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! ;)

The End of the Cruise

Our last full day on the ship was spent at sea. It was nice to be able to sleep in & relax, but we were all a little sad that our trip was coming to an end. 

Our last little towel animal

I don't remember what exactly we did on our last day, but nothing too crazy. I think we just hung out, played some shuffleboard (for real), and went to some of the activities that were going on around the ship. Oh, and Tyler & Josh took full advantage of the pizza bar one last time.
That night Josh & I had reservations for one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. We had made all of those reservations before we got on board, before we knew what the other food on the ship would be like. We could have cancelled the reservation, but we had to do it more than 24 hours in advance, and by the time we got back from Cozumel and got showered, it was too late to do it. We still could have not gone, but they would have charged us the full price per person if we hadn't gone. It was an Italian place and it was okay, but not great. We would've preferred to eat in the main "casual" dining room. Now we know that the next time we go on a cruise, we should check out all the free dining rooms before paying extra for a specialty one.

After dinner we met up with Tyler & Armyn and went to some of the shows and then did some last-minute exploring. 

Josh & I in front of one of the big Christmas trees on the ship

Tyler & Armyn

Cool blue tree

The next day was Sunday and the day we had to get off the ship. We finished our last minute packing and then went and got some breakfast at the buffet (I think it was the only thing open). After breakfast we said goodbye to the ship and went through customs. When we were done with that, we called the same guy who had driven us to the port from our hotel and had him take us to the airport. The ship is supposed to dock at 8 am, but we didn't want to risk missing our flight, and ships aren't always on time, so we booked a later flight that didn't leave until 2 or 3 pm. There was an 11 am flight that we actually would have had plenty of time to make and we thought about trying to get on that one, but we would have had to pay the difference in the ticket prices, and it wasn't worth it. My brother & his family were living in Florida at the time and were actually fairly close to Tampa that weekend. I knew we had a long wait, so they met us at the airport so we could hang out for a bit. We had originally planned on all of us (Tyler & Armyn included) going to the beach, but then my sister-in-law didn't know the beaches near there and didn't know if there would be showers there so we could clean off before our flight, so we decided to skip the beach and go to a park instead. Then, when we got to the airport, they told us we couldn't check our bags more than 4 hours before the flight  so we had to keep our bags with us. Because of that, there wasn't enough room in my brother's car for all 8 of us plus all of our bags, so Tyler & Armyn stayed at the airport. 

It was really nice being able to see my brother & his family, even though it was way too short.

Josh, me, Ethan, Emily, Dave & Mary

After we were able to hang out for a little bit, they took us back to the airport. We checked our bags and went to hang out near our gate. There was a Chile's there (the airport version with a smaller menu & faster service) that we thought about eating at, but we didn't think we'd have enough time. We bought some other food that was, of course, outrageously expensive, and waited for our flight. Tyler & Armyn joined us later (they had been wandering somewhere else) for a little bit before our flight left. They had a later flight and had to wait a bit more. 

The flights were fine, just kind of boring and a bit long. We only had one layover, so it wasn't too bad. We got into Salt Lake at about 10 PM local time. There was a little bit of snow on the ground at the airport, but as we drove further south to pick up our kids, the snow on the ground increased dramatically. The kids were asleep when we picked them up and I don't think they really knew what was going on. When we got home and put them to bed, though, I gave Sofia a hug and she kind of woke up and said, "Mommy!" in a very sleepy but excited voice. It was so sweet!

It was so nice to be back with our kids & home in our bed, but it was a little sad to not be on vacation anymore and to come home to snow.  I definitely would love to do another cruise some day, hopefully sooner than later. I would also like to take my kids on one, too, but I don't think that will be any time soon. The next time I go on a cruise, I would like to spend a little bit more and go on a slightly nicer one. I would love to go on one for my 30th birthday, which is in 2 1/2 years, so hopefully we can make that work!

Cruise Day #6

Our forth and final port was spent in Cozumel, Mexico. It was also by far our favorite day. When we got off the ship, we took a taxi to the place called Chankanaab Park. I'm not sure how to describe it. The park is actually a national park, and therefore a reserve for the native wildlife of the area. At the site, they have also built up a resort of sorts. They have a sea lion show, a dolphin encounter, restaurant (or two), a beautiful beach, and also an amazing reef that you can snorkel and dive in. I think the admission is normally $20 per person (or so), which, after being there, I think it's worth the price, but we were able to get free admission into the park because we had bought packages for the dolphin encounter. My mother-in-law had told Josh & I that we should really try to do that at one of our stops; she said that it had been one of her favorite excursions she had ever done. Tyler found an awesome deal online (buy one get one free!) and we jumped on it. 

Josh & I at the park

One of the beautiful walkways through the park

We found a big iguana

Josh checking out the lizard

A beautiful lagoon inside the park

Back to his normal picture antics...

