Hey Judy! Good to see you posting. Time to get back on track.

The shoes for me are a problem since I have flat foot and arch problems and need good support. Although, I do see their point about pointy toed vs. round toed. I'll just have to be out of style there too. :lol3:

Good morning ladies,

This is my Monday morning. I've had a great five days at home. I worked really hard physically. And I don't want to brag about that and hope it doesn't sound that way. I'm just so grateful to be able to work like that given my size. It also serves as a reminder to me that if I keep working at getting more weight off and keeping up with the exercises, I can do more of what I want to do.

This morning started with 30 minutes on the stationary bike and 14 minutes on the stability ball doing ab work and hand weight work.

Its going to be really hard today that I can't lay down and enjoy a bit of a nap this afternoon. :lol: That will suck.

Tonight our new veternarian's are having their first annual dinner and equine event. We're going to go. Those are always fun.

Time to finish getting ready for work and back at the routine.

Have a great OP day!

Good Morning Ladies!

I hope everyone had a good Sat, Sun and Mon. I'll try to get time to check back over the past few days threads. I had a WONDERFUL weekend at the lake. Went to a water park on Saturday :beach:- I LOVE my new swimsuit! (It's actually very flattering, so long as you don't look below the skirt LOL) On Sun we rented a pontoon boat for the whole day and just cruised about, stopped to fish now and then, drug the boy in an inner tube. Mac and Suzie were so good on the boat and looked so cute in their little life vests. I took toddler swimsuits with built-in floaties and modified them to fit the pups. We got so many comments on how cute they were! I DID NOT WANT TO COME BACK! I want to quit my job and live at the lake. Pity we'd starve to death. :(

I was surprized to find that I was SORE after vacation! I guess climbing all those stairs to get to the top of the water slides and finding my "sea-legs" was more work than I thought! Not that it really did me a lot of good. It was a wonderful, but incredibly fattening weekend. Don't care. I'll get back on the WW wagon soon.

I'll pop back when I get a chance! :wave:

Hi all!
As usual, I'm late for the barn, so I'll be brief (yeah, right.) I just didn't want you to forget me or think I'd fallen off the planet. (The wagon, yes, the planet, no.)

After an exhausting week of work and horse camp, which didn't contribute to the healthiest eating, I lost my mind on Saturday, the day of the horse show. Chocolate for breakfast, six cupcakes thru the day, need I go on? Sunday I was back on the right track and have stayed there since.

The horse show went well, but Sunday was horrible! A girlfriend I haven't seen in a long time came over and got on Gabe for a bit. She's a rider, and he was as quiet and relaxed as I've every seen him... right up to the moment where he spooked. When she came off, she broke her left wrist. I feel so awful, and she feels awful for not riding him better. It's just so stupid. It's really my fault entirely. I can't believe she's so sweet about it. The really amazing thing is that she wants to get back on him!

More later.

Hi all. Thanks for the good wishes last week. My mother had a stroke--small one--and I've spent the last six days driving to where she is (in Ohio) and doing hospital duty. Just got back home this morning, taught class this afternoon.

Tomorrow they move her to rehab. She's only 63 and was reasonably fit before the last few years. She's an RN and worked hard, physically, for a living. She was, however, a smoker, and had high blood pressure. During the last few years, she stopped taking her bp meds. Turns out she had also developed diabetes and high cholesterol----and she has an aortic aneurysm that's pretty good sized. Perfect recipe for a stroke. She's very, very lucky that it was a small stroke. The doctors are hopeful that she'll regain full use of her right side, but there will be a lot of physical therapy and work ahead of her.

I did my best to get some small bits of exercise in--walked every time I stopped at a rest stop on the long drive, did some stretching or chair-calisthenics when she would fall asleep while I was hanging out at the hospital. I also tried to eat as healthily as I could, given that I was mostly eating hospital cafeteria food. So I feel pretty good about the way I conducted myself. My first priority was taking care of Mom, but I tried not to do bad things to myself at the same time.

Sounds like everyone's got things going on--Terri, glad you had some good time off and did some hard but fun work. Lilion, your time at the lake sounds super--do you have pictures of the dogs in water wings? Valerie, sorry about your friend's wrist, but I'm glad the horse show went well--and that you got back on track. Thin, good to see you!

Hi gals,

Hump day. I think I like not working on Mondays. :lol:

Not much to report. This morning I did some stretching and then 20 minutes on the stationary bike. My muscles are feeling a bit fatigued this morning so I didn't push it too hard but at least I did something.

Valerie - Ouchy for your friend! I would feel terrible too. Wow, you did have a food meltdown on Saturday. It happens, just keep yourself back on track.

Angela - I am so sorry to see that your mom had a stroke. But thankful for you and your family that it was a small one. Maybe this will be a wake up call for her to take better care of her meds. My BIL had three strokes when he was 54. His outcome has not been good and he will never be back to normal. All because he would not listen to the doctors and quit smoking. Hope you get some rest and keep taking good care of you too! What kind of class are you teaching?

