My Advocare Journey

I’ve never been the kind of person to do a “weight loss” journey.  I think that’s because I’ve never been super unhappy with my weight.  Not that I couldn’t have stood to lose a few pounds throughout my life…I assure you I could always lose weight.  But what I mean, is that I was happy with what I was doing with exercising and just wasn’t overly concerned with weight.

This hasn’t really changed, per se, but I did recently get the desire to see if I could lose a few pounds just to feel better about myself.  I can tell you right now that this post is and will always be the ONLY post where I discuss weight.  I don’t like talking about numbers when it comes to weight and sizes because in all honestly, everyone’s body is different.  You may look like you weight the same as someone else, but you don’t..and it bums you out.  But in reality, the reason you may not weight the same as the person you’re comparing yourself to is because you have more muscle.  That’s just one example.  There’s lots of reasons why people may appear that they weigh the same, but don’t.  This is why I hate discussing numbers…they can be misleading.  But I’m going to do it in this post in case anyone is interested in using the program I used so that they can know what to expect. 

On an average day (prior to the weight loss I’m about to discuss) I was a size 8.  When I got pregnant with Carter, I weighed 141 pounds.  I got pregnant during my busy season at work (I’m a CPA) so I was working 60 hours a week and didn’t have time to workout, not to mention the food we were eating was junk food to get us through 12 hour workdays.  My point of saying that is that I gained a few pounds right before I got pregnant with Carter.  I usually was about 137.  I intended to lose those few of pounds before getting pregnant, but we got pregnant sooner than we expected.

Regardless, my “starting weight” was 141 during my pregnancy.  After having Carter, I was able to drop all the pregnancy weight and even those few extra pounds I had wanted to lose before getting pregnant.  By the time I went back to work from maternity leave, I was down to 137 again.  Then life happened.  I was up and down anywhere between 137 and 142.  This is still not a bad weight for my height and age though.  My BMI was in the healthy range and I was overall very healthy.  But one day, when I weighed in at 142.6, I decided I wanted to actively try to lose some weight.  Didn’t plan on losing a lot, just wanted to get down to about 135ish and stay there. 

That’s when I heard about Advocare.  I think everyone has heard about Advocare now.  It’s plastered all over everything and you probably have a ton of friends that are “distributors” for the product, you just don’t know it.  I had never heard of it and ended up running across a blog one day of a distributor that was telling her weight loss story.  I did a lot of research on their products, asked around to friends who have used it to see what they thought and after about a week of debating, I ended up purchasing Advocare’s 24 Day Challenge.

I won’t describe what Advocare is and what it entails.  If you’re interested, you can let me know in the comments and I will answer any questions you have.  I am not a distributor but I can point you to several people that are distributors.  Once I decided to do it, I ordered the products for the 24 day challenge.  Long story short-I ended up finding a girl that lives in my neighborhood that was a distributor and I worked with her during my challenge.  By the way, the distributor is someone that gets the products for you and then they will work with you throughout the 24 days-they encourage you, measure you, answer any food questions you have, etc.

Here’s the thing about Advocare.  In order for it to work, you must be COMMITTED.  No cheating.  And you can’t just ditch the diet after the 24 days because you’ll gain the weight right back.  There’s a lot of vitamins associated with it and a lot of rules for what you can and can’t eat.  This is why I say you have to be committed.  You can’t eat Mexican and Chinese food during this challenge because you won’t see results.  The changes in my eating can be summed up pretty quickly:

• Instead of 3 big meals a day, I ate 5 small meals a day.  I always knew you were supposed to do this, I just never did.  This change made a GIGANTIC difference in my metabolism.
• You can’t eat for the 2 hours before you go to bed.  So if you go to bed at 10:30 every night, close the pantry and fridge at 8:30 because you can’t eat anything.  Late at night is when we tend to crave the crap foods…chips, ice cream, etc.  Carbs that you eat right before bed will store as fat in your body.  Fat that you’ll have to lose.  This isn’t saying you can’t eat carbs, it’s saying that you need to give your body 2 hours to break them down before you go to bed.
• Water-drink a TON of it.  Prior to Advocare, I drank about 1 liter of water a day.  During the challenge, I was drinking 4 liters a day.  Right now, I drink about 3-3.5 liters a day.
• Each of the 5 meals have 3 rules that they must meet:
• Must be less than 300 calories
• Must have at least 10g of protein
• Must have less than 30g of carbs

It takes a while to figure out what foods fall in those categories, but once you find them, you’re good.  For me, the morning and afternoon snacks are ALWAYS protein bars.  I prefer Zone Perfect protein bars.  Tons of protein, small amount of carbs…plus they taste fabulous!  My breakfast is either scrambled eggs (tons of protein and NO carbs) or some of that protein mix that you put in water and drink as a shake.  For lunch and dinner-it varies.  I’m a big salad person though.  Salad with steak strips or chicken or pork chops is my go to.  No croutons and fat free dressing.

So now for my results.  Right when I started trying to lose weight, I was 142.6.  I was able to lose a couple of pounds on my own before I started the 24 day challenge.  I began the challenge on June 24, 2013 and on that day I weighed 139.  During the 24 days, I lost 5 pounds.  Once the challenge was over, I stuck to the eating plan.  The only Advocare products I took after the 24 days was Spark and Catalyst (again, won’t go into detail about products, just let me know if you have questions).  As of this morning, I am 129.6.  I’ve lost 13 pounds.  I was a size 8 and am now a size 4.  Overall, I’ve lost about 8 inches off my body, most of those coming from waist and hips and the rest from arms and legs.

It’s so weird to me that I’ve lost that much weight.  I don’t think I was “big” before and like I said, didn’t necessarily need to lose weight.  So when I see that I lost 13 pounds, I keep thinking “how on Earth am I doing this?!?!”  I told my distributor at the beginning of my challenge that my goal was to just be healthier and look more toned, that I wasn’t necessarily concerned with pounds.  The catalyst helps you with toning and the Spark is an energy drink that gave me an extreme amount of energy.  So much energy that I workout at 5am every morning.  It’s just part of my routine now (my husband doesn’t love my new rountine).  I looked at my calendar the other day and realized that I had worked out 10 of the last 12 days.  I didn’t even realize it.  Before Advocare, I loved to workout, but it was still a struggle to find the time and energy to do it.  And I was lucky if I worked out 4 days a week.  It doesn’t even phase me anymore.  I don’t even set an alarm.  I wake up at 4:50 every morning, drink my spark and workout.  My energy lasts throughout the day too, no crashing in the afternoons!

Once I realized that I was going to easily meet my 135 goal, I made a new goal of 130.  I told my distributor that I would LOVE to be 130 by  Christmas.  So here I sit, 2 1/2 months away from Christmas, at 129.6.  I can’t explain how excited and happy I am about this!!  I mean, the last time I was in the 120s was probably when I was a freshman in college.  I don’t plan to lose much more weight though.  You eventually get to a point where you are having to work too hard to maintain a weight and I don’t want to do that.  I like me some Mexican cheese dip and a good ole bucket of Reese’s ice cream every now and again and I’m not willing to trade those vices for a lesser weight when I have already surpassed not one but TWO goals.  I think my absolute FINAL goal will be 125, but I will by no means be upset if I don’t get there.  I only say 125 because that’s the weight that is on my license that I haven’t changed since I was probably 18 and I would love for that to be accurate :)  If I can manage to get to 125, I will have lost a total of 17.6 pounds.  HOLY COW.  And then of course I will gain all of this back and then some whenever Justin and I have baby 2!

