Eyes Bigger than the Stomach

Do you wanna know how I lost the first forty pounds? By eating practically nothing every day. I would have a breakfast shake in the morning and I would eat high fiber cereal at night. Oh, and of course lots of lots of water and Diet Dr. Pepper. I knew I wasn't being healthy, but I justified it by saying I was getting all my vitamins and minerals from my breakfast shake (those things are jam packed!) and by saying whatever I wasn't getting my body could take from my extra reserves. Of course I was hungry, but I was FOCUSED like I never have been before in my life. Something in me had clicked and I just wanted the weight gone and FAST. So I was ravenous, but had no cravings. Nothing sounded good. I literally did not want to eat. I have never experienced that before, and probably never will again. Those feelings are gone now. I crave food again. But that period lasted just long enough that my habits have changed, and I have self-control and will power now.

I have wonderful people in my life who all were concerned about what I was eating. It was pretty annoying actually. I was so focused on losing weight, and everyone was telling me to eat more. But I knew they were right, and I realized that if I wanted the weight loss to stick, I would have to lose it slower and in a healthier way. So I eat a lot more normal now. I've had slow weight loss weeks and I've had incredible weight loss weeks since starting to eat more normal. I am very happy with the balance I have created.

One thing I have found since my return to eating more normal is that my eyes are bigger than my stomach. Have you heard this term before? I'll have a plate of food and I won't be able to finish it. I still give myself servings that I would have been able to eat 55 lbs ago. My stomach has shrunk significantly, and my eyes haven't adjusted yet! Something I need to be careful with. But I have learned to recognize that I am full and to PUT DOWN THE FORK! Whereas in the past I would have cleaned the plate. Unless I realize I am full when there are two bites left, then I finish. Get off my back!

Today I am grateful for my bed. It is ginormous and comfortable and warm, and much too big for my bedroom. It's been really cold lately, and I just want to stay in my bed all day long!

Post Thanksgiving Weigh In

Thanksgiving is a bad week for dieters. Everyone overeats, and why shouldn't they? That's the point of Thanksgiving. I decided not to. I'm just not a fan of Thanksgiving food, so what's the point in ruining my diet just for the sake of stuffing myself silly along with everyone else? I very easily could have. I had to make the decision not to.

It paid off! I lost another 2 lbs for a grand total of 55 lbs! No holidays are getting in my way this year!

Today I am grateful that my sister-in-law is visiting for a week from Texas. I won't get to see her much, but I'm still really excited!

Thanksgiving Recap

I had a pretty eventful Thanksgiving. Let me tell you about it. The night before Thanksgiving I went four-wheeling with a bunch of friends and had a lot of fun. My friends picked me up at my parent's house instead of at my house, and when I got dropped off at my parent's house at three o'clock in the morning, my car was blocked in! It was freezing cold, and I was really tired and didn't feel like moving cars around, so I decided to sleep on my parent's couch.

BAD IDEA.

My brother woke up about twenty minutes after I got home and decided that the house was burning down. I guess he could smell smoke, and so he woke up my dad and they started turning on lights and wandering around the house trying to find the source of the smell. That was really annoying, as I was trying to sleep! They never found anything, and the house didn't burn down.

The next morning, the day of Thanksgiving. I guess three boxes of stuffing isn't enough for my family, so me and my little brother were sent to the store to get more. Oh, and I needed some Diet Dr. Pepper to get me through the day. :) It turns out that taking my mom's car to the store is FREAKING AWESOME because she has a handicapped parking pass from her injury a couple of months ago that is valid for another couple of months! My little brother has been taking full advantage of this for months now, but yesterday was the first day I got to benefit from it. We parked right next to the entrance and bought four more boxes of stuffing for a total of SEVEN boxes of stuffing.

As for what I ate? Not a big fan of Thanksgiving food, so it was pretty easy for me to stay on track. I had some stuffing (of course, we had seven boxes of it), some yams, and an orange roll. I did not eat myself silly, and when they brought out the pie later, I did not have any. Not because I am Super Woman or something like that, I just really don't like pie. Pie, pie, pie, all they could talk about was pie! Let me tell you: pie is overrated. Give me some ice cream, then we'll talk.

I'm really glad I don't eat my feelings anymore.

Since this is my Thanksgiving post, I should probably mention how grateful I am for my family. They really suck sometimes, but at least I know they love me and care about me.

