Love Unending

I Have this feeling that you need to be reminded of something:
YOU are NEVER alone.

During a conversation I was having with my Heavenly Father one day, I confessed my worried, troubled heart out to Him. And His response was so beautiful I had to write it down:

"Oh, and it shall be a battle. And it shall be difficult. Have you gone and forgotten about your Enemy? THE Enemy? MY enemy? He will oppose you, my dear one. But always remember that I am on your side. Not only am I by your side, grasping for your hand, but I am also in front of you clearing the way - leading. And I am behind you to give you a push when you're ready to give up. I am with you. I have rescued you. And I will NEVER let you go... It will all be worth it in the end. Jeremiah 29:11 is what I have said. Believe it, believe me."
God doesn't speak audibly. But without a doubt, I believe that He wants to speak to our hearts just as much as he wants us to pour our hearts out to Him. Prayer isn't just a one-way communication. You have to be ready to listen.
Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the thoughts I have toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you an expected end."

I came across this amazing song tonight. So I thought I'd share the lyrics.


"My love is over. It's underneath.
It's inside. It's in between.
The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.
The times that you question, 'Is this for real? '
The times you're broken.
The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me, and the times that you bend.
Well, My love is over, it's underneath.
It's inside, it's in between.
These times you're healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times that you feel like you're falling from grace.
The times you're hurting.
The times that you heal.
The times you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I'm there through your heartache.
I'm there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My power alone.
I don't care where you fall, where you have been.
I'll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends." -Tenth Avenue North 

To those who are in a battle that seems to never end, remember that God's love never ends.
To those who feel as if they're failing at life, remember that God's love is unfailing.
To those who are too far gone, God's love reaches there.
To those who want to give up, remember that God's love will never give up on you.
To those who don't feel good enough, always know that God love takes you exactly as you are.
To those who want to end it all, remember that God's love is unending.
To those who don't like religion, I have good news. This has nothing to do with religion. It's a personal relationship. Something you never have to work for. Simply just true Love.
And to those who have never know this Love... He's calling for you. What are you waiting for?
YOU are NEVER alone.

SnaggleTooth

HI GUYS! This is essentially me these days. 

Go Ahead, please press play to the video above. It'll ensure you get the full effect of the enchanting story I'm about to share with you. Now picture a zombie. Like the kind from the TV series, 'The Walking Dead.' It's a big zombie...in the form of my boyfriend, Mychal. And he's chasing me, limping on one leg and moaning. I'm taunting him, all the while playing the song 'I'm sexy and I know it' by LMFAO (video above) on my cellphone. 

I'm running from my zombie predator while doing a little dance and laughing. I turn around and to my astonishment see that the zombie has gone from a limp into a full-fledged sprint. I freak out, spaz out, have a heart attack. I can NOT handle being chased. It scares me to-freakin'-death. And in about .5 seconds, the zombie scooped me up by my waist, I collapsed while flailing my arms and smacked my front teeth as hard as I possibly could with my cell phone. 

And the results are clearly stated by the following pictures: 

I'm Sexy.
And I Know it.

I was able to get the damage repaired within 24 hours after the freak accident. Thank God. Because I looked ridiculous. Not to mention it was painful.
I went to the doctor the evening of the zombie attack to make sure I didn't have nerve damage.
"I know I look stupid, Doctor."
"It's really not that noticeable, Lindsay... ...from a mile away!!"
"Thanks..."
"You're welcome, Snaggletooth." And he laughed.
Good gosh, gotta love an encouraging doctor.  ;)

#NewTeeth

Within the past month I have also deeply cut two different fingers on my hand (one on a mushroom can and another on a stall door in the bathroom), gotten sick, and had an eye infection. So the first picture of Stimpy being all disgusting from 'Ren and Stimpy' is completely legit.

Now all I need to do is order a rubber case for my cell phone.
Then ALL my problems in life would be solved.

