A Lesson in Perseverance

I haven't talked too much about my weigh in's over the past few weeks and I really should have.  Not because they've been spectacular but because they haven't been my usual.  I have not had the best 3 weigh in's.  In these 3 trips to the scale, I have only lost a total of 1.2 lbs.  I had 2 weeks of 0.2lbs and this morning I weighed in and lost 0.8lbs.  Not that I was ashamed to share these losses with you, I just wasn't happy with myself.  I haven't stuck to plan as strictly as I should have and I definitely haven't been holding myself as accountable as I need to.  This is exactly why I should have been posting, more than ever.

I should not be disappointed with any loss.  A loss is a loss, no matter how large or how small.  I'm fortunate enough that I haven't gained any weight since I've started.  I'm also very fortunate that I've been able to say goodbye to 14.2lbs so far.  But somewhere on my journey, I lost focus of this.  I've been so used to substantial losses every week that I lost my appreciation for any loss.  I have to thank my mother for helping me come to this realization.  She reminded me that I've been fortunate to have lost so much in such a short period of time (she hasn't been as successful as I have been number-wise but I'm proud of her for sticking with it.  Plus I have way more weight to lose than she does).

I am fortunate that I lost anything over the past 3 weeks.  Not only have I eaten a lot few handfuls of M&Ms every time I open the fridge door, I've also been so sick that I haven't been able to get off the couch.  It's amazing how much activity you do in a single day when you don't do ANYTHING for a few days straight.

As many times as my Leader has said "it doesn't happen overnight," it's never really hit home until today.  I didn't gain all this weight in one day (although I'm pretty sure it didn't take too long) so I'm not going to lose it in all at once.  But it's definitely going to take longer to get rid of it than it did to gain it. I have to refocus myself as I start this new week.  I have to get back to the basics.  That a cup of fro yo doesn't include the heaping mound that sticks up over the top of the measuring cup (yes I measure it out).  That the handfuls of M&Ms that I eat and forget about actually count towards my daily intake, regardless if no one saw me eat them.  I'm excited to refocus and get to the 15lb mark.  I'm only 0.8lbs away which is definitely an easy goal to make for this week.  And if I don't reach it at my Tuesday weigh in, I'm not going to be ashamed.  It's just something to work toward.

On a lighter note, thanks to everyone for checking out my guest blog yesterday!!!

Now I'm off to see my lovely friends (I know you're reading this Nicole!!!) for much needed girl time.
But I can't leave you without a picture or two ;)

Love this although no one is looking at the camera lens (we're looking at my fold out viewfinder)

Love my lil man!!!

We're in trouble....driving and talking on the phone already

love this face!

   I gotta say....I love my shirt!!!!  It's so ridiculously bright!!!
  

Moonlighting

Yep that's right!  I'm moonlighting today over at A Modern Day Wife's Journey!  Thanks to Lauren for asking me over!!!  I'm so excited about my first ever blog post. Which in turn makes me a little anxious.  Hello...we've met...of course I'm a little paranoid about this.  Hope you like it.

As for me, I'm home from work today thanks to the lovely plague that is still running rampant in my poor body.  I guess I was not one of the lucky ones who's antibiotics actually worked.  I'm going on 6 days of feeling horrible.  Geez...can't a girl catch a break? Plus I have a fairly busy social calendar this week.  I have to be better for dinner tomorrow and brunch on Sunday.

Go say hi to Lauren for me!!!

 

What a weekend

Every time I think I'm starting to feel better, I'm back to square 1.  I will say that my throat doesn't hurt as badly anymore (if I have to find a positive in this whole situation).  I just hope the kiddos don't get too sick.  They both have the whole runny nose/cough thing going on.  I'm sure we'll end up doing albuterol for the both of them pretty soon....oh the joy of wheezing......

