Another Year

Seriously? 2013 already? I can not believe I made it. So much happened this year! I remember writing my blog at this time last year looking forward to 2012 and all the exciting travel and everything. And boy, this year was amazing. I traveled everywhere. Tennessee, and California, and Colorado, and New York! Wow that's alot of places. I am currently working in Dallas, TX. After that its off to North Carolina! God has truly blessed me. I still love my job. I really thought that I would get tired of the travel. But, I still love it. Airplanes and hotels, and rental cars and new people constantly. LOVE IT!
Ok so this year in a nut shell, WORK. that was most of it. I learned alot about my self. I learned what kind of person I want to be and what I deserve. I have had relationships some amazing, and some not so much, but they had meaning. I am happy. Struggling with my parents relocating, and losing connection with some dear people in my life has been difficult. But, learning from decisions and making decisions based on what is good for me is what is important.
I am moving forward in my life. I have a new house I am moving in to. My parents are home for the Holidays, and spending time with them is number 1 on my list this year. So 2012 has taught me alot. I learned the Mayans were wrong about the end of the world, people are waiting for a Zombie Apocalypse, Call Me Maybe was America's song for a while. KCCO is said on a daily basis.
So next year... what does it hold for me? I don't know yet. Looking forward to God's guidance and looking forward to see what he has in store for me.

Merry Christmas to everyone and I wish everyone a wonderful 2013.

What? Really????

Ok Guys. I have been waiting to write this blog for a long  time. I am excited and I finally made a huge life changing decsion. Everyone knows I have been traveling for a little more than a year now! I can't believe it has been a year. But it has. I have been working like crazy, and we are about to start our last region. Wow!! The last one. So right now I am in beautiful Denver, CO. So much has happened here. I made alot of decsions, and bettered myself. I am looking forward to the future with the training team. My last stop with be, NEW YORK! I can not wait to be there for 6 to 8 weeks.  I still cant believe I have had this opportunity. I am so blessed. So of course I have plans for NYC and Boston, and Philly for sure! I am so stoked for this!! I am sure that I will have tons of pictures and stories and an amazing time there!
Ok for the life changing decsion  I have decided to move! I know Lisa out of Tulsa? It is going to be crazy!I am so excited and I should have more details as they come. I am not trying to be vauge about this move, but I just have to right now. I have traveled all over and it is has been an amazing journey, but I am ready to settle down, calm down and start over.
Mom and dad being so far away has kind of helped with decsion. I know that God has a plan for me! I know I am going there for a reason and I am so so so excited. So, for my readers, if you could pray for me. Pray for strength, and not to be too crtazy when I move. When I started this job a year ago, I knew the opportunity could come up that I could move. It actually happened. God has blessed me so much and I need to remember that when I do move. I will tell more when I get more details. Love you all!!!

5 Weeks...and some more

Well, Mom and Dad have been gone for 5 weeks now. Everyone keeps asking if it is getting any easier, and to be honest not really. Yes I get to talk to them and and I get to see them over Skype and FaceTime. But they aren't home. I wish they were but I am still working through it. I completed Northen California/Nevada. I was in Fresno, for training then moved on to San Leandro for go live. San Leandro, which is near San Fran was beautiful. Got to do a lot of sightseeing like, my my blog said last time. So currently, I am on beautiful Denver, CO. I am a third in a training room. I am with Tim and Steven. Jon is still close so I didn't completely lose my partner Jon Jon. It is interesting to see how other trainers do train. I mean you get into your groove and you do things certain ways, then you come into another room and they do everything absolutely different. It is a good to see different things and learning how others train across the USA as we continue to do this.
I am still loving my job and loving moving around this country. Denver is beautiful, nice a cool and beautiful. Only been here a day or so, but temperature wise, it is awesome compared to Oklahoma. So, I know this was short, but I wanted to give my readers up to date.

Love to all!

Lisa

Bloggity Blog Blog

Well, The last blog I wrote was about my parents and their new adventure they are on. I am dealing with it as best as I can. I am working alot lately, and not really going home as much as I used to. I am in Corpus Chirsti and will be for the next 2 weeks, not going home till the 27th. So, beach and sunburns are in my future. Mom and Dad are doing great. It is fun to hear all the little stories and how they are adapting to the new culture and customs. Work is going well for them, just missing them here back in the states.
My work is going well. Corpus now then Denver for training. Not with my partner Jon, :( but we are both still in Denver, which is good. My birthday is coming up, the big 28, lol. The years keep passing by so fast. But things are good. I am happy. Just working and working.
This is short blog, but I will write more later. Love to all!
-Lisa

About 7000 miles....

