Friday, home with the kids

Well I took a sick day today. I'm trying to get rid of this abdominal pain. I just don't understand it. When I'm sitting leaning back or laying down it seems to be ok, I can poke at it all day. But if I stand up just to touch myself in that spot hurts like heck and then I get shooting pains sometimes for no reason. I don't want anything serious to be wrong in there but I'm starting to feel worried.

The plan is to stay leaned back or laying down as much as possible till all the pain is gone when I'm standing. Then I plan to just do cardio for 1 (probably should make it 2) weeks. If cardio (couch to 5K) doesn't cause me any pain then I will try to ease back into the weight training. That's the other thing, it just seems to be workout C (chest work) that causes the pain to flair back up (or could be the jogging) so I guess I could cut that out for a full month. Will make my weight training lopsided though. I'll just try to figure out what is causing it one thing at a time.

I know I'm rambling here lol. It's just frusting to me because exercise is my anxiety reliever and without it I'm struggling. I've been kind of down feeling and moody. I didn't fall asleep last night till 2:30am either (no wonder I stayed home today). I just couldn't shut my mind off. I'm use to my Thursday workout. Anyway, I'm trying to deal without eating over it.

Food has been ok thankfully. I've been drinking hot tea (decaf) with milk by the pot full. It seems to be getting me through without all the night snacking I know I would be doing otherwise.

Well hope everyone is doing ok today. I'm just relaxing catching up on some blogging, it's nice.

Till tomorrow...

Thursday Already

Well my good choices this week paid off, I'm back down to 211.6. So I lost exactly what I gained last week, 3.2 lbs. It feels good to be back to my low weight. Now to get moving down again, 199 here I come.

The TOPS meeting was good last night it was about exercise and how important it is. But we also talked about how a right balance of exercise and food is key too, both to maintenance and also losing weight.

Yesterday I was talking about feeling a bit down about not talking to my sisters and niece. I had sent an email to my niece, well last night she called. It was really good to talk to her, it's been several months. I felt like we cleared some stuff up that had been unsaid. I think it was probably good for both of us. Then her and my nephew (her brother) talked too and I'm sure that made both of them feel better. I almost called my sister after I talked to my niece but I thought one call in a day was enough lol. Maybe I'll call my sister tomorrow.

Today is my best friend's Birthday. I got to talk to her for a few minutes. She's in Ocean City, I'm envious. I miss having a beach vacation. I'm feeling kind of lonely for our long phone conversations too. We use to spend hours on the phone sometimes. We haven't seen each other since Christmas either so I would really like to see her soon too. I really need to put some work into real life friendships.

Next week is the TOPS IRD and I'm really going to make an effort to connect with some people. I think it will do me worlds of good to be around people in a social setting. Plus I think the workshops are going to be good too, very motivational.

Well I'm still having abdominal pain, what the heck? I just don't get it. Yesterday and today it came on me about a hour after eating my lunch and lasts all through the evening. But I don't have it in the morning. I keep wondering if it isn't related to eating a larger meal since lunch and dinner are my two larger meals. I do think it's muscle related but maybe having a fuller belly rubs on the muscles that are hurting or something. I don't know I'm reaching here, I just want to be back to normal again lol. Anyway, I sure hope it goes away soon. I really missed going to the gym tonight. I think that's part of my moodiness too.

Anyway, tomorrow is Friday and I'm looking forward to the weekend, it seemed like it came up super quick which was nice. Sad thing is the summer is flying by, before I know it the kids will be back in school and I'll be back to a busier schedule.

I'm a whiner tonight lol. Not sure what my deal is.

Well till tomorrow...

Vacation Day 6 - Hollywood Studios

Lets see if this post takes me till 1am lol. I'm not sure why I wait so long to start these posts lol. Guess I want to be tired tomorrow. I did take the time to resize my pictures this time so hopefully that will make this process go a bit quicker.

We started the day early as usual. After loosing mom at Seaworld I'll confess I was hoping she would take a day off from going with us lol. But she was all ready to go so we packed up the scooter from hell and headed out. We got to the park before it opened as usual.

Here's the Hollywood Studio's Mickey ball from the gate and me looking really thrilled (hear the sarcasm? lol). (Yes I'm in that pink shirt again lol)
After we finally got in we high tailed it to the Aerosmith Rocking Rollercoaster. It was very much like Epcot and the Soarin ride, everyone on a mission to get there first. We made it there in good time though and left mom in her scooter at the entrance since she wasn't interested in Rock and Rolling lol.

After Aerosmith I'm going to make a confession. We snuck past my mom when we came out and headed for the Tower of Terror lol. We planned on riding the coaster twice so figured we would do the Tower of Terror before our fastpasses were ready and then come back and go on the coaster again. Mom looked like she was having fun anyway with her frozen yogurt (who knows where she got that seemed she always had an ice cream in her hand lol).

We didn't get any pictures of the tower of terror but here's one of the boy in front of the Rocking Rollercoaster, pretty cool I thought.
We had lunch and roamed around a little while after the coaster. Here's the kids in front of a cool car.
This was a cool bush sculpture of Mickey we passed.
Hubby and the boys ended up going off and ending up at a pixar ride so this is a picture he took while gone.
I'm trying to remember where my mom, Marie and I were but I'm drawing a blank. I know we all ended up back together to see the beauty and the beast show though.
Then we all went to see the 3D muppets movie. It was in a cool building with a cool Ms. Piggy fountain in front.
After this the boys went off to go on the Star Wars ride. Here's the nephew pretending to be crushed by .... what is this thing called? lol
While my mom, Marie and I shopped for awhile. Marie got this cool Mickey tattoo, she was super excited about it.
The finale of the day was the Indian Jones Stunt show. It was really cool how they did all the stunts, the explosions were really hot literally. You really felt the heat from them.
Well that sums up Day 6. Seems my vacation posts are getting shorter lol.

Our last day was in Animal Kingdom and I think it rated up there with the alligator farm for our best day.

Till tomorrow...

Weigh-in Wednesday

Weigh-in isn't until tonight but I did take a peek at the scale this morning. It's funny to me that some weeks it seems to have more control over me than others. This week for some reason I've weighed almost everyday but yet it doesn't seem to be affecting me. I'm hopeful that I'll be back to my old low tonight. I'm kind of having that "I don't care" attitude about it. Not that I don't care but just that I've done well this week with food and exercise and the scale will just be what it is.