A Different View

So a lot of weight loss bloggers are a lot more open about numbers than I am. They tell how much they weighed from the beginning and everything including inches lost in different areas of their body. To me, that is so incredibly brave! I am way too insecure to be revealing most of that information. I have mentioned before that I will be revealing that information once I hit a specific milestone. It's a silly milestone probably, but it's important to me, and it's not too far off.

The most I have revealed to this point is how much weight I have lost so far. That doesn't mean much if you don't know how much I weighed to begin with. I've been pretty bummed that I didn't keep track of how many inches I have lost since I started losing weight last February 2010. Aside from weight loss, inches lost is a pretty big indicator of just how much fat you have actually dropped. But I wasn't thinking of this experience as an experiment when it all started back then, so I didn't measure myself in inches.

BUT... I found an old notebook from 2008! It has measurements that I took of myself from March 31, 2008. I was really excited when I found this. I gained twelve pounds between March 31, 2008 and February 2010, so these numbers I'm about to share are not at my peak weight, but twelve pounds off isn't bad, and it's the best I can do. I'm super stoked to have something to compare to in inches now!

March 31, 2008

Arms: 15"

Waist: 45"

Hip: 46"

Bust: 43"

Thigh: 31"

Band: 37" (underneath bust)

November 21, 2010

Arms: 11.5"

Waist: 30" - I might have measured in the wrong place back then...

Hip: 41"

Bust: 38" - I can't say I'm thrilled about this loss, but what can I do?

Thigh: 25"

Band: 32"

This is a different and fun way to look at it! I will continue to measure inches every so often and add it to my Progress page.

Today I am thankful for distractions that get me through my homework.

A New Look! ...And a New Weigh In

Have I ever mentioned how confusing my body is? I have had some pretty amazing results the last two weeks, and I feel like I didn't even do good this week! I freaking ate at the Olive Garden! I guess I have gotten used to portion control. I feel invincible. Now I know that isn't true, and I'm sure that I will have it rough again in the future, but I feel like I'm on fire!

This week I lost 3 lbs for a total of 53 lbs lost. What the heck? Not complaining though.

In other good news, remember when I started wearing size 10 pants? Well, size 10 is too loose right now, so I went to the mall and got two new pairs of work pants and a new skirt, all size 8! They zip up and everything. However, the pants give me minor muffin top. So I'm gonna have to walk around with loose pants until the muffin top situation is taken care of. At this rate, it won't be much longer!

You might have noticed that my blog has a new look. I got tired of the old one. Much like myself! I just got my hair done last week, and I love it! Here's my new look below.

This is me at 53 lbs lost. This is the new skirt I was talking about.

And here is a close up of my super dark hair. It's never been this dark before, and I love it!

Today I'm grateful for those who build me up when I'm feeling down. Even those who aim to inspire need a little help sometimes.

Insert Clever Headline Here

So my friend Hannah at Hannah's Reductions tagged me in her latest blog post. I love reading her blog. She lives in New Zealand and is doing great on her weight loss journey. Her tag couldn't have come at a better time. The post I had set up to publish today is actually going to be a guest post on another blog on another day, which I'm really excited about. So I needed something else to do for today.

I really love the questions that she asked me, and I am SO excited to address them.

1) What is your biggest temptation to slip? Food or Emotion?

BOTH. Let me add a third though, and that would be peer pressure from friends (to any of them reading, don't worry, I'm not mad). I love food. It is delicious. Especially when you've had a bad day. Throw in a friend calling and saying "hey, let's go get dinner," and see if you can battle that. So yeah, I slip a lot. But it's okay, because I'm careful with portions, and like I've said a million times, I'm going for a lifestyle change, and it's working out for me.

2) Do you like what you see in the mirror currently?

Funny you should ask! That's actually what my guest post is about. It really depends on the day. I'll skip this one until you guys get to read the guest post. I'll put a link to the website it will be on once it is published.

3) What is the best tip/thing you think helps you with your current goal to lose weight?

Moral support from your family and friends. For example, if you have a friend who wants to go out for ice cream when you have just barely started your diet, and you tell them no, but they persist? It's okay to say no if you don't want ice cream. If that friend of yours decides that ice cream is more important than your friendship, so be it. I'm not saying that happened to me though... :)

Another thing is getting back on the horse. If you have a bad day, start again RIGHT AWAY. Not tomorrow, not next Monday, not next month! When I have a terrible lunch, I have to remind myself to go right back on my diet after lunch. Having a bad lunch doesn't make it a free binge day!

4) What do you think is the hardest thing about the weight loss journey?

Honestly the hardest thing about my weight loss journey has surprisingly been the emotional roller coaster. I had no idea how emotional it would be. I had no idea that losing weight would make me a different person. There may be other factors involved as well, but losing fifty pounds is a pretty big deal! I'm becoming a new person and the emotions are pretty crazy, and I'm definitely not used to it.

Today I am grateful for friends who call and say "hey, let's go get dinner." If I'm gonna slip, someone else better too!

My Vulnerabilities Exposed

Vulnerable: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded

I’ve been really excited for the next topic in the Self Discovery Word by Word Series. This month it is being hosted by Karen at Before & After: A Real Life Story. But then I found out that the word this month was vulnerability. Dang. This is not a subject I really want to talk about. Gratitude was super easy for me. I have a lot to be grateful for. But vulnerability is something that is not easy for me to discuss. That is why this post is my version of the popular Exposed Movement.

I am a pretty strong person. I am loud and obnoxious, and I have a big personality. I have been told that I don’t know how to whisper. I tend to intimidate people, which is definitely something that I do not do on purpose. I love to help and inspire people, but something about my personality tends to scare people. That is until they get to know me a little better. Then they figure out I’d never hurt anyone on purpose. I like to joke around and have fun (sometimes at the expense of whoever I'm with, oops). Being vulnerable is the LAST thing that people who know me would ever expect me to feel.

People assume that I am strong and have no emotion. They assume I’m never vulnerable. They assume wrong.

Those who know me the best have seen me at my most vulnerable moments. A while ago, I had a very stressful job for a year and a half, and I didn’t have a lot of support during that time. After that year and a half, I changed jobs within the same institution. Everyone knew me and knew my previous situation and they took me in and treated me like a wounded puppy. They knew what a strong person I was, but they could also sense that I had a bad time. They were like family. Well, a customer service situation came up at work one day that got pretty intense. My new coworkers came right to my aid and had my back and stood by my side in everything. I got teary eyed. Me being the person I am tried to hide this, but they caught on. They thought it was because of the intense situation. Believe me, I can handle intense situations. If I am anything, it is strong! I intimidate, not the other way around. The reason I got teary eyed was because I was not used to having the support of my coworkers like I did then. Having them rush to my aid like that was very new and refreshing, and it meant a lot to me, and I got emotional.

In regards to my weight loss journey, feeling vulnerable is something that I have felt a lot more than I am used to. I have mentioned time and again how emotional this journey has been. I’m not used to these emotions, so it’s very new for me. I’m used to being a rock! But when you lose a significant amount of weight, you start to become a new person. I’m still trying to figure myself out. While I’m figuring this out, I’m very susceptible to feelings of vulnerability. Things that never would have hurt my feelings before are starting to bother me. I bounce back quickly, because that’s just how I am. Things that people say or even what people don’t say can have an impact on me, which is new. Unfulfilled expectations from my weight loss journey also leave me feeling emotionally wounded.

How can I end this positively? Feelings of vulnerability are definitely a new thing for me since I’ve lost weight. But guess what else? I’m happier than I remember ever being. I’m not the same person I used to be, and I’m discovering more about myself every day. So I guess I’m grateful for feelings of vulnerability, because that makes me a little more normal. If I have to deal with some painful emotions to be this happy, I think I can handle that.

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

I've lost 50 pounds!!! I have lost 2.4 lbs since last week, bringing me to a grand total of 50 lbs lost! So exciting! I'm pretty thrilled.

There is a term that other weight loss bloggers like to use that I want to bring up in this post, and that is non-scale victories. I feel like I had a pretty significant non-scale victory this week. Let me tell you about it.

When you are fat, you do not want to wear a swimming suit. Well, I had the opportunity to go to the Crystal Hot Springs this weekend. I love swimming, so I didn't ever usually say no to going swimming, but I was always very uncomfortable. Uncomfortable to the point that it wasn't even enjoyable for me. But this weekend I went to Crystal Hot Springs and put on my swimming suit and expected to look in the mirror and see the old me. I haven't been in a swimming suit in a long time. I saw a different person, and it was a little shocking. I definitely have lingering body image issues that I'm working on, but it was very nice to see an improvement in my swimming suit. I was not uncomfortable at all that night, and I had a lot of fun.

