Week in Review...

1. I almost ate a whole bag of the new Pretzel M&Ms, they are so addicting. 

"They melt in your mouth, not in your hands"

 2. Who doesn't love a Sloppy Joe...

3. Next to "My" Starbucks, a Chipotle is going in!

4. I cracked a frozen egg. 

5. I almost broke this heel while walking

6. Drove through another Winter Wonderland. 

Another 16 inches

7. Today, she was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. A much deserved Honor, I just wish she was here to accept it. I wish she was here to give the "Thank you" speech and I wish she was here so I could call her and tell her Congratulations. 

Stephanie Thurman Phillips
2011 Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Inductee

Temptations on Main

If you live in Ames, Iowa and you have never been to Temptations on Main.... GO!!!! Some of the BEST chocolate, fudge, truffles you will find anywhere! Aside from that, some of the best people you will find anywhere! Everytime I am in Ames I stop by their store and fill up on my favorite chocolates. Even after I moved out to the East Coast, I am able to order chocolates which they ship directly to me! It doesn't get much better than that when you get to your mail box! So for those of you who have been to Temptations, go get yourself a treat and if you have never been, then I urge you to give them a try. Trust me you will not be disappointed!!

Family...

I love my family. My parents, my brother, my grandparents and my extended family. I also love my Iowa State family. I enjoyed every day, every minute, every second of my time at Iowa State and if I had the opportunity to do it all over again, I would. In a heart beat I would do it all again and not change a thing. Like I mentioned in a previous post we were a "Family", the players, the coaches, our families, and of course the fans. We were all a Family (a group of people who share common beliefs and/or activities). My teammates were like my sisters, we had each others back. We stuck together through thick and thin, through the fun times and most importantly through the rough ones. It was the Iowa State family that I loved just as much as my own. It was the Iowa State family that I loved being a part of for 4 years and will continue to be a part of for the rest of my life. Like we have always said, "Once a Cyclones, Always a Cyclone".

I am amazed at how the word "Family" can be deceived to a negative term. I am amazed how people in society will find any reason, any excuse, for people to feel sorry for them. For people to think they have been mistreated. And for people to make comments from behind closed door and not show their face. Stand up for yourself and what you believe in. If you have something to say come out and say it, stop hiding behind anonymous.

Family: Two or more people who share goals and values, have long-term commitments to one another, and reside usually in the same dwelling place.

Family: A group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, and/or goals.

Enough said.....

Introducing Miss Patches...

Can you ship animals across the country? Like a cat? I really miss having my kitty, Miss Patches, living with me. A few years ago my parents took over custody of Miss Patches, not because I was an unfit parent but because of the lifestyle I was living. I was traveling ALL the time and Patches was getting lonely without me. Especially after I spent 8 months in Iceland I felt like she barely knew who I was. I wish I could regain custody of her and bring her out to Connecticut. I think she would like it here. I have the perfect window seal for her to sit in.

Miss Patches at about 5 weeks, on her first car ride to Ames.

Miss Patches in my Ames apartment, loving life.

Miss Patches showing off her hot bod.



An afternoon in pictures...

Week in Review

1. Spent an afternoon at the Beach

2. Enjoyed Martini night at the Sushi place

3. Got the BEST PACKAGE EVER from my bff Kelsey Lynn

 4. Got an early Birthday card with a bunch of coupons!

5. Took a fat kid night

6. Ate more of the batter than the actual cookies

7. Spent countless hours working in my office



Amor

Maybe its just me but I think if we remove negativity from our lives and love one another we will be happier. And if we are happier and we laugh on a daily basis we will live longer. We will not stress as much, we will not need so much help to get through days. The amount of drugs/medicine/alcohol that is in circulation in this world will decrease. Maybe I am crazy for thinking this way. Maybe I am the one that need the drugs but I just think if we change our outlook on life and think more positive we will be more success and we will be happier. I truly believe it is that easy... 

Missing her...

I think about her everyday, but today more than usual.

I miss her everyday, but more today than others. 

I smile when her face crosses my mind, but I cry when I can hear her voice. 

She had the ability to light up a room just with her presence 

and it lights up my heart when I think of the legacy she left. 

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you"

Philippians 1:3

"Dreams are free therapy."

As a child I remembered dreaming of hitting the winning shot in the final four. I also remember dreaming of winning a million dollars. In my dreams I always won. I think that is why I felt confident in my everyday life. In anything I took on in life, I had confidence that I would win and be successful. Some people can call that cocky, but having confidence in your self is the first step in success. If you do not have confidence in yourself, who will? So set goals and dream of achieving those goals. 

