Misti: Have fun today out and about.

Lesley: Good luck with both jobs. I hope you do have both offers to choose from. I will be praying for you.

Xena: I can't wait to see your Grand Canyon photos. Thanks for posting them.

Blessings all,
Annie

G'morning all!

I'm getting used to the peeps here (no not the marshmellow ones. ... YOU folks!) and trying to jump into the fray, er thread, here.

Xena - your canyon picts are GREAT! I went in 1987 and loved it.

Litchick - I totally understand about family and getting my chaotic house in order. My house is a study of the forces of entropy!

Dogpal - Annie- hope your beak is getting better! These things go away so much slower than they show up.

Hippy - too funny about the guinea pig! I've never had one of those. The image of him chasing the pup was hysterical

MamaB (Donna?) - I've had the foot pain from hades. Come to find out the plantar fascititis could've been treated with the shots. The doc that did my bone fix was FABBO. I'm glad you have a great doc. I can't believe I waited so long to get that foot fixed.

Thank you all for the welcome!! Hugs to all the new nicks and peeps I have yet to get to know.. Misti and Not and ebrebody else. Hugs to all.

Luv,
RK

Hi again, everybody!

Just had to come back and report my victory! Wow I rode my bike farther than I ever have before and LOL it was almost ALL uphill going there! Fun fun fun coming back. Took me 90 minutes. Now have to shower and head out to the community yard sale.

Xena, yah I will let you know what my friend says. And yay for you for joining the President's Challenge!! There is a stickied thread on it in the Exercise forum... hope you will join in over there. There is not much posting since there are so few people here in the challenge. I probably should have started with the Active Lifestyle one since that way you can get that AND the bronze, etc. It is neat to post all your activities. Oh and be sure to note that you can count household tasks there too. Even 5 minutes of light tasks... fixing my lunch for work, etc... only racks up 12 points but hey every point adds up!

Well best to get busy!! Keep up the good work everyone!

Xena.... I just heard back from my friend about your picture. I asked her if it was just my imaginination or "does she look like me?" She said "She sure does! I think you have a twin!" Really, in this photo the resemblance is amazing!

Annie-The CPAP machine is probably how they infested you. In fact it is probably the incubator for them. That means your doctor must be in league with them. Think about it, doctor’s handwriting is so bad because they are used to writing in an alien language.

Sue-Don’t forget to look around at the garage sale. You can never tell when someone will sell a Tiffany lamp by mistake for a $1.

Lesley-I’m convinced the palmetto bugs actually like clean houses, and prefer to eat bug poison, because the more I cleaned the more they came in. They say the only way to get rid of them is to keep the house dry by making sure every leak or seep is gone. I even cleaned the drip drain under the fridge (shudder). I’m not sure how I was supposed to keep our place in Florida completely dry when it was practically below sea level.

Xena-Even if I had had the video camera on, it is really hard to hold a camera still when you’ve got your arms full of 60+ pounds of basset hound quivering in fear. He’d jump in my lap, and put his legs up around my neck, and just shake, with hot basset panting drool running down the back of my neck. When it got really bad, he’d try to climb all the way up on my shoulders with his back legs, and put his front paws on my head. I’ve got wide shoulders, but please.

Catherine, ha! Yes what a GREAT excuse to go to a bunch of yard sales! The community ones are neat as a bunch of houses in a neighborhood all have them at the same time. And actually besides looking for stuff I want to be polite and not just rudely walk up and hand them my flyer without looking at their stuff!

Hello Ladies,

Well, my aunt and them had some car trouble so they stopped at a hotel and won't be here until tomorrow.

I'm actually kind of upset right now (but not about that) and just had to come and vent it out. Some of you may know from prior posts that I've been trying to get pregnant with no luck and testing various things to see if my hormones were off, if I was ovulating, etc. Well, last week my husband got his sperm tested, and we got the results this afternoon in the mail. Low sperm count and really low motility. I know I should be glad that at least now we have a reason why we haven't conceived once in the 2+ years I've been off the pill, but also now having that reason and knowing the steps we'll have to take if we want to try and have children is a little scary and depressing. I'm trying really hard not to cry and/or go stuff my face with the chocolate cupcakes that are sitting in my kitchen right now.

Catherine, drip drain?? Uh-oh. I didn't even know my fridge had one of those. I hate to think what condition it's in, but I guess I'd better find out.

Lit Chick- I just wanted to say that I understand your fertility struggles...both my boys are the result of fertility treatment. Fortunately we never had to deal with male factor...it was always me and my PCOS and tendency to miscarry that made our struggle for children so long. I think I would've felt exactly how you described if we'd have been faced with male factor. I hope your doctors will be able to find a way to work around his issues.

I noticed you are also near Atlanta. I went to the Emory Center for Reproductive Medicine when we conceived the second time. If you ever want to talk about fertility stuff, send me a PM.

