Zoo trip

We went to the zoo today. "We" being Charis, my mom, her friend Sara, Sara's granddaughter, Addi, and I. Within about 3 minutes of being in the car together, Charis and Addi were friends. They were talking, comparing boo-boos, shoes, telling each other how old they were. That was it. After that, they were friends. Don't believe me. Here's the picture I took immediately after we got out of the car.

(ignore the random lady in the background)

 They were holding hands right before the picture above.

Seriously? Why aren't we like this as adults? "Hi, I'm Michelle. Let's be best friends!" I know I'm not the only one that has problems with this, am I? I met a girl within one week of us moving here, and I thought, I'd like to be her friend. You know when we actually hung out? This past Friday. Nearly a year later! Maybe it is just me. Am I that afraid of rejection, that I'm not willing to be a friend to someone? Who knows, that person who sits next to you at work every day may really need a friend. Maybe they're scared of asking you to go do something. Okay, enough of the rant. :) Here are some pictures of the animals we saw today in case you wanted to see that as well. :)

 Cute little sea lion. I think they said she is 2 years old

 The big guy. He weighs over 450 pounds, and was sent to the KC zoo from Sea World, Orlando, because of "bad behavior!"

 I don't care how old I get, and how many times I see an elephant, they still blow me away at how big they are.

 How is he standing like this??? How did he not topple over?

 The baby zebra (about 2 weeks old now) is the furthest away, kinda brownish looking.

 Flying over the giraffes.

 Rhinos. If you can believe it, one of these is the mommy and one is a "baby" - still huge!

 She didn't come over to the glass, but she did look right at me for a picture. These are another animal that I am still surprised at how big they are.

The trouble makers. You can always count on these guys to be doing SOMETHING no matter what time you go to the zoo, AND you can usually get them to look at you. I love the two on the right that look like they're wrestling.

And one more picture...the divas :)

One week later

One week in to getting back to work. I just finished my 10th workout in 8 days. I'm dripping in sweat typing on the computer. I feel like I need to write right at this moment, so I remember how I feel right now. Which is absolutely wonderful! I may be taking lots of deep breaths, guzzling water, wiping sweat off my forehead so it doesn't drip in my eyes while I type, but I feel amazing.
I wish I could bottle what I feel right now and drink it when my alarm goes off in the morning and all I THINK I want to do is roll back over and go to sleep. Or when I'm sitting at the computer playing games, reading facebook, or scrolling through twitter, putting off working out. If I could only take a sip of how good I feel right now, nothing could stop me from getting my butt downstairs on that treadmill, or doing my jumping jacks/crunches/squats/leg lifts routine.
One week in, and I've lost 3 pounds. That's even with going out on Saturday and Sunday for Mother's Day activities. Of course, I made better choices than I typically make, but it was still fast food/restaurant food, and who knows what kind of hidden fat is really in that stuff.
My encouragement to you is to do it. Get off the computer, go work out. Everyone that I know that works out feels this way. After a workout, they feel amazing, energized, HAPPY. We weren't meant to sit around and stare at a large box all day; we were meant to go outside, enjoy nature, enjoy the ability to walk down the street, or run with our children. Go! Enjoy Life!

Best Mother's Day

Today we decided to celebrate mother's day a little early. Matt and Charis went out in the morning and bought me a present and cards. Although I can't open them until tomorrow, so says Daddy! Charis was adorable when she came home. She was so excited that she had gotten me a special present.

Matt asks Charis when they get to the store, "When you think about Mommy, what do you think we should get for her." Her response, "Probably something nice." Matt continues the questioning, "What do you think would be something nice that Mommy would like." After a few moments of thinking, she says, "Probably something Veggie Tales." She knows me so well. :) I have been assured that my present is not anything Veggie Tale related, so now, I have to wait until tomorrow.

For lunch, we went to one of our favorite places, Chick fil a, and enjoyed a feast of salad, chicken, fruit, and of course waffle fries and lemonade. We were also joined by some of our favorite people, Nicole and Annabelle. David was working...lame. I love going there with Charis. She loves it, so she will actually eat, but everyone is just nice. It's just refreshing to go in to a restaurant and have someone say, "My pleasure" when you tell them thank you.

While Chick fil a was wonderful, the highlight of my day was FINALLY taking Charis to "THE PRINCESS CASTLE!!!" If you ever have the privilege to ride in the car with us while we're driving down 40 HWY and passing Cool Crest, you'll hear Charis say, "LOOK, THE PRINCESS CASTLE!!!" Today, she finally got to see it first hand!