7000 miles. That is how far away I will be from my parents very soon. My parents have recently accepted a career opportunity. God has blessed my parents beyond their imagination. In the coming weeks, my parents will be relocating to China. Yeah, as crazy as that sounds, its true. So here I am, their youngest, struggling the most with it. This is not going to be a blog about my struggles, this is going to be a blog about how much I look to my parents for strength. So since my mom and dad have taught me that God will not give me anything that I can not handle, and the God himself is with me every step of the way, I will make it through. But here we go.
My parents, for as long as I can remember, have only given me and my brothers, and now their wives and grandchildrem, everything. They have blessed this family with love, with trust, and with integrity. I look to my brothers, and see men I am proud to say are my brothers. That is because of my parents. I see the love they have for my sister-in-laws, which they dont like that term, they are daughters, not daughter-in-laws. They brought Melissa and Jennifer into the family without hesitation. Then the grandchildren. They would give anything for those boys. I sometimes think that we take for granted what they truly do for me and for the family. No matter what, they will love you. My mom will hug you even if you dont like hugs. My dad will pick on you, just becasue he loves you. They are a united front that will never be broken. Man, am I blessed or what?
My parents love unconditionally. I have said that in many of my blogs. They show God's love everyday. I can only pray that one day I can find someone and love someone the way that they love each other. I have always looked up to my parents. I have always wanted a marriage and a family like the one I grew up in. I want to be able to provide for my kids the way my parents provided for me.
My parents deserve everything. I dont think I tell them enough how much they mean to me. I dont tell the enough how proud I am that I get to call them my parents. This opportunity is such a blessing and I am so proud of them for this. This is a huge sacrifice that they are making as well. I keep asking them how am I going to get through this? How am I going to make it without them, but what I should be asking is How can I make this easier for you? What can I do to make this transition better? They are the ones that are moving. They are the one making the sacrifice, and moving 7000 miles away from home. I will be here, well, relatively speaking, I will be in America. My career has taught me alot of independence. It has taught me that I can go and be whatever I want, and do whatever I think I want to do. So I guess I am somewhat prepared for this.

Here is my little paragraph about how I feel. Not that I want my parents to feel bad, but I need to get this out. My parents are my best friends. I feel like my heart is being ripped into a million pieces and there is no way it can be put back together. I feel like a little kid whose best friend is moving away. I know technology is better and i will be able to Skype and email and all of that, but people who know me know that I need them. It is not a want, it is a necessity. When I really start thinking about them leaving, I stop breathing. I am praying that this is just a horrible nightmare that I am going to wake up from. That when I do come home on the weekends that they are here. My mom is a part of me. When we are seperated I feel this tug at my heart that only my mother can fill, but I konw that I get to come home and see her. Now, I wont get that. I wont get that Mom time that I need.My dad and I, I cant even explain it. He made me into the woman I am today. His advice, his wisdom, his love. Unmatched from anyone else in my life. No on will ever be able to take his spot.
Ok enough about me. Let me end this by saying, I love my Mom and Dad. I am so proud of them. I look up to you more than you can ever understand. I am so proud of you. I am so happy for you. We can make it here in Oklahoma. Go do you thing and come back to us. I love you more than anything.

Good Luck on your amazing Adventure!!