Rosie 1 Scale 0

Today I am grateful for my hair stylist. I got a new do, and I love it!

Here's Hoping

Every summer since I was eighteen I've been pretty successful at losing up to twenty pounds. And then the school starts and I gain it all back. Whether it was because I moved out for college, or because of the holidays, or because it gets cold and depressing, or whatever reason. It is a different reason every year probably. I am determined not to let that happen again. Here we are and it is already well into fall, and I haven't started gaining the weight back yet, so, as the title suggests, here's hoping.

I've never lost this much weight before. This time it will stick. This time I will make it to my end goal. I've always wondered if maybe it was because the holidays come around, and I pig out with the holiday season. But I hate Thanksgiving food. I mentioned that when I was younger I was "dianosed" with Celiac Disease and wasn't supposed to eat gluten for seven years before I was told that I didn't really have that. Well, gluten is in pretty much everything except potatoes and rice. Therefore, I have an extreme aversion to potatoes. So here comes Thanksgiving with turkey and gravy and potatoes. Not a huge fan of turkey or gravy, and I HATE potatoes. Stuffing? Nah. Salads are all right, nothing to get too excited about. And when it comes to dessert, pie is NOT my thing. I've never had a good pie crust. Crust tastes like cardboard to me. If I'm gonna have dessert, I want ice cream. So let's just say Thanksgiving isn't my holiday. So why is it that it messes me up every year?

It won't this year. I don't have the relationship with food this year that I've had in years past. I don't eat just to eat anymore.

Fall is a dreary time of year. It starts getting cold. The sky is dark, and the sun goes down sooner. Summer is over, and it's not coming back for months! Did I start overeating to comfort me? Sort of like how people go tanning in the winter? I don't know. I really don't know what would happen in years past to make me overeat after my summer weight loss. What I do know is that I am aware of this pattern, and I have a lot more to lose this year by not paying attention to this pattern. This year I've lost 47 pounds, not 20. This means that I will be much more careful.

Today I'm thankful for bank holidays. That's right, I am totally not at work today, HA!

Turn up the heat!

One thing I have noticed the last few weeks is how much colder I am this fall than I have been in years previous. My whole life I have gone around without a jacket or even a coat because I'm just too lazy to grab one. I always say you only need a jacket from the house to the car and from the car to wherever you're going. So if you can handle the cold for a few seconds you're okay. But this year for the first time, I've been a lot colder than ever before!

I always told people that I'd much rather be cold than hot, which is still true. You can do more about being cold than you can about being hot. I used to jokingly tell people that I could handle the cold better than they could because I had a lot more insulation than they did because of my fat. I say jokingly, because who knows if that is even true or not? Well, I have lost close to fifty pounds this year right before winter, so I decided to research it and see if there was any truth to it.

So does me losing weight have anything to do with me being colder than normal? Or is it just a coincidence? My research* shows that there are two reasons that those experiencing weight loss would be cold. Fat is an insulator, as I used to joke about. When you lose fat, you lose insulation, and you feel cold. So apparently I learned that in school at some point and wasn't just making it up. But the second reason is because my metabolic cell processes aren't working as hard as when I was heavier. It takes fewer calories and less energy to maintain and move my smaller body, and as a result, less heat is generated to move me around.

I have good news and bad news. I'll tell you the good news first. My body temperature will become normal again once my weight stabilizes. Rapid weight loss throws off your body and it is caught off guard. It needs time to catch up. Until then I need to wear more clothes I guess. Now for the bad news. Apparently those who exercise regularly experience less chilling than those who don't exercise. So I guess my body is hinting at me that I need to exercise more than I have been. Dang it!

This was a fun little research project. Maybe I'm just cold for no reason and it has nothing to do with my weight loss. Maybe my office just needs to turn up the heat, because I'm freezing!

*This article is in reference to gastric bypass patients, but it also talks about significant weight loss in general. There are also forums supporting this on caloriecount.com.

Today I'm grateful for my boots and my pea coat. They keep me warmer and they're super cute!

Weigh In Results

This week was actually a pretty good week in terms of eating. It's hard to judge, because I'm going for a lifestyle change rather than strict dieting. Some days I do stay on a strict diet, and some days I'm a bit more lax. This is to ensure that I am creating a healthier lifestyle for myself rather than a crash diet and yo-yo pattern. This way my weight loss will stick. But this week I was stricter than normal.

