Just talked to my sil...My brother had a leak in his pouch or where they connected things back. He was full of puss. It was causing his kidneys to shut down. They fixed the leak and now its a wait and see..the next 48 hours are critical. He will have to have a feeding tube now for weeks.
My mom is on her way now to be with his wife.

Eating cookies = gaining 1.4 pounds. Really irritated at myself. Hope this taught me a lesson.

Debi - you story sounds so similar to me about a friend of mine that is makes my stomach hurt. I am not a prayer, but I will pray for him. I hate this surgery. I know it saves lives. And it takes lives. I hope his is not one of them. Sorry, that wasn't upbeat. Sorry.

Angie

dgramie, will be sending prayers up for your brother.
I have not been on much due to bad health. This flu/congestion thing is really bad and if I had an enemy I still would not wish it upon them. My husband has it now and I am really hoping it gets out of the house before my daughter gets home on the 21st.
On a lighter note, yes "lighter", I am only a half pound away from my 100 pound loss! Can you see my smile through the computer screen?

Debbie: Thanks for the sweet comments on my pics. You inspired me to bake all day long after work today. I'm almost done now.

Beth: You crack me up. I guess you could cheat on the Wii Fit but I don't want to do that. lol. Thanks for the tip though.

Debi: My heart is with you and my prayers are definately with your brother. Hugs sweetie.

Cyn: Happy Birthday!!!

Angie: Hugs. You have learned now come on and pick yourself up and get back on this track with us.

Purple: congrats on the -1. Have a great time with your parents.

Carol: Hugs to you. I'm glad that your sister in law is doing better.

Toni: Feel better soon! Huge congrats on almost being at the 100 pound mark. You are rockin it. I bet your family is so very proud of you.

As I told Debbie, I baked and made candy all day long since work. I have some orange spice bread in the oven right now then I am finished except putting it all together. I made my DH cube steaks, mashed potatoes some stuffing and brocoli and made myself a veggie burger to go along with mine. I am so tired from cooking and baking all day that I don't feel like eating. Maybe once I settle down I will feel hungry.

I lost 3 pounds this week and I have updated my tracker. I feel hopeful to have a larger weight loss in a day or two because I am retaining water like crazy. It is TOM for me and that always happens.

Well, I'm off now to go check dinner.We are getting a warning on TV that we are having severe snow storm/blizzard like conditions until 10 p.m. tomorrow. It started snowing around 8 a.m. and hasn't stopped yet. It is very beautiful I have to say. If anyone is out there in weather like this please be careful.

Blessings all,
Annie

Annie, I do love the avatar pic too! You are doing so awesome, I am proud of you!

Debi, yes, please keep updating on your brother!

Carol, glad you are back home and had a good evening with your hubby!

Well, since I hit a deer 2 weeks ago, hubby worries of me driving at night. So the girls and I are not going up tonight but will go in the morning! He must think they won't be running then. (Hunting season open! HELLO!) Anyway we will be careful and pray for a good weekend! It is his Christmas party with new job company. I went and got my hair cut today. I am kinda excited, I hope for good weather! Penny

Debi asked me to post an update on her brother - she has gone to be with him. His kidneys have failed and he is being transferred to another facility where he can receive continuous dialysis. For those who pray please remember him. His condition is considered "very critical".

hello everyone. thanks gggirls for an update on debi's brother. I've been holding him in my daily prayers.

I am back to the land of the living. The biopsy on Thursday went well. Now I wait.

I've been dealing with all this stress by sleeping A LOT. Some days I slept for 12 hours then got up to go to work and came home at the end of the day to get back to bed and sleep. This has left very little time to work out and I'm afraid I haven't even thought about working out since Tuesday. That's three days without aerobics. After this little note I get on my bike for my Saturday 90-minute session.

Got to connect on the phone last night with one of my best friends from High School. She lives in Nashville and is going through a hard divorce. I haven't talked to her in over 20 years. It was SO good to connect with her. I hope 2009 brings an opportunity for us to connect in person.

Alright, the bike is calling me. More soon.

Hello Everyone.

I figured that while I had a few minutes I would get out a quick post... although knowing me it will be a mini novel by the time I've finished. Lucky I can touch type!

Before I go on and on about myself, I want to send a couple of messages to others.

Debi - I truly hope that your brother comes through this soon and can begin the new post-WLS life that he was looking forward to. My thoughts and best wishes are with you, him and your family.

