I'm baaaack!

I'm back! Sorry for my absence here lately, I've been busy completing my Masters degree in speech-language pathology! I had a wonderful graduation and was reminded this past Sunday how much I love being a mommy and how blessed I am. This post is going to be all over the place, so hold on.

The bad news McFatty Monday officially took a back seat during these last few weeks and I've gained weight. I'm going to start charting my meals and such again and I'm continuing to work out. Working out didn't stop while I was so busy, but I definitely didn't work out as hard.

More bad news is that I'm pretty certain my PCOS and endometriosis are coming back, despite my reproductive endocrinologist's best efforts. I'm going to the doctor this month for bloodwork, and we may have to decide quickly about conceiving again.

Good news! I got a job!!!!!! Yay!! I'm officially Ashley Lastname, MS SLP-CFY!! Woohoo!!!

Have a wonderful week, everybody, I'm tired out from my internship and hospital rounds!

Tracking sucks...but it does work

Ok, so I posed Monday about how I was going to track my food using myfitnesspal.com. Courtney over at TypeBMom is keeping me accountable by asking me how I am doing on my previous post, so here is your answer: pretty darn good. I must say, it sucks when I have to admit that I actually had two servings of chips, but seeing that reflect on my calorie totals sucks. I am finding it hard to eat enough calories once I count in working out, but I know I need to! So overall, I'm doing well. I haven't weighed myself and I probably won't until Monday. All I know is I feel good when I see that I've had a good day on that tracker!

McFatty

Well I'm still not down any weight, and it's for lack of trying. This week was horrendous, and I did not do well. I'm still wearing a size 10, and I haven't exercised since.....Tuesday evening. Wednesday Sarah came down with strep throat and Friday I came down with it. So we've been working on getting well. Over at The Heir to Blair she listed reasons to be healthy and also about using myfitnesspal.com. I also read about it over on Type B Mom so I signed up. I entered in that I had exercised based on the fact that I intended to exercise, but the husband ended up having a meeting tonight and that has derailed my plans since I had the baby instead and it's raining. So no evening walk/jog tonight. I'll get one in tomorrow morning during my break at school. Here's my list of why I'm losing weight:

1. To be a good example to Sarah
2. To fit into a size 6 again
3. To get my self confidence back
4. Because I know my stomach will need plastic surgery (even my OB said so), I need to do the absolute most work I can so that my results are the best they can be once we're done having kids and will have the surgery done.
5. So that I feel like I can wear shorter shorts than bermudas this summer
6. To help my PCOS and Endometriosis from returning

So there are my reasons. They mean a lot to me, although some are deep (children and health) and some are shallow (appearance). I'm hoping that by signing up with my fitness pal that I'll stay on track. Wish me luck!

love,
Ashley

McFatty!!

Well I lost a pound last week, which is good, but was horrible at eating all weekend. It really just seemed like one thing after another happened where for some reason we couldn't eat at home. It was mostly bad time management; it was gorgeous around Missouri last weekend and we spent as much time as possible outside with Sarah. She adores the outside and we had so much fun! We did fit in an almost 3 mile walk/jog with the dog and Sarah outside, which is always good! And, I ran through the sprinkler last evening with her, which must count as something, right?! RIGHT?!

Seriously?! Does it get any cuter than this? I really don't think so!

All in all, this week suffered because of two things: lack of exercise, and lack of water. I need to keep my big water bottle filled up and ready to go so I'll use it. I can feel my throat is sore because of allergies and I know water would help that too. So, not a horrible week but not a great week, either. This week will be warmer weather, as it appears Spring has finally decided to arrive and stay, which should help me too!
Have a good Monday, everyone!

