Hello Kathleen thank you for starting the August thread!! and thank you for the July post, i went back to read. Congratulations to your daughter for passing her driver's test!! woohoo!
and WOW to your son for going for his Master's!!!
What accomplishments for them both and congrats to YOU as a great supportive and loving parent
what a nice time you had with the Girls! and glad no bad mishaps
Yes we must embrace the summer while we can! so cool that you have the lake house to enjoy though I can't imagine what work that must be, but it is worth it.
I recovered from that stupid trip/fall pretty quickly, and I have to say I guess I have physically toughened back up because I don't have as much daily knee pain..? what a blessing. When I first went back to work in mid-May I was gobbling pain relievers too much. Well I did have a year off from being on my feet at work all day! it is definitely something you adapt to.
Work is crazy busy, besides my daily responsibilities for baking/pastry, I regularly do 2 nights in the Dining Room (or 3 last week!) and now do a breakfast cooking shift. I did that years ago and I'm only doing it now to help the Chef out. There is a breakfast/lunch cook who is new this year and apparently he does not want to work more than 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. That would be fine except all of us are working 6 days a week and up to 11 hours a day . You'd think he'd be guilted into helping us more! Oh and this marks my 20th season there!! yes 20 !
It is the problem of trying to find help that I know the whole country is dealing with, in the service and hospitality industry. At the hotel where my husband works, they cannot find housekeepers, even with offering a very good rate. First the hotel raised their rates to discourage business; then they closed off 50 rooms completely!! how crazy is that. But even the few current housekeepers they have managed to hire are so so bad! but they won't be fired because they are just barely better than nothing.
Today is my one day off and I usually spend it doing about 4 hours combined of lawn work...it is therapeutic for me and looks so good when it is done
I am getting my usual joy from the flowers and plants but especially from the white and purple petunias that I grew, from seeds I gathered last year.
and one last shout out to our friends here and especially
Lisa who was with us for so long and Lisa you were so helpful to me, with giving me confidence about my bad feeling about my body image. And I remember when you told of buying some white jeans and how much you liked them. And I have wanted a pair too but wouldn't get them because I'm not a skinny size 6 or so. Well I was at the consignment shop and I found a pair of white jeans/capris that I bought. now just need the courage to wear them in public.
OK enough from me!! would love to hear from our other friends here!!
August 2021 Ups & Downs Support Group Thread
to the August 2021 Ups & Downs Support Group thread. We are a very small but mighty group who welcome new members any time. We are here to support each other through the ups & downs of weight loss, depression, and life in general. Please join in and tell us a little (or a lot) about yourself! 
I had my annual "Girls' Weekend" at the lake Thursday to Saturday. I have three longtime friends up for two days. I stress out beforehand and both my hubby and I put a lot of work into preparing our lake home for guests, but we always have a good time. Some kind of mishap always seems to occur. One year, the keychain came apart and the boat key fell in the lake as one of us passed the keys to the other from the boat to the land. This time, we lost our little American flag on a pole for the boat. We accidentally put it in the hole for the rear boat light... lol... and, while we were out cruising around the lake, we passed another boat that had a flag on it. I turned around to check on ours... and it was gone! 
We always eat a lot of snacks and candy, so now I need to regroup and reign myself in.
The results are confusing as to how elevated my triglycerides and glucose are, though, because there were multiple "lab results"/numbers for each factor, which doesn't make sense. All of the numbers appear to be elevated, but some were more alarming than others. I freaked out a bit when I first saw all of the elevated/"abnormal" lab results. But my hubby talked me down and now I'm just trying to remain calm until I talk with my doctor on Wednesday. I have a feeling I'm going to hear the ol' "eat better, exercise more" advice, which I do need to heed. Even though I would still like to lose a good 20 more pounds, I think I've become lazy since I lost a significant amount of weight a little while ago and have at least maintained my current weight. That needs to change! I'm not usually motivated by fear, but I don't want to become diabetic or worse, have a heart attack or stroke. I know I might be getting way ahead of myself, but I'm really worried that I've let my health deteriorate. 
Wow!! the amount stunned me but the thought that he noticed and went ahead and did that was just as great. Things like that keep you going!
