This Sucks

I used to not mind working Saturday's. Now that Ethan's playing soccer and I'm supposed to be co-coach, Saturday's suck because he plays EVERY. SINGLE. Saturday until the end of May. The suck worse than any other day of the week. They suck worse than my busiest day at work. They suck worse than being broken down in the middle of nowhere. They suck worse than being broke at Christmas. Saturday's suck.

On My Own

I thought I was going to "participate" in the biggest loser at work. I didn't. Since August I've been going to see a health coach every two weeks. She resigned about 3 weeks ago and I haven't seen her since our last meeting. I hope she's doing well with her new job. I'll be assigned a new coach. I don't want one. It's not that I liked my old one so well, I don't want a new one. It's that the past three weeks without her, I've had more success being healthy than I did with her.
The reason? It felt like a chore to me. If anyone knows me, they know I hate chores. I don't do well with them. So what I thought would ultimately help me, ended up actually hindering me. Now that I don't have anyone to "answer" to, I feel more confident that I can do this. I actually want to eat healthy. I want to exercise. I want to look good. We all want to look good, but I want it more now than I have in the past 8 months. I feel compelled to do all these things. For me. Not for someone else. Which is another reason I'm not going back.
Another reason? I'm happy with my life now. There are things in my life that still need work, but if I focus on them, I can get through it. I had salmon, salad, and rice for dinner tonight. Not on a huge dinner plate, but a small luncheon plate. It was enough. I am content except for the fact that I will be having about 2 oz of ice cream. Only 2 because it's a 6 oz container and I already ate about 1/3 of it last week.
I'm not sure if I've lost any weight, but I feel more confident in my self image. I don't think I look overly fantastic, but I FEEL fantastic. I have vacation in 3 months, and a wedding of which I am an integral part in a little over a year to keep my motivation up and going.
This time, on my own, I KNOW I can do this.

Random Update

I signed Ethan up for soccer. I still haven't heard anything so hopefully we will soon.
I'm pretty sure I had a nervous breakdown a couple weeks but I worked through it. Luckily Ethan wasn't around to see it. I just realized my family really is there for me and it's an amazing feeling.
My brother is engaged and I'm REALLY REALLY excited about it!! I love him and I love his fiancee. She's super cool and she fits with our family.
Ethan and I will be going to MI for our Spring Break trip in two weeks. I have the ENTIRE 5 days off!!! My brother and his fiancee will be up there for a couple days and then it will be Ethan and me. Excited!!
I'm in a country music listening mood right now so that's what I'll be listening to until I find some other music to listen to. Yes, I like country. Really, I do.
Now that it's nice out I plan on getting my butt up and moving. I have a goal to lose 10 lbs by Ethan's birthday in exactly one month.
I can't believe my baby is almost 6!!!!
I love my apartment. It's messy right now, I absolutely LOVE it.
I applied to Ivy Tech because I FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY decided what I want to do when I grow up...or at least pretend really well to be one. The human body fascinates me. I want to get my hands in it. I want to be in the OR assisting the surgeons. I've decided to be a Surgical/OR tech. I'm really excited about it!!
Ethan is in his "what if?" stage right now. It's fun. "Mommy, what if we had wings?" "Mommy, what if we were robots?"
I'm not picking up any extra hours this summer because I want to spend as much time with my son as I can doing fun things and just spending time together. Last year we couldn't do a whole lot because we had just moved into our apartment and didn't have a whole lot of money. This year I plan on going to Indians games, the Zoo, The Children's Museum, and camping. Plus we'll be going on vacation and I'll probably plan a couple overnights somewhere...cheap.
My cat likes to pee on the floor so we've been putting her in a cage when we're not home. I cleaned the carpets with baking soda, dawn, and H2O2. The smell is pretty much gone. NOW I need to get her fixed.
Ethan and I watch Dirty Jobs together since I record it. He lets me know when Michael says bad words and wants to know if he can say them, too. Don't ask me why he calls Mike Rowe Michael, but he does. We have fun together.
That's it.

YEAH BABY!!!

SUPER BOWL!!! YEEEEAAAAHHHH COLTS!!! I LOVE MY BOYS!!!

