Wordless Wednesday - Fun Family Fotos

 

nuff said

in our family, this is known as game face

proof that the nut doesn't fall far from the tree

Wordless Wednesday - What Does Your Dog Taste Like?

I don't know why my kid always has her tongue out in pictures. Teenagers--sheesh!

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Schizorandom

Keely and world domination.  I should be so lucky to be one of her minions.  If you want to worship at the cult of Keely go here or click the button to be whisked magically away. It will make you younger and thinner...and prettier (would I lie?).



Well, well, well, here it is Tuesday--again.  Every week like clockwork.  Dang punctual if you ask me.   For me, Tuesday means torturing teaching teenagers at winterguard rehearsal.  Someone has to so it might as well be me.

My oranges are just about ready.  They are still slightly too tart for my taste, but soon orangeapalooza in my backyard!  Oranges are my all time favorite food (sorry chocolate, I love you but not quite as much).

Last Saturday, I put my kid on a plane back to the heartland to start her freshman spring semester.  She had a fantastic fall and spring looks promising!  My Hubby's buddy Bob arrived the same day.  Bob is a world-traveling geocache addict expert.  They are off boozing and gambling in Reno discovering geocaches as we speak. 

Confession time--I have some quirky and weird unique ideas and opinions.  For example, I really don't like watching videos online.  I really really don't.  I'd much rather read a news story or tutorial than listen and watch someone present the information in a video.  I find I'm not alone in this--my husband is the same way.  If I want to watch a video, then I have my TV.  I guess that means I'm old and crotchety not embracing technology as much as others.  DON'T JUDGE ME!

I also have an addiction to a little thing for the strike through code.

Regis is retiring.  I'm going to miss him.

Oh the sun is shining!  I've barely seen it in over a week. We have had lots of fog here.  I'm going outside to play in the garden and enjoy it while I can.  Later taters!

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Speaking of Which

First things first. Gotta give props, click on Keely's fugly button above (her description, not mine) and check out her randomness.  It's randomly random aka awesomely awesome!

So....(sheepish side step to the right) how you doin?  Me, well I could be here all day if I start that business.  But anyway...

Kids, school, colorguard, holidays, blah, blah, blah.  Speaking of colorguard, we are officially up and running with our winterguard season.  Our show is going a different direction from previous years.  The past two years have been slow, balladish (I made up that word) and poignant.  This year, I wanted to change it up, so we are going with an up-tempo, more butch industrial/techno show so that we don't get pigeon-holed into one set style.  I think it's a good way to keep it interesting and teach my guardie youngsters to embrace change.  I am blessed to have my daughter home from college for another ten days, to help design and teach the show.  Speaking of which...

My kid had a banner first semester of college.  She managed to get all A's and a B, while maintaining a rigorous schedule as part of the OU Pride Colorguard.  She's had a whirlwind break, first flying home then flying back to go to the Fiesta Bowl, and today she flies home again then flies back and starts spring semester in a few weeks.  I am so incredibly proud of her, and to boot, she wrote me the sweetest letter a few months ago.  I can't ask for more, speaking of which...

She is the third of my four children.  They are all in various states of the education process.  They are all happy, healthy and succeeding in their academic pursuits.  I am incredibly proud of all of them, I am so very
blessed.  Speaking of which...

My husband and I just celebrated six wonderful years of marriage.  Nine plus years of this segment of the relationship and thirty-five years of being soul-mates.  If you do the math, yes, we were eleven when he sent me the note in world studies class and I circled yes.  We've only been coupled just over eleven of those years--collectively.  But we do have an enduring love that has lasted all thirty-five years.  In total, it's a cool story which he thinks we should peddle to Lifetime.  He is full of ideas, speaking of which...

He writes a blog!  It is frank, often humorous, insightful, and politically incorrect.  Now, he and I and two of our kids write blogs.  The dog will probably soon be writing one too.  Speaking of which...

