Toot my own horn!

I am not really trying to toot my own horn here but I just wanted to share. In my interview the director asked me to name one of my greatest accomplishment. A challenge I faced and overcame. I told her weight loss would have to be at the top of that list. Any of you who have know me more than 10 years have seen my battle with weight. Sharing this with her made me want to see difference beyond knowing the numbers. I made this collage of my largest size and weight. Most of them are right before I got prego with Alexander.



Here are the most recent pictures. I am down 75 pounds from my heaviest, which was about 4 years ago. I know that I am not where I need or want to be, it is a struggle I continue to face. I am planning a starting a new work out program in the next weeks and hope this will provide motivation to achieve my goal before the end of the year.

Settled

After moving, finding a car, Grandma, Grandpa, Mia, Papi, Melody, Michaela, Caedence, Caleb and Matthew visiting, Vacationing at the beach and finding a job I think we are finally settled. What a crazy month it has been!!

Downtown Opelika is full of trains which is so great for Alexander....but when you have to wait for one..arrrrrh!


Downtown Opelika at the small town festival.

Alexander somehow works his way to get a Popsicle....Can you guess what color?

Mia came up last Wednesday to watch Alexander because I had a job interview. She took Alexander back with her to spend a few days. So Jeremy and I had the WHOLE weekend all to ourselves! It was wonderful! We left out house about 7 am on Saturday and did not get back home until 10pm....We went to yard sales, to Columbus, GA, to the PX/BX, to the Chattahoochee River, and back to Auburn for some dinner. What a fun crazy day we had.....On Sunday we caught up on some house stuff, we put some stuff in the attic and cleaned the garage..yuck...but glad it is done.

Yes you read right I had a job interview, I got the job but it was for a paraprofessional and not a lead teaching position. Which means not quite as much money as we wanted me to make. I struggled with this for a few days knowing that Phil 4:19 says "my God shall supply all your needs"....I thought maybe this was not the job God had for me since it was not what we needed me to make. Not too long after hitting the job market AGAIN putting in more applacatons...UGH....I got a call from the preschool that offered me the job. The lead position come available in the class I wanted....WHAT!?!?....this meant more money and the hours I wanted. God is so faithful to us."I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel." PS 71:22
I will start on Aug 9 and I am so excited!

We did also have to get a new car after the accident I had on the way to Alabama from Kansas. Our CRV was totalled out. We got a 2007 Santa Fe and we love it. We got a really great deal on it and know God was in the whole thing.

THE DIRTY 30.

On the 11th I turned the dirty 30!

My special surprise from Jeremy!! You all know I love to take pictures!

Dinner at the Amsterdam Cafe....man was it so good!!

I must say I was not super excited about turning 30 so far away from my friends and family. But my parents traveled from Florida on Friday for a WHOLE weekend of celebrating. I truly enjoyed spending Saturday with my mom doing girlie stuff and relaxing. I really needed some girl time and even better some mom, daughter time. Then on Sunday Herb and Debbie drove all the way over to have wings and cake with us. It made me feel so special to have so many people I care about there. Then we went to this amazing restaurant on Sunday night. It was a small nice place to enjoy my birthday. What a wonderful day!

As for where I am at 30...

I have so many blessing I cannot regret things that happened or didn't happen to get me here. I have married the man of my dreams, have 2 wonderful dogs, have the most beautiful son, and I have been able to live in 3 different states. I am so thankful for loving parents both blood and married and wonderful brothers and sisters. I also have the world greatest friends! Being 30 gives me the ability to look back over the last 30 years and know that Thankful is what I should be......It is what I am!

Cupcakes Yall

Mia found these cupcakes from a place called cupcakes yall....oh man were they good!!



I go a BIG dream cycle one all to myself....well sort of.

Alexander was upset that it was not his birthday.

Can you find something in this picture? I will give you a hint....it is on the back of alexander's head.

Look close....it is a praying mantis....Alexander did not believe that it was on his head. I can assure you if he knew there was really a bug on his heard he would have had a cow!!!

More 4th

On the 3rd we went to Fort Rucker for their 4th celebration.....it was great! Alexander has been afraid of the fire works because they are so loud so we got Alexander some ear defenders and he loved watching them! It was a great fireworks show, one of the best I have seen!



On the 4th we grilled and enjoyed some family time relaxing!

Alexander with his 1st sparkler he was not afraid of....he thought it was really cool!

Happy 4th of July

Alexander loves all the Army stuff or as Mia has taught him the GI Joe stuff!



Having fun in the jump house.

Waiting in line for the train.

Oh yeah baby THE TRAIN!! We love the train!

Family pictures

We took one of our family pictures on the deck of the beach house, I really like the way this one turned out.

Having dinner at Uncle Ernie's.

Splash Park

After spending some of the morning at the beach we went to the splash park. The water in the ocean was really rough and the kids could not swim so we really wanted to give them the chance to play in the water.



Th blue slide was the big hit.....Alexander......

Beckett......

and Evie went down it about 100 times.

Finally at the beach

Alexander on the camel at Shuchum's.....this was snapped really fast. It was raining and the camel was wet.


Alexander digging at the beach. It rained almost the whole time we were at the beach, Papi set up the tents and we let the kids play in the rain....it was so much fun!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the beach this year....what a sweet boy God has blessed me with.

Lake Powell

Thanks to hurricane Alex we had a couple of rain days....on one of them we all went to see Toy Story 3.....It was great!


Check out this float! It was perfect for the lake! We loved relaxing on it and the kids loved jumping and sliding on it.

Wheeeeee

Alexander riding the jet ski with Mia.....he did say the papi drove faster...too funny!

A Day on the Boat

One of mine and Alexander's favorite things to do at the beach is to go out on the boat.


Morning snack on the boat.

Alexander loved driving the boat!!