Grab a Kleenex

If you don't read BooMama's blog, then you must. And if you do, then you've probably already seen this. It's too good not to share again though.

Now, grab some tissues and push play.

Ft. Worth Family Fun

Ft. Worth, Texas is one of my happy places. For many reasons. One of which being all of my family that lives here. Another being horses. And cows. And Will Rogers Coliseum. Oh, and Joe T Garcia's Mexican Restaurant. Just to name a few!

 Dad had been planning on driving down sometime during January because the Stock Show Rodeo/Exhibits are going on every weekend, and luckily this weekend Grace and I were able to join them! We didn't get in until a little after midnight last night, and then we were up fairly early this morning to make it to the 10 am rodeo performance.

 Steph has been my best friend for 14 years now and this was the first time she's been to Ft. Worth. I'm not real sure why it took so long, but anyways, she made it this time!

 To say that Grace is crazy about her Uncle T would be a gross understatement. I love that he's such a good uncle to her!

 The rodeo was great and we saw lots of pretty horses!

 They had a big carnival set up with tons of rides for kids and adults. I'm so glad Steph was here because she is a big kid herself, and she rode with Grace on all of them. I am not a fan of carnival rides. And even if I was, Grace would still rather Steph rode with her, so whatever!

 I strongly dislike having my picture taken, however, there are so few pictures of me with Grace because I'm normally the one taking the picture and one of my goals for 2012 was to be more intentional about taking pictures. Even with me in them.

Grace loves her Nana! Maybe because she bought her this adorable outfit! This picture does not do it justice and you can't really see her cowgirl boots. All this girl needs a horse!

We were so glad Aunt Weezer (my dad's sister, Brenda!) was able to join us! She has all of the great grands call her Weezer, because she's like a fun version of Weezer from Steel Magnolias! Except she really is not cranky. At all. I loooooove my Aunt Brenda and wish I got to see her more. And she is absolutely crazy about my daughter, which is incredibly special to me!

 I can't remember the last time a picture was taken of the Nabors family. Which means it's been too long!

 Tanner and our mama. He's quite the mama's boy.

 Pardon the squint. The sun wasn't very forgiving and my eyes were literally watering by the time we got all of the pictures we wanted! Attractive, really.

 And cue serious watering.

 Mom and Dad bought Tanner a new cowboy hat and he was quite proud of it.

 Oh, my Mema. One of the most special women in my life. I am so blessed to have such wonderful grandparents, on both sides. They love us so unconditionally and do anything and everything to make us kiddos happy. I love watching Grace with Mema and Papa, they get such a kick out of her and she loves entertaining them!

And my Papa, God love him, he can't hardly hear anything, but he loves his grandkids and great grandkids so so sooo much. He would do anything for any of us. And he does! We are all spoiled rotten!

I love being in Ft. Worth and spending time with my family. There's nothing else like it.

Girlfriends, Books & Coffee

I just made a command decision to take a 15 minute break at work and blog about a fun weekend (of a few firsts!) I had!

Front: Lindsey, Katie, Jill, me, Lauren

Back: Lindsey (private blog), Brittany, Whitney, Rachel, Kim & Tara

 So, the internet is a funny thing. I have had this blog for a couple of years now, and while I don't do as much as I would like with it, it's still a great outlet and a great way to meet new people. I also tweet, because I love Twitter. Way more than Facebook. And while blogs are fun, Twitter is even better. I have "met" so many wonderful new friends over the last 7 months or so, and I've also learned so much! If I ever have a question about, well anything really, I go to Twitter. If I need someone to make me laugh, I go to Twitter (or my husband!). If I just need a little break from staring at my computer at work, I go to Twitter. See the trend?! Anywho, last Friday night I had to opportunity to meet some really great girls that I had met via Twitter! Jillian has a friend that lives in Arkansas and was coming into town for her friend's birthday party and decided that she wanted to meet some of us other fun Arkansas girls! :) Brittany lives in the same area as Jill, so they decided to road trip it together, and I'm so glad they did! Whitney took charge of organizing a dinner for us, and we all met up to eat and visit. I was hesitant to go at first, because I didn't know any of these girls in real life. However, one of my very good friends, Katie, also follows some of the same girls and said she would go with me. I am sooooo very glad we went, because it was such a fun night out and we all just laughed and talked and got to know one another! You can't have to many friends and I'm so glad I added a few this weekend! I hope that we can all do it again sometime soon.

 Then on Saturday morning, this sweet little dumpling got to come stay with Auntie Tay all day!! Hank and Katie spent spent the day four wheeling with some friends and I got to love on Miss Audrey! She was sooo good all day and just kept smiling and cooing at me. It's hard to believe she is already 6 months old!

Oh, James Patterson, you sure do know how to write a good book. I have been a HUGE fan of JP for a long time, but I have random reading spurts. I'll go a few months without reading a single book and then I'll pick up a book and read 5 more after it! I'm back in a reading phase right now. I'm now on my 4th Patterson book in the last month and a half. I have ready every single one of his, with the exception of his newest which is what I'm working on now. I'll have to take a picture of my shelf with the hardbacks on it. I am a sucker for a good murder mystery and James Patterson never ever disappoints.

This little pretty has made this work week so much better! When I moved to my current position, to an office in a hallway with four other offices, we all decided that we needed our own coffee pot. There are a few dispersed throughout the building, but there is rarely ever any made in them throughout the day. So, we all pitched in and purchased the Keurig Office Pro coffee maker! Oh my gosh, it has been wonderful. For one thing, it is in my office, therefore, it always smells like a coffee shop in here! And it is so quick and easy. I'll have to buy some new flavors this weekend while I'm grocery shopping!

