gussying up fall finale

ladies aaannndd, well, ladies ;)

quickie review on my quickie week 7 goals:

• work on city girl's guest blog post - holla yeah!! and i loved every second of it. if you missed it you can read it here.
  

• focus on schooling - keeping up with assignments - yes but barely. when there is only 6 months of schooling there is a LOT to do in a short amount of time, which i'm sure you could imagine. which leads me into...
  

photo credit ici

i hate to say this, but i am gonna put my swim suit away for the season. this past week has felt as though i've been drowning. i do plan on coming back when the weather is warmer (aka when school and life in general has calmed down). i will miss you all terribly but if given a chance will definitely be checking in on my swim team and cheering you on from time to time. this has been such a fantastic lap while it lasted and no worries, i will definitely be back!

much love & hugs to all of my swim team!!

gussying up week 6

"what keeps a dock floating above water?" pier pressure

lame, yes, but do i care, no!! :)

ya know, with all of this swimming that i'm doing, i should be loosing some mondo weight but alas, i am not. haha let's revisit week 6 goals and outcomes:

week 6 goals:

• try to forget about (yeah right!! ok minimize) the impact of my recent storm. yes, it is still rearing it's ugly head. i refuse to let it interfere with my fantabulous weekend!! i gotta say, i did pretty well at this one and i was surprised at myself and happy that i was able to do it so easily. there have been moments but overall things are looking a little better. thank you all for your kind words. hugs!!
  

• work on a guest blog post that i have been asked to write (this made me incredibly happy!!) oh yes! i have done this and have been asked to do another guest post by miss city girl!! holla i'm so excited and honored to be guest posting :D
  

• find some cute sailor terms so that i can use them in my posts to come :) and/or lame ones, um yes, i have that covered ;)

reward - went to a weekend retreat, went to the local wine & jazz festival, and indulged in a vinyasa yoga class tuesday.

week 7 goals:

• work on city girl's guest blog post

• focus on schooling - keeping up with assignments

i'm keeping my goals short, short this week for obvious reasons - i start class tuesday!! :D

photo credit ici

gussying up week 5

week 5 - already!! my how times flies when you are swimming along. :) i am checking in early as i'll be away all weekend sans computer. hooray for disconnecting!

week 5 goals and outcome recap:

• i am going through a bit of processing some negativity out of my life at the moment so morning pages/journaling is key here. i thought about posting on the locker room but haven't committed. i'm still torn. um, yeah, my negativity hit me head on so hard that i in fact couldn't write at all. i am going to put up a locker post about this later next week after i sort through some details. i'm afraid it's going to be a terribly long post so my apologies ahead of time.
  

• since the tea trading fun is almost here, i plan on sending everyone who joined snail mail thank yous. now here is one thing i did and can be proud of! i got all of the snail mail thank yous mailed this morning in fact!
  

• seriously getting back into a regular reiki practice (and i mean it this time!!) again, boo for melita. have you all ever heard of a psychic vampire before? neither had i until my nerdy boyfriend pointed this one out to me. i will go into details about this in the locker room post but this is exactly why i've been a wreck recently and why i didn't do my reiki practice.
  

image credit here. it's called "freeing myself" - i thought it to be well fitting!

recently the waters have been very choppy for me. i have sent some of you emails regarding the situation but some of you are still unaware. don't worry, you will learn about this after my locker room post.

week 6 goals:

• try to forget about (yeah right!! ok minimize) the impact of my recent storm. yes, it is still rearing it's ugly head. i refuse to let it interfere with my fantabulous weekend!!

• work on a guest blog post that i have been asked to write (this made me incredibly happy!!)

• find some cute sailor terms so that i can use them in my posts to come :)

you all have a lovely weekend! i hope that all get your goals met in this week to come. i will let you know when i have posted my locker room post. it will take me a while to formulate it.

gussying up week 4

hello lovely swimmers!

week 4 was good for me. i got a lot accomplished and got a lot of rewards along the way :) cue the recap...
-did paperwork for my massage therapy program - check!
-doctors appointment - check!
-regular blogging - check!
-morning pages - check!
-regular reiki practice - fail!
-read massage therapy text - check!
fun stuff:
-seeing wheeling symphony orchestra - check!
-thai massage - chiggity check!
-celebrate 4 years with ryan - chiggity check!

rainbow over the hills of morgantown. photo by moi

week 5 goals:

it feels like my goals are the same week after week. so this week i'm gonna cut them a little short:

• i am going through a bit of processing some negativity out of my life at the moment so morning pages/journaling is key here. i thought about posting on the locker room but haven't committed. i'm still torn.