McFatty um....Tuesday? (let's pretend it's Monday)

Hi all! I'm pretending that today's Monday for McFatty Monday, although it's Tuesday. No real update here; I didn't lose weight last week but I didn't gain. I'm not sure I"ll actually lose again until after this semester is over and I graduate in May!! Something about my thesis, a 15 page research paper, a 10ish page research proposal (theoretical, I don't actually have to do this research the proposal is about), a couple of finals and my national certification exam all happening before May 4 have me a touch busy. They also have me eating cookies, like the easter egg sugar cookie from Panera, not that I have any favorites.

I am, however, going to the gym at least 5 days a week and drinking a ton of water. This not only helps my sanity and stress, but helps me not gain, but not lose. I'll try hard this week to watch what I eat in addition to the exercise and water, and we'll see if I can't lose a pound or so!

I'm also happy to note that I now have a new follower! Hello, fellow loser of baby flab! I'm so happy to now have two followers to my little blog! :)

Blessings!
Ash

The little things in life..

In case you can't tell from some of my posts, my daughter is 14 months going on 14 years. She's wildly independent and basically lets me know this on a daily basis. Tonight, however, I got a much-loved reminder that she's still my baby.

She always wants to put herself to sleep (with pink puppy and small dog, of course). Tonight, though, I put her in her crib, she stood up, lifted her arms up, said "mom?" (yes, my baby calls me Mom, not Mama, not Mommy, but Mom. My husband is also Dad) I said, "What, Sarah?" and she picked up her dog and pointed to the glider for me to rock her to sleep. For 30 minutes. 30 glorious minutes she wasn't my independent girl, she wasn't a free spirit, and for a while I even got to forget that her 33 inches of height is overwhelming to my 5'1 frame as she snuggled in close. For 30 minutes, she was just my baby again. And I loved every second.

McFatty monday after vacation!

One of the greatest things about still being a student while all of my other friends have actual jobs is that I get a Spring Break! And my hubs works from home, so he can take one with me! So we went on vacation this week, which is the reason for the lack of posts last week. Before I left on vacation, I weighed 163.4 and this morning, after no exercise last week and eating only semi-well, I weigh 164.2. So I gained less than a pound (but just barely!).

I link up to McFatty Monday over on The Heir to Blair where she is chronicling her baby weight loss, too! Her question today was what motivates me to lose weight. I can tell you absolutely, it's not the number on the scale. I want to look good for myself, not anyone else. I don't need to be a size 2 to look good for me. I just want to be a size 6, what I wore before Sarah. Right now, I'm a size 10ish. Sometimes I can do an 8, but mostly it's a 10. And that size 10 is directly related to my tummy flab. My skin got stretched TO INFINITY AND BEYOND with Sarah and I have the stretch marks to prove it. You know they're bad when you're getting prepped for a C-Section and the nurse comments on them. Yeah, folks, she commented in front of a pregnant woman in pre-term labor. The results were not pretty for her. The results of pregnancy were also not pretty on my body. But I've come a long way, and I have a long way to go. At least 2 pant sizes, to be exact. Because while I'm a 10 maybe 8, I'd like to be a 4-6. I wore a 4 or a 2 (GASP!) when I got married a short 3.5 years ago. So my success isn't weighing 120 pounds. It's wearing a size that I know I feel I look good in. A size 10 is a good start though, and seeing myself go from a 12 to a 10 is definitely motivation!

Progress Pictures!!

So everyone who reads this (which is most likely nobody) knows that I'm losing weight. I'm losing SLOWLY, but slow is better than not at all! Here are some pics of my results:

3/15/11

From the first 1/31/11

And here are the side view pictures!

1/31/11

Hello, Plateau!

Well it seems as though I've hit a bit of a plateau. I still weigh 164. This probably means that I either need to work out more or eat less. Eating less is definitely easier with graduate school and a toddler keeping my exercise time of about an hour a day about as much as I can do.

