my journey part I {weight loss}

Sorry guys, no cute pictures in this post. I've decided that it's time to share with you my weight loss story. I've even decided to be brave and post one of the few pictures I allowed to be taken of myself pre weight-loss. I have not decided to be brave enough to post actual numbers for anybody to see. Baby steps. I guess I'll start at the beginning. I've always been a pretty average weight. Not overweight, but not super-model thin either. It wasn't something I ever had to work at, it was just the way my body worked. Even after giving birth to the girls (10 and 8), I bounced right back with a diet of Cheez-it's and Cherry Coke. I guess I lost some of my bounce after Ethan (7). With him I was still hanging onto an extra 20 lbs even three years later. It didn't really bother me too much though. I still had plenty of energy and didn't feel "fat". Then I got pregnant with Elliot (almost 4). During that pregnancy, a routine blood test showed that I had developed hypothyroidism (for those who are interested, my TSH was at a 9, normal is 0.3-5). My doctor put me on some meds to control it and I went along on my merry way. After Elliot was born, I went in to have my TSH levels tested again and received a call stating that I could stop taking my meds and to come back in a month to be tested again. Being a mother to 4 kids and with the new baby having nursing issues, I didn't go back in. 4 months later I had put on 20 lbs, was feeling increasingly more tired, was having a hard time thinking clearly, and my voice was changing (getting more raspy if you must know). I decided that perhaps I should go get my TSH tested again. I scheduled an appointment with my endocrinologist for a couple weeks out, but asked if I could go in sooner to get my labs done so that the results would be in by the time I met with the doctor. A couple of days after the test I got a call from my doctor's office saying that they wanted to see me the next day. My TSH levels had jumped up to 212. While not thrilled about that, I was happy to at least have an answer to why I had been feeling like crap. I also foolishly thought that taking this magic pill was going to help me to lose the 20 lbs I had put on and then some. Yeah, nope. Not so much. At this point I weighed 60 pounds more than I had before becoming pregnant with Ethan. Around Elliot's first birthday, I decided to start working on losing weight. Because, you know, I was done having kids and all so I was going to focus on me for a bit. And I did lose weight! I lost 15 lbs in about 2 months. However, one side-effect of weight loss can be a delayed cycle. Which makes natural family planning pretty ineffective. In March, I learned that we were going to be expanding our family again. With Wyatt (almost 2. When did that happen?), I was much more on top of my thyroid condition. I had done extensive research and made sure to push for testing even when the doctors didn't think I needed it (I did...my dosage changed every time...sometimes doctors aren't as smart as they think they are...if you're a doctor I'm not talking about you of course). While this was all well and good and I initially lost weight after his birth, my diet and exercise were not conducive to keeping the weight off. It gradually crept back up until I weighed what I had at the END of my pregnancy. 72 pounds over what I weighed before Ethan. That's a lot of excess weight to carry around people. I decided that when the kids started school in September I was going to start working towards losing that weight. So without further ado, here is me before losing weight. Actually, I think I had gained a few more pounds before I started losing, but as previously stated, I didn't exactly like getting my picture taken.

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Okay, here it goes...

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no really, I promise...

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gulp...

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Don't be distracted my the pretty girl in the dress. That's my dearly beloved sister-in-law. That's not me. Nope, I'm the one holding the cute baby. In part II of my story, I will post a current picture of myself (still not quite to my goal, but much closer) along with the gory details of how I got there.

po-dink town {pictures}

A couple of weeks ago I came up with the brilliant idea to take the kids to Po-Dink Town to snap a few photos of them in a couple of new (to me) locations. I still hadn't taken Ethan's "school" pictures yet, so off we went. While this seemed like a good idea in theory, I guess I really didn't think it through very well. Mainly because I didn't bring anyone with to help wrangle my crew.

We started out at a cool building just off the main drag where I took some individual shots.

Ethan had the privilege of being my first test subject.

He tends to be such a ham that it's hard to get a non-cheesy smile out of him.

He's certainly going to be a heartbreaker.

Maya was up next. I really love photographing her. Partly because she has the most eclectic sense of style and partly because she is simply photogenic.

That sassy look on her face? 100% real. That's just how she rolls. She pretends she doesn't want her picture taken even though she truly loves it, so she sort of semi-cooperates with me. She goes where I ask her to, but grumbles the entire time while posing.

She's a very complex girl. I am already quaking in my boots just thinking about her teenage years. Somebody please prescribe me some Ativan, STAT!

Then it was Brenna's turn. For some reason, this is the only picture I took of her that I really liked. That just happens sometimes.

After Brenna, Elliot was up. I took a bunch of shots of him that were adorable, however I wasn't paying close enough attention to my (faulty) metering in my camera and over half of them were over-exposed.

I did get a couple though. He was pretty cute, too. He knew just what to do in front of the camera and was very good at flashing his pearly whites. Even if his "smile" did resemble more of a grimace.

Last up was Wyatt. He had been hanging out in his car seat up until this point and was definitely getting a bit antsy. Combine that with the fact that he's an almost-two-year-old boy and you get a subject who refuses to sit still.

So I just chased him around with my camera for a few minutes.

Then I put him back into his car seat and we took off for our next location. When I had scoped out Po-Dink Town the day before, I came across a very cool blue building. (It may have been on private property. Don't ask permission, ask forgiveness?) As it turns out, it was an even better spot than I realized. In addition to the building, there was a pond, some big rocks, and some cement pipes. Of course, it was a bit tricky to focus on taking pictures when I was trying to keep Wyatt from certain death, but it was still fun. My biggest goal for this area was to get a picture of all five of the kids together.

Attempt #1 at least captured all of the kids together in the same frame.

Then we found the cement pipes.

In true biggest sister form, Brenna helped her littlest brothers jump from pipe to pipe.

At one point, poor Wyatt got stuck between two of the pipes. Being the shining example of a mother that I am, I took advantage of his precarious position to take a couple of photos before helping him out.

I also made two more attempts at getting a picture of all 5 kids together on the pipes.

Still not exactly what I had in mind.

After jumping around on top of the pipes for awhile, the crazies eventually decided to climb through pipes. An activity that caused my claustrophobic sweat glands to go into hyperactive mode. Thankfully they all made it out. Phew!

It was clearly exhausting though. Maya had to take a little rest on a rock.

At the end of the day, this was the best picture I snapped of all 5 of them. It may not be your typical family picture, but I happen to love how it so clearly shows each of their personalities. And they love how they were treated to Happy Meals at Po-Dink Town's Germland McDonald's when we were done.