Jello: You are a brave lady, but sometimes desire for "normalcy" wins out over fear! I am too chicken to even look into laser so will just keep wearing the contacts and glasses I guess. I know what you mean by the "glasses reach" move. I do it when I wear contacts. Every once in awhile I will catch myself trying to push my glasses up on my face when they aren't there!

Tiger: You hold your head up high girl and just enjoy the beach. You are a beautiful woman no matter your size and you shouldn't feel ashamed of it at all. Look at me, I am one huge lady even still, what isn't fat is becoming skin sag, and I STILL go out in my suit and shorts. I went last night to dinner and the mall in shorts. You just strut your stuff in that new suit, (being careful of course of not losing your boobs like I did though with a new suit you should be a-ok!)

I did the neatest thing for my friend and her fiance for a wedding present. I may have already told you, so hang on if I did. I am big time into photo scrapbooking and thought it would be a nice gift for a couple who have everything else. I bought an album that was generic not white as I want it to be for their life together not a wedding album as such. I bought supplies to decorate a few pages and went to work last night. We are going to take pics with our digital at the wedding and try and get them one hour developed/printed at Walmart there in South Bend (at least they have them in our stores here for digital cameras). I used a beautiful wedding embossed paper for the first page and then using sticker letters put "Our Wedding Day Memories" down the sides of the paper. On the paper I wrote things like, "my matron of honor, my best man, special guests, vocalists, etc. that she can then fill in. The second page has these beautiful stickers that say Our Wedding Day on it and I used a gorgous sheet of this bluish paper that is kind of featherlike (don't know it's proper name), rounded the corners to look like a picture frame and then will put a photo of the 2 of them together onto the blue paper. The last page I used these cool new stickers that are like little replicas of the cake and doves and ribbons etc made out of actual ribbon, beads etc and put Wedding Happenings on the top of that page and will fill in with guests pictures etc. They can then add to it and have the rest of the album for family gatherings, births etc with their new combined family. I just figured with this being her 3rd marriage and his second they might not have actual "wedding pictures" and you know how if goes if you take regular pictures. They end up in a box somewhere.

Today is beautifully sunny already! I can't wait to get into the pool. Two days in a row of sun and the pool should be pretty warm as it was not bad yesterday morning.

You ladies have a nice weekend!

Faye

Hi all,

Welcome, gma2one---those are some funny posts!

Just dropped in to say hi to everybody....on vacation now and have a zillion things on my list!

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with the thread. You all are moving so fast that I have hardly had the time to read all the posts or lurk!

Weight the same...finally got this stomach problem under control and watching my points again. Hopefully, I will start dropping #s again.

Happy First Day of Summer to everyone! Got laundry to hang out in the sunshine today.

Take care all,
"Bright"

I have a few minutes now that it's Saturday night and wanted to drop in to say hello to all the old-timers and the new ladies!!

I finally started exercising again and feel really good about it...I also feel physically good too!

Today I did 45 minutes of walking outside and then 15 minutes of a Leslie Sansome tape. For some strange reason I like her tapes...I have heard on this thread some folks here use them so I bought them on Amazon.com but the quality isn't very good on tapes one and two so I may have to send them back and get new ones...cause their working for me.

Tiger I have a B.A. in Fine Art too...but I don't work in the field of Art either.

Work has been a bear and I haven't had too much time to post during the day.

Didn't want my gals to think I went AWOL.

Smooches to my babers...

We need a "crash and burn" smilie. How 'bout this one? Oh I don't know. All I do know is that I did it this weekend. I'm trying the low-carb thing for another week and promise to be good. But all I know is that on Friday night ... and Saturday ... and Sunday, I NEEDED carbs!!! I had to have starches. And, oh brother, did I ever! They say if you do this long enough, you don't crave carbs any more. Guess I couldn't do it long enough or something. I would have eaten an entire loaf of bread, plain, right out of the bag if someone had given it to me. As it was, I dug into the granola bars and the reduced fat coffee cakes. Even ate a couple handfulls of cereal right out of the box. Want to talk about guilt?

So as I said, I'm going to try this low carb thing again but maybe I'll be a little less stringent? Friday night's dinner, for example, was chicken breast and veggies. Now if I could have had just a slice of bread or a small roll with that, I would have been satisfied, I think. Wonder if that would work?

The good news - in the first week of the plan, I lost 7 pounds!! Now I know that's not unusual for the first week of any plan but it's nice to see the "next lower decade" on the scale. And as I said, there's no way I can keep this up. I'm feeling too deprived and really resenting it. Grumble. There's got to be a happy medium somewhere.

I've rambled on about myself long enough. I promise to come back later and talk about more important things than me. But for now, the boss is lurking. Wonder if he's noticed yet that I'm not speaking to him??? Probably not.

More later!

