27th Birthday

Hello all,

Last week I celebrated my 27th Birthday! It was such a worldwind week. We had a holiday party of some sort ever night of the week. On Tuesday we had F's holiday dinner, Wednesday we had dinner with some of my coworkers, Thursday (my bday!) we had Ryan's Kung Foo 3rd level dinner, and Friday a guy I work with gave me tickets to the Christmas play at his church. I took Grace and Dahlia with me instead of Franco. Dahlia loved all the music and bells.

We didn't really get to celebrate my birthday, but F bought me some beautiful gifts. He got me some burberry perfume and a pair of cosy slippers I wanted. The lady I babysit for got me a small carrot cake and her and her daughter sang me happy birthday.

Thanks to all my friends who remembered my birthday and wished me well. This week I'm going to try to get the house ready for our Christmas party. Hopefully it will be well attended and all will be well.

Franco also put in a winter garden the other day full of cabbage and greens. When we were looking at it this morning we took a picture of our fatty cat Lola chillin up on the fence.

Christmas is not off to a good start

In my family Christmas has many traditions. Too many to sit here and write out and explain. The fall holidays were big in my family no only for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but for all the birthdays in the family we celebrated in the holiday season. I always wanted to bring my traditions with me into my new family. Apparently, things that are important to me are not innately important to my new husband. So today I bought a tree by myself, put it up by myself, and decorated pretty much by myself, after my husband pushed his dinner plate away when he was done and said "alright let's get this thing over with" (referring to the decorating of the tree). That was a moment killer if anything was. When I put the tree up in the afternoon, I only put the lights on it, foolishly thinking my husband would want to share the decorating of it with me, being our first married Christmas together. I am filled with such dissappointment and sadness. It may seem silly to others, but this was really important to me, something I look forward to and enjoy each and every year. I feel like he shit all over it. It ruined the entire experience for me. I wish I would have just done it myself this afternoon.

Thus begins the Christmas holiday season in our home. Well here's a pic anyway.

I passed!!!

Hey all! I am officially a Ph D Candidate! Yeah! It was by far the most stressful anxiety-filled experience in my entire life!....thus far...

I came home after and took the most well deserved nap ever! I woke up a few hours later and got some pizza with my friends to celebrate. Today I'm just taking it easy. I officially changed over my drivers license today, so now I just have to change my passport and i'm all done!

I think I'm going to take buddy for a walk. He seems a little depressed. He hasn't gotten too much attention lately with everything that has been going on.

Hope everyone is well!
Ttyl!

Quals SUCK

The last two weeks I have been taking my written qualifying exams. I found two of them to be hard, and two of them to be LONG. So now I have just my advisor's left and to study for my oral exam which is a FREE FOR ALL! I am so worried about it!

I have some other stressful things on my mind too, all together the stress of life is messing with my sleep, my health and my emotions. I just can't wait for it to be OVER. I hope I don't fail. At this point doing well is a long-shot, I hope I don't fail. If I fail I'm gonna drop out school and get a job and make babies or something!

Grace and John came over last night for some cake and coffee. They brought little dolly with them who took a nice drooly nap while we ate our cake. She's so cute and cuddly. I just love to hug her and smell her hair.

Buddy has been keeping me company through my stressful two weeks. He lays at my feet while I'm on the computer and gives me kisses every morning (kind of gross, but hey he loves me!). F is as supportive of the stess as he can be. I don't think he knows exactly what I am going through, but he tries to be empathetic to my stress and leave me alone when I'm doing work. One more week until this is all over!

Finally Halloween is Over!

Halloween is a fun holiday and all but I'm kind of happy it's over. F and I had 3 different Halloween parties to go to in the last week. We are so sick or being the flight attendant and the pilot! We had fun at all of them though. Nicole and Josh's was fun cause it was in a cool haunted like house and we did ouija board, which was a laugh. Dana's party was fun cause there were so many people with awesome costumes! She had fun food and everyone had a good time, her house is so cute. Tina's party was really fun too, she had karaoke and awesome snackies too. Also very exciting....Tina and here boyfriend Ben got ENGAGED!!!!!!! They told everyone at the party, I was so happy for them I almost cried. They seemed a little shy about it, but I guess I was too when people got excited for me. I never really had the fairytale engagment like most girls dream about. F and I joked around so much about getting married and faking each other out by asking all the time, then one day we just had my ring made from diamonds from my grandmothers, then that was it, we set a date and we were engaged.

