Queen of the Yo-Yo (Dieting that is....)

November 2007- 207 lbs

June 2008- 167 lbs

June 2009- about 192 lbs

March 2010- 167 lbs

July 2010- 180 lbs

April 2011- 157 lbs

This has seriously got to stop...I'm still 157 lbs and I pray it never goes up again!

Mothers Day-2011

Steeplechase 8k

I ran a local 8k this morning.  I ran the same race last year and beat my time by 8 minutes this year- 51:51:)
 

A very sleepy me at 6:30 this morning:)  This is not the most flattering picture of me.  I hate how running shorts have horrible elastic waist bands that accentuate my tummy!

April 27, 2011- This is long but I needed to document it.

I don't feel like I can blog anything else without first mentioning the tornado outbreak Alabama experienced last Wednesday.  The first sirens went off about 5:15a.m. and we got the kids up and into our tornado shelter in our garage.  I must say that after last Wednesday I am grateful for a paranoid husband who recently put this thing in and took up a lot of garage space to do it.  Anyway, after that tornado had passed I tried to get the kids to go back to bed but they didn't.  We decided to send Kayla on to school against my better judgement.  I told Ken that morning that we might as well keep her home...I wish I had.  Hayden and I headed to the gym for an 8:15 class.  I immediately realized I locked my keys in my van for the first time ever.  I sent a text to Ken telling him I needed him to come get us after class....I never heard back...text him again, called him, etc.  Finally decided that he must have accidentally left his phone at home and sure enough he had.  I call my Dad and tell him I need him to come get me and take me by my house to get the spare key to the van and take me back to the gym.  He laughs and comes to our rescue.  Meanwhile another tornado siren goes off while Hayden and I are waiting at the gym.  I watch the t.v.'s that are on and determine that the tornado isn't headed in our exact direction.  Dad shows up..takes us home...I get the key..get back to the van and Hayden and I head home.  Ken comes home to get his phone and we discuss whether or not to go get Kayla.  We keep thinking they are going to release school early because of the prediction of more tornadoes all day.  I decided I would wait awhile to go get her.  I watched the weather and it looked like we were going to get a break in the weather so I got in the shower.  I got out of the shower and turned on the t.v. to see the latest weather.  I realized more tornadoes will be headed our way within the hour.  I knew I needed to go get Kayla quickly but I had soaking wet hair.  I call Ken and he agrees to meet me at Kayla's school so he could go inside and check her out for me and he could go back to work and I could take her home.  As I am driving to Kayla's school I look in the sky and can see it is dark headed our direction.  I listen to the radio while I am waiting for Ken to bring her to my van.  It says it will be in downtown "ourtown" in 20 minutes.  Oh my word!  It takes me at least 10 minutes to get home as Kayla goes to the magnet school across town from our house.  Ken rushes her outside and into the van I take off toward home.  I normally don't freak out in these situations but knowing what the meteorologists were predicting for the day and seeing the clouds myself and knowing that being in a car just wasn't safe I was scared.  My heart was racing and my stomach was hurting.  I drove like a maniac...a careful maniac but a maniac.  The closer we got to our house the closer the dark clouds were getting and I realized it was a wall cloud within a couple of miles from our house.  As we pulled into the neighborhood I told the kids to go ahead and unbuckle and get ready to get out of the van and into the storm shelter as soon as we got in the garage.  Ken decided to come on home considering he does work downtown.  We all huddled in the storm shelter AS the wall cloud went over our house.  Ken and I just looked at each other knowing that we literally could have just been swept away if  the wall cloud had decided to turn into something else around our house.  The rest of the day was spent in and out of the storm shelter and watching the news.  At one point in the afternoon we spent 3 hours in the shelter because the storms were right after another.  Ken had returned to work and once again came home as another dark wall cloud went over our house.  We lost power and the radio stations weren't reporting good information about our town.  Hundreds of tornadoes went through Alabama that afternoon and it was hard for them to report good information on them all simultaneously.  My phone doesn't get reception in the storm shelter but I was getting in and out and texting my Mom asking her to get on her computer and find out when storms were coming.  She spent the afternoon watching and texting me when to take cover.  Finally we hear on the radio that we are ok to get out of the shelter that the storms were over for us.  We are still without power but luckily still have an hour or so of daylight left to find the flashlights and candles.  I don't even remember what we ended up having for dinner but we ate dinner and went to bed early since it got VERY dark with no power. 