I did take before and after pictures but I am not going to share them.  They were for my own personal reference and I’m so not a “selfie” kind of girl, so I’ll be keeping those to myself.  I just wanted to share this awesome journey I was on and encourage anyone that wants to use Advocare products because they worked amazing for me.  But like I said, you have to be dedicated and committed.  Not just for the 24 days, but for life.  Any diet that you come on and off of is bound to be a failure.  Think of it as a life change.  The eating habits were certainly a life change for me!

The Cat’s Out of the Bag

The official email went out to our firm last week so I feel comfortable making it public now.  I have turned in a notice at my job and plan to become a stay-at-home mom!  This wasn’t a two weeks notice like most jobs though.  I plan to work through the end of the year (December) to get all my projects wrapped up and help plan engagements for busy season next year.  I wasn’t about to give a typical “two weeks notice” in December right before busy season.  I like my employer too much and felt they deserved more than that.  So I gave them about 7 months notice (told them back in May) to give them plenty of time to find someone else.  This decision didn’t come lightly.  Several things had to happen to put the plan in place, but I won’t talk about those on the blog.  Also, we are doing it sooner than expected.  Justin and I always planned for me to begin staying at home once I had our second child.  And no, I’m not pregnant.  Also this will not “speed up” becoming pregnant with #2 either.  I have told Justin that I really want to enjoy being at home with Carter for a bit first before throwing another life change into the arena and he agrees.

I can’t tell how I feel about it yet.  See, I love my job and I love my employer.  I have only worked as a CPA at two places.  The first was in Nashville, TN right after I graduated from grad school.  I lived there for two years and moved back to Birmingham when Justin and I began seriously dating and knew we would get married one day.  That’s when I started working at my current firm.  I can’t say enough good things about this firm and about the amazing people I get to see everyday.  Yes, the hours are long and the job itself can be stressful and extremely frustrating.  But we have a very Christian and family friendly firm.  I could spit out all the perks of my job but I won’t bore you with those.  What’s important is that some of the people that know me best work with me.  People I have only known for 5 years.  And they are some of my favorite people and best friends. 

I am excited to be able to see my son everyday and also excited that I won’t be burdening my mother-in-law that keeps him everyday while I’m at work.  Of course she doesn’t see it as a burden in the least.  She loves Carter and loves taking care of him and seeing him as much as she does.  Regardless, I know what it’s like to have to spend 100% of your time watching a child and I am excited that she’ll have her life back and can go back to doing things she used to do before being a full-time non-paid nanny.

But then there’s that part of me that is scared to be a SAHM.  I have worked since I was 15 years old.  There’s never been a time when I was unemployed since then.  Seriously.  I’m not saying keeping up with a 2 year old won’t be “work”, but I do worry that I will become bored with this new life.  Staying at home with Carter and cleaning the house will be my new job.  That’s it.  I won’t get to see my sweet friends at work on a daily basis anymore.  I’ll barely have adult conversations.  Keep in mind that it’s not like I will have a husband to talk to at 5pm everyday when he gets home from work.  Justin travels about 30-35 weeks a year.  So it’s just me and Carter….24 hours a day….all week. 

However, all this aside, I am still excited about it.  Carter is at such a fun age right now and I love playing with him.  Whether we’re outside blowing bubbles, going to the zoo or McWane Center or going on golf cart rides.  I am excited to see him daily and for him to know that he is my number 1 priority (well, behind God and his daddy of course).  Carter knows what “work” means.  Justin has gone to get him from his crib in the mornings when I’ve already left for work and he says “mommy work”.  Something about that just breaks my heart.  I just haven’t been able to give him enough of my time.  He needs me and my one-on-one time more than my job is able to allow me to give him so a decision had to be made. 

There is a never ending debate on which is harder…a stay at home mom or a working mom.  Now granted, I haven’t technically stayed at home yet, but here’s my take on this vast debate.  It depends.  It depends on the mom.  The child. The mom’s personality.  Lots of things.  I could argue being a stay at home mom of twins is hand down harder than being a working mom of only one child.  But what about a working mom of only one child whose daddy is always out of town and she plays the role of single working mom?  Or what about the working mom with no family in town that has zero help?  Not to mention the difficulty of being the working or stay-at-home mom of a special needs child.  There’s also different definitions of “working” because jobs vary.  Some people have to answer to bosses that don’t care if your kid is at home sick and you need time off, there’s a deadline and they expect you to meet it.  Others work out of their home and are their own boss, so they are home more often.  Comparisons could go on forever.  I truly believe that there is no “harder”, just different scenarios.  For me, it will be a huge adjustment because of the things I mentioned above.  It will take some time for me to get used to this new role, but I will eventually get the hang of it.  Justin and I are so blessed to have both of our families in town that can babysit for whatever reason we need them to, so I know I’ll have help if I get to a breaking point and need some “me” time.

Anyway, this way too long post was all to say that beginning late December, I will be staying at home with Carter.  Not sure what that will do to my blogging.  I typically blog when I have downtime at work or during lunch.  I’m sure it will decrease the blogging a little bit, but I guess we’ll just see! 

He Said/She Said

So on Valentine’s Day this year, I noticed a TON of bloggers doing this he said/she said quiz with their spouses.  I thought it was a super cute idea (who doesn’t love to quiz their spouse on their relationship and find out how much they REALLY listen????) so I copied the questions and sent them to Justin via email and told him to answer them.  Problem was, he didn’t respond back.  Until today.  So random that he sends me an email today with the answers. 

Well it’s not Valentine’s Day anymore, but it was still fun so I’ll post anyway.  Below are the questions followed by what she said and then what he said:

• Where was our first date?
• she said: Rainforest cafe when he came to visit me in Nashville when I lived there. 
• he said: Rainforest Cafe
• Where was our first kiss?
• she said: At his house after going out one night
• he said: In my bed.  Well the second time.   (He got more specific than me – we were just watching TV in his room FYI.  I did spend the night at his house that night but he slept on the couch.  What he means by the “second time” was that it was our 2nd first kiss.  The first “first kiss” was in high school so we don’t count that).
• Who said I love you first?
• she said: He did
• he said: Me
• Which of the following breakfast cereals best describes your wife’s family’s opinion of you when they first met you (Crazy Flakes, Just Right, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops)?
• she said: Just Right
• he said: Just Right
• Your wife is waiting at the doctor’s office.  Which magazine will she read?  Good Housekeeping, People, Glamour, or Coastal Living? 
• she said: People
• he said: People
• If she were ordering drinks at a restaurant for dinner for both of you, what would she order?
• she said: Waters
• he said: Dr peppers
• Which of these does your husband have the most of (sense of humor, sense of time or sense of adventure)?
• she said: Definitely adventure, but sense of humor is an extremely close second.  He has ZERO sense of time.
• he said: adventure
• How many pair of your wife’s shoes would you say are not in the closet right now (this is basically a stab at cleanliness…how many of my shoes are all over the house?)
• she said: 0.  Unlike someone in our household, I pick up my shoes!
•  he said: 1
• What is his ultimate favorite movie?
• she said:  I’d be surprised if he even knew.  He’s not a movie person at all.  He’s more of the guy that watches shows on TV.
• he said:   don't know
• If I were a character from Friends, who would I be? 
• she said:  Monica – Pretty sure he’ll agree because I’m OCD about cleaning the house and it drives him nuts!
• he said:  Monica
• Which one of us hogs the bed covers at night?
• she said: I honestly don’t think either of us do, but I’m pretty sure he’ll say I do.
• he said: You
• Who is better at handling money?
• she said: Easy – me.  I’m an accountant.  I keep a separate excel spreadsheet of our budget and record all expenses on a daily basis.  I’m a lot more of a money saver and Justin is a more of a money spender.
• he said: You
• If you could have a second honeymoon, where would your wife want you to take her?
• she said: Probably somewhere like Tahiti or the Maldives
• he said: Paris (he knows me well.  I didn’t think of this.  I love Europe and want to go to all the major cities.  I love the history there!)
• Which room is the messiest room in your house?
• she said: Probably the living room with all of Carter’s toys all over the place.  But as far as dirt goes, I’d say the bathroom.  We don’t scrub it and clean mirrors and countertops as much as we should.
• he said: bathroom
• What did you have for dinner the night you got married?
• she said: Good question.  I don’t remember.  We had a plate set aside for us so that we could eat together before heading into the reception, but neither of us could really eat.  Adrenaline, I guess.  But I know I ate some cheeseburger sliders and some fried rice (we had the biggest selection of reception food EVER).
• he said: nothing really
• How long does your husband spend in the shower?
• she said: Depends on the day.  Most days about 30 minutes.  He’s such a girl.  I don’t even take showers that long!
• he said: 20 min (BOLD FACE LIAR)
• Which of the following Valentine’s gifts would your wife prefer the most:  a beautiful  bouquet of two dozen red roses, you offering to clean the house for a month, or a one hour massage given by you?
• she said: Clean the house for a month (my love language is Acts of Service, what can I say)
• he said: clean house
• Who is the most patient in your marriage?
• she said: Me
• he said: you
• When was the last time your wife went to the dentist?
• she said: It was before busy season, so at least several months ago
• he said: few months ago
• What is your husband’s favorite breakfast food?
• she said: chick-fil-a
• he said: chick-fil-a
• On average, how long does it take your wife to get ready to go out?
• she said: About an hour or so
• he said: 1 hour
• If your husband could only have one of the following desserts, which would he choose:  Cheesecake, apple pie, ice cream, chocolate pie
• she said: Cheesecake
• he said: Cheesecake
• On average, how much does your wife spend at the grocery store each trip?
• she said: Around 120 or so
• he said: 150
• Who gets along better with the in-laws?
• she said: I do
• he said: you
• Who was the first person you told about your engagement?
• she said: Our answers won’t agree on this because when it happened we both got on the phone immediately.  I called my mom and sisters.  I think he called either Rob or Bonnie (his parents already knew).
• he said: rob

