Sunday, February 28, 2016

DIY Metallic Letters

I honestly am shocked at how these metallic letters turned out!

When I started looking around at how to do them I thought for sure my OCD would get in the way & I would end up throwing them out. But I managed to not care TOO much and just rolled with it. 

This is what I picked up from Hobby Lobby.



Black paint
Metallic paint
Americana BURNT UMBER
& those small sponge brushes. 

I found these cardboard letters from Joanne's that I thought would look perfect for the look I was going for.



I first painted all the letter black. Doesn't have to be perfect cause as you can see it's just a base color. 



Once dry, with the yellow sponge brush, I put VERY LITTLE metallic on the brush and even blotted it to make sure it was almost none there. Then I started with a small part of the letter (like the underneath of the "L" just to see what I was working with.

The first 2 times I put way too much metallic on it and had to cover it back up with black & start over. The look I am going for was not an entire metallic letter- but streaks of metallic that blended into the black. Once I did a small section of metallic, I took a paper towel and rubbed in the metallic a little more just to make it blend well. 

Whatever it looks like-- just leave it. I didn't know what I would think with some places but it's completely made the rustic "look" look even better.  

Once that has dried, (it dries almost immediately) take the Burnt Umber and make sure there is just a small amount to start with on your brush. I just went around the edges of the letter and made some corners darker than others. This is really where you just have to go with it. The outcome is seriously so rustic & beautiful! 

For hanging them, I'll just glue these bad boys to the back. 



There is a space right in our master bed that I needed something to put there and these will be perfect! 



Saturday, June 27, 2015

A HUGE opportunity!!





A little over 2 years ago, I found my DREAM JOB. It was absolutely LIFE CHANGING for me and my family!! I want to share this with you because I never thought this would do anything for my family... but 2 years ago I decided that I wanted something MORE for my family... and I haven't looked back. 

When I had my first child, we had decided I was going to be a stay at home mom, but that decision didn't come easy as there was a LOT of sacrifice financially. 

I knew NOTHING about this business when I started. I was 30 lbs overweight from having my second son, and I was in DESPERATE need for accountability in my own life. I was not a nutritionist and I was a college drop out... Who would have thought that THAT person could have made it?? 

BUT, I had the desire to learn, and I was very DRIVEN by my husband and kids. 

And what happened shortly after that was absolutely amazing. I jumped in with both feet. I had NOTHING to lose! 

So, now it's time for me to look for people who are LIKE ME to train up to be entrepreneurs themselves. People who don't think they have a clue where to start.. I want to SHOW you how to make a 6-figure income. 

If you are wondering what traits I am looking for, they are:

- You must like to help people
- You must like working with people
- You must be open to learning
- You must want to be surrounded by positive, supportive people
- You must want to earn 6 figures
- You must think you were put on this earth to do more and make a difference in people's lives! 

I was asked, just like I am asking you, to join a fitness accountability group online, because I needed to lose 30 more lbs. I found a program that took me only 30 minutes a day, and I lost 30 lbs in 2 months of hard work and dedication to my end result

At age 27, I had found my passion. To help mama's feel confident and STRONG (not skinny) so that they can be and provide what they need to for their family. 

Fast forward to today: I have a growing & thriving business where I lead people who want to lose weight & get healthier through their own transformations, AND I mentor less-experienced coaches to do what I do. I am proud to be one of the top 2% of Beachbody Coaches! 

If this is something that you are even slightly interested in then please fill out this very short application so that we can chat more! http://bit.ly/JessOnlineCoaching

You have NOTHING to lose except your BIG DREAMS! 

xoxo, Jessica 

Friday, June 5, 2015

My Weight Loss Journey



Some people hear that I weighed 171 lbs at one point and gasp. I have not always been small! (remember I'm 5 feet tall!)

I was an athlete my entire life... but freshman 15 got me pretty bad (yikes!!). I gained that plus a little more my freshman year in college (pic on the left).

I was 14 hours away from my family, and food was comfort for me.

Even though I was a collegiate athlete, I would go to food when I was happy, sad, studying... everything. I was super self conscious, tired ALL THE TIME, and had a VERY unhealthy view of food.

When I got married I felt the best I had EVER felt at 120 lbs. I felt confident, I had energy, and I felt strong. Not skinny... but strong!! (which is WAY more important to me than skinny.)

When I got pregnant, the lbs came on quickly. I weighed 171 lbs the day I had my first son. I realized it was a BLESSING but a LOT OF WORK to take care of a baby & I was VERY uncomfortable carrying around that extra weight.

I could feel it weighing on me in all areas of my life.

Then, I lost ALL my baby weight in 3 months with Insanity and Shakeology, just to put it right back on again with the birth of my 2nd child. I ate super clean this pregnancy and still gained 50 lbs!

That brings me to today.

9 months after the birth of my 2nd son and I have been able to hike up mountains, run races, do pull ups (never could pre-kids!), become an Insanity instructor, also start and COMPLETE 3 more Beachbody programs!!

I have stretch marks (that I will cherish forever) and saggy skin, but feeling confident has bled into my other God given responsibilities that I have and that's to be the best wife and mom that I can be.

