My Wish

Being married is an interesting institution. When you are dating you still both have your separate lives. You have fun together, go out on dates, enjoy each others company then at the end of the night you go home to sleep in the middle of your own bed. When you get engaged life becomes a whirlwind of excitement with planning your wedding, bridal showers, bachlorette parties, and dreamy eyed hopes. Then you get married. You say I do and walk into real life. Your side of the bed is not the middle! Then it turns out you married every bit of each other, families and crazy people included. You both still have jobs like you did before, but now you live together and they affect each of your everyday life. You each still have your own friends, but when they drop by they aren't just dropping by his house or yours, they drop yall's  house. You each have had separate established lives, and now you have to combine all of your assets and fit them into one tiny house. You go from yours and mine, to ours! Then there are all of the outside factors that come into play. You may have known about issues that plagued your significant other, be it family, work, or other, but now you to have to deal with those issues in real time.

If you think about it Hollywood has all of these movies about love, but consider the topics. People are single and falling in love, people are single, in love, and getting engaged, and then you have the engaged and getting married movies. They all have happy endings. They end with the couple getting married. Cut! Move on to the next show. Then you have all these movies about married people. They aren't too happy, life is tough, and they get divorced. Then they fall into the single and falling in love category and so on and so forth.

I am a dreamer. I am madly in love with my husband and I want to forever feel this way about him. Our life circumstances aren't picture perfect. We both brought baggage to the relationship and now we have to deal with our lives together. This isn't a bad thing. It is nice to go through this crazy life with a person you love. However, a marriage is something that needs defending. You need to take a stance against all the crazy outside forces and put up a barrier. Protect the reason you fell in love. Protect each other from all the little things that can tear people apart.  Do everything in your power to make sure you two together are stronger then apart.

My wish is this. I hope that for the rest of our lives we take moments to just each other. Make time to go away with just each other. Hide from the rest of the world for a few weekends a year. Put on some Norah and talk about nothing other than our hopes and dreams for the future. Work talk, family talk, financial talk, and when it is time kid talk, all of it is off limits. For a few weekends a year we are in our own bubble and make our own love story movie. Keep the foundation of your love strong and powerful and everything else will work itself out.

I love my life. I am so happy I found someone to share my life and adventures with. Now I am going to hold on to it tight and make sure that whatever trials and tribulations lay ahead for us, that we are strong in our love and relationship that we can take it head on.

Is it worry or do I have an overly active imagination?

I tend to worry a lot! It's not continual worry, more like random crazy extremist thoughts that run through my head at strange times. Lately it seems like I have been thinking mainly about babies. I am pretty sure it's because every one around me is pregnant or just had a baby. Don't worry. We aren't ready to welcome the next Pemberton in to this world just yet (nor do I think the world is ready for that! lol!). The subject comes up often so therefore I think about it more than a normal person.

So here is a run down of horrible thoughts that run through my head...

Situation: We get pregnant

• What if we can't get pregnant?
• What if we lose the baby?
• What if something is wrong with it?
• What if I die during child birth and my kid never knows their mom?!
• What if I have high blood pressure or any of the other number of things that can go wrong during a pregnancy?

Situation: We have a baby

• What if we give them a wrong name?
• What if something happens to TJ and I have to raise them by myself or vice versa?
• What if they get cancer or some other unknown disease and they die young?
• What if we are in a car accident or a tornado or any of the other millions of things that happen to families and kids?
• What happens if they make it through childhood unscathed and join the Marine Corps (which I would support) and get killed in action?

Situation: TJ goes out of town

• What if his plane crashes and I never see him again?
• Did I tell him I love him before I got off the phone?
• What if he falls off another mountain and know one is around to help this time?
• What if his back breaks?

Situation: All things family

• I hope Kaytie and I never get in such a fight that we don't speak to each other anymore.
• I hope Jacob knows I love him.
• My parents better live forever.

Situation: Life in general

• When are we going to buy a house?
• Do we have enough of a down payment?
• What kind of mom car will I drive? 
• Will I have to trade in the Mustang?
• My house is never as clean as I would like!
• Are we going on this trip or that?
• Are we putting enough money in savings?
• Should TJ still shoot archery?
• Am I staying on top of things at work?
• I hope I am doing a good job at work.
• I need to get this weight off and it is going too slowly!