I'll see what this week has to bring. My old exercise plan went something like this:
MWF: work out somehow at home, whether that's an exercise video or mall walking with Sarah
T/TH: work out at school at the awesome new student activity center

I will admit that on MWF, I never feel as though I've had as good of a workout as I do on T/TH, so to conquer that, we joined the YMCA. We have an awesome one here and it's right down the road from our house. So far, I've worked out everyday Thursday-Sunday (and will again today). They also have free childcare which is awesome! Sarah stays with my in-laws while I'm at school and in the clinic, so she's not used to a day-care type setting, but she's adjusting normally. Each day it gets better for her. We'll see what happens to my weight loss now that I'll be working out every day!

The good news is that I can fit into a pair of jeans I got for Christmas that didn't fit! I was a size 10 at Christmas and the jeans are a size 8. Now they fit!! I also broke down and bought my first piece of shapewear at Target. I really want some Spanx, but darn it, it's just not in the good ole' budget right now! So these will do, and already my black pants that were alot tight are now just a little tight! I figure a few more days of eating right and working out and I'll be in them!

The goal for today: eat well, exercise, and drink at least 100oz of water! I can do this!

My unpopular opinion for today

So my unpopular opinion was brought to the forefront this morning whilst checking my facebook page. I was having a lovely morning when all of a sudden I come across a post from a college acquaintance from undergrad. She's pregnant, which is wonderful. It's a boy, which is fantastic. Here's the kicker: His name? 

Jayms

That's right, ya'll, she's naming her boy Jayms, which is pronounced James for those of you whose eyes are so burned by the addition of the 'y' and deletion of the 'e' in what is otherwise a strong, traditional male name that you cannot possibly go back to read it again and decipher the pronunciation. 

So my unpopular opinion isn't necessarily that people name their kids trendy names or anything, although I do have a friend who is naming her son a horrendous made-up name that he'll probably change the second he turns 18. Nobody wants to trust a 30 year old man named Aspen to be their financial advisor or something equally as professional one day. 

I hate made-up names. I hate additional letters or blatant changing of the spelling just to make your kid "unique". They're not unique, they're weird. That, and they'll spend the rest of their lives saying "My name is James. J-A-Y-M-S. Yes, I know it's weird."

We named our daughter Sarah. Classic? Yes. Plain? Maybe. Will anybody ever look at her name and say, "What were her parents thinking?" Absolutely not.

Sharing is Caring

This post is going to be mostly stream-of-consciousness typing, so hang in there with me. This post will be about many things.
1. Well it appears the daughter has shared her sickness with me, but I'm determined to beat it. I don't feel bad just yet, but I can feel myself getting sick. In honor of that, I busted this out this morning:

I have a love-hate relationship with it. I hate it because it feels weird, burns sometimes, is awkward to use, and makes me sneeze. I love it because it works. Plain and simple.

2. I've decided I'm going to do Lent this year. No, I'm not Catholic, but I did graduate from a Jesuit Catholic University, so that makes me kind of Catholic. Overall, I'm a strong Christian who is protestant. I happen to attend a Southern Baptist Church right now, but wouldn't call myself "southern baptist". I would just as easily attend a Christian church, but we didn't choose that church for our home for now. I've been inspired by Courtney over at Type B Mom who says that although I'm not Catholic I'm welcome to participate. So for Lent, I'm giving up sugar and chocolatey stuff. This is hard for me, as sugar/chocolatey stuff is my favorite thing in the whole wide world. But I'll do it, both for religious reasons and for my waistline reasons.

3. I have annoying neighbors who were blaring R&B and Soul music at 9:30 last night and woke Sarah up. They got a piece of my mind. I can't wait to move out of this townhouse. It's tiny. It's dark. It's impossible to keep clean with my child running around.

That's all for now. Bye!

Oh, McFatty Monday, you came so soon!

McFatty Monday is like any other Monday; it comes way to soon. I'll go ahead and just say that I'm not weighing this morning. My kid was horribly sick this week and I did NOT do well on eating or working out; largely because I only ate what I could hold in one hand while she slept on me from Tuesday through Saturday morning. This week, though, I'm back at it. Hopefully she won't be sick and I can really get in there and lose some weight. Last week I started back going to bootcamp on Monday nights and I will go again tonight, even if that means that Mike is putting Sarah down (she only wants mama to put her down).

