Sunday, March 26, 2017

And then we decided on Forever!

Hey everyone!! Here is the last of mine and Bradley's story!! Well, dating story anyways! 
I love every detail about our story...the significant, the seemingly less significant...but this part might be my absolute favorite!!

If you missed my other posts,
you can check out how we met HERE,
how we started talking HERE,
and pretty much the rest of our dating relationship HERE!

 And now, on to our engagement!

So, my family was in Virginia on vacation at this time. 
We all arrived at various times throughout the day on Friday.
Mom, Dad and I got up and left early Saturday morning, March 26th, for South Carolina, one year ago today!
We arrived at Bradley's house around noon. I knew that his sister was making this soup sometime that day, but I didn't really know anything else about the whole weekend. Like I said before, Bradley usually took care of that, and he didn't really tell me anything this time, and I didn't ask! 

So we were just sitting around talking and visiting. Looking back now, there are two things that in hindsight, should have told me something! One, mom had randomly asked me what I was going to wear that weekend, several times. And she never does that! Two, I realize now that Bradley was very, unusually quiet. But at the time I didn't notice at all. I was just thrilled to be there with him, and that was all that mattered!

After a while of all of us just sitting around taking, I noticed that he was suddenly really anxious or something, and was wondering why his sister and her family weren't up there yet! I thought it was kind of odd, because I didn't think we were operating on any kind of time-table, so who cares if they weren't there yet! They'll get there when they get there! But whatever! I didn't really think about it too much! Again....story of my life! I was totally oblivious!

So, a little while later, every one was there, and they were getting some of the food ready, and chatting, and things like that. Bradley and I were talking, and I wasn't paying a huge amount of attention to everyone else. During this time, he randomly says that he thought right now would be a good time to talk about the wedding date that we had previously discussed.
Again, I was like, well this is odd! I mean, right now? Some of these people just barely got in the door! I don't think I had even said hello to everyone! And he was like "yeah, I think we should." He seemed so serious about it, so I was just like okay, whatever! At that point, I realized that we were standing with our backs to everyone, and they were all suddenly sitting down and not talking at all! I had no clue what was going on, but I felt like possibly we were just about to make way too big of a deal about this date thing, and I was feeling awkward standing there. I knew he was going to do all the talking anyways (because that's the agreement we have...he's the spokesperson for our club), so I said that I was going to sit down while he did that.


He was like "oh. Ummm, okay," but then asked me to turn my chair a certain way. I never said anything, but in my mind, I was thinking "no problem, except that's sort of away from everyone, but whatever"!
Then he said it AGAIN! I was like, are you kidding me? Now I literally have my back to his sister, who was sitting beside me! I was just like "oh my word! He has lost his mind"!!


All of that ran through my head in a split second. At almost the exact same time, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him start to pull something out of his pocket! Before I knew it, he was already down on one knee! It just totally took my breath away, and I had no clue what to do! I was so happy, but I was shaking like crazy! My brain couldn't decide if I should laugh or cry or what!
Remarkably, I had enough presence of mind to say YES, so that was good, at least, right?!


It wasn't like it shocked me that he did it. I mean, we had been making wedding plans for like 2 months at that point, so I knew it was coming. I just had NO CLUE when! And I'm very much a live-in-the-moment type of person, so I honestly had never really thought about when/where he would do it!


Anyways, it was fabulous, though! I'm very much a home-body, so the fact that he just did it at his house, it was low-key, our families were there, (I had just gotten my nails done, lol!), the ring was gorgeous...everything was perfect!!







The Flowers he got me for that day as well!


Shane and Rina gave us the sweetest engagement present!




Easter Sunday together!

And that's that! From there, we went on to set a date, and plan a wedding!!

So the moral of the story? God is always in control!
And His way is by far, the best way!
And you just never know how He's going to work things out!
Since 2015, "Never say never" became my motto!!!


I hope you enjoyed our story! 
Next up? I'll be sharing our engagement pictures with you! 




Thursday, March 23, 2017

Younique Party Going On!

Image result for younique makeup symbol


Hey Everyone! 

