Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate!

Beth: Feel better soon.

Keeper: I'm glad that you have found something to help you when you are having a panick attack. I may have to bring some knitting out where I can see it so when I have one I can give it a go. Thanks for sharing your plan with me.

Rat: Good morning sunshine girl!

Well, Joel did a beautiful job at putting our sink in. It looks soooooo nice. He then put a ceiling fan/ light above our bed instead of the old light that was there. It is so nice having it too. The beautiful kitchen inspired me to get on my hands and knees with a tooth brush and scrub around where the cupboards meet the flooring. It needed it badly and I have to say I have never done that since we bought our house 3 years ago. I have been meaning to but before I was too heavy. It sure looks nice and I am such a neat freak I don't know why it took me so long especially after seeing how nice it looks clean. I cleaned the bathrooms top to bottom, went grocery shopping, washed both of our cars by myself watered the lawns and cleaned every single window in our house inside and out and washed the screens. Whew. I was so happy to get all of those things done that make your home look better even if they didn't look that bad. I did all the laundry and when the last load was almost finished the washer started making a horrid noise. It wouldn't finish spinning the clothes. Joel thinks it needs a new belt. Argh!!! He thinks he can probably put it on himself if he can find one at an appliance shop or sears but now we have to wait until Sunday to even try because everything is closed today. Wish us luck on that one.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and stays op and gets to move their bodies. We are planning on lifting weights this morning before it gets too hot and also do our cardio. It is supposed to be 93 here today which for our area is smokin hot. lol.

Blessings,
Annie

Toni - Congrats!

Bazz - I'm from the Midwest, USA. I spent some time in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, and I was born in Ohio. I'm not used to living in densely populated areas. Now I'm in New Jersey, luckily I moved to a more rural part of it, so I'm happier now. Before it was an icky area... I'm hoping I like London...I've never been anywhere really.

Annie - I think you are nice too and a super inspirational woman! You inspire people to keep on going! I really look up to you.

****
Very groggy this morning...I got a little project to do in a bit for a family friend. Some sort of recipe card design for her to print out. I gotta put it together for her.

Anyhow, I was very active yesterday. The Avenue had a big sale, so I went and got two shirts, just plain tees, but still it was nice to go.

I'm still dealing with this hidradenitis suppurativa crap. I'm not sure if anyone else has this disease, but it is really a bummer. Currently dealing with a flareup, it ticks me off and just makes me angry that it is one more thing for me to deal with. I'm sure we all feel that way with health stuff, but still. BAH!

*HUGS* I hope everyone is well! Happy Fourth!

morning ladies..

Annie:WOW lady you worked your butt of yesterday!

Toni: Congrats!

Jacquie: I will keep my eye posted for that book. Sorry your groggy this morning.

As for me: Yesterday got my oil changed. I get it done at my brother's work so its free! Also found out that moving into the house where my brother lives is good to go. We will be signing and moving Sept 1st. I was so excited about it til I got home and seem that my sons high school schedule came. THEN THE GUILT STARTED. Although I know he will be fine, and he says he is fine..I soo feel bad. I hope that he makes friends quickly at the new high school. If there is one thing I couls lock away in a box that would be guilt!

UGLY TOM came last night. We are suppose to go to a marketplace fora concert and fireworks this evening. I am cramping so bad Midol is not even helping. I also feel nautious. Hubby and youngest son don't want to go, but my oldest one does. Not sure what we are going to do.

Tomorrow is our youngest sons 15th birthday. Don't even know what we are doing for that. He wanted to go bowling but not sure.

Happy 4th to all.

Not much going on here today just relaxing and I need to workout today still. That's about it from here. I weighted in this morning and am down 2.8lbs

Annie~ Your welcome I hope the knitting helps you when you have attacks. I knit too but right now am addicted to crocheting.

Jacquie668~ Hope you feel better soon.

azcyn~ great about the free oil change. Good luck on moving I'm sure your son will adjust just fine.

Good Morning all,

Rough night last night. One of our dogs is terrified of the fire works and it sounds like we were in WWIII last night. After fireworkds died down some, he started to get sick tummy from all the stress. I am determined that next year we will get him a sedative if we can't take him out to the country for camping. Poor baby. Joel is so tired today as he was up and down with hmi all night taking him to the potty.

Jacquie: love your new photo. You look beautiful!

Beth: Congrats on the weight loss despite not working out and feeling pourly. You did wonderful.

Cyn: Glad that your move sounds like a go. Are you guys moving to help your brother out or save money? I must have missed that post. Happy Birthday to your son.

Keeper: congrats on the weight loss!

