The Next Day

We have all had one of these. You know, that day after you just put in one of the best workouts of your life at the gym, only to wake up the next morning and you can't move because of how sore you are. Yeah, one of those next days. I could barely get down our stairs at home today. My Husband found it hilarious. Jerk!

I had my first of four sessions with a personal trainer at our gym last night. I knew that he was going to put me through hell and back, but I need that type of workout because I am not doing them on my own. 

We did circuit training stuff because he said that I don't have to necessarily use the free weights and all the machines to put on some extra muscle that will help burn extra calories. Good to know for the future, but I still would like a little bit of instruction on what I could do with the weights at some point. 

We also went over nutrition stuff, my goals and where I want to be and all that fun stuff. He said that my goal of being in the 130-140's is definitely attainable, but it is just going to take a while. But he seemed to see no reason that I couldn't get there as long as I continue to eat healthy and work out. So you know what? I am going for it! I would love nothing more than to be in that weight range and nothing is stopping me but me. So no more excuses. It is going to happen! 

I feel better about this than I ever have. I have always thought that there was no way that I could get down to that weight. I always thought that my body frame wouldn't allow it. But hearing from someone whose job it is to help you lose weight and be healthier that I could definitely get there, I think it gave me that extra push that I so desperately needed. 

My journey to change my life and my habits started this week. And I am not giving up until I meet these goals. I can't give up anymore. No matter how sore I am the next day. No matter how hard it gets at times. I have to keep going. 

Weigh-In Wednesdays

Happy Wednesday everyone!

The time has finally come that Weigh-In-Wednesdays are being reinstated. That's right, I have become uncomfortable enough with myself, my weight and the way I feel and look in my clothes. I shouldn't be surprised about this considering that this is my pattern. This is how I operate. I get frustrated with how I look and what the scale says. So of course I do something about it, but then I get comfortable once I start to feel good about myself and then I gain almost everything back. It is a vicious cycle and one that I plan on breaking at some point in my life. I mean one of these times these habits are going to stick right? Let's hope. 

So here I am again wanting to do something about how I look and feel. I started out the week by eating healthy and exercising and I am still going strong. I must say though that this is an odd time of year for me to start trying to get healthy, especially with the Holidays coming up. But you know what? I need a challenge like this. I need to know that I can make it through the Holidays without going off the deep end. And not only that but I am tired of using the Holidays as an excuse to not get healthy. Every year I say, "Oh I will just wait til the first of the year because of Thanksgiving and Christmas!" And every year on the first of January, I regret that decision to wait because I have usually gained more weight back. So no more excuses. I have to start somewhere and now is as good a time as any!

Let's get down to why I am really writing this post. As of this morning I weighed in at 222.2 lbs. Which means that I have gained about 13 lbs back since this summer when I was at my lowest weight of the year at 209 lbs. Of course I am not happy about this, but at the same time I need to be happy that I didn't gain everything back. I am glad that I started to feel uncomfortable sooner rather than later.

I have set a few goals for myself for the next week. Eating healthy of course is at the top of those. But actually getting my butt to the gym is the other. I have done pretty well with that so far this week. I just want to keep it up. And I won a few free sessions with a personal trainer at my gym, and my first one is tonight. So I am excited to see what he can teach me that I can actually use on my own. It is definitely something that I am looking forward too!

Here is to starting over and getting this shiz under control! 

Niece or Nephew??!!

Last Monday my Sister-In-Law went to her 20 week ultra sound to find out if her and my Brother would be having another little girl or if a little boy would finally be joining the family. 

Little bit of background for those of you that haven't been around these parts that long. My Brother and my SIL already have three kids. And with each pregnancy they had, they hoped they were having a boy because my Brother wants a little boy so badly. And with each pregnancy, they found they were having a girl. Which was hard but still exciting at the same time. We were excited to have another precious little girl joining our family, but it was hard to see that dream of my Brother having a little boy slip away. 

So when my Brother and SIL found out they were pregnant again and told all of us, we all just started praying and hoping that this time around it would be a boy. But we didn't want to get our hopes up. I myself decided that it was a girl and just didn't even think that it was possible that it was a boy. I mean they already had three girls, so there chances of having a boy were really slim. 

So last Monday I waited on pins and needles all day because my SIL's appointment wasn't until 4:30. My stomach was a big ball of nerves all day. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't sit still. It was just awful. You would think that I was the one finding out what I was having. It was crazy. I can't even imagine what my Brother and my SIL were feeling. 

