What this Blog is All About - Our Life

We have started a blog. Why? To share our lives with the many family and friends who don't live near us. Seems over the years everyone has scattered. (Or rather, we have scattered) Shane's Family in Idaho and Ginger's Family in Wisconsin. There are also the wide range of friends, all over the country, we have made through TurningLeaf seminars. We thought this would be a nice place to keep the world informed of our lives. (Those who dare, anyway!)

Life, Babies & Nutrition

Holly Smokes!  It has been a year since we have updated this blog.   A text from my Mom this past week reminded me that this blog was still here.

Most everyone we hold dear follows us on Facebook so I haven’t felt the urge to write anything out.  We live very transparent lives.  I understand some feel we are crazy for living our lives this way but it works great for us.  We tend to ignore any of the whispers. We have enjoyed keeping our loved ones connected to us, even if sometimes we don’t feel connected to them.  I suppose this blog might be a great avenue to tap into, we’ll see how that goes this coming year.

This past week an individual we have come to love as family passed away.  Our hearts have been aching for the family he has left behind.  Death can often times become a reminder of just how short life really is.  At the funeral my best friend, his daughter, read from a journal of memories.  It touched my heart that he left these memories for his family.  I started to think of how different the world is now from the generations before us.  Technology has not only shifted the ways we can connect but also what we can leave for our kids to know us by.  I often thought how cool it would be to have known my ancestors better and thankful for the few pieces I do have of them. 

Shane is still working for Hoovestol.  This company is contracted with the post office and Shane works Wednesday through Mondays from 3:30 am to about 2:30 pm. It is a job we do not take for granted since he is home every night and many times pulls a better income than other truck drivers who have to stay on the road for months at a time.  He is also working anywhere between 20 to 30 hours for HTC Trucking.  This is a company he owns with his parents and sister.  They are currently running 4 trucks out of Cedar and employ 4 full time people, including his Dad.  Most of any profit is being left in the company, including any salary for him, so there isn't much of an income from it at this point.  HOWEVER, Shane is getting good use of his bachelor’s degree in business.  He runs all of the books, manages employees and helps his Mom with finding and negotiating loads.  He also takes care of various miscellaneous things which most people don’t think of when having to run a business. We see this as an investment in our future, not only for us but for our children. 

Shane and I treasure the time we do have together since we tend to work overlapping shifts and rarely have the same days off.  I am also on the lookout for some part time work I can do from home.  I am currently working about 30 hours per week at TurningLeaf and still love every minute of it.  Everyone knows it’s my passion in life, so I won’t go on and on.  However, I would like to start doing some things from home to help prepare for growing a family. It is no secret we have been trying to start a family.  I would like to be home part time when that day arrives, which is why I have slowly been shifting my hours in St George.  We have no idea how it will all work but trusting God does.  It is also Shane’s hope that someday he can shift into running HTC full time and we can then set our own hours.   It’s very important to both of us that we have the ability to travel as much as possible, especially to Idaho and Wisconsin where a large portion of our family resides.  We have come to believe that we create our future by the steps we are taking now. 

Our fitness and healthy living attempts continue.  We are by no means perfect at it but learning it’s not about being perfect.  We tend to make at least 3-4 dinners per week that I would consider healthy.  The rest either consist of left overs or unhealthy dishes. Breakfast and Lunch more often than not are on the Healthy side. For me personally, the food aspect of living healthy has been a huge challenge.  I LOVE treats and pretty much anything with sugar finds its way to my mouth.  I feel like I have finally gotten the fitness piece down.  I work out in some form almost every day and have been working with a personal trainer 3 times per week.  The bottom line, however, is that you can work out all you want but without shifting the diet, it’s almost impossible to move forward.   I have played with the idea of going back to school to become a registered dietitian. WHOA!! I KNOW!! Where did that come from?  Well, it comes from my obsession of improving not only my own quality of life but others too. This one area of my life, nutrition, keeps kicking my butt!!  Working in the Mental Health field has taught me that most people who enter the field have done so because they are in need of help themselves or have had a loved one who suffered with Mental Health.  For me, I need help with nutrition and it is always something that completely fascinates me. Do I always live what I learn?!? NOPE! BUT, everyone that hangs out with me on Facebook knows I am always posting something about fitness, nutrition or helping others.  Why not combine them all?

I could write an entire post about our trip to Alaska so I am going to save that for later.  Hope I do it soon though before I forget some of it.  I have a few friends who keep a travel blog for this reason.  Sure wish I had done that.  For now, I will just leave a few of my favorite pics of Shane and I from that trip.






Well, I suppose that is enough for now.  Sure hope I post more than I did in the last 12 months.  Much love to everyone!