a surprise.

on saturday, i had my very first surprise party! and everyone totally got me! smart move to throw a surprise party a month and a half after the big day. i was completely off guard.

the party was held at my parent's house... mom invited me over for some steaks on the grill and to make sure that tim and i got our wedding cake to celebrate our 1 year anniversary... it was super hot so i wore my most hideous dress and threw my hair up in a sweaty bun. no shower and hardly any make-up. i mean, i only thought we would be hanging at my parent's house for dinner.

i walked in the door, and HOLY MOLY! people, decorations and screams of "SURPRISE!" woo hooo! i got my surprise party!!

it was wonderful spending the day with friends and family especially because i wasn't expecting to see everyone.

however, due to having TWO surprises parties this weekend (Click here to see the other one), i ate my face off and the scale shows it. tim won the weigh in since i gained over a pound in three weeks. how can you not gain weight after eating cake three days in a row! yikes!

weigh in: 151.2 (UGH.)... i have gained ten pounds in two months.

Next weigh-in: Monday, August 1st.

best day of my life.

July 24, 2010 was the best day of my life. the day i married my best friend, my husband, tim. we had an amazing first year together... and made so many memories. i am looking forward to making many new memories in the years to come...

pictures from my favorite day...

Getting Married.

Exchanging Vows

First Kiss as Husband and Wife

Family Shot

Love this guy.

Pregnant Bridemaids!

First Dance

Last Dance of the Night.

Tim and I celebrated our anniversary eating our wedding cake! The cake was a little dry but the icing was awesome! We are going to continue our celebration in Mexico in just three days!

Happy Anniversary Tim! I am so blessed to have you as my husband. my best friend.

happy birthday amanda!

yesterday we celebrated amanda's 24th birthday...

i am going to throw in a little commercial here. my brother, dan and sister-in-law, amanda own pizza places around chester county... Little Anthony's in Honey Brook and Venice Pizza in Frazer... i HIGHLY recommend you stop by one of their restaurants...i bet if you mention that you read my blog, they would make you one of my favorites that i eat there EVERYTIME i go... a veggie wrap! their food is amazing... and to be honest, it is always difficult to order a veggie wrap when all i smell is pizza, cheese steaks and french fries!

since they are in the pizza business, their schedules are much different than the rest of the family... how many surprise parties have you gone to that begin at 11... AT NIGHT! stromboli, chicken wings, and chips were served around 11:30... and the cake... that was cut around midnight!

icing is my favorite!

we finished off the celebration playing a new trivia game i have never heard of... smart ass! the winners were the only three players that were 30 and over... boy were we showing our age.

speaking of smart ass...how do you know when someone is a smart ass?....

they can sit on an ice cream cone and tell you what flavor it is!! HA!

happy birthday amanda!

riDQlous eating.

after much thought, tim and i decided to eat at applebee's last night for dinner. we chose to eat at a restaurant because we didn't want to heat up our little apartment... and we wanted to stay cool while we had our dinner.

but just our luck, the applebee's air conditioner was down and we dripped with sweat as we were eating our chips and dip.

since we had no relief at dinner, we drove around the corner to dq for some ice cream. nothing tastes better on a hot day then a reese peanut butter cup blizzard. it was fabulous!

speaking of dq... i have not been doing a great job eating healthy. i am blaming it on being stressed with classes and papers. i have one more 12 page research paper to go... and in my head, i totally want to celebrate my hard earned six credits with food!

maybe i will buy myself a new dress for mexico instead...

Happy Friday!

What do you like to reward yourself with after a big accomplishment?

cause you're hot then you're cold.

i know it is hot. but i much prefer the heat over the cold.

i feel that it is easier to cool off than to get warm. i can jump in a pool. i can wear light clothing. i can turn on a fan. or the air condition. i don't mind driving in the heat. windows down and air on... the only thing i need to worry about is the burn i get from the seatbelt when buckling myself in.

when i am cold, sometimes i feel as though i can NEVER get warm. i can put on many layers. and i am still cold. i can drink hot chocolate. but i am still chilly. i hate going out in the cold...i avoid it at all costs...and i hate the amount of time it takes to warm up a car. speaking of car. i hate driving in snow. i just hate snow in general. it causes such an inconvenience in life. an inconvenience that i never have to worry about in the heat.

bottom line. i love the heat. and for those of you are who are feeling miserable in this heat... here are a few pictures to help cool you off.

