Hi Everyone!
My name is Joanna. I am 32 years old, and live in a very small town in Arkansas. I was born in London, England and moved to the US when I was 12. I am the mother to three amazing children that I refer to as Peanut, Butter, and Jelly here on my blog. Peanut and Jelly are my two daughters, and Butter is my son. Peanut is 14, Butter is 13, and Jelly is 7.
About 10 years ago, I met the man I knew I could spend the rest of my life with. He's a great dad, a great provider, and best of all - he's my best friend. Hubby is different from every other man I've ever been with. He talks to me. He listens to me. He refuses to fight or argue. He believes in talking about our problems - and figuring them out together. It's made for a very calm and loving relationship - that I wouldn't trade in for the world.
This blog has seen many ups and downs. I've been a "daily blogger" for a little over three years now. Almost every single morning, I sit down at my computer and blog away. For two years, my focus was on losing weight. I have always considered myself to be overweight - even though I look back now to the girl I was in high school and wish that I were that "fat" now. I struggled with my weight because when my friends were wearing a size 0 in high school, I was wearing a size 10. When I was 17, I weighed 140lbs and was considered to be extremely overweight by my peers. Again, I'd give anything to be that "overweight" again.
I had some really great success back in 2009 with my weight loss. I managed to go from almost 300lbs down to 212lbs. I was working out often, eating right, and feeling amazing. My life was busy - but I managed to fit in gym time, running time, and meal planning time. I was transitioning from being a junior in college to a senior. I was full of so much ambition and motivation, that my crazy, hectic schedule and my desire to shed the pounds took over...and I accomplished amazing feats.
Once I graduated from college in May, 2010 I was ready to keep my ambition momentum going and start my dream career of being a teacher. Unfortunately, the universe and I didn't see eye to eye. Even though I had wanted to be a teacher since I was five, had never given up on that dream, and put myself through college while raising three kids and working....finding a teaching job just wasn't in the cards for me. The summer of 2010 was probably one of the most depressing times of my life. I applied at every school district, I visited every school trying to get a second with a principal, I sat by my phone hoping and praying that something would happen. But it didn't. All of the let down caused me to start wallowing in self-pity, and I turned to food again to comfort me.
Finally, at the end of the summer, I got a call about taking a teaching assistant position in a very large school district. My happiness was recharged, and I believed it to be my stepping stone in to a teaching position in the district.
For the entire school year, I worked my tail off in order to show what I was capable of. And then, that time came when it was time to get interviews. Except, my interviews didn't start to come as I thought they would. I had only one interview in the district I was working in...and once again, I started spiraling in to depression and upset.
Then one day out of the blue, I received a call from a principal just across the state line. She asked me to interview for a teaching position. In May 2012, I finally received the words I'd waited so long to hear: "You're Hired!" I was offered a position as a 4th grade teacher in a school district just over the Missouri border the same day I was interviewed.
Since that time, my weight loss efforts fell to the wayside. All I wanted to blog about was finally reaching my life-long goal of becoming a teacher. That's not to say that I don't want to still lose weight - I do - but I just couldn't consider myself a weight loss blogger anymore. Now my blog posts are more focused on teaching, my family, and the desires to want to lose weight. A hodge-podge if you will. Which is the way I prefer it.
So, enjoy! Hopefully you like what you read.
Thanks for visiting - I hope you come back often!!
Jo
