Tuesday Ten: What I know about the L-word

Before I start this I have to tell you that there are really only two things in my head lately, well, two things that I care to share with the entire world (or whoever all you lovely people are that read my blog!).  One is mountain biking which I have been loving  a LOT the last 6 days.  I already decided part of what I am going to do to celebrate my one-year bikeversary in August.  It works out perfectly because the Bikeversary is 3 days before my birthday so I am getting one present for both....to me, from me.  It will be awesome and I will share it when the time comes.    The other thing is that in 12 days my beloved Texas Rangers play real baseball and in 16 days I will be at the Ballpark again for game one of what will probably be about 30-35 home games I see this year and I can not WAIT!


But I blogged about biking yesterday and I don't have anything exciting to impart Texas Ranger wise so doing a 3rd Texas Ranger Tuesday will have to wait at least another week.  That means I am doing a Tuesday 10 and this one is What I know about Love and Relationships.   Oh, this shouldn't take long and expect many cliches!   Okay here we go:

10. You can love two people at once but you can't have both of them. 
A choice has to be made and you are going to hurt someone.  Do it quickly and be honest because dragging it out only makes it more painful later.

9. If a man says he doesn't know what he wants....believe him and RUN! 
Run for your own good because you are going to end up hurt in the end.  If he figures out that he wants you in time, you can always make room for him later but he has to figure out you are the right, amazing, perfect woman.  If he figures it out and it is too late, it is his loss.

8. You may love someone before you meet them.  
I know this sounds a little crazy but sometimes people work their way into your heart through email, text, and social media and you actually can really care and yes I will go so far as to say possibly love them before you meet them. 

7. Never work harder than the other person. 
Relationships are a partnership and if one person is pulling the load and the other person is reaping the benefits in the end, someone is going to be crushed.  This is probably the biggest mistake I make because frankly, I like spoiling my guy.  I am a caregiver by nature and I think of others first.  It is hard to put my needs infront of his but at some point I realized that I matter and I have to take care of me first.

6. If it is meant to be, someday it will be.
Yes it is a cliche but I warned you there would be some.  Some cliches are truth.  This is the truth.  It may not work out today or two years from today but if two people are meant to be together nothing will keep them apart.  It may take ten years and a bunch of other relationships but they will find a way back together.  That doesn't mean you live for someday.  You live with the reality of today and make the mistakes in between even if that means a divorce or two or whatever before you make your way back together.

5. Sometimes the right one is the wrong one.
This is such a hard truth.  You can feel with every fiber of your body that you are suppose to be with a specific person but that doesn't mean you are right for each other. Everything may look right and feel right but it takes more.  Falling in love is about timing and the place each person is at a given moment.  I have always know that if you meet the right one at the wrong time they become the wrong one.  This happened to me recently and it is a really hard thing to accept but I have accepted it and moved on.  Unfortunatly, it is painful and not something you can see until you are away from it.

4. What happens when you are together is only half of the relationship.
"When we are together we are great but when we are apart he seems to have second thoughts about us."   That's because when you are apart he is doing his own thing and you are the furthest thing from his mind.  I know we have talked about this before but men are different from women and well, let's be honest, they are annoying. 

3. Love isn't easy but if it is worth it, it is worth fighting for.
Even the broken heart is worth it.  Loving someone is the greatest gift you can give them because you give them your heart.  They may not want it, but if they don't someone else will.  You are an incredible person and there are more people out there that will see that so fight for love just don't fight alone.

2. You never get a second chance to say you're sorry.
We all have regrets and this is just a terribly hard one to live with.  Sometimes you make mistakes.  Sometimes the other person makes mistakes.  Figure out a way to say you are sorry and forgive each other because if the relationship ends because of something silly, you are going to regret not saying you were sorry. (If you aren't sorry that is another story.)

1. Love yourself first.
This is something I am still learning how to do but the truth is, you have to love yourself in order for other people to love you the way you deserve to be loved.  Start with liking yourself and you can progress to loving yourself but the key to this is to replace all negative self-talk with positive self-talk. Tell yourself you are awesome and believe it then do what makes you awesome. 

