Goals

Me & my friend, Meghann, almost exactly a year ago before participating in the Dirty Dash

Me & my friend Amanda in NYC (the same weekend as the above picture)

Amanda & I at the 9/11 Memorial (man, I look good ;) )

Me now

I don't love sharing "before" pictures without an "after" to follow, but I'm hoping that blogging about this will help motivate me. In the pictures from last year, I am about 22 lbs lighter than I am now. In my defense, I did just deliver another baby in July. (I think nearly everyone who reads this blog knows that I was a surrogate again, but if you didn't and would like to read about that most recent journey, leave me a comment & I'll add you to my private surrogacy blog.) I lost all of the baby weight very quickly, but haven't lost any more, and I actually started out the pregnancy about 15 lbs heavier than I was in the first pictures (vacations, breaks from working out, and the hormones I had to take before getting pregnant all played a big roll in gaining that much weight before I got pregnant). In fact, I've actually GAINED about 5-6 lbs in the past 4-6 weeks. This is what I find so frustrating about my body: when I am pregnant, I eat whatever I want and still have a hard time gaining weight - I gained no more than 20 lbs during this most recent pregnancy. But then when I am not pregnant, I gain 5+ lbs in a matter of weeks. Not cool. After my last pregnancy (I also delivered a surrogate baby in February 2012), I lost all the baby weight quickly, lost a few more pounds, plateaued, and then finally about 6 months after I delivered, was able to get past that plateau and reach my goal. However, during that pregnancy, I continued working out until I was 34 weeks. During this most recent pregnancy, I stopped working out pretty early on because it was causing me to cramp and that is not a good thing. So for several months, I was not working out and I was eating more sweets and treats than I normally would. It's been hard for me to stop that habit and so I know that's why I've gained some weight instead of losing some. Plus, I would like to start trying to have my own baby at the beginning of the year, so part (okay, a lot) of me thinks, "What's the point of trying to lose weight if I'm just going to get pregnant again?" Yeah, not feeling so motivated. Again, that's why I'm blogging about it, so hopefully it'll help me keep more motivated. *Side note: I know I just delivered 2 months ago, and I should give myself some slack. I do realize that I look pretty good for just delivering a baby, but I can't use that as an excuse forever. Plus, I'm not carrying a baby around with me, so people who don't know me don't know I just delivered a baby and just think I'm chubby. Not that I should care what strangers think, but you know what I mean.*

Here are the three goals that I am currently working towards:

1. I want to be able to fit in the jeans in the first pictures by October 1st. (Those are my favorite jeans!)

2. I would like to lose (at least) 15 lbs by November 1st.

3. I would like to keep that weight off, or continue losing weight, until I get pregnant again.

I will try to post my progress on here as I go along. Wish me luck!

Steven Starts Preschool!

*I am going to try to start blogging again & I thought it would just be easier to start with current events & then add in other stuff if I have time or the inclination.*
Wow, where did the summer go? It is already September? I hate when summer ends, but we had a pretty great summer, and I do love Fall, so it's not all bad. With the start of September this year, Steven also started preschool! Part of me does not feel like this came out of nowhere, because he turns 5 next week, but I also don't want him to grow up so fast!
Because of when Steven's birthday falls, he will be almost 6 when Kindergarten starts. We probably could have tried to get him to start this year, but we liked the idea of him being one of the older ones in his class. That also means he could have started preschool last year, or possibly even the year before that, but I didn't want him to do more than one year of preschool. Some of our neighbors told us about the preschool they sent their daughter to last year and it sounded like it would work for us, too. We met with his teacher in July  and Steven got so excited. He would tell everyone he met that he was starting preschool and that he had already met his teacher. The preschool we're sending him to is a little bit different than traditional preschools. It's actually called a Joy School they focus mostly on teaching kids about the joy in things and how to find the joy in things (the joy of obedience, the joy of the body, the joy of the Earth, etc.), but they also teach pre-academic things as well. So far we like the philosophy & think it will work well for Steven.
The last few weeks of August, and especially last week, were very busy for us. My brother got married last week and so I was really focused on that & also Steven's birthday that's coming up, and didn't really have anything special planned for the first day of school. I think traditions are fun & important, but I just didn't have time to do much. However, I tried to let Steven know that starting school is a special day and tried to make it a little special.

For breakfast I made pancakes and let Steven decide what color to make them (colored pancakes are a pretty standard tradition for special days in our house). He chose purple, but you can't really tell in these pictures. Steven has gotten into the cheesy/forced smile stage.

This one's not too bad. He looks REALLY excited with those huge eyes, though! ;)

 

Yummy pancakes!

Sofia following her cheesy brother's example 

More natural

I didn't have time to make a sign or have Steven pose in a better lit place (for those of you who know me, know I'm usually late, especially in the morning). I tried to get him to smile before we went inside, but I think it was a little too bright.

Right when all the kids get to the preschool, the teacher has some activity out for them to do while they wait for all the kids to arrive. They were loving the playdoh! Sofia was glad she got to join in, too.

Sofia at the start of our first Mommy/Sofia time. She's sad she's not starting preschool, too, but like I said above, I didn't want either of my kids to do two years of school. 

After we picked Steven up from school, we went to McDonald's for lunch as a treat. I let Steven pick & I think he chose here because he wanted to play at the play place. 

Sofia loves chocolate milk!

I actually caught a fairly decent picture in between playing. 

For dinner we had one of Steven's favorite meals: scones (a.k.a. fried bread). I don't have a picture from that because I had a meeting that night, but Steven loved it. :)

Hopefully now I will be a *little* bit better at posting more consistently! ;)