20 Years Ago...

Wow. I can't even believe it was 20 years ago today that my little brother Luke was born. He was the first boy in our family and we were so excited that he was here! But God chose to keep him here for only a few days. He passed away 3 days later on Jan 29.

I was just telling someone the other day about Luke and the day he was born. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was on a Friday and I was in the 5th grade. As with most Fridays in elementary school, it was spelling test day. We were sitting in class and Ms Gorham was giving us our spelling test when the school secretary walked in and gave her a small pink note. I didn't pay much attention to it, other than I was patiently waiting to hear from my dad about the baby being born. (Side note, when we woke up that morning, Gma Howard was there and Sue and Dad were at the hospital. It was a fun way to wake up!)Anyway, Ms Gorham kept on giving us the test and just walked by my desk and placed this pink note on my desk. At the bottom of the While You Were Out note were the most beautiful words I've ever read... IT'S A BOY!!!! I was so excited I started crying! Everyone started looking at me and Ms Gorham stopped the test and said, "Everything is ok, Lauren just found out she has a new baby brother!!" I was pretty cool!

I probably wont post anything about the day he died, because it's not something I want to think about. That, and I dont remember as much about that day.

So, Baby Luke, you may not be here on earth with us any more, but that doesn't mean you're not here with us. I love you and think about you often and what our life would be like if you were still here. I can't wait until I get to heaven and I get to see you again! You were the first brother I ever had and I love you very much!!

And for those of you reading this who have kids or younger brothers and sisters, give them a kiss and cherish your time with them.

Phoenix

Today I'm headed to Phoenix to spend some time with my mom and stepdad. I'm excited to go! Going to be a great time!! It's been cold here lately so I'm really glad to get to spend some time in warmer weather. I want to say a BIG thank you to Heather for taking care of the puppies while I'm gone. Thanks girl!!

By the way, for those of you who read this blog, but don't read my sisters, you need to check it out. There is a really GREAT pic of Jules on her blog when she opened her gift from Grandma Sue. I love it and I LOVE HER!!! www.chefstinsonfamily.blogspot.com Check it out!

50-Day Weight Loss Challenge is done...

And the final count is... 29 pounds.! I'm pretty excited about it! Didn't quite hit exactly what I wanted to, but I'm pretty happy with that total. Still have about 45 more pounds to go to get exactly where I want to be. I'm giving myself until April 1st to reach that goal. I'll keep you all posted!

I'm also need to put some pictures up on here. I've got some cute ones of my nieces and Heather's kids! And of course, my puppies.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy New Year!

Christmas and so many other things

So, after the last couple days I'm very thankful that I have now moved south! Right now Des Moines is under about 14 inches of snow and have snow drifts up to 10 feet!!! They say it's one of the worst snow storms in about 20 years. Craziness!

But speaking of DSM, I was just there last week! I got to take a week off work and go home and it was a great trip! I left the Saturday after Thanksgiving and came home this past Sunday, so I was there for an entire week. Sat when I got into town, I headed straight to my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Denny's house for our Brown family Christmas. It was a great way to see everyone all at the same time... including my brother! That night was the only time that all 5 of us (including Drew) were together. So we got some great pictures taken. One of these days I'll put some pics up on this blog so everyone can see the things I'm talking about!

Sunday was a great day. I went to church at Berean in the morning and then to a small church in Mitchellville that my friend Andrew is now going to. I got to see a lot of my old friends and other people. Sunday night I went to my friend Torrie's house and spent some quality time with my Torrie and Dallas, Andrew, Jen, Mike and Taylor and Drake! I love those kids and was so happy to see them! Monday I ran some errands and then went to Adrian and Drew's to celebrate Drew's birthday. I got to see both sets of his parents and spend some time with my Grandpa Tonsi. Plus spend some time with my crazy little niece! She's so cute and I miss her a lot!

Tuesday put me, Dad, Sue, Courtney and Grandma Howard in the car to Mankato, MN to see Morgan play in his first jazz band concert as a college student. He had a solo in the song O Holy Night (which is my favorite Christmas song!) and did a WONDERFUL job! I was very proud of him! It was a fun little trip to take and to spend some time with everyone in the car. Wednesday I spent the morning at my friend Vanessa's, just catching up on life. She does day care in her home and it was fun to see how all her kiddos have grown. Wed night I went to youth at Berean. It was great to see some familiar faces and to see all the changes that have happened since I've moved. I had the chance after church to go to my friends Bill and Mary's house and hang out with them, Katie, James and Becky. I didn't leave until almost 2am on Thursday! I was tired and thankful for the ability to sleep in on Thursday!

