Feeling the burn, sweating like crazy!

Today felt like such a success! I ate well within my fitness pal app calories and I worked out like a champ!

Started my day at 5 a.m. at the gym with Nicole. We did 30 minutes of cardio and 15 minutes of ab work together. Russian (crazy) twists, regular crunches, and planks. 3 sets of those and then partner medicine ball sit ups.


After school, Christie (my kinder co-worker) and I did Jillian Michaels Shred it dvd kettle bell workout on my promethean board on the big carpet in my classroom. It was great! We are going to try to do this right after school at least 2-3 days a week! So it is nice to get a double dose, not only do I want to shed some pounds, I want to become stronger and toned!

I'm also reading the devotional "Today is the First Day: Daily Encouragement on the Journey to Weight Loss and Balanced Life (First Place)"  It has been a great inspiration every morning. The Lord is on my side. He wants to see me improve and turn to him when I am tempted to be lazy or want to eat lots of bad food. 

Goals for 2014

Hey Y'all!

My goals in 13 were:
1. Get down to 135 in weight. Build lean muscle, become stronger and toned. Eat healthier. Drink more water! That was a negative. Unfortunately, I became very discouraged this past year and did not reach this goal. This is the year though because I have to! 

2. Go on a date (either out or at home) once a month with my wonderful hubby!
We did go on more dates but probably not once a month. I do feel like hubby and I spent more time being together this year. We had some great dates: trips to home depot/lowes/Ferguson's/home expo center to look for home ideas for our new house we are going to build this year, dinner or lunch out (puckett's, picnics to arrington, pizza dinners on the land), saw a couple movies, and just had a good time.  

3. Get at least one recruiter under me in Pampered Chef.
YES :) I know she can do great things with the Pampered Chef! 

4. Have a substantial amount of money saved up to build our house.
We are getting there! We are excited about starting to build this year! 

5. Do at least 4 shows a month with Pampered Chef (can be a combo of cooking/catalog shows) That didn't happen regularly but will be a regular month this year. I will make sure of it! 

6. Sell $24,000 in PC products this year.
Not even close but I did make it to $15,000 in personal sales since starting April 2012!!

8. Go on a caribbean cruise with my family and in laws this summer on the Royal Caribbean's Allure/Oasis of the Seas.
YES! Well, my family didn't get to come but my in-laws, SIL, BIL and our friends TJ and Heather went on a Western Caribbean Cruise on the Oasis of the Seas in May/June 2013.

9.  Read through the New Testament.
I will finish it this year. Great start and valiant effort!

10. Pray/devotions daily with myself and with hubby.
We did really well with having devotions together most nights and I did have a good start to quiet time. I am starting a new devotional this year and am loving it! I also got back into journaling and I've kept up with it so far! 

11. Take more pictures for my blog, family, and for my photo business. *BLOG MORE OFTEN!* So sorry friends! I'm regretting it myself as well!

12. Deep clean, organize, and touch up paint in my house to get ready for a possible sale sometime this year!CHECK. Whew, we did it all. We deep cleaned, ugh! We touched up paint, got a storage unit, cleaned, cleaned and cleaned some more. We are still cleaning and keeping our house up almost every day incase of an unexpected showing. 

13. Try to stay positive in every situation.
That is a prayer I say every day!

4 goals in 2014:

1. BE HEALTHY-in weight, be comfortable in my own skin, when I see myself in pictures I'm not embarrassed, in what food I choose to eat, etc. I know it is not all about what the scale says but I need to become healthier! Hubby is on this journey with me as well. 
*My plan: Drink the preferred amount of water a day, use myfitnesspal app to track what I am eating each day, do a monthly weigh/measure to be in accountability with Friend Heather, exercise for 45 minutes for 4-5 days a week, and continue to do my Today's the first day: a journey to weight loss and balance devotional and journaling. 

2. Sell our townhouse and move into our dream home on the land!
*My plan: keeping our house clean and ready to show is always a task but I am going to try to keep it nice and neat everyday. Keep calm as we make decisions and not to second guess myself when picking out options of house stuff. Be very organized when packing up to move to the new house. 

3. Have a profitable business with The Pampered Chef, grow my team and business. 
*My plan: have 4 cooking shows a month selling $1,000 or more a month, recruit 2 or more people to join my Pampered Chef team, express to everyone how this business can change your life and prove it to everyone. 

4. Become closer than ever with my heavenly father and my husband. 
My plan: have daily devotions/prayers/journaling every day, be still and listen to what the Lord is trying to tell me, have prayer time and devotions with my husband, go on more dates, be the best wife I can be.

Here's to reaching my goals in 2014!

