Remember when I was young and so were you
And time stood still and love was all we knew
You were the first, so was I
We made love and then you cried
Remember when
Remember when we vowed the vows and walked the walk
Gave our hearts, made the start, it was hard
We lived and learned, life threw curves
There was joy, there was hurt
Remember when
Remember when old ones died and new were born
And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged
We came together, fell apart
And broke each other's hearts
Remember when
Remember when the sound of little feet
Was the music we danced to week to week
Brought back the love, we found trust
Vowed we'd never give it up
Remember when
Remember when thirty seemed so old
Now lookin' back, it's just a steppin' stone
To where we are, where we've been
Said we'd do it all again
Remember when
Remember when we said when we turned gray
When the children grow up and move away
We won't be sad, we'll be glad
For all the life we've had
And we'll remember when
Remember when
Remember when
by Alan Jackson
Our wedding song, six years ago.
One of the easiest decisions we made for our wedding was when we choose this song for our first dance. As the years have gone by it has become even more perfect to us and now our family.
Happy Anniversary Sweetie Pie. I love you.
January 29, 2012
January 24, 2012
Really?...
I was just updating my profile (because I ended up on that page somehow...honestly, I'm really not sure how I got there). As I was saving changes I noticed that it said I'd been on Blogger since March 2010 and I thought "wow it's been almost a year since I started this blog". As my mind processed that thought it started arguing with itself and I realized that "Holy crap I started this blog almost 2 years ago!" I really have to get my butt in gear here. I'm just not a good blogger. I will continue to write when ever the moment grabs me and I will continue to claim I will try to do better. But the fact is, I've come to terms with the fact that I am not the best blogger, it's time you did the same. :) Talk to you again soon!
Tales from my mommy hood...
AJ - He loves 'Cars 2' and would watch it daily if I let him.
One day we were out buying new house phones and AJ decided the customer service person was the perfect person to inform that we had "moved to a new house". She was polite and feigned excitement so he told her "yea, it's really big". When he then explained that it was so big it "had an echo" I explained we didn't have the furniture to fill the space so it was pretty empty. She was impressed that he knew what an echo was. AJ caught onto the fact that I said we didn't have a lot of stuff and with the way little minds work he blurts out "well, there is a lot of crap in the pink room" We are a little shocked and give a little giggle which is just enough for him to then exclaim "yea, there's a lot of $h!t in the pink room". Ok time to leave, thanks for the phones!
Ryan - She can recite almost word for word her Ni-hao, Kai Lan videos, every character and every tone.
I'm trying to give her more freedom when we are out so that she learns to listen instead of doing whatever she wishes (cause she has a mind of her own). So I let her wander a bit in Costco and as she started to round a corner I told her to stop. She stopped, turned around and faced me, then stood there all defiant. I told her to come to mommy or sit back in the basket. She told me "No!" gave me a scowl-ly face and then in one fluid movement turned around, crossed her arms, shifted her weight to one side, stuck her leg, sank into her hip and stood there with her back to me. It was very cute, I couldn't help but giggle and shake my head, but if that girl had been 12 instead of 2 she would be grounded for a week!
The two of them, man do I have my hands full!
Guess whats coming up!?!
Tales from my mommy hood...
AJ - He loves 'Cars 2' and would watch it daily if I let him.
One day we were out buying new house phones and AJ decided the customer service person was the perfect person to inform that we had "moved to a new house". She was polite and feigned excitement so he told her "yea, it's really big". When he then explained that it was so big it "had an echo" I explained we didn't have the furniture to fill the space so it was pretty empty. She was impressed that he knew what an echo was. AJ caught onto the fact that I said we didn't have a lot of stuff and with the way little minds work he blurts out "well, there is a lot of crap in the pink room" We are a little shocked and give a little giggle which is just enough for him to then exclaim "yea, there's a lot of $h!t in the pink room". Ok time to leave, thanks for the phones!
Ryan - She can recite almost word for word her Ni-hao, Kai Lan videos, every character and every tone.
I'm trying to give her more freedom when we are out so that she learns to listen instead of doing whatever she wishes (cause she has a mind of her own). So I let her wander a bit in Costco and as she started to round a corner I told her to stop. She stopped, turned around and faced me, then stood there all defiant. I told her to come to mommy or sit back in the basket. She told me "No!" gave me a scowl-ly face and then in one fluid movement turned around, crossed her arms, shifted her weight to one side, stuck her leg, sank into her hip and stood there with her back to me. It was very cute, I couldn't help but giggle and shake my head, but if that girl had been 12 instead of 2 she would be grounded for a week!
The two of them, man do I have my hands full!