Hello, and a happy Monday. Had a great time in Nashville, we went to the National Hockey League drawing Saturday. All the hockey team leaders were there picking rookies. I'm not a big fan of sports but I'll have to say it was interesting and lots and lots of excited fans. First time it's been hosted in Nashville and Nashville's hockey team is only 5 years old, so it was a big deal for them. Son and DNL love all sports.

Did well eating and walked tons until late yesterday, don't know what happened but just could not get full.

The guys all worked this weekend, including yesterday. Wednesday is the cut off for having invoices entered for the month so I'll be putting in some more OT. YA' HEAR THAT VISA, you'll be getting a nice payment again this month. Youngest son has an interview in St Louis tomorrow, keep your fingers crossed for him.

Well, I've gotta get............

Brain Cell

Once upon a time, there was a female brain cell which,
by mistake, happened to end up in a man's head.. She
looked around nervously, but it was all empty and
quiet.

"Hello?" she cried...but no answer.

"Is there anyone here?" she cried a little louder, but
still no answer...

Now the female brain cell started to feel alone and
scared, and yelled: "HELLO, IS THERE ANYONE HERE?"

Then she heard a voice from far, far away ...

"Hello - we're all down here...."

Hello to all!

Thought I'd drop by quickly this morning before things get crazy. I'm doing fine except I had a bit of a rough weekend. One of these days I'm gonna learn to do something about it.

Jello - Congrats on the 7 #'s! Woo Hoo! Good luck with your cravings. I could never get past them. Not sure if it's true that you ever lose them but I know my friends who are doing Atkins still have problems from time to time. They use the low-carb bread mixes and bars and it seems to help.

Have a great day all...........

LJ

Happy Monday, all!

Glad to see the thread didn't die after all - thanks for the support.

Good weekend here, but aunt flo came to town this a.m. and she was packing some resentment...

SEMO - you've got to tell me more about your swimsuit! If you can remember, look at the tag. At 31, some things already are pointing the way south for all the rest to follow. I *need* this swimsuit.

Faye - glad to hear the hair turned out well! Thanks for sharing your exercise progress, it's a good reminder of the benefits we reap from exercise besides weight loss. You are doing awesome!

DNW - are these the WATP tapes I've heard of or something different?

Tiger - being a SAHM is a tough job. I think most women expect that, since it's an 'ideal' way to raise a family, that it will be fulfilling in and of itself. Wrong, LOL! It's got it's challenges and pitfalls, too and so many women get depressed. I always give full Kudo's to chicks like you. You're not wasting your time or your degree (like you owe something to the piece of paper?) or your potential. It's just a different challenge that you've signed on for and the hard thing is, part of the battle is mental - how to keep yourself stimulated. The creativity and discipline you needed to get the BA in ID - the education will help you be a better mom. :

Jello - You had a great week. Hit it hard again this week, but plan ahead to make some allowances for yourself. Just don't give up!

Bright - A quick HI right back atcha!

Huntress - Hope your week improves.

~Cafe, hittin' the hot chocolate hard this a.m. - have to make up for it by walking at lunchtime.

Thanks Tiger! I really needed that! So true. LOL.

Feeling a little better now. Boss overheard me complaining to a coworker about him but I guess he couldn't deny everything I said was true so he just walked away.

Semo, sounds like a great trip to Nashville. Glad you had such a good time.

Cafe, share some of that hot chocolate with me? On second thought, better not. We just recently got a cappucino machine in our cafeteria. Darn good stuff. I've been keeping my distance. Your "Aunt" sounds like mine. For now ... I plan to kill her soon. Bwahahahahahaha!!

Speaking of keeping my distance, I kept it from the cake on Friday. Went back later and there was just a tiny little bit left. Looked like it'd been "handled" or dropped or something. Yuck. No thanks.

DNW, glad to see you again. And great job on getting the body moving! How goes the new job prospect? Any news?

Faye, like Cafe, I'm glad you had such good success with the new hair dresser. Don't you just love it when men say "oh, just go anywhere....". Not!

Forgot to tell you all. Spent the weekend painting the master bedroom. Blue with darker blue and blue-green sponging effects. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself. Actually, only painted 3 of the 4 walls. The other one needed some patching and the plaster didn't dry in time. (How dare it!? ) Not sure if I'll do the same with the fourth wall or something a bit different. Could look really weird or be something new and exciting.

Huntress, I actually bought some of the low-carb pasta. Just haven't tried it yet. I did use the low-carb ketchup over the weekend. It's really GOOD!!! Who knew!?

Have to go now. Big ol' salad with turkey, cheese and egg waiting for me for lunch. Still can't break myself away from the fat free cold meats and low-cal/low-fat salad dressings. Guess that's a good thing though?

I'm tryin' ... I'm tryin'....

Hey everybody!

Hope today is going well for you. It is hot and sunny here today. Pretty humid though.

Jello: At the bottom of the post I sent a pic of the stripes we did in our bedroom. They look crooked, but they were perfectly straight. It was the way I was standing to take the pic. This gives you an idea of what stripes might look like vertically.

