MY FALL CONFESSION

Pin It Now! Greetings and Happy Fall!!

Yep, the moment the first brisk, cool breeze swept through my hair and at the sign of the very first goose-bumps running up my leg, I was in the Fantastic Fall Mood!!  Do you know what I am talking about??  Its like all of a sudden you are talking about Christmas and thinking about pulling out your cinnamon and sugar cookie candles.  You are deciding how you will decorate differently this year for Christmas and preparing your "Honey-Do" list to be SURE it all gets accomplished according to plan!! Well...just in case that is not you...I must confess...It is I!

Yes, just like every year, I completely by-pass every holiday and go directly to thinking about Christmas! I love Christmas time for every reason...the shopping, food, family, giving and receiving gifts (we all love to receive a good gift, you know its true!)and of course...BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!

Honestly, I am having a HEART CHECK this season and decided to dial back a little on the Christmas hoorah.  Why is it that, as much as I love Thanksgiving, it is like a drive through rush to get to the Christmas season??

You see, I feel like really, time just goes by too fast and as much as we TRY AND TRY to make time stop, there is nothing we can do about this. No matter how much of a control freak we are, we can't control time! Ugh, I know, totally stinks!! I mean, before you know it, the kids are grown up and one Christmas turns into 10 Christmases.  I am choosing to stop this fall and celebrate each holiday and really want to embrace every moment that it brings.  I am so thankful for so many things that God has granted me, all of which I am so undeserving of it all, and so often, I find myself complaining or wishing for more, neglecting to see what is right before my very own eyes as a huge blessing!  For example, my central a/c & heating has been broken for like six months now and through the summer, IT FELT LIKE NOTHING MORE THAN A CURSE..not at all a BLESSING! lol  But when I got my electricity bill, and it was cut in half, my husband and I were quite happy about that. (NOTE: I still want central air and heat and will fix it eventually...just trying to make a point):))

I can't say that I am spoiled or a "selfish" kinda girl...but most of us are not this way either. We are all just normal people living day to day, trying to pay the bills and make this life a "good" life, while in the process, we often fail to really invest and give ourselves the occasional HEART CHECK to determine if we have lost sight of all the great blessings that we have been given.

It is funny, but I really don't do much fall decorating, never really did much, but this fall, I am making every effort to add punches of orange and yellow and to include projects for the kids to embrace the season.  Its funny, but since I have decided to do this, I am on a fall craft rush!!  I keep researching fun (cheap) ideas to spruce up for fall and JUST CANT STOP! HAHA! I haven't thought about Christmas all that much and totally by-pass the Christmas section at the craft store and head over to the fall stuff!

I am making lists this Thanksgiving season of everything I am thankful for in different areas of my life! Sounds alot easier said than done! Try to find 50 things, YEP 50, that you are thankful for!  There are certainly 50 things that all of us can be thankful for, its just a matter of pushing aside the struggles that EVERY life encounters and dig in and scoop out each blessing one at a time and place it in the forefront of our heart and mind!

Off to my list-making,
Nelly

PS-Christmas is STILL my favorite season, just gonna slow down a little and let it come to me and not run to it!!

WHEN A WORKOUT JUST WON'T...WORK OUT!

Pin It Now! Yeah ok so I am ready and determined to get this workout thing up and running.  I have attempted to get up at 4:30 am to tackle this thing head on at the beginning of my day.  While I LOVE when the outcome of this attempt is successful, it seems that it is more of a "crash and burn" attempt than a "Bravo" moment.  Soooooo, new strategy!!!!!  Late night workouts...yeah! So hi-ho-hi-ho...off to the gym we go, me and my girl, Sarah, to the gym at 9:oo p.m.  As you previously read...that time of the night is usually a hit or miss time for me. I am either wired from too much late night coffee...or a very intense episode of HGTV Design Star, Project Runway or Hell's Kitchen (Those episodes can get so ruthless and nerve racking *insert sarcasm here*)...or I am crashed-out in an upright position on the chair with one child's homework in one hand and oreos and milk in the other....hense the need to workout...lol.

So the point of this blog entry,in case you were wondering, is while hitting the gym at the late and unconventional hour, I am determined to burn 500 calories! Heck yeah! So Sarah and I choose the "cardio" option.  As you may know, this option keeps a constant monitor of your heart rate so that you can stay on the maximum target rate for the maximum amount of burn! Yeah so slowly, AND I MEAN SLOOOOOOWLY, my heart rate goes up along with the incline of the treadmill.  I am thinking, "Yeah...that's what I am talking about! I am gonna get my sweat on!!" Well, the heart monitor thing will not read my pulse rate.  Weird! So I move to another treadmill...And begin the process all over again....and finally my heart rate is read and slowly inclines, along with the machine...Meanwhile Sarah is going at 175 heart rate when her target rate is 158...GRRR!! I am walking at a 10.2 incline and my rate is only 98...OH EM GEE! What the heck.... so I finally manage to get to 144, which my target rate is 148...almost there!!  So I decide to run...Thats gonna get the ticker pumping....NOT! I am running at an 8 incline, trying not to fall and holding on for dear life, and my HEART RATE GOES DOWN!!! What in the heck is that!??!!  Whose heart rate goes DOWN when they RUN!

So my work out didnt really "Work Out"...so I moved on to circuit training where there is no wacked out heart monitor and I can simply rely on the good old fashioned burning pain of my muscles!!!

Technology can be so unreliable...

JUST KIDDING! :)

Running along,
Nelly<3

THIRTY SOMETHING AND PROUD!

Pin It Now! Yep, you heard that right, PROUD! Proud to be a mother of two loving and crazy-fun kiddos, proud to be married nearly 12 awesome years, proud to have embarked on the pursuit of my own business(es) to actually do what I love the most..."create"!

