JOJO's Journey

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

21 days!

who of you reading this thinks that 21 days is a long time? well today, January 30th, i started what my freind jen and i call Detox. it's a pretty intense cleanse for the body. it's not a diet...but should help in shedding some pounds. but more important than that i am doing it to clean out my body, and i am also interested if i can actually do this program for 21 days. so...for the first 10 days all i eat is fruit and vegtables, and than a shake with whay protein in it....and than 21 pills. most of which all are called SP cleanse; thus the cleanse!!!! the pills are nasty. the shake is decent. and as of today eating nothing but fruit and veggies went well. but- i'ts only day 1. not sure what i am going to think at around day 2 or so. the dude that came up with this idea says that first 3-4 days are hell...so i guess, hell it is. after hell passes, my body is suppose to feel like brand new and i am suppose to have tons of energy. we will see. anyhow. day 11 i can start to eat fish and some egg whites. otherwise, more fruit and veggies. so thats what life and the next 21 days looks like. all that i do know is that i peed 9 times so far today, and usually...i pee maybe 3-4 times. whoa- thats a change.

outside of that i am so excited for tomorrow. LOST returns and i cant wait to see what happens. i am actually watching the last show from last season...man oh man!!!! i cant wait. charlie drowns...that part is really sad. but jack told kate that he loves her....so thats really sweet. and, well....i just cant wait to see what they come up with tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

birthday cake at bible study

so my bible study usually celebrates each others birthday with some sort of fantastic cake made my Anna...last night was my night. here my bible study, plus Sara and minus Robert, enjoyed some chocolate chip cheese cake, with whip cream. it was awesome!!!! completely awesome. i really wanted to eat 2 pieces....but just couldn't.
us girls couldn't pass up the opportunity to lay on each other. of course, Sara's butt got touched multiple times here...she asked for it laying that way!
i have some pretty cool friends that i am very thankful for. below are some of the fun things that i received from them. the coolest one by far was a picture of trees that fits perfectly on my living room wall. Jen, Anna and Sara were the givers of this fantastic gift. You all should come over and check it out. i love it. the flowers were given to me by Anna at bible study just to make me feel special. and of course, i did. i don't get flowers to often so when i do i cherish them! Jason blessed me with a caribou gift card; oh man...nothing is better in life than getting free caribou coffee. i got a couple cards in the mail; not sure about you all, but i love getting mail. and than the Nike tennis shoes are from me. sometimes i have this problem with buying tennis shoes. this would be my 11 pair...yes, 11....it's pretty insane. but they were so cute and so on sale in Florida that it would have been very sinful to pass them up. nice huh. so...since it is 9 days after my birthday, i guess i should probably stop blogging about it and let it be. there ya have it.





Tuesday, January 22, 2008

back to reality.

my last 1.2 hour here in Florida has been spent packing up and blogging quick like. my last two days here have been fantastic. sun and more sun!!!! yesterday Ashlee and I hit the beach before she headed to Miami to meet up with her parents for the evening....i stayed and caught as many sun rays as possible. i left feeling very very tired and a little burnt.

fun story! while on the beach i headed into a local bar to get a drink ( i was thirsty) and ended up chatting with some men who were sitting next to me and initially thought i was feeding the birds- so they got mad at me, told me stop- and than realized i wasn't actually feeding the birds. so- we hit up conversation and i ended up with some free drinks, and some fun pictures. they were harmless old retired men, who of who was from MN. so that was fun.

i wonder sometimes why i cant strike up (and attract) men my own age....interesting.

i spent a couple hours there after the sun went down and capture some good reading time and took in some of the sunset sights...although the sun was sort of covered by clouds- but i still like the turn out.


today- i spent all day at the pool here at Ashlee's house just cuz i didn't want to waste drive time and i really didn't want to deal with sand and beach stuff...i am officially sun burnt and love it. i am ready to return to MN. i miss friends and am ready to be social again. i got loads and loads of solitude while here, just what i was looking for and what i needed. i spent many hours in the word, praying and processing life's challenges. so- all is well. and even thought i don't want to give up 80 plus degree weather for the belows...i will.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

33 years ago......

33 years ago, to the day, i was born! so...happy birthday to me. amazing how the time flies. sometimes i wonder how in the world i am really 33 years old when it just seemed like yesterday that i was riding the bus home from school as a elementary kid wondering what it would feel like to be a senior in high school and sit in the back seat on the bus. and than, once a senior- what it would feel like to be a college student and enjoy freedom- and than what it would feel like to be 30 (plus some)...old in other wards!!! man - it's been good.
this morning i sat down to a very chilly patio chair (it was 53, cloudy and windy as all get out here in Florida today) to journal and i decided to make a list. a list of things that i am proud of the past 33 years and than a list of regrets that i have had (or have) thus far in my journey. i am happy to say that my proud list is bigger than my regrets list- but i am not sure i am done thinking yet. to share a few:
proud list: (these are just a few)
i have turned out to be a pretty darn good teacher
i am using my talents
my commitment to Jesus
missions/ministry- the people i have impacted
that i still am a virgin
that i have never been drunk, never done drugs
my family- so proud to be a part of them
my ability to make new cool friends (jen and anna- thats you)
my ability to sustain long friendships (sara, millers, linda, andersons, nik, mandi, chummer, ross's...you get the idea)
my bible study group
tri-althlons
grad school
my coaching career
regrets: (also just a few)
my weight
undisciplined....still, you'd think i'd have learned that already
the way i treat people....sometimes i have a mean streak
that i limit myself with what i want to experience cuz of 'fear'
grad school choice (in school, not to do it)
the way i handle money
my lack of time commitment to God- you'd think i would have learned how to do that as well
stealing- when i was a youngster i use to take suckers from the store down the road from my house (yeah, that was a long time ago...but i still regret it)
that i didn't give 100 % every day in basketball practice
that i didn't listen intently in my bible classes in college
jonathan musser