The weekend weather was so nice, we took a nice walk with buddylicious on saturday. He got to pee all over the neighborhood, and was pretty happy. I have a cold, but it was so sunny, I pushed through the walk anyway!

So now that halloween is gone, bring on the turkey and candy canes! I'm ready! I've been scoping out lights for the house and thinking about having a nice christmas party this year.

15 more days until my qualifying exam, kind of scary. Hopefully I do well. I'm a little worried myself.

F is on a business trip for the next two three days so i'm all alone :-( It's so weird to sleep in the house by myself knowing he's not going to come home at some point in the night. I let buddy come in and sleep on the rug in our room to make me feel better.

Gypsy and Katie and I went out to collect training samples today for our Remote Sensing Class. I think we underestimated the time committent and day light savings time ending because it was pretty dark when we got done!

I'll post some pictures from the weekend, including gypsy, katie and I breaking into a cow pasture to get and agricultural pixel!

Happy Halloween!

This is our first Halloween as a married couple! How sappy is that? It has been one busy month! This last week and a half I've been taking my qualifying exams which are the most stressful, exhausting and mind challenging thing I've ever gone thru! My head is still above water though!

Today I gave myself a day to just do ME things and not quals things. I had a massage this morning to help get rid of my tension headache, but it's still here. Then I met with one of my advisers at the office. I picked up F from work and we went over to the library and voted early. Whom did I vote for? Won't tell. It's not worth getting into a political discussion over it.

Grace came over today with Dahlia. It's here first Halloween and boy was she cute! I'll post a picture of her in her little bumble be costume.

F and I are going to two halloween parties this weekend. We have our couples costumes which turned out great. I'll post a pic of them too.

Hope all is well with everyone. I'll post later this week!

Full week!

What a crazy week it has been! I've barely had time to do anything since we have returned from our honeymoon!

This week when I was unloading the groceries, I dropped a honeycrisp apple on the tile and buddy scarfed it up and ran to the rug with it before I could even see where it went! Then he couldnt' figure out how to eat it!

I'm beginning to hate my remote sensing class, I can see why people get paid the big buck to do it, IT SUCKS, that's why. Katie and Gypsy keep me going though. Gypsy wasn't feeling well this week, it reminded me it's flu shot time. I'm a supporter of the flu shot for one main reason. Children are vectors for disease! I love children, I may just have some, but they are dirty little vectors waiting to spring the flu on unsuspecting graduate students who are taking their qualifying exams this fall!

Getting back from the wedding was nice. Dana did a great job watching Buddy. He was definitely happy to see us. We got to come home to a room full of presents to open and over 70 thank you cards to write. Me, being the diligent non procrastinator, sat down this week and wrote all of them. F tried to help, but instead he wasted 30 minutes making return address labels on the computer, only to put our wrong address on them. I think he was just dicking around to avoid writing them, cause that's what I would do if I wanted to avoid doing it!

We had a great weekend last weekend, we hung out around the house and woke up early everyday to lattes and walking buddy in the cool foggy mornings. My mom said it snowed today at her house, here in FL, I sweated my toosh off at the bus stop in the blazing sun. I love Florida. We got to use some of our target gift cards to buy some fun odds and ends for the kitchen. I splurged and bought nice cake pans and pie pans. I love baking. I bake when I am stresses, my office loves when I am stressed because I continually bring in baked goods. I tried out one of my Grandma Sally's spice cake recipes, improvised with some raisons, and made my first attempt at my own fluffy icing. I had only ever made icing for sugar cookies our of confectionary sugar and water before. I'll post a pic and the recipe, it was absolutely delicious! I only ate one piece, trying to not have a gut like I just popped out a kid or something. I pawned the diabetic nightmare sweetness off on my labmates and they seemed to enjoy it. I think today I may make a german chocolate cake. I was inspired to in the grocery store. We'll see.

Well this weekend begins the worldwind of halloween parties. We're going as a drunk pilot and a trashy flight atttendent. I'll post pictures of course. We splurged on costumes because we have 3 costume parties to attend, so we figured what the hey.

I played my friend Ryan in tennis monday night, he won....again. But I had 3 games on him! The more weight I lose the faster I can run for his cheap shots he used to beat me!

Hope everyone is getting geared up for the big holiday filled fall! I'm keeping up with my total get fit challenge class so I don't gain weight over the fall holidays! Wish me luck!

