Long Overdue

This post is long overdue!  By now, you might know that I've finished my Day Zero Project.  In my final days on the project, I went through a whirlwind of experiences to finish my list.  This included the following:

Reading the Bible
Finish books suggested by friends
Visit Manda in Oaklahoma
Complete a 3D Puzzle

Oklahoma was OK!  I went with Brian to see his brother graduate from basic training - Good job, Steven!  After, we went to visit Manda!  All flights and drive time were full of reading or listening to the Bible on CD.  I underestimated how long that task really would take.  It was actually one I was working on right up to the final minutes of the project!  Completing it felt amazing.

We were also able to complete a 3D puzzle of a bird.  I've come to really love puzzles...since I've completed one of the three thousand piece puzzles I worked on.

I learned so much over the last few years, but the most valuable lesson I learned was that things sometimes need to change - and you have to be okay with that.  There were so many other things on my list I would have loved to complete, but was unable to for lack of accounting for proper time to get them done.  I was disappointed the first time I had to change something on the list - but then I realized that this is exactly how life is.  We often make plans for our lives - our future - we have this idea of how we will live, what traditions we will follow, what we will be when we grow up, etc...The reality is that these things sometimes change, and we have to be able to change right along with them.
When I had to make my first change to the list, I felt like everything was pointless then, but it wasn't.  I simply needed to add something else that would bring me to completing another goal!  While I still tried to limit the amount of things I made changes too, when the time came that I had to trade in a goal, I was able to do it - not feeling defeated, but knowing I did my best and other opportunity will arise in the future.

Another thing I've taken from this is that if I want to do something - I should go do it!  This is within reason of course.  Ha!

For example, I really wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride.  I didn't need a list to get it done - I had the ability to just go out and do it, and luckily enough, I had a wonderful friend who treated me for my birthday. :]

We had an all day adventure of hot air balloon riding, travel, and the ocean.  It was a complete blast and I would most definitely do it again.

Also, during the lift, I realized I am definitely not afraid of heights anymore.  I rocked it, completely fearless.  I definitely have my list to thank for that as well. My fear of heights was one thing that held me back from doing a lot - and I am so happy to be done with that.

So, now that my list is over, I plan to make new goals - and conquer them!

Another recent goal I've hit is graduating from Sac State!  I completed my schooling in 3 semesters, as planned, and will be graduating on Friday!  I also plan to update this blog more frequently. :]

In other news, my puppy is adorable:

This gorgeous pup is 20 pounds of awesome.  Cobie is probably one of the best decisions I could have made.  He's just amazing.

Finally, with Christmas coming up soon - I wish you all a Merry Christmas - I sure am excited to be giving a ton of gifts this year - especially knowing that these are gifts my friends and family will definitely enjoy.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a safe and super fun New Year.

-jennilea

We don't stop living.

I would like to start off by saying "Thank you!"  Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me in the last month and been encouraging and loving.  Thank you to everyone who has shared their stories with me - even though many of you don't actually know me.  It takes a lot to be that transparent and vulnerable in such a sensitive situation and you have all overwhelmed me with your love, support, and prayers. I am so grateful for each and every one of you.  You have all helped me grow a bit stronger.

So given all of the life changes, I fell into a brief slump where I just didn't want to do literally anything.  One day I woke up and decided that, even though we all face trials, we don't stop living.  It's not an option.  In fact, during the tough times we need to get out there and live more than we did before.  I needed to do things for myself, have adventures, go to class, complete goals on my list...live.

I've done a lot of list things since I made the decision to keep moving forward:

Completed "The Time Traveler's Wife"
Started "Mortal Instruments"
Pointed to a spot on the map and went there (Half Moon Bay)
Drove through the guard shack at Yessica's house without stopping (my rebel phase)
Walked across the Golden Gate Bridge (loved doing this!)
Completed a 1000 piece puzzle:

After attempting to complete a 1000 piece puzzle at least 2 other times, I am proud to have finally finished this one.  It was definitely a lot more challenging than the others, but doing this puzzle was some great alone time.  Actually, working on this puzzle was the first time I really felt okay being alone...so that was kind of a big deal.

Music and puzzles...my escape.  :]

I have now completed 87 of 101 items with 142 days left!  EEK!  I better get to work!

Next, I'd like to address dating.  I've been having sort of a tough time with this subject lately.  One thing I promised myself was no rebounds.  Just me, Jesus, family, and friends.  I don't want to rush into anything.  So, making this clear to the world:  My life just changed in a major way.  I am not dating right now.  Stop asking. Stop assuming.

