One Eyed, One Horned, Flying Purple People Eater

Peyton was able to perform today at the Marine Corps Exchange! I'm not sure how much she's practiced this dance but it was so fast paced! I think she did great!

The Rockin Show

The cutest band around!!! LOVE IT!

Airshow Tap Dance

After almost an hour delay for technical difficulties Peyton was able to dance at the MCAS Miramar Airshow this past weekend. She recently moved up to level 2 and the dances are faster with more moves and I'm not 100% sure she's even done the second song in class. I think she did great for how tired she was!

One day I will get married again...

First I have to apologize for the quality of the photos. They are almost 10 years old so they were shot on film, they were super dark when they were printed, and then I scanned them (again 10 years ago with a cheap scanner) and attempted to lighten them. One day I will find the actual photos and negatives (they've been moved like 8 times and they are in a box somewhere...) and hopefully take them to someone who knows what they are doing and get a few decent copies.

But I digress...

Almost 10 years ago I married the man of my dreams, and a decade, three kids, the crazy Marine Corps life, stress, loss, and illness later he is still very much the man of my dreams. 

Our wedding was small, and intimate, and beautiful. I loved my dress. What I did not love was me, I mean I loved me, I just didn't love the way I looked. I see these pictures know and am amazed at the changes in me over the last ten years.

A few weeks ago I volunteered at the annual Bridal and Ball Gown Giveaway aboard MCAS Miramar. The bridal gowns are completely free designer gowns that are donated for military fiances and wives. In order to get one a person has to go through steps to prove they are getting married or renewing vows and get it verified with the service member's command. 

When the day was winding down we were having a little fun and I tried on a dress.

Now, I am 90 lbs smaller than I was on my wedding day and obviously styles have changed but I put on this dress and realized "I WILL GET MARRIED AGAIN!" 

Sean and I always talked about renewing our vows on our 10th anniversary however the Marine Corps has different plans for next summer.  But one day, we will run away to Hawaii and get married again on the beach. 

Until then, I will dream of the perfect day, wearing another beautiful - just much smaller - dress with the man of my dreams already at my side.

A New Year, A Fresh Start

With Peyton requiring a third year of preschool we knew we would have to find her a more challenging program that would more prepare her for kindergarten. I truly believe God led us to Christ the Cornerstone Academy. It is a Lutheran based church school literally IN our neighborhood.  We fell in love with their preschool curriculum and soon were convinced Logan would achieve so much better through there dayschool program as well. God provided the means and we enrolled them both. 

I feel like it was just yesterday that these two were tiny tiny and I was struggling to survive a day. Now they are both out of the house for a large portion of the day and they LOVE their new school!

1st Grade!

Preschool take 3! 

I love the fact that Logan's classroom is capped at 24. Currently there are only 21 students but because there are 21 the teacher gets a full day aide as well! So it's 2:21 versus the 1:25-30 they were anticipating at the public school! He's already made so much progress in the few short weeks he's been attending Christ the Cornerstone!

Good friends of ours heard me raving about this awesome program and also enrolled their daughter. These two have know each other since birth and now get to be in the same class together!

There are so many benefits of both of them attending CTCA. Everyday I hear "I saw you on the playground" or "Did you see me at the flag? I saw you!" and for someone who only had 1 year (and that being Kindergarten) with a sibling in the same school I just think those moments are a treasure! But I would have to say the best part of the kids being Christian school is the Christian education. We now have special prayers, songs, and Bible verses that the kids repeat regularly! The other day I caught Logan singing "We want to see Jesus lifted high" over and over and it brought tears to my eyes.

I have never been big on discussing religion but I will have to say, we listened to the Holy Spirit and now our children are experiencing something fantastic and for that I feel eternally grateful and blessed!

The New Me, Weight Loss, & Color Me Rad

So just on a whim back in January I started using the My Fitness Pal app on my phone (but there is also an online program) to track my diet. I never really intended to lose weight, just being dorky I thought it would be cool to scan the bar codes of everything I ate... Soon it became overly apparent how much I have overeaten my entire life.  

Me (& Peyton) January 2010
about 260lbs

After entering all your information if gives you a limit for calorie intake for the day and as long as you stay at or below that number you will lose weight.  Within the first two weeks I had dropped 7 lbs and I was so amazed! I continued with just counting calories and soon found myself down 20, 25, 30 lbs.  People would ask what I was doing and honestly I felt bad just saying "counting calories" so I felt the need to get back to the gym and start working out.

Me (& Belle) March 2012
about 230lbs

Me in May 2012
about 215lbs

A good friend of mine blogged about her running goal of 100 miles in a month and I thought, wow that's crazy! The blog continued with her "reward" for reaching this goal was the Color Me Rad race with her husband and I thought "well now that's cool!" So I checked it out and low and behold there was one in San Diego and I knew I needed to train for it. 

Another friend and I began hitting the Y regularly again, well as regularly as my crazy schedule allowed. Soon after that I started the Couch to 5K program. I am still attempting to get through it but I have definitely made a lot of progress using it!

When Sean's training schedule was released we found out he would be out of town for the Color Me Rad and I was so bummed, I knew if I was going to do it I would need my #1 fan at my side so I kinda put it on the back burner. Out of some whim of luck the Marine Corps changed the schedule and he was set to come home the day before the race!! (It is rare the changes ever happen for the good so I saw this as a sign!) And I knew we HAD to do it!  I registered us for the race, Team HELL IDK (like the answer to "what do you want for dinner?" "where do you want to go?" and "what should our team name be?")!!!

The family July 2012
about 205lbs

And race day has arrived! I was surprisingly calm, I knew I could easily do 2 miles and with Sean by my side the rest would be a piece of cake.  With the exception of the 4:45 wake up I was so excited!

My first bib number! 

So those who don't understand the premise, you go in the whitest shirt (or complete outfit) you can find and the goal is to be a colorful mess at the end of the race!

         

Well according to my running GPS app the race was short at only 2.5 miles not the full 3.2 that make up a 5K but I still feel pretty accomplished! My first mile was done in 13:10 and it was a personal best! Once we started hitting the color stations the times lagged because we actually had to wait in line to be colored. but I crossed the finish line just over 30 minutes after starting so not to bad for my first official race!

My new favorite picture!

   

   

It was a blast and I hope that I can do it next year as well, think I may even let the kids run with me! 

Thank you Ko for the inspiration.  Thank you Angela for being my running buddy.  Thank you all who have sent kind words and all the encouragement throughout the past months and today. And most of all thank you to my awesome husband who could have run that thing three times in the time it took me but stayed at my side the entire time! (and slapped my butt with pink cornstarch!)

Post-race!
August 11, 2012
195 lbs!!!

For the record I'm down 55lbs since January I have another 15+ I'd like to lose but honestly I'm so happy with my progress already! For those of you who are reading this and thinking I could never do it, YES YOU CAN! I was the same way! It was really easy and I am here for you if you need advise or encouragement. Together we can all live a happier, healthier life!!

Daddy surprises the kids!

Sean has been training at the lovely desert resort of 29 Palms, CA for the past three weeks.  Training wrapped up a day early but I didn't tell the kids because well, things can change.  And although as a Marine Spouse I'm very Semper Gumby, kids do not have the ability to understand "no the plan changed". So after a few trips back and forth to 29 Palms to transport all the Marines Sean was finally able to make it home to surprise the kids. Poor Logan was so confused because he had just gone on and on about only having one link on the paper chain left and how he was excited daddy would be home tomorrow. 

Love having him home!!