Sunday, April 11, 2010
YaYa Limited
I do not know how we can spend 5 hours together and never stop talking, but we do. My best friend/cousin and I had a wonderful time together on Friday. Tea and talk. No kids around so we never had to shut up! She is all packed up to move again, but as always neat as a pin and a great hostess.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Weight Loss Report
I am 13 months out from WLS and hovering between 130 and 136 pounds of weight loss. My skin has held up remarkably well and I am really toning up since I restarted weight training. 2 or 3 months ago I was 32% body fat, now I am 25% body fat. (and 62 years old) Woo hoo! I went to a big gathering of cousins and they pronounced me very healthy looking and strong looking. I know that my posture now is straight up, not bent over in pain, and the work of carrying all that weight around. And then I add some skechers roll bottom shoes to it and they must add 2 inches to my 72 inch frame! If any WLS'rs come here, I have discovered unjury protein powder, nectar protein powder and click. Unjury and nectar can be stirred with a SPOON! and no protein after taste. I think the nectar has to be bought in a medical setting, but go find it! My one year blood tests were normal, a tiny bit low on the protein so I have stepped up the powders, seems to be the only way I can get enough. I have managed to keep my hair, I take all my vitamins most days and try my best to get the calcium. Love the chewable lemon creamy thingies but crystals are my mainstay, stirred into yogurt. Another recommendation I make is the shaker cup that I buy from amazon.com, I am getting a second. That thing has made the blender and the hand held whirly stick unnecessary, as well as finding the very stirrable protein powders. The Click needs the shaker bottle.
Four Nights
The grandson has spent 4 nights, no problem, his last personal best was 3 nights. Yesterday we went to our town's fantastic public park with the best playground in the midwest. It was packed. First he rode his razor scooter until he was tired of that (sidewalks only) then played on the playgrounds which, by the way, are completely accessible playgrounds with lots of seating for parents and grandparents. As the sky clouded up, we decided a movie was in order because we ALWAYS go to a movie. I took the 5 yr old to see Alice in Wonderland and we loved it. He claims to not be scared, but he was curled up like a blue worm in his seat for a while. I found the movie worthy of a trip to the theater, even without a 5 yr old. After my morning trip to the dentist, we will head off to meet mom and maybe I will do some of that spring cleaning I keep reading so much about on line.
New tradition, as we drift off to sleep, H wants me to tell stories of my childhood, sleeping in the barn, swimming in the creek, Rose and I lost in the woods with baby sister. Sometimes he already remembers parts, but wants to hear it again. We used to discuss planets to fall asleep, I have more knowledge of my childhood than I do of planets, but it works.
New tradition, as we drift off to sleep, H wants me to tell stories of my childhood, sleeping in the barn, swimming in the creek, Rose and I lost in the woods with baby sister. Sometimes he already remembers parts, but wants to hear it again. We used to discuss planets to fall asleep, I have more knowledge of my childhood than I do of planets, but it works.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Easter+Cousins=FUN
Friday I met my daughter and gathered up my grandson so we could go the the big gathering of cousins in the country. Dear daughter has a pressing engagement and the drive with young un and infant is just too much. H and I did the museum on Saturday, all the while ticking down the time until "Going to the Cousins". He planned on filling a backpack with eggs to share with his friends. More about that later. Somehow E.B. discovered there was a child in the house and really left enough treats for the three children who lived here and grew up. Miscalculation. It took a comically long time for H to even find the treats because he was not expecting them and was amazed at how E.B. knew those were the exact cars he asked Daddy for recently. He then decided he had so much candy that he didn't even need to get eggs at the hunt.
The weather and the temperature couldn't possibly have been one iota better yesterday and we arrived at the gathering of three generations of cousins, seconds, maybe a third or two, and some several times removed. The food was particularly beautiful as Rose is a vegetarian, so the salads are just photogenic and amazing, she made an eggplant dish she invented that I was able to eat a bit of and it was superior. There was a table laden with desserts, strawberries, and apple slices AND a chocolate fountain. Reece, a third grader, has his first strawberry in chocolate and I swear the boy was in ecstasy. I asked him if he wanted a chocolate fountain at his wedding and he literally shivered with joy, yes, he closed his eyes and shuddered. Want a party idea for kids? Fruit and a chocolate river...and a river of babies--Baby B. Baby L. Baby E. is that all? not sure, then tots, then preK then elementary and three middle schoolers who no longer wanted to tolerate a 5 yr old boy...for a while.. a trampoline, 2 great danes--two calves the size of great danes and good old lemon drop, a beagle with a body the size of a fatted calf. At five there was bottle feeding of calves.
