mary

We’ve spent a busy morning.  Yesterday, since it was nice out, we opened the patio door and bedroom window to air the apartment out.  That afternoon we saw a firetruck outside the building.  Later we noticed a sooty black residue on just about everything!!  It was worse under the heat vents and around the air filter we have sitting on the bar.  So, apparently, somebody in the building had a fire, and the smoke residue came in through the heat vents and windows. 

What a mess.  We’ve spent the entire morning washing down table tops, counters, TV, computer equipment, lamps and every other surface in the apartment.  The wall next to the air filter and the counter around it was black!  Those were the worst areas.  The air filter must have been working overtime trying to clean that crap out of the air.

I think we’ve got the worst of it cleaned up.  And hopefully there won’t be any more collecting in here.  I guess we’re lucky that, if there was a fire, it wasn’t worse or we could have been out on the street, without our clothes or personal belongings.  So I’m thankful for that!!

An a lighter note, it’s snowing…has been for at least 4 hours!!  But the temp’s 39 so it’s not sticking.  But it’s sure pretty to watch.  And the temp’s dropping, so it may start sticking later.  At the very least, if it falls below freezing, it will get real slick out there.  Needless to say, we’re gonna stay put tonight.  The last thing we want to do is share slick roads with some drunk.

We’re just gonna lounge around here, have some snacks, drink a little champagne, and welcome the new year in quietly.  Well, I’m sure it will probably get loud around the apartment complex about midnight, but you know what I mean.

Once again, I want to wish everybody, a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year, filled with love and dreams come true.

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

It’s Saturday morning.  Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve.  Where has this year gone?  Last New Year’s Eve we were in Los Angeles.  From there we went back to Arkansas for a couple of weeks.  Then it was Chicago, then Detroit, and now we’re living in Fort Wayne, Indiana…and in Minneapolis for Micheal’s job.  But it feels like we’ve been here for months and living in Fort Wayne for much longer.  But it also feels as if we just got here.  It feels like Los Angeles was ages ago, but it also feels as if it was just yesterday.  Does that make any sense?  Could the fact that I’ll be 51 in a couple of weeks have anything to do with it?

My newest grandaughter will be born this Tuesday, unless they change the date again.  11 grandchildren!  Yet it seems like only yesterday my kids were babies.  Now they’re having babies.  Where has the time gone?  Another year has passed.  I’ve become another year older.

Micheal and I will be married 6 years in June…yet sometimes it feels as if we’ve know each other and been together forever.  And other times it feels as if we’ve only been together a matter of a few weeks…that we’re still getting to know each other, but then I guess we are.  Do we ever get to the point where we don’t learn something new about those we love?

I know this blog may be sounding a bit weird.  But, I’ve been contemplating my life this morning.  (Maybe watching the old classic “The Time Machine” has something to do with that.)  The first 44 years of my life were spent in one little area of the world…Northeast Arkansas.  I knew nothing of the rest of the US except what I’d read in books and seen in movies and on TV.

Then my world (and my life) turned upside down!  I took a Greyhound bus to California, met Micheal, and began a whirlwind journey that has led from the Pacific Ocean, to the Atlantic Ocean, back to the Pacific, then to the Great Lakes and here.

This past year I’ve lived in 5 states.  And yet some of the most fantastic people I’ve met have been right here on this little website.  I’ve traveled extensively, and yet my best friends are always right here within a few strokes of my fingertips on this keyboard.

Now, all that has been to say this…This past year has held a lot of changes, a lot of new things and places for me…but the best thing that has happened to me this year has been finding BuddySlim and all my wonderful friends.  And I consider you all my friends.  As with any friendships, some of you I consider closer than others, but you are all my friends.  And I don’t know what I would have done without you.  You’ve helped me through some rough times…pain, anxiety, depression…and you’ve cheered me on through the good times.  I only hope I’ve been half the friend to you that you’ve been to me.

