Down 51 lbs and Still Kicking

I'm sorry that I've been MIA since out trip the U.S.  I've been through the wringer emotionally for the last month or so and our internet (and time) was spotty while in the states.  I will try to get back to my normal blogging schedule soon.  I definitely like keeping my family/friends in the loop.

In very positive news, I am down 51 lbs.  50 was a huge milestone for me, so I am happy to have met that goal.  Now, I am hoping that I can keep up the momentum and lose the rest of the weight I need to get rid of.  One of the best things has been trying on clothes that didn't fit this time last year and having them be either extremely comfortable or too loose.  I am in single digits in pants, and that hasn't happened since my freshman year of high school. 

Anna started Kindergarten after we got back to Wiesbaden.  We are very happy with her teacher and teacher's aid.  She's really enjoying school and her classmates!  Here's a picture of Anna on her first day of school.

My new favorite song is Florence + the Machine's "Shake it Off."  It's been on repeat lately while I try to get out of my current funk.  It's now on my running playlist :)

Progress and Legoland

It's been exactly one month since I ran my first 5-K and really decided to give serious running a go.  I was ill-prepared for that first race, but I had so much fun running with T and sprinting through that finish line.  It was an incredible experience for me.  It definitely left me wanting to run more races.  I don't care all that much about beating anyone, but I love seeing if I can beat my past race/run.  I love seeing if I can run faster or longer than my last run.  I really look forward to my runs.  I kind of get bummed that I can't run more than three days a week, but I have to make sure that I give my joints a bit of a break and utilize the elliptical and bike on my off days.

Today was a running day :)  Last week I started testing the water as far as going 6mph.  Today, I found myself feeling good at 6mph.  Of course, I would have felt more relaxed at 5.5mph, but that's not why I run. 

Today's Run:
Stretch
0.5 miles @4.5mph (I decided that I really needed to start warming up better)
3 miles (straight!) @ 6mph
0.5 miles @4.5mph
1 mile @4mph
Cooldown
Stretch

Total Miles = 5.33
Total Calories = 822

I would definitely call that a successful run.  I was only planning on doing 2 miles @6mph, but once I finished the 2 miles I decided to keep going.  I feel great about the progress I'm making.

We spent yesterday at Legoland Deutschland.  I won a couple of tickets from the USO at the base's 4th of July event.  The kids had so much fun!  Daniel got to drive a car.  Okay, maybe he didn't really drive it...he ran it into the wall repeatedly until the ride operator sat on the car and did the steering for him.  It was pretty precious.  He did have a really great attitude about it even though he couldn't get the hang of it.  Anna got to go on one of the faster rides that was meant for bigger kids, with her daddy.  She thought it was so cool that she got to ride a big girl ride.  I have to say that as a parent, there are few things as wonderful as watching your kids discover something for the first time.  They were awestruck by most of the things at Legoland.  I really love being a mom.  It is a difficult and often frustrating job, but I can't think of anything that is more rewarding. 

The More You Know ;)

I was checking out my status feed on Facebook this morning and the general theme of the day was Daylight Savings Time.  All of a sudden I started worrying about the fact that we seemed to forget it.  After a little of research on my husband's part, we found out that Europe sets their clocks forward the last Sunday of March instead of the second like North America.  Crazy stuff.  It's not of much use to us today anyway because we're all feeling a bit under the weather.  We'll be sticking close to the house today. Anna didn't sleep from about 3 AM on.  We're SERIOUSLY looking forward to nap time today ;).

Dan the man has taken to adding a speech impediment when it suits him :)  When he really wants something he'll say (in his cutest voice) "Pwitty, pwitty pwease?!"  I've never been a fan of baby talk, but he looks up at you with those big blue eyes and your heart melts a little.  He knows how to work the system already!  This could be trouble.

Our kids love The Muppets.  We bought Muppets Treasure Island while we were in California and it came with a little sticker book.  Anna and Daniel were going through the stickers and playing with them one day when they came across these guys

Anna said that no one would want that sticker because they were just mean guys that no one liked.  I told her that I actually liked them and you should have seen the look of disgust on her face!  She took out the sticker and handed it to me.  "I guess mommy can have this one because she LIKES *scoff* the mean guys!"  She just couldn't conceive of anyone liking Statler and Waldorf :)

Halloween and more fun....

I wanted to add a few Halloween pictures here :)  The kids were just WAY too cute!  Anna (Aurora) was wearing the tiara I wore at my wedding.  I was a little nervous about that, but I made sure to pin it in really well.  Daniel was a super cute Woody!  He wasn't too keen on keeping the hat on, but at two years old that's understandable.  He was very leery of all of the scary decorations and costumes and wound up crying to be held a few times while trick-or-treating.  The whole holiday seems to freak him out.  Every time we walked through the Halloween section at Target he would cry and hide his face.  He's so sensitive.

