Dear Santa

Yeah I know I've been a slacker in the blogging area the last few months . . . maybe it's because I have been slacking on my weight loss program . . . never fear the holidays will soon be over and I can start all over come January.

So one of my friends so cute the last few years has written these rather short but sweet Dear Santa letters. One year she prayed for a safe trip home for the holidays (she's from wyoming and the winter storms get in the way a lot when she travels home for the holidays). Santa was kind enough to give her just that one year . . . another year she asked Santa for a boyfriend. . . and Santa did just that . . . not only did she get a boyfriend she got her husband. This year she is asking Santa for a job for husband. Seeing that she is pregnant and due in February she definitely can no longer be the bread winner and finding a job has been harder in this economy than normal (I completely understand that . . . I think it is somewhat an understatement when I say it has been harder than normal). Maybe she's got the right idea. Granted I stopped really believing in the big guy when I was about 6 or 7 thanks to my older sister who spoiled that for me. But maybe I shouldn't stop believing. ha ha ha So here I go

Dear Santa,

Please find me a boyfriend/husband for Christmas. I don't think it's asking a lot seeing is that I have been waiting a long time for this. I'm not too picky. All I ask for is someone that is a worthy temple recommend holder, easy to get a long with, doesn't have any major issues (ie: has a hard time sticking to the gospel teachings), isn't crazy or mentally not there, someone who will treat me the way I deserve, and someone who will be a good husband, provider, father, for me and my future children.

Love,

Erin

Before/After Fun

Monday I went up to my sister Alison's house. I hadn't been up there in awhile so it was good to spend time with her and her family. After we started getting the kids ready for bed, Alison & zipped off to get fabric at JoAnn's for the baby blankets that I am making for two of my friends that are pregnant. As we are driving over I asked Alison since she hadn't seen me in a while if she has noticed a difference with the whole weight loss thing and she said that she hasn't because she hasn't really been paying attention. She then started bugging me to see if I had a before and after pic. I said I have a before pic, but no recent after pic. I happened to be wearing the same shirt that I was wearing in my before pic. My before pic is the weekend of the mid-singles conference, I had gone to the Angel's game with my roommate. So she insisted on taking some after pics so we could see the difference. My after pic isn't that great. I hadn't done my hair that day and she said for me to take my hair down so you could get the whole effect. But you get the idea. It all makes it rewarding when you see the difference in front of you.

After on the Left and Before is on the Right

25.6 and Counting

I went to weigh in on Saturday morning and I am officially 25.6 lbs lighter than when started my weight loss journey a little over 4 months ago. I can hardley believe it. I am so totally stoked. I got a fun little charm to go on my key chain to celebrate my 25 lbs from ww.

How did I celebrate you ask? Not the usual reward of flowers, I went with my friends during Priesthood session to get a pedi and my eyebrows waxed. I also went out to eat. And while I wasn't completely on track for dinner, I felt like it was ok. It is ok to treat yourself every once in a while. Plus I had ran 4 miles earlier that day so I didn't feel quite as bad.

Here's to 25.6 lbs gone and 53 lbs to go. I am 1/3 of the way to my goal!!

Did you get it yet??

So I think it is kind of funny how Heavenly Father works. He will keep teaching us a lesson until we get it.

Well as you know I have ventured off in the uncharted waters of online dating. And since I am 30 I started thinking, well maybe I am just being too picky and that is why I haven't gotten married. So as I start talking to some people I think well I can over look this and I can over look that.

I taught the Young Women on Sunday about Marriage Standards. I gave them a Big Hunk and I said that although we are all wishing and hoping for the Big Hunk, I then pulled out these cute little sun glasses that I got from the 99 cent store with a little quote tied onto it saying "Look closely as you "eye" your prospective marriage partner. You will be yoked together for eternity. Be sure your "eyes" are on the same goals" I talked to them about setting goals like getting married in the temple and how I haven't compromised on that standard

Then the other day I caught myself trying to give a guy a chance, he was a member but hasn't been active for a while and started becoming active again recently, but obviously he can't take me to the temple. I was talking to my sister and she said the funniest thing. "Erin, I wish I could plop my brain in your head" Long story short she gave me comfort in rejecting someone because they don't currently have a temple recommend.

