Hello Jeannie and my sistas!  

Happy Friday, Jeannie!  Boy, do I remember those days.  SO tired by the end of the work week and SO ready for the weekend!

Well, I want to report on my first day of my new diet.  I am doing pretty well so far.  I could barely roll out of bed this morning (sleep deprivation is telling on me), but I got up and took my Bontril at 8 a.m. and took a bath in the bubble tub (with 2 cups of Epsom salts added!), and I started feeling a little better.  I drank my Pro Joe (counts as one of my two daily shakes) and ate a little fresh fruit and I was good to go.  It's now 1 p.m. and I'm just now drinking my second shake.  Wow.  No cravings for Coke.  No cravings for junk food.  This is SUCH a change from just yesterday.  

Carrie and I took Caralee for a walk around the golf course this morning.  I don't know a lot about golf, but the area behind my house must be pretty far along in the game because the golfers don't start showing up in my area until mid- to late-morning.  

Since Carrie started supplementing breast milk with formula a day and a half ago, our life has changed dramatically!  Caralee is now sleeping for longer naps and not crying so much.  The baby was just starving all the time!  So hope is in sight.  We're going to get this child on a regular schedule yet!  LOL!

Okay, so Carrie asked my mom if she was happy living here with me and she said "no".  I think she is open to the idea of moving to an assisted living/retirement community.  So, next week, while I am all tied up with the landscapers, Carrie is going to take Mom to look at some places.  Now, Mom and I haven't discussed this at all--just Mom and Carrie.  I'm treading very carefully here.  I do NOT want her to think I don't want her here or that I'm trying to get rid of her.  I don't want to hurt her!  But I do think both she and I would be happier living apart.  We've given in a good try, but it's just not working very well.  And she's lonely.  She needs friends her own age.  She loves to play bridge.  I think she would thrive in the right environment.  Right now all she does is sit in the chair and watch TV all day.  That's not good for anyone.

Well, I said I was going to clean house today, and so far, I haven't done it.  I'd better get started!  Megan (Carrie's friend) might be driving here tonight or it might be in the morning, but either way, I need to clean house before she gets here.  

Love you all!  

Hello Jeannie!!

I am sorry if I missed your posts. I didn't mean to.

I hope your husband has a good surgery and a speedy recovery. 

It is nice that he is taking your grandchildren to a movie so you can have some quiet time. We all need that once in awhile!!

It is nice that you can get to your college office and get things done in peace and quiet. Spring break is a good break for you too!

I so envy your talent for sewing. You seem to tackle all kinds of different  items. I am sure your granddaughter loves all the wonderful things you make for her as well!! Knowing you everything will look perfect!!

I am on my phone so I need to go for now. Have a great nights sleep!!

I love you...hugs...connie d

Hello Eileen....so sorry you had a bad headache this morning. I am glad you iced it and slept in. At least now that is better.

Let the training commence...I hope it turns out to be a smooth change over.

Sorry you won't get home before midnight. I am sure you can drink at work but not eat much. At least the procedure is plenty early in the morning. I am praying it all goes well!! Please keep me updated!

Yes, Jeannie was probably on OFF and I just missed her. I was not on it much for awhile there. I thought I read everyones posts at one time or another. Somehow I missed her's  and who knows how many others.  I will be so glad when we get those results. We are all on edge. Nic sat and talked to me about it again when he was here this last five days. We just keep praying!!

That is really nice of you to send Mary that laptop. At least she won't have that to worry about. I miss hearing from her. I pray all is moving along smoothly or at least as smoothly as it can.

I wish you the best tomorrow...I love you...hugs...connie d

Hello Vickie....oh my what a couple days you have had!!

I feel bad for all of you but especially the boys for not being able to enjoy the Fiesta Farm. That would have been so fun! The Do-seum sounds like a fun place too. I think everyone was just to exhausted from riding and still feeling the let down of the Fiesta Farm.

Poor little Caralee. I had the same problem Carrie has when I tried breast feeding. My doctor had me go on formula as Jamie just wasn't getting what she needed. I felt bad but I did what was best for her not me. My milk was  just too weak. It wasn't because I wasn't eating right.The doctor said this is more common then we know. Things changed drastically when she had formula!! 

Congrats on getting that shower head on!! I couldn't do it anymore because of my pain. I always had one guy around that could do those things for me. You are doing great!!

Your landscaping will be wonderful!! I am so happy you are able to do it the way you want!!

Let me know how those shots work for you. Are they covered by insurance? I see my doctor again on the 31st. I am trying to lose but it is so slow going. Very frustrating for me and her too! I hope you have wonderful results!!

I love you...HUGS...connie d

Hello sweetest sistas!

I am behind with my posts!  I wanted to post yesterday, but it just never happened.  Yesterday, my friends, was one of those hella days that you don't see coming!  Whoa.  I think I wrote that we had planned to take the boys to a place called Fiesta Farm for pony rides and a hay ride, a petting zoo, and a picnic.  Fun day, right?  Web site says that they are open from 9 to 5.  We get there at 1:15 (boys all decked out in their jeans and cowboy boots!) and the damn place CLOSED at 1 because it was spring break!  WTH?  And we drove for 45 minutes to get there, too!