At some point we "hid" the eggs, 200 plastic eggs with various treats and some with slips of paper with very funny tasks inside. Believe it or not, the kids loved the tasks. Hug 5 trees, thank your mom, hop ten times on one foot....Marci and Matt live in the country, have acres, woods and a creek, we hid the eggs in the yard only, which is probably 2 or 3 acres and woods encroaching, some eggs were hidden, many were just tossed especially for toddlers, then the brood zoomed over the land filling their sacks and H's plan to save all his eggs to share with friends? No deal, he did the same as last year, ate everything. I made him eat something with protein at least twice during the day, but the rest of the time....oh well.
I hadn't been with my cousins and their children since Thanksgiving and now I really look like THEIR mother--that was fun, and once Mandy mistook me for HER mother, my cousin Rose. I think we have the same sharp jawline now. Right at 6p.m. we rolled out toward home and H said with disappointment, I thought we were staying till night. It's six o'clock! Oh. He did not collapse and fall to sleep on the way home..unbelievable (we talked all the way home) but he is still in bed right now at 8:15. He wants to go home today, he's afraid he'll miss school tomorrow, I think he wants to share his good times!
The weather and the temperature couldn't possibly have been one iota better yesterday and we arrived at the gathering of three generations of cousins, seconds, maybe a third or two, and some several times removed. The food was particularly beautiful as Rose is a vegetarian, so the salads are just photogenic and amazing, she made an eggplant dish she invented that I was able to eat a bit of and it was superior. There was a table laden with desserts, strawberries, and apple slices AND a chocolate fountain. Reece, a third grader, has his first strawberry in chocolate and I swear the boy was in ecstasy. I asked him if he wanted a chocolate fountain at his wedding and he literally shivered with joy, yes, he closed his eyes and shuddered. Want a party idea for kids? Fruit and a chocolate river...and a river of babies--Baby B. Baby L. Baby E. is that all? not sure, then tots, then preK then elementary and three middle schoolers who no longer wanted to tolerate a 5 yr old boy...for a while.. a trampoline, 2 great danes--two calves the size of great danes and good old lemon drop, a beagle with a body the size of a fatted calf. At five there was bottle feeding of calves.
At some point we "hid" the eggs, 200 plastic eggs with various treats and some with slips of paper with very funny tasks inside. Believe it or not, the kids loved the tasks. Hug 5 trees, thank your mom, hop ten times on one foot....Marci and Matt live in the country, have acres, woods and a creek, we hid the eggs in the yard only, which is probably 2 or 3 acres and woods encroaching, some eggs were hidden, many were just tossed especially for toddlers, then the brood zoomed over the land filling their sacks and H's plan to save all his eggs to share with friends? No deal, he did the same as last year, ate everything. I made him eat something with protein at least twice during the day, but the rest of the time....oh well.
I hadn't been with my cousins and their children since Thanksgiving and now I really look like THEIR mother--that was fun, and once Mandy mistook me for HER mother, my cousin Rose. I think we have the same sharp jawline now. Right at 6p.m. we rolled out toward home and H said with disappointment, I thought we were staying till night. It's six o'clock! Oh. He did not collapse and fall to sleep on the way home..unbelievable (we talked all the way home) but he is still in bed right now at 8:15. He wants to go home today, he's afraid he'll miss school tomorrow, I think he wants to share his good times!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Posting 1, 2 ,3 Posting 1, 2, 3
I am not sure when my last post was, I'll look in a bit. Next Tuesday is 6 weeks out for my husband's quintuple bypass and he will be out of the back seat and into the driver's seat next week. His recovery has been wonderful. I expect he is stir crazy or has cabiin fever though he gets out and walks good distances almost daily, barring intense cold. He has officially done the taxes in record time and that's always a relief. He had some time at home...
The weight loss: I am so close to wedding weight I cannot believe it. I am having a fairly easy time with the restrictions and am doing better all the time with the vitamins, in particular getting down the required calcium citrate. The calcium is the hardest. I was one year out on February 11 and still have not had my year's check up. I also forgot to fast this morning for the big 47,000 tubes I hear they take for this blood test. OK, do that another day. The docs office has once again changed my appointment to an inconvenient time:^( I am going to ask for one at any time of any day of my spring break. Gotta get that over with. I never took one of those pictures of me in my giant jeans, I just gave them to goodwill. Don't seem to care about a photo record. My daughter has enough pics of the fat me to do the trick. I don't know exactly what my top size was, it was one of those mystery sizes from lane bryant's but now I am in college sized attire, so I am exactly where I want to be, I still have hair and I still have bones. I am rebuilding muscle in regular weight training and cardio classes and am having some improvement in the skin due to the exercise.