I've been in a weird mood this week. Been thinking a lot about my family (sisters, niece) but it hasn't been stressing me as much as it usually does. I've also been missing them. Wishing I could see them soon. I'm not sure I can make that happen but I'm feeling like I should try. It seemed most of my life no matter how things were going the family could always still get together and try to have a nice time. It didn't always work out but it seemed like we all still wanted to try.

I miss my sisters, I really do. As children we went through a LOT together. I always felt we would always still have each other's back no matter what. It seems lately (several years now) though we have drifted so far apart that I wonder now if it's possible to come back together. My 2 sisters don't talk at all now to each other. I haven't seen either of them since Christmas and haven't talked with one since then and the other only after my gallbladder surgery. Anyway, my thought for today is to make an effort to them both (my niece too). I'm not sure how to do that but I want to.

As for me, I'm having some abdominal pain again. I don't know what the heck is going on in there but I'm ready for it to be normal again. I'm sure it's from my workout at the gym last night. I did take it lighter on the ab exercises but it was a tough upper body workout. It was the first time doing it too. I guess maybe I need to go down in weight even more or maybe I just need to only do cardio for a few weeks. Hopefully the pain will be gone by tomorrow. I hate the idea of giving up the weight training but I don't want to hurt anything in there either.

I did my couch to 5K week 3 day 3 last night so tomorrow I'll be moving on to week 4 which will be a bit tougher. I did end up putting in 4 extra minutes of jogging last night which didn't seem to bad (13 mins jogging out of 30). I am having a little knee pain today but I'm thinking it's from doing the elliptical for my 10 min warm-up the past 2 workouts. It just seems like if I do anything different when it comes to my cardio my knees act up on me. So my plan is to go back to the treadmill for my warm-ups.

Hubby went to the gym with me last night. He walks 65 mins on the treadmill 3 days a week these days. I think that's pretty good but it seems to just be keeping him maintaining and not losing weight. I wish he would get back to weight training. Maybe I should get him a few sessions with the one trainer guy we both like. He did take a peek at the scale too and it looks like he's dropped the 10 lbs he gained during vacation so that's good at least.

I think both of us need to step up our game some. In the past 8 months I've lost about 20 lbs and he's stayed about the same. We definitely both have more weight we can lose so we need to get to it.

Tonight for my TOPS meeting we are working on our workbooks still. We are working on chapter 4 which is about motivation. I'm really trying hard to find more things to motivate me. I definitely think once I'm able to run I'm going to join the local running club. I think it would be nice to have a group run every weekend which is what they do. I think I'm going to join up the whole family too so that at least the nephew can run with me too if he wants to. I just need more of a social life outside work and the gym, hubby does too.

I'll try to do another vacation post tonight, only 2 more days to go.

Till later...

Vacation Day 5 - SeaWorld

It seems like my vacation was endless at the rate I'm posting it lol. Seaworld was one of our favorite days in spite of my mother getting lost for 5 hours (yes I said 5 hours lol). We started off the day early as usual and got to the park right after opening time.

We started off with sea turtles and then moved on to stingrays. Ever since Steve Irwin was killed by one I don't have warm fuzzy feelings for them but like my sweet galopolis tortoises they seemed a lot gentler than I would have thought. We actually got to reach our hands in a big tank and pet them. I always pictured them being kind of sand papery but as it turns out they are very smooth and kind of silky feeling. We actually got to feed them little fish (if you paid $5). That was a bit weird since they seem to open their mouths on both sides but not in the middle. To bad I didn't get a picture of us feeding them but here's the boy reaching in to pet one.

After the stingrays we went to see the dolphins. For $7 a piece you could feed them too (yea it got pricey) so $42 later we all had our paper carton of 4 little fishes. We were instructed to hold a fish up and then take our other hand down under the dolphin's chin to pet him. It was cool getting to feed and pet dolphins. They were quick though so you didn't get much petting in. When the fish were gone so were they lol. Here's me with my fish. I could have gotten a picture of me actually petting one but they wanted another $20, I probably should have done it, since it's once in a life time after all. But then I would have had to buy one of everyone petting their dolphin (you get the picture).

After this is when I lost my mother. We were stopping to look at the pictures and poof she was gone. I walked all over the place but never did find her there. So the rest of the day pretty much I went back to that same spot looking for her. I went to the front desk and left my name and cell number so if she went there they could call. I know everyone is going to ask about a cell phone. Yes, we all had them except my mother. I had given her one at magic kingdom but she never would answer and didn't know how to dial out so I figured why bother. I can promise you the next day I did sit with her for like 20 mins and made sure she knew how to use it and answer it lol.

Anyway, the rest of the family went and saw the manatees while I looked for her.

Then we all went to the dolphin show. It was really cool.


Then it was on to the Shamu show.

Then we went to a cool cirque du soleil type show which was really good. We didn't get any pictures of it though. Then we saw some penguins.

Then it was on to the walrus clyde show, that one was really funny, very cute too.

Then we saw the seals, cute, cute.


Well that about covers our day at Seaworld. After that I finally got a call from the lost and found that mom had been located. I bet I walked an extra 5 miles looking for her. So after that we went to a dog and cat show and then we headed back to the house. I did ride a crazy roller coaster in there somewhere with my nephew lol. Everyone else was to afraid to ride it lol.

Till day 6...

Monday already?

I had high hopes of getting all my vacation posts done over the long weekend but as you see I fell short, such is life. I'll try to do one tonight when I get home, only 3 to go. I wasn't feeling the best this past week with all the snotties/congestion going on so I ended up napping yesterday for a few hours.

I did make it to the gym yesterday though. I did less ab exercises and my tummy didn't hurt me but just a slight bit last night so I think that's the key for me till I'm all healed up from whatever is going on inside. I did 10 mins on the elliptical to warm up instead of the treadmill. I think I'm going to do that for awhile for warm up. It really gets my heart rate up good. It was leg day, I can't say I love my leg workout but I'm still following what the doctor told me to do so I'm not following the "Book of Muscle" routine on leg days. I can tell my legs are stronger but I'm sure if I was doing squats and lunges they would be even stronger. But I want several more years out of my old knees so I'm going to do what the doctor said.

I've been doing the couch to 5K again. I had started it months back but only got to like week 4 and quit because of my knee trouble. I'm in week 3 now and it's going pretty well. I'm not having any knee pain and my breathing seems to be good. I'm really looking forward to being able to run 3 miles straight here in another 6 weeks.

