A Lesson Learned

You would not believe what I've been through today. It all started last night when I noticed my computer was acting up. It suddenly just stopped working, I tried to restart it, but then it wouldn't even turn back on. I started freaking out, but I didn't even realize at the moment the extent of what just happened. I was about to learn a very hard lesson.

 After trying to figure out the problem on my own which consists of about 2 seconds, I turned it over to my husband like I usually do.  He tried and couldn't get it to work either.  Thats when I knew something was REALLY wrong. "Sorry Crystal, but your computer crashed." 

Um, WHAT!!!  Ha, no, thats not possible, it's only 3 years old and it's a Mac. Aren't Mac's supposed to be the best? 

 I was trying hard NOT to believe him and began thinking of the last time I had backed up my computer. Thats when the anxiety began rushing through every vain in my body.  I realized I hadn't backed it up in well over a year. Bits and pieces of all the information I had possibly lost starting flashing through my mind. Pictures, home videos, projects, folders, emails.... THE BIRTH OF MY SON!!!!  No no no no, this can't be happening! How could I let this happen?  I was so upset and even cried before I fell asleep at the thought of losing all my precious memories I had worked so hard to capture. 

I woke up the next morning feeling sick to my stomach. My whole life had been turned up side down. You may think I'm being a little overly dramatic, but I honestly could not live without my computer. 

The first thing I did was went down to the Mac store in hopes that they would be able to recover all the information. I dropped it off for them to look at and anxiously waited for their call.  I literally could not function, It was like I was paralyzed.  Finally after a long 3 hours passed, I received the phone call. "Sorry, we were NOT able to retrieve any of the information, but you can call this other company and they may be able to help you." Okay, so I called the other company in tears. She said they have a 96% success rate and she was pretty positive she'd be able to recover the information from the hard drive. Yay!!!!!!  Just as I was about to take a huge sigh of relief she said, it will cost anywhere from $700- $2,700... WHAT!!!! Are you serious!!!! Then I cried some more. 

Okay, now I have a question for you. Would you put a price on your memories? How much would YOU be willing to spend to retrieve lost memories?

This experience caused me to really think. All of this could have easily been prevented if I would have just taken the necessary precautions. A new hard drive only costs around $100, and backing up my computer only takes a few minutes each day. It's been a hard lesson to learn but I can see how this applies to many different situations in life.

Sometimes we get lazy and think, oh that won't happen to me... 

and then it does. 

Worlds Sexiest 30 Year Old!

picture taken by carrieshinphotography.blogspot.com

This weekend we are celebrating my husbands 30th birthday! I'm so excited because I have a thing for older men and always wanted to make out with a 30 year old. Yah baby, all my dreams are about to come true :)
So today I'm featuring my wonderful husband, we're not going to call it FAB Friday though :) It's a little too feminine for my strong, sports lovin, manly man. 
I have so many things to say about this guy I don't even know where to begin. First of all, the story of how we met is coming soon. We're celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary the end of this month and I plan to share the interesting, yet amazing story of how we ended up together. 

I want to start out by sharing a little something that he wrote recently. I stole this from his weekly newsletter he sends out to all the top leaders in our company. I really liked it because he shares part of his bucket list, also mentioning some things he hoped to accomplish before he hit 30. He is such an inspiration to me, you'll see what I mean.

Got Dreams?  Better put them in Writing!
-Sean Escobar

Did you know that the single act of writing your goals down increases the chances of achieving them by 1100%? Amazing, isn't it! You can increase your chances of reaching your goals by 11 times just by writing them down.

I remember fondly a day when my dad took out a red marker and wrote on my hand the number "50"  It was August then and he said, I want you to be at 50 cycles (higher ranking in our company) by Christmas, for some reason he likes to say "by Christmas."  :)  Anyways, I nodded, didn't really need to say anything, I knew it would take an incredible commitment to pull that off.  Would you believe that by Christmas that year Crystal and I had broken 100 cycles a week! 

When I first got involved in Isagenix I remember Dad always instructing people to write down their goals in RED.  I actually still have the pad where I wrote them down from years ago.  It has become quite special to me. 

