The day finally arrived! Our nephew, Ty David Leto, was born today (7/14/10) at 7:54 am at Advocate Good Shepherd. He is 7lbs 5oz, and 19.5 inches long! Healthy as can be, and Michelle is doing very well too. Brian and I are going tonight to visit after work. Welcome, Ty!!!

XOXOXO,
Auntie Cassie & Uncle Brian

Yeah I know I said I would update this blog a while ago, but quite frankly, I've just either been too lazy or too busy to worry about it :)

Anyway - Tom P, this update is for you! Keep me reminded, will ya?? :)

XOXOXO,
Cassie

Cassie's Creations is now open for business!

Well, I made the jump, and decided to try and sell my diaper cakes and decorative stuff. The site isn't completely done yet, but still a start :)

You can reach the site by clicking on the logo or visiting http://cassiescreations.3snip.com !

I've been told by my friend Amy that we haven't updated our site in about 10 months.. and lookie here - she's right!

So much has happened this year, that'll be nearly impossible to put it all on one huge blog. Maybe, if I get motivated, I'll do some separate threads to catch us up.

Anyway, look for some posts soon!!! :)

XOXOXO,
Cassie

Well, what a year it's been. Lots of things happening and lots of new things to come. I have let myself go for far too long. We'll be starting a new year in a few days, and even though I hate new years resolutions, I have promised myself one thing - to lose weight. I'm tired of making excuses and resolve to get past it and just work myself hard to reach my goal. I'm not going to starve myself, nor am I going to do anything unconventional to lose the pounds. I'll do it through hard work and exercise.

Although I am about 20 lbs thinner than at the beginning of the year, I still vow to lose more. I'm far from being at the goal that I wanted to be at, but I'm determined to not waste that gym membership!

While I was at my sister's house for Christmas this year, we all decided to enter into a "biggest loser" type competition between our family members. Even my dad decided to participate, which is a HUGE thing for us. It's not just a matter of losing weight to be thin - it's to BE healthy, FEEL healthy, and be happier because of the weight loss.

I feel healthy - somewhat. I don't have any problems because of my weight... but that's not to say I WON'T have problems in the future. There are a few things that triggered my new obsession with fitting into smaller clothes :)

1) I'm tired of being a fat cow :P Yeah yeah, I am told that I have a pretty face... but I want to have a pretty body again too :)

2) I have 3 weddings this year that I want to look great for.

3) I want to be healthy!

4) I want to inspire my father to lose weight. Even though he has a lot of health issues that might prevent him from doing traditional exercising, I want him to know that he still can do it, and we're all here to help him. I believe a lot of his health issues can be resolved by losing weight.

5) I want to go on a shopping spree for new clothes :)

Sooooo... We're starting this next week, and I've started a journal for myself to include progress photos, caloric intake, exercise logs, and a personal entry for myself. Good or bad, it will be recorded... and hopefully by summer, I'll have either reached my goal or far exceeded it. No almost... I have to be at my goal. Why reach for the stars if you're going to tell yourself that it's good enough to almost get there?

I don't think I'll be brave enough to post my diary entries online, but I will keep you guys informed of my progress. Who knows, maybe at the end, I can do the whole thing online and show you guys the good and the bad :)

I need encouragement, I need support... so I hope that my friends can keep me on my toes and tell me if they feel I am slipping. Push me to go to the gym, to write in my journal, to keep focused and to fit into that little black dress at the beginning of the summer :)

I will be doing this with the following people:

My husband, Brian
My sister, Michelle
My daddy, Dave
My brother in law, Joe

Michelle will be keeping logs weekly of our progress, and we're determining who "won" the contest by overall body percentage lost... so It's not necessarily who lost the most in pounds, but who lost the most in overall body percentage.

So, my friends, thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for your support and encouragement!

XOXOXO
Cassie