Update and Recipe

So far I have lost 15.2 lbs. It was 16 lbs but I gained .8 lbs this past Thursday. I just can't wait for 20 lbs gone.

I also want to make this recipe.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/01/chicken-pot-pie-soup.html

My first WW blog

I have been keeping a blog since I first heard about LiveJournal in college or maybe even late high school. Then I switched to Xanga. Then to Blogspot. And now I have this one too! Before blogging online, I always kept a diary. I also have a degree in Journalism so I guess writing comes naturally to me.

I have always struggled on and off with my weight. When I was in fourth grade, I had lots of 'baby fat' left over (see picture). When I was in sixth grade, I still had a pudgy baby belly. When I was in 7th and 8th grade, well I was just awkward in general but thinner. When I was in 9th grade, I hit my first weight loss drop to 105. But it does unhealthy by not eating and over exercising and for the wrong reasons - a cute boy. Then sophomore and junior year was spent average. Senior year, I hit one of my hotness overall peaks. College, began drinking and eating those Red Baron pepperoni pizza two packs and living off caffeine but also walking or biking everywhere and taking a Fitness class for credit every semester for an easy A so it worked out. But I did gain the Freshman 20.

I crash dieted to fit into a size 10 wedding dress. Emotional ate my first year of marriage because it was hard and I was trying to cope with life changes in general including my first real job. Picked up a trainer, gym routine, eating healthy and got a little thinner. Then got laid off from my first job 4 years later and went into a deep dark depression of alcohol, insomnia, late night eating, sulking in food and a beyond sedentary lifestyle. Decided after getting laid off that it was a blessing in disguise and started living life!!!! Became social, introspective, listened to hippie music, drank more and became a free spirit. Then I realized I had to return to the real world. Decided it was time to have a baby. Did not decide to work out because I figured I was going to gain weight from having a baby so it would be easier to just do it later. (WRONG ANSWER - DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS). Gained 15-20 lbs while pregnant. Added to the 50 lbs of laid-off misery weight. Raised baby. Maintained weight. Tried to lose weight. Lost 10, gained 10. Repeat for about 10 months.

Husband's job did new healthy initiative where we were going to get charged extra for my fat. I decided I could either pay money later and stay fat. OR I could pay money earlier and get healthy. I chose the latter. I took the money and joined Weight Watchers. If I work to lose weight and lose a good sum of weight, I don't usually gain it back once I get it all off. So I thought better now then never. Continued my Zumba, added in more activity, started counting again what I ate and watching what I ate rather than dieting. Starting learning about my portion control.

And now I'm down 8.4 pounds since mid-August.

9th grade

10th birthday

Wedding day

North Carolina vacation - college

Senior picture - 1999

Sterling - college

Around 11th birthday

Er

I am frustrated! I know I shouldn't be but I am. I freakin maintained this week and it really pissed me off. I seriously almost cried after I weighed in. It hit me like a big emotion sack. The leader came over and said its not a gain though so stick with it but when I am working out on Labor Day, eating celery with my wine instead of cheese and passing on most foods I love... maintaining sucks! And I am so close to a 5lb loss. I'm at 4.1 lbs gone and I want that 5lb sticker they give you so bad! And when I lose the 5 lbs I will be UNDER 200. I have ONE more pound before I'm under 200 again. All I want to see is a 1 - - on the scale! Ugh. And now I have to keep going and keep motivated and not sulk and stay good and healthy and try again next week! I'm tempting to put on shorts and a tank top and weigh in tomorrow morning to see if not wearing damp jeans (it was raining) makes a difference or not. I don't want any excuses. And I'm just mad because I knew I should have found an alternative Zumba class on Wednesday and I didn't so I just went Monday and it was raining so I didn't do anything. And Ian made cookies and I ate some and now all those minor bad choices seem big. It's just frustrating. BUT I have to remember that today - literally because its 12:19am - is a new day. And I am not giving up over one meltdown. I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Repeat.

NASTY!

Thank God I'm doing this because I still look pregnant but with droopy nasty skin. Ugh. I just took my before pictures after putting off doing them for almost 3 weeks now. I knew they had to be done but ICK I did NOT want to see them. And since this blog is all about honesty and weight and food, I'm posting them. But don't think I'm liking it.

So disgusting. I look like 18 weeks pregnant.

Thank God I'm wearing black!

My love handles are now a spare tire. Yippee.

Chart Comparison

Thank Goodness!

