Dear Sebastian...

Sebastian Michael Brown,

You're constantly showing me so much love, even when I seem so unlovable. You're patient, always, & you're there for me whenever I need someone. You've taught me not to care about what others think, & to not beg for friendships around me. You push me to be a better me, & you encourage me to follow my dreams.

Thank you for standing by me for all these years, & for fighting with your whole being when times got tough. Thank you for caring. Thank you for being the best Uncle Bash Ryder, Carson, & Rosie could have, even though you don't have to be Uncle Bash at all. Thank you for always wanting the best for me. Thank you for paying attention to the little things & making me feel your love when you show me that you really are listening. Thank you for being my best friend. 

I'm so thankful for all that you are. I'm so thankful God chose me to be the one you walk through life with. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2015. 

I love you, forever & always. 

#sheddingsixtyeight // Update

This month's post has nothing to do with my weight-loss journey so far. & as I'm sure you noticed, I didn't have a post last month, either. Holidays are hard & I'm weak & the cold makes me want to do anything but exercise & GAH! But on a good note I haven't had a drop of sweet tea for almost six months. Or soda. Or anything other than water & coffee (except for some milk & I think two glasses of orange juice at different times ((in different months)) hehe). So as much as I die a little every time I go to Rancho and don't get sweet tea, water isn't really so bad.

Starting January 1st (ha, I betcha haven't heard that one before ;)), I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm praying that it gets warm quick, because that will be some fantastic motivation in my book. But I want to make a mini-community of people who also are trying to lose weight or exercise more. A group of people who encourage you to work harder & commit to working harder with you.

A friend at church told me we should start a running club. We'd run, then work our way up to doing 5ks where we could raise money for missions. SUCH a great idea! Except I haaaaate running! With a passion! HATE IT! But I think if I went running (read: voluntarily tried to kill myself) with someone else, or lots of someone else's, it would push me to run a little bit faster for a little big longer.

That same friend's mom had an idea where I should make a calendar & see what friends would want to sign-up to do different activities with me throughout the month: run on the boardwalk, go skating, go for a bike ride, etc. which I thought was another good idea to help keep me motivated.

So! I'm making a private Facebook group. Somewhere you can go to get encouragement & support from others who know what you're going through, or give encouragement & support to others you know need it. Somewhere I can say, "Riding bikes on the boardwalk today at 3!" & let others who want to do the same thing join me. (Which, to be clear, I'll probably never be the one to suggest riding bikes on the boardwalk. The people & the parking down there scare me, haha). Maybe even start a running club! Sebastian, Seth, Stacey, & a bunch of other nerds are really into Clash of Clans. I want to make a clan! Except one that actually matters! ;)

So, if you'd like to be a part of this, you're more than welcome to join. You have to send a request that I have to approve (which I promise if I know you, or someone else from the group knows you, I'll approve), that way there aren't any trolls who just want to spy on us. Haha. But I'm ready to make this #sheddingsixtyeight FUN. Of course it won't always be fun, but it doesn't always have to be such a chore.

If you want to join this community - this clan, if you will ;) - just go to THIS PAGE & send a request. Sebastian is trying to come up with a clever name, but he hasn't thought of anything yet. If you have a suggestion, let me know.

Here we go!

Christmas Day

Growing up, we were Santa people to the max. In fact, I'm 100% certain that I've seen Santa's sleigh flying across the sky at night. ;) While Santa Clause was a fantastic thing in our lives, Christmas Eve scared the beegeebies outta me. I thought the jolly old man was going to come into my room & watch me sleep ("he sees you when you're sleeping..."), so every year on Christmas Eve, I slept with Seth. Then, that became a tradition, too (I'm big on traditions), so all the way up to the Christmas before Seth got married, I slept on the floor in his room. I'm a weirdo, I know.

Aaaanywho, I've since grown up enough to be able to sleep in my room alone on Christmas Eve. I'm now the last Amos child still in the nest, & I've taken on the title of "Hannah Clause". Like I mentioned before, I've been blessed with a fantastic job that pays me enough money to be able to pay my bills and spoil my family.

Usually, we're trying to work out a meal time when all of us can be together. With all of our family & our significant other's families living local, it's tough to get schedules to match up. But we always make it happen! This year was easy peasy. Stacey is an only child, so her parent's Christmas revolves around her, Seth, & Carson. Around Thanksgiving, they had the brilliant idea of combining our holiday meals so that everyone could be together without having the stress of needing to get over to the other family. We went to the Dowdy's for Thanksgiving & the came to our house for Christmas. It's nice having "in-laws" that are just as much family as the actual "in-law".

After my family did our thing, Sebastian & I headed over to his parents' house to spend the rest of the evening with them. Our families have always done Christmas differently. It worked out this year, because we're wake-up-early-and-dive-right-in people, while they're sleep-in-late-and-open-presents-at-night people. So we got there & talked for awhile, opened presents, & talked some more. I brought my camera inside, but I set it down & never picked it back up. Sometimes, I just annoy myself too much. Haha

Merry Christmas!