One person dance party

Listening to music, dancing around my kitchen and baking, all in pajamas. Yep. Brandon must be working late tonight.

Fitness and other happenings in life

So I have made several attempts at getting in shape, but they've all slowly stopped for one reason or another. Hopefully this time is different. I decided to post it on here in hopes that I can feel more accountable. (Does that actually work?)
I've been trying to eat heathier foods for a couple weeks now and joined a gym just over a week ago. It has childcare, so I don't have to worry about waking up to go super early before Brandon has to leave for work or anything, which helps a lot. Several of my past attempts at getting in shape meant I had to wake up really early and either go running or go to the 'gym' at our old apartment. Those failed because for one reason or another, I didn't want to wake up that early. Now, I can start our day out normally and go when I want to. Amy gets to play in a room with a bunch of toys and other kids, so she enjoys it a lot. It's an all around win!
So I've gone almost every day so far and I'm actually starting to feel the effects of it. Not the soreness, that came pretty quickly, though not near as bad as I thought it would be. I feel better about myself. I know I don't look any different, but the number on the scale went down a little bit and I just feel good. The first couple of days were really difficult, but it's already getting easier and I can actually push myself to do more challenging workouts. I also feel like I am bursting with energy today. I always thought that was a myth before because my 3x a week workouts for 3 weeks never changed the way I felt, but it has now, even in a shorter period of time. I think the fact that I have been going more and pushing myself more have helped.
I just hope I can keep this up. I don't know if I will continue to go everyday in the future, but I like doing so now, so we will see. I also hope to get Brandon to go with me sometimes!
Oh, and another cool thing is that this gym has two locations in San Antonio that I can also use, so it will be nice to continue to exercise when I go down there in a few weeks!

Speaking of Texas, I am so excited for that trip. It's for my cousin Lacey's wedding. I am her matron of honor and couldn't be more thrilled to stand up there with her. Seeing all of my family for a happier occasion than the last one will be really nice too. And, this trip, I am going all alone. Amy and Brandon are staying home, so its like a vacation :)  I will miss them a lot of course and would love if they could both come with me, but they can't. So Brandon is staying home with Amy all week, which I think both of them will really enjoy. And I get a childfree week. I am really looking forward to a plane ride without a 2 year old next to me. It's gonna be so relaxing :)

And at the end of this trip, Brandon's mom Amy is gonna come visit us! We're really happy about that too. There has been so much going on with her, she needs a vacation, so hopefully we can make this one good! And now that we have a second car, we can go do fun things during the day.

So the next month has a lot in store for us, and I think it will be great!

I never knew having a real yard was such a luxary

Since we had our house built, it didn't come with a landscaped yard, only some dirt behind the house with weeds in it. It wasn't even supposed to come with this retaining wall, but we made the builders add it in because our yard was such a steep hill that it was pretty much unusable. The wall isn't very pretty, but it does the job.

Before picture:

During:

 And after!:

Such a transformation!

So now we have a completely landscaped back yard that I think looks really nice (at least compared to the dirt we had back there before.) And now Amy has a place to play. The only tough thing is that we can't use it for two weeks because we have to let the grass root on its own without us stomping all over it. I'm counting down the days!
I'll probably take more pictures in the distant future when the trees and bushes all start growing in (2 trees and 6 bushes total)

Btw, isn't it perfect for a slip n' slide! I can't wait until next summer :)

Who doesn't love chocolate milk?

My cauliflower crust pizza

Sadly, it looked better than it tasted

Watermelon face

This is one of my favorite pictures of Amy.

Where to begin

So much has happened since my last post. So here will be a brief explanation.
We bought a house and moved in at the beginning of May. We've been working on fixing it up, including putting up a fence, landscaping, furniture, etc. All that's still not done, but hopefully it will be soon.
Then a few weeks into June, I got a message saying that my aunt, who has been fighting stage 4 cancer for 3 years wasn't doing well and probably wouldn't make it through the day. So Amy and I hopped on a plane to Texas and made it to the hospital just in time to say goodbye. It was a very sad occasion because she was a great woman and will be missed dearly. But she was ready to go and she's no longer in pain. Even though it wasn't under good circumstances, it was nice to see my family again and everyone down in Texas. I'll be there again next month for my cousin Lacey's wedding. That will be a much happier occasion. I'm really excited for that one!
Brandon and I have been thinking about buying a second car for a while now. We live farther from his work than we used to, so me taking him to work if I need to do things is no longer an option. Brandon found a 2002 Prius online yesterday for a good price, so we went to test drive it today and ended up getting it! It's a nice car and will save a lot on gas with how much Brandon drives now. Also, I now have a vehicle to do what I need to do during the week! I think it was a good thing for us.
And last but not least, Brandon got a promotion last week! He is now a lead artist at Backflip studios. Which means he is in charge of the project he is put on. The game he's has been working so hard on lately is nearing completion and will be out soon, so if that does well, he will stay on that project to keep making updates and new content. We're really excited about this new opportunity for him.

Amy is doing well. Talking a little bit more than before, but not as much as she should be, so she has started seeing a speech therapist again. Hopefully the desire to talk more will come to her. Also, the company that she is working with only treats children up to 3 years old. So she will be evaluated soon for preschool in the school district and may start that in a few months, which I think would be really great for her! Is it wrong to hope that she is behind enough to qualify? ;)
As of yesterday, we switched her to a toddler bed. We started with nap time, which she fought me on for about 45 minutes before falling asleep, and then took her normal 3 hour nap. Then last night, she got into bed right away with no fussing and stayed there until she fell asleep and slept all night! When I put her down for her nap today, she didn't fuss at all. I am really hoping it continues this way! I could definitely go for an easy transition :)