GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!!!

We want to invite everyone to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We recently started a Topic of the Day.

Monday........Motivation Monday
Tuesday.......Tuesday Tips
Wednesday.....Wednesday Weigh ins
Thursday......Thankful Thursday
Friday........Friday Facials, Fingernails and Fun
Saturday.......Sit-up Saturdays - any physical activity
Sunday.........Soup and Salad Sunday - recipes

These are not required topics ...just ideas to share. We have found them very helpful. We also share heartaches and fears...joys and celebrations.

Please feel free to jump right in with us.
And be sure to check if there is a second page. We don't want anyone to miss any posts.
We want to invite everyone to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We recently started a Topic of the Day.

WELCOME!

Deon: I don't know if you were kidding or not when you said: If you're serious, you just made my day! Well, even if you're kidding you made my day. I suppose I could look at this from a psychological view and think, "Hmm, perhaps I talk about Tony a little too much if someone thinks he's my husband. Perhaps I should concentrate more on the man that I've spent 17 years of my life with. Perhaps I should just think or speak about Tony Stewart on race day if it's pertaining to the race. Definitely something to think about.

NOT!

Tony Stewart is a stockcar driver for Nascar Winston Cup. In my opinion, he is the best driver on the track and is awesome. He's not too hard on the eyes either. This is Tony:



Ron, is my dh. He is the man I truly love. We have been together since I was 15 and he was 13. (Yes ladies, I got him right off the vine) We have been married over 15 years and there is no one else in the world like him. I mean, how many other men would just laugh and shake their head at my tony fetish. Then again, he also knows that I truly do like him for his racing ability. Say what you will......but the man drives like no one I've ever seen. Oops, where were we? Oh yeah, my husband. He is like all men, pretty lazy, forgetful and a slob, but he loves me and a day never goes by that he doesn't tell me. From day one, he has never made me feel anything but beautiful and that is why I love him. This is Ron:



He likes Tony too....just maybe in a different way.

If you were kidding, well then....you've just made me type a whole post explaining the differences between my real life and my fantasy life. But then again, I wouldn't call it a waste, because we all knew I was gonna end up talking about one of them before the day was over anyways!

Either way, you made my day!

Just finished teaching piano lessons for the day... just wanted to take a second and pop on here to reply to Tina.

Tina: I COMPLETELY understand. Last week, it actually crossed my mind that if I continued to wait until my own personal weight loss website was done (this is could be a long time) that people might start to doubt that I had lost weight! I also totally understand feelings of jealousy. The reason for this is BECAUSE I was overweight my entire life and had those exact same feelings when I heard of other people's weight loss. I was happy for them... but wished it could have been me! I kept wishing I'd had the willpower to start the year before! I think your "confession" is 100% natural and you are just being honest with me. (You, by the way, probably create a lot of jealousy with your fabulous success thus far too!!!) It is an honor for me (the old me and the new me) to be on your fridge as a source of inspiration. THANK YOU!

Catch you chickies later,
Sara

Dear sweet ladies, could I impose on you to say a couple prayers for me? I have a job interview with the Senior Assisted Living complex (part time receptionist on weekends) on Thur and I sent a resume in today for a full time receptionist position. I really need to go back to work. I am getting really bored at home (there is only so much you can clean when there is only two of you living in a home!) and I don't want to slip back into bad habits. We can live perfectly fine on dh's income, but having extra money for home improvements on the condo, getting dh's clunker running, tagged and insured again and planning a great vacation (which we have now had to postpone because of some much needed condo repairs) would be welcome with my income again. Thank you. I will post longer tomorrow.

Donna

Happy Birthday, Duckie!

Donna: you asked for em~~~~you got em TOYOTA!!!! OPPS, WRONG SONG.....lol....You got my prayers for the job. Keeping my for you.

Sara and Tina: I can totaly relate to the jealousy issues. I want so bad to be small!!! But, I do think of Sara as an inspiration too and you too Tina, I couldnt have gotten to this point without all of you. Tina, if you have noticed? Our weights are about the same now. I know you have lost over 70 lbs and I am so happy for you, I'm at 26 gone but I do find myself watching the numbers of everyone..... maybe thats the competitor in me? But friendly compotition is a good thing I think. When I was in ToPS we often had contests to see who could loose the most or what ever in a period of time and the best person got a prize. Anything to help us along our way.

Evan was in a play tonight and he did so good. He said he got really nervous when he saw all the people in the audience. But he did well. I was the proud momma tonight.

Once again Happy Birthday Duckie. Hope you had a marvy day.

Hugs to all,
Sandy

Yes Tina I was completely serious, and I am glad to hear that you love your husband so much. Even though I thought it was Tony!

