Laura D.

Laura D. My quilt block is designed after my AR avatar- a coffee cup.  I have had other avatars but always found that one the most fitting for a couple of reasons.  I work at a coffee shop for one.  Also, I tend to get onto AR during coffee breaks throughout my day when I have a moment to myself. A little bit about me: I’m 27 years old and have been married for three and half years.  I first became an AR member in March of 2007.  My husband and I lost over 100 pounds between the two of us and I became interested in healthy baking.  I love sweets so I went looking for a website for recipes of breakfast goodies that I could modify to be low calorie breakfasts.  I found AR and fell in love with it. My husband is in medical school.  During his first couple years of school he would cook dinners for us.  He would cook, I would bake.  However, when he started his third year he was spending 60 or more hours a week at the hospital and it became up to me to cook dinner for us.  I had to learn to menu plan and make our meals.    I had a lot of “firsts” that everyone helped me with- my first time cooking soup, my first layer cake, my first whole chicken. During this time I also found myself unemployed because we moved yet again to a new city- it was the second time in three years.  I couldn’t find a job and I was very depressed.  I ended up on AR a lot during this time- the people there really helped me through.  I joined the shrinking chatterers for a time and became familiar with all the AR regulars. Nowadays I’m a chronic OT poster.  I sometimes need kitchen help but most of the time I just come on to chat or ask questions about laundry, cleaning, dogs, or some other such thing while having my cup of coffee or drink of water.   I also love it because I almost always find a new recipe to save to my box when I go there which really helps when it comes time to meal plan.  I’m just happy to have found such a wonderful online community