date night!

well hello everyone! hows your week going so far? i didnt do a end of weekend post like i have been lately, since my weekend was so dull! i mean, i wanted it to be low key, and boy was it! nothing happened saturday, i just bummed around at home cleaning and watching harry potter (still slowly making my way through my box set!)
saturday night, DPants went out for a boys night, first time in forever! so of course i didnt mind having the house to myself for a few hours. til it got to much later and he still wasnt home and i was bored and boozed from my bottle of wine. wanted to get some sleep, except that without DPants in the bed, i couldnt fall asleep! he got home around 4am, and i was still awake. fell straight to sleep while he was telling me about is night though!
sunday was another bum around the house day. i slept til 12, then we went off and saw the muppets movie with some friends. i love it! was so funny. sunday night we just had leftovers for dinner and both had an early night. it was dull and low key and lovely.

my week has been going pretty slow. work is busy because of end of month and ive been in a funk due to god knows what, so imagine my surprise and delight when the DMan texted and said he was taking me out for dinner! and he refused to tell me where we were going, so it was a cute little surprise! it was a restaurant we've been to before, a lovely seafood place that has amazing crayfish (lobster) dishes and it was such a cute little mid week surprise!

 1st attempt at a pic of my outfit. dress is strapless and has a sweetheart neckline. i got it from target for a steal. its actually a little bit big around the top since ive lost more weight since i bought it, but i still love it.
 

more outfit pics. taken by DMan. wow i got the crazy eyes happening in the 2nd pic! oh and dont mind the messy kitchen in the back ground!

 date perfume! my boss got me a great little Dior sample set when he went to south africa last year and i still hadnt got around to using this one! theyre tiny little bottles, so its great to be able to carry it around in my clutch. hypnotic poison was the first one i used, and i love it so much i used it all up very quickly! DPants loved this one too!

my DELICIOUS crayfish! i orderded the half crayfish mornay. and it was amazing. there were many other things i wanted on the menu, but couldnt go past ordering my beloved cray. DPants ordered butter chicken. (at a seafood restaurant!! doofus) but he was pretty happy with his choice. (look at his crazy face!) we had a lovely dinner and it was so nice to be on a date during the week :)

my yummy strawberry liquour sundae. it was so good. ice cream, whipped cram, almonds and strawberry goo was the perfect way to end my great meal. the DMan was too full after his butter chicken to order dessert, or to even share with me, and i was happy with that! he just chose a nice dessert wine to sip on while i inhaled my sundae.

all in all it was a great night, and im still all smiley about DPants' surprise date night. Now on to get through the rest of the week. its going to be ok though, tomorrow night im going to Z's for dinner (shes cooking!) and then thursday night Z and I are meeting H out for dinner (not sure where yet!). nothing planned for friday night yet, but saturday im heading back down south to collie to spend some time with my family. its my cousins baby's 2nd birthday on sunday, and i cant wait for his little party! hes the cutest kid ever, will be sure to get some great photos!

have a good week everyone!

yay!

comments are working again! replying to everyone now! xx

and now, as promised....my tattoos :)

a couple of weeks ago i mentioned that i will do a post about my tattoos. as i said earlier, my friend R chickened out of getting her first before she went overseas, and i was going to getting a fourth one while with her. but that didnt end up happening either. it will happen eventually, thats for sure. i only have 3, and always have ideas for a few more in the pipeline.

just thought id share the ones i already have....try to ignore the poor quality of the pics

 this was my first. its my "tramp stamp" in that its located on my lower back just above my butt. i got it just after i turned 18, and i still love it. love it so much. its a little small, but i was quite scared about getting it done, the pain, and was scared i would regret it if i got it too big. in hindsight, i definetly shouldve got it bigger and with maybe more detail, but i love it. and i will never regret it.
(oh and that pinkish smudge in the top left corner? blame DMan and his ridiculous photography skills AGAIN! his damm finger got in the way this time!!)

