Oh Dieting!

I've come to the conclusion that marriage makes you gain weight. Many of you know that I've gained 10+ pounds since Jake and I got married. Some people don't believe me and some people just tell me I look good to be nice, and thankfully Jake still thinks I look hot (at least that's what he says). But I know that I have gained weight and that my clothes fit a little tighter, so that's what matters.

That said, I've been trying to lose this weight for a while, and for various reasons (some which I don't know), I haven't lost weight. I've gained it instead. So last week I finally decided to do something strict. My mom recommended a diet she was doing, and I decided to give it a shot. I lost 5 pounds in 5 days. That's great, right? Yep I thought so, but right now, I feel like I gained all that weight back. You see, the diet calls for a break on the weekends, and I think I may be taking too much advantage of my "break". Today this is what I've eaten:

-- Panera Bread egg and cheese sandwich and 1/3 of a blueberry bagel my niece didn't eat

-- Walnuts for a snack

-- Whole foods - salad, chicken, and quinoa; delicious bread pudding and about 5 other samples of deliciousness.

That's a lot of food!! But if I tell you what I've had to eat on this diet all week, I think you may understand...

You see, for 5 whole days, this is all I ate: oatmeal (still cut oats w/ no sugar; just cinnamon), lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, celery, apples, bananas, oranges, and strawberries, and a little bit of cheese. Every day that went by I dreamt of what I would be eating Saturday for my "break". I dreamt of eggs and a delicious Jersey Mikes sandwich and Yogurt Planet and chips and salsa/queso and wine and cheese and crackers and pizza and cereal. Just ask Jake, every night before bed I would rant about how hungry I was and how all I really want is a little bit of eggs and just a little sandwich. So yes, I may have gained my 5 pounds back already but jeez it was worth it. I may do another 5 days of the diet next week to see if I can lose 5 more. We'll see. I'll keep you posted...

Stella and Dot Stylist

Okay I'm doing good with my goal of 2 posts a week! Hehe it's only been 2 weeks though.

Well this post is going to be a shameless plug for something new I just started. If you haven't heard of Stella & Dot, it is this wonderful boutique style jewelry company. And I have become a stylist! You may think that as a "stylist" I'll be designing jewelry (which sounds pretty neat), but I'll just be selling it :)

I was introduced to Stella & Dot (from now on, S&D) by my friend April. I immediately fell in love with their style - unique and fun! I loved it so much that I got like half of my family's Christmas presents at her party! Because I truly believe in their product and because the company offers great perks for becoming a stylist, I did just that.

Jake and I have been looking for a way to donate money to our Church (Austin Stone) for their new building project (it's a 6 year old church and we meet at Austin high school), so a majority of what I make through anything I sell for S&D will go to our church; I'm excited about that!

If you have some time, check out my S&D website: www.stelladot.com/veronica or go here. I know you'll fall in love with their line just like I did. What's even better is that it's very affordable! If you've seen the Bachelorette this season, pretty much all of her jewelry is S&D! The S&D designers/founders come from great backgrounds - Jcrew, DeBeers, Banana Republic and more. Check it out; and if you live in Austin or nearby, look for my upcoming evite - I will be hosting a party on Aug. 16 at which you can purchase items and have fun girl time over some snacks and wine. I'll have sample jewelry on display so you can try on, see it up close, etc.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much for reading my plug for S&D!

Baby Fever, Puppy Fever Update

If you read my former blog at wordpress, you most likely read my puppy/baby fever post. If you want to read it, go here.

Puppy fever lasted quite a while. We even looked up breeders and talked to a few. It was pretty promising for a while. We were going to get a cute little shih-tzu, and we were oh so excited. Then, one day God enlightened us with the fact that we were rushing through life. We met about 3 years ago, got engaged a 1/2 or so later, got married 1 year ago, got a house in March of this year...and then all that stuff in the middle of that. And welp, we realized we needed to slow things down.