My sister is hosting a Younique online makeup party right now. If any one is interested in placing an order, please help her out by clicking this link HERE. Select "Shop from this party now" and browse all of their amazing makeup, skin care, tools, and even tanning lotions! You purchase right from there, so no need to wait for someone to order it for you...you can order whenever you like! 
The party will end on March 30th, so hurry over!!! 

If anyone has any questions about products or how you can host a party, I would be happy to help in any way I can! Please email me at: karissajoy3@gmail.com



Monday, March 20, 2017

Cottage Cheese Jello Salad

Happy first day of Spring, everyone!!

We are a house divided when it comes to Spring (actually most seasons, to be honest) - I hate it, Bradley loves it.

That's why we're not gonna talk about it being the first day of Spring today...we're gonna talk about the things we do agree on...FOOD!!!!

Now,I know cottage cheese is also one of those touchy subjects...either people love it, or hate it, and I think there is quite a bit more haters than lovers!!!!

My dad has always loved it, and whereas it's not like my absolute favorite food on earth, I do like it.
However, after I met Bradley, I learned that people who like it, eat it differently.

All my life, it was a sweet side dish. My grandma had a bowl of cottage cheese at the majority of her Sunday dinners, and we either topped it with some strawberry jelly, or sprinkled some white sugar over it. Either way, I loved it! Later on, a friend at our church made this salad, and my dad and I fell in love with it!

All of Bradley's life, it was more of a condiment....for savory dishes only. Beside a pork chop or some chicken, on top of a salad, etc. Is that a southern thing? I had never heard of it before.

I try so hard to think "savory" when I think about cottage cheese now, but I just can't! 
I was SO close to trying it on a salad one day, but I just couldn't not bring myself to do it! It's like putting ketchup on ice cream! That's just not how it works in mind!!!

Thankfully, Bradley doesn't mind too much, and we have easily compromised here...I eat mine with sugar or jelly, and he eats his with whatever he wants! And it totally works!

AND, as a bonus, he ended up loving this salad as much as I do, so there is no compromising needed when it comes to this dish!
Although he thinks it would be best served on a cake (what?!?!?), we both agree that cottage cheese is perfect here!!!

...

This salad is perfect anytime of day, anytime of year!
It's super simple to whip together, and it makes a lot, which is great!

Creamy, slightly sweet, and the perfect side dish!
I hope you try it out!!!






24 oz. container Cottage Cheese

16 oz. container Whipped Topping
2 boxes of jello, any flavor 
1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple, do not drain



In a large bowl, mix together cottage cheese, jello and fruit. 

Fold in whipped topping, and gently mix until well combined.
Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Enjoy!!!!



Note:
-This can easily be made the day before you want it.
-Change this recipe up to suit your tastes! You can't taste the flavor of the jello, so decided which one you want by what color you want your salad to be! 
-We personally like using crushed pineapple, but a can of pineapple chunks works just as well!
-You could replace the pineapple with fruit cocktail, if you wanted!


Friday, March 17, 2017

"Love is just a word, until someone comes along and gives it meaning"


Okay, so here is the rest of the story from the time Bradley and I started talking, up until we got engaged.

To check out my post on how we met, click HERE.
To find out how we actually started talking, click HERE.

Now on to the story!

So, from March 10th on, we emailed back and forth at least once a day.
It was such an amazing time, just getting to know one another, on a less intimidating level.
Yes, we talked about serious things all the time. 
But there was no pressure to move faster than either of us felt ready.
Very few people in my life even knew I was talking to him, because I didn't want a lot of outside "voices" and "opinions" flooding my ears and mind. People mean very well, but this was such a new experience for me, and I was SO scared and SO excited, I just needed to be able to focus. I know that doesn't work for everyone, but that's just what I needed.

In June, Bradley ventured out and asked if he could call me. 
On the phone! 
Yikes!
He knew I was not a phone person, so that's why he didn't ask sooner, even though he was dying to!
This was one of many times, 
where I knew God was in control,
because I was actually pretty 
excited about talking to him!!
I'm serious, people, you could ask anyone in my family....there are only a few things in the world I hate more than talking on the phone! 
This was HUGE for me!
So on June 6th, I got my first phone call! 📱
And I received a phone call pretty much every, single day after that
(I can count on one hand, the number of days we didn't talk! And all those were usually my fault!)!!
At that time, it was just another wonderful level of getting to know each other, and definitely drawing our hearts closer together.