It may be another night out to eat for dinner...another reason why i love the heat... gives a great excuse to eat out!

do you prefer the weather to be hot or cold?

bathing suit dilemma.

this time next week, i will be in mexico! as i inch closer to our trip... i am questioning whether or not i should go out and buy a new swimsuit...

i hate bathing suit shopping. i hate everything about it. i hate the fact that i have to keep all undergarments on when trying on a suit... i absolutely understand the reasoning behind it.. and that 1) creeps me out and 2) creeps me out. but leaving those undergarments on makes everything look "bigger" because of the layering.

i can't go suit shopping with a friend. because the last thing i want to do is POP out of a dressing room and show off the suit to every tom, dick and harry shopping in the store. so i avoid bathing suit shopping like the plague every summer until i absolutely have to go.

i am guilty of purchasing a bathing suit and wearing it until the color starts fading... one summer, a few years ago, i wore the same bathing suit for so long that when i was paddle balling on the beach, my bikini top popped off while i was picking up a ball. the material just shredded. talk about embarrassing! i wear bathing suits for as many summers i can... because i hate bathing suit shopping that much!

last year i sucked it up and bought a two piece for my honeymoon. and i only wore it for that week on my honeymoon. it has been in my dresser ever since.

as of right now, i am really only comfortable in a one piece, so i can cover up those hips...so do i wear my two piece from last summer? buy a new two piece that i am more comfortable wearing? or stick to the one piece?

decisions... decisions...

how do you feel about bathing suit shopping?

stroMMMMboli.

i have been trying to push through these last couple of weeks. counting down the days until i step foot in mexico. i am up to my eyeballs in papers to write and articles to read... but i keep thinking this time next week... ALL WILL BE DONE!

it was super hot today. too hot to cook. we figured we would order a stromboli for dinner... i recommend when you order a stromboli, you should NOT order a large if there is just two of you in your family. If there are more than two, go right ahead!

this thing is HUGE

but delicious.... mmmm!

big changes happening in the near future. looking forward to sharing them as soon as everything is confirmed and settled. be sure to check the blog for updates!

Happy Tuesday!

tossed salad.

yesterday was spent with the family relaxing by and in the pool...

this morning i woke up and headed back to school... another week of classes from 8-4.

i took a break from my classwork tonight and made a delicious tuna salad for dinner. i love making a salad... now that is something i have NO problem making for myself. it requires only chopping and tossing in my favorite salad dressing. i have a rule when it comes to salad... i can eat my salad with any dressing i choose (none of that fat free stuff) ...i feel that i already sacrificed calories with vegetables and i might as well enjoy my salad to the fullest. my favorite dressing is Hidden Valley Ranch... makes a salad ten times better.

weighed in this morning: 149.2!!! back in the 140's! woot! woot!!

Next weigh in: Monday, July 25th.

What is your favorite kind of salad or dressing?

What do you like to add to your salad besides the usual cucumber and tomatoes?

Why Blog?

one of my favorite things to do with tim is go into town. eat at a restaurant. and then walk around town to burn off some of those calories. (oh and people watch too!)

last night, we decided to try a new place in town. we ate at a indian/thai restaurant called Spice.

i am always a little skeptical of trying new foods. i am frightened of ordering something i hate... or even worse... liking tim's dinner better than mine! tim ordered an indian cuisine and i played it safe with a cashew chicken thai entree.

we also split garlic naan (an amazing indian garlic bread) there is a new indian restaurant on our resort in Mexico... tim wanted to expose me to the indian food so that i was ready next week!

shirt look familiar? this is my "going out to dinner" shirt!

after our dinner, i had to show tim my new favorite ice cream/frozen yogurt place... KIWI! we waked around town eating our tub of frozen yogurt and talked about our upcoming trip...

Blogging:

as i sit here blogging, i have about a zillion other things i can be doing... but i love to blog.

the other day, tim and i were discussing my blog... he use to have no part in it and maybe read it sometimes at work in his free time. but then he realized other people were reading and he started become much more interested. so interested that he now takes pictures for me to help with blog updates.

this blog started out as a weight loss blog but as months went on, i realized that losing weight goes hand in hand with my daily living. with my lifestyle. i will always have my monday weigh-ins but throughout the week, i like to keep it real. yes. i do eat out ALOT! yes. i do love sweets! yes. i do get stressed! and yes. i am trying to learn to balance out my diet... so i can balance out my life. this blog not only updates what i eat, but how i get to the point of what i eat.

speaking of what i eat, and how i get there... picnic today at the pool. life should never stop when i am counting calories. i am going to the pool and enjoying every second of it.

21st birthday.

on thursday night, one of the last of our cousins turned 21...

so of course all of us older and wiser cousins took her out to celebrate. we went to three different restaurants... and the plan was to eat dinner at the last one we were stopping at... i didn't make it. i was STARVING... and ended up eating some chicken wings, a few broccoli bites and a mozzarella stick at the second restaurant.

we enjoyed each other's company and hung out for most of the night.

writing papers are what are in store for today. just finished making myself a peanut butter cup smoothie for lunch and now it is time to get focused.

there is something special about a new jar of peanut butter

hoping to update the blog as much as i can this week... but trying to take two grad classes in two weeks before a week vacation to mexico was ridiculous of me. lesson learned.

have a wonderful weekend!