Kids in the storm shelter

Thursday morning we woke up and learned that it was a possibility that we would be without power for a few days.  Ken went on to work because he is an insurance agent and boy was there work to be done.  There are several towns within minutes to an hour of us that have completely been demolished.  It is devastation like we haven't experienced here.  Sitting at home with two kids without power kind of sent me into a panic mode because I realize I have NO gas in my van and no power= not being able to get gas from gas stations.  Our entire town is without power as well as every other town in North Alabama.  Ken heads to a neighboring town to see if the office there has any power because we did hear that some parts of that town do have it.  They don't so he drives around looking for gas to top off his tank and looks for a gas can to get some gas for me.  Oh and he also got some ice since we would need it for our coolers.  He also stops at a store to get me a car charger because my cell phone is dead and it is my only communication without power.  He also picked up a bunch of snack foods since we didn't really know what we would eat over the next few days.  Meanwhile, I realize that the food in our freezer is already defrosting so I decide to go ahead and cook it on the grill.  I grill some hamburgers and hotdogs and then put some chicken and ham on the grill.  I wonder why it is taking so long for them to cook and then realize the grill has run out of propane....oh no...NOT good!  Ken has my phone with him to try to charge if he finds power at another insurance office and since it was dead it was useless to me.  I can't call him and tell him to find propane too.   He comes home later that afternoon and we all head out to try to find propane (we do and had to wait about an hour in line to get it.)   We discuss the possiblity of heading to my Mom's in Gulf Shores but decide to wait it out another day and see what they are saying about the power situation.  I get a text from my Mom that two of our relatives in another part of the state were killed in a tornado.  I need to get the news to my grandparents who live in the same town as us.  My cell service is bad so I can't call my Mom.  Ken needed to touch base with his boss so we went over to his house and I use their cell phone to call my Mom.  I learn that the people killed were my grandfathers sister and her son.  We also learn that they are saying we could be without power for 5-10 days.  We then decide to go to my Dad's house to see what they are doing since I haven't heard from them because of the bad cell service.   The kids and I hang out there for awhile and Ken volunteers to go and tell my grandparents the sad news of relatives passing away.  When Ken returns we kind of get in an argument over going to my Mom's and leave my Dads rather quickly because I am mad at him.  (not a big deal...arguments happen in every marriage, just keeping it real)   We get home and cook hamburgers for dinner.  Again we go to bed early because it is very dark.  We get power about midnight and I get up and quickly turn on the dishwasher and a load of laundry.  We don't know how long this power will last. 

Friday morning Ken goes to work and the kids and I head out to find gas before the power goes out again.  We find it quickly and I am THRILLED!  We came back home and got ready for the day.  We went to Walmart to get a few things in case the power really was on for good and we had already thrown away everything in our refrigerator.   Later that afternoon we headed to the gym so I could workout and the kids could play in a different environment.  While at the gym we learn we are once again without power...oh no...I just bought chocolate milk for Kayla, lunchmeat for Hayden and a few other refrigerated items for us.  We get home from the gym and quickly transfer everything into coolers.  We once again have hamburgers for dinner.  I think this might be the night we played Monopoly Junior by candlelight but I can't remember exactly which night it was. 

Saturday morning we woke up and Ken wanted to show me some of the devastation he saw the day before while checking on his clients.  Oh and some places still had power so Ken went and got us biscuits for breakfast.  I think those were the best biscuits we had ever eaten!  We ride to a town 15 minutes from our front door and my heart just breaks when I see the houses and businesses just gone. 

what is left of a house

Then he wants us to ride to another town 15 minutes in another direction and it too is demolished.  We passed a trailor park that we knew many injuries and deaths occured in and it just broke my heart. 

 A trailor park

Storage buildings...behind the parked car is what is left of another set of them

Some friends of ours live in a neighborhood minutes from that trailor park so we decided to ride by and check on their house.  The wife was in the yard so we stopped and talked to her for a little while and then traveled on.  We passed a church that many people were gathered at that was completely demolished. 

One of the churches we passed

My heart broke for them.  I talked to my Mom and asked if my grandparents needed anything and my grandfather wanted some milk.  His deep freezer is an old one that was holding ice well.  So we went to the store to find him milk and delivered it.  We came home and Ken mowed the grass and I took a nap.  I think I was just mentally exhausted.  We learned that my Dad had power so we headed over there for showers and ended up eating dinner over there as well.  We got home about 9:00 to learn that we had power once again....but would it stay?

Sunday morning our church had only one service and we went and it was such a moving yet sad service.  Our pastor's hometown was demolished ....completely.  He was in tears and didn't know what to say.  We sang songs of praise and then had a share service of praise.  Sunday night we went to a benefit concert that Casting Crowns did for a nearby town since our church cancelled service.

It is the following Friday morning and I sit here so thankful to God that my family is ok but so saddened for those who lost their loved ones.  We have donated financially and gathered clothes, books and personal hygiene items and donated them as well.  I encourage you to do the same if you can.  I don't have specifics but all you have to do is google a reputable organization such as the red cross and donate to them.

50 pounds lighter:)

Here is a lovely picture of me captured by my 2 year old at the time in March 2009- weighing about 50lbs more than I do now. (about 207 lbs)

Here is me 2 years later 50lbs smaller:)- I have lost 15 lbs since January 2011

(sorry the pic is blurry but it was taken the day I reached the 50 lb mark)- 157 lbs

Here is me 9 1/2 years ago exactly 20 lbs smaller than I am now.  Our 10 year wedding anniversary is August 18th- can I lose 20 more lbs in 4 months...I don't know but I would LOVE to be close!- 137 lbs

I am 5'4" and was 137 when I got married.  I wore a size 6 in clothing.  I do have big thighs and a big booty no matter what size I am.  I would have to starve to go much lower than 140...my body just doesn't go much smaller.

Kayla's Mile Run

Kayla's school runs their mile run at a local park every year and parents are invited to run with them.  I did this last year with her and of course she wanted me to run it again this year.  I am glad to run it with her but the problem with this year was that I have some sort of allergy induced upper respiratory thing going on so I can't breathe but I survived.

 Us right after the start

Us in the middle- running an 8:30 minute mile at this point

About to reach the finish line...she was exhausted!  A few moments before this she had been walking and I grabbed her hand and told her she was beating her time from last year by a lot (this was her goal) and that she could do it.  So, we finished it holding hands.  She beat her last years time by 1:30!  I am SO proud of her!

Us crossing the finish line

Now...here is a picture from last year:)  (I think I was a little over 10 pounds heavier...YUCK!)

What is the point...

in spending forever drying and straightening hair when this is what you look like at some point every single day?!  I have to laugh at myself for taking the time to do it because inevitably I will be running, doing a workout video or going to do a weight class or spinning class at the gym sometime that day and will have to shower and redry my hair all over again...ugh...I wish I looked good with short hair:)