My life - for the friends who want to know!

Hello, to All my Dear Friends! I have been quite a lost soul (at least where the boards are concerned). Do not fear, I have not given up on my journey. I am down 50 lbs and feel great. The excerise has been next to none (I do park further from stores and take steps instead of elevators all over), although, I have done some arm excercises. I'm doing great getting my protein in 80-100 grams/day. I take my vitamins (not my actigal - YUCK!) and I get in between 60 & 90 oz of water or acceptable liquid. Ok, here goes...my job has been 'eliminated' and it took me a few days to 'wrap my mind around it' - ya know? About 3 days after I found out, I got excited. You see, I was given 60 days notice, 30 working, 30 non - so for the month of December, I am officially unemployed! This means I can do Xmas this year like I couldn't last year (father passed away in Oct, I had bronchitis from Thanksgiving until mid-January, we had new room finished on 12/19..CRAZY!). I have also decided (almost 100%) to go to school - Del Tech for ultrasound tech. SCARY! I haven't been to school or taken a real test in 25.5 years!!!!!!!! But, if I dig in, I can do this in 2 years. I'm going to get 54 weeks + my 30 days off, of severance & benefits, then I get 26 weeks of unemployment (+ a good chance of a 13 wk extension due to re-training), Chase & the state will pay for most of my schooling. With that said..I am determined to stick with my program and am going to set up appts in December with a personal trainer at the Y - to hopefully give my exercise a jump start. In January (if I don't chicken out..), I will be starting school. Pray for me one and all! Also, my daughter & I continue to go through our 'issue's' - that the docs now feel are NOT mentally or biochemically driven. We have been blessed with some of the best help available in DE and we are perservering and surviving our trying days. Thank you to all my wonderful friends who have offered support, shoulders, tear sessions, etc, I love you and appreciate you like crazy (you KNOW who you are!). I hope to see everyone at the next PMRI meeting (I will do my best to make it). Happy Thanksgiving! Valerie

Hey Val, Next year this time, this journey will have progressed like you would not have ever imagined. My retirement last December was a God send in disguise. I opted to take the year to get myself healthy. Mission accomplished. Thank God for severence and unemployment. Oh I did get a 2 day a week job which is great. Right up my alley too. Doing hair at Sunrise retirement home. The old ladies love getting their hair done. Keep the faith. We're with you every step of the way. Way to go on the 50 lbs. Gonna exercise the stress away too girl. So get your sneakers & dancing shoes ready. Keep up the vitamins and the proteins. They are most important now. Your prioities are all in the right place. Try to stay positive and focused on yourself and Grace. We can get together for lunch 1 day for the holidays. ((HUGS)) Elissa

Hi Val, Way to keep a good attitude, yay for you! As for the exercise, you may not have an exact routine down right now but all the other stuff really does add up, the rest will come. BIG congrats on going back to school, I am SO jealous as I've always thought that would be an interesting field to go into, you ROCK! Now, I'm gonna yell at you. TAKE YOUR ACTIGALL DAMNIT...yeah it tastes like crap, oh well, do it anyway, it can save you some issues down the road. Ok, lecture over ( for now ) Happy Turkey Day back atcha! Linda