Beth - I am positive that even when I was on birth control that stopped my periods, I still had the symptoms of TOM. I used to get grumpy, emotional and downright unpleasant to be with at least once a month. So, hopefully you just have to ride through a day or so of this and then you will come out the other end rosy and ready to face the world with a smile again. (please give your Mum a gentle hug for me, but make sure it is VERY gentle, if her skin 'thing' is flaring up again)

Mimi - I am glad that the biopsy is over and done with. The waiting isn't fun, but I hope you manage to get some peace of mind until the results come through. I will be sending positive thoughts your way for a great outcome.

Purple - Could you possibly post the recipe for your fruit/oat muffins? I usually have to change recipes to make them healthier, but yours sound as though they would be perfect as they are.

Penny - I must have missed the post where you hit the deer. I am glad that nobody was hurt. I almost hit a kangaroo once, but I managed to stop so that it just ran into me and broke the side mirror. I can remember how much I was shaking afterwards, as it was a very close call. I am glad your hubby got the new job, and I hope you can move to be with him soon, but I can understand that it is difficult to move kids at certain times in their lives/education.

*****

OK... now about how I am going.
Well, I am on my second lot of antibiotics for the UTI, as there was still a little 'burning' at the end of the first batch. My doctor sent a sample for testing, which she was surprised the first doctor (had to go to another one in her same building, as she was booked out) didn't do. Hopefully that will come back OK and this batch works thoroughly. Things seem to be fine at the moment, so I think that is sorted.

My head cold is moving away quite nicely I think. I got my voice back for last week, which was great, as I had a LOT of singing to do. Now I just have to clear out ALL of the 'muck' before we fly out this coming Saturday. Flying with blocked sinuses/ears is NOT fun.

Last week at work was extremely hectic. In my music/choir role I had to put a lot of extra time and energy towards out end of year Christmas Concert. The choir sang a couple of songs and they did a great job. We started the concert with "When A Child Is Born" and everyone I spoke to said that it either gave them chills or they had tears in their eyes. The choir really did a great job of this one and I was glad that we opened the concert with such a beautiful song. Most of the rest of the concert/assembly was filled with fun songs that the whole school sang along to. I had been working with the older grades of the last few weeks, having them come in and join my younger kids and learn the songs with them. So I had a lot of classes where I had 50 or 60 kids in my music room. We actually had a wonderful time, so I didn't mind at all, but I did tend to be totally exhausted by the end of the day.

Also last week I had some technicians come to school to do more training with myself and the other IT coordinator at school. AND I had to start moving furniture/gear from a couple of rooms into another couple of rooms. My music room is going to become a classroom next year, so I have to move everything from that room into the original Music room, which I will be sharing with the Performing Arts teacher. This wouldn't be too bad, but the PA teacher has not kept his room very neat at all and I will have to tidy everything up before I can get settled in there. I also have to move all of my IT stuff into another room, as our current IT room is becoming a Special Ed room next year. I was getting a little stressed about the concert practice, the IT training, and moving rooms by the end of last week. At one stage I told one of the deputy principals that I was going to sit down and cry if he didn't come and help me. He was great and grabbed some older kids to help get some things moved around.

So this week we have four days left of our school year. I don't have music or choir lessons, which will take a lot of pressure off. The principal has been wonderful and has only given me one morning of lessons, and I am going to show a Christmas movie in that time, so at least I will be able to have some 'down' time. The rest of the time will be spent moving my rooms around and getting the new areas organised, and sorting things out with all of the IT stuff in the school for the end of the year. Our Grade 7 (we go up to Grade 7 in our Primary grades here) graduation ceremony is on Thursday morning and I want to get to that as I taught a number of those kids when they were in Grade 4 and I have a few of them in the choir this year. Hopefully I will have enough finished to be able to get to that. Their graduation dinner/dance was last Friday night and I went to see them in their 'fancy' outfits and had pics taken with them. The outfits ranged from very sweet to VERY grown up and kinda unsuitable. I really don't like seeing 12/13 year olds in adult clothing.

On Friday we will do some last minute shopping, and I am getting my hair freshly cut and coloured. Then around lunch time Saturday we fly out to Sydney and on to Honolulu. I did all of the planning for this holiday so long ago that I can't believe that it is so close now. It is exciting but a little scary at the same time.

Well, there is the novel again. I do tend to 'talk' too much once I get going. We are taking the train into the city this morning for a coffee and to pick up a few things then we are coming back to our local shopping mall for a look around and probably more shopping. They have just extended our local mall quite a bit and it is great to see all of the new stores. We are expecting 35C/94F today, so we are hoping to be home around lunch time before it gets too hot.

