what's next?

Yesterday Chris' mom, Chris, Jonathan & I went to the Atlanta Zoo. The trip was originally scheduled for last month, but had to be postponed due to rain. I stalked the Weather Channel website for the week leading up to yesterday & was a bit concerned that we'd have to put it off again. Thankfully the rain held off and we were off!

I was really hoping Jonathan would get a big kick out of seeing the animals. And he did, to some extent. The first exhibit we came to was the elephant. Jonathan looked at the elephant for about, oh, 90 seconds and then said... "what's next?" We were cracking up. Every time we'd come to a new exhibit, he'd look for a second & say, "what's next?" I swear we made it through the first half of the zoo in like 10 minutes. We spent a good deal of time in the reptile house. He loved looking at the snakes & turtles. We even saw a couple of turtles "mating". Ha! I nearly took a picture, but thought it should remain private. ;o)

The weather turned out pretty nice. We arrived at the zoo at around 10:30am so it wasn't too warm yet. However, by the time we left around 12:30ish it was starting to get pretty hot. We definitely won't be going back until fall. Hopefull next time the animals will be a bit more active, most of them were just laying around. Chris' mom & I got a big kick out of the male Orangutan hanging out in his hammock. He was just chillin' out.

The Panda's were super cute too. I got a couple of cute pics of the "mommy" Panda. She was in the enclosure & chowing down on some bamboo.

Anyway, speaking of pictures, here are a few from the day. My lens doesn't zoom very far, so I may ask Laurel if I can borrow her's for our next trip. (You like how I just threw that out there, Laurel?)

Jboy & Willie B.

Jboy & Mommy checking out the gorillas.

The cutest redhead. Ever!

The fam.

do you scrapbook... do you know someone who does?

If the answer to either of those questions is yes... then you need to know about this...

Scrapista 2009

One of my dearest friends in the entire world, Rebecca, is hosting what I'm sure is going to be the biggest scrapbooking event of the year!

*taken directly from Rebecca's blog*

In a nutshell - it's a two day scrapbooking extravaganza! In one place, all day and night. You can scrap for a while, take a short class, take a nap in your hotel room, eat, have a massage and start scrapping again! You never have to leave (at least not until the event is over).

Sounds amazing, right!? Go to the website, Scrapista, and check it out!

Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell your neighbors! And of course.... register!

I'll be there and, trust me, you don't want to miss it!!!

iHeartFaces

Have you seen this blog? iHeartFaces



Each week they have a photo contest with a different theme. This week's theme is "hats". When I heard that, I just had to enter this picture of Jonathan.

He's only like 3 weeks old in the picture, but he looks so "ganster", don't you think! It cracks me up everytime I see it.



Go check out the blog & let me know if you enter a photo!

a new perspective

How many times have I written about the struggle with my weight? I for one am tired of thinking about it, and I’m quite sure you’re tired of reading about it.

I don’t know if I mentioned that I finally cancelled my membership to Weight Watchers last month. It just didn’t make sense to pay the $40/month if I wasn’t going to follow the program or attend meetings. I hated the fact that I couldn’t find the motivation or focus to do what I need to do to lose the weight.

As usual, I’m quite frustrated with myself. I’ve gained back probably 20 pounds of the 50 that I had lost. It sickens me to no end and I CANNOT let myself get back up to where I started. I refuse to buy clothes in the size that I was. It makes absolutely no sense!

A couple of months ago I realized that one of the problems that I was having with the process is that I was following the Weight Watchers plan and using it like a DIET. Not trying to make a lifestyle change. I was only measuring my food & paying attention to my portion sizes to lose weight, not to learn to make better choices. The question at the time was: Am I willing to make the changes in my lifestyle that are necessary to live a healthier life, or do I just need to learn to be content where I am?

I’ve been thinking a lot about that over the last few days, and I think I’ve finally made a decision.

YES. I’m willing to make the changes necessary.

Is it going to be easy? Of course not. Will I struggle? Absolutely. Am I going to suck it up and do it anyway… YES!

So, I’m going to rejoin Weight Watchers. I really need and enjoy the accountability of weighing in and going to the meetings. I like the “structured freedom” that their plan offers. But this time, I’m going into it with a new perspective. I’m going to pretend like I’ve never set foot in the door & have never followed the plan before. I’m going to learn how to make better choices, not because they’ll help me to lose weight, but because it will be better for me.

I CAN do this! I WILL do this!

Next on the agenda is the exercise thing, but for right now I’m just taking one baby step at a time.