I was so worried about today's weigh in because I knew I had done awful this week points wise. Thank God for the 49 bonus points they give you! I went over every day. On Saturday, I went over 16 points!!!! Oh well at least I was able to still lose 1.4 pounds. Even on my period and with water weight. I def. did not expect to lose 3 lbs every week like last week that's for sure! Even 1 pound a week is still a loss! Today was so stressful. Zoe is teething and I was on the run all day so I grabbed McDonalds and Starbucks today. I feel like my body is carrying out so much crap right now. Blech. I had two cheeseburgers and a diet coke. I had fries but I didn't eat them. I thought Zoe might but she only had a couple. They were 8 points a piece! BLECH. The Starbucks I've had before and was only 3 points. I have 12 points still for dinner which isn't too bad.

I want to get a ticker for my blog to show my weight loss. Hopefully I can figure it out!

Tomorrow is weigh in No. 2!

So tomorrow is my second weigh in. I'm optimistic (more so than last week) because I know that I have been tracking everything and working out and trying hard!

I got two Bravos last week at the meeting for learning things.

I opened a breakfast sandwich package (Smart Ones Morning Express) and realized it had two in the package and EVERYTHING in me wanted to make both of them and eat them both and justify the points but I didn't!!! I put one back!!!! I was proud of myself. Baby steps.

Tonight, at Zumba, I got one of Kendra's Advocare Slams (its kind of like a 5-hour energy) I just wanted to try it. So I got one and drank half. I worked out really hard and felt like I could keep going. It made me feel like I could jump for hours which was nice because usually jumping is so hard. I had my HRM on so I wasn't worried about going to far into scary mode or anything. But I was sweating a ton and still feeling completely energized! It was weird but nice. I ended up burning 603 calories! I topped out at 177 and dropped down to 119. I was proud of myself! I messed up my knee towards the last night. My stupid knee cap popped out of place for the third time. But at least I was able to do like 92 percent of the workout.

I just have to make it through tomorrow and then I'll have ONE more week down! I'm still pretty motivated. Just dealing with life and making right decisions mostly.

I remembered and found the quote I used to live by when I lost weight using thedailyplate.com -- it's from Biggest Loser a few seasons ago.

"There's going to be days that you're tired, that you're hungry, that your sore, but you have to pick it up and keep going because that's what separates you from your old [FAT] self and the new [THINNER] self is being able to not make the excuse and just do it."

My usual lunch

My usual 10 point lunch.
Celery (sometimes pretzels) with laughing cow french onion cheese wedge, pickles, 1/2c cottage cheese (low fat), turkey/laughing cow swiss/pickle sandwich on low cal high fiber bread.

ahhh

Man, I am failing at this this week! I have just been so hungry and snacky. I'm going to get a visit from Aunt Flo this week so I am like craving everything and starving! It's been really hard this week to make good choices because all I want is mass amounts of sweets and salty food. All food. LOL Ian and I went to the store Sunday and I got some Skinny Cow cookies and cream ice cream sandwiches. They are only 4pts and taste good! They aren't super small or super diet tasting at all. Last night though I had a double serving of pepperoni, saltines, real cheese, two glasses of wine and like 1/2 a bag of creme brulee rice cakes. I had Zumba-ed so I didn't feel as bad but still. Its hard to stop myself from splurging! Right now all I want is some peanuts/peanut butter/anything peanut-flavored.

Weekends

Weekends are so hard for me. I don't know why I do the same thing as every day. It's not like I'm home more. It is just hard for me to not eat what Ian's eating I guess. Today he had a bacon sandwich with cheese and I wanted his extra piece of bacon so bad! But I know bacon isn't good for you so I passed. Instead I ate a piece of WW string cheese (which is so good) and only 1 pt. And I looked up this HG recipe for pizza that Ian and I saw on the HG show we TiVo now. It was a Crispy White Pizza but I wanted sauce and didn't have tomato paste or anything. Here is what I did and the points as I figure them out. Hopefully my makeshift one is as good for you!

Here is a pic of mine --

I used the last bit of my Prego (tomato, onion and garlic) it is usually 1/2c serving but I used 1/4 cup instead. So for a 1/2 cup the stats are
3F/13C/3F/2P = 2 points
but I had half so... 1 point. Not bad for sauce.

Then I didn't have low fat ricotta so I used 1/3c pizza cheese (kraft). Serving size is 1/4c so 6f/less than 1 c/0f/8p = 2 points for 1/4c. So 3 pts give or take. I love cheese! I wish it wasn't so many points!