I weighed this a.m. and I am down 2.5 pounds! I had gone up 3 pounds from my tracker to 215 and I am now down 1/2 a pound from my lowest weight on my tracker. lol. I need to stay focused and continue to work out and eat right. I have to admit, I did endulge in some sweets the other day. I don't know why I do that. It makes me so sick to my tummy and my body can't handle it since surgery but still I did it. Oh well, a new day and not to dwell.

Carol: How was your party hon?

Okay all, it is almost 6 a.m. and I am going to go spend time with God before jumping in the shower for church.

blessins,
Annie

Boy how a Life can change in a blink of an eye..

Yesterday my oldest son went with my sister and brother to the marketplace to see the concert. Me hubby and our youngest son decided to go to my aunts house and eat pizza and play cards. I had an ok time except for TOM!

When I dropped my son off at my brother's, my brother tells me that his boss, the guy he lives with, hi father was in Tucson visiting family and they think he had a heart attack and he is at the hospital. Now this is the man that we are to rent the house from.

Later my sister calls me and tells me that his dad tore a blood vessell in his heart and ahs a 10% chance of living with surgery and 0% without it. Later on last night around midnight, my brother texted me to tell me that the dad passed away!! I have never meet him, but I do know my brother's boss and his wife well. I could not sleep. I feel horrible for the family. I know he was retired but not sure how old her was.

For now I don't know what is going on with us moving. His wife is still alive, but not sure what their plans are with the house.

Makes you realize just how short life is..so that brings me to me...I was up cause I couldnt sleep after that and i started getting the waves again. Also I notice my period makes me nautious. Anyone else??? Is that normal? I am suppose to be monitoring my blood pressure. So I gotta get soemthing to do that at home. Any suggestions?? Ever since the Dr suggested I might have hypertention, I notive my swollen foot that has not hurt me in 3 years..now does and tingles. I am also noticing the tingling in my fingers and elbo once in a while.

EVERYONE...I am really scared that something big is going on inside me. My aunt told me she is on HB medication and she is my age. Is that ok to be on it???

I so need to get off my you knoww aht and exercice. And from the looks of it..I better stick with walking. But is that enough? I also gotta get better at eating well.

Well enough rambling ..sorry so long.

Bazz - I've been a few places, but nothing exotic like the Caribbean or England! I hope I get to go someplace in the near future! Hopefully, that will be London. TEEHEE! Congrats on the weight loss!

Annie - Ty DOH! You know that is so frustrating. Sweets tend to upset my stomach as well yet sometimes I want sweets lol. If it is something I make like raw food or something that is healthier the I'm fine and satisfied. I don't know why I eat things like I do. Like I had a blue berry muffin...turns out I wasn't really liking it, yet I ate the whole thing. *rolls her eyes* I'm not a muffin person anymore apparently...but why eat it all? GRRR!

****

TY for the avatar comments. I felt the need for a change. Maybe I want to just reboot myself and get back to doing things. Sometimes I don't get why I struggle with the weight as much as I do. Sometimes I feel like I just should focus and get it off of me, but then something seems to be in the way and I go off of my track. I'm sure we all feel that way.

The HS (hidradentitis blah blah) stuff is annoying, but I have to admit that I'm lucky. First, I don't have pain from it, which is a plus. A lot of people who have HS get painful, sometimes disabling boils and sinus tracting. I don't get boils anymore and mostly I get something that resembles bad acne with some superficial sinus tracting, I think I have three that are not so superficial, but they are small. Basically wounds that will not heal without the skin being removed. It is scarring, which is a bummer, and when I have a flareup, I just get upset. Secondly, I am fat, which means loosing weight will help me. There are quite a few people who are not overweight who have HS and they can't benefit from the weight loss. Third, I started to make changes in my diet years ago, so that has made things a lot better. Diet changes and living a certain life style is key to controlling many autoimmune diseases, HS is no exception. For many people they struggle with this as they have to cut out things like dairy, bad sugars, red meat, etc. It just is frustrating as I do not wish to be scarred anymore than I am! BAH!

I think the most frustrating thing is there is no cure, there is no real help. No one really cares out there about it, so when you go to a doctor they tell you crap, give you antibiotics (which are temporary IF they help), and then tell you to be cleaner. There isn't some pill I can take to make it all better, which is frustrating as heck! So, what can ya do? *shrugs* Vent about it every once in awhile and just focus I guess. **END OF VENT

Anyhow, got up late today. Deep in my thoughts, which usually annoys my boyfriend haha. Just thinking about my life and where it is going, where I want it to go, why i struggle, etc. You know the normal things people think about. :P

I hope everyone is well! *HUGS*

Cyn - So sorry to hear about that families' loss. That is very sad.

