Who ya gonna call? STRESSBUSTERS!!!

It's been a stressful year in my household, and I've learned to survive in this turbulent, stressful world, you need some excellent stress busters! I took a stress management class in college, and have combined what I learned there with what I've learned going through my own stress, and have put the best of the best (for me, at least) here. :)

Self-Hypnosis
Go to a quiet place where you can sit, close your eyes, and concentrate on just your breathing. Slow it to a slow, calm rhythm. Envision a point of light in the darkness behind your eyelids. As you watch the point of light, let it grow, larger and larger, until you find yourself in your special place. For me, the special place is standing on a hillside opposite a mountain of pines. The wind through the pines brings a quiet whisper to me that all will be well. I listen to the breeze reassuring me, and give myself to the wind, leaning into it, and feeling it buoy me up. I stay in this place until I feel totally relaxed and calm, and then slowly retreat back into my conscious mind to "wake up."

Primal Scream
When all the stress is pent-up and ready for release, find a good pillow, put it over your mouth, and let it ALL out. Scream and scream until you feel exhausted. It's a great outlet for the stress. This is named for the theory that our first extremely stressful experience was our birth, and babies come out screaming. It's a very natural response to stress, and is really very helpful when used.

Exercise
I have two forms of exercise I love: spinning and Zumba. On the spin bike, I set the resistance to a comfortable level, pop in my earbuds, turn on my MP3 player, and start slow and then build up to as fast as I can go until I feel the endorphine rush and the ensuing release of pent-up stress. In Zumba, there are so many positive, happy people all dancing, laughing, and working out stress that you can't help but leave feeling much happier than you were when you arrived.

Cooking
When there is someone else causing my stress, I cook something that I can beat (like punching bread dough or slapping my food chopper repeatedly). I feel better after pulverizing the food, and then my family and I get to enjoy the end result--yummy food!

Music
This one has been awhile since I don't have access to a piano, but I used to choose a music selection that fit my mood (In the Hall of the Mountain King was a great one for stress) and pound it out on the piano, and then would move to either soothing or bouncy/happy tunes. I improved my piano skills and felt much better when done.

Selective Muscle Relaxation
Lay on your back in a comfortable, darkened place. Tighten your toes, then relax them. Focusing on keeping them relaxed, tighten your other foot muscles, then relax them. Keeping your entire feet relaxed, tighten your ankle muscles, then relax them. Move up to tightening your calves, while keeping your feet and ankles relaxed. Continue to move all the way up to your face and ears, while keeping relaxed the muscles you've already released the stress from. Once your entire body is relaxed, just lay there for awhile enjoying being completely relaxed.

Chocolate
Stimulates your happy center in your brain. Need I say more? ;)

Wisdom of a decade?

For our 10-year wedding anniversary, we opened up a time capsule of sorts in which we had put predictions and fun thoughts from our family as well as our own predictions, hopes, and promises for our first 10 years of marriage. Some of what we read through was humorous (one brother-in-law predicted we'd join the mile-high club) and some was wise (advice that marriage requires open communication and honesty). All of it has caused me to reflect on the past decade of marriage. Here are my thoughts.

1. Arguments will happen. One or the other of us will occasionally be in a bad mood, and even in an antagonistic one. What we fight over will rarely matter. What will matter is how we conduct ourselves during and after the fight. It really does take two to fight. If the issue really doesn't much matter to me, I've learned to stand down. If the issue is actually important (which it rarely is) then I will stay and fight, but that is when I must be careful to fight in the right way--without put-downs or blame (and this can be hard at times).

2. Humor really is the spice of life, and it has become the life of our marriage. We still make each other laugh and enjoy silliness even after 10 years of sharing the same stories and jokes.

3. Tough times can cause a great amount of stress and even threaten a marriage in the short-term, but when it is seen through, it ultimately strengthens the bond. Great people aren't born out of the good times, but out of trial and tribulation.

4. Dreams of perfection are just that--dreams. It takes work to achieve anything near perfection, and even then, perfection is rarely perfect. Marriages aren't 50/50. I have learned that I have to give 100% all of the time.

Healthier Calzones

I LOVE my homemade calzones, and so does my hubby. The problem with them, though, is that they are high in fat, and hence high in calories, too! So while I was making them the other night, I was dreaming up ways to improve on them. Here's what I've come up with to keep all the flavor and lose some of the fat, and to improve the healthiness of the finished product!

Start with 1 pound of whole-wheat bread dough (instead of the white bread dough). Divide it into 4 portions. Turn each portion into a 4-inch-diameter circle.

Mix an 8-ounce package of low-fat (neufchatel) cream cheese (in place of regular cream cheese) with 1 cup low-fat shredded mozzarella cheese (in place of regular mozzarella cheese). Stir in Italian seasonings to taste. Divvy up into 4 portions and spread on dough rounds, leaving about 3/4" around the edges.

Top with low-fat ham, red bell peppers, and diced pineapple (in place of fattier meats like pepperoni or sausage).

Fold each round in half over the filling and seal the edges with a fork to make the calzone. Brush the top with extra-virgin olive oil (a healthy fat). Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes. Brush with more extra-virgin olive oil. Bake another 10 minutes or so until it is browned to your liking. Enjoy! (Makes 4 calzones)

Update!