after a long time journaling- Ashlee woke up and we went to church. that was fun. i always enjoy experiencing new churches. than she took me out to the shrimp dive of a restaurant that had all old people eating there ( i wonder if she was trying to tell me something) for lunch and paid. whoa- how nice was that. than we went our separate ways for the day. she had plans with some friends and i was going to hook up with my high school friend Andrea. she is in town...crazy huh, same vacation spot, same time. so- i did some shopping to waste time while she and her friends returned form a trip to the beach; a very cold trip. than we went to there condo-house thingy and played cards, had some drinks, and watched the packers lose!!!! nice. it was great to see her. i am bummed out that the weather blow- cuz it would have been so fun to play some sand volleyball with her on the beach. next time.

got lots of fun phone calls, tex messages and emails from peeps wishing me the best on my birthday. some highlights were: a phone call from Rich Ross. i miss that kid. he lives in Seattle know and i see him maybe once a year, if i am lucky. it was great to catch up with him. tyler, jen, my niece and nephew left me a signing message, matt,linda and taylor, and a phone call from ma and pa- but i had to remind them!!!! a bunch of tex messages from ben, jay, mandi, nicki, anna and paul, weasel...oh, i cant remember who all tex'd me. it was a good day full of fun wishes and surprises. good times.

man oh man- i am beat. night. sorry no pics. just to lazy to go get my camera out of my bag and upload them. next blog.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Surrendering my Expectations works!

FYI- if you haven't read my last entry on Surrendering my Expectations this one wont make sense.
so yesterday i told you about my struggled with the weather to come this weekend and the cold front the weather dude talked about. i mentioned my attitude and how long it took for me to get over the fact the sun might not shine for me while i was here and how i had to come to terms with that. how i spent yesterday morning reading the word and talking to God about my expectations. well....this is where i spent the afternoon....in this chair.

surrendering my expectations worked. today i woke up (@ 9:30) to clouds. it didn't bug me cuz i had dealt with my sunshine expectations. so instead i sat down with Ashlee and her 2 friends that stayed the night, had some breakfast and started to chat. after about 2 hours of that i walked out onto the patio and noticed sunshine. WHAT!!!! SUNSHINE!!!! where did the clouds and the cold front go. i noticed that the clouds that still were hanging around were breaking up and more and more blue sky was moving in. so- bye 11:00 bells i was in my suit by the pool. i know- not the beach...but i wasn't sure how long the sun was going to be out and wanted to catch as much as i could and didn't want to waste 20 minutes of sun time in the car driving. so- the pool it was. which was great. the pool was heated and the hot tube was extra hot. i got a chance to read most of the morning and into the afternoon. at about 1:30 Ashlee and her friends joined me at the pool. they told me i looked burnt. WHAT???? BURNT- REALLY!!!! i was pumped. i got a solid 3 hours in the sun, and than a couple more hours of some more off and on sun with clouds. it was amazing. perfect in fact. i am a bit sun burnt but am not even going to think of complaining! i am pretty sure something God is teaching me here in the sunny state is to surrender my expectations. i know i have a lot of things i expect- i expect good friends, i expect good things to happened, i expect honesty, i expect that someday Mr. Right will enter my life, i expect things to go my way, i expect health and happiness. and i am learning that expectations sometimes need to be surrender to the one and only- the one in charge and the one that meets those expectations- even if it is as simple as the surrendering my 'sun' issue.

this evening i headed to a basketball game. Ashlee is the head coach of her high school team and i wanted to check out how she coached. she seemed to do well. her team won. it was fun watching Ashlee invest into these young students. it makes me proud. She was a lot of work back in the day when i coached her at NWC....and it was great to watch her grow into the ball player and leader we so wanted to be at NWC...and now she is teaching those things to others. it made me proud. it made me smile. i highly enjoyed Ashlee as one of my players. And i am happy to report that i highly enjoy her as an adult and friend. great to see is passing on things she has learned.



