Life Lately.....

It has definitely been a hot minute since my last "real" post. The past couple of months have definitely been tough! After TJ's competition, he, like most competitors do after their first show, rebounded....bad. For those of you who do not know what that is...he started eating all of the things he had been craving during his prep which caused him to retain tons of water. It was almost like the domino effect from that point forward. Like many people who have struggled with their weight, if you do not really watch yourself you can become obsessed with it. Gaining weight & having his body not look the way he knew it should brought TJ down into a depression. This depression literally affected every aspect of our lives. Our relationship, my progress, his schooling, friendships, ect. all suffered as a result of his rebound. I decided I would step away from blogging to fully focus on helping him get back into the right frame of mind. Alot of people do not realize how hard making a lifestyle change can be mentally, some assume that once you have this smoking hot body and are in a diet and exercise routine that it becomes easy. That is not the case at all. When you were morbidly obese for the majority of your life like TJ and I were, typically, food is your drug of choice...an addiction if you will. It is something you think about almost all of the time. It took 5 months for TJ to get over his depression and I can finally say...we are in the clear. As most of you know from past posts, TJ had been working with a coach during his contest prep and continued to work with him post show. His coach was awesome and really tried to help TJ the best way he knew how while TJ was struggling, however, the added pressure of sending stats, progress pics, and having some lines blurred between coach and friend took their toll on the relationship and TJ and his coach decided to part ways a couple of weeks ago. I was initially devastated since I had also started using him to try and get over my plateau & because I had grown to love him and his family. The day after they parted ways, however, TJ took on a whole different look. The water he had been holding started to drain off, the bags under his eyes disappeared, and all of the swelling in his legs and arms (happens when he stresses) went away. It was literally like falling asleep next to a stranger and waking up next to the man I married. As I watched his body change over the next week, I really started to feel that though I hate the loss of that friendship it may have been God answering my prayers and giving TJ exactly what he needed to find himself again. I debated over sharing any of this story, however, I think it is a true testament to how sometimes our lives blessings are disguised as trials. So...with all of that out of the way, let me get down to business. I had gained 10lbs during the course of the last few months & in the past 2 weeks have lost 8lbs of the 10lbs. I am going to start updating my blog with my fitness journey weekly again; along with recipes, workouts, and the general day to day life stuff. I have been dying to blog and am so excited to finally be at a point in life where I can.  

Riley is 10 months!

Our sweet little girl is 10 Months old now. She is changing so much every day. She looks more and more like her daddy & acts more and more like me....not sure if that is a good or bad thing. We have officially started preparations for her first birthday party..super exciting & so surreal. I cannot believe how fast time has passed. 

TJs Graduation

This is a little bit of a delayed post, however, better late than never I suppose. Words cannot describe how it felt to watch TJ walk across that stage and accept his certificate of completion for the Fire Academy. He and the five other men who graduated with him worked their butts off and made it through the program when so many others failed. It was so amazing to be able to share that experience with him & our friends and family. I wish I had gotten better quality pictures but here are just a few. 

TJ's cousin Justin, his sweet wife Mandy & their future baby boy (still in her tummy and not pictured haha) came to support TJ. They have been so loving and encouraging of him this year while he has been in school. I hope we can show them the same as they become parents to their second child!

My cousin Louann & her baby boy "little" Justin. I wish his eyes had been open but keeping a one year olds attention for a picture was not happening. 

TJ walking across the stage!

So thankful that TJs MawMaw was able to make it to the ceremony and celebrate with him. 

Rileys face when she saw her daddy walk across the stage...so sweet. I am sorry to have to watermark the pictures of Riley, however, someone keeps stealing them for their own personal use. 

So proud of him and all he is doing! 

Riley is 8 Months!!

I cannot believe how fast the time is flying. Our little girl is EIGHT months old! 

In the past month she has gotten so curious and is starting to get into everything. She is beginning to try and crawl  and is finally sleeping through the night. We usually get her down between 9pm and 10pm and she has been sleeping till around 4:30am which is definitely a success in my book since TJ and I get up for fasted cardio at that time. I give her a bottle and she goes right back to sleep till I wake her up at 7am to get ready for work. She has such a cute little personality. We are really enjoying watching her interact with everyone around her.  She still does not want much to do with "people food" I have found a few more things she likes but peanut butter is still the only thing she will eat on a consistent basis (however we do not feed it to her much). She is drinking out of a sippy cup now, she loves to watch animals, and she LOVES jewelry. She finally got her first tooth to break through the skin and is finally saying DADA on a consistent basis. She turned 8 months on Cinco De Mayo and it is kind of an inside joke in my family that even though we are not Hispanic we celebrate Cinco De Mayo because it is my dads birthday. I dressed Riley in what we call her "Mexican Fiesta Dress" that my aunt and uncle brought back from one of their vacations to Mexico. It really ended up looking so cute.

