A First Timer?!

Welcome to MY happiest place on earth.....

I took a trip to Disneyland last night with one of my roommates. The lovely, Kaitlen. Turns out... she's NEVER been to Disneyland and being hired here is her FIRST time!? WHAT?! When I found this out, I volunteered to show her around one evening and help her get a lay of the amazing land.

I had to fully document her first night at Disneyland! I was honored to play Tour Guide Barbie for her !

My FAVORITE time of day at Disneyland is when the twinkle trees turn on, the castle is all lit up and pinky, and the lanterns at the Mad Hatter Tea Party are glowing. It's just magical and breathtakingly beautiful. I tear up every time I even try to explain it to someone. It's just a time of night you have to see for yourself.

I have always been a dork at Disneyland, in years past, if I ever saw a group where one member of the group was taking a pic, I would always step forward to offer to take a pic of all of them. Who would have known that my dork moments of wanting to help people capture memories of Disneyland would actually become my job! I LOVE helping people at Disneyland and I LOVE hearing about people's favorite Disney Magic Moments. It warms my heart and makes me tear up... just a little! I can't wait to start helping make dreams come true for all the Princesses and Princes that come to this happy land.

Have a Magical Day!

NBD... it's just Disney...

OH WAIT!? I LOVE DISNEY! I start work for The Happiest Place on Earth on Sunday! I moved into Disney Housing on Wednesday the 17th... thus me off the radar for SO LONG! I have 4 beautiful roommates; Lexi, Tiffany, Kimberly, and Kaitlen.

These are two of my roomies, Tiffany and Lexi!

Lexi and I went shopping and we checked out this sweet grocery cart from the College Program office... we're SO cool!

Aren't we just CUTE? Attending Disney orientations and meetings with the roomies! We got to take a backstage tour of the Disneyland park one day, it was pretty awesome to see Goofy wandering around without his head on. Pluto was in full character and being cutesy. When I received my Walt Disney Company ID and nametag (pix coming soon) I got to hug Mickey Mouse... I have never gotten to hug Mickey! It was an AMAZING moment :D

View of Disney's California Adventure and World of Color from a private viewing terrace of the Grand California Spa and Resort. We made friends with Cast Members in the GCS&R and we got to watch WoC from the private terrace. Pretty freaking amazing to have access to opportunities like this!

I love my job!

How Honest is Too Honest?

Alright, kiddos. I have been having an internal struggle about whether or not to reveal my starting weight, my current weight, and my goal weight. I am also trying to decide whether or not I should add pix. I'm LOVING this whole blog thing and I'm thinking that I could do good things with it. I'm one of those people who is {for the most part} confident and I'm comfortable sharing details about my life... but do I want to be "that person?" I'm sure there are women out there, like me, who have struggled with their weight for a long time, if not their entire lives {again, like me}. I'm one of those people that would waltz up to a trainer and just start picking their brain. Heck, I'm hoping to get certified as a personal trainer. What I'm trying to say is, I'm approachable and if my journey to a healthier me is going to help someone else out there... it's pretty worth it to me to share the dirty deets (isn't that the lingo the kids are using these days?).

I guess I wonder.... are these details you think would be at all beneficial to you, or someone you know? Would my honesty and willingness to open up help you or a friend? Tell me what you think because at this point... I really have nothing to lose and I'm all for helping others. Or if you think it's a suicide move, tell me that too!

If You Wanna Be My Lover

I love brownies. LOVE. They are one of my kryptonites when it comes to sweet things (check my first Friday Five for the others). I generally just avoid them because if I eat one, even just a small one, it starts this frenzy and I lose that self control everyone seems to envy.

I saw a commercial for Fiber One 90 calorie Brownies... I picked up a box on my next trip to Winco because I definitely needed to try something that was attempting to be a wannabe healthy brownie.

I wasn't too disappointed. They get the job done if your calorie allowance at the end of the day is low and you need something sweet. Personally, I think I'll stick with the real deal but keep these on hand for moments when I want something sweet that isn't going to ruin my goals for the day.

Friday Five

Friday Five

Welcome to Friday Five where I share 5 randoms about ME!

1. I have never beat a video game. Ever. Even with the 4 sisters helping each other, we couldn't beat Mario64 for N64. Pathetic. I've gotten close to beating Kingdom Hearts but then I had to go back to school. Maybe I'll beat a video game, someday!

2. I thoroughly enjoy practical jokes, pranks and long running jokes.

My family has been playing a game called "Where's The Baby" for YEARS now... in this game the baby is hidden in random locals until she is found, then it is the finders turn to hide the baby. This isn't some cute baby doll, this is a freaking spazzoid creepy baby doll and when you find her in your shower curtain, you are going to scream.

My dad rigged it so that her head popped out of the box with the last tissue

I'm watching you....

3. I despise shopping. Complete disdain. I'm very good at avoiding shopping or doing it in VERY small doses but with the move to California shortly arriving, I have to do a rather intense shopping outing and I am NOT looking forward to it. I keep putting it off.

I'd rather touch cotton balls than shop...

4. I love dancing. In college, I used to go with some of my friends and roommates to this ridiculous "club" in town. It was hilarious. Sometimes I wonder if I love dancing, or if I loved dancing at this wannabe club in Logan, UT.

This is the classy poster for the "club" in Logan... when you have to name your club after a major US city that actually has a population that would appreciate a club... you know you have a problem... and don't get me started on the fact that they had a separate room for country swing dancing and line dancing. sick.

5. I leave for my AMAZING job in Disneyland in 7 days! I don't start work till the 17th BUT I'm excited to go down to SoCal and play with some friends! YAY YAY YAY!!!!

Vacation Living

We have returned from Lake Shasta and it was a grand ol' time! We went with a couple other families and shared a houseboat for a week. I still feel like I'm rocking on water and haven't quite gotten used to being on land again.

Our cute group! (yes, this whole group shared 1 houseboat!)

It was AMAZING to be on the water for a week! I kept up my workouts by swimming across the cove and back to the houseboat, then doing 50 squats, and repeating that several times, then ending with planks or some kind of variation of that workout. Basically... LOTS of swimming! It was AMAZING!

It's always hard on vacations because of the mindset you have going into it... "I'm on vacation, so I'm going to eat, relax, and not think about it." Many people have the luxury of doing that, I can't afford that mindset. I've worked so hard to lose weight, and I'm not going to let one week of Costco muffins and chocolate chip cookies containing 6 sticks of butter undo everything I've worked for.

I practiced self control, and I was able to find a healthy variation to almost everything we consumed. For breakfast, we ate sliced apples with almond butter... we went through a tub of almond butter in 3 days (we brought 2, no worries!) and 20 apples in 7 days, pretty impressive! For lunch, we did turkey sandwiches on Sandwich Thins with LOTS of fruit. When it came time for dinner, we were somewhat at the mercy of whichever family was in charge of dinner that night. Some form of protein was usually involved, so that was the majority of our meal with LOTS of whatever fresh fruits and veggies were offered.