After people started find out that we were talking, lots of them asked throughout the entire time "are y'all serious?" "do you think he's the one?"
and all kinds of things like that. Honestly, I didn't know. I knew that on any given day during that time, I was doing what God wanted me to do for that day. I knew that it could be different the next day, so I didn't want to borrow from the future by thinking and dreaming.

I wasn't sure what God's ultimate plan was, and I didn't want to get in the way.
People say that long-distance relationships are hard, and they DEFINITELY are!! 
I would be the first to raise my hand about that!! 
But really, with God all things are possible, and I cannot even put into words all of the amazing, miraculous, wonderful things that God did in and through this relationship for me! For instance (although this is pretty minor and my mother may or may not readily admit to this), I feel fairly positive that she was very worried about my communication skills. She really had good reason, because honestly, I didn't have good communication skills....AT.ALL.
E-mailing and talking on the phone to Bradley seriously helped me!
I'm no where near where I should probably be, 
but I am SO much better than I was!
And this, again, was all of God!

I feel like because we had to communicate very clearly early on, that was a huge blessing for both of us, that we didn't even really understand at the beginning, but it's something we are SO thankful for now. When I say we talked about everything, I seriously mean that you probably wouldn't even want to imagine all the things we talked about! 
From super serious, to positively stupid, we probably covered it! And when that is coming through an e-mail, you have to really think hard about how to say pretty much everything, so that it is interpreted in the right manner. And you also have to be vulnerable enough and have enough courage and character to say "hey, I'm not sure I understood what you were saying here. Can you explain?". 
Talking on the phone was no different, although maybe a tad easier when you can hear the other persons tone of voice. But either way, communicating was huge for us, and we did a LOT of it! 
And we still do!

Anyway, for all of June and most of July, we e-mailed and talked on the phone every, single day!
It was awesome!!

In mid-July, he decided to really venture out and asked to come for a visit.
I was scared to death, and elated all at the same time! It was crazy!
I wanted him to come, but at the same time, I kept thinking "great, now he's gonna realize what I'm actually like, and he's going to hate it." But if he didn't like me for who I am, then that would be a problem! I wasn't going to change, just to make him happy, and end up giving him a false impression of who I really was. But what if he didn't like who I was?!!

During that summer, I was very much into running as much as I could. I just loved it, and it helped me relax and  de-stress.
I ran 3 miles, every day, the entire week leading up to his visit!
We had a lot going on that weekend: Kaleb's graduation party on Saturday, a family reunion on Sunday with lots of family coming in for that, and Katrina and I were leaving for Church Camp that Monday. So it was a whirlwind weekend, but turned out great!
He got to meet a lot of my extended family. I felt like I got to actually meet him for the first time, since I was oblivious to the entire world around me in January! 
Plus, his mom, one of his sisters, and his niece and nephew were with him, so it was nice meeting all of them as well!
They arrived on Thursday evening, and he came over to our house for just a few minutes, really. It was late, but neither of us wanted to wait until Friday!
We went on our first date Friday afternoon, which was quite an amazing feeling!
The whole weekend was just an amazing time, and so good for both of us!
I was still greatly proceeding with caution, at that point, but was catching myself feeling so comfortable around him.
From day one, he has always been so attentive and caring. And he always made sure that I was okay with every new step we took, and everything we did. He didn't want to put me in a situation that I felt awkward in.

They had to leave Sunday morning after church, and I had to hurry to our family reunion that afternoon and then head to camp the next day. I had no Internet or phone service from that Monday afternoon, until Friday afternoon, so that was a pretty long week for us!
Bradley says that Sunday afternoon, he realized that he was feeling more than "good"!
He says that's when he went from "liking" me to loving me. He didn't tell me that until much later on, but I just thought that was very sweet!


