Jessica: Deaf Coffee Night

50. Start a monthly "Deaf Coffee Night" at a coffee shop

tonight was the first (of hopefully many!) Deaf coffee night at Jazz-n-Java! it was so fun!

at first i was really nervous and worried that people wouldn't show up because of the rain...but overall, we had about 10 people show up! some of my old friends, my old ASL professor and her friends, an old classmate, and a couple (that came all the way from an entirely DIFFERENT college! word spreads fast!) all came :)

we stole chairs and sat in a group and had 95% of our conversations in ASL. it was so fun! the level was from beginner to advanced, but everyone was so good at slowing down for others and explaining signs if they were forgotten.

we even had a fun moment because one man, David, forgot the sign for "thank you" and asked "oh, is it this?" and did the sign for...basically, "eff off", and i laughed and said "nooo!" so i explained what just happened to my old ASL professor and my new interpreting friends, and they laughed. then they decided to share their funny stories of messing up certain signs and getting confused.

overall, fun night! everything that i wanted was accomplished: meeting new people, practicing ASL, and having fun!

Charissa: fitness

Check out my newest post on my other blog Live A Little to see how I'm doing with my health and fitness goals!

xoxo

Charissa: better choices

So...I figured out a better way to monitor my eating. I've been writing down everything I eat each day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, and then what type of exercise I do that day. Every day I want at least one thing to write down for exercise, even if it's just lifting my arm weights for five minutes. A little exercise is better than nothing.

This writing down everything I eat [and recording the portions if they are abnormally small or large] is working well for me so far. It allows me to really look at the choices I'm making, and really evaluate if I'm being healthy or not. The past two days I've done really well. I also put a tiny strike through something if I know I only ate it because I was bored, or if I was no longer hungry but ate it anyways. This is working well because it's making me really acknowledge if I'm eating when I'm hungry, if I'm eating just to eat or because my friends are eating, as well as protecting me from reverting into starving myself or being to hard on myself.

So far I've been eating really healthy stuff, but I'm realize I just eat super huge portions. I'm not sure whether I actually need those large portions, or if it's just a habit, but it's good for me to see how I'm eating. Yay for health.

xoxo

Bri-Detox and Embroidery

I am loving the detox! I have so much more energy and feel fabulous! And I've lost some pounds!

Also, I went to a quilt show this weekend and got some adorable embroidery patterns and supplies so I can begin my goal of learning to embroider!

More later!

Love!

Charissa: I'm not doing so well

With losing the cake weight.
=[
I had apple pie on Thursday, non-fat yogurt with banana yesterday, and today I had:
Breakfast: A big bowl of smart start + banana
Lunch: A salad with Turkey meat, 4 slices of Honeydew, and a HUGE bowl of oatmeal with strawberries, bananas, and peaches.
Dinner:A big bowl of minestrone, an orange, and a bowl of smart start/special k
Snacks: an apple and a banana

I guess when I spell it out like that it doesn't seem like so much but I feel like the quantity of food I'm eating is the problem. I don't stop when I'm full. Tonight I was full after the minestrone, but I wanted the crunch of cereal so I had an entire bowl anyways. I need to learn to stop when I'm done. And the desserts need to just plain disappear except for special occasions.
I'm not getting any more toned or any slimmer or any of those things. And this gut that refuses to escape me is about enough to drive me insane. It's not about losing weight. It's about being happy with whatever place my body is at and right now I simply am not. But I'm not happy with what I was either. I think it's going to take a long while to figure this out.

*sigh*

Being healthy is probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
Especially when I am literally surrounded by people with horrible eating habits.
At least I just exercised by way of jumping jacks/jump rope/salsa/pilates for an hour.

How are you guys doing with the diets? Losing weight yet? Any helpful hints?

xoxo

Ashley: Check Mark?

So yesterday I spent the WHOLE DAY working on my car. It needed it. I now have a front passenger seat. Trust me, big accomplishment. One of my goals was to learn how to mantian my own car. I don't mean, keep it clean, fill it with gas, keeps lights in working order, I mean how to change the oil, how to fix the brakes, how to keep it running in ace condiditon. I figure that since I am taking this car to Oregon in June, then I should probably learn how to fix everything without my dad's (of the jerk at E-Z lube who ripped me off) help.

I now know how to pretty much rebuild the damn thing. The only two things I've yet to learn are how to change the brakes and change the oil. I'm pretty sure the oil part is fairly simple, but not sure on the brakes. We do need to change the brakes here fairly soonish, so I should be able to get that down pat. I also want to find a manual for the car so that I can fix any other problems that might come up when I'm 1000 miles away.

So here's the question: does this qualify as completeing a task? I mean yeah I do still need to leanr two things but they shouldn't be brain surgery. What are we saying? to check, or not to check?

Sarah: Working on my Calligraphy Goal Today

Today I worked a lot on my goal to make my calligraphy better. It is simply something that I never finished doing that I have always told myself that I would do. Now, I am making the time for it.

Here is one of the fonts that I was copying.

Here is my first attempt at the alphabet.

Here is my name after many attempts to get it right...

It can only get better from here!!! So here is to working on a goal!!

UPDATE:

Done all by myself. What do you think? Can I say this one is complete? Or should I practice some more?

FINAL UPDATE: