Things are looking up.

So I had to go out to lunch with work because our out of town boss came in from Chicago. As I paid for my food I ended up paying $7.77..I thought to myself wow..that's my lucky number. Could this be my lucky day? Well not even a hour later after lunch my boss asked me to come to his office. For sure I thought I was in trouble. So I come in and he asks me to sit down and close the door. Of course my heart starts to race and I try to recall what I had done. This is not normal for him because he doesn't ever close his door to talk to me. Ha! Anyways...it wasn't what I thought. Actually it was good news. He told me that he has seen great improvements in my work and that I am managing my clients really nicely..also that I was getting a 14% raise. This is the first time in my adult career life that I got a real raise. Especially in my new chosen field. I couldn't believe it.

I can't believe I found a job that I am good at. It was a real self esteem booster. I have always had problems realizing my potential. Ever since I was little I was told that I would have real difficulties succeeding in life. That I had a random learning disorder and that I was way to emotional for the real world. Well comes to find out people were wrong about me. There isn't really anything wrong with me. That I am really just like everybody else. I just have to try a little harder. So my luck has changed. For the better.

Also, I have come to realize that I really enjoy my life. That there is nothing wrong with my waiting a little longer and slowing things down a little. I have a much better outlook now and I feel positive lately. I just hope this positive energy continues.

2nd Anniversary

So yeah it's technically not to the 16th however we decided to celebrate on the weekend because we are so busy during the week. We really wanted to keep it low key and inexpensive. Sandro ordered a cake from Texas Star Bakery in the flavor of our wedding cake and it was amazing. He had told me that it was $90 dollars when he ordered it several weeks ago. At first I was like no freaking way can a cake cost $90 dollars but we budgeted anyways because I really wanted some cake. Well turns out that the lady actually said it was $19 dollars. ( big difference) I think it's time I got Sandro a hearing aid. Since the money was already budgeted Sandro took me to lunch at Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to have a day out. Thought was raining a lot because of Hurricane Ike.

Sandro already gave me the sweetest card. It literally brought tears to my eyes because that is exactly what I wanted. Sometimes Sandro is known to go overboard and spend to much money. This year just a simple beautiful card with a long hand written note about how much he loves me in his life and he wouldn't change anything. It really touched me because he really wrote such wonderful things. He conveniently put in a little gift card for Starbucks..since he knows this is my favorite treat on the weekends. What's bad is that I haven't even got him a card yet. I feel like that bad wife at the moment. But I will get him something small this weekend. He is such an amazing patient man that I am so happy to be married to. I am so thankful that I found that person I really connect with on so many levels. He wrote in the card I hope we have 100 more years together. As if we could live forever right. Gosh...I am so thankful and blessed to have him in my life.

The best part of this weekend I have to say was spending time with Beth. She came over to have some cake and to just chat it up. It has been so long since I had seen her but it was so fun talking and enjoying cake together. She is such a good friend and the strongest person I know. She really is part of my family. I am so amazed with her ability to be so positive and strong going through all this craziness. The last time I had saw her she was going in for her first chemo with a small nagging cough. Now the cough is finally gone and she seems so alive and happy. Probably from no longer being a IBM employee (that death trap) but still I so am so happy I got to see her. Zdenko of course had to get his picture with her. He loves his Beth.

2nd Weight Loss Goal Started

Since I am officially down 26.7 (10%) I thought I would go ahead and begin the second goal weight loss goal. I find it pretty funny that I gained 50 or so pounds after getting married. I blame nothing but myself and my stupidity to think that I could eat whatever I like regardless of how many calories or exercise that I had. Dumb me! After marriage I just let me self go, Sandro never said anything or complained. But I started to get sick all the time. I got all the way up to a size 18. I was depressed with my weight and how I felt all the time. So my next big goal is getting down to the weight I was when I got married almost two years ago. I already feel so much better at my current weight. I want to prepare my body for pregnancy since I know I will gain a lot but I don't ever want to be over 200 pounds again. So in order to meet that goal I need to lose the next 25 pounds. Then If I have the time I can focus on what I like to refer to as Vanity pounds. But those pounds aren't as important as long as I am in a healthy BMI range and I feel healthy in general.

The biggest difference in my current lifestyle is I am not depriving myself. I am not giving up anything just watching my moderation. I think losing weight has a lot to do with rewarding yourself and setting goals that are attainable. I try to have my treat day/meal once a week and on occasion I still indulge pizza or ice cream, however I don't make this as part of my daily diet. I use sparkpeople to track my intake (sometimes I get lazy here) and I make sure I workout in some fashion 3-4 times a week. Sometimes it's just walking the dog others it's training for a 5k (which I am on week 5 of 9) also making sure I do some weight training and I LOVE swimming. This weekend Sandro and I went went on a 3 hour hike (close to 7 miles) I was really exhausted after that.