To all my dear friends…I hope this new year is filled with happiness, love, prosperity, health and friends.  And I hope all your hopes, dreams and wishes come true.  May we all attain our goals, in career, love, life in general, and in weightloss.

I love all of you.

I think I overdid it.  Yesterday we went shopping again.  All we did was pick up some things for tomorrow night…some light Lays, fat-free French onion dip, a few bottles of champagne!  Yup, I said a few, as in 3!  We’re gonna toast the new year in all evening!  On the rare occasion we do splurge and just let our hair down.

Ooops, I got sidetracked.  As I said, I overdid it yesterday.  I’m all achy this morning, especially my legs.  I actually did more than go shopping yesterday.  I did some leg stretches, and I did too many.  But it wasn’t hurting me while I was doing them.  So I just kept on.  Now I’m paying for it.  But I’ll survive.  I always do.  I just won’t be running any marathons the next couple of days!!  

I didn’t overdo it with eating.  I’ve had that well under control, even during the holidays.  I just didn’t want to say anything about that sooner cuz I didn’t want to make anybody feel worse about overindulging.  Yeah, I’ve had a piece of candy or two, but I’ve not gone overboard.  But I didn’t have all the family dinners, office parties and such to attend like most everybody else did, either.  It was just Micheal and me.  When I go back home next week or the week after, I’ll weigh and see how I’ve really done, cuz I’ve been such a good girl the past few weeks! (as if!!!)

But I am gonna splurge for my birthday.  I’m gonna get Micheal to take me to my favorite restaurant…Red Lobster.  And I’m gonna eat whatever I want.  But that may not be much cuz I’m finding I’m unable to eat much at one time anymore.  We had burgers and fries at the casino Monday, and I left some of both on my plate cuz I couldn’t finish it!  Guess that’s a good thing, but I still think about all those starving children my parents always talked about when we didn’t want to clean our plates as children.

Ok, so the plans for today are to go pick up water (forgot that yesterday) and more candles (forgot that yesterday, too).  We’ve gotten where we almost always have candles burning here in the apartment.  Other than that, I’m gonna try to relax and take it easy!

Hope everybody has a wonderful day.

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

Before anything else, I want to thank everybody for their comments and encouragement on my blog yesterday.  It really means a lot to me.

Yesterday was spent lounging around, taking care of me.  I’m not quite as achy this morning, so hopefully it helped.  A nice hot shower would have helped, but for some reason we didn’t have any hot water yesterday.  It barely got warm a couple of times, but not even warm enough to wash dishes!  I had to wait and do them this morning!  Oh the joys of apartment living!!!

We don’t have big plans for the day.  Micheal worked from home yesterday and will today, too.  He’s going in to the office today long enough to scan and fax some paperwork, but that’s it.  He went in Tuesday for part of the day, but there was practically nobody there.  Out of about 500 people that usually inhabit the building, there were maybe 2 dozen people there!  So he came home early.

I’m going to go out sometime today and pick up a few things for a quiet New Year’s Eve party for just the two of us.  They’re calling for freezing rain and snow starting this evening and lasting all weekend so it may not be possible to go out safely on New Year’s Eve.  Besides, we wouldn’t know where to go unless it would be the Irish Pub a few blocks from here.

Jo talked in her blog about setting goals for the new year.  My number 1 goal is going to be getting this weight off.  I’m not going to worry about doing a lot of other things.  Getting me down to a healthy weight is my top priority (well next to making Micheal happy, that is).  Sure there will be other things come up that I need to do, but I’m going to concentrate on me.

In the past, I’ve always put everybody else first.  During my first marriage, my kids and their dad always came first.  I always did without because all of my free time, energy and money were spent on them.  Now I have nothing to show for it.  My son is the only one that appreciates what I did.  His sister and his father both have the attitude that I didn’t do enough.  Some people aren’t happy unless they totally drain you!