So needlessly to say I think the Young Women Message was for me just as much as it was for them. And it is like Heavenly Father is saying to me, "Duh Erin, Did you get it yet?" Yes, Heavenly Father, I got it. I started looking at guys profiles and if they say under the temple status side, "temple worthy no recommend, rather not say, etc." I don't even give them a second glance.

Top 10 Ten Reasons Why Online Dating Sucks

So I go back and forth between online dating. I sign up for a month and then I will walk away from it. I have always had mixed feelings about it. So just for your enjoyment pleasure I have made a list of Top 10 Reasons Why Online Dating Sucks.

10. Creepy guys from random countries try to get you to be their VISA ticket to the USA

9. Guys who are old enough to be your dad keep looking at your profile . . . REALLY?? You honestly think somone 30 years younger than you would be interested in dating you??

8. Instead of getting rejected just by one guy you get rejected by several a day. Whether it be that they look at your profile and don't do anything or you message them or flirt with them and they never send a response back. Great for the self-esteem. If you didn't feel bad about yourself before it sure will make you feel even worse afterwards.

7. You thought that dating in your ward was slim pickings try online dating . . . even slimmer than your ward

6. You can invent whoever you want online. So you may think you are talking to a real nice guy but really he's a creeper

5. Sometimes you get a guy who initiates contact with you and then once you start talking to the guy they go mute and you have to create the whole conversation. (Try IM'g with someone who doesn't help you carry on a conversation)

4. Guys online are just as challenged as guys in real life (meaning they are lacking a lot of social skills)

3. Essentially you feel like you are part of a Breakfast Buffet, They can puruse all of the pictures and pick which ones they like and don't like just like you would the Breakfast Buffet

2. People keep telling you that Online Dating actually works, including well meaning family members who just want you to be married and happy, but so far you've tried and you have yet to meet the man of your dreams.

And the #1 Reason why Online Dating Sucks is Online Dating isn't really dating . . . you still aren't going on dates. . . . so what's the point.

This isn't to make anyone who has tried and enjoys Online Dating feel bad. This is just from my personal experinece and I am venting.

Weight Loss Fizzle

Ok I know, most of you are probably thinking . . . not another weight loss blog. But I can't help it . . . it is what is on my mind.

Two weeks ago I hit 22 lbs. I felt amazing. I couldn't believe that I had lost that much weight. Shortly after I hit this big wall that I can't seem to climb over. It is like all that motivation to track and watch what I was eating and staying on the program just drained out of me . . . I just got this really bad attitude and said to myself. I don't want to track, I don't want to count points, I want to eat whatever I feel like eating. I went to my meeting on Saturday and one of the worker bee's (as I like to call them) told me that she sees this with so many people. When they hit 20-25 lbs they just seem to fizzle out. She made me promise that I would track and I did make the promise . . . but it is Monday and I still have yet to track and I still ate the two pcs of cake that were offered to me yesterday and I still didn't care about tracking and paying attention to what I was eating. Somehow I have to find the motivation and drive that I have had for the last several months. Maybe that is why I am blogging right now.

I know that 90% of it is all in my head and I have to figure out to get over this mental wall. I do want to achieve my goal, right now I'm just at a loss of how?

Out of My Element

I always like getting new callings because it challenges me in ways that I wasn't challeneged before. I recently got called to be a Young Women's Advisor in my ward. I immediately felt overwhelmed with the calling when I accepted it. Mind you I haven't been in a family ward in close to 10 years. It isn't really the teaching part that scares me so much. I have been a Primary Teacher, Gospel Principles Teacher, & Gospel Doctorine Teacher. So I love teaching. What intimidates me is at least with the Primary kids you know they aren't paying attention so it doesn't really matter. Gospel Principles & Gospel Doctorine they do listen as well as participate so it makes teaching really easy. Young Women on the other hand. . . they are listening and they refuse to voluntarily participate. I taught my first lesson two weeks ago and seriously . . . when I asked questions you could hear crickets chirp. I just started calling on them to make them participate.
The other part that intimidates me is . . . I haven't had to carry on a conversation with someone this age in forever. I don't spend a lot of time with my niece and nephew that are this age and the nieces and nephews that I do spend time with are all little and all you have to do is love and play with them. I went to Young Women's last night and had to pick up two of the girls for the activity and I just feel sooo awkward. I just want to love and bond with this girls, but I have forgotten how. You would think that it wouldn't be so intimidating seeing that I once was one of these girls, but for some reason it just makes me all sorts of uncomfortable. I am grateful for this calling. I know that it will be really good for me. But most of all I want to be a good leader and example to them.

