3 Years, 80+ Pounds, One Baby and a Changed Life...

Hi all!!

Well, today is my 3 year anniversary of meeting Antonio.  I had almost forgotten until I looked at the calendar and realized that today is the 29th!! Oh, how things have turned out so differently than I envisioned them 3 years ago!!

I look back at the things I said I wanted to do once I lost weight - cross my legs, wear tall boots, ride a roller coaster etc and while I've accomplished many on the list, there are still so many things I have yet to do, although, now, they don't seem as important!  Things like:  RUN, wear a fabulous dress to a party, etc..  

Now, my life seems to be focused on the one major goal that I set out to accomplish when I decided to have weight loss surgery and that was to eventually have a family. That happened a LOT sooner than planned and boy, has he proven to be the greatest gift I ever got from Antonio!!

My new goals center around being fit enough to keep up with him.  He's a little crazy ball of energy and I'm exhausted every Sunday night at the end of the weekend, but I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

Do I think the Lap Band changed my life?  NO. I think the Lap Band allowed me to re-prioritize so that I  could change my life.  I've always been a happy person. I'm not any happier than I was pre-band, although I'm more confident. I look at myself differently. I'm also a lot more disappointed in myself when I don't follow through with what I want to do.  I am definitely more apt to not hold back on things b/c of my size anymore. I'm not even close to goal and most days I'm ok with that, b/c I know where I came from and I know I'll eventually get there. I'm not a model bandster and honestly, I really don't want to be. I want to continue being who I am, loving my life and taking care of myself. I do think that blogging regularly and connecting with even a few other bloggers/bandsters has made a ton of difference. I spent the first 2 years just blogging and not really connecting with others, not getting to know them at all. I'm so thankful for my Blog support now!!

Anyways, onward and downward right??

This weekend was good. Seemed really busy!!
Friday night, Joy and Michelle took me out for my birthday dinner. so fun but I drank a little too much Sangria which made it really hard to get up at the crack of dawn for the 5K we did on Saturday morning!
Saturday night, Timmy and I dressed up and went to a Halloween party. Thanks to Catherine and Stephanie for the Cleopatra idea!! I loved it!!!  (also thanks to Instagram, this picture ROCKS!) my hubs looked complely ridiculous in that Scooby Doo outfit!!  Was so fun!

We are trying to get Mac more comfortable in his Lion costume so he'll keep his head part on for more than a few seconds!! Last night was a record!  At least 2 minutes, albeit a little off-kilter! 

Hope you all had a great weekend!! 

10 Things for Thursday..

1.  I am turning into a 16 year old girl..  I have pimples all over my face and it's super annoying b/c even when I was 16, I never broke out like this..  and it turns out, a lot of my co-workers, including my boss, are having the same issue.  Hmmmmmm, stress perhaps??


2.  Tuesday was my birthday and my girlfriend Heather made me this card:

She always makes hilarious cards for people and laminates them and adds all sorts of little pictures of the things we like to do in our lives ( I forgot to take a pic of the inside).. so anyways, my boss was looking at it yesterday and she put a little thing that said "I Love Blogging" on there and he was like, "you have a blog? What is it?" I was all "um yeah, and um not telling you!"..  I think he was a little upset I  would not give him my blog name! HELL NO!!!  He asked if I ever blogged about him which is hilarious to me since I NEVER Mention him so of course I responded with "all the time.. "..  

3. Speaking of my boss and my birthday, he got me this card : 

which is funny considering I'm the least political person I know and you'll never know who I vote for b/c it's frankly no one else's business but mine, but I will tell you, that it's been a definite conversation piece the last couple of days!! 

4.  So, after almost 3 years, I finally made the connection that I cannot drink anything bubbly and then expect to eat afterwards.. I had a glass of champagne on Friday night and immediately got stuck on a piece of cheese.. had a glass of diet coke on my b-day (it was my little treat to myself - along with a shake and a piece of cake, ugh) and got stuck on whatever I ate right after..  I'm a dope that I never connected the dots before even after talking to several people about it!!! 

5.  We are going to a Halloween party on Saturday night and I'm so excited! I LOVE my costume.  I'll post pics early next week. My husband is going to be Scooby Doo, which is hilarious..  he looks ridiculous. 

6.  My dad's kidney transplant is SCHEDULED!!! YAHOOO!!! December 7th! I'm flying into Detroit on the 6th and staying until the 9th. The surgery will take place at UofM hospital so I'll have to step foot in dreaded Ann Arbor that weekend!! If any of you Michigan gals want to have lunch maybe Saturday or Sunday and can come my way, let me know! 