Blog Makeover

HELP! I am considering a blog makeover. I need some new buttons (pinterest, email, etc), a new layout, maybe new font.  I'm clueless about how to do it on my own but don't want to pay a fortune. Any tips or advice will be greatly appreciated! Honestly, I don't even know what I want it to look like!

Thanks blog friends!


On another note, our day off for MLK Jr. day was a fun day! I went over to my friend, Nicole's, to have coffee and chat in the morning, then Kenzi and Josh (SIL and BIL) picked Derek and I up for an Amish Country adventure in Ethridge/Lawrenceburg, TN. It was about an hour drive southwest from our house. We stopped at some antique shops, ate lunch at Green Tomato and then headed to the Amish house shops. It was very interesting on how they sell their furniture. We picked up a map at one of the antique shops where the Amish sell their furniture out of their houses/barns. It was a little strange at first but we stopped at 4-5 houses. We priced/browsed some interior doors for our new house, rocking chairs, porch swings, picnic tables, etc. It was really neat. We got home and then I convinced Derek to take me to Home Depot to price/look at about everything under the sun that we would need to pick out for our new house. It will be such an exciting time this year! Lots of decisions though for this very indecisive person! I'm praying for easy decisions and low levels of stress!

Until next time...

2013-A year in review

WOW! I fell off the face of the blog world this year. I apologize and I will probably regret not documenting much of this year! I also kept a small jar of special things and wrote notes about fun events that happened. 

A lot of things happened this year so without further adieu,  2013-Life with the Clarks!

January-
Derek and I went on a date night. 

My girls Bible Study started back up. We did the study "Breaking Free" by Beth Moore. It was amazing! 

Heather, Emily and I went shopping at Green Hills, went to the vera bradley store and ate at PEI WEI.

February-
I went to my first Predators Hockey game with Derek, TJ and Heather!

We had a snow day!

Went to Pampered Chef "Feast" spring product launch in Lexington, KY

My brother Jacob came for a visit and helped me put some organization shelves in my pantry and laundry room!

March-
I got a hair cut!

College friend, Troy and his wife, Nicole, and little boy, Jax, moved to Spring Hill, TN into the apartment complex right across the street from our townhouse complex. Little did we know that Nicole and I are like two peas in a pod! Feels like we had known each other forever! The start of a lifelong friendship began! Now I'm "aunt" tiffy to sweet Jax.

Spring Break 2013 family trip out to Arizona. 

April-
*Our friends Nathan and Whitney tied the knot!

*My SIL and MIL continued to post on our other blog We bought a tick farm. I need to post on there as well but I just haven't yet!

*Heather, Emily and I did the Color Run 5k. It was a total blast!

*My baby brother got engaged! YAY Adam and Ashley!

May-
*I got to spend Mother's day with my momma! Friend Heather came home with me and we went to the Mother/Daughter/Friend tea at my home church!

*Heather, Emily, Nicole and I did the 5k Foam Fest. It would've been better if the weather would've cooperated, but it didn't and it was miserable. At least it was free!

*We went on a family/friends vacation! A cruise to the Western Caribbean (Haiti, Jamaica, and Cozumel) with my inlaws, SIL and BIL, and our friends TJ and Heather. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, the 2nd largest cruise ship equipped with an aqua theater, ice skating rink, zip line, etc. It was amazing!

June-
*Sisteren (Ashley, my brother Adam's Fiance) moved in with us for the summer as she interned at Thomas Nelson Publishing House for my SIL, Kenzi.

*Derek and I went on a date to Arrington Vineyards for an afternoon picnic!

*Finished Karen Kingsbury's book "Coming Home." It was SO good!

*Pool time, Lebanon Outlets, Opry Mills mall and lots of adventures this summer with Nicole and Jax!

*Went home to WV for a week at the end of June, did a Pampered Chef party for my mom, got to spend time with two of my best friends, Brittany and Kelly, and got to see my sweet babysitting girl, Aleyna and her sweet momma Ulya and dad Jeff before they made their big move to Cali!

My brother, Adam came home with us to TN for the month of July. He did odds and ends and helped Derek at the farm. He did get to shadow a PA for a few days as well.

July-
*Went wedding dress shopping for my future sis in law's wedding dress! Her fam came down for 4th of July and it was so fun to go with her and her momma!

*Celebrated my 26th birthday (Several times hehe) one at the Cheesecake Factory with hubs, Adam, Ashley and her family over the 4th of July weekend, had chipotle on my actual birthday after church and also had friends over to our farm for a cookout on my actual birthday, and finally ate at Chuy's and went to see The Heat with Heather, Emily, Nicole and Kenzi for a girls night for my birthday. Hubs bought me and Ipad for my brithday! It has been a neat tool for my classroom and just everyday browsing.