Last night, I went over to the in-laws' and walked on their treadmill. I need to go walking this morning. Sarah and I are so awesome we go mall walking with the senior citizens a couple times per week. We are by far the youngest ones there, but they love seeing Sarah.

I have a friend who's lost a ton of weight by only eating 1200 calories/day and no more than 20 grams of fat/day, as well as exercising at least 1 hour per day. I think this sounds like an effective way to lose weight, but not a way to keep it off long-term. My goal is to lose it slowly, and keep it off.

So, my game plan for this week:
Protein shake or smoothie for breakfast (like normal, but unlike what happened last week)
Sensible Lunch (salad, soup, etc)
PORTION CONTROL for dinner: 
Ya'll, I can cook. My Mama and Grandmama taught me to cook, and people like what I cook, but you will not lose weight on it. As I type I have 8 sticks of butter in my fridge and the large size carton of cream. My Grandmama would be proud. She's probably smiling down from heaven on my refrigerator. The cream will be used this week, as will probably half of the butter. It may kill me, but if butter and cream are wrong I don't want to be right! So for dinner I eat half of a serving and a big salad to fill me up. I know if I don't have my comfort food, I won't feel satisfied. So there's the game plan for this week! Here goes nothing!
Ashley

Mama said there'd be days like this

So my sweet Sarah is maybe sick again. I say maybe because she's not eating or drinking normally and is generally whiny, but is playing pretty normally. Anyhow, I'm keeping an eye on her and may take her to the doctor in the morning.

I've often looked back on this past year in awe that I actually made it. We tried so very hard to get pregnant (and stay that way for a while) and I was so happy to be pregnant and deliver Sarah, even if it was 4 weeks early. Now my sister is pregnant, and I"m starting to go through those first few months over in my head.

In the hospital, she had trouble keeping her temperature up despite the warm swaddle they had her in. Instead of putting her in the NICU again to keep her warm, I requested that we try kangaroo care first. I'll never forget the feeling of her skin on mine. With her like that, she stayed warm enough. We spent hours like that. She would nurse, sleep, and just look around, all the while soaking up her mama's warmth and love.

I remember the very first time I saw her, and I heard her cry. I cried just as hard because I was so grateful. She was healthy; tiny, but healthy. I remember getting up at night to pump breastmilk for her, and continuing on even when it was hard, painful, and I just wanted to mix her some formula and call it a day. I remember crying because she was crying, and crying because I was so happy.

This past year has definitely had it's ups and downs. Becoming a mother while still in graduate school is the hardest thing I've ever done. I can honestly say, though, that every time I look at Sarah, it is all worth it. When she snuggles close, gives me a kiss, or just laughs at me for being silly with her, I know it's worth it. She is my everything, and even my hardest days with her are better because they're with her. 

Sarah 7 months old

Sarah 7 months old

McFatty Monday!!

Hi, all! It's McFatty Monday again, and I've maintained my weight of last week. So, no loss, but no gain so I guess that's good. I'm going to really focus in on my eating this week, and am considering a sugar fast. It's no secret that I'm a Christian, and fasting is a part of the Christian faith sometimes. I've decided that anytime I really crave sugar (which is a lot!) that I'll remember God's faithfulness and cling to that. His faithfulness has been there through many of my life's trials, and not having sugar should be the least of these trials.

I'm having to give myself a pep talk this morning as I'm trying to figure out what to wear to the clinic today; my supervisor never tells me when it's a jeans day, so I always wear khakis or a skirt. Today may be a skirt or dress day! Hope everybody has a wonderful Monday!

