What's Going On?!

I've been getting a lot of "where have you been" messages. I've been super busy and unfortunately neglecting this blog. My life has done a complete 180 in the past few months and it's great but I haven't had much time for myself let alone to blog. Here are some updates...

Apartment ;; As you know we moved into an apartment. We moved in with a guy named Phillip. He already had the apartment and we're renting it with him. He's really sweet and great with Lexi so I'm very happy that we're here. I love the whole complex. There is a huge walking path that goes around the whole complex. There are walking bridges that go over this huge pond and 2 gazebos. There are tons of frogs and there is a duck that lives in the pond. Lexi loves to go feed the duck, we do it almost every morning. There is also a building in the center of the complex with a huge room with a big flat screen, couches, and a fire place. There's a computer lab in there and a workout room in there as well. If you haven't seen the pictures, read my "apartment tour" post, it has a bunch of pics in it. Even though I miss our old house, we're finally settled in here && Lexi finally called it "home", which made me so happy. She had a little trouble at first and kept asking to go "home" (to our old house) and she'd get pretty upset but she's comfortable now && happy with our new place. Overall I'm happy with our move && it's nice to see that we can do it on our own. It's great to prove all the idiots that thought we couldn't do it wrong as well. ;)

Skinny Bitch Mode ;; I think I'm going to do a separate post with my diet && workout routine but I did want to mention this here. I've been working out 6 days a week. I wasn't huge or anything but I wasn't proud of my body like I used to be. When I was younger I could name 20 things I loved about my body off the top of my head. If you asked me to do the same thing within the past couple years, I wouldn't even be able to name 1. I miss my flat tummy && tight abs. I miss my toned legs && thighs && especially my toned booty. ;) I wanted to be proud of my body again so I decided enough was enough && I was going to really watch what I eat && start working out again. I've been eating a lot healthier;; lots of fruits && veggies && I've been juicing as well. I drink a lot of those Naked juices, eat protein bars before I work out, and I've been cooking at home so I can watch the calories. I can still eat the things I like, I just need to exercise portion control. I try not to eat when I'm bored anymore && I don't eat close to bedtime. I'm really proud of my workouts. I switch between the treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, weights, and floor exercises. Between the treadmill, elliptical, and bike I do about 7 miles each workout. Not only am I looking better, but I feel a whole lot better as well. I took some "before" pictures on the first day of my new diet/exercise plan, and I'm going to take pictures every month so I can see my progress. In a few months I'll post them so you guys can see how I'm changing too.

Family/Friends Time ;; We've been spending a lot of time with family and close friends lately. Family is #1 to me and we've been doing a lot of family activities lately. In the past few weeks we've gone to a family dinner at my dad's apartment, went to the DuPage Children's Museum with Tom's brother && sister-in-law, and went to the Abbey Farms Pumpkin Patch in Aurora with Mike && Jenny. Also a month ago my friend Jacqui that I've known since I was very young gave birth to her first child, a little boy. We went to see her in the hospital and meet the baby. :)

Work ;; Tom's been busting his ass on the daily && I've been home with Lexi && babysitting for my friend Brittany's son Adrian to earn some extra money while I'm looking for a full time job. I've also been doing my online surveys like crazy && focus groups as well. I've been writing articles and trying to sell them on Constant Content. I have a few people interested in a couple different pieces I've written so we'll see who the highest bidder is && hopefully I'll make some money through that website because we could always use it. Most of the articles go anywhere from $30 to $100. Hopefully one of mine will sell soon!!

Halloween ;; I have really good memories from when I was young with my mom doing all kinds of fun stuff with my brother && I for every holiday. I want to do the same with my kids. For Halloween we've made Halloween cookies, made Halloween cupcakes && decorated them, and yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch. Lexi loved it, we picked out a big pumpkin, went on a hayride, ate apple cider donuts, Lexi went in one of those bounce houses, and did a corn maze. We went with Tom's brother && sister-in-law (Mike && Jenny),  who are also Lexi's Godparents. Today we're going to carve the pumpkin that we picked out yesterday. We already went costume shopping and Lexi decided that she wants to be Minnie Mouse so now we just have to go back && buy the actual costume.

Potty Training ;; I'm happy to say that Lexi is full potty trained!! She has known how to use the potty for quite some time now but we still had her in diapers just in case. She's been wearing big girl undies now for almost a week && only had 2 accidents the first two days && none after that, not even at night!! I'm so proud of her. She really caught on quick && it makes things a lot easier (and cheaper!) for us.

Nevaeh is 5!! ;; My first born, my beautiful princess Nevaeh is going to be 5 in just a couple days. I'll write a blog post on her birthday (October 26) but I wanted to mention that we've been getting her birthday stuff together && I am in total shock that my little baby girl is already going to be 5. It feels like I was just holding her in my arms and waking up at crazy times of the night to feed her... Time flies.

Here are some pics:

Jacqui and I

Lexi, me, && Jacqui

Mommy && baby

Jacqui, Daniel, && I

Lexi playing at the DuPage Children's Museum

Lexi and I at the museum

Lexi && I in the "Bubble Booth"

Lexi at Lou Malnati's next to Aunt Jenny

Me && Tom at Lou Malnati's

Family dinner/card night (Tom, Lexi, me, my aunt && uncle were also there, just not pictured.)

Adrian && Lexi in the gazebo in our apartment complex

Lexi && Adrian enjoying their Halloween cupcakes

The Halloween cupcakes we made

The Halloween cookies we made

My Pretty Princess <3

My little gymnast-- gold medal for best handstand && blue ribbon for holding onto the bar the longest!!

 I promise I'll make more of an effort to blog. Make sure you comment if you're reading my blog, even if you don't have a Blogger account! I see that I have tons of page views and I get tons of messages but not many comments. Don't be shy! haha. ;) I'll write again soon!

xo, Sarah