Along the subject of dating, I've began watching "Boy Meets Girl" from Louie Giglio.  The message in even the first talk was absolutely amazing!  One hour in, and I've come to an even greater sense of my worth and value.  I've learned to grow, mature, and stay in my fortress of intrinsic value before seeking out any relationship.  It is so incredibly important to know your value in God because that value is so much greater than what you will find in any other relationship.

Louie says "Brokenness gives way to restoration.  Wear newness in the midst of our brokenness and healing can come."  Run tell dat, Louie!  Lol.  I am taking those moments of brokenness and letting God change me, heal me, make me whole, and make me new.  I have to say, I am loving all of the amazing things he is doing in my life.  I really do feel value, healing, and change.  I feel happy.

Finally - school is out.  One more semester and then I am done.  Forever.  :]

In other news:  Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.

Find more useless facts here.

Putting the Pieces Back Together

There is not much this week for my goals, but I finally began working on my puzzle again. I thought I was missing a few border pieces (after my Cat's killed my puzzle), so I searched the box for more pieces, and were unable to find them.  I began counting, to ensure that we had all 1000 pieces and reworked the border to see if I had done anything wrong. It turns out I had put a few pieces together incorrectly.  Problem solved.  This puzzle is much more difficult than the last ones I did.  A lot of the colors are very similar.

After about a month off, I am finally running again.  The first time, I was on a treadmill and only did two miles.  It is so much more difficult on a treadmill!  Wednesday, I headed outside and did 4.6 miles!  It felt great!  I would have gone further, but needed to lift weights too, so there was not enough time to go further.  Next run, I hope to hit seven miles (or more).  I can't believe how close I am to the half marathon.

My dad's birthday was on Friday, so I decided to take him skydiving!  He had no idea what we were going to do, so it was pretty exciting.  On Saturday, I had him meet me at my office, and we headed over.  As we got off the freeway, we could see the skydiving signs.  The look on his face when he realized what we were doing - his smile - priceless.  I love seeing my dad happy! Jessica was also with us, and this was her first time skydiving too!  It turns out it was -10 degrees F at 14,000 feet.  Absolutely freezing!  They gave us gloves and put us in cool little suits to help keep us warm.  My dad was the first one to jump.  It was weird watching him fall out.  I knew he would enjoy it.  My turn came up shortly after.  Not before Batman (my skydiving instructor), told a few awesome jokes:  What is the hardest part of skydiving - the ground.  Dyyying. By now, you should all know I am a fan of bad jokes.  Finally, we got to the door, and headed out!  The moment is always weird falling out, because you have to get used to breathing with all of that wind.  At 120 miles per hour, we were free falling for one minute, the shoot opened, and we glided (for four minutes) back to the ground.  I was able to steer, which was fun, but a little insane, because I was loosing the feeling in my fingertips from the cold.  By the time we made it down, I could hardly feel them.  It was another great trip!  If you ever choose to go skydiving, the Parachute Center is awesome.  I highly recommend Batman or Dan from New Zealand as your skydiving instructor. If you are going for the first time, request Cory Hall for your video or photos. He did mine and my dad's photos and video.  Both of them turned out amazing!

This weekend, I had a lesson in listening to God.  It was actually pretty amazing.  At The Open Door, a youth program that  I assist with, my friend, Aly (YouthQuake AD), shared of a time when she was feeling sad, and God told her to smile at the next person she sees.  She was not feeling like it, but did it anyway.  The man she smiled at turned around and asked if she knew Jesus.  He said he could see God all over her.  Absolutely amazing.  During this show, I had felt that God was telling me to mend a broken relationship by walking over to someone, hugging, and just giving love.  After much debate with God, I finally did it.  A relationship was repaired that night with love.  It felt great.  <3

I am prepping for our college group this week, and the focus is about tradition.  We often let our traditions get in the way of an actual relationship, and can sometimes keep us from really following what God says.  Sometimes, we may not even notice it.  It is interesting that this is the focus, because I had just been thinking about this subject in regard to prayer after I prayed over our dinner tonight.  I am used to praying over dinner, but am I really talking to God, or am I just doing it because I am used to it?  I really feel like 2013 is going to be a year of development.  

