Insane, yes I am!

So I have decided to do the Insanity challenge! Yes it's gonna really kick my butt! Since we've decided to move our wedding date up to this summer I've got to do something extreme! Wish me luck! Hope to post before and after pictures really soon!!

Tomorrow it's back to school, workouts, and Kase back to preschool. Guess enough with the procrastination.. I've got lesson plans to do!

Question: Does anyone have any secret weight loss tips that could be helpful??

I'm back!

Wow I haven't posted since July! Well I'm back.. And here's a few updates..

• I'm engaged!

• Kase had his 1st birthday last month

• I have started exercising again with a girl from work, although we aren't hitting it quite as hard as I need to be!

• I will be moving in with Jon in June.

• I'm loving my first year of teaching 1st grade and I'm really going to be sad when I have to find a different school when Kase and I move. 

• I've decided to run a 5k in may, a glow run to be exact, which means the training is fixing to pick up its pace!

Those are just a few... 

What's going on now.. Christmas is coming soon and I'm staying broke! It's going to be tough this year! 

Went deer hunting yesterday, shot my first 8 point! 

Such an adrenaline rush!

Also I did a month of plexus slim.. If anyone knows any details or has has good results please let me know.. My month experience only lost me 4 lbs.. But I've been told I didn't give it long enough.. That's before I started exercising by the way.

Well I'm closing out with some pictures, hopefully it won't be another 4 months before I update again!

         My sweet boys 1 year picture :)

               My engagement ring!!

Comments/Replies

I also want to say that I'm doing all this from my phone and here lately it's been acting up.  If you do leave a comment and I don't reply, it's not me being rude because I always try to reply.  Same with my comments on other people's blogs.. They haven't been wanting to post.. Sorry guys! Ill try to get this fixed!

Random Stuff and a Continuing Vent

Hey folks, (or lack there of since I don't think anybody follows and I don't know how to link ha!)

I love snow cones don't u? I craved them while I was prego and the craving has just always stuck.. I'm beginning this post with something happy as you can tell. Hint hint, Jon, nothing says I love you like a good ol' homemade ice cream with extra cream :)

So I'm fixing to get a new car. I love my Accord but a two door and a baby just don't go together. I'm really leaning towards a Toyota Rav4. I love the new style and I can afford to get a brand new one.. I'm soo excited cuz I've never had a new vehicle before. I'm looking at it as a mommy-mobile plus a graduation gift to myself.

Not bad huh? I'd really like it in silver though!

Schools just around the corner and I'm fixing to have to get busy with everything. I've really enjoyed my summer with my baby boy but I'm so ready to get back into a routine as well.

He was eating his first Oreo :)

Anyways.. I've ranted on and on about exercising and losing weight..have I? No! This summer has made me so lazy it's ridiculous! I'm really hoping a routine will whip me back into shape. I mean as you can already tell about my post so far I've been eating snow cones and Oreos.. Do u think when school starts I'll have time to do these things, well no! Things around here are about to change and this time I mean it!

On a lighter note, this is too funny not to share.. And Jon would kill me if he knew I posted it.. But when you go down early because you can't handle your adult beverages, this is what happens...

I wish my camera would have done a better job.  You can see the star on his knee and the lines on his legs. He was covered! (Except his face, cuz I'm such a good g/f and wouldn't let them do that).  Anddd.. Just so y'all know I had no part in this, I was just a spectator :)

Question:

Is anyone out there? Haha what I mean is does anyone read what I write? 

Committing to Running

Well I haven't forgotten about my lil ole blog, just haven't had anything exciting happen worth posting about.  Kase and I are home, after over a week of being gone I was beginning to get a lil homesick.

Anyways, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I have made up my mind to get rid of all the excuses and run.  I gripe about having a belly but in not doing anything about it.  

1. I'm going to run/jog/walk everyday whether it be outside/treadmill or whatever for at least 30 mins a day.. I'd like to do an hour if time allows.

2. My goal is to finish a 5k.. And I mean run the entire thing. This is goal number 1; goal 2 is a half marathon!  I downloaded one of those 5k apps and in going to follow those workouts.

3. Insanity! I have it.. I've done it 4 times. How much sense does that make? I have one expensive workout DVD set that is proven to show results and its just sitting on a shelf.  I'm not saying I'm going to have the time to do this everyday but I'm certainly going to do it more often.

Questions:

1. Have you ever ran a 5k?

2. Does anyone have any motivational tips that could help me get going?

What a Great Fourth

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! I know I had a good time with family and friends just hanging out, grilling, and throwing horse shoes.

I made pinwheels for our little cookout and I wanted to share a picture but I got tied up for about an hour and a half and when I came back the entire platter was gone!  I'm going to take that as a compliment :)

Kase got himself a little pool time in..

His older cousin, Austin (we call him Booger), couldn't resist the temptation to cool down and hopped right on in with Kase

I hope everyone enjoyed their Fourth as much as we did. Today I think we're due for a little more pool time.

Sweet Summertime

I'm so glad I'm getting the chance to spend so much time with my sweet little boy over the summertime, even though not working my bank account is beginning to hit financial distress.  I'm counting down the days till August 20 when ill receive my first paycheck since last August.. It's been a hard year!

Anyways back to the summer fun.  Yesterday Jon's mom and his nephew wanted to go over to a friends house for some pool time.  Jon was at work so he missed out.

As you can see Kase was more interested in chewing on his lady bug than posing for the picture.

I've got to really cherish these times because here in about two weeks it's back to daycare for Kase and I've got to get my room in order, and not to mention all the professional development I've got to do in August.

Busy times ahead..

