Look someone has to say it!

There is something that has been bothering me lately, and as I approach my 30th birthday, I figure that it is time to stop messing around and just say it. 

I am taking the liberty of speaking for employees everywhere.  Whether you are a sandwich artist, or a brain surgeon.  I am speaking up to our bosses, those in the highest places. 

It’s about working standards that are just not acceptable, we are over worked and underpaid.  We give give give, and you take take take.

It is time all employees stood up for ourselves.  We need to fight for our rights and stand united.  If we all shout it out, they will have to hear us.

So lets get loud about our right for AN AFTERNOON NAP!!!!

No seriously…we need afternoon naps in the workplace.  We are tired and we deserve.

It’s not about the money.  If employers instituted afternoon naps, they would save money.  Less accidents would occur on assembly lines, less mistakes made in the office.  Employees would be more courteous to their customers.

COME ON….IT JUST MAKES SENSE.

Give us an afternoon nap it’s the only solution, and because you know we take it anyways!

OH MY ACHING LEGS

ok so today I actually did some exercise.  I biked to and from work.  I work approximately 14.7KM which is around 9 Miles from my place.  so pretty much 30KM today. 

Getting to work was not a problem, it took me about an hour, which is not bad for my first time out in a while.   There was a train on the way, which I found kinda funny because on the path at the train crossing there were 4 other bikers, they’re all decked out in their biker gear like spandex and everything…and they are on road bikes and all in shape looking…then there is me, bent over like I am dying, in my sweats, not looking athletic at all…I found it strangely funny.

Coming home was not so fun, as the wind was against me.  took me about an hour and a half to get home.  I thought I might die.  My mom was worried that something happened because I was not home right away….but it was the wind I tell you.

All I can say is that if I don’t lose weight this week I will be very sad, that is if I am able to move enough to get on the scale.

I do have to admit though that I am quite impressed with myself, doing that far of a distance, I’m pretty much Da Bomb!!!

Diet update

Well I only lost 1.2 pounds this week.  Which sucks, I mean of course it is good because it is a loss, but I was hoping for more.  Although I don’t know why I am surprised…I did not over do it but I also did not count everything…so with the pound I gained last week I am still at my original loss. 

Oh well I am going to make sure that everything is written down for tomorrow.

I’ve decided to go on a multi-vitamin, I am concerned about keeping up my vitamins being on the vegetarian diet.  I am especially concerned about my iron and B12 because I do not eat a lot of animal products….or foods rich in any vitamins.  So until I get to the doctor in July I will take vitamins and then I will talk to the doctor. 

So that is it for a now. 

But If Not

You might have noticed the new look to the blog, a new picture and a new name.  The address is still the same, I just changed the Title from Jackie’s place, to But If Not.

The But If Not stems from a chapel that one of my professors did while I was at college.  He told a story that I really don’t remember at all, I believe it had to do with a British soldier who sent those three words as his reply to some sort of threat.  The But if Not in this case was taken from the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, in Daniel chapter 3.  Even though I do not remember the story that my professor shared that day I remember that what he said changed my understanding of this story completely.

I had always seen the story of the firey furnace as a great story of faith, which it is.  I had, however, always looked at it as though if you have faith in God he will deliever you from whatever comes your way.  This approach is a little bit flawed though, because what happens when you put your faith in God and he doesn’t deliver you from the “fire”? 

I learned that day that the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednigo, is very much a story of faith.  It is a story of faith because of the But If Not.  These 3 men were willing to walk into a fiery furnace, not knowing if God would deliver them from it.  They had a choice, they could bow down to the idol that the king had set up, or they could face the possibility of a painful death.  They still chose to serve God, no matter what.  God can deliver us from this, but if not, we will still serve him!

Sometimes when the “fire” comes our way our immediate response is to question God and get angry with him for not “delivering” us from our circumstances.  I hope that in the future for me my response will always be to serve God and not to bow down to any idols that the world demands.  The God we serve can deliver us from all adversity, but if not….I choose to serve God, how about you?

Sometimes someone has to say it for you to hear it.

I’ve been having a real hard time with the spring bus schedule change.  In the spring, my regular bus to Scurfield and Waverly gets cancelled, and in order to catch the one that leaves five minutes earlier I have to get out of bed about 20 minutes earlier…(it’s my second bus you see).  Anyone that knows me, knows that I have a hard time in the morning, so leaving 20 minutes earlier has been quite an adjustment.

Sometimes when I am running late and miss my first bus, I see my uncle on the next bus.  We usually don’t get a chance to chit chat, because we usually don’t wind up close enough to talk.  Today though, we wound up sitting right next to each other pretty much.  We talked mornings, and hockey.  Somehow we transitioned from hockey to running, and my uncle said something that I have always known to be true, but I just really needed to hear it today.

He said:  I’ve learned something with my running, and that is I gotta stop worrying about what everyone else is doing, and how well they are training and their times, and concentrate on my own race. 

Even though he was literally talking about running, I took what he said to heart.  On my way to officership, I have been paying attention too much to other people, comparing myself to them.  Wondering why I am not as smart, eloquent, or well rounded.  I get it into my head that because I am not like so and so that means I will not be a good officer (I’ll have to explain one day what I mean when I say good officer).  Just because I am not like other people and don’t seem to have it all like they do, doesn’t mean that God won’t use me.  Actually it seems to me that if we look into scripture, God uses screw ups more often than not.  I need to stop comparing myself to everyone else, and concentrate on the race that lies before me.

