Party at the "Mansion"

Courtesy of my wonderful hair stylist I am a platinum blonde again. It was a little shocking when I first looked at it but I defintely love the look. Only one thing is missing from the look: a nice dark tan! I refuse to go to the tanning bed though. Whatever tan I get, will be from natural sunlight. As happy as I am with being blonde, I cannot wait to color it a honey/caramel color for my wedding, unless I change my mind by then. *449 days til our wedding*

Monday we went to Jed's for dinner with Travis & Wendy before we headed over to the Lucas Co. Arena for Monday Night RAW. We ended up with the shittiest seats (my fault-since I ordered the tickets) Luckily for us, my brother Dylan and his father were there (they had great seats by the way) and the ones right next to them just happened to be empty. After we moved to their section we had a great time. John Cena was amazing and we got to see Randy Orton in the last 5 minutes. I would have been so disappointed if I wouldn't have gotten to see him. He didn't wrestled, just stood there-but oddly enough, that was good enough for me! Got to see Bret Hart in real life which is pretty amazing. He is a legend in the wrestling world. It was definitely a great experience I got to share with my little bro & Steve.

This week has gone by so slow, but I am so grateful that it is finally Friday. Steve and I spent all last night cleaning up the garage to set up for the garage sale, we didn't get in the house til after Midnight. By that time I was so physically exhausted, but my mind wouldn't shut down! I didn't fall asleep til around 1:15am! Then I got up this morning at 6am to go to our rental to clean up the bathtub and take pictures! I've had a very stressful last 24 hours but now that everything seem to be running smoothly I feel like a lot of stress has been lifted from me. I've still got a lot of work ahead before vacation starts, I have clothes that need to be priced and put out in the garage sale (which I'll have to take care of during my lunch break) Tomorrow, Reyna, Ish and I are running the garage sale all day, I am hoping that its not hot! After that Steve and I are having a cookout Saturday evening with some friends, definitely looking forward to chillaxin' with my peeps. (Title courtesy of Bill who commented to Steve that he lives in a mansion...which I thought was funny because its not really a mansion at all!) Cant wait to have some laughs, a few drinks & play some cards. I know I will be exhausted by Sunday, therefore, I am definitely looking forward to doing nothing on my vacation in the Poconos. I am really happy to get out of work for a week, its been a stressful week and I cant imagine a more perfect time to get away from it all. *Good things happen to good people*

Moving along...on to happier thoughts.

Only in times like this do I stop to realize how busy I am, I sure have a lot on my plate and as soon as one thing drops off the list, something else gets thrown up there;
1) Losing weight & walking at least 1 mile everyday
2) Getting ready for our garage sale at the end of the month
3) Getting ready for our vacation, also at the end of the month
4) Preparing for our wedding (Yes, I know its next year, but I still need to plan for it now)
5) Getting the rental ready for our tenants
Whew, thats a lot to be worrying about all at once...That doesn't even include my daily routine, work, taking care of Ish, and keeping the house cleaned up. Its not easy, sometimes I neglect the house work the most. Then when Steve goes to NJ, I go into cleaning mode. Definitely the most difficult task on my list is #1. Im only going to say one thing about my current weight loss, I hate food. I haven't been very smart lately and I beat myself up over it all day long plus since its been raining the last two days, I haven't walked at all. Of course, the countdown to getting stuff ready for the garage sales gets shorter and shorter everyday and we still have not prepared at all-I hate putting things off til the last minute. I'm nervous about going on vacation for a whole week with Lil Ish, going on vacation when he was 3 weeks old was much easier because he mostly ate, slept and pooped. Now hes more attentive and I'm afraid I wont pack accordingly to keep his mind & body occupied. On the other hand, I am so psyched to get away from work for a week. There's nothing better than taking a mental leave of absensce to clear my mind. The only down fall to this vacation is that I wish we were going some place with warmer temps and bright sunshine all day long! At the same time, since we are with Ish I am thankful that we are going some place that Steve is familiar with. The last item on my list is probably the one I have to physically worry about the least (and it makes me feel like shit that I'm not more involved). I'm in on this project together with my fiance but I'm always so busy with housework & Ish that I've barely been there to help get our rental property ready.
Saturday I went with K♦Stina to David's Bridal to watch her try on dresses and I am soo happy she found her "perfect" dress. Watching her try on dresses makes me so excited for my turn to be next. I love getting dressed up and pretty so I'm sure I'll have way to much fun with it. Sorry Stina but we'll probably be there for a couple hours trying on dresses when its my turn, but I'm sure you already knew that. I did get to try on the bridesmaid dress for K♦Stina's wedding too. Im so excited to wear my canary yellow dress for Stina's wedding...definitely will need a bit of a tan before October rolls around!! Hopefully I can get my butt in gear so I dont gain weight before her wedding! I got the dress a size smaller than I normally would because -A) it fit me perfectly & -B) I intend to lose at least 15 more lbs before her wedding!! I can only get the dress altered 2 sizes smaller so I cannot lose too much more weight than 20lbs! Anyways, I go pick up the dress in 6 weeks & I really hope I can resist trying it on a million times before October 2nd.
Also on Saturday, Ish officially started to drink out of his sippy cup. It was amazing watching him suck his formula down from a cup. He has been using the sippy cup everyday since and he seems to not even notice a different. I just looked at the calendar and realized that tomorrow Ish will be 8 months old. I almost don't want to believe it, he's growing so fast! Before I know it I'll be planning his 1st birthday party, even though it seems like just yesterday I was having my baby shower! Life as a parent sure does make time fly by...I'm just trying to keep up with it all.

