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Another Friday...

11/06/2009 *Sara-Marie* 0 Comments

Random Thought of the Day
I found this picture on my 18 year old sister Melissa's twitter account and it made me laugh, so I had to share! This was just this past August on my birthday. As you can see, I've always wanted to be a princess (Sara means princess so clearly it fits!) and I haven't grown out of it yet! (Obviously!) For as long as I can remember, I have had the same birthday cake: strawberry cake with vanilla frosting and rainbow sprinkles. It is my FAVORITE cake and I want the tradition to continue. The girls look so cute in this picture...love them!

Faith
Encouraging Verse of the Day:

Love
"Love is like a butterfly, the more you pursue it the more it eludes you, but if you are calm and still it will land on you shoulder."

When you are with someone for a while, sometimes you forget about all of the little moments that you share together. This picture of Mark and I is from the first time I went to visit him in Vermont for a ball. This weekend was so perfect and it was the weekend that I realized that I was in love with him. It was this overwhelming feeling that I had never felt before and that's how I knew that this was something different. I hope that I never stop feeling the way I felt that night...

Career

It is now 2 weeks since I lost my job and I really don't want to be unemployed anymore! Not only are the bills piling up, but there is only so much TLC and WE TV that you can take! But I'll keep calm...

Health

Today is the first "weigh-in day" since I started to focus again on weight loss. Unfortunately, I did not lose anything this week...but I also didn't gain anything! I'm going to stay positive because I didn't really focus on exercising until Tuesday of this week, so I'm hoping that next Friday will provide us with some results!

I haven't done any exercise yet today, but I promise to go out later on this afternoon for a nice walk. It's beautiful out, so I have no excuse!

XOXO

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I think I'm going to have to learn some French...

11/05/2009 *Sara-Marie* 0 Comments

Random Thought of the Day

So despite the fact that I'm not even engaged yet, I think I found the destination for my future honeymoon. Scratch that. I know I found the destination...

Behold Hotel Château Eza in Èze, a thousand-year-old medieval village more than 400 metres above the Mediterranean Sea:


These pictures don't even give this place any justice! I just saw a whole segment on this small, romantic village on the Travel Channel and I fell in love. Even if no one ever ends up popping the question to me, I will go to this place at some point in my life...who is with me?!

Faith
Mark 8:36 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?"

This verse is one of my mother's personal favorites. I can recall millions of times when she would try to drill this into our heads. There is a lot of truth to this verse...often times we try with all of our own might to gain material things in this world...a great career, big house with the white picket fence, fancy car of the year, etc. Yet, if we don't take the time to honor God, to spend time with our family...to be a good person...we will lose the most important aspects...and our souls. As my father always said, "You can't take your money with you to Heaven!"

As an ambitious individual, I do strive to be "successful" in this world. I am the first person in my family to obtain a bachelor's degree (Melissa is working on it now!). I do want to get married, have a beautiful house, and live a life free of financial struggles. But what are we willing to give up in order to receive those things? This reminds me to stay focused on what is important in life and the rest will follow. If I continue to trust in God, He will bless me. This does not mean that God doesn't want us to be successful, HE just wants to give it to us. He wants us to do His will first and then the rest will follow. Because the Word also says in Psalms 37:4, "Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart." So I'm going to focus my life on trusting God and giving Him full reign...because I know that He can do a better job of blessing me than I can do on my own!

The reason this verse even came to mind was because I was listening to my favorite Christian band, Casting Crowns and they have a song called "American Dream." It tells the story of a man who was chasing the American Dream but ends up losing his family in the process. It's very touching...check out the music video here.

Love
"Sometimes what you want isn't always what you get, but in the end what you get is so much better than what you wanted"~Anonymous

I just love that quote! Last week when I was at home in PA, we had A LOT of girl talk (as always) but much to my surprise one night it included my 7 year old sister Jubilee and my 8 year old niece Leilani! They clearly have both followed in my foot steps of being completely boy crazy. It was too cute to hear them talk about their young loves...Blake for Leilani and Brendan for Juby. Yet, it took a pretty sad turn when Juby started telling us more about Brendan and how he just moved away so they will never see each other again. She ran to her room and pulled out a letter that she wrote to him and tried to give to him at his last day at school. As she read to me the letter that ended with "PS: I like you" she started to choke up...like real feelings of sadness. It's crazy how early in life we begin to fall in love and experience loss. At that time we feel like the world is ending, and that we'll never love again. But just like this quote states...we don't always get what we want at that time...but what life has in store for us in the end will be way more than our minds can even comprehend. So I hope that I can be a great big sister and aunt to these girls by teaching them that the emotions they feel now are real, and while it may be the first time...its definitely not the last. They will meet many boys (and men!) who will try to make the cut...but only one will love them unconditionally and forever. And that special man will make them forget the rest.

Yes, despite all of the times I've suffered from a broken heart I am still a hopeless romantic.

Career
No new developments here...still waiting to hear back from potential employers and looking for new opportunities.

Health
I power walked 2.5 miles today again! It may not seen like much, but its better than nothing. And with these easy tone sneakers, my legs are really sore. My lower back is sore too...I'm not sure if that was from Kim Kardashian's workout or if I'm walking a little weird because of the unbalanced shoes. We shall see...I could definitely use a massage! Tomorrow is my weigh in day...I'm hoping I at least lost 1 lb!