January 15, 2012
Moving...
I never got a chance to share with you our news and the story behind it, so here goes...When Jasey was first hired at OD we started talking about what our next step was as far as living arrangements. Everyone was starting to get a little edgy, we knew mom wanted her space back, I was getting very stressed and yelling more, it was even starting to wear on the kids, they had little space to play and no place to get away from each other (hence my yelling).
We went and checked out a few places and got some rough numbers. Out of the places we looked at we found one we really liked and said that is the one lets keep an eye on it. We knew that we wouldn't be able to move right away and decided if we buckled down that by September, or October at the latest, we should be able to be on our own again. That, of course, is a fine time line when life is filled with leprechauns and unicorns. But life is filled with, well, reality.
I can't even begin to recollect the seemingly daily twists and turns that kept coming up, I just remember the feeling of every time we got things straight another collision with life would occur. We kept pushing our moving date back further and further until we thought, heck it'll be next March before we are "back on our feet". So we set a new date. Then things started looking a little better so we set a new one, the first of the year. January 1st was our time. Then it was the 15th, crap...then it was the first again....grrrrrr, frustrating! Just before Ryan's birthday we decided that the first was the perfect date, everything was in order, we were going that weekend to put a deposit down on the apartment we had decided on 2 months earlier.
Jasey called, made an appointment and started doing a little bit more research on the place. Good thing he did! The place had horrible reviews in the previous 3 months. Rude staff, terrible maintenance, sketchy neighborhood goings on and thefts! No thank you. So back to the drawing board.
Instead of going to reserve our new home that weekend we went up to our town house to get something out of the attic. While Jasey was talking to our tenant I took the kids for a little walk around our old neighborhood. And then I sighed. I remembered our three years in our first home. And then I got sad. On the drive home I told Jasey that I wasn't going to be able to drive up there with him anymore because it made me sad to see our place with someone else's things in it.
That night we went out for a drink to talk about the idea of moving back to our old community. We had both agreed on the other place because we thought the other person liked it and the other person wanted to be there and that it would be good for the other person, but we were both kind of doubtful of it. I didn't want Jasey to have the long drive but he didn't want that extra time in the car to be taken away from the family. He didn't mind the drive and I didn't mind the extra time, it was still less than I had dealt with in the past. We decided to look in Abacoa for another place.
Barely two weeks into that hunt things were going no where fast and we were frustrated. Every place that we liked was either already under contract or didn't allow pets. Jasey started looking in other communities and in other towns. In his first search he spotted a place in a new community, a place we had only heard of for the first time a few months back. Instead of north it was a little south and a lot west, but the kind of area we knew would be perfect for us. We went to check it out an hour after the posting went up. Two days later we were filling out Lease Agreements and HOA applications. Two weeks later we were approved and had the OK to move in.
In the middle of November we rented a uHaul truck and loaded up all of our things that had been in storage for the past year and a half. We stayed one last night at moms and loaded everything from her house up the next day and unloaded it all at our new place. Two days after we moved in we loaded the car back up and headed to Georgia for a week for Thanksgiving.
It was a crazy two days of cleaning, finding and setting up the necessities, getting the kids settled so that they had a smooth transition, unpacking what we would need right away, trying to figure out where those things would go, packing for a week long trip and figuring out where everything was that we would need for that trip. Of course all while trying to maintain a semi normal life, keeping the house in working order and entertaining two small kids one of which still needed to be driven to and from school everyday.
Madness I tell you! and completely worth it. We had a great time in Georgia and we have since settled, rather nicely, into our new place. We are renting and don't know what the future holds so it's a little hard to call it a home yet but we are all very comfortable and hope that we will be here for a while. We are still doing some unpacking and figuring things out but that would be no different anywhere else. Kirby has more space, the kids have their own areas to play alone if they want to and I have noticed that I am not as stressed anymore, so less yelling! woohoo!
I will do another post to tell you about the house and even post a few pics. So stick around!
Jasey called, made an appointment and started doing a little bit more research on the place. Good thing he did! The place had horrible reviews in the previous 3 months. Rude staff, terrible maintenance, sketchy neighborhood goings on and thefts! No thank you. So back to the drawing board.
Instead of going to reserve our new home that weekend we went up to our town house to get something out of the attic. While Jasey was talking to our tenant I took the kids for a little walk around our old neighborhood. And then I sighed. I remembered our three years in our first home. And then I got sad. On the drive home I told Jasey that I wasn't going to be able to drive up there with him anymore because it made me sad to see our place with someone else's things in it.
