I'm Bacccck!!!!

Hey my loves!!!

First off I am SOOOOO SORRY, seriously sorry for leaving yall hanging with no explaination like that!  Totally not my style...BUT life happens sometime. It has been crazy lately that is for sure! Ok so lets see....

At the beginning of this week (last sunday) I missed doing the shred because I was gone most all the day.  I was starting to feel just blah and I knew we would be traveling later that week so I totally dropped the ball. Horrible.  I feel like poo for doing that and I totally regretted it.

Before I get into this whole weekend and where I have been I just want to lightly touch on the shred.  I did everything until day 17 before I stopped.  Ok here are my thoughts:  I did NOT do the entire shred but I noticed I was not really losing weight.  Now I was not perfect with my calories either so its not totally the shred's fault but when you are working that hard its a little disappointing not to see the scale move.  However I understand I was building muscle, and I can feel it in my arms.  Also the soreness went away after about the first week and the BIGGEST thing I was happy about was one night when I asked my hubby to scratch my back, he pointed out that he could feel like muscles or whatever in my back, admitting that it felt and looked like I had lost back fat! haha WOOO hOOO!!!

That was probably the most awesome thing about it LOL.  Ok so enough with that. I will continue to supplement the shred videos for workouts but I don't know when life will calm down enough to do the vid 30 days straight. I will let yall know.

Ok....so where have I been?!

Monday-Wednesday I worked my butt off preparing to be off work for the rest of the week! Wednesday night we left Charlotte and headed to Parris Island, SC to pick up my brother from Marine Recruit Basic Training!!!!! And to watch him graduate of course :)

In case yall don't remember....this is a pic of him right before he left.  Long hair and all :)

 

This was at his going away party, in the beginning of January. He has been gone since January 7th.  Normal basic training lasts 12 weeks (longer than any other branch of the military), however Jonathan had a runners injury, and had to be put into MRP which is basically a medical platoon.  He was backed up almost a month and had to go to a different company to continue his training when he got out of rehab.  So his original graduation date was April 5th and it was backed up to May 3rd. So it has been a long time coming!

So....this is my brother now....

No more hair! haha.

 

I like it though.  Man has he changed!!!

 

I knew he would look different and act different but it was seriously overwhelming the change in him.  He seemed to be a foot taller literally, he has wonderful posture, he is extremely polite and a tan that I am jealous of!  He has been through an extremely difficult four months but it has made him into a man. I am so incredibly proud of him. 

 

Yes I was totally crying my eyes out.

 

Ok so lets get back to the story shall we...

 

We go down Wednesday night with my parents and get a hotel room in Port Royal, about a mile or two from the base.  We get in around midnight and wake up at like literally 5am to get ready and be at the Motivational Run by 7am. 

 

 

This is dad.  We were so tired but excited so we didn't notice it too much.  We got a cinnamon roll and coffee because we were up too early for continental breakfast at the hotel.  This coffee shop in the visitors center had nothing healthy either.

 

 

 

So our first glimpse of my brother is at like 7am, running LOL.  We don't get to see him again until we get into the All Weather Training Facility when they are dismissed to us for family day.

 

 

One of the proudest best days ever. 

 

After we got up with him we had almost five hours to eat with him and walk around the base.  He could do anything with us just not leave base.

 

 

 

We ate a lunch buffet at the Lyceum on base.  This is NOT where they (the recruits) eat, this is a special dining hall.  But the recruits got to eat free there that day. 

AND man can my brother EAT!!!!  Seriously yall...he was on a diet before he left so he could make weight so for months he really restricted what he ate.  Now he eats like three plates within fifteen minutes without blinking lol. 

 

I had like this one plate and some deserts.  My brother had like two of these plates and two deserts LOL.  It really wasn't even that great.  My brother was excited about the cole slaw though.  He hadn't had any for four months.  He said this food was a bit better than what he was normally served.  Which made me sad.  Because I was not impressed with it.

 

So then we went to the Parris Island museum.

 

 

It was pretty neat seeing the history of the USMC.  Also a lot of famous people have been marines like Dorothy from Golden Girls and Montel Williams, to name a few! LOL.

 

I learned a lot while I was there.  There are two places Marines can go through basic.  East coasters go to ParrisIisland, and west coasters go to California.  However, Parris island is the ONLY place that women recruits are trained. 

 

We also went to the yellow footprints that millions of marines have stood on once they were dropped off the first time on Parris Island.  Jonathan found his and we took a pic!

 

 

These are the doors that all the recruits walk through ONCE and only ONCE.  Also ONLY recruits are allowed through them.

 

He held doors and opened doors for me and his mama all weekend!! SOOO precious!!

 

The next morning was Jonathan's graduation.  We had to get up super early again and eat a crappy hotel breakfast.  Our hotel itself was nice though, it was on base and an extremely large room!  It even had a kitchen! Fabulous beds as well. 

 

At 9am the ceremony started and lasted about an hour, then my brother was released to us for good! Well, the next 10 days at least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So please forgive me friends, but I have been trying to spend every spare moment I have with him!

 

It is so hard seeing your little brother go through something that is wonderful yet very scary.  I have never been apart from him this long.  I am so proud of him.  I am so happy for him.  I know he is in God's hands. 

 

We had a party for him Saturday night and then today we all went to church and out to lunch.  Jonathan wore his uniform for Mom :)

 

 

 

I am going to try to start doing food pics again because I have eaten like a 15 year old boy all week and I am sick of it.  SO I will see you tomorrow!  Thanks for hanging in there you all, I missed you lots!!!! xoxox