Fitness Friday And... A GIVEAWAY!

Happy Friday everyone! Unlike most of you my work [weekend] is just beginning. I start my 3 shifts in a row tonight and lets hope they go by fast! Today I wanted to share with you my little workout I did earlier and also explain a great giveaway that features my blog and Etsy Shop! 

I started off with my normal run around the neighborhood but stopped at a little shelter area to do some power squats, quick jumps and oblique twists. I know I probably looked silly but oh well ...I'm not embarrassed about it because I got a great workout in. Then I finished the remaining 1.5 miles or so back to my house. It was a hot one outside in Omaha and the UV index was 6 so I'm sure my arms got a little tan too! When I got back to the AC (yes it is working now!!) I did some planks, crunches and more power squats.

Now ...For the Giveaway featured on Hallie's Blog at Life Oceanside 

I'm giving away this beauty to one lucky winner! 

Samantha- Hooah & Hiccups// Ashley- Let's Get Bananas// Stephanie- Never The Same Spice Twice

Lauren- Something Beautiful // Cait- My Life As A Long

want to give you alllll of this....

Seriously? I told you they rock!  So get your butts in gear, meet these lovely ladies, and enter to win some GREAT prizes! 1 lucky winner takes the whole haul! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Marcus 5K & Smalltown Fair {Curing #NOtivation}

This past weekend I traveled 2 hours north to my hometown for the biggest event of the year...The Marcus Fair! I grew up on a farm outside of Marcus which has a population of around 1200 people, but if you added in livestock we would be about the size of Omaha ;) What Marcus doesn't have in population it makes up for in heart! Being home for the fair always feels like being part of a big family and it is always great to see old classmates or kids I used to teach swimming lessons to.

I'm Linking up again with Mal Smiles and Life Oceanside to stay fit and cure #NOtivation!

Friday

Sisters Finally Reunited after over 2 months apart!

Got into town around 7 pm and after hugging my wonderful family, my sister and I headed up to the Methodist Food Stand for some delicious food! I met up with Trisha, Anna and Kelli at the bar and headed to the street dance. But only one drink for me because the next morning was the day of the big race! Unfortunately my mom had made some amazing O'Henry Bars (I will have to post the recipe on here!) and I inhaled them when I got home late at night...Not a good idea for running bright and early in the morning!

Apple Pie, Taverns, Taco in a Bag Oh My...

Day old Piglets!

Anna and I (Soon to be roomies in the Spring!)

Marcus Fair Partner in Crime - Trish!

Yes, We got carded...

 Saturday

All those oats, sugar and peanut butter from the bars must have fueled me decently for the 5K because I got my second best time for a 5K. My goal was to be under 29 minutes but I got 29:52 which I was still happy with. This 5K is special to Marcus because it is in memory of Michael Letsche, Hunter Heidesch and Sawyer Leavitt who lost their lives at a very young age. Sawyer Leavitt was friends with my brother and we had a moment of silence before the race started to remember these wonderful guys. 

My sister, mom and aunt Nancy participated in the 5k and my Aunt Nancy, Grandma and cousins did the 1 mile walk. After the race I showered up fast and returned to the fair to set up a stand in the fair buildings to display my Etsy Shop Items . At 4:00 pm we watched the parade and then shortly after Trisha, Brendan and I went to Germantown for some broasted chicken! 

Ready to Run!

Aunt Nancy (2nd place in her age category!)

Something Beautiful Inventory on Display at the Fair

Look at this Cutie!! Little Brady Man!

Ready to Catch A LOT of candy at the Parade!

Sunday

Went up town to watch some of the mud volley ball tournament and also try to sell some more items for my shop. I received several custom orders and sold a few items so that was exciting! The fair always goes by too fast and when I was little it was especially sad because it meant school would be starting within the next weeks. 

Mud - Volleyball Tournament 

Taelyn with Uncle Kyle

So whether you are running in a small town 5K this summer or a big city Marathon, stay Motivated! No matter what the distance is it is worth the effort ... just try not to eat a whole bar of O'Henry bars before the race ;) 

Happy Friday!

