Monday, July 20, 2009

Nothing in life comes for free!

I was going to wait until Wednesday to post about my diet, because that's my weigh in day.  However, I was just feeling motivated to write about it today.  As of yesterday (at 4 and 1/2 weeks of dieting) I have lost 9 pounds!  I'm SO proud of myself!  Not only that, but Saturday my new workout video came in the mail and I have done it the last two days in a row.  I have started Jillian Michael's (aka - mean girl from The Biggest Loser) 30 day shred!  Let me tell you, it has kicked my butt!!!  No doubt, I've never been in good shape, but I didn't realize I was this much out of shape.  My body is aching all over.  So many muscles have been used in that 20 minute work out... my arms, legs, stomach, chest and abs all hurt.  I love it!  The thing I like the most about it is that Jillian talks to you... she says things like, "If you want a modified version of a jumping jack, you're not going to get it!  I have 400 pound people doing jumping jacks and you can do them too!"  or  "If you want abs like these [pointing to one of the girls working out with her] you have to work at it!  It does not come for free!"  She is so right!  I need someone to tell me how it is.  I KNOW I'm fat.  I know I've always been fat.  And I know that it's my responsibility to do something about it.  I need to stop blaming it on genes and kick my butt into gear to push through and lose this weight!  I'm feeling it.  I'm in the right mind set.  It took me a while to get here, but I truly feel (I may eat my words later) that I am in it for the long haul!  And I am excited!  The food I'm eating is good and I'm allowing myself to indulge every now and then.  Though I resisted the leftover pizza last night and worked out while my husband and daughter stuffed their faces, I did allow myself to eat pizza for lunch the day before.  The difference between eating pizza now and eating pizza before is that I didn't over indulge.  I ate enough to satisfy, but I didn't stuff myself.  It feels good to make these decisions.  And working out... it feels right.  Like I knew all along that this was what I was supposed to do.  
Anyway, all of this to say that if I want to get the body I've always dreamed of, I have to work for it! "Nothing in life comes for free!"  

Monday, July 13, 2009

Family fun!

After such a great two weekends in a row, it has made me reflect on how amazing my family and friends are!  

There are some people in our lives who know us so well that no matter what the circumstance, they understand exactly how we feel.  We may not see each other every single day, but they are people who will be around for a lifetime.  They can laugh with us and cry with us, they can tell us when we're being incredibly stupid and tell us when the choices we have made are exactly the ones they would have made for us.  These people are constants in our lives.  You may have one or two or ten... but either way, we all have one... a person who has been with us through
 everything.  Someone who has seen us grow up and that we know will be there until the day one of us goes to meet Jesus.  

I am lucky to have many people like that in my life... family and friends, alike.  Friends I see as family and family I see as friends...  they are amazing people, all different in their own rights.  They are people who will hold my hand and dry my tears, people who listen to my thoughts and journey with me to let those thoughts become reality.  These people are THE MOST FUN to be around and I love them with all of my heart!  

This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to have a few of those people visit our neck of the woods... my mom, Aunt Donna, and cousin Erika came to see us!  Friday night we went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants in the Northern VA area, Mike's ... simply fantastic!  If you ever come to this area you have to go there... or one of the many other Great American Restaurants in the area!  You will not be disappointed! 


After dinner we ventured into DC to see The Color Purple at the Kennedy Center and it was incredible!  

Fantasia and Latoya London from American Idol season 3 were both in it!  They were awesome!  Especially Fantasia!  We all agreed that it exceeded our expectations!  It was definitely a night to remember... not just because of the show... but because of our two cab drivers that Donna tried to befriend and one who was scrambling to give her his card because she assured him that she wanted him to be the first Cash Cab in DC!  haha We were dying laughing!  And because I saw the principal/director of the school I have worked at for 2 YEARS and I swear he did not know who I was ...  but luckily he didn't ask my name or call me the wrong one and he was very nice in introducing himself to my family.  It still made me laugh so
 hard though!  

Saturday we went to Mount Vernon, which was so neat, as always!  It's always one of my favorite places to visit in the DC/Northern VA area.  It's just beautiful and so rich in history!  I think it would have been better with less people, but such is life and tourist season in DC.  