That night we went out for a drink to talk about the idea of moving back to our old community. We had both agreed on the other place because we thought the other person liked it and the other person wanted to be there and that it would be good for the other person, but we were both kind of doubtful of it. I didn't want Jasey to have the long drive but he didn't want that extra time in the car to be taken away from the family. He didn't mind the drive and I didn't mind the extra time, it was still less than I had dealt with in the past. We decided to look in Abacoa for another place.
Barely two weeks into that hunt things were going no where fast and we were frustrated. Every place that we liked was either already under contract or didn't allow pets. Jasey started looking in other communities and in other towns. In his first search he spotted a place in a new community, a place we had only heard of for the first time a few months back. Instead of north it was a little south and a lot west, but the kind of area we knew would be perfect for us. We went to check it out an hour after the posting went up. Two days later we were filling out Lease Agreements and HOA applications. Two weeks later we were approved and had the OK to move in.
In the middle of November we rented a uHaul truck and loaded up all of our things that had been in storage for the past year and a half. We stayed one last night at moms and loaded everything from her house up the next day and unloaded it all at our new place. Two days after we moved in we loaded the car back up and headed to Georgia for a week for Thanksgiving.
It was a crazy two days of cleaning, finding and setting up the necessities, getting the kids settled so that they had a smooth transition, unpacking what we would need right away, trying to figure out where those things would go, packing for a week long trip and figuring out where everything was that we would need for that trip. Of course all while trying to maintain a semi normal life, keeping the house in working order and entertaining two small kids one of which still needed to be driven to and from school everyday.
Madness I tell you! and completely worth it. We had a great time in Georgia and we have since settled, rather nicely, into our new place. We are renting and don't know what the future holds so it's a little hard to call it a home yet but we are all very comfortable and hope that we will be here for a while. We are still doing some unpacking and figuring things out but that would be no different anywhere else. Kirby has more space, the kids have their own areas to play alone if they want to and I have noticed that I am not as stressed anymore, so less yelling! woohoo!
I will do another post to tell you about the house and even post a few pics. So stick around!
January 10, 2012
A Little Belated...
Happy New Year!!!
It's 2012!
I'm a little behind, as usual, but wanted to say Happy New Year! all the same. As you can see Jasey and I had a wonderful new year. The kids stayed with my mom and we headed to a friends wine bar to ring in the new year. Jasey cooked up this idea only a few days before the 31st. A friend of his from the program at FAU started this wine bar just a few months ago and we have been trying to make it there to check it out. We booked a bed and breakfast right around the corner from the bar and Jasey made dinner reservations.
After mom got out of work on Saturday we dropped the kids off with her and headed to Stuart, since that's where the bar is located. After driving around the block and making sure we knew where everything was we checked into our B and B, a little place called Inn Shepard's Park. It was a very cute little 4 bedroom, open air, Key West style house. We stayed in the Rustic Riverview room, it was very cute and the bed was so comfy! I didn't feel at all weird about poking around the main part of the house and the little garden outside. I even bumped into a couple of other guests and chatted/made pleasantries. We helped ourselves to a snack and took a short nap before getting ready to head out.
About a block and a half away was the marina where we had dinner reservations. A place called the Sailor's Return. They had a limited menu for the new year crowd but we had no trouble finding lots of yummy things to eat. Too many yummy things in fact. After a few drinks, appetizer, dinner and dessert I was in pain. I haven't been that full in I don't even know how long. I knew I was overeating at the time but I couldn't help it, everything was so tasty and we were heading out after that so I couldn't get a doggie bag, there was no where to put it! We relaxed for a moment until I was sure I would be able to leave without rolling out the door.
From there we had another short walk to the wine bar, Crush. What a great place and Mario is the nicest guy. I had never met him before dispute the fact that he and Jasey went to school together for 2 years. From the moment we walked in the door he was nothing short of an amazing host. He made it feel like you were walking into his home. Though in a way Crush as been like his home for the past few months, you can tell that a lot of feeling went into the place, it's not a hobby or an after thought. I'm not a big wine drinker, I'll have a (half) glass every now and then but I would definitely love to go back to Crush time and time again. Too bad it's not closer.
I was still overly full and uncomfortable from dinner (seriously, I cannot express this enough) but I made use of my lazy time by sitting on one of the many comfy couches and checking out the place from my vantage point. It was relaxed but not boring, sleek but not trendy, fun but not childish, sophisticated but not stuffy. They have a vending system of sorts for the wine. You buy a card when you walk in and load as much money on it as your wish. Then all around the bar there are cases set up with open bottles of wine in them. You place your card in the slot, decided how much of which wine you would like and as the machine dispenses your wine it deducts the money from your card, awesome!