CAKE RECIPE *makes 3 layers
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 1/5 cup warm water
3 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp Vanilla
1.5 cups mayo
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
3 tbl molasses

Bake 350 degress for ~30 minutes

ICING RECIPE
3 egg whites
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3+1/6 cup water
3 tsp lite corn syrup
1.5 tsp vanilla

combine all except vanilla in doubel boiler, beat w/mixer ~ 7 minutes until you have stiff peaks. Add vanilla. Frost cake!

Mr. and Mrs. were married and went to Italy!

Hello all!

We finally celebrated our wedding on October 5, 2008. After a year of planning and anticipation it happened. We had a beautiful weekend with all or our friends and families. My mother had a beautiful bridal shower for me on Saturday, followed by a group kayaking trip. Sunday we had our wedding with gorgeous weather, and Monday we left for Rome!

What a worldwind week it has been. Now we are back home with a house full of gifts to open, and a weeks worth or work to catch up on and over 100 thank you notes to write! All worth it.

Ciao!

F Turns 27

Yesterday my husband to be turned 27! I like that he is slightly closer to 30 than I am! Just kidding. We had a nice day. F couldn't take the day off completely because he took two days off because of the accident. I woke up a little earlier than him and made him a vanilla latte and pancakes. The pancakes had whipped cream, sprinkles and candles on them! After breakfast we went to Spa Royale for a couples massage. F had been to a spa like this before so he knew the routine, I however was a little out of place. I get theraputic massages for my neck tension but not at anything close to a spa! We were in the same room and F had a women masseuse and I had a male. It was kind of strange having a strange man rub scented oils and lotions all over my body. I have to laugh because this was one of those spas where you are only allowed to whisper in your spa voices, and no one talked at all during the massage except to ask us how that pressure was. It was so hard for me to lay there 50 minutes without talking!! It was nice though, especially after wednesday night's gym class, I was really sore.

I dropped F off at work and ran some errands before meeting him and his coworkers for lunch. We had sushi which I love, so i'm happy they picked that place. I had a slight confrontation with my friend at the table which made everyone else uncomfortable. I felt so bad for ruining the good mood of the day.

I picked F up at work after my gym class and we headed out for drinks and dinner. We ate our one of our favorite restaurants and ran into a good friend of ours while we were waiting for our table. It was nice to have a quiet dinner with just the two of us. With all the stress of the wedding and the accident and classes, it was so peaceful with just the two of us. F had the best fish and chips i've ever had, and being catholic, i've eaten a lot of fish and chips (Lent). I had my usual pesto ghochi, which was delicious. We met some of our friends at the gelato place for coffe and gelato.

Finally, we had drinks at one of our favorite bars which just expanded and looks great inside. We were swapping stories how we have heard/seen our parents having sex and how weird that was for us. I laughed so hard at some peoples stories.

We were so tired by the end of the night, but what a great birthday F had. His sisters and good friends' birthday is the weekend of the wedding, so we'll have to do something special for them too.

Cheers!

F's Bday Tomorrow

Tomorrow is F's 27th Birthday! Very exciting! I bought him some little treasures so he would have some gifts to open on his bday morning like my mom used to do for me. His real present is a trip to Spa Royale tomorrow for a hour long massage, and dinner later. I hope he has a great Birthday! He doesn't advertise his bday like I do. I would shout it from the rooftop and fly banners announcing my birthday if I could. I like everyone to know it's MY special day. F is a little more subdued, he just likes to have a piece of carrot cake and call it a day.

The car is in the shop until the end of Oct!!! Geesh. Well atleast we'll be gone a week and when we're here we'll have the rental.

Had to share a video of buddy from this morning. When we cleaned out the garage a month ago I found an entire rubbermaid bin of stuffed animals. I took the doggy safte ones and put them in his toy basket. This specific bare seems to be his lovey. He likes to bring it in every room with him and he just lays and gives it kisses. Think he needs a buddy?







Last Saturday we went to the beach on a very windy rainy day. It's about an hour and 20 minutes away from Gville, so it was sunny here when we left! When we arrived however, not so nice. We tried to have a little fun in the wind. The water was warm though! They actually closed the beach right when we arrived. It was our last ride in the Subi before the accident.

The Subaru is in sad shape :-(

Hey all,

Haven't posted in awhile. It was a pretty crappy weekend.