Morals of the story: 

1) Avoid Stupid Mistakes 

2) Phone covers are worth the money 

3) When being chased by a zombie, do NOT let him catch you

4) When you think you're sexy, something WILL happen to make sure that you're not 

5) The tooth fairy doesn't exist. (I cried about this one, too...) 

6) If you want to see what you look like with a mustache, use washable marker 

#Ryan Gosling

Why do I always post pictures of Ryan Gosling? 

I don't know. I think it's fine though. Are you fine with it? 'Cause he's fine.

Ending the Agony

No posts for two months? 

Wow. 

No posts for two frickin' months? 

Wow. 

No comment on all of that. I have no excuses. If I ever had followers, I've failed them miserably. I apologize that I'm not apologetic. I'm sorry I'm not sorry. 

This is my blog. Hence the reason I can choose to not post in two months and feel completely, entirely okay about it. 

But since I know you've been lying in bed every night, with tears in your eyes...thinking about me and my blog, I reluctantly decided to create a post. Just for you. Please, feel special. Because you aren't. 

#Liesss   

"Just gonna stand there and watch me buuuurn! Well that's alright because I like the way it hurts. Just gonna stand there and hear me cry. Well, that's alright because I love the way you lie." Well said Rihanna. 

Okay. I don't feel okay about it. In fact, I've missed you. Terribly. Pretty corny, slightly tacky. Pretty much. And for the record, forget what I said about you not being special. Because if you're reading this, you have to be special. 

Want to know what's been going on?! 

I thought so. 

How about...I'll tell you what I feel like telling you and leave the rest out? Mhm, exactly. 'Cause that's what I normally do anyways. 

I'm listening to some head-slammer music right now. Although I'm not slamming my head. Or slamming anything else for that matter. I'm using some headphones I bought at Walmart today. They're awful. Which is why I'm using the crap out of them before I take them back tomorrow. They had a guarantee to never fall out. Which is exactly why they fell out of my ears while I was running at the gym. They should have said, "Will not fall out of your ears if you sit on your butt and do nothing all day." But no, they also said they were created specifically for athletes. 

#Liesss

As you probably assumed from that, I'm still trying to go hard in the gym. And since I know for a fact that you care, I'll share with you my new maxes. Most recently, I hit 205lb twice on deads. And today I hit 95lb once on bench. Don't laugh at my bench. Because it's 30lbs more than I could do when I first started. And plus I was listening to a song that may or may not have said, "Let the bodies hit the floor." Pretty awesome if you ask me. But that's just me. On second thought, laugh at my bench max. Because maybe if I knew people were laughing at it then I'd work on it more. I would share my squat max too. But I don't max out on squats because my knee is a child sometimes. Oh, and I've also been really really, entirely good on my 'diet.' 

#Liesss

Oh. Yeah, about that. I'm trying, okay? It's hard sometimes. And sometimes I'm a failure. And food is so darn good! #shocker 

But I guess if you fail, it means you were actually trying in the first place. Not that I'm saying you should push yourself to the point of failure all the time...Because that doesn't work all the time. Like with education. Don't be a failure. It obviously means you weren't trying hard enough at all. I'm being a failure student right now actually. Because I have Nutrition homework to do. As always. When don't I have homework? Never. Right? Right. 

Speaking of education, I got accepted into Murray State University. Pretty exciting business! Half a  semester left of attending the community college (SIC..), and I'll have my associates! I'm pretty pumped about it. Mostly because I'm ready to be done at SIC. Ready to move on. The future is intimidating sometimes. But it's comforting to know that the same hands that cradle our entire galaxy are also the same hands that are hold my future. There's nothing to worry about. Really. 

Did you notice that I've used about 100 hashtags in this post. Remember that I hate hashtags? 'Cause I do. What's wrong with me? Kay. Maybe I've been slightly addicted to hashtags. Don't judge me. Don't you DARE judge me. #Iknowyourejudgingmerightnow 

I watched one of my favorite movies a few days ago. Ever have a movie that you think about all the time? A movie that haunts you for 3 weeks until you finally set aside a night to watch it? 