7.  I'm doing Speck's challenge and miracle of all miracles, I was down over a lb this week! I did so good until Tuesday when I overimbided on cake and ice cream! But I'm back on track as of yesterday. I honestly am never going to win a challenge and that's cool with me, I just like the challenge. 

8.  I worked out last night for the 3rd time this week. and I have Pilates tonight.  I'm on a roll.. must.not.stop!!!

9. I'm doing the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk this weekend with some work buddies. If you are of the giving kind and want to donate, here's my link: 

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=47422&pg=personal&px=30292125

10.  Have a good weekend~!! 

xo

Who's THAT girl??

Hey all!! I hate that I only come on here on Thursdays lately so I figured I'd blog today instead! And maybe tomorrow!

I was looking at pictures on FB yesterday b/c let's face it, I have plenty of time on my hands these days since work is a little slooooooowwwww since we are still waiting to hear if we have jobs next year!

I found this picture of me and Timmy. I was actually in shock! It's not the first time I've seen a picture that I hadn't seen in a long time and was surprised at how fat I had let myself get, but this one is a doozy. My face is huge!! My arms are huge, everything about me is huge.. even my hubs.. Timmy would die if he saw this picture of himself. I'm so glad we BOTH decided to take care of ourselves and our future by losing some weight.  So, on days when I'm feeling like a LapBand failure, I'm going to bring this picture up to remind me of how far I've come!!

I had a fun weekend this past weekend. Just hung out with Mac and Timmy and went to a Pumpkin Patch that is like 7 minutes away from my house and was so fun!! We did a little hayride, picked out a mini-pumpkin and enjoyed the beautiful weather!!  AND, I challenged Sydney to a sack race, in which she completely schooled me but look at the air I got! Pretty sure the girl above wouldn't have done that!!

Me, Joy and Michelle at the farm!  

I'll be back tomorrow with hopefully some 10 things!! 

xo,js

10 Things Thursday..

1.  I'm addicted to earrings, and necklaces and really all jewelry. And now I have all these Stella and Dot invites and I'm going to be broke. Just this week, I purchased/received several pairs of earrings that I apparently bought on Etsy or Very Jane and I have a couple of things that are coming from S&D too..  someone stop me! This was all in last night's mail..  

and here is me modeling my current fave:

 (ignore the red blotchy face..just came in from the car!) 

2. My other new addiction is Kale Chips, I can't get enough of them.  My fave are these: 

with my 2nd top choice going to these: 

(these were super duper spicy!) 

and then I tried these as well:   (not bad)

The only issue with the Kale Chips (and this may be TMI) but I'm seriously becoming quite regular ifyouknowwhatimean.. and lots and lots of gas!! It's the perfect snack though and you don't feel guilty about it! 

3.  Antonio was violated on Tuesday.. I mean, seriously violated. I hadn't had a fill since January and there was a new NP who had no clue how to find my port and she took FOREVER trying to find it WITH.THE.NEEDLE.IN.MAH.BELLY the entire time! The lidocaine had already worn off and it hurt like a mo-fo..  makes me not want to go back but I will b/c.. 

4.  It's on like Donkey Kong for me and this losing weight business!  I was so irritated with myself when I went to the dr the other day only to find that I had only lost a little over 20 since January. People that is mostly baby weight.. it's annoying! 

5.  I haven't had a Diet Coke or a Diet Rockstar since Sunday and I'm fine.  I'm only drinking shit tons of water and a little iced tea here and there.  Cut out all the sweets as well and I'm feeling good now after the last couple of days of detox.  I mean it this time! I need to finish what I started! 

6.  Had my first Mammogram on Monday and it was so anti-climactic!! Not sure if it's b/c the girls are ginormous and fatty but I didn't feel a thing!!  Had psyched myself up for some pain but nothing.. it was all good! 

7.  Mac is supposed to be a Lion for Halloween (emphasis on the 'supposed to') but since he doesn't like to wear his head part of the costume (see exhibit A below) not sure if he's just going to go as a headless lion or something completely different.. 

8.  I've been doing lots of workouts, one of them being chasing this child around! We went to an Oktoberfest on  Saturday and he was running like the wind!  It was fun, but we were exhausted at the end of the day! We did manage to wrangle him for a cute family shot! 

9.  Next week is my birthday!! Woot Woot!! I'm going to be 41, for real! 

10. Go Tigers!! Can't believe they are one game from the World Series!!  Love it! 

xo,

js

Laugh, Dance and Set your DVRs!!!!

