There is probably no better day of the year to chronicle about the last year than the very last day of the year. And, that's when I started this post...here we are three days later and I could only finish half of my trek down memory lane. So this is Part One....Part Two to come soon.

2011 changed who I am as a person.

It tested me; pushed me; created something anew inside me, and I'm excited to travel back through its days and relive it all a little.

I had to start off by remembering New Year's Eve last year. Brian and I went to a Thunder game, had dinner at the Melting Pot with Ryan and Mike McLaughlin and stayed the night at the Skirvin. It was a ball!

January 2011

Brian and I started the year on a Caribbean cruise with Scentsy and its top leaders - Leadership 2011

After the cruise, we stayed in Florida and headed to Miami and then to West Palm to host a team meeting with one of our Scentsy directors, Courtney Clark and her team.

Our babies were happy to see us when we got home. 

 I also went to California in January to hang out with our southern CA Scentsy team lead by Vera Alexander. I actually got stuck there an extra day while there was a huge ice and snow storm in Oklahoma.

 Scentsy was in Riverside, California, for Spring Sprint. We had fun hanging out

 and getting to know each other.

I was loving this orange tree while Oklahoma was covered in snow and ice. 

In January Brian and I also went through our pastor's Chazown workshop. Chazown means vision and our experience helped us both find more meaning and understanding in God's purpose for our lives. That is when and why this blog was started. For more information about Chazown or to work through the process on your own, go to http://www.chazown.com/

February 2011

Oddly enough I can't find any pictures on my computer from February. In February we did host our annual Scentsy Leadership Retreat. This year it was called Vision and was held in Ft. Worth, Texas. 

God was definitely working in my heart and in my mind as He began to call me to do more for His kingdom. I started to move in a different direction....out of fear and into freedom. 

March 2011

In March we were busy, busy, busy! I decided that the Lord was calling me to write on this blog every day for three months, so A Post a Day in March, April, and May was started. 

Brian and I spent a few days in Las Vegas for Becca Levi's Leadership Training. We got to see Celine Dion live in concert. It was honestly one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed. 

Dinner at Maggiano's in Vegas...yummo!

                         We rode a helicopter over the Grand Canyon while we were in Vegas. 

We came home from Vegas to celebrate both of our kids' birthdays. Addison turned four and Luke turned two. Abby Coyle took the most amazing pictures of my kiddos.

We celebrated with a HUGE birthday party complete with ponies and a bounce house. 

We were also in full fledged planning mode for our spring group training: Spring Bling.

April 2011

We got elephants at the Oklahoma City Zoo in April. Our elephants went to Tulsa to breed for a few years, and everyone was so excited to have them back in their new exhibit. We love the zoo and spent a lot of time there this spring. 

                         We hosted an Easter celebration for our family at our house in April. 

                   We spent a good amount of time in April at the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts.
                                                It's one of my favorite spring time activities.

May 2011

I started May by running in my 1st half marathon. It was cold, rainy, and close to miserable, but I finished 13.2 miles in 2 hours and 18 minutes. Not too shabby. I also gave myself a knee injury that would put my running on hold for the next two months.

                                           We had a camp out day at Addison's school. 

                                                  And I finally cleaned out my closet.

                                                   Addison had her first ballet recital.

                                             We threw Jacquelyn a killer baby shower.

                         Addy and Luke showed off their gymnastics moves at the M&M Olympics.

June 2011

June was filled with lots of travel and a new baby in our family! 

We went to Tennessee for the wedding of one of Brian's best friends, Danny Zimmerman. We rented a house by a nearby lake and had a great time just hanging out. 

Shortly after our trip to Tennessee, we headed on an all-expenses paid trip (thanks to Scentsy!) to Disney World. 

And my favorite part of the month....we welcomed a sweet baby boy to our family. Jasxon Levi Roy was born! 

And that is just the first half of the year.....stay tuned for part two soon. 

.....day 143 of a year of writing....

Still in the Woods....Dreaming of What the Year Will Hold

Just for the record, I am not coming "out of the woods" yet (just so you know).

I'm still here. Staying up extra late. Reading fiction books. Ignoring my planner. Organizing my pantry and cleaning out my refrigerator...yes, that's my idea of fun.

Oh, and of course, I'm dreaming about this year.

It's fun to have the entire year ahead of you, all 364 days of it. Or is it still 365? Is this a leap year? I can't remember, but seem to vaguely think it might be, and since I'm still "in the woods" and separated from my planner, I'm not sure.

