Twenty-Nine With Four Years Experience

So, my birthday was last month. Usually, this day brings a lot of trepidation and even disappointment. Not this year. (Finally.) I've had some big years (21 baby!), and even a year my husband forgot (oh yeah, you will never live that down, Papi!).

With my feet set firmly in my 30s now, I've become that woman I wondered about 3yrs ago. That woman that knows who she is, and what she wants. I'm feeling a lightness about myself, and it's not just from the weight loss.

So with that in mind, I thought I might take a hand from previous posts and list 10 things I love about MYSELF. In no particular order:

Ten Things I Love About Me

(and things that just make me happy, too)

1.)  My feelings are genuine. If I like your post on Facebook, or leave a comment, know that it comes from the heart. I'm not fake, I don't have time for it nor do I want to explain something like that to my girls. It may seem weird or impossible to some people, but it's true.

2.)  I have a supportive family. Starting with my mom and ending with my husband, I have love and I know love.

3.)  Two words: My Girls. I love watching them grow into little ladies. I struggle daily with setting a good example for them, but it helps me to constantly improve upon myself. I love being able to see their personalities and personal styles form.

4.)  The me I used to be. I have done "some things" in my day. You know what? They made me who I am. I can draw on my past experiences and say, "Ooh, maybe we don't want to go there again." Or, "That was a pretty wicked time!" I've got memories to turn to as my girls grow up, and they may be in some of the same predicaments I was in. Memories are lessons learned--some good, some bad, all mine.

5.)  My thirst for knowledge. If I don't know something, I will look it up. If a subject interests me, I'll do research on it. Smart is cool, people. Smart is cool. 

6.) My best feature is my hair. I still remember the kids in junior high telling me I had Jhirmack (ha! talk about dating myself!) hair. I had boys try to tie it in knots. It was a daily test to see if my hair could be messed up. Nope. I have awesome hair. A few flips of the head, run my fingers through it, and "voila!" it looks the same way it started. Be jealous. (Except for that home perm. That was not my best idea.)

7.) I'm growing into my own personal style. I've always known what I've liked. I've always been "preppy." Only recently did I discover my style leans more towards Southern. Too bad my family settled a little north of the Mason-Dixon line. That's okay, I still have my subscription to Southern Living, lol!

8.)  I'm loving my body right now. I know I'm still transitioning. I know I'm still working. But, I'm loving the way my body is changing. I'm excited about all the things that I'm learning about how I fuel my body (there's that thirst for knowledge!), and how the exercises are reshaping me. I am motivated. I am excited. Aagh!

9.)  I love music. My husband complains, but I don't care. I love music. I love singing. Music is just so emotional. I can go from dancing around the living room, to crying just with the change of a beat/song. I can rock karaoke like nobody's business!

10.)  I have the best best friends. My ladies have seen me through some trying times. Apparently, I picked some awesome friends. They keep me sane when my rock (the Hubbs) starts rolling. They have, and always will hold, sacred places in my heart.

So there you have it. I have had quite the life so far. I might not have known it at the time, but I can look back now and love it all. Here's to thirty-three years and thirty-three more (and thirty-three more after that!). CHEERS!

Much Love,

Jesse's Girl vs the Scale & the Tape & the Grocery Store

So, I've been absent for awhile. Not gonna lie, I'm going through some things. Number one being it's still winter. (I'm so ready for July, it's not even funny.) Number two is this diet lifestyle change that The Hubbs and I have been doing.

And that's where the story starts ...

Obviously it didn't happen overnight, but my Oh Damn moment happened in early December. I stepped on the scale and it read 185 pounds. (Then the thing mocked me by asking if I wanted to save my weight to a profile. Yeah, right.) One Hundred Eighty-Five Pounds. The only time I have ever weighed that much was when I was 8-9 months pregnant with my third child. (At least then I got a cute little baby out of it.)

I was the heaviest I have ever been. (And on the frame of a 5'3" Asian woman? Not the prettiest picture.) I was so overweight, I fit the parameters for taking Lipozene--that was a depressing thought. I almost seriously considered quitting eating all together, but, let's face it, I like food too much.

On a whim (which he has many of), The Hubbs ordered Shaun T's Focus T25 (Late at night, while watching the infomercial--but that's another story.) without telling me. Apparently The Hubbs had an Oh Damn moment of his own and thought this would be good for both of us. (Isn't there a thing about husbands buying exercise related things for their wives???)

We did the Quick Start program. We bought supplements. We cut our calories. We got super cute workout clothes. We cleaned up our eating. The Hubbs started taking Sports Nutrition classes. We're lucky we haven't floated away with all the water we drink. We are the annoying couple that doesn't go out to eat, because figuring out what won't ruin our eating plan is a pain in the ass.

It's now been a little over two months. I've lost almost 25 pounds. That's amazing. That's a significant amount of weight loss. That is a major accomplishment. Until a couple days ago, when I realized (again) that I had an extra 25 pounds to lose. And, I have about 30 more to go. That's depressing.

I've reached an impasse in my mental turmoil. On the one hand, I'm really proud of myself for putting in all the hard work (and reading all those food labels is HARD WORK) and getting results. But then on the other hand, I'm really disappointed in myself for letting things get so far out of hand. I've done P90X. I've done Insanity. How did this happen?!

So that's where we are today. I've dropped two pant sizes. I've gotten rid of my old jeans. I still struggle with what to make at almost every meal. And I have one cheat item every day. Usually it's chocolate. I've been sick. The kids have been sick. The Hubbs is just getting over being sick. We made it through the holidays without gaining, luckily. And it took until well into the New Year for me to finally come to terms with the idea that I cannot compare my husband's weight loss with my own. Also, I gave in to the scale and I record my weight loss (and inches lost) every week.

