Category Archives: Life

Day 1586 – An Overdue Update About Living With My Family

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It has been over a year since we moved in my family. You can read about the reasons why in Bret’s post from last year. I realized I totally passed the date when we moved in! It was roughly October 16th-ish of last year.

So how’s it going? Well, it is a full house, for sure. Our room is right under the family room and everyone hangs out in there. There are also two pianos, which are practiced often.

But, besides that, it has been a WONDERFUL experience:

– My brother Jon practices worship music on his guitar for hours. That is a nice thing to wake up to and hear throughout the day.
– We have no windows in our room, which means if I have a super late night of working, I can sleep MUCH easier than if we had windows.
– My sister Jo and brother Joseph make coffee every morning. It’s great waking up to a fresh pot of coffee!
– I have lots of conversations with my family about life…especially godly things. It’s so encouraging to be in a house of believers.
– I’m rarely lonely….except when I hide out in my office.
– I have an AWESOME setup for my office! Where I am is right in front of a white board that was previously used for a biology class, so it’s HUGE! I have my goals, calendar and lots of inspiring sayings up there.
– I’m close to the NCR trails! Bret and I just went for a run tonight!

Here’s a shot of my whole family from a really really really long time ago (over six years or so). I’m partly sharing this particular one so my family is like, WAHHHHHHH, why did you share that old picture? Motivation for a new family picture. 🙂 Bwahahahaha! And because it’s one of the last pictures where I’m not the shortest. I think only my 14 year old brother is shorter right now….

Common photographer problem though….actually photographing your OWN family!

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Day 1581 – What I’m Reading Today

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I recently got a rush of “I MUST READ ALL THE THINGS!” I don’t take advantage of the library nearly enough. One thing I’d like to get better at is sales. We have a GREAT product to sell. I mean, if you’ve worked with us, you know…..it’s magic, really. So, to get better, I’m learning. I’ve found some really great books so far.

Now, I can also get distracted, and scan a page a few times and not take it in. So, I came up with a solution. The Walking Dead.

If you’re into zombies (and don’t mind violence, and some other R rated stuff), the graphic novels are AMAZING. lol, but not for kids. Trust me.

What I started to do was keep a stack of books, read a chapter, or a few pages, put the book on the bottom and read the top. What motivates me to keep reading is knowing that the Walking Dead is only a few books away….you know, and the fact that when I apply the knowledge in the books, I’ll make cash. But, hey, instant gratification people. Give me the zombies.

And ok, I’m not going to lie. I had 7 issues to read. I finished them all. Guess I need another zombie graphic novel…or batman. Yea, everyone like batman…

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Day 1579 – Helping Friends, Multitasking And The Best Thing That Happened To Me Today

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One thing that was mentioned at the Wedding MBA was a book called Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. I got it and took the quiz to find my strengths. I was really surprised at the results! I found myself continually saying, “Yea! That’s me! I do that!” A big take away from what I learned was that I thrive when I interact with people. Whether I’m just giving advice, encouragement or just all around helping out. I didn’t realize how big of a deal this was until after I came home from working at the new K&B space yesterday. I spent a lot of time reading and getting really on fire for my business. All because I spent some time helping others. It’s important to know your strengths friends!

One of my other strengths was called Input…basically, I love collecting things…which would include information. Since yesterday, I have been inhaling information, specifically about sales. I’m LOVING IT!!! I was about to hop on the treadmill and was just dreading it. I’m doing a plan that helps you increase miles, but there’s a lot of intervals, it can take like 30 minutes just to do 2 miles. I’m all about just getting the workout done as quick as possible. So, I thought, ok, I’ll watch/listen to a sales video while I do it. I found a great video on selling cars….I know, I know, I sell memories via images…but there were a LOT of great tips that I can apply to my business. It was the fastest 30 minutes I’ve spent on the treadmill!

Disclaimer: I did not watch the video while running/walking, I had headphones in and just listened. 🙂

Lastly, and this is the BEST part, I ran up to the library to pick up a book I requested (sidenote: I wish I had used this ONLINE feature sooner. Back in the day I would drive to a ton of libraries. Ah, past Jennilyn, you silly head.) After I got a few more books, I stopped by 7-Eleven. Imagine my absolute DELIGHT when I saw that peppermint mocha’s are back! YES!!!!!

They don’t have the holiday coffee cozies yet, which is FINE by me, but that says peppermint mocha better than what’s on my mug right now. So enjoy this picture from last year!

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Day 1574 – If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again Five Years Later

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Five years ago in January, Bret had just returned from Iraq and we had grand plans of attending the Marine Corps Ball.

You can read about how that DID NOT happen in a previous post.

Tomorrow, we get to try again. Bret’s friend (and funny enough, one of the guys with us the night we met) got us tickets to a local Marine Corps Ball. I am SO excited!!! I bought a new dress, I have sparkly shoes and it’s going to be fantastic! The only downside is the 3 hour drive, but given we’ve driven across the country twice, we should be ok. 🙂

Here we are all dressed up after NOT making it to the ball in January ’08.

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