I love burning calories while doing chores!

Yesterday my roommate and I did some gardening at our house since the previous owners left everything to become extremely overgrown.  A couple of things:

(1) Gardening is hard work.  My back is SO sore today!

(2) I burned a lot of calories. According to My Fitness Pal, 375 calories in a little over an hour.

(3) I love black eyed susans.

Here are some pictures of the finished product.  I wish we had taken before pictures, but just picture a crazy overgrown mess of weeds, and that is what it looked like.

~Cristina

Singing

I have been singing my entire life.  When I was 2 years old, I became the youngest soloist at Butterflies and Bullfrogs Preschool when I sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer solo at a Christmas show.  My parents will never let me forget it. :)

This year, I decided to try out for American Idol.  I've never done anything like this, but since they have a maximum age of 28 years old (I'm 27), I thought I should give it a shot.  I went to Denver, CO for auditions, sang my heart out, but didn't make it through to the "real judge" auditions.  I sang the best I could, and therefore, have no regrets.  Will I do it again?  Only time will tell.

Here is a picture of me right after I arrived to Denver and registered for the competition.  The 2nd picture is of me singing at my family reunion with my nieces.  They requested Taylor Swift's Love Story. :)

Videos to come soon!

~Cristina

Job Hunt

I will be done with grad school in 1 week.  That is crazy to me.

I've been job searching for a few months now.  I am searching locally in the West Michigan area (within an hour or so from Kalamazoo), and there have been some prospects, but until recently, nothing that has seemed promising.

I just heard this morning that tomorrow I will have a second on-campus interview at Western Michigan University in the Alumni Relations department for the Coordinator of Alumni Relations position.  I currently intern in this department, and I have grown to enjoy the office environment as well as the work they are doing here.  I believe I am one of 3 being considered.  It is tomorrow at 1pm and I am excited and nervous!

I have also applied for the Strengths Coach position at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, but I haven't heard anything yet.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

~Cristina

Before Pictures

I'm going to call these my "before pictures." One is with my beautiful cousin, Michelle, at our family reunion this July 2011, and the other is last summer in Australia.

I'd say I probably weight 160ish in both of these pictures.

I'm not particularly fond of either picture of myself, but I think posting them here is helpful for motivation.  I have a picture from high school that is my motivational picture for the opposite reasons (it is more like my GOAL picture, and once I find it and scan it, I'll post it here.

~Cristina

Reading

I have 2 weeks left of graduate school.  I cannot wait to read for fun again!  Yesterday I ordered the following books from Amazon.com (some based on recommendations):

1. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
2. Sugar and Spice: An L.A. Candy Novel by Lauren Conrad
3. One Day by David Nicholls
4. Room: A Novel by Emma Donogahue
5. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

# 1, 4, 5, and 6 came from recommendations.  Let me explain #2.  From time to time I like to read young adult novels, and I have been surprisingly impressed by Lauren Conrad's book.  People argue how much of these books she actually wrote, but I enjoy them either way.  This is the 3rd and final book in the L.A. Candy series.  One Day I bought because I saw a preview for the movie and it looked really interesting so I thought I would read the book.

My plan here is to read each of these books and as I read them I will post my own reviews of them.  I will do my best to not include spoilers, and I will give a yes or no recommendation based on my experience with the story.

I should get the books within the next week or so, and by then I am hoping to be done with reading for school so I can get going!

~Cristina

Weight Loss Plan

I've done Weight Watchers (WW) before and was extremely successful.  I lost 30 lbs. in a matter of months.  However, when I couldn't afford the program anymore, I gained all of the weight back.  I'm trying something different this time.  I'm using myfitnesspal.com for a few reasons.  One, my sister recommended it to me, and I trust her. Two, it is free. Three, it is very similar to WW except you are counting calories instead of points.

Here is a link to my profile on that site: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/crimiller

So far I have found it motivating with lots of users and message boards, and relatively simple to use.  I've lost 5 lbs. so far, and I can't wait to lose more!

Current Weight: 155
Small Goal Weight: 150
Goal Weight: 130
DREAM Weight: 121

~Cristina

Here I am

Here I am starting a blog.  In 2 weeks I am graduating with my Masters degree in Higher Education & Student Affairs Leadership from Western Michigan University.  I have lots of plans follow graduation including getting a job (hopefully!), reading for fun, and so much more.  I want to keep an account of what will be coming up in my life for me to have a document of this, but also in hopes that my experiences have the opportunity to benefit someone else's life.

This blog will be about:
-My job search and hopefully a new job
-Reading..I plan to do some book reviews
-Weight Loss (a month ago I began a new plan)
-Cooking (I recently became a vegetarian and have been experimenting with new food and recipes)
-Television..similar to reading, but I will be doing show reviews
-Singing.  This is a big one.  I love singing, and I recently auditioned in a competition for the first time.  I didn't make it, but I want to display my singing here in hopes that I can stay motivated to keep singing after a disappointment.

I'll leave it at my introduction for now, but don't be fooled; I'll be back soon to start blogging!

~Cristina