OOOOOHHHHH!!!! I am sooo frustrated. What do you do with kids that are just so rebelious and refuse to do homework or anything that takes effort unless it will benefit them? My son is 11 almost 12 and he will not do homework. He doesn't get to do sports and he is grounded 99% of the time but he still refuses to to even try. And he is blatently disrespectful towards us. No you must understand that we are pretty lenient on our kids and they lead pretty free lives, all we expect is for them to do well in school and they can pretty much do what they want. My oldest is an honor student and cheerleader and does pretty much every thing she is told, and my youngest is a super pleaser, she gets good grades and does everything she is told and always tows the line. Now my boy is the sweetest most loving and sensitive boy around sometimes too sensitive. But he is an airhead!! I love him dearly but I am at the end of my rope with him. Any advice???
This is awesome, my sister just sent it to me, talk about timing. It takes a few to load but it is worth it. http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/popup2.html

Another thing, a couple of months ago he got into some big trouble, first time. He and another boy whom he was spending the night with, which I thought he was under adult supervision, went carousing during the night with some older kids and did some vandalism, well this is big. he knew he blew it, he was sooo grounded and had pretty much everything taken away from him, well him being the sensitive one, it was around valentines day, got a valentine card that said how sorry he was and could I ever forgive him for dissapointing me. My heart melted . He felt soo bad. Well he just came and apologised again for being a dissapointment. What am I doing wrong? Is it too much pressure? I try not to let him know I am dissapointed, that he needs to do this for himself not me. He thinks his firends and girlfriends and playing are more important, meanwhile he is getting D's and F's on his report card, and it is not a learning problem because when he does the work he gets A's and B's. Well any advice would be helpful. Thanks to all.

Under my last post and Sandy's post, the times say something like 4/2 1:37 AM... Since it's still 4/1 (and I've yet to think of a comeback for Miss April Fooler) I was just curious.

ANYWAY...that's not why I'm here when I should be napping. I just wanted to report a successful first day. I must say, it was touch and go there for a bit. As I was making dinner, mashing potatoes, (one of my all time favorites) I started tasting...you know, so you can sdjust the salt, etc...After about three spoonfuls I stopped and thought...gotta count those points! So I did... and added a few more nibbles that found their way into my mouth! All told, I logged in at 34 points (1 over)...but! I took a very brisk walk with the dog earlier...35 minutes...based on the activity points calculator, that was worth 3 points! I'm not gonna nit pick it though, and die if I'm a point over...I won't even count the activity points...in my mind, that will give me an excuse to eat, "just a teeny bit more."

So, food was good, I drank all my water, exercised, I even started a little journal...just to keep track of points and activity.

That's it for me! Oh yeah! I weigh 253 today, up a little due to TOM. I want to be in the 240s next week. and in the 140s the week after that!

I'll reply to everyone tomorrow, I really have to lie down and rest for my lovely job that I still have, Tina, because the other job was PURGED when it was time to trim the budget. I've always got my eye out for something new. I don't mind this job, really...just need to get a better sleep pattern going, but I'm not sure you ever do that, working nights. Oh well...

see y'all later.

Oh sure, 3fc...make a LIAR of me! Now the times are correct...

One more thing, Sara, I too have your picture on my fridge. You are truly an ispiration. One question, how long did it take you?

Baylee...YOU ROCK!!!! I'm so proud of you!

To answer your ?, Deon...I think it took Sara 1 year, (or thereabouts) to accomplish that!! Isn't she amazing?

I'm off to work...bye for now...

Tina: Is it just me or do I see a SLIGHT resemblence between Ron and Tony?

Donna: Good luck on that job interview! Keep us posted on everything!

Nice to see the rest of you are doing well and a big HELLOOOOOOOOO from here in good old PA!

Tomorrow is the doctor appointment; I think he is going to be very pleased with my progress, though there is a slight chance he may bring up WLS again---maybe not, who knows?

Anyway, I have two photoshoots lined up with two Pittsburgh area photographers for mid-April, and I am also going to be in the Fashion Bug fashion show on April 12 at my local store!

Hello all you gullable lovelies...
It is me... the prankster here.

I have had a VERY VERY busy day... and see no free time tomorrow either. There were sooo many things I wanted to reply on... but just tooooooo tired.

Lori... WELCOME !!! Have you been here before? I don't remember you here... but I have seen your avatar before... I LOVE IT !!!!! In fact I stole it with the intention of posting it here one day soon. You beat me to it. LOL

Donna... have everything crossed and prayer said for you.

Ladies... I just can't stay up any longer. It is nearly 1 am and I only got 2 hours of sleep last night. It takes time to write those great sagas. LOL Actually I cheated on that one. I stole a lot of it from an email someone sent me. BUT... all of my other stories have been all mine and TRUE.

And yes... I could see that fiasco happening to me too.