So we are on the same page for the most part :)  That was pretty fun…kind of like playing the Newlywed Game.  Back to work for me!  LESS THAN THREE WEEKS PEOPLE!

3 Kids

How many of you think I’m about to announce a pregnancy with twins because of that title?!?!
No news of that nature here!!!  Instead, I wanted to show you what goes on behind the scenes of trying to get three kids to take a picture together.

It’s kind of like looking at a jar of jelly beans and guessing how many are in it.  How many adults with pictures or videos on phones does it take for three kids to smile?!?!  In our case, more than we had because we never got a good picture.

Last weekend we all got together at the Morris household to celebrate Justin’s sisters birthday.  We ordered Zoe’s and had cookie cake!

This girl has NEVER met a camera she didn’t love!!  She just loves to have her picture taken!

All the chocolate is from the cookie cake.

Carter found a new obsession when we were over there.  Empty coke bottles.   Seriously moms to be, don’t waste your money on toys.  Just recycle cardboard boxes and coke bottles.  It’s all they need!!

Trying out some cookie cake.  I think he liked it!

With three kids eating at the table with the adults, some clean up needed to happen afterwards.  This nice little rice pile is all from Carter!

Carter loves his Papa!

Love seeing them play together.  Of course, right now they aren’t so much “playing together” as they are “stealing toys from each other and frequently hitting each other with them”. 

I am now almost done with my 4th week in busy season.  Our hours went to 60 sooner than they normally do because we had so much work from our clients in.  It’s nice that I’m not working 60.  I’m only working 50 since I’m part time, but even 50 is extremely difficult.  Justin’s big travel season is usually the fall, but he’s currently on his 5th week of consecutive traveling.  Trying to work 50 hours while taking care of Carter by myself when Justin's out of town while also making sure I accommodate my mother in law’s schedule is the most tiresome thing I’ve done in a long time.  Probably since giving birth to my wee man. 

Every week is a struggle, but I’m doing my best.  Though I can’t help shake the feeling that I’m a failure.  On any given day, I’m trying to be super mom, super wife and super accountant.  I usually fail at accomplishing at least one of those every day.  I have to give up on trying for at least one of the three daily.  Some days I give up being super mom when Justin is in town and I have to stay at work late to make up for the previous days when I couldn’t stay at work because my MIL had somewhere to be and I had to go get Carter.  On these days, I don’t even get to see Carter.  I give up being the super wife when I don’t have time to get the dishes done or do laundry or do anything at all whatsoever around the house not to mention the attention I know my husband wants from me that I just don’t have time to give.  And I give up being a super accountant when I decide that I’ve had enough of not seeing my baby and I leave work to come home instead of staying to work late.  I just can’t find a happy balance with all three right now.  So ready for busy season to be over!!!!  9 1/2 more weeks…..UGH.  What’s getting me through is thinking of what life will be like after busy season is over.  I will only be working 34 hours a week, so on most weeks, I will have Friday’s off.  A three day weekend with my baby :)  I think I can, I think I can…

Where Was God?

Lots of people are talking about the shooting that happened last week.  I haven’t mentioned anything about it on my blog because I wanted to find the right words to say.  I found them after watching a video of Mike Huckabee’s reaction.

I streamed news videos on Friday and kept a close watch on CNN’s website because they were doing updates every 10 minutes or so on information that was coming out.  I also kept a close watch on Twitter as well as Fox News and AL.com.  The most unfortunate part of the media coverage was that almost everything that came out of news outlets while the sun was up on Friday was false.  They had the wrong guy.  The wrong age.  The wrong body count.  The wrong family story.  It was all false.  The true stories and names came out that night and some even the next day.  I am hugely disappointed in the media at invading the school at a time like this.  Parents had no idea what was going on with their kids and the media was throwing out all kinds of false statements.  These websites should be ashamed.

I won’t go into most of my thoughts on the shooting because they are personal but what I will say is that it hit me.  Hard.  I have cried multiple times not just out of sorrow for these parents that lost their children right before Christmas (these precious angels probably still have presents wrapped under the tree with their names on them), but also out of fear for my own child.  As a mother, my son will one day be in school and I will have to deal with this.  This horrific event brought one thought to my head that I have been struggling with ever since it happened.  I can only protect him so much.  It doesn’t matter if I home-school or even if I am with Carter 24 hours a day.  This type of event could happen anywhere at any time.  I can’t protect him all the time.  And that kills me.  It hurts my heart badly.  But I have to trust God and his angels to protect Carter when I can’t.  I pray for his safety every day that I breathe and I just have to trust God.

People are looking for who to blame for this event.  I can answer that for you pretty easy, no investigation needed.  Sin.  Sin is to blame.  The sin that our nation apparently encourages because we have abandoned our God and won’t allow his name to be mentioned.    If our schools won’t allow God’s name to be mentioned, how are we, as parents, supposed to teach them to pray and ask for forgiveness?  Let’s assume a child goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up at 7am (this is just an assumption).  A child is typically in school anywhere from 8-10 hours a day (depending on after school care for working parents).  So out of the 13 hours a child is awake, they’re at school for 8-10 of them.  A school that won’t allow God to be talked about.  What are we teaching our children??  I can teach Carter all about God and how he needs God in his life, but this will confuse him because the schools are teaching that God can’t be talked about.  THIS MUST STOP!

