Building confident daughters, or trying to at least....

It's funny how life works.  I've agreed to do a guest post at one of my fave bloggers' blog.  So, in doing so, I've been thinking of topics to write about.  Thankfully, I'm not scheduled until July, so I have a little more time.  

One of the topics I was thinking about was how I used to think it would be so easy to raise an overweight child.  That I would be able to do everything right.  I was pre-writing this, testing it out in my head while Olivia's dance class was previewing their dance for the parents tonight.

After the dance class, one of the mom's came up to me and said that when she was watching the dance, and her daughter is paired up with Olivia, that she kept thinking that Olivia could totally take her daughter.  Because Olivia is so big and her daughter is so little.

Ouchtown, Bro.  Population me, and hopefully not Olivia.  Hopefully, she didn't really think anything of this.  I could see her looking at us, but I couldn't read her face.  Did she hear?

Mia's first baseball game...

So, last night we took Mia to her first ever baseball game!! Whoot!!  Living in Chicagoland, there are an abundance of baseball teams, minor league and major to choose from  - The Cubs, White Sox, Boomers, Cougars, and The Slammers.  We are closest to the The Slammers, and the tickets are cheap, so we went to opening night.

The Slammers are in Joliet.  And Joliet is famous for its prisons (aka The Slammer - get it?).  We have Statesville, the Maximum Security Prison where John Wayne Gacey was executed (only about 5 miles down the road from my high school - I was a sophomore when he was executed).  We have the old juvey made famous both in Blues Brothers (remember Joliet Jake?) and from Prison Break (if memory serves).

Famous for jails....hmmmm...

Anyway - this did make for some fun mascots, Jailbird and Spike as well as The Clink, a sporting goods store.  Fun with names, I guess.

We had great seats, and even got to see fireworks at the end.  The Slammers won (root, root, root for the home team).  I think the girls were most excited to eat there.  I'll admit, I was excited for a burger and beer.

Mom trying to get a fun picture of everyone walking...

Today was a good day....

Today, no child of mine pooped in the backyard NOR did they walk through dog poop in their bare feet.  That was yesterday.

Today, the dog has not jumped up on the table to eat the food left there by my children who do not eat, or clean up after themselves.  Again, that was yesterday.

Today, I worked from home and the dog did not pee in my house.  That was yesterday.

Today was a good day.

So, today, I will share photos with you that have been hiding on my phone, or hanging with pals on Instagram.

Also, before we get into the pictures I want to say thank you to all of the people that have left supportive comments either here or on FB or messaged me on FB.  I love hearing from you and the encouragement and the messages of how I have encouraged you.  This community is just so awesome, I needed to take a minute and thank you.  Thank you so so so much!!!

This happened, thanks to all of you and your support.  70 lbs later and I bought my first strapless dress.  Yes, that is a goofy "I'm in the dressing room at Old Navy, no makeup, bad hair taking a dumb selfie" smile.

Trials and tribulations of change...

I'm sorry peoples.  I've been neglecting you, neglecting this blog, neglecting myself.  I could follow in Milli Vanilli's footsteps and blame it on the rain.  Or, I could blame it on nicer weather.  Or just that I haven't felt like there was a whole lot for me to write about.  

But that's not true.  There is always something to write about.  So, I'm trying to get back to it, forgive me if I go astray (another lyric quote).

I wrote a few posts back about being frustrated in my weight loss.  I still get frustrated - and jealous.  I am so jealous of some of the other people at Weight Watchers.  The ones that seem to lose every week, and never seem to have any issue.  It's like the women that had no morning sickness with their pregnancies, or move really quickly through labor.  These women are just not me.  I had guerrilla vomiting morning sickness that lasted until I after I was home with my baby.  I had a horrible long labor that ended with an emergency section.  And, I am not one of those women that can sneeze and drop 4 lbs.

So, this is my life - not theirs.  I have to work hard to lose weight.  And even when I work hard, I may not lose like I want to.

This past weekend, I went to my meeting and was not happy.  I had gained 1.8 lbs.  At first, I focused on this.  I was seriously frustrated and getting depressed.  Plus, I had worked really hard this past week, and you know, it just made me mad to have a gain.

But, there is something else that happened last week.  I ran 7.5 miles last week, total!!!  This is a huge accomplishment for me.  I also ran 4 days in a row!!  I do a workout that includes 20 minutes of running, and in that 20 mins, I can run 1.5 miles.  Yes, it's slow.  But that doesn't matter, because I couldn't do that 3 months ago - and now I can!

Seriously, I am so proud of myself.  I'm focusing on the good things my body can do, and will continue to do.  So I gained 1.8 lbs.  So what?  I've also lost a total of 70.2 lbs.  Sooner or later I will make the scale my bitch friend.

My ring doesn't fit so hot any more.  Some days I worry that it will just fall out when I have my hand out the window while driving.  So, I move it to my middle finger, where it fits surprisingly well.