My passport came in the mail yesterday!  The picture cracks me up because I look so smug ;)  The guy was taking the pictures at a weird angle, so it looks like I'm half smiling while looking down on everyone.  Will said that my passport picture was the best out of all four of ours in spite of the smug look ;)  None of our passport pictures are good.  Even the kids, who never take a bad picture!  It's still bizarre to me that our kids have passports.  I didn't get my first passport until 15 or 16 when I went to China.  I love the fact that our children are going to be little world travelers.  I just hope they love traveling and Europe as much as Will and me.  To be honest, sometimes I worry that they'll grow to resent us because of all of the moving we'll probably do in their lifetime and having to be so far from extended family.  This is exactly the life that Will and I want, but would they choose it if they had the option?  I guess only time will tell.  

We'll be in Germany this time next month.  That's still pretty surreal.  Our lives have changed so much since we got married five and a half years ago.  I often feel overwhelmed to have been blessed so much.  God is SO good to us.  We're still working on all of the final details, but most things have been scheduled :)

"Let me tell you the words!"

So, Anna has this (self-proclaimed/invented) bedtime ritual where she insists on telling us "the words."  The words are really what she hopes for tomorrow.  Last night when she told her Daddy the words, they were to cuddle and watch movies with mommy (yes, that did melt my heart!) and go to play park.  I just put her down for her nap, and she insisted on sharing the words with me, even though it's not typically a nap time thing.  Today they were words about the specific play park she wanted to go to, so I heard "blue stairs, musical beeps (little buttons that you push that chime), teeter totters with red seats, and race cars.  She knows that if she doesn't take a nap, she doesn't get to go to play park, so let's all hope that she actually falls asleep for a bit so we can go to play park.

I figure that since this post was inspired by Anna, I'd share some more Annaisms.  Anna likes to invent words.  One of her favorites is "bigabit."  A bigabit is really just a bigger bit.  She likes to eat Froot ( I hate that they spell fruit that way!) Loops in the morning, and when I'm getting ready to give her the cereal she insists on a bigabit.  Daniel has picked up on this and regularly asks for a bigabit, also.

Anna has taken to saying owwie randomly and without any real need.  I mean, I understand saying it if something is actually bothering you or you're hurt, but she tells me that there's no good reason for her to say it, and I'm choosing to believe it ;)  The other day she kept saying it over and over again (it was like nails on a chalk board), so I told her that it was "slightly ridiculous to say owwie when there's nothing wrong with you."  Anna, being the super smart and silly girl that she is, decided that her plastic dog was ridiculous, "Bunito is SOO ridiculous!"  She then went through a few other items in the car and stated that they were also "slightly ridiculous."  I really do adore how goofy she is.  She loves to use big words and is interested in knowing what they all mean.  We really do talk to her like she's much older than she is, and I think it makes for some pretty fun conversations.

Daniel is pretty hilarious, too.  He's talking more now.  He typically uses normal words, but this morning he decided to revert to gibberish to tell me something very deep and meaningful.  He rattled off a good minute or so of nonsense and then said "Ummm" and took a nice, long pause for deep reflection.  After the cute pause (I'm telling you, it seriously looked like he was deep in thought, trying to figure out what he needed to say next) he continued to rattle on.  He says I love you too, but it sounds more like "Aiy you tiu!"  He says good morning in a way that would make anyone fond of southern accents swoon ;)  I'll have some more cute Daniel stories to share soon. 

Insanity

Today was interesting, to say the least!  We went out to lunch with some people who are going to be moving to CA and Germany at the same time as us.  I have to say, it is insanely nice to know people who will be with us the whole way through.  It is even better that they are really cool, nice people who I think we will have a great time with!

You're probably wondering why I titled this post "Insanity."  Well, while we were eating lunch at a lovely Indian buffet, we got to talking about Anna's little OCD-ish tendencies (she is definitely her mother's daughter!).  I mentioned that Anna freaks out to the point of almost crying if a door is left ajar and no one closes it the instant she notices.  It just so happens, that the couple sitting at a table across from us managed to hear that little tidbit.  Later, during lunch the woman comes over and informs us that she sees ghost/spirits (she used the word interchangeably), and has since she was five years old.  The first time she saw a spirit it was her recently departed grandmother, and she came out of her closet!  She then told her parents that her Grandma was not really dead just sleeping (anyone else ridiculously perplexed?!  I had to make a conscious effort to not make a lovely, "What the heck?!" face).  She shared this with us because she suspected that Anna shared her "gift."  I tried to explain that Anna is just extremely particular and I don't think she's seen any spirits yet.  In case you didn't know, I am a magnet for all weird/creepy people.  I was looking over my old blog from my internship in Germany, and man were there some funny stories about creepy people approaching me!  I'm sure this is simply the first of many creepy experiences to be shared on this blog ;). 

