Happy Birthday!

So today is my birthday! I'm not big on celebrating my birthday anymore these days, I think because it's just a reminder of how much older I am getting! LOL. I am just going to start counting backwards, so next year I will turn 34 again, then 33, etc. I love celebrating my kids birthdays, in fact we just celebrated my oldest daughters 2nd birthday ... She had a blast!

This is Arizona at her birthday in her Elsa princess dress from the movie Frozen! We got her a crystal crown and everything, she didn't like the crown too much and kept taking it off, but she loved the dress.

She would play with the skirt a lot that day, dancing around - it was out of this world adorable!

And this year, compared to her 1st birthday, she actually helped me blow out the candles on her cake. She wasn't sure what to do initially but after I showed her, she got it! I helped a little bit, of course.

She is growing so much it is crazy! I can't believe my little angel, my first born, is already 2 years old. It doesn't seem real that she's been here that long, in my life ... I can't imagine life without her now!

Anyway, back to my birthday (uugghhh), I believe my mom and stepdad, Marshall, are coming up to take me and the girls out to dinner! Bill can't go because he has to work and couldn't get the day off. So that will be nice. I feel like I am repeating a lot of thoughts in this blog or rambling even and I apologize for that!

I will post a few more pictures from dinner maybe, if we take any, so we'll see! Thanks for listening and I'll be back soon to update!

Time for pampering!

Usually the VA, Veteran's Affairs, are not on their game. I have more trouble with the VA then any other aspect of my life - including my Toddlers! However, today I had an appointment with a dietician up at the Mather VA Clinic to help me attack my weight loss from one more angle and I found out some pretty good news. 

First, I was finally approved for pool therapy twice a week for eight weeks, which never happens, so I'm happy about that. I think pool therapy will be great for my back and my emotional health as I love to swim and be in the water. Anyway, I also found out from the dietician that they have Yoga classes, free to vets, twice a week! This is wonderful news because I love yoga and it's also a great weigh loss component to help me lose weight, and it's just fun! 

But the great news, which really is just fun news, is I found out they have a "Day of Pampering" for their women veterans once a year. They have makeovers (hair and makeup), massage, facials, stress management classes, yoga, healthy eating classes, employment opportunities, meditation, Tai Chi ... and they feed us breakfast and lunch while we're there and they have a huge raffle apparently! It just sounds like a lot of fun for me. With all the stress lately I think a day without the girls (as much as I love them I need a break sometimes too), filled with pampering and yoga and good soul stuff will do wonders for me and my confidence. Add that to the fact that I was approved for my pool therapy and now I have an opportunity for Yoga twice a week ... hopefully my attitude will sky rocket and my weight will plummet! 

Today has been a good day! I found out some great useful information from the dietician, got some great recipes and meal ideas, was approved for my pool therapy, found out about yoga classes and was signed up for a day of pampering... I don't usually have days that go this well. So I'm going to savor in that and head to bed. Goodnight!

Welcome to FergieTown!

So, I’ve wanted to write a blog for many years now, but haven’t really found a topic that I truly cared about and thought that I could touch and inspire others with, until now. Woman are miraculous, we pretty much handle everything with precision and grace … being a wife, a mom, taking care of the house, the pets, the errands, the finances, the husband, etc., and still find time to be a woman and make your health and faith a priority. It has taken me many years to find the motivation and determination it takes to actually make those topics a priority and I hope that my struggles will inspire and help other woman achieve those goals.

So, to introduce myself I will start with a little background. I am married to my wonderful husband, Bill, for almost three years now and we have two beautiful girls, Arizona or ‘Ari’ who is a little over two years old and Savannah who just turned one a week ago. I just graduated college with an AS degree is Liberal Arts with emphasis in Arts and Humanities. I served in the U.S. Air Force as a Military Police Officer for four years, leaving in 2003 with an honorable discharge and a severe back injury. Three of my five Lumbar discs are severely herniated with two pinched nerves, facet joint problems, degenerative disc disease and moderate scoliosis. I live with constant, severe pain which makes working out far more challenging and requires even more dedication; however, losing weight and being healthy helps with the pain.

My husband and I just accomplished one of our biggest dreams ever and moved across state lines from Northern California to Buckeye, Arizona. We’ve always wanted to make this move and it took us years to accomplish, but we finally did it and we LOVE it here! We couldn’t be happier and feel like this move really changed our lives for the better.  

So enough about me, onto the blog … I really hope that I can inspire and motivate other woman to live a happy and healthy lifestyle even as busy as we all are! I want my blog to focus on being healthy, working out, losing weight, strengthening the core muscles and finding the motivation to accomplish those goals. That also entails my children… because accomplishing those goals with two toddlers running around all day is quite a task! Another important aspect of my life, and one I will talk a lot about, is firearms. I love to go shooting and hunting and it’s something I’ve done most of my life; however, this also requires a healthy lifestyle!

So, I think this is a pretty solid introduction to my blog … I hope I provided a glimpse of who I am and what my goals are and hopefully I can elaborate on those goals and really inspire other woman to recognize and obtain their goals. Until next time … Live happy, healthy and strong!