Sarah the dog is happy and healthy.  For a diabetic dog, she has beat all the projections.  Our vet is amazed that she isn't blind, but so far, her eyesight seems great.  Except...a few weeks ago, during the lunar eclipse, she decided to chase a cat...that turned out to be a skunk.  Maybe the eyesight ain't so great, hmmmmm.  I was awakened by my frantic husband to assist with the de-skunking.  It was not fun for us or for her.  Somehow, I suspect she didn't learn to leave skunks alone.  We are all being more diligent about when and where she is off-leash.  Speaking of which...

That's all the random I can spare today.  I must dive head-first into my task list.  Toodles!

Wordless Wednesday - Generations

 

My grandmother holding my granddaughter

Wordless Wednesday - Blast From The Past

My Kindergarten teacher now reads stories at the library every Wednesday to a group of preschoolers that includes my granddaughter (I'm 45--do the math lol).

Wordless Wednesday - Confirmation

I shamelessly stole borrowed this image from a blog that I read called Neurotic Physiology at Scientopia.org (In case you had any doubts about how much of a nerd I really am)

Wordless Wednesday - Got Carrots?

I think I need to buy stock in ranch dip

(WWBBD - What Would Bugs Bunny Do?)

Wordless Wednesday - Boomer Sooner!

OU stud - Boomer the Mascot (he's not really on that man's head--I think--AWKWARD!!!)

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Oh the Cobwebs

Uh...uh...uh...trying to reach...almost got it...there! The last of the cobwebs and atchoo!  Crap it's dusty, but nevertheless...

Keely has been redecorating and designed a new button, oh look something shiny!


Be sure and hit up her blog, she makes me point smile and laugh regularly.

Blogger is behaving a little oddly, so hopefully this will be published successfully, if not...well, there's always chocolate!

I've been seriously neglecting this blog, but much like the disobedient child, I'm attempting to return to the "mother's knee" of my readers and beg forgiveness yet again.  Folks, I love to write and hope to settle in for more consistency and less sporadic and random (no pun intended, ok maybe a little pun intended) efforts to be a contributing member of  blithering idiots the blogosphere.  However, I am still mired in my life and it still has priority; so no promises.  

Currently, my day job is instructing students in the fine art of colorguard.  I do it for the money and the glory and because I am a fascist dictator who loves pointing my finger at impressionable teens because I truly love it.  That, and it gets me out of the house.

Last month, my husband drove the third of our four children to college 1200 miles away.  There's only one kid left at home now, oh and the dog.  The empty nest is looming and we've got a little over two years remaining until that comes to fruition.  I should probably be planning for that?  It's funny, years ago when my kids were all underfoot, I imagined that life post child-rearing would be a wonderful relief--the reward for a job well done.  Now, it just seems weird.   I am certain though that I will adjust quite nicely as I am one who embraces change readily (stop laughing).

Even though I've been neglecting you here, I've kept up with reading (and occasionally commenting on) the blogs I follow.  I've also discovered some new blogs; among them are some startups by family and friends.  So to show that nepotism is alive and well (and the nut doesn't fall far from the nutty tree), here is a list of new blogs by various friends and family in random order of course.

Pink Epiphanies - by my daughter in law as she navigates her life and faith in marriage and motherhood

I'm A Sooner! - by my kid, the one that just left for college (college fodder)

paper lanterns and white feathers - by my other kid; her self-proclaimed "musings of a twenty-something"

life with the lebedas - by a friend of my daughter in law's of which I accidentally stumbled upon

My Left Breast - by the wife of a high school classmate as she navigates the diagnosis of breast cancer--compelling, insightful and inspirational

Buttermilk And Bacon - by the husband of a friend who loves, what else, buttermilk AND bacon!

Gratuitous naked man shot!

Just kidding!  It's my hubby and he has swim trunks on--I swear!

That's all the random I have for now.  "Tune in next time when grandpa says"...Not a damn thing because he's flying with the angels and doesn't get good cell service(Heaven must be in a cell phone "dead" zone) OH STOP GROANING!  It wasn't that bad (ok, maybe it was).

Wordless Wednesday - I Love My Dog

Wordless Wednesday - College Bound

Spread your wings and fly Baby Girl (I promise your parachute will open)

Wordless Wednesday - One Day's Tomato Harvest

one plant (Early Girl)

...a few more (some German Queens and Bush Goliath)

needless to stay, I will spend significant time making sauce and other goodies

...now off to harvest the miniature tomatoes (cherry, grape, golden pears etc.)

