There are no words. That doesn’t happen often in these parts. 😉 So, I guess I will keep it simple. Thank you. I love you.

The immediate outpouring of support and kindness from each of you after my last post humbled me like no other. You all know that I try to keep things honest here and believe it’s important to do so. I always will hold true to that belief, but that doesn’t make certain posts and topics any easier to write about. But you all...you all always make it easier to hit publish because I know I can trust the presence of your openness, ready to catch me and uplift me when most needed. I felt better about the whole body image thing after getting it off my chest, then even more as the day progressed with your many words of encouragement.

Unfortunately, the day still dragged. I had no energy, yet plenty of aches. I had no me time, yet a lot to work on. My act of kindness for others today? It goes to Peter by not complaining when he works on  his friend’s car all afternoon and night despite my need for a break. It also goes to his friend, because I know he needs his car back and me putting aside my needs so Peter can work will help that happen.

Anyways, I felt like doing a Flashback Friday post after my cousin posted a video on Facebook earlier this week. Things got a bit off track earlier though. 😉 It all works out! This post is all about cheer!

Some of you may know that I used to be a cheerleader. I didn’t quite fit the stereotype, but I loved it and did it for 14 years of my life.

I started at 4 years old…

Then, continued on through elementary and middle school. Check out the bangs and large pink, plastic frames. So hot!

I also cheered competitively for awhile. That was lots of fun! I loved the rush!

I miss doing things like this, but please note that video is not when I cheered. It’s the one my cousin shared recently.

I cheered all the way up through my senior year of high school. Which sadly, I don’t think I look much older now than that decade old picture. I know it will be a good thing when I’m 40, but for now I don’t care to look like a teenage mom.

I even loved it so much that I coached for awhile. What can I say? I couldn’t let it go. My sister would kill me if I told you which one she is below. She couldn’t possibly be the girl looking in adoration at her older sibling. Hehehehe.

I got over the cheerleading bug eventually, but if I catch a competition on TV - you better believe I am watching!

It’s always fun to go back and look at old pastimes. What extracurricular activities were you into back in the day?

Good evening everyone!! How goes it? I’m doing great now. Makenzie has continued to improve all day, thank goodness. Hopefully things will get more back to normal soon. Until then, I just go with the flow. I was pleased to see so many of you feel the same way about that when it comes to blogging. We have to be real. Thanks for all of the feedback!

I have mentioned before that I hate eating fish. Except for sushi. I will eat the raw stuff all day long. Give me a grilled/boiled/baked slab and I will grimace. The only exception is Cheeky’s Fish Tacos. Odd, I know. I always thought that and my hatred for even remotely soggy bread were my only ones.

I realized different today. I have some strange food habits. I can be very particular about my food and taste preferences, often in ways that make no sense. I had my typical daily apple today and noticed that since it was a Honeycrisp I had to eat it whole.

Any other variety of apple? I have to eat it in slices.

I have other things that I have to do with my food. For example, whenever we make sweet potato “fries” at home, I only like them cut into discs. Not the traditional fry shape.

I have to eat with the small utensils. It bothers me greatly to eat with the big fork or big spoon from our cutlery.

When I have pizza, I crave a soda. I really don’t drink much soda at all. I did the first trimester because it helped ease the queasy, but other than that its far from a go-to beverage. Except with pizza. I adore it with pizza.

It grosses me out to mix food or have food touch on my plate. I would eat out of M’s segmented children’s plates if they were big enough. In fact, I had plastic plates with the 3 segments all through high school.

And oddly enough, as this publishes, I am likely enjoying a bowl of soup with our church small group. I love soup…even though it’s a whole bunch of foods mixed together and soggy. 😉

• What are some of your more interesting food preferences?
• Do you prewrite posts? I obviously did this one because I’m at small groups. I actually prewrite many of my posts since I like to write in the morning before M wakes up and during her nap. I then tweak, edit, and add photos just before publishing. I won’t prewrite posts for things we do that I’m not sure how they will go though – like what we do on weekends, etc.