Thursday afternoon I spent the afternoon shopping with Sue. Well, she shopped and I just hung out with her. It was a fun time just spending some one on one time with her. Thursday night I had dinner with my Aunt Sherry and it was great to catch up with her too. Up until Thursday, I had been staying at my parents house, but Thurs night I went to stay with my sister. Got to have some great cuddle time with Jules! I just love her!! Friday, Adrian and I did a little shopping and I went to get my hair done. My Aunt Netty is in cosmetology school, so I went to her and she did a GREAT job! I've gotten so many compliments on it since then! Friday night I went out with my friends to Cheesecake Factory. Fun times! I did buy a piece of cheesecake to eat on Saturday because Sat was my cheat day on my diet! It was yummy too!

On Saturday I spent the day cooking a meal for my family. We had our Christmas on Saturday night and had a lot of people over to my parents house. It was so much fun. I got some really great things from everyone, but the best part was just seeing everyone and spending time with them. We were supposed to have it at Adrian and Drew's but Drew and Julianna were pretty sick so we moved it to my parents. They didn't end up coming that night, so that was a bummer because I would have loved some more time with Jules, but they didn't need to make anyone else sick. It was a great night. I stayed at my parents on Sat night and left about 7:45 Sunday morning. And after 12 hours in the car, I made it home! I was happy to see my puppies! They missed me, I know they did. You can just ask them. Lol!

Anyway, that's pretty much the rundown of my trip! It was a wonderful time and I was able to spend quality time with several groups of people and got to rest some too. It did make me a little more homesick, but I know it's mainly because I hadn't been home in 5 months. So, I'm looking forward to my next trip home. Hopefully that will be sometime in the spring!

Thanks for reading my book! lol!

10 POUNDS!!!!!!!!

I have lost 10 pounds on my diet so far!!!!!!!! Do you know how excited I am right now???? I'm beyond pumped! That's 10 pounds in two and a half weeks. It really does pay to stick it out!

Today has been a good day all around! I went to Sams Club this morning to get these twin Cabbage Patch dolls for my niece and ended up with an 8GB Ipod Nano for myself! It was only $135 and I have been wanting one FOREVER! It does video and has a radio and everything. I LOVE IT! It's a really pretty blue color too.

So, great and exciting day for me all around!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I love you all!!

Well...

Not much to report! Things are good! I'm sticking to my diet and working out every other day. Right now I'm very inspired by Rebecca from this season of the Biggest Loser. She's from Des Moines and started out weighing 279 lbs. She got kicked off last night and after she came home, she continued her journey and ran the DSM half marathon! In 5 months she has lost 122 and now weighs 157 lbs! So, if she can do it, I can do it! I know 5 months is a short amount of time to lose weight and that she had the Biggest Loser trainers and probably works out for hours every day, but she made the choice to start. And so did I! So, thank you Rebecca for helping me achieve my weightloss goals! I'm totally rooting for you to be the at home winner! You can do it!

I hope these blog entries have helped inspire you or at the very least, caused you to think. You can do this! Trust me, if I can make the decision to eat right and healthy, then ANYONE can! God is giving me the strength to keep going and to achieve some discipline in my life. So, maybe this is the jump start you need in your life to start making healthy choices. It doesnt take much to see a difference. Maybe you just need to cut out fast food or pop or something, but whatever it is, do something! Get moving! You WILL see a difference!

Have a good one!

Day 4 and other updates...

Well, today is Day 4 of the 50 Day Fat Loss Challenge, and I've been doing pretty well! You know, I'm actually learning that I like healthy food and it's not too much trouble to eat healthy. So, if you are interested in doing this, check out the 50 day Fat Loss Challenge blog in my previous post.

So, I can't believe that 2 weeks from now Thanksgiving will already be over with! But more importantly, 2 weeks from tomorrow I'm driving home for a week!! I'm so excited to see everyone. I haven't seen my beautiful niece (or anyone else for that matter!) since she turned 3 in June. I'm leaving early Saturday morning and am planning on being gone until the following Sunday. It's going to be a great trip! I've already got most of the week filled up.

Other than waiting to go home and sticking to my diet plan, not much else is going on. I'm getting ready to do a Christmas party for the kids at church. I think I'm going to call it "A Gaudy and Godly Christmas" and we are going to decorate the youth room in as much tacky Christmas stuff as we can find! Should be a fun time!

I hope all is well with all of you!