Life via Instagram

I've mentioned before just how much I love Instagram.  It's almost replaced my blog in the sense that it's become a fun way to chronicle life as it's happening.  I take a pic, I share it IG, post a little caption and there ya go.  I love that I can stay connected with my friends and family who are on IG too and it's almost like sending a picture text to all your friends at once. People can comment on your photos and you with theirs and it's neat to see life from another person's perspective.

My friend Julie has been doing weekly Instagram posts which I thought was a fun thing to do.  She gave me her blessing to be a copycat (thanks, Julie!) so I thought today I'd share my week in phone pics via Instagram!

Monday:  Started my week off trying to eat better lunches again. I've had either salads or wraps for lunch pretty much all week long!

Tuesday...I seriously have no business trying to fit in crocheting these days but on Tuesday, I got the wild hare to make a cowl for myself.  I've seen a couple of bloggers who've been making and selling the cutest cowls and I thought I could save myself the $45 make my own. I love how this one turned out and I plan on making a few more when I can in between life and school. :)

Wednesday...was Halloween. My least favorite day of the year.  My neighbors happen to think the opposite of that day and went all out with decorations and, even made a haunted house in their backyard.  This was one of their decorations on their side yard and just happens to be what my girls see when they look out their bedroom window! :( Needless to say, the blinds have been staying shut for the last few days!

Thursday...This is my sister's doggie and we've been watching her all week. She's such a good girl and my girls love that she's been here.  I think she'll be excited when it's time for her to go home though, because my girls are loud and very rambunctious!

Friday...I took this photo today to document having lost 40 lbs. I should have added a picture to my last weight loss update but I just didn't have time to take the pic.  Try not to mind the yucky mirror! One of these days I really should get someone else to take my picture!

I've taken so many more pics than this this week these were just the highlights. Hopefully I can make it a weekly habit to do a recap post like this. This was fun!

40 lbs G-O-N-E!

I've got to SO much to unload on this neglected little blog of mine but for today, I thought I'd share just one super exciting highlight from my week! On Wednesday, I reached another milestone in my weight loss journey. I stepped on the scale and it read a weight I haven't seen in over 10 years!

And guess how many pounds that means I've lost to date?

40 pounds!!!

Crazy, right?!?

After being up and down the last month and a half, struggling with the balance between school, family, my health and working out, I finally decided I need to get focused again and get serious about getting to my weight goal.  I started again last week with a real determination, lost a few pounds pretty fast with lots of exercise and monitoring my food intake. By the weekend, I found myself getting lazy again and somewhere in there some chocolate found it's way into my hands and there we go.  By Monday, I finally had a little conversation with myself (not a real, out loud one---that would be scary, lol) but a little pep talk.  I sat down and did a little math and realized just how close I was to reaching 50 pounds lost. I've lost way more than what I still have left to go and got to thinking...seriously, what is stopping me from just making this happen?

This week I've been taking exercising and what I eat seriously.  I even went for a 25 minute jog in my neighborhood one day and managed to make it home in one piece!  Four months ago, you could not have convinced me to run for 5 minutes, much less 10 and now I'm finding myself wanting to just get out there and push myself.

I've been doing a combo of my walking workout dvd's, the elliptical and jogging.  Every day, even when I'm tired and don't want to open my eyes in the four o'clock hour, I've just been pushing myself to get up and start moving.  Sleeping in my workout clothes helps a lot, lol!  I'm really excited about my progress and still can't believe I've lost this much!

My original goal when I started all of this was to get down to 145-150.  As I get closer, I'm starting to think that if I can just push myself a little harder, I can make it somewhere between 130-140.  I've never been that small as an adult so I'm excited to see what the future holds.  By the time I finally get there, Fernando may not even recognize me anymore! ;)

A quick trip to the pumpkin patch

Anyone who knows me well, knows I really don't care for Halloween.

It's my least favorite holiday EVER!  I'm not a fan of witches or goblins, scary monsters or gore.  I also struggle with being okay with letting my kids dress up and doing the whole trick or treating thing. One thing I really DO love about this time of year though, is all the fun fall decorations and pumpkins.  Oh gosh, how I love pumpkins!