I have been saying forever that I want to run a 5K with my nephew this Summer. I really want to keep to that goal but I know I'm starting to run out of time. I haven't looked at 5K's in the area either for August. I'll have to look into that soon. With my nephew having his own knee pain issues I'm not sure he'll be in cross country this fall. I'm hoping he's ok. I take him to the doctors today.

Back to work today. I can't say I'm thrilled but it's a short day for me anyway so it should go by fast. It's amazing how fast the summer is flying by. I need to start making some plans for our weekend camping trip to Shenandoah. I think I want to go in early August.

I haven't seen my best friend or oldest sister since Christmas either so think I might take a trip to Baltimore here in a few weeks. I've been having some anxiety over some family stuff. Really it's more about my niece, that she's not talking to me. It seems my niece, nephew (not the one that lives with me but his younger brother) and my sister believe I have turned my nephew against them. I think if they spent more time making an effort for him they would see he's not against them. I think he just thinks they abandoned him first and like me, they cause him anxiety and he just doesn't want to deal with that. His brother has been calling and telling him all this stuff and telling him he needs therapy. I do think he needs therapy (most people could use some) but I think my sister and other nephew could definitely use it more.

Anyway, I hate that his brother keeps calling him up to fight with him after they have hardly seen each other in several years. I just wish everyone could get along. But I think my niece feels judged by me and she doesn't seem able to tell me how she feels so she just avoids me. I hope eventually we can talk things out and get back to a relationship. I think the world of her and I do miss her.

I really hadn't planned on talking about all that but I guess I'll leave it since it must have been on my mind to write it all out. Sometimes I wonder what is to much sharing but then I did start this blog with the intention of it being to help me sort things out.

I was thinking yesterday about my plan to get below 200 before the summer is over too. For me it really has to be about the food the most. I am in Tony's challenge and it is making a difference to me when I look at the candy bowl here at work or think about a second helping or eating at night. I really do want to make a difference in myself in those 60 days.

As for hubby, he doesn't seem very motivated lately. He fell off the wagon as I did during vacation and so far he hasn't been wanting to get back on. I think he's having some anxiety about me going to the TOPS IRD for 4 days by myself next week too. He was the reason I finally decided to go. I had no plans of going because I didn't want him upset about it. But he kept telling me it was ok. It seems like he's back to being moody with me. I really think it's more that he's not been eating well or exercising much so he tends to transfer that to me these days. Like yesterday he didn't go to the gym with me but then kept making comments to me like it was my fault he wasn't going. Anyway, I'm hoping we have a good week before I leave.

Well I've rambled on enough. Till later...

Yesterday

I'm the posting queen this weekend lol. I just figured I would try to catch up with my posts so I could get them out of the way. Yesterday I did end up going shopping. I guess the nephew and the girl were having cabin fever so they asked to go with me. I warned them it was about me shopping for clothes so they should prepare themselves lol.

We first went to JC Penney's where I did find a dress. I kept wondering what the heck is semi formal? I never did really figure it out. I finally located what I thought were formal dresses and then just looked around in that area of the store for something that fit. I kept worrying that a 16 wouldn't fit me in a dress because of my big rear lol but I picked one off the rack anyway. There really wasn't a lot I was willing to wear because everything had short sleeves or no sleeves and me and my turkey wing arms just can't do sleeveless lol. I finally found a cute dress with a black jacket that had sleeves that came to my elbow. So I took it in the fitting room and out of some miracle it actually fit and looked pretty good. It was 40% off too so I got it.

So then we headed off to the shoe store. I have weird feet. I have feet that should belong to a woman basketball player I think lol. They are long and bony, definitely not feet you would think carried around the old me. I use to wear a size 12 but I am now in a size 11. I had told myself that for once I was going to pick out a pair of shoes that had a little heel to them. I've never worn heels in my life so I was a bit worried about how I would handle wearing them. I'm also good at falling down so that's another factor lol. But I found a cute pair of black sandals that had a little heel that actually fit without making my feet look 2 feet long. I could actually walk around the store in them without twisting an ankle too so I got them.

Then I headed to Target for the few odds and ends we needed. The nephew bought some fireworks with his babysitting money and we were all happy. When we got home him and the kids set some off then later in the evening he set the rest off so we could all watch. Here in Maryland you can't buy anything big so though it wasn't a bit fireworks display it was pretty nice going out and doing it together.

Since we had our cookout the day before I just made some chicken rice stir fry. It turned out really good and I actually got hubby and the kids to eat carrots and several different kinds of peppers and onions in it. Making progress I guess.

Below is a review so if you don't want to read please stop now lol. I'm not a big review person but I must confess I get excited when I get an email offering something free (don't we all?). So when I saw fellow bloggers Tricia and Jack getting cases of POM Wonderful I was a bit envious. Then before vacation I got an email offering me some too. So of course I said sure. My 8 cute little bottles arrived while I was gone and my co-worker refrigerated them for me.

I have to tell this story about POM Wonderful and the co-worker because it is relevant. About 2 yrs ago he bought a bottle of POM. Neither of us had ever had pomegranate juice before so I was excited about the idea of trying it. Well as with my co-worker he tends to like to irk me at times. So he said it needed to be the right time before we tried it. So he put that bottle in the fridge at work and time started going by. I would ask about it about once a week and he would keep telling me the time wasn't right yet lol. Eventually the POM got outdated and he ended up throwing it out.

I was of course really irked. But I think he got some pleasure out of making me wait and then not letting me have any lol. Kind of like the fake apple he left on his desk for like 2 months that I kept asking when he was going to eat and he kept telling me the time wasn't right yet lol. When I finally found out it was fake I swear he's lucky I didn't hit him in the head with it lol.

Anyway, my POM arrived and he had to put all 8 of those cute little bottles in the fridge for me. It was kind of paybacks. Though the gracious person I am (and the fact he was scooping cat poo for me) I decided that he should get to taste POM Wonderful with me.

So when he came over the other night for a cookout I decided I was going to do as Tricia did and make some POM drinks for us, I had big plans. I bought all kinds of things for my drinks. I made a point not to look up any recipes online so they would be all my own. I set each drink up and took my pre-pictures. I was excited to say the least. Of course this isn't weight loss related but then when is drinking alcoholic beverages lol.

Well let me tell you my big plans kind of petered out lol. So my review of 4 drinks (I know ambitious) will only be 2 lol. I might try the other 2 at some other point but I have a feeling I will have already drank up my POM by then lol.