She was really excited to see it, but I think she had fun playing miniature golf too.

Although...as you watch the video, you'll see she doesn't quite have the hang of it yet. :)

After golf, we decided to go around the race track a couple of times. She absolutely loved it!

This is what Mother's Day is about. Spending time with your family, enjoying each other, thanking God for the ability to even be a mother. (I may have to write about my pregnancy one of these days.)
She is such a joy to my life and so is Matt! I love them both so much, and I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't "met" Matt.

--Here is my present from my babies! :)

Patience required

After posting two days in a row this week, my husband came home on Wednesday, and said, "What, no post today?" I hate to disappoint, so I figured I would go ahead and write a little bit today.
We made the decision last year for me to be a stay at home mommy. I've been able to do that since last June, and I absolutely do not regret the decision.
This year has been HARD. We moved across country to live with my parents, thinking we'd only be here a few months while we waited for our house to sell. Little did we know that it would take a year (from the time we put it on the market) for it to finally sell. Then, we thought, we can go get our own house.Ha! Not so simple. We have to get a loan based on Matt's job, which he's only had now for two months. This brings up a bunch of red flags to the loan agencies, so they are very timid in giving us financing. We've put an offer on a house, only to find out through the inspection that the previous owner thought of himself as quite the handyman and ruined more things than he fixed. We canceled that offer, and found another house. A short sale, so there are even more hoops. That's where we sit now, waiting to hear back from the bank on whether or not they are going to accept our offer we put in nearly 2 weeks ago.
All that to say that even though I've been a stay at home mom, it hasn't felt that way, since I'm still living with my mom. Sometimes the lines get blurred for Charis as to who she is actually supposed to listen to. The first few months we were here, she regularly called my mom and dad, Mom and Dad.
I keep thinking, This is not how life is supposed to be. Matt and I are supposed to be a family, with Charis. Just the three of us.
(Side note: don't get me wrong, I love my parents, and am SO thankful they are allowing us to stay here and save money! We are forever grateful for their help.)
So for now, we sit and wait. Which is definitely not one of my strengths...patience...ugh. I really don't remember asking for patience. Even if I did, I totally recant it now!!!

Dang little voice

Yesterday I made the decision to start fresh. Work out. Eat right. No over snacking. Drinking my 64 oz of water. You know the drill. About halfway through the afternoon, I had a little voice in my head. I hate this little voice. It always seems to creep in at the worst times. I always hear it as a man's voice too...men, psh! Maybe I should name it, so I could say, "Hey, ........, shut up!"
Anyway, this voice tells me, Why try, you're just going to fail tomorrow. You didn't work out enough to make a difference. It's going to take you FOREVER to lose all the weight you want to lose.
Over the past few months, I've agreed with this voice. I may have gotten up early to run for an hour, but by the afternoon, I'm making plans for my husband and I to go out for chips and salsa. I actually made it through yesterday without giving in to temptation. *Pats self on back* But as I got ready to fall asleep last night, the voice tried one more time, "You won't get up in the morning. You'll lie in bed and then won't have time to work out the rest of the day." I'll admit, I fell asleep wondering if I would or not.
Then this morning, I woke up at 6:20, and I was starting my work out by 6:55. I was so happy that I didn't let the voice win! Maybe the more I daily defeat that negative voice in my head, the easier this will all become.

If only...

Have you ever said those words? If only?
If only I had a boyfriend?
If only I had a good paying job?
If only I had a fuel efficient car?
If only I could weigh what I did in high school?
If only?
If only?
If only?
I stepped on the scale this morning, and immediately I thought, "If only I hadn't stopped that Cinch diet..." "If only I had stuck it out with the P90X..." "If only I could weigh what I did 2 years ago..."

The fact is, I did quit the Cinch diet. I did quit P90X. I don't weigh 148 pounds anymore. I can't run at 8.0mph for more than about a minute and a half (was at one point running an entire mile at this speed and higher). I am not in shape anymore.

So, I have a couple choices. I can sit on the couch and complain about how tight my jeans are, or stare at my closet full of size small tops and complain about how they don't fit anymore...or I can do something about it.

Will I lose 25 pounds in one day? one week? Not a chance. However, I can make choices each day...really each hour...to do the right thing. No more "if only"s. I will only look at today, and how I can make today better through my choices.

What are you going to choose to do differently today?