Day 3 of 30 Days of Me

Day 03

A picture of you and your friends

Let's start with everyone near and dear

My lovely ladies.. Kate, Abbey, Kayla, Joc, and Abby.. and of course the love of my life Kevin... the guys we love in our life.. both of Kevin's brothers, my brother Matt, my "step brother" John, Burch, and Jacob Tanner.

My best friend Kate. She's my blood relative.. but she's so much more than that. She's pretty much my other half. She use to live literally down the road from me.. we spent every waking moment together.. even if we couldn't see each other during the day, she'd show up at my house just to crawl in bed and watch a movie :) Moving across the world from her was the hardest thing. (Oh and the funny thing about this pic, she showed up at my house and we were completely dressed identical, UNPLANNED. Even had the same coats on that night. That's how much a like we are. lmao.

NEXT. Kayla and Abb. Two of the funnest people you'd ever meet. We've had so many memories together. This is from my 21st birthday.. most people go out bar hopping.. we packed up and went to the Outerbanks for mine and were real chill.. just drinking on the beach. Best vacation.. ever. (and they love my dad so much it's scary... IE the pic of Kayla and I with my dad at John's Graduation Toga party that my parents hosted)

Chad. How we came to be is kind of funny. Chad is a few years older than me and we attended the same elementary school.. population 200 lol. We never really knew each other. Then in COLLEGE we ended up in the same human biology class. He comes up to me and is like "hey. you're teddy and matt's sister aren't you?" I was like "Uh huh." THEN turns out we were in the same major so we had all the same x-ray classes. We became QUITE the pair. We were always in trouble. We graduated.. and ended up working at the same hospital together. He's such an amazing friend!

Then we have my brothers and yes I do consider them friends. They are just.. awesome.

Then of course, my nonbiological brother John. He's been around for oh say the past like 6-7 years. He started out as working for my dad, but pretty much became family

and of course..the love of my life.. Kevin Paul.. it's been almost 6 years since we first started dating.. ahh how the time flies!

Doing this was kind of depressing. 1, it makes me really miss everyone close to me stateside.. and 2, these pics are all from like 2008 and it makes me sad to realize how skinny i was then :( I know I've worked hard.. but to get to the person i was back then, I have a long way to go.

Week 19 Weigh In

I haven't been sticking to my diet as much I would like to.. *Scratch that* as much as I NEED to. I am so close to my pre pregnancy weight. I can at least fit into old clothes.. not comfortably, but I can. lol. This weigh in I lost, not big numbers, but I still lost. 1.6 lbs. I'll take it.

Now let's look at the numbers shall we!

Week One: -2.9lbs

Week Two: -1.3lbs

Week Three: +.9 (Boo. lol)

Week Four: --

Week Five: --

Week Six: -1.3lbs

Week Seven: 0lbs

Week Eight: -3.3lbs

Week Nine: -2.0lbs

Week Ten: VACATION

Week Eleven: VACATION

Week Twelve: -4lbs

Week Thirteen: -0.4lbs

Week Fourteen: -1.3lbs

Week Fifteen: SICK

Week Sixteen: -3.5 lbs

Week Seventeen: -.2lbs

Week Eighteen: OFF WEEK

Weekn Nineteen: -1.6

Total Weight Loss to Date: -62.8 lbs

Total Weight Loss in 19 Weeks: -20.3 lbs!

First Goal of -50 Pounds: REACHED

Pounds Until New Goal (-70lbs): 7.2 lbs

Day 2 of 30 Days of Me

Day 02-

The meaning behind your Blog name

There really is no meaning behind my blog name.. it's just our family name and where we live. After our tour here is up it will change... but it's fine for now :)

and as for the header.. I'm learning. I've figured out how to to do collages so usually they are of Rosalie. My intentions are to change them with the seasons and holidays!

Day 1 of 30 Days of Me

Day 01

A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself

(Just the other day.. this is me.. 60lbs skinnier than I was this time last year.)