Friday, January 18, 2008

Surrendering my Expectations!

the forecast dude got my hopes up so i had to spend all morning surrendering my expectations. it was suppose to be 80 and sunny all day. and when i woke up man oh man - it was cloudy, rainy and really foggy to. so- all morning i tried to find ways to get myself out of the funk i was in due to the bad weather. i was bummed that i came all this way and the sun was hiding from me. it wouldn't be that bad, but a cold front is coming in and it's only suppose to be in the high 50's tomorrow and Sunday- so....today was suppose to be the sunny day for me! well, after spending 4 hours on the porch listening to the mist hit the leaves on the trees and reading many upon many Psalms and praying that God was change my attitude, i decided that it was time to get out and enjoy the weather regardless. so- i put on my suit with high hopes that I'd be able to take the jeans and sweatshirt i had on off and actually use my suit. i got to the beach and it was still really foggy- the rain had stopped so that was a bonus at least. i eat some fish at a bar that was ocean front and spent an hour just watching the waves. than out of no where the sun decided to poke out of the clouds and show itself. so...i ran to the car (literally), got a chair and towel and hit the beach. of course....(cuz i have bad luck)....by the time i got there the sun was gone again. i was mad and decided I'd sit anyways. put the tunes on and drifted off to sleep. i had taken my sweatshirt off cuz it was warm enough, but left the jeans on. i woke up......and the sun was out and i was hot. so...i got about an hour of good sun. so today turned out to be good....surrendering my expectations was hard and i am sure will be hard as well tomorrow and the next day since a cold front is coming in and the clouds will remain and the warm will drop to mid 50's. yuck. but, i have to remember that it's 50-70 degrees warmer than MN right now, that i am enjoying ocean scented air, that i can walked around in flip flops and read my bible on the porch and... as i look down at my shoulders and arms...i might have even got a little sun burnt today- whoa!!! is that possible with only an hour of actual sun. if so- than today was a great day! here is the close of what my evening with the beach looked like.

Frist day on the beach!

So this is pretty much what the sky has looked like here in the sunny state...or so they say its the sunny state. Yesterday the sun came out for about an hour yesterday and looked like this. it was warm out (79 i think) so that was nice. my day was fine. i didn't really care that sun wasn't out cuz i was on the beach, sand was between my toes...and it was my first day here so i didn't really care. my day consisted of: coffee and some homemade strawberry cream cheese on a bagel. i took a really long walk along the beach and watched a couple dudes kite board. (Sara, i am sure you are jealous), i sat on the wet sand (cuz it rained that morning) and watched two kids make a sand castle and remembered how fun it was to be that age, sow some really cool birds pretty close up and watched some dolphins swim very close to shore for a long time, did some shopping in some really tourist shops- bought a post card, some gum, and a necklace. while i was on my walk i noticed a beach front house that has Christmas snow men still out front. i thought it was sort of funny; at the beach they want snow and in places that has snow...we want beaches. so...theres the beach snow men! i than proceeded to leave the beach cuz it started to rain again and decided to get a manicure and a pedicure. that was fun! and now my nails look great. that night Ashlee (who i am staying with) and i went to a Mexican restaurant and had some great food and great conversations. we hung out for a spell at home and than went to bed.
I also watched the forecast for the nest couple of days and to say the least...the cold front has followed me to Florida. The weather dude said that Friday was going to be the sunniest day all weekend long- so, as i went to bed i was excited for Friday and to spend a day on the beach with my tanning lotion and books.


Sunday, January 13, 2008

2008-

man, i haven't blogged in a long long while. sorry about that.

just been busy. most of it has been fun busy. brought in the new year with a random group of fantastic people. we went to boston's restaurant and had some great pizza and than went bowling. we had 22 people there bowling, and it was riot. i brought some prizes for everyone to win when they got a strike. everyone seemed to enjoy it. my team got 2nd place out of 4 teams....ben was a little annoyed we didn't get 1st!as i look back at 2007 i can honestly say that i only drank one can of dr. pepper the whole year and as of January 2nd..i am back on the dr. pepper. i bought a 24 pack and am trying to only drink a can every couple of days...cuz if i let myself i could drink 2-3 cans a day. so...my first can tasted so good!!!! it was cold and perfect. yummy. my other resolutions from 07 were so so accomplished. i have lots more disciple to work on.as i think about 2008 and making some new years resolutions and what i want to focus on this year; i'm thinking about a message i heard that challenged me a couple weeks ago. the message challenged me (us) to focus our resolutions on other people instead of ourselves and to identify areas of life that need to be surrendered and given up to God...Pastor Al also phrased it as 'what do i need to do to prevent any guilt, disappoints, and regrets in 08. One of the things i am going to focus on for sure this year to worry less about life's challenges, stressors and issues and to pray more about them. worry gets me no where- and prayer just might. so it's my resolution- when i feel annoyed and frustrated about 'life'...i am going to worry less and pray more. simple, right???? not so sure. but i am determined to get it done. of course, i have less important resolutions on my list as well...none, of which i need to bore you with.

the past couple of weeks i have been busy with school life. just getting on top of things and trying to pre-plan some stuff. i decided about 2 weeks ago to take a long weekend and take a trip to Fort Myers Florida and i leave Wednesday night and am very excited to take 6 days to myself and just chill on the beach. yes, i am going alone. just me, the sun, the beach, the water, my books, my bible, my sun tan lotion, my ipod, some new tunes to listen to, some much needed naps. i am staying with a Friend- so the trip is gonna be extra cheap. super excited!!!!