He tends to move faster on these things than I do! I remember thinking that I really did like him, and I had a great time. And I knew that I was doing what God wanted me to do that day. I didn't know what He had for me the next day or next week. And in the back of my mind, I was living in fear that it was all going to end one day.
Being forced not to talk or text or anything for about a week following our first visit together, was one of the best things for me. I needed to know for sure if I was just doing it because it was fun, and he was nice. Or because I had deeper feelings as well.
By the end of that week, I was SO ready to hear his voice again!!!😍

By now, it was August. We still talked and talked, every day! Which means our hearts grew closer and closer every day! And that's what I had prayed...if this was God's will, then I prayed that He would draw our hearts together like only He can. I knew my emotions and feelings were all over the place, and completely unreliable, but thankfully the Lord does not operate on feelings and emotions!

I had peace about it all, but I was struggling with myself over it, at the same time. 
Bradley is SO good at expressing how he feels. And I'm not. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to communicate to him how I felt, in a way that he would understand. Therefore, he would probably think I don't even care! But I did! I just didn't know how to say that! He could say lots of nice, sweet things that made me blush like no red beet you have ever seen! But I sometimes tend to think on the negative side of things, and I do live in fear about some things, so I was afraid he was just saying that to make me feel good, and to flatter me, whether he meant it or not.
So again, bringing up the fact that we talk about everything, we literally had that conversation one night! And you can say that this is dumb, I don't care, but it was important to us!
I still remember the way he said everything! In a very calm, matter-of-fact, yet sweetest way EVER, he basically told me exactly how he felt about us!
And that he loved me!
(That was September 2nd, in case anyone wanted to know)

(pardon me, I'm gonna have to take a break here, and let my keyboard dry out...I don't know what's going on, but it's filling up with water!😭😉)

Anyway, Bradley came up for another visit over Labor Day weekend.
I was still nervous, but nothing like the first time
(I think I only ran once or twice that week, so that should tell you something!)!!
Again, it was great! We didn't have really anything going on that weekend, so our families spent a lot of time together, and it was just awesome!

With work and life, we didn't get to see each other again until the end of November.
That was hard. It was 81 days between those two visits,
and I was still working through, and processing a lot of things.
During this time, though, I began to realized that I was falling in love with this man.
It didn't happen in a day for me, or in a week. It was softly over the course of months, until I finally admitted to myself that, yes, this is happening, Karissa, and it's good!
We became quite thankful for FaceTime during this time as well, and talked that way a few times.

Thanksgiving weekend finally came!! We went down to visit dad's family that weekend, which is only about an hour and a half from Bradley and his family. So we spent every single day together from Thursday evening, until Sunday evening! He was able to meet more of my family, I was able to meet his other sister and her husband, plus his grandparents.
It was a wonderful time, that naturally didn't last long enough!





But thankfully, we didn't have to wait that long, because he flew up here less than two weeks later, and we celebrated Christmas together! I'm sure you've guessed by now, but yes, it was fabulous!!
We had a great time, and moved up to another level of communication! After that visit, phones were old-school and FaceTime was the new way to go!! Every, single day!!
 



With very short notice, he was able to get off work again, was here for several days during the week of New Year's.
That used to be by far my least favorite holiday ever, normally, but that year was pretty amazing!!


   At that point, it was looking like the end of February would be our next time to be together.
So while he started the process of getting time off work, making all the plans and all that, I was quietly making my own plans! Kaleb went with me, and together we drove down to South Carolina one weekend in January. His family new I was coming, but he had no clue!! We were able to make it just in time, and I randomly walked into his work! It was great!! I'll never be able to pull it off again, because it was SO hard to keep that secret, but it was totally worth it!!




Around this time, we started talking more seriously about some serious things.
Life.
Houses.
Jobs.
Weddings.
Things like that.
Now, I am NOT a dreamer. Growing up, I never let myself day-dream and conjure up expectations about life, really! Relationships, marriage, weddings...anything like that, I just didn't think about it. And therefore NEVER talked about it!
But when Bradley slowly started talking about things like that, I oddly found myself very much okay with that. Which had never happened to me before in my life! Seriously, even me and my sisters never sat around talking about anything like that! That's just not how we are!!
So again, this might sound dumb, but that was just another way of God showing me that He was in control of this!
Bradley is very much into details. I could care less. I get lost in the details, so I generally stay with the basic facts, and that's it. 
Which has turned out to be AMAZING, I must say!! 
I always said that I didn't want to have this set-in-stone list or expectation of things I had "always dreamed of" because what if the guy I was marrying cared about all that kind of thing?
Turns out, I was right!!
So we talked about things. Some things in general...some things in detail!

