Happy 35th Paul

Paul turned 35 on the 5th of July. He's on his way to 40! Hard to believe. For his birthday he requested Rock Band for Wii. It is a drum set, microphone and electric guitar all set up to do karaoke and it is actually really fun. Noah is also jealous of Daddy's toys, so we let him pretend to play a little bit! It kind of looks like Doggie is rocking out too.

And the Biggest Loser is....

ME!!!!!!!

Well, it was no secret that I gained weight during my pregnancy. And all that happened after Noah was born added so much stress to my life that it was very difficult to get back to my old self -- mentally, physically, and spiritually. After personal trainers, lots of different diets and many failed attempts, I finally did it!!! Earlier this spring a friend of mine in the MOMS club asked if I wanted to join a biggest loser challenge with her. I agreed and since late April we have been meeting every week to weigh in. It cost $29 per person and the biggest loser at the end got the money. There were about 15 participants and a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize would be awarded. My friend who invited me was just as motivated as I was and we dueled it out every week. We both went on vacations, had family events, went to parties and struggled to make it to that weigh in every week. But for 12 weeks neither one of us had a gain. She is 6 inches shorter than I am and so she started at a lower weight. It was a percentage weight loss competition. I just got home from my last weigh in... She lost 17.7 lbs and I lost 20.9 lbs. Our final percentages were 11.05 (her) and 11.49 (me). It doesn't get much closer than that!!!! So, I'll win over $100 and she'll win $60.

But just as Paul said this morning, it doesn't matter that I won, because either way I won... I'm 15lbs less than when I found out I was pregnant and about 10 lbs less than my old "normal". The pictures are from when I seriously started trying to lose weight last April. From that date, I have lost 47lbs. HOLY CRAP!

Thanks to everyone who made nice compliments along the way -- they really helped! And thanks to my MOMS club for being so encouraging and letting us talk about weight loss all the time. And thanks to my awesome husband who always tells me how great I look and who always helps me make time to work out.





Please know that this is very difficult for me to post these!!!! I just hope that you share in my joy and know what a struggle this has been!!!! But, God always provides a way, even when it seems that there is no hope.

Beach Week!!!

We just returned from a fantastic week at the beach. Better than we expected! We did such great things every day and we are home and relaxed and incredibly happy.

We went with our friends Jason and Erin who have a 1 1/2 year old, so Noah had a play mate. We stayed in the Hayloft which is a clergy house at Rehoboth, DE and it is 2 blocks from the beach and 2 blocks from the shopping district -- it is the perfect location. We had incredible weather and it was so awesome to enjoy the sunshine. Our routine was pretty consistent -- wake up, eat, beach, come home, eat lunch, naps for everyone, dinner, boardwalk, grown up time. We did have some special stuff -- Noah's first carnival rides on the boardwalk, a visit from our other friend Erin and her boyfriend Andy who were at the beach the same week, a ride on a "surry" bicycle (we both got to pedal), a day off from the sand at a local water park, and yummy dinners out. Noah was such a rockstar and we had so much fun. And a side bonus was that we have him potty trained except for sleeping right now -- yippeee!!!!! We'll work on naptime this week and then to night time after that.

A little photo tour of our awesome week:

SATC revisited

So, I posted a while ago that we had a chance to see Sex and the City before it came out in theaters. Well, Yaz and I got all dolled up and headed to philly and waited in line for 3 hours in 3 inch heels only to find out that the big wigs from the sponsor gave out too many VIP tickets -- only to leave us lowly radio station winners in the dust. Hundreds of women were outraged. There was virtually a riot. We remained calm, but disappointed. We almost headed for home when the radio station guru's told us to at least join them for the after party. We reluctantly headed to that restaurant -- Swanky Bubbles -- for some food and drinks. While we ate we sat with long faces wishing we had gotten in. The lady next to us asked us if we were there for the Sex and The City Party because we looked so nice. We said yes, but shared how sad we were not to see the movie. She asked to hear the details and as it turned out she was the manager of the whole station. She was furious that her people didn't get in. She paid for our drinks and hooked us up all night. She even made sure that we received the door prizes (a $650 gift card to Saks and a $250 pair of jeans!!!!!). In addition, we were sent free tickets to see the movie in a local theater.