The Seamstress altering my dress for the wedding returned my dress to me Sunday after having it for an entire month!!! She forgot to do one of the things we asked here to do and my dress stank like an ashtray! I was so upset I was crying. So unproffessional of this women to keep my dress in an area where she smokes. So I spoke with her and she offered to pay to have the dress cleaned at the dry cleaners. So my dress is at the cleaners being cleaned and pressed for the big day. I hope it comes out okay. I hope there is no problem with the beading. God don't I sound like a Bridezilla.

The crappier part of the weekend happen just after the dress drama. Tina, F and I got in the car to drive to Michael's craftstore. I was driving the subaru down NW 34th Street, stopped in traffic when WHAM! It sounded like a gunshot! We were hit by a lady driving an expedition and slammed into the truck in front of us. Apparently she hadn't realized traffic in front of her had stopped.

The Subi's not totalled, but it's in sad shape. All people involved were safe, protected by the delicate crumpling of our new car! So now I'm sore as hell and emotionally exhausted! As if the wedding next weekend wasn't distracting enough! As I say to my friend Kerry "It could have been worse...." She knows the rest. LOL

Bye!

Martha Stuart Is Good At Everything!

Yesterday F and I were in the kitchen cooking and I was cutting the flowers he bought. I was pretending to be martha stuart, talking about the flowers and how to but them, and why red flowers are so in right now, etc... and F says to me, "man martha stuart is good at everything. When she does something, she doesn't do it half ass. I'd probably have sex with martha stuart, I bet she's great at sex too." I laughed so hard I had to share that with you.

I ran some last minute wedding errands today, getting together the attendants gifts and such. The cleaning lady came today and made or home bleachy clean and tidy. Thank god she's coming before the bridal shower. There will be all these people here in the house that I don't know. We don't want aunt so and so shuffling off peeking in corners for dirt now do we!



Grace came over after lunch today with Dahlia. She was strutting her stuff today in here rainbow outfit, ready for another photoshoot. We got a nice picture of her smiling, we almost got her to laugh.

Time is blowing by so fast. F's birthday is next week. I don't want to go crazy like usually, but I think i'll do something special. I picked out some small gifts for him today and hid them. He'll be 27 next week! 2 more weeks until our big wedding day! I'm getting really excited! Charlotte comes to fit my dress for the last time on Sunday. I'm still doing the Total Get Fit Challenge! We've had two classes, so far not too bad. I was a little sore after wednesday night's class so yesterday I just walked the dog a mile and ran a mile.

Have a great Friday!

Beautiful "Fall" Day

We are now are approaching some of the best months in Florida. Fall and winter in Florida are so pleasant. The humidity starts to let off a little, but it is still beautiful and sunny. As you can see from the picture, our backyard is a jungle! Looks like someone needs to get the mower out!

If you have relatives or friends in Florida, DON'T visit in the summer. Come in fall or spring. We're getting really excited for all of our friends and family who are coming soon for the wedding. I hope we have beautiful sunny weather for you all!

Total Get Fit Challenge Begins...

Hello all,

I survived the hangover, Monday came and went. Today was busy. I met my friend Kim for coffee on campus this morning and chatted about the party Saturday. We were laughing at how crazy everyone was. F picked me up after class and I halled ass to the gym to make it to my new class on time.

I used to train with the worlds most supportive and peppy trainer. From the outside she looks like a peppy cheerleader type that I woudnt' like (see photo), but when I started training with her in January, I instantly fell in love with here electric personality. I began to look forward to letting her whip my butt into shape twice a week. Sadly, she had to go back to school fulltime and doesn't train one on one anymore. I thought about getting another trainer, but I diddn't want to have to get to know someone all over again, and build another relationship with a new trainer. It just wouldn't be the same. So now she teaches a group training class called the "Total Get Fit Challenge!" Very exciting title. Today was "test" day. We were all measured and weighed and then assesses on several fitness tests, like the number of pushups you can do in one minute, how fast you can run 1/4 mile, number of squat jumps in a minute etc. The idea is they kick your butt for 6 weeks, then you test and do all your measurments again. I have to miss 5 classes for the wedding/honeymoon but I thought it would be worth it. I'll have to keep you posted. I have a friend in the class too, so it's nice to see a familiar face. I was surprised though how freindly everyone was. It's all an women class, with two women trainers. There is about 15-20 people with ladies from all fitness levels. We'll see how it goes.