Situation: The status of the World

• What happens when we run out of electricity and I can't read my Kindle because I thought is was a good idea to only buy ebooks?
• Is society becoming more and more ignorant as we depend more on gadgets to do all the thinking for us?
• Is this really the end times?
• What if I haven't done everything I wanted to?
• Should we even bring kids in to this crazy world?
• Will the U.S. follow the path of the Roman Empire and come crumbling down?
• The U.S. has a very short history, and we grew really fast...does that scare anyone else?

It's weird stuff like this that I think about every day pretty much. Here is what is even more strange. Even though I think about these things often, they are just fleeting thoughts for the most part. I tell TJ what I am worried about and he politely says I can't believe you haven't stroked out yet and reassures me everything will be okay. I believe him too. I am more than happy with my life. I love my husband, I love my job, I enjoy the people I work with, I love planning my future with TJ, I have a great family that I adore, and my overall outlook on life is awesome!

My mind just sometimes won't shut off and that is just what it means to be me. I think about a thousand other things during the day and usually have crazy dreams as well. I don't say all this for people to think one way or the other about me. It is just they way I am and thought I would share! I should probably title this blog Welcome to my Crazy Life!

Sinatra, Swimming, Sookie, and Shopping!

Hello World,

It's been a long time. We made it through the 12th annual UCO Endeavor Games. It was a huge success! We had record numbers this year in all aspects! I couldn't be more proud of the way the staff came together to make this event so awesome. Now on to plan the next big thing! Here is a preview of the 2011 video. The final version will be available on July 1 and I can't wait to see it!

So now that work is taken care of and life can get back to a normal let me catch you up. I ended up losing weight during the Endeavor Games. I was so worried I would gain. It is in my nature to eat when I am stressed and nothing stresses me more than all the crazy things that can happen in preparing for and making it through an event. I went to my Weight Watchers meeting on Tuesday and to my surprise I had lost 1.2lbs bringing my grand total loss to -29lbs! I also received my 10% award, meaning I have lost 10% of my starting body weight! I must say I am even more encouraged to keep trying and keep going with this weight loss. I want to keep getting healthy and keep on track to be a whole new me by this time next year!

In my efforts to become the new and improved Leigha I bought a dress this week! I know, I know, it's shocking! It's one of those flowy dresses that is really long, and I love it! So I bought two more. I am starting to feel better about how I look so why not buy something that makes me feel cute!

TJ is out of town this weekend so I am on my own. I took the day off today and spent it by the pool with Kaytie and her friend Melissa. It was nice! I put my phone out of arms reach and just relaxed. I lathered up with sunscreen and enjoyed the day! I just wish I had put more on my legs...they look pretty red right now! This evening I came home to continue my day of relaxation, put on some Sinatra, filled my bath with bubbles and started the latest Sookie Stackhouse book! I have got to learn that in a day and age of electronics and being able to carry work with you at all times that it is a MUST to turn it off every now and then. Things will go on if I take a day off! I don't need to check my email every 5 minutes! Enjoy just being with people and not constantly checking to see if something else needs your attention! For the love of Pete! It's really sad, the way we have become! 

Now that things have slowed down at work and life is getting back on track I will get back to blogging once a week. I know you guys have missed me! :)

My remaining goals for this weekend simply include getting my house back in order and enjoying Father's day with my dad since he just moved back to Oklahoma! 

Talk to you soon,

Leigha

It's been awhile...

I don't even know the last time I updated the good ol' blog! So much has been going on in the past month. It seems like we are just running from one thing to the next. Let's see where do I begin...

Colorado Springs
At the end of April I went to Colorado Springs to present at the Paralympic Leadership Conference. My topic was event planning-lessons learned. I had an excellent title: Where's my golf cart? Event Planning-Lessons Learned. This resulted in me presenting in front of a room full of people curious to know what the heck happened with the golf cart! I hope everyone enjoyed it and took away a few tips and tricks. I had a blast at this conference and made some new friends. The night Bin Laden was killed we were sitting in the hotel bar and we witnessed some of our fellow military conference attendees celebrating decked out in the red, white, and blue. It was a pretty memorable night and one I won't soon forget. The rest of the conference was wonderful as usual and too much fun!

