Happy Saturday y'all!

Good morning sistas!

I am up and feeling very optimistic today.  I had such a good report from the wound care center yesterday!  My wound is continuing to close up; it's now 87% healed!  And again, there was no need for debridement--thanks to my excellent nurse and the careful care he's giving me!  AND--drumroll please--I don't have to go back for 2 weeks!  I asked the doctor how much longer we were looking at until I am fully healed and got the answer of "3, perhaps 4 weeks".  Woo hoo!  I am ready!

My SIL Charlene is here to help out this weekend.  Chris and Mike both have to work all day today and tomorrow (it's inventory at Hobby Lobby still), so we are grateful to have another adult pair of hands around here.  Butch and I can manage the boys for short periods of time, but then we both just get so exhausted.  Thank goodness this is the last inventory weekend. 

I don't think I ever told y'all about Budder's 4 month visit to the pediatrician.  OMLord.  The child is 4 months old and wearing size 9 month sleepers because he's so tall!  He is 27" tall, which places him in the 98% percentile!  Can we say future NBA star???  And he weighs almost 17 lbs.  He's a big'un!  The girls at day care just cannot get over how "advanced" he is compared to some of the other babies.  Day care is going very well.  I'm over my anxiety about it now.  Budder is such a happy little soul.  Smiles and "talks" and flirts with everyone.  He's a happy baby and he's doing well there.  Thank you Jesus!  I was so worried.

Today I have to spend some time doing some much needed bookkeeping!  Really.  It's nose to the grindstone time.  I haven't balanced my checkbook since November and it's making me very nervous.  I'm going to sequester myself in the bedroom and not come out until I've dealt with every last detail of my checkbook.

So, yesterday afternoon, Butch and I spent a little time driving around New Braunfels looking at some houses that are either in foreclosure or coming up for auction.  My goodness.  I am continually stunned at the prices of some of these little houses!  $130K for less than 1200 sq ft???  Really?  I can't imagine who would pay that.  I've had apartments that size.  However we did see a couple of homes that have some potential IF we could get the price down to a reasonable range.  Today we want to spend some time looking at houses in Schertz, a little community about halfway between here and San Antonio.  It would only be a 10 minute commute up I35 for the kids to get to Hobby Lobby and the property values seem to be much more reasonable. 

Next week we simply HAVE to hook up with a Realtor.  We need someone who knows the ropes of these foreclosures and short sales and auctions, etc.

So, that's about all the news from the Hill Country this morning.  Talked to Carrie yesterday and she was doing okay.  Started on Lexipro (?) for her antidepressant.  Anyone know about this drug?  Hoping she starts to feel better soon, although I know it takes a few weeks for it to kick in.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend.  Wish you could be here with us.  Sunny and warm and gorgeous today.  Love you all!

Good Morning Vickie and OFF Family,

Vickie, I was on Lexapro for quite a while.  It's a good SSRI, which replaces missing seratonin in the brain.  Seratonin is a naturally made, feel good drug, which sometimes comes up short in our brains, causing depression.  It usually takes about two or more weeks to really kick in.  Encourage Carrie to take it one day at a time.

I'm going to meet Colleen at a footwear store having a huge sale this weekend.  They specialize in athletic footwear.  It's where she gets her running shoes.  But, their website says they sell Birkenstocks, which are the only shoes I wear, other than my sneakers and boots.

I'm starting to feel semi-human again.  Hopefully, this is a sign I'm on the mend.

Prayers and Hugs for all,

Trish

Oh, thanks, Trish!  That makes me feel better.  I'll tell Carrie.  Hope you find some good bargains today!