Hey Everyone!
Just wanted to share some fun news..I am currently working on getting an ad made for my etsy shop and when I do I will be helping sponsor Hope Engaged which is an awesome and inspiring blog by Katie who documents her travels and faith in God. I'm really excited to get the ball rolling on advertisement for my shop! I am going to have a Morningside friend hopefully design an ad for me :)
Today after work I will be traveling to West Omaha where my Aunt Julie is having a garage sale. I am going to pack up all of my etsy shop items and business cards and set up a little table at her garage sale. My hope is that if people see my product in person they will really fall in love with it. Even though I will be pretty tired I always love garage sale seasons and might try to do my own browsing in her neighborhood. She lives in a very nice part of town so they always have decent stuff on sale ;) My goal is to find some thrift items to re-do and feature on my blog!
Another new tid-bit is about going back to school for my masters. I have been throwing around this idea for a few months now and have decided that right now with all the new endeavors in my life like my shop and working at the pregnancy center that I will hold off on grad school. Luckily grad school will always be there and they have not changed the requirements for Nurse Practitioners yet because they were going to make all future NP's get their doctorate (which is very silly)
I eventually want to become a nursing professor and teach at the Bachelors level. I really enjoy teaching (even though I haven't done much of it..haha) and would like to have my very own class of aspiring nurses. And then many years down the road I would really like to become a nurse practitioner in mental health so I can diagnose, treat and perscribe medications to people suffering from anxiety to bipolar disease. And of course I would like to get started on on at least my master's degree before a little Baby Williams arrives :)

Found this idea from The Sweet Season blog and have seen a lot of bloggers doing it so I thought I would give it a try.

 



 

Dear Summer Can you hurry up and get here already. I'm in the mood for hot&humid runs, mixed drinks by the pool, bronze skin and Okoboji trips. This rainy weather, although helpful when I need to sleep during the day, is way too depressing! Dear Husband Can I please see more of you! Sometimes I worry I will forget what your face even looks like. Seeing you for five minutes while you are waking up and I am heading off to bed after a long night at work is just not enough time together! I'm ready for a good 5 days in the black hills with my family so we can spend more time as a couple and not just roomates ;) Dear Theresa You work on the night shift with me and always make Folgers coffee right when I need a pick me up. And Folgers is just so much better than that Maxwell House coffee the hospital has. Thank you for making me a cup of joe to get me geared up for more charting! Dear Patients Please understand that it is nice to treat your nurses and care techs with respect and makes our lives that much easier. Also know that IV catheters and foley catheters come in sizes that WE choose and you can either get the big guage or the small one...the choice is yours ;) and 80 year old unsteady dementia patient - you scare the Shit out of me when you get out of bed by yourself and peek your curly haired head out the door! Get back into bed and don't try that crap again! Dear Etsy Shop congrats on your first sale from a complete stranger and good luck in futures orders!! Dear women of AAA I thank God over and over for bringing you to our center so that we can educate you on your pregnancy and hopefully pull at your heartstrings so that you choose life! Please be strong and know that many women are praying for you. Know that you have a safe haven at the center and that God has BIG plans for you and your precious baby Dear Blogworld Thanks for always giving me something to do during my slow night shifts and for inspiring me to add new things to my blog. Dear Tanzania I miss you...Oh boy do I miss you! My sister posted a picture of her time there with a sweet african girl and I want to go back to the land of Mt. Kilimingaro and spend time with your heartfelt people! I miss all the beautiful nature and the warm feelings in my heart that your country gave me! I will be back soon! Dear hot glue gun I promise I won't underestimate how hot your glue can get so that I don't end up with another burn blister on my finger..OUCH! I have a love hate relationship with you but I must say you do come in very handy. Dear Lord Thank you for this week and for all of its blessings. Thank you for #SRT and the lovely ladies that post daily on the devotionals there. Thank you for keeping my family safe and healthy and please continue to be with all the people affected by the Oklahoma tornados. I love you Lord and I pray that my life is lived as an example of how you love us!