The weight loss: I am so close to wedding weight I cannot believe it. I am having a fairly easy time with the restrictions and am doing better all the time with the vitamins, in particular getting down the required calcium citrate. The calcium is the hardest. I was one year out on February 11 and still have not had my year's check up. I also forgot to fast this morning for the big 47,000 tubes I hear they take for this blood test. OK, do that another day. The docs office has once again changed my appointment to an inconvenient time:^( I am going to ask for one at any time of any day of my spring break. Gotta get that over with. I never took one of those pictures of me in my giant jeans, I just gave them to goodwill. Don't seem to care about a photo record. My daughter has enough pics of the fat me to do the trick. I don't know exactly what my top size was, it was one of those mystery sizes from lane bryant's but now I am in college sized attire, so I am exactly where I want to be, I still have hair and I still have bones. I am rebuilding muscle in regular weight training and cardio classes and am having some improvement in the skin due to the exercise.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Odd Schedule Today
We are doing a practice writing prompt under real testing conditions. I have a group that is so very special that I only have four students and one of them is missing. Hope it goes well and I hope I didn't talk too much for them to process. After this we go on our two hour delay schedule where we will have each class for 35 minutes. No one gets left out. It is a good plan.
Several Days Later.
My kids were great, they really worked and wrote so much better than I had hoped. I think there is a good chance that when we get to the high stakes test they will do well, not perfectly, but well. Who wants perfect? This prompt was really to gather data for our school being part of title one, but it was set up in testing sites to have the kids be comfortable with that. And the teachers as well, My team, related arts, is not a team that normally tests so a few of us are not comfortable with it. I came from Elementary and science, so I am quite used to the testing scene and it doesn't bother me at all. Although I can never forget the time I administered a test to a second grader when I was a teacher's aide and I was not allowed to help, he and I both cried. Wonder where Jimmy is now?
This week there were some fund raisers for red cross and Fridays was gum day. We never allow gum and are really pretty harsh about it. Much to my surprise the kids were willing to donate a dollar for the privilege of not sneaking and for having entire packs in their mouths. They came prepared. It was a stinky day in schooltown. I heard one parent even brought in the gum her daughter forgot. That's the way to teach them responsibility. Hey, if they forget their gum, forget it.
The drive home was slushy and the back deck was freezing in at least an inch of the nasty stuff, so before I got in the house, I had to clear the path and feed the dog. I knew I was not going to be willing to GO BACK OUT!
Several Days Later.
My kids were great, they really worked and wrote so much better than I had hoped. I think there is a good chance that when we get to the high stakes test they will do well, not perfectly, but well. Who wants perfect? This prompt was really to gather data for our school being part of title one, but it was set up in testing sites to have the kids be comfortable with that. And the teachers as well, My team, related arts, is not a team that normally tests so a few of us are not comfortable with it. I came from Elementary and science, so I am quite used to the testing scene and it doesn't bother me at all. Although I can never forget the time I administered a test to a second grader when I was a teacher's aide and I was not allowed to help, he and I both cried. Wonder where Jimmy is now?
This week there were some fund raisers for red cross and Fridays was gum day. We never allow gum and are really pretty harsh about it. Much to my surprise the kids were willing to donate a dollar for the privilege of not sneaking and for having entire packs in their mouths. They came prepared. It was a stinky day in schooltown. I heard one parent even brought in the gum her daughter forgot. That's the way to teach them responsibility. Hey, if they forget their gum, forget it.
The drive home was slushy and the back deck was freezing in at least an inch of the nasty stuff, so before I got in the house, I had to clear the path and feed the dog. I knew I was not going to be willing to GO BACK OUT!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Weekend Update
Things are moving along swimmingly with DH's quintuple bypass. Tomorrow is his first doc's appointment and it will be his first trip out since he returned home. It has been extremely cold and he is not supposed to go out in it, breathing that cold air is not good for the healing heart. A bypass recoverer rides in the back seat away from the airbag. That was new to me. I wonder if I had an air bag when I brought my mother home? It has been way over my personal time limit since I saw the boys and I am going to have to make a LeRoy run this weekend unless they are busy. Baby Q got 2 teeth, got up on his knees to rock and started babbling on the same day! Gotta see that in person! Q's mommy, my girl, is on a cleaning and organizing rampage now that Q is entertaining himself more. Now I really have to get to work and get the 8th grade pallettes made for painting. They are only going to have this week then their grading period is over so I cannot waste any time. Later.
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