List of Accomplishments in 2010!!! (continued...:))

Okay, so for my first post since March, I believe, that I should update on my List of Accomplishments for 2010 because I have actually tried to make good on some of those things that I wanted to try to do this year. Okay, let's start with the worst...

- Losing weight= Ohhhh mercy; well, I can happily report that, so far, with the help of a doctor, a really supportive husband, and alot of prayer, I have lost, thus far (because I still have a WAYS to go) a total of 29 pounds and I think about 23 or 26 inches all over, so I am pretty stoked about it. Because I am such a foodie, I HAD to go to a weight loss doctor because that is the ONLY way that I could be accountable, so with his help and supervision, I have been taking a metabolism booster and have learned how to eat SOOOOO much healthier, restricting my calories to a VERY reasonable number compared to the endless, mindless calories that I had been eating without one thought to what I was doing. This journey of weight loss, (and I call it a journey because it really has been a struggle) really has opened my eyes on how to eat healthier and smarter and I feel so much better about mine and Marcus's health knowing that we really are eating like we always should have been. I am hoping that these good eating and exercise habits will stick with me as normal routine so that when the time comes for us to start a family, I can do everything in my power to have a healthy pregnancy as well as develop a healthy life for my kid(s). For now though, the weight loss is because a.)it is just necessary for my health, and b.)because I want to feel better about myself and my health, so so far so good and I am still going! :)
-Thinking about/Talking about having kids= Wellllll....May this year, Marcus and I found out that we are going to be.....AN AUNT AND UNCLE !!!!! :) (gotcha! :) Yeah, no babies except our fur children right now. :)) My sister-in-law and brother-in-law (Tina and Scott) told us the news on Mother's Day and we were TOTALLY surprised!!!! So, for now, we are focusing on being the BEST aunt and uncle to our Seamonkey (the nickname I have given the baby because we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet; not until August 17!!!!! :)) So for now, I am taking notes from Tina so that I have a reference for when our time comes...but Marcus and I are in serious talks about this subject so maybe sooner than later, who knows.....:) but, again for now, we are just soooooo excited to meet Seamonkey and love them only the way their crazy Aunt and Uncle can! :)
-Doing something crazy and not like me at all= Okay, I don't know why I have taken so long to post about this because this is a major deal for me. First, those who read this and don't know me so well, let me catch you up on a couple of important thing about me that will help you understand and appreciate the gravity of what I am going to describe to you. I LOVE late 80's, early 90's music, ESPECIALLY old school Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, etc. I also like shocking my husband by doing things that he otherwise would be CONVINCED that I would NEVER EVER do. Okay with that being said, let's move to the monstrosity of the event that is connected to all this.
I (if you've read any of my other posts) have a litttttllleee bit of an obsession with the Harry Potter series, so when Universal Studios Orlando Theme Park disclosed that they would be creating a portion of their park to pay homage to HP, from that moment, all I wanted for my birthday was to be able to go and experience one of my favorite series come to life. And my husband, being as incredible as he is, made this happen, so for my birthday, what did I get from him? A weekend trip to this amazing theme park! Thrilled is not even a strong enough word to describe how I felt. Okay, so fast-forwarding to the main event, one of the nights we were in the park, after having a great but very hot day at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Marcus and I decided that we wanted to go to the Karaoke Club that was on the property. (Here we go...) And this was no Joe-Shmoo, hole in the wall Karaoke place; this was 2 stories, HUGE, live band and back up singers, big screen display, AND AT LEAST over 200 people. So, for SOME reason I to this day cannot explain have this innate desire to sing AT THIS PLACE. Now I have NO problem being on a stage in front of people acting, but singing is a whole other beast and I am absolutely not comfortable being that kind of vulnerable. So the fact that I so badly wanted to sing at this place and WENT EVEN FURTHER to PUT MY NAME in the running to be picked to sing is still beyond me. Anyways, so I decided to request to sing a Bonnie Rait song and a Whitney Houston song, naturally, and thought nothing more of it because I just knew there was NO way that my name would be chosen out of a bowl of 100 plus other names, just no way. So Marcus and I watch one cycle of the show and it was awesome! Waited around and watched another cycle of the show, relieved that my name was not being called. We decided to stay for one last cycle and just before the show starts, I see my name in a crawl ACROSS THE BIG SCREEN DISPLAY meaning that I WOULD BE SINGING IN THE NEXT SHOW ANNNNNDDDDD I was singing "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" BY WHITNEY.....AHHHHHHHHHHHH. So I am thinking, Okay Mandy, play it cool you HAVE this! I mean, I don't know anyone other than Marcus here and it just can't be bad......ummm hmmm... So as I am walking down the stairs to get on stage I start panicking and seriously considering forgetting my name and how to speak English. But no, I signed up for this, I was going to follow through and face my fears; I love the song I chose so I have GOT to do this. So I get on stage and my hand starts shaking like ccccaaaaarazy. The music starts and I start singing. I start getting into the song, the song starts getting louder and I can't even hear myself anymore. At this point, only the audience could hear what note, word, sound I was making because I was pretty sure I was creating new notes that no one's discovered yet. By the end of the song, I was relieved to be done, BUT I am SOOOOO glad I did it! Now that I have done it, I would TOTALLY do it again with no abandon this time because that fear is gone! I know that I am not a singer, nor should I expect myself to sound like the artist, so with that being said, I know now that I can totally just have fun with it and go for it! So now that I have done something that is totally not like me, I am ready to do some other thing that is not like me this year! Doing stupid, spontaneous things like this really help me not take things so seriously and enjoy life! :)

-Books= An update on some other books that I have successfully completed this year; Along with the other books that I have read and posted on here, I have also finished "The Shack" and "Eat, Pray, Love". "The Shack" I will admit, started kind of slow for me, but by the end, I TOTALLY recommend reading it. So thank you very much Tracey for letting me borrow (for a very long time) your copy and thank you for suggesting that I read it! I also just finished reading "Eat, Pray, Love" which was very very good. It is a good read if you are just wanting something to read to enjoy reading. After reading, I wanted to find ways to accomplish my goals and invite clarity in my life (once you read, you;ll understand). If you want to see the movie with Julie Roberts coming out in August, I would totally read the book first so you can completely appreciate what goes on in the movie!

So this very very very long winded post is to catch-up on some things that I have wanted to do this year and have made an effort to do. The year does feel like it is FLYING by (it's already mid-July which is crazy to me) so I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year had in store.