On to the Mike Huckabee part.  In a video I have seen spread across multiple social media sites, Mike addresses the “Where was God?” questions that keep popping up after this horrific event.  And his answer is right on the money.  I’m paraphrasing of course, but here’s what Mike says:

Where was God during this horrific event and why did he allow it?  It’s interesting how we, as a nation, ask where God was in all this.  The reality is, we’ve pushed God away.  Something bad happens and we’re all asking “Where is God?”.  Well, God is up in Heaven watching down because we have pushed him out of our school systems and out of our lives.  We can’t pray at public events nor mention his name or the Bible’s story of creation.  Why is it that when something bad happens we want God to protect us from it, but we won’t follow him like we’re supposed to when life is fine and hunky dory?  Mike goes on to say that lots of people are wanting laws in place to prevent things like this from happening (gun control and such).  His response?  There is a law in place!  It’s call “thou shalt not kill”, we’re just not following it.  He also says that there’s 9 other laws, but unfortunately he isn’t allowed to discuss them in public.  High five for Mike Huckabee!

We can’t just take the good that comes with believing in God and dismiss the bad.  We can’t expect God to protect us and bless us when we push him aside and don’t spread his word.   Please don’t be confused on the purpose of this post.  I am by NO means saying anyone of those precious babies did anything to deserve this nor did their parents.  God has a plan.  And this tragedy was part of it for some reason.  And we won’t understand that reason until we face him in Heaven.  Why does God allow it?  It’s called free will.  We are responsible for our own actions.  We act like this event (or Columbine, or even 9/11) was the first time  God allowed something like this.  Anyone actually sit down to read the Old Testament?  Because there were tons of things God allowed back then too.  Rape.  Murder.  Incest.  Killing of first borns.  That list can go on and on.  And it even goes into the New Testament too.  This is not a new thing.  It all boils down to this.  God gives us free will to do what we choose to do in this life.  When we choose to disobey him and go our own way, he doesn’t stop us, because it was our choice.  God did NOT kill 20 children.  Adam Lanza did.  Satan did.  Sin did.

I am in the process of reading the Bible front to back and I’m in 2 Kings right now.  The common theme in the Bible is that the Israelites followed God, then they turned away, then they followed again, then they turned away again.  This cycle happens over and over and over.  This is what I see in our nation.  And that’s scary.   I read Exodus where all the Israelites have just escaped from captivity in Egypt.  Moses is at the top of the mountain getting God’s commandments and what are the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain?  Making idols of gold to worship.  Imagine being God.  You just saved these people and they don’t even care.  They’re at the bottom of the mountain dancing around a golden calf, praising it.  They’re raping women, getting drunk and even sacrificing children.  I remember reading that book and thinking “my Lord these people are so blind and disrespectful and just BAD people”.  But is our current nation and its inhabitants any different though?  We claim to be “one nation under God”, and yet we’ve given him the boot in all aspects of our lives.  The only place where it’s acceptable to talk about him is at church.

I will end this post on my favorite part of Mike’s speech.  To sum it up, he says that he does believe God was there when it all went down.  He was in the hearts of those teachers that put their bodies in between the bullets and the children, sparing their lives.  He believes he was the courage that it took for those policemen to enter the building having no idea if they would be met with gunfire or not.  And shockingly (this is my two cents) he was there when Adam Lanza put the gun on himself instead of searching for more children to kill.  God was there, even when we didn’t want him to be.

There’s one picture I saw on Instagram that has helped me through the tears I have shed for these poor sweet babies.  It shows all these children on a cloud with two hands from a man reaching out to them.  That man, I believe, is Jesus.  And you don’t see his face, just his hands.  The children are all smiling at him and staring in awe and reaching for his hands.  The caption to the picture says “My children!  Welcome!  Come! Come!!  My, you’re so beautiful.  You must have been so afraid….well, never again.  You are with me now.  Come, I have so much to show you!”

I am crying now as I write that.  The only thing that gets me through my fear for Carter is that if something like this were to ever happen to him, he would be there with those children and Jesus would be taking care of him until I got there.  My prayer for these parents is that this hope is what they cling to and that it helps them get through their pain and disbelief.  I pray that they know that Jesus is taking care of their babies for them and that those babies have no idea what happened, only that they love where they are and are very happy and waiting on their parents.

But this cycle has to stop y’all.  I don’t know how to do it or how to get an entire nation to turn from their sins for that matter, but we must bring God back into our lives.  Teach your children who he is and what he’s done for us.  Commit to saying his name to your children every single day since they won’t hear it in school.  Pray with your child at night.  Since we don’t have our children most of the time, we have to utilize what we do have.  Regardless of what people say, the world is not going to end on Friday.  These children are the future of this nation.  We must teach them God’s ways and get back on the path of righteousness!

Oh and one last thing….gun control.  If anyone honestly thinks that gun control will fix this problem, you are sadly mistaken.  Gun control can’t fix evil.  Only God can.  You want a solution?  Buy a Bible.  Read it.  Quote it.  Talk about it.  And then pass it to anyone you know that doesn’t have one.

Prayer Warriors

My dear sweet blog friends, someone needs your prayers right now.  Over the next five days to be exact.  See, there’s this girl, Jenny, and I’ve never met her, but I feel like I have known her for years because we’ve been following each other’s blogs and commenting on each other’s lives for a very long time now.  Jenny and her husband Adam started trying to get pregnant over a year ago.  August 2011 to be exact.  They got pregnant in May 2012 and found out about it in June, but all the excitement was short lived when she miscarried sometime between June and July.  She was devastated. 

They started trying again and low and behold she got pregnant again in November.  They’ve already been to a couple of doctor appointments, but it’s not looking good.  The sac isn’t growing at the rate is should be.  This is a common problem with endometriosis, which her doctor diagnosed her with and she has already had surgery to correct.  Jenny and Adam have to wait until December 18th for another ultrasound but her doctor already told her that it doesn’t look good.  I can’t imagine how she is feeling right now.  I feel awful for anyone who’s had to experience a miscarriage, let alone multiple miscarriages.  So anyway, Jenny is a faithful follower of our Lord.  She believes in miracles and she is asking for prayers.  I believe in the power of prayer and can’t think of anyone that needs them more than her and this sweet baby right now.  Please pray with me, with us, that this baby is ok.  We need prayer warriors!

10 Things Linking

I've seen this before on some blogs and I thought now would be a good time to do it.  I've picked up some new followers since having Carter join our family and I know most of them don't know very much about me, hence this post.  Here are 10 things you may not know about me (non-baby related) along with a link to a previous blog post explaining it:

