Amanda on a Mission

Here I sit picking up my pen...ahem my keyboard again. To start this blogging venture one five or so times again. If you look back this isn't the first time I've started again. I truly hope it isn't my last. This time I come at it with a different heart. I don't want to blog to gain popularity or status, I simply want to share my story.

I've been a Christian since I was 8 years old. I grew up in church and rarely missed a Sunday. I'm now 30 and I really thought I would be good and settled in my faith by now. But I'm not. I'm truly still a toddler for God. I'm just beginning to gather my feet beneath me and walk with my Father daily. This is scary and awesome all at the same time. This year I've felt a tug on my heart to change. Maybe it's turning 30 and maybe it's having my first child but I feel God calling me to change myself from the inside out.

I feel I have spent my life conforming to this world. Living my life freely to do and go as I please. I was in control. I did my Sunday duty but I didn't listen to God and His plan for my life. By His wonderful and amazing grace He got me to a GREAT place, but I know I've been missing out on so much.

So here I am now. Seeking God with my whole heart and journaling it here. I have an amazing life. A wonderful husband who loves me good, bad, ugly and in between. I have a beautiful step-daughter who adores me and it my little partner in crime. God has also blessed me with my own daughter who is a wild, wonderful mess of fun. I'm so grateful to Him for my blessings but I can here his voice saying I am made for more.

So I begin my journey seeking Him in what I do. My goals for this transformation are:

-seek him first in everything I do

-to love better and more

-to be a better servant aka wife and mother

-to take care of my temple aka weight loss

I hope you stay with me through this journey. I will share all about my goals and God's glorious work within and around me.

Dogs, Marriage and Cheer

It's been one of those days. It's probably just a woman thing or maybe I'm just really strange but my emotional state this week has been...um horrendous. Yes I said it the first step in having a problem is admitting you have one right?!

I mean seriously my poor husband. It's been such a roller coaster of tears and outbursts that even I have started to wonder about my sanity. I blame the majority of it on the stress of running my own business. I won't go to far I'll leave that to other posts but I'll just say I run a gym with about 60-100 (depending on the time of year) alone. I have help here and there but it's mostly on my shoulders.

Anyways back to my day, I'll keep it short and sweet...the good part will come in the end. It was just a humdinger, starting with a sore throat yet a desire to get my nails done. For background here I haven't had them done since before my wedding which was in September. I would love to say it's because I'm so low maintenance but really I just have no time!! It was definitely an "I want to be pampered and spoiled for half a second could you let me have that please real world?!?"

Answer? NO! Yes my husband so lovingly said go, here's the money. But in reality we had plans for the evening and still had to run to town. Now let's stop for a moment I must clarify "town" for probably the majority of you people who grew up in a town with more than two cops and more than 1 stop light. GASP yes those places exist. The ones with two cops I mean. I can smile when I say I grew up in one. More on that later....I know I know but I tend to ramble so I'm trying to stay slightly focused in each post. Ahem anyways, the town I live in now is far from where I grew up, but it still doesn't posses things such as chain grocery stores, aka HEB, Wal-Mart, and the mother ship Target *sigh*. Anywho we have to make weekly/bi-weekly trips there to save our sanity. So I being the planner that I am knew that if I had my mani/pedi as I planned to I would spend the rest of the day beating myself up for being selfish...yes I'm one of those.

Fast forward and we are sitting in the mall parking lot fighting. WHY? I'm not sure either of us really knows. I know really it was my fault. I was blaming him for me putting myself second. Again. Again. I'm really new to this whole marriage game but I'm learning that you really shouldn't do that. I will stop here to brag on my husband. He puts up with me really well. I can put on airs of being the perfect catch but sometimes I'm a mule. At least I know this. Now having said this he's not always the best comforter. Which in all honesty is what I needed. So how exactly does he make things better? He takes me inside and buys me a wedding ring.

Yes a wedding ring. We skipped that step. We had a kid (his not mine), got engaged, bought a house, had a wedding, and finally bought a ring.

I have not stopped staring at it and the picture doesn't even do it justice!!

I was kind of on cloud 9 for the rest of our trip, until we returned home to find our newly adopted lab Leo had escaped from the backyard.

Isn't he a cutie?? And a total sweetheart. Except for his unfortunate chewing habit which is what landed him outside. I'm hoping he will come home but I really think someone picked him up he's just too sweet.

To make matters worse or better depending on how you see them. our evening plans were to attend a marriage banquet. Now you can probably deduce from the a fore mentioned fight we need all the help we can get. Marriage is hard. Through in a divorce, a kid, in-laws, and a girl who's been doing her own thing for ten years...well yea you catch my drift.

This banquet was different. It was food and friends just talking and hanging out. The guest speaker was Kevin Leman. If you've ever heard him speak you know why it turned out to be such a fun night. If you haven't I highly recommend him.

You can check him out here http://www.drleman.com/store/index.php and it's not a plug he had really interesting things to say. Plus all of two people read my blog so why bother?! Ha!

I will say this he talked about birth order and relationships. First borns are driven perfectionists. Babies of the family are social, not very driven, but very loveable. The thought provoking thing for me is I'm the baby but I act like the first born. My husband is the first born yet acts like the baby. Yes I plan to study more to see what I can find out!