My stomach finally eased up just before midnight and I toasted the New Year on my feet and smiling, woohoo! This is the first year that we have gone out since being married and having kids, I did miss AJ and Ryan but they had a great night with lots of treats from Momah and were asleep by 10 anyway. We met a few of Mario's friends and I some how made another 'friend' all my own. A nice yet slightly toasty woman that talked to me about, I'm not sure what, before disappearing into the night. Mario's friends were a fun bunch. I am a shy person so it takes me a while and I feel awkward but they were easy to talk to and by the end of the night we were all dancing and having a great time.
We were the last to leave the bar at about 2 in the morning, later than I have been up in a long time. It was a nice, short walk back to the B and B which was good since Jasey indulged in wine the way I did with food that night, also the exact reason that we were staying the night at a place close enough to walk to and from...clever, clever. Safety first! We made it back to the B and B and for a brief moment thought we were locked out, but we weren't! We both passed out as we were falling into bed. But mommy mode had me up before 8 that morning, ugh. After a lovely breakfast of homemade quiche, fresh baked blueberry muffins and hot tea we were on our way home.
I didn't make any resolutions this year, I think I do better day by day. Also, considering I already got much healthier last year it was kinda pointless to resolve to do that this year. I was trying to think up a belated resolution (I do everything belated) I came up with something along the lines of be more assertive but in the same thought came up with let things go. Maybe I should try to stop over analyzing everything, like whether or not I let things slide too often or if I should tell people how I feel more often. Or maybe the glaringly obvious one, stop being 'belated' all the time! Oh well, I am who I am, don't like it? Tough!
(that was assertively letting things slide..you see what I did there?) :)
I hope you enjoyed our New Years adventure as much as we did. Have a wonderful 2012!
October 22, 2011
2 Year Old!...
Ryan Addison
October 21, 2009 9:49 am
9 pounds 9 ounces 21 inches
Here she was...and here she is. Two years later
How about a few more then and nows
Mommy and Ryan
then...
and now.
(please excuse the mouth full of candy, it is her birthday)
Ryan with mommy and daddy
then...
and now.
Big Brother AJ and his new baby sister
then...
and now.
We decided to forego a party this year. There has been a lot going on and I think we all appreciated a quiet evening of a halfway healthy dinner, birthday cake (aka sugar), new toys and staying up past normal bedtimes. Ryan's birthday fell on Friday so I didn't feel guilty about letting them stay up, especially since Momah and Daddy got home late and we couldn't start the festivities without them!
We killed a little time taking mommy/baby pics and making silly faces. AJ was practicing his spiderman web shooting skills.
Daddy and Momah got home and ate dinner. Momah even brought goodie bags for the party kids. :)
Mommy took her pic that everyone makes fun of her for, the neatly arranged, pre-opening, gift pic.
And when no one was looking Ryan dove right in. So daddy had to wait to finish his dinner while the kids opened everything. And by 'kids' I mean mommy and by 'everything' I mean I opened the stuff she was ignoring and showed it to her. She did enjoy ripping the paper though, what kid doesn't...?
Then of course, CAKE! I cheated a little bit this year and didn't go all out with my crazy, handmade, sculpted creations. Do you think it will scar her for life...yeah me neither. Not when I made these sugar laden works of art. She's two and they like crap they aren't supposed to eat and what other time of the year can you put candy corn pumpkins and marshmallow ghosts on a birthday cake? Never.
She is sneaking candy corns off of the cake while we are singing to her. After this pic she stole a pumpkin off of the number '2'.
This was her special cupcake since it had two ghosts on it.
She liked it.
They were feeding Ryan's new baby
After cake, the festivities continued with more picture taking, playing house, wrestling and a drink. Yes, just one. Not a few, not even a whole round, just one drink sipped by one person. We are party animals!
something got in the way of the flash but otherwise a cute pic
Momah and AJ playing 'alligators and fighting' AJ's own creation
Jared and Jasey (with the drink!) chatting in the kitchen
in her new jammies, playing mommy
I see you
I wasn't sure how much she would like the babies and stuff, but she loves them!
(and she finally has toys of her own!)
It was a wonderful day. I still can't believe that my little baby girl is two. I know such a typical mommy thing to say right? But it's true. When AJ was this age I couldn't even imagine when he turned 5 and now that's right around the corner (oh crap). I know in no time Ryan will be the one that will be starting Kindergarten in less than a year and amazing me even more than she does now with the things that she is learning. At the doctor for her 2 year visit they were asking all the normal developmental questions. Two of them were "does she have a vocabulary of at least 20 to 50 words?" and "does she string two word sentences together?" I almost laughed. This girl learns 20 new words a day, she has a vocab of 10 to 20 words in two different languages (sign and chinese) and she strings 5 to 8 word sentences together, sometimes more! I'm not trying to say hey look at my little girl she is so smart. I understand that those are the standards, kids excel at different things and develope at different rates. There are definitely areas that I know she is just average at the moment, even if I only compare her to AJ. But she is a talker and those were two questions that she had no trouble passing with flying colors. So two years later...