Here I Go Again

Last year I chronicled my trials, stresses and successes during the biggest loser challenge at work. We're doing it again this year only I've opted not to do it. Not officially at least. I plan on doing everything I did before; watch portion sizes, make healthier choices, be active. The good news is that I've pretty much plateaued on my weight for the past year. The bad news is that I've plateaued on my weight the past year. But I think I'd rather stay +/- 5 pounds that have fluctuated than gain back all 22 pounds I lost. The other good news, I'm 22 pounds lighter than I was last year when I started. I'm determined to lose another 20 pounds. My goal is to lose it by Ethan's birthday...April 15th...and keep going until I'm at a healthy weight. Not what I want to be, which I think will make me look super unhealthy and gross (120-125), but a healthy weight (135-145) and maintain it like I never have before. I'm already hungry and the competition hasn't started yet. Unofficially, I started about 2 or 3 weeks ago and I've lost 3 pounds in the process. I have a Wii Fit and I need to use it more than I do. I need to sweat. I need to get to the gym. I have three places where I can get physical activity so I have no excuse to not do anything. I've done it before and I can do it again. When I go grocery shopping this week I'll be taking a menu with me so I know what Ethan and I will be having over the next few weeks. It will be healthy, it will be low fat, he may not like some of the options I'll be making but I'll be doing my best to make the meals tasty for both of us. Any suggestions, please let me know.
I can do this. I know I can. I just need to stay motivated. I've been going to a health coach since August and that's helped me a bit. I see her once every two weeks and she's helped me stay motivated and get motivated. She's given me good tools, and good advice, and now I think I'll be following the advice better than I have been.
Here I go again, and I'm really really looking forward to being healthy, feeling great, and looking awesome!!

My Costume

After trying to think of every damn geeky/nerdy show/book/video game/movie yesterday, I finally figured out who I was going to be this year. I'm super stoked about it!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Officer Aeryn Sun from Farscape! I think I'm going to attempt to make her gun and hope that my brother can help me out with the design. I'm also going to attempt to make the leg holster for her blaster. Now I just need to find some kick ass boots and semi-form fitting black pants....

Halloween/GenCon

Every year my brother has a Halloween party. This year, it's themed. GenCon themed. Scifi/comic book/fantasy/video game/cartoon themed. I have NO clue how to dress. I've been running some ideas through my head, but the ones I THOUGHT would be good, well, they're super skinny and wear tight or little to no clothes. Not for me. I'm thinking Indiana Jones, Elsa from The Last Crusade, Moiraine Damodred, Phedre no Delaunay...but still, not a clue. If any of you have any ideas, and I mean ANY ideas, let me know quick because I'm doing my shopping tonight and tomorrow. I'm excited about it either way.

Smokes For Less

I haven't had a cigarette for three weeks. I think the past month I was just smoking because it was something to do and I've been doing it for so long. Pretty much off and on since I was about 16 or 17. I started taking breaks at work just to have a cigarette. Not good when you work in healthcare and smell like smoke. Almost defeats the purpose. I was smoking in my car when I didn't have Ethan with me. Then it got to the point where I was smoking on my balcony in front of Ethan. Granted, he was inside and I was not, but still, that began to bother me more and more. I kept thinking, "This is not a good thing. This is NOT okay." I finally waited until he went to bed before I smoked and that was the only time I allowed myself to do it. I finally got to not wanting cigarettes at all and having them taste like ass...more so than before.
I really want a glass of wine...or a beer...but cigarettes taste oh so good with alcohol. So I'm holding off. I really want a cigarette too. But I like not spending my money on them, and being able to breathe and not having breath that, regardless of how many times I brush, still smells and tastes like an asstray. I'm pretty excited that I haven't had one for this long. I think the longest I've gone before is a few days, or a couple weeks. New personal best for me! I WIN....for now.......

Alison-1
Cigarettes-0

Mini Update

Someday soon I'll be updating this with things I've been doing the past few months...pictures included! I know, right?! I visited my aunt's cabin, I've moved into my own place, I've gone to a kick ass No Doubt concert, and I think that's about it. This month Ethan and I will be taking our annual MI trip and I can't wait. I love going up there like nowhere else.
So soon, eventually, I hope, there will be more posts from me to entertain you. :)

Disney Vacation

I've been told I need to update and post pictures. So, okay, I will. I'm really bad (in case you haven't noticed) in keeping up with this.

