Happy New Year, y'all!

Happy New Year friends. I'm going to resolve to try to blog more often. Knowing that I've officially called it my resolution, I probably won't do it again for another 6 months, I've jinxed myself. Really, I'll try.

Christmas was a real treat with my little Owie. He's so sweet and wonderful and is such a patient little man (most of the time) and had a great Christmas. The big hits this Christmas were the Band Hero and Guitar Hero VanHalen. Nothing's better than listening to your little guy since "American Pie" by Don McLean and knowing most of the words - its' a long song!!

My Christmas gift this year was a plane ticket to Houston to see some of my most favorite people in the whole world - my girlfriends from all over the country. We're going to party down, Houston style, and laugh, and drink, and shop, and eat. Yeah, that's about it. The party begins on Friday January 8 and will commence on Sunday January 11. You see, you really only need about 36-48 hours of each other to get our fix, and then we're good for the next few months. Used to be we could go a year without seeing each other, then it got to be 6 months, then it was 3 months. Now, we can barely go a few weeks until we're aching again to spend some girly time, but the pocketbook and the fact that we have to fly crazy long to get to each other keeps us to every 3-4 months or so. We really need a special rate on an airline, because we certainly could use it! Can't wait to come back to work on 1/11 with a Houston accent! Yee Haw!

A few pics from my holiday and New Year

Trying this again

Okay, so I wrote like 2 blogs and then didn't find time to do anymore. Since Christmas, my life became a little crazier and busier. Let me tell you about what I've been doing.

In January, I began a long awaited weight loss and lifestyle change journey. my workplace offers some kick-ass wellness programs and I finally decided to take advantage of some that would really help me become healthier. A group of friends and I decided to form a team for the "Shape Up the Nation" program in which we would all receive pedometers and then track our steps, exercise minutes and weight loss. We also decided that we'd begin a weight loss group as well and couple it with the exercise portion of the program. We began in the 2nd week of January with the weight loss portion. Being in a group from my workplace was a great idea, as we spend the majority of our time with people at work and we were all totally ready to lose to some of the weight that we had put on from a few years of indulging in the wonderful catering that we have at our facility. We're also a really competetive group and no one wanted to "not" lose!

Super long story short, since January 2009, I have lost a total of 55 pounds. I officially hit my goal weight on July 7 and have since maintained, and even lost a few more. I did this with a combination of healthy eating, eliminating sodas and sugars, and moderate exercise. Since I live in Ohio and hate gym memberships, I pulled out my 9 years old and gathering dust videos (yes, VHS tapes) of Leslie Sansone's "Walk Away the Pounds" and started in home walking. I also did some exercises on the Wii Fit, as well as an exercise ball.

Feeling like I had gotten in good enough shape, I decided to run (yep, I'm crazy) a 5K in honor of my dear friend Andrea's husband, who was tragically killed in a work-related accident in November 2008. Let's just say that I did it - ran most of the way, and finished the 5K in 38 minutes. WOW! Here is a picture of me crossing the finish line with my dear friend, Ryann, who stuck with me the whole way so that I could keep a good pace and finish the race running.

All for a great cause, but now, 3 days later, I'm still recovering from the run (shin splints) and can't say that I'm "running" out to sign up for my next 5K. I think I'll continue my fast walking. I'm better at that! But who knows, perhaps I'll try to run the Run for Row in 2010, and this time, I will plan to take a week off after that race to recover.

Our annual visit to see Santa

We made the annual trek to the mall to visit Santa today. I'm surprised that there aren't questions yet about how Santa can be at every mall, but he obviously doesn't get that yet, so I'm not going to be the one to put it into his head. I'll deal with that when the time comes.

We arrived about 20 minutes before Santa was to start for the day (10:40am). There were 2 people (and I say people, right now) ahead of us. Older women who were obviously "saving" spots for their grandchildren, who were to come. Okay, fine, We're third, how long can it actually take? So Santa comes out and has his seat and all the children in line are excited and antsy to see the fat man and get their sucker. So here goes the 1st family. Geez, I didn't know that people save up their pennies for pictures with Santa, because I swear these people dropped more $$ on pics with Santa than all their Christmas presents this year. One family did 4 "poses" with Santa, so each kid got to be the "star". Then the 2nd family did much the same, only 3 poses this time. Finally, the family who was third in line was up (that's us). I looked at my watch - 11:25am. OY. I looked at the little family behind us and said "I promise we'll be quick. It's just a picture with Santa". She smiled.

We gave Owen plenty of his time with Santa, we didn't rush, but we were outta there in about 3 minutes flat, cute picture and all. The mother behind us in line gave me a "thumbs up" on her way in.

Okay, so asking a 5 year old what his conversation with Santa went is like, oh, I don't know, talking to a tree. Within about 30 seconds, he had no idea what his conversation with Santa included. Apparently Santa “already knew” that he’d been a good boy and wanted My Sims Kingdom because all he would tell us is that he told him that he wanted some new Hot Wheels (never heard that one before today) and that Santa told him No Peeking! Hee hee. There was a really cute picture of them just looking at each other talking, but we obviously wanted to choose the picture where they are both looking at the camera. I guess I'm going out to buy some Hot Wheels. (sigh) I thought I was finished shopping.

Okay, so I've succumbed to the peer pressure and am trying out this blog thing. I truly don't think that I have anything exciting to share, but perhaps my mom will get a kick out of this and I can share Owen's funnies with her on this blog vs. talking to her 3 times a day. (just kidding, mom, you know I love you)

As I type this, I've been banished to the computer room (i.e. the Buckeye room) as Mike and Owen play Lego Batman on the Wii for like the last 5 consecutive evenings. I used to like the Lego Batman game, but not when you play it every.single.night. for hours on end. I'm just over it. Can't wait til we get that My Sims Kingdom and any other other Wii games that Santa brings Owen or Mike this year. It's bad enough that it's either Lego Batman or NCAA Football 2008 every.single.night.

Hey, I guess I can do this! LOL