Reflecting...

Sometimes...
I look back at old pictures and look at my pictures now and think how much my life has changed, how much my heart has changed, my opinions, my beliefs, my wants and needs in this crazy world. I wonder am I the same old me? Because I liked who i was...and then i realize i am the same old Hope. Just a much better Hope.

When I was 17...

I was naive, immature, a young lover, and a free spirit. To top it off, i thought i knew what i wanted, what my heart aspired to be, and who i was. Little did i know, i was wrong, and essentially got it all wrong.  I used to dream of studying abroad, living in other countries and traveling the world. Those were my dreams...But i wanted the best of both worlds. I wanted to be in love (with my first love), i wanted to be around my family, my friends, be in college, become a teacher and make a difference in children's lives. My heart was being tugged in different directions, and i was confused as most young people are. I used to contemplate up and leaving the life i was living and start somewhere new, somewhere fresh. But i was really running away. Running from the fears this world presents, running from uncertainties, and essentially running away from what my heart really wanted. I didn't pray, or ask God where I should be. Instead I focused on exterior sources in life to decide for me. No wonder I got it all wrong.

Over the next 5 of years I became a young woman. I learned a lot about life and love. I learned who my true friends were, I learned to follow my heart and my dreams. I learned how to listen to what God was putting on my heart, how to face my fears, trust and believe in the people God had presented to me. Throughout the years of learning, changing and growing, i did experience pain, hurt and changes. I lost my Grandma in this time and was shocked, sad and almost felt a sense of being lost for a while. I felt heartbreak from my first love and had to learn to trust that what God had planned for me was not all i had thought it would be. I learned to move on, trust others' words of wisdom and essentially find myself again. I learned to be who i am and love myself for all parts of my heart-including the scared, fearful part that I tried to hide. 

At 21...

I met this lovely man. At the point of wanting to give up on love, my dreams and hopes..God literally handed this man to me on a silver platter. He was EVERYTHING my heart tried to run away from. He was soon to be the rock, the dad, the family man, the Husband, the best friend, and real love my heart wanted all along. I didn't need the studying abroad, the experiences, the single life, the partying etc. This is what I needed. Someone to finally open my heart up to, in a real and honest way. It was scary. Trust me. I tried to run, but he kept holding on and somehow by the grace of God, this man found me, shaped me and made me who I am today. This sounds corny. And i'm not sugar coating anything. We do fight, we do bicker, we do want to push each other down the stairs sometimes haha, but at the end of the day...My life is changed for the better because of the moment he walked into my life. On a bridge, on March 12th, during the first thunderstorm of the Spring season...okay, i won't keep going. Regardless. I've learned to trust because of this man. 

When I was 23...

This little boy changed my heart even more. And its true when they say you think you love your Husband more than anything until a little boy steals your heart. Levi literally confirmed what God had been placing on my heart for so many years. I knew in this moment, this is where i belonged. This is what my heart aspired to be: A wife, and a mother. All my dreams and aspirations are secondary to being a Mom and a wife. The moment I saw him (sober the next morning, after the strong meds wore off haha) I literally melted. I cried and just held this sweet bundle of joy all day. I listened to him coo, cry such a sweet cry, and watched him until I fell asleep. It was so surreal that this little boy was mine. Forever. Having Levi in my life reminds me how lucky I am. It reminds me how all the growing pains in my life have led me here to this. Being a mom is such a blessing and a privilege.  Watching your baby accomplish so many firsts and having him choose you to snuggle, or kiss or laugh with is like fireworks going off in your heart. I cannot wait for my sisters to experience this one day. 

At 24...

I am understood. I am happy. I am fortunate. I am excited to see where my life is headed. I have no regrets. I have love in all pockets of my life. I am blessed every day to be able to love my Husband and grow closer to him. I am blessed to have a sweet little boy to encourage and praise throughout his days. I blessed to have the faith to trust in God and what he has in store for me. I am still the same old Hope. I have the same interests, sense of humor, loving heart. But now I am clear about what i want out of life, and where I want my life to go. 



Take a moment in your day to reflect on how far you've come in your life. Not just in your career, or your travels. Reflect on how much your heart has changed, and where you want your life to go. Aspire to be all that God has placed in your heart to be and you are bound to be happy.
xoxo

Rock me Mama like a Wagon Wheel--& 5 Random Things..

