text stringlengths 1 330k |
|---|
For the record, getting my brows done (semi-permanently, ok? they're not technically permanent, so take a deep breath if you're having a moral dilemma with my so-called face tattoos) was 100% worth every second of pain and discomfort. You see...I'm one of those poor souls who got super into the over-plucked eyebrows tr... |
This was after high school. Eyebrows don't grow back, y'all. |
That's a lesson I learned the hard way. |
I got soo tired of penciling in my brows everyday - tired of accidentally rubbing an eyebrow off after working out, or getting splashed in the face by my baby in the pool. DISAPPEARING EYEBROWS ARE NOT MY JAM. |
Having eyebrows that I can count on to be there? That, my friends, is priceless. |
So, bring on the numbing cream and yearly fills!! Bring on the red-hot razor blade eyebrow torture tool (I honestly don't know if I'll have the courage to do hairstroke next year haha. It huuurt!)!! |
Something I've decided: blogging is so weird. Thanks for reading! Byyyyyeeeeee |
PS Call Stephanie and Imani Artistry if you're in Utah and looking for an awesome eyebrow expert to make all of your semi-permanent eyebrow dreams come trrruuuuueeee! You're welcome. |
Sunday, January 22, 2017 |
King of the World |
Several years ago I was introduced to Christian worship music. I remember that night with surprising clarity (I don't remember a lot of things now that I've been chronically sleep deprived for four years haha). It was after closing at work, I was 19, and a dreamy boy with a guitar made me fall in love as he sang "Overw... |
I didn't start listening to Christian worship music regularly until a few years later (another post for another time) - and, since listening to contemporary Christian music regularly, I've felt impressed over and over that I need to share this music with my LDS brothers and sisters. Not only has my heart been touched a... |
SO! Here's a new side of Calee for you! I'm going to post live videos singing some of these songs. They're unedited, raw. You'll probably hear Violet running around in the background in some of them haha. I've struggled with my own imperfection, and have thought maybe I just shouldn't post at all. So please be nice to ... |
This is my first installment of Christian worship music for y'all: King of the World by Natalie Grant. |
I love this song. The lyrics read: |
I tried to fit you in the walls inside my mind |
I try to keep you safely in between the lines |
I try to put you in the box that I've designed |
I try to pull you down so we are eye to eye |
How could I make you so small |
When you're the one who holds it all |
Just a whisper of your voice can tame the seas |
So who am I to try to take the lead |
Still I run ahead and think I'm strong enough |
When you're the one who made me from the dust |
How could I make you so small |
When you're the one who holds it all |
Ooh you set it all in motion |
Every single moment |
You brought it all to be |
And you're holding on to me |
How could I make you so small |
When you're the one who holds it all |
Who out there DOESN'T relate to this song..? Where are my fellow control freaks at..? What I love most about this song is that it highlights how perfectly powerful God is. How can I possibly expect to understand all of His motives and designs? How big of a waste of energy is it for me to constantly try to explain every... |
Maybe start a Christian music play list and add this one to it, yeah? |
(Listen to the fabulously talented Natalie Grant sing it for you here) |
Have the best Sunday. |
Thursday, January 19, 2017 |
Weirdly Relatable |
I teach Relief Society once a month in my ward (for my non-LDS readers out there, that means that I've been asked to teach in our adult women's class). I was *thrilled* to be called to teach again! Teaching has always been one of my favorite callings...except when I was called to teach a class of ELEVEN four-year olds.... |
Sometimes teaching in RS can be a bit...well, weird. I stand up in front of this group of women and try to make stories from the scriptures or church history relatable. The problem, I've found, is that a lot of these stories are really UNrelatable...and it makes my job a little bit tricky. |
EXAMPLE FROM LAST MONTH'S LESSON: Can we talk about Abraham sacrificing Isaac for a second?? How is that story relatable?? To anyone?! I mean...honestly. Is the person who wrote the lesson manual really expecting for all of us to go, "Yes, I need to strive for the faith to sacrifice my kids if I heard a voice telling m... |
If I heard a voice telling me to sacrifice my child - my ONLY child...the child my wife begged God for over the course of a lifetime and then gestated that child in an 80-year old body (can you even imagine the misery?!) - I would probably check myself into the nearest mental hospital. For my own safety, really...becau... |
So instead of even getting to the deeper meaning behind the story of Abraham and Isaac, I led a very interesting discussion on being pregnant at 80 years old and what a hardcore woman Sariah must have been. TRUTH: 'hardcore' is the edited version of the word I first typed to describe Sariah. I was pretty sure they were... |
