Paris Update!

So I had a meeting about my Paris trip this week and it was all good news! Our hotel, and there is only one this time as we are staying the whole week in the same spot instead of travelling around, is amazing! I'm super excited that the bathroom has a shower curtain in it. This is a big step up from the place we stayed at in Montecatini Terme (close to Florence), which did not.

The best news came in the form of our departure and return information. We fly out of ABIA and JFK in New York at completely reasonable hours- it's amazing! We don't leave until 10am and get back at 7pm at night. This is awesome because we have to be at ariports hours ahead of time these days. I'm also hoping the jet lag will not be my arch nemesis this time around. I was completely knocked off my feet for a whole week the last time I flew, which is the thing I am looking forward to the least about this trip. (Really the only thing I am not looking forward to!)

Check out our hotel at...

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187147-d264550-Reviews-Campanile_Paris_X_Gare_du_Nord-Paris_Ile_de_France.html

Frisbee Golf

So in keeping with my new year's resolution of doing more things outside, I recently went to play disc golf with my friends Terri and Casey. I had never played before but it’s kind of a big thing with my college aged friends so I thought I should give it a go. They just built a new park in Marble Falls with a disc golf course so we didn’t have to go very far. Terri taught Hallie and I the rules and then proceeded to totally dominate over us. She is a fierce player!

Hallie was the absolute worst at it. (This is just stating the facts.) It’s ok for me to say this because during the game she managed somehow to throw her Frisbee (that we borrowed from Austin) into this disgusting water twice! Guess who had to fish it out for her?

Luckily, I managed to rescue the frisbee twice!
















That part of the experience is not something I want to repeat for a third time, but the Frisbee golf was so fun! I didn’t play that badly for my first time. I actually hit par on a few holes! Let me know if you want to play sometime. J

New Years Update

Here is an update on my New Year's resolutions…

1. Update my blog every three weeks... Check!

2. Attend my Monday night bible study regularly. Check! Not only have I gone and actively participated for the past three weeks, I have been doing so well with my daily bible study I started on my own. I'm doing a study called "Lady in Waiting" which is about how women often spend our time waiting for things to happen in our life. We wait for the job, the career, the guy, and the children (etc.) instead of living in the moment and appreciating the blessings God has given us now. I don't want to always feel like I'm just looking ahead to what’s next, and this bible study is helping me do that!

3. Limiting my gluten intake. Ehhh… no so much on this one. It is super hard to eat no gluten during the week when I have almost zero time to prepare meals. I have all sorts of other excuses prepared as to why I haven’t done this one, if anyone is interested. J

4. Spending more time outdoors. My first outdoor adventure was playing Frisbee golf with my friends the Sellers family. It was super fun and great exercise. (Since I got super excited while we were playing, and ran to every hole.) I also got some exercise in when Austin’s Frisbee fell into this nasty pond and I had to wade out in the muck to get it. When I say fell in, I mean Hallie threw it in. Twice. Here is a picture of me rescuing the first frisbee on my outdoors adventure….

Altogether, I feel like I am getting back in to some good habits for the new year. I feel like I am being so much more conscious in how I spend my time i.e. first for the glory of God and therefore to the betterment of myself. Go me!    

New Year's Resolutions

Not updating my blog in a month is sort of an epic fail for me. I know I’ll do better in the New Year though because I am taking a technology class for grad school where they make you start a blog and do blog posts. I’m already one step ahead on that assignment and one step ahead on my first new year’s resolution. (See list below.)

Sometimes I make New Year’s resolutions and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I actually stick with them past February and sometimes I don’t. Resolutions, in my opinion, should be made all the time. I never want to stop growing and improving. None of us are perfect (the last time I checked I wasn’t Jesus either) and we should always shoot for self-improvements. So my 2011 resolutions are as follows…

1. Update my blog every three weeks. Another one that goes along with this one is that I want to do something interesting every three weeks so I have something fun to blog about.
2. I want to more faithfully attend my Monday night bible study. We are studying Revelations right now, which is both scary and enlightening. I get to see people I don’t normally hang out with during the week or on weekends. Also, this is a small chunk of time during (generally) the worst day of my week that I can totally dedicate to the Lord, which is the most important reason of all to go.
3. I want to seriously limit my gluten intake. I gave up gluten this summer for about three months, then started eating it again when the school year got really busy and I had to eat more meals on the go. It makes me feel so much lighter when I don’t eat gluten, plus it’s a much healthier way to eat. I’m shooting for only one meal a day with gluten in it.
4. I want to spend more time outdoors. I haven’t worked out the logistics of this one yet, but I know it’s going to be fun and that I’ll be using more sunscreen than I did in 2010.

Happy 2011 everyone! Love, Amy