So between taking unexpected naps, wiping noses, and trying not to be complete sickies, we actually got some stuff accomplished yesterday.  I mentioned earlier that we've finally done something with our screened room.  We have carpet down and it's starting to look more like a room.  I have huge aspirations of it being more of a Florida room/bonus room so to speak, rather than a screened room.  I found cute patio furniture the other day so we went back yesterday to buy it and sold out.....like they had 2 in the morning and by 2pm they both had sold.  That is my luck to a tee.  So the nice Bed, Bath, and Beyond man checked a few stores for us and then ordered a brand new set for us since he couldn't find one in a box in the county.  As much as I wanted to be done with that aspect of the room this weekend, I'm ok with waiting for a brand new set and not a set that has been on display in a store for months.

Our elliptical was delivered and the Hubs and I (mainly the Hubs) built it without fighting with each other too much, which is HUGE for us.  I haven't been able to really enjoy it yet since I feel like garbage most of the time and when I tried it, I ended up feeling like a kid with asthma (and I don't have asthma).  But I am itching to get on it and really get to training.  I've got a short list of races that are on my radar:

April 1st: Be The One Run in Tampa (5K)
April 22nd: IronGirl Half Marathon in Clearwater
September 29th AM: CureSearch Walk in St Pete
September 29th PM: Tower of Terror 10 Miler at Disney

I'm excited that the Hubs wants to join me in the ToT 10 Miler.  He's not a runner but he's committed to getting into shape and is ready to train for something.  Now the only question is....do I run with him or leave him in my dust?!?

Here's to a day of trying to get better (and doing tons of laundry)

The Plague

The plague has struck the Crimella home.
OK I might be a bit dramatic right now but we definitely have the crud.
I thought I was going to be safe this time around but nope....I have it.  The Hubs was nice enough to bring home some work germs (and I'm the one who works at a hospital) and share them with me, even though he's been sleeping on the couch and pretty much avoiding me.  Wednesday afternoon, in the middle of a meeting, I got the body aches and it was downhill from there.  Now I'm in full blown "I feel like I'm constantly swallowing razor blades" mode.  I'm hoping my Z-Pack will start kickin in because I hate (like capital HATE) having a sore throat.
Uhhhhhhhhhh
OK enough whining.

So my weekend looks like a lot of lying in bed, not doing too much....which is much needed not only because I'm sick but because we're always running around like crazy people on our days off.

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful support after my last post.  I'm always a little wary to really open up on here now that I know people actually read what I post.  And religion/faith is such a controversial topic to say the least.  But it was such a good thing for me.  It's nice to really be real every so often.

What Ash Wednesday Taught Me

I don't go into a lot of my religious beliefs here.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.  But either way, it's never really been a huge topic I discuss.  But in honor of Ash Wednesday, I am taking a step away from my usual and delving into the topic of my faith.

I consider myself a religious person.  I went to Catholic school K-12th grade.  I grew up going to Mass every Sunday.  In high school, if I wasn't spending every waking minute at the gym playing volleyball, you could find me at the Church.  I was very active in our Youth Group.  I was a reader at our youth Mass every Sunday I was in town (I traveled a lot with volleyball).  I facilitated many retreats for the Diocese and attended even more.

But then something changed.  Actually someone changed it.

The pastor at our church, while I was still in high school, fired our youth group director and pretty much alienated all of the parish's youth (and we had the largest, most active youth group in the Diocese).  I was devastated.  It took years for me to even return to church after all of this.  As I grew older, I became more involved in my social life, my school, my sorority, to be concerned with my relationship with God.  Even though the Hubs is Catholic, he never had the same love and desire to have a strong relationship with God.  But he put up with going to Mass because it was important to me to get married in my church.  Working in a hospital setting, working the weekends is an expectation.  It made it easy not to attend Mass.  The Hubs never complained about this either.  And it went downhill from there.  We're just now getting back into the routine of going to Mass.  Emmy isn't even baptized (it pains my heart to type that).

But I've always known something was missing in my life.  That there was this void that I could never figure out how to fill.  Aspects of my life are on the verge of spiraling out of control.  There are times I don't feel like I'm the person/mother/wife that I should be or need to be.  There were times where I felt I wasn't in control of my own life.  It wasn't until recently that I realized what was missing.....my relationship with God.  I had pushed aside the one thing that helped me stay grounded.  The one thing that, no matter what was going on in my life, made me feel in control.

And I only realized this today.