* Celebrated 4 years of marriage to my wonderful husband. We went to lunch at Puckett's :) My favorite! Then we went to some home showrooms and kitchen and bath places to look for some house ideas! We finished the day with a picnic pizza at our land, dreaming about our future out here!

*Finally posted my professional wedding pictures that we have the rights/discs of on Facebook.

*Derek and I planted a garden of pumpkins and watermelons on our farm.

*Went to Swanky Plank Vintage Marketplace with Ashley and Nicole.

*Celebrated Jax's 1st Birthday with Nicole at Amigos Mexican restaurant for lunch!

*Adam, my brother, and I went to the Nashville Zoo on his last day in Nashville! We had fun looking through my super zoom lens on my fancy camera and taking lots of fun pictures of animals.

*Finished my first big scrapbook! With the help of my mom's cricut and Nicole, I completed our honeymoon scrapbook! I'm very excited about how it turned out!

August
*Started my 5th year of teaching, 2nd year in Kindergarten.

*Celebrated with Katie and Johnny at their Mexican Fiesta wedding shower. I got to see her twin, Kelly, and her family at the shower. I received some awesome news from Kelly and Chris at the shower.

*My mom and brother, Jacob came down to Nashville for a wedding (Jacob's girlfriend's sister) and it happened to be Mom's birthday weekend as well. We had a blast and went to the pancake pantry.

September
*Had a fun night on the town for Katie's Bachelorette party!

*Went up to WV for my Dad's 50th birthday. We surprised him with the corn hole yard game we had made. We painted it in WVU colors and symbol for him.

What we made for Daddy for his 50th birthday!

*Used my sewing machine and a few tutorials and created a stuffed felt campfire for my camping themed classroom.

*We decided to put our townhouse on the market! Kenzi and Josh put their house on the market.

*We met with a builder who we are pretty sure we are going with. He will be doing our house as well as Kenzi and Josh's house.

October
*Katie and Johnny's Nashville wedding. I'm so blessed to have another childhood friend who lives in the Nashville area! So glad Mom could come down to celebrate with them as well.

*I got a hair cut!

*Sewed a camera strap for my canon camera. Pinterest inspired!

*We harvested our pumpkins and watermelons. It was a sad crop but we will make it successful once we live out on the land!

*The 2nd Annual Clark/Howard family fall fest. Daddy came down for it and made Tennessee Jambalaya in his cast iron dutch oven and apple dumplings in the other dutch oven. We had a blast with all our friends and family members who were there! We love hosting parties at the farm and can't wait until we have a house out there!

*I made my first dress! Pinterest inspired!

November

*Participated in holiday bazaar booth with my Pampered Chef Business. It was a great experience and fun meeting new people!

*Our friends, Chris and Mary became parents to the beautiful Addison Marie! She is a doll baby!

*Heather, Emily, Nicole and I started a monthly girls night get together. We kicked it off with dinner at Chuy's! Our favorite place!

* I made it to $15,000 in Pampered Chef Career Sales!!!

*My mother in law had major sinus surgery here in Nashville. She has recovered beautifully and we pray that her health only continues to improve!

*Derek killed his first deer and on the same day, both of my brothers killed deer!

*My Kindergarten team of teachers decided to do something a little different to celebrate Christmas together. We went to a place called painting with a twist. It was a blast!

*It was our year for the Nashville Thanksgiving with the Clarks/Howards/Hills. Mom, Dad and Adam came down this year. Jacob couldn't make it this year and we missed him lots. Derek's parents, Tom and Sandy were down as well. We had our Thanksgiving feast at Kenzi and Josh's house. It was amazing as always and ended and a fun tradition of trivial pursuit game girls against boys where the girls made a huge come back to win the game!

December

*Longview Staff Christmas party

*Fun times in my classroom with my kiddos

*Lots of Christmas shopping

*Girls night with Heather, Emily, and Nicole for our monthly girls night. We went to Carrabbas and did a little gift exchange.

*Had an unfortunate sinus infection but luckily went to the doc at my parents house in time to feel better before Christmas.

*Christmas in WV, traveled to Ohio after Christmas to visit with Derek's family.

Christmas at my momma and daddy's house!

*Home to celebrate New Years Eve with friends in Nashville.

My Daily Mile year end review wasn't as good as I'd hope it would be. I also did not train for any big races last year. I only did a few 5Ks. I also know that I didn't log all of my miles in daily mile or didn't keep track of milage on some walks/runs. My total was 72 miles in 2013 with March being the highest month of 25 miles and in second place was August with 16. 

Here's to making 2014 a better blogging year! Lots of life changes will be happening to the Clark's in 2014 so stay tuned!