"That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it... We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself." 

~Paracelsus

Running...

My new past time is running. Like I mentioned earlier, who would have thought, me, running, by choice, but I am! I have found a new desire for it, a new enjoyment from it, and a new perspective about it. Its not only a chance to relax, let off the stress of the days work but a chance to think over the day. I especially like to run when I am stressed, when I need to blow off steam. I sometimes talk to myself while I run which I am sure scares the people next to me. But who am I to care, out here on the East Coast nobody knows me :)! Running has also been relaxing to me, which I never thought would be possible. It calms me down, I have tried to make a routine of going to the gym and putting in a couple miles at night. It makes it easier to go to sleep at night, clears my mind.
If only I would have had this mindset in college, ya know during preseason, when running was the last thing I wanted to do. When the 5:30 am alarm went off and I dreaded the look of my running shoes and the smell of the indoor track. Now I like it, well not so much the smell but the look of an open trail, an empty treadmill or during the summer an untouched sandy beach. I can't wait for spring to get here when I can start running outside again, especially running on the beach, definitely one of my favorites. I would like to run a half marathon sometime in the near future. I don't think I am even close to ready for it but maybe after a few more dates with the treadmill I will be ready. That is if this new past time doesn't wear off.

A day off...

Finally a day off, a much needed day off. Out of the office and catching up on all the little things. Well first I should say Happy MLK Day! What an AMAZING man and what he did for this country will never go without appreciation!

I told myself last night as I laid down in bed that I wasn't going to set an alarm and I didn't care how long I slept. Well thanks inner clock/alarm for the 8am wake up. I forced myself to lay in bed till about 9:30 when I finally rolled out of bed. Walked straight to the coffee maker (Thanks Mom!) and made the biggest cup of liquid caffeine! I then proceeded to get dressed and head to the Mall! I mean what else do you do at 10am on a Monday off work?!?!? I walked the entire Mall, in and out of almost every store only to decide I really don't NEED anything :). Of course my mind thinks like this "Well since you didn't find anything at the mall to buy, lets go to TJ Maxx cause you can always find something there!" So thats precisely what I did and of course ended up spending a little bit of money. I mean who doesn't need a "ChopGenie"??? After my TJ Maxx trip I swooped by the grocery store and then quickly home to use this new ChopGenie! I made a lovely bowl of homemade guacamole that I quickly demolished half of for lunch...

I spent a majority of the rest of the day relaxing and watching the College Basketball marathon on ESPN. What great games, although I would have liked to see Villanova win and not Uconn! I also spent about an hour, I would have stayed longer but I would have turned into an icecube, at the beach. Yeah you heard me right, the beach, looking at the beautiful ocean. Which who would have thought the beach and ocean are just as pretty during the winter with snow than in the summer?! Have a look for yourself and let me know what you think....

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." 

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Indecisive...

"Indecision becomes decision with time."

Everyday we are faced with tough decisions, or what we think are tough decisions. This morning for me it was whether to get a hot coffee or an iced coffee, as you can see, I went with both. This is not always possible, to get both, something you have to make a choice. On many occasions our tough decisions are not about coffee but something much more life impacting. Remember to take your time, think it through and make the decision for yourself. Don't let someone else make it for you, and believe in your decisions 100%. 

"You've got a lot of choices.  If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.  
~Steven D. Woodhull"

Week in Review...

1. I watched my husband (Peyton Manning) play against the Jets...

2. I did a lot of scouting work for our upcoming games...

3. Knocked two more gyms off my list of College Arenas I have been to (this is from Siena)...

4. Prepared for the BIG snow storm that was coming by going to the grocery store and stocking up...

5. Left notes around my apartment so I wouldn't forget things (pillow for 5 hour bus trip)...

6. Did more loads of laundry than I can count...

7. Worked on my artistic skills (a turtle and a greyhound)...

Everything's Nothing

It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. ~Vita Sackville-West

It was hard for me to write today, nothing popped into my mind that I could put to paper or a computer screen. Not that I want to be a writer, but I enjoy blogging. And I know if I skip one day, it will soon turn into two days then five and so forth. In turn this New Years Resolution would be flushed down the toilet like 80% of many others. So I am pushing through and writing. About nothing, about everything, about whatever pops into my head at this moment in time. Which currently is, Baby Giraffes. This past summer I went to the Zoo in hopes to see a baby Giraffe. (Side not: I had heard a commercial about the zoo having baby animals. In the same commercial they talked about Saturday being Feed the Giraffe day at the Zoo.) So somewhere in my mass chaos head I put together baby animals and giraffes. So I traveled down to the Zoo on a lovely Saturday afternoon to see this little gift from God to Nature. I was SO excited only to find out there wasn't a baby Giraffe, nor was there Hippos but that's not the point. I did get to feed an adult Giraffe, a piece of lettuce. Talk about exhilarating, have you ever seen a Giraffe's tongue? WOW. So to make a long story short, one of my new favorite animals is a baby giraffe.