Anyway.....moving on.

I love the dreaming that comes along with New Year's Day.

What will the year hold?

What do you want it to hold?

I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions. Mostly because I know I'll change my mind by next week, and then I'll just feel like a failure.

So, instead of New Year's Resolutions, I opt for goals and seeking God.

Lifechurch.tv starts every year with a twenty-one day fast.

Last year, Brian and I cheated a little bit by doing our fast during the first twenty-one days of December. We knew we were going on Scentsy's leadership cruise in January, and we didn't want to be fasting during it.

This year we are once again going on Scentsy's leadership retreat (to Mexico!) but instead of doing the fast early, we decided to do it with the church (and on the retreat) this year.

Honestly, yesterday I was dreading every minute of it, but now I'm really excited about the fast. I have lots more details about the fast for you later this week, but if you want to know more now, you can go to: http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch/remember/2 or http://www.jentezenfranklin.org/fasting/ to learn more about why we fast. Brian and I are doing a twenty-one day Daniel's Fast

Anyway (again) back to the year ahead of us.

I haven't landed on any clear cut goals for the year yet (my plan is to set my goals in stone after seeking God over the next 21 days during Daniel's fast), but I am dreaming about all the things I want to do this year. Here are just a few:

• Run another 1/2 marathon (just signed up!) April 29th....whooooo hoooo!
• Read the Bible in a year (for all types of bible reading plans go to youversion.com and find the one that's right for you)
• Be less uptight
• Stop being late (don't gasp - it's possible)
• Work hard - but play harder
• Drink more water
• Learn to go with the flow
• Give more
• Love more
• Do more (and I don't mean busy tasks, I mean meaningful ones)
• Memorize a scripture a week
• Redesign my blog....or have someone else do it for me
• Seek God
• Seek God
• Seek God
• Make more photo books
• Cook more
• Read for fun
• Give myself a break every once in a while
• Snuggle
• Watch movies
• Stay up late
• Get up early (but not back to back)
• Appreciate others
• Learn more about photography
• Take a class
• Learn something
• Do something
• Be someone
• Live by faith and not by circumstance
• Date my husband
• Play with my kids
• Sing (only in the shower or in the car, of course)
• Dance
• Play in the rain
• Sleep in a hammock
• Pray
• Pray
• Pray
• Be obedient (not to my daily agenda but to whatever it is that God will ask me to do this year)

What about you? Are you dreaming of what this year may hold?

.....day 142 of a year of writing.....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pictures, Pictures Everywhere!

It's officially the New Year, and I can hardly believe it's gone as fast as it has. Typical, I know. Everyone says that.

But it's true....time really does fly.

Today I started working on a post reviewing 2011, but I'm not done yet. I'm glad I'm doing it though. It's been fun to look back and make a little yearbook of our family during 2011. It should be done soon, and I can't wait to share.

In the process of going through the past twelve months, I have been overloaded with pictures on my computer.

If you're crazy like me, you may very likely have a computer full of photos.

There are two problems with that:

1. What happens if your computer crashes or gets stolen? (We had one stolen once with all of Addison's baby pictures on it.)  Luckily, I was a crazy first time mom who created photo book after photo book of her first year of life, and now I know why! 
2. Your hard drive is probably being filled up by years and years of pictures. Mine definitely is! 

I have been debating buying a new computer, but after concluding that my computer works as well as it did the day I bought it, I thought it would be best to clear up some hard drive space (since I have none left). 

One of the best ways to clear up hard drive space and ensure that your photos are safe is by storing them online. 

Up to this point, I had an account with Shutterfly where I would upload pictures I wanted to print or make into books, but I wanted somewhere where I could host both photos and videos in high resolution. 

After researching different sites, I landed on Photobucket.com. I upgraded my account to a pro account which includes: 

Unlimited* bandwidth to your Photobucket files
High Resolution image uploads
SWF file uploads
FTP access to your account
More Stats
Only $24.95/year, 20% discount for a two-year subscription
Premium Customer Support - Email pro@photobucket.com for customer and technical support.
No more ads on your account.

I spent the majority of today uploading and organizing two years' worth of pictures. It is quite a bit of work, but worth every single minute.

My plan for the year is to upload my pictures to Photobucket every month or so to free up space on my hard drive and ensure that my photos are stored safely somewhere.

Where do you store your pictures? I'm curious. I know there are tons of options for online storage out there. I'm wondering how you store and organize your pics.

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

.....day 141 of a year of writing.....