Hailey's 1st Reds game!

Last night Hailey and I went to the Cincinnati Reds game with some friends.  This was Hailey's first reds game and she enjoyed it and all the food she could possibly eat!  Everything from cotton candy, ice cream and nachos.  We had a blast and best part was the reds won! 

Hailey at the GABP!

Me and my girl

Hailey and her first purchase...which was shortly followed by a trip to the restroom to clean up!

Mr Red Legs and Hailey!

Our great seats!

1st week of Summer

It has officially been 1 week since Hailey's been out of school and so far I would say we have had a pretty good summer.  Though it started out with some tears because I decided to pull Hailey out of daycare and to put her back into a home daycare setting.  With Hailey being in school full-time next year she would only have been at daycare for 2 hours a day so it really had no additional benefit anymore compared to a babysitter.  It was a hard decision and we will defintely miss all of the teachers at her daycare, Hailey was there since she was 2 and we both absolutely loved the place!!! 

This past weekend we went to Young's Dairy Farm for the first time, pictures to come soon!  Also this past weekend Hailey went to stay the night with Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric, she had fun with them.  Had a campfire and got ice cream!  She was exhausted when she got home though.  After that we headed up to the strawberry festival and then went to the pool.  Hailey went down the big curly slide at the pool for the first time this year and I have a feeling she'll be doing that a lot more! 

I've been letting Hailey stay up a little later so she can play outside longer and play with the neighborhood kids too.  She seems to be enjoying it a lot and so far this summer is off to a great start!

Out to dinner on the last day of school to celebrate!

Rockin' the new sunglasses while waiting for our "coffee"

Out cold after a fun night with Kim and Eric

Enjoying lots of rootbeer floats so far too!

Last day of Kindergarten....what???

Today is Hailey's last day of Kindergarten.  This year has flown by!!!!!!!  She has done so much this past year and accomplished so much it is amazing!  She is reading and able to do addition and subtraction and even knows some history! 

Anyways...will post more pictures when I upload them from my camera but I can't think anymore on this or I will cry! 

First Day of Kindergarten, August 2011

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Last day of Kindergarten - May 2012



Lovin' Technology!

So as I said in a previous post, I am on a journey of getting healthy.  Well on this journey I have found a really cool tool to use on my iphone!  It seriously amazes me!!!  Either I am just getting old or I am way out of what is cool!  lol  When I started out running I really had no plan I was following, I was just going with it and just basing off how I am doing by how my body is doing.  Well then I got the idea that maybe I should follow something so I'm pushing myself some but not rushing it either which could lead to an injury, so I started the Couch Potato to 5K running plan.  Google it, it's awesome.  I didn't start out at the beginning because I knew that I was past those areas.  So I started at week 4.  Well then I saw that there was an app out there for it!  Whoa what????  yeah!  An app that tells you when to walk, jog, etc etc.  AND get this...it links up with your music on your iphone so you can listen to music while running and the voice for the app just goes over your music when its time to change up what your doing.  HOLLAR!!!!!!!!!  Awesome!!!! 


Check it out! 

Here's the app right here!

Picture of moi!  18.3lbs dow and 11.75 inches lost!  GO ME!









Gotta watch this little cutie for a little bit this past week too!  Love my Lukester!!

Happy Friday ya'll!

Busy May!

This month has just been busy with a little bit of everything.  Hailey finished up her indoor soccer season, so now we have a few weeks off before swim lessons start.  Hailey's school also had their annual school carnival which was a huge hit with Hailey, big thanks to Grandma for walking her around while I set up my jewelry table with the other vendors.  Below are more pictures to show you what we've all been up to! 

Hailey's cool face painting at the carnival!

Hailey dancing in te car with the windows down....I realized in this moment she is TRULY my daughter.  lol

Hailey with Great-Grandma Hartke

Indoor Soccer 2012

Mommy and Hailey after her last soccer game.  Plese overlook how bad I look in this picture, I went for a run before her game and tried to look good, which was obviously not gonna happen! 

Hailey's soccer team - these girls were hilarious

Playdates!  We have found some new friends in the neighborhood!

What Toby does each morning waiting for Hailey to come out of her room...kind of cute!

Have a good memorial day weekend everyone!!!

We are getting healthy!

It has been no secret that pretty much my entire life I have personally struggled with my weight.  Something that I've always struggled with even before I can remember and always being bigger than everyone else.  It doesn't help that I have 2 sisters who are built VERY different than me and so I was always compared to them which really just isn't fair.  I have more boobs than the two of them combined and more curves than there bodies would know want to do with!  lol  I mean come on how come I had to get that "lucky"???   I also think it was partially that I was just never taught what healthy eating was and it's really no one's fault because my parents were raised by parents who grew up in the great depression so you NEVER left your plate empty, eating a Big Mac in the 5th or 6th grade was nothing.  Now I think about that and I gag at the thought.  That meal at Mcdonalds is almost 1 days worth of calories and for a child that young that is not healthy at all!! 

Plus in my life I have been through a lot emotional stuff that no child should ever bare on her shoulders and so food became a comfort thing for me, stressed, I eat, worried, I eat, happy I eat....so not good. 

Well in this past 6 months to a year, my weight has really started to effect me.  I would see pictures of myself and I would literally not recognize myself AT ALL.  I would be thinking in my head there is no way that is what I look like but I knew it was true.  But I also knew I couldn't do this until I was in the right mentality and part of me was afraid that it was not going to be easy and that I was going to feel like I was stuck at my weight forever. 

