It's time to break up!

It was a secret affair between sugar and I. Well Not really secret, I was just in denial on how much sugar entered my life. When I say sugar, I mean refined sugar...

I am sure a lot of you can relate. Or maybe not, it could be just me, however I get a funny feeling I am not the only one that was/is in denial on how much sugar we have on a daily basis.

I recently came across an article that talks about sugar compared to cocaine in addiction, actually there are many articles supporting the fact that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. (Scary).. here is a little snippet of one article I came across:

"We've known for years that sugar isn't good for us. It promotes tooth decay, provides quick highs and lows and offers nothing but empty, nutritionless calories that pack on the pounds. However, it appears that it is even worse than we previously thought. Researchers recently determined that refined sugar is actually more addictive than cocaine. In a recent study rats were given a choice between sugar water and cocaine, and 94% them chose sugar. Even the rats that had previously been addicted to cocaine switched to the sugar once it was a choice. No wonder it's so hard to give up that 3 pm pack of M&M's, it's more addictive than illegal drugs." 

That's a scary thought. So during the month of February, I have decided to break up with my love affair for refined sugar. I am calling it, Sugar Free February... I thought I would publish this on my blog to make me more accountable for my sugar consumption. Feel free to join me in February, if you do, let me know.. strength in numbers as they say. It is time for me to kick this addiction.

When I was a girl, with pigtails and curls...

I have recently been assigned to look over the Young Women between the ages of 12-18 for my church within my area. Tonight, we got together to work on some goals for the girls to work towards to help the develop their spiritual growth, personal skills and develop their wonderful talents. While we were talking about goals, I asked the girls to write down how they would like their futures to look like, what kind of homes, mothers, wife they wanted to be and what they would like to accomplish in this life time. As they were thinking and writing ideas, I was reflecting on what I thought my life would turn out when I was their age.

When I was younger, well I mean, a lot younger I had the ideal idea on how my life should turn out. It went something like this:

When I turn 18, I will finish high school, meet the man of my dreams (would have had to serve a mission for the Mormon church of course) and get married. Have like a million babies and live happily ever after. The end. Oh wait... maybe live in a mansion, and have someone cook and clean for me and my family.

Of course, we all know life never goes according to plan. I am embarrassed to admit that even at the ripe age of 16, I still thought this fantasy of being married at 18 was possible, why not, two of my sisters married young, one 18 and the other at 19.  Now I know you are all smiling and possibly laughing at my young mind and impossible dream, but believe it or not, it happens to some young women in the church. It just never happened to me.

Now I am 31, I smile to myself and I am glad that my life didn't turn out the way I wanted it too, way back when. Although a lot of the time I find it hard to accept the plan that my Heavenly Father has for me, I know that He has my best interest and knows what he is doing. Does this mean that I need to put on a happy face all of the time? No, I don't think so, but it does mean that through times where I feel like I have been forgotten, that I can turn to my Father in Heaven for comfort.

So tonight, when my girls tell me their goals for the future, such as being a back-up dancer for Justin Beiber, I just quietly smile to myself and and love them for their dreams and ambitions. Anything is possible ;)

My first post :) Just a small introduction.

Welcome to my little corner of the cyber world where I can share, well pretty much anything. I am 31, mormon and share a unit with 2 other girls. Life is fun, challenging, surprising and rewarding.

I have 3 older sisters, who are dedicated to fix me up with any guy.... this can be entertaining at times.

I am the favourite aunty to 10 nieces and 5 nephews. Well I like to think I am the favourite.

I work full time for Stampin' Up! doing a variety of fun things. I have had all sorts of experiences with the company, from singing at major conventions, creative projects for a lot of differet occasions, customer service, public speaking, administration and the list gets longer, the more time I stay with the company. I am coming up to 5 years! Who knows what's next.

I have had many experiences in life to be greatful for, all of which I would not trade for the world. From teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to singing at Parliament House in Canberra. I have learned not all things work out the way we had planned our life to be, but I have been pleasently surprised.

So this blog will be filled with lots of different things, such as reliving my recent travels, to showing my creative side, you may get a few stories of being a single woman in the LDS church, some heartfelt, some funny and some just down right hilarious. Who knows, I guess that is the beauty of blogging, anything goes :)