Finally, I want to feature Bucket List Publications.  This is a site I stumbled upon through Instagram.  This is an online magazine that is a lifetime worth of experiences.  This couple has devoted their lives to adventure and experiencing new things.  Check it out.  They are doing some amazing things.

In other news:  "All the pandas in the world come from China. When a baby panda is born, by agreement, it is sent back to China via FedEx."
(Follow UberFacts on Twitter)

-jennilea

We Made Ice Cream

Happy New Year (a wee bit late)!

This year has already been full of all kinds of awesome.

This weekend, I was able to knock two more things off my list.  Spontaneous road trip, and spend a night in a hotel for no reason.
We decided to go to South Lake Tahoe. It was snowing, so that was pretty cool.  We even got to make a little snowman friend.  This was the first, legit, snowman I have ever made.  I love the snow. :]  We also had a snowball fight, which was awesome!  While we were playing, I saw the most perfect, amazing snowflake land on my jacket.  I know snowflakes are supposed to look really neat, but I have never seen an actual snowflake more than just a tiny dot.  I tried to snap a photo, but it melted too fast. It was really beautiful though.
We also did a little bit of gambling!  I turned $20 into $70, then lost it all.  It was a magnificent failure.
Overall, the this trip was absolutely amazing!

Other items we were able to do, from my list:  I made ice cream in a bag! The recipe was simple:  milk, ice, sugar, salt, and vanilla.  We thought it would be fun to make mint ice cream, instead of vanilla, so we used mint and added chocolate chips.  Our ice cream turned out ridiculously minty - what else would I have expected.  It was insane though.  Good, in small amounts. I could not even finish the photo you see above.  I would like to try this out again, but with vanilla.  Or maybe vanilla and a small amount of mint.

I have completed 58 goals!  More than half way there! 

I started my new puzzle, cats already destroyed it.  Nothing new there!  Hopefully, my new setup will prevent that from happening in the future. I am doing the puzzle on a piece of cardboard which I cover with more cardboard and set in my closet.  I am sure they will figure something out to mess with it though...

Nikki found this photo to describe my life...

Nailed it.
Last Friday, I joined the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District Biologists in the annual Christmas Bird count! Rawge and I got started on an early and frosty morning!


Speaking of early and frosty, he and I also decided we would make a bet!  On Instagram, he posts these amazing photos of wildlife, but hardly gets any "likes" at all, while I can post a photo of my cat on the toilet and get dozens of "likes."  I told him it was because he was not adding in the right hashtags to get his photos the attention they deserve.  We both decided to take a photo, in the frosty morning and see who could get the most "likes."  Needless to say, with all my hastags, I won.   This was actually one of the nicest photos I have ever taken.  I am proud!

Now, back to the bird count!  I had a lot of fun seeing all kinds of birds I had never seen before, as well as a few of my favorites, including Killdeer!  I did not get to take any photos of them, but Killdeer are perhaps on of my most favorite birds.  Not because they are absolutely gorgeous or anything, but because of their personality.  If a predator is going after it's nest, Killdeer will fake a broken wing, flop around on the ground, and make a sound of distress in order to get the attention of the predator.  If that won't get it's attention, they will come closer to the predator and make a louder noise to draw attention.  The predator will see the bird, and think it is an easier target because it is injured.  Once it has lured the predator away, Killdeer will suddenly "heal" and fly away.  They are just so neat!

The major sight of the day was a Bald Eagle!  They had never had an adult Bald Eagle ever make an appearance in the area, so it was really exciting.  Hard to photograph though, because we were so far from it.  Luckily, we had a scope, so I was able to, carefully, take a photo through the scope with my phone!  He was a neat little guy.  I had never seen one before (apparently they are rare to see - as they were close to extinction), so it was pretty spectacular.  Fun times!

Upcoming goals:
I have decided I need to start classes, to get scuba certified, in the next few weeks.  I realized, I need to be scuba certified in order to swim with sharks.

Finally, we are planning a wee trip to New York at the end of the year for New Years Eve!

I have an exciting year planned out!

In other news:
"In 2002, the average user spent 46 minutes on the Internet a day - In 2012, the average user spent 4 hours on the Internet everyday"
(Follow UberFacts on Twitter)

-jennilea

Birthday Weekend!

Hello!