Cafe: Personally, I think we need to find someway to permanently jail FLO! I know of no women who welcomes her into their home. Hope you are feeling a little better and you have kicked out Swiss Miss too!

Tiger: Very cute poem!

SEMO: Sounds like the weekend was fun. You go girl. Not only will Visa be happy, but just think, it frees it back up again!

DNW: You go girl! Once you get into a pattern of exercising, you can keep it up.

Bright: Hi to you too. You will find I have a few screws loose, but dh loves me anyhow!

Kind of a lazy weekend. We went and saw Hollywood Homicide, which had funny parts but go to the matinee. It isn't worth full price.

Talk to you gals later!

Faye

Hello. I can't believe it's STILL Monday.
Wouldn't it be great if we could design our own swimsuits. I'd like to take the best parts of last years suit and the best parts of this years suit....walll-la....the perfect suit. Um, yeah, I'm still pondering over the beach trip this week. I had DS take pics of me in the new suit...no I'm not gonna post them...I just wanted to SEE what I looked like. You know the weird thing...I was more put off by my double chin/neck area. I could use the sarong for a scarf.

Jello, I hear ya on the carb thing. I did really good for one week and had a good loss. I quickly gained it back when I quit low carb'n. On the plus side, it made me more aware of carbs and I try to choose more wisely now. I still keep wondering if I should try it again.

Faye, nice stripes, very slimming.

Cafe, thanks for the SAHM/Degree pep talk I'm greatful I can stay home with my little peeps. If only they knew how lucky they were.

to everyone else!

Well, Tiger, the truth of it is that I've kinda had it with the low-carb. This morning I had an Atkins breakfast bar. Low carb, right? Says 14g of carbs but supposedly you only count 2 of them because of the fiber and glycerin amounts or something. Huh???? But it also had something ridiculous like 180 calories and 8g of fat. OMG! No, I just can't seem to stop worrying about fat grams and calories.

One thing that really scared me was a section of the book where the guy talks about how YOU CANNOT "CHEAT" at all. Just one little slip will make you gain weight. At least that's what it sounds like he's saying. You're allowed 20 grams of carbs but if you eat 21, you blow up like a balloon!?!? Just sounds a bit weird to me. But after this past weekend, I'm beginning to wonder ....

OK, done whining.

Tiger, I agree with you on the bathing suits. Actually, I like to see really old photos of women on the beach wearing those big long "pantaloon" type suits. Can't show too much leg ... or any other part.

Faye, I like the look of your room with the stripes but I'm afraid my rooms are all too small to carry that off. Any striping I did would have to be thinner stripes in lighter colors I think.

I have to go. Boss just passed by me and looks like he's in a mood AGAIN. Oh why doesn't this guy just quit or something if he's so unhappy with his life here. I guess misery just loves company. Grumble.

Gotta run. Later.

Quick check in, then I gotta go! Busy, busy, busy.

Cafe, the swim suit is by Carol Wior, qvc also carries her suits. Got mine a lot cheaper at Penneys at the end of the year. Thinking it was somewhere around $40. And after looking at it this morning it does have an underwire.

Tig, I would love to be a stay at home wife. The only problem I had when I was home with the kids was that every working mother thought I had time to tend to their kids and play taxi.

Going now, back later.

Good morning ladies! Just checking in real quick. I *did* go for walkies yesterday. V. humid here so it was pretty sweaty, painful and nauseated. It was a difficult day, Aunt Flo kicked my butt. Even the Swiss Miss couldn't take her down, LOL. Today she is submissive so that's a good thing.

Completed our refinance yesterday. Of course, interest rates are already lower, again! But still, I'm saving $1000 a year on payments and I'm not going to worry about a quarter of a point or whatnot.

Faye - I'm keeping the Swiss Miss in reserve, so far so good. Thanks for sharing the pic, the stripes seem to work well!

Tig - I have wanted to do that before, the swimsuit picture, because you don't really know... but I'm not that brave, LOL!

Jello - Hang in there! Maybe you would like the Zone diet - it's similar but lower fat, a balanced amount of carbs. But stick it out if you can, at least until you have an alternative plan in place. I'm proud of you for giving it the college try.

The thing is, each plan works if you follow it, and they all make us change behavior... I think all the second guessing about WHAT plan is a trick we play on ourselves. 'This can't be right, why am I doing it?'

SEMO - thanks for the swimsuit info! Going to look now...

Good Afternoon!

I have only been in here lurking a few times, and posted once, but i have enjoyed reading the comments/ideas you have.
I have been eating low sugar now for a few weeks and its working for me. I have lost one size and would like to lose another-im not so concerned about the pounds, as i am am inches and size!

Jello: having had a hysterectomy 6 months ago i would definitely find some drawstring sleep bottoms, i wore them all the time after the first week or so. Until then i wore long nightshirts, because, bending over to pull those pants on in the first few days is near impossible and very painful!

Well, i must go, need some more water take care all