Life updates

Technically this is partially a new year's resolution update, but there's more than that topic that I want to blog about so... here goes.

I'm loosing weight.
It's kind of odd - I never have needed to loose weight, but being in the "overweight" category due to my BMI I felt the need to shed some pounds. That's why weight loss was one of my resolutions this year.

I'm now 155lbs.
My BMI is 23.6

I have lost 26 pounds since the beginning of this year (well, since February 22nd when I originally posted the resolution blog).

So, that means I met my weight loss resolution. Cool!

I would ideally like to weigh 130lbs as I've already admitted in that previous blog - so that means I have another 25 pounds to go.

Ironically enough, I haven't done anything really different to encourage this weight loss. It's been gradual, and I haven't even really focused on it throughout this year. I have noticed, however, that my meal portions have gone down considerably. I chalk up my weight loss to this fact alone. Eat less consistently and your stomach shrinks down a bit. You become accustomed to eating smaller meals.
If you want to do this too - just cut out a scoop of what you would normally put on your plate and/or replace that typical scoop with a vegetable/raw fruit instead. I've also concentrated on ensuring I'm eating whole-grain driven foods like 100% whole wheat bread, etc. Nothing drastic.


So what else is going on in my world?! A lot!

I volunteered some information to my High School graduating classes president about some ideas I had for our upcoming 10-year reunion this upcoming summer. After a few conversations with her she asked me if I would be the chairperson for the reunion committee. I heartily accepted!

So, because of that, I've been looking up information, pitching reunion ideas, and gathering contact information (as well as trying to get into contact with) for the 443 members of my class.
With that I formed a reunion committee strictly made up of volunteers from our class.

It's been busy at times, but not too stressful yet.
I'm pretty sure we have a location decided upon - but I haven't booked the date yet.
I think we've ironed out what we want to do for our reunion as well.
I'm confident that I've found a photographer for the event.
I'm also confident that this will become more stressful as it gets closer.
I'm very glad I have committee members located in Littleton, Colorado where I grew up/graduated to take care of the details I need to be handled in person. It's a disadvantage to live out of state and plan these things.

The next big step for the planning process is getting a class website up and running.
I recently received an email from a new contact regarding this next step, so I may have more help moving forward on that than I anticipated I would. Yay!


Another thing I've recently been doing: baking!

I baked and decorated a 5-tiered wedding cake for my neighbor's wedding on the 5th of this month that, from what I've been told, tasted amazing! (I'm really not much of a cake-eating person even though I like to make/decorated them - funny isn't it?!)
I was happy with how the individual layers turned out and looked on their own, but was somewhat disappointed that the bottom two layers kind of got squashed when I assembled the whole thing. It was a VERY HEAVY cake.

Lucky for me, it didn't have to be fully assembled for very long. So I got a friend of mine to get a couple of pictures of it before I took the layers back down and cut most of it up.

Added to the wedding cake this month I also baked and decorated Tori's birthday cake. (I honestly can't believe my baby is a 1 year-old already)
I baked a 3D teddy bear for her.

As I did with Autumn's first birthday, I also made cupcakes for an easier way to eat cake and also to provide a bit longer for the finished cake to remain intact at her party.
I was happy with how it all turned out.

Other things that have been going on this year: Party Planning!

I put together a baby shower for a friend of my cousin. Lucky for me I had help on the invitation side (because I was out of town home in Colorado), as well as the decoration/food providing side.
Another friend of my cousin co-threw the baby shower with me so we split the cost on the materials.
I was primarily in charge of the games - all of which were well enjoyed and a lot of fun to play!

So what am I doing next? Another Baby Shower!!
The couple that I made the wedding cake for are due to have a baby boy born in early February. I like this gal so much!
I asked her if she was planning to have a baby shower because this is going to be her first boy (she has 2 girls). Since the answer was "no" I immediately, and happily, offered to throw her one. She was happy to accept also!


On a more serious note - I should probably put a brief update on my depression.

I'm fairly open with most people I meet about having depression. I don't randomly throw it into conversations or anything, but if we're sharing something a long those lines I am pretty forthright about admitting I have this problem.
About 6 months after Tori was born I had my postpartum depression kick in really hard. I had originally braced myself for the effects of postpartum depression by making my assumptions that I would have to deal with it known to a lot of women in my church. I was completely surprised when it didn't hit when I expected it to, and so I thought I was home free. I thought wrong.
However, because I had also alerted my doctor to my suspicions that I may have it's ugly symptoms before going into labor she was very easy to talk to about it when it came up.

I can't praise my PCP enough about her listening quality! She doesn't pull the "I know better than you do because I'm a MD" persona that I am very un-fond of. She truly treats her patients (or me at least) like they are the experts on their own bodies. She listens to my thoughts/feelings/ideas about how to combat any medical thing I'm going through, and comes to a decision WITH me on how to treat and move forward.

With her help I've not only increased the dosage of the antidepressant that I take, but have added a supplemental medication to my regimen that has truly ironed out my swing from feeling suicidal to being manic/controlling and going head-first into anything like I can take on the world.

I truly feel like myself again. No dramatic low points, and no uncharacteristic high points either. I'm really happy with where I am at inside this head of mine.

So yeah... for now, that's been the highlights of my life.
I hope you enjoyed reading it all (if you did).
Feel free to comment if you'd like!

Until next time...