Jackie told me to do 5 random things. And I have to listen so here goes...
(P.S. I don't know how to tag you, or your blog Jackie) --

1. I don't own a hair dryer, or a curling iron (I've never curled my hair) EVER...and my straightener is from when I was 16. (I'm 24 now...you do the math.)
All natural

2. I was 14 weeks pregnant with Levi when I got married. (Just for clarification, we were engaged 3 months before I found out I was 5 weeks pregnant--so technically this was not a shotgun wedding ;)) I couldn't drink, I was nauseas, and I didn't wear the dress of my dreams because I would get the urge to throw up in a tight dress. BUT, it was still one of the best days of my life :)

3. I love ping pong. And when our family gets together, we get a little competitive. This is real life.

4. I used to have my lip pierced. I actually really loved it. But the phase lasted a short few months.

5. I dressed up for the first time in a long time this year for Halloween-mostly because I didn't want Levi to be the only one :)

It is so disgusting out. I want Spring so badly. But, if you want to listen to a song that puts your mind and thoughts in a warm sunny place, "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker has been on repeat for a week now. I love it. I'm not usually a fan of solo Darius Rucker, but this song is amazing! I feel like i'm on a patio in a sundress, enjoying summer. Listen to it. Hope everyone's Monday isn't as gloomy as mine. I need a pick-me-up, or maybe just a nap.
xoxo,
Hope

We got tattoos-again...

If you can't tell, mine is on the inside of my upper arm-and I actually designed it and went with my own sketch for it. I really wanted Levi and an anchor, but did not want fancy lettering or a gaudy anchor. Is that how you spell gaudy? Whatever. So i wanted something clean, and simple yet wanted it to be difficult to read Levi from afar. I love it, and its already so special to me. This is also my fourth tattoo! Whooo.

Josh's tattoo is of course a ship wheel, on his freaking ELBOW! Yes, my husband is crazy, but he has been wanting an elbow tat forever. It ties in with his navy tat on his upper arm and it looks amazing! I love it so much. Our tattoo artist is da bomb.com. Yeah, I just said that.

In case you're wondering, my font is green because I want Spring. Ohio's weather is very teasing at the moment. Its sunny, then rainy, then snowing, then 70 degrees, then 30. Its crazy! I'm ready for picnics, and flower picking, and flower planting, and walking outside barefoot, and going running without freezing my bum off. This spring should be fun. Last Spring, Levi was still so little-but this year he will be big enough to enjoy the outdoors! He better start walking soon before we won't be going anywhere anymore because I can't hold 26 pounds all day haha. 17 months and still taking his time--that's my baby for ya :)

Can I just be proud of myself for a second? Okay. I don't get to be this proud of myself too often. I am on day 5 of my new "lifestlye" diet plan. Its amazing how much better you feel when you're not on a "diet" and counting calories and carbs etc. I did post a few posts back about cutting my carbs. Let me tell ya something. After a year of trying to lose these last 10 pounds, doing something like that works for like 3 days then you feel lethargic and defeated. Its too hard. Your body needs carbs. Good carbs of course. The past 4 days, i've incorporated whole grains an hour before working out and its AMAZING how much more energy I have. CRAZY I tell ya. I even did 3 miles of cardio. What? Yeah. For the first time in like 3 years. It felt great! I also realized that this whole getting in shape thing is more mental than physical. It was awesome knowing my body wasn't going to fall apart after three miles, but my mind could've told ya different :) Anyway--I feel great. No diet for me. Just eating right, and working out. I did start taking Omega 3-6-9 Complex vitamins twice a day. After reading an article about how IMPORTANT they are for your body i knew i needed to take supplements. They are also essential for fat burning-What? Taking Fatty oils helps burn fat? Yup. Also, I'm taking twice a day "Tropical Thin"-which is all natural supplement of herbs and extracts such as Raspberry Ketones, African Mango, Cinnamon, Green Tea/Black Tea, Kola nut, parsely, etc etc. It basically keeps your metabolism going and promotes fat loss. And its all natural-nothing harmful at all!

Levi has hit a few milestones in the speech field. He said Hi, Head and UP (more clear than the last time i thought he was saying up)..He is also holding things to his ear saying hi, and having conversations. Although he acts shy and won't do it when put on the spot haha. He is a lot more expressive and seems to be understanding more and more lately. Our pedi did say around 18 months it all kind of clicks. But he also did reccommend doing an evaluation at 17 months if he wasn't talking and walking. I don't really agree with it, but i did schedule an appt to see if he even qualifies for "therapy" ughh. He also started reaching and pointing in the last few weeks, which the pedi was also concerned about at his 15 mo appt. I did meet a mom at the park yesterday who's 16 month old wasn't saying words at all and i was relieved. She said her pedi wasn't worried at all. Then I realized maybe I should switch pedi's & why is he giving me such anxiety for Levi not being where the "books" say he should be. Levi is also practically running with his walking toy. Why not let go child? Haha. I think his balance is still a little off-Probably with that buddah belly.

