Reporting In....

just a cute photo of my granddaughter, Elizabeth, looking after her cousin, Seth

Sorry I haven’t been very faithful with posting…these last 2 weeks have been crazy! First of all, it has been my hubby’s 2 weeks off work and I’d rather be spending time with him than blogging. Sorry, folks, that’s just the way it is. *smile*

Secondly, we had multiple breakdowns this last 2 weeks……hubby’s truck has been in for repair (with hubby helping with the work), my truck just quit when he was driving it out to work on his truck, our youngest son’s car broke down and had to be left at the side of the road – then it got towed and impounded before we could get it, our refrigerator quit and we had to go shopping for a new one, the front wheel fell off the tractor when Jim was cultivating, and now (as of last night) my car is making strange noises. All these expenses are on top of putting a new roof on our house (which is going very slowly due to wrong shipments, lack of labor, and (mostly) too much wind).

most of my boys, my nephew, and my man working on the tin

If all those things don’t sound like enough to keep me busy….our daughter-in-law, who is 5 months pregnant has been having recurring severe gall bladder attacks. She has completely changed the way she cooks and eats, down to zero fat, but the pregnancy hormone apparently has much to do with having gall stones and attacks. Also, fatigue triggers the attacks. She has 3 little girls of her own and also cares for 2 under two year olds in her home. They NEED her income, so she has been valiantly pushing through. Our son has told her all she needs to do is care for the children during the day and learn how to eat so she doesn’t make things worse – he comes home from work and cleans the house, does the laundry, puts the kids to bed…etc. Every time she has an attack, someone needs to go to their home and care for the children while she is either taken to the hospital or (if it is not as severe) takes some pain meds and goes to bed. Guess who that person usually is? Right….Grandma. We have asked her to quit her job and we will cover the difference in their income, so she will not have the babies after the end of this month, which will help with the fatigue factor. However, as her baby grows, the attacks will likely get worse. Every attack has her at risk for emergency surgery which would take care of the pain, but would (obviously) put our baby at risk.

Not the same baby I was talking about, but an example of the cute babies my kids make.

I would have liked to be posting on both my blogs every couple days, but that just has not been possible for the last while – I hope things will slow down just a bit, soon. Mr. Wonderful is off to work for the next 2 weeks, leaving early tomorrow morning….in some ways, I will have more time, but he takes care of quite a lot around here, so in other ways, I will have less time.

In spite of all these happenings, I have been eating carefully. As reported in my last post, I went on LA’s “Take Off” plan to try and get “off the plateau”. The first week after Take Off did not seem to be too successful, but…as I said last week “We’ll see what next Monday holds”. Well, it is next Monday……and guess what! I am DOWN 4.4 pounds! I realize that I could be up a pound or two tomorrow, so I am not going to move my ticker until I am sure I have stabilized at 220 or less.

This loss happened in spite of:

No treadmill
No pushups
My birthday party last night

Speaking of my Birthday Party, my daughter hosted a “wine and cheese” party for me. All my kids were there as well as my dearest friend and her boys, and also 2 other friends – one “new” friend and one that I haven’t seen or even talked to for about 2 years. What a blessing!

Food was: veggies and dip, sausage, bread pieces and spinach dip, crab dip, deli meats, shrimp and cocktail sauce…..Homemade Tiramisu, cream puffs, and cheese cake for dessert……Sangria and straight wine for drinks.

How did I do? Well, there were no plates….we just kept going back to “pick” so I was a little worried about how much I was eating – it was hard to keep track. I started out enjoying the bread and spinach dip (I love spinach dip) but when I realized I was unsure how many little pieces I’d had, I decided to quit eating that. After enjoying some veggies and the yummy crab dip, I switched to just veggies – no dip. I also had a few shrimp and a couple pieces of the deli chicken. When the desserts came out, Jim came and asked if I wanted some “Chocolate Mousse” (as he called the Tiramisu) I said I would take a small amount so he brought me about a ¼ cup of it. It was enough to give me a taste and I was quite satisfied with it. I popped ONE mini cream puff into my mouth and then walked away. I also had a small glass of red wine and I don’t know how many glasses of Sangria – which was made with diet pop, wine, and sugar free juice.

All in all, even though I had given myself permission to “compromise” a little bit, I think I did quite well in my choices last night. The next couple days will tell.


Here's a picture of me and Kathryn last night - compare to the photo at the side of my blog, I guess. This is 30+ pounds lighter.