As for the last post, thank you both for your comments, your thoughts mean a lot to me.  Secondly, I have been trying to get over it, and I am.  I did receive some encouragement tonight after choir practice.  My officer came to me and told me that she saw some really great leadership in me tonight.  Considering what she had said before, I appreciated it.  For me it just made me aware that she does see some good things in my ability and that encouraged me.

In totally unrelated news, I’ve been having some trouble lately with my limbs.  Actually that is not totally unrelated because to be accepted to CFOT I have to be in reasonable good health, and there is something concerning me a great deal right now. 

For the past month, I have been noticing that if I stand still for more than 10-15 minutes my right leg has been falling asleep.  Annoying but bearable.  Well today, the tingling started in the shower…not even 5 minutes into it, and it has also spread to my right arm.  I had a hard time leading the choir tonight because my arm was so tingly.  It still functions well and does not hurt at all, just really tingly, and now my hand is really red.  So I am considering calling the doctor tomorrow to see if I can get in to see him.  I hope it is something simple like a pinched nerve or something like that, that can be fixed.  I hope it is nothing big enough to slow down my application process for CFOT.

 

This is a test, this is only a test…..

If this were real adversity things would be much worse and you would not be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Ok Ok, I had to throw some humor into my day.  Perhaps I am the only one that remembers those commercials from the 80’s.  It was before the cold war ended, before the Berlin wall came down.  I didn’t really know much about these things so I looked it up, and you can read the information here.  It was on the American channels of course, but I remember watching TV and having shows interrupted with this annoying beep and some instructions about how instructions would follow in an actual emergency.

Well I am feeling very “tested” these days, if we want to go into church lingo.

Things don’t seem to be going very well.  It’s amazing how quickly things can change. 

I’ve been trying to learn to be a better person, I want to learn how to be a very good officer.  My officers have been pretty good at helping out with that too.  What has really blown me away this week though is some of the stuff my officer said to me this week in our meeting about my development.  I know that there are things I need to work on before I go into college, but some of the things she came up with were like, I don’t know, it’s like they are looking for things to say that I am doing wrong. 

I am a big girl, I do somewhat ok taking criticism (depending on the source).    Most of my friends will tell you that I am pretty upfront and honest and accepting of my weaknesses,  of course there is stuff that no one likes to hear and yeah my initial reaction is always to get mad, but usually after a couple of hours or days I can see the point in what someone has said.  Not in this case though.

Some of the stuff that was said was true, and I can handle it.  Some was so off base though, it has left me reeling.  I need to just build a bridge and get over it, but I am so mad…so mad.

That’s why I feel like I have been tested.  I need to act in a way that is professional and God-honoring, because if I don’t that shows to me that I can not handle the adversity that will come my way as an officer.  When I become an officer there is definitely going to be criticism, that is a lot of the time probably going to be just, but sometimes, it will be totally off-base.  How I react will be indicative of my relationship with God, and his love.  So yeah, even though it was way off base, and even though I am mad…this is a way to grow and learn, so that I can be a good officer when the time comes.

So here’s to building bridges.  Everyday is new, and provides new opportunities for growth.

A loss and some thoughts

Well my first week back at weight watchers was pretty darn good.  I lost 5.2lbs.  That makes me happy when the hard work I have done over the week pays off.  Apparently exercise really does help.

I also ordered my new glasses today, they are a very weak prescription, but I am hoping that they help with my headaches.   My eyes are 2 different strengths.  I never knew though that now, the lenses are more expensive than the frames.  I am not covered for eyeglasses either, so today’s purchase took quite a big bite out of my bank account.  Oh well what can you do.

A Nice Relaxing Saturday

I better not say that I am relaxing too loudly, some people might try to fill up the hours I have to myself with things to do.

I am not actually completely relaxing either, I am packing, getting ready to move back home in about a month.  I am playing rock band too.  I really love that game.

As far as the diet is concerned, I’m not doing too badly.  Thursday and Friday were tougher for me, I could not stop eating for some reason, but I did count everything, so I should still see a loss this week.  I’ll be really mad if I don’t. 

Other than that there is not a whole lot new in my life.  Well I better get back to packing.

I need to stick with it

This blog might be about dieting over the next while.  I find that I need to become obsessed with it in order to stick to it.  So for the next few days at least it will be my obsession. 

Today went pretty good, I had some dried fruit for breakfast about 2 points worth, and for lunch I had some 3 point soup.  For supper I cooked some pasta, about a cup and had some vegetarian sauce and added extra veggies to fill me up.  It was good.

I have my breakfast ready to go for tomorrow, and for lunch I will have the second half of today’s soup, then it is off to mom and dad’s for supper. 

I also got a bit of exercise today.  I insulted the favorite wrestler of one of the individuals that I support, so I got chased around the shop quite a bit.  I also jogged part of the way to the church tonight for my practice, which although it was not much..it was a start.

So one day down…gone pretty good I hope it continues.

Today I used 3 flex points.  Not too bad considering my normal appetite.

And I sigh again.

Well the diet is not working at all for me these days, so I have decided to go back to Weight Watchers.  Yeah for like the 5th time.  It’s crazy, I just can’t seem to get motivated and stay motivated.

I’m telling you this though….this is the last time I will be going to Weight Watchers.  If I can not stick it this time around I won’t.