• since the tea trading fun is almost here, i plan on sending everyone who joined snail mail thank yous.
  

• seriously getting back into a regular reiki practice (and i mean it this time!!)

gussying up week 3

happy labor day weekend to you all. i am writing this from charleston, west virgina having fun on a mini vacation with family and friends.

one of my favorite streets in charleston. photo by moi

recap and outcome of week 3 goals:
- continue 3 posts on gussying up the tuttle & 1 post for my morgantown musings - yes, i actually got 8 posts on gussying up the tuttle and 5 posts on my morgantown musings with 2 morgantown photo ops.
- spend some time collecting my thoughts regarding my future as a massage therapist (start a notebook/file with thoughts and ideas) - yes, i wrote about this experience here
- morning pages if necessary - yes, i did get in some morning pages but not everyday.
- practice reiki on myself everyday and journaling about my experiences - mostly, i didn't do it everyday since i've been visiting with family and friends.

my reward: i bought a couple of massage magazines.

week 4:
i actually have more rewards set out this week than goals. i plan on seeing the wheeling symphony orchestra at the local amphitheater monday. i'm getting a thai massage on thursday. ryan and i celebrate our 4 year anniversary on friday.

i do have to stop by the morgantown beauty college to do some paperwork and a doctors appointment so it's not going to be all fun and games.

i plan on keeping up with my regular blogging, morning pages and getting back into a regular reiki practice. i also plan on continuing to reading through my massage therapy textbook to prep me for my classes.

i hope you all have a fantastic week. hugs!!

gussying up week 2

i hope you all had a glorious weekend as i did. i'm writing this on sunday due to saturday being a very energy filled day. i took a reiki 1 class from 10 - 4. it was information packed and intense 6 hour course. there were just two of us taking the class. although the class was small, in all honesty, it couldn't have worked out more perfectly as far as i'm concerned. i have had energy work done before by the instructor and had some amazing results. i instantly clicked with the lady that was taking the class with me. it's as if i already knew her although i've never seen her before. i don't know if you believe in synchronicity at all or not but yesterday made me think a little more about it.

while we were sitting on yoga blankets in the floor in sukhasana i happened to look over at my fellow class mate and she had on the exact pendant that i wanted to get at our local bead store. it was a gorgeous tibetan pendant with turquoise around a tibetan symbol. later on i asked her, 'did you get that at the beadmonster?' and she was like 'yeah, how did you know?' and i was like 'cause i had my eye on it and was going to buy it but didn't have the money that day and when i went back to get it, it was gone.' we shared a laugh over it and she told me we could share it. :) i told her that it was where it rightfully belonged but that i was a bit jealous. we again laughed and laughed. it seemed to make our connection grow even stronger.

to finish up our session we got to practice reiki on each other. it was extremely powerful. it was a great experience and definitely left me curious for more. one day i hope to make it to reiki master.

i came home starving after my reiki class. i heated up some vegetarian chili that ryan had made the night before and ate that while telling him high points about the class and about meeting my fellow class mate. all of the energy i had expended earlier in the day left me longing for a nap and with my belly full of chili, that is exactly what i did. i spent the rest of the evening sharing an ice cream and book store browsing with ryan. after our running around we came home and shared the couch reading our new purchased material (him - 'the serpent and the rainbow: a harvard scientist's astonishing journey into the secret societies of haitian voodoo, zombis, and magic' by wade davis and me - the september of real simple magazine).

tree at cooper's rock - photo by moi

recap & outcome of week 2 goals:
- continue with 3 posts on gussying up the tuttle and 1 post for my morgantown musings - YES
- learn the bones of the body (in prep for getting ready to start massage therapy school in just a little over a month) this was a goal i set for myself for august. here it is the last week of august so i must get on this! - actually no. i know most of the major bones of the body but don't know them all. i spoke with a mentor about where i should start to help prep for my classes at the end of september and she recommended that i start with a massage therapy book that i have.
- continue morning pages if i feel that the quality of writing is good enough - i am afraid that i didn't do a single morning page but i don't feel a bit guilty for it either.