The crust is a tortilla - baked for 3 mins at 375 and then flipped and done for 3 more min at 375 then add toppings and do for 3 more minutes at 375. I use the tortillas we always have. They are kroger wheat. 1 tortilla is 2f/24c/2f/4p = 3 points. Not too bad for carbs.

I had 12 pieces of turkey pepp (kroger) - serving size is 15 slices. I'll round up just to be on the safe side. Its 2 points for 15 slices. And its amazing - the Kroger brand. SO much better than other brands of turkey pepp.

Okay so tortilla (3), cheese (3), sauce (1), pepp (2) = 9 pts! Not bad for a meal. It wasn't really that filling through for 9 points. If I would have had mushrooms and other veggies I would have added that and made it more filling but I just finished my mushrooms the other day and forgot to get more.

Here is the original HG recipe - http://www.hungry-girl.com/show/you-wanna-pizza-me-crispy-white-pizza-recipe

So so eating day/pantry revamp/really great recipe for late late dinner though

So I slept in today and so did Zoe - until noon. I had a banana and 16oz of coffee with 5T coffee creamer (one less than usual - I'm gradually lowering it).

I've been living off bananas for breakfast. I find they fill me up a lot, are easy to eat/grab, are 0 points. I eat probably 2 a day, sometimes more because I have them for breakfast, snack and maybe another snack or as a dessert. I'm finding that my urges for salt are easily solved with vegetables and my urges for sweets are mostly solved by fruit. I have not yet found a solution for chocolate yet. So far it's mostly just been switching out my normal food with healthier versions that taste the same. I bought a high fiber bread (I think its made by Healthy Choice or Healthy Living), Egg Beaters instead of eggs (SO much easier for me to cook with too), TONS of veggies that I can just grab and eat and TONS of fruits I can grab and eat. So far I bought a thing of white mushrooms and ate them mixed with stuff, a bag of red grapes that I've been snacking on, celery that I've eaten once, baby carrots that I steam for lunch or dinner, strawberries that I cut and eat for dessert at lunch (and share with Zoe), a berry already made thing at the store (Zoe mostly eats it though), a melon thing made at the store (I eat this one), grape tomatoes (I ate by the handful the other night). I switched out crispy chicken for Boca chicken. Regular sausage for Boca sausage. For cheese, I have 1pt smoked string cheese (WW) and laughing cow wedges. I haven't felt gyped (sp?) since I went to the store and got all the healthy food. I have actually felt FULL.

Today was just a run around day. I was loungey from 12-230. (sore from Zumba last night). Showered, got us ready, went to Sam's. I gave Zoe bottles. At Sam's I was STARVING and it was 415 and I wasn't going to eat dinner until late so I grabbed a hot dog at the little Sam's fresh deli thing. It was a HUGE hot dog. Later realized after googling that it was a Nathan's All Beef 1/4lb hot dog (with bun/ketchup/mustard) worth 15 freaking points. UGH. So then I only had 10 points left and by the time Ian got home and I got Zoe fed and ready for bed, I hadn't eaten and then I tried to recipe search from like 9-11 for foods and new meals I could eat and decided on breakfast and finally found one! So it was like 1115 by the time I ate so now I feel gross but I only went a few points over (1 from dinner, 3 because I really wanted OJ).

Awesome Recipe - 11 pts the way I made it tonight.
1c Egg Beaters
the rest of my white mushrooms (like a cup maybe)
a wedge of swiss cheese (laughing cow)
minced garlic
onion powder
2 Boca sausages
1 handful of casserole cheese (kroger brand)

I put the boca sausages in microwave, chopped up. (added a second one because I had extra points since I didn't have the hashbrowns which were worth 5pts)
Cooked the mushroom, minced garlic and onion powder together (didn't have actual garlic or actual onion)
Added in the cooked sausage crumbles
Added in Egg Beaters, cut up pieces of the wedge
Cooked for 3 minutes or so mixing up/scrambling egg
When done, put on glass plate, threw some casserole cheese on top and microwaved for 10 seconds (enough to melt cheese)
Eat.

Here is the real recipe
http://www.hungry-girl.com/chew/show/2047

3 lbs lighter!

I did my first weigh-in today and lost 3 lbs. I'm having a hard time on dinners. I never know what to eat.

EEK

My first WW weigh in is tomorrow. I am freaking out about it. I just hope I did enough to lose some weight. I feel like I tried really hard and spent money on it and I just want it to work. Yawn.