But now I can focus more on me.  Micheal gets my evenings and weekends, but the weekdays while he is at work are all mine.  As I get more able, I can start exercising more, or at least walking more.  I have the means to plan healthy meals and even get a gym membership and trainer when I get to a point where I can handle the workouts.  I’m not going to push that yet.  Once I drop below 300 lbs, I’m going to assess my pain level and consider a plan of action.

One thing I’m going to do is start a journal to record activity, pain and its intensity so I can better see what causes the most pain, and when pain occurs without activity.  I’ll even record the weather (temperature, precipitation, etc.) to see if that has any effect on the pain.  Maybe I’ll be able to find a pattern to it that I can work with.

So that’s my plan of action for the new year.

I hope everybody has an absolutely fantastic day!!

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

…or I’m gonna wear myself out!!  We spent 6 hours running around the casino Monday.  Yesterday I went grocery shopping and did quite a bit of walking around.  Then after Micheal got home yesterday we went to Borders and Best Buy and spent quite a bit of time walking around there!  Now I’m a bit sore and achy.  So I need to take it easy today.

We went to Borders because they are having a sale on movies…buy 3 and get 1 free!  Couldn’t pass that up, especially since we have a rewards card and got a bigger price cut because of that!  We got ‘Pay it Forward’, ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’ (two of our favorites), ‘Love Actually’, and ‘Sound of Music’.  And Hillary, I found a digital, handheld Kakuro game!!  It was regular priced at $25 but it was on sale for 1/2 price!  That was cheaper than buying a couple of books, and it has more than 1,000 puzzles on it!  So I’ll have hours of fun working my Kakuro puzzles!

Micheal is working from home today. That’s gonna be nice.  He may be working, but it doesn’t stop him from giving me a kiss once in a while.  I like that!!

In my eagerness (and selfishness) to tell about my Christmas, I forgot to tell you all that Micheal was absolutely thrilled with his carousel!!  He tore the paper off that box, ripped it open, unpacked it, set it up on the snackbar, and turned it on.  He said he remembered making the comment about wanting it but would never have bought it himself.  I told him that’s why I got it for him!  He was like a kid with his new toy!

I’ve been thinking about a new challenge for after the New Year.  I didn’t do too well on the last one.  I’d challenged myself to lose 10% of my body weight by New Year’s day.  I failed miserably.  But no, I didn’t really fail.  I did lose some weight, just not as much as I wanted to.  Well, I’m going to challenge myself to get down to 300 lbs starting January 1st and going til Memorial day (a 29 lb loss).  That’s not quite 10%, but I think that’s a more realistic goal for me.  That will make a total loss of 60 lbs in just a few days over a year.  I’ll post a challenge on the forums for anybody that wants to join me.  And anyone that was on the one ending New Year’s Day, please get your stats to me!

I realize, because of my physical limitations, I’m gonna have problems on this weightloss journey.  Right now I can’t exercise like I need to.  Hopefully that will change as my weight drops.  But I am going to get the weight off.  It may take me a couple of years to do it, but I will.  My goal for next year is to lose 50 lbs.  Yeah, that may not sound like much, but for me it will be a lot.  And if I’m able to lose more, then that will be that much better!

In the past, I would go on a diet and lose a few pounds only to gain them back, plus more, within a couple of months of starting.  Then I would give up.  I’ve been on this site since February of this year, and finally got serious about losing in May, when I set up my weight loss ticker.  I’ve lost 31 lbs (and a few inches) in 7 months.  And that’s the longest I’ve ever stuck with it.

But I could never have done it without my buddies on here.  BuddySlim is one of the best things that happened to me this year.  And I will be forever grateful for my Buddies and all the encouragement and support you have given me.  You guys are the best!!!

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

Well Buddies, I had a fantastic Christmas!  Micheal bought me opals for Christmas…necklace and earrings, and they’re beautiful!  I’ve only taken them off to shower!