I'm taking Friday off this week because Grace and I are driving down to Ft. Worth with my parents, brother and best friend to spend the weekend with my family! I'm sooo excited to see everyone and we have some fun activities planned while we are there. So, tomorrow will be my last work day and I am more than ok with that!

Checking In

Just checking in since it's been a few days! I had some pictures I wanted to share and because I know blog posts are much better with pictures.

 This picture was clearly taken before I started my weight loss journey! But my daughter absolutely adores my brother. She thinks her Uncle T hung the moon and every time he's around she is right by his side! Probably because he acts like a child and lets her get away with anything and everything. But that's uncles are for, right? I tell him that he needs to hurry up and settle down and have kids so that I can return the favor by royally spoiling his children!!! I think it will be a while, he's not exactly ready to settle down just yet.

Now this, my friends, is one of the absolute best things on. the. planet. I mean it. This is the Skinny Cow cookies and cream ice cream sandwich and it is 150 calories of pure deliciousness!! I made it very clear to my husband and children that they are not to touch my skinny cows. They think I'm crazy. I think I'm determined to be a skinny cow. :)

via

And then there is my new best friend, the myfitnesspal app. It knows things about me no one else knows. And by things I mean my weight. And it really has been a great (free) tool. The best thing is that it's helped me realize just how many calories I was taking in on any given day. And let me just say, HOLY COW!! I know I used to eat too much, but dern. I am allotted 1240 calories a day, and for the most part, I've stuck really close to that. Even this weekend when I was home all day. It's easier than I thought it would be because I'm making small adjustments in how I eat. I am measuring out servings that I can and when that's not really feasible, I just limit my intake. And water. Oh, blessed water. It's a good thing I love water and have always been a big water drinker, because now I drink a ton.

I went to the gym with my husband on Saturday morning, but unfortunately was not able to sign up then. When he gets back into town this weekend we are going to sign me up! I did not want to wait a whole other week to start working out though, so I decided I would just do my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD every morning this week. Talk about overambitious. I set my alarm and got up at 5 yesterday morning, put in my contacts, changed clothes, ate a banana, drank some water and I was ready to go. I got started, almost cried about 6 minutes into it because it's tough (when you're as out of shape as I am!) and then at 13 minutes into it I got sick. Literally. It was horrible and I thought I was going to pass out. My husband later informed me to try toast instead of a banana pre-workout. Thank you honey. Now, where were you at 5:15 to tell me that? Oh yes, in Meridian, Mississippi at a class. Needless to say, I did not finish my workout. My thighs would disagree today though. They are soooo sore and it hurts to stand up and sit down. And walk. I love that kind of hurt though, it means I did something!

This morning I could barely get out of bed they hurt so bad, so I knew I wouldn't be able to work out. I'm going to attempt it this evening when I get home. We'll see. I'm just ready to get started at the gym so I can get on the treadmill. I'd take a treadmill over a DVD any day.

Slacker

*****Ok, I went and took a picture in the bathroom at work! This can serve as a temporary before picture. So at least I have something.******

 And just for fun, I added the bottom half. Ya know, so you can see my thunder thighs and also my cute sparkly Toms!! :)

That's me, I'm a slacker!

I was going to take my "before" picture this morning and that didn't happen. My mornings are so routine and taking a picture is not part of my normal routine and, well, it just didn't happen.

However, I will do it. This evening when I get home.

And I'm just gonna go ahead and say that I did not do well this morning, food wise, but for lunch I met my mama at Zaxby's and I had the grilled chicken house salad with only one packet of dressing instead of two. And I did not go back for a second small cup of sweet tea. Thankyouverymuch. :) Baby steps, people.

I also have this deep desire to jump on a treadmill. Right now. Alas, I am sitting at my desk, with no treadmill in sight. So, instead I will figure and type patrol stats and avoid taking a piece of candy out of the mountainous candy bowl sitting on my desk.

I have written out a grocery list and will execute that trip in the morning. This evening will most certainly not work considering our Hogs are playing the Kansas State Wildcats in the Cotton Bowl at 7 pm. And let me just say Woooooooo Pig Sooooooie!!!! Go Hogs, beat K State!

Also, within the next 24 hours, I will be joining the gym. My husband must be with me to join and he had to work early this morning. I can not freaking wait to start going to the gym with my honey every morning.

My motto for 2012 is "Get Fit." I am soooo looking forward to what the next 12 months hold and I'm excited to do it with some awesome friends....both in real life and interweb!!!

So, here's to getting fit!

This Is It

January 6, 2012

The day I will join the gym and change myself.

My husband goes to the gym every morning during the week and I'm enlisting him as my accountability partner.

I plan on taking a "before" picture in the morning. Regardless of how much I don't (and I mean I really don't) want to. I hope I have the courage to post it on here. If I do that, then it will light a fire under me and make me aim for an "after" picture.

I'm tired of being overweight and unhappy with myself. I'm tired of not enjoying clothes shopping or getting dressed every morning. And I'm tired of being out of breath when I walk upstairs to take my sweet daughter to bed. I need my energy and stamina back to play with her and I'm determined to get there.

The internet is such a funny thing and I really feel like it will be a huge aid in helping me reach my goal.

If I still weigh right now what I think I weigh, then my goal is to lose 75 pounds. Ouch. That's a lot. But, I'm putting it out there because I'm doing it this time. No matter what.