After the class I made dinner and played an hour of tennis with Ryan. I actually almost kicked his ass! Unfortunately, they shut the lights off before we finished our game :-( Let me tell you one thing though, the most comfortable tennis clothes i've ever played in (having played for 9 years) are these running skirts:

I got mine from http://www.runningskirts.com/
I don't know if they sell these exact ones in stores, but they are awesome. I run in it, play tennis it, wear it to the grocerie store on Sundays, etc. They're a bit pricey for grad student funding, but well worth the money!!!! I got mine onsale for $35 I think. Obviously the above pic is not of my legs or I wouldn't have to do the Total Get Fit Challenge! LOL

3 weeks until the wedding! Lots of stuff to do!

The Bachelorette Party

Last night the girls gave me a bachelorette party complete with fun games, food, and a night out at the club. I wore a pink boa, pink tiara, giant plastic light up diamond ring, a necklace with fine penises hung on it. My friends Tina and Kim did a really job with the party. Everyone had a great time and everyone got home safely thanks to Tina and Kim's excellent DD skills. Some of my friends from class came out to meet us at the bar which was really fun as well. I think everyone pole danced and did shots. What a fun night. Three more weeks until the wedding!

Today i'm a somewhat hung over. F and I went to the city pool with some friends. I just wanted to curl up and die on the beach chair, but I was a good sport. F and I went to Hobby Town USA and I found these really cute activity books for the kids at the wedding. I thought it would be a neat idea to keep them occupied and also a special gift for them. Now i'm home uploading the fun pictures and picking up thing. I may make it to the gym, but it's not looking very likely right now!

Enjoy some PG rated pics!

Buddy and Lola Go To The Vet Today

Hey Guys,

Today Lola and Buddy went to the vet for their yearly shots and exams :-( Buddy was excited to go anywhere in the car, but Lola was less than thrilled. Since Lola doesn't leave the house our property except to go to the vet, I think he knew what he was in for. Buddy happily went in the car though.

We all drove F to campus, Buddy got to look at all the half naked college girls out the window. He seemed to enjoy it. To the vet we went. There was this cute dog in the waiting room that had been attacked, buddy was so gentle and sweet to it. Buddy's continued enthusiam ended when they stuck the fecal exam thingy up his rear. His eyes widened and he was no longer excited lol. They even took blood and gave him a "red badge of courage" they called it. Really it was red gauze they taped to his leg. The vet held him down to give him his shots and ear/eye exam and he peed on her. I felt so bad, because he does that when he is upset or scared :-(

Lola went throught all the same but with much less drama. I think Lola enjoyed all the pets he got from the vet tech. Lola doesn't get too much human attention around the house these days.

I'm off to sushi. I know what you're saying, I ate sushi yesterday. But it's so good! Today I am going to meet my friend Ryan and his girlfriend Emily at the restaurant. I haven't seen either of them in awhile so it'll be nice to do some catching up.

We stopped at Christian's "shack" last night after we ate at tijuana flats to say hi. He was telling us more about cameras and which sites are good to buy from and what accesories you need and which ones you don't. He seems really into cameras, which is cool because i'm an uneducated consumer when it comes to these things. I'll have to save up after the wedding and maybe buy a used or refurbished one to learn with.

Here are some the sites he recommends for buying camera stuff online:
Copied from his helpful email to me
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
http://www.beachcamera.com/
http://www.newegg.com/

I've heard that Adorama is good. That's where I'm buying my D200.

http://www.adorama.com/

Here are some pics of Buddy post vet today, he's tuckered out.
Have a great day!

Sushi and a Little Tudors Discussion

Today was a crazy sort of day. I stayed up until 4am doing my Remote Sensing lab report, which turns out is bit of a stretch to answer questions without the textbook! I ordered the textbook on half.com on August 13th, by September 4th it hadn't arrived and I did not get back any answers to my emails from the seller, so needless to say his seller feedback score will be complete shit when i'm done with him, and I have no textbook.

I was smart enough to set the timer on the bread machine so we had warm fresh bread at 8am, a short 4 hours after I went to bed. I'm 26, i'm not old, but i'm too old to be staying up late and trying to function the next day. I had F drop me off on campus where I met with my prof. about some questions I had about the lab and the course in general. This women is about the most freshminded (if that's a word) women I have ever met in academia. She got married in grad school, had a baby on her postdoc, got tenure in 2 years and just had another baby. She's happy, AND succesful. She's kind of an inspiration to me. You find so many MEN prof's around our dept. and academia in general that will tell you, if you want a family you must not want to be successful too. Sad I know. I think with the right attitude, commitment, and support from your family, you can have both. I think F and I will make good parents someday, AND I think I will turn out just fine as a prof also.