Yesterday we went to the casino.  Micheal gave me $300 to play with and I came home with $1100!!!  So that was a really good Christmas present!!  He came home with $5.  But it was money we’d set aside just to have fun with so it didn’t matter if we won or lost.  I can’t go skiing or anything like that, so we spent the day doing something we both enjoy.  The really good thing is I ended up walking at least a couple of miles!

We had a burger and fries at the casino for lunch.  But that’s ok, since I didn’t eat much else all day and did all that walking.

Last night Micheal was pointing out all the little differences he’s noticed in my body.  Now, I don’t like my body, but it was good hearing him tell me how it’s changing.

Yesterday I had drawn his attention to a woman that was sitting a couple of machines over from me and asked if I was much bigger than her.  He told me she was bigger than I was when I was wearing my size 36 jeans! (I’m wearing 32’s now)  I was flabbergasted.

I hadn’t really noticed the changes much myself (except the drop in jeans size).  But he has.  He even pushed the seat of my truck all the way back and told me to get in.  Before, with the seat all the way back, the steering wheel rubbed my belly.  Now there is at least 5 inches between my belly and the steering wheel!!!  So I guess you could say that was another Christmas present!!

Aren’t husbands wonderful!  I have so much more motivation and confidence now than I did.  The scale may not be showing the loss, but my body is.  I know I can do this.  It may take longer than I’d like, but I know I will reach my goal.

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas, and will have a fabulous day!

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

It’s Christmas Eve and all is wonderful on the home front.  We went out for about an hour this afternoon, but for the most part we’ve stayed here, watching TV and enjoying each other’s company.

Micheal made me open one of my presents last night.  It was a trio of frogs to add to my collection!!  I have more than 3 dozen, and that’s not counting the frog keychains!  We’ll probably open the rest of the presents this evening.

We’re going to get up and go to the casino in the morning, so there will probably be no blog tomorrow, but I doubt if many of you will be reading them tomorrow, anyway!

I have a pot of chicken and dumplings simmering on the stove (Micheal’s favorite), and a bottle of Asti chilling in the fridge.  We’re gonna spend the evening the same way we’ve spent most of the rest of the day…cuddling and enjoying each other’s company and love.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Yup, you guys are a bunch of nuts!!!  You all tried to make my last blog sound a bit, uh, X rated!!!!  That’s ok.  I’ve never been ashamed of the fact that I love my husband!  And there’s nothing wrong with a little nibble here and there!!  Kinda makes me feel all warm all over!

Micheal’s out Christmas shopping.  Typical male, waits til almost the last minute!  But that’s ok.  There’s nothing I could want or need that I don’t already have.  I have a home, food to eat, and the love of a man, my family, and all my dear friends.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip.

We spent the day inside today!  The roads were a mess, so we didn’t even want to get out there.  So we spent the day relaxing, watching TV, and just being together.

It has snowed a bit more today, but not enough to make a difference.  But there’s not supposed to be any more til next weekend, so it looks like we can go ahead with our Christmas plans.

We’ve just nibbled today.  I’m getting ready to go start dinner.  Gonna have lean pork chops, green beans and rice.

Hope everybody has a wonderful evening.

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!

Yup, that’s right.  It’s snowing!  Has been most of the day!    We have at least 4 inches on the ground and it’s still coming down!  They’re calling for around 8-10 inches.  At least Micheal’s home, and won’t have to go back to work til Tuesday!  And Sunday and Monday are supposed to be nice, so we should still be able to go to the casino.

Needless to say, I stayed in where it was warm today.  I messed around on the computer, sat in the recliner under my afghan and read, and dozed.

So we’re sitting here surrounded by a winter wonderland!  And we’re gonna spend the evening in front of the TV.

I’m doing ok on the food front.  I’m not overeating, but I am eating when I’m hungry.  I won’t be able to weigh again til I go home in a couple of weeks, so we’ll see then how this shift in diet is going.

Hope everybody has a wonderful evening.

And remember:  Don’t let a little slip  ruin your trip!!!