This was not a fire pit, it was a blow hole from the ocean that they had covered for safety reasons. I'm not sure why Josh got in there...

Walking to the beach. How beautiful is that?

Tyler, Josh, Armyn

The beautiful beach we got to hang out on 

Josh & I chilling in a hammock we found on the beach

This is where the dolphin encounter was

A group ahead of us interacting with the dolphins

The only bummer thing about this day was that we didn't get any pictures with the dolphins. They wouldn't let us take our camera in because they had professional photographers taking tons of pictures. We really would have liked to have bought pictures to bring home, but the price was a bit too high, and we were not expecting to pay that much. I can't remember exactly how much it came out to, but it was a lot. I do remember that it was more than what we had paid for the encounter itself (because of the deal we got), but I don't remember if the price was per couple or for the whole CD. We couldn't negotiate the price because it was a big business and their prices were set. Had we known how much it was going to be, we probably would have budgeted for it. And honestly, if it had just been Josh & I doing it, we may have splurged, but we were okay with the decision in the end.
The encounter itself was really cool, though. There's a platform under the water that you stand on most of the time (it was a good idea to hold on to the dock, because the water moved you quite a bit). The trainer had the dolphin swim in front of all of us and we got to touch it. Then she showed us a bunch of different hand signals and we all got to interact with the dolphin one-on-one. We did things like put our hand out straight in front of us and the dolphin would come up and touch your palm (you can kind of see that in the above picture, especially if you zoom in), kiss the dolphin's nose, and  "shake hands". Then we got to actually swim with the dolphins. One of these times, we were able to hold on to the fin of two dolphins (one on each side), and then they pulled us back to the dock. The other one, which was really cool, was kind of like flying through the water. You laid on your stomach and flexed your feet and locked your knees so you wouldn't bend. Then the dolphins would come behind you, put their nose on your foot (one on each foot I think) and then push you through the water. Some of the people got a lot higher out of the water than others, but everyone had a really good time. After we finished with the dolphins, we also got to pet the two manatees they had there. Very cool! If you ever have the chance to swim with the dolphins, take it! And also plan to spend quite a bit on pictures because you will want them!
After swimming with the dolphins, we went to the beach with the plan of going snorkeling. There were about four dive shops on the beach where you could rent diving or snorkeling equipment. Josh really wanted to go scuba diving but didn't want to go by himself. He found a guy that was willing to give him a GREAT deal to take him scuba diving. Josh has been certified, but hasn't gone scuba diving in years. Tyler had never been diving, but the guy said he could just give them both a quick course before taking them down. We finally convinced Tyler to "splurge" and go (it didn't matter how many times we told him that it was a really good deal, he still felt like he was spending too much. This was a constant theme throughout the cruise ;) ). Armyn & I rented the equipment we needed to go snorkeling (for also a great deal) and went snorkeling. Tyler wanted to take the camera scuba diving, but he wasn't sure how deep the camera could go under water, and didn't want to risk ruining it, so Armyn & I took it with us.

There were several sunken statues under the water. The water wasn't too deep (probably 20-30 feet at the most) and it was really clear, so we could see a lot even though we were snorkeling. This was also the best snorkeling we had done on the trip.

I'm not sure what this statue was of, but I'm guessing the Virgin Mary

A large school of fish by this very large coral formation

Another view of the school of fish

I'm pretty sure this statue was an interpretation of Christ on the cross

Right above it

Selfie

While we were snorkeling, we saw Josh & Tyler as they headed out

They saw us, too. Josh

Tyler

Cool fish we saw

These fish are much prettier in person

Armyn

More pretty fish

More self portraits

While we were snorkeling, his photographer came up to us to take a picture of us. He had some tortilla in his pocket that he threw towards us to get the fish to swim in front of us. I think it's a pretty awesome picture. I'm sorry it's not the best quality, but I had to take a picture of it with my phone to get it on my computer.

When we were getting out, I just about had a heart attack. There were stairs going in and out of the water, because there isn't a beach, just coral. As I was getting out, I still had my fins on and slipped on the stairs trying to get out. I was more careful after that and took my fins off before trying to climb any more stairs. As I got out, I looked down at my hand and realized that I did not have the camera any more. It had been around my wrist not long before, but it wasn't there anymore. I left my fins on the stairs and got back in the water to look for it. Fortunately, the camera was just at the bottom of the stairs. It must have fallen off my wrist when I was getting out. I had to take off my life jacket to get it, but I got it and it was fine. Thank goodness! I would have felt soooo awful if I had lost it! After I got out the second time, I also realized that I had scraped my foot on the stairs while getting out. I still have a little scar there.

While Tyler and Josh were diving, another photographer came and followed them around and took pictures. I guess there's one that takes pictures of snorkelers, and one that takes pictures of the divers. When the guys got out of the water, they were able to get a good deal on the CD of the pictures, and the guy threw in the picture of Armyn and I as well. I'm glad we got those because they turned out pretty good. 