 this is my 2nd. its placed on the inside of my right wrist. for those of you who dont recognise what it is, its the southern cross. a constilation that can only be seen in the southern hemisphere. and its on our australian flag. now this style of tatt has quite a bad reputation over the last few years. i got this way back in 2006, before they were considered quite so "bogan" and trashy. my story behind this is, my ex matt and i had only been together for about 8 months when he started planning to move back to england (he was born there). i already knew when we started dating that that was his plan once he finished uni, so i wasnt surprised, just sad and not ready to let go of our relationship just yet. so when he asked me to come with him, i of course said yes and started planning to leave my life, my family and my friends behind. i got my tattoo to have a 'little piece of australia' with me while i was away from home. my ex hated tattoos (even though he knew i had one when he started dating me!) and was already having doubts about me coming with him to the uk, so he called it off. we didnt technically break up (and he ended up moving home after a few months and we stayed together for almost another 2 years) but he changed his mind about me coming with him, and went alone. left me with no idea of when or if he was coming home.
whoa sad sack story. sorry for getting side tracked! so yeah, while this tatt may have some sad memories attached, and may have a bit of a stigma about it (thanks to the dudes who caused the cronulla riots a few years back!) i do not regret getting it. again, its probably a little small. but i love it, and its a good reminder of where im from and who i am. and to stand up and be who i want (not who my ex wanted)

and now onto my latest. my biggest. and my favoritist! i got this only a few months ago, around my 26th birthday. i planned to get it as a celebration of losing 50kgs, but by the time i got around to designing it and booking it in, i had lost 60kgs! its a symbol of starting new, a new beginning, a new Caris. its on my ribs on my left side. and goes from my hip to just under my boob. i love it so much, its perfect. this pic doesnt show the colours very well, but its bright and lovely. and theres so much detail in the feather, its beautiful!

so there they are. hope i havent scared anyone off with the amount of skin im showing!

:)

first up

for those who have commented on my posts lately, id like to apologise for my lack of replying. somethings playing up every time i go to comment back, and it simply wont load to let me do it. i hope you all dont think i was being rude, i will reply back as soon as it starts working!

:)

Whoa Weekend!

Good Morning!

Well its been a little while since I've blogged, apologies for that, but the reason being was my super busy week and weekend that hasn't even really slowed down just yet. But its all been great fun and I'm having a blast, so its all worth the tiredness.

The last week or so has been bittersweet, as i mentioned before, one of my best friends R was moving to London for 2 years! (she left last night!!) so we were all busy doing things "one last time" with her and making sure we packed in as much time with her as possible.

Wednesday night we went up to our friend H's place for a Skype tutorial (hosted by her bf M) none of us had ever used skype before and we all needed to learn before R left us to make sure we could talk to her all the time! it was pretty easy, and i doubt we needed the prinouts M did for us, or the little presentation he had playing on his tv (haha dork) but it was great, and was a good excuse for all of us to have dinner together. (one last time at H's)

this is R and I "learning" hehe. We had so much fun, such a laugh. specially when we all decided to skype each other while all sitting in the same room! poor M!!

As i mentioned sometime last week, Thursday night was the night me and R were going to get our tattoos before she left. but then she chickened out! her parents and sister found out that she was thinking of getting one, and they totally hit the roof. her mum even sat her down and lectured her about it! ridiculous, coz shes 26, she can do what she wants. but it really upset her that everyone was being negative about it, and it made her doubt whether she truly wanted one or not. i didn't want it to become a negative experience for her, so no tattoo for R. which meant no new tattoo for me. that's ok though, i can get mine whenever. and i couldn't really afford a new one this week anyways, was just all excited at the thought of having a new one to show off!  oh, and i know i mentioned that i would be doing a post of the tattoos i already have, and i will, but i tried to take a pic of my 'tramp stamp' the other day, and it was so darn hard to get a good one at that angle! will get DPants to take one, and do a post soon!!

So yeah, Thursday turned into a emergency hang out night with our friend Z. Z msgd us during the day to inform us that she had broken up with her boyfriend of almost 3 years! big shock to me! not really to R, because Z had mentioned that she wasn't happy and was thinking about doing it a while ago. the big reason that Z hadn't mentioned it to me was that her now-ex bf J is DPants' best friend. That's how DPants and I met actually. but she was worried it would make things awkward if i knew things before they happened. and i totally understand. So yeah, big shock from Z. R was on hand to rush over to her while she was a bit hysterical in the morning, and i went round there as soon as i could after work. turned out to be a good night (as good as it could be i guess) R took her for a haircut so she could feel fresh and new, and she ended up with the cutest fringe! then we all sat around and drank a bit, listened to Z while she cried some more and told us what had gone wrong. it breaks my heart to see her cry and see her sad. but shes done the right thing. now theres the matter of finding a place to live, packing all her stuff and moving on. We all headed out to dinner at a great italian place down the road and had delicious pizza and lots of wine. lots of girly laughs. R stayed the night with Z, one because of the amount of wine she'd drunk "supporting" Z (haha) and two to be a good friend. I'm glad she stayed with her, its never nice sleeping in a big house alone after something emotional has gone down.

