Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello all!

Today is "Friday"! Yay!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow! This year has just flown by. My baby is over 7 months old already. Holy crap. 

Speaking of which...we got her six month pictures back from the photographer and I L.O.V.E. all of them. They turned out so good! I suppose it helps that the subject is so super cute ;) 

Here are some samples for ya'll

 She was none too happy at this point in the photo shoot. She smiled for one picture with the costume on, but this one is just too funny!

Oh, man...she looks so grown up in this last picture. My baby is turning into a little girl.

Speaking of which...she is getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth all.the.time. Its nuts. I bet Don that she would be crawling by Christmas, he doesn't think she will be. She has six weeks to perfect the movement. I think she can do it...even though that scares the crap out of me! She is mobile as is with all the rolling, but crawling?! Yikes!

I can't believe the last 7 months have flown by so quickly. We've experienced a lot with Lizzy and the huge change that having a kid can create for your marriage. I am so thankful for Don and everything he does for me (and puts up with from me :)). I am thankful that we have a healthy, extremely happy baby. And I am thankful for my health. I've had some struggles with some anxiety issues and I got some help and I am feeling better.

I will admit I don't like telling people about this. Actually Don is the only one that actually knows. I have not muttered a word to anyone else. So if you know me in real life, mums the word please. It makes me feel like a bit of a failure (although I know this can happen to anyone and its not my fault). Before I went to see my doc I would come home and be anxious about all that needed to be done. But if I spent the time doing those things, I would get anxious about not playing with Lizzy since I really only had about 3 hours with her in the evenings after work. I was anxious about being anxious. It was an irrational, crazy circle and I felt like it was spiraling. It was not cool. But I am doing better now and I am now really able to enjoy Lizzy, our time together, and life in general a lot more!

Ok, so I didn't mean to go there right now but I guess I just did :)
I hope everyone has a GREAT Thanksgiving and eats themselves silly!

I will leave you with a picture of the cutest little girl I know!

So cute!

Our photographer just posted a preview of Lizzy's six month pictures. I can't wait to see the rest!!!!!

I've come a long way...

This is totally gonna be a weight related post so if you came here for pictures of my cute kid...I'm sorry.
So when I met Don I have NO clue how much I weighed. I know I wore a size 18 or 20 pants. I know that I was unhappy with how I looked and I know that I had actually LOST weight at that point. If you want to know the truth. I bet I weighed about 240. Yes. I said it. That is utterly disgusting to me. And no, I don't tell people how much I weigh, like ever. It took me 6 years to tell my HUSBAND my number. So consider yourself lucky (I think...:))
This was in Vegas in 2007 I think:

Lets fast forward to now. Don and I have been together for almost 7 years (holy crap!). Today I got on the scale for my health assesment at work. I weighed 168. Seriously? What the crap? I honest to God don't know when the last time my number has been that low. Not even in high shcool. You know how some people hope and pray to get back to being "high school skinny"? I never was skinny in high school. I am skinny (to me) now.
I couldn't be happier.
Do I want to lose more weight. Hell yeah. I have 24 more lbs to get to my goal weight. I have decided my goal weight is going to be 144. (Well right now I say that. It might change again :))
During the health assesment I got my cholesterol checked. Its normal. It was high before. My BMI is still in the overweight category (even though I am not keen on the whole BMI thing) but I have gone from a 38 (obese) to a 27. Crazy. My waist circumference puts me in the normal range too so I dont have an increased risk of cardiovascular health problems.
I honestly haven't felt this healthy in my adult life. I can honestly say I am 85% happy with my body. Do I still have issues with it? Sure. Who doesn't?
But I dont mind having my picture taken anymore which is huge b/c I will have pictures of me and Lizzy together to look back on. And these days when my husband says I look good, I believe him.
I know it sounds like I am sitting here patting my own back. And you know what, I am. Im really proud of how far I have come and I am anxious to keep going!
If you have gotten this far, thanks for reading. No need to comment if you don't want to, I'm not looking for "way to go's" or " you look great's" (but I will take them if you want to give them :)). I just want to get this out there for me!
This is me now:
(This is the only pic I could find at work of my body)

 And this is from this past weekend at the winery we went to:

Guess what?