We live for tomorrow.

::5/12/10::

Why do vacations cause me to eat stupidly? I was doing so perfect on my diet until we went on our "Weekend Getaway". The first night, we ate at a China Buffet (mistake #1) then the next morning we went to a very nice diner for breakfast-- I was pretty smart and just split a plate of food with Steve, but their food was sooo good we went there again the next morning & I ate a plate full of food all to myself (mistake #2) and for dinner we went to a Steakhouse, I couldn't resist the 8 oz prime rib (mistake #3) or the sour cream dolloped on top of my butter filled baked potato!(mistake #4) Needless to say, I gained 4lbs on my lovely vacation. Oh well, I guess I need experiences like these to help me learn from my mistake for the future. We have another WEEK LONG vacation coming up at the end of May and I am determined to be smarter this time around. Of course I'm not depriving myself of all the good foods but I have to remember to have everything I want "in moderation".

We took Ish to the Columbus Zoo while on our "Getaway". I was a lot of fun, Steve and I had never been there before either so we enjoyed doing something new together-as a family :) The monkey exhibit was probably the most fun part of the entire experience. Then Steve & Ish took me out to Red Lobster for my 1st Mother's Day. I love my guys so much. And on our way home Sunday evening, Steve gave me a beautiful Mother's Day card, which I wasn't expecting at all. He never ceases to amaze me. I am so thankful to have found my true soulmate in life. He is everything I've ever dreamed of--funny, handsome, spontaneous, caring-you name it, hes got it. It makes me happy to know that Ish has a great role model father to look up to. Not a lot of people can say they have that.

I am hoping to go through all our stuff in our basement & garage so that we can have a Garage Sale at the end of this month. It will take a lot of time just to go through everything and figure out prices. We've decided that all the money raised is going in Ish's college savings account. Hopefully people will want all the stuff we dont. We'll see, it might be fun. All I know is I need room for my new treadmill in the basement (Yea, the treadmill I don't even have yet...but ONE DAY I WILL!)

::5/13/10::

Speaking of weight loss equipment, I've lost the 4lbs that I gained on vacation. I weighed in this morning and it felt so good to see those pounds gone. Now the goal is to keep them off and to keep shedding the weight. I dont want to jinx it but everything in my life seems to be heading in the right direction...and it feels great :)

My Biggest Weakness

After cooking dinner with Steve a couple nights ago, I have discovered my biggest food weakness has got to be pizza. After researching to see how many Weight Watchers points I would be consuming by eating 2 slices of pizza, I now know that I have to avoid pizza a little more. Not that I eat pizza a lot, its just that when we do have pizza I could eat 5 or 6 slices at a time. But not anymore. I've never felt this good about changing my life before, for once I feel like nothing can stop me. I've been walkng 1 mile everyday for over a week and I really love it. Ish loves it too, he enjoys our little stroll around town. Since I started counting my Weight Watchers Points I've seen amazing results--but I know not to get too excited, the first 10 lbs are the easiest. I also feel like a million bucks though. I've been down this same road before when I did Weight Watchers but I now know how to handle my strugggles. It also helps that I have a partner (♥Steve♥) helping me along the way. It would be very hard to stay focused & positive without him.
I cannot believe its May already. April flew by and I expect the same in May. We are super busy this month and I am probably going to go crazy by the end of the month, which is perfect because thats when my vacation begins :) I cannot wait. I'm sure that week will probably go by the fastest of all the others though.
Ish is growing so fast these days. Everyday I work on getting him to talk...not quite sure when babies say their first words but I would like to hear something. He blabbers a lot these days but still no real words. I would also like to see him wave goodbye-which my mom & I have been trying to get him to do for over a month now. I'm sure he'll get it at his own pace. Life is good, work is a little stressful, but I like a good challenge and it definitely makes going home something to look forward to! I think I've even got a new motto::
♥Lifes been good to me so far♥