As for the period question, yes I get nausea when I'm on my period, even before my BC pills. It is quite common to get that, cramping, loose stools, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, depression, etc. Some months I would find I wouldn't get nausea at all and other months I would be for a day or two. When I did research into it, I was concerned myself, I found a lot of women get nausea and other symptoms. Drink some ginger tea or take ginger tablets to sooth an upset tummy. I drink ginger tea now more since the BC pills make me sick lol. Really it makes sense. I'm getting a big dose of hormones during those first days. During a period, your uterus is cramping and you're hormones are going nuts and that can cause nausea.

As for high blood pressure, I was a bit surprised that when I went to the doctor mine was okay. I thought that if you're fat you would have high blood pressure, but my doctor and the research I did told me differently. I read about people who were in their 30s, in pretty good shape, who have to take medication for HB and change their diet and etc. If there is a history of high blood pressure in your family then you have a higher chance of having that problem and to me medication to help you and making diet changes as well are key, no matter what age you are. I was surprised at learning all of that lol. My family doesn't have a history of HB, but do have a history of other things which I got lol. Anyhow, with most advice out there, diet changes are one of the main keys to living long and healthy. I think there is even HB specific diet programs out there.

As for monitoring, I found a blurb on a site about monitors you can get: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdo...tment/128.html

I have a variety of other things wrong with me and the bottom line that I've read and been told, change your diet, live well, loose weight, be active..lol. Easier said than done, but still. I understand being scared. I get scared too when I see things going on with me, the thing is once I got diagnosed with my skin disease, and other things, I felt better actually. I could then start to plan on how to heal and take steps, but I still struggle a heck of a lot. I guess that is part of the battle.

Annie - the parties are over and were wonderful. We had much smaller crowds this year - Friday weather played a part - I think we had about 20 - which was fine by me .......warning - mini rant............people bring their kids to swim and don't watch them - I still don't understand this and we are coming close to a no kids allowed scenario as it really stresses DH and I. The party yesterday was fabulous - we had 12 which was everyone who was invitied - it was the perfect size to be able to visit with everyone. We had two of the best water volleyball games we've ever had - both went to over 30 points trying to get a win by two points.

Jacquie - love the new avatar - your beauty radiates.

As for me - two days of poor choices have me fully back OP today - I've truly missed water and formal exercise. Looking forward to some veggies too!

Well yesterday we found out we got the house we wanted it's a 5bedroom ranch style. I'm so excitied we have our own house!!!! You will never get me to move from that house. I can't wait to get to WV.

Bazz~ Good job on weight loss with feeling bad

Annie ~ good weight loss as well.

Cyn ~ Sorry to hear about the families loss will be praying for your housing situation.

Hiya my Peeps!

Cyn, like Jacquie says, I get every one of those symptoms. Lasts about 40 hours. I couldn't believe it, but Midol actually helps me. When the cramps are too bad I have to take some prescription meds. I am on blood pressure pills and am 46. I've been on them for about 10 yrs. Part hereditary, part weight related. The best blood pressure cuff is one that goes around the wrist. They are accurate and easily bought from a local drug store.

Jac, your avatar is beeeeautiful!! You are, indeed, radiant (as someone else stated before).

GGG, I used to be a lifeguard for a local summer pool and parents used to drop kids off and leave for work! This was the 80s and no one thought much about it. We had to watch the wall-walkers (those are the kids that hang on the side of the pool and pull themselves along, even in the deep end). They do that cuz they can't swim.

Annie, you are doing fabbo!! You did so much in one day the other day. I used to have a golden retriever that responded to fireworks the same way. Poor puppy. My two goldens now just look up, check me out to make sure I don't respond and then go back to snoring.

Keeper n Bazz - Hugs! Those are fabbo losses!!!!

My back is giving me fits again. Just in case it's potassium, I have bought bananas and lima beans (no, I don't eat them together.. yuk). I read lima beans have a good amount per cup. I'm also stretching the hamstrings to help with the pain. I about passed out from pain when I stood up yesterday... had the hollow sounds and gray spots.. eeep! stupid spasms. It doesn't help that TOM is on his way and he contributes to any back spasms I am having at the moment.

I have been upset that I'm gaining weight and not losing. Checked out all my eating patterns. Then checked out one seed/sunflower seed cookie I like and about fell over backwards at the calories. It was in grams per serving, but weighed in lbs. After conversion, I found out there was 900 calories per little .4 lb package!!! *faint* They were good, but not THAT good. Geesh. No more of them.

Hugs to all!!

Luv,
Ratkity

Keeper!! Congratz on the new house!!!

Luv,
Ratkity

cyn- I have been on blood pressure meds for over 5 yrs now. It seem to hit in my family around age 40. Weight isnt a factor to much in my family.It was for me...but I have sibblings who are not overweight and on bp meds. I have been able to reduce my meds from 100mg to 20mg as i lose weight.
My weight is up a bit right now. I had a couple of heavy meals the last few days.
hugs to all