Sunday

Today I felt really stressed out for no real reason. I just felt unhappy for no reason. I wanted to sleep a lot and just slug around for a while. I got out of my funk after a couple hours. I don't know where it came from. I was just sad. I am really hungry. There are so many choices at my house but none of them make a meal that is low in points. So far I had a blueberry muffin that I split with Zoe and a banana. Some pickles, lettuce, chicken pieces, dressing. I might eat something heavier like rice to fill me up. I don't know I need to go to the store. I want to pick up some English muffins, Egg Beaters, WW cheese, high fiber crackers, etc.

Wow yesterday was hard

I spent the early part of yesterday confused about what to eat and the latter part of yesterday starving. As soon as Hubby came home from work I had already dissected the Applebees menu online because 1. Its my favorite place and 2. I knew they had a WW menu. The WW food all sounded gross so I went with the word PASTA and SHRIMP. LOL two of my favorites. It was 12pts. So good. Then as I was there it was salty but yummy and so I wanted something super sweet so I analyzed and finally decided to just spend 6 of my bonus points so I could have some freakin chocolate and ice cream! I don't believe in depriving yourself of anything not even while trying to lose weight. I am not here to diet folks. I'm here to learn and live.

I'm back and I'm paying for it in more ways than one

Fact: Hubby's company created a health initiative saying that they will charge more if you have a BMI of more than 30.
Fact: My BMI is currently 35.
Fact: I have to lose 35lbs to reach a BMI of 30.
Fact: I joined Weight Watchers to help get me through this goal (in addition to Zumba twice a week like I have been trying to do, walking and eating right)
Fact: My Weight Watchers weigh in at Thursday's meeting (my first meeting) was 205.4
Fact: My goal weight is 175.

I spent the money and got all the WW tools. I felt really overwhelmed at first but after doing a Facebook shoutout I found that I wasn't the only one in this WW boat. That made me happy. I starting getting lots of tips and recipes from friends.

I still am staring at my pantry and fridge in confusion as what I can and cannot eat as much of.
So far I have figured out my coffee creamer is 1 for 1 serving. I can eat fruits and veggies non stop for 0 points. Most meats are 3 points. Most greasy foods are 7 points. Most desserts are 7 points.

My shout out for breakfast foods resulted in the following helpful hints!
Amber - okay sorry you have to go to the store for this, but I have a breakfast quesadilla every morning....they are great and filling...made by smart ones. I stock up when they are on sale.
--
Hailey - Oatmeal is very filling because of the fiber content, and it's healthy for you as long as you don't add too much sugar. If it were me, I'd do oatmeal and fruit.

Amber -  yes it has cheese it and a fairly good amount....I think that's why I like it. Cheese is my sore spot....along with several other things obviously...lol

Denise - when I did weight watchers, I bought these bran muffins that Kroger had that were delicious and only two points each. Also Glucerna made some snack bars that were only 2-3 points and were really filling and kept me full because they have the slow-releasing sugars.

Lindsey - OK. I can't believe its not butter spray butter is 0 points. Fruits=0 points. Bagels or english muffins are 3 points. Eggs are 3 points and you can cook them in the 0 points spray butter. Plus eggs are a power food. Bread is 1 point. By the way if you run out of points and are still hungry 10 min of workout=1 point. You can even count house work or playing with your baby.

Sarah - I have some goodies I will try to share with you!

If you like spinach and mushrooms... my FAVORITE breakfast was to saute up some mushrooms and onions, when they were done, toss in baby spinach leaves and let them wilt up, then take that out....... pour EGG BEATERS egg whites in a small skillet, once it starts setting up, put the mushrooms, onions and spinach back in... I flip it once too. And I'd eat it with some low cal/high fiber bread as toast. I can't rem. teh points, but egg whites are CRAZY low points, and the mush. onions and spinach are just good for ya! SO FILLING and SO GOOD.

I also have a french toast recipe from a WW cook book I'll get ya!

Oh, and Kashi cereals are good for points. I liked their heart healthy one that has the hearts and o's in it!
Also, I think HUNGRY GIRL has a recipe I always wanted to try, you just microwave some EGG BEASTERS in a mug.... she's got lots of recipes, some better than others from what I've tried!

FIBER ONE has good granola bars (and now brownies) for ...snacky things.... and I've heard VITA TOP muffin tops are good? I have a box I haven't touched since all this pregnancy yucky tummy crap! They're in the freezer section.....