He came back up again the weekend of my birthday in February.
We celebrated our first Valentine's Day together!
Are you ready for this?
It was.........Awesome!!!!!!




After that, Bradley and his family booked their week of vacation up here for the end of April/beginning of May. Which was GREAT, except that was 2 months away at that point!
My family's vacation, however, was the end of March, and since I already had those days off work, I thought it would be very frugal of me to use some of them for a trip down there! And plus, from our condo in Virginia, it was like a whole 2 hours closer to him, anyways! Of God, people, I'm telling ya'!!!😉
He did not want me to drive all that way a lone, and mom and dad weren't thrilled about that either, so they ended up taking that weekend out of their vacation time, and going down with me! I felt bad that they were doing that, but I guess not too bad, because it's not like I cancelled the trip out of guilt or anything!
It was Easter weekend, and I so excited to spend it with Bradley!!

Now, Bradley is pretty much the planner and detail-organizer of our small gang of two, and he didn't really tell me much about that weekend. I mean, he would say things about the weekend, and even some details, but not like we were going to do this, and go there, or anything like that. Which was totally fine with me, because neither of us felt the need to be constantly going somewhere, or doing something. 
However, earlier in March we had discussed a very possible wedding date. We decided that we would wait and tell our families when we were altogether over Easter weekend. 
That may seem insignificant, but it will make more sense later on!

So, that's our dating story!
Not out of Hallmark, but it's my favorite, anyways!!!

I hope you enjoyed it!
Please join me back here on March 26th for our engagement story!


Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Crock-Pot Lasagna

I had posted this recipe on my previous blog.
It went over pretty good, and it's a dish that I make quite frequently, because Bradley and I both love it, so I'm gonna share it again!!!!

Now, this is not a paid review or anything like that, but I just want to give a shout-out to this awesome crock-pot!
We got it as a wedding present, and I LOVE it!
Now, to be honest, this doesn't work for everything. 
It is not bigger than a regular crockpot, even though it gives that illusion.
It's about the size of a 9x13 pan....in length and depth.
So, some things just don't really work it.
For instance, I would not make a soup or anything "brothy" like that in it.
Or anything that needs to be stirred a lot, because it will probably splash out!

So far, my favorite things to make in it, are:
Crockpot Lava Cake, 
Slow-Cooker Fried Apples, 
Crockpot Mac n' Cheese, 
and this Lasagna.
(all of those other recipes will be coming soon, by the way!)

They make two different kinds from what I have found....
this is the digital one, and then there is a regular one where you can adjust the settings with a traditional knob.
I prefer the digital one for the simple fact that you can set the temp for whatever you want, set the time for however long you want, and when that is done, it switches to the "warm" setting. This keeps things warm, but prevents things from totally over-cooking.

Another thing I love about it, is that so far, nothing sticks in it.
Like all the things I mentioned above...nothing sticks or burns!
You can see in the picture below how clean the lasagna came out, and it's like that with everything!
I do spray it with cooking spray, each time I use it, and it's super easy to wipe clean when I'm done!

They are sold in several different places, but I think the most popular is at BedBath&Beyond.
You can click this link HERE to check them out. They are pretty expensive, but if you sign up for their emails, they send out 20% off coupons all the time.

So enough about this awesome crockpot! Let's get on to this awesome recipe!!!!!
I was very skeptical of a "crockpot" lasagna for a long time, but I finally gave in.
I'm so glad I did, because now, I honestly prefer it over a baked one!
It's super easy to put together, and the flavor is great!
I hope you give it a try!