Yeah. Pride and Prejudice. Bam. 

What more can I say? It makes me laugh and it makes my heart feel like complete and total mush. Mmmm. It makes my eyes sparkle with tears. *twinkle* It makes me smile. 

Oh geez. Don't you love it? If you haven't watched it, go watch it. I'm serious. Go rent it and watch it. Especially if you're in the mood to have a mushy heart and sparkly eyes. I swear you won't be disappointed. And if you are, then it's your fault for being insensitive to all things wonderful on this planet. Like handsome men pouring their heart out in proper English. I literally just sighed as I typed that. Gosh. Call me pathetic. 

But read that quote. Now read it again. 

Okay, yeah. That's how I feel about you. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer. These past months of not blogging have been torment. I posted this with the single object of seeing you. I have fought against my better judgement and my family's expectations (we'll leave out the inferior birth). All these things I am willing to put aside and ask you to end my agony. Read my blog? 

And you did. Agony = Ended. 

I'm going to start blogging more regularly, okay? And maybe next time I'll actually talk about something profitable. Or maybe not.
And you might as well get used to the hashtags. 

WTFork?!

WTFork?!
I have absolutely no real reason for writing this. Or for the title. But you know me. That's just how I roll.
Let's talk about some random and essentially useless things that have been on my mind, shall we?
I think I'll use a list for this one. I like lists.

1) Facebook
I hate facebook sometimes, don't you?
It's just so distracting and annoying when you're trying to do something profitable in life. Like homework. Or folding laundry. Or cooking dinner. Or trying to do push-ups. Or anything else for that matter.
For instance, I'll check it while I'm doing homework. Then I feel the need to check it again like 5 minutes later and suddenly feel abandoned by the world when I have 0 new notifications and 0 new messages. And then about 10 minutes later I check it again. And then I get all excited by the one new notification that happens to be a game request, which I hate. So whoever keeps sending me game requests, stop. Just stop.
All together it's just a terrible, non-ending facebook cycle. That can really get to a person, ya know?
I'm really debating deleting my facebook...
Like that'll ever happen though.

2) Facial Hair 
I'm pretty upset that November is gone, honestly. I really love the whole no-shave November trend that goes on through that whole month. I don't personally participate. But I don't know, there's just something about men and facial hair that I dig. And now that November has left us and December has rolled around, every guy has got their smooth-baby-butt faces on now. It's just disappointing to me.
I'm not saying guys shouldn't shave. Because by all means, they should. Speaking of shaving, I desperately need to do that right about now. My razor is dull, too. And it keeps giving me terrible razor burn. So unattractive. Don't you hate that?
Seriously though, some guys out there really need to think about doing Don't-Shave December. I'd personally appreciate it.

3) Free Time 
Finals haven't even quite started and I'm already ready to be done with them. Seriously, serious. My life ends tomorrow. Which starts in about 40 minutes.
I'm really just so sick of school right now it's not even funny. So sick of it that I'm actually having problems finding the motivation to do it at all.

I just want to go outside and swing on our tire swing for hours on end with nothing to think about other than stupid stuff. No more A&P, no more Microbiology, no more school. Period. And I'd ponder on a couple deep, important questions. Like why the world is the way that it is? Or why do people do the crap that they do?
Speaking of which, I found this awesome little picture of a pipe-smoking rabbit that explains pretty much everything. I thought I'd share it with you...even though you may not appreciate it's humor as much as I did. Oh well. Guess you can be a loser like that if you feel like it.

 4) Coffee 
I'm so mad about coffee right now. Absolutely livid. So, I told you that I quit drinking it for a few days to see if it would help to clear my face up, right?