That's it for today. I think I'll go run the steps at Hoover today. Did you know when you work out with an incline you burn up to 45% more fat than a straight, flat surface? CRAZY. Good day loves. Enjoy this St. Patty's Weekend! :)
xoxo
Hope

Our weekend getaway...

Snowshoe Mountain Resort, WV.
This post will be mostly pictures since i've been driving most of the day and don't feel like thinking :)

Josh and I decided for my Spring Break to take a little weekend getaway, just us two, and lots of R & R. I of course was in panic mode over leaving Levi for the first time for three nights, but I actually handled it very well once I said goodbye, then balled my eyes out in the car. He was in good hands. Josh and I decided on spending a weekend at Snowshoe even though we weren't really set on skiing or snowboarding-weird, I know, we go to a Ski Resort with little interest in skiing. But, we were more interested in being somewhere secluded, close enough to home if something happened, and somewhere with a different environment. It was "Spring Break Weekend" at Snowshoe, so there were concerts, contests, parties, and live comedian shows. We kept busy in the village, which was super cute.

 We had a lovely one bedroom apartment in a lodge with a beautiful view. We spent a lot of our time in the bars (we're not alcoholics) haha, we just don't get a lot of oppurtunities to go out and drink with a baby at home. One of our favorite places was called The Junction. They had awesome beer specials & a plus, served them in mason jars-everyone knows how much I love mason jars. :)

We also went horseback riding, which was our favorite by far. It was so relaxing. Josh and I had never been on horses and we were kind of scared when Josh's horse took off and started trotting pretty fast. Then we caught on and were able to enjoy the view through the snowy woods.

 

Josh's face. That's all I need to sum up our exciting adventure. :)

Then we took lots of pictures of each other, because everyone always had big bulky gloves on, and we felt rude asking them to take a picture knowing they had to take their gloves off.

Seriously. How handsome is my husband. Gah, love him.

 

Our weekend was just what we needed to rekindle, relax, and just be. We had no set plans, no diapers to change, or dinners to prepare. We really needed this break, and despite my anxieties going into it, it was totally worth it. We decided to do something like this at least once or twice a year at different destinations. Its amazing how refreshed your marriage can feel after a few days away. I reccommend it to all you Mamas out there!

I was so excited to come home and see Levi. I was a little nervous that he would have forgotten me. But once I ran through the door, he started giggling and crawled as fast as he could to me and didn't let go of me the whole night. A wonderful weekend with my Husband and a beautiful little boy to sum it up--can't ask for anything better.

Read me, follow me. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

xoxo: a cup of Hope

Perspective--

Instead of having sexy ab pictures and affirmations to be motivated, we should be motivated by this woman to the left, get it Grandma. (p.s. look at her "converse"--cute)

While on the treadmill...
I was finding some motivation in my thoughts about how to keep going faster and faster. I upped the incline and speed and averaged my mile to 8 minutes. I know that's not sweet, but for me it is! Anyway, back to this motivation. I kept telling myself, "BIKINI, BIKINI", "Think of all the cute clothes you can wear this summer, when your skinny and tan" haha. But then I look around me,(and at the rec during the day. its pretty much all elders) and they are gettin' it. I thought to myself "wow, they are pretty damn serious". So it kinda clicked in my head that they are pushing through to have a healthy lifestlye--they don't dedicate their mornings in hopes of looking good in a bikini--at least i hope not--errr, i mean more power to them!--But really, i realize that when that is my ultimate goal, i feel pressured and feel like i'm failing, since i'm not there yet. SO, the point of this post being titled perspective, is that our goal to being fit should be to feeling confident in leading a healthy lifestlye, and the nice body that comes with it is a bonus! That already made me feel more motivated and less pressured. It was nice to see the old lady next to me busting her butt, all to be healthy :) (and i couldn't stop until she did--or that would be straight up embarrassing)  My fondest memories of my grandma and grandpa were always surrounded by them exercising: pool, swim class, walking etc. They were in such great shape conidering their age! So if they can do it, so can YOU!
my post work out protein shake was the bomb.com
who woulda thought they could taste so yummy!
-i've always been scared of hating them.
Happy Wednesday-- xoxo
follow: a cup of Hope

I was inspired during my study break by Jackie at Nora and Jac to list "This Makes Me Happy". What a quick and easy post to take my mind off studying for a bit.

