Yogi! Yoga!

Back in October I was really tired of the stress of I was feeling with trying to figure things out in my life so I turned to the internet. I searched stress relief on Youtube and the first thing I saw was a Yoga video that was stress relief. I have never done yoga before and never even considered it. The thought of it made me feel awkward and I just felt like all it was was stretching. Obviously at this point in my life I was ready to try just about anything to help me out. I decided to do a 30 days of yoga challenge on youtube. After the very first day of the challenge I just stayed there lying on the floor with a big smile on my face. I felt SO GOOD! Every day after that I faithfully did yoga and all my stress and emotionally pain just melted away. 

Overall, I was healed and a much happier person. The purpose of this blog is for me to hopefully convince you to give it a try. Especially if you are struggling with finding something to do for yourself. That is the great thing about yoga! Yoga is all about you! It is about loving yourself, accepting yourself, healing yourself physically and emotionally. 

This is me giving you some tips on getting the most out of your yoga practice, especially if you are a beginner. 

1. Yoga is a type of exercise. Some people will try to tell you it is not. All I have to say to them is give it a try and let's see what you have to say after. In yoga you are flexing and stretching some muscles you hardly use and it feels oh so yummy. Don't know what I mean? Try it!

2. Even though yoga is an exercise or as us yogis call it, a "practice". It is not a give it your until you can't handle any more. Listen to your body! This is what the Child's pose was created for. If a certain pose is too much for you and you can't keep track of your breathing get down into this pose and do what you need to do to get back in that meditation state of mind. 

3. Your body will slowly change. I did not lose all that much weight the first couple weeks of doing yoga. It maybe even took as long as a month. However, I did notice some great changes in my body! Just within a week I noticed my flexibility improve greatly and overall I just felt great. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat so take that into account when you think this practice isn't benefiting your weight. 

4. Whether you are doing your practice at home or in a studio with a yoga instructor don't worry about how you look. This was my biggest worry about ever doing yoga. What I noticed was that once we started I was so focused on my poses and doing my own thing I didn't have time to look around and notice anybody else. I am sure the same is true for the other yogis around you. 

5. There is a difference in having a cheap mat vs. an expensive one. At the beginning of my practice I used just a cheap mat to practice yoga and really didn't think it would make sense to get an expensive one. I didn't understand mats all that well. If anybody knows my husband they know that when it comes to buying stuff he does A LOT of research to make sure he gets the best quality item. For Christmas he surprised me with a Lululemon yoga mat. At first I wasn't all that excited that he spent so much money on me. Believe me now though, a great mat is worth the extra money! With my old mat if I was sweating even slightly I would slip around and had a hard time holding some poses. With my new mat I could be doing hot yoga and I won't budge. 

6. You will learn to crave being sore. I hope this makes sense to you beginners but nothing feels more good than practicing yoga when you are sore from your previous practice. There is something about stretching it out and breathing through the pain that is so satisfying and just feels extra yummy. 

7. Do this for you. Have fun. Never take yoga too seriously! If you fall laugh it off. If you fart in the middle of a pose, laugh it off. Smile when something feels good. Just remember to listen to your body and find what feels best for you. 

For those of you that don't know where to start and are not sure if you want to commit to paying for a class. Try these at home practices! I seriously love Yoga with Adriene. She is hilarious and keeps me wanting to come back for more. 

She currently has two free 30 day programs. I started with "30 Days of Yoga" and then did "30 Days of Yoga Camp" 

I would personally do it in that order just because she caters more to beginners in "30 days of Yoga"

Enjoy! Namaste.

Trials Make You Stronger

I started this blog a year and a half ago and then completely disappeared. I figured it was time to make a reappearance. You see this past year has been a rollercoaster for our little family. I usually never share anything personal about myself to anybody. I have rewritten this post a thousand times and then decided against posting because I am such a private person. Why have I decide to share then? Well you see I have come to accept my circumstances and have decided that I rather have people support me than not know what is going on and accidentally hurt my feelings.
So here it goes...

About a year ago Tysen and I decided it was time to bring a little Ficklin into our lives. It seemed like the perfect time! It seemed like the right step to take at this point in our marriage. Months and months went by and I still was not pregnant. That's okay though! We just kept trying because after all my twin sister got pregnant pretty quickly why wouldn't I be able to? Fast forward almost a year later and after a lot of tears, emotional rollercoasters, lab tests, and doctors appointments we got the news that getting pregnant was not going to be as easy or natural as we thought it would be.

I guess my point to this post is not just to let others know about the hard times we are facing but to let you all know that trials really do make you a stronger and better person. For the longest time I had a hard time sitting in church while others announced that they were pregnant. There were so many times when I felt like I was being judged for not having any kids yet. Totally not the case I just let myself feel that way. I also had a lot of days where I was angry at the world and at God for giving me this trial. One day while I was on a walk and a line from the Hymn "Be Still, My Soul" popped into my head. The line was, "Be still, my soul; your God will undertake To guide the future as he has the past." I have went through a couple trials in my life and after those trials when I have looked backed I have seen my Heavenly Father's hand throughout the entire process. At that moment I chose to love myself and just let things happen all while knowing that I was being guided to where I need to be. During this past year I have learnt to love myself and I have learnt who I really am. I know I still have a long road ahead before becoming a Mother is a reality but that's okay because I know there will be some great lessons I will learn along the way.

I really want to thank my supportive husband, he has been so beyond positive throughout this whole experience. I also want to thank those who have been aware of my situation and who have kept me positive along the way and have been such a support to me. You guys are what keep me going! 

Feeling Scrub

I'm loving all of my classes and I'm also loving Tysen's job because it's helping me a ton in all of my classes. I'm grateful for all the help he's already given me with my homework. He's going to be such a successful man I just know it. 