Oh coffee, how I miss you

Well, it did help. And I'm mad about it. I mean, sure, I'm glad my face isn't being quite as unbearable (even though it's still pretty bad). But I'm really upset that coffee would do that to me. I mean, I thought we had something good. Why would coffee betray me like that?!?!
Online, I found a pretty good article that explains why coffee can make acne worse. It's just an altogether depressing experience for me. And I've been falling asleep randomly because of my lack of caffeine. Like yesterday I fell asleep on the couch with my A&P book lying peacefully in my lap like a terrible, life-sucking pet.
 So now I can't have coffee. What's next?! I don't even want to know.
I will be having a cup ever now and then though. I love it too much not to.

 5) This T-Shirt
For some reason, I want this t-shirt. I laughed so hard when it seen it. I guess it could be the fact that the giraffe's neck is a straight line. Or the fact that my sense of humor is skewed in some way. But at any rate, anyone who's up to purchasing me a random gift should look into this. Not that I'm saying anyone should be purchasing me random gifts...but just in case.

6) Running Away
Yeah, so I've been thinking about running away. Don't tell my parents.
But in all seriousness, I've really been wanting to just get away for a while. I've been thinking about it a lot. Maybe I just want to get away from school for awhile. Or just get away from Southern IL for a while. I don't know. I just want to go to no particular place, for no good reason. So anyone who's game to get away from life and run away, hit me up. We can all go together. Although, that may spoil the point of leaving and getting away from everything if there's too many of us. That could get rather stressful for me. So I'm limiting the trip to two people. Maybe three. But only if the third person agrees not to talk the whole trip. So who's game?

A&P+Stench+Ham Melt

Hey guys. It feels like it's been forever since I've vented to you. You've been missing me haven't you?

A&P has about got the best of me these days. The extremely disproportional drawing to the right is the beginning of my sad attempt to memorize muscles. I was supposed to have them memorized a long, long time ago. And I tried, I really really tried.
Then I failed. And I've forgotten almost all of them. I have a Lab Final on Wednesday. I can't forget that crap!
So I had to take things to a new extreme: draw the muscles myself.
And it actually seems to be helping. So far.
It's just about the most time consuming thing I've ever done for school though. Which may or may not be worth it in the end.
So I've been sitting on my bedroom floor with a blanket wrapped around me for hours drawing muscles whilst listening to Taylor Swift and The Fray. If you're a Taylor Swift hater, shut your face. Frankly, her songs just make me feel better when I'm feeling sorry for myself. Plus she has great curly hair. What's not to like about that?

I'm about to take a chainsaw to my face. It's breaking out to no end. Really bad. I would have taken a picture of my face for you...
Oh wait, no I wouldn't have! Sorry I'm not sorry.
It just makes me want to rip my face off. Seriously. I don't understand it. It could be the over amounts of dark chocolate I eat. But it breaks out even when I don't eat chocolate.
I've been doing some research and decided to cut out coffee for a while to see if that has been having any negative effects on my face. At this point, no coffee is becoming a very negative experience. Especially with Finals right around the corner. I'm not even that stressed yet. I don't know. It crossed my mind to start taking my acne medication again...

No hair < Zitty face 

But it just so happens that I'd like to keep the hair that I have. So I decided against it for now.

Speaking of Finals, I thought I'd share this inspirational picture. Is that not the best looking photo you've seen all day? I'm legit thinking of hanging this on my mirror or something so I can look at it every morning up until finals are over. Just so I can have him stare and smile at me every morning to make me feel more confident.

mhm 

I smell bad. 

Not right now. Well, maybe I do and just don't realize it? Because that's been happening a lot these days. Hence why I've concluded that I'm just destined to smell bad. 

A few weeks ago my brother informed me after over a month of my wearing a certain perfume that it smelled like hand sanitizer. I like using hand sanitizer, but I don't want to smell like it all over my body. That's straight up weird. So I had to quit wearing my perfume. 

My Vibrams smell so bad that I had to wear astronaut shoes (tennis-shoes) to the gym tonight. I hated it. And working out without socks on is something I've grown quite fond of. My socks really were irking me tonight. They kept sliding down into my shoes. 

