The Challege

I had the opportunity to take a last minute trip back to STL a couple of weeks ago.  My dad just called out of the blue and told me "We want everybody to come home this weekend for some family pictures, so get a flight and I'll reimburse you." (or something along those lines.)  Um, hells yeah!  Who says no to a free trip?  So I found a flight and flew out on Friday morning.  My brother and Grandma Pope flew in the next day and it was just a fun filled family weekend. :)  Friday I just hung out with my family, we went up to my dads office and I helped clean it and then we went home and watched a movie and my dad bought a 50 chicken nugget meal at McDonalds.  Yes.  They have a 50 piece chicken nugget meal.  WTH?  It comes with the chicken nuggets, 2 large fries and 2 large drinks.  It's so much food!!!  But I was very amused that they actually sold something like that.
On Saturday I went shopping with Jason, my mom and my Grandma for something to wear in the family pictures.  We found some really cute sweaters at Old Navy that won us over and took forever decided on which colors to get for who.  I never knew buying a sweater could be so difficult!  But we all looked super cute in our pictures. :)  
We went to Dewey's for dinner that night.  Dewey's is this little pizza joint that has the BEST pizza on this planet.  My favorite is called the Dr. Dre.  It has ranch dressing, cheese, chicken, jalepenos, green peppers and fresh tomatoes.  Delicious!  I absolutely have to have it every time I go home to visit.  After dinner we headed down to the lake house that my parents bought a few years back.  I've never been there during the summer/fall, only winter so I was really excited that I got to see the lake all pretty and everything green.  On Sunday we took more family pictures and then my brother had to leave.  :(  So sad he only got to be with us for one day, but I'll take one day over none!  Monday everyone went to work so I hung out with Kristin and my Grandma.  We walked around downtown Kirkwood and had lunch and did some window shopping.  Then Tuesday I came back home!  

OH!  Hold on!


I totally just left out one of the funnest parts of my trip.  On Monday night for FHE we had dinner out by the pool and swam, which was really fun b/c I haven't swam in that pool since before I was married.  KP, Alyssa and I were acting dumb and goofing around and when we were done swimming we decided to all take a bubble bath in my mom and dad's jacuzzi tub.  :)  BEST IDEA EVER!  Alyssa filled up the tub with water and added some bubbles and we were kind of bummed b/c the bubbles weren't that high.  Well, I decided to turn on the jets for fun and all around us the bubbles started growing.  They were taller than our heads! haha it was so awesome! :)  I just loved being able to act like a kid again and play with my sisters because I really don't ever get to do that.


So onto the reason why this post is entitled 'the challenge'.  While I was visiting my mother and I were talking about how we've both gained weight that we want to lose.  So I challenged her.  Whoever loses the most weight by Christmas wins.  But we had to make this interesting so that we would actually adhere to the plan.  In years past we've done little losing weight 'contests' but we always lose interest and forget about it quickly after we start.  So the 'entry fee' if you will is $200 and whoever loses the most weight wins the pot.  My dad decided to join in so the pot is at $600.  So I'm excited b/c if I win that means I have an extra $400 bucks in my pocket!  But at the same time, if I don't win, I don't really care b/c either way I'll still have lost a bunch of weight.
So here it is, 11 weeks until Christmas.  I want to lose 10-15 pounds.  I think I can do it... wish me luck!