my breakfast plan has changed
Warning to my brother Adam, you may fall off your chair when you read this

A few months ago I spent the day with an old (meaning former) college roommate, her mom and sister in Georgetown. It was a wonderful day. We had wonderful conversations and even though they didn't know it I was taking some serious mental notes.
At one point during the day their mom said to her girls, "take care of yourselves, get sleep and eat healthy" For some reason after that anytime their mom passed them advice my ears perked up and I hung on every word.
Sometime during the day I must have admitted to the three of them, my obsession with Diet Coke and Emily asked me if I drink it for breakfast. My first response was to tell her no, so that is what I said. But I thought about it later in the day and realized that maybe I was, but was not going to admit it out loud.
For some reason after that day I started paying attention to how much Diet Coke I was drinking... yikes. My brother Adam even teases me that I have a diet coke IV.
So fast forward the first of May. I get a kidney stone, in the middle of the night, while Jeff is out of town. It was definitely more painful than labor because I never never felt being in labor.
Thinking that anything I was doing could have brought that on - I quit cold turkey that night and am now over one month without a drop.
I have always been really jealous of my friend Jill who stopped drinking it because it gave her headaches and just never thought that could be me!

Before my diet coke friends dump me I will say that I am totally fine with anyone else drinking it and statistically have now idea how good or bad it is for you. I just know I feel a million times better. I just love knowing that I don't need that to get through my day. I drink so much more water and so do my kids. We have water bottles everywhere and I seem to find them in every cup holder in my car.

I am such an all or nothing type of person, the word moderation is tough for me practice. I think if i was to drink 3 oz I would got back to having it for breakfast. I am just so stinkin proud of myself for sticking to something even if right now it is only a month. Not to mention how much money I think I am saving a month. Between this and only having one kid in diapers, I feel a little more change in my coin purse.

big year for me so far.

1. stopped biting my nails
2. no more diet coke
3. in the process of getting a passport

I can't wait to see what else i can do this year!

*** I do think their new ad is pretty fabulous though***

S t r e t c h

My word of the year that I picked for myself is Stretch.

The reason I picked this word for the year is because I feel like there are some things in my life that come really easy to me. I tend to take advantage of these things and settle with them instead of using them as a head start and really push myself and run with them.
For example there have been many times I have spoken at church or given a lesson where I don't spend much time preparing or may even just stand up with little or no outline. In the end I do just fine, but always feel like if I would have taken those gifts and prepared or really "stretched" myself I would feel better and learned more.
I never stretch out before or after going to the gym. I can barely even touch my toes. I want to stretch myself physically this year just as well as mentally
I have Fibromyalgia and always feel like my body is in one big knot anyway and I know stretching would probably help it feel a lot better. I can't stand getting massages but always dream of getting on some stretching board and having 4 people pull me every-which-way.
So, this year I hope to take the talents I have been given and stretch them out a little more and see what they can do.

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thanks Michelle for encouraging us all to do this!