I will say too that this week I took a bottle of POM to work several days and it was a yummy treat to sip on it in the morning after my morning protein bar and hot tea. I also let each kid have a bottle of it and found that all 3 liked it even the picky one *smile*.

It has a distinct taste I can't really describe but I do like it and it was worth the 150 calories (8 oz). I'm guessing it was all in my mind but I felt like I felt fuller on the days I had a bottle. All 3 days I drank it in the morning I didn't eat again until lunch time. Maybe in my head, maybe not.

Anyway back to the drinks. My first one included:
This one was more the co-workers idea. I'm not a fan of the sparkling mineral water but I figured he scooped poop all week I should give in to his whim lol. So I mixed up, 2 oz vodka, 2 oz mineral water and 4 oz POM with a squeeze of lemon wedge. (this made 2 drinks)
It did seem this one went down quick. So I moved on to drink two.
This one was 3 oz vodka, 3 oz POM and 3 oz peach nectar juice with a squeeze of orange wedge. I forgot the orange in my picture but it was in my drink.
We both agreed this one was the yummiest out of the two. The 3rd one I had planned was going to be with Tequila, POM and mango juice. I was going to whip it up in the magic bullet for a frozen drink but after drink 2 and eating dinner I ended up having a 4 hour nap lol. I wasn't feeling the best before I started so I think the alcohol just zonked me lol.

So there ya have my review of POM Wonderful. I found the only downfall of POM was that it's a bit pricey but if I was going to buy juice (which I seldom do) I would definitely consider it in my top 3 choices.

Till tomorrow...

Vacation Day 4 - Downtown Disney

Tuesday I was having a lot of pain and we woke up to a rain shower so we decided it would be best if we just stayed at the house. The weather did clear up and we thought about going to Seaworld as planned but I just thought I better take the day off. So we just laid around, the kids all spent most of the day in he pool.

I was feeling better by evening so we thought it would be nice to go see fireworks and the parade at Magic Kingdom but then we started hearing thunder again. So hubby and I decided this would be a good night for just him and I to venture out on our own. So we went to Downtown Disney, we forgot to take the camera though. It was a lot of fun to get out on our own. I had a mangled margarita (got a cool glass to take home) at a place called Paradise 57, they had a guy playing on guitar that was very good that we could hear outside, that's what drew us in. Then we ate at the House of Blues. After that we walked around after the rain had stopped.

We went into one store and it was so cool that I was looking at these numbered prints of these great painted frogs and a guy was standing there and tells us he's the artist. He told us if we bought one of his prints he would give us an additional one as a free gift. I thought for sure they would be super expensive but they were only $36 so we ended up buying 3 and getting 3 free and he personally signed each one to each one of the kids, my mom, hubby and I. It was super cool. After I get them frame I will have to take a picture of them so I can post them here.

Had we had more time I would have liked to have taken the kids back to Downtown Disney. There was just so many cool places to see and not enough time. I could have definitely spent more time in Florida seeing more.

Till day 5...

Vacation Day 3 - Epcot

I actually thought about not even writing about this day of vacation since it didn't go all that great. But Epcot did have one of my favorite rides Soarin so I thought I would just do a post anyway.

Here's the big golf ball even though none of us are standing under it. You can see my head over in the right hand corner though lol.

We got there before the park opened which was our plan for every park. It was pretty crowded on arrival already. When the turnstiles opened it was a crazy rush I never imagined for the Soarin ride. I was surprised by all the people and how badly they wanted to get to that ride lol. But we headed along with them all and didn't really have much of a wait for the ride.

Here's hubby and the boy during our morning break waiting to use our fastpasses to ride Soarin again. Everyone still looked happy enough by this point *smile*.

After that we went and rode the Nemo ride which was cute. Here's me standing in front of nemo, you would have thought hubby would have told me to move over a little lol.
Here's a picture of some actual clown fish we saw.

There was a cool little aquarium place inside with lots of real sea life. Also a cool show with Crush the turtle where he talked back to everyone in the audience.

Here's the girl pretending Brucey ate her lol. She doesn't look to scared about the situation lol.
Then it was on to the Test Track ride. The nephew was dreaming sitting in this car wishing it was his instead of the dented up Taurus he actually drives around town lol.
After that it seemed like everyone was in meltdown mode. It was pretty hot that day and I think everyone was just tired from our extra long day in Magic Kingdom the day before.

Here's the boy with a smile still on his face.
We were going to go around to all the countries but it just seemed like the kids didn't want to do much of anything and were pretty cranky. The other thing was it just didn't seem like there were as many food places on the rides side of the park and everyone was starved.

Here's me looking at the map trying to find food lol. As you can see no one seems thrilled lol.
So by the time we got lunch it just seemed everyone was ready to head home and swim in the pool. So we ended up riding a few more things and then just leaving the park around 2pm.

I kept wishing we could go back and go around the countries at some point but sadly we never did. We did see Canada but that was about it. They had a cool 360 movie screen that showed a movie about Canada which we did get to see.

Well till day 4...

Happy 4th of July

I can't believe it's Saturday already but it feels good to be off work for a long weekend. I've already had some cereal with banana and need to fill up a nice bottle of water. Sadly I'm not feeling the best but at least I have a few days to rest and recover. I think the weather difference acted up my bronchitis because I'm all snotty, sinus headache and now a bit of a sore throat. I'm going to use my netipot again today and see if that helps a little. I saw the netipot on Oprah and though it is a really weird feeling pouring water up your nose but it does help clear your head out.

Well my weight was up 3.2 lbs this week. I can definitely live with that better than 13 up. I'm hoping by next week most of that will be back off. I really want to get below 200 by the end of the summer. If I really focus on that goal I know I can get there. It really is about staying strong with the food for me. I feel like with the exercise I'm good.

I went to therapy on Wednesday and that went fine. We talked about my mom and I got some other stuff off my chest. Thursday I went to see the surgeon and he was not worried about my tummy pain. He said if I have pain just take it easy till it goes away. He believes it was from doing all that added walking and also riding all the rides. He believes it's definitely muscle related. He gave me the ok to go back to the gym.