And I did it again. 

I shoved some tuna into my purse before I left the house yesterday so I could eat it for lunch at work. 

We have a full kitchen in the office...so I opened the cans of tuna there and drained them in the sink. I guess I could have drank the juice to avoid the smell? Okay. No. That's disgusting. Why did I even type that? Someone smack me for being dumb. 

So anyways, I sat in the back corner of the kitchen and quietly ate my tuna out of the can. Apparently it smelled up the whole back of the office. And EVERYONE complained about the nasty tuna smell. All of my coworkers hated me. Some of them were even talking about how they thought they could smell it on their clothes. They grounded me from my tuna. Can you believe that?! Blasphemy. 

I personally thought it was hilarious though. 

But I did end up having to disinfect the sink, wipe off anything that might have been 'juiced' by the tuna, spray the kitchen with smell-good, and take out the trash. 

How I feel 

And from all this, I have thus concluded that I might as well smell bad all the time. I think I'm just going to wear my hand sanitizer perfume, eat tuna constantly, and wear my Vibrams without washing them. All the time. Who needs friends anyways? Or a job for that matter... 

Man, that picture makes me miss watching Ren and Stimpy. I need to watch an episode tomorrow. Don't you think? I think I will. Because I literally haven't sat down and watched an episode of anything in months. I don't know how many months, but it's getting close to three. That's sad isn't it? 

Well ya'll, I guess I'm going to finish another muscle drawing. Coffeeless too, so I'll probably fall asleep on top of my books like I did last night. Fun stuff. Except last night I fell asleep on top of Shakespeare's Hamlet with my light on until 4am. I don't want to talk about that though. No one wants to sleep with Hamlet. It's a disturbing experience. And it made me dream about messy closets...not even kidding. 

I had to write a paper on that book, and every time I typed Hamlet, it came out Hamelt. And every time I typed Hamelt it made me want a Ham melt. I don't know what a Ham Melt is, but I was really hungry and it sounded freakin' good. I think a Ham Melt would consist of ham and cheese, right? Right.  

Coffee

I love coffee.
LOVE it.  If coffee were a man, I'd marry him. Not even kidding.
My favorite coffee is Starbucks coffee. I get the same thing every time I go. An Americano with heavy whipping cream.
Gosh, I'm such a coffee snob.
I've never been disappointed by my Starbucks Americanos though. It's so much better than McDonalds coffee.
I actually went Black Friday shopping just to get some undergarments and an Americano from Starbucks. The coffee is what really mattered though.
And I got three of them. One when we got to the mall on Friday, and one when we left the mall. And one again at the mall today. Yes, I went at the mall twice within three days. Is that alright with you? It was more than alright with me.
Made me so freakin' happy.
I didn't actually plan to go to the mall today, it just sort of happened to work out that way. Because I had to make an important item return.

I've had a really good weekend. Like, a really really good weekend. Didn't do anything in particular that made it that good. Except for the fact that I didn't do homework. And that was spectacular and stress-free.
So, I had a  spectacular, stressless weekend.
Homework = Stress
No homework = No stress

Basically, I've broke up with Stress. And now I'm going steady with coffee. Obviously.
Maybe I should do this until school lets out? Never do homework; Ever. And drink coffee instead; All the time.

Actually, that sounds like a really bad idea. I'm pretty sure I'd fail Finals. And I would never sleep, because coffee has a tendency to keep me awake like that.

We're putting up our Christmas tree/decor tonight. I just love the word decor, don't you? 

I actually listened to Christmas music in the car on the way to the mall today. GASP 

I'm not so sure what got into me. Normally I'm a total scrooge up until about 2 weeks before Christmas. No Christmas music except on decorating night (tonight). No wrapping gifts. No Christmas anything. Then like two weeks before Christmas, I turn into Crazy-jolly-Christmas-Lindsay. 

But since I actually enjoyed listening to Christmas music today, a whole month before Christmas, I think my life must have taken a change for the better this year. We'll see. 