Here are some of the goals I wrote down in no particular order and whether or not they have been fulfilled since:

-Have the Ability to Retire by the age of 30 - Fulfilled, I turn 30 this weekend

-Meet my dream girl and get married - Fulfilled!

-Have all the time in the world for my children - Fullfilled!

-Hit a Hole In One - Not yet Fulfilled

-Invent Something - I have a couple things in mind, top secret :)

-Write a book - Not Yet

-Max out our position in Isagenix - Fulfilled

-Find out what people's dreams are - getting better at this all the time

-Build a big Garage with my office above it - Fulfilled

-Read Scriptures Everyday - Not Yet Fulfilled

-Make 100's of millions of dollars - Not Yet Fulfilled :)

-Start a Charity for Single Mom's - not yet

- Serve a Christian Mission with Crystal - Not Yet

Anyways, those are just a few of them, but you can see that some of my Big Aspirations HAVE been Fulfilled and Many of the Small ones that I'm not mentioning have been.  It works.   I have no doubt that ALL of my goals and dreams will come to fruition! By the Way, Have I mentioned how Grateful I am for Isagenix in my life? 

Love Sean

Isn't he amazing! I feel so lucky to be married to such a person. One of the things that attracted me the most to him in the beginning, was his obvious passion to better himself and achieve HUGE goals. I LOVE people who dream big, and he is one person who truly believes that he CAN accomplish what ever the heck he wants! I've seen him come so far in the last 6 years.
He is also the BEST dad ever! These little kids have him wrapped around their little fingers:) He spends so much quality time with them, never tires of playing with them. In fact, if he didn't have to work, I guarantee he'd spend every second with them. He's such a family man, I never doubt that we are THE most important thing to him.

 

Now don't be alarmed, these are Sean's hairy feet, and he doesn't normally wear nail polish :) Like I said, these kids have got him wrapped around their finger.  He'll do anything for them, even allowing Lily to paint his toe nails.

Yes, this is a picture of him doing Lily's hair. How cute is that?

GETTING YOUR KIDS TO HELP CLEAN UP

Don't you feel like THIS is the kind of mess you deal with on a daily basis? It looks like a tornado hit. I clean up the house every night before I go to bed. The next morning, I wake up, get breakfast for the kids, make the beds, do a load of laundry, unload the dishwasher, and get dressed. By the time I've done that,  THIS is what my living room looks like.  It gets a little frustrating when I feel like all I'm doing each day is picking up toys. I'm really trying to focus on getting my kids to help out a little more. It's important that we TEACH them to pick up after themselves. Not only does it make our lives a lot easier, but it prepares them for real life. I recently read Parenting With Love And Logic (Updated and Expanded Edition). I learned so many great things from that book including some advice on getting kids to pick up.

Here is a little example I got from the book.

PARENT: "Hey, honey, there's a lot of your stuff laying around the house today. It's kind of getting in the way. Do you want to pick it up, or would you rather I picked it up?"

CHILD: "You pick it up."

PARENT: "Well, the advantage of your picking it up is that you'll get to see it again. If I pick up, I'll keep the stuff. So you might want to rethink your decision on that. But you don't have to rush. I'll know what you want. If by lunchtime I still see your stuff out there, I'll know you decided to have me pick it up. If I see that it's gone, then I'll know that you decided to pick it up for yourself."

I've learned that it takes a lot of patience, but I'm trying to be consistent. 

Here is a cute video of Oliver cleaning. It is soooo funny! He just started doing this one day, and I've noticed he does it a lot now. He's making me proud :)

I'm Back!!!

Hey Everyone!
I'm back from an amazing weekend at our cabin. It's always nice to get away for a bit and completely disconnect. No phone, no internet, just me and my family. We stayed up late watching movies, slept in, ate ALOT, went boating, 4 wheeling, and went to the beach. It was great! I feel all refreshed now, except now I'm in major need of a cleanse :) I ate one too many sugar cookies, probably gained like 5 pounds. How was your 4th of July?

I also wanted to announce the winner of the $25 gift card to Sucre Lulu. The lucky number was 7!!!!

Congratulations Kristin @ Ellie-Town