Stylish Blogger Award!

One of my dearest friends, Robin at Our Semi Organic Life has awarded me the Stylish Blogger Award! I would love to first thank her for her continued support both online and in "real life!" I highly recommend her blog and following her journey!

So, I guess I am supposed to post 7 things about myself and pass the award on to fellow deserving bloggers:

1.  I have lived in 5 states, but feel most at home in Colorado and California.

2.  I love to cook and learned from my mother and grandmother.

3.  While I have traveled to 32 states, I have barely been out of the US but would LOVE to go!

4.  I lost 80 pounds, yes 80, and still have a little way to go.

5.  My family is the most important thing to me.

6.  I was a Laker girl for a day when I was 5 and still love my So Cal teams.

7.  I would not trade anything for my college experience and I still bleed Wolfpack RED and am a Chi O til I die.

Now for some of my favorites who also deserve this award:

Nicole at Stories of a Sassy Stepmom

Sarah at boco bebe

Joy at Joy the Baker

Mary at Zest

Love you all! I am so grateful for such wonderful people!

Monday Monday

I don't know about you, but job searching can be stressful! It is a process of trial and error. Everyone has a different strategy; I thought I would share my own job search plan with you starting with Monday.

Since many of the job search newsletters release new postings on Monday, I spend most of my morning pulling appropriate job listings from all of my regular sites. It helps me to ease into the week and gives me some goals for the week. Plus it is a great time to settle in with my coffee and be productive!

I create a new word document and copy and paste any appropriate jobs that I find into that document. Having everything in one place helps me keep things straight. As I revisit the document later in the week, I use the highlight feature and different colors to code the jobs I have applied for or decided were not a good fit. I love being able to refer back and know that I have already referenced a job. I have also found that this strategy helps me remember websites with great information. When I am drawing a blank and need new inspiration later, I always look at passed weeks!

What works for you??

SEO for Your Resume

Last night I went to a birthday party for a friend of my dad's. I have known this family since I was born, and know them well but only see them periodically. I forget that just getting out of the house can give you some new perspective. I got to talking to people at the party and learned of a potential job opening. Then started talking to someone else about job search tips and learned a new resume strategy to optimize for search engines. I love getting new tips! I plan to work on incorporating this one into my resume this week.

Try taking all the relevant key words that are not already in your resume and add them at the bottom in small font and make the font white so you can't read them when it is printed. It won't effect the way a recruiter sees your resume, but the software that recruiters use are only searching for key words that match the job description. Maybe it will at least get your resume in the right pile. I couldn't believe what a great and simple idea this was! The hardest part now is getting in the door, I hope this gets me one step closer!

In the Zone

Since October, I have been trying out CrossFit. For those of you who aren't familiar, CrossFit is a type of workout that focuses on "functional fitness" meaning you do exercises that make you stronger all over so you perform all of your daily activities better. The workouts combine Olympic weightlifting with plyometrics and cardio. It is an incredible workout and challenges me every time I am there!

As part of my CrossFit experience, we are being encouraged to go on the Zone diet. This is a huge challenge for me! I love to cook and have found a way to lose a significant amount of weight by simply watching my calories and exercising. The Zone is much more complicated than that. You have to find the right combination of foods and eat 5 times a day. I keep telling myself that it is only 8 weeks...I can do almost anything for 8 weeks! We will see how this goes and if I can find creative ways to cook "in the Zone." If Jennifer Aniston can do it, I hope I can too!


Do you have experience with the Zone or CrossFit? I would love tips or stories!!

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Just Keep Swimming

Just Keep Swimming.

I think this is one of the most important lessons in life and is a mantra I often use. Today I spent the day skiing with my sister and she is a much better skier than I. It starts with me being much more of a cautious skier than she. I try so hard to let go of myself a bit and try to keep up with her, but I hate to be out of control. So for me I spend the day saying to myself: "Just Keep Swimming." For me in skiing that means don't stop, let go.

This translates just as well to my life. I always try to Just Keep Swimming. I try to keep moving forward everyday. Even though I have been applying for jobs for over a year, I keep trying because one day something will come through. There is always something on the horizon!

What do you do to Just Keep Swimming?

Appliction Relief

Today I am feeling very accomplished for finally having finished my grad school application! Like so many others going through a challenging job search, I decided the next best thing to finding a job would be going back to school. After doing lots of research, I decided to apply close to home. Colorado State has an excellent program in Student Affairs in Higher Education. I am excited at the prospect of going back to school and the possibility of working in higher ed. I am also thankful that I can get back to focusing on my job search!

Getting back after it after a break for the rest of the day!

Break Through the Wall

Today I will finish my graduate school application. Today I will finish my graduate school application. Today I will finish...Welcome to my mantra for today.

This has been my goal for quite some time and I now have my recommendations in hand and just have to put all the pieces together. To break through my writer's block, I am just going to free write and then edit. It is better to have something to edit than nothing at all!

If you are looking for a strategy to get writing, try these tips from Ragan.com. Good luck!

 

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