Oh! And for lunch I'd always do a frozen meal... smart ones or lean cuisines, for portion control and ease of preparation. lean cus. has an amazing CHICKEN POTSTICKERS meal in a steamer bag right now!!

OR, in the summer when fresh produce was readily available I would do a lettuce salad, crammed with whate4ver you like, and a can of chicken, a little light dressing, and maybe some cranberries and almonds!

Lindsey- The first 2 weeks your gonna feel like you are STARVING!!! But its all good from there. As long as you spread out your points. If you kinda plan your meals for the whole day you will know if you got room for more. I don't spend my workout point either. I like to see how many I can get a week. I joined online. I really like it. Its real personal and set up just how I want it. You can save foods on there and create your own stuff and save it.

Me - My problem is CHEESE and WINE. LOL

Lindsey -They make some cheese with skim milk now and fat free. So that kinda helps. My issue was chocolate milk. lol. Not sure about the wine but they also have weekly points beyond your daily ones now. You could maybe just set those aside for wine.
My convo about pasta with Sarah ended up with this
this is just reg. spaghetti sauce but i sauted up some veggies before adding the sauce

zucchini, shredded carrots, onion, mushrooms and of course lean Hamburger

this is the pasta dish i told u about

no meat, but it's a great lunch or supper still!

CAPRESE-STYLE PERCIATELLI

Done something SIMILAR before, but this is a WW recipe, but OH so good! Here's the recipe... oh and it's not a salad, it's served warm--though it could be served cold!

1/2 lb perciatelli or spaghetti pasta
2 cups grape tomatoes, halved
4 oz bite sized bocconcini (small mozzarella balls--I found at Walmart up toward the deli with the other cheeses)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper (this makes it a little spicy though, if you don't like that back off it)
3 T grated Grana Padano or Parmesan cheese
(My addition: I like to add a little fresh spinach too!)

This makes 4 servings of 1 1/4 cups ...

Nutritional facts: 325 calories, 9 grams fat, 6 grams fiber

For you WW-- just 6 points!

omg i'm posting

It is so hard to be a Mom and figure out who you are and a have a social life and have a married/sex life and have spare time for yourself AND lose weight on top of all of that. There is not enough time in the day!

Yesterday instead of Zumba-ing, I convinced Bri that we should get pedicures. They were amazing. My feet finally feel girly and are painted! I do feel bad though that I didn't work out. Part of me is like well Zoe is sleeping now on the couch next to me so I could put in a workout dvd and do a half hour. But then I'm like ew I'm dressed in real clothes do I really want to work out? And I'm hungry for lunch. I've been eating the same thing for breakfast every day - coffee with creamer (more like creamer with coffee) and two pieces of lite wheat bread toasted with creamy peanut butter. Today I had 3 pieces because I knew I would be eating a later lunch and need energy to chase around CJ and watch Zoe! Maybe chasing a 16 month old babysitting counts as working out. He was here like 2 hours. I was hot and took us outside at one point! I need to take my measurements again and weigh myself but its always so depressing.

I'm going to make lunch. Lately I've been having either a can of chicken or a can of tuna, light mayo, sweet relish mixed together on rye bread with a diet coke.

More later. I'll try to remember to blog here!

measurements

49 hips
37 waist
39 under boobs
44 boobs
196 weight

Trip Post

So I had so much other stuff going on that I never did post about the trip. We got back and it was so busy and I was so tired. I just read Robyn's post on it so I decided maybe I'll write mine. It'd be easier to just copy hers and change a few paragraphs LOL but that'd be lazy and tacky...

So let's see.... we met up with Mom and Dad and followed them to O'Hare airport on Dec. 25th p.m. Chris and Robyn I think were at her Mom's house. Mom and Dad, Ian and I went and had drinks at Harry Carey's bar in our hotel. Then we went to bed.

Ian and I woke up at like 2:45a.m. Dec. 26 (we had to be on the shuttle at 3:30am). I was wide awake because I was flying across the ocean and super excited even though I slept like 4/5 hours.

We met up in the lobby, got all our stuff, Mom and I got some coffee. I got to see Chris and Robyn (who showed up later). Then we went to the airport. We sat forever. I listened to my new Nano ipod (it had a radio since I didn't have time to upload songs on it). I read a lot. There was this woman on the same flight as us in the airport dressed in this HUGE purple puffy coat and she and her daughter had these huge stilleto boots and the dad had skinny jeans. It was awkward. It felt like we sat there forever. Then we finally loaded the plane. I sat by Ian and some weird guy reading that weird sci-fi book that's like choose your adventure and time travel... I can't think of it now. I think it was a movie too. Ohhh something to the galaxy. Anyway the plane ride wasn't bad at all. I slept the entire time. They de-iced the plane forever.

