Day 1.

Like I promised you all, here is my first post! After a few hours of being lazy and cuddling with the cutest puppies in the world, i put on my sports bra and regained control! Statistically and on paper, my body does not show well what so ever. with a starting weight of a whopping 180 lbs (YIKES!) i am not at all content where i stand, sit or even lay for that matter! My hips are wider than a tow truck and i can go on and on about how my measurements just arent appealing, but i wont. I will start by saying that this is the end, this is the end of those pesky pounds sitting so unappealing on my hips, goodbye to the backfat that loves to make a cute top look like the ugliest shirt you've ever seen. farewell. i know that this progress will NOT be overnight,i will HAVE TO work hard, i will HAVE to stay motivated, but i made all of you a promise, so here i go trying to keep it! Insanity is not for the sane, i sit here sweating my face off just from the fit test that i so greatly did terrible at! Here are so pictures of me, large and in charge, but hopefully next time i post some pictures, 2 weeks from today, you will notice a difference...

xoxo

Mayra

the 60 day challenge

We all know that after graduating high school you are, at some point wether it be right after graduating or in your first years of college will gain the freshman 15!After high school i managed to keep my weight where i had been but shortly after I started my gain! I was pretty active at work and all but it was nothing compared to my high school softball days kind-of-active. After starting a new job after disney i had gained some MORE weight putting me up to the 170's which was so uncomfortable that I needed to change! I started a job where walking was part of my job, i'd say around 8  miles a day because it was just so much back and forth that i never ever sat down. That was in 2008 and along with a fun social life i managed to loose some extra pounds, putting me down to the 160's which was still well over 15 pounds over my high school days. I have never ever been a skinny girl, if you had all the women in my family line up and find a common denominator, it would be our BIG butts and wide hips! After getting settled into married life back in february and realizing that dancing every weekend would no longer be your form of entertainment or weighloss option anymore, along with getting a sedentary job i easily shot up to my first time, so extremely uncomfortable but i will tell you 180's. yikes. being 5'2 i should be down at the glorious 120's because its where my body is supposed to be. Therefore i have challenged myself to changing my ways of eating along with adding exercise to the mix. I had started insanity back in May to start working out but i only lasted 4 days. Then i restarted again in July hoping to be more motivated to get down the weight but after 7 days, my old self and laziness took over so i stopped. That week i had eaten healthy and worked out was great! I noticed some weight loss specifically in my face and I really liked that I was accomplishing the challenge i had made for myself! After that stint wore off i went back to my ugly ways and those glorious few pounds came back with a vengeance. I have decided to re-challenge myself  with insanity and getting down some pounds, i want to loose 20 pounds to start and after that I would love to aim for my high school weight of 135. That is probably the lightest i've ever been so i'll aim for that! I want to be able to look in the mirror and feel like i look good, i don't want to feel like a slob any more. I want to be able to have some sort of control of my own body! So my challenge begins tomorrow, i have eaten the last of my cookies and drank the last of my cocoa-cola! I will also do the best I can to write about my progress every monday wednesday and friday! I will keep a diary of my weightloss so i can see the overall progress and post pictures every friday! I CAN do this! I WILL achieve this challenge! I hope that those of you reading this, you few you, will join me in a challenge of your own, to aim for a goal and try your hardest to achieve it! Today i sit here, with a bowl of grapes by my side, my three gorgeous nephews and my husband making you this promise that i will try with all my heart! 


here are some blast from the past pictures... along with some recent fat girl pictures ;)

 

                                        

With love,

Mayra

Thankful.

