Goals 2009...taking resolutions to a new level

Goals 2009...finally I found wireless.

The “Free Public Wi-Fi” is didn't come through for me when i wrote this! So this was my unofficial Microsoft Word blog—because I was ‘iced-in.’ (meaning my car defroster wouldn't get warm, so the inch-thick ice coating wouldn't budge, no matter how hard I scraped! This car I'm referring to seriously is the sourest lemon you’ve ever seen. We got straight up lied to…not only does the heat only work half the time, but it has more than 110,000 miles on it-acc. to carfax- but the dude sold it to us with an odometer reading of “88,000” miles on it. How does that work? I thought the days of rolling back odometers were before my time. Apparently though, nothing is too low for Mike Tuttle. WARNING: NEVER buy a car from Mike Tuttle from Tuttle Auto Body in East Moline, Illinois. You will get royally screwed.)

My blog is not dead! Why? Because I quit my job. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but it had to be done. I really feel like God has been speaking to my heart about what he wants me to do, and it’s not sell commercials for channel 6. It’s not selling anything at all…which is crazy because I always thought “Sales” was what I wanted to go into. I feel like I’m called into writing/ministry. I want to be a Christian writer and speaker. It sounds crazy, but I have this burning passion to write and encourage and support people of faith. So as a creative outlet and idea backboard, I’m going to write on my blog AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! That’s a goal and I’m writing it on my goals list! I will be reading my goals aloud every morning when I wake up and every night before bed…and you should too! Jack Canfield is amazing…if you follow his ‘success principles,’ it really will change your life (for the better.) One of his studies found that people who have specific goals, speak them aloud, and engrain them in their conscious and subconscious mind, will achieve them! If the goals are vague, however, the results will be vague.

“If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things- you don’t have enough goals.”

–LOU HOLTZ- The only coach in NCAA history to ever lead six different college teams to postseason bowl games, and a man who also won a national championship and “coach of the year” honors.

My goals: (more than just new year resolutions)

1. I will write a minimum of 7 pages-single spaced- per week.

2. I will write on my blog at least 3 times per week.

3. I will complete a rough draft version of my “Picking up the pieces” book for children of divorced parents by 11:00 PM December 30^th 2009.

4. I will run the St. Louis half marathon on April 19 2009 and the Memphis half marathon on December 6 2009.

5. I will start leading a weekly support group for kids (ages 8-18) of a divorced or broken family (“Picking Up the Pieces” [PUP]) by 8:00pm on Thursday April 2^nd 2009

6. Preach at KYC?

6. Memorize the book of Ephesians by December 15, 2009 at 10:00 PM.

7. Breakthrough goal 1: Kevin and I will have XX,000 dollars in savings by May 31^st, 2010.

8. Breakthrough goal 2: publish a book by December 31^st, 2012.

Einstein Quote

My blogging days are not over...I just quit my job and I'm going to be a professional writer!





Is that a job? Maybe i won't start out officially 'professional,' but it's going to happen.





My goals for 2009 will be posted in the next 3 days. Look out everybody...

PS. My new pen name is LIV Ryan. What do you think? Better than Olivia? haha



Check out this awesome quote. I wish I had written it:



"We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books . It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranges and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations." - Albert Einstein

BUCKET LIST

Dude, Jack Canfield is BAD A
I freakin love this book: The Success Principles. Boring name, amazing concepts. I'm only like 5 pages in too...just wait.

Basically, it's point is: "It's time to start living the life you've imagined."
-Henry James
Author of 20 novels, 112 stories, and 12 plays.

SOO, Jack (Author of Chicken Soup for the Soul books...over 100,000,000 SOLD!!) that's 100 million. Holy cow. Here are some more amazing quotes, then my preliminary list for 101 things I want to do before I die, aka. my BUCKET LIST.

