Food Poisoning SUCKS

So....remember this really cute pic from last week of me and my sweet friend Nicole at her baby shower?

Well, the day after the shower, my sister and I went over to Mom & Dad's for fajitas & ritas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. It was about 6-8 hours after those festivities that the fun (HELL) began. I would post a picture of what it was like, but I'll spare everyone the nasty images.

I woke up around 2:30am with HORRIBLE stomach pains. From then on, for the next 3 hours, I was up and down from the bed to the toilet. It was one of those situations where I was sitting sideways on the toilet with the shower curtain open, not sure what was going to happen when I actually made it to the bathroom. The vomiting started around 5ish and it was at that time that I knew there was NO way I would be making it to school. For the first time in my teaching career, I put in for a sub, unplanned, and told the sub to let the kids have "study hall". If you know me, you understand that is NOT what I like to leave for a sub - EVER! But, I was so stinkin miserable that I knew it was just going to have to be ok.

It was around that time that I checked my phone and realized my sister had gotten sick at about 1am that same night. We determined that it was food poisoning and started to think about & wonder what it could have been that we ate at Mom & Dad's that gave us such issues. Kristin & I were the only ones sick (so far), and we couldn't put our finger on the cause.

I will say that Monday was the worst I've felt in as long as I can remember. When people exaggerate and say they "puked their guts out", I'm always like, yea - ok. Now I know what they mean. That was how I spent the rest of the morning on Monday. I literally kept throwing up until there was absolutely NOTHING left in my body. It was one of those situations where I was throwing up & crying at the same time - I've never felt such awful stomach cramps. I even tried to sip water every 15 minutes to see if I could keep that down, but NOPE. Up the water came with the remaining bile I had left in my stomach. After trying to get ahold of the doctor with no luck (took them over 5 hours to call back), my dad ended up bringing me anti-nausea medication. Thank goodness my mom had some of that left over from her surgeries or I think I might have ended up in the emergency room!

As I'm laying on the floor of my bathroom, I get a text from Nicole saying "hey, did you guys get sick"? I replied right back and said - "Yes, I'm laying on the floor of my bathroom right now and have been sick as a DOG all night." It ended up being Ryan who was texting me and he said that over 20 ppl had gotten sick from the baby shower and that they were on their way to the hospital because Nicole was so sick. It all began to fall into place! Something in the catered food at the shower caused all of us to get sick - so bad that I was out of work 2 days, Kristin was out 1, Nicole went to the ER, and they had to delay their flight back to Florida. It was absolutely crazy to say the least.

Thank goodness my dad was well enough to bring me medicine (until a few hrs later when he got fever and started throwing up) and my mom was also feeling ok enough (her sick feeling was a little more delayed than the rest of ours) to deliver all sorts of supplies & food from the BRAT diet so I could have something bland to try and introduce back to my stomach! Idon't know what I would have done without the two of them and our iPhone group messages!

I ended up taking off on Tuesday as well just to give my body time to rest and finally felt good enough to get out of the house (that was the first time in over 48 hrs). Here I am out on a walk with my 2 boys on Tuesday - I think they were just as excited to get out of the house as I was. Poor things knew I was sick - they laid around by me all day Monday and Tuesday to keep me company.

And below, you'll see them after our walk. Let's just say I don't probably exercise them as much as I should because they were WIPED!

And one good part about taking off on Tuesday was that I got lots of grading done out on the porch with this lovely view. I just love my deck in the spring time!

Such a random picture below, but had to document this. I'm not good AT ALL about making my bed in the mornings. I seriously will go MONTHS with the decorative pillows on the floor without ever making the bed. This past week, I made my bed at least 3 times - now that's a record for me! I also would like to point out that my bed is a perfect place to throw clothes when you're changing and leave them there (which I do quite often). Notice how clean the foot of the bed is - yea, that's right!

And, finally, this is our group shot of all of our paintings from our special Mother's Day Painting With a Twist party. It was so much fun to have my whole family there, Cari & Barbara, and some of my dear friends and their parents as well. Kudos to Mom for planning such a fun event - I think the painting we did this time was much more up all of us Type A people's alley!

