I have a very big mouth...

And a very loving, patient, and forgiving husband. Thank you Nate for making my 50lb mark.......memorable.

Nothin' says "winner" like a tacky Kwanzaa plaque.

The start of 2008 marked the end of the first Bladcoxerson Weight Watcher contest and the beginning of yet another year to look forward to success. Although this post was actually written in my head before actually winning the contest, I refused to put all the results down until I reached my personal goal first.

Many of you may recall my somewhat emotional and raw post about my fight with obesity for almost all of my life. Well, I'm super stoked to announce that while I haven't fully won the war, I have come out of my first battle of the bulge as a winner. As of my weigh in on Saturday morning, I finally reached my first goal of losing 50 lbs. 5-0 POUNDS!! Well, 50.2 to be exact. And it feels fantastic.

I have so much to say about what it's been like since beginning this journey last June. There have been a lot of good times, new clothes, hard times and lots of cake to turn down. But, it ALL has definitely been worth it. It's amazing to walk into my WW meeting and have people I don't even know tell me how good I look, or how they remember my story from 6 months ago of doing this in hopes of getting pregnant. It's amazing to have people I don't even know hugging me and telling me how proud they are of me. It's amazing to watch friends and family have their own success too.

Yes, it has been challenging at times. But, when looking back and trying to remember what it was like to carry a second-grader around my stomach everyday, I realize that it really wasn't all that bad. Thanks to my ipod, sugar-free lattes, and lots of encouragement from family and friends, my day to celebrate has finally come. And celebrate, I have.

Brooke and John both hooked me up with my very own personalized Kwanzaa plaque (pretty sure it was mostly John's idea) and each of them gave me $25. So, I did what most people do when they win a Weight Watcher contest. I bought Bare Minerals make-up. I'm hoping the next 50lbs will bring a Dyson. I think the thought of sucking all the fat out of my life is therapeutic, don't you?

A big THANK YOU to my two competitors. I look forward to kicking your butts again in the future...

What's In A Name?

Yes folks, boredom has officially set in. I really can't flip through channels or watch my cat lick the same spot on the carpet anymore. So, last night I got the bright idea to move things forward in starting my event planning business. I just don't think there are enough self-proclaimed party-throwers around, do you? Ya know, all of us that think since we hosted "the best baby-shower" or the most "rockin' New Year's Eve party" that some-how gives us the right to start designing logos and printing business cards on perforated paper from Staples. You're familiar with my type, I'm sure.

So, last night while researching the online thesaurus for other words for "soiree," I found it much more interesting to list ideas for Nathan's new weather blog name than the name of my sure-to-make-me-lots-of-money side business. Vote below for the one you like best. I'm almost 97.2% positive that it will be completely useless, seeing as my husband will most definitely not like anything that I would come up with. It follows very much like the percentage of the likelihood that I was able to convince him that having a little girl named Caramel Macchiato Blais would increase fitting in at the daycare.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

By the way, the only names I came up with for MY business cards:

1. E-vents by liz
2. bells&whistles premier events

I can't be funny ALL the time...

I love keeping up with lots of people's blogs. It's an addiction that's been developing over the past year. I probably spend more time stalking other people's blogs and thinking about what to put on my blog, than I spend actually doing things in my life to blog about. It's an obsession. Now, I in no way want that to change. I love reading about other people's lives and I'm quite a talker, so I have no problem letting other people know what is going on in my life. But, I've been having a difficult time lately coming up with material for our Blais Bytes. This little blog has become more of a Blais Nibble than anything else. While great for Weight Watchers, the lack of substance is probably a little boring for my readers; all five of them.

One of the bloggers I lurk, Audrey, led me to this post that really got me thinking about what I write about on my blog. I really DO just give people a glimpse into what life in our house is like. My weekends really ARE filled with family and friends and activities and fun. I'm just not creative enough to figure out how to write about it all. Sometimes, I forget the real reason I started this blog in the first place; to capture times in my life and my husband's to look back on and laugh, reflect, and maybe even cry about OUR life together.

Lately, I've just had a lot of very regular things going on that I would like to write about, but I never do because I don't have a funny way to twist it to make it entertaining. Sometimes, I just want to list what I did for three days and leave it at that. So, I've begun to take the position of changing the format of our family blog to include more day-to-day things that occur; more of a computerized journal of what Nathan and I actually DO all the time.

Don't be dissappointed. I'll try to be as goofy as possible. It is in fact, STILL a blog about Nathan and Liz. So, we'll give this a try and see how it goes. Let me know what you think. I guess if I become super-lame-o, you can start reading another Blais' blog as soon as Nathan starts it. It's going to be about weather. Yeeaaah, on second thought, I may have to re-think the "everyday life" thing. We wouldn't want our readers to get jealous of our fabulous "whoop-whoop! throw your hands in the air" life.

PS: In keeping with my new "get-real, get-dirty" blog style, I will have to warn you that stinkin' Blogger won't spell-check anymore so I make no guarantees as to the accuracy of spelling or typing. I'm terrible at both. Maybe, not quite as terrible as I am at grammar. Especially, if it's almost 2 in the morning and I'm high as a kite on Loritab from throwing my back out, like when I decided to comment on this post on Jessica's blog. Can anyone say, "they're" ?! TWICE! Geez.

Red, White, and idiot all over...

Did you vote today? I did. And it was definitely not the easiest process I've ever been through. Oh, the actually connecting the arrow with one line on the ballot wasn't hard. It was the finding where to actually GO to draw the one line that was the hard part.

I woke up this morning and with a quick comment from my half-asleep husband, I realized that today was the day. I had forgotten to verify the night before that nothing else was going to be on the ballot. (Nothing stinks more than trying to make a quick decision in a cardboard cube that I know nothing about, but that could possibly change my world for the better...or worse...) I also had forgotten to find my voter's registration card to figure out what the name of my assigned voting location was. I knew it was some church on May, or Penn, or maybe it was actually on Rockwell? I knew it had some Saint's name on the sign. Or maybe it was that big funeral home. No, I would have remembered voting around dead people last time. Oh yes, it was that big Baptist church on the corner. No, Episcopalian. No! Definitely, the Baptist church.

So, as I walk into St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church (shut-up!) and tell my name to the President of the Cardigan-Sweater Club seated at the table, I realized that my last name has changed since the last time I voted. No biggie! I just happen to have my old driver's license with my maiden name on it. So, I tell the Vice-President of the Fixodent Fraternity my "other" name and nothing. Maybe I changed parties and didn't know? Still Nothing. Hmmmm... I know I'm registered?!

After answering a long list of questions mostly related to NOTHING having to do with where I need to vote, I finally get to teach a 95 year old lumberjack how to use a cell-phone to call headquarters to find out where I need to go vote.

then...

God sent down an angel with a huge Wiffle bat that knocked me straight. Yeah, I totally knew that I re-registered right after I got married with a new address. Then I drove to Epworth Villa (it has a church in it?!) and drew my arrow. I should re-register again. Politcal Affiliation: IDIOT.