I Think I'm Growing Up.

So the past few months have been a whirlwind and somehow throughout that whirlwind, I've been growing deeper as a person and a follower of Christ than I have in a long time. It's so true that God really meets you in the lowest and deepest places. I think He loves having the opportunity to pull you out of the pit.

I've been thinking and focusing a lot lately on being the best Amy possible. I've been trying to lose weight, read more books, spend daily time with God, and invest myself in people around me. What I've been learning through this process is that everyone I come in contact with (friends, customers, coworkers) has a varying opinion about what the best "me" is. Everyone in your life has expectations of you. It's normal. It's typical. It's exhausting. So, as I'm on this adventure of being the best me I can be, how can I possibly be all these different things to all these different people? At the same time, how can I be the best me for myself? Well... I can't.

So what do I do with this? No matter what I do, how I act, what I say or how I present myself, someone somewhere will be disappointed with the me that I am. Well, lucky me, I have the answer. All I can do is try my best to work towards being more like Christ everyday. Humans are flawed, myself included. He is not. Therefore, if He is satisfied with my heart and my intentions, that's really all that matters.

So instead of striving to be the best me that my friends want to see, or the best me that I want to see, here's to striving to be the best me that God wants to see. I'm sure I won't get it right everyday or even every hour. But I'm gonna try. Cause His is the only standard that I know is good and righteous...

Here and There

So it's been awhile since I've made any blog or facebook updates on life. I figured it was time. Maddy is doing well. We've heard a whole lotta nothing back from the crappy vet, but since then we've found a new one! We've started taking Maddy to the Akron Medina Veterinary Hospital. They are great and we had a much less expensive appointment with them that actually gave us some results! They diagnosed Maddy with a bacterial infection and started her on antibiotics. Yes, its true... there were no ear mites. But the crappy vet still should have noticed all these scabs and lesions all over her body that were multiplying like mad crazy. So since she's been on the antibiotic, there's been major improvement. We got her coat shaved all the way down so we could see her poor irritated skin (which is what lead us to make another vet appointment) and the scabs are starting to go away. Unfortunately, as each of these scabs go away, she's left with hairless patches of pink skin. Poor girl. They're all over her legs, feet, butt and back. It's quite pathetic looking. But, she's in such a better mood and back to her usual Maddy self. So as soon as her skin looks a little less disgusting, we can say that she's all better! They say it could take a month or so.

As for me and my New Year/New Self... I'm on a diet! I have yet to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, until now! In fact, I'm doing so good that I'm passing it up and losing even more! I've been tracking everything I eat on sparkpeople.com and it has seriously changed my life. It has opened my eyes to the horrible things I used to put in my body and it's shed light on things that are still tasty, yet good for you! The first day I started tracking what I ate, I actually consumed 3000 calories that day! Yuck! (Granted, this included a date night with Andrew and lots of fried food, so I wasn't necessarily that gross every day) Since then, I've got it down to between 1200 - 1500 calories a day. In the past 3.5 weeks, I've lost 8 pounds! It's amazing! And I don't even have to make my lazy butt exercise! And after the initial yearing for fried horribleness, I actually don't even desire to eat that stuff anymore. Well... ok, sometimes I do. But for the most part, I'm enjoying how much better my body feels when I fill it with healthy eats. Loving it! My goal is 10 more pounds by spring so that I can look stunning by the time it's bridesmaid season. =) Plus, whenever our next little bundle of joy is on the way, maybe these healthy habits will keep him/her a little smaller than our 10 pound Nathan. =)