"Life is like a conbination lock; yourjob is to find the right nubmers, in the right order, so you can have anything you want." -Brian tracy-

"If we did all the thigns we are capable of doing, we sould literaly astound ourselves."
-Thomas A. Edison

"You must take personal responsibility. YOu cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself."

"Everything you want is just outside your comfort zone." -RObert Allen, the one minute millionaire.

"I've always been the opposite of a paranoid. I operate as if everyone is part of a plot to enhance my well-being." -Stan Dale

THis is my favorite:
Come to the edge, He said.
They said: We are afraid.
Come to the edge, He said.
They came. He pushed them,
And they flew....
-Gullaume Apollinaire
Avant-garde French Poet

So Here's the first 70 things on my bucket list, in no particular order:
101 Things to do before I die:

1. Go Skydiving
2. Publish a book
3. Make a minimum of 3 beautiful babies with my gorgeous and wonderful husband
4. Become a millionaire
5. Learn Espanol
6. Go to Africa on a mission trip to visit Carlos Wambua (June 2009?)
7. Write a song that is sung at my church
8. Learn a12 page piano concerto
9. Be a substitute teacher
10. Create a color coded, easy-to find, no clutter organization system at home
11. Attend a yoga retreat
12. Run at least 5 half marathons…one in Disney World
13. Visit California: Disneyland, vineyard, Hollywood, etc.
14. Build a house with Habitat for Humanity
15. Graduate from college!! AHH, this will happen.
16. Write a play, or a movie script (not that it has to be made into a REAL movie)
17. Make my own cinnamon roll recipe
18. Be the top seller where I work
19. Beat my dad in tennis
20. Make a million dollars in a year
21. At Christmastime, wrap each and every gift extravagantly.
22. Donate 1,000,000 dollars to Child Evangelism Fellowship
23. Speak to young women about self-image
24. Write a devotional book for women about self-image
25. Take the filler word ‘like’ out of my vocabulary
26. Learn Sign Language
27. Lead at least 100 people to Christ, I have to speak Spanish for some of them!
27. Buy a whole set of new furniture from a furniture store
28. Get a 15 foot real Christmas tree for inside our house
29. Ride in a hot air balloon
30. Vacation to Little Palm Island
31. Ride a double bicycle
32. Pay for someone’s (who needs it) big grocery cart
33. Learn how to crochet or knit
34. To overcome my fear of the ocean, go scuba diving
35. To overcome my fear of throw up, throw up at least once and help someone else when he/she is vomiting
36. To overcome my fear of flying, fly to 10 new places
37. Have a stranger and his/her family over for a gourmet dinner
38. Work for a week at Child Evangelism Fellowship Angel tree Camp
39. Make reusable grocery bags (and use them!)
40. Play in a women’s and also a mixed doubles tennis league
41. Completely forgive my parents for their divorce
42. Be able to locate 100 main countries on a world map
43. Teach yoga and Pilates classes *
44. Visit the Holy Lands
45. Memorize a book of the bible (longer than 5 chapters)
46. Purchase and wear Clinique makeup
47. Have two sinks and two shower heads in my bathroom
48. Eat Mangoes outside naked in a different country (weird, I know, it’s a book)
49. Go to bed at 9:30pm and wake up at 6:00 am for a week straight
50. Purchase a 4,000 square foot home
51. Grow a ½ acre garden with vegetables, roses, and tulips
52. Pay off debt entirely
53. Drink a beer in Ireland
54. See a Koala in Australia
55. Visit England and stay in a cottage
56. Hike for at least a day in the Swiss Alps
57. Write a memory book (of my life and the people who have impacted me)
58. Make a documentary for each of my children when they turn 18
59. Hire an interior designer and follow her directions
60. Throw a neighborhood block party
61. Bake 6 batches of cookies with my kids and take them to a homeless shelter/hand them out on the streets
62. Be on the Price is Right
63. Go Camping in Colorado
64. Throw a college reunion party at my house and invite my best friends!
65. Do an elderly person’s yard work as a family
66. Make dinner anonymously for a family who needs it
67. To get over my fear of giving blood, give blood 3 times successfully
68. Go an entire month drinking nothing but water
69. Do a mini-triathlon
70. Learn how to golf, and beat a 100.
.....