The UCO Endeavor Games
For those of you that know me, know that this is my super busy time of the year at work. We are just a few weeks away from the 12th annual Endeavor Games. This is my 5th year being involved and 3rd year to coordinate these games. This is the first time in all that time that we have several new people working for us and I can't say things like "we are doing it like last year...". They have no idea what that means!!! So I am a bit nervous about how all of this will work out. It's always a little comical to see how newbies react to the circus that is the UCO Endeavor Games. No one really understands the amount of work that is going to take place that week until they experience it first hand. Hehe (insert evil laugh). The faint of heart won't make it, but those who do, fall in love with the event and look forward to it each year! :) We still need a ton of volunteers and I know you, my fellow readers, would love to volunteer! Just visit www.ucoendeavorgames.com to register or contact me and I will get you hooked up!  For those that don't know the UCO Endeavor Games is for athletes with physical disabilities. We have athletes from all across the U.S. and internationally come out each year to compete! We also have a large population of military athletes that have been recently wounded that come and compete as well! If you haven't liked us on Facebook you should! Click Here!

Birthday/Graduation Extravaganza
All with within a week, I had a birthday, Veronica had a birthday, Veronica graduated from high school, and Kaytie graduated with her MBA! My birthday was wonderful. TJ really tried to make it super special! He sent me flowers, got me a Kindle gift card, a Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card, and he bought me my photo book! We went out to dinner and then went to Pinkitzel, the best cupcake and candy place in OKC! :) It was fabulous! Veronica came over to the house on her birthday and we had cake and a mini celebration with her. Then the following weekend it was a graduation marathon! Veronica graduated at the Cox Convention Center from Edmond North. Sam and Bobbi came into town. Todd, Andrea, and Jamila came to her graduation as well! I love the Pemberton side of the family and I love when we can all be in the same place! After the ceremony we all went to lunch. We got Veronica a laptop for school as a birthday/graduation present. I think she liked it. It was a very nice lunch celebration.
Once we were finished, Veronica went to celebrate with her mom's side of the family and TJ and I headed to the house where we were hosting Kaytie's graduation party. We get home and get it all together and just barely get it done before everyone starts to arrive. Kaytie's boyfriend's family came, my mom's family was there, plus my dad and Jacob it was a full house! Everyone finally left a little after nine. Needless to say we were exhausted, but it was really fun to get to see ALL of our family in one day!

I will have more pics of Kaytie's day when my dad sends them to me! My camera died! :(

18 years old! :)

Happy Birthday to me! 

The graduate pretty in blue! :)

Love my family!

Just the beginning! 

5K/Keeping the weight off
So in case you haven't been following the theme of the past month has included LOTS of food as you can probably imagine! We have been celebrating left and right! So keeping up with Weight Watchers has been really tough. Not only are we celebrating, but I like to eat when I am stressed so between work and the month of May it will be a miracle if I come out of it all breaking even on the scale! I am not giving up. I made a promise to myself and I intend to keep it! Plus, I have come to far to ruin it all now! So wish me luck and when June 14th comes around, (the Tuesday after Endeavor which means a WW meeting) and I haven't gained any weight, I will celebrate in a non-food way! :)

TJ and I did the Jim Thorpe Courage Run. By run I mean I walked a 5K and he did it in his wheelchair! It was SO fun! We really enjoyed spending the time with each other doing something out of our norm! We finished in just over 46 mins. Not too bad seeing how I had to jog a bit to make sure we didn't fall too behind!  I had been trying to walk a 15 min mile and I had timed myself. It is harder than it looks! Supposedly, Tiffany, Cheryl, and I are going to try the Weight Watchers 5K next weekend! It should be fun!


Well I am sure I have missed something, but I hope you feel caught up in the happenings of Leigha. On a side note I am obsessed with this song:

It represents how I am feeling a this moment in time! This could really be a good life, a good, good life! Oh and I like to dance to this in the car, so if you see me just ignore it and keep driving! LOL! :)

Until next time world...

-18.6, 5K, and Jump Ropes...

Hello World,

It has been a while since my last post. I am currently -18.6lbs!! Go me! I like this losing weight thing! It's kind of fun. I like that I have friends who are doing it with me and that it's actually working! I have officially gone down a size in jeans. This only means that I am fitting in old jeans that look like new because I gained weight before I could wear them out! I refuse to buy any new jeans until absolutely necessary.

Cheryl, Tiffany, and I are currently "training" for the Weight Watchers Walk-It 5K on May 22nd!! We are going to walk obviously, but it turns out we are WAY out of shape. We need to average a 15 min mile walking and today we averaged about a 17 min mile. We will get there and it will feel so amazing to finish! In addition to our walking this week we are also doing a Jump Rope class. I'll just let that sink in for a minute. LOL! It is quite a site to see us jumping! There are about 5 of us ladies from the office jumping rope and doing core exercises. At one point I had to put my jump rope down and jump without it. I kept getting tangled and hitting myself causing welts on my arm! Apparently you need to be somewhat coordinated to jump rope! LOL! My body is screaming at me at the moment and I get to do this again tomorrow! I can't wait! (that's sarcasm in case you missed it!)

