Tue, March 12th!

Hello!

DianeO, who posted 38 minutes ago going to beat me to the daily start but if I don't post now, I won't.

BB, loved the birthday spread and, in particular, the cake! Worth every dime! DD, Peps, Cecily, well, I guess all of us....I hope your current diet patterns are serving you well! I loved seeing Dave on facebook and Paul dancing! Good fun.

I am hoping that it is a full life and fun that are distracting friends. Personally, I'm catching up at work (my own fault) and getting ready for a quick trip to Iowa followed by quick trip to Redwoods (and DianeS) then detour to Mt Rainier store to get mountain boots. Then I will be out of money and will come home.

It is 4:15 AM, time to get my workout in!

Shel

Shel, I won't be starting the thread while mesmerized in the marsh. I have my phone and tablet and my cutting and pasting skills on either need significant improvement to attach photos and/or compose an initial post in Word and move it over. Our marsh home is on stilts which means stairs for every entry and egress. No fenced in back yard for dogs, like home and squirrels, snakes, gators, birds and water are too huge a lure/temptation to let them out off leash. Lots of steps, and I'm not complaining. Our life is guided by high tide in terms of fishing and kayaking. I can't get away from or back to our dock without being adjacent to high tide. The kayaking is glorious !! My soul, spirit, and serenity are certainly being recharged !! I could very easily make this an annual February and March thing. While I love SS, the RV, there is something about a 3,000 square foot open concept marsh home that makes so much more sense for an extended visit. We have four bedrooms and two baths, so we can have visitors !

"Our life is guided by high tide...." I love this. Simply love this. What a wonderful retreat!

Sounds like an amazing place :) Cant wait to see some photos

And you should make it an annual thing :) - light at the end of the winter tunnel and a wonderful focus

186.6

Today is OB visit. My last "monthly" appointment before switching to bi-monthly! Boy this is going by FAST!

So a quick check looks like I was about 182.2 a month ago on this board, but "176" at the ob. Assuming they weigh me on the same scale, I should be 4-5lbs. heavier, which is perfect. Trying not to stress. I'm a little bit at the "meh" stage.

Speaking of the "meh" stage, I feel like a lot of us are there. I'm hoping that our friends who aren't checking in are just busy with life! It happens, and it's one of the beautiful side effects of this story. My goal was always to live life first. But I also hope we don't allow eating habits and weight to sneak up on us. At 9 years out I sometimes forget how life used to be. It wasn't BAD. Not at all. In fact, I think I can appreciate that all the more now. But it wasn't as blissfully easy. And I can be quick to forget that. How hard it was to find a store that even carried my size. The stress and self loathing I went through getting ready for a party, the hatred I felt toward myself when I saw a picture of myself! Or how I stressed about fitting into a seat at a basketball game or a play. Or how I wondered if people were listening to my order, tallying up calories for me (I realize most of these things were not musings of other people, just a lot of self-inflicted negativity). Life is sweeter for me now without all those additional insecurities. Hell, I'm still insecure! But it's much much better. Oh, and lest we forget the physical exhaustion?! Now that I'm in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and bending over to pick up a binky that a toddler has dropped is taxing. Carrying her up the stairs is taxing. It's so much nicer to be able to do what I want to do without all the worry about whether I can physically make it. Times like this weekend it's nice to be able to enjoy a piece of cake and to know that I can be okay with throwing away (or giving away) the remainder. I WILL NOT let sugar dictate my future any longer.

Shel-omg, did you just say 4:15. 4:15 as in new 4:15??? As in...it was 3:15 just a couple days ago?!!!! Mercy woman, you inspire me!

Shirl-your trip to the USA sounds awesome!

Becca's first day of daycare went pretty well. She ate well and apparently played well. But she had a hard time giving up a morning nap. And then she was very tired and cranky (early) in the evening because of lack of sleep. That's the hard part: I feel like on the weekdays my day revolves around waking her, buckling her up, dropping her off, picking her up, taking her home, and putting her to bed. I don't feel like I get very much good time with her.

Good Luck with your OB check up BB Your Bubba will be here before you know it - such a blessing :)

Im looking forward to coming back to the States - was last there in 2012 - when I took my sons to Florida and Hawaii on the way home. It was something I had always hoped to do for them and was proud to be able too as a single mum (at that stage - DH and I had only been dating around 6 months) Special Memories indeed. This trip will be filled with love and laughter plus many celebrations - Our 5th wedding anniversary, DH's birthday - unfortunately we will be away for my sons and stepsons birthdays and most of all the birth of our second grandchild :( I am hopeful that he or she will come early as did their big brother - who arrived a month early. That way we can meet them before we leave Australia on 4th. This trip has been booked since last year before the little one was conceived - timing :(

I lived in a skinny little body during college, and then an obese body for far, far to long after that. I think people around me have forgotten the size I used to be, but I remember. But it's like you described, I didn't have a bad life at all, but obesity made it so much more complicated, and because I was 50 when I had my surgery, obesity was starting to steal my mobility. I too love the freedom to sit where I want, shop where I want, wear what I want, go and do what I want in a way I never could before. As I've said before, I got out of fat prison. It's good here on the outside :)

Well, yes, life marches on. I have been at the point where I needed little breaks from the boards, as you know. I rarely, if ever, even go to the main VSG board anymore. I have nothing really to contribute to that board any longer. Every so often I will pop over and read a few posts, but it is not the board it was 7 1/2 years ago when I started.

I'm most concerned about Liz. She just "vanished". So, I'm hoping she's okay. Ann said she would be away until after Mardi Gras. I was hoping she'd be back shortly after Ash Wednesday, but we shall see.

Had a really productive session with the shrink yesterday. If I wrote it all out it would be volumes, so let's just say that I am delighting in the discoveries I am making in this processes of recovery from my disordered eating. Wouldn't you know, too, that I said something pretty damn profound and the shrink suggested I write it down for my blog because it could help people. Of course, I can't remember what I said. Hopefully, it will come back to me and I can share it. Until then.... LOL

Hope you are feeling a little better Devon?

Yes its sad not seeing our regulars pop in. I am not friends with any of them on facebook but is Liz posting on there?

Yes, there have been facebook posts, maybe the best was of Liz's DH dancing like a machine on a stage! I'm thinking she is enjoying her visitors -- that girl deserves a break!