I don't know what mine would reflect for sure, but I'm hoping it would be beautiful.  I'm hoping that the positive attitude I'm working on developing would be shown  and that it would have made my reflection just a smidge less tattered overall.

Are you out there, whoever you are?

For a Dear Friend: You know who you are

My dear friend,

As time draws close for this battle you're struggling with, I want to give you words of a General Authority: President Boyd K. Packer of the 12 Apostles.  This comes from his talk "The Spirit of Revelation" that he gave in October 1999 at General Conference:

Young Latter-day Saints, shape up!  Face up!  Take hold of your lives!  Take control of your mind, your thoughts!  If you have friends that are not a good influence, make changes, even if you face loneliness, even rejection. 

If you have already made bad mistakes, there are ways to fix things up, and eventually it will be as though they never happened.

Sometimes guilt controls our minds and takes us prisoner in our thoughts.  How foolish to remain in prison when the door stands open.  Now, don't tell yourself that sin really doesn't matter.  that won't help; repentance will.

Take charge of yourself.  How wonderful to be a young Latter-day Saint in this wonderful, challenging time.

You're an amazing person and I know that this tough time will pass.  God doesn't give you things you can't handle and sometimes, when we feel like we're on the point of breaking, it's really just the edge of a breakthrough that we've needed for a long time.  He's making you a better LDS woman and will continue to uplift you if you let Him.

All my love and prayers, dear friend.

Lacey

Aristotle Once Said:

"We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."

 How do you take a life's worth of bad habits (be them eating, not exercising, being pessimistic, whatever...) and start a change?

May I suggest this as an affirmation?

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."  ~Albert Einstein~

This thought alone brings to mind the war that we wage against our "Natural Man" every day in all that we do.  We are GREAT SPIRITS!  We have been chosen to come forth in a day of turmoil and greed to bring joy to those around us and to lift the hearts and spirits of those that need help!  We were sent to be a guiding light to those around us but in order to do that we need to step away from our "mediocre minds" that the world has placed as a block for our spiritual minds.  Sometimes we are our own worst enemies and our own worst critics.  

I am my own worst enemy.  I am my WORST critic.  I pick on myself and I don't give myself the credit I should for the good things I do.  I guilt trip myself into doing things.  I try to make myself not feel guilty for doing things I know better than to do.  I accept complete responsibility for all of this because I'm the one in charge of my choices.

But I'm going to change it all because I'm the one in charge of my choices!

Today I will cheer for myself for my little accomplishments... Like yesterday when I reached for 3 clementines instead of a piece of chocolate cake (and if you know me, you know that's my weakness).

VICTORY! 

Or like this morning when I marched my daughter upstairs very calmly without shouting because she'd upset me.

VICTORY!

We all need victory in our lives.  Tell me what your victories are; I'd love to cheer for you too!

   P.S. I already planned a victory for tomorrow: EXERCISING!  It doesn't matter what I do, just so long as I get in 30 minutes of exercise.... treadmill, yoga, cardio videos... whatever!  It's a planned one I can celebrate for sure!

Bumblebees and Butterflies

"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway."

                 ~Mary Kay Ash~ 

Personally, I love this quote!  Does it really matter what other people tell us we can or cannot do?  I submit that it does not!  Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we think other people think we can do or what we think we can't do that we just don't do anything!

I'm tired of it!

I'm tired of mediocrity and I'm tired of women not realizing that they are daughters of a God who is so amazing that He created us so we could bless the lives of others!  We need to realize we are bumble bees on the inside and that will help us be butterflies on the outside!

Mary Kay also said:

"So many women just don't know how great they really are. They come to us all vogue outside and vague on the inside." 

We need to remember that what's on the inside will make whatever is on the outside 10 times better!  We can't be ugly on the inside and still feel like butterflies on the outside!  

My goal this year:

To help women (and myself) realize just how beautiful they are and understand that in a world where you can be anything you want to be, WOMEN, whether they're old, young, tall, short, motorcycle riders, moms, WHATEVER! have the right to be the bumble bee they want to be without judgment.  We need to know that being butterflies on the outside is only a tiny piece of who we really are! We need to realize that you can have bumble bee wings on a butterfly's body! You're the only person who's opinion matters.

And if you don't know who you are: come with me.... let's find out! 

This post is brought to you as I'm making a HUGE decision.  As a Mary Kay Beauty Consultant, I've learned the Mary Kay-isms.... I've heard these things a million times but have never really put them into effect.  I'm choosing today to take my business to the next level and party with 500 women to make them feel special (completely for free) and help them realize their beauty by June 15th!

It almost makes me want to vomit because it scares me so bad, but "[w]e fail forward to success!"  Here's to the biggest jump so far!  Wish me luck and if you want, you can keep track on the ticker to the left. 

The First Day

"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." 

                 

                       ~ Gordon B. Hinckley ~

 

I read this today and thought to myself, "How fitting."

Today is Mr.'s first day of his Last semester at BYU-Idaho!

Today I realized we have about 90 days until we move... YIKES!

Today I wondered if we really are going to be moving. It's stressful to think that we've been so close so many times and yet, we are still one semester away.  

 "It all works out. Don't worry."

Today is the first day I'm CHOOSING to let it all go into God's hands because I can't do it alone.  Today is the first day I'm admitting that to anyone (including myself)... and I don't like that feeling, but apparently it's something I need to learn this year.

What will you choose to do today?

In the beginning there was...

ME.

Nothing else, just me: 
Who I am; What I think about; The choices I make; Where I go; What I want in my life; How I'm changing.

Everything can be black or white.
This is about the beginning of a true 

Self Search

and how it affects myself and those around me.

  Let's Go...