So Thursday night hubby and I did go back to the gym. I'm not sure why I felt like I needed to do so much. I knew I should have taken it a bit easier but I hadn't been to the gym in 2 weeks and so I just did my full routine. Well last night the abdominal pain was back. Not as bad as in Florida but still back. So yesterday I took it easy. My plan is next gym day to take it easier, lift lighter weights, do less abdominal exercises (or none) and just generally do less. It did feel great to be back at the gym though. I don't think I'm going till tomorrow though, give myself another day. Plus with this croup I just don't think I will be able to do much anyway.

I have to go shopping at some point this weekend for the TOPS IRD which I leave for on the 15th. I can't believe how fast the summer is flying by. It will be weird being away from the family for 4 days. I'm looking forward to it though.

Well I've rambled on enough.

Till next time...

Vacation Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Well I'm finally getting around to my second vacation post.

I do consider our Alligator Farm day as Day 1 of our Disney vacation. I also consider it one of our best days of the whole vacation. My mom was scooterless and everyone wasn't tired yet lol.

We started day 2 off early, 6:15am. I wanted to get to the park early before it opened so we could hit the rides first thing. I need to give some credit to tourguideMike I found his website online while searching for some help with planning out my Disney trip. I used his advice and it really helped us have a good time at Disney.

We took the ferry over to the park from the parking lot and I must admit it was nice seeing the castle from the water. The girl was so excited about Magic Kingdom she just smiled and smiled on the ferry.



Everyone else was excited too. We spent most of the day riding rides. I think the family favorites were the Buzz lightyear ride, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. We saw the Mickey 3D movie too, it was super cool.

Here's the girl and I on the Aladdin ride.



My mom and the scooter, boy that's a story all it's own. I'm trying to have some humor about it now but at the time I kept thinking, man I should have put her in a wheelchair so I would know where I parked her lol. She got lost twice at Magic Kingdom. Her and shopping just couldn't be parted and she would whizz off into stores without telling any of us. Some how I managed to find her both times within a hour (at Seaworld was another story). Here's mom on her red scooter from hell. She of course thought it was her cadillac lol.



I don't have any good pictures of the family and the castle since we all look like ants in front of it so I've just included one with us in front of the castle (you'll have to pretend you see it lol).



I regret that we never got any professional pictures taken of us. I'm glad we at least got the family pics at the alligator farm the day before.

Here's the only pic of hubby and I.



We seemed to miss most of the characters at Magic Kingdom. Finally we found Pooh and Tigger though we had to wait over an hour for this picture with the girl.



After this we were pretty much finished for the day. We found out that about 4pm was a good cut off time for the kids. By 6pm they were all in meltdown mode it seemed lol. So we headed on back to the house and everyone took a dip in the pool before baths and bedtime.

Some people asked about the house, here's a link to the house we stayed at Aviana's Best . It was really a beautiful house. I can't say the development was the best but thankfully the noisy neighbors left after the first 3 days.

Well that covers day 2.

Till day 3...

Middle of the week

Only 2 more days of work this week then a nice 3 day weekend, I'm looking forward to it. I don't have any plans yet but keep feeling like I should be making some. I do have to go shopping for a semi-formal outfit for the TOPS IRD which is just 2 weeks away, ekkkk. I need new shoes too and who knows what else. I have to give it all some thought.

I was hoping I could get out of the before and after parade but the lady said I could still be in it though I am way way past the deadline date. So now I have to go up on stage twice. I'm just not a stage person.

I'm stressing over flying too, what is that all about. I still seem to have the mentality that I'm not going to fit on anything. I did that through the whole vacation too whenever I got on a ride, wondering would the bar lock. I was so happy for hubby during vacation that he got to ride everything too. He couldn't ride the roller coasters at Seaworld but at Disney he fit fine on everything. I must give it to Disney that I think they do a great job of making everyone feel comfortable. I saw all shapes and sizes of people and everyone seemed happy and content.

Today I have therapy. I'm looking forward to it. I do have things I want to talk about, mostly it will be about my mom and vacation. I feel like in the next year or so I might have to make some hard decisions about my mom. I'm not even sure how all that will work either. With her being an adult it's not like I can just tell her she needs assisted living. I tend to want to just avoid it all.

Last night I was so tired. Hubby and I went back out after work and did a big grocery shop then I came home and did a bunch of cooking. The family had a frozen pizza but I was proud of myself that even though I was tired I made a big pan of my veggie stir fry. I went to bed by 9:30 and ended up sleeping till 8am this morning. Guess I needed some sleep catching up.

My weight was down another few lbs this morning so I'm hoping at weigh-in I will only have a 3-4 lb gain. Still yucky but definitely better than 13. As for hubby, he's been eating all kinds of junk and drinking beer since he got home. I have a feeling his 10 lb gain might still be there when he steps on that scale tonight. I need to help him get re motivated. It seems if I'm not going to the gym he doesn't either.

My pain in my abdomen has subsided. It still feels kind of weird in that area so I'm still going to lay off the weight training till at least I see the doctor tomorrow. I have a feeling till I get an x-ray or something he probably won't want me exercising. I'm guessing I could still walk my favorite road if I wanted so I might do that tomorrow if he says it's ok.

Well I've rambled on about nothing way to long already lol. I better get some work done. The boss is out today so I can take it kind of easy.

Till tomorrow...

Getting back into the flow of things

I'm happy to be home, happy to be back to work even and happy to be getting back to a normal routine. 4 more lbs were gone this morning after a gallon and a half of liquids and healthy eating yesterday so I was happy about that. I'm still up 6 lbs but I'm hopeful another few days of good eating and LOTS of liquids will take a few more of those off. I have to admit I'm not looking forward to weigh-in tomorrow at TOPS but such is life. I have to keep reminding myself this is life. Maybe it will make me think twice about that next ice cream cone on vacation next time.

I did get the vacation pictures off the camera last night so I made a little progress. I'm slow what can I say lol. I'm hoping having a long weekend I will be able to catch up with my blog and everyone elses.

One of my fellow bloggers The Anti-Jared is having a challenge starting tomorrow called the Missouri 60. I told him I wanted to join his challenge. Actually my husband and I are going to join. My hubby isn't a blogger but I talk a lot about my blog and my fellow bloggers so I thought it would be nice for us to do the challenge together. I decided to post a before and now picture of us today and then in 60 days I will post a new before and now picture. We've both been having slow progress the past many months but it's still progress and I believe in 60 days we will be a little further along. Maybe not like some of the challengers but I still think it will give us both a needed boost.

Truly I am the worst picture doer on here lol. It just took me like 30 mins to get 2 darn pictures on here in the right spot. But I got them there and though they aren't quite the same size I think both hubby and I have good changes to show for the past 2 yrs for me and 1 yr for hubby.