Vickie,

I am so happy you are healing so nicely.   When my incision went to hell and back, I remember after a point how quickly it began to heal.   I have taken lexipro (I'm sure I spelled that incorrectly) in the past and remember it made me feel anxious, so they changed it to something else and eventually I just gave up on the antidepressants.   Losing weight on us gals is so difficult but for the younger women, it has to be an earth shattering event.   Addiction transference is one of the most common adverse reactions but recently I was talking to a twenty something young lady who had weightless surgery and she said that for the first year, the weight came off so fast and she found herself having to adjust to where she fit both physically and socially.  She also said that buying clothes became her addiction and once she finally got where she could fit into a normal size, she bought everything.   She said it had something to do with that angst that she had before losing weight of trying clothes on...sort of like dreading to buy clothes, finding a pair of pants that fits, and then being so relieved that something fit to the point where she forgot that clothes fit her now so she would just buy everything, thinking there wouldn't be another chance to get clothes to fit.  She said even now and this is true of me too, when she buys clothes, she automatically goes to the large size clothes and then works her way to her size.  But all of that is hard on these young gals who are trying to adjust and deal with the shell shock of having spent years being larger than most and having to deal with the social isolation that accompanies being judged for their size and not their heart and mind.   

When I first started losing weight, for the first time in years, I was able to wear regular shoes...not slip ons because I could actually bend over and tie them and for heels, I could wear them without seeing my feet swell to a size million, so guess what my transfer addiction became:  I now am the proud owner of 450 pairs of beautiful shoes.   I know, right?   

I hope Carrie is able to understand her emotions and work through them and let's hope her dissertation committee members are even more understanding.   Most graduate schools have a dean of students whose responsibility is to advocate for the students, so once she contacts him or her, they will make sure that she is given considerations.   

Your grand babies sound adorable.  

Hell, I tried to go back edit away the misspelled clothes and the misplaced modifiers but couldn't do so.   No more writing until the second cup of coffee. LOL

Thanks Jeannie!  Yes, Carrie is struggling a bit with body image, clothes, male attention, and not least of all, grad school pressures!  But she's a strong young woman and I think she will be okay.  She just hit a crisis point and really needed some support and love from Mama and Daddy.  She understands about transfer addictions.  That's not to say she won't succumb to one (or more), but she's aware of them.  I talk gently to her about her alcohol intake often, and we had a come to Jesus meeting about her charging clothes on my credit card!  She did scare me when she told me she wished she had never had WLS last week, but I think that was just an aberration.  I don't think she really meant it. 

As for grad school, you know how that is.  She started getting behind last spring when she had that appendicitus operation, then WLS, and then it just snowballed on her.  Well, you can't get behind in grad school.  So she has some work to do to catch up.  I think she will do it.  She's invested 3 1/2 years of her life in this degree, and I don't think she's really willing to give up.  She just needed some encouragement.  Hopefully the Lexapro will help her get a handle on her emotions and allow her to function again.

I will share your concerns about Lexipro with her so she won't feel funny if she has to request another medication.

Vickie....I also got shaky and anxious on that medication. I wish her the very best. I take Celexis with no side effects. Other people I know can't take Clelexis because of problems with it. It really has to do with your own body as with any other medication. The medication may need adjusting. It does take time to get the dosage right. Praying the grad school work gets caught up and that all works out. I agree, she needed her mama and daddy!! It sounds like that is really just what she needed!! 

I am keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Much love and many hugs.....connie d

 

 

Good Morning Vickie and everyone.....

Vickie....you sound so positive this morning...that makes me feel so good!! Happy house hunting....hope you find something you like soon! I will continue to keep Carrie in my prayers...bless her heart!

As for me.....I am just stopping in to say hello. I am having so much fun with Gracie here!!! Pam is doing something with her now. I am sooooo enjoying our time together!! We had a slumber party here last night!!!

I will check in again later as I can. Have a  beautiful  day!!

Love and many hugs....connie d 

Hi Friends!  Hope you're all doing well and have a good week-end.  

I've got a bit of a cold - sneezing and runny nose -- took some Benadryl and it seems to be working.  Snow showers today, but no accumulations to worry about.  

Vickie - Good luck on the house hunting.  Prices are crazy.  I was looking around here for a small two-bedroom fixer-upper and had no luck.  Thought about a two-family or three-family, but I don't want to get back into the Landlord business.   Hopefully, when you hook up with a realtor he/she will find something quickly!

Gotta run for now!

Mary

Ob lord, this is so not fair. I am sick! Got horrible tummy cramps and diarrhea. Butch has gone to buy some anti diarrhea medicine for me. It's been going on for hours. I've barricaded myself in the bedroom. Don't want the boys to get it. Ugh. Feeling miserable!