This week has been pretty tough on me, somehow my anxiety decided to creep up on me and take me back a step in control. Thankfully i have an amazing husband and some great listeners at work that let me talk about how i feel and make be feel better! While I hate having anxiety and the feeling that takes over, it definitely makes me thankful for having the gospel in my life. One of the most important things in my world is my belief in Jesus Christ. This past week i've been reading over at http://presleyfam.blogspot.com, they sadly lost their adorable boy this past week. I cannot express the sadness i feel for them, but at the same time It is so comforting to know they'll all be together again some day. I'm so thankful for the knowledge that I have. I have been telling my husband that we need to find time in our opposite work schedule to head to the Temple. I miss going to the Temple, its been about 2 months since we've gone so to me its too long! I feel like when you have the opportunity to help someone, do it. Take the chance and make your time worth it! At work lately i've noticed that the way you are with people determines the way they are with you. Maybe its my Disney training but i've always felt like i have to be extra polite to people, and being at a bank, not all personalities are like mine so it can be difficult to get people happy to come into the bank. One of the things i love to hear from my customers say is "muy amable" in spanish, basically stating that you've been really nice, but in a very humble and sweet way! It makes my day every time i hear a customer say that and it makes me feel like i'm making a difference. Although we are not allowed or not really advised to talk about religion at work, sometimes inbetween transactions and conversations pop up we discuss what we do on our free time. The other day I helped this man who had taken some missionary lessons and had attended some church meetings before, He had nothing but great things to say about the church but he wasn't baptized and he said he still had to decided where he stood. He went on to say that his girlfriend doesn't believe in God or religion at all. It made me really thing about how lucky I was to find someone who has the same faith as me, the same beliefs as I do and the same will to do good in the world.I'm so thankful for the life i've been blessed with, words could never describe how peaceful it is to have my loving heavenly father to pray to and to console me in times of need. I'm so thankful for adversities, because without them, i wouldn't enjoy the goods as much as i do!

With love, 

Mayra S

Six Sweet Months.

Well, the time has flown by SO quickly! I cannot believe that this month marks our halfway point of our first year of marriage! We have had some laughs, some cries, and everything any couple goes through! My favorite part of marriage is always having him here, always having him by my side! building our lives together and getting through things! I love the fact, in all honesty i do, that we are not perfect. i love the fact that we have had our challenging times, our fights but we have gotten through them. That is my absolute favorite! I love the bond we have, no one at all knows me better than my husband does, and no one knows him better than I do. This past weekend we went out to Las Vegas with my family to just get away for the weekend! We had a good time just walking down memory lane, we went to Vegas for our honeymoon so we just revisited some places we had gone through!

My mom and dad were there as well so it was really nice to just have a good time with the people I love most! 

The last few months have been really well with work! :) My job is going great, not so much pressure and i feel like i'm really growing a fun kind of bond with my co-workers! We're pretty silly sometimes!

They've even started training me so i can someday become a lead! Wahoo that makes me so excited because I love moving up within a company! Anywho, life is going really well! Mona is really loving his job, i'm really happy that he's happy! We have pretty awesome callings at church so i'm having a blast working with the young women in our ward and he's the secretary in the EQ! 

I've been trying to get into sewing, i mad a few skirts a while back but i have yet to tackle making a dress and i have this really adorable polk a dot print that i'd love to make into a dress! Anyone have any dress pattern ideas? I need modest, cute, versatile and comfy!

Anywho, that is all... hopefully next time i write i'll have some fun news to share :) 

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Mrs. Stevenson 

d.i.y Journals

So since getting married, Monty and I have moved into the bellflower ward and after 1 month i received my first calling as a Young Woman Advisor! This past week i had to teach about personal records which was so perfect for me. I've been keeping a journal since i was about 10 years old, from simple entrys about days spent with mom to teardropping ex boyfriends breaking my heart! I was so thrilled to teach this lesson and I thought it would be such a good idea to get the girls some journals of their own. Well since being a newlywed with a new car and a new job and new bills to pay, it isn't that easy to just buy fun things anymore SO i resorted to the next best thing! I made these adorable lace trimmed cereal box journals that cost me no more that 1 dollar each and all the things i used were recyclable!

I started with an empty cereal box that we were just going to toss!

I cut down the sides splitting the box in half and tried my best to keep it even! 

                                                                 almost there!

                                               
                                      so now we have half a box and with this, i made 2 journals!

I traced my book of mormon :) and made a square and then used that

as my legend for the rest of the journals so they'd all be the same size!

I rounded the corners a bit to add a little bit of pretty! 

