Baptism.

I gave my life to Christ in the ninth grade. Four years later the summer before leaving home for university I was baptized  It was something I had put off for years, knowing it was what God wanted for me, but too afraid to make the public declaration of my faith. It hit me that summer however, that if I was not able to stand up inform of my church family and say that I loved God that I would never stand a chance standing up for what I believe in at university. So I took the plunge (literally) and was baptized.

Date Night. {Terri Clark}

Last Wednesday the husband and I went on a wonderful date night. For Valentines day he had gotten me tickets to the Terri Clark concert in town playing at the Capital Theater. It was wonderful.

Date Night. (I wish I remembered my real camera)

The Capital Theater in town is one of those places that makes everything wonderful. It is a restored historic theater in downtown. The place is beautiful to look at and is so small that there is not a bad seat in the house. I have seen a few things there such as Romeo and Juliet ballet and a high school production of The Phantom of the Opera.

Bloglovin.

So I hear that Google Reader is going to no longer exist come July 1st of this year. Before I heard the news of this I had never actually heard of Google Reader. I am reletively new at the whole blogging thing and I actually do not know if what I am using is classified under Google Reader. I just add blogs on my Blogger home page and they are updated there. So is that Google Reader? Who knows.

What I do know is that I do not want to lose my current blog list. I have fallen in love with some of the blogs I read on continuous basis and I would honestly be upset if I lost them. Therefore I signed up for what I have continuously been hearing about 'Bloglovin'. I still have no idea what it is, or how it works or anything. But I am trying it out. So head over there and follow my blog I guess. If you want. That would be kind of cool.

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7157527/?claim=tapeepxmz3p">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I Want Passion. {Envious of TV characters}

Okay, so as of late I have been struggling with being envious of the most random of people. Mainly fictional characters which really does not make a whole lot of sense. Especially because it is not in the normal ways. Like their life is so glamorous  they have so much money and everything comes easy to them. No in the way that these people seem to have dreams and goals and passion. I do not remember the last time I was passionate and truly loved to do something that I could then in turn make a career out of it or at least fall on my face trying.

Dawson from Dawson's Creek for one. He knew from age 11 that all he wanted to do in life was make movie. Yes he at times questioned it, and was not always the best, but he knew what he wanted to do. Granted I am only on like season 3 so I don't know if he eventually gives up on it and decides to do something else, but at least he has a goal. Or Jenny from Gossip Girl for example. She has a passion for fashion and does everything she can to make it happen (yes I did just say 'Passion for Fashion' and loved every minute of it).

I am jealous and I want that passion. I want there to be something that I love, absolutely love to do and to be able to make that a career. I like nature and the environment, but so far I have not been successful in making that a career. I am also not sure if my love and passion for that is actually love and passion or I just figured I had summer jobs in it, I liked that the work was different every day and therefore I figured 'lets do this'.

So because of my lack of drive or passion, I am now making it my goal to figure out what the heck I am supposed to do. I am going to try and become more passionate about something significant, not just taking my tv watching very seriously. Any suggestions on how to make that at all possible are greatly accepted.

A Thank You Goes a Long Way.

Maybe it is just me and my fear of not being accepted or upsetting people, but I believe that a thank you goes a long ways. I believe thank you cards are essential in a number of situations and one should always be thanked for even the littlest of things. I am not saying that if someone holds the door open for you that you need to send them a hand written thank you note. No, those can be kept for special occasions such as showers and weddings, but the words 'thank you' are often more than enough.

Source.

Barefoot Running Shoes.

So I started running and then started boot camp (which I LOVE, more on that soon). I needed new running shoes and so I started looking around before boot camp had started. I wanted a running shoe first and foremost as I was going to be running after the 8 weeks of boot camp was over, however I still wanted a shoe that would work for boot camp.

When picking out shoes I find it very difficult to find a pair of shoes that are actually comfortable. I spent the majority of my basketball playing days with what I termed 'perma-blisters'. In other words the backs of my heals were always bloody and in pain. I tried different shoes, different socks etc and no matter what I always had blisters. I find everything can give my feet blisters and they really are big babies no matter what kind of footwear I have on.

Carrot Cake.

This is mine and my husbands new favourite cake. Both times I have made it, it was delicious and the end result was great. The original recipe can be found here. I love that blog for great cake ideas, there are a number I have saved that I cannot wait to test out. I did however make some small changes because obviously the sugar spun nest on the top was a bit over the top for me. Also, the original recipe calls for WAY too much icing and I love icing so that is saying something. So if you want a wonderful carrot cake recipe here it is, also the lemon-scented cream cheese icing is to die for. At first I thought the combination was a little weird, until I took the first bite and fell in love. Try it out. Click 'read more' below to find my recipe.