Ryan Addison
October 21, 2011
27 pounds 5 ounces
34.5 inches
And so you don't forget the cuteness that is Ryan, I leave you with this...
and this...
and this...
cheeeeeeese!
Happy Birthday Pretty! We love you!
October 08, 2011
50...
Ok, so, of course I really wanted to write this post because it is super awesome, I feel great and I am very proud of myself. (It goes without saying that I am also very proud of mom and Jasey but I don't see it as my privilege to write about their accomplishments) To write this post I knew that I had to show who I was only a few short months ago. How can you do justice to yourself if you aren't willing to share everything? I wasn't sure which I would have more of a personal issue with, telling the numbers or posting the picture. Oddly enough I think it's posting the picture, even though anyone could have seen me any old time while I was as big as I was, to post it now is a bit embarrassing to me. Not that I am completely ok with writing down my numbers either but, gotta share it all, right? I have no problem saying "I've lost 50 pounds" but to actually see it, ugh, totally different. Oh well, even if I don't have to share, I'm going to anyway.
I'm gonna go a little 'Joy Fit Club' for a minute. I of course knew I was getting a lot bigger then I used to be but I had been able to kind of brush it off. I was getting older and didn't dance anymore, I'd just had a baby. Then about 4 months after Ryan was born I was still thinking well I just had another baby, I have time, then I saw a video of myself. Well at first I didn't know it was me, it wasn't until I recognized my shirt that I realized that I was looking at myself. That was a horrid feeling, and you would think that something like that would really whip me into shape, well it kinda did. I of course convinced myself it was still early, I still had a lot of pain and swelling from my c-section. Which was all true, but not to the point that I gave myself credit for. I started walking and could tell I was losing some weight but I wasn't really concerned about it and have no clue what I weighed at that point. I thought for sure that I would do something soon, then a whole freaking year went by.
You know that thing where if you ask someone to draw a picture of themselves most everyone will draw themselves at least 10 pounds heavier then they really are? It's how they see themselves. Yeah, I was the complete opposite, it's like I was in denial, I still had a vision in my head of the young dancing, cheerleading Andrea. Every picture of the late 20's and 30 year old, post babies Andrea shocked the crap out of me. Although all the pictures had me knowing I had to do something I kept telling myself oh it's not too bad I could be this or that, it could always be worse. One of those things was the number on the scale. I am a 'oh it's just a number' person, so I figured as long as my number still had a '1' in front of it I was ok and it wouldn't be hard to bring the two numbers that followed it down. Then within about a 6 week time period my number continued to climb and next thing I knew...
I weighed 216 pounds and had to go buy myself a pair of size 18 pants, every shirt I owned had an XL on the tag and some of those were still a little uncomfortable. It's hard to find pictures of myself even now, because I'm always the one taking them but here you go (it took a lot to put this up and I'm still doubting my decision)
I couldn't believe it 216 pounds! I couldn't pretend anymore, not when Ryan was 18 months old, I was far from being considered postpartum. The first thing I changed was simple I stopped snacking out of boredom and instead had a glass of water. I drank a lot of water anyway but a little more isn't going to hurt you. Even though I was eating pretty healthy snacks, it was still extra food that I didn't need. Just with that small change in about a months time I had lost almost 10 pounds. Then mom, Jasey and I as a trio decided to make a change, so we all started out on our endeavor together. We compared numbers almost every morning, congratulating and encouraging each other. Six months later we are all healthier, happier and much smaller. This is the most recent picture I could find of myself and it's from over a month ago.
And because I like this picture so much, here it is again :)
When these pictures were taken I had lost around 40 pounds and I am down another 10 pounds since then.
So my latest count (so you don't have to do that math) I weigh 166 pounds, I am now buying size 10 pants and am making a collection of shirts with an 'M' on the tag.
I have thought about a tummy tuck many times since I still have some unpleasant stuff from the c-sections and I believe I would be down another pants size maybe even 2 if I did get one. But it's money, another surgery and a big risk so I'm still up in the air about it. I am much smaller than I was before I got pregnant with either of the kids and I am also (and I think this is super cool) 20 pounds under what I was when Jasey and I got married!