Not So Manic Monday

Hey Everyone! Wanted to share with you a little bit about my day. I am excited to announce that I received my first sale from a stranger for my Etsy Shop! This makes the shop seem very real and she even bought 2 items. She did purchase my favorite item which makes me a little sad that it has to leave my home but I will get over it ;)
 I ended up having to go into work last night because they were getting a lot of admits so I worked from Midnight - 0700 and slept the rest of the day. I got up for a zumba class at 24 hour fitness and then went for a nice little run on Keystone trail which is right next to 24 hour. Then I stopped at Wal-Mart to pick up some random things.  Oh how I kick myself every time I go to Wal-Mart in my gym clothes. Today I happened to be wearing my spandex leggings and got a disgusting comment from a man that was following me in the shopping aisle. {Shutter...} I hate that feeling and I really wanted to turn around and say "EXCUSE ME?!!?" with a sassy attitude but I refrained and just quickly turned my shopping cart down another aisle. But anyways, I picked up some supplies for some craft projects since I will probably be staying up most of the night. When I came home Alex and Zach were watching the NBA game and I started looking at random blogs.
I came across a really neat one through Blogs by Christian Women. This woman's name is Cassie and she is from Arizona. She recently wrote about some controversial things in the christian community and this post I thought was AMAZING! She explains her frustration about how the Christian community sometimes (lots of times) shuns homosexuals from the church. I have always been angered by this too because the Church is about spreading the word, gaining members and loving others the way Christ loved us but when it comes to homosexuals they do the opposite. Some churches even have courses you can take to become "un-gay" ...like it is a choice or something?! My opinion is that you are born gay, you don't have a choice in the matter and you fall in love with a person not a gender! But that is just my opinion and I sometimes struggle with explaining that to people because it is such a hot topic. I'm open to others' opinions but I am NOT open to treating others badly because they are different than you!
{stepping off soap box}
That pretty much wraps up my day and I hope your Monday wasn't very Manic ;)

Lots to Blog About...

Hi Everyone & Happy Belated Mother's Day! I did not get to see my mom today however I did text her and talk to her on the phone! She spent most of the day cleaning in preparation for Michael's graduation party next week! I am so excited to be home in 5 days to help him celebrate. He is the last Deichmann child to graduate and then he will be off to Iowa State! Alex and I will drive up next saturday after my shift at the pregnancy center and that is when the fun will begin. Then the next day is Mike's actual big graduation day and my birthday ;)
I will have to import my posts from my other blog just to keep everything in one place but for right now I can't access it because the site is down and hopefully it is just lasting during the weekend and will be up and running soon!
This past week I started my low carb (sorta high fat) diet and it went pretty well. I tried to stay between 50-70 grams of carbs a day which is really hard to do once you start adding everything up. I have been mostly filling up on string cheese, chicken breast, eggs, almonds and salads. I learned about the low carb diet from a friend at work who is diabetic and she has lost over 30 pounds. I was tired of exercising and not seeing any results so I decided to try something drastic. So far I am down one pound and feel pretty good and have tried to "enjoy" figuring out low carb meals. Alex hasn't liked it too much until I made chicken breasts with cream cheese wrapped in bacon and then he didn't think it was so bad ;) The trickiest part is getting enough calories so that I can work out and not be so drained before and afterwards. On days that I workout I tend to cheat a little bit and my carb count is closer to 80-100 grams. I urge you to count your carbs for just one day just to see how little 100 grams is and you will be surprised!
On Wednesday I went to the eye doctor because I hadn't had an appointment in probably 2 years and really needed some new contacts. The check up went fine and I looked at the glasses afterwards because my current glasses I'm not able to wear in public because they are in pretty bad shape. I tried on a few and sent pictures of 3 options to Kendra, Megan and Alex and they all agreed that they liked this pair the best.


 So I'm going to go order those this week sometime :) Big frames are really in right now and I was hesitant to go with a trendy pair but I actually really like them and they are comfortable. I think these will be a pair that I will be more apt to wear in public.
On my days off I went to Hobby Lobby and Lowe's to get supplies for more listings to my shop and also for garden pots and flowers for my Mother's Day project. I really actually love Hobby Lobby a little too much and after spending way too much there I was equipped to make more decor to sell. The shop hasn't taken off yet but I did order business cards and am close to having over 20 items listed. I continue to look at discussion boards to get more help with selling and other tips for my shop. I am also going to set up a little table at my aunt's garage sale and have sent emails through work to everyone. I really hope I can make something from this (and get my money back from what I spent at Hobby Lobby)
Here are a couple of the new listings and again the link to my shop.
   
   
http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomethingBeautiful19

Please tell all your friends and family about my new shop and remember that I can do custom orders for weddings, showers or your home.

Ok, enough about that... My mom's gift I worked on turned out great! I got the idea off of pinterest of course and spray painted clay plots and filled them with flowers from Lowe's. Here is the finished product!
 I have to add one more coat of spray paint and also another pot to the top of it. The project was really simple and I'm going to have to make one for myself really soon! The only bad part was that I got in big trouble when I got a little spray paint on our drive way :( Alex was not impressed and I made sure I had plenty of cardboard the next time around so that it wouldn't happen again. Since the pots already have a center drain hole in them it was easy to thread them onto a piece of rebar and tilt them side to side. I am going to add a little sign on it that says "Mary Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?" because I think that would be appropriate ;) I know she will love it and I can't to see her face when we give it to her.