When we go to Sunday Mass, I'm always distracted by the kids.  Em doesn't like staying quiet for the entire length of Mass or she wants to go outside and walk. There are times when both she and Noah are utterly impossible to deal with during Mass.  While this is no excuse, I have been allowing it to distract me from truly hearing the Word.  I have been too distracted to open up my heart for the Lord to enter it.  It wasn't until this morning that I realized this, as I attended Mass for Ash Wednesday, alone.

I was able to really take in the Mass, take in the Word.  I was able to open myself up to the joy that I had felt years ago.  I was able to allow God to speak to my heart.

So instead of giving up something for Lent (I actually can't think of anything since I usually give up soda...and fail miserably...and I've stopped drinking soda for over a month now), I've decided that I'm going to use these 40 days to really look into myself and get into a better place when it comes to my faith. I'm ready to start filling the void that has been present in my life for so long now.  I'm ready to open up my heart to the Lord.

Pray for me (and the Hubs) as I try to use the Lenten season to prepare my heart and my life for the Lord and His plan for me.

        

Weekend Recap

Well Happy Monday everyone!!!  I am in such a better place mentally and emotionally than I was last week.  I'm not 100% back to my normal self but I'm slowly getting there.  And I'm determined to make this a positive week.

Saturday, we finally crossed some house projects off our list.  We've been in our house for almost 3 years now and no room is completely finished.  Going on bedrest 3 weeks after we closed on the house (and being without a second paycheck for 15 weeks) kinda put a damper on our home improvement plans.  I am determined to finish this house by the time 2013 rolls around.  The Hubs finally got the shed he's been asking for and I finally got the carpet I've been wanting.  Our garage does not house either car.  It's been turned into a laundry/man cave/playroom.  But we've had to store the lawn mower, tools, sharp objects that could seriously harm the kiddos, etc, in there because we didn't have a place to put them.  Well now we have a cute shed (windows and all) just waiting for these items.  The Hubs is excited!  We also have a patio room that has vinyl windows/screens.  We removed the nasty carpet that was there when we bought the house and never replaced it.  We've kinda been using it as a storage room.  I have wanted to transform this into a room rather than a porch for years.  The vinyl windows make it so much nicer than a porch.  So we bought carpet, we're buying some patio furniture and it's being transformed into the sunroom I've always wanted it to be.  Our elliptical is being delivered tomorrow (SO EXCITED!!!) and it will go out there too.

Saturday afternoon, Em and I went to a baby shower tea party for the Hubs's boss.  Bev is a great girl, who's babysat for us a few times, and we're so happy that she and her husband are having a baby.  Oliver is going to be one lucky boy!!!  I was excited to go to a tea party but even more excited to bring Em.  We got to wear fancy dresses and hats!!!  My bridal shower was a Kentucky Derby themed shower so I have the most amazing hat that I planned an outfit around.  I ended up testing out an outfit that I'll be wearing to a friend's wedding in a few weeks (minus the hat).  But Em was, hands down, the cutest thing on the face of the planet!  He had a poufy dress and hat and totally looked the part! I wish I had better pictures of her but these will have to do

I just love her!!!  Here's a quick (and blurry) pic of my outfit.....I didn't have anyone to take my pic when I got home so this is what happened when I tried to balance my camera on the bookcase and use the self timer

It doesn't deserve to be a huge pic.  But I love this dress and found out it has pockets!!!!

Oh I do have to share my new shoes with you!!!  The Hubs was awesome and not only bought my new dress and belt, he bought the shoes that match the belt.  And they are WONDERFUL!!!

Love them!!!!

Sunday was my Mom's birthday so we spent it with my family.  I just love hanging out with them.  We're weird and actually all get along and have a great time with one another.

All in all, it was a great weekend and a great way to kick off the week.  Here's hoping the week continues to be a good one!!!
 

A Brief Catch Up

Things in the Crimella household are quite interesting right now, for lack of a better term.  But that's for another day. I've been a huge slacker because I'm EXHAUSTED...like "need to hibernate for about 3 weeks in order to start feeling human again" exhausted.  If anyone knows how to make this a reality, head my way....STAT!