(and just a note....it can easily be made in the traditional oval crockpots)



1 pound ground beef or turkey
36 oz. spaghetti sauce (about a jar and a half)
1 (16 oz) container cottage cheese
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1 & 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 box oven-ready Gluten-Free lasagna noodles, uncooked 
(or sub regular lasagna noodles, if you don't need it to be gluten-free)
2+ cups shredded cheese



Brown ground meat until no longer pink; drain well. 
Mix with spaghetti sauce; set aside.
Mix together cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, and Italian seasoning.
Line a crock-pot with a crock-pot liner or spray with cooking spray.
Spread 1/3 of the meat sauce mixture across the bottom of the crock-pot.
Break a few of the noodles into large pieces to cover the top of the sauce.
Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture over the noodles.
Sprinkle with a layer of mozzarella cheese.
Repeat layers with 1/3 of the meat sauce, noodles, remaining cottage cheese mixture, and mozzarella cheese. Top with a final layer of noodles, and the remaining meat sauce.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.
Or
Cover and cook on low for 2 & 1/2 to 3 hours. During the last half hour, sprinkle another thin layer of  cheese across the top. Cover and cook until noodles are tender when poked through with a fork, and cheese is melted and bubbly.
Serve!

Note:
-I used ground turkey in mine, and it worked great!
-I also used a Mexican blend cheese, which gave it more color, and the flavor was perfect!








Monday, March 13, 2017

Working Out (Part 2)

.... my winter body is good to go!:

Hey! Welcome back to the conclusion of my workout post from last week! 
If you missed it, you can click HERE to check it out! 


Today, I want to share with you the workouts that I have done, or am currently doing, and some tips on what I eat/drink before and after a workout. 


~~~


This is the Jillian Michael's workout that I have done in the past:


Jillian Michaels Fitness #2

The whole thing on on YouTube here:
Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones

Buy it on Amazon here

I really enjoyed this one. It is a total body workout, but divided up into sections. There are 7 sections, each one lasts approximately 5 minutes. You can do the entire workout, or just one section. The warm-up has a little cardio, but other than that, the entire rest of the workout is just very intense strength training. She uses 3 pound hand weights in this workout.

~~~

This is the Couch to 5K workout that I did for several years:
Image result for couch to 5k app

Couch to 5K Running Program

I really enjoyed this! You download the app on your phone or iPod, and it guides you through the entire thing. It's a 9 week program that is supposed to take you from not running at all, to running a full 5K (3.1 miles) in 30 minutes. I stretched it out a lot longer than that, because I wanted to build up endurance, and strength, rather than just doing it in a certain amount of time. It is not a free app, but it only costs a couple of dollars, and is so worth it! There are many different 5k apps that you can download. They are all a tad different from one another, but basically the same. And the point of having it, is it's just so nice to have that guide and also to be able to log your progress. 

~~~

Here are some of the workouts that I am currently able to do:
All of these are by Leslie Sansone's Walk-At Home.
There's a ton of them, but here are my current favorites and go-to's:

1 Mile Happy Walk

1 Mile Walk with Light Weights

2 Mile Walk with Light Weights 

5K With a Twist

She has so many different ones, and I know you can find them at Walmart and many stores. You can check out this link HERE to view many of them on Amazon. She uses 1-pound and 2-pound hand weights in some of her videos. I love to do her videos with weights, because she does very gently and controlled movements, which is so much safer on your joints.
These are not on an intermediate level, but I would say moderate. If you are a beginner, these are perfect to work up to! I like to switch it up, and not do the same workout 2 days in a row. This keeps your body from getting too used to something, and only working certain muscles. By switching it up all the time, you are constantly surprising and calling on new muscles to help you out, which in turn, helps you get better results. And it works good for me, because these workouts are not super intense for my body, so sometimes I feel like I'm not really even working out. By switching things up, and surprising my body every day, it has helped to tone muscles and give me a good workout feeling. All of Leslie's workouts have the same steps in them, but each workout is still different...some are faster than others, some are longer than others, and adding the weights is another layer of intensity and variety. For a super fast, yet effective workout, I will do the 1 mile happy walk. If I have a little more time, I love the added intensity of the 1 and 2 mile workouts with weights. And at least once or twice a week, I try to do the 5k workout. 

~~~


Now, as far as eating/drinking before and after a workout, there are so many do's and don't's out there, and some of them contradict themselves! 

Again, it's one of those things that you have to figure out what works for YOU. No matter what works or doesn't work for someone else. 



