Tomorrow is a day that will change my life forever. I will no longer be on the early side of the twenties. Yes, tomorrow I will embark on the "late" twenties side of life. 25 hit me hard. I really didn’t think it would bother me, but it really did. Especially when I went to fill out a survey and I no longer could choose the box "18-24". I was now the next box up. (sigh)

25 had its pluses, my car insurance went down. Actually, I guess that’s really the only plus it had. Aside from the fact that as long as I’m having birthdays, that means I’m still kicking. I survived.

Only God knows what 26 has in store for me. Hopefully it will be a year of wisdom and growth. A year of happiness and change. If anyone has any stories of anything exciting that happened when they were 26, I’d love to hear them.

I do know that tomorrow marks a start of 3 months with Josh calling me "old". For those 3 months, he will be 25, and I’ll be a ripe old 26. woohoo…

I am a creature of habit. I could never work at Taco Bell ( I just can’t “Think outside the bun.” ) I get into a routine that works and stick to it. I believe this has a lot to do with my Practicality state of mind. But thanks to my loving husband, I’m trying to branch out and live a little.

Routines make my world go round. I have a morning routine. I believe this is how I am able to be on time to work most mornings. I am normally 15-20 minutes early every morning. Now occasionally, there will be multiple wrecks on my way in, but there’s not much I can do about that. A lot can happen in my 20-mile drive into downtown Nashville. I have my clothes pretty much laid out the night before so I don’t have to worry what to wear. If I have to take something to work, I set it out the night before next to my purse so I won’t forget. Same goes for when I get to work. I have a certain order I work my files, do my closings, etc. I get into this routine, and if something is out of place, I notice it immediately. I consider this my own little quality control. I also take this practice with me when I go out to eat. I normally have certain things I order at restaurants. Sonic - Number 1 combo with cheese, tater tots and diet cherry coke. Taco Bell - crunch wrap supreme combo with a crunchy taco and diet coke. Arbys - medium roast beef sandwich, potato cakes, diet coke. If I see a friend order something different, I’ll inspect their food and decide if I’d like to try it the next time I go. The problem is, if you order something different, and you don’t like it, you are just going to be hungry.

If you know me at all, you know I am very practical. I just got new dishes. Out of all the choices I had in design. I picked a solid cream plate. No designs to go out of style. Just a plain jane cream. (corelle sandstone to be exact) I picked this plate because it was light, nearly unbreakable, took less storage space, and goes with almost everything. I do the same thing shopping for clothes/shoes. Last week I went to Ann Taylor Loft and I found this awesome cardigan (had to be careful not to look like grandma) . This sweater was great for several reasons. The first was the color. It was black, brown, khaki and white. Which means I could wear it with black pants, brown pants or khakis depending on my mood. I can get so many different looks with this one sweater. Also, it was 3/4 sleeves, which means I can wear it virtually all year long (especially with TN weather). This is why my closet has no color. Black goes with black. You don’t have to match shades, figure out what shoes to wear.. It’s easy, it’s practical and I feel like it hides my weight well. I did buy a kelly green shirt which was a huge deal for me. Same goes for shoes. I do not own a pair of red shoes. I probably never will.

This leads me to the title of this blog. I am slowly starting to learn that it’s okay to branch out a little. The fear of doing has kept me from living a lot of my life. I recently read a book called ” Who moved my cheese?” It’s a very good book, I highly recommend it. It basically talks about a lot of times, the fear of doing something is worse than actually doing it. I found this to be very true when I played Rock Band the other night. I don’t sing, mainly because I can’t sing. But I finally took one for the team and broke out some Wonderwall and Buddy Holly. It was fun! Now, I wish i had sang way before now! Who cares if I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, at least I had fun doing it. (clearing throat, Laura, it’s time to wo-man up!) I am going to Atlanta next weekend. This is totally out my character. I found a lot of reasons not to go, but they were all “what if this happens” situations. I’ve decided (with a little nudge from my loving hubby) that you can’t live your life because of what ifs. So provided I can get the day off, I’m going to go to Atlanta and have a good time! And I bet it’ll be just like Rockband. Who knows this may lead to me getting on an airplane, or taking a cruise…

I don’t know how publicly this has been made, but I had a friend email it to me (if you need a loan check him out at www.braunmortgage.com) and I’ve heard it on a christian radio station. But I haven’t heard about it on any of the secular markets. It truly has changed my perspective of my Christian Walk.  It is 3 10 minute You Tube segments of Rick Burgess preaching at his 3 year old son’s funeral. Yes, you read that right. He preached at his own son’s funeral. That in itself is not something of human power. If that’s not incredible enough, his message is very inspiring. This is the type of parents I hope Josh and I can be. Give me 30 minutes, it might just change your life forever. I know it did mine.

Part One http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PUHUZWyFeg

Part Twohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7aNDixS2J0&feature=related

Part Three http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUT8Bk6Ou90&feature=related

Thank God its Saturday! This has been one of the worst weeks I’ve had in a while.  I am SO glad the weekend is here. I want nothing better than to just do the chores I normally do on the weekend and not have to worry about anything else that’s going on.

Thank God its Superbowl! I’m not a real big football fan. But something is to be said for having an excuse to make lots of meaty, cheesy appetizers and desserts and gorge yourself while you watch really cute guys hit each other.The commercials aren’t bad either. (which typically we don’t watch the commercials, thanks to this nifty little gadget called Tivo) But after the "Janet incident", companies are scared to go too crazy anymore.  But if there IS a good one, I don’t want to be the only one who didn’t see it (I guess it would be on youtube)

Have a good weekend!

Last night was traumatic for the Bush family. Auto had his nails cut.  We accidentally cut one too short and it started bleeding. I do not handle blood well at all. Especially when it is coming from someone I care about. I freak (sorry Josh). In the process our poor baby is bleeding like crazy. Josh finally gets it to stop, and then Auto starts licking it.. which makes it start bleeding again.  We finally got it to stop (Josh was up with him all night).  Needless to say, we spent most of the evening cleaning up all the various messes that were left from a dog that doesn’t understand and roams around getting stuff everywhere.

As if that’s not enough.. Dixie was "coughing" this morning. ( I didn’t know dogs could cough) Come to find out, she has bronchitis! (I also didn’t know dogs could get bronchitis) We have no idea where she got it. Its not like we take her to daycare and she’s around other dogs that are sick.

I hope Holley stays in good health, or we will REALLY have our hands full. (And my parents are wanting us to have humans! Look what the animals have put us through!)

* For those of you who do not know.  Dixie is a chocolate lab. Auto is a silky terrier and Holley is a Siamese mix.