Grace Circle

Okay, so first of all...I just have to get it out that today is MY birthday!!!  I am now 25 and a quarter-century old!  I plan to do a post dedicated to me and my 25 years a little later (cause that isn't conceited at all LOL), but I want to focus on how I spent this evening for right now!

We had our second meeting and fellowship as Grace Circle tonight!  Grace Circle is a women's group recently formed at church.  It's for women in their 20's, and we do a little devotion and plan to get more involved in the church community as we grow!

I am really excited to get this opportunity to become more involved in the church and get the chance to talk to other women my age about my experience and my walk with Christ!  I haven't always been in a church community, but I feel like in this time in my life, I need to become closer to God and really find my path in my faith.  I know this group was formed at a perfect time for me to get involved with it.  I was looking for a way to feed my desire to become closer with the Lord and more involved in the church, and I really feel like this was put in front of me to give me the opportunity!

Tonight, we read and discussed Romans 12.  I haven't ever read the Bible completely through (though I am working on it), so I'm not very familiar with all the parts.  We got to talking about how we incorporate Christ in our everyday lives and accepting others for what they believe and where they've come from.  I got me thinking about how I can tend to judge others before really getting to know their background and what's happened to them in their past.  We had a great discussion about all of this, and I really enjoyed hearing other people's perspectives on this subject.

I think this is going to be something I will really look forward to each month!  I really hope this will continue to help me build my relationship with Christ and bring me closer with some new friends as an added bonus!

~Emily

Month of Birthdays

Ok, so it seems like almost everyone special in my life has a birthday in the month of March!  That is one of the reasons I've been so behind on blogging.  The month started off with my sweet baby girl turning ONE!!!  Yes, Rosey is moving out of being a baby puppy (not like she was small for long)!  We (well mostly me, the adoring mother) celebrated Rosey's big day on March 7th!  Here are a couple pictures to see how much she's grown over the last year!

                                                            



On March 12th, I helped celebrate Jessica's 24th birthday by cooking dinner for her and Rilee!  She requested my famous baked ziti, and so we enjoyed a bit of Italian while watching "Love and Other Drugs"!

Next came Mom's birthday on March 21st and then my sister's birthday on the 25th!  Mom turned 50 this year and her co-workers honored her with a surprise luncheon!  Caitlin turned the big 21!  She started her birthday celebration at midnight going out with her friends...let's just say she wasn't feeling the best when she woke up the next morning!  But, she managed to make it out the night of her birthday for dinner with Dad, LuAnne, me, her boyfriend, and a few other guests!  We went to dinner that Sunday to celebrate both of these lovely ladies and their milestone birthdays!!!

And last, but certainly NOT least...Rilee turned into a big 4 year old on March 22nd!!!  We celebrated her big day the Sunday before with a fun-filled birthday party fit for a princess!  There were lots of friends and family around to celebrate, yummy food and cake to indulge in, and even a jumpy princess castle for the little ones!!!  It was a great day, and the birthday girl was showered with TONS of presents!!!

Love my big girl!!!

Well, it was a busy, but an absolutely fun month filled with some amazing people's birthdays!!!  Next big birthday up????  MINE!!!  I turn 25 in just a few short days!!!  I'll let you know how that shapes out!

~Emily

Update: Where I Am

Ok, so I know it's been almost a month since my last update, but with all that went on in the month of March, I didn't have much of a chance to just sit down and get everything down.  Now, it seems that all that I've wanted to share has gotten piled up in my mind.  I'm going to try my best to get out everything that's been happening over the next couple weeks.  This coming week is looking to be pretty busy, but if I find some time I will get down as much as possible!

So first of all...I've now lost 10 pounds!!!

I love the way I feel about myself for losing this much, even though it took 3 months!  But I know that losing it this slowly will hopefully help me to keep it off.  I think if I had gone a different route to lose the weight more quickly, I could have easily let myself slip and gained it all back just as fast.  I can see a difference when I look in the mirror, but especially in my clothes.  Most of my pants are almost falling off, and I'm getting close to the last hole on my belt!  I did do a little shopping the other week and had to go down a pant size!  I'm looking forward to when my new pants are even too big!!!

I'm still trying to do my best at recording how many calories I eat each day, but of course I still find that I have those "cheat" days and meals.  I try to keep that to a minimum (like special occasions)!  The recent Easter candy has been challenging to avoid, and I must admit that I've let myself do a little splurging on the Peeps and chocolate!  But again, I don't want to cut out anything in my life...just limit myself and control the overeating!

Here's looking forward to losing the next 10!!!

~Emily

*More to come soon, hopefully*