About Me

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I am a small town girl living the big city life with my superhero hubby and our superhero- in-training son! I love Jesus and junior mints and have a secret addiction to Neil Diamond and Cat Steven's music. I love a good theme party, the smell of pretty stationary, a good book and a glass of ice tea with an orange slice in it. I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Wednesday weigh in

When I'm not scrubbing red paint from walls or crayon marks off of carpets or riding up and down elevators to satisfy a little boy's longing for adventure I am a woman who is trying to get healthy and get the weight off! That's not easy people.  Most nights I'd much rather just play with my family or clean the house instead I get in the car and drive to the rec center where I watch re-runs of Law & Order or Seinfeld while sweating off calories.

It's paying off. I keep telling myself that.  I lost .6 pounds last week for a grand total loss to date of 21 pounds. 

I'd love to stay and gloat and listen to your jokes about my feet or my grubby scale but my son's latest obsession is slamming doors which usually results in things falling off walls and smashed little fingers.  I hear him now...bam! I'm off!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I've lost 20 pounds this summer!

It's a big morning of celebration for me because I've met my first goal of losing 20 pounds!!!

Wahoooo!!! We're in the groovy decade of the 70's and I couldn't be more thrilled right now.  Of course I have a long way to go but I must admit, I'm really proud of the changes I've made and habits broken this summer.

My next goal is another 20 pounds and I'm hoping, fingers crossed that I'll be able to get my wedding and engagement rings back on by holiday time (end of November)!!! Thanks for all your continuing support and kind words!

love,
Steph

Sunday, August 12, 2012

I don't have a thing to wear!

Y'all, I had the shopping blues on Saturday night...bad.  My superhero hubby is taking me to Dragonfly at Hotel Za Za (my favorite restaurant in this city) and I have shrunk (is shrunk a word?) out of my dressier outfits.  What woman wouldn't jump at the chance to go shop? This one. I've honestly never been much of a shoppy (is shoppy a word?) type gal, I don't take great pleasure in spending all day at a mall but when I was smaller I could at least walk in a store, snag a top and pants and check out without having to try anything on.  But I have to try things on now.

After looking in two of my favorite usual shopping spots I came out empty handed and on the verge of tears in public. The thing is I wasn't even feeling defeated about my size or how I looked so much as I couldn't even find something I wanted to try on!  I feel like a lot of the clothes in the stores are geared towards the super young and no offense, look hoochie (is hoochie a word?) OR they are geared towards older ladies and I'm just not ready for all elastic pants and matching velour outfits. I'm also not willing to spend a massive amount of my hubby's hard earned money on an outfit that I will shrink (shrink is definately a word!) out of in another 2 months so that also limits me to where I look.  And did y'all know that southwest prints are in? Apparently they are and I totally missed the memo but I saw them everywhere I went and I feel like I could just drape a saddleblanket on myself and call it a day.

After some extremely encouraging words from girlfriends I took a deep breath and tried again this afternoon. SCORE! I'm actually completely stoked now about Friday night, I found something that is classy and sparkly and I was thrilled that the pants I bought are a size 14! I was a size 18/20 at the beginning of this journey so my hard work is definately paying off. 

And so, I no longer have the shopping blues and cannot tell my hubby that I have absolutely nothing to wear and I'm happy about that.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Mommy moments

I'm almost embarrassed to write any of this but I just feel in the depths of my soul that I'm not alone and that all or most of my other mom friends have experienced moments so sitcom inspired we just have to laugh at it all or we'll lock ourselves in a bathroom with a bag of miniature butterfingers and cry.

This morning started off.  And by that I mean just that, off.  W woke up at 5:40 am crying for his pacifier that had rolled underneath his bed at some point in the night (yes, I still give my son a pacifier at 29 months after we tried really hard for one whole evening to break him of the habit).  I never got back to sleep but was happy that W did so I got up and enjoyed the quiet morning hours with my coffee, breakfast and prayer time.  I felt great and ready to face the day.  I guess God knew I would need that prayer time because from the minute W woke up again he's been well, 2. And sometimes 2 is rotten. Thankfully, we had a sweet friend over for the morning to play with and distract us from our foul 2 year old mood and once our friend left we loaded up in the "big red car" as W. refers to it and we drove to Rockwall to visit another friend.

On our way back home with a car full of previously loved toys that our Rockwall friend gifted us we pulled into a Sonic to get an ice cream for the boy and some apples and caramel dip for momma.  At this point we are both in great moods because we love driving around and are very excited about our inherited loot piled high in the car.  For whatever sleep deprived reason, I went with the ice cream cone for W because the ice cream cup was 29 cents more.  What? Yeah, I'm a moron.  Cone in his little paw, apples and caramel sauce in my lap we get back on the highway and head back home over the "water bridge" to look for "boats"! 

