Bailey turns 1!!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me....Bailey's 1st birthday!! I had been telling her about her birthday all week, so I gave in a gave her an early birthday present Monday night. 

After a full night of playing her her new toy, the birthday girl was a quite exhausted come 7am and poor lil hippo lost a leg. 

Per her request, we went on a few extra walks yesterday and she got oodles of treats :) Mid-day I couldn't wait any longer and I decided it was time to officially celebrate with a PUPCAKE!

I put it in her food bowl to try to cut down on the mess, but she had other plans.

She must have thought she was doing something wrong because she ran off with the cupcake and decided to eat it under the kitchen table. Coincidently, she eats her cupcake just like her mom!! Cake 1st, then icing :)  

Oh well, a little mess never hurt anyone.  

Happy birthday Bailey :) You will never know how much you have given me in your 1st year of life. 

Tough decisions

I try to lead a fairly worry free life, but there is always one stressor that keeps Clint singing the chorus of this tune to me....$money$.  When I found out I was not going to be able to work at the Autism Society as much next semester I had a mini-meltdown.  I have enjoyed saving my extra $4,000 of student loans each semester for a wedding one day, and not being able to do that was frightening.  So, I went out and found job #2.  I will be working at the ECU Distance Education Proctoring Center! Its such an easy job, with perfect hours, and excellent pay. The plan was to work there Monday-Friday and at the Autism Society Friday-Saturday..no worries, I can handle it.  Or can I? Now enters the tough decision...should I quit job #1?  It is so rewarding, but does it come at the cost of less time with my boyfriend? I mean seriously, why save up money for a wedding if there is never a time when you sit back and relax with your significant other for a weekend?  So I am letting go of the Autism Society.  I need to focus on myself and not set myself up for being overwhelmed in my last semester of classes {hallelujah, praise God!!}.   Seems like this may be the best decision I have had in a while.

Distractions

Tuesdays are LONG days.  Today, on top of 6 hours of back to back classes, I also had to make cupcakes for the Student Occupational Therapy Association bake sale.  I was able to find some creativity deep down inside despite the exhaustion and they came out pretty cute! You will notice that one "accidentally" messed up so I HAD to eat it. Good thing I woke up extra early this morning for a morning workout to counterbalance the yummy sweet satisfaction :) 

I personally like the cute little monsters! 

Just a taste.

I was a bundle of nerves this morning as I was getting ready for my first day of fieldwork at UNC hospital.  Clint got up and made me some coffee {which I could barely drink} and I re-read my emails 20x to make sure I didn't miss any pertinent information. Once I got to the hospital and met my supervisor, my nerves were put at ease.  My supervisor is GREAT and is giving me a lot of opportunities to make my own decisions when making treatment plans and writing goals.  I had some pretty challenging patients on my first {non-stop, busy, busy} day but I loved every second of it.  I am trying to eat up this week as much as possible since it is just a small taste of my life to come.  I am loving waking up at Clint's, having breakfast with him, and then us each heading off to our separate work places.  After work {and him allowing me some zzz's on the couch} we hit the gym!  He promised that he would support me in going after work each day, and boy, is he the tough one to work out with! I will assure you that I will be sore tomorrow, but that is just what I need. Going back to Greenville next week with a full class schedule and 2 hrs away from Clint will be sad...but only 7 more months!!

Ranch bound.

Went to bed proud of myself, and woke up bummed out.  After yesterday's workout and healthy eating, I decided to hop on the wii fit scale this morning.  Results: +1. To make matters worse, I hit my highest weight for the year and {thanks to the wiii fit weight tracker} discovered I am +12 from March.  NOT. GOOD. Clearly what I am doing {or not doing} is not working.  I wallowed in self-pity during my walk with Bailey and then decided to pick myself up and head back to the Bigger Loser Ranch...virtually of course.  Instead of picking up where I left off, I started new and set up a 4 week challenge with a weight loss goal of -14.  I have high hopes that this 4 week challenge, along with healthy eating and Pirate Fit I will be able to reach my goal.  My weekly challenge and weigh in is on Wednesdays so I will be posting my results then {again, to keep me accountable}. If you have any words of motivation, please share! 

Defeated.

Lately I have been feeling a little defeated when it comes to getting to where I want to be physically.  If you know me, you know that I will always have an excuse for not working out...and as much as I try to eat healthily, I am a SUCKER for mexican.  I recently found something to get me back into the workout groove, Pirate Fit @ ECU. It is a new, work-out motivation program through the Student Rec Center that awards coming to the gym with various prizes--even an iPad :) You would think getting rid of this booty and thunder thighs is enough incentive to work out, but free stuff is just the icing on the cake.  My current method of getting rid of the excess lower body flab is something I actually feel extremely defeated by...the spinning bike.  Today was my 2nd day on the bike.  Only made it 5 minutes on day 1, but today (with the help of Women's Health magazine) I made it 10.  It is certainly a love-hate relationship.  On another high note...I ate only healthy foods today.  That means no left over wedding cake, no Reece's cups, no pumpkin cake, and no ice cream {and yes all of these things currently inhabit my kitchen}. No promises for tomorrow, but I am going to try my best before I end up like this lovely lady. 

Wedding fever!

All of these beautiful weddings in the past few months have really pushed me into wedding fever! Now that I am getting to the point in my life where I am approaching the end of grad school classes and my move to Chapel Hill, contemplating my own wedding has become more of a reality.  It's gotten so bad that Clint has started commenting that we are just going to have a shotgun wedding since I will have everything planned before he can even pop the question!  Now if I could just begin to channel this wedding obsession into a workout obsession I would be alright!!

Love this picture from Clint's sister Sarah's wedding :)