Fat Girl

You know, I have gained all but 20 pounds back of my astounding 45 pound weight loss. Why? Well, I maintained it for one year. Then I quit smoking. I gained 15 pounds back from practicing the "ice cream replacement therapy". I am excited that I am 14+ months smoke free but my ass could look better. I gained another 10 from night snacking (my guilty pleasure). I finally called it and I'm just done. I'm done being the fat girl anymore. I stopped my night snacking tonight. I'm starving right now and it's 9:45pm. So, I'm drinking water. I'll be up all night going to the bathroom, but hopefully it will be all worth it.

BTW, how much does it suck to hit 33 and see your metabolism totally fade? I work out for an hour a day, 5 days a week, and you would NEVER know it.

Your Personality Profile

You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Ok, this is scary. That has to be the most accurate personality test I have ever taken...not to mention, the SHORTEST. I seriously sat back in my seat and scratched my noggin over those results.

Hallow Christmas?

Thanksgiving came and went entirely too quickly. With Black Friday and all the hype about Christmas, it's as if Thankgiving is just in the way between Halloween and Christmas anymore. Kind of makes me sad since Thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays. I actually look forward to turkey, stuffing, gravy...all that jazz...and most of all, family.

So, I'm just going to start calling Thanksgiving Hallow Christmas because that's just what it is any more. By Halloween, Christmas decorations are already being sold in the stores. I have my kids talking my ears off about what they want from Santa before Halloween is even here.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was fun, my Mom's turkey was so juicy that when you bit into the turkey, you could taste the juice. Fantastic.

My Red Cross Story

For years, I have been a member of the Red Cross, making donations. Every month, I get an email from Red Cross, encouraging me to donate again...and many of them include cute or inspiring stories about people that donate and why they do, or stories about people that receive donations. Now, I thought my story was pretty inspiring and though I enjoyed the emails, they made me feel a little ping in my belly...I wanted to share my story too. I finally found a place on their website that said, "Share your story", so I clicked on the link and emailed them my story:

In 1999, while pregnant with my first child, it was determined that I had HELLP syndrome, a potentially fatal complication with pregnancy that could take my life, as well as, the life of my unborn son. I was whisked into emergency surgery to give birth to my son to save both of our lives as my condition had worsened. During surgery, I was put under general anesthesia and given two pints of infused platelets as the condition of my pregnancy does not allow the blood to clot and platelets are needed to keep me from bleeding out during surgery. I was very lucky to successfully survive surgery due to the infusion of platelets that I received. After a lengthy NICU stay, my son, who was born at 29 weeks, lived as well and is a thriving 6 year old. In 2002, while pregnant with my second child, I unfortunately suffered the same fate and went into emergency surgery again to save my daughter, who was born at 33 weeks. Again, I received 2 pints of infused platelets to keep me from bleeding out on the table. This time, my situation was much more grave and despite the infusion of one pint, the bleeding would not stop...so they had to medi-vac up more platelets to keep me alive...AND IT WORKED! I'm living proof that blood donation SAVES LIVES and I am eternally grateful for the selfless donations that saved my life and gave me back to my family and children. My daughter survived her stay in the NICU and is a thriving 3 year old.

On the 1 year anniversary of my daughter's birth, I celebrated her birthday by giving back and gave my first donation of blood on May 31st, 2003. Come to find out, my blood is positive for CMV and I am giving back to numerous premature babies. Such an ironic twist! I have wanted to donate platelets, but every nurse begs me to keep donating my blood instead since CMV is so precious and needed....so I have, 5 times to date and I have encouraged 7 other people to donate with my inspiring story, all of which have, and numerous times to boot! I am so grateful for the Red Cross, which continues to inspire and preserve. Thank you!

Anyway, they responded...and in a huge way! The PR department at the Red Cross asked if me and my family would like to be in their nationwide publications, pictures and story. I was flabbergasted, what a gift! I have always been a huge campaigner for the Red Cross with blood donations myself, plus I have encouraged others to donate. I couldn't believe it. When I met with the lady from the PR department, she asked if I could speak on behalf of the Red Cross at public events. I was astounded. This is so huge! Today we're going down to the beach to take promotional pictures with my entire family. I'm so excited!

Belly Button Lint

Ah, the maiden voyage...I HATE doing the first post of anything. Mostly because it sets the tone of everything else to come. If it's too dreary, everyone thinks you're manic and depressing, too excited and people think you're on a cheerleading squad made for one. I would much rather just be me, but that's not too interesting either.

So, that said...

I just want to write about things that make me the person that I am. The daily things, the things that impact me, the things that just are in my life. That would be...

Chris, husband of almost 11 years.
Nate, son of 6 years.
Nicole, daughter of 3 years.

We live a pretty normal life in Southern California. Nothing spectacular. On the surface anyway. But that's why I made this blog too, because things always look just fine until you start to unravel it! LOL Dang, I can't believe I got SO cheesy in the first post.