Cyber Mondays

If you haven't already checked your email, you've probably received at least a handful of adds on Cyber Monday! Cyber Monday is the Black Friday of the internet. Of course there were wonderful deals on Black Friday and even Thanksgiving Day sales.

Cyber Monday is just another day of mass consumerism. I am guilty of this sin. I feel like I have to spend as much time trying to find the best deal.

When it comes down to it, I end up shopping for myself and not for others. Although, Cyber Monday is filled with free shippings and 25% offs, it makes me buy things that I don't really need or gifts that aren't really that thoughtful.

So, in th future, even if it's a quick buy. I should prayerfully consider it. Because, I don't need to spend loads of money on junk.

Top Ten Tuesdays on Wednesday

I've been about a day behind. But I can do it! 

TOP TEN Reasons Why I Love Thanksgiving!

1. FOOD - It would be a lie if I said anything before food. I mean come on. Thanksgiving is a vegetarians best friend. So many side dishes to choose from not containing Mr. Meat!

2. FAMILY - The family from Omaha is coming over!

3. Working Out - Gym is open all this weekend. Gotta work off all that pie!

4. Shopping - Yes, I will be at Target at 5 am. Just need some java!

5. Cleaning- I will have time to actually spend some quality time cleaning my room, car, and doing the pile of laundry that is growing by the second.

6. Down Time - Be able to just relax and enjoy the eggnog.

7. Christmas movies - You can listen without getting "those" looks.

8. Snow - Ok, I usually don't like snow, but I will tolerate snow for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

9. Smells - The house smells of baked goods. I'm hungry... :)

10. CHRISTMAS!! - Christmas is just around the corner

Media Monday

I didn't have any blogging creativity on Friday, thus no blog.

The creativity is not flowing today, but I will try my best.

This week: TWITTER

It seems like everyone these days has a twitter. If you don't have one now, you will eventually give in and tweet.
For a lot of people TWITTER is unknown territory. What is a tweet? Is a hashtag something you eat? Why have we reduced our lives to 140 characters?
Here is the Twitter language as define by Wikipedia, twitter wiki(wiki's will be explained in a later session), wepodedia.
Twitter: is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets.
Tweets: are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.
@lmwilliams: I really love Thanksgiving!
Retweet: Abbreviated as RT, shows  you are tweeting content that has been posted by another user. Example RT@lmwilliams2009
How it would look on twitter:
@yourname: RT @lmwilliams2009 I really love Thanksgiving!

Hashtag: This one I'm going to define myself. Basically it is a way of grouping certain subjects or topics. It is the number sign followed by your topic of discussion. Example #laurensblog.
A more clear example of how that would look would be:
@yourname: I read Lauren's blog and it was very informatative #laurensblog.
This "hashtag" becomes a link that you can click and it will come to link that will show others who have added that hashtag in their tweet.

These are the basics of twitter. There are so many things you can do with a twitter. You can use it as advertising for your blog, let people know how your day is going, share a favorite link or recipe, even update people on upcoming events and shorter bible verses. They are great for bloggers, groups, businesses, even churches and pastors.
If you are interested you can sign up at Twitter
If you have any questions you can click here to email me!
Last but not least, here is a little hint to help you if you want to put a long link in a very short 140 character space.
Twitter has come up with this nifty little think that shortens urls (links to websites). All you have to do is go to bit.ly  and enter the url.
Hope this helps! Please comment about future media blogs!

God Bless,
Lauren aka lmwilliams2009.twitter.com

Thankful Thursday

As I was driving in my car this morning, I was trying to figure out what I could be thankful about. Today I feel some type of sickness coming on, but I'm thankful it's not the flu!
Today, I'm thankful for the freedom of speech! I've been thinking a lot about this topic since President Obama has been Asia. He has been pressing that China have more freedom. I'm so blessed to live in a nation that allows me to write this blog and worship my GOD. This is a short blog just because I'm not feeling the greatest, but that doesn't mean I'm any less thankful.
Thank you GOD!

Dear Lord,

Dear Lord,
Help me with my procrastination. Help me feel ready to get up, no matter what. Help me not to be a gossip. Help me to LOVE! This I pray, amen!

Weigh-in Wednesday

I'm chuckling to myself about my weird fascination with alliterations. Wednesdays will probably be my hardest day because I am allowing myself to be vulnerable and honest. But, if I can't talk about my successes and failures, I'm lying to myself.

Spiritually: I am doing quite well spiritually. I am enjoying my quiet moments with the Lord. I am so excited for my calling and am trying to incorporate that in my current position. I feel my spiritual growth has doubled or even tripled in such a short period of time.