Happy Tuesday everyone! The best thing about Tuesday is that it isn't Monday!!



Enjoy the Ride!

Simply,
Laura
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Sunday Snuggles, Mountain Bike Monday, plus Boys are still stupid and Funnies!

I'm posting this early because it's my blog and I can! Yep, I'm a rebel!





Skye and I spent a lot of time together this week and especially this weekend! She is doing great. Laura on the other hand is sore and bruised and beaten and feeling awesome! I have told y'all before...I am an odd woman. Falling is fun as long as nothing serious is broken.


Horseshoe Friday:












Friday I rode Horseshoe again and I could completely tell my endurance needs lots of work! (Next winter I will have a road bike for times when the trail is not an option.) Still, the smile on my face says it all. The man who can make me smile like this (and not cry) will be a keeper! Until then, my bike is enough! Please note I am not too proud to post pictures of a nasty post-bike me.

Saturday I had a great 2 hour ride at Rowlett Creek Preserve and a picnic after with the wheel women group of DORBA.



This was my pre-bike look complete with my awesome T-shirt which says "Put the fun between your legs"







This is me post ride with Khrystal and Julie. Both said to me "you still have your helmet on, don't you want to take it off for the picture?" Haha! No!!! See above photo for why!



This picture is pretty funny & since I am in it, it's not mine. Jennifer Jeter's hubby took this for us.


And the post ride picnic with the awesome Wheel Women of DORBA. It's truly amazing to be a part of this group! First we encourage each other and second we may or may not laugh at men. We love them, don't get me wrong. There is just something very different about the way men and women communicate and it is never more clear to me than when I read the two Facebook pages or go on Rangers fan sites. We talked about this Saturday and the closest I can come to it is this; I love my bike. She is like a friend. I wash her and lube her and take care of her and she takes care of me. For a man, there is something else involved. They like to brag about the type of suspension, gears, and forks and like to compare wheel size. (Bigger is better, boys! We know. We get it!) I just want to ride and that is basically what we talk about on the Wheel Women site. Where we are riding and when and if we have a question we ask and get 11 opinions because that's how women roll. We don't argue or insult each other or talk crudely about the opposite sex. We may laugh at them a little but never on the site. We save that for when we are together. :-)

The ride was so much fun! I tackled Loop 7 which was a first for me on this trail. It's about 4 miles by itself. This loop is challenging with lots of hills and wet creek crossings. Half of it is mental. You have to just tell yourself to go and trust your bike. This dip was probably the most amazing feeling going down but to be honest, going down is easy, it's getting back up that's the hard part. (Mountain biking life lessons)







It is so amazing to see how the hills don't translate on film but trust me when I say this is steep and a lot higher than it looks. I originally planned on walking it but decided walking would be almost impossible because it is so steep so my choice was to fall on my butt walking or ride it. It was an easy choice. I went first and next came Julie. After a few minutes of psyching herself up she owned it like a boss! I have to admit I am proud of the progress we have made. We took on a couple of obstacles the experiences riders have problems with and we handled them. Ok, some we didn't handle. Sometimes you have to be smart.





I may have gotten a few battle wounds. Honestly if I hadn't been talking so much and had been paying better attention I would have seen that tree pull out in front of me! I think I actually may have gone airborne on the fall. I do remember sliding across dirt and leaves and hitting my head. Julie said I hit hard. It seemed hard to me too. Haha! I had a wonderful time and will be going to more events soon plus I am going on a DORBA camping trip this summer for a weekend. Summer camping in Texas should be nice and HOT! I can't wait!





Sunday I wanted to bike but because of my schedule this week I know I won't be able to ride Tuesday and I put somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 miles on my legs in two days so riding Monday is a must and concentrating on strength on Sunday was a better plan. I forgot how much upper body strength it requires to bike. I also remembered very quickly that the Christmas 8 pounds and the depression 7 pounds have to come off plus some. I need to be lean (read healthy) because my goal is in sight so my focus on Sunday was cleaning the house and planning healthy meals for the week.
Oh but there was some of this on my TV this weekend! The luck of the draw! First time out it told me to watch! What else could it mean?







(I love this shirt!)


Boys (and grown men) are still stupid.