Much love,
Ashley

Shellac Manicure

Okay, so I've been hearing some good things about the Shellac Manicure. I decided to give it a try, so I went to a salon here in town. It's $23 at my salon, which was the cheapest I found; everyone else ran $25- $30. It claims to last at least two weeks, sometimes three. I'm very very hard on my nails; I cook a lot, and I clean a lot. What I didn't want was acrylic, fiberglass, or gel nails. I have very healthy nails and besides that, I can't have fake nails in my industry. It turns out you can't feel around in someone's mouth very comfortably with fake nails, and it's a health risk. So Shellac, here I come! Here are some pics of my finished product! Please don't mind the pictures, a hand model I am not! My hands are small and short, so I just do the best I can with what I have!

I went with a french manicure; the nail tech said that the french manicure lasts the longest between manicures, which is my goal. 

Close up! 

Please don't mind my lovely stack of stuff to put away that Sarah pulled out of the closet!

And now for some fun stuff! There's snow on the ground right now, but we had a lovely streak of warm (70s) weather and took some fun pictures!

Sarah after eating an ice cream sandwich dessert at a fun kid-themed restaurant in our area!

Sarah and Daddy playing on the teeter-totter

Daddy loves his little girl!

McFatty Monday and the curse/blessing of the stomach flu

So I've been doing McFatty Monday (don't worry about the fact that I'm a day late) from The Heir to Blair and this week I'm happy to say that I'm at 164! Yay!! That's down a few pounds, and it's exciting. It's also a direct result of the stomach flu which hit our house this week. No matter, I'm down some weight so now I have to maintain the loss and lose some more! I think I can do it!

My little girl was hit especially hard, as babies toddlers often are. She was almost hospitalized with dehydration, but after a good few healthy doses of Phenergren, she is all better and never had to be hospitalized. We are so thankful that we have access to good medical care that keeps our family healthy!

McFatty Monday-Valentine's Edition

Well, this McFatty Monday isn't so bad. I'm at 167, which I can't complain about since I'm officially lighter now than two weeks ago. Last Monday I had gained and so this past week I've tried to be pretty diligent. We celebrated Valentine's Day on Saturday night since that's when the in-laws could watch Sarah, and went to Cheddars. It was DELICIOUS and I totally blew my healthy eating. Alfredo sauce and two drinks later, I felt sure I would have gained for this week. But I worked out every day and Sunday ate well, so maybe one bad night won't totally sabotage everything for me.

One thing I've changed during this past week is drinking protein shakes every morning for breakfast. 3-5 days a week I work out in the morning before breakfast, and two days a week I work out at grad school in the awesome new student activity center that just opened. From what I was reading, protein would really help me burn fat and build lean muscle, which my abs definitely need!

Here's how I make it and drink it every morning:

1 Scoop of chocolate muscle milk powder (150 calories)

4 oz of water + 4 oz of milk 

1 TBS peanut butter

I'm considering buying some of the natural peanut butter so that it's lower in sugar and everything, but for now, this is what we have at the house so that's what I'm going to use. We don't have the kind of money to be pitching such a huge thing of peanut butter just because it's not natural, so we'll see how it goes until then! 

The breakfast comes out to about 300 calories and it's filling which is great. I'm also drinking a metric ton of water it seems, and while that keeps me going to the bathroom and I have flashbacks of nursing my daughter while guzzling water, it seems to be helping me lose weight; I cheated and weighed this past Saturday morning before I knew I"d kill my healthy eating and I weighed 165.4! woo hoo!! Talk about motivation!

Not Your Ordinary Mac & Cheese

So this past weekend was my husband's birthday celebration! Happy 29th birthday, Mike! We went to the wonderful J Alexanders for lunch since a certain Ms. Sarah will not tolerate late at night dinners an hour away very well. While there, I had what's called "Not Your Ordinary Mac & Cheese." My husband, being a big fan, went on and on about how we needed to find this recipe. I found a copy cat recipe online and made it. There are changes we need to make, but overall this is a DIVINE mac and cheese!

