Christmas 2010

Well, what an adventure we had this Christmas vacation.

We left the 22nd at 5:00am, headed for Tennessee. Along the way we only had one major hiccup....angry drivers.  Someone tailgating us with their high beams on...Ken returning the favor after they passed us.....a semi running us off the road.....Ken blaring the horn to tell the trucker how he felt about his driving......A polite, but firm, letter is ready to be sent to the company regarding that incident.

Tennessee was wonderful. It was so much fun to see family, especially that side. Been much too long since I had a Gentry reunion....even longer for the Tennessee Gentry's (25 years, I think?).

Hezekiah and his cousins loved each other....when they weren't trying to all play with the same thing at the same time of course :) He made a killing with presents this year. His favorites at the moment are the "Glow-worm" and the "AQUAdoodle"...the "AQUAdoodle" was the first thing he ran to this morning when he got up.

Christmas dinner was a typical Gentry meal......HUGE! Turkey, ham (half with honey glaze, half without), corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, stuffing, and more that I can't remember at the moment. Desert was just as wonderful....Pineapple upside-down cake, pumpkin pies, cheesecake and home-made chocolate cream pies (with cocoa). As we were leaving Ed blessed us with 2 boxes of canned food and 1 box of potatoes. I think I've got meals for a week or more with everything he sent us. And Bonnie sent home an overflowing coffee can of flavored coffees.

We left with so much more than we came with (A Gentry tradition I think) we had to leave Hezekiah's "inch worm bike" at his cousins, to be picked up at a later date.

Coming back was pretty uneventful for the most part. There was snow pretty much all the way, but not too bad of roads.....until Virginia. I think the snow was following us. It seemed the closer we got to our area, the more cars were sliding off the roads into the ditch/shoulder.

Now it's back to life as normal......well, normal-ish. Ken has duty today, so it's just me and Kiah for dinner tonight. I think for my "me time" I am going to watch my 3D version of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Ken and I were able to have a semi-spontaneous date night and saw NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER in 3D, so I saved my glasses for this very reason =D

Been a very adventurous year, filled with many blessings indeed.

"Back in the saddle again...."

Wow, last post Oct 19.......can you tell there's not much excitment in my life right now?

Well, I was really disgusted with myself a couple days ago, looking for a dress for the Christmas party for Ken's ship. It was a day of disgust and motivation combined when we found the dress.  I had planned on wearing my red dress with the black lace contrast around the waist, only to find a couple days before that it is too small. Disgust. We went to Ross the day before the party and found a nice teal semi-formal dress for $20 (yay) that confirmed my current dress size.......14. Motivation. As of this summer/fall I was into a size 8 dress that I bought as a "goal size" dress. It fit perfectly, no snug-ness at all. Now my size is most definitely 14. More disgust.

In addition to my disgust/motivation we had family pictures done a few days ago. They were really nice, but unfortunately they busted my brain's ability to trick me into thinking I still look like I did 5 years ago, still have a size 6/8 jean size....ha! ya right :) So yes, more disgust, but at the same time, more motivation.

But, I am "back in the saddle again", doing my workouts, following the meal plans, working on my portion control. It only took me a couple months to go down to that size 8. I KNOW that if I continue to stay on track I can get back down to that size by spring. Just in time to go back to Montana for Ken's deployment where I can get out and walk with Hezekiah everyday without having to drive to a park or a mall.

I have no thoughts that I will be a size 6 like I was in High School. After all, let's face it....I've had a kid and my weight is not distributed the same as it was, nor will it be. But it's not about size, or weight, or even inches. It's about getting and staying healthy. It's about making and keeping a habit.

So....if at first I don't succeed, try try again.