I didn't write about my weigh in on Tuesday so I figured I'd share it (I know you've all been on pins and needles waiting for this).  I'm down another 2.8lbs for a total of 13.2lbs in 4 weeks.  I am beyond thrilled.  Not only did we eat out every day for an entire week (Becca....my budget needs you), I was convinced I gained at least 2lbs.  I may have squealed a little on the scale when I saw the loss.  And the best part....I wore a pair of pants tonight that I could not zip 3 weeks ago.  Like they were loose!  I think I could get used to this!!!

Now it's off to bed so I can make it through tomorrow (I cannot wait for this week to be over).  Lots of fun scheduled for this weekend and boy could I use a distraction!!!

Oh, for my Tampa peeps.....Be The Match, the National Marrow Donor Program's donor registry, hosts 1K/5K events all over the country to raise awareness and funds for Bone Marrow Transplant patients.  Tampa is fortunate enough to be a part of this amazing series.  The first Be The One Run will be held on April 1st at Al Lopez Park.  I will be participating with my coworkers as we raise awareness for our amazing patients in need of bone marrow transplants. I would love it if you joined us!  You can either join our team (BMT Nursing-Giving for a Living) or create your own team. It will be a great event for an amazing cause.

  

Happy Heart Day!!!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my friends!!!!
I've never been much of a Valentine's Day fan but that doesn't mean I don't get into the Heart Day spirit.  I'm all about spreading the love today!  I hope everyone takes time out of their busy day to tell the special people in their lives that you love them time!!!
Here's one of my 3 Valentine loves

Em's dr's appointment took ALOT longer than I imagined so I didn't make it back to Noah's school for his Valentine's Day party :(   I hope all the kids like the heart shaped crayons I made.  They were fairly easy to make and would have been so much easier if I had a ton of broken crayons without the wrappers laying around the house.  Oh well. Here's how to make them:

Unwrap the crayons and break them into little pieces.  Noah helped me break all the crayons.  I still have wax under my nails from trying to rip the wrappers off.  {Note to readers....try to pay someone to do this. Not only will it save your nails, you won't look crazy with colored junk under your nails}

Next, put some broken pieces into silicone baking molds.  I forgot to take a pic of this step.
Bake them for 10-15 minutes at 275 degrees. Remove from the oven and let them cool completely.  If you don't, your hearts will break (hahaha) when you try to remove it from the mold.

Remove them from the mold and voila!  I packaged them in treat bags and put each Valentine that Noah wrote out in the bag.  Nice, simple, and cheap Valentine's gift for the kiddos!

 Now it's off to a Valentine's fro yo date!!!  Can't wait!
Enjoy your love filled day!!!
 

It's Effing Cold!!!!

Holy Moly it's cold out.  40 degrees in Florida....pretty sure I didn't sign up for any of this.  Plus I wearing shorts a week ago.  Something just isn't right.

First things first.  Huge shout out to Meghan and her amazing finish at the Rock N Roll St Pete Half Marathon.  You are a rock star!!!!  Maybe one day I'll be as fast as you!!!

Let me tell you how ridiculous the Hubs and I are.  We had huge plans of being very productive at home on Saturday...aka...cleaning the house.  Did we do that?  Nope.  We spent the entire day shopping.  But we did cross off a ton of stuff on our "To Buy" list.  I got a fab dress (with belt and shoes) for a tea party baby shower this weekend that I'll also wear to my friend's wedding in a few weeks.  Em got her outfit for the shower (think big frilly girly dress).  We bought an elliptical.  I'm stoked about that.  Now I'll be able to get my running in regardless of what time it is and who is sleeping (I foresee naptime being a great 2 hour period to get quality miles in).  I have some buyers remorse but that's only because I have heart palpitations when I spend more than $100 on a single item.  But I've been wanting one and the Hubs is going to use it too so it was well worth the money.  Oh and we got it for more than 50% off....score!!!!  I can't wait for it to be delivered!!!

