So it has been a good while since I have written a post on my blog, well two years to be exact, and so much has happened between now and then.

My "fat pants" that I keep to give me a physical reminder of how far I have come.

My journey has continued down a strong and steady path and I am now at my lowest weight in three years which is currently 177 pounds. This year alone I have ran two 5k's; one for the Humane Society and another was a trail 5k race at Sugarloaf USA. I have also managed to really step up my lifting and managed to build muscle in places I had no idea I could really do. A major one being my upper body. If you would have asked me to "flex" my bicep you would have asked if there was anything there. Now I am able to see my biceps without even fully flexing my arms. Speaking of arms, on my birthday (Jan 20th) I got this beautiful pheonix tattoo at Touch of Grey (by Chris Flynn) to represent my rebirth in my journey. It took about 8 hours to do and was extremely painful but absolutely no regrets.



So what else has been going on since my last check in? I continue to work with my husband but not in Florida. Woa what? Welp, there were many factors that resulted in our return to Maine but the biggest was just the simple fact that we both missed home terribly. It only took less then six months to realize that Florida was just not a place for us and I felt that I truly belonged in Maine. It's amazing how it takes moving away from home to realize where you truly belong. I commend those who take the leap to move to a new environment because no matter the outcome, you end up learning so much about yourself. It might sound completely corny but I learned that I belong to Maine. I enjoy doing so many outside activities (hiking, swimming, biking, skiing, etc) but in Florida, you can't really do any of those things without the humidity killing you first. I definitely don't regret moving to Florida in the first place because I was able to have some fun experiences. I got to go to Epcot at Disney World for free thanks to an employee I worked with who's husband was a chef at Disney. I got to see The Blueman Group, which was on my bucket list and they were amazing. I got the chance to try some southern fast food places such as Steak and Shake, Chik-Fil-A, and Crispy Creme. The biggest downside to that was my journey was postponed until coming back to Maine due to the food and level inactivity.



So when we came back to Maine in June 2016, we took our previous job position back and have been rocking it ever since. Being back this time around has really changed my perspective on everything. Being a therapeutic parent poses it's own many challenges. Working with kiddos with developmental, behavioral, and/or mental health disabilities can be extremely tiring. Every day is unique and it is something you can never fully plan on day to day basis. Things will pop up and last minute changes are the norm but doing this job position for over four years total has given me a stronger sense of confidence. Coming back to the job was really just riding a bike and, call me crazy, but I am very happy to be back.

 There is so much to write about but I don't want to create it all under one blog post. It would be wayyy too long and in this day and age, people simply just don't have enough time. I fully plan on creating more consistent posts in the foreseeable future so stay tuned!

Until next time..

Progression from top left to bottom right from where I started to today.