I spoke much too soon

This is what my drove home from work looked like:

Visibility: zero

I take back my comment that I made earlier about the darn groundhog....*sigh*

The earlier part of the day was pretty sweet though! Have I mentioned just how much I love my sweet Kayla? We always have fun and giggle together. She also loves it when we take pictures...

Cheeeese!

Such a little goober

Her family is PCS'ing (moving) in June so I'll have to say goodbye to my little buddy soon :(
After we played and I put her down for her nap I made myself a tasty lunch. It consisted of an Arnold Multi Grain thin with low sodium turkey slices, a wedge of lite laughing cow cheese, spinach, and a few slices of onion. I paired my sandwich with carrots and a banana.

MMMMmmm

I also had a small Reeses heart to (temporarily) satisfy my sweet tooth. I loooove me some Reeses!

Due to the snow, my usual gym schedule of running and spin were canceled so I squeezed in a quick 30 minute, high intensity interval run at the community center gym.
Now I'm showered and getting ready to meet up with Corie to go see How Do You Know with Reese Witherspoon. It's showing for only a dollar tonight!

Catch ya later ;)

Family!!!

 Mornin! It's gonna be a good one here in northern NY because the weather man was WRONG for once! Yes, I am not completely snowed in today!!! They had predicted 1-2 feet of snow in the next 24 hours and so far nothin :) Maybe the groundhog is on to something this year...

So I wanted to share with ya'll some more information about my life, mainly my wonderful family.

First, it all started with this big group of happy people:

At my brother Isaac's wedding. Seth couldn't make it due to Air Assault School :(

Yep, that's 8 kids my parents have, bringing us to a family of 10. Of course that's before Elizabeth, Behn, and Seth entered the picture and added to our family. I LOVE my family so much! I am close to each and every person in our own unique way. There is definitely something so special about being part of a big family. There's never a shortage of love to go around and we always are there for each other, even though we do not all live close together anymore.
I am also very proud to say that my Mom is a former Mother of the Year, DE. She is such a strong and beautiful lady and I'd be lucky to be as great of a Mom as she is. Love her!
My Dad is a full time pastor and is I believe the sweetest man I know. Don't get me wrong, he knew when and how hard to spank our little booties when we were young, but the man has a heart of gold and I love him so much.
The order of siblings goes as follows: Megan (who is married to Behn), Isaac (who is married to Elizabeth), me (and Seth of course!), Hannah, Olivia, Aaron, Tim, and Stephen. Stephen made it "even" when we adopted him at 3 months old. Love you littlest brother!

Next is my other family. A family that I have been blessed to marry into. Once again, a fairly big family with 5 siblings and 2 parents.

At a wedding in October 2009

This picture is minus the 3 newborns that have recently entered the world in the past 2 months.Seth's family has got some serious love for each other. They all look out for each other and have a certain closeness that is very special. We all do not live close to each other, which can be hard, but maybe someday down the line it will be a bit more manageable ;) Oh, and I forgot to tell ya that my older sister Megan and I married brothers! Behn and Seth are the 2 youngest of the Trader brood and they married the 2 oldest girls in my family, my sister and I! It's so much fun, too! I love being part of this family. Caring, modest, Godly and strong is how I would describe them best. God has surely blessed Seth and I with amazing families that support and love us dearly!

Anyways, I'm off to have some breakfast and get ready for work. I'll try and update again later.
Things I'm looking forward to today:
Work, spin class, and the Office!!

Be Thankful

Today's post is inspired by Chantel, a girl I sing with on my church's worship team. She's 18, beautiful, and full of life. Monday night, however, she found out she might have early signs of Lymphoma, a deadly cancer of the lymphoid cells. I can't imagine how I would react if I was told I may have cancer...of any kind! Despite this news she still came to worship team practice last night and was smiling and laughing as if nothing was wrong. I was amazed at her peaceful spirit. Prayers for her are defitinely needed of course as the doctors continue to diagnose and treat her.

It got me thinking this morning as I was doing my devotions just how precious life is. How thankful I should be to God everyday for my good health. That every limb can move. That every nerve is felt. That every breath is breathed. In a moment that all can change. It is only by His Grace that we are able to function as we do.