This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just like it and think it's cute. |
I though I'd post it right here in case you're thinking,"Wow Calee is a total crazy person" |
because...this picture is so cute that it might make you decide that you like me anyway. it working..? |
My lesson this month was on being an ensign and a light to the world (I taught this last Sunday). When I first glanced over the lesson, I felt a little nervous to be tasked with teaching such a broad topic...where would I even start? The section on the early pioneers and their 'prophetic vision' had me particularly wor... |
But you know what happened..? I had a real moment while reading that section. A moment where I those early pioneers, those leaders with prophetic vision. Here's what caught my attention: |
'I marvel at the foresight of that little group. It was both audacious and bold. It was almost unbelievable. Here they were, almost a thousand miles from the nearest settlement to the east and almost eight hundred miles from the Pacific coast. They were in an untried climate. The soil was different than the black loam ... |
As I read that section, my mind went to each woman in my ward. I wondered how many of them feel like they've been working hard to follow God's voice in their lives, how many of them have experienced treacherous (emotional/mental/spiritual) paths? How many feel they've been asked to 'walk' (mentally/emotionally/spiritua... |
Each of us stands in 'untried climates'. With each new challenge we face - financial struggles, marital issues, a child who has been hurt or abused, a child who is rebellious, health problems, addiction/substance abuse, etc - we find ourselves on new ground. We've never 'raised crops' on this ground, we've never experi... |
I'm sure there were days when the saints wondered if God had forgotten them. It's 13 degrees outside right now in American Fork, Utah, and I can't help but think of those early saints in rudimentary houses braving that first winter. They survived, though...although I have no doubt that survival was hard fought. |
The point I'm trying to make, I guess, is this: We might not know HOW God is going to bring all of the pieces of our messy lives into focus and make all of the brokenness right...but if we have enough faith in the WHY, we'll be ok. HINT: the WHY is that He loves us. |
Heavenly Father has been leading His children through deserts and across oceans and out of slavery and through the wilderness since the beginning of time. |
YOU are a part of that glorious heritage - embrace the journey. |
AKA Put on your hiking boots and get to walking, lovers. ♥ |
Thursday, January 12, 2017 |
Boy Crazy |
You guys. I in high school. Not like the socially reclusive or quiet kind of know, like the pretty but shy girl who wears glasses in the movies and then gets transformed into the Prom Queen and falls in love with the cool, recently-remediated bad boy? No, no..I was not that kind of awkward. |
I was awkward on the other end of the spectrum. Liiiiike the loud...slightly obnoxious (haha let's be kind to Calee right now, ok??) kind of awkward. Cheerleader (I'm not saying all cheerleaders are obnoxious, calm down), ASB, honors classes, weirdly Mormon and obsessed with boys. |
I thank heaven daily that social media wasn't around when I was 13-19, because, YOU GUYS, it would.have.been.B-A-D. You know people who post cryptic, overly emotional post-break up Facebook statuses? I would have been the QUEEN of those...and my reign would have been gloriously uncomfortable and awful. |
you're welcome for sharing this fantastic photo of my no-eyebrow, greasy middle-part, long-hair-with-no-layers self. |
sophomore year. |
please don't kill me, ashley. |
I was a very nice, loud person. A person with a lot of feelings about a lot of things and very little ability to keep any of it to myself. I'd cry in English class (haha oh man - a story for a different time), I'd tell hysterical stories LOUDLY to my entire seminary class every. single. day at 5:45 AM (I don't know how... |
Why am I telling you about high school? When it was the WORST? Because I know that there are a fair number of you in high school right now. And it's nice to know that you're not alone in your awkwardness, right? |
I can only imagine how devastatingly impossible it must be to ever feel like you're enough in high school these days. Instagram?! Pinterest?! PHOTOSHOP?! Oh my heavens...I struggled with a major inferiority complex with just my big sister - who wore headgear at night and drove a hideous gold car (nothing but love, Nikk... |
A part of why my HS experience was so weird, I think, lies wrapped up in a gospel truth. A truth that I didn't understand fully - and that ended up causing me a lot of pain and heartache. |
Some people will talk about girls who are 'boy crazy'. You know what I mean when I say that, right? A girl who's entire self esteem depends on a boy liking her? Who can never seem to go too long without a boyfriend? Who is majorly devastated if/when any relationship fails to live up to the 'happily ever after' hype? Th... |
Let me explain: |
