I had all intension of blogging yesterday to tell you my exciting news and my day just got supah jammed pack with to-do’s! One being we’re painting our bedroom, and when I say “we”, I mean myself and my fabulous decorating sister, Amanda. I can’t wait to show you the before and after pictures… I really just can’t wait till the AFTER picture to get here.

Another thing I want to mention, my lil’sis now has her blog up and running, its fantastic!

She’s new at this blogging thing and it’d be great if you stopped by and welcomed to the blog world.

Today, the summer bootcamp session starts, so I need to get my booty away from the computer and ready to get out the door soon! But before I head out, I wanted to tell you my exciting news… but before that I thought this picture below was appropriate to show you again…

As of yesterday, June 6th, I have reached my weight-loss goal I set back in April 2010 to finally lose the last of the weight. Since April 2010, I’ve lost 45lbs. (the left side picture above is not from April 2010, its from 2001). I am so beyond happy about this accomplishment. I cried when I saw I had reached my goal. Tears of joy. I don’t know if I can articulate just how I feel. Going from feeling completely hopeless regarding my weight issues and thinking that I could never change the way how am, the way I eat, the way I act, the way I think. To becoming a fighter and tackling what I thought was impossible, changing how I thought about myself, changing how I ate, changing how I acted to become someone who loves exercise and not just sitting on the couch wasting away. To exceeding my expectations of myself and achieving what I’ve set out to do… I’m simply speechless.

Photo source here

Yeah, no. That’s not where I live.  But as the autumn season approaches, I close my eyes and pretend its like that, and I’m wearing a comfy hoodie because its chilly outside.  I’ve come to accept that I live in Texas, land of humidity, and that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

The weather will change {Please God let it change} and all the Fall festivities will come with it. I love when September gets here because SO many fun things are in store, such as…

• My Birthday {Have I mentioned this yet? Hmm}
• 10 for Texas {Bring it!}
• Halloween {Think I’d make a good “Lil’ Red Riding Hood”}
• 5k Morning of Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving Family Fun
• Black Friday {Sissy & I get up at crack O’dawn and shop! Our fav}
• Christmas Dress decorating {that same weekend}
• Christmas Parties
• Me & Hubs Gingerbread decorating tridition
• Our FIRST Christmas {together as a married couple}
• Then HAPPY NEW YEAR

So see… my Birthday {and all you September birthdays, Hi Ya’ll!} really does kick-off so many great events.

Oh and not to leave out my Sissy’s favorite thing,

Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

Nothing shouts “FALL IS HERE” like walking into a starbucks and smelling Pumpkin Spice Lattes everywhere. Mmm! I’ll stick to drinking my tea, but if Starbucks wanted to make a candle called Pumpkin Spice Latte, I’m all over that baby!

So tell me, what do you enjoy about Autumn? What are some events coming up that you’re exciting about this fall?

*AACHHHOO!*

Goob Morning.

woke up today with a cold. ugh. ugh. ugh. Poor Hubs he’s got it too. We have to get better FAST, we’re leaving for Tennessee & Kentucky on Thursday morning. I’ve been singing this to Hubs all morning:

So I started the day off with some Watermelon juice…

I had a ton of Watermelon left over from Saturday, so I juiced it!

Tasty! Here’s some facts about the goodness of watermelon juice:

Read more here

Now on to the weekend recap!

On Friday I got a package in the mail! YEAAA For SPIBELT!

Nifty little thing. Took it running that night and loved how it held my stuff and never moved, slid or anything.

THANK YOU SPIBELT!!

Saturday we had the families over to our house for BBQ fun…

I made all these dips here. Black bean dip, hummus, salsa & Love dip!

The food was super tasty!! I’m pretty sure I ate enough for that WHOLE weekend.

I had a Veggie Dog from Morning Star Foods, added black beans, lettuce & cheese. I wasn’t impressed.
I should have known, I was never a hot dog fan before anyhow. But my nephew LOVED IT!

That night we went to see Fire Works with our friends Greg & Melissa…

Thankfully there was a breeze out, so it wasn’t TOO hot, but Melissa & I had a hard time taking a picture without our hair in our faces.

Rod & Greg found a firework piece on the ground. haha!

Afterward the traffic was nutso, so we passed the time by chillin’ by the water falls and had security come tell us to move… good times!

Hey, they needed to cool off. haha!

Finally the traffic was thinned out enough to leave, we headed to G & M’s place for homemade Blueberry Pie & Ice Cream. THANKS GREG!