On Sunday, my very good friend Jay came into town.  Funny story about how we became friends.  We went to nursing school together and all of us girls were arguing over who was going to be partners with the hot guy.  Well no one was going to beat me in that arena so I instantly befriended him.  After about, oh 3 minutes, I realized that he was not into me, or any girl for that reason.  A beautiful friendship grew and we've been close ever since.  He's out in San Fran, living the life, making millions (ok not millions but a heck of a lot more than me) but we always make it a point to see each other when he's in town.  We had a great lunch looking over the Bay, headed to Pinkberry for fro yo afterwards, and he even endured my moody children with a smile.  He is just amazing and I'm so blessed to have him in my life.

From his visit in August

I also busted out 18 heart shaped crayons (diy post soon) for Noah's Valentines and still cleaned the house (with the Hubs of course).  I still have loads of laundry to do.....yes it's still there.

Happy Early Valentine's Day to everyone!!!
 

Who's that girl? It's Jess

Now I have that song in my head.  I don't think I'm alone when I say the New Girl is great TV!  But anywho....


I'm linking up with Neely today and showing off the space I take up in the blogisphere.

I'm Jess (and this is the Hubs)

I'm a wife of 6 years.  A mom to Noah (5yrs) and Emily (2.5yrs).  I'm a pediatric hematology/oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant nurse, which means I get to take care of the best kids ever...kids with cancer and blood disorders. {It is the hardest, most stressful, most emotionally draining job I've ever had but it is the most rewarding.  These kids and their families are inspirations to me and I'm honored to play a small role in their lives}  I love photography, reading, shopping, drinks with the girls, hanging with the family, and sports...I'm a huge sports fan.  My favorite sports are volleyball, baseball, and football.  I love the Rays and my USF Bulls!

These are my kiddos...cute, aren't they?!?  ;)

I started this lil blog way back in 2008 when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter.  We were trying to buy a house too so I thought it was a great way to keep my family updated with the happenings in our life.  Then, when I went on bedrest and was trying my hardest to stay pregnant for another 9 weeks, I used the blog as a forum to update friends and family with the scary details of my doctors appointments, scans, labs, and hospitalizations.  Then I stopped blogging for a good year.  Then I picked it back up (and this is kinda embarrassing) because Shutterfly was doing a promo for free holiday cards for bloggers.  And from that moment on, I've been hooked.

Just recently, I changed my whole blog name and design.  Before the blog was so geared towards the family and the name and design reflected that.  But as this blog evolved, it's become a place for me to express myself and share what I love...my husband and children.  You'll find stuff about my life, a lot about my kids, the fun things we do, the struggles I have, our many trips to Disney, and a TON of pictures.  It's my place to put down whatever I'm feeling, no matter how silly, stupid, vulnerable, crazy, etc, it makes me sound.

Can't wait to meet some new peeps!!!

At least it ended well

Sorry for the whole Debbie Downer thing earlier.  It's been a very emotional week for me and today was no different.  But I can say that it ended on such a great note!

I killed my lecture today!  I have been a little nervous about it because I hadn't prepared as much as I would have liked to and my topic wasn't the most thrilling topic to talk about for about 45 minutes {if you're wondering, I spoke about acute and chronic graft vs host disease, long term complications of bone marrow transplant, and the role of the ambulatory nurse...sounds really intriguing at 5pm on Friday night, right?} I was expecting about 4 people and a casual setting for the lecture but it turned out to be 11-15 people in a room with a huge projector and a podium!!!  Let me tell you...the nerves went through the roof. When I got there, I was comforted to see half the group were nurses I worked with on the inpatient unit.  When it was my turn, it all just came together.  I didn't use any of the speaker notes.  I didn't feel nervous at all.  I actually felt like I was an expert!  Now I don't know if the audience thought the same of my lecturing skills but from what I hear, I guess it didn't bore them to tears!  I'm so excited!! Nursing Education is an area of nursing that I can totally see myself in {if I ever get tired of my cancer kiddos...which I don't think I ever will!!!}

After my awesome lecture, we had a work dinner planned at Acropolis.  It was a great time!  I love me some Greek food but I loved the company more than anything.  I have a great group of friends from the inpatient unit that I still hang out with, even after I made the switch to the outpatient world, that I wouldn't replace for anything.  But there's something so refreshing about working with a group of people who genuinely get along and enjoy each other's company.  It's because of this that my transition to the clinic has been such a good one.  I was so nervous to leave my friends on the unit and the job that I was comfortable with, so I could start over with a group of people I only knew from taking report over the phone.  Every one of them welcomed me into the clinic family.  It's been a move that I have never regretted (no matter how miserable I may have seen this week).  It was nice to share a drink or 2 with the nurses and doctors I work with on a daily basis.  I am truly blessed!