Saturday night we played Cranium Turbo Edition!  If you have not played this game, you must go out and get it immediately, gather a group of your closest family and friends and play it tonight!  It is SO MUCH FUN!  We were laughing so hard!  

Erika and I were on a team and of course, we won!  :-)

This is Donna being the puppeteer, while Andrew was the puppet... Mom was on their team and had to guess what he was doing!  Hilarious!

They left on Sunday, and we are so missing them all!  I love these women!  Every moment we get to spend together just makes my heart overflow with joy!  Thanks for coming ladies!  It was a fantastic weekend!!!  Love you all!!!  

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Harry Potter

Okay... so, Harry Potter is keeping me from posting... 

and from editing my 4th of July weekend pictures... and from unpacking... and from cleaning my house or doing anything productive.   I just finished The Half-Blood Prince this morning and thank God my devoted husband went back to the library (I'll explain in a minute why I said "back") for me last night to get The Deathly Hallows!  I am obsessed and I can't stop... okay... I did just stop to write this... but you know what I mean.  

Anyway... yesterday was the day from H-E-double hockey sticks!  Caroline and I went out in the morning to run a few errands... we went to Target and all was well... we bought her more "big girl" panties because yesterday was her first day wearing them!  She did awesome, by the way!  I was so thrilled! :-)  After Target we went to our favorite library.  She got some books and I looked for the last HP, but had no luck.  However, I was happy to see that the library closet to our house did seem to have one copy on hand.  So, the plan was that we would stop there quickly and get their last copy of The Deathly Hallows and then we would be on our way home for lunch and Caroline's nap.  Well... that did not happen.  First of all, I could not find the book... I didn't ask, which was my stupid fault, but the place was packed and it seemed that everyone who worked there was busy, so I just told myself that I'd go back later, since I wasn't quite done with The Half-Blood Prince.  

Anyway, when we went out to my car, the stupid thing wouldn't start.  I was SO mad!  (To say the least!)  I called Andrew and told him what was happening... I had a few options... call a cab, wait on the bus (which would have been almost an hour wait) or attempt to walk... well, I decided that I would just walk home.  After all, it was only a few miles away.  I could do that, right?  

So, still irritated, but determined to get home, I packed all of our stuff into Caroline's stroller and put her in there as well and we set off for home.  After about a half mile or so, I ran out of sidewalk.  I was hot and sweaty and my skirt and flip-flops were just not proper walking attire.  Finally, I begrudgingly decided a cab would be best.  So, Caroline and I plopped down on the side of the road and called a cab.  I realized, after making this decision, that I had no money.  Lovely.  So, when the cab arrived, I had to tell him to take me to the bank to get some cash.  yep.  He didn't seem to mind.  

Caroline thought this was a sweet adventure!  She rode in the cab without a car seat (as her seat was in our car that was still at the library - don't judge me!) and she thought she was so cool!  haha  It made me a nervous wreck though!  Well, we made it home in one piece, a little sweaty and $13 poorer!  

Later on my father-in-law came over and was able to go out and get my car started.  We drove it to get it fixed and turns out it needed a new battery.  sigh.  lovely.  They also tried to tell us it needed a ton of other things, but I don't have $600 just laying around to fork over to fix my car.  Ah well... it should be fixed today, but at least without a car I have an excuse to stay here and read Harry Potter.  
haha  By the way, I can't wait for July 15!  The Half-Blood Prince will be out in theaters!  yay!  Well... that's a Wednesday, and we'll probably not be able to go until Saturday, but still... I can't wait!  

So, I will do my best to put up some pictures from last weekend soon, but I can not promise it will be this week... not only do I have HP to read, and to do all of the things it's keeping me from doing right now, I also have my lovely mother, aunt and cousin coming on Friday!  hooray!  And we're going to go see The Color Purple at the Kennedy Center on Friday and do lots of other fun things while they're here... so, it all may have to wait until next week.  In fact, I'm just going to say that it WILL have to wait until next week...   and now, back to reading... maybe I'll put in a load of laundry too.  :-)