whew....anywho... on to Friday! Friday night was celebrated with R's last dance at Mint. Mint is a great club that holds a "retro night" on Fridays. and of course we go to hear the likes of Hanson, Backstret boys, five and spice girls, and to dance the night away with no shame that these songs are our favs and remind us of all growing up together (even if they are essentially awful). we had a blast!

H and R doing shots. gross, i hate shots. but they loved these, and of course they were called "wet pussys" why do shots have to have such feral names?

my beautiful chickees on the dance floor. was so much fun, going to Mint will never be as fun now that R has left us!



And now onto Saturday! Saturday morning was spent just pottering around cleaning the house a bit in preparation for Jades stay. DPants had already cleaned the house pretty well on Friday night as he had peeps over while I went out (more on that later), so there wasn't much to do. R came round to pick up some make up she'd left in my bag, and we ended up sprawled on the couch with chips and dip watching Daria (one last time!) until she had to go to her appointments. Then there wasn't alot of time between R leaving and Jade rocking up. Yay for Jade! (www.2-jaded.blogspot.com) I'm always so happy when she comes up to stay, we always have so much fun. and she always brings Vodka!! so yay for that. we chilled out for a bit on the couch, had a couple of drinks, then got hungry. so off to the shops we went, which turned into a little spending spree in Kmart for Jade because she can never resist buying a few things for Ri. I ended up buying a pretty dress for $12 so it was a good day all round! we then carried out our tradition of pretty much ALWAYS watching cat in the hat when we're together. its our fav movie and still makes us laugh every time!

SO EXCITED! hahahaha

then, almost sadly, it was time to get ready! we were all heading out to R's going away party at a lovely beer garden just north of the city and were looking forward to a great night out. outfit pics coming right up -

 Dans BRILLIANT photography skills at work again! Even Jade had a dig at his work (www.2-jaded.blogspot.com) ahaha, poor guy is trying!

finally! a nice shot! thanks babe! I was so excited about this new dress! its a Wayne by Wayne Cooper that i 'bought' from Z on Thursday night. i say 'bought' because she wouldn't let me give her any money for it! instead i payed for her dessert at the restaurant!

and a semi-nice pic of me and dear Jade. this pic doesn't do her dress the justice it deserved, she looked awesome in it! i wish i hadn't hunched down to make myself shorter, i look all odd and awkward. i was trying to de-emphasize our height difference and make J feel better about being a shrimpboat! (hahah sorry J :p)

nice thongs DMan!! haha thankfully, he did change out of them before we went out!

The party was lovely. lots of great friends, a great beer garden (even if it was stinking hot!) and yummy food and drinks. we all had a great time, but we were all getting a little sad about R leaving too.

 Everyone enjoying their drinks while we wait for dinner. from left to right, R's sister B (whoops, bad shot of her, sorry B!) her boyfriend T. then H and her boyfriend M. you cant see B, but hes behind R's head and his girlfriend C. and of course, our favourite red head R! mmmm Mojito!

 The lovely R and C. I haven't C for years, it was so great to catch up! we went all through school together, right from grade 2! she is so sweet :)

 Me and the crazy Z! isn't her new fringe adorable! we had so much fun together, we all woke up a little rough on Sunday, but it was well worth it!

open your eyes D! the party's only just begun!!!

unfortunately, my camera skills go a little hay-wire when I've had a few drinks so there's no photos from later on in the night. but we all had a blast and danced the night away with all our great friends.

so that was my weekend, phew. Sunday afternoon, my parents were staying in the city with my little bro (he had some appointments in the morning) so once id woken up and semi-recovered, we headed in a had a lovely afternoon tea in their hotel room with my sister too. was a nice afternoon, mum had made egg sandwiches and cut up some fruit and we had cake too! and on account of me not being able to eat bread, but egg smoosh being my favorite filling, mum bought up some cruskits for me to put my egg on. shes so awesome!

then it was all back to work on Monday like normal and try to survive the day without falling asleep! and today's even worse, i went to the airport last night to see R off with her family and H and Z. it was so sad to see her go, but i managed not to full on bawl until i was in the car! i hate crying in front of people!