So, last Friday I was lucky enough to go out with some AWESOME girls to see the movie. We met for drinks and then headed to the theater. Not one of us left with a dry eye. Not because we are so in love with the show, but more because it was really a story about women being true to their identity and seeking their dreams. We headed to PF Chang's for dinner and unloaded all of our deepest secrets over lettuce wraps. We were the last table out of the restaurant and we had hte best time any of us had had in ages. You can never have too many good friends.

The Best Gift

We tend to draw out holidays in our house so that a birthday becomes a birthday week and so father's day was naturally all weekend long. Paul's only father's day request was that he didn't want to change diapers or deal with tantrums. He wanted to be with Noah but he just wanted to enjoy him. His father's day events started on Saturday when the men in my family went fishing. Fishing was something they did every year when I was young and we would go camping, but over the years people moved away and had less time. My grandfather is getting much older and slower and so there was a special push this year to get everyone together. Most of them caught things but threw them back because they were too small.

When Paul came home I asked him what he wanted to do... I could cook or we could go out. He suggested we head to Boomer's -- a local indoor play place. We'd never been there. First we ate at Perkin's and it was a true delight. This was the best public meal we have had yet. Noah sat politely in his chair, colored, and ate his dinner. We played silly games at the table and Noah pretended his fruit was an airplane and just smiled away. We were amazed at how much fun we had eating dinner! Boomer's was right next door and we headed over there. It was 7pm on a Saturday night and it was empty. We literally had the entire play section to ourselves. I was so happy because I spend so much time taking Noah to birthday parties and playgrounds and museums and Paul never gets to do those things. So here we were, just our little family in this awesome play area and we climbed and jumped and slid and crawled forever... we were all so happy...







Today we woke up and for some odd reason Noah had vomited on his floor last night in the middle of the night and had a slight fever. So, Paul and Noah stayed home during church, but when I got home he was doing fine. So, we packed the dog and Noah and all our stuff in the car and headed to Reading for a clam bake with the family. It was a beautiful day! At one point, Noah got a hold of the hose and was just hunting people down.. it was soooo funny! He had Paul trapped and every time he moved Noah would pelt him with the water. We laughed forever. Noah was so happy and didn't complain or whine or cry at all.

(My dad, grandfather, brother, Noah and Paul)

When it was finally time to go home we packed up everyone in the car and just smiled forever. Paul turned on the radio and Noah started rocking in his car seat until he passed out. We were traveling the same route we used to take every Sunday night when I was still commuting from Reading. Every week at that exact same time we would watch the sun set and just be so happy that we were married and starting our life together. We saw the same sunset tonight.

The best father's day gift was a joyful weekend as a family. We all agreed.

Which one is the dog?

So, Noah is a little confused about his role in the family. He loves Sophie so much and wants everything she has. He was devastated that I wouldn't give him a bone today when I gave her one. He is constantly in her crate. The other day we were eating dinner in the yard and looked over to see this:

The Lewis and Clark Circus

Well, we had the chance to go to the circus this week. I was reluctant to go because of the rumors about mistreatment of animals and just seeing the animals in an unnatural environment, but I decided to go anyway. It was actually not bad as far as the animals go but very bad as far as circuses go. All day I told Noah we were going to see elephants and he was so excited, but there were no elephants! In fact, the only animals we saw were goats (umm, hello? circus?), a horse, and a camel. Every 10 minutes they stopped the circus to give us the opportunity to buy peanuts for $5. Not to mention the fact that we paid $10 to sit on the grass. Oh well, one of our friends was there and bought us popcorn!!!