Tell me your bucket list!

My life is A TORNADO!

If I were a cop, I'd give my life a speeding ticket.

I feel like my life is speeding by at the speed of light!

Seriously, I need to take time to slow down. Do some yoga. Write some stuff. Maybe my head would feel clearer then and I wouldn't be getting migranes!

I just wanted to say that my new job is awesome, but I work 40 hours a week and now I know why people complain about working all the time, haha!

Waitressing has nothing on this job!~

Anyway, I love my small group and I can't wait to do our Run-A-Thon and our Bakesale to raise money for the International Justice Mission and the village in Africa we're sponsoring.
The IJM rocks, check out their website at IJM.org

We rock at baking, and everyone should come support us on November 8th! I think we're going to be at Wal-Mart.

So in conclusion, I'm not dead! just busy!

Grace and peace!!

My haircut

I said I'd post pics of my new hair-do that I was afraid to wear down for 3 whole days so here they are!

Yay my new job! I haven't started yet, but hopefully tomorrow!

Leadership...and being broken

If you need an inspiring book, check out "Tribes by Seth Godin. This book is awesome!!
It's not explicitly Christian, but it talks about how this world desperately needs leaders, and we are those leaders! "Managing" is out, and being innovative and fresh is in. (I can't wait to read more than the first 20 pages I read on the elliptical this morning.)

I know I need to be reading books like this rather than the trash magazines hanging on the rack on the wall because they inspire me to MOVE!

I've felt so called lately to step it up in my leadership. My small group girls are counting on me to pray for them, and I've encountered a ton of situations lately that I have the potential to lead or start a movement in, but sometimes you need something to nudge you forward. I think this book will help me.

On another note, God totally broke me last night. I didn't know why, but I was just feeling really angry. I was getting upset at Kevin for the stupidest reasons, and I knew he wasn't the entire cause of my anger. I was just impatient and longing...and as I laid down to bed, thinking sleep would be enough of an escape, I almost robotically got up and started writing in my journal. That never happens...I'm usually spent and out of creative energy to write at the end of the day. So, I started writing and it turned into a prayer. And my prayer turned into questions. SO MANY QUESTIONS I DIDN'T KNOW I HAD! Why do people abuse their kids? Why am I angry sometimes? Why do I worry about money when I've NEVER been without? Why am I horrible at fasting? Why does it hurt so much to be broken? In which ways have I been growing in the wrong direction that I need to be broken from? Why does divorce happen? Where is a mentor in my life right now? And then I just started crying, and I couldn't stop. It was the ultimate state of brokenness. I haven't been broken in more than a year, and it was unexpected. It was so necessary...and I'm still in this state. I feel vulnerable and excited. I feel tired and enthused. I feel like SEEKING with all my heart, and I haven't felt like this in a few months. I'm just so thankful that God never lets us go. That he wants us to bring our burdens to him, even when we don't know what they are, and free us from them. THANK YOU LORD!!

I think that as I get built back up, by prayer and reading and fasting, I will be able to lead better than I ever have before!

New Job, New hairstyle?!

So I've been a lazy blogger. I kinda forgot about it, actually. BUT, I need help!
I've taken a new full time job (my first ever!) at KWQC as an Account Executive to sell commericals!

I'm so excited and it's kinda a big deal for Kevin and I!
So, I already went short with my hair after our wedding, and darker, but I think I need a new haircut. I have an appointment tomorrow with Missy, my amazing stylist, and I need you guys to tell me which hair cut you like the best. We're trying to go professional...

I don't know...post me a pic or something of one you like!! i need help guys. I'm bad at finding the hair styles I like online.