 R's beautiful earmuffs that she got for Xmas. Shes gonna need them!

our last photo before she left us! :( so sad. going to miss her so much! hope she has an amazing time. shes going to make so many friends and have a ball. I'm so proud of her for doing this!!

Fun times ahead :)

well happy Tuesday everyone! hope the week so far is treating everyone well! My week so far has been pretty normal, just work and nice relaxing home time. Monday, my bestie R met me and my work mate J for lunch at our local lunch bar, which was lovely. i dont get a very long break, but its still fun to see her for that half an hour and have a catch up in person.

the rest of my week is about to get super busy, we're in countdown mode too. its only 6 days until R leaves for London and im trying so hard to not think about it and get sad. shes going away to work, so will be there for at least a year (maybe 2!) and its going to be super sad to see her go. im so happy for her, shes so brave to follow her dreams and dare to try something different, but man is it sad that shes going. we've been friends since day one of year 8 (when we were both still 12!) and remained friends (albeit on again off again sometimes!) all through high school together. we had a falling out shortly after i moved to perth (when were 19-20ish) and ended up not speaking for a few years (big misunderstanding, sad and silly, but it was the break we needed i think) but over the last 18mths or so, we've patched things up and have been having an absolute ball being best friends again. dont know what id do without her!

so yes, big plans for the week ahead. tomorrow night, me, R and Z are heading to our friend H's place for dinner, and for a Skype tutorial with H's boyfriend M. we're all pretty computer savy, but none of us have ever used skype and we all wanna learn before R leaves, so that we can do it while shes gone! its more just an excuse to have dinner together, but ill be happy to get shown the basics and learn some skyping tricks for the future.

thursday is going to be super big night for R. Im taking her to get her first tattoo! yay! shes been thinking about one for years, and was with me for my first, so when she decided that she wanted us to get one together before she leaves, i jumped at the chance! its going to be so much fun (a little painful) but fun! we're going to my artist, since i dont trust anyone else to do her, or me for that matter and are both getting birds. we're not going full matching, since we have different tastes, and we're getting them in different places, but its still going to be "our" thing that we're doing together as a goodbye present to each other. will post pics once theyre done, hopefully R will let me share hers with you all!

friday night we're heading out to our favorite club Mint. its a great little place, thats cute and girly and friday nights is Retro Night! which is just the best! they play all our favs from the 90s and some from the 80s. And we dont leave until we've danced our butts off to our top 6 "must hear" songs! they are as follows=

MMMbop - Hanson
Everybody (Backstreets Back) - Backstreet Boys
Wannabe- Spice Girls
C'est la Vie - B*Witched
Got the Feeling - 5ive
Jump Around - House of Pain

Dont laugh! you know you all love those songs! its hilarious fun and we always have a ball. so i cant wait to go one last time with R before she leaves!

Saturday night is R's going away drinks. a small group of us are meeting for an intimate dinner first, to get all the sad out before partying the night away drinking with friends at a great bar just outside the city. my bestest bestie is coming up to stay from our home town down south, and we're going to have a blast. its been a while since Jade (http://www.2-jaded.blogspot.com/) has been up in perth to party with us girlys (since my birthday in september actually!) so we're all looking forward to it so much. R is touched that Jade has organised a baby sitter and is driving all the way up here just for her goodbye drinks.

Sunday will be a recovery day me thinks, but with my parents coming up to stay the night (in preparation for a doctors appointment with my little bro in the city) I will be catching up with them for a late lunch or quick dinner if either of us can fit it in. should be lovely. mumsy's been a little mopey, since me and my sis were home so much over xmas and new years, she goes through withdrawals when we finally come back to the city. i love to go down and visit them as much as i can, but january is always a busy month, so i might not get the chance to go home til february. at least thats when mums bday is so thatll keep her happy!

hope everyone has a great week :)

Weekend!

Hi!

How was everyones weekend? Mine was super busy, and was awesome. After a long and boring week, I was really looking forward to having a nice weekend with friends. Theres a bit of a mish mash of photos, so bare with me while i try to describe whats happening in all of them... (oh and excuse some of them that are poor quality, theyre taken with my iphone...)