Lilion - Your weekend sounds wonderful and just what you needed after all the work and friend stress that you've been through lately. I'll send you a PM.

:wave: to all. Time to get moving or else fall back asleep. Which I would prefer and like Lilion, it is a shame that while I would prefer to stay on the farm and play with animals, it wouldn't be long before the bank kicked us out. That is SO not fair. :lol:

Good Morning Ladies!

Bit of a fly-by this morning. Busy day planned.

Angela - I'm so sorry to hear about your mom! I hope she recovers quickly!:hug:

Valerie - sent you a PM

Terri - Sounds like your friend is VERY nice to not be upset about her injury...but it wasn't your fault. It's not like you told her Gabe was an old plodder that never spooked. :hug:

I actually did take pictures of the dogs in their little life-vests, but they are on my phone, since I forgot my camera. I have to figure out how to download them and haven't had time. Renfaire is THIS weekend...Maybe by next Monday I'll find time to breathe again! :faint:

Thanks for the good thoughts, Terri and Lilion.

How terrible about your BIL, Terri. I know that my mother will need lots of support not to smoke. She's an R.N., of all things, and she started smoking in nursing school back in the 60s--they ALL did, it seems, back then. I asked my aunt to help me find all the cigarettes in the house and get rid of them while she's gone, and I'm thinking of giving her a challenge--I'll work really hard on losing weight if she'll work really hard on never smoking again. That's a talk to have after she's out of rehab, though. Thank God she won't be able to smoke there. Oddly enough, she never said anything about wishing she had a cig in the hospital. (I know that might not sound odd to a nonsmoker, but after my father had a heart attack he kept talking about it. He'd say, "I know I can't have a cigarette, but boy I wish I could.")

My class this summer is "Teaching College Literature." The students are M.A. students, some of whom plan to pursue a Ph.D. and teach at the university level, more of whom want to teach at community colleges with their master's degrees, and a couple of whom are high school teachers who are being asked by their high schools to teach "dual credit" courses (where high school kids get college credit for courses they take during high school, which frankly I really, really dislike). So far it's fun, but I've missed more classes than I've been at because of needing to go to Ohio.

I managed to lose a pound or so while out of town, so I'm happy about that. I'm going to make my exercise goal this month for the first time ever. I'm also trying hard to focus on my short-term weight loss goal instead of thinking, oh, lordy, I need to lose over a hundred pounds. Right now, I need to lose 26 pounds in order to get under 300. Twenty-six pounds isn't that much.

Have a great OP day all!

Angela

Angela, I'm so sorry about your mom. I'm glad it wasn't worse, and I hope you can support each other in your goals. Awesome that you've stuck to plan so well and TOTALLY awesome that you're making your exercize goal this month. That's a huge deal!

HI EVERYBODY!

Things going good here. The scale is back down 7 pounds in the last 2 days (I sure wish I could do THAT for a few weeks!), my eating has been SOOOOO O.P., and I've been pushing the activity - walking faster & farther, cleaning ALL the stalls instead of just my own, making more trips to the distant mail room or building next door at work.

I also think I MIGHT have found a new trainer for me and Gabe. He has years and years of experience riding the Lippizaners, training stallions, really serious stuff. I'm SO way psyched that between that excitement and my serious concern for my friend's fall last weekend, I'm really focused on keeping my diet halo on straight!

Best wishes to you all. It's past my bed time, I'm beat, and I get to work tomorrow which is normally my day off - YEAH! Mo money!

Hi ladies,

I have deemed this morning as a day of rest for the bod. Except for walking tonight - that is for the dogs as much as for me.

Speaking of dogs, we have put in for "Daisy", a black and tan coonhound puppy that needs rescued and a good home. We'll have Danni, Duke and Daisy. Three different breeds but all matching black and tan. :lol: We may not be able to get her until next month because she's young and has to be spayed. I'm going to have to post a picture of Duke. He's grown so much he's almost as big as Danni.

Today is full business attire day. The CEO from the mother ship up north (Chicago) and the executive board are in for an all employee meeting from 9:00 to 11:30 this morning. What on earth can they possibly talk about for that long? If that wasn't bad enough, but the executives from our company are invited to a lunch with all the bigwigs. That is the reason for the full business attaire. I have my black/rose pin-striped suit and a rose top to wear. I also plan to sit as far from the bigshots as possible. :lol:

Valerie - That is so exciting to have found someone to help you work with Gabe. Spanky has been at the trainers now about 45 days. I'm hoping to be able to work with DH's cousin to help me finish him out. Great job of getting back OP and those 7 pounds! You've been working hard.