In other Pemberton news, TJ is back to work at Heartland which is great. I am still couponing. I have got my mom and sister addicted to it as well. Except they really like me to do all the work then I take them and tell them what to get. Kaytie FINALLY got all of her stuff out of the house. This means TJ officially has his man cave and all of his wonderful archery stuff can have a place out of my living room!

I signed up for this site called blogging for books. This publisher sends out advance copies of books and asks that you read them then blog the review! I just got mine last week so be looking for my review on here in the coming weeks!

Hope all is well with everyone else!

Talk to you soon!

Minus 16.6!! Say What?

After not going to Weight Watchers last Sunday, Cheryl and I went to a Tuesday meeting and weighed in there. Then today we got back on track to our Sunday meetings. I must say I do like that group so much! They are fun and so is our leader! Anyways, I weighed in and had lost 3 more lbs! I was super excited! That puts me at -16.6 since January 9th. I feel like I am really accomplishing something and I am on my way to a healthier me! What I like so much is now when I look at myself in the mirror I don't judge myself and think I look gross. I look at myself and say look at how much more progress I can make! :) So it's a good day for me!

Besides doing Weight Watchers I have discovered a new hobby! For awhile now I have been trying to find something to do with my time other than think about work. Last year I learned that I threw too much of myself into my job and didn't pay enough attention to everything else around me! This was fine for last year, in fact it was needed, luckily that kind of focus on my job will only happen every few years! Now, I just need to find something to occupy my new found time! In addition to Weight Watchers, I have found a new love of coupons!!!! Laugh if you will, but I think it is so much fun! I can't wait until Wednesday's when www.consumerqueen.com posts all of the Homeland deals. I love Sunday's when we get the paper and I can get the coupons out! Plus, my friends Cheryl and Tiffany do it too and it's fun to coupon shop with a buddy! It's like a game and I want to save the most money possible!

Now, I see what some of you may be thinking. Are you buying just to buy or are you buying stuff you will use? Let me tell you. TJ and I have had more quality meals at home since I have started shopping with coupons. I get great deals on every type of food you could think of. I was in a grocery shopping rut. I would just buy the same things over and over and not mix it up too often. Now we are eating more variety and it's fun mixing it up!

I have got my mom and sister interested now too. Except they want me to do all the coupon cutting etc. for them. Once I do all the work they just follow me around the store and put in their baskets what I tell them to. So for that I keep all the great deals for myself as my payment! LOL!

I am enjoying myself and TJ likes having all the food in the house. He thinks it's kind of funny when I come home and feel the need to show him each thing I bought! People have also asked me how all of this food works with my Weight Watchers. Well, it's all about portions and your points will work out fine!

So that is pretty much what is going on in our silly little world. Hope everyone has a great week!

Here are some pictures of couponing trips!

You can't see these that well, but the total for all 4 receipts is 20.06. I bought the following items: Aussie Hair Spray, Aussie Shampoo, 2 Purex Crystals fabric softeners, 2 Pine Sols, Cottenelle Wipes, 2 409 cleaners, 1 Clorox disinfectant spray, 1 Soft Scrub cleaner, 1 Listerine pocket pack (3 count),  4 reach toothbrushes, 1 Farmland fully cooked bacon,  1 Glade Carpet deodorizer, 1 Sara Lee Honey Wheat bread, 1 Benedryl (100 count), 1 package Sargento Cheese, 2 8pks Juicy Juice, 2 Nestle Butterfinger snack size, 1 Aunt Jemima French Toast breakfast, 1 Aunt Jemima Pancake breakfast,  and 1 Gallon of Milk. Not bad for $20!!

This is an example of one of my shopping trips!

This is another. I only paid $.67 for all of that! :)

It's what I love about Sunday...

Well, I didn't go to Weight Watchers today. It is not a trend I would like to start. I plan on going to another meeting later this week to make up for it. Today my mom, Jacob, and I went to pick up my inheritance from my grandparents.