my reward (even though i didn't fully deserve it): real simple magazine.

week 3 goals:
- continue 3 posts on gussying up the tuttle & 1 post for my morgantown musings
- spend some time collecting my thoughts regarding my future as a massage therapist (start a notebook/file with thoughts and ideas)
- morning pages if necessary
- practice reiki on myself everyday and journaling about my experiences

i encourage each of you to give one thing this week - whether it be holding open a door for someone, pay someone a compliment, a hand written thank you card, even a smile. see how it makes that other person feel and subsequently how it makes you feel. it's so simple but yet so powerful. it can even turn your day around. i hope you all have a productive week.

gussying up - week 1

is there anything better than fresh watermelon on a saturday afternoon?! i think i could eat my weight in watermelon but don't simply for the fact that i don't like running to the bathroom every 10 mins :)

i'd like to say thank you for all of your kind words. you lovely ladies are one of the main reason why i became a swimmer. my first week of swimming lessons went rather well overall. here were my goals and results:

week 1 goals:
- try to do morning pages every morning (regardless of whether or not i reach 3 pages) - not quite every morning but i still see this as a success. i skipped two days because i just didn't feel like writing. the other days (except one) i actually wrote 3 pages. i feel that the quality of the writing i did the days i did my morning pages made up for the two days i didn't do them. so i see this as a success.
- blog at least 3 times on gussying up the tuttle and at least once on my morgantown musings - i did rather well on this actually. i figured i'd knock out the three blog posts on gussying up the tuttle and barely get in one for my morgantown musings. what actually happened was i got just three posts on gutt and did three good quality posts on mmm plus one photo op post.
- implement a reward system like you ladies have set up - i am still working the details of this one out. i think rewards will vary from week to week. if i have something in mind that i want to work for then i'll post that ahead of time, if not, then i will just give myself a reward after i have met my goals.
- make my weekly check ins on saturday (or at the very latest sunday) - it is saturday so kudos to me :) this goal i plan on continuing with.

i feel that i did rather well on my first week of swimming so for this weeks reward: figs! yes, sweet, juicy figs. i am going to the store later and buying myself some black mission figs! :)

this is my angel wing begonia. i thought these two leaves came together to show why it is named angel wing.

week 2 goals:
- continue with 3 posts on gussying up the tuttle and 1 post for my morgantown musings
- learn the bones of the body (in prep for getting ready to start massage therapy school in just a little over a month) this was a goal i set for myself for august. here it is the last week of august so i must get on this!
- continue morning pages if i feel that the quality of writing is good enough

gussying up for a swim

saturday afternoons were invented for napping . i say that because i just woke up from my sugar induced cupcake coma. after dreaming pleasant dreams i awoke to my beloved mini-mollohans napping away their saturday afternoons with me. who would have ever thought that sharing the bed with 2 cats and a dog would be so great.

shortly after waking, the mini-mollohans began abandoning one by one. i decided to follow suit and write my first post on swim. i am excited to be (finally) joining swim. i've thrown the idea around several times but thought, 'what do i have to say,' and 'i'm not a writer.'

i'm learning to swim (picture seeing me in bright colored arm floaties, like we used to have when we were kids) for several reasons.

first, i want to focus on the written word - my written word. i used to journal and then not so much. i am trying to remedy that and journal more. i also want to be more consistent with my morning pages. (question regarding morning pages below)

second, i am more than thrilled to be working in-cahoots with you lovely ladies. you all inspire me everyday. it was you that inspired me swim along. i just wish that i would have joined sooner but things have to happen when we are ready. just like when i started my own blog, it was reading all of your blogs that inspired me to do so. and i've had such a great time with it (even though i realize i have no specific niche but i'm ok with that).

and third, i want a little more creativity in my everyday.
now for my question. i was trying to get a better idea of how you all feel about journaling vs morning pages. do you do them both? are they a separate entity for you? what i mean is, when i do my morning pages it feels like i'm journaling. then when i go to journal, i feel like i'm rehashing what i said earlier in my morning pages. i'd love your advice, suggestions and/or input on this issue. thanks in advance!

week 1 goals:
- try to do morning pages every morning (regardless of whether or not i reach 3 pages)
- blog at least 3 times on gussying up the tuttle and at least once on my morgantown musings
- implement a reward system like you ladies have set up
- make my weekly check ins on saturday (or at the very latest sunday)