DAY 1 CHALLENGE: MET NO CHEAT CHALLENGE AND EXERCISE CHALLENGE!

Well, I am feeling like crap again so thought I would sit here and post since I just ask for prayer earlier.

Baylee: Good girl and yeah for you! You are doing great!

Kat: Weigh to go! Hope you are doing ok with the night work. I have done that and it is very tough especially with children in the house!

Deon: What can you say about kids? I thought I wouldn't survive my two. The boy was very gifted but thought school was a nuisance so did lousy. He even had to take Sophmore English in summer school. I found out his summer school teacher was my old English teacher and I told him that if he didn't get an A in there I was going to kill him dead! (I was an english nut in school and even took 2 courses a day my senior year). Giving advice on homework is really tough. The little buggers are sneaky and a lot of times unless the teacher keeps you informed, you don't know they are flunking until report card time. We were strict parents, but they still did things behind our backs. They did turn out alright though. Here is my lofty suggestions. First off, find something he really dispises to do, clean the garage, clean the bathroom, something gross, the worse the better. Warn him ahead of time that grades not up to snuff or getting into trouble again and whamo he gets the nasty chores and ones that take up huge amounts of time on the weekend too! Tell him if he wants to act like a baby then you will treat him like a baby and that every time grades dip or trouble, either you or dad will be going on the next date, get together or whatever. Oooh they hate that one! I know, but if you want something to work, sometimes the sacrifice has to come from you. Also, put a kabosh on freedom completely until there is an improvement. Rides bus instead or friends or drives or you take him and make sure he is seen by friends. For gosh sakes, don't try and be their friend! You are the parent. Like good ole Dr Phil always says, "they can hate you, they'll get over it!" The worst parents in the world are the ones that say, "We are best friends with our kids." Bologna! The kids are running the house! One more thing, the Bible says, "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." Don't plan on lofty results just give them the right tools to become good adults and they will be ok! Oh and does he feel inferior to the sisters? Sometimes, bad behaviour can be a warning signal that they are not getting the proper attention either.

Sandy: Oh how great that the "King" did so well. I am sure you are very proud of him!


Lastly, thought you might like a little chuckle regarding kids. This one is a dgs special. Now remember, he is just 2 1/2. Kelly told T to tell Granddad and Nonny what he had done in the house. He said, " I cooked a corndog in the microwave and started the house on fire." Yep, that is kind of what he did. While Kelly was upstairs, he got a plastic plate, got a corndog out of the freezer, wrapped it in a washcloth, put it in the microwave and set it to cook for 30 minutes. Kelly came downstairs and the house was filled with smoke. She got the plate outside onto the sidewalk and went back in to open the windows. When she came back out, she said the corndog had taken off and looked like sparklers on the Fourth of July! That's my boy! lol He then told me about Mr. Guy (his other grandparents cat) He sid, "Mr. Guy was sick and Pops was crying so we put Mr Guy in the mud so he would be nice and cosy!" What a way to look at death! lol

Love you guys! Donna

Where do I start? I could see myself going way off of the plan today!!!!

Heres what happened. Last night we were getting ready to go to the sons play. Well everyone got to eat supper but me after I cooked the damned turkey. But I had to get everyones butt moving, get the video camera ready and get my turn in the bathroom. Well finally we are ready to go and I look and hubby is only in his Shirt and unders. Well I said are you going with us or what? He said, what time do you have to be there? I said we have to leave NOW, I have to drop Lexi off at my moms and pick your mom up because she wants to go and Evan needs to be there at 6. Okay, he says I will meet you there, so this ticks me off a little!!! Then when he gets there he walks in with one of my best friends and her daughter who decided to sit behind us. Well I told dh he could sit with us beside his mom, and she also said that, well nope, he sat with my friend. Mind you, I know nothing is going on, but she is a divorced mom of 3 and we tend to help her a lot when needed, like this winter he plowed her driveway for nothing because she could not afford to have it done. Anyway, I just think a husband should sit with his wife at a public function like this!!!! So this a.m, he finally asks whats wrong and I tell him and now I've managed to blow this thing in to a huge fight I guess, because when I asked for a kiss goodbye he said "NO if you want to drag something stupid like this into a fight we can" and I said I was only trying to tell you how I feel!!!! I mean really, if I had sat next to another man (friend) instead of him, he would have been wild!! Yes, we are both jealous people, not that either of us have anything to be jealous of, we are committed to each other. But, I was hurt and trying to explain that to him but have only managed to blow it to pieces. NOw????Do I stand my ground or what? He says its an insult to him for me to think that way. But even my friend looked up and said, oh my we are gonna have the whole town buzzing, you walked in with me and sitting with me. RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, men!!!!!!

Any advice?

Teary eyed,
Sandy