Luke 24:5-6

He has risen indeed! Wishing you a blessed and wonderful Easter Sunday.

letter to my future self, as a mom

 

   Here are the things I hope to never take for granted once I become a mom.

 

• I will never complain about the fact that I am getting stretch marks or that my body is changing, instead I will thank God for the miracle growing healthy inside of me.
• I won't be upset at the lack of sleep, I'd rather rejoice and thank Him for the little sleep that I do get.
• I won't get angry or upset when my child needs something and interupts me, I'll be thankful for the fact that I have a child who needs me.
• I want to be thankful to get sick while pregnant, thankful that I am in fact pregnant.
• I hope to keep an open heart when other mothers give me advice.

   I want to remember what it felt like to try month after month, and then year after year with no positive pregnancy test. I want to cherish the fact that I am a mother. I want to have empathy for those who are still struggling and share in their joy when they do get the good news the Lord has coming to them. I don't want to forget how long our journey was and who we owe this blessing to.

  This is something I hope will come true, and I will remind myself to reread this when that time comes.

 

Worth the Wait/Weight

   I need to be honest. I've been thinking about writing about the great wait weight for awhile and today is the day to let it all out. I've gained fifty pounds, yes that is correct fifty pounds. While looking at this picture of Jessica Simpson, I read the caption below it out loud, "She let herself go." That statement really triggered something inside of me. Weight gain isn't all about letting yourself go. I certainly do not think I let myself go, I never stopped caring about my appearance. It didn't happen overnight, it was a steady climb that I barely noticed. About a year into our marriage a first grade teacher I work with asked "what's happening?" while pointing to my stomach. RUDE! I politely told her, "nothing.". Oh, but she was persistent, week after week she would say "is something going on?", or "you're pregnant?", looking back now I should have taken that as a sign to up the cardio, instead I thought she was rude, and as a woman I couldn't believe she kept pestering me about it. Then it was Christmas of 2011 and Blake and I would be traveling to Dallas for the holiday only I had nothing to wear, nothing fit me. That's basically when I began shunning away from pictures, I don't think I was ashamed of the weight as much as I am now. I still did nothing about it, for years! God has been testing us with this great wait for a child, and in the meantime I have turned our wait into weight. I can't pinpoint a moment where all this weight accumulated, but I also can't ignore it. Finally, after my nieces baptisms I was looking at pictures; someone caught me in a photo, and let me tell you that was not what I saw in the mirror, not even close. I knew I had gained too much weight, but I really didn't realize what I looked like until that photo was staring at me.
  I've always been the girl who loves having her picture taken. It's so weird to look through my camera and see shots of only my face, or just my legs, and never a full body shot, not in two years! I don't want to ignore it anymore, I want to be photographed. I want to be healthy and thin again.
  In December Blake got us new gym memberships, and I knew I was out of shape, I know this journey isn't going to be the easiest one, but at least I am not ignoring it anymore. I've never had this problem, and it's so shameful. Anytime I see someone who knows skinny me, I freak out, I want to explain the weight gain, I want to hide, I want to cry, I want to disappear. I hate thinking that people are judging me when they see me but it's part of what goes on in my mind every.single.day. I can't lose weight like I used to, I'm older, my body has been neglected and it doesn't work like it used to. I'm not the same person, I'm fat Catherine. My goal is to lose all of it by August 2013. I'm only down thirteen pounds as of today. Putting this out there, into the world, is a step forward in the right direction, and it feels really good to be honest.

Oh, how pinteresting (Quotes edition)

Bloglovin' Test

 Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Weekend Shenanigans



*caught up on my bsf

*admired this texas display in austin

*began tracking my steps

*went on an easter egg hunt with these three two

*thought about my weight while looking at this jessica simpson comparison (more on that later)

*got on a massive sweat at the gym

Neon Teeth

   The instructions were to place the strips on your teeth for 2 hours at a time, but it said to use the strips twice in one day which would mean a total of 4 hours with strips on. Confused? I was. The box which was roughly $50 came with four sets of strips which would allow you to bleach your teeth twice, and the instructions say to bleach your teeth a maximum of twice per year. I can tell a difference, not sure if the pictures do it justice. I will be using them again. The only problem I had was the day after my teeth were sore which is to be expected.

Remember the episode where Ross (from f.r.i.e.n.d.s) has neon teeth? Love.

