Spark, mostly

It's been a long time since I wrote, so I guess I should bring things a bit up to date.  At least to say that most days, I do actually have my spark back.  That was a long, unfun time for sure, and the truth is it took having a goal to bring me out of it.  After having a bit of a meltdown, I told Glen that he needed to take me on a real vacation, and so he did.  We planned a trip to Alaska, just the two of us.  We started in March with research, booked in April, travelled in August.  I of course began the shopping in March.  That's when the "end of winter" sales are, right?  So it only made sense that if we were planning for a trip that needed cold weather gear that was a good time to shop, right?  Actually, it did end up being a good time, even if it was more than half excuse...  :)  But I also started working out, knowing I had to be in shape for an adventure.  Five minutes a day, literally, slowly ever so slowly turned into 10, and then 15, and up till I was doing 40 minutes of elliptical at the end of Spring.  At Green Pond, I started walking every couple of days, a half hour, a mile or two, up to 6 miles and over and hour.  Wow.  Wow.  I lost a total of 13 pounds and got my spark back!  I think I blow dried my hair a total of 5 times the whole summer and didn't care a bit.  I felt good, I looked good.  I was thoroughly worn out with all the activities for the girls and my own exercise, but for the first time in a year I felt like me again.  And the trip?  Well, you have to see it on Shutterfly, but I'll just say here it was AMAZING.  One of our best ever, and thankfully one of the best photography trips too so the pictures match the trip, if that makes sense.  I don't have to say "well, you should have seen it in person" because the pictures are amazing enough too, which makes me feel really good too.

And so here we are, in November already.  I know I'm skipping over so much time here...   Back to school and back to the whole Mainline Mommy club and how is that going now?  Better.  A lot better, though there are still moments.  I let myself go a bit nuts with the clothes this Fall, finding my groove finally at Free People mostly.  A little fun, a little funky, and finally me.  Not so far outside that I feel uncomfortable, but enough that I feel like my own self.  My hair is doing it's own thing too, and even though I have been bad about working out, I'm still hanging out at a nice weight and loving the fact that all my winter clothes are comfortably just a tiny bit big from last year.  I just feel better.  I won't say that Emma's class makes me feel good, because there are still a whole gang on mainline mommies in there that I am not a part of.  But surprisingly, I have found a couple of good moms in Elisabeth's class.  And Emma is finding her groove better too, which helps.  Hard to be happy when your baby is struggling, no?  So here we are at boot weather again, happily wearing sweaters and fuzzy hats and high boots and wool socks and a solid ugly but wonderfully comfortable winter coat from EMI that makes me happy instead of the silly uniform black puffy coat.  Some days are better than others, but mostly I can say, I'm back.