And because I haven't shared a pic of my kiddos lately, here's a new thing going on in our house.  Em's back in this routine where she needs to be rocked before she goes to bed.  Noah, being the amazing big brother that he is, always offers to rock her to sleep.

Pretty soon they won't even want to talk to each other.  Guess I have to soak it all in now

  Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!
  

Frustration

I hate when I feel overwhelmed or frustrated.
I just hate it.
I also can't stand when work makes me feel that way.

Right now I'm having such a rough time.  I'm frustrated with so much lately.  I also feel guilty I'm feeling so upset.

I know that I am a great nurse.  I know that I'm good at what I do. I know that I put my heart and soul into everything I do for my kids and their families.  It just infuriates me when someone tries to make me feel like I don't.  {Please don't take that as me being cocky.  I just know I give 110% at my job because I LOVE it}

I don't like feeling this way.  I don't like being angry.  It just doesn't suit me.  And I feel bad for my family because I come home so emotionally spent that I can't enjoy my time with them.  And that's not fair.

I'm ready for the frustration to end.

It's OK

I'm so happy it's Thursday because it means linking up with Amber and Neely for It's Ok Thursday. And let me tell you, this is about the only happy thing going on for me right now.  But I don't want to be Debbie Downer so here goes.....

It's OK.....

~that I haven't commented on many posts this week.  I promise I'm reading everyone's blogs!!!  I just can't keep up right now....

~that I'm horribly frustrated with a situation at work.  So maybe it's not ok but I'm trying to convince myself that it is

~to have splurged a little this week on what I've been eating

~to be looking forward to a good thought-clearing run this weekend

~that I have to give a lecture tomorrow afternoon and I haven't really looked at the powerpoint slides yet

~that I've been planning Noah's teachers's Valentine's gifts for a while now but haven't started them

~to almost be on a first name basis with my local Starbucks barista this week

~to still be up in the air about running a half marathon this weekend

~to be thankful for all the blessings in my life!

Weekly Weigh In #3

Tonight was the big weigh in again.  I'm happy to report that I am down another 1.2lbs this week, for a grand total of 10.4lbs!  I'm really excited about this because I was really nervous after this weekend.  Not only did I eat at Burger King (my stomach hated me for it), I also indulged in mac/cheese, tons of chicken, pasta, birthday cake, a McFlurry, 2 slices of pizza, a few pieces of bread, a taco salad, and a Diet Coke (first soda in 4 weeks).  And that's only to name a few of the ridiculously unhealthy things I consumed this weekend.  {Disney is not very "point friendly" for lack of a better word.  C'mon Disney...get your act together. Offer healthier options please!!!}  I am beyond blessed to have had any loss at the scales. I will say that it did make me feel better that I can splurge a little more than I usually do and still see some form of positive numbers.  But now it's back to being focused.  I'm determined to melt away these pounds.

Now I think it's off to bed for me
{Hubs....I just can't get to the laundry tonight.  I can't keep my eyes open.  I PROMISE it will all get folded tomorrow and definitely by Friday.  I love you!}

Belated Birthday Party

We took Noah up to Disney this weekend for his "birthday" party.  He originally wanted to have a class party (and I had finally mustered up the courage to have 16 3-5 yr olds in one place but something made him abandon that idea (thank God).  He decided he wanted to have lunch with Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  {If you have a preschooler, I'm sure you've heard of Jake.  If not, he's from a cartoon on Disney Jr and he's the leader of a group of pirates in Neverland who have great adventures and try to teach Captain Hook and Smee some good life lessons}  So we (I) jumped headfirst and started planning.  We got a table for 14 and grabbed the entire family for a great lunch.