"iLive, iLaugh, iLove"

"Cherish the Moment"

I miss college. I miss living in a college town and I miss playing basketball at Iowa State. The friends I made are some I know will be part of my life forever. My teammates, who are more like my sisters will always be a phone call away. The other day I was thinking about all the memories I made, the nights in hotel rooms, study hall hours, bus trips, plane rides, inside jokes, etc. I will cherish those memories forever. 


When I was playing Coach Fennelly always told us to cherish every moment we got with our teammates, every game in Hilton with the best fans in the country, every chance we got to represent Iowa State University. He told us this cause he has seen it happen so many times, how fast your 4 years fly by and how much you miss it. No matter how many times he told us, no matter how hard I tried, I will always miss it. I will always wish for just one more chance, to put the Iowa State #15 jersey on and walk out of the locker room at Hilton with those teammates. To hear one more pregame speech, to put my hand over my heart for another National Anthem, and to leave everything I had on the court at Hilton. 


I text often with my former teammates and never once do we not talk about some memory from college. On multiple occasions I will text or get a text from a teammate who just watched a highlight video, or a game. At the end of every conversation we always say, "I'd give anything to be back in college playing together". Unfortunately its something we can never do again, but something we will always have are the memories. I always say that someone should write a book about our years in college, but the only problem is half the book would be inside jokes that no one else would understand. But thats the best part, those memories off the court, in the lockerroom that we shared together.. those are the ones I will Cherish!

“Time is a companion who reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again .”

"No its not, where's the snow"

Another huge snow storm hit the New England Area. In Milford they are saying we got around 20 inches of snow. I looked out my window at 8:15 this morning and I could barely see my car and it was still snowing very hard. Finally it stopped around 10, at that time I went out and started cleaning off and around my car. Unfortunately the plow hasn't been back through the parking lot, it came at 3am. It needs to come back soon! 

8:15am

11:30am

Smile

A smile costs nothing but gives much.  It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give.  It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.  None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it.  Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.  Some people are too tired to give you a smile.  Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give. 
~Author Unknown

BCS Championship Game...

GO DUCKS.... Quack Quack

I am not a Chizik fan. This picture is curiosity of Iowa State University. If you didn't know Gene Chizik was the FB coach at ISU for 2 years. During that time he won 4 games and ran our athletic department 5 mil in the red... Thanks alot Genie.

So once again GO DUCKS!!!!

Happy Birthday Levi Wade

Today this little man turns 4. I wish his mom was here to see how big he's gotten, how smart he is, and especially how much he is like her. He has her smile, he has her heart, he reminds me of her so much. In the near future he will break many girls hearts, I mean look at the body....

Coloring outside the lines is a fine art...

"Carpe Diem"

I love watching Sportscenter in the morning, but I don't watch it often.
I don't enjoy watching the Today Show in the morning, but I sometimes do.


I love Black and White Mochas from Starbucks.
I don't like that they cost $5.26, that will make me poor.


I am not a huge fan of buying 2 liters of Coca-Cola.
I have been buying a lot of them lately cause the price of Coke has soared!


I love sitting in my office listening to Pandora, mainly channels that include "The Fray, Greg Laswell and Rascal Flatts".
But since when is there a limit to the number of hours you can listen in a month?!


I hate dealing with car problems, oil changes, dead batteries or flat tires.
I dealt with a flat tire 3 times in one day, the only positive about this was finding out that the air is free in Connecticut! I think every state should be like that.


When I have a bad day I think about people who are homeless, starving or unloved.
All of a sudden my bad day doesn't seem to bad at all.


I try and live everyday to the fullest. I don't want to look back and say "What if?"
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Week in Review...

1. I went out and celebrated on New Years Eve...

2. I rode on a bus for over 20 hours, not all at once but there was a 7 hour trip and a 10 hour trip.

3. Went to the Casino, stayed for 2 hours, lost 2 dollars....

4. Slept 3 nights in a hotel bed, with 7 pillows, my body loved it...

5. Ate dessert that I later had to spend over 40 minutes running off on the treadmill...

6. Marked seeing the Niagara Falls off my bucket list...

7. Finally, sat in on a "Town Hall Meeting" (whatever that means)...