The were just some candy hearts on the table :)

A Year Ago Today

I know people always say if you had told me a year ago I'd be where I am today...well you know. My life has been a never ending series of twists and turns. Every now and then I get comfy and I think to myself "Ah this is where I belong." Then reality comes and dumps me out on my butt rear.

So where has that lovely queen of fate have me today?

Well let see...I'm a newlywed

*Que awe's here*

I'm a former teacher.

Just some of my favorite teacher humor.

Now this one would make any knowledgeable person teacher screech in horror "YOU'RE A FORMER TEACHER?!?" Why would they do this a normal person might ask? Because it's January. Stating that I'm a former teacher means I must have done the horrifying, unbelievable, speak not thus you be involved act of quitting mid-year. 

Yes I, Amanda Cooper, am a quitter. I'm even a special breed, I'm a teacher quitter. I'll go into greater detail later but if you're a teacher, married to a teacher or know a teacher really well you can probably sense the above mentioned never thought I'd be here comment might apply to this.

But wait there's more....

I became a (step)parent. I prefer bonus mom

I love it so much sometimes I think my heart will explode and then it infuriates me so much the next minute. More on that later and it doesn't infuriate me for the reasons you might think!!

(And I know I'm shameless with the wedding pics but what a better way to show them off)

there's still more....

I'm a competitive cheer coach and gym owner.

 This last one has sure been a doozy. I mean I think somewhere along my life growing up I kind of...maybe thought it might happen. But this time last year was when I put this crazy plan into motion. I can joke about it but it truly is one of my greatest accomplishments. It's my baby and my girls are my world. I will share more about this wild ride in the future because I promise if you've ever seen Cheer Perfection my gym has the same drama on Texas size steroids!!

So I'd love to say I'm one of those super confident people who says bring it on 2015...but after my 2014 and fate who is not always my friend I think I'll just say thank you God for the blessings and please let me survive the next year.

~BLESSINGS~3~

I'm very thankful for

I am blessed to have my faith. The Lord has seen me through many many many trying times in my life. If I didn't have a strong faith in Him I don't know where I would be today. So thank you Lord for living in me :)

~BLESSINGS~2~

Today as I'm starting to recover from whatever it was that I had I realized I'm very lucky to be healthy. So today my blessing of thanks is health.

There are so many people who struggle with cancer, unknown diseases and sicknesses that make life harder to live. I'm thankful that other than the occasional cold or flu I'm healthy! So thank you Lord so much for my health!

Love It or Hate It

Ok. Today's topic: (drum roll please)


LIFE


Now I will warn you I am no expert by any means. However, I've been through alot shit in my small span on this world so I feel qualified.


First of all I have learned that now matter what your dreams/goals/hopes for your life may be it is probably going to end up coming out different. My advice for you, suck it up!! Yes I know that's not what you want to hear but in all honesty, no one does.


For example you planned on going to college, graduating, and getting this AMAZING job. Post-graduation your still stuck in the same low paying job you were in before. Guess what so are alot of people. You can whine and complain about or you can suck it up and move on!! Trust me your way better of doing the second.


The truth of the matter is I look around everyday and see people would rather whine about what they've been given in their life instead of opening their eyes to the many blessings they have been showered with. Yes I do agree it is human nature to always strive for something better. I have no problem with this, but what happened to when life hands you lemons making some freaking lemonaide?? Seriously people get with it!! You can't change the hand you got dealt you just have to roll with it. And let me tell you, your outlook on life will be much better when you learn to suck it up and look on the bright side. (I can hear nods of agreement!!)


Good we're making progress. Now I know that this topic is one of my many 'Amanda Soapbox Preachin Topics'. But today its not about that. Its just about helping people to realize the good things in front of you. So you drive a 1995 POS, if it drives and get you from point A to point B I'd say that's something to be thankful for!! Now I really don't care if you believe in GOD, Buddha, etc. we all now that there is something greater than us controlling this wonderful world we live in. And to my knowledge I have yet to find a single human being that is capable of controlling their own destiny. Of course I'm not saying stop making choices that will make your life better!! I'm just saying slow down every now and then and take a full view of your life. Look at your family and friends. Look at your job and your social life.


Not to shabby huh??

Ode To Blogging

Ok. I have realized that many people in this world blog. I haven't every really truly understood the fascination with it. But lately I've been thinking a blog can be whatever you think correct?? Well I've also been thinking that life in my head is pretty interesting (just ask my friends)! Soo I think I may give the blogging world a try. Who knows I might just dazzle the world with my blogging!! I also should probably put a disclaimer on my blog.

So here it is, and if future bloggers fail to read this I apologize. I am opinionated! Plain and simple. I know I am not always right but this blog is my thoughts and feelings about the world that I live in. Yes I agree that you live here too and your views may be infinetly different but that really doesn't matter much to me. Start your own blog!! My blog is here to entertain the masses, and whether or not we would like to admit it we are entertained daily by the judgments, mistakes, and lives of others. (Its true I can hear you nodding) Heck Hollywood itself is just full of that kind of stuff...but that is another blog for another day.

So this is Amanda Dawn Stallings Blog. Love it or Leave it makes no real difference to me. Also I should add that although I am a college graduate I am a horrible speller. Many mistakes will be made that will probably make spelling bee champs around the world chringe. But you know what?? That's another one of those lovely things that make me....ME!! And I kind of find it endearing.

So watch out bloggers Amanda is here and there is no telling when she is going to go away!! Until next time blog world!!!