We landed in the open hut airport which was weird.

Then we got on this bus that took us to every resort in the area. It was supposed to be like 30 minutes, it felt like 10 hours. I took pictures for fun of nothing. LOL

After we finally got to our resort, I went to set up all our reservations for dinner since you had to do it right away. Ian hung out with Dad, Mom, Chris and Robyn. They tried out the many types of drinks the Platnium Lounge had to offer.

 

After that I am pretty sure we just wandered around and went to the beach. I don't really remember LOL I THINK we ate at the fish place. I could cheat on look on Robyn's blog but I'm too lazy right now. I am pretty sure at the fish place I had cavier for the first time and i LOVED it. OMG it was SO good.

The next time I had my camera out was I believe the next day before we went to the beach. I took a billion pictures of our room because I was bored and it was a big room. I had got up early and went to the Platinum (shortened to Plat from now on cuz I can't spell Platinum) to get Caramel Cappuccino. It was amazing and came out of a machine. SO GOOD. Ian was sleeping on our porch when I got back LOL

I took some pictures from our porch while he napped.

The ocean from our porch

Our Porch

The view of the ocean if I walked down the little path to the other side of our building

 

My normal essentials: Journal/later book because I got lazy, Caramel Capp., phone (that later got put in the safe), key card

This is what I saw when I looked the other way off our porch...

For a while, my parents and Robyn and Chris were far away from the ocean like a block away from us (or a building or two ... however you want to word it) but they moved closer to us. Chris and Robyn became our next door neighbors! They lived on the top and we lived on the bottom of buildings facing each other.

That's my brother on his porch taken from my porch after they moved in. It was nice to look out and have my brother right there again. It was like living at home.

We also had a gecko, I named Lucky living on our porch

Besides sitting on our porch, we were at the Plat., or at the beach under a hut or eating. LOL most days. We met up for dinner every night. I tried to dress up for dinner. I mostly ate lobster (if on the list) but I also had lamb, salmon, cavier and always white wine (that wasn't very good). For lunch I usually had a hot dog and fries from the beach place, and at least one of the following for lunch mashed potatoes, cheese, pineapple, Italian food. Or a combo of some. LOL and I always got a plate of every dessert for everyone to sample if we were at the buffet. It was the easiest way since most of them were awful LOL

This was the day before our Licey (fancy and pron. Lee-say) dinner. Chris, Robyn, Ian and I all went shopping for Mom at the local out of the resort place before dinner. We got her cute turtle (tortuga) earrings and a pendent for her slider.

Us at Licey

All of us at Licey

On Thursday, they had some huge market at the Lobby so we all went to it. I found this necklace I LOVED and made the mistake of exclaiming this in front of the guy. So he wanted to overcharge Ian and my dad for the necklace when they tried to buy it for me. Ooops. At the same place though I found ANOTHER vendor who had the SAME necklace and I learned from my mistake and ignored it but secretly told Ian. He was able to talk this vendor from 130 down to 30 for me!!! So I got the necklace!!!

One day we went with Mom and Dad to the exotic animal zoo thing they had. I saw lizards and hissed at them. Parrots that I said 'hola' too like a billion times until one of them said 'hola' back to me. I saw a bunch of birds. And a bird with no leg. It was sad and hobbling. And a LOT of peacocks. Later that week I went back to feed the peacocks after stealing a lot of bread from the lobby buffet. :)  I decided for some odd reason that day that it would be a great idea to wear my sarong as a top over my swimsuit. It wasn't and it looked awful. Ian decided not to tell me until I bent over to feed the birds and he took pictures of me only to say you'll hate this picture you look fat. LOL thanks hun.

 

It ate right out of my hand!!!

This picture pretty much sums up my whole vacation. This is where I spent like 630a-5pm every day. They brought us water, drinks and we only moved once or twice for food or to swim in the ocean.

I'm under my hut, on a big comfy bed chair (as you can kind of see in front of me), looking at the ocean, partially tanning at times, reading a book or napping)

More view

To my right - the non-VIP section full of blue chairs! poor bastards.

 

 

The giant beds by the ocean. they were like queen or king sized beds that you could lay on in full sun. I thought they were too hot. That woman is the woman who every day in our VIP section gave us fresh towels. She was like 4 foot tall. I think her name was Maribel.