My 2 yr anniversary for this journey is on the 12th of July. It's still hard for me to believe sometimes. I really do believe changes need to happen on the inside to be lasting on the outside. Some people start with the outside first and some with the inside first. I really don't think it matters which way you do it just that you start loving the person you are. It really is about self love.

Till tomorrow...

Back Home

Well I have returned. I had great plans of doing a day by day report here of my Disney trip as we went along but I ran out of steam very quickly and barely touched my computer the rest of the week. I still want to do a day by day trip thing but I might not get to start it till tomorrow or the next day.

I have a doctors appt set up for Thursday. Something is wrong inside in my tummy area, I'm guessing too much exercise or something in the past few weeks has pulled or torn something from my gall bladder surgery 3 months ago. I'm hoping it just means rest for me and not another surgery. I don't plan on getting back to the exercise till I get better. I sure don't want to make things worse than they already are. The pain doesn't seem to be to bad as long as I don't bend over. If I do I get a shooting pain through my abdomen. Anyway, cross your fingers for me that it's nothing too serious.

I've come to the conclusion that my mother has Alzheimer's or her meds are just messing with her mind. But she's just not all there anymore. I've sort of known this for a long time but she kept assuring me that she was talking to her doctor and he said she didn't need meds for it. I'm hoping she will discuss this more with her doctor and get something figured out. I really don't know how she's living on her own. With her being 2 hours away from me I just didn't realize how bad she was.

I lost my mom at the parks several times this week. At Seaworld she was missing over 5 hours. Her being mobile on that darn scooter was crazy. She had it set up high and would whizz away before I even realized it. I was so stressed over her it was hard having a good time knowing she was missing. I felt like I spent a ton of time just making sure she was with me or looking for her. She was a crazy shopper too and would just zip into stores before I even knew it, not telling us. I've not been that upset with my mother ever but I found myself so angry then I would feel guilty for feeling so angry. I felt bad for hubby and the kids having to deal with her too and her telling us the same things over and over and over again. I still think we all had a good vacation but I've come to realize that I just can't take my mom or hubby's mom on vacation anymore, it just doesn't work out well.

I don't mean to make it sound like our trip was doom and gloom, we did have great days. My mom stayed back at the house 2 days too so those days I didn't need to worry. I really did enjoy my vacation at Disney but I must confess that I think we all prefer the slower pace of the beach vacation so next year I think we will be going back to the beach.

Now for the food confessions lol. I ate poorly all week. I pretty much gave myself permission to eat what I wanted. I ate ice cream almost everyday and chocolate most days too. I did eat a good breakfast and dinner at the house everyday but the middle of the day was always park food with all kinds of junk stuff. I thought with the miles and miles I walked I would about break even. Well how wrong I was.

I came home yesterday, got on the scale and it showed a 13 lb gain, eeeeegads. I really didn't think it was possible so I weighed the rest of the family and everyone was up at least 5 lbs, hubby 10. I'm hoping at least half of it is water/sodium weight so for the next several days I plan on guzzling water like crazing and eating very clean. I'm hoping by Wednesday weigh-in it won't look so scary.

To think it's possible to gain 13 lbs in just 10 days seems impossible to me but I remember back when I lost weight years ago and gained back 21 lbs in a month so I know it is possible. I'm hoping though it's not all real weight. I know in the past when I'm lost weight it's been lose it fast, gain it back faster but I didn't lose weight that way this time so I'm hoping it will be harder to gain back so quickly.

Anyway, I'm back on track today, 3 of the 13 is gone and I'm hoping at least another 5 comes back off in the next few days. I could live with a 5 lb gain (well I don't really want to but it would be better than 10). It feels good to be home and be back to regular life.

I am at work today, though I sure felt like staying in bed this morning. The girl was already up watching TV and said "I wish you could stay home with us". I told her I wished I could too but off to work I went. With the tummy issues I might be having to miss a few days here soon anyway.

I've been trying to write this all day so just going to post it. Maybe tonight I'll feel up to writing about our day at Magic Kingdom.

Till later...

What a terrific day!

I truly don't think today could be topped, at least not easily. I really thought our trip to the alligator farm was just a filler in before we could check into our house today.

The day started off good. Our breakfast at the hotel was really good, we all ate well and hit the road for our 2 1/2 hour drive to St. Augustine. When we arrived at the alligator zoo it was HOT. I really didn't remember how hot Florida was. I'm not a sweater but boy was I sweating. Anyway, We started off our tour of the place with plenty of pictures. The place was laid out really nice and there were plenty of animals to see, birds, monkeys, snakes, lizards and plenty of alligators.

At 11am they had a show in the main alligator lagoon. The keeper Chrissy told us all about alligators and at the end of the show she said anyone that wanted to could pay to have their picture taken with an alligator. So my mom of all people said she wanted to get her picture taken with one lol. So off to the photo stand we went to find out what it all cost. Well we soon found out we could all get our picture taken with the Galapagos tortoises for the price of $35, what a deal right? Then you could also get your picture taken with a snake and a baby alligator, another few bucks and get it all put on a CD for another few bucks lol.

Then my mom wants to actually do the "get in the pit" with the big alligator. She finds out 2 people can go in together so she's like "ok me and you are going" lol. I was nervous but I figured she's paying for it so why not lol. So off we went to the alligator lagoon where there were about 40 alligators and we go on in with 2 trainers/keepers lol. Was I nervous? Hell yes!!! But I figured why not, once in a lifetime. So down in the lagoon area we went. The trainer ladies had already went over and gotten "Floyd" over to himself for us. Then they drew a line in the sand and told us to walk it lol. We got detailed instructions and we stood by while they tried to get Floyd to open wide while they shot pictures. Then we got to pet old Floyd on the tail too. He didn't seem to mind thankfully.


After our visit with Floyd the whole family was taken over to the Galapagos tortoises. It was just amazing to see those huge tortoises coming to see us. I've always thought of turtles as not being the friendliest creatures but today my feelings were totally changed. Those sweet creatures came over to see us and they wanted to have their long necks scratched just like a cat or dog would want. They would close their eyes when you rubbed on them like they were in heaven. It was really the coolest experience for all of us.