Family & Friend Night at The Fire Academy

I have talked a little bit about TJ being in school to be a fireman. Well, the semester is almost over and tonight was family and friend night. The students were allowed to invite their loved ones to see them in action! Unfortunately, my family was unable to make it due to my brother's baseball playoff game but there was an amazing turnout and the guys really seemed to enjoy showing off their skills and having all of us there.

TJ's class originally started with over twenty students and these are the six men who have made it through and will be graduating! TJ has really had such a wonderful experience with these guys. He comes home telling me stories and cracking up laughing. It sounds bad to say but I am thankful that the class ended up so small because I feel like these guys really got to experience brotherhood and they developed real friendships which doesn't always happen in larger groups.

Here are some misc. pics of the evening.

 TJ is leading controlling the hose with his friend and classmate Tompkins backing him up.

 I wish I had gotten a quality picture of when TJ went up onto the latter to extinguish the fire but Riley was getting sleepy so I didn't have enough hands but it was definitely an awesome thing to watch.

 The last fire they tackled was the largest and I snapped this picture as soon as the blaze got going. Though this is not TJ in the picture it made for an awesome picture and we will be giving the man in the picture a copy.

 Tonight was such an amazing experience. I got to get to know the other students and their family and friends. I was able to meet a lot of the local firefighters who came in to assist the class since they were so small in number and didn't have enough men to do it alone. It helped me gain a greater respect for the bond that the firemen share. It really was like on giant family. So amazing.

 

One of the fireman's wives was gracious enough to snap a picture of the three of us. I have had that "mommy syndrome" lately where all of the pictures are of everyone but me because I am always behind the camera. I am so thankful that we were able to get one AND that Riley is actually looking at the camera! I swear I have no idea how TJ still looks so amazing after fighting fires since one o'clock this afternoon (this photo was taken around 8:30pm) but he does. I am so proud of his hard work and dedication to the program. He has absolutely just excelled and it truly blows me away what an amazing husband, father, and provider he has become.  



Easter Weekend 2014

We spent Easter weekend at my family's beach cabin this year. Riley was not feeling well the week before Easter but thankfully woke up Sunday morning feeling much better and was able to enjoy some of her Easter toys.

The Easter bunny was GOOD to Miss  Riley this year. I know it definitely seems overboard, however, we have been picking things up here and there for a couple of months that she either needed or would need in the near future & saving them for Easter.

 We have had her Easter outfit since before she was born. I absolutely LOVE the ruffles!!

Slightly obsessed with Riley's swimming outfit lol. The hat was a gift from TJs parents. She wears it every weekend and the sunglasses and swimsuit were from the "Easter Bunny".

Riley has recently developed a love of the water. She loves baths & since the water at the beach is so gross we decided to get her a baby pool for the porch at the cabin. She LOVED it.

He Uncle Layne & Aunt Cynthia got her a swing for the porch. If I would have let her she would have stayed in it all day! I feel so blessed to have such loving and supportive people around Riley. Her life is full of excellent role models and I could not be more thankful for that.

TJ's Photo Shoot

Before TJ's competition we decided we would have a photo shoot done. We had the opportunity to work with Thomas Coffman, an AMAZING photographer who really made the photo shoot an enjoyable experience for us. I highly recommend anyone looking for an awesome fitness/misc. photographer use him. Check out his Facebook Page to see more of his images and for his contact info. 

I mean.....YALL.....isnt he just the most?! Hahahaha. I am so proud of all of his hard work & I cannot brag on these pictures enough. Thomas did an AMAZING job & really made us feel comfortable. We shot the first pictures at the MetroFlex Gym in Houston and the second pictures in a water fall sculpture also in Houston. When we were at the waterfall cars of women were stopping and taking pictures of TJ with their phones!!! SO FUNNY. You could definitely say I am a proud wife. 

Riley is 5 Months Old!

Last week our little girl was five months old! So much has happened this month that I couldn't fit it all on the chalk board. She has developed such a little personality and always has so much to say, even though we cannot understand her. She is holding her own bottle, starting to sit up unsupported, she has become very aware of her surroundings (recognizing people, sounds and the direction noise comes from) and she has started eating baby food. (See my blog post for homemade baby food here)

Holding her own bottle.

 So excited because her feet finally touch the ground in her jumper!

Her daddy had to put together her high chair so we could start introducing baby food!

I just had to throw this picture in there because its so cute. She was cracking up laughing at her daddy. 

Riley before her first time eating baby food & her first bite of baby food. She is still not too sure about it but once she gets the hang of it I think she will love it!