Ian couldn't sit on the beach and do nothing as long as I could so he wandered around a lot. Went to the pool for a dip, went to the ocean, walked down a bit to the bar to get his own drink... this is him walking back.

Funny story... I couldn't figure out why after this picture he didn't walk towards me. I thought he was lost so I started yelling IAN! And he walked down past me to the left and then circled back towards me... I thought that was weird. So as I'm taking pictures of him and laughing because he's lost and I'm catching it on camera... I realize he's not lost... he noticed this...

He comes back and says

They were PIERCED! hahahaha

It was hilarious.

This is me with teeny towel woman.

I don't know how she had her arm but thank you Teeny Towel Woman for making me look SO skinny!!!

I'm telling you all I did was sit on the beach.

This is awkward Lifeguard swimsuit man. All day he was in front of us one day and when he bent down it was not pretty!

We finally got off the beach long enough to go the swim up bar at the pool one day. I didn't have my camera but I did some shots and talked some really nice guy. He was in his 30s and single. He was there with his 13 year old daughter. He was trying to find a woman to talk to for a date or something after his daughter fell asleep at like 10p but it was hard because everyone looked so young there or was married. He was a nice guy though, from Texas. I tried to find him a date. They were all married LOL poor guy. He took his daughter on a big trip every year for winter break. I thought that was nice.

Another day, we walked down to another resort. Chris and Robyn went ahead of us because they were doing something or we had to do something... I don't remember. I think Mom wanted to change so we stayed back with them. And then went. Well Mom, Dad, Ian and I ended up at a resort and Robyn and Chris ended up at a different resort! You could go to 3 different ones (including ours) with your VIP band to swim or whatever. They were all owned by the same people. So Ian and I played this Frisbee hit the water bottles on the table game. I came in second (tie) and Ian didn't hit any. I made fun of him.

While we were there we met about a billion Canadians. From Motreal, Quebec, Toronto, Ottawa. Every one was Canadian. Some were super Canadian, some spoke French, some spoke French and English. It was crazy... the amount of Canadians. I met some cool people the first day I got there in the Plat Club. That Ian and I hung out with a lot. They had two college-aged kids - both equally hot - girl and boy. LOL The parents were around more and super fun. They were drunk from dawn to dusk. We also met a nice older couple that kicked some guy out of his chair for us. LOL We had NOTHING to do with this. We got there and the beach was PACKED for being like 8am. It was one of our first days. Ian and I got out there early to get a spot. Well this older couple saw us looking for a spot and said to us these chairs have been covered all morning and no one has shown up! And went and told the towel woman (who has apparently authority to toss them) I dunno. We were like its okay we'll find somewhere and she was like no sweetie you guys are new here and should have a spot! So we walked around and they found us like 2 seconds later and said Honey there is a spot! So we went and sure enough it was empty. Well we had no idea who was there or wasn't there or what. It was empty, under a hut, so we sat. Like maybe a hour later, this random guy comes up to us and starts yelling that we took his spot and we were liars and we stole his things and all this stuff. We had no idea what he was so irate about. He was cussing at us at yelling LIARS! It was insane. He stormed off and the towel girl had his stuff. He was crazy. It wasn't us! We thanked the old people and found out was her birthday. They were our friends all week :) I almost am positive they tipped every person there 20 dollars a day. LOL I found out they had a lot of pull and were good people to have. They did the same thing for a younger couple later that week and the same guy flipped out. We were amused. That guy deserved it. He was a jerk even without people moving his stuff. I don't even think he was VIP.

I wanted to swim with the dolphins because I never have. So Mom and I went on the Dolphin Excursion together. I'm glad she went with me! We both LOVE animals. It was fun!!! It was nice hanging out with her all day. We rode a bus forever and hung out. We swam with the dolphins, we ate amazing ice cream (the first real sweets we found the whole trip), we looked at our pictures, we hung out with a nice Canadian woman and her daughter and this crazy Russian mail order bride and her American husband. It was such a fun day!!!

Sasha the dolphin kissing Mom

Kissing me

 

Mom and I trying to pet the dolphin.

We were in the middle of the ocean in a fenced-in-underwater area.

The dolphin doing its trick for me and Mom. (next to Mom - crazy Russian and weird American husband)

After that we just rode back and probably went to the beach! HAHA or had lunch.

The next day or a couple days later... I dont' remember was New Year's Eve. We laid on the beach all day. And then got ready for dinner.