I also understand the urge to stuff yourself with chocolate...my current weight is mainly the product of emotional overeating. I'll send you all the "stay strong" vibes I can muster!

Take care,
Kari

Kari -- Glad you joined us over here!!

Lesley -- I would be tempted to throw the cupcakes away! When I get like that, I find sometimes it helps to get moving: take a walk or do some exercise. Mind you, I never WANT to do it, but it does help me when I DO! P

I have been going through an amazing load of stress lately (helping care for my grandmother, who had major surgery a week ago; planning a huge documentary/book signing event single-handedly; trying to buy a new house and get this one ready for the market, and a half dozen smaller things that I don't feel like listing!).

I wanted ice cream earlier. My mom had called to say that my grandmother had fallen and she needed DH to come help her lift her back into the bed. DH had just taken our boys to a long-awaited birthday party, and I was enjoying some downtime alone. I cannot lift my grandma, so he HAD to go. I felt so bad for him, bad for the kids who had to tag along and miss their party, bad for my mom, who bears the brunt of my grandmother's care...

Instead of opening the fridge, I stopped to think of what my body seemed to need, and that was a physical outlet. So I dusted off my Leslie Sansone "You Can Do Yoga" DVD and did it. I did it! I actually did some exercise...shocking!

And I feel better, mentally. And I haven't had the ice cream. And it feels good to have a place to share that!

Lit Chick, sorry to hear your disappointing news and hope you are able to conceive as you so desire to.

Kari... welcome! Glad you joined in, and yay for you for doing exercise instead of having ice cream!

Whew I had quite a time handing out flyers at the yard sales. But LOL I spent just about every dime I had with me! BUT I got two big bags of nice baby clothes (for the pregnancy resource centers), a new quilt, a collapsible workout bench AND a weighted hula hoop! I didn't even know about those things until just this morning I think it was when I was reading about them on 3FC! It was brand NEW with cellophane still on it... for $10. The woman said she had bought it and couldn't do it.

Hope everyone is OP! Go go go!

Welcome Kari!

I am new here too. Wow, you are going through lots of stress.. just buying a house and moving is MAJOR! I'm glad you are here

I like the success stories here as well, and also that I'm not the only huge person trying to lose 100 lbs in a room full of people that have only 20lbs to lose. Not to belittle their efforts, but having the understanding of the issues we deal with as morbidly obese is sooo helpful.

*hugs*
RK

Thanks, everyone, for the warm welcome! And RK, I am SO with you! I have been part of an online parenting group for about ten years now. Overall, it's a wonderful place of support. But....there is a subgroup for weight loss, and most of the women only have a few pounds to lose. They just don't have a CLUE as to what it's like to have to lose this much. And the moderator is a skinny-mini running junkie who, though she tries to be supportive, is so sanctimonius that I simply cannot participate in that subgroup. I always end up wanting to bang my head against the wall after reading her posts!

Kari -- I'm glad you're enjoying it here already! Way to go on passing up the fridge and exercising! If you want to motivate yourself to exercise more -- feel free to join our exercise thread (stickied at the top of the page). We track our group's minutes and are trying to get to 200,000 minutes this year! We need all the help we can get!

Misti -- great yard sale finds!

As for people understanding the issues we face, that is SUCH a strength of this forum. Where else does everyone really understand the issues of being morbidly obese and trying to lose the weight?? I agree that I do not want to minimize any one else's issues -- but we DO have different issues than those who only have a few pounds to lose.

I babbled everyones eyes off in NSV.. sorry..lol

I agree.. no one knows what it is like unless they been there.. I wanna scream and beat someone whenever I have someone tell me.. I need to lay off the twinkies and ho'ho's I do not even allow that stuff in my house.. My husband is fairly healthy weight/height wise.. but he does have high blood pressure and high cholesterol.. Even before we found that out I was apparently already cooking on the better side. When I did the research other was only like 1-2 things he needed to cut out.. which were his personal vices not mine.. ( I do not smoke nor do I drink).

When my husband was active duty and in Iraq I went to a doc to see about getting my stuff tested to see if it was mecical or what... The docters comment to me when I said " I barely eat anything all day, my 5 yr old eats more than me" said " yeah right I can tell you do more than enough eating" I left the place in shock. I called months later to get my cholesterol results along with whatever other tests they did, the nurse sounded shocked as she read them to me.. She was like "umm you have everything in the perfect zone.. is this weight we have for you accurate" I was like Yes. she gasped. Sometimes I think I was meant to be a big gal.. even though I would like to be a smaller big gal..lol One of these days.

Here soon I am planning on having my daughter take some pics and then from time to time get progress pics.. maybe then I will see it, cause I think everyone else is full of......... cake.. yeah yeah.. cake.. lol

Great job everyone.. reading how people feel, how hard they are trying inspires me to do the same.. thanks guys!