Wordless Wednesday - Summer Rapidly Coming to an End

...soon there will only be one kid here(oh and the dog is staying)

Random Tuesday Thoughts - Where the Hell Have I Been

If you are normal and like to hear about butts (or even if you are abnormal and don't like butts) be sure and stop by The Un Mom

Okokokokok...ok...so where I've been.  Not anywhere special, just incredibly busy and had family needs and unexpected events that required my full attention.  My father gave me three pearls of wisdom to use to guide my life:  1. Be positive 2. KNOW what your priorities are, and 3. Be spiritual.  Number two came up and required my focus to be elsewhere.  I realize that I left everyone hanging in the middle of my weight-loss series, but I will pick it back up this week.  Hopefully, you will grant me the benefit of the doubt and help me get back into the swing of blogging.

Luckily, I squeezed in time to read your blogs and found new sources to appreciate which helped me relax during the most intense parts of my absence.  Those of you who write faithfully (and some of you who don't) kept me sane and I want you to know I truly appreciate your writing.

So, on with the random, after all, it is Tuesday.

I just received my dog's license renewal in the mail.  It lists her as a pit bull.  OMFG!  She is NOT a pit bull!  She is a lab/jack russell mix (we are assuming lab mommy/jack russell daddy lol).  Whoever pushed the pit bull button at the county office made an error.  I feel compelled to correct it. 

There's snow in them there hills!  It snowed in the Sierras yesterday about an hour from me.  It's the middle of May, wtf Mother Nature?  I think this has been the weirdest winter since I moved here eight years ago (my how time flies).

The garden is mostly in.  Peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, onions and herbs are already producing and being harvested.  Tomatoes, peppers, green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, okra and strawberries are going strong and are on schedule.  My fruit trees have fruit on them though the plums and nectarines are still small and green.  My orange tree is just now blossoming and it smells so heavenly.

My birthday is next week, 45 will be the new number.  I'm gonna put on my tiara, prom dress, stripper boots and glitter on my face then head out to my favorite dance bar with my hubby and good friends.  It's how I roll on my birthday; I let my freak flag fly high!

I learned a new little trick.  My daughters love the rotisserie chickens at the grocery store.  I usually use up any meat, that is left over from rotisserie chicken, in soups, salads and other dishes.  But on a whim one day, I decided to see if I could make chicken stock from the leftover carcass and guess what?  It makes a great stock that is perfectly seasoned.  As one who is frugal and always looking to cut costs in my home budget, I'm delighted to make something that I use so frequently and often pay $2.00-$3.00 per quart to purchase at the store.  Try it--just fill a stock pot with water, add the chicken carcass and bring to a boil then simmer on medium until you have a thick golden broth/stock.  Strain to remove the remaining chicken parts, skim the fat off the top, store the broth/stock and use as needed.  I freeze mine in quart containers.

Whew!  It feels good to shake off the dust and get back to blogging.  To my faithful followers, I owe you my heart for your patience.  Tomorrow will be Wordless Wednesday, then Thursday will be the next installment of "I've lost, but look what I've gained".  Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday - Ranunculus

Wordless Wednesday - Got Blue?

I've Lost, but Look What I've Gained! Part VI

...here I come slinking back with my tail between my legs after all this time.  Hold on for a minute while I strap on my celice and put on my hair shirt.

My apologies once again.  My absence was unavoidable.  Now, let's see where did I leave off...oh yes...

I attended the informational seminar held by my surgeon and her staff in October.  The very next day after the seminar, I called to schedule my first appointment.  The first available appointment they had was January 24, 2006--three months away!   I was surprised and disappointed at first, then I realized that my very busy surgeon was very busy because she was very very good at what she does.  So I settled in for my wait.  The holidays were approaching and I decided that I would not diet and fret over food, but instead, enjoy the last bit of freedom to eat foods I knew I would probably have to give up after surgery--possibly forever.  I did not gorge myself and overeat, but I did not deny myself anything.  I pushed guilty thoughts away and of course, my weight crept up even higher.