So the weekend started with my good friend Nate's 30th Birthday Burlesque party! Was hilarious, and we had a great time dressing up and catching up with friends :)

This is how my makeup turned out....such a shame that i had to put my glasses on over it!

 This pic demonstrates D's awesome photography skills. it WAS supposed to show my full costume get up, but he caught me at the wrong moment! Thanks DPants!

 And this is the lovely D! He looked super adorable all dressed up, was a very proud moment hehe :)

 Our fabulous entertainers for the night. One of Nate's friends organised our "ladies" and they put on a fantastic show! They were hilarious and entertaining, but also extremely good at what they did, I'd kill to be able to dance half as good as they did!

 This small pic taken by a friend, shows my costume a bit better then D's pic! Im not usually a fan of costume parties, and I was quite nervous about how short my skirt was and how tight my top was, but in the end i thought i did a good job at sticking with the theme, and i was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable it all was!

 Me with the birthday boy! I've known Nate for...oooooo... about 14 years now, and hes a blast. We dont hang out or see each other anywhere near as much as we should, but we'll always been friends no matter how much time or distance it is between visits. Hes a wonderful person and a great friend, and i was so happy to be celebrating his birthday with him.

 This was my outfit for Saturday lunch at the pub with D. After spending 3 hours Saturday morning cleaning the house while D swept our entire patio and outdoor area, we decided to treat ourselves to a lunch out at a local pub. nothing fancy, but the food was delish and of course so was the company. This pic is pretty crap, you cant see it, but its a shortish dress stops above my knees) and its actually satin. Id never worn it before, because when i bought it D wasnt a fan of the ruffles, but he seemed to like it Saturday, specially when i added the belt, so it was a winner. it was light and breezy, and considering how hot its been lately, i loved it. will definetly start wearing it more!

 Had to take a pic of my awesome cocktail slushie that accompanied my lunch. it was called a "strawberry blonde" it was nice and refreshing and delicious, plus D paid an extra $4 and we got to keep my glass! the bottom had 3 lights in it that you could change the colour of, or make it flash all the different colours at the flick of a button. And, once you purchased the glass, all refills were $5! score!!

 This is actually a pic from my work xmas party in december, the only reason ive added it, is coz this is the outift i chose to wear to drinks in the city for a friends birthday (another Nathan!!) on Saturday night. I failed to take a pic before we left, but this is literally exactly what i wore (shoes and bag and all) so the pic counts! Drinks in the city was great, i decided to be an awesome girlfriend and be designated driver for D and his best mate J. We didnt have a super late night, but it was nice catching up with everyone and having a chilled session in the warm night in our city.

 Sunday, was my once a year, day to be a bogan, and to be proud of it! As i mentioned earlier, me and my dad go to a car show, Motorvation, every year together and its our little father-daughter tradition. we love it and always have a great day. here you can just see dad admiring one of his favoritist cars of all time, the 1971 Holden HG Monaro. Dad owned one of these way back in the day before he'd even met my mum (so over 30 years ago!) and he still has quite a soft spot for them. I gotta say, its one of my favorite cars also, but maybe thats dads influence!

 Got absolutely ripped off in the beer tent though. $9 for a MID STRENGTH (ugh) vodka mix that tasted like ass! Was nice to chill with dad and his mate Dave in the beer tent, since it was such a hot day and we were trying to stay out of the sun.

Then it was time for the REAL fun to start! This was the whole reason we braved the sun and crowds. The final of the burnout comp is always so much fun and awesome to watch. its loud, smelly, dirty and smokey, but we love it. we always sit so close to the action, that we have to duck every time a tyre explodes, just in case a chunk of rubber flys into the crowd (which it does very often)

 So this is what happens when you sit to close to the action! By the end of the burnout comp, our faces, arms, legs, EVERYTHING were absolutely covered in black specs of dust and rubber! We look disgusting, but compared to some people who were sitting closer then us, we looked great! My darling dad isnt happy until his face looks like this at a comp, he feels like hes been ripped off if he doesnt get covered in rubber! It was hilarious!

 Close up of the side of my face at the end of the day. This side was dirtier then the other, coz i kept turning away everytime a cloud of smoke and rubber came near us (hey i love burnouts, but not a fan of smoke in my eyes!)