Well in March my best friend Kristina and I were on a walk together and she was talking about losing weight and I made the suggestion that we should each weigh ourselves each week and report if we lost or gained that past week just for accountability.  Well a few weeks went by and no one said anything and then Kristina called me and asked if i was serious about it and I said yes.  OH MY GOSH I WAS AFRAID!!!!  No turning back now!  But I was ready.  Kristina came over that Sunday night with her scale and we weighed ourselves and I was shocked, I weighed as much as I did when I was 9 months preggers with Hailey!  I had no idea I had creeped up to that high.  

So on April 2nd I started and made the decision we weren't losing weight to get skinny but we are losing weight to get healthy.  I didn't want Hailey to see me losing weight and to think she needs to be skinny, I don't think skinny = healthy by any means and I don't want her to think that, it's all about outter appearances because it is not.  So in our house there has been lots of fruits and veggies (fresh!) more than there used to be a lots of whole grains and chicken and turkey.  And drinking a TON (a gallon) of water each day. 

Now with being a single mom, it is not easy by any means to try to eat healthy and exercise with a 6 year old!  I do not have the money to afford a membership to the gym so I can only exercise when I can get Hailey outside with me on her bike while I walk/run.  Believe me when I say this....that is NOT always an easy thing to do!  Sometimes I am literally begging her for 1 more block and then we'll go to the park.  I'm sure some of the people hearing our conversations thought I was the meanest mom ever but COME ON HAILEY...Mama's got a big bootie and she's gotta walk it off!  lol  Thankfully though on a few of the colder days in April (go figure it was hot in March and then I start in April and it gets cold out) that my sister Tracy and/or Brother-in-law Chris have watched Hailey for an hour here or there so I could get out and run/walk.  THANK YOU GUYS!!!! 

As of this morning I have lost 15lbs!!!!!  I screamed when I read the scale this morning and got tears in my eyes.  I know that in the sceem of things I still have 70lbs to lose but I really thought in my mind that I wouldn't be able to get past 10lb weight loss.  I know that might sound silly but I really thought I just wouldn't be able to do it.  I am so pumped and so proud of myself!!!  No I am not going to put how much I weighed up on here yet because I'm still too embarressed about it but someday you might know but not yet! 

I didn't take an actual starting weight picture, I was too afraid to actually put it out there that I was starting even though I knew in my head I was, it was just like my insurance incase it didn't happen or something!  lol  who knows!  But below is a picture I look actually just a few days before we weighed in for the first time and then there are the picture from today.  You probably can't really tell a difference but I can.  The pants that I have on, (grey ones) are normally the ones that I have to let "stretch out" a little bit before they really fit me but this morning I put them on and the slide right on no problem!  Also the jeans that I have on in the starting photo now need to be sewn in about 1 1/2 inches around my waist and they are now baggy in my butt and legs and they were a perfect fit when I had them on in that picture.  Pretty awesome! 

Starting point March 29th, 2012



15lb weight loss - May 14th




15 lb weight loss - May 14th


So there it is, totally putting myself out there!  Not the greatest pictures, I should put the same outfit on everytime but again, it's not about what anyone else thinks or sees...I can FEEL the difference already and that's all I'm worried about!  I am doing it this time!  My goal is that by the fall I am able to run my first 5k and I have NEVER EVER been a runner, let alone running a mile!  But I am doing this for myself because I don't want to be the mom who is never in pictures with her daughter because she doesn't like the way she looks and I want to set the right example to Hailey so hopefully she doesn't struggle with weight and eating issues like I have most of my life. 

Mini Vacay for everyone!

I know I am way behind in updating this thing...so much to update on but it'll just have to wait! 

This past weekend, EVERYONE in our house got a little mini vacay.  I had to go with my friend Kristina to North Carolina to help her sign up a jeweler down there so Hailey went to Aunt Tracy and Uncle Chris' House and Toby went to Aunt Kim and Uncle Eric's house to play with their dog Joey. 

Even though I was heading out to warmer weather and was going to get to put my feet in the ocean, I think Hailey and Toby got the better end of the deal!  I left Friday after work and we drove straight there all 12 hours worth and left again on Sunday at 3pm for the drive home and got home at 1:45am.  Did get to go to Emerald Isle, NC where Kristina lived for a few years and saw where she lived and saw the ocean. 

However, Hailey had a blast with Tracy, Chris and Luke.  Saturday Hailey went to Grandma's to help plant flowers and then she went on her Girl Scout even that afternoon where the girls got to go horse back riding.  Sunday Hailey and Tracey and Luke went to the park and had a picinic and she went to church with Chris and she said she was VERY good in church. 

Toby also had a blast playing with Joey all weekend long, from what I heard the 2 rarely were not playing with each other and by the way Toby was acting yesterday after he got home, I would say that's pretty accurate by how tired he was! 

I have never been so glad to be back home again, don't know why but I really missed Hailey this weekend.  Maybe it's because of all the pictures I received thru texts seeing what she was all doing.  Yesterday we spent the day together, I got her at 7:30am and made her a big breakfast and dropped her off at school and picked her back up again.  We went out for lunch and ate at Culvers outside.  Went to pick up Toby and then picked up some flowers and worked on that stuff when we got home.  Other than that, we just enjoyed the time together. 

Here are some pictures from this past weekend!

OCEAN!  Emerald Isle, NC

Hailey and Luke hanging out Saturday morning

Hailey all pretty from Aunt Tracy doing her hair.

Beach again!

Learning about horses

Hailey riding!

Checking everything out!

Learning how to brush the horse's hair

Toby and Joey doing what they do best...

See we all had a great weekend!!!