I kind of suck at this whole blogging thing. Oops!
Cathy over at Antsy Pants 2.0 mentioned me in her current blog post so I kind of felt obligated to write here now. Thanks Cathy! :)
So what is new with me?
1. I have the cutest baby of all time. You can argue, but its my baby and I will always think that. Evidence of this claim:

2. She had two teeth and will be 6 months old in 9 days. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?!?!? I don't understand how 6 months has flown by.

3. She is going to get her first solid food besides rice cereal tonight. Its going to be messy and fun :)

4. I ran a 10K last weekend and I beat my goal time by 2 minutes. Sort of. I told everyone I wanted to do it in under 1 hour and 12 minutes which would have been a little under a 12 minute mile...but secretly I wanted to do it in under 1 hour and 10 minutes. I know 2 minutes doesn't make much of a difference, but it does in my head. I did it in 1 hour 10 minutes and 20 seconds! I was seriously so proud of myself! I actually kind of liked doing it too. I never thought I would say that about running. Evidence of me running: (this is the only picture)

5. The husband and I are going to do the Thanksgiving Day 5K. Sadly, I can't wait. And I went out for two runs this week with Lizzy and I felt pretty good. Its so much harder running with a stroller!

6. I am 3 lbs away from weighing what it says I do on my license. WTF?! I love it. I don't think I have ever actually weighed what my license says I do, or even near it ;)

7. I am less than 30lbs away from my goal weight.

8. I can start looking for a new job in January. Thank the Lord.

9. Like Cathy I have some fitness goals I need to get going on. I want to start going to a class at the gym twice a week at least. I want to keep running between 5-10 miles per week (which will have to move inside soon b/c I live in MN and this ridiculously nice weather we have been having is not going to last). I want to get to my goal weight by the time Lizzy is one year old. That gives me PLENTY of time to get there. There really is no excuse for me not to make that goal. And I want to continue to sign up for 5k's and maybe a few 10k's this fall and next spring/summer.
10. Its time for me to go home for the day :)

Thanks for reading this far if you are still reading! And thanks Cathy, for making me feel like I need to post :)

So behind..

Hello to anyone who still reads this sad excuse for a blog! I struggle to write here and I dont know why. I dont have work to do so I have plenty of time, its just that I feel like I would be saying the same thing over and over again.
So random stuff....
1. I am training for a 10K. 10K is a long way to run when you hate running. I am doing pretty good so far. The furthest I have gone on this training program is 4 miles so far, but this weekend I have to do a 4.5 mile run. We will see how this goes. Right now my goal is to run the 6.2 miles in less than 1 hour and 15 minutes. I did 4 miles in 45 minutes the other day and that is about 11:30 per mile, so if I can maintain that in the 6 miles I should be ok. But really, I will be happy to finish. (Like I said, I don't like running :))
2. I am currently 5 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I have about 32lbs to go to get to my goal weight. Weight watchers is still working well for me, but I really have to give credit to nursing still. It is helping me lose this weight...b/c I feel like I NEVER stop eating. Thank goodness for those extra 500 calories I burn!
3. I don't like pumping. I know I have said this before, but its still a buzz kill. Oh well. Selfishly, the one thing that keeps me going is the weight  loss. Thankfully, my supply is keeping up with what Lizzy eats, and so far I haven't had any issues feeding her. She basically stopped breastfeeding when she went back to daycare (except for in the middle of the night, which she can stop doing ANY day now) so I am pretty much an exclusive pumper.
4. Lizzy is freaking adorable and I love her to pieces, but the girl needs to sleep through the night! A couple of weeks ago we implemented the cry yourself to sleep business. The first night I went in after 5 minutes and soothed her for a couple minutes and then left and she fell asleep after about 3 more minutes. Ever since she has either rolled over and gone right to sleep or cried for about 3 minutes and gone to sleep. The problem comes in the middle of the night when she wakes up and wants her stinking Nuk. That thing is the bane of my existence. I think some weekend SOON we are going to have to let her cry in the middle of the night and not use the Nuk anymore. I can't keep waking up just to give her that damn thing.
5. I miss my horse. I haven't been out to see him in weeks, or ride him for that matter. Its so hard to get out there during the week to ride b/c I pick Lizzy up at daycare. And on the weekends I have been going out to my moms new house (closer to me! yay!) to help her put in fence posts and do other manual labor. Hopefully the horses will be moved soon.
6. I need new winter clothes. Last winter I spent in maternity clothes and the stuff I have from the winter before is all too big. Any suggestions on where to get sweaters and work appropriate clothes is MUCH appreciated!
7. I love fall. Everything about it (except that it is followed by winter)...the weather, the leaves changing, the ability to wear jeans and hooded sweatshirts, apple picking, pumpkin carving...ahh! I love it :)
8. I am 3 lbs away from losing 50 since I started Weight Watchers. Holy crap!
9. My baby will be 5 months old this month, 6 months October 16th. Holy crap! I can't believe it. We tried rice cereal this past week, she LOVES it!! Its so cute to watch her eat...(I may or may not be thinking about #2. What is wrong with me? Wasn't I just saying how Lizzy needs to sleep through the night!!)
10. My daughter is freaking adorable. Have I mentioned that???