So, all in all, it turned out alright. The week started out on a HORRIBLE note and I never want to experience food poisoning again, but I'm glad everyone is feeling better and that we were all still able to enjoy our painting night and a good Mother's Day!

**Three posts in a row, y'all.....this might also be another record!**

My Week In Pictures

Well, it wasn't a fluke! I'm back for the 2nd installment of my continuous journey to blog weekly & become the best version of Ashley Koble that I possibly can. This week was full of fun stuff and lots of small accomplishments, so I thought I'd share a picture for each day with a little blurb about the happenings of that particular day. Here goes....

Tuesday

Tuesday afternoon, I headed to the grocery store to stock up on some healthy grub & decided to cook "Light Sesame Chicken" for dinner. Here is a link to the recipe if anyone wants to try it out. It took a little longer than I expected to make, but was pretty easy, healthy & delicious. I had it for dinner that night & had leftovers for 2 additional meals. Yum!

Wednesday

Ok, so meet Michael....he's one of my students that LOVES me. Now, when I say he loves me, I'm describing a borderline obsession. He definitely knows how to build me up and comes by to visit me everyday (even when he doesn't have my class). I adore this kid! The comic on the right there is what he drew for me after I described for him my fainting experience while at GTC waiting in the new product line. It was pretty scary and embarassing for me, but luckily my mom was there to catch me! He thought it was hilarous and that all my students should see what happened - how nice of him, huh?

Thursday

So, we had a cold front blow through that caused the temperatures to go from mid-80s to mid 50s and even 30s at night. We even broke a low temperature record on Thursday (I think) from 1929!! Gotta LOVE Texas weather. This cute little dude was not liking the temperature change much and was all cuddled up with me under the covers that night. I think sometimes he thinks he's human.

Friday

I saw this cute little image on Facebook and couldn't help but relate - my students are SOOO done with school and ready for summer. Let me tell you that IT.IS.CONTAGIOUS. Despite how much you try to stay motivated and keep those kiddos on track, it is hard not to look forward to the freedom and warmth of summer. I believe we're down to 25 days now, possibly 24 if you count the 2 half days as one full day. I'm SO ready!

Saturday

Saturday was my friend Nicole's baby shower for her little bundle of joy, Oden. The whole Koble fam packed into the charger and headed up to Colleyville to see Nicole & Ryan and celebrate the coming of their new baby boy. It was so awesome to see them since they live in Florida - I think we may do a family road trip out there in August to see baby and mama! I got baby Oden the CUTEST gift from Etsy and was going to link up there, but can't since lots more of my friends are having babies - wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. I mean, once you find something AWESOME, why wouldn't you want to get it for everyone, right?!?! If you haven't shopped on Etsy yet, it is a MUST! I've gotten baby shower gifts, kids birthday gifts, dog collars, and much more there. It's so fun to browse and you can personalize almost everything.

Sunday

Today is Sunday, and Cinco de Mayo!! What I'm excited about today is that tomorrow, ENVP Tarrah Brandsma is coming to our monthly team meeting to speak about her journey and success with Arbonne! She is one of the amazing sister sidelines to our ERVP, Suzy Harting, and is one of the top income earners in the company. I set a goal last week for myself that I'd have at least 2 guests with me to hear the buzz at our meeting and I think I'm at 1 guest right now (she's still a maybe). My goal today is to call more people and get guests there!! There is SO much momentum in Arbonne right now and I want other people to see it, hear it, feel it, and hopefully come to believe in it as much as I do! This is a life-changer and I can't wait to see who the next person will be that I help out with this opportunity!

Hope everyone had a good week and is ready to make the next one even better!

Motivational Monday

Well, it seems this is the case every time I decide to blog - it's been MONTHS since I've sat down to share my thoughts and I vow to make a commitment to do this regularly. In this capacity among many others, I'm through with the one-day or week-long commitments. And here is why.....

My mom and I traveled to Vegas this past weekend for Arbonne's Global Training Conference and it was life-changing! I really wish I could take the energy, belief, and love that women like Debbie Neal, Valerie Guenter, Linda Parker, and Cecilia Stoll shared with us over the past few days and bottle it up to share with all of the women I meet everyday. As a result of this conference, I have a renewed sense of self and purpose for my life.

