Blueberry Ever After

Sorry to shout at y'all but I am super excited to announce that after 11 months on weight watchers I finally made my goal weight today!!! I am back in my pre-pregnancy clothes and it has been interesting going through all of my winter stuff and trying it on since I was 26 pounds heavier this time last year.

So although bikini season is over, I have finally achieved my bikini quest goal. Now I just have to maintain it over the holiday season. Wish me luck!

Apparently Luke has become obsessed with the bubble machine at daycare. As in, dunk your head in it obsessed. He came home looking like this yesterday:

One of my uncles uncovered this really cool photo of my grandparents from 1938. Seeing it really brightened my day so I had to share it here. I just love old family pictures. We lost my grandmother about 8 years ago and I still miss her terribly. I wish Jay could have met her. I so wish she could have been here to see Luke. They would have had a blast together. She was such a cool lady and so much fun to be around. I can actually see a little of myself in her in this photo which makes it extra special. Except I don't think I was ever that skinny!

Good news! Finally, after 3 weeks in a row of slight weight increases, I am down 2.6 pounds this week! This puts me slightly below where I was on May 1st. Total weight lost from January 1st until now is 20.8 pounds. Yahoo! I have the bikini in my sights now and am hoping to debut it at our annual Laborless Labor Day retreat in a few weeks. We are meeting up with Courtney, Greg and Avery at Lake Lure.

5.6 pounds remain between me and my goal weight. I hope I can stay on target this time and keep moving forward. Wish me luck--the last few pounds are always the hardest to take off!

Jay graciously constructed a raised garden box for me this weekend so I can attempt some fall planting. I have a self-described brown thumb, but I am hoping to change that. I have been reading up on square foot gardening and plan to plant some broccoli, spinach, sugar snap peas and also a few herbs for fall harvesting. Wish me luck! (Don't worry, I am aware that I will need soil. Baby steps...)

Sadly I have gotten pretty far off track with my healthy eating habits over the last month. I am up about 4 pounds where I was several weeks ago. It sucks but it is my own fault. We had company from abroad and of course had to take them to all our lovely american eateries complete with free refills on just about everything. Not to mention it has been so hot I get angry at the end of the day if there is not a cold cocktail in my hand.

Also, I love my new neighborhood to death, but these people are making me fat! We get invited to a party here just about every weekend. As a matter of fact, we can hardly walk Luke down the street without getting invited in somewhere for a beer. And who is going to turn down a cold beer when it is 95 degrees outside? Not this big girl!

Anyway, I am on a mission to get back on track. So please don't be upset if I turn down your beer or your banana pudding. It's nothing personal, I just have a date with my bikini ok?

Little man is starting to look like a big boy, now that he has all these teeth. He made me quite nervous during this photo shoot as he kept attempting to display his newfound walking skills on the extremely hard cement floor! Luckily we got a few decent shots in between all the toddling arround:

Been thinking about my birthday wish list and came up with a few things:

• One thing I'd love is a mother's necklace, something like one of these:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/43318655/custom-hand-stamped-sterling-silver-i-lo?ref=sr_gallery_10&ga_search_query=to+the+moon+and+back&ga_search_type=&ga_page=3&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title

http://www.etsy.com/listing/40615097/hand-stamped-sterling-silver-charm-neckl

http://www.etsy.com/listing/38847108/love-you-to-the-moon-sterling-silver-cir?ref=sr_list_6&ga_search_query=mother%26%2339%3Bs+necklace+star&ga_search_type=&ga_page=&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title

http://www.etsy.com/listing/16619996/on-the-day-you-were-born-necklacepersona?ref=sr_list_23&ga_search_query=mother%26%2339%3Bs+necklace+star&ga_search_type=&ga_page=2&includes%5B0%5D=tags&includes%5B1%5D=title

• Subscription to Food Network and/or Cooking Light magazine.
• Bubble bath
• A new watch
• Rain barrels, gardening books (see Amazon wish list), composter.
• Fabulous purse hook
• A carpet steam cleaner. Is this sad? Kind of like this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Bissell-ProHeat-Select-Upright-Cleaner/dp/B000ASDCWK/ref=sr_1_41?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1271817322&sr=1-41

• New nonstick cookware. Now that we are going to have two kitchens I would like to shift my stainless steel gear to the basement. I like this set for upstairs:

http://www.amazon.com/Anolon-Professional-12-Piece-Nonstick-Hard-Anodized/dp/B00006910G/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1271818251&sr=1-12

• One of these for the new screened in porch would be sweet:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=16807184&RN=2172

Or I'd take a wanna be equivalent such as this: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=14871942&RN=2172

• Giftcards are always nice!

Here are some scans from Luke's school pictures a few weeks ago. Can you tell he just woke up? What gave it away first, the bedhead or red eyes? These were taken the day he turned 10 months old. And because I am biased and think he is gorgeous even if he did just roll out of bed and have these taken, I am posting them here!

A quick bikini quest 2010 update: I am under the 10 pound mark! Yes, after a disappointing week last week, I got back on track and am down 2 more pounds today for a total of 16.8 pounds lost since January 1st. That means I have only 9.6 pounds to lose to get to my goal weight. Hallelujah!

The best news this week is that while I was in the middle of packing for our move I pulled out a bunch of pants from the spare room closet that I haven't worn in two years and I was able to not only squeeze into, but also button several pairs. These are pre-pregnancy pants people! Maybe everything isn't squeezing back in exactly how it used to, but who cares? Yay for shopping in my own closet! It's way fun.

And since we are heading to up to the 80 degree mark and beyond this weekend maybe I will sweat off a few more pounds since I am a cheapass who won't turn on the AC until absolutely necessary!

