Weigh-In Wednesday: Goodbye, 2012!

Is anyone else surprised that Christmas is next week? I am. The holiday season, including Thanksgiving, totally sneaked up on me this year. I blame it on being in the hospital. (I have found that I can blame a lot of things on being in the hospital. It’s quite handy, really.) Anyway, I am excited about this Christmas for many reasons, but one is because for the first time in three years, I have the entire week of Christmas off from work! The law firm where I work will be closed, and as work has been insanely busy the past few weeks, I welcome the break and the chance to be with family and celebrate Christ’s birth.

I was thinking the other day about goals to make for the coming year, which of course made me reflect on the goals I made for this year and whether or not I met them. Since I’m sure none of you remember what my goals were (I barely remembered sometimes, haha), here they are: 

1. Reach my goal weight (between 155-160 pounds). Check.
2. Run a half marathon. Check.
3. Read through the Bible. Check. (Well, almost. I am 96% of the way there and have no plans to flake out at the finish!)

For the first time in I don’t know when, I actually accomplished all of my goals for the year! Granted, I only made three goals, but still, I am really excited to have actually achieved these things.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Did I miss the blog post wherein Erin rejoiced over reaching her goal weight?” No, dear reader, you did not in fact miss that post, but I have in fact reached my goal weight. The last weigh-in recorded on my blog was October 17, near the very beginning of the illness that I later learned was ulcerative colitis. On that date, I weighed in at 170.8 pounds. This morning, I weighed 157.8 pounds. I’ve lost 13 pounds in the past 9 weeks. At one point after being sick, I was down to 150 pounds (I lost a crazy amount of weight over the span of a few days the first week I was out of the hospital), but over the past 4 weeks I’ve fluctuated between 155-158 pounds, and I am very happy with that.

It feels weird to celebrate this achievement because I didn’t really “achieve” it. I got sick and ended up in the hospital. Still, I am happy that I haven’t gained all of the weight back, and I am happy that I managed to lose 90 pounds on my own before getting sick, so I can look at losing another 13 more with the help of a chronic condition as a gift. A gift that means I now wear a size 12, a size I don’t think I ever wore for any significant length of time. A gift that means I had to go shopping for new clothes. A gift that means I feel a little more comfortable in my own skin.

I still don’t know what my goals for 2013 will be, but I am pretty certain that losing weight will not be one of them. 🙂

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Easter 2012

We began Easter by attending worship at our fabulous church. I can’t say enough good things about our church and our pastor and the people we have come to know and love there.  I wouldn’t have wanted to celebrate Easter anywhere else.

Charlotte in her Easter dress:

After the service we promptly left and headed for my parents’ house in Memphis for lunch. My brother and sister-in-law came, along with my niece Erika (who’s just 6 months younger than Charlotte) and nephew Brayden, and my mom’s parents also were there. It was great to see everyone and spend time together as a family. We took a family portrait which turned out surprisingly well, given how difficult it is to get Char to be still and smile for a picture.

Lunch was yummy, and then it was time for the Easter egg hunt! Charlotte didn’t really hunt for eggs, but she loved carrying around her basket.  My parents know how to have an egg hunt; cash and coins were in the eggs instead of candy! 🙂

And of course the day couldn’t end without my mom bringing out some silly head gear:

Charlotte loved taking those ears on and off.

We headed back to Jackson not long after that and spent a quiet evening at home. Charlotte discovered the fake grass inside her basket and was thoroughly fascinated by it.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I am reminded daily of how blessed I am. I pray I never take my life for granted.

Charlotte’s First Christmas-In Pictures

Our Christmas was wonderful. I hope yours was, too!

On Paint Colors and Toddler Hats

Thanks for all of the concern/support on my last post! Apparently I need to write about fainting and holes in the wall more often, huh? 🙂 Fortunately, we are all doing well (aside from a cold that Charlotte has, poor baby) and have been vomit-free! And my sweet daddy has already patched the hole in the wall! Now I have an excuse to pick out a new paint color. I’m considering a chocolate brown, but I don’t know if that would be too dark for such a small space. Any thoughts?

While you’re pondering the pros and cons of chocolate brown paint, enjoy this picture of Charlotte in her cute winter hat (I won’t mention the fact that her hat is a size 2T because her head is so big.):

This past weekend I participated in my church’s presentation of the Living Christmas Tree and succeeded in getting not a single picture of the event, despite the fact that we performed 3 times on 3 different days. I’m quite the documentarian. (Is “documentarian” a word? I’m declaring it a word.) We have a large tree that all of the singers actually sing in. (Now is the time when a picture would be helpful, right?) Anyway, it was my first time to be in the program, and I had so much fun singing and being in the tree, and it was a great way to celebrate the miracle of Christ coming to earth to rescue us.

I can’t believe Christmas is almost here! I can’t wait to celebrate with my family. What are you looking forward to?