Josh just starting the dive

Tyler

Josh & Tyler in front of the Virgin Mary (I think) statue

Josh & Tyler

Josh petting some sort of ray (I think)

What Josh was petting in the above picture

Josh following around the same school of fish we saw that was swimming around the coral formation

You can't really see it, but Josh is holding some sort of spider-looking thing in his hand

Tyler also holding something you can't really see. I'm not sure if it was the same thing that Josh was holding or not

In front of the Christ statue

Tyler doing flips

I think this is the point where the photographer had come back with a better camera, because all of the pictures after this are more clear

Swimming in to an underwater cave

The greenish glow/haze you see around the opening of the cave is caused by meeting of salt water with fresh from a river that enters the cave from above

This guy's camera does the scenery & fish much better justice than the camera I had did!

The dive instructor hanging upside down

Tyler following suit

Tyler & Josh posing for a picture

Some of the fish near the stairs where you get out (these are the same stairs that I slipped on)

Josh & Tyler with the dive instructor (I don't remember his name). Tyler was both thrilled that he had gone scuba diving, but also a little jaded. He said that he was a little bummed that he had gone because snorkeling would never quite be as good anymore.

Panoramic picture of Armyn & I

Beautiful palm trees

"Cozumel 2012"

Some of the ships that were in port that day (neither of these are our ship; they were further down the shore)

Tyler, Armyn, me, Josh

Armyn & I lounging on the beach. One of the best things about this park was that because you paid to get in, the chairs were free and there was no one on the beach trying to bother you or sell you stuff.

Such a nice day!

View from our cab as we drove back to the port. Christmas decorations in some sort of square

When we got back to the port, we headed to the shops to do a little last-minute shopping. Some Mayan dancers we saw.

A Christmas Nativity scene set up at the mall

This day was by far our busiest, as well as our favorite. We wanted to do a lot more than we were able to. We wanted to eat at one of the beach restaurants before we left Chankanaab, but snorkeling and diving took a lot longer than we had thought and so we didn't have time to. I asked the scuba instructor if there were any stands nearby or in the city that sold churros. He just gave me a blank stare and asked me what a churro was. Apparently, they are not actually Mexican, kind of like fortune cookies are not actually Chinese. I was very sad about that.
When we got back to the shops, I wanted to find a necklace by a certain jeweler that I had fallen in love with throughout the cruise. We hadn't really taken the time to shop for it until now, and even then we didn't have much time. We had also wanted to check out a few other shops, but in the end didn't have time. We bought our last purchases and then went to the jewelry store. It was probably one of the quickest sales they have ever had. I knew that I wanted something from the Marah Lago line. I really liked the stone they used. It's called larimar & it is the only gemstone that is actually mined in the Caribbean (in the Dominican Republic, I believe). I thought it was so pretty and reminded me of the crystal clear water of the Caribbean. I hadn't been planning on buying anything fancy on our trip, and certainly not jewelry, but both Josh and I ended up getting something nice for ourselves on that trip. Josh got a watch and I got a necklace. We didn't spend a ton on other souvenirs, and we didn't get each other anything big for Christmas, so we thought we would splurge a little on our trip. We were pretty nervous as we stood in that shop waiting for our purchase to be rung up though, because it was getting really close to 4:30 and that was when we were supposed to be on the ship. Fortunately, we ended up being fine and not even the last ones on the ship.

This is the necklace I ended up getting. I had my eye on something a little different, but the necklaces were a bit more than I had expected them to be, and I didn't want to overspend. I love it, though, and I'm glad I got it :)

This was the scene when we got back to the ship. Fun music was playing, and a lot of people were still getting on the ship.

Throughout the week we had talked about doing another couple's trip in a few years (when Tyler is done with school and we have enough time to save some money), and maybe going on a cruise again. After our day in Cozumel, we all decided that it would be really fun to come down to Cozumel and just stay for a week there, so we may end up doing that in a few years.

That night we had a nice dinner and then went to the big show. The show that night was performed by a guy named Greg London. He is an impressionist that has performed in Las Vegas for a long time. He's actually really good and the show was very entertaining. 

Greg London. His appearance kind of threw me for a loop. You can tell (even from the stage) that he has plastic surgery done, and that a fair amount of his appearance is fake, but you still can't really tell how old he is. I guess it was weird to me because I'm used to seeing women like this, that look "young" but you can tell it's only because of plastic surgery, but I'm not used to men looking that way.

I tried to post some videos of him performing, but for some reason it's not working. He did impressions of Johnny Cash, Ozzy Osborne, Macy Grey, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong and a bunch of others. He was really quite good and I was impressed by how well he imitated those singers.

After the show, we went up to the buffet for the Chocolate Lovers buffet. There was tons of stuff, but most of it was pretty disappointing. It all looked fancy but the taste was pretty mediocre. Josh with all the chocolate we had gotten and brought to the Spinnaker Lounge.