For the record mom has lost 30 pounds and Jasey has lost 60 pounds. Together we have lost a total of 140 pounds, an entire person! They both look great and I am so proud of them!
I didn't start out with any goals and I still don't have any. I wouldn't mind losing some more but if I stay where I am for a little while I am very happy with that. It would be nice to give my clothing a little chance to wear in a bit before I have to go buy more, again.
So there you have it the old me and new me and the brave me behind the scenes still not sure if I should kick myself for posting that picture. If I get a better more recent picture of myself I'll be sure to share it with you.
- Today I am thankful for the lovely weather we have been having the past few days, the windows and doors are open and the A/Cs have been off! Also for the rain we are supposed to get because I know the garden would really enjoy it! -
I'm gonna go a little 'Joy Fit Club' for a minute. I of course knew I was getting a lot bigger then I used to be but I had been able to kind of brush it off. I was getting older and didn't dance anymore, I'd just had a baby. Then about 4 months after Ryan was born I was still thinking well I just had another baby, I have time, then I saw a video of myself. Well at first I didn't know it was me, it wasn't until I recognized my shirt that I realized that I was looking at myself. That was a horrid feeling, and you would think that something like that would really whip me into shape, well it kinda did. I of course convinced myself it was still early, I still had a lot of pain and swelling from my c-section. Which was all true, but not to the point that I gave myself credit for. I started walking and could tell I was losing some weight but I wasn't really concerned about it and have no clue what I weighed at that point. I thought for sure that I would do something soon, then a whole freaking year went by.
You know that thing where if you ask someone to draw a picture of themselves most everyone will draw themselves at least 10 pounds heavier then they really are? It's how they see themselves. Yeah, I was the complete opposite, it's like I was in denial, I still had a vision in my head of the young dancing, cheerleading Andrea. Every picture of the late 20's and 30 year old, post babies Andrea shocked the crap out of me. Although all the pictures had me knowing I had to do something I kept telling myself oh it's not too bad I could be this or that, it could always be worse. One of those things was the number on the scale. I am a 'oh it's just a number' person, so I figured as long as my number still had a '1' in front of it I was ok and it wouldn't be hard to bring the two numbers that followed it down. Then within about a 6 week time period my number continued to climb and next thing I knew...
I weighed 216 pounds and had to go buy myself a pair of size 18 pants, every shirt I owned had an XL on the tag and some of those were still a little uncomfortable. It's hard to find pictures of myself even now, because I'm always the one taking them but here you go (it took a lot to put this up and I'm still doubting my decision)
I couldn't believe it 216 pounds! I couldn't pretend anymore, not when Ryan was 18 months old, I was far from being considered postpartum. The first thing I changed was simple I stopped snacking out of boredom and instead had a glass of water. I drank a lot of water anyway but a little more isn't going to hurt you. Even though I was eating pretty healthy snacks, it was still extra food that I didn't need. Just with that small change in about a months time I had lost almost 10 pounds. Then mom, Jasey and I as a trio decided to make a change, so we all started out on our endeavor together. We compared numbers almost every morning, congratulating and encouraging each other. Six months later we are all healthier, happier and much smaller. This is the most recent picture I could find of myself and it's from over a month ago.
And because I like this picture so much, here it is again :)
When these pictures were taken I had lost around 40 pounds and I am down another 10 pounds since then.
So my latest count (so you don't have to do that math) I weigh 166 pounds, I am now buying size 10 pants and am making a collection of shirts with an 'M' on the tag.
I have thought about a tummy tuck many times since I still have some unpleasant stuff from the c-sections and I believe I would be down another pants size maybe even 2 if I did get one. But it's money, another surgery and a big risk so I'm still up in the air about it. I am much smaller than I was before I got pregnant with either of the kids and I am also (and I think this is super cool) 20 pounds under what I was when Jasey and I got married!
For the record mom has lost 30 pounds and Jasey has lost 60 pounds. Together we have lost a total of 140 pounds, an entire person! They both look great and I am so proud of them!
I didn't start out with any goals and I still don't have any. I wouldn't mind losing some more but if I stay where I am for a little while I am very happy with that. It would be nice to give my clothing a little chance to wear in a bit before I have to go buy more, again.
So there you have it the old me and new me and the brave me behind the scenes still not sure if I should kick myself for posting that picture. If I get a better more recent picture of myself I'll be sure to share it with you.
- Today I am thankful for the lovely weather we have been having the past few days, the windows and doors are open and the A/Cs have been off! Also for the rain we are supposed to get because I know the garden would really enjoy it! -
September 28, 2011
Nickels...