This has been an exciting week!  To begin, I was lucky enough to be able to participate in the Run to Feed the Hungry on Thanksgiving morning (11.22.12).  This is a 10k (6.2 miles) run, and the furthest I have gone, so far.  I ran with my awesome running buddy, Adam, who has been training with me for all of my runs, so far.  Our ultimate goal is to run a marathon.  It seems so far out and impossible, but I know we can get there.  We are almost at the half way point!  The run was able to raise more than $800,000 for the hungry.  It is amazing to be part of such a huge thing.

After the run,  I went over to my mom's house to spend the afternoon with her.  Then,  I had the pleasure of joining Yessica at her house for Thanksgiving dinner.  The food her mom prepared was delicious, as always.  I am extremely grateful that I was able to join in.

Later that evening, we prepared for Black Friday.  Boots were my goal! I headed out with Yessica and my mom to the Galleria.  It was packed, fights broke out, madness ensued.  We made it to Macy's, and I found two pair or gorgeous boots which my mother was nice enough to purchase for me, as a birthday present.  Yessica and I continued to walk around and found some bright red pants!  I had been searching for them for quite some time, and Wet Seal had them on discount!  Yessica bought me these amazing pants, as well as a really nice black shirt with lace on the sleeves.  Pretty sure I look adorable.  

Friday, 11.23.12, I decided to begin one of my Day Zero Project challenges:  Base all of my decisions off of a magic 8 ball.  The magic 8 ball decided everything from what to wear, eat, where to go (if anywhere), when to leave, how to do my makeup.  It was pretty fun to not have to make any decisions on my own.  Probably the point that had me laughing the most was when I was at my friend, Christina's house, for her birthday hang out times.  It was getting late, and I started getting tired.  I had to ask the magic 8 ball five separate times (in an hour) before it would let me leave!  It kept saying no, or ask again later.  Sarah mentioned that perhaps it was not letting me leave because I was not asking it out loud.  Sure enough, after asking out loud, it let me leave.  It was a fun evening, and an awesome day.

Also on Friday, I went to a friend's house to have a jam session.  I am pretty new at guitar, so this was the first time either I had done such a thing and I was pretty stoked to be part of it.  My friend, Rawge, from Reborn Guitars, showed up too!  He wanted to show us a new guitar he had been working on.  He removed it from the bag, and said, "oh man, it's left handed!" and handed me my new guitar!  It is beautiful! There is a built in tuner, and it has the ability to plug in to an amp!  I was able to plug in during the jam session, and learned how to play "Free Falling."  This was definitely an amazing night!

Saturday, I decided I would work to complete my puzzle, as this 1000 piece beast is on my Day Zero Project.  My cats have been tackling this puzzle on and off, but I was pretty certain that I had found and picked up all pieces.  Unfortunately, at the very end, it turns out that there are 2 pieces still missing.  I practically tore the house apart, flipping over couches, pulling out the refrigerator and stove, all to find these missing pieces, but never found them. :[  So, I will have to start over.  I feel like I would be cheating my Day Zero Project if I did not really complete the puzzle.  Luckily, for my birthday, I received two 1000 piece puzzles!  I will be getting started this week!  I have also decided that, this time, I am going to put the puzzle on a box so that I can move it in and out of the closet, avoiding any destruction from the cats.  

Speaking of cats, Belle is using the toilet now!  Both of my cats have successfully began using the toilet.  I am thinking that, by mid December, we will try to punch out the first hole and see how they do!

November 25th, was my 23rd birthday.  I was a little sad, because 22 was so awesome!  What is it that made 22 so great?  Experiences.  This Day Zero Project has inspired me to conquer fears, have goals, better myself, and to have fun!  In year twenty-three, I plan to continue these same things. This year definitely started with a bang!  My entire day was full or surprises.  Katie and Nic took me for a surprise trip to go snowboarding!  We went to Sugar Bowl, where I had a 2 hour lesson.  This lesson included a lot of falling down and getting back up.  Each time I was  able to make it, even part of the way, I felt super accomplished!  This was such a fun experience, and I plan on doing it again.  Hopefully I can become a master at this.  

After snowboarding, I got dressed to go for dinner.  When we arrived at Olive Garden, all of my amazing friends we there, which made me super happy.  Being able to hang out with all of them was definitely the icing on top of the cake of awesome, that is my life.  Celebrating with all of them meant the world to me. :]

I don't know what this next year will bring, but I am excited and hopeful for new adventures, and a lot of fun!

In other news:  "If all the stars in the universe were divided amongst everyone on earth, we would each own about 44.2 trillion stars."

(Follow Uber Facts on Twitter)

-jennilea