Dress Size??

Okay so I'm sorry that all of my blog posts lately have been related to my recent "lifestyle" change as Weight Watchers likes to put it . . . but that is what is going on in my life so if you are tired of reading about it . . . too bad that is my life and is what I have to talk about.

For the past few weeks I have really started to notice how big my clothes were getting on me. Yesterday I finally decided that enough was enough. I had already raided my closet looking for smaller sizes for work pants and for some reason . . . I don't have any . . . I must have worn dresses more when I was that size. Anyway so I walked into Costco to order a cake for my co-worker's baby shower and right when I walked in I saw that they had some dress pants for sale for only $15. I'm thinking this is awesome. What a great deal. Well of course you can't try them on in the store so I bought them and went home to try them on. They sort of fit. Well at least I could zip up the zipper and button the button, but I felt like the pants had been painted on me. I was sooo frustrated. My current size is way too big, but the size smaller was too small. I felt deflated. I had convinced my roommate to go with me to Old Navy. Again, I felt like they were a little snug, but my roommate and the lady at the store told me that they looked fine. So I wound up buying them and I am currently wearing them. I still feel they are a little too snug in my pooch area, but I guess I've always been self conscious about that and I can cover it up with shirts.

The point of my story. Today I logged on to Weight Watchers and they had written an article about sizes and they showed the drastic differences between stores on sizes. I had already know this, but I never realized that it was this bad. Below is the sizing chart for a size 8 at many popular stores.

Mini Rewards

How do you reward yourself? While on my weight loss journey I tried to think of ways to reward myself for losing weight. It is like when you were little and your mom would wrap her arms around you and give you a kiss and tell you how proud she is of you.

Even though losing the weight in and if itself is rewarding. My roommate said I should reward myself. Normally a person would go out and eat to celebrate, but as Jason my group leader says, "that's what got us where we are in the first place." So what I'm about to tell you may sound a little silly and frivolous to some, it really cheers me up and makes me happy.

Fresh Flowers always make me happy. Especially Gerbera Daisies (my personal favorite), but any flower makes me happy. Spring is my favorite season and part of that is because I grew up in Utah we always had about 4-5 mos of brown drabness. Then about March everything started to turn green and most of all the flowers started to bloom.

Now here comes the frivolity... I have been known to buy flowers for myself quite often. In fact I have bought them for myself more than I have received them from significant others. Well how have I been rewarding myself you might guess?? See for yourself... My reward for losing 20.6 lbs

Why Do You Eat?

Food, while it is a necessity for living sometimes we tend to abuse it. As you may or may not know I have struggled with my weight most of my life and this past year it reached its all time high. I was so frustrated that I wasn't fitting into my clothes and I refused to go out and buy new clothes especially if it meant going up a size.

As you know I have been on my journey of becoming a new me. I joined Weight Watchers 12 weeks ago and I have lost 19 lbs so far. I am starting to fit into some of my old clothes again and this makes me really excited. I started thinking about why I was doing it the other day and didn't put two and two together, but really it is part of my journey that I have been on the last year to figure out some of my issues and resolve them. Focus on me time is what I like to fondly call it, but really it is me learning to love myself. Everyone always says I have the biggest heart and that I just love everyone no matter what. But that was always everyone but myself. Last year I started to focus on things that I could control. I started getting my medications in check, I started seeing someone and talking about some of the issues that I had, I started sticking up for myself (which I will always be working on), I started working in the temple so that I could grow closer to my Heavenly Father and see myself the way he does, and finally my weight loss journey. Yeah sure it feels nice to have people compliment me on my journey, but really I am doing it for myself. I want to be happy with myself and regardless of what size I am, I am going to know that I am where I am because of what I have done to get there.

