Because ChristWas Love

I got this story from a co-worker this week and love that it's true (or so the author claims at the bottom) and reminds me that God can show Himself in any situation.



Merry Christmas!



Christmas Love

Each December, I vowed to make Christmas a calm and peaceful experience. I had cut back on nonessential obligations - extensive card writing, endless baking, decorating, and even overspending. Yet still, I found myself exhausted, unable to appreciate the precious family moments, and of course, the true meaning of Christmas. My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten that year. It was an exciting season for a six year old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd be working the night of the production. Unwilling to miss his shining moment, I spoke with his teacher. She assured me there would be a dress rehearsal the morning of the presentation. All parents unable to attend that evening were welcome to come then. Fortunately, Nicholas seemed happy with the compromise. So, the morning of the dress rehearsal, I filed in 10 minutes early, found a spot on the cafeteria floor and sat down. Around the room, I saw several other parents quietly scampering to their seats. As I waited, the students were led into the room. Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas", I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love", I was slightly taken aback by its bold title.



Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row - center stage - held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song.



As the class would sing "C is for Christmas", a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy", and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love".



The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her - a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down - totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W".


The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W".


Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood - the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.



For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: CHRIST WAS LOVE. And, I believe, He still is. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Candy Chand (c) Copyright 1998 This is from Candy Chand's book of miraculous true stories, "Under God's Wings".

Candy says: "This happened when my son was in Kindergarten. There were a few hundred people in the audience - teachers, kids and a few parents, who saw this happen. The school is North Country Elementary School in Antelope, California, where we used to live."

Because Certification Shows Competency

I took the Professional Human Resource (PHR) Certification exam last week and PASSED! This in itself is quite amazing because the test was very hard. Almost every question I was thinking "what...what are they asking me here, this makes no sense" and then I'd pick what I thought was the best answer. So you can imagine that by the time I finished the 225 questions I was almost certain of failure. I marked about 20 quesitons that I wanted to go back to but chose to leave most of those with my first answer (something I learned during my practice exams as everytime I'd change something it ended up being my first guess).

Friends and family have been asking me "now that your certified to you get a pay raise". The answer is 'no'. Now that I'm certified I get the satisfaction of knowing that I am competent in Human Resources (funny because the whole test I was pretty sure I was anything but competent) and if I want to can use the PHR letters behind my name.

So, 1 boot camp class (5 days, 8-hours a day with HR professionals and lawyers as teachers), 6 'text books', numerous parties and fun skipped to study, toting about 100 photocopied pages up a mountian in my backpack to study and 2 full days of practice tests and vocab quizes later...I can now call myself a human resoureces professional. Woot woot!

Because the Biggest Loser is NOT Real

Don't get me wrong, I love watching the Biggest Loser...it is very motivating, but it's not real and sometimes it makes me feel bad about myself. Ridiculous. I've done a great job (not every day...but overall) and I should not feel bad about what I have accomplished but watching them lose 6, 7 or 9 pounds in just one week makes me feel a little disappointed in my hard work to just maintain this week.

What I mean by 'not real' is that the contestents have 8 plus hours a day for just working out and I'm guessing there aren't a lot of baked goods in their kitchen or chocolate on their neighbors desk (just a few of the temptations I face daily). What I mean by 'not real' is that they have 24 hour support from those around them and really nothing else to 'worry' about but losing weight.

I still love watching...it's still motivating, and a little self-attitude check and I'm back to cheering myself on and slowly plugging away at my goals. I bought jeans in a regular store this weekend. I don't remember the last time I did that...

Here's my pick for winner...one more week to the finale.

http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/photos/#cat=1293&sec=2468&mea=55140

Because Eight Months Ago I Could Only Run One Minute

And today I ran for 30 minutes straight (at my pace it was a little over 2 miles).

I should probably start this post by letting you know I will likely often write about my journey to health, which includes fitness, nutrition, weight loss, rest...to name a few. I've always wanted to 'get healthy' and be able to keep up with my friends and this past April I finally made the decision. It's a HUGE part of my life right now and hopefully forever. The decision in April came about because I found out that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and without going into all the details the scariest part for me was that it gives me a greater chance of diabetes and heart disease (and various other things). About 1 in 10 women have this and there's no cure...the best way to manage it is by losing weight (if you are obese) and through diet and excercise.

Anyway, I've worked my butt off the last 8 months (literally) and daily I'm more and more amazed at what my body can do. I knew I needed a lot of accountability on the fitness side of things so I got a personal trainer. Why did I wait so long to get healthy? So back to today...I ran for 30 minutes! Straight, without stopping. I think I could have kept going too but when I hit 30 I got so excited and loss focus and had to stop. It's the longest I've run so far. Ultimately I'd like to be able to run a 5K...slowly but surely I'll get there.

I'll share some before and after photos later. I'm waiting for another big milestone soon to come...so you'll have to wait.

Because of Michelle

I LOVE reading blogs, sometimes when I should be doing other things, so on a whim I thought I'd start one. However after my first post...I was lost. I know nothing about writing a blog but what I have observed from others. Thankfully I didn't announce to everyone I know that I was a blogger and almost the same day I made my first post, I moved on (kept reading other's, just didn't write any more of my own). But yesterday in my normal blog check I ended up at my friend Michelle's blog. I noticed she had put links to other blogs along the side of hers and I started clicking through. I noticed some people I knew (more blogs to read) and got to the last one on her list titled "Because". I clicked and was surprised to see it was my own (I hadn't even remembered what I named my blog-pathetic I know). Well, it inspired me. Even if she's the only one that might read...I should at least try it.

So, this particular post is in honor of Michelle. May it be only the start of my blogger life.

This is Michelle, Amy and I at our 5-year college reunion (Oct. 2007).