I feel confident.

I can chase my kids.

 
I can run at the pool and not feel like sitting on the sideline.


It's NOT about skinny for me... it's about being the best version of MYSELF that I can be for my husband and my kids.

And what was the game changer???
The decision to start. That's all.

Did I need to have a personal training degree? no
Did I need to know all the macros needed & how many oz of chicken to eat in order to burn through the fat of the breakfast I just had. um, no.
Did I need a gym membership? no
Did I need to invest hundreds of dollars in stuff that never worked? no (but I'm sure I have.)


All I did was spend $160 on 30 days of Shakeology and a workout program and actually FOLLOWED THE MEAL PLAN to see the results I wanted.

Motivation + Accountability with my challengers = SUCCESS.

PLUS the lifelong friendship I've made from mommies all around the world is PRICELESS to me.

Thank you JESUS for allowing me to find my PASSION & to be able to always pay it forward to other mommies, both physically and financially, for their family. 

Friday, May 22, 2015

PRODUCT REVIEW: Smashbox Illuminator




Whenever I find something that I love I want to tell everyone about it.

Note: I did NOT think this product would have done the trick! But I was SHOCKED!

This is for those of you moms that look half awake most of the time (because we are... duh) and you want to freshen up your face a little.

Let me know if you have used this product before, or what you use to give your self that "awake" look!!


Don't forget to visit me on Facebook for more great tips, reviews, recipes, and more!

Annnnnnnd if you liked this product review you might also like my review of Becca foundation! Check it out here.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Kitchen Hack: Can't open a Jar? No Problem!

This might be the oldest trick in the book, but I am so thankful that I don't have to call my hubby every time I can't open a jar!

Has anyone ever done something like this? I'd love to hear how YOU get your jars open!


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

#faithjourney: answered prayer



I have been ITCHING to write a follow up to our faith journey for well….. 8 months now.

I sit here thinking back over how finite I am. How I’m so human and God is so God.

I remember VIVIDLY telling God how He should do things.

Here was my prayer,
“God, I will go WHEREVER you want me to go. I’ve made it really easy for you. I want to go back to Florida, and here are your options for you to choose from as far as jobs. Amen.”

I want the beach. I want sun. I want my friends. I want to be comfortable.

Everyone has faith… until they actually have to walk in it.

Ouch.

So, you can read up on our journey thus far here, but here is the Cliff Notes version.

--> 1 year ago, God told us to sell our dream home in Indian Trail, NC. Kicking and screaming, we put it on the market. It sold in 6 days.
--> 8 months ago, God woke Matt and I up the same night and told us he needed Matt to quit his job. That was 9 days before Khase was born.  

Make sense to you? Me either.

At this point I felt God needed my help. So, we PERSUED many options.

He would close a door and I would be standing there with my shoulder pushed up against it trying to keep it from shutting.

Meanwhile, Matt was working side jobs from sun up to sun down.  So between him painting, coaching cheerleading, and my business, we never missed a bill. Ever.

During that time, I remember him having many interviews, sending out applications to jobs that, in my opinion, he was over qualified for, and trying to FORCE many things to happen.

A misconception of stepping out in faith, is that it’s this beautiful road paved with roses, and God will show you in like a day or two what you are supposed to do.

Not the case.

In fact, it can be kinda ugly while you go through it.

I once heard, “If you live your life by what makes sense, you aren’t living a life of faith.”

Having just had a baby, I was already emotional, but going through this gave post partum a WHOLE new meaning for me.

You know what helped get me through it?

I remember reading a chapter in Draw the Circle by Mark Batterson where he would say Build a Testimony.

Build a testimony.

To me, that meant live a life that no matter what way you look at it, God has to get the glory for the outcome, because it has NOTHING to do with you.

And if I ever want my boys to grow up being God-fearing men of faith, then I want them to know their parents showed them how.

Matt and I had an agreement that we would walk through EVERY door that opened until GOD shut it. That was our deal. No backing out.

So fast-forward to January.

Matt was scheduled to head up to Alaska to do a DNOW weekend with my cousins youth group up there. I was ecstatic for him, as he has a passion for evangelism, and he always wanted to go to AK.

2 weeks before Matt was about to leave, my cousin, who is the youth pastor there, called and asked if Matt would be interested in sending his resume, as they were looking for a worship leader.

Immediately I said No.

Remember.. beach? Sun? I don’t do winter. Especially not 364 days of the year where there is only 1 “warm” day & it’s in the 40’s. (just kidding. They have warm summers, but this was my initial thought.)

I fought this one hard. And honestly, I THOUGHT God would really do this to me, because I also said I would never marry a preacher and you can see where that landed me.
;)

Matt reminded me of our deal. Let GOD close the door. Not Jessica.

So, reluctantly, I agreed for him to send his resume, not realizing that a day later, they were going to call to have ALL of us fly up there.

Really, Lord?

2 weeks later, we packed the whole family up, all our snow gear, and headed up to Anchorage, AK.