Two mother/daughter teams from the Hovis Region. Love these ladies!!

One of the speakers (who was not an Arbonne consultant) shared about channeling your energy and using the energy that you have to create your best life. She said that we each need to connect with our personal purpose/mission in the various aspects of our life and devote our energy to that. As I was processing that "nugget", I realized that I know my professional purpose - I believe that God created me to be a teacher. I love my job (despite the stress and frustration) and know that I make a difference in young people's lives every single day. That part was clear. What I was sharing with my mom, however, is that my personal purpose is somewhat unclear. I think I was created to be a mom to children someday, but haven't had that chance yet. I believe that I would make a wonderful, supportive wife, but don't have that opportunity either. Instead of dwelling on what I don't have, I have decided that in this season of my life, my personal purpose is to be the best daughter, sister, and friend that I possibly can. I am going to work everyday on becoming the absolute BEST version of myself so that I can exude the confidence, grace, and support that oozes from a happy woman!

Along those lines, I am vowing to let this be an outlet for me to remain positive in this journey we call life. I need to have a place where I can document my progress and be able to look back one day when I'm an ENVP and direct others to "my story".

Our roomies for the week - Megan & Sara

One of the trainers this weekend (I don't have their name in my notes) said to write down all of the things about your current reality that you don't like and MAKE. A. CHANGE. So, here goes:
1) Weight - need to lose about 20 lbs
2) Finances - WAY too much debt for my liking on my 2 credit cards
3) Marital Status - I want a partner to share my life experiences with
4) Working for someone else - I would love to have more time freedom

I mean, I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. Although, those 4 categories comprise A BIG PART of my everyday happenings. So, here's to making changes in ALL 4 categories and seeing HUGE changes over the next few months....I mean, #3 is sort of hard, but I know that by working on the other 3, it will come!

Two AMAZING RVPs (Suzy & Elizabeth) that inspire both myself and Mom everyday!

I was really moved by ENVP Valerie Guenter when she shared that she made a list of 21 reasons why she started Arbonne in the beginning of her business and then showed a collage of 21 pictures showing how she had accomplished EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. How amazing is that?! That is follow-through if I've ever heard of it! I'm going to write it all down now too - 21 reasons why I'm not only going to "give this business a try", but 21 reasons why I'm going to work this business so I can share my collage on the GTC stage when I become a NVP!

Here they are, in no particular order......drum roll please.....
1) My Future Husband
2) Honeymoon in Bora Bora
3) 2 children someday
4) Freedom to take, not 6 or 12 weeks of maternity leave, but 5 years!
5) Carrying less than $500 balance on credit cards for more than one month in a row
6) Ability to teach by choice, not necessity (thanks, Elizabeth Hovis for the inspiration!)
7) Going on a family trip where I PAY for my parents instead of the other way around
8) White Mercedes
9) Financial confidence to tithe every month without hesitation
10) New tile in my guest bathroom shower
11) Cleaning service
12) New counters in kitchen
13) Tile backsplash in kitchen
14) Lighting above the wet bar at my house
15) New lighting in my kitchen
16) Laser hair removal.....EVERYWHERE!
17) Girls trip to Vegas or New Orleans where I pay for all my friends!
18) Ability to pay for my childrens' college in cash like my parents did for me
19) Writing a check to my parents for "the gift" they gave me almost 10 years ago
20) Throwing my sister the MOST LAVISH, destination bachelorette party EVER!
21) Being able to support and help other people achieve the life of their dreams

I truly believe, now more than ever, that this opportunity is a GIFT! I can't wait, not only, to check off items from the list above, but also to help other people who "get it" do the same. Quitting is not an option - I know I was hand-picked to be a part of this wonderful company and can't even fathom how God will use me to impact others through Arbonne.

In the words of Cecilia Stoll: "I'm ok with having 10 nations direct to me. Jesus only had 12 direct to Him and look at His team now!"

"See" you guys (all 4 of my followers) next week! :)