That next 30 pounds? I hope to have it gone by the time I finish Insanity. Wish me luck!

Also,

Much Love,

Happy Veterans Day

Yesterday was an important day in our house, and across the nation. Even before my husband enlisted, I've known that veterans were people to be respected and honored (without them, I don't think my mom would've even considered coming to the US). But, this Veterans Day someone got me thinking. One of my friends told the story of how her father suffered physical injuries and PTSD after his experiences with war, and asked, with so many of our men and women experiencing maladies that range from PTSD to loss of limbs and everything in between, "why do we say 'happy' Veterans Day?"

Here's my answer to you my friend:

Everyday we respect our veterans. Some of us personally take care of them. In our house, we stand with our veteran, support our veteran. We thank the ones me we meet for their service. Every day. But, on Veterans Day, we celebrate our veteran. We celebrate him, and his brothers and sisters in arms. We take that extra step out of our daily bubble to let them know how much we appreciate them, with parades and ceremonies and programs in the schools. That celebration, that appreciation, that creates a good feeling. A happy feeling. That is why, in our house, November 11th is always a HAPPY Veterans Day.

Thank you to all the veterans that might read this.

And good luck to those men and women thinking about enlisting.

Much love,

To Help or Not to Help--What are the Consequences?

What's happened to common sense? Seriously?

So recently, near Boston, a female high school student went to a party, where they were serving alcohol, when her friend called for a ride home. The cops showed up, kids that drank were ticketed, and then there were some (the girl in question) that didn't drink, but were warned they were going to get tickets for drinking just because they were there.

Find the article at CNN.com.

Here is where I have issues with all this:

• The cops on the scene made a statement that the girl was sober, and had not been drinking. Why did she have to get a ticket?
• Since she was ticketed, her school's Zero Tolerance policy kicked in and she was demoted as the Captain of the volleyball team and suspended 4-5 games. I don't believe Zero Tolerance policies work. There are too many situations that fall into the grey zone--like this case.
• She went to that party not to imbibe, and not to encourage others to be delinquent, but to help out a friend in a potentially dangerous situation. Now that this girl has been punished, what kind of message are we sending to other kids? Don't help out your friend, because you might get in trouble just for being there? That's horrible.

Kids will make stupid decisions, but this girl is obviously not one of them. If my girls were ever in the same situation, I would hope that they'd go help their friend. I don't want them to have to think twice about doing what their parents would think is right.

I hope the underage drinking charges are/were dropped. I hope that her school administrators change their policy and reverse her punishment. I hope that the adults dealing with our children will use their common sense instead of leaving things up to some black-and-white policy that ends up doing more harm than good.

That's my two cents.

Much Love,

Things That Make Me Smile

With so much conflict and negativity in the world, here are (in no particular order) some things that make me happy. I hope they make your day brighter, too. :)

1.) Baby ANYTHING.

Infants, puppies, kittens, bunnies. I love them all. I even squee over mini cupcakes and baby corn. I may have a problem, but I'm okay with that.

It's a fuzzy bunny hiding his face.
How can you not love this?!

2.) New books at the library.
I love seeing a new book from a favorite author on the shelves at the library. Crisp, new pages and the knowledge that I may be the first of hundreds to experience a novel.
Pure. Awesome.

That is happiness waiting to happen, right there.

3.) Flowers.
I like pretty things, like Flowers. They're colorful, some smell great, and they
attract other pretty things like birds and butterflies.
If only I weren't allergic.

How would you like to come home to this?
I know I would!

4.) Men with tool belts. (More specifically, my man.)
There is just something about a man that can fix and build things that gets to me.
The Hubbs doesn't just make the home--he can, literally, make the house.

(Unfortunately, The Hubbs wouldn't pose for a pic. Dang.)


5.) Footie-pajamas.
Kids in footie-jammies are frickin' adorable. And, they remind me of the days I spent "skating" around my basement--
sometimes knocking myself silly on the concrete.

Pink. Cupcake. Footie-pajamas.
Seriously?! Is there an adult version?

6.) Old People in Love.
They give me hope for the future, and remind me that if I want that with The Hubbs, we need to constantly work at our relationship. A sweet elderly couple makes me picture The Hubbs and me years from now, drinking sweet tea in our rocking chairs, and that makes me smile.

Ready? "Awwww!"
They are so sweet!

7.) Things that sparkle.
I've been known to wander off in stores after exclaiming, "Ooh! Shiny!"
It's not only jewelry, it's anything sparkly. I'm just as likely to be entranced by a bathroom faucet as I am a 2karat diamond.
What can I say? I'm easily sidetracked.

$2million earrings.
Not just bling--Ka-bling!

8.) Journals and Pens.
I'm a writer, 'nuff said.

9.) Kid Art.
Kids say, do, and make the darnedest things. Some is beautiful. Some is indiscernible.
And some, look horribly "inappropriate."
Those are the best.

Medium's early work. A dress and necklace for Mommy.

10.) Clean Sheets Day.
Aside from Thirsty Thursday (Hey! That's today!), and maybe Wine Wednesday,
Clean Sheets Day is my favorite day of the week. Crisp sheets, the scent of my
detergent and fabric softener--it's comfort and luxury. I love crawling
into bed on Sunday nights.

A baby and clean sheets! Double win!

These are a few of my favorite things. What are some things that make you smile?
I wanna know!

And for more things that make me smile, check out my Pinterest board, aptly titled
Little Things To Make Me Smile.


Much Love,

One more for the road:

Large with an armful of puppies. Squee!