1. I served the longest 2 year sentence of my life... at Mount Aloysius College. There was a point where I wanted to drop out of the x-ray program because I couldn't take the facility where i was doing my summer clinicals. If it hadn't of been for my clinical instructor, I would have. I'm so glad I had her to get me through that terrible time because I could not imagine doing anything other than taking x-rays. I can honestly say that I love what I do.

2. Kevin and I were only married a few short months when I became pregnant with Rosalie. I was in no way ready to become a parent and had a hard time coping with it. It wasn't until I saw her in human form for the first time when I was about 12 weeks pregnant that I became excited. She's the best thing to ever happen to me. I love her more than life it's self.

3. My music taste is unbelievably weird. I LOVE 80s music.. and at the same time, I love alternative rock/emo.. IE I LOVE Journey and Whitesnake... and I LOVE Secondhand Serenade.. Dashboard Confessional... Brand New.. Rocket to the Moon.. Senses Fail.. Something Corporate.

4. I have amazing friends back home. We can go months without talking, and when we do talk, it's like we just talked yesterday.

5. My first big purchase all on my own after I graduated from college and got a job was my jeep.. an 08 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited X. I absolutely love it.. i bought the 4 door thinking it would be a great family vehicle, but I was wrong. When we get back to the states we'll be buying another vehicle that is more family oriented. (but keeping the jeep of course)

6. I love being a stay at home, but I really miss working. I wish I could have both.

7.When I became pregnant with Rosalie I gained about 65 lbs. It was the most depressing time for me.. especially when I had people making comments left and right about my weight. I have worked hard the past 11 months to take off the weight.. I'm only a few pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight! Being able to wear my old jeans was the most rewarding moment.

9. I was pumped with pitocin for 2 days to try to start my labor but rosalie was not budging. She ended up coming via c-section. Other than my wisdom teeth, that was my only surgery ever. It was weird being on the other side of the operating room and being the patient on the table.. i'm use to being beside the table, not on it.

10. I am the world's worst driver. I wish I would have inherited my dad's mad driving skills, instead all i inherited from him is his road rage. I have wrecked more cars than most people have probably owned in their lifetime. I have even hit a PARKED car pulling out of a parking spot. Terrible, I know. That one happened in Italy, so at least I can say that I fit into the Italian Driver Stereotype.

11. I LOVE the sound of a turbo engine (mmm love that whistle when it takes off) and the smell of diesel fuel.

12. i have 5 tattoos and started getting ink when I turned 18. I have dolphins on my shoulder.. pink checkered flags and my maiden name on my lower back.. a butterfly on my heel.. the chinese symbol for family on my neck (my husband and brother in laws all have the same tattoo.. theirs are just in a different place).. and the yellow support our troops ribbon on the top of my foot with red and blue stars.

13. I use to have a passion for writing and art. I don't know when that ever left me.. I think when I graduated high school.

14. I have always strived to be the best. I graduated high school as a National Honor Society student with high honors and I graduated from college Cum Laude.

15. I have been in 6 countries.. Canada, Italy, USA, Germany, Croatia, and Slovenia and have lived in 2.. Italy and USA.

30 Days of Me

Stealing from Doris.. lol..

A lot of people have been doing this.. every day blogging about a new thing about themselves. I hardly ever blog about me, unless it's just me venting. Everything's usually about Rosalie or Europe.. so I thought this might be fun to take a lil MANDEE TIME.

30 days of me
Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself
Day 02- The meaning behind your Blog name
Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have
Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
Day 06- Favorite super hero and why
Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you
Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why
Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days
Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are Happy, Sad, Bored, Hyped, Mad
Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends
Day 12- How you found out about Blogger and why you made one
Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently
Day 14- A picture of you and your family
Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play
Day 16- Another picture of yourself
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future or about your spouse.
Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else
Day 23- Something you crave for a lot
Day 24- A letter to your parents
Day 25- What I would find in your bag
Day 26- What you think about your friends
Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge
Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then?
Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned
Day 30- Your favorite song.

Talking Talking

I wanted to add a quick update.. then I have to get back to cleaning.

Right before Rosalie turned 11 months, we THOUGHT she was saying PapPap and Ba Ba. Well, we thought right. It is ALL the time anymore. I have a video of her saying PapPap, but I don't have time to upload it and edit it right now. We had to video her because everytime we put her on the spot to say it for my dad, she won't say it. Had to prove to him that we weren't lying :) He's been waiting about 7 months for her to say PapPap!