It tastes better than it looks. I needed a little more icing to make it beautiful.

Spring Clean Closet Style.

Number two on my list of 10 things to do this spring (can be seen here) has been complete! I had a friend over, I tried on clothes, I sorted and organized and folded, we debated and in the end, the night was a success. I managed to purge about two garbage bags full of clothes that I  either do not wear, are worn out and have seen better days or that are simply no longer my style.

The end result of clothes to get rid of, plus another bag in the storage room.

March Books.

So at first I was thinking of waiting until the end of the year and doing one huge blog post about the books that I read. Then I started thinking, do I really want to try and remember everything I read come December and write the worlds longest, potentially the most boring blog post ever? NO. Therefore I am breaking it down by month, which will result in about 4 short book reviews type things.

So here is March. 

eReader LOVE.

While working at the library over the past six months I have fallen in love with something that I previously thought to be silly. I have fallen head over heals in love with eReaders. I think they are genius.  They are so light weight and can fit so nicely in a purse, the battery lasts forever, there are thousands of free books and are super easy to use and  read.

A big selling feature for me is  the easiness of reading them. I hate to read on screens be it the computer or my phone. My phone is too small and I cannot concentrate or follow my spot on a computer. In university I actually used to have to print off all of my notes and journals in order to actually read them. Lets just say that wasted a ton of paper and ink.

I spent about a week researching which version of an ereader I wanted. I knew I did not want the kindle as it is not compatible with Ontario libraries (and I intended to pay for as few books as possible), the Kobo Vox/Arc were not options as they are more so tablets (which is like reading on a computer) in my opinion and I liked the idea of the paper write. So that left the sony ereader and the other Kobos (glo, mini and original).

I knew the sony ereader was out because I feel like it is over priced, not as easy to use with the library system (although it can be done directly on the ereader using wifi which is nice) and it was hard to use when hooked up to the computer. I knew these things not through research however, simply with using them enough to know.

So for me that left the Kobo, Kobo Mini and Kobo Glo. I was leaning towards the mini or the glow. I loved the mini because of the size and I totally planned on carrying it around in my purse all the time, but I loved the glo because of the back-light when needed. I could not make up my mind and thankfully did not have to. I came home from work about a week ago and found a gift wrapped from my husband (have I mentioned that my greatest love language is gifts? Was I ever excited.). I had guessed it was a TV series as I love my TV series and was completely blown away with my new hot pink Kobo Glo.

I love it. I love to read it at night, I love how light weight it is, and how easy it is to use. I love everything about it and am still slightly blown away that out of the blue my husband would go and get it for me. He said it was because he had enough of me debating out loud to him which one to get and if I should or should not get one etc. So I now carry it everywhere I go with the hopes that I have five minutes to read. So if you read, I highly recommend and ereader. I love mine.

Boot Camp Beginnings.

Yesterday night I started boot camp and to say the least I am hurting. Yesterday afternoon I was a basket full of worry and was making myself sick thinking of everything that could go wrong. I worried over weather I would be dressed right, or if it would be obvious just how out of shape I am.

In the end I am glad I went. I am glad that I showed up and gave it a try. I loved it. I cannot wait to go back on Wednesday. Granted it was the longest hour of my life and I can currently hardly walk or sit. I love the way it made me feel. I have never been one for individual sports or things like that so I am used to my failures affecting others, therefore a heightened competitiveness in a sense and a fear of failure. This was completely different. Each activity was designed almost so you could not tell how the person beside you was doing, you just knew how you yourself were handling it.

My goal for the night became clear very early into the evening, 'Do Not Pass Out'. I focused on pushing myself as hard as possible and simply to not pass out. My body has an ability to go into auto pilot if I concentrate hard enough and with that piece of wood over my head jumping I just tried my hardest not to pass out and could care less what I looked like. The people their were encouraging and helpful and I honestly enjoyed it. The activities that were terrible did not last very long, so it was possible to push through that minute of terrible because it would soon be over.

Last night I pushed myself harder than I have in ages and it felt great. I am enjoying the pain today because I know in a few weeks it will not hurt as much and in a few more weeks I am hoping the results will be noticeable and that it will all be worth it.