I did it..

So finally after lots of butt kicking and hard work I beat my second goal!! I have lost 21 pounds :) I'm so happy.

This week will be another week of hard work. I plan to keep the 2 mile walk up everyday, that's my time to walk Lily and get her exercise. Then on days that I don't have work out plans with any friends I plan on doing a couple of videos on the Exercise on demand channel!

I can and will do this :) Hitting goals helps me so much in the motivation department.

So that made my morning. THEN I was so happy that along with this I made amazing decisions in my eating today. Since CA requires calories on menus it makes my decision making simple. Especially at places like TGIFriday's where there are soooo many high calorie dishes. There really were just a handful to choose from that were low calorie. So I picked one of the low calorie ones and it was amazing! I felt great afterwards knowing I made a smart decision.

My day continued to get better and I met amazing friends at Only 7 for some amazing ice cream! So that was exciting because I got to hang out and chat with friends...but also continue my healthy eating for the day :)

Then to top off the entire night!!!!! Mike called :) He is in Japan right now. He downloaded skype on his phone and we were able to talk. I had missed his voice so much. So that really made my night. I cannot wait until he's in his hotel and is able to use video. I am excited to see him!!

Today was amazing!

No holding back..

Not really sure why it's any surprise as to why I'm having headaches lately.

I'm pretty known for keeping my feelings hidden and not letting anything out. Which of course is never good in the long run. Everything builds up and either comes out all at once or I just can't take it anymore.

I really miss Lexi. After some encouraging words I realized I shouldn't feel bad for talking about her, if anything it's going to help me feel better. Then I won't keep it all inside. Honestly it's hard to explain what I feel on a daily basis without her. The best I can say is that it's this hole, just something is missing from my life. We don't have children yet, we pretty much thought of our dogs as our kids...silly to some but it was our life. Now that she's gone I feel our family is missing something. Of course it probably doesn't help any that Mike is not here too. But I know even with him here there would be something missing. She had a huge impact on our marriage and we dearly miss her. I do great but I find days where I see something that would remind me of her and then I lose it.

In my attempt to find a quote that would make me feel better and help me realize my own strength. I found this:

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

It has helped and I think it's an amazing quote to think of in any hard situation that life brings us.

I've been working out everyday this week and it is amazing how great I feel. I love that I was able to keep that up and I'm glad that while my parents are here we've been choosing healthy things to do. We've been eating good, working out and just taking great care of ourselves. This is a big change from our normal vacations. Even with eating out more than normal we're picking places and making sure we look up calorie content. I'm really proud of how great they're doing and how it's making me more motivated to keep up my work. Even though I've been staying around the same weight, I'm confident that with some hard work I will be able to accomplish my main goal.

Even Mike is starting to work out and I'm so happy. Anything that helps our family become healthy and stay healthy is great.

My friends are amazing and I'm glad to have them through this deployment. It's the greatest feeling knowing I have people to call on here if I need anything. Honestly I was always scared to move here because I knew this is the station he would be leaving on deployments and I was always scared that I would never have good friends to lean on. I'm pretty shy and making friends is never easy for me. But I'm glad I found people that I clicked with and they feel more like family :) I would have never survived this first deployment or the beginning of this one without them.

Lots of changes for the family

Things have changed a lot for our small family since the last time I blogged.

July 26th will forever be remembered. That day started out like any other and ended the worst possible way. Not too much detail but that day Lexi did not make the normal Lake Murray walk we do. She was an amazing dog and will forever be missed.

I'm able to now look back on our amazing times and share those with friends. Just telling of how sweet and loving....and of course how silly she was. One day I'll be able to look at her pictures in her last moments and realize she was happy at Lake Murray, she loved it there and more importantly she loved being surrounded by people.

Then at least once before we leave San Diego, I want to be able to go back to Lake Murray and make peace with what happened.

Another change is Mike is now on his deployment. He's doing great so far and I'm very proud of him.

In a couple of weeks I will be able to chat with him via video and I cannot wait, it will be great to see him.

My parents are in visiting, it's been nice so far, just enjoying San Diego and the company. They'll leave next week and then right after Pamela will be here! Constant company...yay.