Lab was fine today also. I sat next to my bud Gypsy. She is like a female Indiana Jones (maybe a little less dramtic). I get so flustered when she gets ahead of me in lab, not because i'm competitive, well I am but not in this case, but when she gets ahead of me I keep asking her what step is next instead of just reading the lab manual. I was actually whining today because I couldn't figure out this one step, and poor Gypsy was like "just follow the lab book, you'll figure it out." She'll make a good parent too someday, she is so friendly and calm.

I had Lunch/Dinner aka "Linner" at my fav sushi place with my pal Kim today. She and my friend Tina are throwing me a bachelorette party this weekend. I'm kind of excited and scared of what will come! lol. I'm sure we'll all have a good time. There are no drama queens, so we'll just get saucy and wear necklaces and such with genitalia on them I'm sure. :-) I'll post pics later probably!

One other note, last night I watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" with Scarlett Johansson (so hot) and Natalie Portland (also not bad). I also follow the show "Tudors" on showtime which, both of these are tales of the same time period and people. They both follow the story of King Henry 8 and Ann Boleyn and the separtation of England from the Catholic Church etc... I thought it was amazing that "The Other Boleyn Girl" covered in 2 hours what Tudors covered in 20 episodes! Well amazing, and yet kind of sad, because having watched the Tudors first, I wasn't impressed with "The Other Boleyn Girl." Anybody else feel this way? I also like Johnathan Rhys Meyers much better as king than Eric Bana. Both Ann's I think are brilliant. Both F and I loved Sam Neil in the first season as well! I don't know how I'm feeling about Season III of the Tudors, we'll see.

@ the Bucks with Dahlia

Hey all,

My friend Grace and I met up at the bucks for some coffee tonite. She had a baby in June this past summer. I probably see her once a week and each time she has grown! It makes my day to just hold her and smell her delicious baby smell. She's one of the more beautiful babies I've seen in awhile. I'm so lucky Grace lets me be a baby hog and hold here so much! Careful ladies, if you are in the "biological clock" stage of your life, be careful how much time you spend around your friends adorable cute loveable babies! It will make you want to have one! lol.

I had my camera at bucks taking some snaps of cuty pie Dahlia and this nice guy starting giving us camera tips about what cameras are good for non-blurry photos in natural light. I have an olympus stylus 730 all weather 7mp camera, well it's F's camera, anyway.....and for an expensive camera it sometimes does not deliver. Take for example tonite. If I take pictures of people with the flash it washes our their faces and shows every shiny spot we all have. If I don't use the flash, if the person in the photo bats and eyelash the camera is blurry. I may be in grad school, but I'm no camera expert. So, this nice young guy tells us about his digital slr camera, the Nikon D40. My friend Christian who knows EVERYTHING, no sarcasm here, the guy is a walking wikipedia, told me about the same camera. Big SLR bang for your buck. So perhaps after the wedding I can save up for one.

That's about it! Check out some pictures of adorable dolly.

Perking Up

Was having a bad day this morning. I went running after I dropped F off at the bus stop and I think perhaps I should have waited until later in the day. About 1.5 miles into my run, I started to feel sick and had to quit early. I hate when this happens. It's not likely I'll have the time or energy later to work out again later today. With only 3.5 weeks until the wedding, I need to really buckle down on my weightloss. Below are some pictures of me in October of last year (2007) and in July of this year (2008).
I've been doing really well watching my calorie intake and keeping it at or below 1800 a day. I could however lower my fat intake. Since January I have lost 22 lbs and successfully kept it off. Some people may say well that's only 3/4 of a pound a week. But, the difference is for the first time in a long time, I've lost the weight, kept it off, and have a healthier lifestyle. I'm not on a diet. I just changed my eating and activity habits. I worked with a great trainer at my gym from January until August, but alas she had to go back to school fulltime and I'm on my own again. I am signing up for a class at the gym that is supposed to be "boot camp like" where it's running and pushups and things of that sort. So hopefully that will keep me motivated and keep challenging me to work harder.

I wish I could just lose one more size before the wedding. There are so many nice outfits I would love to take on my honyemoon with me that stare me in the face when I open my closet.

Hope you all have a great day!