Before and After Picture

I had a friend of mine put this picture together to celebrate my gym's 3rd year anniversary. It's so easy for me to forget sometimes just how far I've come in just two short years. This helped put the fire back under me to get moving again and to finally hit my goal weight!

Italia Trip!! With lots of pictures

My trip to Italy went by way to fast! I couldn't have asked for a better trip! The weather was perfect there. In the 60s and sunny. It was great to see my brother and family. The hotel I stayed in was right next the pantheon and in walking distance to practically everything. I walked a ton, so much that I was sore every night. We even took a day trip to the town my grandma grew up in. That will have to be a blog all on it's own though. Too much to tell from that day.

It was just a great great trip. It was great to be with my family, to eat awesome food, and to see some of the most beautiful sights. Words can't even describe it. Here are a tiny sampling of the many many pictures I took!



This was the view from my hotel room window!! The Pantheon. This was the best hotel I've ever stayed in.



Trevi Fountain. Which was a 5 minute walk from my hotel.



Me and my niece at the top of the Spanish Steps. That was a tough climb holding the kid. lol



Me inside the Colosseum.



This was taken on the roof of my hotel. That's the capital building.



In the Vatican Museum. This is the hallway that leads to the Sistine Chapel. So intricate.



Me in front of St. Peters



I climbed to the top of St Peter's. over 500 steps to get up there! I was out of breath and sweating hard, but that view made the whole thing worth it!



The Bridge of St. Angels. I loved this bridge. So pretty.



The mouth of truth! I was determined to go here. I've been dying to see this ever since I saw Roman Holiday. Ironically this was the only church that I had to wait like an hour to get into. No other places had any sort of line.



The relic of St Valentine. I had no idea that this church had his remains there. That was pretty cool to see.



Last night in Italy!! With my niece.

I'm back! With pictures!

I'm finally back after a much needed few days off. I had a great week spending time with my niece and family. It was great, but also exhausting!!! I feel like I need another day to sleep! lol.

One of the days last week I took my niece to the beach. It was the first time she had ever seen the ocean. She loved it!! It was a great day. It was my mom, me, my aunt, two cousins and my niece. We had so much gear because of my niece! But once we got settled, we enjoyed the day!



In her little bathing suit!



Playing in the water!



Me and my cousins

After the beach, we went back to my Aunts showered and had some lunch. Then we headed to the boardwalk! (It was a really long day). My niece was able to go on some of the rides. It was so cute to watch her.



Loving the boats.



Hated the fishy. lol

It was the nicest day! I had a blast, but we were all exhausted afterwards. My niece even slept in the next day!! The rest of the week, I took her swimming a few more times at people's pools. The kid just loves the water! I am so happy about that. I can't wait until she's old enough to learn how to swim!

Now it's back to reality. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning yesterday to drive down to Maryland with my mother to drop off my niece to her mother. We met about halfway between each other. It was a long drive and I was so sleepy. My niece will be in Virginia for the next two weeks and then she'll be back up in NJ for a few days before taking back off for India. I will be so sad when she leaves. I probably won't get to see her until next summer! I hate that they live so far away.

Weekend Snapshot

This weekend was a blast!! I had so much fun with my friends who came up to visit! It was just what I needed.

Friday I saw Harry Potter and I may or may not have cried during it. lol. It was great!!!

Saturday spent the day at the beach, playing in the ocean. Afterwards my friend had a BBQ and some drinks. Where I played flip cup terribly. Then we went out for the night and I danced my butt off!! It was so much fun!

Sunday we went back to the beach for a few hours. I was sad to have my friends leave, but so happy they made the trip up the NJ. Plus I wasn't too sad, because I have my niece to play with for the rest of the week!!

Seriously, I can't even take how cute she is!



Enjoying some yummy pasta!

Now I just have to make it through work tomorrow and I get the rest of the week off!

Weekend Snapshot*

My view from the beach this weekend!

*Do you like this weekend snapshot thing? This is the second time I've done it. I think it's a good alternative to just recapping my weekends, which can seem redundant sometimes I think.

Snapshot of my weekend

This pretty much sums up my weekend. Lots of sun and fun. One day at the pool with my pups and the next day I was at the beach all day. It was the perfect lounge in the sun weekend.

Bonus, I got very little sunburn!! SCORE!

Saying bye to the old me (pictures)

This past weekend I did some major spring cleaning. I usually do this once or twice a year to get rid of clothing I haven't worn in a while and just make my room nice and neat. I'm not sure what got into my but this time, I got rid of a ton of clothes. Like my closest is seriously empty now!

I'm close to going down another size, so anything that I wore last spring/summer are now way too big to fit me. Even clothing I bought this past fall are just gigantic. I still really can't see the weight loss when I look in the mirror, but I can definitely see it when my pants actually fall down when I'm walking. Or my shirts fall off my shoulders. So this past weekend I got rid of things that I not only no longer wore, but that was too big. I packed up at least 3 black garbage bags of clothing to take to the clothing donation boxed in my town.

It kinda felt awesome to say goodbye to those clothes and to the person that I no longer I am. It's liberating. I honestly could have tossed more clothing, but then I would literally have nothing to wear and I'm not going to be going on a big shopping spree just yet. I'm just buying cheap clothes that will get me through 'til I go down another size. Although I did just get a pair of jeans that were a size 18!!!!! I hadn't been that size since I was a freshman in college!!! So exciting to slip those on!!!!!!

I'm waiting for the summer when I (fingers crossed) hit 90 pounds lost. I'm waiting for the day when I don't have to shop at a plus sized shop anymore.

It's coming close, I can see and feel it!!

I would never pose for a full length picture but I found this on a friends facebook page and I can't believe how big I was. This was taken spring of 2010

About 55 pounds down here - January 2011

Riding an elephant

Here are some more pictures from my trip to India. I got to ride an elephant while I was there and it was so much fun!!! Exhilarating and fun!!

Me on the elephant (freaking out right now that I'm going to fall)
Taking a ride around the block!


The elephant kneels down and you have to climb up the backside.

First you step on the back leg, then you climb onto the tail and then you have to climb up the butt to the top. It was scary to climb on it.

All dressed up for us.

My second ride. A lot less scary this time.

Me and my new friend.

This is Qutub Minar in New Delhi. One of the coolest things I saw while there!

Look at all the detailing on the minar.

It was really high

This is the Iron Pillar. It was built around 4 AD and has NEVER rusted. Isn't that amazing?

A shot of the Iron Pillar and Minar together.

One of my last nights in India. With my niece!

India Part 3 (I got Henna!)

More pictures from my trip. I promise to only do one more post from my trip. There was just soo many pictures! Next one will be about my elephant ride!

India Gate (Tomb of an unknown solider)
The President's House

Monkey!!

The Lotus Temple

So cool


Look at the petals. So detailed

I got Henna done. This is what it looks like while drying.

So goopy and tempting to close my hand while it dried.

After. Look at how detailed!!


It cost me only 2 bucks to get this done!

India Part 2

I went to this fort with my brother. It was a fort but also where people lived, worked and shopped. It was huge!!
I look so tiny compared to the walls!

You can see the foundation still there and most of the walls are still up.

A mosque that was across the street

Me under an Arch. I don't know why but I love to take pictures under arches. lol

Not sure what this was, but looked really cool.

You can see the mosque through the little window. (AKA me trying to be artsy)

A little house (also me under another arch)