My problem seems to be the same each week. Why is it that I just cannot seem to find the time to exercise? Oh yeah. It's because I like to sleep. I did a lower body workout on Monday, and that is it.

Results: I lost 1.4 lbs for a grand total of 47.6 lbs. Hooray!

Today I'm grateful for the movie Inception. I finally saw it, and it was freaking awesome! I really should have seen it when it first came out like everyone told me to.

How Fast Can You Lose Weight?

So I've been creating graphs to chart my progress so far. I had a week a with some pretty intense cravings and it was hard for me to remember to stay on top of my diet, so I decided to remind myself why I'm doing this by showing myself how good I've done so far. You can find the graph I created on my new Progress page. I created three graphs. The first one I created shows my actual weight starting back in February when I got put on my new seizure medication. As I have mentioned, I don't feel secure enough quite yet to reveal this information, but I will soon. The second graph I made shows my BMI since February. Same with weight, I feel like BMIs are a little too revealing, so this graph, too, will soon be revealed, but not quite yet. However, the third graph I created shows how much weight I have lost since February. This third graph I made is the one you'll find on the Progress page.

The tricky part about this is that I did not maintain accurate records, so a lot of this is guesswork until September. They are very educated guesses though. Like I am assuming for instance that I was at my peak weight when I went in for my neurologist appointment back in February. I dropped ten pounds without really doing anything on my own, so I guessed that two months later I was at a weight ten pounds less. Between then and somewhere in July I tried half-heartedly to eat better since I was on medicine that hindered my appetite, and I ended up yo-yoing back and forth another five to ten pounds. It was in July that I made a conscious decision that I was going to take dieting seriously. That is when you see the graph going up significantly. Between the middle of July and the beginning of October I lost another 30 pounds. That is ten weeks, for three pounds a week! It's no wonder I have been unsatisfied with my rate of weight loss lately after my rapid weight loss earlier this fall.

This got me thinking. What has changed? Is it me? Am I doing something different? I found an awesome website with some amazing insights. It gave me some answers as well as helped me to refocus.

#1 The fatter you are, the quicker you will lose weight.

A fatter person doing the same activities as a lighter person for the same amount of time will lose more weight, simply because more calories have to be burned to move a heavier person.

Voila! 46 pounds ago, I was losing weight more rapidly because I was burning calories faster just to move myself around.

However... I'm not completely innocent.

#2 What you eat and how often you cheat on your diet

I definitely cheat every once in a while. Diets have too often failed for me because of deprivation. I am trying to create balance in my diet so I don't balloon when I eventually reach my goal. I have talked and talked and talked about my lifestyle change goal. However, I still need to be careful. This website provides a very nice article on how to cheat on your diet and still be successful. It also provides a list of foods to eat, and on the list is high fiber cereals and oatmeal, which I eat frequently, yeah for me! The website also says not to drink soda, but we all know that's not gonna happen. :) When I get closer to my end goal, I may have to give it up, but I'm not quite willing yet!

#3 How motivated you are

Obviously, I've been more motivated in the past. It's hard to stay as motivated when you've had success. I need to stay in the same mind frame. Now that I've tasted success, I need to keep going strong until I make it to the end. I'm not worried that I won't make it, I've just slowed down. You'd think that with the success I've had, that I would keep going full steam, but maybe I've gotten cocky?

What is the point?

I need to refocus. I don't expect to lose three pounds a week, but I need to remain as motivated as I once was.

Today I am grateful for the people in my life who keep my attitude in check. Sometimes I need a reminder to be positive!

A Lucky Girl's Journey

It's hard to say when it all started. I've been dealing with body image issues most of my life. I've spent half of my life either on a failed diet or thinking I needed to be on a diet. I yo-yo dieted back and forth twenty pounds every year for six years. Something needed to change.

The Catalyst:

I have a seizure disorder. This does not affect my life in any way other than I have to take medicine every day and I have to send paperwork to the DMV every six months with a doctor's note saying I am fit for driving. Oh, and I see a neurologist once a year. I think I am very lucky. People try to tell me how brave I am for handling this problem so well, but really, it's not an issue in my life. So February 2010 I went to visit my neurologist for the yearly checkup, and she decided it was time to put me on a newer, safer drug. Sure, whatever keeps the neurologist happy and gets me out of the office quicker with less lecturing. Then she says the magic words: "Side effects include lack of appetite and weight loss." BAM. I am sold on this idea! I went home thinking all my problems were solved! But in researching the drug, I found that people on this particular drug tend to lose 2.5-5% of their body weight and then level out. So what happened was I lost about ten pounds and leveled out. If I wanted to lose more, I was gonna have to do it on my own. But it was the catalyst that started it all.