1. I am currently in the process of reading the Bible front to finish.  I started out reading random books but then decided to go chronologically.  I literally finished I Samuel this morning and will start II Samuel tomorrow.  I read a chapter every day before work.  No link to this one by the way.  It’s on my 101 list to read 33 books of the Bible so until I get to 33 there won’t be a post for it.
2. Almost 10 years ago, I should have lost my life.  I was in an extremely bad car accident on the interstate and my car flipped 6-8 times (per the police report - this is what witnesses said; I was unconscious and don't remember).  My entire car was absolutely destroyed as was everything inside the car, except for me and my cross hanging from the rearview mirror that was still on the mirror and perfectly intact.  Totally a God thing.  From that day in 2004, my life changed forever and I rededicated my life to Christ because He spared me.  I blogged about it here. 
3. My hair has been every color under the sun, I assure you.   Again, no link for this one.  My hair experimenting days were during college and pictures weren’t taken using digital cameras until the end of college so I don’t really have anything I can link to.
4. I don't really drink.   Not because I'm against it per se, but I really and truly don't like many alcohols at all.  Even though there are some that I like, I still just don't really drink.  Every now and again I'll have a Smirnoff Ice or some equally fruity drink but it really is a blue moon when that happens.  I am forever a DD :)  No link for this one either.  Not sure what I would link to with this one anyway.
5. I make a to-do list for everything.  I think it’s the accountant in me.  I can’t do the simplest of functions without a to-do list.  Again, no linking…clearly I should have picked different items to put on this top 10 list.
6. I’m a dancer at heart.  I took dance when I was a kid, but the true dancer in me didn’t come out until middle school.  I became obsessed with it.  I was on my middle school dance team, my high school dance team and my college dance team.  I still love dancing to this day, but don’t do it as much as I’d like.  I also did a “Flashback Friday” post on dance team (I should really pick those posts back up again).  You can see pictures and even videos here.
7. I don’t think there’s anyone in the world that loves Christmas as much as me.  Seriously.  I listen to Christmas music on pandora almost year round.  The second that 96.5 starts playing Christmas music on the radio, it is permanently on that station in my car.  I start decorating right before Thanksgiving and always go crazy on presents.  My co-workers ALWAYS make fun of me because of my Christmas obsession.  When I was pregnant with Carter, I even had a Christmas themed baby shower.  See that post here.   
8. My husband and I are intense travelers.  Travel has slowed a bit due to Carter, but we’re still travelers.  One day Carter will come places like this with us and we are so looking forward to that.  We usually always have some big trip planned (we’re big planners) at any given time.  Right now, we are planning something for next December.  Carter will be 2 and I’ll feel a lot more comfortable leaving him for longer than a couple of days.  We’re thinking of going back to Europe to hit up some places we’ve always wanted to go like Barcelona, Sweden and Paris.  But then again, we both really want to go to Australia too.  We’ll figure it out closer to time.  Here’s my favorites trips:
1. Africa - we went to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and go on a safari in the Serengeti
2. Rome/London trip (I was 7 weeks pregnant during this trip, so for me it was MISERABLE - It was planned before we knew we were pregnant)
3. Amsterdam (this was actually part of the Africa trip, but since it’s a separate city and we LOVED Amsterdam, it get’s its own number in the top 5)
4. Hawaii - I mean, I can’t even explain how much fun we had on our honeymoon to Hawaii.  It was incredible.  Enough said.  See the posts for all the things we did.
5. Cozumel - we went on a cruse with 2 other couples and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!
9. I look at my blog stats pretty frequently.  Obviously you can’t see who is looking at your profile, but you can see what posts are getting the most views.  For some reason, the post on my blog that has gotten the absolute most views BY FAR is this one.  I have no idea why.  Nothing at all whatsover significant about it.  But it has almost 800 views as of today.  This is a good 200 views ahead of 2nd place, which is my labor and delivery pictures post, which shockingly gets a good 15-20 views a day.  Weird.
10. When I whistle, I inhale instead of exhale.  I had no idea most people exhaled until I was in college.  I’ve tried numerous times to whistle that way, but I’ve never been able to.  This has come up in conversation a lot ever since that “Whistle” song by Flo-Rida came out.  Obviously no linking for this one either, just a fun fact.

So there you go.  That’s just a little bit about me that new followers may not have known :)

Some Funny Videos

I came across both of these videos via twitter and absolutely HAD to share because they are hilarious!

This video is the EXACT reason why I am nowhere near ready to have two babies (and what I’m pretty sure Justin would be like keeping two babies by himself):

And this video pretty much sums up what I imagine my life will be like with more than one child (parts of it even apply now):

Also came across this via twitter this morning:

HA!!!!  How true.  In Carter’s case, I’d have to write that on his thumb.

I should make a blog label for Funny Video Friday.  Pretty sure I would not be doing it every Friday though!  Anyway, new post below on Carter’s 9 month update!

Mom’s - HEADS UP!!

If you’re a mom of an infant, you probably feed that infant rice cereal at least once a day if not three times a day (like a lot of moms do when their babies start solid foods).  Well according to studies that were reported this morning on the today show, there are “WORRISOME” levels of arsenic in rice foods.  That includes foods for adults too.  However I don’t think it’s as alarming for adults because we don’t eat rice once a day (at least I don’t know anyone that eats rice that much) much less three times a day….but our babies do!!!

I plan to talk to my pediatrician about it to get his thoughts, but in the meantime, I will not feed Carter the Gerber Single Grain Rice Cereal.  Lately we’ve been feeding him the Gerber Oatmeal and I looked at the ingredients this morning and didn’t see any rice flour as an ingredient.  But if someone knows anything else about the oatmeal, definitely let me know.  Arsenic has always been found in foods and water but there are FDA regulations for the amount that can be in foods and water for it to be on the market.  There are NO regulations for rice, however.  I copied the video from the today show segment and put it below.  Watch for yourselves and do what you want for your household.  I just wanted to make sure to spread the word and ensure that people are aware of the issue!

Special thanks to my sister, Lindsey, for the heads up on this topic!

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

My Facebook Decision

I have recently decided to deactivate my facebook account.  I’ve been thinking of doing it for a while, over a month now, and finally decided to do it this week.  There are so many reasons for my decision, but it boils down to one thing.  Facebook is destructive.

The first and foremost reason I left is that I feel that I’m being called to get off the social media site.  It’s something that has been on my brain for a while and I think there’s a reason for that.  I really feel like God is telling me to get back to the basics of relationships and friendships.  To spend more QUALITY time with my friends and family when I’m with them instead of looking at my phone.  I feel like I’m being told that as of right now, facebook is an “idol” to me.  It’s incredibly addictive and I spend more time finding out what is going on in the lives of people that I never see than in God’s word.  About a year ago, our Sunday School class agreed to get off facebook for one week and during that week, I honestly wondered why I was on facebook in the first place.  There are so many reasons that facebook is destructive.  Let me list the ones that led to my decision (by the way, I am not judging anyone that has done any of the below things.  The reason they are on my list is because at some point or another, I HAVE DONE THEM):

• It creates a “fake” perfect life - I truly believe that facebook creates a picture perfect life of every person or family and let’s be honest, none of us are perfect.  Our spouses aren’t perfect.  Our kids aren’t perfect.  Our lives….NOT perfect.  But we sure do like to let people think it’s perfect don’t we?  Putting up pictures of flowers our husbands/boyfriends sent us or those pictures of that growing belly from pregnancy or putting up pictures of that brand new BMW that you just got or even the status’ of how our children are completing milestones well ahead of schedule.  These things show up in ALL of your friends newsfeed.  Including the friend that has no husband or boyfriend to send her flowers.  The friend that can’t physically get pregnant to take those belly shots.  The friend that has to work nonstop and still can’t afford a BMW.  And the friend who’s children have a developmental disorder.  It can be damaging to these people, even though you don’t intend for it to be.
• It creates gossip - How many times has someone said to you “Did you see what she posted on facebook? How crazy!”. It creates an outlet for gossip that wouldn’t be there if you weren’t on facebook. Chances are, people may stop coming to you to talk about what someone posted on facebook if they know that you’re not on facebook. Of course, you’ll probably still have those people that will come tell you because you’re not on facebook, but overall, I think being off the website would decrease this occurrence.
• Things can be taken the wrong way when written instead of spoken - Whether someone comments on your status or writes on your wall, it’s hard to tell if someone is kidding or not through text on a website.  You may go insane analyzing if they were joking or if they were serious.  It causes people to get defensive and can even result in estranged or even broken friendships.  Unfortunately, I have seen this happen.
• It belittles the true meaning of friendship - How many of you have friends that think that by writing on your wall once a month that they’re keeping up with the “friendship”?  I have a ton.  And honestly, I am one too.  If I were off facebook, then I would be forced to keep up with my friends the good ole fashioned way, by talking to them.

