An awesome book giveaway!

I came across the awesome book giveaway and had to share! 5 signed copies of some great YA fiction. I've personally read Across the Universe by Beth Revis which was really good and the rest are on my to read list. If you're into YA books this contest is for you!

Weight loss frustrations

For some reason I felt the need to talk about this. Mostly to probably work things out by typing them.
For the past few months I have been working so hard to lose weight. I have cut my calories literally in half and I have been dedicated and persistent when it has come to exercising.

As a result.....


I have lost 32 pounds! I have worked too damn hard to be humble or modest about the weight I have lost. I am so proud of myself for going as far as I have. If you know me at all you know how easy it is for me to give up. How easy it is for me to stuff my face when I'm not hungry, to choose chocolate over celery, to use food as a way to cope with stress. But here I am. Months later and 32 pounds lighter.


Looking in the mirror I have to be honest when saying I hardly noticed a difference. It wasn't until I got the annual picture of myself and Anna that her work takes every year at the company Christmas party that I truly was shocked at the change. I went to put the 2010 picture in the photo album and stumbled across the 2009 picture and boy did I notice! These pictures are grainy but you get the point...

Christmas Party 2009

 

 

 

Christmas Party 2010

I mean wow! Look at my face. My stomach too. I am totally impressed with myself. I have worked hard and results are apparent.

Now with all of that said, I have finally reached a plateau in my weight loss. One I am clueless on how to break. At one point I was losing about 1 to 2 pounds a week and now my scale is at a standstill. In the past 2 and a half weeks I have lost zero pounds. Zilch. Nada. ZERO! Not only that, my treadmill is on it's last life. It's workouts away from being totally dead.

I hate to say this but I feel on the edge of giving up. It's hard to go from working your ass off and getting results to working your ass off for nothing. I know everyone reaches this point and you just have to work through it but it's just so so so so SO hard. I have read testimonials from people who have been in my same position who said it took them 5 months to break the plateau. 5 months?! You have got to be kidding me. 5 months of sweating my ass off and saying no to my favorite dessert and nothing to show for it? Eff that.

I guess all I can do at this point is reflect, meditate, and continue to keep on keeping on. At least I can't go up if I keep pressing on. Right?

Poem I wrote about my brother in law passing

This was written 5/16/08 after the death of my brother in law RD.
I was going to write more with it but this is all I have so far.




It came to me as such a shock,
when I listened to the words you had said.
There's no way it could be real,
he was just alive and now he's dead.

With a trembling hand,
and tears pouring out of my eyes.
I drove there as fast as I could,
letting God hear my desperate cries.

How could this be true?
I was with him the night before.
I wish I could have known,
what the future had had in store.

I pulled up to find a group of people,
huddled by his door.
But there you were away from them,
smoke in hand, eyes puffy and sore.

I ran to you,
as fast as my legs could go.
All I could do was hold you tight,
I had never seen you this low.

I decided I had to see him,
maybe there was something I could do.
There's still a chance that he's still there,
even though deep down I think I knew.

I walked up the stairs,
your hand firmly linked with mine.
There was nothing that could have prepared me for that moment,
where I knew things wouldn't be fine.

I saw him lying on the couch,
And I instantly fell to my knees.
Oh lord how could this be real?
Don't take him I beg you please.

I kept repeating his name,
In a wailing shaky cry,
Maybe he was only sleeping,
how could he just leave us and die?

I placed my hand on his arm,
and it was so cold for me to touch.
I stroked his hair and told him,
"RD, I love you so much."

I want to delete you as a friend

Have you ever been friends with someone on Facebook or Myspace who you wanted to delete as a friend? Is it just me? I mean you're put into a situation where they are your family or someone who likes you more than you like them. They requested to add you as a friend and you knew that not accepting that request would pretty much be an online slap in the face. So there you go adding them and you have to rethink every status update or keep it vague so they can't pinpoint who or what you are talking about. Then comes the comments to your status. You write "Going to go party tonight!" and they comment saying "Do you really think that's a good idea considering it's a Tuesday and all?" Of course it comes to mind to delete them. You think, I don't want them to see my life and I'm really not too interested in theirs, but it would create more drama than it's worth. Perhaps you would even get a message from them asking why they have been deleted, what they did to deserve this, and their list of reasons why you were messed up to even have considered deleting them. I have at least 2 friends on Facebook that I feel this way about.

Introducing my blog

So here I am. My name is Dreanda. I am an average girl with an average life. I never thought I would be one to create a blog. Not because I am completely against them but more because I couldn't imagine what I would ever write about. What should I say? What should I refrain from saying? Then recently I decided I just didn't care. If you want to read it and get more info about me than you ever necessarily wanted...well hey, that's on you. Or if I bore you to tears, so be it. I will write for myself or whoever wants to listen.
For this first blog I will keep things pretty tame. I will be 23 this month. I just got married last year on Aug. 7 to my lovely wife Anna. I currently take care of my 2 young cousins Sophia, who is 3 and Phebe, who is 2. I don't have a job at the time but in this economy, who does? I have 2 little chihuahuas named Tido and Cheeto who I adore.
This first post is short, I just wanted to give a brief introduction. Feel free to check back with my blog in the future while I talk about anything from life with kids, being a lesbian, my opinions on things, to being married.
I hope this will be fun!
<3