I celebrated my 21st birthday going out for dinner with mom and dad! How did you celebrate your 21st birthday?

stressed spelled backwards is...

D-E-S-S-E-R-T-S!

funny. when life gets a little overwhelming...i don't want pizza. i don't want a french fry.

i wouldn't mind relieving stress with a walk... but there is no time. i have just enough time to sit here and blog for five minutes...(which by the way, relieves a little stress)

so. when life gets crazy, i want chocolate.

so i ate some. cadbury egg for dinner...

looks like a star crunch little debbie cake for dessert.

yikes. 12 more days of the school chaos. at this rate, i will never be ready for a bathing suit for mexico.

how do you handle stress?

his and her groceries.

i am back to packing a lunch. i have been scrounging for food to throw in my lunch bag... this week was leftover cucumber, stale dry cereal, raisins, and three week old crackers. grocery shopping was put on the back burner over the past few weeks... i have been busy with the girls, softball games, and reading textbooks for my upcoming classes.

today tim and i went on a much needed lunch/snack shopping trip.

when i shop by myself, i am always happy to look in my cart and see more healthy foods than unhealthy foods. i love seeing yogurts and produce. i am usually proud of myself for dodging the doritos. and staying away from the e.l fudge double stuffed fudge cookies.

when tim and i go together... that is a whole other story. somehow, we end up with chips and little debbie cakes in our cart... sometimes it is a kid's cereal or a soda he wants to drink during the week.

i had to learn that even though i want to eat healthy...it doesn't mean that he wants to follow along with me. if he loves a star crunch for a snack, he should eat his star crunch. i just need to find the willpower to stay away from his favorites... and eat a carrot stick.

do you and your husband/boyfriend have different eating habits? how do you compromise?

learning.

i woke up this morning with a knot in my stomach... i have been dreading july 11th. because that was the day that i started my classes...i am going two weeks straight from 8-4.

now. i don't mind sitting in class for eight hours.... with a few pee breaks here and there. but... it is the papers. and the research. and the presentations. and the reading reactions. and all the other "stuff" that comes along with it. i just wish that since i am paying the school... i only had to listen to the professor teach me... and not all the other time consuming tasks. i love to learn but just not do all the work... is that lazy?

weighed in today. 150.0. maintenance. i did a great job eating my face off again this weekend with the wedding and a couple of picnics...

so to not gain weight is a feat in itself. however, if i want to win this challenge with tim... i need to break away from the 150 club.

next weigh-in: monday, july 18th

blue and yellow.

yesterday, tim and i went to a wedding. i am not sure why... but weddings can be so stressful for us to get ready for... for example. tim realized at about 12:30 that he needed to buy a new shirt since his old one didn't fit. off to delaware he went. at 12:30!!! we needed to leave for the wedding at 1:40 to make it there on time. that meant... tim had to pick up his dry cleaning, buy a new shirt, get home, iron his shirt, change and get ready for the wedding in an hour and ten minutes.

we ended up leaving at 1:50... and no lie. we hit every red light and ended up behind every person over the age 75 on the road. you seriously would not of wanted to be in our car!

needless to say, we ended up a few minutes late, but luckily the bride was fashionably late walking down the aisle.

wedding.

this wedding was beautiful! i loved it the minute i saw the first bridesmaid walking down the aisle... i realized the color theme of the wedding was blue and yellow! the same as tim and mine last summer! of course... i had to take pictures of the color detail.

beautiful bridesmaid

blue and yellow centerpieces

i love seeing Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Odgers!

the food was amazing! the cocktail hour was one of the best ones i have ever seen! it was outside and had every food from the basic veggie, cheese and crackers to a pasta station... it had a seafood table and hot hor dourves were being offered to me constantly.

me and you lemonade (their signature drink)

yellow and blue napkins!

seafood table

chilling at cocktail hour

but the best part of the whole wedding was the dessert. the bride and groom had a beautiful chocolate fountain and many different kinds of cakes to enjoy! i skipped my way over to the fountain and soaked marshmallows, creme puffs and cookies in the chocolate.. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

chocolate heaven

i have learned to appreciate the detail more at a wedding since i had my wedding day. i realized how much time and energy went into planning this wedding... and it was a beautiful day.

a gift for every couple to take home.

only two more weeks of being newlyweds!

congratulations bobby and rosie! (my bride and groom pictures ended up being fuzzy and awful... therefore, no beautiful picture of the main attraction... such a bummer!)

ps. i never thought i would say this, but...you can totally wear a bridesmaid dress more than once!! thank you jenny glenny!