It didn't end there either. Then we still had more pictures to take with the snake and the baby alligator. So the nephew got to hold the snake (no thanks) and hubby held the little wild alligator (definitely no thanks lol). I thought hubby just looked so happy, we all did today. It was just a really great day.
After we left the alligator zoo we drove for about 2 more hours to the rental place and then finally on to the house. The house is really beautiful. The kids of course wanted to get right in the pool so we all did for a little while. Then hubby and I headed to the grocery store. We came home, fixed some dinner, I preped dinner in the crockpot for tomorrow and I'm just now sitting down for a few minutes.

I'm hoping to go in and take a nice hot bath in my big old bath tub in a few minutes. I can say my first day of vacation has been way more than I could have hoped for.

Till next time...

Travel Day

Surprise, surprise, here I am. We are about 5 miles from Georgia. It took us about 10 hours to get here. We had a pretty good travel day, the kids weren't to bad. My mom talked non-stop the whole time but it wasn't to terrible lol.

We are staying in a quality inn tonight. We thought it was a nice place till hubby was in the bathroom and about a foot of dirty water came up into the tub. Poor hubby is pissed and tired. He went to the front desk and some guy came to our room, went in the bathroom, 2 mins later came out, mumbled something I couldn't understand and left. The water is still there. Hubby said he's not going back to the front desk so I don't know what we will do at this point. I told him we could try to move to another room or just get our money back and go next door to the econo lodge but he just doesn't want to deal with it. So I'm just sitting here hoping everything magically fixes itself lol.

15 mins later....

Well we are now in another room on the second floor. The move went fine and hubby is in a much better mood. My poor mom had already taken her meds and was in a semi stooper. You would have laughed seeing me trying to get her up the stairs and to our new room as she mumbled stuff I couldn't fully understand lol. But we are all here and waiting for the new room to cool off.

Tomorrow our plan is to get up early, go eat our free hot breakfast (which I sure hope isn't bad) and then head to St. Augustine to the alligator zoo. Hopefully everything will go as planned. We can check in to our house at 4pm tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the pool and hot tub. Hopefully everything will work well *smile*.

It's kind of cool I have internet tonight. I'm suppose to have it at the house too so you might be hearing from me during vacation.

Till tomorrow (I hope)...

Tomorrow Tomorrow, I Love Ya Tomorrow

You're only a day away...



You wouldn't want to really hear me sing but I do feel like singing *smile*. I'm feeling happy today. Of course I didn't get all I wanted done last night but such is life. I've always been one of those last minute people when it comes to packing and I didn't expect to change just because we are going to Disney lol. But I will be ready as always and I'm sure I will forget something like I always do lol. Hopefully it won't be anything major.



Yesterday was TOPS and weigh-in. I lost a big old 0.4 lbs lol. But I'll take it. At this point I'll take anything I can get. I'm hoping when I get back I'll have a lose. It would be a first after vacation but I'm hoping anyway. We had a good meeting last night, it was on mindless eating. We talked about using smaller plates, making trade-offs with yourself, not eating in front of the TV, eating at the table, making rules for yourself. The best thing I liked was picking 3 things a day you could do to cut 100 calories. The book said just cutting 300 calories a day would equal a 30 lb lose for the year. Even 100 calories a day would be 10 lbs in a year gone. That sounds pretty good to me.



Yesterday when I got home the girl had her present all ready for me. She just couldn't stand to wait till today *smile*. She painted me seashells we had collected a few weeks ago. She wrote the letters "mom I love you" on them. It was very sweet. This morning before I left for work she gave me my homemade Birthday card, it had flowers on the front and said Happy Birthday, inside it said I love you and on the back she had hearts with a big heart in the middle that she put how many lbs I've lost and "going to be 42" on the bottom (not that I needed to be reminded of that fact lol). The kids said they were going to make me a cake (angel food) today. I bought strawberries, blackberries and blueberries to put on top, so a semi-healthy Birthday cake.



Hubby and I are going out to lunch in about 30 mins. I picked Indian food, not the best choice but I do enjoy it. It will be nice to just have some alone time with him. The sweet man had the new cell phone I wanted waiting for me when I got home yesterday so he had went and exchanged the other one.



Well I better get going, need to stop at the post office to drop a Father's day card in the mail to my dad.



I didn't tell you all but I'm taking the laptop with me. I'm not sure how much blogging I'll get to do while in Orlando but I will try to check in at least once and let you all know how things are going. Hope everyone has a great week.



Till next time...

2 days to go!!!

I worked on laundry and packing last night. Today I told the kids to get their clothes together and leave them on the diningroom table. I have everything laid out there so hopefully tonight I can just throw it all in the suitcases except for the things we will need between now and Friday morning. I want to have most things done by tonight so tomorrow I won't be all stressed out. I keep thinking I would love to have a massage tomorrow since I've had a coupon for one since Christmas. It would be a nice Birthday present to myself.

I must admit though I feel weird about the thought of a massage and someone feeling all my yucky back fat, eww did I just type that lol. It's suppose to be a Swedish massage too with warm oils. It sounds wonderful and I know I just need to get over myself. It's a little oriental woman that does the massages so I'm sure she wouldn't say a word. I might call today and see if she can fit me in tomorrow.


Last night hubby brought home a card and a new cell phone for me. I felt a little guilty that it wasn't the one I wanted (wanted one like he has) so he said we could trade since he has a work one and home one. We are trying to have cell phones for all 3 kids (we use tracfones).


The girl was too cute yesterday. When I woke up she was in bed with me and opened her eyes and looked over and said "3 more days till Disney". Last night when she found out she would get to carry around her own cell phone she got out pen and paper and said "I'm writing down your and daddy's cell number so I have it" lol. Then she tucked it into her fanny pack lol. She's like a little grown up sometimes.


We got our $2.95 fanny pack with water bottles yesterday in the mail. I'm really surprised how nice they are. I ended up having to buy 12 (need 6) for that price but I figured the leftovers would make really nice "biggest loser" prizes at TOPS.


I didn't get my bedroom cleaned and didn't read my workbook for TOPS last night. Oh well there is tonight before and after TOPS. I thought about going to the gym after TOPS tonight but will just have to get my exercise in cleaning since I still have quite a few things to do. I always feel guilty when I don't get in my exercise. I did have the big hike on Saturday so I guess that makes up for some of it.


The nephew ended up going to the girlfriend's house instead of her coming to our house last night. She had an accident with the family car so they didn't want her driving. I was nervous about letting the nephew take the van but he did fine. I'm not sure if she's suppose to come over tonight or not guess we'll see. I would have thought her parents would have taken the opportunity to talk to both of them together about what's been going on but the nephew said they just got a lecture on safe driving. I have a feeling they might be a family that has a hard time talking about sex.