Why did I finally start taking myself seriously?

Have you ever gotten all dolled up for an event and been shocked when you get pictures back? This has happened to me on more than one occasion, but there was one in particular this summer where I decided I didn't want to look like that in a picture ever again. At this point I had lost sixteen pounds already and I started taking dieting very seriously. It was when I had lost forty pounds that I started this blog as a way to keep myself motivated and to help inspire others. I have had to overcome my bad attitude in regards to exercise and have had many learning experiences along the way. Although this journey has been tough, the outcome is a much happier person.

My philosophies:

As I have mentioned, I spent most of my life with body image issues. Now that I am finally having success with dieting and weight loss, I am bound to have some opinions. Of course everyone knows that yo-yo dieting is terribly unhealthy, so it's best to avoid it. It is my goal to avoid yo-yo dieting by changing my lifestyle habits rather than by dieting alone. It's best not to deprive yourself too much. I'm hoping to be a different person when I make it to my end goal. I will have different eating habits. I will have lost weight slowly. This way I won't gain it all back immediately when I am no longer "dieting."

My other philosophies include having a support system. You can't do it alone! I am so appreciative of the amazing support I have from my family, my friends, my roommate, and of course the other health bloggers I have found out there who have amazing and motivational posts!

One of my principle philosophies is POSITIVITY. I have a rough exterior, and it's hard for some people to see through it. Underneath my blunt and sometimes brutal honesty is a POSITIVE ATTITUDE. You cannot lose weight with a negative attitude! After a bad week with no weight loss, you have to be able to bounce back. You have to be able to re-evaluate yourself and give yourself constructive criticisms, which you cannot do without a positive attitude. This is why I end each post with what I am grateful for.

Today I am grateful for the opportunity to be featured on FITBLOGGER. Fitblogger is an amazing new website dedicated to highlighting the accomplishments of the healthy living community on the web. I'm so thrilled to be a member!

A Very Successful Halloween

I haven't had a comfortable Halloween in years. I lived with a bunch of sticks in college who got to wear really cute Halloween costumes come Halloween time, and it wasn't very fun for me. Last time I went trick-or-treating I tried to go as an eskimo. This was me being lazy, of course. I didn't want to deal with the cold, so I just wore my huge coat and said I was an eskimo. My friend wasn't gonna let that slide and turned me into a lunch lady (embarrassing confession!) You don't feel attractive in a costume like that. Remember my before and after picture from Halloween last year? I thought I looked good until I saw this picture. The point is, I haven't had good luck with Halloween for a long time.

My family got WAY into Halloween this year. My brother decorated the house all crazy, and he made a fifteen foot high costume for himself, which you can see to the right here. My sister-in-law wanted me to have an awesome costume. This is the skinniest I've been since my sophomore year in high school, so I agreed that I wanted to have an awesome costume, so I enlisted her aide to come up with an idea. She decided she wanted me to be Marilyn Monroe. You know, the famous dress with the wind blowing up and the blonde wig? Well, I decided I wouldn't look good in a wig, but it gave me the idea to try to come up with a brunette icon that I would want to dress as and I came up with none other than Audrey Hepburn. I actually hated the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, but you gotta love the outfit she wears! And the diamonds, of course. I didn't have access to the accurate bling, but I did what I could. What do you think compared to last year's Halloween costume? Can you spot the missing 46 pounds?

This year as Audrey Hepburn!

Last year as Miss Peacock....

Close up of my face! This is so you can see my completely real and genuine eyelashes (just kidding, they're totally fake.) I take my eyelashes pretty seriously, and so should you. :)

When I came down the stairs, my nephew told me that he liked my dress. I thought it was so cute for a five year old boy to tell me he liked my dress! Then his little sister, who does not like to hug people, kept coming to hug me and tell me that I was a beautiful princess! It was so freaking adorable! Nothing like your nieces and nephews to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Today I am grateful for laughter. I am a grinner. I think lots of things are funny, but I won't always laugh. It's pretty hard to made me laugh rather than just smile, so when something makes me laugh really hard, I'm grateful for it!