So what does this mean for the blog?  Good news, I won’t be getting rid of that.  If anything, it may make me blog even more since I won’t have facebook as an outlet anymore.  I don’t have any of the above issues when it comes to blogging and I think it’s a safe outlet to have my friends that I don’t see often keep up with our family.  Unfortunately, I just don’t have the free time to call and talk to my friends that live out of state as much as I want to (no time for anything with a child!) so I think that by blogging, they can still keep up with us.

As for how long this hiatus will last.  No telling.  It may even be permanent.  In fact I’m honestly planning for it to be permanent, but we’ll see what the future holds.  The good thing about facebook is that I can deactivate my account and leave it deactivated for years and when I come back, it should be right where I left it.  Downside - I’m going to have to learn people’s birthdays :(

10 Years Ago Today…

…I was walking to my 8am Spanish class at the University of Alabama.  I remember that day very clearly.  When I was walking from my dorm at Tutwiler to my Spanish class behind the Quad, I noticed how beautiful that day was.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature was amazing.  It was that fall weather with a slight breeze that made you want to close your eyes and jump into a pile of leaves.  The kind of weather that we SHOULD be having now, but for some reason it’s still in the 80’s and 90’s. 

In the middle of my class was when the first tower was hit.  My teacher dismissed the class and I ran back to my dorm so that I could watch the coverage on TV.  A terrorist attack hadn’t crossed my mind yet.  I just wanted to see the footage.  By the time I got to my dorm, the second tower had been hit and I knew it was on purpose.  I watched both of the towers collapse in my dorm room at Tutwiler.  I was watching with several people and our thoughts turned from “Oh my God I can’t believe this is happening” to “What does this mean?  Will we go to war?”. 

Flights were grounded.  Cell phones were down.  The country was in panic.  The lines at gas stations were unreal.  I remember seeing the footage of people jumping out of the building.  I was speechless.  I didn’t understand what our country did to deserve being attacked and suffering such a loss of life.  I am blessed that I did not personally know anyone that lost a family member or loved one that day, but the television and radio was full of interviews of widows and children that lost their parents.  Lots and lots of emotional songs began being played on the radio with inserts of people talking when no lyrics were being sung.  The inserts were from interviews of family trying to find their loved ones, 911 calls from people on the planes or in the towers, speeches from George Bush and Rudy Giuliani.  It was hard to even listen to the radio and not cry for several weeks after that day.

If anything came from this day, it was unity.  A unification of our country and an indescribable amount of reliance on prayer.  I truly had never seen or heard people on TV and radio talk about God more than they did that day.  Our country used prayer to get through that day.  George Bush declared September 14th a day of prayer, a rather risky thing to do in a country where our children are no longer allowed to pray in schools.

I know that in 10-15 years, Carter is going to come home from school with homework to do a history report on this day.  And he’ll have to interview his family members that experienced it.  How do I explain to him the impact of this day?  Will he ever truly understand just how much our country has changed since then?  Will he care since he didn’t live through it?

The world stopped on September 11, 2001.  And even though the rest of us have moved on, the world of the families of those that lost their lives have never recovered.  We’ve all made such a huge deal out of this 10th anniversary, but the widows and children and parents of the fallen have dealt with this every single day for the past 10 years.  There are children who were in the womb 10 years ago that have never met their daddies.  The thought of that puts me in tears.  I’m 6 months pregnant and if I lost Justin right now, my world would never recover.  How do you a raise a child that will never truly understand how wonderful their dad was and the things he did to save other people on that day, especially the fire fighters?  I can’t imagine.  The fact that Justin flies as much as he does scares me.  It didn’t start scaring me today, it’s scared me since we started dating almost 4 years ago.  Even though I know the odds are that nothing will ever happen to him, it doesn’t take fear away.  Every single time Justin flies, I pray for his safety.  I make him text me the second he gets on a plane and the second he lands so that I always know where he’s at.  I’ve forced him to start praying when he gets on a plane that he will get to his destination safely, for my sake.  My heart literally aches so bad that I can’t breath when I think that Justin could be on a plane if this were to happen again.

We are all so blessed to still be here and to not have had to experience this first hand.   Others are certainly not so lucky.  We discussed 9/11 this morning in Sunday School and read the following verses, and they’re good ones to keep in mind when thinking of such suffering and devastation as this:

• Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. – Matthew 28:18-20
• “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” – John 16:33

What I'm Looking Forward To...in Pictures

It's almost that time guys...only 6 more days until the tax deadline. We are way busier than I figured we would be this year and work has certainly taken over my life since Justin and I got back from Africa. I think I've reached that capacity where working 60 hours is getting to be useless because my productivity is rapidly declining. Only one thing is keeping me going right now (well, other than God of course). Let me show you things that I'll get to see come April 30th. This is Oxford University Harry Potter fans...this should look familiar. It's the halls of Hogwarts :) This should also look familiar. It's the dining hall where the students at Hogwarts eat. All of this is actually a church in Lacock. And this is Bath. Bath is the city where Jane Austen (my FAVORITE author) lived for a brief time and wrote some of her novels. A few of them are even set in the city. I am SOOOO excited to visit here! This is the Jane Austen Center, which is actually her house!! April 30th isn't getting here fast enough.

Injury Update

I am so sorry I've been neglecting my blog. It's now three weeks into October and I look at my sidebar and it says I have only made 3 posts (4 including this one). That makes me sad :( I hope I don't lose some of my ever so faithful followers. I obviously haven't been able to do much so I haven't had much to blog about. I'm doing my last update on my injuries and then I'm going to be done on this topic and move on.

I had my MRI on Monday and another ortho appointment right after. My elbow has a radial neck fracture. I was relieved to hear that it wasn't actually broken. My ortho doctor didn't want me in a sling or a cast because that particular bone, if left immobile for 2-3 weeks, could take months of physical therapy to get it back to full functionality. So he ordered me to have physical therapy twice a week and to start immediately. When he said immediately he wasn't kidding. My appointment with him was on Monday and Tuesday morning I got a call from Therapy South that wanted my appointment to be THAT DAY. So my first day of physical therapy was on Tuesday and I go again today at 2pm.

Now, when I was in the ER they gave me a prescription of lortabs to get me through the weekend thinking that the ortho doctor would prescribe me something else when I met with him the Monday after the race. However, I didn't ask for more medication because I hated the way the lortabs made me feel and I did NOT want more of those, so I just didn't get anything. Shockingly, I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.

Anyway, fast forward to Tuesday at my therapy appointment, my therapist asked me what pain medication I was taking (before we started doing exercises) and when I told her I didn't request anything, her response was "call your doctor asap and get something because the next several weeks are going to be painful for you". She didn't have to tell me twice! After doing exercises on Tuesday at therapy and then again Tuesday night when I got home (I have to do exercises twice a day), I was in so much consistent pain that I called my otho doctor's office first thing Wednesday morning and requested some non-lortab pain medication. They prescribed me Darvocet and I took one last night while doing my exercises and it worked perfectly and didn't affect my mood or make me drowsy!! YAY!

So where does this leave me for Africa? That seems to be everyone's first question. As of now, I am definitely going. My only concern is how much training I will be able to do beforehand. Obviously you can't just train for a couple of weeks and then go hike up the tallest mountain in Africa at 19,340 feet. My therapy is mainly for my arm, but I plan to discuss the foot with her today to see if there is any way at all I can start doing something, even if it's just riding a bike. I told Justin I thought I could do squats as long as I am wearing the boot and he proceeded to tell me that I am crazy. I'm trying to put on a brave face, but I am VERY worried about getting back into shape to climb that mountain when I will have been completely non-active for over a month by then. Prayers in this department would help tremendously :)

The other part of the Africa thing that makes me nervous is that my general physician (Jody Gilstrap at Princeton) has to sign a form from our guides that says "I have conducted the types of tests that I deem necessary and the patient in question, in my opinion, is physically fit to participate in this activity". My appointment with Gilstrap for him to sign this form is one week from today...where I will still have a boot and a gimp arm. I really hope he signs.