 

Her bouncer/activity thing is too big for her, but she loves it. She stands on an accounting book to help her out :)

 

I look exhausted, but she sure is cute!

 

This was at the State Fair, it was exhausting :)

 

This was before going to her 2nd Twins game! She loves Joe Nathan (or her mama does and loves this shirt:))

 

So happy!!!!

MN State Fair + Weight Watchers

 
These two just don't go together. I am going to the fair twice. Huh...Should be interesting. Our leader provided us with a list of foods you can get at the fair along with their Points Plus value.
To put it into prospective for non-Weight Watchers, I get 43 points and that is only because I am nursing. If I weren't nursing I would get 29. That is one bag of mini donuts and ONE Sweet Martha cookie, and that is my DAILY allotment of points. I am going to save my 49 weekly points for the fair and try and eat in moderation. Try is the key word there :) As long as the scale doesn't go up, I will be ok!
MN State Fair Food:
Food Name - PointsPlus™ Value
Beer 5
Big Brownie 16
Bloomin’ Onion (depending on sauce) 35 - 60
Candy Apple (1 large) 14
Caramel Apple (no nuts or extra toppings) 8 - 10
Caramel Corn (3 cups/no nuts) 9
Cheese Curds (each piece) 4
Corn Dog (small) 8
Corn on the cob – plain 2
Corn on the cob – with butter 7 - 8
Cotton Candy 5
Curly Fries (7-oz. cup/no sauce) 16
Dippin’ Dots (1/2 C vanilla or chocolate) 5
Dole Whip (1/2C fruit flavor) 2 - 3
Egg Roll (1 medium) 6
Elephant Ear (10” diameter no sugar topping) 14
Foot-Long Corn Dog 8
Foot-Long Hot Dog (with bun) 13
French Fries (20 of them) 10
French Fries Bucket 100
Fried Cheesecake (6 oz. depends on toppings) 20 - 26
Fried Twinkie 14
Frozen Chocolate-covered Banana 3
Fruit Smoothie (2C) 4
Fudge (1 small piece) 3
Funnel Cake (depending on toppings) 20 - 26
Grilled Chicken 6 oz. Breast (no bun) 6
Grilled Chicken 6 oz. Breast (with bun) 10
Gyro 16
Hot Dog With Bun 10
Jerky (most kinds – per oz.) 2
Kabobs – 2 small skewers 8
Lemon Shake-Up (8 oz.) 6
Lemonade (8 oz.) 5
Milk Shake (16 oz.) 16
Mini Doughnuts (1 bag) 26
Nachos w/cheese 9
Onion Rings (3) 9
Peanuts (small bag of 40) 5
Pickle on a Stick (dill only – up to 16 oz.) 0
Popover 6 - 8
Pork Chop on a Stick (per 8 oz. meat) 8 - 10
Snow Cone (8 oz. – depending on syrup) 5 - 7
Soft Pretzel (5 oz.) 9
Sweet Martha Cookies (1 cookie) 3
Taffy (each piece) 2
Turkey Leg (with skin) 28