Fa la la freaking la.

Would this holiday season end already?? While I enjoy all the festivities that this time of year brings...I am ready to be over it! Back on a normal schedule and sweating my buns off in the gym!!

Headed back there tonight with a training session schedule for tomorrow!

The real 'first day' of training starts tomorrow!!

So I fully expect a butt whooping tomorrow! One that will leave me barely able to walk, sit or stand the following day....which is good and bad! Good cause I wanna get skinny stat.....bad cause I expect about 40 people wearing ugly sweaters to enter my house on Saturday evening and I have 863 things left to do to get ready for this!! Good times for sure this coming week! Bring it!!!

Better pick up some Aleve tomorrow and have it next to the bed!!

So here we go blog world -- I've decided to join this crazy blog world!!

My intention is to use this blog as an outlet to track my weight loss....so here we go!

Everyone has there "ah-ha" moment and mine came on 11/30/2012.

 

I'd like to believe that I was on my way to this moment anyway, I had already hired a personal trainer (my cousin-in-law - but I am paying her through the gym - and I am glad, it will keep me honest!). Sarah (cousin-in-law) and I were working out the details on when she'd start training me, I would join the gym on 12/5/12 and we'd start in that night.............so I am pretty excited about that and then we took the life changing trip to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO.

 

A couple months ago my parents had mentioned that they would be going to Branson from 11/28 - 12/2, they needed us to keep Chase, their Chocolate Lab (formerly my dog, but that's a story for a later date). I said sure..........not thinking that mid-September, I sent out my Facebook Event for our Ugly Sweater Holiday Party for 12/1............um, that leaves me without a sitter, because my sisters and any friends we would normally ask to keep him will all be at the (kid free) party..............G R E AT!!! By the way, this thought woke me up in the middle of the night and I was rather upset about it..............so I talked to the Husband and he was all for me going...............you see, its Duck Hunting season and he's down with shooting the birds -- not running up and down the hills at Silver Dollar City, watching 'It's aWonderful Life and 'A Christmas Carol', sipping hot chocolate, getting stuck behind old peole driving rascals running into things, etc, etc............He said he didn't care if myself and H (my almost 3 year old went) so I called mom and invited myself and then I proceeded to invite my two sisters, a brother-in-law and my adorable 10 year old neice who tried to kill me by asking me to ride the Powder Keg....but really, I think she may have just saved my life -- we'll get to that.............

 

Side note: My sisters, our spouses and children are incredibly blessed by two loving parents that have been together for 39 years (they married while mom was a Sr. in High School and she was not even pregnant)...............Anyway, they own a butt load of points (like the most you can buy, its our inheritance), so we pretty much never have to pay for a place to stay and when we do it sucks big time................not because we have to pay so much, but we are used to being spoiled with full kitchen, washer, dryer and all the amenities of a timeshare, with none of the expense -- yah, spoiled!!!

 

So mom and dad were cool with us crashing their weekend, in fact, they were excited! We were too! I had to reschedule the ugly sweater party to 12/15/2012. Sweet deal, a few people already had plans, but most could make it on that date, so not too shabby....one bummer, my BFF that is home from Germany for only 3 weeks is now not able to attend, because she leaves on 12/10....that makes me sad!

 

So our journey begins on 11/29 at about 6:00pm we start out for Branson, MO to meet up with my parents who were already there, they left the day before. I drove Big Momma (my rather large SUV). In the car was myself, my 2 year old son, Hunter, my sister Laura, my sister Sara, her husband Paul (poor guy) and my niece Madison. We stopped along the way, had some Cracker Barrel and headed on down Interstate 44 to meet up with the parents. We safely (thank you Lord) arrived in Branson just before midnight, got our stuff in the condo and headed to bed...............Silver Dollar City opened at 1:00 and we wanted to make a quick stop at the outlet to visit Coach (mom had been there earlier in the day and they told her they expected a line to form outside on Saturday). We headed out of the condo just before 10:00am. Hit the outlet, ran back to the condo to drop off our buys........I may have purchased more than 2 Coach items during that trip.........LOL! Back out the door to Silver Dollar City -- where almost dying made me want to live!!

 

The day started off great -- we ran into Michelle Duggar and a few of her 19 kids before we'd even walk into Silver Dollar City. We headed straight to see 'It's a Wonderful Life', we did some walking around, train riding and just doing what you do at Silver Dollar City. We (myself, Sara, Madison and Paul) all went to ride 'Wild Fire'. It was a good time, no waiting, upside down thrills! But before we could take off the rollercoaster operator had to release the bar on row #6, so that Madison and I could switch sides........her seat belt had more slack in it then the one that I sat down in, so we switched and everything was fine, we rode the ride. Got off the ride, met up with everyone else and grabbed a bite to eat quickly. Then we ran to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. It was amazing and so beautiful! After the lighting, we trotted off to see 'A Christmas Carol'. It was a great play. Immediately after that, was a potty break.............followed by my adorable niece (whom I have a hard time saying no to) asking me to take her on 'The Powder Keg' ride. It's roughly 7:00, the electric light parade starts at 8:00 we have time! Everyone else bails, its just her and I...........as we stand in line, she convinces me that we need to ride in the front - it's dark and she's never been in the front of a rollercoaster after dark (did I mention that I can't tell her no?).

 

So here we go, we proceed to row #1............yep, we waited there, while we people watched. Before we knew it, it was our turn, she was saying that she was nervous and she had flutters, I was ok, I had been on the other roller coaster and it went upside down, I fit in that seat and I enjoyed the ride..............I maybe wondered in the back of my mind if I would fit......but I was ok on the other coaster, why wouldn't I be on this one.............it's our turn, she jumps in first, raises her arms for them to push down the bar and she tells me to do the same...........I do........and the guy working the ride on my side says -- "I don't know if you are going to be able to ride!" He pushes down hard and I hear one click! At this point I am TERRIFIED and I cannot breath, I wanna cry, but I don't want to scare her! I'm trying to figure out how I can stay on this ride, how am I not going to fall out, where can I place my hands and feet, there is literally no where for me to go when this bar holding me in breaks, the only place I can go is over board...........and before you know it -- the light on the ride goes...............RED................YELLOW...................G-R-E-E-N. OMG! My niece is screaming her head off in pure joy, she's loving it, asking me if I am loving it -- I am not loving it --
I am seeing my 2 year old with no mom -- I am seeing me leaving my husband and my 2 bonus daughters, me leaving my parents, me leaving my siblings and worst of all...........my niece is sitting next to me and she is going to see my die -- she is going to witness me flying off of this rollercoaster and die, all because I am too fat..........there will never be enough therapy to help her cope with this........SoI hang on all the while thinking how ridiculous this is...........my weight has sort of been a rollercoaster and while I enjoy rollercoasters, I am not enjoying this one! This weight rollercoaster is going to kill me and I am going to miss out on life's finer moments, because I am too fat..................I am not willing to do that and I am getting off of it...........like now! I so wanted to enjoy that moment with my niece -- she sure was enjoying it -- I wanted to look at her face and watch her as we went straight down on those hills, but I did not want her to see the terror on my face. I literally told her on one of our climbs to the top of a hill..........."Madison, if I fly off of here, you tell Hunter I love him with all my heart, tell Uncle Jason that I love him & the girls, tell Ma Ma and Pa Pa I love them, and my sisters. I was so scared and I think she thought I was being silly, but I wasn't....I played it that way, but I was scared..............so so scared...........and I don't know how this fat butt got air in my seat, but I did...........I knew when my butt flew up that I was flying off that ride.........Finally we make it back to the gate (safety bar held me in) and I am alive........THANK GOD!!! Madison and I ran to meet up with everyone else to watch the parade and I filled my family in on the fact that I was convinced I was going to die on that ride...........like really going to die....................They all laughed and honestly the story was funny, but I was going to die and maybe it wasn't on that ride, but I am putting my body on an out of control rollercoaster with my weight and food choices..............so maybe that rollercoaster was my wake up call.............I am killing myself by being so unhealthy............so here we go, let's lose this!!!

 

I told Madison that had I been in any other row, but row #1, I would have felt a bit more safe, I would have been able to hold on to the seat in front of me when my bar came loose...but being in that front row going up and down -- I was going overboard, there was nothing to hold on to..........................So Thank you Madison Elizabeth for being so adventerous and wanting to ride in row #1 in the dark, you gave me the wake up call I needed!

 

 

Here's a quick video of the ride....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0gx3e-tuL84