5 pm rolled around and I still hadn't heard anything. 5:30 rolled around and still nothing. I couldn't handle it anymore. I was going crazy. And then finally, my phone rang. It was my SIL. The first words out of my mouth to her were, "Let me guess. It's a girl." Her response was, "Nope! It's a boy!!" 

At first I thought she was just messing with me. She likes to do that kind of stuff to me, so naturally I didn't believe her. Until she kept saying it and she wasn't backing down from what she was saying. At this point I realized she wasn't lying and I started bawling my eyes out. My Brother was finally getting his little boy!! And I can't even begin to describe to you guys how excited I am. Or how excited my Brother and my SIL are. My whole family is absolutely elated. We are finally going to have a little boy on my side of the family.

I still get choked up every time I start thinking about it because I still can't believe that it is real. A baby boy! Aaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh! Excuse me while I go squeal with joy for a little bit! 

A Nephew it is! And I couldn't be more excited and happy to welcome this new little man to our family!

Weekend Recap

Why is it that it takes sooooo long for Friday to make it's way here, but then Monday has no problem making it's way back into our lives! Ugh! I know technically that makes no sense, but just go with it!

We didn't really have any set plans for this weekend, which was really nice, but somehow we still ended up being pretty busy. 

Friday night on our way home we decided to go to IHop for dinner. I wanted some french toast so bad and since we don't keep bread in the house, I can never make it. So instead we just went to IHop and I got my french toast fix and then we headed home and did nothing the rest of the night. I think I even went to bed early. I was completely exhausted from the past week and it was finally starting to show. 

Saturday I got up and Louie and I ran to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. After eating and watching TV for  a little bit I started cleaning the house and taking down our Halloween decorations. Once the Hubby decided to roll out of bed, we headed out to run a few errands. Our first stop was Lowe's. We needed a bunch of random crap for the house, like a new filter for the furnace and spider killing spray, so we took care of those items. 

After Lowe's we went to Target for a few more random things and then headed to the grocery store to get our grocery shopping done for the week. For some reason, and maybe it is like this every Saturday and I just don't know it, but it seemed absolutely crazy everywhere that we went. It was actually really frustrating, but not much that we could do about it. 

On our way home from the grocery store we stopped at our favorite BBQ place and the liquor store and then headed home to enjoy dinner and my new favorite alcoholic beverage. I am a big fan of Woodchuck and Red's Apple Ale, so my Brother told me that I needed to try Angry Orchard, so I did. And oh my effing geee, it was delicious. I was very impressed by it and very much enjoyed it. 

The rest of our Saturday night was spent catching up on some of our favorite TV shows and getting a little bit of cleaning/organizing done. 

Sunday we got up and immediately got to work. I made my breakfast cups for the week and continued taking down our Halloween decorations and cleaning up a bit more while the Hubby mowed and fertilized the lawn for the last time for the year. I also was busy making Enchiladas for our family dinner that we were having later that night.

After all of our yard work and house work was done, we headed down to  my Brother's house to have a big family dinner with my Mom and Step Dad to celebrate my Sister-In-Law Cassie's Birthday. We had a big Mexican Fiesta for dinner. I made Enchiladas. My Mom made these bomb Fajitas and we also had a ton of other food! It was all so good! 

After dinner we had one of my favorite cakes, an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It was delicious. All in all, it was a good night. We had a lot of fun hanging out with my Mom, Step Dad, Brother, SIL and all my Nieces. It was fun catching up with everyone and celebrating Cassie's Birthday. 

For us not having any real plans set in stone, we were still really busy this weekend. But it was definitely the good kind of busy. We really needed to get a lot of this stuff done, so I am glad that we finally did. And spending time with my family was the perfect touch to this busy weekend. 

I hope you all had a great weekend too! And I hope you have a great week!

Happy Halloween & Throw Back Thursday

Happy  Halloween everyone! Since today is also Thursday, I thought I would do Throw Back Thursday, Halloween edition!

No costume here, just playing with Pumpkins

A Pumpkin. Quite possibly my favorite costume.
It was so warm!

A Bride

A Witch

I hope everyone has a great Halloween! And remember, there is never such a thing as too much candy! 

Louie's Halloween Costumes

I love Halloween and have always loved dressing up in fun costumes. But this year, I am even more excited because I have someone else that I can dress up in costumes. 

That's right! I am one of those people. I dress my dog up for Halloween. Deal with it!

Last year we didn't have Louie yet, so this was the first year that we got to do anything like this with him. And my dog is weird and likes clothes. And I am not lying when I say this. If you pull a sweater or a bandanna out for him he gets excited and starts jumping around and then will sit in front of you so that you can put it on him. Weird, I know. 

