My loves

I have been feeling very reflective in the past few days. I was thinking about all the wonderful people I have in my life and how blessed I am to have them. My life is filled with people who care about me and who I adore. My mom and brother who live so far away, but are still so close, all of my in laws, my nieces, my amazing husband, my closest friend Alyssa who I could not live without, my dear Becca who is going to give me another little surrogate niece of nephew, and even the people I work with. What would I do without you all? Thank you for loving me and supporting me!

My sister in law just had her second child, which means I am an aunt again. I am absolutely in love with these precious girls. Cara is now about a year and a half and Kiley is about two weeks.


Cara said "Hi Choley!" yesterday on the phone. Cassy (my sister in law) calls me Nicholey (pronouncing the ch). I about died. She has said "Hi Pete!" to Peter on the phone a couple of times and I have been so incredibly jealous.

Cara is such a good big sister! She kisses Kiley and rubs her gently. She likes to tell us about her baby when we talk on the phone!

What would I do without this man? He is the silliest, funniest, most caring and loving person in the entire world. He tells me everyday that he loves me and shows me how much he cares. He is my best friend and the love of my life....Okay, enough of the sappy stuff.


And while he is not a person, I truly do love this fluff. Goose...yes Goose...don't judge...is so precious. Peter says I am turning into the crazy cat lady. I can't help it. You would too if you met this guy. Goose decided to make our tray into his own personal lounging spot. He so runs this house!

Down 10!!!

Well...The Biggest Loser Fairmount Park Edition (round 1) has come to an end. Tuesday was the final weigh in. Needless to say, I did not win, nor did I place in the top five. Oh, well, it was never about the money for me anyhow. Here are my final stats: On Tuesday I weighed 186.8 lbs. That is a total of 10.4 pounds lost!!!! That is not as much as I would have liked to lose, but it is not bad. I feel so much better and I have so much more energy. When school resumes after spring break, we will be starting a new Biggest Loser. I am really excited about this one because I am sure that I stand a chance. The people who did really well this time may not participate and if they do, they have already lost a lot of their weight. This is at least what I tell myself. Yesterday was my first day in the gym for the past three weeks or so. That is really pathetic. My goal is to work out in some form every single day without fail. I still have about 40 lbs that I would like to lose. That would be ideal!
My brother and his girlfriend Kara were in town last week. It was great to have them here! They got to enjoy some of the Florida sun. We went in search for "rubbish" at some very "upscale" garage sales around the area. Pete bought an inflatable canoe fully equipped with ores and life jackets. It was a bit pricey at 10 bucks, but we enjoyed the experience. When I say experience, I mean blowing it up in our living room, only to find out that it leaks and we have no idea where from. So, we are up a creek with a leaky canoe! I will post some pictures when I get them! We also enjoyed some time at the beach. It was absolutely wonderful to sit an enjoy some sun. I enjoyed a bit too much sun. I got extremely burnt on my shoulders and legs. It was incredibly painful to walk for about three days. Now I am peeling and itching like crazy! That's what I get for being stupid enough to sit outside for 4 hours with no sunscreen.
Today, I am enjoying my time off and anxiously awaiting the birth of my second niece Kiley! We love you Cass! Good luck!

Back on track

Last week was one filled with tissues, Nyquil, doctors visits, chills, and a cough that very well could have blown my lungs right out of the rib cage. Needless to say, this is the reason for the lack of post last week. I did, however weigh in and I am sad to report that last Monday I was up another .2 lbs. If I can say that .2 lbs is an actual loss, I too must report it as a gain. However, without any real exercise to speak of, I am back down this week. I am down a total of 3 lbs. since last week. That makes me 188.2!!! That is officially the lowest I have been since starting this adventure. I am hoping that with some trips to the gym, I can lose even more this week. I must say, however, that even though I have been doing well, there is absolutely NO WAY that I am going to win the competition at school. One of the P.E. coaches just seems to lose more and more each week. I say that as if I am even a close second which really couldn't be further from the truth. But, I keep telling myself that it is not about the money.
On a side note, Peter and I went our for a night on the town on Friday. I finally felt comfortable enough to wear my leggins. Sexy I know! ;) I thought that this was a more interesting picture to post rather than the same old one of me in my workout clothes after my Monday workout (which I did do this week, by the way!)
Glad to be back on track!

I don't want to talk about it...