Whew, what a fun 24 hours I just had!!

As you know, Jenn and I ventured to LA yesterday morning at the crack of dawn to go to the Ellen Show.  As Sofie put it, we were Jennsetters!! Our flight landed around 9ish and were were OFF! With my trusty sidekick/navigator at my side, we ventured out into Hollywood and the surrounding areas and ended up at an outdoor shopping center called the Grove. We walked around and shopped and I maybe got a pair of super cute boots (I have them in black too!!) 

and then maybe Mac got another cute pair of Toms hightops.. so super cute!! 

Anyways, we saw some familiar faces at the Grove: 

Mario Lopez had so much makeup on that he looked totally fake and Maria Menounos was gorgeous.  They were filming EXTRA there. 

Jenn's friend Theona met up with us for lunch and then my friend Gillian picked us all up and away we went to the studio.  We waited for a couple of hours outside in a parking garage-turned-holding area where they check you in, give you scoop on show and go over the "rules" of filming..   

Apparently I became a ghost upon touchdown in LA!!!  

The show itself was really funny. Ellen is ADORABLE!!! her guests were Joel McHale (The Soup, Community) The Script with special guest Will.i.am (from Black Eyed Peas) and then some Dancing with the Stars peeps.  We did a lot of standing up, clapping, and lots of DANCING!!! Jenn was on the aisle so maybe if you see the show on Monday, you'll see her!! Ellen came almost all the way up to our aisle when she was dancing in the first segment so keep your eyes peeled for at least Jenn!!  

All in all, such a fun experience and I'm so glad that Jenn and I went!!   Here we are this morning on our way out of not so sunny Burbank!

 

The weather here in PHX is Perfection this weekend so I'm hoping we'll be out and about a lot.. 

enjoy your weekends!! 

xo,js

Ellen in two days and Dress suggestions!

Hi All!

So, this week is DRAGGING on... can't believe it's only Tuesday.  I'm wierdly swamped at work so this one will be short..

Jenn and I are heading to LA on Thursday morning for ELLEN!!  It's a much needed 24 hours away for her and I'm hoping we can whoop it up as much as possible in the limited time we have there. Have no idea who the guests are going to be but we will keep you informed as to what day you can set your DVRs to see us dancing and clapping!!

So, as you know, my bestie is getting married in May. I'm on the hunt for the perfect bridesmaid dress. I've found a couple that I like. My goal is to start losing some weight again and be down at least another 25 by then.. would love to be more but who are we kidding here?? I'm the slowest loser in town and the fact is, I've been holding on and off to the same 10 lbs for about 4 months now..  here are a couple of the choices I've found so far. I don't know if I'm even going to wear a long one but if I do, I like these two the best so far.


picture this in black

again, in black


Thanks to Stephanie and Catherine on the Halloween suggestions! I think I'm going to do Cleopatra! Can't wait to wear a wig!! :)

Finally, haven't posted a pic of my little man in about a week, so here's my little man after eating an entire bowl of Mac and cheese last night.. ridin dirty (backwards)..

he's a mess!! 

xo,js

10 Things Thursday..

1.  I'm officially addicted to the show "Homeland"..  I watched them win a bunch of Emmy's and downloaded a couple of episodes onto my iPad for my trip and now I can't stop.  I worked out yesterday at lunch and brought my iPad to work so I could watch while I'm working out..  it's sooo good!!

2.  I also watched the Katy Perry movie on the plane home.. don't judge. It was so good! I cried, again, no judging. There is a girl I work with that used to work in Hollywood for a production company that swears Katy Perry is the meanest person in Hollywood. I can't see it unless the movie is COMPLETE fiction.  BTW, I also cried while watching the Justin Bieber movie.  And I LOVE the new Taylor Swift song. I'm officially a 16 year old girl...

3.  My husband is depressed that baseball season is over (for his Brewers). He came in the house today and declared "the good news is, there are 144 days until Spring Training"..  fantastic.  The good news for me is that now I get to save $39/month since we don't have to pay for the "Extra Innings" package on DirecTV... priorities uh huh..

4.  Speaking of saving money, I'm in super-duper-try-to-find-as-many-savings-in-my-life as possible mode. The reality that I may not have a job in the next few months (due to company being bought out and new company planning to make a much LEANER organization) is starting to really sink in. While my hubs is over the top positive, the fact that I may not have a job for a few months is freaking me out.  I've already started a spreadsheet of things I plan to cut out while unemployed.. add to it that if I get laid off, we are definitely going to be moving back to Chicago, lordy be, I'll be a total wreck when all this happens.