Here's what you need:
1.5 cups elbow macaroni
3TBS butter, divided (the real stuff, don't go all country crock on me here)
2 TBS flour
2 cups heavy cream (the real stuff here too. No, you cannot use half and half. No, you cannot use whole milk instead. Just use the cream, your life will be better for it.)
1/2 of a minced onion
1 bay leaf
1/4 tsp paprika (but next time I'm bumping it up to 1/2.)
2 1/4 cup gruyere cheese
salt
black pepper
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (I cut up an Italian loaf)

Here's how you make it:

Cook 1.5 cups macaroni and set aside.

Next, take 2TBS of butter and 2TBS of flour to make a roux. Cook it for three minutes, stirring constantly. SLOWLY add in the cream. It is very important that you add the cream in a tiny bit at a time at first. The roux is hot and the cream, even if it's room temperature is much colder and you will seize your roux and create clumps. Clumpy cheese sauce = no bueno.

Stir in the onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer, stir often, and let it simmer for 15 minutes. It will thicken. A lot. Don't worry, beautiful things are happening. Remove from heat and get that bay leaf out. Stir in 1.5 cups of cheese and season with salt and pepper. WARNING: you will need a decent amount of salt. Stir in macaroni.

In a separate bowl, melt the remaining 1TBS butter (maybe I used two) and add in the bread crumbs. I also salted the bread crumbs because salt is good, while being bad.

Butter a deep baking dish. The one I used is the round deep dish baker by Pampered Chef (holla!). Pour in half of the mac mixture and layer in half of the remaining cheese. Pour in the rest of the mac, sprinkle the rest of the cheese, and top with the bread crumbs.

Here is an important note: the world is only made better by crunchy topping. I used at least twice as many bread crumbs as this recipe calls for.

Once it's assembled, pop it in a 350 oven for about 20 minutes, then crank up the broiler. Watch it carefully, but buttered bread crumbs and broilers love each other, and make beautiful food happen.

Here's what my finished product looked like:

And here are a few lovely snaps of my adorable little girl!

Sarah loves playing with things mom takes off of the furniture to dust! I also spy a huge black trash bag full of all the clothes she has outgrown that I need to take to storage! *sniff sniff*

ooo alarm clocks and camera battery chargers!

playing on mom and dad's bed!

J Alexander's and the McFatty Monday aftermath

Okay, so it's not J Alexander's fault that they make incredible steaks and Not Your Ordinary mac & cheese.  It is delicious, but I chose to eat it; after all, it was my husband's birthday celebration. It's also not the blizzard's fault that during a blizzard I get all sad and unmotivated and don't work out. So I didn't keep up with the healthy eating and I fell off of the exercise bandwagon this week. Consequently, I gained from last week, up to 168. That's okay, it's one minor setback, one minor week, and in the grand scheme of things, won't matter. I'll still lose this weight. I will finish this weight loss. I owe it to myself, my family, and my health.

Also, my husband found a copy cat recipe for the NYO Mac & Cheese online and we made it last night. Holy heavy cream and gruyere cheese, batman! It was delish, but SO full of fat and calories!

Blizzard 2011!!

Well, in case you hadn't heard, about half the country it seems got a blizzard this week! It hit on February 1st, which is Mike's birthday and the anniversary of bringing Sarah home! Check out the in-laws' house!

We stayed at their house Tuesday night as there was a foot of snow on the ground, and more in some places. We couldn't get out, and my in-laws were kind enough to take us in. Last night, when we got back to our house, Chief needed to go out. Here is the view out my back door:

Chief is a large German Shepherd and had a hard time overcoming that snow drift!

                    

This is the fence to the right of our patio. It is a six-foot tall fence.

In other news, Sarah is just becoming more adorable by the day. I took some adorable pictures of her in her jammies because she's just too snuggly in them!

