Jamaica

Welcome home Brody. Brody recently returned from Jamaica, where he was gone for 11 days. I know jealous, huh? He did a dental service mission with some other students from Ohio State. He had an awesome experience and help a lot of people who otherwise would not have been able to receive dental care. We missed him like crazy (as you can tell from the sign). We are so glad to have him back home. Here are some highlights from his trip.

Here is Brody's 1st patient he worked on. This is the before and after shot.


They stayed on a nice Sandals Resort while in Jamaica. Here are some pictures from there.


Although they did stay on a resort that was nice, Jamaica is a very impoverished country. Brody worked in what most of us would call a shack. They used a generator so they had power for their dental tools. Every morning they had people lined up out the door trying to get in for dental treatment. Here are some pictures of where he was working, the preschool they went to where they helped teach the children about dental hygiene, and other locations around the town.

Loss The Weight

I was very hesitant to do this post. I don't know why, I just feel dorky posting pictures of myself and don't want people to think that I think I'm "all that and a bag of chips" because I lost 20+ lbs, because I don't. Then I thought it might be good for me to have these pictures posted because next time I have a baby and gain extra weight it will be a good reminder that had lost the weight before, and I can do it again...hopefully. Plus, it might help motivate someone else.

I was lucky after I had Baylor, because the baby weight was easy to get off. I thought it would be the same after I had Chase, but it wasn't. With Baylor I kept on about 15-20 lbs for a while, but once I stopped nursing at 6 months I dropped those extra pounds quickly. Chase was a totally different story. After I stopped nursing I still had an extra 20+ pounds, and that weight was not going anywhere. I knew I had to work to get it off so this is what I did.

I mainly just started running. I also go to a few fitness classes at my gym and sometimes do weights. I used to be a good runner in high school, and it was easy for me, but for some reason 2 children and almost 10 years later it's not as easy. It took time and I had to build up my endurance, but now I love to run and it really helped me get into better shape.

The next thing I did was stopped snacking at night. Brody and I had a bad habit of pigging out during the evenings. I usually try not to eat much after dinner now, and speaking of dinner, that is something else I changed. I didn't change anything I made I just changed how I ate. First, I tried not to eat while cooking. While I prepared dinner I would be eating it the entire time. I would pretty much have had a full course meal before we even started dinner, and that didn't stop me from eating a full dinner too. Now, I try not to do that and when we do eat I try to eat less of my main dish and more veggies instead. I guess the only other thing I did was just be aware of what I was eating. I was more aware of the calories I was taking in and tried to lessen them.

So that's mainly what I did. I feel great right now. I'm to the weight I was when I got married, which I never thought would happen. I've maintained this weight for a while, so my drivers licence is finally telling the truth about my weight. Hopefully I can keep it off. I just need to resist eating about 10 lbs of candy I have left over from Halloween.

Before...

After...

Fooled me once

Beggars Night may have fooled me once but not this year. In Columbus if Halloween falls on a weekend the city schedules different days and times for you to go trick-or-treating and calls that night Beggars Night. My scheduled date and time is Thursday, October 29, 6:00-8:00. Some of you may remember from last year that we were the weirdos that tried to celebrate Halloween actually on Halloween. I was very surprised when I started getting knocks on my door at 6:00 two days before Halloween, and opened it to find trick-or-treaters. I gave the 1st group of kids granola bars or something lame like that and ran to the store to get candy. By the time I got back and Brody got home it seemed too late and like too much of a hassle to get Baylor and Chase dressed up, and I figured we could probably still go out on Halloween like normal people, but boy was I wrong. There was not one single person trick-or-treating on Halloween. Apparently we have very good law abiding citizens here in Columbus who do not break this rule, but since we are rebels we did it anyways. We only went to a few friends houses who were kind enough to understand our situation and give us candy. So, I learned my lesson, and I'm ready this year. I've got my candy and costumes and know my scheduled date and time. Bring it on Beggars Night!

Falll in Ohio

Well, so far we are having a lovely fall season in Ohio. Don't be mislead by the words "lovely fall", I still have had a heater blasting for the last month, but it's been pretty nice and no snow yet. Here are some things we have been up to lately.
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Of course football, football and more football. We have Buckeye season tickets so rain or cold we go to their games. We are also watching alot of pro football. Brody loves the Denver Broncos and despite a crazy preseason with lots of changes, we've enjoyed watching them win so far this year. (6-0) Keep up the good work Broncos. I'm also playing some fantasy football this year. So like I said, football, football and more football.


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We recently went to Hocking Hills with some of our favorite friends. It's a beautiful area. We hiked up to some caves and stayed in a nice cabin.


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You can't have Fall without Halloween. Chase is a scarecrow this year, and Baylor is a crow. We went to a Halloween festival last weekend and had alot of fun. We still have lots to do before Halloween though. We've got the ward Fall festival, Boo at the zoo, going to the pumpkin patch, and another Halloween party.

Fall Crafts

My sister Courtney did these cute fence post Halloween decorations a while ago, and I copied her. I'm getting excited for Halloween. I hope everyone has a fun, save holiday.

Okay, so this isn't really a fall craft, but I did it this fall. I actually got the "HOME" vinyl lettering about a year ago, and I was suppose to put them onto blocks, but since I procrastinated so long I changed my mind and decided to do this. I just framed the letters and then framed the frames. I'm apparently trying to set a record for the most frames you can use in one project.