I LOST 50 LBS!!!!!

YAY for me!!! I have been waiting for this day for months, I have been plateaued at 49 lbs, and this morning (of course on Thanksgiving-the day you eat a lot) I finally lost that 1 lb. It really has been a struggle trying to loose all that weight. I started my weight lost journey Feb 2007, Benton bought me a treadmill for my birthday. The best present he could have ever gotten me! At first it was really hard exercising and I had to make myself do it. I have exercised every week 5 times a week with very few exceptions. The only time I have stopped was if I was sick, other than that I make myself exercise 5 times a week. In Feb 07 I also gave up soda, I was addicted to coke. I drank about 88-100 oz of coke a day! I never enrolled up in a weight loss plan, I just did it myself. I thought "What could I do to help me loose weight?" In the past I have tried different ways to loose weight from Weight Watchers to Body for Life. Neither of those worked for me, so I decided to run, quit drinking soda and watch what I eat and also my portion sizes. I have changed a little more than that in the last 6 months, I don't eat any sweets (candy, cookies, pastries), try not to eat out (I do maybe once a month) and no french fries for me! You may think, your crazy for doing all of that, but it's worth it for me. I love being healthy and having results! I was wearing a size 16 in pants and now I can wear a 4-6 and I love it. I have so much more energy now it's unbelievable. I've often wondered what I use to do with my time??? I'm not quite sure what I use to do before I exercised, but whatever I was doing wasn't working for me. If I can loose weight, anyone can. You just have to have the mind frame of I can do it and stick with it...don't give up, keep going! I'm lucky to have Benton as my husband and he has really supported me through this weight struggle. I know he loves me no matter what size I am. On days that I'm struggling to work out he gives me encouragement, exactly what I need. I love him so much and am grateful he's helped me during the last almost 2 years. I couldn't have done it without your support. My friends and family have really been encouraging too, thank you all so much. It means a lot when you comment on how good I look now, it's motivation! Let's look at what 5 lbs really looks like....multiply that by 10 and that's what I've lost!

Here's a couple before pictures...



and after....

Awards Night

On Saturday night was our Awards Night for my work. All of the employees and a partner went down to the Salt Palace for our celebration. The theme of the event was The Holy War, Utes Vs BYU. We had to pick which team we were cheering on and of course we were for....

that's right for the Utes! (if you can't tell by Megan and my shirt)

They had tons of tailgating food, games to play and of course the football game on multiple big screens. Benton and I sat and talked with Megan and her hubby Darek, it was a fun night eating and talking with America First Employees! We were really excited when the Utes won the game!!!! Go UTES!!!

Help Me!!!!

Does anyone know what causes side aches when you run??? I have been running for the past 2 years and I run about 4 miles a day. It doesn't happen every time and it's driving me crazy.
Here are my theories;
1. Eat too close to the time you run
2. Not drinking enough water
3. Breathing incorrectly while running
4. The time that I run
The thing of the matter is that I don't eat anything 3 hours before I run, I drink water like a camel (I am always drinking and I only drink water), I pay really close attention to how I breath (I breath through my nose, out through my mouth-the whole time), and I change up the hours that I run-sometimes it's in the morning and most of the time it's at night. So what is going on here? Any other theories?

Friday Night with my Sis

My sister Chelsie lives about an hour away from me, and we talk on the phone quite a bit. About a week ago we were talking and she was saying how she gets so bored on Friday nights because her hubby comes up to Layton to do an internship. Well it hit me, "Why aren't you coming up with him and hanging out with me?" So this Friday we were able to get together. We ate crisp bean burritos, my sister Karly's reciepe and talked, it was a lot of fun. We gave Spencer a bath, he is so cute, he said his first word a little bit ago, and it's "Wow", it's really cute!

Roxy really wanted to get in the bath with Spencer!

I'm really excited to hang out with Chelsie and Spencer on Friday nights!!!

Visit with my Dad

My dad came into town, and we went to lunch with him at the Blue Iguana. It's a Mexican restaurant, and the food was really good. I had never been there before and would recommend anyone who loves Mexican food to try it. It was nice visiting with my dad.

After lunch we were all walking out and I asked my dad to take a photo of Benton and I. So while he was doing that, a lady walked past and asked "Where are you guys from?" and it made me feel silly, I just replied "Oh you know, from the Layton area". I couldn't help but laugh, so here's our silly photo of us out of towners...


My dad ended up bringing with him a tote that had stuff from my childhood, it was so fun looking through everything. I found this doll that I absolutely loved, my mom told me that it's probably about 60 years old now, Benton thought it was scary, so I'll let you judge for yourself...


She has a cracked head as you can see, but I think she's so cute (I'm probably biased)

Baby Kallen

Today Benton and I went up to Primary Children's and visited Kallen in the ICU. He is doing really well from the surgery and will end up staying at the hospital for 3-5 more days. We were relieved knowing that everything went smoothly. We are still thinking about him during his recovery, we love you baby Kallen.

Visit with the Fitzpatrick's

This past weekend we found out our new nephew Kallen has a rare heart disorder. Only 1 out of 450,000 people have this disorder. Benton's sister Rachelle and her family live in Montana and had to fly Kallen out to go to Primary Children's. So, on Saturday we went and visited them at the hospital, it was such a nice visit. Benton and I stayed and talked with Rachelle, she is such a strong person, I have a lot of respect for her and what she thinks. Here's Benton and Kallen for the first time...

After visiting with Rachelle and Kallen, we met up with the rest of Benton's family and played games and ate pizza. I love getting together with his family, they are a lot of fun to hang out with and it's fun to even just watch his niece's and nephews. We got a picture of all of the kids on Benton's mom's side, with the exception of Kallen, here's all the crazy kids....

Today we ate yummy soup and rolls at Benton's moms house and then all drove down to visit Rachelle and Kallen. It's so fun having the family all together, I just wish the circumstances were different. Kallen is having surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30. We are all thinking positively about his surgery and are praying for him. He'll be at Primary Children's for the next 2 weeks, so our thoughts go out to him.

Happy Halloween!!!

I love Halloween, it's such a fun holiday. I think everyone's imaginations and creativity really comes out. At work we all dress up and I dressed up as Medusa. Here are some pictures of my coworkers and I...
(Jill Downs, Kimberli Green, me and Cortney Jones)

(Megan Eggleston and me)

(Cortney Jones, me, Kimberli Green and Monica Sparks)


I hope you all had a happy Halloween!

I've been spooked!!!

Today at work I was spooked, which means someone "spooks" your desk in Halloween decorations. It was really fun and festive. They gave me healthy snacks, since I'm still not eating candy, which was very thoughtful. I got grapes and granola (YUMMY!!!), flowers, and a bunch of little Halloween decorations. It's fun to be surprised at work, I love looking at my desk-here's some pictures....

I learned a lesson the hard way!!!

Today I decided to make this chili Benton has asked me to make for about a year...so I thought I should be a good wife and make it for him. So earlier we went to the store and got the ingredients, and about an hour and a half ago I started cooking it. Well I chopped up 2 Jalapenos without any gloves...and the side affect of that is like being tortured. I would compare my pain to getting my flat iron and burning my hands with it. I looked online for an aid to help my pain go away because taking a shower was like torture...the hot water made it worse. So it said to put sour cream on them which didn't work, I then tried lime juice, vegetable oil and finally bleach. I just tried Neosporin and that's helped the most. My mom said the remedy is to give it time to go away and next time to wear gloves...I definitely will buy some gloves the next time I go to the store! So this is a warning to those of you who have yet to cut up a jalapeno, WEAR GLOVES!!!