Get a hold of yourself!!!

Lately my 3 year old is all about the DRAMA. I'm a lover of the arts and all things theatrical, but this kid is ridiculous! He screams and cries over silly things... he's learned to over dramatize any situation. It's exhausting and quite annoying. I find myself saying things like, "You've got to get a hold of yourself!!"

However, he's also super sweet, silly and painfully lovable.... Praise the Lord for that.

Debt... go away. You are ugly and rude.

So, here's the deal. We have debt. We've climbed some pretty big mountains and conquered a lot of it, but we're still digging our way out.

My hubs and I were talking the other night about acknowledging where we've gone wrong and what mistakes we've made. We took out way too much in student loans, lesson learned. We relied on credit to get us through some rough patches, lesson learned! We're now in a place where we take our debt very seriously and are determined to get out of it. It's preventing us from owning a home and sometimes prevents us from feeling like we can really LIVE and Breath.

We've been blessed with help along the way, we want to honor that help and those blessings by kicking some booty.

Much like when I was battling my weight, I knew that living in an unhealthy way was not what God intended for me. Living in any debt is not what God has intended for me.

It's hard to feel like we've accomplished so much and yet have a long way to go. Please come along side us with your prayers and encouragement and advice!

Sharing my Weight Loss journey.

I made some new friends recently and when they found me on facebook, they found my weight loss pics. (I went from about 230lbs to about 130 before my third child) I'm always asked "HOW?!?!"

My heart aches for those who's shoes I have been in. Overweight, unhappy, uncomfortable in their own skin. (I know not everyone feels that terrible at a heavier weight, but so many do.)

I used to feel really embarrassed and just trapped. Like I was stuck in this body that was weighing me down! (no pun intended)

So, here's the truth. You are loved. Your Heavenly Father created you and ADORES you. He did not intend for you to live an unhealthy life. It is something you CAN change.... must change. Don't waste time, DON'T.

It was eye-opening to me that I got a call from a producer of The Biggest Loser. He had seen my audition tape and wanted me to come to a final audition! I was over the moon excited!... and Horrified that I was big enough to be chosen. The kicker here is that I had just found out that I was pregnant with my first child so I could not participate. Let's fast forward, two kids and a lot of funfetti cupcakes later, I was miserable about my appearance. I had a talk with my dad and he said some things that really "clicked" for me. Here's one of them, "You've got to look at your food intake as a fuel. Your body NEEDS a certain amount of calories, too much and you've flooded the system (or packed on fat), too little and you can not function properly." So simple. I was "flooding my engine" all day every day. No wonder I felt like poo.

I read one day about how terrible pop is for you (we've all heard it a hundred times). Regular pop is full of calories and so much other crap! Diet is horrible for you! Artificial everything, tries to fool your body, it's just bad. B-A-D!! So, stop drinking it. NOW. This was the first change I made. This was my bottom line, I would not drink pop. None. No matter what else I failed on, this was my one "NO WAY". And you know what, it does something to you. You think more about your choices knowing that you're making one great choice.

So, at over 200lbs I began to get serious. I bought a heart monitor (BEST MONEY I HAVE EVER SPENT). I did the math! Calories in, vs Calories out! Do the math people! You will be stunned by the calories you're intaking. I was one of those people who SWORE that I did not sit around eating junk all day! We have fooled ourselves. We're consuming too much of the WRONG food. Portions are not optional, you have to figure them out. (which is not hard, just kind of annoying)

I went on a 1200 calorie diet and went to the gym everyday for awhile. It's so important to establish a HABIT. You don't have to kill yourself at the gym (or doing a workout at home). I said to myself, "Self, you WILL burn 500 calories before you leave this gym!" And I did. In less than an hour. (I got even more efficient and burned about 600 calories in an hour)

Don't waste your gym time, kick some booty. Get in, worked it hard and get out.

I know I have so much more information to give, but I did want to tell you all that it IS possible, It IS necessary. Don't waste any more time. And please let me just say that motivation is so so so over-rated! It's commitment. You go. Don't feel motivated? Too bad, go anyway. That's how this works.

My Best Friend and I, we've been a good support and enco

uragement for each other!

One of my least favorite pics of all time! LOL....

Wanna be SUPER

mom!

A pic from today (April 10th, 2011)

sliding down a dirt hill with my baby girl,

PLAY!

I love to play. I love pretending with my kids, making up fun stories, creating another world. Sometimes it's hard to slow down and just PLAY. Today we played A LOT! We had cousins here and played our hearts out!

We built a fort:

We also did some serious snacking and running, chalk time... on and on. Fun day! And now mine are passed out from all the fun!

Toilet Paper Foul...

I checked on my 3 year old in the bathroom. He was blowing his nose with all his might while sitting on the toilet. I was about to leave and give him a minute to finish his business, when I realized he was going to wipe his little rump with the same tissue that he was using to blow his nose!

"Oh, Yuck! Wait honey! You can't do that."

He says, "Mom... it's toilet paper!"

True.... but no.