Don't judge the quality of this post by it's length. Because it was overly necessary to have a post devoted entirely to my love for coffee. I'm sure you totally agree. 

I'll probably post again later. Pictures of our crazy Christmas decor night. 

20 Reasons To Be Grateful

If I've learned anything at all this year, it's exactly that. Someone else in this world is happy with much less than what I have. And yet most days I still find adequate time to be unhappy about something. It's useless. And that's why I love Thanksgiving. Because I'm forced to actually think about the good things instead of the bad. It realigns my perspective on things.  

Today was a really hard for our family. Really hard. I'm crying right now. 

My Papaw passed away four months ago yesterday. He was always the life of Thanksgiving day. Most Thanksgivings I would show up and hear nothing but laughter coming from the kitchen. Typically because Papaw would be telling/playing a joke on someone. 

Today, I showed up at Mamaw's house to find most of the family crying. We didn't have anyone stealing the rolls before it was time to eat. There was no one snoring on the couch after the meal. There wasn't any UNO games played after the meal. There was no one there to stabbingly tickle me in the rib cage after I was stuffed full of Turkey. He wasn't there. 

And my cousin is gone to the airforce. She wasn't there to tell me my pies were the best thing she'd eaten all year. She wasn't there to wrestle me on the living room floor. She wasn't there to lay on the couch and complain about how fat we'd made ourselves. She wasn't there. 

I know Thanksgiving is supposed to be a wonderfully happy time. And it was. It was just really hard. And I cried a lot. 

A lot has happened this year. And so I've made a list of 20 reasons I'm thankful this Thanksgiving. 

Oh, so you say you enjoy reading long list posts? And you enjoy lots of pictures? 

Kay. 

Brace yourselves for this one. 

1) Grace and Unconditional Love 

Without grace, I'd have no reason to live. I live through grace. Without grace I would have no hope. I'm simply nothing more than a mess of a person. But through God's unconditional love and never-ending grace, I've been saved from myself. I have an eternal hope. I have a reason to live. 

What kind of lover would lay His own life down for me? What does a grace look like that someone would continually,eternally accept me as who I am; mess-ups and all? 

I absolutely love the poem above. 

Replace the word 'Sun' with 'Son.' And that's what grace looks like. That what unconditional love looks like. That's who God is.

2) My Family 

Generic, I know. 

But it's so true. I have no idea where I'd be without them. My Dad, my Mom, and my three brothers. I'm so   proud of each of them, I love them more than anything, and I'm extremely grateful to have them in my life. I don't have a picture on the computer of the whole family together. But we do exist. 

And I'm also very thankful for my non biological family. You guys know who you are. 

Absolutely Adorable 

3) My Mamaw and Papaw 

My Mamaw is a gorgeous, amazing, and a very wise woman. I'm so blessed to still have her in my life and for all the time she has invested in me. 

And I'm overly grateful for the 18 years God gave me with my Papaw. Even though I miss him terribly, I'm extremely thankful for the time I got to spend with him here.  

4) My Old Friends, and my New Friends. 

Like they say, "Make new friends, keep the old. Those are silver, these are gold." 

It's funny, because my very best friends are all away from me. Living away, or gone away. But like they say, "Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them. But you know they're always there." 

Missions trip to Haiti.  June, 2012

5) Haiti
I can't describe how awesome it was that I finally got to go on a Missions trip this summer. I prayed for so long for that opportunity. And it changed my life forever. 

I will forever hold a special place in my heart for Haiti. 

6) My Health 

This time last year I was pretty sickly. And this year is a totally different story. I'm so thankful for the way I feel this year. 

7) My Education 

I know I complain about school and homework all the time. But in reality, I'm overly blessed to have the opportunity to go to college. There's so many people who would do anything just to get the chance to do what I complain about doing day in and day out. 

8) My Jobs 

I have nothing to not be thankful for about my jobs. My bosses are amazing and flexible with me and my school. And I work with great people. 