5.  The worst part of this whole unknown job situation is that many of my friends, whom I consider part of my AZ family, won't have jobs either...I LOVE the company I work for, mainly b/c of the people.. I've met some of my closest friends here and it's depressing that we all won't be coming to work together each day.

6. Ok, pity party over.   I need to get my band mo-jo back. I'm so tired of going Up and Down and up and down on the scale.  I need help.  My fill that was scheduled for yesterday, I had to move due to some issues here at work. The earliest I can get in is the 16th. I'm thinking I need to start tracking my food so I need some advice as to where I can do that and I also think I need to start posting my weekly goals like some bloggers (Beth and Manda) come to mind. That way I can be accountable to someone other than myself. Any advice, tips are welcomed.

7. May 10th is my BFF Shannon's wedding (many of you met her in Chicago) so I want to look GOOD for that. I am the MOH after-all and the MOH needs to look almost as good as the bride, right??

8.  Timmy's birthday is next week so we are going to go out to Old Town Scottsdale this weekend for dinner and drinks. After the weekend I had in Chicago, I really just want to lay low, but he deserves a night out on the town, so that's what he'll get!!

9.  We got invited to a Halloween party. I'm terrified on dressing up on Halloween.. any ideas on what I can be?? Chubby Hooker perhaps?

10.  I showed my boss the Sweet Brown video that Ronnie and Clara were telling me about this weekend.  Before I showed it to him, I said "Ain't nobody got time for dat" and he looked at me like I had 4 heads.. apparently, I said it so fast that he thought I said "AnalBeads got time for that... " LORDY, like I would say that.. he is ridiculous.

have a good weekend ya'll!!!

xoxo

Post Vacation Slump...

Every time I come back from a vacation where I either see my family or my besties, my husband gets frustrated with me b/c I mope around for a couple of days and have a VERY short fuse.  He calls it my post-vacation slump and I gotta tell you, I've got it BAD right now.

Chicago was so many things for me and I can't stop thinking about it.. mostly good.  Admittedly, it was my decision to make it a dual-purpose trip for me, spending time with the girls who (to quote Vickie from Real Housewives of OC) fill up my "love"tank, my besties and then to meet women with whom I've shared so many of my challenges, victories, highs, lows, etc...  anyways, to my point..

• I had a great time. 
• I loved meeting people that I'd already felt I knew from reading their blogs.  
• I laughed a LOT (between Ronnie and Sofie, I don't know who had me giggling more.. ) 
• I made some really really good friends who I know I'll keep in touch with outside of their blogs.  
• I tried too hard with some people and didn't get to really speak with them.. that kind of bummed me out. 
• I didn't try enough with others who I felt made no effort to get to know me
• I heard that I was called phony by someone which hurt my feelings for like a minute b/c that might be the funniest thing about this weekend. If that person really knew me, phony is definitely not even close to an adjective that should be used to describe me.
• I had fabulous roommates who made me feel pretty and special the entire weekend!  
• I got a blowjob with Sofie, Jenn and Steph  (got our hairs did - get your minds out of the gutter!) 
• I drank WAY too much! 
• I had a very nice Saturday walk with some lovely women!!  
• I did 2 cartwheels - and Deb did one too!! 
• I didn't feel as if I needed to be in traction the next day after said cartwheel
• I learned a new phrase "Ain't Nobody Got time for that".. thanks Ronnie
• I heard the word "FUCK" more times that I can  count from Sofie and every time she said it, I giggled..  and thought, "poor sweet Sandra is going to go home with that word in her vocabulary!" 
• I learned where Tennessee was (thanks Traci!) hahahaha
• I spent some quality time with my bestie looking for wedding dresses and didn't cry when she came out for the first time in one! 
• I spent some quality time with my other besties at dinner on Thursday night and then at Shannon's engagement party
• I loved the look on Mac's face when he saw me on Sunday.. it was good to be home. 

Finally, I spent a lot of time taking pictures of myself with others... and showing off my one arm photo skills! 

looks like I hung out with a bunch of demon girls.. : 

MAJOR KUDOS go to the planners for setting everything up! I don't envy your roles at all but appreciated everything you did to get this fantastic group of women together!! 

Hopefully I'll be out of my slump soon.. and then it's on like Donkey Kong.. I'm more motivated than ever to get this extra weight off!!!  and I'll need some help!! 

xo,js