Angela - Congrats on your loss! The class you're teaching sounds fun. The challenge sounds good. DH smoked two packs a day when we first got together. He also started back in the sixties in the service. He had his last cigarette in the parking lot of the ER as he was going in to see why he was feeling funny. Found out he had a heart attack and then had a bypass done. He hasn't smoked since and that is seven years. He will occassionally say that he'd like to smoke again but he will also complain about how bad people smell from the smoke and how nasty it is. I'm hoping that your mom can be just as determined and do the best thing for herself and quit.

The dogs are running rampant through the house playing. In about an hour they'll be sacked out for their all day siesta. :lol: I better get in the shower and get all duded up for work.

Have a great OP day!

P.S. Lilion - Thanks for the info. DH liked what he saw so we may plan something for a few days away in September.

:o I messed up on my last post...Valerie and Terri....reverse your names and it'll be right! :sorry:

:lol:

Whew. My class meets every day except Friday, so I get a chance to try to catch up now. YAY YAY YAY.

Valerie--Thanks for the good thoughts. I'm so glad you've found a trainer you're excited about. And WTG on staying OP and working hard!

Whew, Terri, so what WAS that 2 1/2 hr. meeting about? That's great that DH hasn't looked back on the smoking. I hope my mom can do the same.

Everybody else--Hope you're having a great day.

Hi gals,

Its Friday!

We're supposed to go to old neighbor's tonight for dinner but I called last night to confirm and they didn't call back. They are kind of bad about having other things come up and having to reschedule. So I'm not sure if we're going or not. Personally, while I really like them, coming home after work instead doesn't sound all that bad to me.

So the 'all employee' meeting was a total bore. First our Pres gave a rah-rah speech. Our companies are owned by a Chicago company which is owned by a global company in Zurich Switzerland. So the big shot of the Chicago company (who came over from Zurich) got up and spoke for about 30 minutes. He showed a clip from a big gathering of executives from all over the world that had happened in Zurich. All about the exciting future and sharing of ideas for meeting our new goals :blah: :blah: :blah: The main problem was that we could barely hear the video and we could only understand about every 3rd word because of his heavy Swiss-German accent. Then the panel of the Executive Council got up there to aniswer questions. Except every single question had to do with integration, losing jobs, and why are we changing every part of the way we do business when our company has been a cash cow for them for 25 years. They just don't get it that our company focus right now is whether or not people are keeping their jobs and how they are changing the very passion of our company (being uncommonly close to our customers) and how they are making it hard for us to maintain our customer service. We're not into rah-rah of the future. Then they showed a clip of the 135 years of the big mother of all companies. Interesting but right now we're not into being part of the big mother of it all. Too much emotion from all the change being rammed down our throats. I had no luck in avoid the bigshots at lunch. They had us assigned to tables. And a member of the executive coucil sat at each table and of course, sat next to me. We had to be interactive and talk about what words we heard during the morning's message and how we feel about it and what are our company strengths, roadblocks to achieving the goals, what's our role in the company achieving their goals, etc. It was funny because all we talked about was integration, too much change, and too many projects are keeping us from focusing. The guy said after a bit that at every other meeting they've done, the people are talking about 'profitable growth', innovating ideas, and we're focused on change. Well, ya think, you're ramming too much too soon????????? They just don't get that we can't totally change our business processes overnight and still focus on sustaining profitable growth. People can only do so much all while being concerned about their own futures. I looked nice in my suit. My pin-stripe fit right in and I looked the most corporate than other women who wore flowery or more summery stuff. One thing about the Swiss businessmen, it is a male oriented environment.

Last night, my brother came out for dinner and we worked with Phoenix and Spice. I have barely worked with them in what seems like months. I just haven't gotten them out of the pasture much. My goal was to get them used to being in the garage/barn so that I can start putting Phoenix up during the day out of the hot sun. He is such a snorter when things are new. We walked them up and down the driveway and around the backside of the place. DB was working on teaching Spice to lead and walk nicely. They both acted like mules a few times and just planted their feet. I did finally get Phoenix to walk into the garage part through to the barn part and back out again. It took a long time to get Spice to come in and she wouldn't come in very far. I finally got all four feet in and we called that success. But it was good to work with them because of the walking and jogging that I got in that was good for exercise.

I need to get up and moving or else I'll fall back asleep on the couch.

Have a great OP day!

Hi again,

Yahooooo! for Friday night.

We worked on getting the pool stairs put together. What a giant pain in the a$$. We only got part of it done because it was just too confusing and frustrating. Tomorrow we're going back to Watson's for Pool School so we'll have to get advice when we're there. I did manage to get into the pool and it is fabulous. It is going to be great exercise.

I went to Beauty Brands at lunch and bought a few pampering things. Another step in my makieover. It was fun. I haven't been there in such a long time. Not sure why I quit shopping there but I used to frequently.

I need to go save my Speedo shoes from Duke.

Goodnight!

I forget the most fun news last night. We had a salad with grape and cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and sweet onion from our own garden last night. We are so excited about that. DH has even started reading one of mom's garden books that I am supposed to be selling on Ebay.