I grew up listening to lesson after lesson in Sunday school (and sacrament, and Young Women's, at mutual and FHE...) talk about the importance of family. My purpose as a daughter of God (yeah, this is oversimplified, maybe - but it's what I understood in high school) was to get married and have kids. I was meant to be ... |
It seemed pretty straightforward to me that in order to really achieve my highest potential as a person in this life, I would need to fall in love and get married. I don't think I've ever heard a talk, to this day, where a woman said, "I recognize that God has a different plan for me in this life - outside of having a ... |
The issue with hearing and internalizing all of those messages over the years (for me, at least) was that it translated into this weird obsession with love - specifically, a BOY falling in love with me...and not just ANY boy...but THE boy. My eternal companion. :enter sighing and lights streaming from the heaven and an... |
Oh my goodness this post isn't at all what I thought it was going to be. I set off to share an embarrassing story or two about my HS experience...but it turned into some real self-realization haha. |
The important stuff I've learned SINCE high school about this: God cares about ME more than He cares about me falling in love and having a family. Just me. Me and what I am and who I'm becoming as a human being. Me as a person who is learning every day. I've learned that there isn't a sure-fire path that leads to happi... |
Whew. I should probably edit this before I post it, but you know what? I'm just going to leave it raw and real and let you do what you will with it. So there you go. My thoughts for the day. Maybe I'll come back to it and talk about why my vision of men was so naive, or how I shifted my perspective away from specifical... |
Until then. |
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 |
An Update of Sorts |
You know what I've discovered? (other than the HOT IRON HOLSTER and holy crap it's changed my bathroom's life - and, no, no one is paying me to say that haha) What I've discovered is that I really like Instagram. I like Instagram because I can snap a cute picture on my phone, add a humorous/silly/thoughtful few lines o... |
Blogging is a little more difficult. It requires more thought...more planning. All of the additional space for words and thoughts equates to a deeper level of honesty for me. Looking around the blogging-world I recognize that honesty isn't necessarily something that ALL bloggers feel motivated by (have you read THIS ar... |
"So, what's the problem?" you might ask. "Is being honest difficult for you, Calee..?" |
The answer isn't that simple - but, if I were to get right down to it, I guess I would say: yes. |
I want to be honest, believe me. I'm one of those people who was born (gifted or cursed depending on the situation haha) with the tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve, to share my opinions and feelings openly. It seems, though, that being really - totally and completely - honest isn't always acceptable. Being brutall... |
The reason I'm telling you all of this, is because I'm going to start opening back up and being here more often - even though that level of honesty feels a bit scary and daunting lately. The last few years have taught me a lot of things (my marital issues, my sick baby, my divorce, etc) of the hardest lessons for me to... |
There is healing in honesty. There is healing in not being quiet. Don't worry, all of you worriers out there, haha. I'm not going to start spilling my guts about all of my deep darkness (OR WILL I??). I'm just going to stop being stopped by the fear of judgement and chastisement. |
So here I am. Hey. Hi. Hello. It's been a while. Good to see you again. ::virtual high five:: |
I'm going to try to share weekly here - with videos of my favorite Christian songs and thoughts on life and motherhood and being single and dating and how it's all scary and wonderful and crazy and awesome and weird and hard. |
Thanks for caring - and even if you don't, thanks for reading all the way down to this last line. |
Blog Design by Get Polished |
Have you ever experienced that moment when you are consistently losing weight and all of the sudden your great progress just stops??? Your weight just doesn’t seem to progress anymore and feel that your journey has already ended?? |
We'll miss you Glenn! |
We’ll miss you, Glenn! |
You have just experienced a “Weight Plateau” my friend! |
A Weight Plateau is one of the most critical phases that one should consider facing when trying to lose weight. It is a phase that could lead one’s progress to success or down to failure, but haste your fear as this is a normal thing when it comes to losing weight and is definitely beatable! |
A Plateau normally lasts between 3-5 weeks, so patience will definitely be needed! |
Here are 3 of the main reasons why we face “Weight Plateaus”: |
1. Inconsistent training |
Being consistent with your workout plan is key! Always try to make time for your workout even on how busy your day seems. Things such as cheat days and lack of commitment to your goals would definitely lead you to a Plateau and could lead you to a relapse which would lead you back to square one. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.