Make like a tree and leaf!

My cube mate and good friend, Marissa, recently watched a Tyler Perry play. As she was telling me about it, she described one portion of the play he used a tree to symbolize the different levels of relationships we have in our lives. The analogy broke down like this:

• Leaves- The acquaintances in your life; people who 'float' in and out of your life.
• Branches- These are the people who are fused in your life but as soon as you need to rely on them, they break; letting you fall.
• Top half of the tree- These are people you have known the longest; who were once the strongest relationships in your life but over time have grown out. This part of the tree is reliable but unstable.
  
• The base of the tree (the "roots")- These are the people in your life who are your foundation and strength.

After she explained this analogy, I started to mentally place everyone in my life at the various levels on the tree. Then I began to wonder....where am I on everyone else's tree?

This past year I felt that I finally started to change myself into a better friend. For years I subconsciously had the mentality of 'whatever friendship is convenient for the time being'. Don't get me wrong, I valued these people who came into my life but it was always a surface level of interaction. From that moment of realization, I made a promise to myself to try and be a better friend to everyone who still considers me a friend. This analogy is a perfect way of keeping me in check of what kind of friend I am to that person. Hope it inspires someone else just as it did me! We can all use a good friend!

In Memory of Russell Kaspar

Russell Kaspar

August 24, 1965- December 31,2008

You are missed.

Bootcamp

A couple of weeks ago I found an all woman's boot camp in Plano. The class is for three weeks, four times a week, at 5:30a.m. Now, if anyone reading this has met me, you should know that I do NOT do mornings. I enjoy my warm, comfortable, cozy bed at 5:30 in the morning. Nevertheless, I signed up for it a couple of weeks ago and began camp this past Monday.

Today was my fourth morning to go and can I just say how much I love it! The ladies in the camp range from young 'skinny minis' to the hip 'red hat ladies'. We do everything! Push ups, sit ups, carido...you name it, I've probably done it in the past 4 days! We even did boxing today! How fun is that?!? I never feel left behind,which was a fear of mine considering I haven't done a boot camp since my sophomore year in HS as a "Ladycat". It's an encouraging, motivating, competitive, and uplifting experience to accomplish the camp. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great jump start to the New Year!

Now don't get me wrong it has been a challenge. I have been sore the entire week, Tuesday being the worst but I feel so much more energized than I did not even a week ago. AND I am very proud to say that I have yet to throw the alarm clock screaming in my ear at 5:00 a.m. across the room. I've actually been looking forward to getting up and seeing what's in store for the day's camp.

I'm running another half marathon in March with some girlfriends so my intentions of signing up with this program was to get my butt back in the training mode. I'm definitely thinking about sticking with the 5:30 morning workouts until race day. So if you see some crazy blond chick out in 30 degree weather trying to run make sure you turn your heater up and give her a honk!

The Future Mr. & Mrs.

I am sure by now anyone and everyone who reads this knows that Saturday night Matt proposed to me!!! It was such a great night and again a HUGE 'thank you' to all the family and friends who celebrated with us in any way they could! It's such a blessing to have so much love and support! We can't wait to share the special day with everyone!

Also, being the nerd that I am signed up for TheKnot.com and already created our website (the day after he proposed actually...I got a TAD bit excited! haha). We also have a Facebook page so make sure to join that one as well if you haven't already!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/MatthewDees&CrystalFitzgerald

I'll try to keep everyone updated through the wedding planning process but at the same time I will try not to be annoying about it (I have already given permission to my cubemate, Marissa, to throw something at me if I get too annoying about it all! Haha!) or become Dallas' Bridezilla!

Time FLIES!

Holy moly what a crazy summer it has been! I feel like the past few months were just a blurr of memories! Almost 'dream like'. I can't believe it's almost October and I've been living here in Dallas for a little over a year now! It seems like yesterday that I was unpacking into my one bedroom apartment in the 'big city' of Lewisville. From my air mattress 'couch' to the 28" TV sitting on top a milk crate, I was so smitten with finally being in 'the big d'. And somewhere between buying a real couch and creating a budget for myself, I grew up.

September 8th marked my one year anniversary with Affirmative. I became interested in HR my senior year of college. I took a Law of HR class and became so fascinated by the course's content. I knew HR was a path I wanted to get on very quickly. When I moved to Lewisville I had moved to work for a mortgage company, all the time I kept my eyes open for a better opportunity to present itself. Then by some miracle I caught a break in my job hunt for an HR Assistant position and now a year later, after a promotion and a half, I am finding my niche in HR.

I have a couple more markers coming up in my life pretty soon. I turn 25 in November, which is insane to me and in December, Matt and I will be together for a year. Who would have thought it would have taken me 25 years to find my 'match'?! I have always been the person to keep looking for love but I have a feeling that the next 25+ years of my life will involve a different type of searching that will expand from houses to paint colors to baby names.

Here's hoping for 'Father Time' to slow down long enough for me to savor each of these memories as they happen...

Labor Day Weekend Highlights

This past Labor Day weekend, I went with Matt to visit his best friends' family in Minnesota. This was only my second time to visit them but I already feel like "Auntie Crissy". Here are a few pictorial highlights of the weekend...

1. Saturday night we had a 3 1/2 hour eating and drinking frenzy at Manny's in downtown Minneapolis. To say the least....we did not walk away hungry or sober!

2. Took the girls (Olivia and Isabella) to the Mall of America and rode some rides with them. They had a blast....for the most part!

3. Watching Matt interact with those girls makes my heart melt. They absolutely adore him!

4. We went to Afton State park for lunch before I had to fly back to Texas.

5. By far, the highlight of my weekend was when we were at the MOA and Iz was trying to tell me something. I leaned down to hear what she was saying and she said "Um, Um, Um, Crystal...I love you."

My Sister's Keeper

I just finished 'The Shack' and was quite surprised that I liked it. After years and years of religious books being shoved down my throat, I was not typically thrilled about beginning this book. BUT I pushed through it and I will say, the last half of the book is much better than the first. It gave a very different take on God's view and love for us. It didn't get too 'sunday school' for my taste and asked "Papa" some tough questions, which I appreciated.

So last weekend Matt and I made our typical Target shopping trip where he ventures to the electronics section and I take a look at the book section to see what's new/popular/etc. On the top shelf were several books written by Jody Picoult, including 'My Sister's Keeper'. I've heard various friends mention her and obviously MSK the movie came out this past June which tanked in theaters but that usually means the book is so fantastic they can't make a movie to depict it well enough (i.e.: Twilight). So I decided to give this author a try.

I am only 50 pages in and can I just say WOW! I'm not sure if it's the writing, the content, or the fact that the family's name is "Fitzgerald" that make me want to gobble this book up but is so good! The way she writes each character is just brilliant and I can't help but be consumed by this book. I'm sure she, and many of her other works, will become apart of my blogs to come!