Does slowing things down = not getting a puppy? We think so. For many reasons: 1. It would be initially costly. 2. Jake and I have ridiculously busy schedules and honestly we had no idea how we could come home and let the puppy out. 3. It's a commitment - we could no longer freely leave for the weekend somewhere or take a day trip to Fredericksburg, San Antonio, etc without the puppy in tow or without finding a dog sitter (which costs money). 4. Um I actually don't have a 4th reason. But the 3 reasons were enough to convince us that we were not ready for a puppy right. I think if they gave puppy maternity/paternity leave at work, it would be doable because I know the commitment is greatest the first few months. But I don't think there will ever be such a thing as puppy maternity leave :P

So that was that. No puppy. For a while. So my fevers were gone. Both puppy and baby fevers were gone for at least a few weeks. And you probably guessed it, baby fever has returned now! Ahhh! My best friend from high school just had her baby earlier this week (Congrats Kristen!!), and that makes me want a baby. There are probably about 1000 pregnant people I know that will have their babies soon, and that makes me want a baby. Everytime I see a cute baby when I'm out and about makes me want a baby. My niece's cuteness and awesomeness makes me want a baby. I could probably bore you with many more things that make me want a baby, but I'll stop now.

I know this is a boring post, but I just had to share. Babies are cute and I would love one soon. But it will not happen soon, that I promise. Jake would wait 10 years to have kid if I let him, but it won't be quite that long :)

Too many sad movies

Jake here,

Lately Veronica and I have seen some pretty good movies. Unfortunately, 90% of them have been dramas that bring her to tears, and get me choked up -- not that there's anything wrong with getting a little choked up...

I'm torn on what to do. She doesn't like thrillers anymore because they scare her (even though I tell her I can protect her ;) ), comedies have been hit or miss lately, and chick flicks, being one of our last resorts, are lacking... severely!!

We just watched Marley and Me tonight...she balled...good movie though

Before that was Curious Case of Benjamin Button...she cried in that one too

Before that was Up...Great movie!!! Balled her eyes out.

Burn After Reading was good...a little dark...but good.

Maybe we should hit some of the classics again!

Ferris Bueler's day off

What about Bob

Elf

Don't get me wrong...Crying in a movie is never a bad thing! Kudos to the film for being able to bring out that kind of emotion in its viewers... I think we're just in need of some movies that don't require such high loads of emotional energy!

Please make some requests...Our Netflix queue is running low, and we need some good ones to fill it up. Any funny, lighthearted comedies y'all can think of?!

thanks!

Made the move...

So Jake and I have made the switch over to blogger. Wordpress just wasn't cutting it for me...couldn't upload videos, couldn't use thecutestblogontheblog.com, and well I could go on. I decided I like other people's blogs on Blogger, so here we go. Maybe the fact that I like my blog a whole lot more will inspire me to write posts more often. Maybe. I hope. We'll see.

I need to figure out how to transfer the whopping 7 or so posts from Wordpress over here, but I think that'll be for another night. For now, I leave you with The Norman's 4th of July celebration.

Actually, it wasn't really a celebration. We attempted a party, but we planned it way too late. Totally okay though because Gabby, Nick and Mia came into town, and even if it had only been them that we hung out with, it would still be super fun. Mia is just about the cutest girl (just look at those pictures!) in the world (and Jake and I are so proud she's our niece).

Our celebration consisted of about 8 of us hanging out at Jake's parents' pool and grilling some sausages - his parents were out of town and gave us permission to use their house...if you're reading this, thank you Jim and Martha, we love hanging out in your awesome backyard :) So, Mia relaxed in the pool and Gabby and Nick had fun doing cannonballs. And then Tio had such a great time with Mia.

The fam stayed through Sunday, and Sunday evening we come home, and this is what it looks like. Furniture/decor re-arranged so it's safe for a 16 month old. Big purple ball on the ground. And completely quiet (Mia is quite the verbal one, so quiet doesn't exist when she's awake - sister, I don't mean that in a bad way :) ).

I contemplated leaving the room looking like that permanently. No, really I didn't, but we did leave it like this for a couple days.