Looks tasty huh!?

Was amazing. Super delicious & the ice cream tasted like soft serve ice cream, so good. Ah, summertime!

Sunday was RELAX day. After church, Hubs, sister & I went to the pool for a while and chilled. After swimming we went to check out the new snow cone place by our house…

I had Pink Lemonade, this thing was at big as my head

Sister had Clear Coconut, tasted like going to the Beach. Without all the yucky sand.

and of course, Hubs had something to turn his mouth blue! I think it was Bubble Gum & Blueberry? I don’t know

And that my friends is the weekend in a nutshell!

So tell me, what did you do this weekend? AND what do you do to get rid of a summer cold, fast?!

Hello all you lovely people! Hope your weekend was great, and your Monday even better.

With as many pictures as I took this weekend, I could tell my weekend story without words! Such a fun weekend… so here we go!

We’ll start with Friday…

Thursday night before headed off to bed, I put my bread mix into the bread maker and anticipated delicious whole wheat bread in the morning… this is what I woke up and found:

Hmm, definitely not awesome, like last time.

Husband and I determined that the machine wasn’t properly hooked in right, so the dough never kneaded…

Bread Baking Fail. sigh.

But that’s ok! Because Friday, was going to be a day at the pool. My sisters, niece and nephews came and it was a blast…

Definitely a blast!

Friday evening, Hubs and I went Blueberry picking with our Friends Greg and Melissa…

Greg sprayed Melissa & I down with OFF, but the funny thing is, I have the picture of Melissa getting sprayed, and she has the picture of me so you get to see Mel’s reaction…

Gotta love the look on Greg’s face. Haha!

Hubs and I took a before picking picture…

and then an after…

Love that humidity! {blah!}

We got a ton of blueberries!

The picture doesn’t do them justice. There’s about 6 pounds of blueberries in there. I’ve frozen over half of them, and I’m baking blueberry muffins today!

After the blueberry pickin’, we headed back to Greg and Melissa’s and the super cook Greg taught Hubs and I how to make Ricotta cheese. The man is an amazing cook I tell you! I wish I would have taken pictures of the cheese, really tasty too.

Saturday morning, Hubs and I were still super tired from the late night before, but we got up and headed out on a bike ride through The Woodlands {has great paths everywhere!}…

For those of you who asked, my bike is a Road Master Mountain Bike. Nothing too fancy, but the baby at Wal*Mart for about $70 dollars. Wanted to see if I’d even like biking when I first got it, so I didn’t want to spend a ton.
I LOVE IT! So the my next bike definitely will be a road bike.

We road through some very pretty scenery…

and we rode to have breakfast at Black Walnut Cafe, really yummy place!

I had a tasty veggie omelette, and hubs had an American Breakfast…

and Hubs…

after our yummy breakfast, we rode for a few more miles {the exact total numbers I’m not sure of yet} and then made it back to the car…

We really need a bike rack… any suggestions of a good one? We’re thinking one that holds 4 bikes instead of two.

When we got home, I checked the mail and WOO HOO look what I received…

VEGAN COOKIES!!!

Thanks to the SUP-AH awesome peeps at The Alternative Baking Company, I have two VEGAN cookies to try out and review for you.

• The Double Chocolate Decadence Cookie and;
• Colossal Chocolate Chip Cookie

I’m quite excited! I haven’t tried them yet, the weekend was so packed and I was living off a fruit high from the Blueberries. Can’t wait to taste them though. Thanks again Michelle for the samples!!!

That evening, my honey and I went out on a date together, to celebrate that ONE YEAR AGO on the 14th, my sweet man asked me to Marry him.

We went to dinner at a Japanese Restaurant, that was not that great. Bummer. But we did go to the proposal spot and reminisced of that day…

I asked Hubs to reinact the kneeling part and we laughed through taking the picture…

It was a gorgeous evening, just like the day we got engaged…

I am so happy this fantastic man asked me to be his wife. I am so LUCKY to be in love with my best friend… makes life even sweeter…

Sunday, I’d love to say was majorly eventful, but it wasn’t. I felt sick, head pounding, sinuses picking on me, not fun. I blame the weather.

So Sunday was a rest day and get ready for Monday day. But overall, the weekend was lovely and I wouldn’t mind hitting REPEAT!

So tell me, what did you do this weekend AND what is your favorite COOKIE? {I’ve got cookies on the brain}