This week's Bikini Quest Update:

Okay, so I am a little more than halfway to goal actually. 14.6 pounds down, with 11.8 left to lose. I've lost a whole stone now! I am kind of shocked. When I first started on this weight loss mission, it seemed near impossible. I thought I would have to spend the rest of my life holding onto this extra pregnancy weight. However it seems to be coming off slowly but surely, and the more I lose, the more confident I am in myself that I can really do this.

The best part is that now that my body has adjusted to the portion control I really don't feel deprived. I still get to have my glass of wine with dinner and that is good because the way work has been going lately, I have needed it! Honestly, I feel great. I was really missing feeling good about myself and I feel like I have that back now. It's pretty awesome.

Work has been very busy this week and has prevented me from getting to the grocery store to pick up essentials (ie. bread). Last night I decided to make burgers and fries for dinner because not only is that quick and easy, but we had all the ingredients we needed at home so I could put off shopping one more day. Or so I thought. I forgot about the whole bread/bun aspect of burgers. Seeing as we are out of bread and I am already trying to purge our freezer of extraneous food since we are preparing to move, I dug through the freezer and came out with a package of hot dog buns. Hence, the hamdogs we had for dinner were born. I think I did pretty well working with what we had last night, no?

I have to give credit where credit is due on the term hamdog though. This dates back to me and Courtney's 2007 trip to Chicago where I had to employ the same bun tactic, as can be seen in this post.

Never fear, I am getting out to the store today!

Note to self: babyproof the house!

This week I am down again, probably mostly in part to the terrible stomach bug Jay gave me for Valentine's Day, but hey, I'll take it. Although I don't recommend that diet plan to anyone and would much rather have enjoyed the steak and lobster dinner I planned, than go to bed at 7:30pm that night feeling worse than I can ever remember feeling without being under the influence of alcohol. Fortunately, I have finally fully recovered and managed to squeak out a 4.5 mile training run yesterday with no issues, so hopefully I am back on track for this week.

My weigh in today brings me down a total of 10.2 pounds, which I am thrilled with and amazed by! I just hope I can keep up this momentum for the remaining pounds I have left to lose. It feels great to finally be at a point where people can see the change in me and it is keeping motivated to finish the quest! See you next week!

Yesterday morning we woke up to this:

And then this (Yes, we will be dropping his crib today!):

Luckily, by 3pm or so the backyard looked like this:

Now that is my kind of snow! And hopefully the last we'll see of it this season. :)

I am back to report another successful week of bikini questing...down 2.6 pounds this week! Yay! I don't want it to sound like it is all sunshine and roses all the time when I am holding it down over here for the diet, because truth be told, it ain't easy. Yes, I wanted a steaming buttery hunk of garlic bread with my pasta last night...and while portion control and learning to hold back have taught me that I don't need the bread, nothing will ever stop me from wanting it!! I didn't cave though, had a nice spinach salad instead, which I am sure helped me on the scales this morning. Thank you, willpower!

I am super excited to report that I am down a total of 7.8 pounds as of today, as well as a pants size--wahoo! Want to know what feels really awesome? Needing a belt.

So, I am still not back into those pre-baby jeans yet, but this week I am one step closer. Oh, and bikini, you're next!

This week I am down 2 more pounds, which brings my total weight loss to 5.2! Woot! It feels so great to be able to say "I've lost 5 pounds since the beginning of the year." Somehow 5 just sounds like a better number than 3 or 4...like I am really making some progress. Still have a ways to go, but my pants are definitely getting looser and that is a wonderful feeling! Hopefully I will be able to keep at it. Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. Watch out bikini, I am coming for you!

I know I am several weeks behind on this Christmas post, and it is barely still January, but humor me! We spent Christmas out in Nevada with my parents and sister and even got to spend some time with my Aunt Chris and Uncle Claude too, who are wintering in AZ. We covered more ground than you'd expect in 7 days with a 7 month old, squeezing in a trip to Laughlin, NV and also a night in Lake Havasu, AZ where we got to see the original London bridge...who knew?

Luke did great on the flights out and back. We really are lucky to have such a mellow kid. The only time he got fussy was on the landings when his little ears hurt. But as soon as we gave him a bottle he settled right down. And the time change didn't throw him off too much in NV either. He let us sleep until almost 7am most mornings and the best part was the morning after we arrived home, when he slept until 9:30am. Score!

His Nana & Grandpa did a good job of spoiling him for Christmas but we did manage to fit everything in our cases to carry home. Luke's favorite toys so far have been a jack-in-the-box and spinning top, both of which he finds mesmerizing.

It is hard to believe his first Christmas is over and we have started a whole new year. 2009 was packed full of amazing surprises for us. It started out a little rocky but quickly turned into the best year of our lives. I look forward to seeing what 2010 brings for us!

The London Bridge, all decked out with holiday wreaths:

Luke was very serious that day, taking in all the sights:

Posing by the fountains:

Hey does this thing work?

Luke had lots of fun playing with Grandpa Tim:

And he loved hanging out with Great Aunt Chris:

As you can see, Uncle Claude was really impressed with all of us:

Grandpa, how does my hat look?

Jay was formally initiated into the family this year with an Inch-style stocking:

Of course, Luke had to have one too:

Waking up Aunt Becky Christmas morning:

The tree with a crapload of presents underneath!

Luke got lots of nice gifts that morning:

But of course, playing with the paper is always more fun!

Modeling his new outfit from Aunt Courtney:

We have adopted the English tradition of Christmas crackers, they are so much fun, especially after a few mimosas!