I'm going to now try to focus on marking more things off my 101 List (she's been neglected way too long) as well as finishing up the 30 day challenge (she's equally as neglected as the 101 List).

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...

Update on what's going on with the "Gimp-ness", as my husband calls it. Like I said in my last post I have a boot on my left leg for 4-6 weeks, but I'm hoping it will heal quicker than that. Right now I take the boot off when I'm lounging around the house because I usually prop it up on a pillow or something and ice the ankle for a while each afternoon. I also sleep without the boot, which originally made me slightly nervous but it's not so bad. The swelling is going down in the ankle, but the fluid is now spreading to the rest of the foot so I have a "fattie foot" basically. The bruising started kicking up and my foot looked liked this at the beginning of the week...



The bruising has gone down since then, but there is still purple and blue spots and still some "fattie foot" action going on. I don't know if the fluid was cushioning the ankle or what, but now that the fluid is kind of slowly going away, it hurts to walk in my boot more and more, especially if I haven't had it propped up in a while. Justin is constantly yelling at me because he thinks I'm trying to do too much too fast, but I can't help it. Being foot and armless is really driving me crazy.

On to the arm. I have an MRI for the arm on Monday because the ortho doctor wanted to see what was going on inside the bone. My appointment is at 11am and then I meet with the ortho doctor at 1pm for him to tell me what the scans show and what I need to do from here. Hopefully I won't be in a cast and he'll just keep me in the sling for a few weeks until I feel like I can move the arm more. I've been able to move it slightly more this week. Starting last night I was able to type a little bit with my right hand, though it's not at quickly as I could if I were fully functional. I am going to attempt to wash my own hair this weekend, but I'm not sure how well that will go over. To give a visual, I can't fully straighten the arm nor can I bend it completely. When I say bend it completely, I mean that I can't touch the fingers on my right hand to my right shoulder. I still have a hard time twisting the arm as well (imagine if your palm is facing the floor, and you try to twist your arm to the right to make your palm face the ceiling...that twisting motion hurts me greatly so I can't do it).

Back to the point of this post...

I wouldn't have been able to be productive and do things I've been able to do this week without the help of certain people and I wanted to give them a shoutout if you don't mind.

• The Hubs - Justin has been unbelievable in this entire process. He and his dad were able to change his schedule to make it to where he was able to come home early this week to help me out. He is doing all the dishes, all the laundry, all the cleaning, and all the cooking while watching me sit on the couch and do nothing. He is so sweet and always is asking if there's anything else he can do to help me. The past two days he's been in town he has gotten up at the time that I normally get up to go to work (which is much earlier than when he gets up to go to work) so that he can wash, dry and straighten my hair for me. Yes ladies, my husband styles my hair..and he's not too bad at it either. He was so caring and concerned for me at the hospital and it hurt him to see me crying in pain. He's been so awesome through all of this and deserves the husband of the year award for putting up with my constant requests and over-sensitiveness.
• Carina Sanchez - Carina is the friend that came in town to run the race for the cure with me that day. She was at the hospital with Justin and even came home with us after the hospital. She tried to call in to work that night to stay at my house and help Justin with me, but they wouldn't let her and she had to leave to go to work. Carina was the first person to wash my hair for me and she helped me get cleaned up and presentable for our football get together that afternoon. She has constantly called and sent messages checking on me and is even coming back on Monday night to take me to dinner. She's been so awesome!
• Melanie Martin - Mel works with me at my accounting firm and she's the one Justin and I hooked up with one of our high school friend's Wade (huge success in that by the way). Justin had to leave town on Monday afternoon for work, so Melanie came over and spent the night with me Monday and Tuesday night until Justin came home on Wednesday. She helped me get ready in the morning and basically did all the things Justin had done when he was there. I jokingly told her to tell Wade that I said she's going to make an awesome husband ;) Mel has offered to stay with me again next week while Justin's out of town and I may take her up on it, depending on what they say at the doctor's appointments.
• My in-laws - I've ranted and raved about my in-laws before but they've out-done themselves again! Both of them put up facebook status' after the accident happened. Of course, Gordon's was more comical than Debbie's was. Gordon's status said "Finally beat my daughter-in-law Marcie on a 5K run. Of course she fell and broke her ankle and elbow and didn't finish, but a win is a win". He was totally kidding of course :) Gordon has been able to rearrange Justin's schedule to make him be home a little bit more which is incredible given that this is their busy time of year. I am so thankful to him for that. Debbie came to my original ortho appointment because Justin was leaving for a flight to Nashville at 2pm and my appointment was at 12:45, so Justin brought me, but had to leave, so Debbie stayed with me and brought me home afterwards. Also, as a get well present, she got me fall decorations for my front porch. She got a bale of hay, 3 pumpkins and a mum for me. She's so stinkin' sweet!!!! I love them both so much!
• My co-workers - I have been completely and totally overwhelmed with my co-workers. I came into work on Tuesday and one girl made me a ton of chocolate chip cookies with a card, my HR rep got me cupcakes from Edgar's along with a Breast Cancer Awareness Tumbler (a stab at the incident happening during the Race for the Cure). She even coordinated a lunch on Tuesday where about 12 of my closest girlfriends at work went to eat at Ragtime (a popular choice with people I work with because it's literally in our backyard). I would say about 80% of all the comments I got on facebook were from people I worked with. I love working for a company that hires such awesome people. I love all of them so much!

I will update as soon as I know something after my appointments on Monday. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers...it really means so much to me!

My Crazy Life

My crazy life isn't getting any better. Though, I do see light at the end of the tunnel. I haven't been blogging much and I'm sorry for that. I hate it too because I do thoroughly enjoy blogging, but I just haven't had time to do it. I've been slammed at work because of 401(k) plan audits. The deadline for those are October 15th so that would be the light I'm seeing at the end of the tunnel. I'm still training for my half-marathon that's on October 30th. This is why I don't blog when I get home, because most days I run after work and am exhausted by the time I get home.

I've been doing awesome in my training. I'm very proud of myself. I've never run as much in my life as I have lately and I honestly didn't think I was capable of doing it, but I ran 11 miles through Mountain Brook the other day. Granted, my knees and shins were hurting badly afterwards, but at least I did it!!! Justin and I were under the impression that the race we're running in Florence, Alabama was relatively flat, but after looking at the elevation chart (not sure why we didn't look at it before), we are slightly nervous. The 13.1 mile race gains 1,200+ feet of elevation. When I did my run in Mountain Brook of 11 miles, it only gained 650...yeah I might die. Prayers welcome.

I'm still teaching dance at church on Wednesday nights, but we're almost done teaching the routine and they will perform at the contemporary service hopefully sometime in October. I got a call last night from the people organizing the Christmas play that they also want me to choreograph the dance section of that and help organize the kids backstage the day of since a lot of the parents of the children want to actually watch the show their kids are in, so now I have more dance in my future...which don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I love those girls and I love everyone that works with that program, it's just another day where I don't get to go home right after work, which makes me kind of sad.

Softball for my firm is still going on. Unfortunately, we have yet to win a game, but man we have a blast playing. Some of my favorite people in our firm are on the softball team and we always have so much fun on Monday nights together, even when the games are at 9:30. Whoever plans a softball game at 9:30 should get shot, just saying. And in our defense, we're not a bad team, it's just that everyone else is ridiculously good. These girls that are on the other teams played in college and high school and stuff and so did the guys. We got the best people at our firm on the team and we're just unfortunately not as good as the crazy professionals that we play. Hopefully we'll win one soon though!