 And i couldnt resist taking a shot of what i looked like once my sunnies came off! And this is what went home to D! poor guy! pretty funny though, i was so hungry on the way home, but could not bring myself to even go thru a drive through looking like this!

As luck would have it, D's parents were over at our house when I got home! Awesome! last thing i wanted was for them to see me like this! But they just thought it was hilarious, and we all had a great laugh about it. I only said a quick hello and ran straight to the shower, trying not to touch anything on the way!

So all in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I was super tired and today i could NOT stop yawning, but it was all worth it.

Lots of stuff happening this week to i think. Its my best friend R's last week living here before she moves to London (for 2 years!! sad) and we finally booked in with my artist to get our tattoos before she leaves! itll be her first so she was a little scared and hesitant, but has finally decided its now or never and is FORCING me to get one with her! (haha not that i needed much persuasion, i love tattoos and always have an idea of the next) I will post pics when we get them done!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Will put in more effort then last week and make sure i post more often!

:)



WHOOPS

ok, so with the Cute Blog Award i was just awarded from A Jaded Life I now realise that I am meant to pass on this award to other blogs. But since im so new, and barely follow anyone yet, let alone have many that follow me, i have no one to pass it on to! (everyone i want to give it to, has already won it)

but i will pass it on the moment i find someone to give it to! i swear!

Cute Blog Award!

My amazing friend Jade at A Jaded Life has just awarded my humble little blog with a Cute Blog Award! Thanks Jade! Bit of a shock, since I'm so new to all this, but very exciting! Thanks Jadey! Jade's been running her blog for a little over a year now, and its always fun to check out what fahsion styles she's into at the moment, whats shes wearing to nights out and whats happening with her gorgeous daughter Riley. Check her out now! :)

What is your go to make up product?
Always Mascara and Lip Balm. Its pretty much all I bother with on weekends.

What was your favourite trend of 2011?
My playsuit! and color blocking

What is your favourite dessert?
Cheesecake. Any flavour (but honey & macadamia is my fav)

Favourite colour?
Blue or purple. Sometimes pink, but i dont look good in it so i never wear it

What is your middle name?
Louise (hence 'caris-l')

What was the last song you listened to?
Starlight - Muse

Cats or dogs?
Definetly dogs. But I dont have one.

Tell us something about yourself that you haven't told us on your blog.
Hmmm, I have 3 (soon to be 4) tattoos. I have a small staff of music on my lower back (tramp stamp! haha) a southern cross on my right forearm and a huge peacock feather on my ribs on the left. The 4th will be 5 small black birds flying along the side of my left wrist.

Thanks Jadey :)

i turned 26 last september, still getting used to being in my "mid twenties" but the last couple of years have been the best so i cant complain too much

part of the reason my last couple of years have been so great is DPants. hes my awesome boyfriend whom i love and adore and wholeheartedly believe i will spend the rest of my life with (corny i know, but hey, when you know you know). itll be our 2 year anniversary in april, which we are celebrating with a trip overseas together (our first yet! our first holiday alone together, we've been away with my parents before.) we live together, for almost a year now and things are just getting better and better every day. sure we have little issues that may pop up from time to time, but we're so happy that nothing gets in our way. i love him and he loves me.