Currently

Currently Tysen and I are in Coeur d'Alene enjoying our final days before school is up & running. During this stay of ours we got some really exciting news. The past year and a bit I have been in the process of getting my green card. It's been an extra long journey for us...very stressful. I gave my sister my mail key while we were away so that she could check my mail for me since I'm super impatient about waiting for stuff and I have to check every day.

On Monday I got my work/travel visa in the mail. YAY! I can finally leave the country, not that I'm planning on it anytime soon with school starting up, but it's nice to know that I'm able to. I can finally search for jobs anywhere in town rather than just on campus. That made job hunting very hard. So I spent the entire day after I got that news applying for 6 six jobs.

Then on Tuesday I got a letter in the mail specifying what day I have my interview to receive my green card. September 25th!!! Finally. It's really nice knowing a day rather than guessing.

Everything is finally coming together and I could not be happier. Also, I'm really excited for school to start. I am sure I'll regret saying those words but as of right now I'm ready to get rolling. Tysen and I went back to school clothes shopping yesterday...luckily it wasn't too difficult because all we have to wear this coming semester are scrubs. It's a dream come true for me because I really REALLY hate wearing jeans and I'm pretty sure Tysen feels the same. We're going to look so adorable in our matching scrubs. Don't you guys worry, I'll be sure to post a picture.

Ahhh.....life is great. I have no complaints.

A Little Family History

A little background information so you guys don't get confused, the Ficklin's, whom were vikings, used to be called the Fickling's. All right, so ... about a month ago my sister came across this post on Facebook. I don't know who posted it but whoever you are ... if you happen to end up reading this thanks for the post I thought it was the coolest thing! 

In advance, sorry the letter is small, it wouldn't let me make it any bigger so feel free to zoom on in. 

A man named Benjamin Fickling wrote a letter describing the characteristics of the Fickling's (now Ficklin's). This is what he wrote: 

I found this so fascinating because it pretty much described Tysen to T. From his curly dark hair, to being quick witted, and loving quick witted conversations, to being slow to anger. Obviously the Ficklin's have some strong genes because Tysen and his Dad look and behave a lot alike and from this description of them they seem to be a lot alike. 

I would be truly blessed to one day have a son just like Tysen, he is such a great man oh ... and such a cutie! 

Find the True Value of a Moment

In my personal blog I wrote a post that I felt very strongly about, yet I didn't share it because I felt like I would be judged for it.

 I took an English class here at BYUI in the winter that really changed my perspective about things, actually multiple classes I took that semester changed my perspective on a lot of things. But this class particularly I want to talk about. I read multiple essay's about the effect social media has on individuals and society. My last day of class I wrote this post on my blog, which I'm about to show you, because I felt it would be good for some people to read. 

Disclaimer: this is just my opinion, this is not what we were taught in our class, we were taught to come up with our own opinions about the things we read. This is just mine. 

In my final English class today we talked about mass media and how when people are in crowds they aren't themselves, also how this world is becoming a place where you don't live a private life anymore because everything is public.

We advertise how we are feeling, what we are wearing, where you are, what you're doing.

That kind of stuff.

I hardly posted on twitter to begin with but whilst reading twitter posts of the people I follow I noticed 90% (those aren't real statistics by the way, haha) most of the posts I was reading were people complaining, talking about all the negative parts of their life and their day. "A negative mind will never give you a positive life" The thing is half the people I followed I haven't spoken more than a couple words to them. 
The people I actually want to stay in contact with are on my phone, and if I want to know how they are doing I'll text them or call them. 

So I quit twitter. 

Think about it, when you meet up with old friends how many stories about your life are you going to be able to tell? 

I predict not many because we post everything as soon as it happens.

Chances are you won't tell that friend any exciting news because you already posted about it. 
They already know. 

The next thing you know 

We start to live and do things just so we can post about it.

So here is a challenge, you don't have to take it.

But fight that urge to post about what you're doing and make a few memories that only you and your friends or family know about, have stories to tell that are more than 140 characters long. 

Feel free to leave your thoughts, I won't be offended. 

Recipe - Zuppa Toscana

So as I said in my intro, I LOVE to cook. So I decided to share a delicious recipe!. Tysen and I went to Olive Garden for our one year anniversary and as his starter he ordered their soup Zuppa Toscana. It's his favorite. When we got home that night I did lots of research on which soups are most like Olive Garden's. I found a quick crockpot version for those long work/school days and then one that takes a little more involvement, but that's okay because it turned out perfect! 

The ingredients you'll need are:

• 1 lb Italian sausage 
• 2 large russet potatoes, sliced in half and then into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 large onion, chopped 
• 1/4 cup of bacon bits (optional) 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced 
• 2 cups of kale, chopped 
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• 4 cups of water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• salt and pepper
• 2-3 shakes of red pepper flakes 

Directions (with pictures, yay!):

Brown the sausage in your soup pot, I suggest chopping the sausage into small pieces. I have never cooked with sausage before and I didn't realize it didn't fall apart like ground beef does. So yes, slice that sausage. 

Chop those potatoes, onions, and garlic. 

Add the broth and water to your soup pot & stir. Then add your onions, garlic, and potatoes. Cook on medium heat until the potatoes are done. 

Then, add the bacon bits, I like to use the real bacon bits. Real bacon would be ideal but you know, that takes time to cook and I wasn't feel all that up to it. 

Add salt and pepper to taste and add the red pepper flakes. 

Let it simmer for another 10 minutes. 

Turn to low heat.

Add the kale. 

I've never cooked with it before so I had to look up how to cut it because I didn't want to screw it up. All you gotta do it slice down the fine and then cut into about 1 inch chunks. 

Then add the whip cream. 

Let everything heat through, which means let the kale soften. 

Then ... ta da!! All done :) Mmm