Everything was great about this church. The people, the staff, the “family” atmosphere. They loved on us as if we were their own and treated us like royalty.  We loved it there!

At the end of the week, I thought to myself....this might be it!!

God has lined EVERYTHING up. We hadn’t done A THING.  

My biggest FEAR was missing the BEST God had for me because I was too STUPID & worried about being comfortable.

If God had the BEST for me in Alaska. Then that’s where I was going. 
No if’s and’s or but’s about it.

In my mind we were moving.

We came back from AK on a high from just having gone to camp with them. It was perfect. 

The kids were awesome, the camp went awesome….

They sent us home and told us they wanted to pray about it for 2 weeks and wanted us to as well.

2 weeks came and went and we got a call that they wanted Matt to fly back out, lead worship again, and go on their staff retreat because they had not made a decision yet.

We said we were going to keep walking through the door. So they bought the ticket.

That night we were RESTLESS.

And when I say restless, I mean, up at 2am and couldn’t sleep a lick after that. 

We had some hesitations about some things and it was like God was saying LOUD & CLEAR, “This is not it.”

So the next day, we called the church and explained the check in our heart.  We didn’t feel like God wanted us to keep walking through this door.

I was confused, because I told God, “God, I’m ok with this! YOU HAVE ME! I have accepted this and want what you want!”

Then I felt God say to me almost as CLEAR.AS.DAY…

“Jessica, I wanted to know that I had your heart. “

Right then, I had an Abraham moment.

Remember when God told Abraham to take his son Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a sacrifice? 

Without a hint of hesitation, Abraham rose early that morning, saddled up his donkey, and headed with his son to where God had told him. 

His plan was to sacrifice his son that day.  He even built the alter and tied his son Isaac to it! Just as he was raising his arm to put the knife in Isaac’s heart and angel  called to him and told him to stop.


(Genesis 22:9-12)
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham!’
‘Here I am,’ he replied.
12 ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’

Wow.


So, let’s go back to the 2 weeks we were praying about Alaska.

During those 2 weeks, Matt got a phone call from a church in Alabama looking for a student and college pastor.

They asked for his resume and references.

At the end of the day, they had contacted all his references and called for a first interview.

Without going into too much detail, let’s just say God was ALL OVER IT.

For the next few weeks we had interview after interview, skype after skype. God would open up another door and we would just keep walking.

Their vision aligned EXACTLY with what we believed and we were falling in love with the students, leaders, and staff and we hadn’t even been offered the job yet!

This is where I thought if God were going to close the door… it will be here.

We started looking at housing, and if you have ever rented before, you know that you MUST show proof that you make at least 3 times the amount of the rent payment.

Well, that's going to be a problem.

You see, we have been living on “faith” for the past 8 months and GOD has provided our money.

I don’t think they would buy into that story even if we would have written it on paper and gave it to them.

But, trusting God, we filled out the application and left that part out.
The Administrative pastor called us THAT DAY and told us the application went through, and we have house.

Excuse me, what?  

The house is yours.

And not only that, they were showing it to someone else that EXACT day and SOMEHOW they went with our application and not theirs.

Jessica can’t do that.

God did that.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to visit this church in Alabama I’ve been talking about.
It’s called Vaughn Forest in Montgomery, Al.

We met with the leadership, the staff, the students, the volunteers, the adult leaders the elders, and it just CONFIRMED to us that THIS is the road that God has so EASILY paved for us.

We were at home. And we could FEEL it.

After 8 loooong months, God showed up.

He went before us, and like Matt always says, God just rocked our faces off.

Cause this was HIM. Not us. We would have ruined it. We would have tried to take credit. But we can’t.

I thought it was Alaska. 

And I was ok with that, but God gave me something even better. He just wanted to see if he REALLY had my heart.

If I would do something UNCOMFORTABLE.

So, ladies and gentleman, starting May 1st, we have accepted the student/college pastor position at Vaughn Forest!!!

We are actually packing up THIS WEEK and heading that way!

We are about to embark on a journey that we have prayed about for a very, VERY long time.

Thank you for all your prayers & your encouragement. I love that so many of you have followed our journey and have asked about it.

There is so much more to this story that I will continue to share with you guys, but for now, we are going to MY home state, and where the BEST football team in the world resides… ALABAMA!!!


















Friday, March 27, 2015

Protein Pancakes!



So, as a mom of 2 boys I'm always trying to find healthy versions and alternatives to our everyday food.

You know, like trying to sneak veggies into their spaghetti or making turkey burgers instead of hamburgers.

But out of all the meals I've experimented with, this one has been an all ALL TIME HIT.

You would never think throwing together these 3 ingredients would still make pancakes taste like pancakes... But they do.

My family has these at least 2-3x a week, and I don't feel guilty about that.

Here are the ingredients...

8 egg whites
2 heaping tablespoons of cottage cheese
1/2 cup oats
*Vanilla or cinnamon optional

Mix all ingredients in a blender (putting egg whites in first).

Pour onto skillet.

Topped best with PB, banana, and 100% maple syrup.

YUM!!

Leave me a message & let me know how you liked it!

xoxo, Jessica