Before a workout, my 3 rules are: I am well hydrated, I have eaten a well balanced meal with plenty of protein, and I will not wait more than an hour to work out. 




For me, if I am hydrated, and have eaten a good meal, and don't wait too long after eating to workout, I know that my body can handle it, and I will mostly likely do fine.

I also keep water near-by while working out.



As far as post-workout:

If I have had a good, hard, more than 40 minute workout, I will sometimes drink a small glass of chocolate milk, or eat a banana after wards. I guess it's possible that my blood sugar is dropping too much after wards, so I can balance it back out with either of those things, and it won't make me feel sick.



However, lately I have been drinking a packet of Emergen-C after a workout. That has been probably the very best thing I have done so far. If I'm feeling slightly bad after working out, I can drink one of those, and will be totally, completely fine. If I feel good after working out, but sweat really, really good, I will drink one of them, and stay feeling good! They are cram-packed full of all kinds of vitamins, so they are healthy anyways, but they also have electrolytes, so I think that's why it makes me feel good when I drink one after working out....it just helps replace some of the good stuff, that I lost, without adding bad stuff back in as well, which is what things like Gatorade and other drinks will do. They work good in the moment, but are so full of sugar, that it's counter-acting anything good you are getting! 


So anyways, that was way longer than it probably needed to be! But I hear a lot of controversy about exercising and working out! And it's not a black and white thing. There is no definite right or wrong, across the board, for everyone. 

I just want to encourage you to do what YOU can do. That might be a super intense work out every day, or simply trying to drink more water, eat healthier, etc. It's all important, so keep on trying and find something that works for YOU!!

If you're looking for health inspiration, funny quotes, and great fitness tips, Get Healthy U is the place for you!:

Friday, March 10, 2017

The Significance of March 10th

So, on January 24th, I shared with you how Bradley and I met. 
You can check out that post by clicking on this link right HERE.

Today, is March 10th.
Another super special, amazing, milestone date for us, that I will never forget! 
And I want to tell you why!

This is how we actually started talking.

Love Story:

So, in my last post, I ended by saying that Bradley left our church to go home, and we left our church to go home. Which is all true, except there was a very important split-second that I left out. 

I remember getting into our vehicle.
Dad had gone back inside to show Bradley and his pastor a map, and a different way that they could go home. 
I was waiting outside with my mom.
Dad came out, and we get ready to pull out.
As a side note: for some very odd reason, I normally sat behind dad's seat.
For whatever reason, without thinking, I sat behind mom on this day.

Right as we are fixing to back up, "someone" comes dashing out the door of the church, and literally flies down the stairs!

Now, there are a good ten steps there, probably more.
And they were all covered in ice.
I'm not sure that this person hit more than 2 steps, yet he never even slipped or anything 
(thank goodness)!!!

He comes running over the icy ground, to our car.
On mom's side.
I figured he had a question about the directions dad had just given him.

Turns out, NO!
That wasn't it!

Mom rolled down her window, and he wasted no time in saying that he wanted to ask dad if it was okay to call me.

ME?????????????

WHATTTTTTTTTT???????????

I am SO, SO, SO, SO, SO glad that I was sitting behind mom.
Because he could not see me AT ALL.

Which was just the blessing of God, because I'm sure that I have never been that shocked, surprised, and embarrassed at the same time in my whole life!!

I don't even think my dad blinked or anything.
He just calmly, casually says,
"We'll pray about it."

Bradley says "okay, thank you."
Dad says "bye. have a safe trip."

Bradley walks back inside.
We drive off.

A weirder thing has yet to happen to me!
I found out much later on, that my mom and dad had somehow picked up on a few things here and there over the course of that day, and had wondered about him and I. I, however, must have been totally oblivious to the entire world around me, because I had NO clue.

Anyways, you're probably thinking that me and my parents had this grand talk on the way home?
Or maybe that evening?
The next day?

No, no, and no to all of the above!

Nothing.

My dad acted like nothing ever happened!

I didn't know what to think. 
It was all a blur to me, and I was still in shock!

Being my usual optimistic self, I naturally concluded in my mind that something so crazy and so random could not be happening to me.

And further more, it DEFINITELY could not be God's will, right?