Physically: Everything's great... moving on.

I wish I could tell you I've been as diligent with my exercise as I have been seeking God. I just started working out again and really need to get on the ball. Sometimes, I feel like it's ok to not workout and be a little more on the heavy side, but I realize that my body is a temple of God and how I treat my body is how I'm treating God. When I think of it that way, I better start putting things that are healthy ie, fruits, veggies, whole grains, and shy away from the "fatty" foods ie, ice cream, cookies, soda, french fries. I also need to push my self when I workout, not kill myself, just make sure I'm breaking a sweat. My goal is to be around 135 and I have quite a lot of weight to lose. But, I am confident that I can exceed my goal. The other goal I have is to run a marathon. 30 lbs to my goal! I have been drinking around 48-64oz of water a day, but the hardest thing for me is to sleep through the night. Last night was the first time I slept through the night in a long time. Today I feel rested and ready for the day which is awesome! Thank you God, for answering prayers!

Emotionally: These past few weeks my emotions seem to be all over the place. One minute, I'm happy the next minute I'm so angry. I blame it on my lack of sleep, but I still need to have control of my emotions. So, yesterday I took a deep breath and tried not to be as sensitive as I have been. I even faked excitement instead of treating people like there accomplishments don't matter.

Mentally: I took the practice GRE last Saturday, and let's just say that my scores were less than desirable. So, I'm starting from the beginning. I'm taking an open online Algebra course. It isn't for credit, but it has lessons, tests, and assignments, the best part though, it's free! I'm also doing a government course by the same website. I was able to find the books via interlibrary loan, one of the perks of working at NWU. I'm also educating myself on money: budgeting, saving, spending.

Wow, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! I'm excited for all the things that are developing my life!

God Bless,

Lauren

Top Ten Tuesdays

As promised, here is my daily blog.

TOP TEN Things I'm Excited For This Week:

1) Glee Episode (Wednesday Nights on FOX) - As a singer, this show for me is the cherry on top.

2) Star Trek -  This dvd came out today. If I wasn't on a budget, I would totally go out and buy it. But, I decided to pay some bills and get a concert ticket. This movie will have to wait. But, I can't wait to own it.

3) John Mayer's New CD - I haven't heard it yet, but I am excited to preview it. I don't listen to much pop music, but I am excited to see what this musical genius has created.

4) Wednesday Night Church - I absolutely love getting together with my church family and this intimate setting is no exception.

5) Service Friday! - I call Fridays my service day because I do my volunteering on those days. I am a mentor at a local middle school and I hand out backpacks of food to an elementary school.

6) Getting back into a workout routine - It has been so hard trying to workout after my hiatus, but I am doing the NWU Fitness Challenge, so I am going to get my 20 hrs before DEC 11. 19.5 hrs to go!

7) Starting my sewing project - I got a sewing machine last week for my birthday and have a huge sewing project to tackle. I'm nervous, but super excited to get started.

8) Knitting - I finished my first scarf of the year this weekend and am working on my second one. They will make perfect gifts and they are inexpensive and practical.

9) Diversity Festival -  There is a Diversity Festival this weekend at Wesleyan. I am super excited to be part of the workships and enjoy the culture.

10) Snow - It hasn't snowed in Lincoln yet!!

xoxo

Lauren

9 Days Until Thanksgiving, 38 Days Until Christmas, 44 Days Until the New Year

Blessings

If I am going to improve my writing skills, I must first dust them off. I feel so inconsistent in some parts of my life. Cleaning, working out, blogging... So, I've decided if I have themes for each week day, I will be more motivated to write more. I have so many goals and aspirations and not enough motivation. I am the worlds biggest procrastinator, I forget the wonderful feeling of accomplishment when I get something done. For example, this weekend I knitted a scarf. I actually started it and finished it. It didn't come out exactly as I had planned it, but it will work. Instead of ignoring the important, I've decided to just do it and be DONE!

With that said, I will give each day a theme:
Media Mondays
Top Ten Tuesdays
Weigh in Wednesdays
Thankful Thursdays
Frank Fridays

If you know me, I love alliterations! I will now explain each one.
Media Mondays: I will review a movie, show, music, books, whatever.
Top Ten Tuesdays: I will have a top ten list of something different each week.
Weigh in Wednesdays: Weigh in how I'm doing spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Thankful Thursdays: I will be thankful for anything and everything.
Frank Fridays: This is where I will tell it like it is...

I will also try and blog when I find something interesting or just need to write...
Ok, BREAK!
xoxo
The Grumpy Toast aka Lauren