PEGGY, Isn’t it great that with summer finally here we can get OUT and get that exercise in? Even tho I’m not ‘exercising’ per se, I’m so much busier at the barn – and MOVING is not Eating! * I’m sure you’ll be riding one day! It’s such a joy, on a good horse anyway. There’s a really nice young girl that rides my friend’s horse at the barn. I met her dad last week at wedding and he came out and rode my old QH last night. The whole family is so nice. He did great on old Steega, and had a wonderful time. I loved helping him share his daughter’s love of horses. As for Gabriel, you’ll probably be tired of hearing about him by the time I really get to riding him.

NANCY, you are SO too nice to him. I’d have waited till he left and pitched it, but then I think I’m far more of a spiteful wench than you. BRAVO for putting that greasy, poisonous cake bake in the fridge. If I’d have tasted it, I’d have probably devoured it. BRAVO for you again! * The ‘no sink’ thing is really a deal breaker, isn’t it? Too bad she didn’t mention that before you made the trip over. I had a 3rd floor apt back in college that I had to go thru the main house to get to, but it had everything once you got up there. It was a haven for me at the time, and I’d known the people there for a couple years before I moved in. Heavens, I sure hope the next one you look at is just perfect!

SCARLETT – hurry back!

ANNIE, as you said, I’m just happy to be doing better than I was. I’ve even escaped sweets all day today… although I had Hunan Chicken for lunch, and I’m certain there’s something in that sauce I’m not supposed to have. OK, and I had a couple bites of the rice, too, but I really did give MOST of it to the dogs. * It was a scorcher here today (for May in Ohio anyway), around 90. Not used to such temps yet. Honestly, I never get used to such temps.

CATHERINE, glad to hear you’re feeling a bit better on the inside, but –ouch! – so sorry about your ankle. That has to be painful! So glad your DH is the kind that will help you out and support you while you mend. He sounds like a true blessing.

KAYLEY, I know I’m a speck early, but I don’t want to miss my chance, so I’ll just be the first to say:

:woo: HAPPY FREAKIN 21ST BIRTHDAY, WILD CHILD! :congrat:

Well, my stalls are calling me - off to the barn. Maybe I'll even - gulp - get on The Big Guy. If you don't hear from me again, please send flowers to poor Bill.

Catherine: I hope you really give yourself time to heal and get :getwell: all better. Have fun listening to the Police. I like them bunches. ;) I have Futurama DVD's too lol. Great minds. lol.

Kayley: How what a hike. I would have fallen over. lol :rofl:
A Great Big Huge Happy Birthday to you! :bday2: :celebrate: :gift: :balloons: :woo: :hb: :bday2you: :trampo:

Val: Don't work too hard in the heat. It is a scorcher here today too. I managed to walk this morning before it got too hot.

Blessings all,
Annie

Finishing up dinner before the gym. Fajitas. Yum. We love them so much, we have it once a week! :) Andrew was awesome, and bought my my birthday present early! He got me an MP3 player, so I have something to listen to at the gym! It's adorable, and RED. :) And it has the FM Tuner, so I can listen to the TVs, if there's something good on. (They have the sound off, and captions, but the volume is on certain radio frequencies.) It's a 2GB, so I can hold plenty of music on it. I told him I did NOT want an IPod...cuz there's just no way I'd EVER listen to as many songs as it holds...and way too expensive! This one holds about 1,000 songs...that's PLENTY! lol.

Anyways, I'm rambling. Dinner's almost done, so I'm going to chow down, and off to the gym I go!

Val & Annie - Thank you girls!!! I'm very much looking forward to it!

Hi ladies! Happy (early) Friday! I'm feeling a LOT better than I have in a long time. The one thing that really stood out today was that I didn't get winded when I walked in to pay on my student loan. For the past couple months, I'd feel winded just by walking down the hall, let alone across a parking lot and field. I had none of that today. I think I'd just gotten used to feeling miserable and didn't really notice how miserable I was.

Back to work tomorrow, but I'm not dreading it for a change. Bring it on!

Annie-You are right about the walking. Even in the beginning when it really hurt to walk, and I walked like Frankenstein’s monster, it was good for me. I found that most of the pain wasn’t from my joints, but rather from muscles that had atrophied, and tendon that had shortened. That is why I have so much trouble with tendonitis now. Even after 2+ years, I haven’t gotten everything back to the way it should be. It’s nice that your folks are helping out financially with the diet. If insurance companies would pay for diet stuff, they’d save money in the long run, but they just don’t think that way. I have Futurama and Dilbert and Real Ghostbusters. Some many things have content that makes me uncomfortable. Most cartoons are safe. The next one I want is the Star Trek cartoons. I watched them when I was a kid, but they are still $70 here. I don’t want them that bad.