For the last few years, it's become a family tradition of ours to go to the Avila Barn in October. It's fun to let the kids roam around and pick their own pumpkin from the patch.  This year, as time and opportunity would have it, we weren't able to make it out to the Barn.  Instead, we got to visit one of the patches in Bakersfield when we were there for our baby cousin's birthday party a couple weekends ago.

There were tons of people everywhere and Alyssa wasn't feeling too good that morning, so we made our visit a quick one.  At this particular place, all the pumpkins were laid out and you could walk around and pick from what they had out.

There were several cute spots for fun photo ops like this one where I got Liv and Audrey to pose for me. :)

We were with Fernando's sisters and our cousin and we all wandered around a little and took turns taking each other's pictures.  Fernando and his sisters wanted a picture of the three of them together but Liv decided that she wanted in on the action too. I love her smile here!

Since Alyssa wasn't feeling all that great, we hurried to get a family picture so we could be on our way. The result was three out of five of us smiling, ha!

After looking at all the pics I took that day, I realized just how badly I need a new lens for my good camera. I think I left the lens cap off one too many times because all my pics turned out yucky, quality wise. My birthday's coming up, so I'll have to add that to my wishlist!

Road trip+birthday fun!

Last weekend we took a mini road trip to visit family and celebrate our baby cousin Brooklyn's 1st birthday!  It was our first little trip in our {new-to-us} van and we traveled to Fernando's old hometown which is about 2 1/2 hours away.  The last time we'd been there was when Audrey was about three months old! It was so nice having more than enough space to travel, with lots of room for the girls and all their stuff.  It's amazing just how much "stuff" ends up getting packed between two parents and three children. Sheesh!  We decided to stay the night there so we wouldn't have to make the drive home at night, which worked out great. :)

The road to Bakersfield is pretty much this same view the entire way. :)

Our cousin Lettie, Brookie's mom, threw the most awesome party ever!  It was pumpkin theme and she did it up big! It was like stepping into a party you'd see on Pinterest!

There were so many awesome treats and favors, all with these super cute maching tags.  I wish I would have taken more pics of all the goodies. There were these suckers, some super cute (and yummy!) pumpkin sugar cookies, caramel apples, and s'mores in a jar.

 

Aside from all the treats and yummy food, the girls enjoyed checking out the petting zoo they had there. Liv also had fun jumping in the bounce house!

The party was one where you could dress up if you wanted to.  Since I'm not a big fan of Halloween, I usually don't do too good with costume shopping. Audrey was the only one who really seemed upset at not having a costume when we got there, but another one of our cousins was nice and let us borrow her daughter's costume since she refused to wear it. :)  It worked out great and the costume was a little small but Audrey was in heaven.  She loved being a strawberry!

Here was me and the birthday girl. She totally looks like she was waving here, I love it!

The tutu she was wearing was made by some local friends here that own their own boutique, called CarMa Designs.  They totally came through for us to make the tutu with only a day and half's notice, which was awesome.  Thanks so much Carrie and Mindy!!!

We had such a fun afternoon and the girls loved getting to meet and play with their cousin. Audrey especially bonded with Brookie and was sad when we had to say goodbye to her to head back home the next day.

You could tell there was so much time and love put into the party and Fernando and I were glad we got to make the trip.  We even got to visit a pumpkin patch the next day, which I'll work on sharing soon!

My life in a Nutshell

I have a handful of friends who love me so much (lol) that they start to get a little worried when I come up missing on my blog.  This post is dedicated to the two or three of you this applies to. :) Life since I've gone back to school has made things SO incredibly busy.  To those who really know me, you know that I never have a shortage for words.  What I have been short on these days is time and every day just seems to fly.

One of the last times I blogged, I was sharing just how yucky I'd been feeling.  So much so that it was throwing a wrench in my whole trying to continue exercise and lose more weight deal.  Well, the good news is that this month my symptoms weren't as bad as last month but the bad news is that I have been slacking majorly with exercising.  After a suggestion to talk to my doctor about my issues (thank you, Amber for your comment. :) ) I went and did that and she had some labs done to test my thyroid and hormone levels.  They results came back in showing that NOTHING was wrong with me. Good news that I'm "normal" bad news that I have all these weird achy, exhausted feelings with no real explanation.  I'm supposed to schedule an appointment with my doctor to talk about what to do from here, but I haven't yet scheduled that. It's on my to-do list!