Booo....This was a BAD week. It started off with stress and lots of it. I headed a committee that put on a family literacy night. All the hard work culminated on Tuesday with over 100 pizzas and 20 or so packages of cookies. What a night that was. It was very chaotic, but seemed to go well. There were over 600 people RSVP'd for the event. However, only about half that showed up. We had planned for the 600 and therefore we had way to many pizzas and cookies. That meant plenty of both for me to eat for days to come. Also Tuesday just happened to be the birthday table at school for all those with February birthdays. That means cake in the lounge to tempt teachers during lunch. Needless to say that I did not resist the temptation. Things only went downhill from there. Because of Literacy Night, I did not go to the gym on Tuesday, which lead right into being lazy for the remainder of the week. Finally Belinda and I had enough. We decided to get our butts into high gear. We worked out harder than ever before on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yes, all three days we were in that gym. However, that was just not enough to reverse my prior slip-ups. As I stepped on the scale this morning, I knew it would not be good. I am up 2 pounds. I am back over 190...yuck!!! I will not post a picture out of protest. I am NOT going backwards. I will be skinny!
Moving on...
On Saturday I had a wonderful girly day. Belinda and I went to the gym as per our usual Saturday routine. We worked so hard and pushed ourselves beyond what we even thought possible. We had these two ladies on either side of us that put their machines on a higher resistance than us, so being the competative chicks that we are, we uped our resistance and kept going at the same speed. We nearly died! After some weight lifting...grrrrrr...we got our teas at Starbucks. We then went and got our nails done. Followed by some shopping. What a wonderful day! It was exactly what I needed to relax and get back on track!
Okay...here goes another week! wish me luck!

Under 190

Hurray!!! I did it! I am finally under 190 lbs. I weighed in at 189 exactly. That is another 2.4 lbs and 1.25% of weight loss for the week. I thought I was doomed after the "kid shower" at work. Luckily, one day of crap did not ruin the entire week. So tell me what you think...do I look thinner? ;-) Maybe one day people other than me will be able to notice the difference. Here's to hopin'!

I'm A Loser!

After many long hours in the gym and starving myself half to death, I have finally lost some weight!!! Ok, in all seriousness...no starvation and only a few hours in the gym. I was so discouraged by the tiny losses the past two weeks, I decided to really put my mind to dropping some weight. I was working out as much as possible and eating as well as I could. I think I may have neglected my husband with as much time as I was at the gym. Is it a problem to come home at 8:45 after a 6:00 workout??? I did fall off the healthy eating wagon once this week. Thursday meetings are terrible. We have a wonderful teacher on our team who loves to bring in goodies for us each Thursday for our team meetings. I used to look forward to the meetings for that very reason. However, now I dread them. I have such a hard time resisting the temptation if it is sitting right in front of me staring me down. Yes...the food was staring at me...begging...pleading...eat me!!! How could I refuse? Five or six bite size candy bars and two handfuls of chips later, I finally stopped! Whew!! It could have been worse I guess.
Ok...here we go...
I am now 191.4 lbs. I lost 2.4 lbs this week for a total percentage of weight loss of 1.24%. Not as much as what I was going for, but good progress. I feel much better. I am even starting to fit some clothes that were a bit tight before. EXCITING!!

Here is me after the Monday workout. Like my new workout pants?


I am wearing a skirt that was very tight before. I can finally breathe in it! Hurray! Skinny clothes, here I come!



For Valentine's Day, the family went up to Disney! This would have normally been a time to splurge and eat everything that I could because it was there and I wanted it. I had a huge breakthrough. I went to Disney and did not stop at every snack stand to get myself "just a little something." I ate a very small lunch (which I split with Peter) and NOTHING else! Yay me! Enjoy some pictures of us "goofing" around.
Me in Paris. Bonjor!


Ummm...is it a problem that I am literally dancing my way through the streets of France?


Happy Valentine's Day!!



Waiting outside the Turkey Leg stand at 10:45 am. They do not open until 11:00 and one member of the family needed to be the first in line. No, it was not me or Peter! ;-)

Last week I thought that I had hit the bare minimum of weight loss that a person could hit in one week and still say that they did in fact lose weight. Well...so much for that thought. My goal of 5 pounds last week went right out the window. Drum roll please...I lost .2 pounds. That is absolutely ridiculous. I am now 193.8 lbs. I was really hoping that the number would be better. I tried to do all the right things. Belinda and I joined a gym. We are now official and no longer have to sneak in to take a class. We went Saturday for our, now traditional, workout and tea at Starbucks. Belinda was a fabulous trainer and I am still sore from that work out. We really pushed ourselves! Yeah us!!
I think that what did me in this week, was not watching closely enough what I ate. That is the goal for this week. I have a good workout routine going so now I will focus on eating better. The hard part is that I didn't think I was eating all that terrible in the first place. Oh well...This week, once again, is a new week.
New goal 4 lbs. I still really am working on being less than 190.
Wish me luck!


Ok, be honest. Does it look like I am losing any weight? I have had mixed reviews on that. I feel better so I guess that is something.