I'm going to try to make a batch of protein bars tonight or tomorrow to take with me on the trip. They really fill me up and would be way better than store bought ones. I'm glad we have a house with a full kitchen so I won't have to stress over planning most of my food. I'm going to take the crockpot with me too so I can cook a few dinners while we're in the parks during the day.

I'm going to get to meet a fellow blogger while I'm in Florida too. Natalia from "Embracing The Journey" is going to drive over to see me. I'm really excited to get to meet my first blogger and such a nice lady. I know we'll have a great time hanging out and talking.

Well I better get to work. The boss is out the rest of the week so that should make for a few easy days for me. I finished up my rough draft of my manual yesterday too so good deal.

Well till tomorrow...

3 days to go!

Well only 3 days to go. I'm not feeling as stressed as I thought I would. Last night hubby and I went to Wal-mart to get our odds and ends for the trip. Hubby ended up buying 4 new t-shirts and I ended up buying a dress, skirt and a pair of long shorts. I'm still in size 16's but they are feeling loser on me.


The first day of the nephew watching the kids sounds like it went ok. He let the girl make pancakes while he watched and he played some xbox with the boy. Then he tells me he went up on the roof and cleaned it off lol. Funny how the thinking of a teenage boy is different than a teenage girl would be lol. I told him I really didn't want him doing stuff like that when we weren't home lol. He said "well if I fell off and broke something I would just drag myself to the phone", I told him "you can't fix a broken head" lol.


After going to Wal-mart I did go to the gym. So I didn't get home till after 10pm last night. I was pretty exhausted. I'm feeling ok today though. Tonight the nephew's girlfriend is suppose to come over so I guess I'll just work on cleaning my bedroom and some laundry.


Tomorrow is TOPS, I took a peek at the scale and it showed me up 2 lbs. I'm not sure why since I feel like I've been doing well with exercise and food. Maybe it's not enough water so I will try to drink up today. I have to read through my workbook tonight too so I'm ready to talk about it tomorrow for program.


I forgot to write about at the auction on Friday I saw my ex-sister-in-law and her husband who I hadn't seen in about 3 years. Well they didn't recognize me. I kept saying "you don't know who I am?" lol. They said if it hadn't been for my voice they wouldn't have known. I guess I really have changed that people I've known for 20 yrs don't know who I am. It was a pretty surreal moment for me. It was really good getting to catch up with them. She told me how much more crazy her brother (my ex) has gotten and that I definitely did the right thing by divorcing him. We talked about getting together soon, I do miss her and her family so hopefully we will.


I always feel like I have more things to talk about then when I get here I can't seem to remember lol.


Well till tomorrow...

4 days to go

Well I told myself I was coming to work early today but ended up not getting here till almost 9:30am lol. When I woke up at 8:30 there sat the girl watching TV and when I asked her why she didn't wake me up she said "I don't know" lol. Anyway, I told her though it's not her job to be my alarm clock, if she's up (which she always is) could she please wake me if I'm not awake by 7:30am. She said ok so hopefully next time I don't hear the alarm clock she will fill in.

Yesterday the meeting with the nephew's girlfriend's parents didn't happen. Her mom called though and we talked awhile. The girlfriend just doesn't want to be honest with her parents it seems. The girlfriend wants to see Kevin everyday this week before we leave. I told the nephew I wasn't sure if that was possible but I would try to let her. I just have too many things to get done to have to worry about them two all week.

All the kids are home this week and I'm hoping that goes well. I sat them all down yesterday and we had a good talk about what I want for them all this summer and the rules. I'm really hoping it will be a good bonding experience. With the nephew being 17 1/2 this probably will be the last summer he's around this much. So I'm hoping this week goes well and the rest of the summer too.

The nephew asked last night if he could change his last name. I told him that he has our family name (my maiden name) and that him and his brother are the last 2 that can carry on our family name. So he said he would think on that. I know he just wants to feel like he's part of our family and not separate. He also called me mom last night. I must admit though he is my second son to me I would feel funny about him calling me mom with my sister still alive. I know he wants to disown her but she is still his mother (technically). I guess we'll just play it by ear.

On our hike on Saturday him and I did make a pact that when he was 30 (I will be 55) that we would go on a backpacking weekend trip just the two of us. I think I would like to do that with the boy too. I said the girl and I could do a weekend spa trip when she's older *smile*. Not that I'm wishing the years away with the kids but I really do hope that as they get older we could still have times to reconnect.

It feels so good to think of growing older and being an active person. I can honestly say I've never thought about my life that way. I've always thought of trips and stuff but it seemed to always feel like I was focused on fitting on the plane, feeling comfortable at the resort, etc. You know when I went to Mexico with my husband 3 yrs ago I actually stayed at a resort that was known as "fat friendly". Funny how now I would think more of what physical activities the resort could offer me. Hard to believe how much life has changed.

Yesterday hubby asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. We ended going to a new brewery (there's that beer again lol) that had opened up. I must admit I wasn't impressed and I don't think he was either but we did have a nice time getting out on our own. Afterwards we drove down to Solomon's Island and walked on the little boardwalk they have. We got in about 30 mins of walking and it felt so good to have that feel like nothing. I could think back to when after about 10 mins we would both be parked on a bench feeling tired.

I wanted to thank everyone that comments on here. I had gotten away from commenting back every post like I use to do but I've decided I'm going to start doing that again (as of yesterday's post). I just miss talking back to you guys even if no one reads them. I just get so much caring and support from you guys and it really does fill up my soul and make me feel good. To think we all started out just writing to write, wishing and hoping someone would read our posts. Now we are our own little network of bloggers giving and receiving support on almost a daily basis. I think you are all wonderful *hugs*.

Well 4 days to go, this really is a milestone for me in this weight loss journey. I picked this week for a few reasons, one, it's my Birthday week (this Thursday) and Father's day on Sunday. I think I wanted it to be a celebration for both hubby and I and days the kids celebrate us. I feel good about where life has taken me. Sure I'm far from perfect and I know all the weight I carried around all these years was really all my burden so no one else should be celebrating me losing it but me. But this is a rebirth for our family. It's a time for use to do things we've never done together. I have high hopes for this vacation. I can't wait to hit the road.

Boy I sure seem mushy today lol.

Till tomorrow...