Upon thinking about my issues a little more, I've decided that a lot of it probably just has to do with the fact that I have lots more on my plate with school and life and my body must be trying to tell me to slow down.  I've decided to let losing MORE weight kinda take a back seat to just getting a handle on life with school and everything else that has to be done with the family.  I really want to continue towards my ultimate goal, but now that I've lost 35 lbs, and have just been maintaining, I've actually been feeling pretty good at the weight I'm at now.  Here's a picture from this week...

I've pretty much settled into my school routine and things have been going well.  I'm slowly getting the hang of things and was so excited last month when I took my first accounting test and got the highest score in the class, with only one wrong!

That was totally a God thing and I'm hoping that I can continue with the same success with my next test, which I have to due online this weekend! Say a little prayer for me!

The highlight of my week this week was getting to visit with some of my old high school friends. The girls in the picture right here, were my two closest friends for the back half of my high school life.  They've both moved away but Danielle, the one on the left, is back in town for the month to help her sister with her new baby, so Christie, the one on the right, was able to come to town so we could meet up!

We met at the park in the morning with our other friend Rachel (in the middle, holding her little girl) and then we met at Panera in the afternoon with Channone, for lunch!  

I had so much fun and was so happy I got to see everyone.  I can't believe we've been out of high school for for 14 years already!  We're all mommies now and have nine children between us all.  

Well, that's my life in a nutshell for now.  We're going out of town for a family birthday party and I gotta get to packing!  

Changed

Grief has a way of sneaking up from behind you when you least expect it.  The days after a loss can pass but there are moments that come back to you fresh just like it was the first moment you found out the devastating news.  Pictures flash through your mind of events that happened in the past, words that were spoken, messages that were sent or unsent.  Every day brings a fresh realization to the present reality.

"She's gone."

Those were the only words that could come out of my mouth, when Fernando happened to find me in tears, dressing Liv after her bath one Sunday morning a little over a week ago.  After a year long battle with cancer, my sweet friend Wren went to be with Jesus.

I had found out the news by my mom just a little earlier. She'd come in the bathroom during the girls' bath to tell me she'd read it on FB from a friend we both share.  Although we all knew Wren's time here on Earth was closing, the reality of that seemed almost too much.  The tears came soon after, as I processed what this meant.  She couldn't possibly be gone? Pictures flooded my mind of the healthy, vibrant Wren I knew and my thoughts were overtaken by her family...the ones she loved and had to leave behind.

When you have friend who's sick, as in the case with Wren, it becomes a part of your being.  I almost can't describe it.  There hasn't been a day that's gone by in the past year that I haven't thought about her.  I used to sometimes wake up thinking about her or would have a  moment just pass at random when she'd enter my mind. Those same things happen now, only the thought is followed by moments of sadness and a prayer for her family for comfort and strength.

There's been a lot I've learned over the past year through Wren. I've been forever changed and I don't think I'll ever see life the same way.  Her faith through her sickness taught me how to persevere through difficult circumstances...whether they be struggles within my own family with big challenges we've faced or even with less important things, like my journey to better health. I can remember a time last year I was whining on Facebook about how I was going to be starting all over with my weight loss journey, and I had really hoped I could just finally stick with it and not fail, again. I remember Wren leaving a comment saying something like...."You can do it.  You have your health and that's so great."  I will never forget her words and in the moments where I want to lose myself and forget all the progress I've made, I remember her saying how I could do it because I had my health.  She was so right.

My thoughts have been in lots of places the past few weeks and with Wren's passing, I've struggled to put those thoughts in to words.  I have no real conclusion to this post, only thank you's for praying with me and being a part of my friend's journey.  When I shared Wren with you, many of you friends came through and sent cards and gifts and I just want to tell you thank you again for doing that.  I know you blessed her and I hope she blessed you too.  Last week I was going back over a message she'd sent me telling me how she'd received several cards and special gifts from my friends.  I cried reading her words over again and felt blessed that we got to be a special part of her life.

I also wanted to share this video that was played at Wren's memorial on Saturday. Even in the face of the most difficult experience a person could face, Wren was still sharing Jesus and wanted all of us to come to know him too. What a beautiful testimony of faith.