Sorry for the long hiatus! Many things have happened over the past 3 months in our family. Here's a glimpse at what I've been up to:

Hubby got a new job in mid-February! He started selling cars, and even sold one on his very first day! YAY!!! Here's the initiation he had celebrating his first sale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FheeA6pdf3o

Haleigh took dance lessons from mid-March to mid-May! There is something so cute and uplifting about watching a group of 3- and 4-year-olds doing their best impressions of dancing princesses!

Christopher started playing machine-pitch baseball in early May. This is his 4th year in some sort of baseball program! He really enjoys it, and to add to the experience, his daddy is his coach!

Erika started rolling, army-crawling, and sitting independently! At 10 months old, she now has 2 teeth and is a cute, babbling, raspberry-blowing little ball of energy!

Cameron lost his car-sales job on May 12. He loved selling cars, and is currently looking for a new job in the same industry.

I turned 30 on May 15th! Do I feel any different? No. In the words of a favorite movie of mine, I'm "thirty, flirty, and thriving!" (13 Going on 30)

I've discovered Zumba! This high-energy aerobic dancing done to a Latin beat is so much fun! I go to the gym for a 1-hour Zumba class at least once a week!

I'm hoping to update on a much more frequent basis again. Thanks for sticking with me through the ups and downs!

My Love Story

With Valentine's Day only a day behind us now, I have been asking friends to share their love stories with me, as I'm a sucker for a good love story! I decided to share my own here.

I met Cameron in July, 1999 while we were both working at Lagoon. We were both rides operators on the same end of the park, but did not meet until the foods department was shorthanded and recruited some rides operators to assist in catering a party. I was assigned to ensure the meat servers didn't run out of meat, and Cameron was assigned to serve meat. We and the other 2 meat servers had a lot of fun joking around and having a break from our usual work assignments, and after the party was finished being catered, we had some time before our evening rides shifts, so we went to the employee kitchen to get something to eat and to relax. Our friendship started there, and grew over the next month.

In August, Lagoon held an after-hours work party at Lagoon-A-Beach called the Beach Bash. I spent a week prior to the bash convincing my dead beat boyfriend that it was over, and I informed Cameron's girlfriend that I was stealing her boyfriend. (I don't think she believed me, but it happened.) We spent the night dancing and laughing, and became Lagoon's newest couple. For almost two months, everything went really well.

In early October, Cameron called me on my ride's phone to tell me he wasn't going to wait for me in the park at closing because he was going to walk a female friend out, but would see me at the rides office when I got there. When I did get there, I couldn't find him, so a friend told me where he was, and walked me to where Cameron and his friend were, just in time for me to see her kiss him. I was really upset, but I was Cameron's ride home, so on the way, I gave him a little glimpse of my thoughts by telling him she was a slut. That night he dumped me via email, saying it wasn't ok for me to say bad things about his friends.

After a couple of days, he wouldn't answer my phone calls or emails, and he called in to work, so I showed up at his house to talk to him about what had happened. We decided to remain friends and see where life took us.

After another couple of days, we were at my car after work when a friend in his mid-twenties told Cameron, "Man, if I had a girl who treated me the way she treats you, I wouldn't be dumping her; I'd be proposing to her." Cameron mulled this over for another couple of days.

In mid-October, we were watching Titanic at his house, when out of nowhere he asked me to marry him. I said, "Sure." After an engagement of nearly 8 months, we were married June 9, 2000 in my stake center.

This June marks our 10th anniversary. Our story has been rocky at times, dream-like at times, filled with challenges and achievements. We've been blessed with 3 beautiful children. And I really wouldn't want to edit our story at all. :)

'Twas the Month After Christmas

I found this on myephit.com, and just had to share!

'Twas the month after Christmas and all through the house
Nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.
The cookies I'd nibbled, the eggnog I'd tasted
At the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number
When I walked to the store (less a walk than a lumber) -
I'd remember the marvelous meals I'd prepared;
The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared.

The fudge and the fruit cake,
the bread and the cheese
And the way I'd never said, "No thank you please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt
And prepared once again to do battle with dirt-
I said to myself, as only I can, "You can't spend all winter disguised as a man!"

So away with the last of the sour cream dip,
Get rid of the fruit cake,
every cracker and chip,
Till all the additional ounces have vanished,
I won't have a cookie - not even a lick,
I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie;
I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.
I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore -
But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot
Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

--anonymous

Helpful Household Tips For New Year's Cleaning

To shine your appliances, rub them with rubbing alcohol.

To remove a bathtub ring, let warm water sit in the tub with vinegar (approx. 1 cup) in it. Wipe away with a damp sponge.

Either a baking soda paste or rubbing alcohol will remove permanent marker and crayon marks on walls/floors. Test a spot first to make sure it works with your finish!

Vinegar water will counteract pet urine smells.

If you sprinkle your carpets with baking soda prior to vacuuming, it will draw out odors.

Sprinkle baking soda in kitty litter pans after filling with fresh litter to prevent your stinky kitty from stinking up the whole house when she's done.

WD40 prevents soap scum from sticking to your shower doors. Wipe a thin film over the doors after cleaning.