A Trip to Little Rock

Today, a teacher friend of mine and I decided we were going to go to Little Rock to do a little shopping to get our classrooms ready for August.  Around here there is absolutely nowhere to shop for classroom decorations.  From Jon's the closest place to go is Texarkana and that's at least 45 minutes; from where I live it's about an hour and a half.  We wanted to go somewhere new so Little Rock won our vote, even though it was a little over a hundred miles.

I chose "wild" as my classroom theme.  Basically I'm decorating in a lot of animal print. I was never a big fan of the lil cartoon monkeys or frogs, I'm just not a cutesy person I guess.  Animal print is something I know I won't get tired of and it reflects some of my personality as well. I tend to where a lot of animal print clothing.

I can't wait to post pictures of my classroom when I get it done--something for you to look forward to!! :)

Here's a little sample of something I've made..

I've seen a lot of teachers making the teacher tool boxes; they're very cute but they're just not big enough for the supplies I've accumulated so I decided to use sterilite drawers instead. Total I've made 4 sets and labeled each with labels from my label maker.

I'm in the process of several little projects, it's just hard finding the time to do it.

Anyways, back to Little Rock!

Our first stop was Mardels.  It's a nice little Christian bookstore/teacher supply store.  I racked up on a lot of cute stuff to go with my theme. I'm very OCD and I've got to have everything matching, this makes it soooo difficult to shop.

For lunch we stopped at a cute little diner atmosphered place called "The Purple Cow".

They have amazing food, not the healthiest, but extremely tasty!  I splurged and got a cheeseburger and they're signature purple milkshake..

Yummmm!

After lunch we had one more stop to make, The Knowledge Tree.  This store has everything you could ever need to fill your classroom!  It has a great variety to choose from.

Our little shopping trip wore me out! I'm jealous of this little guy.. 

Shopping really wore him out too! I would have loved to catch a little nap on the 100 mile trip back home! Ha.

On another baby note...

Kase tried out his first sippy cup tonite.  He devoured a whole cup of some diluted apple juice.

It seems like he's learning something new every day or so.. It's all happening so fast :(

I hope I haven't bored y'all too much with my rambling. Talk to y'all soon!

Babies, Suckers, & a Road Trip

Well it's Friday once again which means Kase and I are on the road to visit Jon. I'll be so glad when I don't have to make this drive all the time!

Before we hit the road though Kase and I went on a little outting. We went to the hospital to visit beautiful Miss Faith Anne. I have been told that this will be Kase's future girlfriend--we'll see ha!

I didn't get her angled well for the camera.. Oops! As you can see, Kase totally photo bombed the picture!

Next on our agenda was to go eat lunch with my dad.. I completely blew my diet and devoured a cheeseburger, it was amazing! So I chalked today up as my splurge day and I'll do better tomorrow.

At lunch Kase ate his very first sucker; it was interesting and very sticky.

Despite the look on his face, he really enjoyed it.

As your probably beginning to notice a lot of my posts will probably be about Kase.  It being the summer and I don't go back to work till August I don't have anything going on and this little guy is who I spend all my time with.

While I'm going on about my child, I want to add that he is officially mobile! He's finally got the crawling thing down and is scooting around all over the place. I have a feeling things are definitely fixing to get interesting.

Becoming a Blogger

Bare with me.. I'm new at this..

I don't really know what has inspired me to start blogging but I'm going to give it my best shot.

So here's me..

I'm about to be 26 years old and I feel like I'm just now really beginning my life as an adult.  I just graduated with my Bachelor of Arts for Early Childhood Education (it only took 8 years!).  I have officially signed a contract to teach first grade-so excited! I'm not married but have a great boyfriend/baby daddy, and yes I just said that, we've been together 2 1/2 years. We have a beautiful 8 month old baby boy who has completely stolen my heart. This picture just sums it all up..

You see what I mean when I say I'm just now beginning my adult life?! I'm a new mom, a recent graduate, and starting a new job... It's all exxttreeemmellyyy overwhelming, but also exciting!

I'm hoping to be posting a mixture of all my experiences (teaching, mommy hood,  and life)--hence the title "All Things Serena".

I do want to ramble on a bit about my latest task at hand.. Battling the baby belly!

Maybe because its summer and less clothes is a must, I'm very self conscious of my body. I've always been body conscious but not like I am now. My belly skin sags and my stomach looks like Freddy Kruger got a hold of it. I think it bothers me so much because I've always struggled with my weight, going up and down over and over.  Well I finally lost a significant amount of weight--not exactly my goal but pretty darn close. I went from 177 lbs to 136 lbs, that may not sound very light to you but considering I'm 5'9" I looked thin.

Well then Jon (the boyfriend) happened.  You know the stereotype when a girl gets into a happy relationship she gains weight, well that's me!  I went from 136 to 145 in a year.. 

And then pregnancy happened.. Lets just say I really took advantage of the "eating for two" idea. I didn't care, I was pregnant. I ate pizza, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and I couldn't tell you how much fast food! By the end of my pregnancy I weighed over 200 lbs!

Now-- of course I lost weight after Kase was born but I certainly didn't go back to where I was before.  I have currently gotten back down to 155 lbs. I'm not considered overweight anymore, which is nice but I'm far from being done. Remember the sagging belly skin?.. I have a lot of work to do! My goal is to firm my belly up and get back down to around 135 lbs. Wish me luck, because you will definitely be seeing some posts on this!

One last thing...

I gotta brag a lil about my child.. This past weekend was his first time in a big pool and he had the time of his life!

Isn't he a beauty?!

Anyways that's it for my first post.. I promise they won't always be this long ha!