With that all being said recent meetings at Weight Watchers has made me think about why I eat? Yesterday I realized that a big part of it is I am emotional eater. Being the highly emotional, sensitive, yet loving person that I am. . . it comes to stark revelation why I am where I was 12 weeks ago. What made me come to this stark revelation you ask?? Well yesterday was the day from hell!! And since I didn't pack any fruit or snacks, by the end of the work day I was not only mentally and emotionally exhausted, I had already pretty much eaten my daily alotment that I have for the day from Weight Watchers. And it didn't stop there. I drove through Taco Bell and got myself dinner on my way home knowing perfectly well it wasn't going to fill me up and when I got home from FHE and the grocery store I then proceeded to eat a bowl of cereal and some slices of pizza that my roommate had brought home from work.

What have I learned from yesterday's catastrophe of eating . . . well I am pretty sure that the scale is going to go up instead of down, which I have come to accept the consequences of my actions. I need to ALWAYS pack snacks . . . today I brought my cheese twists and two bananas. Totally prepared today. Have a big breakfast so I am not so hungry throughout the day. Finally, I need to find a new outlet to release my strees, anxiety, and emotional turmoil.

No need to worry

Apparently I made some concerned about me after my last post. Let me rest everyone's worries. . . . no need to be concerned. The non-member boy mentioned was a flirtation and it was already on its way of ending the day I wrote the last blog entry and I thought I had conveyed that by what I had written, but I guess I hadn't. For sure the flirtation is over and done with and I won't be giving a second glance.

Ever since I was a little girl I dreamed of getting married in the temple. Now that I am working in the Newport Beach Temple every Saturday, the goal to have an eternal family is even more clear and stronger than ever before. I love going to the temple. The gospel is so important to me that I can't imagine my life without it. Tonight I was at the temple subbing for another sister and I sat in the session thinking how blessed I am that I get to come here. I then later sat in the Celestial Room and felt such a calm peace over what I am working on in my life right now.

As mentioned in my previous blog entry . . . I am dreading the evil 30th and sad about being single during that birthday. But I know that not finding "the one" is out of my control and I really can't do anything about it. My job is sometime not so great, but I have tried to change that. However, the job market being what it is . . . this too has become something that I can't control.

So I decided a few months back to work on things that I can control to make me more happy in my life. I started working in the temple back in April so that I might have an opportunity to draw closer to my Heavenly Father. I never imagined the blessing I would have by working in the temple. The spirit is always so strong and it is almost as though I feel the same way I did on my mission. I love it. Not only that, but I can pray and contemplate about things every week for 6 hrs. I have never done that before. So after my last blog entry the fact that I am living in California and not somewhere there are more single "temple worthy" boys came up again. I promised a certain someone that I would take it to the temple and carefully contemplate and pray about the matter because I haven't done so in a while. I loved growing up in Utah, but it has never felt like the place for me. I have always felt like a fish out of water there. I can't really explain it. So many people have asked me why I feel the way I do. But I just do. I have felt more at home here in California then I have ever felt. Yeah, I miss my family and friends terribly. I cried the day I left last week. Because I can't be around my best friends (my family) all of the time. If I could magically transport them here I would in a heart beat. Anyway back to the praying today about where I should live . . . I said to Heavenly Father . . . I really don't feel like Utah is the place I need to be, but if you think that is the place I need to be, I will do whatever you want me to. I got the distinct impression that Heavenly Father felt that it doesn't really matter where I live. I felt that He was happy as long as I was happy. Sorry Family, that means I am staying in California for now.

