Time to get caught up - lots to report in my life - not much in the eating and exercising though. I did get up and get on the Wii Saturday and registered another .2 (note the point!!) loss which is good considering eating hasn’t been great but moving has been. Term start up I am running here there and everywhere solid. I also put on my walking shoes and did a short walk to meet up with my sweetie Saturday afternoon. Only 15 minutes but I look at every minute walking as a good one.

Now for the family portion of this program — holy crap how things can change in a minute - ok not that fast. Back story - when my husband passed away for many reasons (valid to me) I wrote off his family. The fact they are in New Zealand made it easy. A couple of months ago out of the blue my mom gets a letter from my SIL asking if she can stay with my mom (my mom met her once 10 years ago for lunch!!). Mom said no that her health wasn’t good and she didn’t know if she would be able to have a guest for who knows how long. We knew she was coming to town and on Wed my son came into the computer room to tell me his aunt was arriving Saturday night. The e-mail he got said she was arriving at 5:30 at the Holiday Inn downtown - end of e-mail. I tried to call and leave a message with no luck - they didn’t have her registered. I even tried calling New Zealand and got her daughter - she had no idea what her mom’s plans were. So I washed my hands of the situation. Only for 10 minutes - then my son called and was in a total panic - his aunt was downtown and in complete panic - her note was her way (stupid though it was) asking him to pick her up at 5:30 He didn’t know what to do so he gave her my address and she took a cab ($70 ride). I am sure her brother is rolling over and calling her a silly b_itch.

I greeted her with open arms and a clean bed to sleep in (we had been using it for storage since my son moved in ) She is by herself today because we all work but my son’s girlfriend gave us the best solution - -she got her a room in a downtown hotel - luxury one at that for a HUGE reduction!!! So we had a nice visit - she really didn’t intentionally mean to take advantage - that family just doesn’t have a clue about things sometimes - the stories I could tell — all I know is when I buried my husband with his father — I knew the two best of that family were together forever.

Needless to say my eating has actually been reduced - I am too busy running here and there - I am making better choices than I have in my entire life. When I feel stressed about something I have two tablespoons of ice cream rather than two bowls and for me that is a success - of course not one that will get me to 140 pounds by year end. But I am still slowly and surely heading in the right direction and as I have said before I have never done this in my life. Being conscious of what I am eating and making sure I do move is the ticket to healthy. My happiness comes from elsewhere and has nothing to do with how I look or feel.