Lesley-I love Myrtle Beach. It is very touristy, but still has some charm. I was there last in 1982, so I’m pretty sure it has changed quite a bit. A bunch of us went to the beach, and couldn’t find a place to stay, so we snuck into a campground to take showers. They caught us, made us pay for a site eventhough they didn’t have any open ones, and then kicked us out. I wouldn’t have been so mad about it, except they kicked us out before we got our showers. The guys got theirs, because our truck was parked by the women’s side, and they hid.

Valerie-A horse that’s as comfortable as a sofa sounds like a contradiction in terms. I haven’t been on one in 30 years (the horses of the world are very happy about that), but I still remember how sore I’d get. My husband is always willing to be helpful, he just doesn’t know how to do anything. I let him put the laundry in the washer, but don’t let him hang them up on the rack. He’ll put them on balled up, and wonder why they didn’t get dry.

Peggy-I’m much better. I sent off my first lesson, and got some house work done. I have trouble relaxing when I know I’ve got dirty dishes in the sink. Today we are planting some fruit trees out front. I know I should stay off my foot, and not help, but my husband is so not handy with things. He has a friend coming over to help, and he’s even worse. Sometimes it is easier to just do stuff, than have to undo something and redo it right. I owe it to the poor trees not to let those two handle it.

Nancy-I think the next ice cream cake that comes into the house should be stored in his underwear drawer.

Kayley-You’ve got to be careful about those summer classes. I had one get me into all sorts of trouble. I had signed up for Cobol (the computer language that caused all the Y2K problems, before you were born) which was a business school course, and not enough people signed up, so the computer randomly picked another business school class to stick me in. It stuck me in business law which ended up being the thing that started me towards law school a year later. Not too many people can say they ended up in law school because of a computer error. I spent my 21st birthday crammed in a van with 15 other people for an 18 hour car trip. I hope you do something more fun.

I’m off to start my next assignment. This is on Thomas Rausch’s Who Is Jesus? It has got to be more interesting than Rahner. He writes like someone really trying to impress people with how smart he is. I also get to order the tuxedo my husband has to have in October. It’s early, but we have the money now, so. There is a place in North Carolina that sells rental return tuxes for cheaper than you can rent. I figure a rented one will look the same. This season the style is open jacket with full vest and matching Euro ties instead of bow ties. I’m going to make him a vest and tie out of the extra material from my gown. We’ll match that way. If I make it an open back vest, I should have plenty of fabric left over. When you make a gown, the pieces have to be so long, and are tapered, that you end up with lots left over. We’ll see.

Just wanted to chime in with a huge early:


:bday2you:

Kayley!!!


Have fun! :D

Hi everybody! I'm feeling great! I went to my NP yesterday, and when she weighed me I found out I have lost 5lbs! Yay for me!:D It seems that I have finally gotten past the 4lb up and down plateau I've been on. I usually only loose 3-4lbs a month, and this five was in about a week and a half.

The other thing I found out is that my thyroid is low. I may have to go on meds for it. She wants to do another thyroid test before she does that though, just to make sure. It could help a lot in my weight loss, though, if I do have it low and go on meds.

I'm lost on personals and don't have a lot time right now, but I will say I have been thinking of you all!

me

I am hopelessly behind on everybody. For some reason until yesterday I was unable to access the new forum. I cleared my cache and tried several different computers, but the old closed forum was the only thing I could pull up. Anyway, glad to be back! Am now just 1.6 pounds from being under 300 for the first time in a decade. Excited and looking forward to breaking the barrier sometime over the next several days.

Congrats on the all the successes I missed, welcome to any new posters and a big hug to anyone struggling today.

Don't feel bad Kaylee. You didn't lie as bad as me. I never changed the weight on my license since I was 19. Right, Like the DMV guy really thought I weighed 190 when I was at 328! :lol:

and another big :bday2you: !!!

Ammi - :hug: Hang in there girl...you are very, VERY close to where you were - you'll be back in the 100+ club in no time!!!

Ammi - That 'eating like a pig for too long' weight will FLY back off with your recommitment. When I blew my diet back in January and early February before I started the intuitive eating I gained back about 15 pounds. It came right back off within a couple of weeks.

It's so helpful when people like you, Lilion, Catherine, Heather and others who have achieved such great things also choose to share the times when you reach a point where you struggle and maybe backtrack a little. It helps us know what very well may be ahead and to mentally and emotionally prepare to deal with it if it comes.

It may well be that this break is exactly what you needed to move ahead full steam again and enjoy and appreciate healthy eating and healthy living.

Go girl!