Justin is now on week 12 of being out of town (there were 2 weeks during those 12 where he was in town, but consecutively, this is week 7). He'll be back in town soon though so that's something else I have to look forward to! I've only been seeing him on weekends. Usually he gets back in town on Thursday nights around 11pm (on the last flight from ATL) but leaves again on Sunday after church so I don't get that much time with him, which doesn't usually bother me, but for some reason it is starting to bother me now. This is the longest we've gone without seeing each other (excluding weekends) but he'll be done with all this soon and will go back to working in the office in Birmingham where he goes in at 10 and is home by 2. Jealous.

I'm absolutely loving how cold it is getting in Birmingham!!! It's making my runs so much easier and it also means that its almost time for SMORES!! My favorite winter vice. This weekend my best friend from Tuscaloosa, Carina, is coming in town and spending the night with me on Friday night and we're running the Race for the Cure 5K Saturday morning. I'm so excited for some Marcie and Carina time because I never get to see her.

I think that's about all the updates I can do right now. I'm off to church to wrap up the dance for the kiddos :) I may stop by Moe's...I find that cheese dip helps me choreograph better...

Loving the Camera

I am so in love with my new camera! I've only been taking pics around the house but playing with all the settings and figuring out what the camera can do is so much fun! Here' s a few I've taken so far (there is no editing in these...I don't have software. It's straight from the camera):











Love it! Can't wait to learn more of what it's capable of!

ABC's I Love

I stole this idea from Laura over at Where is the Lolo. I thought it was a cute idea and I'm kind of bored today so here it goes...

Auditing. Yes, I know, I'm a dork. This is what I do for a living and I actually enjoy it very much.

Baking. This is a new thing for me, but I'm catching on. I'm learning from an awesome baker that I happen to be blessed enough to work with. I love making cookies, cupcakes, cakes, and brownies. I try not to do it often though because I will seriously eat everything I cook. I have a massive sweet tooth.

Camping. This is something Justin and I do together pretty frequently and we both love it so much. Getting away from all technology to enjoy nature for a couple of days is a necessity for us.

Dan Brown books. I loved The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Lost Symbol. These books actually sparked an interest in history for me since I started reading them. Dan Brown is very accurate when he talks about places and the history behind them. One day, whenever Justin and I do the 12 day Mediterranean cruise that goes to Rome, we're going to do the "shore excursion" where you take an "Angels & Demons" tour of the city. Justin may be bored out of his mind, but holy crap I'm gonna love every minute of it! I actually told Justin that whenever we have a kid, if it's a boy, I loved the name Langdon (Robert Langdon is the main character in all these books), but he quickly said no. He doesn't like that I read as much as I do and naming a child after anything I read is an absolute no no according to Justin.

Elephants. Roll Tide....enough said.

Flying. I love airplanes. Not as much as Justin does, he knows every type of aircraft, where and when flights in and out of each city are, the details of each kind of plane, etc. He's nuts. I just like flying because it means I'm about to take a trip! On our honeymoon I finally experienced what it's like to fly first class...definitely something I could get use to.

Giz. She's the best dog I've ever had and I love her so much. Her full name is Gizmo by the way. She is so smart it's almost scary. She knows exactly how to get what she wants and is sometimes rather sneaky about it!

Hiking. Anyone that knows my husband and I knows how much we love hiking. We have a goal of hiking to the highest point in each of the 50 states. You can see those blog posts by state on the sidebar of my blog to see how many I've completed.

I-pod. Technically I no longer have an I-pod, I have a Zune. However, it's the same exact thing (except on mine I can get the radio in addition to whatever songs I've downloaded). Couldn't live without it.

Justin. He's my husband, my other half, my soulmate. He can finish any sentence I start and I can't imagine life without him.

Keira Knightley. I love every movie she's ever been in. Probably because I love dated movies, i.e.Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, The Duchess, King Arthur, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

Lydia and Anderson, my niece and nephew. I mean, I can't put into words how much I love them. I couldn't love them more if they were my own kids. They light up my life so much. They are at such a fun age right now (Anderson, 4 and Lydia, 2) and I really don't want them to grow anymore!

Mexican food. I know how unhealthy it is, but cheese dip may be the best thing I've ever put in my mouth. It is impossible for me to go eat Mexican and NOT get cheese dip. It just doesn't happen.

New York City. It's my favorite city in the world and me traveling to places I've never been will never change that, promise. I almost moved there in June 2008, but God had other plans for me. She still has my heart though.

Oatmeal. I eat cinnamon roll flavored oatmeal for breakfast every morning. It's very good and incredibly healthy for you. Double whammy.

Pictures. If you're a regular to my blog, you know how much I love pictures. I hate having blog posts that don't have pictures. I'm that crazy picture taker that wants to make sure she captures every single moment so that I don't forget it in 50 years. Sue me.

Quotes. I love finding quotes that relate to a given situation I'm dealing with. They help inspire me, biblical or religious quotes in general are my faves. Quotes on life, love, and happiness are awesome and make frequent appearances to my facebook page.

Running. Justin and I love running races. We've run a ton of 5K's, a couple of 10K's and one 15K. Justin's run a half-marathon before and I'm training for one in November.

Smoky Mountain National Park. Justin and I started dating in April 2008, got engaged in January 2009, and married in July 2009. Since we started dating, we've been to the Smoky Mountains 4 times. We've already decided that whenever we have a vacation home later in life, it will be in Gatlinburg. It's a hiker's delight!

Traveling. Words can't describe how blessed I am that I've gotten to go to all the places I've been since dating Justin. We're so lucky because he travels so much for a living and builds up frequent flyer miles and hotel points that we just turn around and use to take trips all the time for such a low cost. Our next BIG trip is to Africa in December. See my "Africa" label on the right sidebar to see my posts related to that trip.

University of Alabama. My Alma Mater. I love all things UA...especially our 13 national championships!

Vampire Diaries. I LOVE this show. Some people say it's a knock off of Twilight, but actually, the Vampire Diaries books were written in the 90's, a full decade before Twilight. Though, I love both :) The Vampire Diaries show on the CW is my favorite show on TV right now. LOVE IT!

Working out. I work out all the time and if I go even 3 or 4 days without working out, I'll get slightly depressed. P90X is my new favorite workout. It gives such an intense workout and I never even have to leave my house!!

Xmas. Ok, I may have cheated on the lettering, but let's face is, what starts with X other than Xray and Xerox? I certainly don't love those! Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday of the entire year. In Birmingham, the week before Thanksgiving, 96.5 plays Christmas music all the way until New Years. It's awesome. Unfortunately for me, we'll be gone to Africa over Christmas this year. But that could be a good thing. What better way to celebrate Christmas than being in the process of hiking the tallest free standing mountain in the world, Kilimanjaro? And what better way to celebrate New Year's Eve than on a safari in the Serengeti? This Christmas season may be the best ever!

Yogurt Mountain. If you don't live in Alabama, you're missing out. There's only two locations of this fabulousness, Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. At YM, you can pick your yogurt (probably about 20 choices) and pick your toppings (about 50 choices). You pay based on how much your cup weighs. It's freaking excellent. Every time I go, I usually get peanut butter yogurt topped with chopped up Reese's cups, Twix bar, Crunch bar, hot fudge, and peanut butter and chocolate morsels. Yeah, I kinda like chocolate.

Zip-lining. I discovered zip-lining while on our honeymoon in Hawaii and it was the most awesome thing ever. I'm ready to go somewhere and do it again, but I'm afraid my expectations may be too high now. It's hard to beat zip-lining through the rainforest with Hawaiian beaches in the horizon.