Yes, He works in mysterious ways and all that...I knew.
But not in my life, thank you!

Over the next several weeks, I began to question my theory just a tad.
If I was right about "God's will," then why on earth could I not get this random person out of my mind!?
Why couldn't I pray without thinking about him?
And why did I even want to talk to him in the first place?

I'm not an out-going talker-type. Why was I struggling with this so bad?

♥:

So I spent a large portion of the month of February,
trying to figure out what God would want me to do.
I was perfectly content where I was, doing what I was doing.

Maybe even too content.

Could this really be God's will?

Now, a lot of people don't agree with this, and that's fine, because they don't have to live my life. 
But I wasn't 15 at the time. 
I wasn't out looking for a friend, just for the sake of having a friend. 
I had never had a "boyfriend" and I was totally fine with that, because a "boyfriend" for the sake of having a "boyfriend" was no where on my life's to-do list. 
A lot of people have come and gone in my life for various reasons, and I didn't want to make myself vulnerable enough to trust someone else, only to be hurt yet again.
I remember thinking all kinds of things, like....
What if this guy is a jerk wearing a suit?
Maybe he goes around to all kinds of churches and places and asks to talk to all kinds of girls.
I wonder how many he has broken up with?
Better yet, I bet his Pastor (who was with him at the time he was here) put him up to this!
Yep, that's it! It was just an off-the-wall, match-making-gone-bad thing. By now it's been weeks, and I'm sure he's already forgotten about me. Which is perfect, because I'll never see him or hear from him again, and therefore I won't have to make any decisions! 
God will have made it for me! 
WhooHoo!! 
Thank you, Lord!

At the same time, God seemed to be showing me so many verses, and every message I heard at church seemed to be just for me. All about waiting, being patient, trusting that God is in control, etc.

So that's what I tried to do.
I still thought about it...everyday.
But I stopped worrying about it.
If this was not of God, He would take care of it.
If this was of God, He would take care of it.


(As a side-note here, over the course of this time, my dad talked about Bradley to me a total of 1 time. ONE! After I finally cornered him about it!
But if you know my dad, then that probably doesn't surprise you!)

About 6 weeks after that fateful Sunday, mom and dad left for a business meeting in New York. The morning after they left, a "little birdie" (who will remain nameless for privacy purposes), tells me about a conversation they had overhead that morning, between mom and dad. Something about mom asking dad if he was going to tell a certain "her" that a certain "he" had called. 
Evidently the answer was no, because I knew nothing.
So that weekend passed, and mom & dad got home late Tuesday evening.
I had gotten dinner ready for them, and was cleaning things up, when Dad randomly comes up to me and says
"So, I got a phone call."
(which, incidently ruined my theory about Bradley forgetting about me!)


During the "one" conversation that we had about Bradley, I had mentioned to dad that if I did do anything, I would prefer to e-mail him. Talking on the phone to people I know terrifies me for some reason, much less people I don't know at all!

So dad tells me if I was fine with it, then Bradley wanted to e-mail me.

When he said that, I had this sense of peace that I don't know how to explain! I was nervous, because I didn't know what on earth I was going to say or what I was getting myself into, but at the same time, I was also completely, totally fine with it! I knew that, for that day, that is what God wanted me to do.

So on March 10, 2015, I received my first e-mail.

And I got an e-mail every single day after that, for months!

We talked about everything, and just simply got to know each other!
It was amazing and getting his e-mails were the highlight of my day!

(Another little side-note here to help you understand our e-mails:
I printed all of them out, and put them in a folder.
It was 60+ pages....printed front and back!!!)

So that's how it all began!
March 10th became the date we officially started dating...Bradley used to mail me a gift every month to celebrate one more month together!

I can't believe it has been two years ago today, since I received that first email!
It seems like so long ago, because so much has happened since then, but yet, it also just seems like yesterday!

I guess that just goes to show that miracles can happen when you reach out to someone!
It has to be done in the right way, and with good, unselfish intentions. But it really is amazing, how Bradley reached out to me, and it changed my world in a way I never, ever dreamed!


Stay tuned, because I will be sharing the rest of our 2015 dating story soon!