Spring Break 2013

Texas sun for 45 minutes. Yikes!

I traveled to Austin to visit this cutie.

I may or may not have put some lipstick on her.

Gymboree with this adorable one!

Meal preps, duh. Not pictured is the yummy watermelon. I can't explain how happy I am for it to be back in season.

She loves her bubbles and I love her giggles.

SPD: 41 Calorie Almond Clusters

The original pin. 41 calorie almond clusters.

My version:

Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 1 minute and 15 seconds. Take out and gently stir.

After placing a dollop of the chocolate on the foil, I then added the almonds.

I covered the almonds with the remaining chocolate, and popped them into the freezer for ten minutes.

Voila, they lift right off the plate! 41 calories, yum!

Liebster Award

RULES

Link back to the person who nominated you

Write 11 facts about yourself once nominated

Answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you

Nominate 11 blogs with 200 or less followers

Create 11 Questions for those bloggers to answer

 

Ashley at Let's Get Bananas was sweet enough to nominate me. Here are her questions that I've answered below.

 

1. What is your dream job? To be a stay at home mom.

2. What did you want to be when you were little? An anestesiologist. Yes, it's true. My best friend's dad was one, and for whatever reason I was determined to become one.

3. If you could be the best at something what would it be? Running. I have always admired people who can run far distances and maintain endurance.

4. What is the one t.v. show you'd never miss? Criminal Minds.

5. What is your favorite food? Mashed potatoes.

6. If money wasn't a factor where in the world would you travel? Ireland.

7. Heels or flats? Flats, and wedges.

8. What's the best piece of advice you've ever recieved? Marriage isn't easy, but it's worth it.

9. What's your favorite feature about yourself? My lips. I hope you are talking about physical features and not my stellar personality!

10. If you could be the best at one thing what would it be? Getting pregnant.

11. What's the one food you despise? Meat.

 

I would like to nominate:

Eclectially E

Babyberry

With Love, Anna

 

My questions are:

1. If you could have a superpower what would it be?

2. What's your favorite quote?

3. If you weren't doing what you are currently doing, what would you hope to do?

4. What's your greatest fear?

5. Name one thing on your bucket list.

6. What's your favorite thing about blogging?

7. What is your greatest dream?

8. Are you close with your family?

9. If you could visit one place in the world where would you go?

10. Who is your hero?

11. What has been the biggest obstacle in your life thus far? 

 

Spring Breakin' It

  Hey friends, I just wanted you all to know I'm taking a few days off to enjoy my spring break! I will be back before you know it, and if you too are on your break, enjoy!

  Oh, and be sure to enter this giveaway over on Ruthie's blog! Good luck!

Insta-Friday

   I follow @lesliegrossman on instagram, and through her I found Bedonna Smith. This is a note from her son, I couldn't stop laughing, this is hilarious!

I found this new app that changes all of your icons, it's amazing! The name of the app is cocoPPa.

On Wednesday night Blake had  work thing at some penthouse downtown, and our view was stunning. It was also the anniversary of the 1836 battle at the Alamo which was a bonus! While we had dinner on the terrace there was a massive fire in a building right across from us, we didn't realize how severe it was so I didn't take pictures, but man the smoke was intense!

  I downloaded a new app to compare to Fertility Friend and this is how it notifies me that I am entering my fertile window. I thought it was pretty cute. Paddle boarding yoga, um, YES PLEASE! I am so excited to try this out, I will keep ya'll posted on this new adventure. Check out that strawberry! I can't even describe how delicious they are. If you live in south Texas you can find those bad boys at your local HEB+, well worth it.
Today, in about 6 hours  I will officially be SPRING BREAKIN' IT! Oh-yeah, I can't wait!

Saw it. Pinned it. Did it. - Dr. Seuss Edition

Original

My version

   I wanted to jazz it up a little and I had my first graders write a birthday letter to Dr. Seuss. We did a little review by watching Justin Bieber read The Cat in the Hat, and then discussed other books he wrote. I was pleased with the outcome and plan to keep this board up for the entire month of March.

   *If you read this post from yesterday you will understand that I am asking any and all warriors of prayer to keep my dear friend Lauren in your prayers as she lays her precious daughter to rest today. If you feel inclined to leave her a message you may do so here.*