As foretold, I got second place in the Biggest Loser at work. It was awesome. When I went on vacation I kinda fell off the healthy eating and have been off ever since. Melanie, one of my friends at work, and I decided that we would get back on after Memorial Day. It's a good plan. Not that I've been eating like super crap, but I have been eating like crap.

We went to Disney a month ago. I can't believe it's already been a month!!! I may have to break this down into separate blogs...or just have a crap ton of pictures to share. :)

We got there on Friday 4/17 late afternoon, early evening. Ethan wanted to go swimming so that's what we did. It was so much fun. There were two pools, a lazy river, an activity center, and a mini golf course. Every morning the first thing Ethan said to me was, "Mommy, let's go play MINI GOLF!" I think we played every day. There was one day we played twice.

The second day (Saturday) we went to Magic Kingdom. Soooo much fun. We were there I think most of the day. We went on a Lilo and Stitch ride that scared Ethan. He's still talking about it and how much it scared him. Apparently not a good ride for 5 year olds. :P We rode on the Blue Star Line train or whatever it's called that goes over Tomorrowland and into some of the rides. That was fun. There's a speedway ride, too and Ethan got to drive the car. ALL. OVER. THE PLACE. But it was fun and he was happy because he got to drive. He even got a driver's license before we started.

Third day (Sunday) we went to Epcot. It was fun for me but Epcot really isn't for the littler kids so we went back to Magic Kingdom. The cool thing about that is that we had a 3 day park hopper pass so we could go to all the parks in one day if we wanted and then go back two more days!

We went on some more rides at Magic Kingdom the second time (Aladdin's Magic Carpet, Pirates, Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (okay, not a ride, but still cool...and I got an awesome shot of Space Mountain)).

Monday we took a break because two days of walking just totally killed us. Mostly my parents and me. It was a good break.

Tuesday we went to Cocoa Beach. We went the back way so we wouldn't have to pay the tolls. We started at Melbourne Beach which is maybe 30-45 minutes south of Cocoa. We ate lunch and played in the water a little bit then headed to Cocoa Beach. We definitely hit Ron Jon's and were there for about an hour. Ethan got some sand toys, a t-shirt, and a key chain with his name on it. I got a HUGE (2X) pink hoodie. We made our way over to the beach and played in the water, in the sand, and had super fun times.

Wednesday we went to Animal Kingdom and looked at all the animals and cool stuff they have. We even went on an African Safari! We did that one twice in a row. There wasn't a big huge wait, so why not. We saw all sorts of neat animals, plants, etc. Once we were done at Animal Kingdom we went back to Magic Kingdom so Ethan could see the SpectroMagic Light Parade and the Wishes Fireworks show. Both totally awesome and made for a super long day. I don't think we got back to the condo until 11:30 and Ethan passed out before we even got on the bus to head back.

Thursday we took our last break and packed since we were leaving on Friday morning.

Friday we left and Saturday we got home. While we were at dinner on Saturday my mom asked Ethan when he wanted to go back to Mickey Mouse's House (which is what he calls it) and he said, as he cocked his little head to the side to think about it, "7 weeks." We definitely all chuckled over that one.

Now on to the pictures. I have a lot so bear with me. :)

This is the view of the resort from our window

Playing MINI GOLF before heading to Magic Kingdom

On Main Street at Magic Kingdom (check me out 22 pounds lighter:))

Driving on the Speedway...surprised I got a decent picture because it was a bumpy ride

Ethan with Mickey and Minnie

One of the topiary gardens at Epcot (Belle and the Beast front and center; Aurora and Phillip in back)

At Epcot in front of Spaceship Earth

In the play area at Epcot

Lion King topiary garden

Space Mountain from Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse

Mom, Me, Daddy, and Ethan (Mom and I were trying unsuccessfully to get Ethan to look at the camera)

Wearing our Mickey Ears

Playing at Cocoa Beach

Ethan, WALL-E, and me in front of Cinderella's Castle waiting for the parade to start

Ethan and the SpectroMagic Parade

I have A LOT more pictures, but I think this is good enough for this tiny little blog. :)