I told her Chief needed to go out so she grabbed his leash and went walking towards him yelling "dog!", "dog!". Which sounds more like "dot!"

I love ruffle bottoms and ballerina PJ's! 

And for a taste of spring in spite of the blizzard, Sarah sported some bright, fruity jammies last night!

She is holding pink puppy. Pink puppy MUST be in bed with her for her to sleep, but he's her most favorite toy in the world, so he often finds his way downstairs before beditme. 

It is -10 real temperature this morning, so Sarah and I are staying inside and playing this morning! She's still in bed and I'm hoping to get the house picked up so she and I can eat breakfast and watch a Veggie Tales first thing! Have a happy Thursday!

Birthday Girl and McFatty Monday!

Well, our sweet Sarah turned one on Saturday! It was a great day full of celebration and a party!

At the winter wonderland party, we also had a big balloon snowman that Sarah loved!

She loved turning forward facing in her car seat!

All in all, we had a fantastic day celebrating God's faithfulness in giving us our sweet princess Sarah. After a year and a half of trying, two miscarriages, medication, surgery, and a lot of praying, we have our miracle, and we couldn't be happier. I know she'll never truly know how much I love her until she has her own children, but it is my prayer that I can give her a glimpse of how much she is loved every day. She is my miracle, and I'll never stop giving thanks for her.

Now....on to McFatty Monday!! I realized last week that I weighed on Tuesday, not on Monday, so technically it hasn't been a full week, but that's okay. I weighed today so from now on it'll stay with Monday, okay? Okay. 

My weight this morning: 166. That's down like a little over a pound. Which is GREAT considering we had the birthday party on Saturday and connection group with our church on Sunday night this weekend. So that meant cake, ice cream, cookies, punch, pizza, more ice cream dessert oreo thing (that was called chocolate seduction and that's a fitting name for it). So all in all, I worked out only 5 days last week since the party was Saturday and I basically didn't really watch what I ate so much this past weekend. So I'll take 1.2 pounds, and try and do better this coming week.  I decided I'm motivated by pictures, so you will be graced with some lovely photos of me in some workout gear from this morning! Enjoy the aftermath of baby and C-Section!

Okay, so this last pic was rotated correctly on my computer and now it's not. You will now tilt your head as far as you can to the left and pretend that I'm blogger savvy enough to know how to change the rotation of this picture. 

Have a happy Monday! We're expecting a snow storm here in MO, so we'll see how it goes!

Ashley

Getting Real

Well, this marks the second week in my quest to lose some baby weight. In case you are reading this and don't know me, I was blessed about a year ago with the prettiest baby God ever put on this earth:

I'll be real here: I weighed 150 when I got pregnant with Sarah. I weighed 130 when I got married. The day I delivered Sarah, I weighed 197. This past Monday morning (which will hereafter be known as McFatty Mondays, to encourage me to lose the fat) I weighed 167.2. For two weeks, I have exercised at least 5 days a week, sometimes 6, but never on Sunday. I figure God gives me a pass on Sundays. So to get to my wedding weight, I have 37 pounds to go. I'd like to lose 40, just to give me an even number. So here we go! Losing weight! I have a jogging stroller and salad in the fridge; come along with me on this journey!

Welcome!

Hello! I'm Ashley, welcome to my blog! I decided to do this blog as a way to chronicle my family's life as we live as a family of three plus a huge german shepherd in a townhouse somewhere in Missouri just trying to make it all work out.

Here is our story:
My husband Mike has joined the ranks of the under-employed; driving a truck with his MBA thanks to the economy. He was out of work for 1.5 years, during which I was pregnant, gave birth, and continued my graduate degree. Our daughter Sarah was born about a year ago and the biggest adventure of our lives began! This blog will be about everything, from the goings on of Sarah, to graduate school, to my journey to lose baby weight that is being stubborn thanks to PCOS and endometriosis. We believe in God and His provision, and hope that through this blog, you will see how we have been blessed beyond measure!