Striking a pose in my NYE outfit

Ian and I at NYE dinner

Mom and Dad at NYE diner.

Robyn and Chris at NYE dinner.

All of us at NYE dinner plus the funny waiter that I called Guapo HAHA

Mom and I. LOVE this pic.

Some lobby NYE decorations.

Me with everything in our free NYE bag (hat, lei, beads, party horn thing, party cranker noisemaker) Oh and champagne. My like 10th glass.

My parents with their noisemakers. HAHA LOVE IT

Ball dropped/bells rang/people yelled/we danced

The ENTIRE NYE night before and after this we hung out with this awesome kids our age from Quebec. Two spoke English and French, two spoke French and little English. We speak little French. But the two that spoke English - Sebastian and Valerie (dating) were awesome! They were there with Valerie's brother and sister-in-law, their kid (Valerie's niece) and parents (Valerie and her brother's parents).The brother and SIL didn't talk much and left early. And the parents had stayed home with their granddaughter. So most of the night it was just me, Ian, Val and Sebastian. Sebastian was an IT guy in Canadian so he and Ian talked all night long. It was boring but okay because Sebastian was hot LOL Valerie is a psychologist and really nice. Ian thought she was hot so it was even. :)  This is an awful pic of Sebastian but these are our NYE friends!

Ian, Me, the SIL, the brother, Sebastian and Valerie

After that we stayed up until Indiana turned 2010 and went to bed pronto.

The next day (our last full day) Ian and I were on the beach again before the sun rose.

We ended up in the non VIP section on our last day because we slept in and ALL the VIP chairs were claimed!!!  At least we had a hut.

The other side of the rope is the VIP section where we usually sat.

We did have a nice view of the ocean that day though. I tanned ALL day. I decided not to lay out until Thursday and Friday because I knew I'd just burn regardless of suntan lotion...

I went in the ocean. The waves were HUGE on Friday and I got dragged on the ocean floor on my ass. My entire swimsuit fell down and had to be reassembled under water.

After the reassemble!

And back under my hut

After the beach, we took some pictures before our late late 9:45 dinner at the Japanese hibachi place. All of us went to the shops owned by locals outside the resort across the street. I got a sarong and some gifts. It was fun listening to the guys barter!!!

Before we went to barter. Robyn and I randomly were wearing the same shirts that day.

The lighting sucks but this was after shopping before dinner.

Dinner was alright.

The last day we had to pack and be at the Plat to check out early so Ian and I got there early and took pictures.

Me and my coffee machine

Me outside the Plat

Ian and I with our Platinum bracelets (took like our wedding ring picture LOL) being VIP was AMAZING. Thank you Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!

This was across from Mom and Dad's room and they wanted a picture on it all week long LOL

Ian and I

All of us with Mom and Dad 'driving'

In the lobby waiting for our shuttle to get us to go to the airport.

After that we drove around forever picking up more people, almost missed our flight. I asked a question to the security people about my drink and they said no and then grabbed me to get frisked for the flight! I was almost separated from everyone else. Luckily I grabbed Ian. Dad and Mom waited for Chris and Robyn who didn't eat and were grabbing food. We had no idea we were so late. The people in the D.R. operate on their own time LOL so we thought we were early. It was a chartered plane so they didn't leave us. We had to walk to our plane outside down the runway. It was so weird. Ian, Mom, Dad and I had 1st row seats. So we had like 3 feet of leg space. It was weird! We could see everything the flight attendents were doing and the pilot when he had to pee. LOL it was funny. I didn't even take my medication on the way back I was so amused. The flight back seemed to take FOREVER due to wind they said. Like flying against the grain. I got so bored. I wasn't tired. I didn't feel like reading. I started coming up with states and capitals for some reason in my notebook. The only amusement I had was that my Nano radio was actually picking up stations from below! So every time I found a new station it said a city or state and I started mapping our route. We flew over North Carolina, Kentucky, Tenneessee, West Virginia for a little bit. It was fun. I challenged Dad to the states and capitals game. He lost. It was funny and amused Dad too because we were both getting stir crazy.

We both could not come up with Tenneessee in our list of states. After a while the flight attendents played the game with us LOL cuz they were right there bored too. The pilot even helped on one of his stretching periods. (obviously they had like 3 pilots). When we left the Dominican it was 87 and when we landed in Chicago, it was -5 degrees. I changed on the plane. Then we got our cars from the hotel, ate some pizza with the fam and drove back to Indy.

The end. :)