9) My Church 

There are so many places on this earth where people are killed just for meeting to worship God. I am overly grateful to have the freedom to go to church, to have a wonderful Pastor, and an awesome church family.

10) A Free Country 

Freedom don't come free. And I'm thankful for those who are fighting for me to be able to lay my head down on my pillow tonight and sleep in peace. 

11) My car 

It may not be the snazziest thing around. But I freakin' love my car. It takes me everywhere. And I'm so happy to have my new tires on there. It's just awesome. 

12) Dark Chocolate and Almond Butter 

Food guys. C'mon. What's not to be thankful for? I swear these two foods are what keeps me sane some days. 

13) Silly Times 

Why so serious? 

Actually, I'm pretty serious most of the time. So when I have a really silly time, it's indefinitely awesome. 

And very appreciated. 

14) Music 

I don't have as much time to play piano these days. 

But music pulls me through a typical day. I hum, I dance, I sing obnoxiously loud in the car. Music makes me happy. 

15) The Outdoors   

We live in the country, and I love it. I love the fact that I can walk for hours through a forest and not see a single soul or building anywhere. I love the fact that I can lay outside and stare at nothing but stars at night and hear nothing other than crickets and coyotes. There was a time when there was more than trees and fields in my front yard (like concrete and more concrete). Which is why I appreciate it so much. 

16) Tears 

Okay, this may be an odd thing to be thankful for. But I cry a lot. Not in public of course. 

But I cry when I'm really happy, I cry when I'm really sad, I cry when I'm overly stressed, I cry when I'm mad. Heck, I even cry when there's nothing to cry about. 

I definitely wonder how insane I'd be if I couldn't cry. 

17) My Dogs 

I mean, how could a person NOT love those faces? 

Buster, my running buddy

Dice, my Baby 

18) A Place to Call Home 

There are so many homeless people on this earth. Just to have a roof over my head is something to be grateful for.

19) The Gym

Should have expected this one. 

Without the gym, I may go crazy. I don't get home in enough time to run outside. And I'm NOT waking up at five in the morning just to run. And weight lifting is sort of impossible without the gym. I love the gym! 

20) Rest 

Life is insane. School is crazy. Some days, nothing goes right. People are annoying. I'm annoying. Things are overwhelming. And it's on those hard days, when I appreciate rest. 

This Thanksgiving I'm really appreciating rest. I'm loving not having to do homework like a freak for two whole days. It feels good to just sit back and rest.  

21) You 

Yeah, you. Thanks for reading my blog =)  

And with 20 minutes to spare, Happy Thanksgiving! 

Good Life

It's almost Thanksgiving guys!
I absolutely love Thanksgiving.
It's the Best. Holiday. Ever. You just sit around and think happy, thankful thoughts whilst eating butt-loads of your favorite foods with your family and friends. Don't even have to stress about gifts. It can NOT get much better than that, folks.
I didn't have school today, which was dreadfully wonderful.
AND, while I was at work I got new tires put on my car.
I honestly felt like I was driving a new car when I picked it up. Definitely the best. I might have driven faster than I should have to test drive them. But it was for a good cause, I swear.

I went to the gym after work. Surprise there, right?
But, I came home and made one of THE best protein shakes I have ever made. No joke.
Have I ever told you that I'm sort of Lactose intolerant? I can not drink milk. It makes me puke. And I don't eat cheese very often because it makes my stomach upset. But I CAN eat some low/non-fat yogurt. And I use heavy whipping cream in my coffee. Otherwise, dairy and I don't mix very well.
I can eat icecream too...but that hasn't happened since July.

Here's my formula for my favorite protein shake:

-2 Scoops Chocolate protein powder
-1 heaping TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
-6 big icecubes
-1/3 cup Plain, non-fat Greek Chobani Yogurt 
-1/3 cup coconut milk (Because regular milk hates my stomach)
-1/4 cup water

Throw it all in a blender. And BAM. You've got yourself the best protein shake ever. In my biased opinion, of course. My opinion is the only one that matters after all. No one cares what you think. Or how you feel about my protein shake.
I'm kidding, gosh.