The other big endeavor that I have been working on is potty training Kobe. Yes you read that right...I am trying to get Kobe to go in the toilet! I bought a kit off of groupon and have heard success stories about it and my friend Kaela has even used it on her cats. There are several steps and the whole process will probably take close to 2 months but he is doing well. First we put the litter box on top of the toilet. I rewarded him with treats each time he went in the right place. Now we are at the stage of filling the trays and setting them right in the toilet seat. He did ok with this step but has yet to go #2 in there so I'm worried he is either going somewhere else (which I don't think is the case) or he is holding it in because he doesn't like the new toilet idea. So it is a work in progress. Here is what our

basement toilet looks like currently (because I know you are dying to know!)











Fingers crossed he will get used to it because it will save on litter cost, better for the environment and is less messy! After all that hard potty training work this is what he looked like afterwards...
 
Gosh isn't he Cute!?!?!

I'm finishing up my last shift of the weekend and am halfway through. I have a young girl tonight that took a bunch of sleeping pills because she got in a fight with her boyfriend. It is so sad and I just feel for this girl. I try to think back on when I was her age and if I was in a situation like that. I won't ever understand how someone gets to that point and I wish people would ask for help or talk to someone. Luckily she will be just fine and the medication she took is not too harmful on her body and will be fully reversible. I have one short day off before another 3 days stretch and I think I might go to "The Great Gatsby" tomorrow night even if I have to go by myself because I really want to see the movie. Megan saw it and said it was really good but that means I have to finish the rest of the book tonight at work.

Well I think I'm all caught up for now! Talk to you guys soon!
-Lauren

Etsy Shop Now Open!

Hey everyone! hope your week is going as swell as mine :) I have worked one day this week, got called off last night and don't work until Friday. So with that spare time I finished putting the third (yes third!!) coat on our accent wall in the guest bedroom and decided to go ahead with opening my very own shop on Etsy. For those of you that don't know what Etsy is I will explain.. it is an online website that people can set up "stores" and sell their homemade crafts, furniture, jewelry and art. It is a great place to display your work and is very reasonable in price to post your items. I pay like 20 cents an item to have it posted for 5 months! Of course once you sell an item 3.5% goes back to the website. I am excited to see how well it does and you can always pay a little extra a week to have your shop and items come up first on searches. I have had a few items "favorited" and had close to 40 views of my shop which I think is pretty good for just opening last night. I am working on getting more items to sell to bulk up my inventory and am always willing to have friends buy an item online at a discounted price so I have some visible traffic through my site. Alex gave me a little business 1o1 lecture making sure I take into consideration how much each item costs and include labor costs (He is so thoughtful!)
Here is the link to my shop --> http://www.etsy.com/shop/SomethingBeautiful19 So PLEASE check it out :)
Tonight I went out with Kendra to Olive Garden and we stuffed our faces and had some great conversation! I hadn't seen her for a very long time since she was studying for her last CPA exam but now that that is over she can be social again! We did the eat one/take one deal for $12.95 which was a no brainer! I got soup and 2 entrees for that price and I am glad to have some lunch ready for me tomorrow! Kendra and I talked about Bailey's baby shower that we are throwing with Trisha for most of the time. We are very very excited to celebrate little Harper's entry into this world!
And I think you guys can blame the weather on Alex because he bought a lawn mower today!! He totally jinxed us! Hmmm only in the midwest could you be mowing the yard one day and shoveling the next! I thought the snow was going to miss us but we were not that lucky. We have a good 2 inches on the ground and I'm hoping Alex gets a late start or no school tomorrow! So happy May Day - I want Global Warming back!! As a farm girl I also think about harvest and everything so planting will have to be a little rushed I assume this year.
The other day Alex picked up the book "The Story" which is a summery of the Bible condensed into 31 chapters. Alex heard about it from his friend at work that also goes to King of Kings and they are starting a study plan going chapter by chapter each week. I don't know how often Alex and I will be able to make it to church with our work schedules but I'm super excited he picked up the book (without me even asking him to! haha) I already found a little study guide online that we can follow and we are hoping to read like 2 chapters a week. Hopefully this will also help with some much needed quality time with our busy schedules!

Have a great week everyone! stop by my shop and stay warm!! I know I will be praying for Sunshine :)