A Girl and Her Dog: October 2013

I think it is freaking funny that I am such a "love your body" activist because let's be honest I did NOT love my body for a long time. In fact some days I still hate my body. I look in the mirror and I see that fat roll or that cellulite and it literally makes me nauseous. Ali sees the look I give myself and he has to tell me I'm beautiful just how I am. (He also tells me he likes "thick" girls so sometimes it doesn't help)
But honestly I know I am damn fine. I look at old pictures of myself and think wow I sure have changed and what changed was not only my appearance but what is on the inside. I am more positive now about my life. I know I can do things I couldn't do a year ago. Heck I ran three 5ks in the past year. I went hiking. I went shooting. I went to CUBA and walked EVERYWHERE! I just think it's crazy that I can do this.
And guess what I'm not a size two. I'm a 14 or 12 on a good day. I bounce between 209 and 215. I have lumps and bumps. I have sooo many stretch marks. But you know what I am so sexy I know I am. I just have to remind myself.

Back in June Ali and I took a long road trip. We left a Wednesday after work and drove to Albuquerque New Mexico where my cousins on my mom's side live. We went because my wonderful cousin Sandra asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I was excited for it and it gave us an excuse to visit them. Neither of us had every been to New Mexico so it would be a fun adventure. We got there Wednesday night and the wedding was on Saturday. Thursday was a crazy day, Ali stayed around Sandra's working on her centerpieces, he had to spray paint a billion twigs and sticks and stuff silver and glitter the place mats. Yes he used glitter. I actually the pair of jeans he wore to do that and there was STILL glitter on them... four months later. While Ali was being a holly homemaker and being all crafty Sandra and I were off to do other last minute wedding things. We went to get tans, we got more crafts for Ali, we did other things too but I just don't remember them. When we were done we all met up for dinner at a restaurant called BJ's. Then we went home and did more wedding prep.

Friday was filled with MORE wedding things. I went out with Sandra all day again while my wonderful boyfriend stayed home and glitter and painted even more. The photographer went and did a lovely photo shoot with Sandra and I got to be his assistant. It was an awesome experience. I miss photography sometimes. We were shooting pictures ALL day and then finally around 3:30 we went to the rehearsal. We went to the gardens. It was BEAUTIFUL there. We met everyone in the wedding party and went through what we would be doing the next day. Ali was such a good support through everything. He just helped with whatever he could. After the rehearsal Sandra and Rob took some pictures. They looked beautiful. After the rehearsal we went to the dinner at a mexican restaurant. It was pretty awesome. We weren't planning on doing a bachelorette party because Sandra has already had one with some friends but... once people started drinking the decision was made to go out. So Ali went out with the boys and I went to a country bar with the girls. It was way fun. Two of the girls we went with were actually really good dancers. So they taught me and then the old men at the bar taught me and it was just fun. My cousin Curtis and one of his military friends came too so it was nice to hang out with him. After the bar we all went to Ihop. While we were there we discovered that Ali had gone missing from the boys party... Can you just imagine the stress I was feeling. My boyfriend was missing in downtown Albuquerque. Long story short they looked for him in a few places didn't find him. But he found his way home without a cell phone in a town where taxi's don't take cards and got into Sandra's house to charge his phone and call me. Once he was found we all headed home.

The next day was wedding day. That morning was pretty much a blur. I remember helping Sandra do the girls hair and getting our makeup done. Then I remember getting our hair done. Then we went to the bridal suite in the hotel and we ate the chocolate covered strawberries they had because we hadn't eaten all day. Then we went to the wedding. When we got there there was mass chaos. We were helping to set things up and then the wedding ended up being late. The timing was weird so they didn't have anyone to man the candy table so Ali went to the rescue and did that. Thankfully everything went smoothly, at least from an outsider's perspective. I even got Ali to dance with me. I also caught the bouquet. As soon as the flowers touched my hands Ali ran out the door. Haha but don't worry he came back. (disclaimer no wedding in our near future)

The next morning Ali and I were so tired but we had to leave to drive to California to meet up with Carmen. Then we spent a week going to Disneyland and California Adventures. It was really fun. It was Ali's first time at any Disney park. It was fun to have Ali around Carmen and let them get to know each other better. We had a lot of fun without "adults" and just us kids being able to enjoy our trip and do what we wanted. We stayed in a hotel just at the corner of Cali Adventures so we walked to the parks.We got into pin trading this time and it was SO fun! I had never done it before but it was AWESOME to trade with people and get the full collections of some. (go ali) It was a wonderful trip with nothing too exciting to report. So I'll just share a few pictures with you instead.