Then of course, follow the lines and cut straight!!

voalah! a perfectly cut little journal!!

After I cut it, I folded it straight down the center and used my ruler to make the fold as straight as possible! I did notice that cardboard is harder to flatten out so don't be afraid to use your scissors to press down the cardboard since you'll be covering it with lace! 

folded...

the inside!- i also want to add that i left the inside just like this so that the girls could glue some pass•a•long cards or favorite scriptures that mean something to them!

                                             i used the cardboard cutout and traced it on pink
                                          paper and then stapled it from the outside stapling ALL
                                                              of the papers together!

after doing so, i used glue dots to place the lace along the rim of the journal. I only glued on the outside and glued the lace trip onto both sides.So basically you just put the rim of the book in the middle of the with of the lace and each side gets equal amount of lace!  I purchased 1 1/2 yard of lace from joann's fabrics for $1.50! I also found a corner punch on sale for $5 dollars so if you feel more comfortable using a corner punch it would definitely work around the edges!

The girls absolutely loved their little journals and were so excited to write their adventures or scriptures! They loved the journals so I hope that if you ever use this tutorial your girls love their journals as much as mine did!!

xo

Mayra!

Soccer Mom!!

Today was quite an exciting day for my husband and I,well more for my husband but it was definitely great to see him so excited! Let me just explain that my husband loves sports. Most of the conversations he ever has with anyone is about sports or about basically anything, but mostly,Sports. He grew up playing rugby, soccer and criket in Australia but he loved soccer and followed Chelsea FC, a soccer club from London. To make a long story short, the underdogs that is Chelsea managed to win their way to the Championships league final agains Bayern Munich, a German Team,BLAh Blah Blah, a few penalties later and CHELSEA WINS!! My husband has been waiting 6 YEARS for this day so he was overjoyed with tears and such happy emotions. I was working all morning so he went with his friend Miguel to see the game at a restaurant in Long Beach! It makes me so happy to see him smile and be overjoyed. After I was off work we came home and got ready because we ended up going to a LA Galaxy game with our friends Shaun and Ava! They recently engaged and are planning on getting married in August! So Galaxy lost and if I may say so myself, the game was preeetty boring! The only excitement we got during this game was the fans fighting in front of us and watching David Beckham come in and out of the locker room. To be that close to such a handsome man, oh i'm so lucky;hahaha!

                                                         After getting home later that evening, we noticed that there was a pretty table sitting outside our door! We have been pretty good about paying our bills on time and trying to save some money but we havent been able to save up for a table to eat so when we saw this we were kind of assuming that maybe it was just something my mom had outside for one of my sisters to come pick up but boy was I wrong. I walked into my moms house, which is adjacent to ours, and asked about the table and my mommy had gotten it for us! We were so excited for it, but the excitement grew greater when we found out it only cost her $40! What a steal!I'm so excited to finally be able to sit here and write about my day,have my feet up on a chair after eating a bowl of cereal in my own table!

I swear my mother is such a life saver! I don't know if i'd ever be half of that woman, let alone a tenth! anywho, life is good! We've got church early in the morning so its time to say,Goodnight!!



•Mayra S•

New things are coming!

I figured that since the biggest change in life has already happened, I should just do something fun and change up my blog! It has been quite some time since I posted anything up here!! A lot of fun things have happened, Most importantly,  I MARRIED MY BEST FRIEND! No, not Alyssa Wall, he's almost as cool as her :) Here are a few pictures of our special day and a few from our super fun honeymoon in VEGAS!!

                                                       

                                                             

                                                               

 Everyone looked SO good, just like I dreamed my wedding would look like! A little bit of Romance and a little bit of European class. I really loved the way the colors worked together and the way the girls and the guys fit the look! I was so happy all day to have finally have that day happen! 

 

So There it is! The wedding post! I really want to update this blog as often as I can, I'm really looking forward to posting not just about my life but things I find that I think can help out others and finding blog friends with genious ideas about living a good and happy blog life! 

With love,

MRS Mayra Stevenson!