As I was finishing the lawn yesterday and blowing off the driveway, I heard a little tinkle over the blower and looked down to see a penny, it made me smile a little but I decided to pass it by and continue working. Not 10 seconds later and about 5 feet away I then see a nickel on the ground. Again I pass it by and continue working, only to shift my eyes again and see a dime on the ground less than 2 feet from the nickel. At this I laugh right out loud and say "Ok, ok, you have my attention." I bend down and start to pick up the coins, finding two more pennies in the process.
You are probably thinking, "What's the big deal about finding 18 cents in your driveway while mowing the lawn?" To answer that question we have to go back more than 15 years. When Jasey was 15 his grandfather in London passed away. Not long after that odd little things started happening around the house to Jasey and his parents. One of the most notorious was nickels showing up out of nowhere. I don't mean there would be a random nickel on the counter, I mean a nickel falling to the floor out of a towel half way through you drying off with it. Crazy right?
It was usually nickels but it would deviate to other coins at times. So this went on for a few years and then Jasey's dad got sick and passed away. Nickels started showing up more frequently and to other people, myself included. The first few that showed up for me I mostly thought 'how sweet'. It was before Jasey and I were married, heck it was before we had split up and got back together, so I thought it was just a happy coincidence (though Jasey does not believe in coincidence). After we got back together they became a bit more frequent and oddly enough Jasey and I would both have a nickel story from within a few days of each other.
One time when Jasey was still at his old office, we did yard work on the weekends, so we were there working. (We never wanted to be wasting our weekend doing this but that day was particularly crappy and we had to force ourselves to go.) I passed by the front door and there was a dime on the ground. I smiled picked it up and kept working, a few minutes later I passed the same exact spot and there was another dime, I picked it up and kept going. Now I'm doing things like sweeping and blowing off the sidewalks, I'm very thorough, the sidewalk was spotless and nobody had walked by. I kid you not I walked past a few minutes later and there was another dime in the same spot. I picked it up and went an told Jasey about it we both had a little 'huh?' moment and were quiet, then smiled and went back to work. I walked past the spot a few more times but there was nothing else, then about 20 minutes later I was passing by and there was a dollar bill on the ground! I picked it up but never saw anything there again, that day or ever. But every time I passed that spot I thought about it.
So these sorts of things happened over the years, we never searched for random coins or nickels they would just always kind of appear. We didn't expect them on big days like our wedding day or when the kids were born, but they would show up around those times, like an early wedding gift or a belated birthday card. No matter when they show up they make you smile all the same.
This past year in May marked 13 years since JC passed away. (A side note: May 2008 was 10 years since he passed and on the exact date is the day that AJ started walking. How cool is that?!) So this year, on the day JC passed 13 year later, Jasey and myself both had multiple experiences with random nickels. It was a particularly low point for the both of us. We were fast approaching the one year mark of living with mom and being out of work. Our money was running out and everything was just closing in fast. We were both cranky and down and having trouble picking ourselves back up even though we needed to. Enter the nickels. That day, Jasey had one jump out of his wallet even though he doesn't carry around cash and had on pants that were just washed so there was nothing in the pockets. He also had one jump out of his lap when he got out of the car, again where did it come from? That same day I had one fall from a towel that I had taken out of the dryer and already begun to fold. Another one fell from a roll of tape as I was walking across the kitchen, and I can tell you it was not attached to the sticky part of the tape when I picked it up. Later that same day as I went to do more laundry there was a dime sitting on the ground in front of the dryer, it was not there earlier when i had picked up the nickel and I was the only one home. We exchanged stories that night and talked about the possibilities. For the next week or so I had 4 more random nickels show up.
It happened a couple more times over the next 2 months, each time just when Jasey and I were starting to feel frustrated and hopeless again we would each have a separate nickel story, usually on the same day. Then, Jasey got a job! The nickels haven't stopped but they aren't as frequent as they were becoming.
We went to DC for Stacey and Don's wedding over Labor Day weekend. We got there a couple days early and had a day to go be tourists in DC with the kids. As we were heading to the Smithsonian, there on the ground was a heads up penny, we pointed it out to AJ and had him pick it up and put it in his pocket. The rest of our time there, right up until we were walking through the airport to come home, AJ found 4 more pennies on the ground. I made sure to save two of them and put them in each of the kids wallets.
I never met Jasey's grandfather but we were both Aquarius and he is AJ's namesake so even though I always assume that it is JC sending them and not Jasey's grandfather, I guess there isn't really anyway to tell. It's been almost a joke over the years but every time one shows up Jasey and I tell each other and then wonder what it is JC, or Tony, is trying to tell us. It could be 'Congratulations', 'I'm so proud', 'I love you' or 'Don't worry, it will all work out'. Whatever it is, it's nice to know that someone is out there looking out for us, they love us unconditionally and they would do anything to let us know. Even throw nickels at us.