My Grandma and Grandpa Calfy were not wealthy. They didn't leave a great deal of money to be divided up or anything. They left a home full of memories, my Grandma's dream house in South East Oklahoma (a small A-frame cabin), and a place we call the Creek down and old dirt road in Walters, Oklahoma. My mom and her sister and brothers have been slowly going through my grandparents things. My grandma would have been a wonderful candidate for the show hoarders. She kept EVERYTHING! She was a funny lady and when you look back grandpa really let her have what ever she wanted otherwise how did she have so much stuff?

Anyways, growing up we spent a great deal of time with my grandparents. Summers, spring break, every holiday, and for a time we would go see them every other weekend. I spent every Christmas and Thanksgiving with them for as long as my Grandma was alive. I LOVED them. I have the best memories of them. My Grandpa owned a store in town called the Calfy Brothers Building Center. It was a building supply store. I love the smell of that store. The smell of wood and sawdust. We would go down to the store with Grandma and help her clean the rooms that the store rented out to out of towners. Like clock work every day my Grandma had lunch ready at 11 am and dinner ready at 5 pm. While Grandpa was at work, we would drive around town and get groceries and visit with people. Every now and then Grandpa would meet us down at the Creek for lunch and Grandma would have gone to get Mac's chicken. That was considered a real treat as the town didn't have any fast food places.

I have so many memories from Walters, Oklahoma. The time some of us tried to sleep outside on the trampoline, the time Kaytie and I thought we were being attacked by aliens when Grandpa threw a glow in the dark nerf ball at us in the dark, when Grandma lassoed Jacob to a light post so she could keep an eye on him, setting off fireworks in the city limits then singing kumbya on the porch when the cops drove by, Grandma getting speeding/seat belt tickets all over town and telling us not to tell papa, hiding in the cellar during bad storms, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, being chased by a goose, going every Christmas Eve to the Moore's house to see the Santa fly on a rocket ship, going to Walters Church of the Nazarene every Sunday Morning, Sunday Night and Wednesday night when we were in town, Grandma letting us build forts in the living room out of the kitchen chairs, swinging from the wagon wheel chandelier and breaking it, setting up a grocery store with the groceries Grandma just bought and making her buy them from me to use for dinner, all the neighbor kids that Grandma would baby sit and we would play with during the summer, mom hurting her knee on the trampoline and then on a moped, crashing a go cart into a fence, and me and Kaytie getting in trouble when we would be laughing and laughing at night when we were supposed to be asleep. We also used to look up dirty words in Grandma's encyclopedia's, but don't tell anyone! :)

There are so many precious memories, I swear we probably spent 50% of our childhood with our Grandparents. I loved it and I will cherish it forever. So this brings me to my inheritance. I got my Grandpa's truck. My Grandpa used to drive an old brown ford pick up. Every day to and from work. After that truck bit the dust Keith, my uncle, rebuilt 1995 Ford F-150 for my grandpa. From the moment I saw it I was in love. I don't know why but there was just something about it. I have a vivid memory of Grandma riding with me to the Walters car wash and letting me wash the truck. She said it looked good on me and that all the boys were looking at me too! Any chance I got I would drive that truck around town. It sounds funny, but that truck has a certain smell to it. I am pretty sure it just smells like a work truck, but to me that smell reminds me of my Grandpa.

It was no secret that I wanted the truck and when my mom asked me awhile back if I would like to have it I said yes. Driving the truck from Walters today I cried part of the way. I felt like I was taking it from it's home, but at the same time it felt like I was with my Grandparents again. I can't explain it. This may sound strange but there is a part of me that wants to curl up and take a nap in the truck and just pretend for a moment they are still here.

I think they would both be happy that the truck is with me. I miss them with all of my heart. It's been two years since my grandma passed and a year and a few month since my grandpa passed. I still cry, not as often as I used to, but every now and then I will remember something and just cry a few tears and go on. They were a second set of parents to me. They helped to make me who I am.

I plan to keep the truck as long as possible. We won't drive it much, but its always good to have a truck around. I'll drive my mustang as my primary car, but I'll take the out truck on days like today. A Sunday afternoon that is warm and windy and drive it around with the windows down and just remember. I plan to drive it this week just because then I'll park it and get back to the mustang.

A part of me is that truck, I am a small town girl at heart. One day we will probably live in a small town with a house with a wrap around porch and the truck sitting out in front and Grandma and Grandpa still watching out  for us from Heaven.

There are just some things in life that are worth more than money and to me this is that truck. Now let's just hope I don't back into anything this week!! ;)

Until next time,
Leigha