Ok so the other thing that I decided to focus on that I knew I could control. I have been hesitant to write about this for quite sometime. . . first because I don't want to get on my soap box about the matter. . . second because I am so afraid of failure I didn't want to mention this part of what I am working on for fear I would fail and have to tell everyone about my failure. Anyway I have always struggled with my weight and honestly I haven't really liked my appearance because of it. I have tried a million different things to try to lose weight and I even took a nutrition class while I was in college. It wasn't that I didn't know what I was supposed to do . . . I just wasn't motivated enough to follow through. Yeah sure I would get motivated for a week or two. But then something would come up and I would fall off of the bandwagon and never get back on. So after I started to work in the temple I started to notice how the weight felt while standing on my feet all day. I was starting to not fit any of my clothes anymore . . . I have refused to go up a size for quite some time now. So finally got sick of it and decided to make a stand. I was no longer going to let my weight bother me. My roommate had joined Weight Watchers a few weeks prior and she loved and told me all about it. I have had 2 friends who have lost a significant amount of weight being on their program. And the whole idea that most fruits and veggies were free made it even more appealing to me. . . especially the fruit because I have always had a sweet tooth. Anyway to make a long story short. . . I have been on Weight Watchers for a little over two months now and I can happily say that I have lost 15 lbs since I started and I am still going strong. Yeah sure . . . I have my rough days or weeks, but I keep picking myself up and keep going. It makes me think of just like the gospel. Anytime we make poor choices, do we give up and say oh well??? No, we pick ourselves back up and keep going.

I love you guys and am so grateful for everything that you are and that you do for me. Again I am sorry if I concerned any of you, but rest assured . . .there is no need to worry.

Dating

So I am approaching my 30th Birthday at the end of the month and honestly I have been dreading this day for the last 6 months. Being 30 and still not married was definitely not part of my plan when I was thinking of how my life would be when I was a little girl. The church has noticed that people are getting married later and that is why they have been talking about it soo much the last few years.
My family is very supportive for the most part, but occasionally I will feel pressure from a few of them. Asking me if I am getting out there. Telling me that I should join lds dating websites, to go to as many activities as possible, moving where there are more members (ie: not in california), etc. My sister even as cute as she is, she even told me that she put my name in the temple so that I will find husband.
The thing that I really didn't think about until recently what being 30 and single means is the type of people that are available to date. Unfortunately the first thought that comes to my mind when I meet a guy around my age and single is, Are you divorced and if you are what happend (because obviously something must be wrong with you.) The second thought that comes to my mind if they haven't been married is, If you aren't married what major issues do you have because you aren't married yet. Sad, but true. Then you start to think . . . well should I go for a younger guy. I have never been interested in younger guys. Being the youngest of 5 I have always dated older than me . . . the one exception was Jared and he was only 2 days younger.
With all that being said, one of my friends thinks I am going through a mid-life crisis. There is a guy at work that I started to flirt with a few weeks ago. He isn't a member of the church, he is 5 years younger than me, has a tatoo, and a lip ring. Not usually the guy I go for. Part of me wants to pursue it because he's a really nice guy. But then at the same time . . . in the back of my mind I am thinking . . he's not a member and I want to get married in the temple. I have all of my Young Women's teachers lessons repeating like a broken record in my head. "You marry who you date" I have never dated a non-member and all of the sudden all sorts of things come up that I never had to deal with. Like how do I set up ground rules for him and how do I keep him from not crossing any of my lines. I take my covenants very seriously and I try my very best to live the gospel. Today we went to luch together and he kissed me for the first time. Of course he tried to put his hands where they aren't supposed to be and I kept moving them away and saying no. Then you have to talk about the whole garment issue. I am starting to see why people are saying it is hard to date outside of the church. But I started going into this thinking I wasn't really expecting to marry him and that I wasn't going to take it seriously. But being 30 and still single . . . should I really use my time dating someone that can't take me to the temple.

Cute Nieces and Nephews

So just because I am not a mommy and I can't post cute pics of my kids doesn't mean I don't have cute kids in my life. . . I love all of my nieces and nephews tons and I probably spoil them all rotten with love . . . they probably get sick of me with all of the kisses and hugs that I request from them. Below are some cute pics that my sister had taken of my cute niece Isabelle. . . currently the youngest of the bunch, but not for long. My Brother Brett and Sister-in-Law Lydia are expecting the fourth little girl into our family in September. Thanks to my siblings for bringing these sweet little spirits into my life.