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Insomnia

Insomnia: I truly hate it. When I am on the road working I sleep fine. I am able to go to bed, sleep and wake up refreshed for the day, ready to hit the road. When I am at home, sleep eludes me. It is so frustrating. I can only clean the house so many times, and rearrange stuff, and organize stuff so much. Being in the new apartment is great! I love spending time with the roommate and seeing my family and friends. But, I get stir crazy. I feel like I should be doing something. I am working, dont get me wrong. During phone support I am constantly on the phone, supporting multiple locations with thier issues and working them out, but being home is just not me anymore. I feel like Tulsa/Bixby isnt where I should be anymore. I dont know, it is kinda scary to think about moving away from here. Not coming back to Tulsa when I am done training somewhere or not here for the Drillers or OKC Thunder. I know it is wierd. I havent lived here my entire life. I did have a short stent in Tucson for half of highschool, but then I came back home to Bixby.
Now I feel like I can go anywhere I want too. I feel like there is something bigger for me somewhere else. What am I so scared of? I am never here anyways, and something tells me this place I call home isnt going to be my home after all of this. When I cant sleep, this is what I do. I sit here and think about my life and how I might want to change it. How I might want to move away and start over. Not that my life is this horrible thing. I love my life and I do love Tulsa and Oklahoma, but it isnt home anymore I dont think. I want an adventure. I want my life to go somewhere. I want to meet someone new. I want different experiences with new people. I dont want my friends to read this and say, "Are we not good enough?" It isnt about that. It is about me getting out of this rut that I feel like I am in. I want so much! I want to conqure things I never thought I could. In this last year, I have conqured alot! But I want more. Is it wrong to want that? I have so much I want to see and do and feel, and something tells me staying here in Tulsa wont get me there.
I want nothing more than to become sucessful in my career and live my life the way God intened me to. I think He has a bigger plan for me than I could of ever imagined for myself. I feel like He is pushing me to make this decison. I am ready for whatever He has in store for me, but it is scary sometimes. I know I need to have faith in whatever He has planned for me and be patient and wait on Him. I am working towards goals I have for myself and letting him lead me. This is His show, and I just need to wait on him to cast me in it. I have alot coming up soon that my faith is going to be strengthened, and I am ready to take it on. I just hope I make the right decsion. I want ott golrify God in my decsion, and hopefully I can do that.
Thanks for reading. Will write more very soon! Love to all!

The more I travel, the more I see...

Picture by: Fred Adelman

It has been a very long time since I have written a blog. So I believe the last time I blogged I was in Kingsport, TN. Oh man, I miss Kingsport. Before I got there, I thought, Ok, I am going to Kingsport, TN...how boring is that going to be? But I loved it. I miss all the wonderful people I met there, but just like every other location I have been too, I must move on and go to the next.

I have, for the last month, been in Fresno, CA. Training with my partner Jon. Things are going great here. Great people and beautiful weather. I decided to go back every other weekend. So the weekends that I have stayed have been wonderful. I have been able to mark some things off my bucket list. I know I am kinda young to have a bucket list, but I have one. Some of the things that are on there aren't really important but the things I marked off, I wouldn't want to do it with any other people than the people pictured above. My wonderful parents decided to come and spend the weekend with me. We made plans to go to Yosemite and to go to San Francisco.

So to get back to the bucket list. Yosemite and Giant Sequoias have been on the list for a long time. To see El Capitan and Half Dome has been a dream forever. Then The Giant Sequoias. HOLY MOLY. I loved Yosemite, I got to see everything I ever wanted to see. It was breath-taking. Too see God's beautiful creation was astounding. To see Half Dome from Glacier Point is something I would tell anyone to do for sure.

Picture By: Lisa Howell

Then came the beautiful Sequoias. I knew these things were big. But these WERE HUGE!!!! I have always wanted to hug a giant tree. When we were going through Yosemite with our own person tour guide. (Mark from my class in Fresno was awesome!!!!) Anyways, I saw some tall trees, and the trunks were big as well. But to see the giants...oh my goodness! They were huge! So amazing! My mom and I have a great picture of us standing in between two ginormous Sequoias and it was just crazy. Then down the road a little bit there was one of the trees that had fallen over and the roots were so tall and amazing. Pictures can not do it justice. The time spent at Yosemite was one of the great memories that I will share with my parents for years to come.
Then on Sunday we made our way to San Francisco. Again, we had a wonderful tour guide, Mr. Fred Adelman. We spent the day walking around Fisherman's Wharf. We had a wonderful lunch. Then walked down the pier and I touched the ocean. Of course mom and I had to do some shopping and other things. We had dinner reservations at Fog Harbor and it was wonderful!
To try to explain how blessed I feel for being able to do a job that I love, and to see this beautiful country, it is priceless. I am loving life right now. My family is doing well, my job is doing amazing, I have a boyfriend that I could not even begin to explain how great he is. I LML! Fresno is awesome. I am going to miss it. But I am ready to be home and spend sometime with my boyfriend and family. I'll write again soon.