Take care everyone and I hope you all have a great weekend.

Zelma

Good Morning Peeps - the wind has blown very strong all night. It is 62 as I write this and by 5 this afternoon is to be in the teens. Quite a change - I hope it doesn't create weather problems for anyone along the changing front.

I guess I will be a part of the 860 million pieces of mail the postal service handles tomorrow. I have the cards all addressed and now just need to jot notes. Originally had not planned to send any but I do love getting them and hope I can bring a bit of our life to our family and friends with a personal note.

Yesterday's water class was the hardest ever - I think the instructor had overdosed on caffeine - it was great - I've never been sore from a water workout before but I sure am today. I told her I want that class more often. I also came home and did some ab work on the ball - hope to get in more today too.

I had a major food meltdown on Friday night - no clue why but even before we left the restaurant I was reaching for antacids - I gorged like a glutton. Yesterday was right back on track with lots of water and good food choices. My behavior really bothered me even as I was shoving food in my mouth - if I was upset by something I don't know what it was. It is a big step forward for me to get right back OP - never would have done that in the past.

Purple thank you for the muffin link - they do sound easy and the pics look quite tasty.

Zelma - I'm so excited for your upcoming visit - it's like you will be even closer to us as you're always close in spirit. Is it going to work out to meet up with anyone from 3FC while you are in the states? Hope you are feeling better with each day. We are taking a Caribbean cruise in mid February and as the time draws near I'm more and more excited.

Time to write a few cards with the next cup of coffee. Enjoy your day my friends.

Move your bodies, drink your water and SMILE.

Hugs,
Carol

dgramie: I hope your brother will be okay. I'll light a candle for you and your family. *HUGS*

Baz: I'm on my TOM as well. I usually struggle quite a bit during, but plan on getting on some sort of birth control pill in the near future so hopefully that will help things. I hate that my weight shoots up like 7 or 9 pounds. I weighed myself two days before I started and it said I weighed around 287 and today it is saying 283, so I'm starting to get back to normal. Oy.

******

As for me, just an over emotional weekend. Hormonal and blah lol. I'm just fussy...I have this trip I want to take in either April or August to meet a friend and I want to loose enough weight. I would love to get down to 200 pounds, but looking at it realistically I doubt that will happen in the time frame so I'm just going to keep on going and focus on clearing up my remaining skin issues.

*HUGS TO YOU ALL*

dgramie: You and your family are in my prayers. I know its hard right now.

Zelma: is this holiday you are taking consist of coming to the states or just Honolulu?

Beth: no apologies needed for the rant. We are women..ranting is just something we have to do now and then.

Jacquie: Don't ya just hate being hormonal!!! I swear it is the worst! It is liek you know your doing it..you know why..but ya can't stop it. The older I get, the worse it gets!

Angie: sorry about the weight gain from those darn cookies!

Penny: Hit a deer!! Oh my that must be scarey! Many years ago I seen 3 elk up close in Utah and they were in the middle of the road and would not move for nothing. We sat in the sister in laws truck for atleast 30 min until they decided to move. Glad your ok though.

Carol: thanks for the reminder about cards. I really need to get them done.

As for me: Yesterday was my birthday. friday night I had a 104 temp that finally broke around 4am. So I got up with the kids and we decorated a little, but by 2pm I was not feeling good again. So more meds went in. We did end up going to the movies around 6pm. We saw that holiday movie with Debra Messinger, sorry the name slips my mind. It was pretty good. The place we seen it at is called Westgate, basically there are alot of shops and you can buy a million dollar condo and live there if ya want lol, inhow they have a huge tree lite with a patch of snow, well ya know ice, for the kids to play on and they had a rudolph ice sculpture and alive band playing. So we walked around there for a bit. The we drove into phoenix to a house that we use to visit as a kid. This man basically turns his entire house into a christmas light show. The only place you cant go into is the bathroom and kitchen. It is truly amazing. We have not gone in about 10 years, and my sons GF went with us. The hormonal side of my swelled up with tears. mainly cause my grandma took us every year to see it! He always changed the theme. When we got done touring the house, my oldest must have seen my tears and he said to me..mom.. grandma can see it all the time now, (since she has passed on). I said I know know sweetie. it was hard but i knew in my heart it was true.

I have realized there is always going to be sappy times. Especially since I live where I grew up and make it a point to carry on traditions with my kiddos. It is just realy hard at times.

Thanks for listening all. Today gotta get the Christmas tree up!