So of course, I had to get him a costume. Or maybe two. We couldn't decide between these two that we loved, so when I went to the Halloween store and saw that they had both of them, I decided to just buy both. I mean who says a dog can't have more than one costume? Not to mention that he will probably wear these next year too. 

This first costume my Husband found on ThinkGeek and he wanted it so badly. We had already said that we wanted a different costume though, so I told him we could wait and do it next year. Well, when I saw it at the store it was just so cute, so I decided to get it. And I am glad that I did because Louie absolutely loves it and it ended up being my favorite of the two that we picked out for him. 

 He loves his costume. And the little cape on it is so cute. When he runs it kind of flaps in the wind and it is just adorable. 

The original costume that we had picked out for him was also one that they had at the Halloween store. I looked at the back of the packaging and it said that for his breed size that we should get a small. Well, they didn't have a small so I got a medium figuring it would just be a little big on him. So I got it home and it was actually a little too small on him. Not sure how that worked out, but it's not a big deal since I can fix it. 

I still think this costume is cute, but it definitely doesn't fit the way that I would have liked it too. But he still looks damn cute in it. And I think that once I fix it, it will look a lot better. 

We have always said that when his hair gets really long that he looks like an Ewok and this costume has now confirmed this. And we actually haven't taken him to the groomers because we wanted his hair to be longer specifically for this. But after Halloween he is going because his hair is getting out of control. 

Louie didn't seem to like this costume as much as his Underdog one, but he still liked it. And I have to agree with him on his costume choice. I think Underdog is way cuter on him. What do you guys think?

So yes, I am one of those people that dresses my dog up. But when he looks so cute in everything, how can you resist not putting him in something? I think that would just be a travesty! And I personally feel that I  would be robbing the world of the cuteness that is Louie in a Halloween costume!

Hawaii Days 7-10

Okay so I know fours days in one post is a lot, but after your best friend gives birth to the most beautiful little girl, you don't really go out and do anything. 

A few hours after Lou gave birth and we had plenty of time to take in Baby G, Lou's Husband took us home to get some sleep. I mean we had all been up since the morning before with little to no sleep at all. So to say that we were tired is a huge understatement. Although because of all the excitement and adrenaline due to Baby G's arrival, we barely noticed how tired we were until we got in the car to make the trip back to their place. 

We grabbed some food on the way and I immediately scarfed it down and then within probably twenty minutes, I passed out. Lou's Husband headed back to the hospital to stay with her and Baby G for the night. Which was fine by me. I knew that I was probably going to be doing nothing but sleeping the next few days. So the remainder of day 6 was spent sleeping and almost all of day 7 I slept or just sat on the couch watching TV. 

Day 8 which was Friday, Lou, her Husband and Baby G all came home from the Hospital. We didn't do anything that day either. We were just so excited that they were home that we just spent the day at the house hanging out and admiring Baby G. 

We started Day 9 by going to breakfast at Zippy's. The food was really good, but I found a few menu items to be kind of weird. But for those that live in Hawaii, this is normal. I am just not used to seeing it on a menu here in CO.

Spam on the menu

After breakfast we ran a few errands and did a little bit of shopping and then headed back to their place for the rest of the night. We were all pretty exhausted at this point, so a night with nothing to do sounded amazing to me. I am pretty sure I passed out pretty quickly this night.

Sunday morning we all got up and headed back into town so that we could finish up our souvenir shopping. I had a few things that I needed to get for a few family members. My Brother for instance insisted that I bring him back a new dashboard Hula Girl because the one I bought him in 2006 had broken. So we went back to Waikiki and went to the Hale Koa and the Rainbow Bizarre.

While we were shopping, we were also walking right along the beach and it was a gorgeous day. So of course I had to snap a few pics.

After we finished up our shopping, which took a few hours, we headed back to the other side of the island. Lou's Husband dropped all of us off at home and then he went and grabbed us some dinner. After dinner, I started gathering all of my stuff and started packing my bags since my flight was the next morning and we had to be up super early to head to the airport. After I finished my packing, I just hung out with Lou and everyone else and just tried to soak in all the time I had left with her.

I couldn't believe how quickly the week had gone by. And with Baby G making her arrival, it seemed like the week went by even more quickly. I was really sad that I was leaving because I knew that I was going to instantly miss my best friend and her new little family. But unfortunately the real world was calling and I had to get back to my family and work.

It was an amazing week. I got to spend some time with my best friend. I got to watch her become a Mom. I got to see her Husband become a Dad. And I got to see them become an even bigger family. I loved every minute that I got to spend with them. I couldn't have asked for a better vacation.