After I drank the best protein shake ever, I spent the rest of my evening in the kitchen. BAKING. I haven't got to bake in like 3 weeks. Talk about deprivation. I was thrilled by the experience. Thrillleeddd. I didn't even have homework to do.
And I got to taste everything I made! FTW!!

Pumpkin Pie

I'm eating again, right now. Cold ham. Why am I eating ham at 11:30 at night? Dang, I'm weird. I've been eating something on and off all day. I'm gonna use Thanksgiving Eve as an excuse, okay?

So, I thought that tasting everything I made would be a really good idea. But it wasn't. I mean, I love the fact that my body has this awesome 'sugar alarm' system goin' for me these days. But I don't want it to go into freak attack mode every time I take a taste of something sugary. It's stupid.
My stomach cramped up and spazzed out on me. And it's not like I ate slices of each pie. I just tasted the ingredients while I was making them.

Paleo Pumpkin Pie Bars

My body and I have a love/hate relationship. Mostly love. But we have our days of disagreements.
I made three desserts.
1) Juli's Paleo Pumpkin Pie Bars
2) A regular (As in, not healthy) Pumpkin Pie
3) And a chocolate cookies and cream jello icebox pie. Does that sound healthy to you? Good, because it's not.
I only took a picture of the pumpkin items because the chocolate cookies&cream pie looks like crap. I'm sure it'll taste amazing. It just wasn't being photogenic, and I didn't feel like cutting it just for a picture.

A&P hates me

I haven't had time to post lately. Sunday I had church, then spent the afternoon volunteering to serve a Thanksgiving meal for some elderly citizens. Now THAT was a grand time. I love elderly people. Me and my table laughed and joked around the whole time. And I sat down and ate with them afterwards. They even offered to tip me for my waitress services to them. I denied the money. So instead they gave me tips such as, "Don't invest in the titanic."
The rest of Sunday was spend studying.
Monday night I had an Anatomy and Physiology Exam. And Tuesday night I had a Microbiology exam. I documented of one of my most unhappy times studying for A&P just for you. Please tell me you pity me.
Look at that face.


In case you were wondering, I went to therapy for my knee on Tuesday. She told me I have a pulled/strained ligament in my knee due to inadequate stretching before doing dead lifts, squats, and other heavy lifting.
That's awesome. Stretch Lindsay, stretch.
I bought a yoga video tonight. My therapist is from India and she said doing yoga once or twice a week would be really beneficial. So I listened to her. She's from India; she knows what's up. I actually enjoy yoga though, so now I just need to force myself into making it part of my routine.
I plan to do it tomorrow morning before I indulge in a huge meal.

My therapist also told me in response to my telling her that school is stressful, "School is not stressful. You don't know real life stress. When you have to raise and family and pay bills, then that's stress. School is a fun time in life."
Maybe she should have been a psychologist instead of a physical therapist?
Actually, she kind of made me mad. I thought, So this lady thinks she can tell me I'm not allowed to be stressed about school? 
And then while I was studying and stressing out like a freak in the school library about an hour before my Microbiology test, I really thought hard about what she had said.
And I realized she was SO right.
I left all my crap in the library, I walked out to my car and I just sat there and prayed. I was blunt with God, and told him I was going to do crappy on the test unless He'd help me. And I felt  total peace.
I was about to starve, so I grabbed a jar of almond butter that I bought for my recipes today, and ate some with a fork.
Please don't ask why I had a fork in my car....
I got almond butter on my shirt. So I put on a sweater, finished studying, and actually felt confident about my test when it was all said and done.
Not stressful. Not exactly FUN. But when are tests fun?


Tomorrow I'll be posting a list of some things I'm most thankful for this year. Just a heads up.