W. with his mammoth sized ice cream cone at the Sonic parking lot.

You do know what's coming right? Total chaos, that's right.  About 13 minutes later W. yells "no more" and I turn to see that is he done with his cone but the cone is nowhere near being completely eaten.  Now, if  I'd gotten the cup I could have just taken it and set it in a cup holder but noooooo, I wanted to save 29 big whopping cents! I turn quickly, grab the cone before he hurls it to the floorboard and toss my caramel sauce packet onto the seat next to me...you got it, right onto my phone.  I'm maneuvering my way over the bridge while my son who is covered in ice cream attempts to start digging in bags of toys and get them all yucked up.  I've got a melting cone in one hand, caramel sauce on my phone when I hear bzzzz. bzzzzz. I turn to see a ginormous bumble bee flying around the inside of our car! Ahhhh! So I somehow get the window rolled down in the back, the bee flies out and I start eyeing the cars all around me to see when the best time would be to toss, yes toss the melting cone out the window (I'm trying to lose weight remember? And it's completely gross to me to eat my son's slobbery cone, sorry, it just is).  Seconds later I got my chance and there's some vanilla splatter on the side of my car to prove it.  It's at this moment W asks if he can have some tots. Really? *sigh*.

We made it home, everyone has napped and the phone has been cleaned up. I just keep repeating to myself, " I will always get a cup, I will always get a cup.".

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Sights of summer

It really is so much fun to watch him PLAY!


He was very proud of the "e" he wrote!

We discovered the salt shaker at dinner
My little guy loves his motorcycle!

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Wednesday weigh in

It's not a huge loss but considering last week was super busy so I didn't work out as much plus we ate out a couple of times I am very happy with a loss at all!

.6 lbs lost for a total loss to date of 17.6 lbs! I've got to work twice as hard the next couple of months because I really do intend to wear my wedding and engagement rings during the holiday season!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Grocery Game

We took W. to the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History on Saturday and had a wonderful day there.  Inspired by the mock grocery store they have set up for littles and how much fun he had playing in it I came home with my wheels turning.
Having fun at the museum!


As we were coming home from church on Sunday I spotted a neighbor having a yard sale so I stopped by.  For $5 I bought a wooden 2 drawer filing cabinet that I knew would make a fabulous little grocery checkout for my boy.

I took out the drawers, turned it on its front, got some red and black paint and got to work.  Here is our finished product!




We still need a cash register and I'm in the process of making some currency with our faces on it but he has already had so much fun bagging his little groceries and talking about the different fruits and veggies.  We already had some plastic food and a shopping cart but I made a trip to our Dollar Tree for a few more play food items as well as some bright red bins to hold our groceries.  I also thought that their little green craft bags make the perfect grocery bags for our Super "W" Market! We also asked friends to donate any boxes or jars they were going to toss so we could stock our shelves and he loves looking at the different pictures on the boxes.


Half of our garage is dedicated to W's sensory activities so I just cleared the space some, put some fabric I had over his long art table for our market shelves and he has plenty of space to play! 






Well, I've got to get back to work.  I'm both checker and bagger at the Super W Market and my customer gets a little upset when I'm not at my post!


Friday, August 3, 2012

Sticks of Butter & Celebrating Non-Scale Victories

I'm beyond thrilled at 17 pounds gone from my body.  That's 68 sticks of butter people! Yeehaw!! And while I know that I have a long way to go, if I think about how much more I need to lose I will get depressed so this week I've focused on my non-scale victories which include but are not limited to the following:

1.  When I started my weight loss journey I was wearing a size XL in t shirts and blouses.  I am now sporting size large with wiggle room to spare!

2.  My bath towel now completely fits around my frame! This is kind of a big deal for me and I cannot express how huge I have felt that I can't even get my bath towel wrapped around me.  Do you know how cold your rear end can get when stepping out of the shower? Not anymore!!

3.  I have so much more energy and am less irritable.  This is fabulous since I stay home with a 2 year old boy whose mood can change at the drop of a Lego...one of us needs to be stable!

4.  I don't crave sugar as much.  This is HUGE for me.  I've gone from popping 2-3 fatty desserts a day into my mouth to maybe 1 a day and they are always low fat options like Vitatop muffins, yogurt, low fat puddings or fruit. 

5.  I'm enjoying people more, food less.  We've had a lot of cookouts and get-togethers this summer and I notice that I'm not the first one in the food line anymore.  I am enjoying my friends and the moments we celebrate more and I don't even think about the pie or the plate of chocolate chip cookies.  Life should be celebrated!

I weighed in this week at 183 which is the same as last week so no loss, no gain! I'm so close to my first goal of losing 10% of my initial starting weight!!! Hope you'll be seeing less of me next week!