My How Things Have Changed

Long time, no blog. I've been busy, to say the least.

July 14, 2010. My life was forever changed. I went to work on the most important job I'll ever have. Anna Rosalia was born at 4:51pm. A precious, bright-eyed, 6 pound, 10 ounce baby girl.

She was a surprise. She was unexpected. She is a miracle. She is a blessing. She is my Mini-Me. She is my Wonder Twin.

The best days of my life will be spent with her. I love her with my whole heart.

Her blog has become more important (and is more interesting) than mine. But I will try to do better.

SNOW!!!

OMG! It finally snowed! The weathermen have been teasing us for weeks. We got some kind of crappy ice/fake snow/sleet junk at the end of January, but on Friday, we got honest to goodness snow! Very exciting, if poorly timed...

The snow began to fall around 5:00 and accumulated pretty quickly. As I always do when it snows, I ran around the house like a crazy person, driving poor Sadie insane.

I believe this picture was taken around 8:30 with a couple of inches on the ground already.

Sadie paws!

At around 10:00, Sadie and I were watching the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics. I decided it was time for snow cream. I went outside and collected some "clean" snow and made a small bowl for myself and for Sadie. She is a fan...

I woke up at around 7:30 on Saturday morning. The world was white and fluffy, but there was a very menacing yellow orb in the sky. So I rushed out to take a few more pictures.

As quickly as it came, it was gone. The stupid sun has refused to shine for weeks. We've endured cold, cloudy days and days of pouring rain. We finally got some snow on the ground, and out came the sun to take it all away. *SIGH* Well, it was beautiful while it lasted. I'm sure people with children or someone else to play with enjoyed their day making snowmen and throwing snowballs. I just enjoyed knowing it was out there, white and beautiful, if only for a little while.

Let's Not Be Fat, OK?

That's right. I said it. I'm on a mission. I started last Tuesday. The goal: 20 pounds by Spring Break. Steve and I have challenged each other to be healthier. So here we go. :)

These are the changes I have made:
-I have cut out fast food. (Which if you know me well, you know was 90 percent of my diet!)
-No more school lunches. (Because who knows what is in that stuff??)
-I am drinking mostly water. (Sometimes with a 5 calorie flavor packet...cause water is just gross sometimes.
-I am exercising. (Well, I have been slightly derailed from this part. I bruised a bone in my foot and it really really hurts!! Hopefully it will be well soon.)

So this is what I do:
For breakfast: Special K Red Berries with 2% milk. I can't handle anything less than that. It's just water.
For lunch: A microwave bowl of light soup, a yogurt, and water.
For dinner: A lean cuisine meal (or something similar) of some variety. I'm discovering the ones that taste like food and the ones that don't.
**I may or may not have a 100 calorie snack at some point during the day.

I have only strayed from this twice in almost 2 weeks. I had Sunday dinner at Mom's and lasagna with the O'Neills. And so far, 5 pounds of me are gone. I hope I can make it by Spring Break.....

I guess I have effectively put Sadie on a diet as well. She shows little to no interest in the food I am eating. (Even she knows it's not real food!!)

PS-I'm hungry! A cheeseburger and fries would be nice. :)

Christmas, Part Two!

On Sunday, the Charleston crew came up and we had Christmas, Part Two! We had enough food to feed a small European country. Soups, sandwiches, chicken, salads, desserts....ridiculous amounts of food!! We ate...LOTS. We had present time. FUN!

I got a picture with my girls. :)

We spent a lot of time taking family pictures. It's kinda rare for us to all be together at the same time. So we took some great pictures. Grandmother and Granddaddy with their children, with their grandchildren, etc. We got some good ones of Mom, Dad, Mere, Brent, and Me. We took some of the 5 Auten grandchildren. This one is my favorite...

And we took one of the whole crew to replace the one from before Brenna was born.

Aunt Nelle, Aunt Nancy, and Uncle Temp came over to spend some fun times with us too.

Christmas, Part Two was a big success! I love spending time with my family! <3

Christmas!

Christmas Morning!! Christmas Morning!!!

I woke up super early and went to Meredith and Corey's for early festivities. It was raining cats, dogs, cows, pigs, chickens...anything it could find to rain. It was RIDICULOUS! But I put on my sock monkey Christmas pajamas and off I went.

Santa had been to their house during the night. Poor Colin was awake in his room, waiting to be given permission to come into the living room. Brenna was sacked out. After Mom and Dad and I were there, they let Colin out and got Brenna out of bed. Colin was thrilled with his Santa stash, especially Outback the Kangaroo. Brenna woke up after a few minutes and was SO funny when she realized she had new toys waiting for her in the floor.

After the presents, we had yummy breakfast. :) Here's a picture of me and Mere:


After breakfast, I hung out at Mere's for a little while and then went home to get cleaned up for big Christmas at Mom's. Still raining like crazy. UGH. So I got cleaned up, loaded up the car with the presents, the Wii, and the Sadie and headed for York.

We had a superfun day with lots of presents, lots of good family time and LOTS of food!!! Yum!!!

Cousins!

This will be the Christmas that I remember as the Christmas that Brenna super loved me. :)

We had lots of fun together. After all the presents and all the eating, the Lancaster crew headed home. Then the Clinton crew headed home. I didn't want to go home. Sadie was with me, so there was no point. So I hung out with my parents. Dad and I played the Wii. He wanted to play Mario Kart....until he realized he couldn't drive. So we bowled. Fun times. :)

After that, I headed home to rest up for Christmas, Part Two!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a pretty good day. I spent most of the day putting bows on packages and watching tv.

Then, keeping with tradition, I went to Lancaster for the Christmas Eve service at First Baptist. Um.....fail. But at least it gave us comedy ammuniton for the rest of the holiday. :) What about the baby in the manger? The wise men on the camels? The shepherds watching their flocks?? The angels?? The STAR?!?! And children, please wait until I play my ocarina....WHAT?!?!?!?!

Then it was off to Grandmother's for our Christmas Eve dinner. Some misguided souls had oyster stew. Being smarter than the average bear, I had Grandmother's chicken salad. Boom! I love that stuff.

Then it was back home to watch A Christmas Story and get a good night's sleep. :) Santa was on his way!!!!