XOXO

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Here we go...

11/04/2009 *Sara-Marie* 3 Comments

Well hello! So, I never thought that I would ever have a blog but as I was going for a walk this beautiful morning the idea came to mind. Since I have been going through a lot of changes in my life as of late, I first thought that I should start keeping a diary. However, these days who actually writes anything with a pen and paper?!

Now, you may be asking yourself, "What does Sara-Marie have to say?"

There are many aspects of my life that are currently in transition so I figured that I would discuss the four important parts of my life that I value the most: Faith, Love, Career and Health.

Faith
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight."

Those that know me very well will know that I was raised in a very Christian home, the daughter of a pastor. Having a personal relationship with God has ALWAYS been extremely important to me...despite the many mistakes I've made in my life. (Most of them made in my crazy college years!). But being a Christian doesn't mean you are perfect...it just means you are forgiven!

As I get older, I realize more and more how crucial it is to keep God #1 in my life. The verse quoted at the start of this section has been a favorite of mine since I was very young. Let me tell you a story about this quote...

After losing my job a week or so ago (I'll write more about this later), I went to PA to spend time with my family. On Sunday morning, I was ironing my clothes for church and thinking to myself, "God, what am I going to do now?" At that very moment, my energetic 7 year old baby sister, Jubilee, jumps on top of the bed and in her best impression of my father says, "I've got a scripture for you!" Juby begins to read Proverbs 3:5-6 from her childrens Bible. I turn around, shocked, and say, "Where did you get that verse from?" She replies with a laugh, "It's the first page!" and runs back to playing with my niece and nephew in the other room. Many might take that as just a coincidence. But I know that God used my baby sister to reply to my innermost thoughts. It reminded me that no matter what I'm going through right now, I just need to trust in God. He will lead me to where He wants me to be.


Love
"I can't promise that this will be easy, but I can promise that it will be worth it." - Mark



Mark and I have been together for over two and half years. Just like any couple, we have gone through ups and downs, happy times and tough times. But just when I want to give up, I remember what he told me that one day. That our wonderful memories will be worth so much more than the troubles of the bumps in the road. Right now, our biggest struggle as a couple is TRUST. We know that trust is the most important aspect of a relationship so we are both committing to working on this. We know that we love each other, so our love will get us through this. Because LOVE ENDURES ALL THINGS!

Career
As I mentioned before, I lost my job on Friday, October 23rd. While at first extremely devastating, I am taking this opportunity to rethink who I am, who I want to be, and most importantly what God wants me to do. So far, I've had some pretty good responses from a few companies and started interviewing this week. We'll see what happens but I'll keep you posted. All I know is that while I'm enjoying the time off from the 60-70hour work week I was used to, I also realize that I'm bored and I need to go do something. Fast.

Health
SO yea...plain and simple: I need to lose weight. I need to be healthier. I want to be better. Like most women, I've tried 2840923840932 times, but I can't stick to it! A few months ago, I lost about 10 lbs and I was loving it! I loved the way I was feeling and looking and then I did what I always do...I STOPPED DOING WHAT WAS GIVING ME THE RESULTS! Why do we do this to ourselves?!

I weighed myself last Friday, 10/30 and I've gained back 5 of those 10 lbs I originally lost. Good news is that I'm still netting a negative 5lbs, but that still means I have 45lbs more to lose. I mean based on what a 5'2 young woman should weigh, I should probably lose more like 60lbs but let's face it. I'm Puerto Rican and God blessed me with some voluptuous assets...there is no way I could ever be a stick..nor would I want to be. I like my curves...I just want to keep them in check. I would like to use this blog to hold myself accountable to sticking to making healthy food choices and doing some type of exercise everyday. I don't want to do a crazy diet or anything I can't stick to. I want to keep things simple and really make lifestyle changes. Last night, I bought those new Reebok Easy Tone sneakers that are meant to help you tone your legs and butt by simply walking. I probably shouldn't be spending money when I don't have a job, but it's an investment in myself. (Check them out for yourself)

This morning I walked about 2.5 miles with these sneakers and let me tell you...after about 10 minutes you start feeling the difference. Right now, I already feel rather sore so they've got to be working! So my goal is to walk outside (or on the treadmill if the weather is bad) for an hour everyday and then do some type of toning exercises for half hour 3-4 times a week. I have the "Fitness Trainer" game for Wii and Exercise TV On Demand has tons of 30 minutes videos. Yesterday, I tried Kim Kardashian's Ab Video. (Don't judge me!) It was very interesting to say the least. If you can look past her perfect hair (which she wore down in soft curls!), boobs in your face because she was wearing a corset, big hoop earrings, and feeling seduced by the way she keeps saying "I feel the burn..." in a softy and sultry voice...the regimen was actually good. The video is really just watching her personal trainer tell Kim what to do and then of course you do the same thing. So I'll keep doing it..heck I wouldn't mind having a body like her.

Let's just take it one pound at a time...


If you've gotten this far, it means I haven't bored you to death! Yay! Thanks for reading...until tomorrow!

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