Who am I?

Today the class from Kristen (Find Your Voice) and the blog challenge from Becky (52 weeks of purposefully blogging) goes hand in hand..

Week Two of Find Your Voice is titled.............Who Are You?
and in the 52 weeks blog challenge the theme is.......Who I am!

Great huh?
I posted a post similar to these themes back in December HERE...so that was a good start and I will just add on to it!



Please know that you are not to late to start either of these .. jump in where you are or start at week 1 and go at your own pace!!





I love a quote that Kristen inserted in to our Lesson Two Worksheets:

"Who are we if not the stories we pass down? What happens when there's no one left to tell those stories? To hear them? Who will ever know that I existed? What if we are the only ones left...who will know our stories then? Who will remember those?"
-Carrie Ryan, The Forest of Hands and Teeth



I AM
Nikki.....named by my father (I think) ...also heard I was named after a Soap Opera star...either way..I own it and love it!
Faye is my middle name.. it was also my Dad's mom name.. She passed away when he was around three years old...I am proud to carry on her name.. which I also gave to my daughter

I AM
Nik to friends....Sis to my brother.... Mom to my daughter ......and Babe to my husband

I AM
a child of God. Redeemed. Forgiven. Bought with a serious price tag.

I AM
28 ..soon to be 29 in July...July 24th to be exact..almost three decades old! I have survived an ice storm with no electricity for a month and many tornado warnings in almost 30 years. My years of life have been fulfilling and exciting..I'm looking forward to many more!

I AM
and always will be a resident of the Mid-Land Valley at heart! It is just called Midland now..but us natives like to call it the Mid-Land Valley because we are in a valley.. a true valley.. in between two mountains.

I AM
a lover of pink. I admit it...relunctantly...but every since that pretty pink blanket was handed to me in August of 2008 that made me a momma.... I have loved pink ever since.

I AM
an ice cream eater. Mainly vanilla..throw in some cookie dough or some chocolate chips and that will be just fine

I AM
a reader. I love to read. I go through moods of reading. I used to love reading Law/Mystery books.. now I am more into Inspirational/NonFiction/Self Help books.

I AM
a scrapper. Scrapbooking that is. Which means there is paper everywhere, scissors, pens, glue, stickers, etc...all unorganized.. all crazy...and I love it!

I AM
a picture taker. I am NOT a photographer because I know nothing about light or shutter speed.. I just know how to capture memories.. so I am an avid picture taker

I AM
not a traveler..in a car. I am a flyer...not a rider!

I AM
a teacher. I love to see kids learning in any way possible.

I AM
a storyteller. The author of my life story. No one can tell my story to my children like I can.

Don't be afraid to tell your story..Don't be afraid to be YOU

YOU ...in reality
YOU..the author of your story

Something you have gone through ..someone else is going through now and may need to hear your imperfect story.
Every single story is worth telling. 

Summer classes

I'm so excited to be getting a schedule down this summer and get myself back into blogging. I love blogging.. keeping memories and randomly writing thoughts.

Well I guess summer time is the time of challenges and classes because I have found a couple that go hand in hand and I am over the moon about it!

I've been struggling with my blogging because I just want to post pictures and let them do the talking..but there is so much more than just a picture..there is a story behind it.

If you come to my house and look through my pictures I will tell you what happened while I was taking the picture..what happened after...yadda yadda.. you would probably get bored with me quick...
but..i don't do that on my blog.. why? I don't know!

I guess I feel like I can't get what I want to say from my brain to the keyboard and make it sound interesting enough for you all to want to read it.

I wrote a post earlier about a Free 8 week class that I am taking with Kristen called "Find your Voice" ...and now I have found a cute challenge by Becky at From Mrs to Mama called 52 weeks of blogging with a purpose.

Find Your Voice is about finding your storytelling voice. We are awesome people with amazing stories, so this summer we’re going to work together to find the most genuine and authentic way for you to tell those stories.
We’ll be telling stories through pictures, photographs, social media, prose, and more. The only thing you need is a willingness to become the author of your own story and the courage to step outside of your comfort zone.

52 Weeks of blogging with a purpose is more of a free blog challenge. Becky has made a list of 52 topics and every Monday she will post one. With that topic you can do what you want with it. Take pictures..write....go whichever direction you want to go..you can go...

So all in all both of these classes will help me tremendously with my writing.. and my storytelling!
I'm super excited to get started because both of them have link ups so you can see other's storytelling skills!

This summer is going to be exciting...for this mama...I am finally carving out time for me...to write!

Do you have any plans for YOU this summer?

Find Your Voice

So lately I have had a problem with ...
blogging!

Ha..Imagine that.

I have stories.. but I just don't know how to get them down.. I find myself just wanting to post pictures and being done with it.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words but really they aren't .. they are worth about 700 words...the other 300 should be the story behind the picture..and that is what I need to work on.

Lo and behold here jumps in Kristen to my life!

She is doing an 8 week class this summer on Finding your Voice!
Oh yea.. and it's FREE!

Here is a little info from her about this class:

This workshop is about finding your storytelling voice. You are an awesome person with amazing stories, so this summer we’re going to work together to find the most genuine and authentic way for you to tell those stories. 

This workshop is for everyone! You definitely don’t need to be a scrapbooker or paper-crafter to play along. We’ll be telling stories through pictures, photographs, social media, prose, and more. The only thing you need is a willingness to become the author of your own story and the courage to step outside of your comfort zone. 

How great does that sound?
I think I can
I think I can!
I think I can!!

We have a Facebook going on that has had some great ideas and discussions..
you go join here

Join the Find Your Voice Facebook Group Here: facebook.com/groups/FindYourVoiceWorkshop/

Lesson One is available to download here: http://rukristin.com/findyourvoice/lessonone

I'm excited to get started and practice actual storytelling.. I think it will make my blogging better and my scrapbooks better..

So be expecting to see some Lessons from Find your Voice here on the blog and of course feel free to follow along or even join in with me!!