You are probably thinking, "What's the big deal about finding 18 cents in your driveway while mowing the lawn?" To answer that question we have to go back more than 15 years. When Jasey was 15 his grandfather in London passed away. Not long after that odd little things started happening around the house to Jasey and his parents. One of the most notorious was nickels showing up out of nowhere. I don't mean there would be a random nickel on the counter, I mean a nickel falling to the floor out of a towel half way through you drying off with it. Crazy right?
It was usually nickels but it would deviate to other coins at times. So this went on for a few years and then Jasey's dad got sick and passed away. Nickels started showing up more frequently and to other people, myself included. The first few that showed up for me I mostly thought 'how sweet'. It was before Jasey and I were married, heck it was before we had split up and got back together, so I thought it was just a happy coincidence (though Jasey does not believe in coincidence). After we got back together they became a bit more frequent and oddly enough Jasey and I would both have a nickel story from within a few days of each other.
One time when Jasey was still at his old office, we did yard work on the weekends, so we were there working. (We never wanted to be wasting our weekend doing this but that day was particularly crappy and we had to force ourselves to go.) I passed by the front door and there was a dime on the ground. I smiled picked it up and kept working, a few minutes later I passed the same exact spot and there was another dime, I picked it up and kept going. Now I'm doing things like sweeping and blowing off the sidewalks, I'm very thorough, the sidewalk was spotless and nobody had walked by. I kid you not I walked past a few minutes later and there was another dime in the same spot. I picked it up and went an told Jasey about it we both had a little 'huh?' moment and were quiet, then smiled and went back to work. I walked past the spot a few more times but there was nothing else, then about 20 minutes later I was passing by and there was a dollar bill on the ground! I picked it up but never saw anything there again, that day or ever. But every time I passed that spot I thought about it.
So these sorts of things happened over the years, we never searched for random coins or nickels they would just always kind of appear. We didn't expect them on big days like our wedding day or when the kids were born, but they would show up around those times, like an early wedding gift or a belated birthday card. No matter when they show up they make you smile all the same.
This past year in May marked 13 years since JC passed away. (A side note: May 2008 was 10 years since he passed and on the exact date is the day that AJ started walking. How cool is that?!) So this year, on the day JC passed 13 year later, Jasey and myself both had multiple experiences with random nickels. It was a particularly low point for the both of us. We were fast approaching the one year mark of living with mom and being out of work. Our money was running out and everything was just closing in fast. We were both cranky and down and having trouble picking ourselves back up even though we needed to. Enter the nickels. That day, Jasey had one jump out of his wallet even though he doesn't carry around cash and had on pants that were just washed so there was nothing in the pockets. He also had one jump out of his lap when he got out of the car, again where did it come from? That same day I had one fall from a towel that I had taken out of the dryer and already begun to fold. Another one fell from a roll of tape as I was walking across the kitchen, and I can tell you it was not attached to the sticky part of the tape when I picked it up. Later that same day as I went to do more laundry there was a dime sitting on the ground in front of the dryer, it was not there earlier when i had picked up the nickel and I was the only one home. We exchanged stories that night and talked about the possibilities. For the next week or so I had 4 more random nickels show up.
It happened a couple more times over the next 2 months, each time just when Jasey and I were starting to feel frustrated and hopeless again we would each have a separate nickel story, usually on the same day. Then, Jasey got a job! The nickels haven't stopped but they aren't as frequent as they were becoming.
We went to DC for Stacey and Don's wedding over Labor Day weekend. We got there a couple days early and had a day to go be tourists in DC with the kids. As we were heading to the Smithsonian, there on the ground was a heads up penny, we pointed it out to AJ and had him pick it up and put it in his pocket. The rest of our time there, right up until we were walking through the airport to come home, AJ found 4 more pennies on the ground. I made sure to save two of them and put them in each of the kids wallets.
I never met Jasey's grandfather but we were both Aquarius and he is AJ's namesake so even though I always assume that it is JC sending them and not Jasey's grandfather, I guess there isn't really anyway to tell. It's been almost a joke over the years but every time one shows up Jasey and I tell each other and then wonder what it is JC, or Tony, is trying to tell us. It could be 'Congratulations', 'I'm so proud', 'I love you' or 'Don't worry, it will all work out'. Whatever it is, it's nice to know that someone is out there looking out for us, they love us unconditionally and they would do anything to let us know. Even throw nickels at us.
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