For me it's the little things...

-acoustic music-my choice today is Mat Kearney

paired with a rainy day, and a hot cup of tea.

-little things: my son's unctrollable giggle, my Husband's warm hugs, the sunshine peeking out after a storm.

-coffee

-my yellow running shoes

-my camera

-warm weather

-crafting

-running

-my marriage

-watching my son grow into a little man

-country music

-wildflowers

-lilies

-a good book that i cannot put down

-romantic movies & action flicks

-a quiet breezy morning with my windows open

-driving on the backroads

-love & laughter

-my simple, yet beautiful life

WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? (Thanks for the prompt Jackie)

xoxo, Hope

--follow: a cup of Hope--

MONDAY, FUNDAY?
Hardly.
How was everyone's weekend?

Mine was actually pretty relaxing. Even with the knowledge that midterms were coming up, I managed to avoid every reminder email, alarms on my phone telling me to STUDY and don't forget this, and ignoring the post-its in my planner badgering me to stay on top of it so i wouldn't slam myself. Well, it happened. Procrastination got the best of me, as it always does. I managed to lay in bed and watch movies all day Friday. I managed to write down a to-do-list. I managed to not do anything on that list. I also managed to keep the same sweatpants on throughout the weekend, except when i did have to step into public--can't embarrass my hubby now can i? :) It's alright, he had the same sweatpants on all weekend too. We enjoy lazy days and weekends, we aren't ashamed to say we did absoultely nothing.

               Betty Hall made that hat for Levi. How cute!?

 We played a lot.
anyway...
So if anyone knows about baby weight, they know it is a B****. I find myself in the middle. What i mean by this, is there is a line. One end of the line, you have the moms who 2 days after having a baby have a freaking 6 pack. Then the other end of the line are the moms that it seems like their bodies will never ever be the same. I think i'm in the middle. I definately don't have a 6 pack, but i know with time and consistency, i could have a 6 pack (flat stomach & toned will do). But it also isn't going to just happen-it will only happen by consistency and determination. So that's my goal. Levi is 16 months, and I am annoyed with never feeling comfortable in the clothes I used to wear, and always feeling blah about how I look. (No matter what my Husband says) I am so over it, its not even funny. And for the first time in my life, i have to watch what i ate, and work out consistently. All diets i tried, I failed miserably. And so I decided instead of being annoyed that one day i was skinny and could eat whatever, and now its the opposite, i should embrace it. Why not make a lifestyle change where I feel good about what i'm putting into my body, and feel good about the strength and shaping i gain from excercising...not to mention excercise is a huge stress reliever--and all those endorphins making you feel amazing is a huge plus. I used to loveee running, just for the heck of it. It was such a good feeling knowing i could up and run 3 miles no problem. SO. I have always bought certain foods organic-those that are important (eggs, meat, berries, veggies, dairy) And so i decided instead of pairing that with an occasional pizza or ice cream every week, just stick to the natural healthy foods for all my meals--even desserts. In the next 8 weeks, i plan on reducing my carb intake and only getting my carbs from veggies and an english muffin in the morning, and an occasional protein bar when i'm on the go. After 3 days of this, i already feel less bloated, and i can tell this will lead to long-lasting results. I actually don't mind cutting carbs-the problem is letting yourself get so hungry, because then if you're out on the road, what do you eat? You can't eat a freaking salad while you're driving--so the result is ordering a fry and a sandwich and promising yourself you will run 100 sprints later. sike.
this is what my meals look like throughout the day...
At dinner time i grill chicken usually and pair it with lots of veggies. My favorite is bell peppers with onions and some balsamic dressing over it. I am no chef at all, but it always tastes good and is filling.
My biggest challenge i'm finding is always being prepared. Josh and I need to prepare snacks and dinners ahead of time, because we are so tired at the end of the day, its easy to want to order take out rather than cook. WISH ME LUCK :)

Working out--
I'm doing as much cardio as my heart and body can handle! Haha. But I usually do 20 minutes of running, then 10 minutes speed walking on an incline, then three 50 yard sprints. Then i do Abs with a 6 lb medicine ball for as long as I can and that's about it. Once I get the weight off (or at least the majority) I will incorporate lifting.

TIME TO STUDY--
Did you know candles are a stress reliever? It's true. At least to me.

Any tips on how to stay encouraged and dedicated to getting fit?

Leave 'em here and follow a cup of Hope--speaking of, i think i could use an afternoon cup of hazelnut. Have a bearable Monday :)

xoxo, Hope