We started the day at Hollywood Studios.  Noah's now tall enough to ride most of the height restricted rides so he went on Star Tours first.  Let me tell you.....he was so excited to ride the Star Wars ride.  He ended up riding it 3 times that day!  By the time lunch rolled around, Noah was in the WORST mood ever.  He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to go to lunch, he didn't want to meet the characters.  I wanted to kill him. We made all of our family come up, spend a good $30/person on lunch {granted it was an awesome buffet} for him to act like this....not way sir.   Once Jake strolled out, he was grinning from ear to ear.  Jake signed his book, he took a picture with him, and he even went up and danced with Jake!  It ended up being a better lunch that I thought it would be.  The food was awesome too, FYI!  I might have eaten as much as I felt like and didn't really count my points.  Hopefully I don't gain tonight at my weigh in!  The rest of the day was spent over at Epcot.  On Sunday we headed to Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours.  Having our annual passes makes it so convenient for us and so nice because we don't feel pressured into trying to cram so much into one day.  We can go for a couple of hours and not feel like we wasted our money.  All in all, it was a great day!!!

Noah and Jake!!!

Now I have to be watching like a hawk since Em walked out of her play castle, diaper in hand, naked as the day she was born.  She said she does not want her diaper, she wants her Mermaid diapers (aka Little Mermaid panties) We'll see how long this lasts.......

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Man am I tired!  After a busy busy weekend and a long day at work, I'm back in action. I just spent the last hour catching up on a weekend's worth of blog reading and let me tell you, that's exhausting!!!  But I can't not read all my faves!  But now my bed is calling my name!!!

Oh and I'm debating whether or not to randomly run a half marathon this weekend....should I???

So much for waiting til the weekend.....

I couldn't help myself.  I went ahead and changed everything.  I hope you like it!  I think I really like the way the blog looks.  

But who knows....I might be changing it back later.

I feel like I need to explain more about why the big change.

I've been thinking about changing my blog name for a while.  If you go to the very beginning of the blog, it's all about my pregnancy with Em and all the complications that followed.  Honestly, I thought about never writing on here again.  Life with 2 kids was horribly hard.  But one day I logged back in and started writing.  {Quick side note....I'm a big believer in journaling.  I've had a diary/journal for as long as I can remember.  I think that's why I got so into blogging.  It's a new and improved way to journal}  Once I started writing, I started reading other blogs.  I only knew blogging as "Mom Blogs." I had no clue how many young people were getting into the blogging world and how many friendships are created because of it.  Slowly the blog turned from general updates about life to me opening up and sharing my life with the entire world.  It's become more of me than just the family.  And I'm ok with that.  I share what's going on in my life, how I feel, and what I love.  I don't feel like the blog is any less about my family.  I think it's a good mix between me and my family.  I could not be prouder of what I'm putting out here.  It's all from the heart and that's all that matters.  

I have to thank all the Tampa girls for kinda pushing me in this direction.  We went around the table saying who we are and what our blog is, and you know what?  I couldn't remember the wording of my title.  What did that say about me and this lil blog?  Definitely opened my eyes a little.  Then enter the whole Twitter thing.  Yes I joined because of peer pressure.  I'm not ashamed of it either.  But anyways, I was trying to come up with a clever name and was getting help from Lauren.  She threw out a couple suggestions and it came to me.....Life with my Loves!  I fell in love, since that's exactly what it is...my life with my 3 loves!  

So from now on, my tiny space of internet property will be a true representation of me!

Life With My Loves.....Living Life the Only Way We Know How 

Change is Coming.....

I changed the name of my blog.  The previous name was too boring (in my mind) and plus, when I started this blog, it was to update my family on my life on bedrest.  Never in a million years did I expect myself to fall in love with blogging and all the friends that goes with it.  I think Life With My Loves is a better representation of what this blog is all about....me sharing my 3 amazing loves with all of you!  I'm so happy with it!!!

I also figured out how to make a button (I think)

Next up....changing up the layout.

However that has to wait a while.  We have a Disney trip planned for this weekend!!!

See y'all on the flip side!!!