So, as you can imagine, the boys were so disappointed!  We finally decided to take the boys to downtown San Antonio to the Do-seum.  Rhymes with Museum, only the kids have things to DO there.  Another 30 minute drive to get there, and by then all three kids, including Caralee, were cranky and mad and crying, etc.  Fun.  The Do-seum was pretty pricey ($12 each!), but I will say they had a LOT of really neat stuff for the kids.  I think we would have had a better time if we had just planned to go straight there and not done all that driving.  We were too tired to really enjoy it fully.

(And we ate our picnic in the parking lot!  That was NOT what I had in mind when I packed it! LOL!)

Anyway, fast forward to last night and poor little Caralee screamed and cried and fussed non-stop.  I finally told Carrie, "This baby is hungry."  So I made a midnight run to the grocery store and bought formula.  Came home, fixed a bottle, and she drank it and fell right to sleep!  I guess we maybe went to bed around 1 a.m.  We were all exhausted from our long day and then to deal with the baby was just too much!  

And, I'm no expert on breast feeding, but it does appear to me that Carrie's milk supply is not adequate.  Caralee is a month old now and she still doesn't weigh 8 lbs yet.  She seems to get plenty of breast milk in the mornings, but by evenings she's hungry and fussing and Carrie keeps trying to nurse her continually, and her breasts never have time to build up enough supply.  

Well, anyway, I had a lot going on today.  It was my annual WLS visit today.  My blood pressure was good, my pulse rate was good, and my weight was a whopping 210!  OMG.  I'm both healthy and fat.  And I cried buckets, too.  James, the P.A., came in and he remembered Butch from two years ago when we were getting ready to go to Belize.  I had to tell him everything that happened and I cried and cried.  Very emotional and very upsetting.  Well, I told him I had pretty much stopped taking any of my vitamins or supplements for the better part of a year, and he said I must have had a really good reserve built up because all my numbers were fine except for Vit D.  So I got a new Vit D supplement to take.

Also, I told him I was really unhappy with my weight regain and I want to get it off.  So I'm going in for a weekly injection called "LipoLean" which is supposed to burn fat, boost energy and detox the body.  Also, he gave me an appetite suppressant called Bontril to try for a couple of months.  It's a type of amphetamine, but I won't be on it for long.  I told him it's like I'm starving and eating constantly every few minutes all day long.  He said it's because my cortisol levels are high (from stress), and the Bontril will help break that cycle.  I normally wouldn't take a diet pill, but for a short term solution, I'm okay with it.

He also put me on a modified diet.  I'm going to have two protein shakes a day, with two (or more) snacks of raw fruits/veggies, and then a real meal for supper.  I go back in one month and we see how I'm doing.  (I'll go back each week for the shot, but I won't see anyone during that visit except the nurse.)

I feel very much like I'm starting all over again.  But James told me, given the horrendous couple of years I've had, I really hadn't regained all that much weight and not to beat myself up over it.

Let's see.  Oh! I did want to report that I changed that shower head in my bathroom all by myself and I didn't have a bit of trouble doing it!  I just unscrewed the old one, wrapped "plumber's tape" around the threads on the pipe, and screwed the new one on.  It works great and no leaks!  Maybe I'll try tackling a few more projects around here.  I never had to do any of these types of repairs.  I always had my dad and/or my husband to do repair things.  Butch, bless his hear, could fix ANYTHING.  I did watch him do a lot of repairs over the years.  Maybe some of it sunk in.

I'm so excited about my landscape project next week!  I've bought 2+ dozen red knock-out roses this week.  They are gorgeous.  I sent a list of the trees I want to the landscaper this morning and they wrote back, "what size trees?"  Well, hell.  I don't know!  What sizes do they come in?  I'll have to call in the morning.

Carrie has a girlfriend coming this weekend.  I'm happy to have Megan here, although I don't know where we'll put her!  But tomorrow I have to clean house and figure out sleeping arrangements.  I do have a blow-up bed.  I guess I'll put her on that in the living room.  Carrie wants to go out to dinner with Meg on Saturday night, and I'm okay with that, as long as I have a bottle of formula!!!  I think it will be good for my daughter to have someone else to talk with beside me and my mom.  I hope they can go out for a couple of hours.  

I would like to have a little time to myself, too, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.  I think my trip to the doctor was my "ME" time for the month.  LOL!  Not.  I sure would like to sleep one night all by myself in my own bed.  Don't see that happening anytime soon either.  Oh, well.  I'll survive.

Dinner tonight was rice, mixed greens, baked sweet potato and pinto beans.  I have an apple for later on tonight.  I'm not one bit hungry, but I'm craving sugary junk food.  Sigh.  The battle never ends.  I hope the new drugs help!  I'm tired of losing the war.

Well, this has turned into a novel.  I'd better close.  I love you all so much!