Fish out of water.

We took a trip up to Willard, OH to visit family.  I really can't explain just how wonderful the trip was.  We had a blast, and Anna can't stop talking about all of her newly discovered relatives (and their respective animal friends).  She was only a year old when we saw most of them last, so it was brand new to her.  She couldn't get enough of their animals (this is the point where you take pity on the poor defenseless animals ;)).  Daniel worked his charm on everyone.  He gave out BaoBaos (hugs) freely and open mouth kissed anyone who dared make the request.

Now for the fish out of water...yep, that's me!  This was my third trip to Willard.  The first couple of trips were even more whirlwind than this trip, so forgive my short memory.  Anyway, I hadn't been in nearly four years, so I forgot some of the aspects of small-town living.  As we were making the trip up to OH I started feeling a sinus infection coming on, so I suggested we stop in at Walmart when we got to Willard to pick up some Mucinex.  Will laughed hysterically and informed me that we wouldn't be able to make such a trip because Willard, OH has zero Walmarts.  I responded with "They don't have a Walmart?!  WHERE do they BUY things?!"  Looking back, it was a totally ridiculous thing to say, but at that moment, it was all I could think ;).  In my defense, I had never been to a small town before I started dating Will.  No one in my family lives in a town with fewer than a hundred thousand people.  I love Willard though.  Mostly because of all the people there, but it is a really nice place.  One thing I'm not so fond of...country roads.  I was on the verge of losing my lunch on a number of drives ;)

Preschool Fun!

I can't believe that I forgot to post about Anna's first day at preschool/daycare.  As far as we know, it went really well.  None of the teachers made it a point to tell us otherwise, so let's all hope that it was just a great day ;)  Anna came home excited to tell us all about her new found friends and the joys of "school."  Her only complaint was that the teachers said mean things to her like "Lay down and go to sleep!" and "Please be quiet and take a nap!"  Oh the horrors!  ;)  We did explain to her that they weren't being mean, they were just trying to get everyone to take a nap.  Kiddos have to nap at school just like they do at home.

Today I did a photoshoot of a baby girl named Mana (it means love in Japanese).  She was SO sweet!  It was nice to take pictures of a newborn again.  I'm SOO anxious to take pictures of my new niece Mia next month!  I ordered a pink backdrop that should look really cute in pictures.  It's going to be a blast!

That's pretty much it for now.  Wow...I'm super boring.  Life is good and hectic, which I'm learning to appreciate more ;)

Pretty Purple Toenails.

We're still trying to nail down the last bit of potty training Anna at our house.  She still wears a diaper when she goes down for her nap and a bedtime.  Well, we've found that positive reinforcement is the way to go with Anna ;)  This girl LOVES nail polish.  She lights up when you talk about painting her nails.  She managed to make it through her nap without using her diaper yesterday, so I painted her nails bright purple with a purple and blue glitter over the top.  You wouldn't believe how proud she was.  At night, we made the mistake of putting her in footie pajamas at bedtime and about two hours after she went down she woke up and asked us to come up so she could go potty.  It turns out, she just REALLY wanted to see her pretty toenails.  She asked her daddy to put her in different pajamas that didn't cover her toes.  I painted my toenails to match hers today, and we both had to wear skirts and sandals just so everyone could see how cute they were. 

Sorry, that was probably mostly nonsense, but I think that it's so cute how special a little thing like painting her toenails makes her feel.  I remember feeling that way when I was little too ;)  I'm grateful that I have a sweet girly-girl to be silly with!

Yep, I'm a cliche.

Today was definitely "one of those days." The kids decided that it was against their better judgment to take a nap (oh man, were they wrong!). Tantrums were frequent and ugly. There are days when the best option seems to be to ship them off to their grandparents so that I can regain what is left of my sanity. I realize there's not much to salvage, but I'd love to do just that! One of my best friends told me that she loved how honest I was about my children. I will never be one of those moms who constantly says things like, "Oh, my children never misbehave! They are perfect little angels." Don't get me wrong, I think that my kids are the most amazing children who ever walked this earth, but they have melt-downs and freak-outs just like EVERY other toddler and sometimes it jeopardizes my sanity ;).

I've found that I have become a one-woman-cliche-spewing machine. I am constantly saying things like (the DREADED) "Because I said so!" and "Why don't you worry about eating your food, and I'LL worry about your brother?" Yep, that is me. I used to be somewhat eloquent. Gone are those days, apparently.

Today wasn't all bad. The kids were playing around in Anna's room this morning. She was throwing a bouncy ball and yelling "BASEBALL!" repeatedly, and for some reason that combination made Daniel laugh uncontrollably! I just about lost it laughing. All of the stress and nonsense of the day might have been worth it just for that fifteen minutes of bliss. None of us could stop laughing.