On the day of my appointment, I arrived at the surgeon's office feeling nervous and excited.  My surgeon went over my personal history and asked me which surgery I wanted.  She agreed that the Roux-En-Y procedure fit my personal needs better than the lap band.  She explained in great detail all aspects of the surgery and recovery.  One piece of information that she clarified was that my stomach would not be removed but instead would be sewn up and left attached to my intestinal tract after it was separated from the new pouch created to function in place of my stomach.  This was done because the stomach can still provide valuable enzymes that then move into the intestines and assist in the digestive processes.  My new small pouch would be attached to a lower portion of the small intestine, but my stomach would remain as a valuable organ.  This however, did not mean that my procedure was reversible.  Studies had shown that leaving the larger stomach portion in the patient was beneficial as long as it was healthy and still functioning.

She reiterated expectations, risks, prognosis and possible alternative outcomes.  She answered all of my questions and reviewed my course of treatment both pre and post surgery.  My weight that day was 259 and my BMI 41.  I had gained back the 25 lbs I had lost plus some and that was a consistent pattern that I had repeated once again in my long struggle with weight-loss.  I was given more paperwork, including hospital preregistration forms, advance directive forms, and diagnostic testing requests.  I was also told to start trying liquid protein supplements to find one or more that I would like well enough to use extensively after my surgery.  I was then scheduled for a pre-op visit on February 16 and given a surgery date of March 7. I left the office still feeling nervous and excited and that small bit of relief as I inched closer to the that date that would change my life--March 7, 2006.

to be continued...

For My Sister...Just Because

The things we do for love

More to come Monday...

I've Lost, but Look What I've Gained! Part V

Bless me Blogger for I have sinned, it's been 3 weeks since my last post...

[Dear readers, my apologies for not staying on schedule with this series. I do not receive any compensation for my writing other than your love, kindness and interest. As such, my family and personal life will occasionally become a higher priority than my writing. I beg your forgiveness, thank you for your patience and will now commence the 5th installment of this series.]

At the end of the last post, I had met the preliminary requirements for a referral to a bariatric surgeon and was awaiting approval from my HMO. I received my approval in September 2005, and was informed by my primary care physician that I needed to attend an informational seminar held once each month by the surgeon. It was too late to attend the September seminar, so I called and was scheduled to attend the October seminar.

The day of the seminar, I was filled with various emotions. I was excited and curious, nervous, had some low-level fear, and even a sense of marking a milestone. I attended the seminar held in a medical building near the hospital where my surgery would be performed. I took a seat in the back so that I could watch not only the presentation but the other attendees. I noticed that I was one of the smallest attendees in a group of very morbidly obese people. This gave me momentary pause to question whether or not I belonged there or was I giving up my conventional battle too soon? I then reminded myself that I had arrived at my decision soundly and logically and had the support of all who were involved.

The surgeon and her team gave a wonderful presentation. She shared her statistics both good and bad and spoke about the comprehensive end to end programs provided by her office. I learned that most of her patients participate in a study of bariatric patients that is managed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This appealed to me for two reasons. I believe in studies that support ongoing education and provide data to determine best practices; especially in medicine. I also have a fondness for the NIH because I took some courses there back before I abandoned my plan to get my masters degree. I made a decision right then to participate in the study if I was eligible.

Another important fact that I learned at the seminar was that my surgeon's medical practice was one of two Centers of Excellence in bariatric surgery in the Sacramento area. At the time, there were four healthcare systems offering bariatric surgery. Having a surgeon who was recognized by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery made me feel more confident about my surgeon and her practice.

The seminar consisted of the surgeon and her staff speaking and showing power point slides and a former patient who recounted his personal experience with bariatric surgery. An information packet was handed out to all the attendees. The staff also shared that they held monthly support groups for patients. The two types of surgery offered, Roux En Y and Lap Band, were discussed in detail. This helped to solidify the Roux En Y procedure as the one I believed was best for me.

At the end of the seminar, the staff answered questions. The presentation was so thorough that there were only a few questions. I left the seminar feeling satisfied with what I had learned and confident in my decision to proceed with the surgery. The next morning, I called and scheduled my first appointment with the surgeon.

To be continued...