Warm Hearts Happy Family

Happy anniversary love.  I can’t believe it has been 6 years since our wedding.  2 kids and 50 pounds later, I love you more than I did then.  You are still my best friend and my most favorite person.

Big fat smooches.

Here is to less irritation with each other, and more appreciation. Can’t wait to see what this next year brings.

Here is a photo montage starting with us in 1999, and ending this past weekend.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

And not just a better mom but a better wife, a better employee, and a better member of society.

I am feeling fantastic because slowly…very slowly…I am recognizing the person in the mirror. I am seeing my old face. I am feeling energy instead of exhaustion. And I am feeling skinny(er).

Jillian Michaels and her 30 Day Shred really gave my battery a jump–gave me the motivation to claim my health and body back. I am now on my fifth week of Weight Watchers and am down another 15 pounds! Go me!

I turn 30…in one month. And damn-it I want to be a MILF. I want to feel hip and cool, pretty and successful. I want to have it all and my thick layers of fat were keeping me from the person I want to be.

Like it or not when you are fat, you are discounted in society. You are invisible. And you are not taken seriously. When I hit 220 pounds I experienced this for the first time.

I find it extraordinarily interesting they way people interact differently with me during the different stages of my weight. Weight shouldn’t matter but it does. Your weight–right or wrong–says something about you (accurate or not). I am done feeling fat and inadequate.
I am ready to feel young, empowered, and in control!

My house is a much happier place when I am in control. A much more tranquil and doused-in-love place when I feel good. My family has filled me up with love so strong I practically have joy seeping from my pores and sunshine beaming from my ass. It’s good stuff.

So taking control of my weight and my happiness is the least I can do for them.
I still have a long way to go—as in 50 more pounds to go—but I started. And starting can be the hardest part.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Today was my biscuit’s first official day of preschool.  I had prepped him for a week about how I would be dropping him off and how much fun he was surely going to have.  Thankfully, drop off was a happy exciting event. 

Here he is sweet as hell and ready to learn:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole way home Sissy was confused that brother was not with us. The way she was so concerned that B was absent from the car was heart warming; and also matched what I was feeling perfectly. The car was oddly quiet and I was a little sad.

But then we got home, and sissy realized she had free reign over ALL of they toys. Her concern was long forgotten!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had some serious one on one time which felt fantastic:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we waited…and took the waiting outside because it was such a beautiful day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sissy was pumped when I said “time to go!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally followed by more waiting in the parking lot, because mom was too damn excited and we left way too early.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we went in to pick brother up, he came jumping out of the room telling me how much fun he had. “I had so much lot of fun mom!”

I love my life, and I thank God for my children. They are such pure sweetness and everything that gives my life meaning.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

My phone conversation with my husband yesterday:

Tim:  Even though our kids may not always listen, the one thing they do have is great manners. 

Me:  Yes they do…(cut off as usual by him)

Tim:  They say please and thank-you so well and they mean it.  They are such sweet kids. 

Me:  I know, they are the sweetest…(cut off.  again.)

Tim:  I don’t know where they get it from either.  Its like they were just born to have manners, its so weird.

Me:  *I actually moved the phone away from my ear and just stared at it.  Silent and blinking.  To make sure I processed what I had just heard correctly*

Tim:  Hello?

Me:  They just magically learned their manners?

Tim:  Well you know what I mean.

Me:  Actually Timmy, I worked really hard to teach our kids to be polite.  And I have been pretty succesful despite who their outrageously annoying fun-loving father is.

Tim:  Huh.  OK, gotta go.

Click.

PS Babe:  When I remind you to say please and thank-you–and heaven help us–excuse-me when the appropriate time calls, it isn’t to be a beastly nag.  It is because kids do as their parents do.  So with a little nagging nudging by me you have actually taught our babies their manners too! 

Crazy concept I know.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

One of the most inspirational books I have read is The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (co-authored with Jeffery Zaslow).  Randy lived his life with passion and courage and most importantly with dreams.  He realized almost all of his childhood dreams against all the odds most people face. 

One of the things that resonated loudly with me was one of his mantras:  “The brick walls are there for a reason.  They’re not there to keep us out.  The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something”.  These words embedded themselves into my core and refused to be ignored.

I want my children to grow up surrounded by optimism, surrounded by success and passion.  I lost my dreams somewhere between swinging on the playground and figuring out how to make all of the bill payments on time.  But I am claiming them back–my life is mine to determine and I owe it to my childhood-self to do the things she knew I would be best at.  The things that would make me happy.

Kids are funny that way.  They know their talents right away–they know what they want to be right away.  But too often kids face stresses and obstacles that erode the once glossy dream into a distant memory.  I will do everything in my power not to let this happen to my children.  I am hear to nurture and foster every dream they have–who am I to say if their dreams are realistic or weather or not they can achieve them.  They will face that enough in their lives and my hope is my voice will be loud enough, influencing enough, to resonate in their heads when they themselves are feeling self-doubt. 

Kids are sponges and in a lot of cases emulate the life they have at home.  So my gift to them–to prove they can make whatever life they want–is to believe in myself.  To chase after my dreams and to accomplish my definition of success.

***Important note*** I think it is prudent to mention one of the things I have been blessed with is common sense. So you will never see me screaming into a camera at the judges of American Idol if my child is clearly and devastatingly devoid of any artistic talent.  Nurturing does not equal lying to your children but that is just me. 

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!