Down 20 and counting

A while back I had mentioned that I was doing weight watchers online. That was for three months and I lost 10 glorious pounds. Then we went to the farm and I gained 5 pounds of delicious carbs and desserts.

In September I was in my best friends wedding as the Maid of honour, and even though I had to get my dress taken in, I was still uncomfortable with the way I looked. Even more so during pictures...and let me tell you, pictures don't lie! After the wedding I had my " A Ha" moment, where it finally clicked in my brain. I said to myself, "Ana, you're fat, you hate being fat, you hate wearing fat girl clothes so do something about it" I've had this type of conversation in my head before... but then i would see a piece of delicious oreo cake with butter cream icing and then the conversation would go a little something like this, " Ana, you're not THAT fat...You have curves!" Thats what fat girls say to make themselves feel better.

I've always wanted to be a yummy mummy and not the mummy with a huge tummy, so i said goodbye to old fat Ana and said hello to Jillian Michaels. So far i've lost 20 pounds and I feel AMAZING! I also look amazing by the way...I still have a tummy, but it no longer looks like im 6 months pregnant, maybe around 2 months preggo so i gotta keep going! I also have to admit that it feel pretty damn good when people compliment me...it keeps me motivated! I still have to lose more weight, but i'm confident that I can do it!

Hello?

Growing up, it was drilled into my head that when someone was coming over to your house, or if you were going to someone elses home, you needed to greet them. Always. If they were Latino, then it would be with a kiss, and for everybody else, a handshake or just a "Hi how are you". When it would be time to go, no matter how many people are there you say good bye to everyone. And I mean EVERYBODY. This process would and still can take a long time. But it was and still is the polite thing to do right?!?!. This is not even a question in the latin community. I know that i have to say hello and goodbye period. I do find that when I am at non latino events that people come and go and most of the time not even saying hello or goodbye. I find this so odd and sometimes even rude. Recently I was at a baby shower where I was having a great conversation with someone...who I would say is a friend, and when there was a silent moment in the conversation she got up. I thought maybe she was getting more food, or going to the bathroom. Next thing I knew she was out the door. Didn't say goodbye to me or even more importantly the host. I would say this person is very friendly and probably just needed to go home, so she left. I just sometimes take it a little too personally, maybe because I am trying so hard to fit in here and make friends, that when things like that happen, I think "how rude" and they probably don't think to say goodbye to that crazy Ana girl, or even whoever the host is. Sometimes I just hear my mothers voice in my head saying " You're not animals, so don't be rude and come say hello/goodbye" ( It's alot funnier in Spanish!) so maybe it's so stuck in my head that anything outside of that is just weird when maybe it really isn't? Who knows...just know if you dont say hi or bye, then i think you're an animal! :)

Christmas!

This year our family went to Alberta for Christmas. It was amazing. It was a very busy time and I'm thankful that Peter and I were able to plan ahead of time and schedule everyone in that we wanted to see! I would have liked to spend more time with some people, but during the holidays it's hard to do that when everyone has other people to see. Peter and I truly felt so blessed to have all our friends and family make an effort to see us, and we were beyond blown away on how everything worked out! One of our get togethers consisted of over 30 people...including children! As amazing as it was, i found myself always fighting back tears. There were

many times where I would come home from somewhere and I would just break out into tears. I was so happy to have been able to spend time with people I love, but so sad to have say goodbye AGAIN, and not know when I would see some of them again. Anyways, enough of the sad stuff...our trip was awesome and I can't wait to go back! Here are some photos of our time in Edmonton and Calgary!

Here are my boys in their matching Christmas Pj's and my adorable new niece Miriam!