another reason for my recent happiness of the last couple of years is my weight loss. i made the choice in december 2009 to have lapband surgery. an extreme and sometimes controversial weight loss option, especially for someone my age, im aware. but it was my choice. i thought i had an idea about how much i weighed, and obviously knew i was obese. at my initial consultation with my surgeon/doctor, i found out exactly how much i weighed, which was alot more then i was guessing, about 20kgs more then i was guessing, bit of a shock! my bmi was 42, which made me a "perfect" candidate for this procedure. i read all the information i could about the surgery, the side effects, the "lifestyle" i would have afterwards, and i spoke to several people who have had this done. some with success and some without. friends of my parents (who were both in their late 40's) have had the procedure. and i have seen everything theyve been through. the pros, the cons. ive seen exactly how hard it is to cope and still have a normal everyday life with what theyve done. alot of people perceive weight loss surgery as the "easy" way out. ive never seen it in that way, especially after watching people i love and admire go through the pain and the sickness of having this procedure. the thing that swung it to mostly pro in my eyes, was id rather get this done and sorted now, rather then be obese my whole "young:" life and have to struggle later on. i eventually want children and i didnt want to be burdened with my weight for that. so after everything i considered, and after consulting with my parents, i went for it. my procedure happened in february 2010, and since the op, i have lost 65kgs in total. its still on going, and will be for a very long time, but for now, at the weight i am now, its all about maintenance. it has been horrible, awesome, heartbreaking, uplifting, nauseating, empowering and everything inbetween. it has also been painful, very painful. i have days and days and days and sometimes weeks where i can barely even drink anything, let alone eat anything solid. but it has all be so worth it. i have gone from a size 22 all over to a size 14 in pants, and 12 in tops. there are even some size 10 clothes in my wardrobe now! i wouldnt openly recommend this procedure to anyone, as i believe its an individual choice what you do with your body and how you lose weight is a very personal thing. lapband surgery isnt for everyone, and like ive said, there have been days when ive hated it. but its worked for me and i do not regret having it done. having said that i wouldnt recommend it to anyone, i have more then happy to talk about my experience, and give any advice to someone asking about it. when i first had it done, i was embarrassed and felt like i had to hide it. but now everyone in my life knows, and if anyone asks me how i lost so much weight, i tell them.

(top & bottom left - me before the surgery. middle - me about 11 mths after. right - me now)

i have an older sister, A and a younger brother, T. i know i mentioned how awesome my parents are in one of recent posts, so ill try not to harp on about them too much! but they are seriously awesome aswell of course. (told you i think my family is awesome) A is 2 years older then me, and is seriously the smartest person i know. she taught herself how to read using mums cookbooks before she was even 4 and went on to be the smartest person at our schools. she was dux in year 12, and has been at uni doing her masters in Mathematics, specialising in Statistics, while working for a child health research organisation in our city. she spent a year living in switzerland after school, on student exchange. she even taught herself how to speak german before she left, and repeated year 12 in german while she was there. and she still kicked ass in her grades. shes amazing and quirky and smart and so wonderfully weird. i dont think im very good at expressing how awesome i think she is, we didnt get along very well while we were teenagers, being so different and all. but the last few years i think im getting better at showing my appreciation to her.

my darling little bro T is also amazing. hes 18. but hes different. he was born with cerebral palsy, and has other disabilities (including being blind) on top of that. he has never and will never be a "normal" kid, but we love him just the same. i was only 8 when T was born, so hes "normal" to me. i was always aware that he wasnt like everyone else, obviously, but i think us being young when he was born helped us "get used" to it easier. of course we do, hes our bro. hes great to be around, despite all his disabilities, he has always been a very happy kid, and such a joy to be around. he brings a smile to all our faces, and has the best smile himself. he has health issues, and occasionally he scares the bejesus out of us when he ends up in hospital, but he always pulls through. he makes everyone around him happy and all his aides, his teachers, his friends and our family friends are always telling us how much they love him and love spending time with him. my mum (and dad of course, but he works shift work and isnt always there for the nitty gritty stuff) is his main caregiver and i dont think anyone in this world could have done a better job. we are always getting so many compliments on mum and taylor and how our whole family has dealt with our "situation". of course, we wouldve loved a cure, and loved for him to have a better life. but its not possible, so our main goal as a family has always been to keep him healthy and happy and keep our whole family happy and healthy together. my parents have always made sure me and A didnt suffer or miss out on anything in any way, simply because we have a disabled brother. and i truly believe we havent, and if anything, our lives have been better. more richer, more appreciative of our family. we're all very close, not that we always were, me and my sister were teenage girls stuck in the same house for a few years afterall! but now, since we're not living at home with mum and dad, or living together, we all get along alot better, and we have a hugely supportive, fun and loving family life.

ahhhh given myself all fuzzy feelings talking about my family like that.

 (my sister A and I, at my birthday last year)

(T, Mum, A, Me and Dad - celebrating mums "Citizen of the Year" award for our home town last year - so proud of her!)

ok so now y'all know the most important things about me and my life right now.

time for bed :)

Perfect way to finish the day

Today wasn't super great work wise, so I decided to relax with a nice long shower, washing and treating my hair. Now I'm all chilled out, sitting my front yard with a girly cold drink, packet of chips, Harry potter and the beautifully warm sun on my shoulders.

Ahhhhhh happy Caris :)