In the beginning...

Today is my 38th Birthday! I was born on February 24, 1973. My dad was 19 and my mom had been 17 for just a couple of weeks when I was born. My parents could totally have been on an episode of Teen Mom, for sure! But I guess I turned out ok, huh?

I thought I would do a little reminiscing of my first years. Don't laugh - the outfits were totally in style at the time, I know it, where else would I get my keen fashion sense if not from the very beginning?

This is me on my first Birthday!

A couple of months old with my mom.

My second Birthday; my mom always made us the best cakes, it's where I got my mad cake decorating skills.

My 3rd Birthday, man I loved Barbies!

Had to post this one, cause it's one of my mom's favorite pics, probably because I look so sweet and innocent!

So Happy Birthday to me! I love my Birthday! My mom already brought me an early Birthday present (so I could have a cute outfit to wear to work today). I will walk into work with some sort of crazy array of office decorations by my awesome co-workers and will receive many Birthday wishes throughout the day. I will likely be having dinner with my family and have a nice evening. It sounds like the perfect way to spend you Birthday, I mean when you have to work and have a billion other things going on. Maybe someday, I will spend my Birthday on a tropical island somewhere, but then I might be lonely or maybe I'll just have the cabana boy tell me Happy Birthday all day long to keep me from being lonely, hmmm...something to think about!

It's getting closer...

I can't believe all of the nervousness that is coming with Rachel's upcoming graduation and college plans. I am so incredibly proud of her and can't believe we are to this point. When I met her, she was 7 years old, and honestly college planning wasn't really on my mind at that point, blending our family was. I am worried that I may miss something; filling out the paperwork, filling out financial aid, schoalarships, etc. What if I make a mistake as the mom? I know people do this everyday, but I'm not gonna lie, I am a little freaked out by all of this!

She has been accepted to Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. That was one of her first choices and she has decided that it is where she wants to go. They have an outstanding History program and seems that it will be a good fit for her since she wants to be a historian or museum curiator. She wanted a smaller school, something far enough from home, but close enough to come home if she wanted for the weekend. She will be 5 hours away, not sure about that yet; somedays it doesn't seem far enough away for me and some days I can't believe I won't be seeing her every day.

We will be going for freshman orientation on April 16 so hopefully we will be learning more and making sure we have done everything we were supposed to do. I am excited for Brian to see the campus since he hasn't been there yet; Rachel and I went for a visit last fall, but her dad wasn't with us; being on campus with her really makes it real. I have taken care of the really important things like, getting her a really cute comforter for her dorm room :).

Anyway, just another little something that is happening at the Strong House that I thought I would share. Graduation party planning madness will soon be starting; we have paid a small fortune for her announcements and all of the stuff that comes with that, but I think we are on schedule, for now anyway....

Loving My New Lifestyle!

Thought I would do a quick blog on my WW journey! I am loving it. I feel so great. I have been worried that I haven't been dropping the lbs. but I can definately feel it in my clothes. However, this morning, I went to my meeting and had lost 5 pounds this past week, making it a total of 8.8 lbs. I feel recharged and excited to continue this journey. I love the WW on-line tools that I use, it makes doing this simple. Brian and I go grocery shopping every Sunday (he has been an amazing support), our shopping trips take twice as long because I compare points for everything, but then we come home, clean fruits and veggies and bag them all up. It makes doing lunches everyday so much easier for Rachel and I.

Rach is doing great too, she is down a little over 8 lbs too and my mom is down over 10 lbs.; I think we are all motivating each other and of course, my girl Jennifer Hudson; she seems to be everywhere right now and I am just loving her. She is such an inspiration; I mean look at this picture of her.



So anyway, I am happily moving forward on this commitment to myself; I love that I am not feeling deprived of anything. I need to work on my water intake and exercising; not having too much motivation in that dept. but hopefully something will click for me there. I kinda want to try some jump roping, anyone....?

With it being my Birthday week, I am a little nervous too; I have a ton of support around me, but I also can see my self saying "it's my Birthday, I can eat whatever". I also will be in a big trial at work so I will need to plan my days and snacks accordingly this week.

So wish me luck for a successful week, I'm going to need it!

X Games 2011

We surprised Brady with a weekend trip to the XGames at the end of January. He was so excited! He loves snowboarding, and of course all extreme sports, so we thought this would be perfect for him and we were right.

We left on Friday afternoon and headed towards Aspen. We stayed in Glenwood Springs because so many people had warned us that Aspen during the XGames was insane and they were right, you couldn't even find parking in town. Staying in Glenwood worked out perfectly because we were able to sneak to the hotsprings pool one evening after the events, very nice and relaxing, especially for Brian and I who were way too old and sore after standing on a mountain all day smelling the wonderful smells of a certain herbal cigerette that some people are fond of. :) Brady kept asking, Mom what is that smell? Ummm... yah.

Anyway, we had a great time and Brady texted Grandma from there that he was having "the best day of his life" so that made the costs of everything priceless. He was able to get Torstein Horgmo's autograph the morning after he won the gold (they won't let you take pictures while autographing though; rude, huh). So here he is holding the autographs; the riders were all incredibly nice. Although, Shawn White didn't autograph so he didn't get his favorite riders autograph, but did get to see him compete.

Who knows, this could be a tradition in the making...