Seriously, I never really imagined what life would be like in my 30's. As a kid, that seemed so far away and uninteresting. But I can truly say, that after some time adjusting and some random momentary counsel from fellow "thirty-somethingers", I have crossed over from panick to proud!

Yeah, so my metabolism is not moving at warp speed anymore...and social security may not even exist when I retire so I may work til I'm 90, and I shop at Sam's wholesale and LIKE it. And falling asleep at 8:30 from sheer exhaustion is probable.... I feel blessed! Not about what I have or don't have but because I am able be thirty something and feel this good about it. There will never be enough money, time or energy.

But there is tons of love!

Side note: Should I be offended when someone tells me that I wasn't a very cute teenager and I look younger now than I did then?? I THINK NOT!
(yeah, that happened)

At 16...






Hahah at 31...






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SOB FEST 2011

Pin It Now! Last night was a good night in our small group.  As we begin, the box of Kleenex in thrown in the center of our circle of chairs for those expected sobbers...I wasn't one of those! Later the box gets passed around for those late-blooming sobbers...UH UH...Not me!!

As the circle begins, the questions to answer were "Where have you been?" and "Where are you going?"  Yep...and the tears begin to flow.  Who'd have thought such A-typical questions wouldn open up the floodgates like that.  Soon enough it was my turn and BAM! Couldn't even get a word out and I needed the darn Kleenex!!

It felt great to talk and download, cry and hear others share their hearts.  I definitely won't even try to explain what my answers were to those questions...It is all a blur to me in some ways...But this is what I came away with from that meeting...

No Matter Where I Am...What matters is Where I AM, WHEREVER I AM!
Some deep thinking right thee, huh?!?!

<3 Nelly

AWKWARD & VALUABLE MOMENTS

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Well today was an interestingly good day! Roomed with my girl, Sarah, and spent most of the day kicking it at the conference. Of course, ya know the day cant get off to a start without a few "moments" featuring yours truly! So yeah, as we are walking to the meeting, I managed to ignore the fact that the escalator was moving TOWARD me! I managed to avoid hopping a ride on that escalator, but it was close and didn't go unnoticed! Yeah .... so that was an awkward moment.

I also shared a moment when I asked a simple question about there being gravy with a certain sandwich that Pastor Bobby had the pleasure of raving about! That moment was seized by none other than Pastor himself ! He says in a very Cajun accent quite teasingly " Now Nelly, ya know ya cajun when ya askin bout da gravy on da sandwich! Gotta get dat gravy huh nelly!?" haha! It was funny!

So I'm walking with my girl, Sarah, to retrieve a new room key because our key malfunctioned and while walking down this grand hallway, the awesome sound of big band was streaming and I just could not restrain from busting out in a "jive"! Well, from a distance comes a hotel worker and as he passes says " Yeah! That's some good dancing right there! Makes me wanna start dancing!" OMG! Wow! AWKWARD MOMENT AGAIN!

So I am a
backward escalator riding,
jive dancing,
gravy eating
Cajun
....enjoying awkward moments in Atlanta with my peeps!

Wouldn't trade those moments either!

Jiving on,
Nelly






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ATLANTA OR BUST!!

Pin It Now! Well off we go to play in Atlanta for a national conference and it's pretty cool to be able to hang out with the band off stage. I am enjoying my Jalapeño Salsa sunflower seeds here in the backseat of Angie's car and I have been threatened by her! Yes. Threatened!
I will be left on the side of the road if she finds any seeds in her car. So like a good little passenger, I grabbed my coffee cup, compliments of the gas station cashier, along with a lid, and have very cautiously contained all stray seeds and shells!! Go Me!!

The girls decide to pile into Angie's car while the boys, or men should I say, cruise the highway chauffeured by Derik! Of course you would assume that the women would be crying for the first potty break, but no! Let it be knownm the men have made the first plea to pee!! Haha!

So yeah, I am thrilled to have this new "blogging fettish" because it really can help to ease a really bad case of car anxiety! I can admit that I suffer from this which explains my need for the sunflower seeds!!

So until my next vehicle anxiety attack... Peace out!



Nelly

Location:Eagle Eyrie Dr,Biloxi,United States

I WISH

Pin It Now! I found this old blog on myspace from years ago and a few thoughts ran through my mind...1-"Wow, that was some deep-thinking right there, at least for me!" I never have been a real deep thinker although, on the contrary, I actually do ALOT of thinking...and 2-I thought..."Hmmmm...a blog?!"...something different to do beside the occational facebook status update and newfound twitter "tweets"...

So, yeah, here ya go! I've been accused of living under a rock, because I don't catch on to things on the brink of their existence, but the honest truth is that I hate to be a trend follower so I usually hold back on getting into something in the beginning (for example, the adorable feathers that EVERYONE has in their hair..I really love the look but now its just too popular). The downfall is that I am always "behind the times" and therefore accused of hiding under a rock!

...as i  am sitting here,   thinking, I wish that I had the power to change the minds of those that I love.  I wish that I could stop the hands of time and shock the hearts of those that have flattlined.  I only wish that every moment spent in prayer and discipleship would not simply be heard and then forgotten, but actually absorbed and used to develop the life of an individual.  I wish that every person who turns away from a life of destruction and hurt, would never, ever return to such a life....I wish!  I also wish that I could playback my own life and display to those who simply think that I just don't understand, and show them how deeply I do understand.  I wish I could open up my chest and display the love, the devotion, and the hurt....showing to those who may doubt that it is REAL LOVE....REAL DEVOTION...AND REAL HURT.  I know that I am certainly not without fault or sin....and am only anything because of the grace of God  and the forgiveness of Him.   Lastly, I don't wish to change the past but simply wish to use it to help change the future.......I wish....