Debates...

This is the first ever presidential debate I have watched.. Mainly because our country has never been in as bad of shape as it is now. During the debate I watched a lot of people post about it on fb.. I have to say that I am thoroughly disappointed in the "issues" people chose to make their voices heard on. I didn't see ANYONE post about education or tax reform... Nothing on health care.. No.. I saw people posting about Sesame street... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? YOU WANT TO CHOOSE YOUR VOTE BASED ON A CHILDREN'S SHOW?????? YEAH, CAUSE THAT IS WHAT IS GOING TO MATTER! Come on people, please for the love of God and country, choose your candidate not based on the color of their skin or a children's show which we have about 1000 other shows to choose from.. Choose based on real issues, taxes, health care, education! Our country is in higher debt now than they have ever been .. violence is getting worse... and Military funding is being cut only to be cut further.. I know where my vote is going as a Military wife. Where is yours going .. and more importantly WHY? Is it going where it is going? Please try to allow some logic to lead you to what is best for our country instead of issues that don't make a bit of difference.

Dark Shadows

Ok, so we all love Johnny Depp.. I mean who doesn't love him in Pirates of the Caribbean?? Well he is back in quite an interesting roll in the movie Dark Shadows! I for one am interested to see how this vampire movie is portrayed especially with all the vampire craziness going around. It would be a nice brake to have a little humor involved. The even better part?! I get to give away a blu-ray combo pack of the Dark Shadows movie!! To enter to win this awesome prize just take the "Are you creepy enough" quiz and post your results and email (so I will be able to contact you) in your response! Drawing will be held on October 11th!

Tristan Updates

Well, school has started and my baby boy had to have his hair cut as per the rules of the new charter school that he attends. I was so sad that I cried. He has had long hair since he was born and it was very hard for me to see it go. Not quite so hard for him though..lol.. He was happy to have something different for a little while. He said he still likes his long hair.. but he likes this hair cut too. He still looks as handsome as ever but not anything like he used to. However, he is loving his new school. He comes home happy and energized. He loves his class and his teachers. It is like when he first started school again. My old Tristan is back. The happy, fun loving, friendly child, whom everyone likes. Forrestal had done everything they could to squash his spirit and make him a sad depressed child. Thank God that he was only there for one semester or there might have been permanent damage. I also credit his Taekwondo class to helping him be more like himself as well. When he first joined he wouldn't even speak to the teacher or his classmates. He was afraid to line up with them without being told where to stand. Now he is quick to say hi to everyone and talks to his teacher on his own without me having to stand next to him and end up doing it myself. He has done wonderfully in his class too and is now a yellow belt after two months of study. He has learned form 1 with some help from me and he learned form 2 (what he needs to get his next belt) all on his own! I am so impressed by him. He makes me so very proud. Without further adieu here are some beautiful photo updates of my little man. Family Pictures the day before his hair cut.

The day he got his yellow belt! I am so proud!

The first day of school.. Such a handsome boy!

With all the hustle and bustle of back to school sometimes you can forget that you are out of milk... again... So why not try out one you can keep in your pantry? That way when you run out of milk you can just grab one out of the pantry and the disaster of dry cereal is averted once more! lol.. Milk unleashed has now produced a shelf stable milk! Yep, you read that right! Check out the app below to get a little more information on this great product! Milk unleashed has also offered to give away a small variety pack of their milk! How awesome is that! In order to enter just either post your favorite On-The-Go Games from the blog app! or take the Family On-The-Go Quiztacular and post your results in the comments section!

It has been awhile since I have blogged.. so since I was on the site today I decided it was time to catch up a little. Things have been going good here at home.. I am loving my life and the great people I have in it. Extended family has done nothing but try to bring drama into my life but I am just ignoring it because if they want to spread lies to make themselves feel better then that is their prerogative. I won't be a part of it. I have been staying super busy this summer with dance class for Alora and Taekwondo for Tristan.. along with lots of playdates every week. We made some new friends here and it has been great connecting with someone. I was planning a trip to Vegas to see one of my best friends but unfortunately that got changed due to her schedule. Hopefully I will be able to make a trip sometime in the fall but who knows. I am now planning to make a trip to see my two best WA friends and my beautiful Goddaughter in August. I am so looking forward to seeing all my girls again. Guess that means I need to pack my tripod and my camera even though I really don't want to lug it through the airport..lol.. Kris went on a little vacation down to Florida last week for his cousins graduation and will be flying back today. I wish I would have been able to go with him but unfortunately vacations together cannot really happen when you have 4 children to take care of so I stayed behind. Maybe one day we will actually fly somewhere together..lol.. Tristan & Mcleod got into the charter school and we are thrilled! That means they will be getting a much better education than they could at all of the other schools here which makes us very happy. The school system here is very broken and since teachers have tenure no one is willing to do what his necessary to fix it. I say just fire everyone and restaff the entire roster of schools. That should make a serious change for the problem. Your job should be based on performance.. not tenure! Mystry is doing well.. although a bit sad since her boyfriend went off to bootcamp.. I know how hard that is.. communicating only through letters. However, she is keeping fairly busy with school work that she was assigned for the summer from all of her AP classes. She is a wiz at school and is looking at colleges for 2014.. Today I am taking her down to do her test for her driving permit. So I need to get off of here now and do that.. I will try to update again soon.. for now though I am off! Pamela

On Thursday I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot for Sexual Assault Prevention. I feel very honored to have been able to participate in creating awareness for such a great cause. Here are some of the photos from the shoot.