Everything is PapPap this or Ba Ba that now. We are working on Hi and Bye now. She says Hey, but not Hi. She yells Hey Dad all the time lol.

Okay, that's it. I gotta get back to my housework.

Here's to a New Day.

Did you ever have one of those days you want to just drop over and cry? I totally had that day yesterday. Rosalie woke up half an hour earlier than usual, which wasn't really much of a deal to me because I haven't been sleeping lately. She was a crab though. We have a morning routine and if Rosalie doesn't take her morning nap, she's bear the rest of the day. She gets real whiney and bratty. If that morning nap doesn't happen, it throws off her eating schedule... it just messes up her entire day. Well she refused to nap... for TWO hours i worked trying to get her to nap. Finally I gave in. Around 1 she finally fell asleep (and hadn't eaten lunch). She usually lays down by 9-9:30. I went upstairs and started tearing my upstairs apart when my neighbors dog proceeded to wake Rosalie up. She only slept for about 15 minutes. Surprise Surprise. It's an ongoing battle with our neighbors dogs. They neglect this dogs ALL day long and they bark hysterically ALL day long. It's really starting to get old. So you can imagine at that point I lost it. I went off the wall flipping. I fought for another hour to get Rosalie back to sleep and it was a losing battle. Then everything went wrong yesterday. Everything I touched I dropped, spilled, or hurt myself. At 6:30 at night I was still tryin to get my housework done, something that's usually done before noon. Needless to say, I was ready for bed and ready to start a new day.

On Wednesday Rosalie had an appointment with the pediatrician to get a rash checked out on her belly. I knew it was eczema. She's had problems with it since she was a newborn and her doctor gave her aqua phor, which has helped in the past, but this time it wasn't even touching it. He gave her a mild steroid cream that we are to try for a week. If it doesn't go away after that, he wants me to bring her back in and he's going to either give her a stronger steroid cream, or possibly need to do some tests. We've been using it for a day and a half now and it seems to be clearing it.

I also took the time to get Rosalie's scrapbook up to date. I take so many pictures that there is no possible way I would have the time or money to scrapbook them all. SOOO for Christmas I asked my mom for this adorable pre-made scrapbook from Hallmark. I've been doing 1 or 2 pages of Rosalie every month and holidays of her first year. I also printed pictures for Rosalie's baby book that I was behind on. Don't get me wrong, her baby book is ALWAYS up to date with information, but sometimes I slack on pictures just because I like to print them from home instead of ordering them from shutterfly and I don't always have ink and paper here. So now that's up to date.

I also sat and filled out the invitations for Rosalie's birthday party, which was when I discovered that I didn't order enough! YIKES. So i hurried up and ordered another pack and hopefully they are here this week so I can get them out the following. Celebrate Express is USUALLY really good with getting stuff out pretty quick.

We've been spending some time at the park lately. Rosalie LOVESSS the park.. well duh, what kid doesn't lol.. but she loves to swing. Kevin had Monday off so we went and she had such a good time.. then her and I went before her doctors appointment, but we were only there about 20 minutes because Rosalie started to get tired.

I've been doing good with my diet this week, but I'm not jumping on the scale.. not til next week! It's weird not weighing myself first thing Friday morning. I was slacking on my water but I've been doing good again. I'm drinking on an average of 72 oz a day.

Today I plan on printing pictures from when we went to Pisa and Florence so I can get that book done. Mom and I got these beautiful albums that are made in Florence that way I can keep those pictures separate from all of my other trips. I also have to get my dad's birthday present ordered that way it gets to him on time. The photobooks sometimes take a few weeks to be made.. and Rosalie are going to get Kevin's dad's birthday gift today too. My mom asked me to pick her up some vino and grappa so we'll probably do that this afternoon too.. check the mail.. and then we're picking Kevin up from work so we can get groceries. Busy busy day!

WELLLL I think I've rambled on enough today. Here's some pics :)

CIAO

(it looks like she was crying.. but she's actually laughing hysterically)