Can I have a "what the what?" moment here for the guy who said this:

"Kinda like fat girls. They may be fun to ride but you don't let your friends catch you on one."

That's a real comment by a real man who clearly has real issues. I will admit it made me laugh and shake my head. Not because the comment was funny but because it's so ignorant.

😜😃😄😂😛😉😀😝😃😭😋
Monday Funnies cause it's Monday (or it will be) and we need to smile:























I'm pretty sure my dogs think this too. My dachshunds like to own the bed if I let them up.




This possibly explains my closet!




Maxine is the best!











Simply,
Laura
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fabulous Friday: Enough Already!

I have been on a journey the last year and a half. It started in the fall of 2011 and it finally ends today.
That journey was recognizing what is important and what matters most is my feelings for myself. I suffer from that inadequate feeling that many women feel. The "I'm not pretty, thin, smart, thin, sexy, thin, hot, thin, confident, thin....enough" syndrome. Tonight I realized what I am, is over this.

I have tried not to care and what I end up doing is getting mad at my family and my friends and feeling left. Feeling left is a big thing for me. It goes back to my dad, I am sure. The adult me knows he didn't chose to leave. The inner 5 year old will never stop feeling like I wasn't good enough to live for. This transfers into every relationship I have had with men I have cared about. My first love to my last. Actually, there are only two. I wasn't good enough for either. When I am honest with myself, I tried too hard and I was really far too good. Neither one of them did anything to actually deserve me. It was my lack of self respect that allowed me to be be that weak female I can't stand.

I am so much better and stronger. I know I am. I would never stand by and let anyone treat my friends the way I let myself be treated. I would never treat my friends the way I treat myself either.

I realized tonight that not only can I not fix the past but if I could change it, I doubt I would. I can love someone who doesn't love me but I can't love him enough to make him love me and I can't love myself if I let myself love him. Someone has to lose and in this case, he lost. He probably doesn't care right now. He may never care but I know with everything in me that he will never find anyone better because I am pretty much the best.

I am a good person and while I may not be perfect I am enough just as I am. I am pretty enough and smart enough and I am thin enough to be loved and to love.

No woman or man should ever feel like they have to change everything about themselves to find someone. Nobody should feel that they aren't enough just as they are. There is no other me and there is no other you! Stop comparing yourself to others.

I am unequivocally the best me there is and you are the best you. I can become stronger and I can work at being better but nobody can or ever will be me again and nobody will be you.

The truth is that I am pretty awesome and so are you. Look around you. Look at the people that love you. Are they honestly the best people you know? If the answer is yes, you have to be awesome because they picked you to be a friend, lover, or spouse.

When I hear that inner critic whispering how unlovable I am I tell myself something positive about myself. I may tell myself I have awesome hair or pretty eyes or that Rachel, Chance, Khrystal, Trish, and Alaina love me. I may remind myself that the people at work miss me when I am gone and go out of their way to pick on me because they love me. I may remind myself about the four little brats who call me Aunt and who think I am pretty cool. Whatever I tell myself, I remind myself there is nothing wrong with me.

Honestly I am pretty amazing. I am funny and silly and I can talk sports like a guy and put me on a bike and I may not be the fastest or most graceful rider but there isn't a lot I won't try because at this point, I am fearless and I don't care if I fall and yes I am crazy but it is the good kind of crazy, the fun kind and that's ok!



What I am saying is that when you get to that point where you are tired of hurting, tired of crying, tired of being sad or depressed and you have had enough, you have to look in the mirror at you and realize there is nobody God loves more and nobody God thinks is more perfect than you. He will give you everything if you ask and believe and He will heal that broken heart. It may not happen today but it will get better every single day until finally you look into your own eyes and say, "No more tears. God never makes mistakes and you aren't going to be His first, so buck up Buttercup!"

Happy Friday!!
Simply,
Laura
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blog Lovin

Since Google Reader is going bye-bye in July I decided to jump on the Blog Lovin Bandwagon so come follow me there and I will do the same!  I added a button to my blog home page...yes, I did yet another redesign...and I am sure this won't be the last.  I am a fickle woman!

Simply Me the Way I see it on Blog Lovin