I am currently working on a PTSD awareness project as well and am looking forward to getting those pictures done as well.

I reached my goal!

I said that I wouldn't blog about my weight again until I reached my goal. Well I have! I am finally here! After 3 years of saying that I am trying and not I finally decided to do it! I got serious and started eating right and exercising.. I am stronger than I have ever been.. I have biceps and triceps and calf muscles that you can see! Thanks to my surgery I am also thinner than I have ever been! I started this journey on March 15th 2012 at 145 pounds. I stuck to it and it got easier as time went on.. Here is what I looked like before my surgery and weight loss at 145 pounds. My stomach always held a lot of my weight, which is why I decided to have the laser lipo last year but that wasn't a fix all. I did not lose any weight from the surgery but I did lose size in my stomach and love handles. :) You can see those results in a previous post that i made called surgeries. It took me 3 months and a lot of hard work to get here but I am here! Finally! I am happy and it is so easy to stick to my lifestyle change now that I am back here again. I have even had my wedding dress cleaned and taken in and very soon I will be having new bridal pictures taken in my gorgeous dress but this time with me being beautiful in it! :) If you are on the edge and ready to do it .. let me tell you that you can.. all you need is the motivation. I got mine from a friend.. I hope I help to inspire some of you to do the same. So without further ado.. My after pictures!!! 125 pounds!! 20 pounds lost in 3 months!! :D

Coming Soon to Florida!

We are finally making a trip back home.. Last time I was there was the beginning of 2010 so it has been almost 2 years for me. Even longer for Kris who left in Sept 2009. I will be happy to see everyone and be WARM!!

We have been living in cold weather places for the last 4 years so I am ready for a little vacation from it! Right now we are stationed in Illinois and we will be here for 3 years before the option to go somewhere else even arises. Hopefully we can get back to Florida but who knows. It would be nice to be somewhere warm for awhile.. I sure do miss my tank tops and shorts.


I will be wearing those tanks and shorts for the entire week we are in Florida!! No doubt I will be coming back up north with a tan! haha.. I have been making plans to see everyone that I can.. a week isn't much time but I am going to do my best to see everyone. If you want us to try to schedule something with you please let me know! :)

I got my motivation!

A few days ago I was cruising around on facebook and as usual feeling bad about my weight and how much I eat when I happened across a friend of mines progress pictures from her weight loss. Her picture spoke to me.. motivated me.. moved me to do what I had done so long ago. Take control of myself, my eating, and my life!

Before I got pregnant with Alora I stayed comfortably at 125 and it was easy. I didn't overeat. I rarely had "cheat" days. I didn't need them. I was always satisfied by the amount of food I ate. I had taught myself how to eat right and how to eat the right amount of calories for my lifestyle. When I got pregnant though I lost my mind. I forgot how to take care of myself. I forgot what it was like to eat right and feel good about doing it. Instead I felt bloated and uncomfortable most of the time and never let myself feel hungry.

Do you know what it is like to feel hungry? I mean actually hungry. I used to.. and now I do again. I have to tell you.. it feels GOOD! Yes! GOOD! I started REALLY counting calories again! I counted them before, but I didn't actually restrict myself to the amount of calories necessary to lose weight. I have been working out a few times a week. Just making sure I get some kind of activity in for at least 30 minutes is the main thing.

Regardless.. The whole point of this post is to hold myself accountable. It has only been 5 days now since I started this new education period of relearning how to eat and finding out how my body feels when I am really hungry and when I am REALLY FULL!
That is another thing that you have to really pay attention to.. eat slowly so that you know when you are full! Don't eat until you are gorged and over full only till satisfied. You won't feel full for a few weeks, it takes time for your body to adapt to the right eating habits and to shrink back down to its correct size.

So far I have lost 1 pound.. in 5 days! I think that is pretty good. They say 1-2 pounds a week is a good goal.. My goal is to top out and make it to 2 pounds a week. We shall see what happens. I probably won't post here again until I make my goal because I keep track of my progress in a personal written journal. :)

Here is a little virtual image of where my weight is now and where I am trying to get to.

A HUGE thank you to my motivators!! You know who you are! :)

Happy Eating!

The Art Of Marriage App

Hello again.. As you may have read in a previous blog of mine I like to support marriage and help my fellow military wives out cause it can be rough being away from your spouse so very much.

I have been contacted about a new app that is called "The Art of Marriage" and I wanted to share it with you all. So here is the app.. Please feel free to leave me a comment below and tell me what you think about it. I may even have a giveaway soon if I get enough interest!