So, my question is, if we ARE capable of eating healthy, exercising, and treating our bodies right, why don't we more often? We CAN control what we put into our bodies, and how much exercise we give our muscles, heart, and lungs, so what's stopping us?

Think about it. I know I will. And BE THANKFUL for the health God has given to us.
Until next time...

Was it a dream...

Or did Seth really call me at 12:30 last night??!!


HE DID!!!

Ok, back to normal posts now.... :):):)

It's getting high

The pile of snow surrounding my driveway, that is. Take a look for yourself:

my poor tree!

See! I wasn't kidding! Please say a prayer with me tonight that it DOESN'T snow anymore tonight. I have much better things to be doing at 6 in the morning besides shoveling. Sleeping being primary.

And just for entertainments sake, I took a picture of how I look when I wake up and shovel my butt off

"Seth, please come back soon and bring Spring with you!"

So after shoveling this morning, I knew I'd want a nice n' hot breakfast. Enter my egg, spinach, and cheese bagel!

This thing was sooo tasty! It consisted of half of a Thomas Multi-Grain bagel, egg whites and one whole egg, a handful of spinach, and a few slices of melted white cheddar cheese...Mmmm

Delicious, filling, and nutritious!

The rest of my meals today were sporadic and random. I think that's why I love breakfast so much. There are so many great choices out there you can never go wrong. Well, unless you eat pop tarts and cold pizza, which I'm assuming most of you don't ;) Seriously though, when I started eating breakfast everyday about a year ago, I lost 5 lbs straight off the bat! Getting your metabolism started is SO important!

Anyways, I'm gonna head out. Happy 17th Birthday to my little, but not so little, brother Timmy!
Hope you had a great day!

Fresh Start

Hello my friends...

Hope ya'll had a nice start to the week today. I actually don't mind Mondays all that much because I like the idea of starting fresh and getting into my weekly workout routine. Also, the Bachelor is on tonight :)
I already know...it's pure trash. But it's something to look forward to and get my mind off of things for a while. A little "mental checkout" if you will.

Anyways, the day started off right with a sweet email from Seth and a quick devotion and prayer time. Then I headed to work to play with my sweet girl Kayla. While she napped I got together some paperwork for my job which was good. Love checking things off of my list!
After work I went to the gym and completed 2.5 miles of running on the treadmill before an hour long yoga sculpt class. I LOVE this class. It's not just yoga, it is actually more of a weight training class. The instructor is great and I feel calm and sore after (both good things) Try it sometime!

So now I'm home, in my jammies, and munchin on some cookies... Not a bad end to the day!
Hope ya'll are having a great start to the week. Remember that it's never to late to start FRESH :)

Random picture of me and my gorgeous sisters :)

G'night!

Another Weekend Down

If I close my eyes hard enough, do you think I could teleport back to this place with a strawberry daquiry in hand and Seth laying next to me? Oh how I wish...

North country winter weather is kinda brutal. At least 10 inches fell overnight. That meant snow shoveling my car and driveway out for 40 minutes this morning so I could get to church in time for worship team. When will it ever stop?! Oh, shoot I already know the answer to that... May.

Anywayyyys, enough sad talk. Let's get to the good stuff. Guess who I heard from last night...
 This handsome fella:

Sorry babe I had to do it!

Wait a second... I meant this very, very handsome fella:

Isn't he just so sweet looking?

So back to what I was saying... I heard from Seth last night! Got to talk to him for a solid couple hours which was so, so nice. Definitely fell asleep with a big smile on my face :)

Today, the day of rest, was pretty peaceful and relaxing as well. Went to church, sang on worship team, heard a good sermon on marriage,  and later hit up the community center gym for some light cardio and stretching while I'll talked to my sweet mother-in-law. My legs and butt are majorly sore today from yesterday's Jillian Michaels killer workout so I didn't want to over do it on my muscles.

I just got back from a little Superbowl party at Kaylabug's house. Tasty food but didn't care for the game much. Glad I went, it's always nice to get out of the house when you have too much time on your hands. Now I am super sleepy and ready to hit the hay. Here comes Monday... and another week is
DOWN :)