Hi everyone. I've been off this site and the computer in general for a bit. Just didn't have time for the regular forums that I've been part of for years. It got crazy there for awhile. My job was stressing me to the point where I started drinking alcohol at night to get to sleep because I was so stressed my mind wouldn't shut down no matter what I did. Then I started looking for something new and I ended up going back to an old job which paid more but I'm back to working shifts. I had a period of a couple of months where I was juggling both but then took the summer off to spend time with my kids. Now that school is back on I'm taking back up both jobs, 1 is part-time and the other is casual and I feel like my life is getting back to normal. The good news is that the scale started to move again and generally I feel great! I'm taking a course starting in a couple of weeks so that I can be a personal trainer. At some point I would just like to do that but it's a long term project. I hope all is well with everyone, I see a few familiar names. I'll try and pop in a bit more often.

stop!! stop!!! you're exhausting me!!! but it sounds like you're on track again. that whole stress thing is hard to deal with - experience ya know. so if we asked you to write about what you did over the summer [school's just starting, ya know!] what would you say?

for me - i worked. stressed. having trouble dealing, but i finally have something resembling a plan, so that's helping a little

I really didn't do much over the summer, just hung out with the kids around the house. We didn't even do much in the way of day trips. Spent a lot of time in the pool though. I started back at the gym so I got into the habit of exercising fairly regularly. I've finished my personal trainer course, still have to write the exam and I feel like I have a better understanding of exercise. Met some great people at the course too.