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.

WELCOME!

Ok I'm be the first to post here unless someone beats me to it while I am typing!

Good news is that we put the house on the market monday and had 4 offers on wednesday. 2 were for above asking price. Of course we took one of those!! AND...John got the word that his transfer went through to the Lowe's in Wake Forest NC. Thats the town we originally wanted to live in! Sooo...lets keep our fingers crossed that everything goes through with the sale of the house. We have to make another trip down there so we can look at a few more houses and make an offer on one!! I'll be quite busy! Next weekend is Andrew's birthday party so we will probably go down the weekend after that.

I'm headed for bed. I'll catch up with you all later!

TTFN Michelle

Hi all! 2:00 AM and I'm off to bed.

Michelle: Sounds like you've had some exciting goings on lately. Congrats of the fast sale of your home and on honey's confirmed transfer. Good for you guys.

Calling all my Survivor Junkie Friends......
Preview of the next Survivor this Sunday, be there or be square! LOL

I almost missed Thankful Thursday. Glad I peeked in.

I am thankful for this group of ladies
I am thankful for my husband
I am thankful for my health..even though it has lots of room for improvement.
I am thankful I don't have cancer to my knowledge. (Dear friend and sister does)
I am thankful I finally lost more than my one pound ...now to KEEP IT OFF
I am thankful for the mini vacation we are taking this weekend.

That brings me to why I am posting.
I am going out of town in the morning. I won't be back until Tuesday.
They do not have internet there.. and I don't have a laptop.
We are headed for Roaring River State Park near Cassiville MO.
We get to take our granddaughters with us early. The rest of the family is coming Sat afternoon.
Those of you home this weekend... keep our thread going.
Want to be sure we don't miss any newcomers.
Speaking of newcomers.... I am REALLY happy to have you in our group. We all share so many same thoughts and experiences. Yet.. we are each so individual too.
I will return Tuesday. Have a great weekend whether you are out of town or staying home. It is up to US to make our lives enjoyable. That can be as simple as taking a walk.... to fancy as going on vacation. Just enjoy whatever it is you do this weekend.
Remember ... ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING !!!!!!

Hi, I'm Skittles and I am a Survivor Junkie. It is so easy to be one because it comes on right before my favorite show, CSI. Two hours of drama, backstabbing, humor, and all out yummyness. I love William Peterson. Those are two of the three shows I will not miss on tv. The other is Gilmore Girls. I really don't have to watch anything else, ok, "Extreme Home Makeover" Ty, I like Ty. But really that is it. We don't have cable, so we are limited to channels. Which I enjoy cause then I don't watch too much tv. But there are times I miss it. There are channels I would love to have. But alas, if I really want to see it I just have a friend tape it.

So anyway, back to Survivor. I am looking forward to this season cause there is a girl on from around here. She was in a band and had to quit so she could do this, but she couldn't tell them where she was going. Kinda Cool. Also I want to check out the guy with the amputation. That will be cool.

Well it is Friday YeaY and I made it through another week. And it is payday, YeaY, I need the money. And it is a three day weekend Yeay, I'll have a shorter week next week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I am not sure what we are doing yet but if I am around I will post random ramblings.

Everyone who is in the path of Frances, take care and be safe. I have family there and I am not sure if they've had to evacuate or not. So I am waiting to hear from them.

Prayers, happy thoughts, healing energy, and love to all.
Skittles

Even though my DH does not read this thread, and I don't talk about it much, but somehow me must have gotten the message that Friday's are FUN FRIDAY'S, He gotten into this habit of playing golf every Friday. At least that means he's not around the office fussing at me

Good morning ladies!

I'm thrilled to have a day off today!

I wasn't sure whether I'd get off or not clear up to 5 pm last night. The boss continues to improve her b**** skills. She was mad at me for not doing something as she had asked on Thursday. Except that I did do it and spent several hours doing it, and left the result in her office on her work table. She would not acknowledge that she was wrong. I will say that there is something very big going on and has been for several months, and she is beyond sleep deprived. No excuse to treat us bad. She made a point of telling me that since I'm off today, I need to plan on a long week next week to get done what needs to be done. I wanted to say, well you've known what I need to do for over a week now and haven't let me know so I lost a week of time. But I didn't. Enough of that.

The dog and I slept in after DH left for his morning route. The dog enjoys having me at home. I need to work on bill stuff this morning.

I think for fun I'll run up to Hobby Lobby to look at scrapbooking stuff. One of my goals for the weekend is to get started.

I also have some stuff that I may try my hand at selling on ebay. I need to get pictures and figure out how to do the shipping part. That confuses me. But I think, our good friend and ebay pro Thin, said to package it first. So I need boxes. More to research.

I took Bear with me to go to the horses last night since DH was off on a trip. Bear was pretty good except he'd go crazy when I was next to the horses. He'd bark and bark. I think its his protective personality. But I hated coming home, changing clothes, and rushing off leaving him behind yet again. Now that its cooling off, he won't get overheated out there with us.

I think tonight we're riding horses. That's fun!

Tomorrow is cleaning the garage and then spending the afternoon and evening on the boat. I am determined to grill on the boat. I'll make it light and we'll have turkey italian sausages. Maybe I'll even make the potato salad so I can use light mayo.

Since I slept in this morning, I didn't get up and exercise as planned. So I still have that to do. I think I'll do that when DH leaves again to go to the cardiologist.

The big goal for this weekend is to lose 1 pound. That means activity, lots of water, planning healthy foods, and portion control. I do admit to a tad bit of stress eating the last two days at work but they were the mini snicker bars and it was only 2 or 3 and not the whole bag. And I have eaten salads at lunch all week. Enough rationalization!

Did I tell you I bought a pair of Eddie Bauer jeans on ebay? Size 18? I got them on Wednesday. I think they are regular size 18 and not women's size 18. Don't everybody get excited that I can wear size 18. Yet. I bought them because I wanted to see how far off I am from my goal of being able to shop for size 18s. That is my ultimate goal for weight loss anyway. I got them on and no way to zip them up but I GOT THEM ON! My challenge to myself then is to be able to wear those jeans to the Spring Fling II. That is not unrealistic at all. Especially if we keep doing the 1 or 2 pound challenges.

Survivor! I'll be there! The last one about burned me out though. I also like Amazing Race, The Apprentice, CSI, looking forward to CSI-NY because I am obsessed with NY, and HBO shows on Sunday night.

Enough rambling for now. Hope I didn't bore ya!

Christine - Welcome to the group!

Debra - I was wondering about your vacation to FL. How disappointing. But how devastating for the state to have this again!

Andria - Take care of that knee. How frustrating and painful!

I better get productive.

One pound gone by next Tuesday:

Terri
Kat
Judy
Lucky
2Cute
Susie
Skittles
BarbPA
CD
Angela
Thin
Debra
anyone else?

As a group, we lost almost 16 pounds on our last challenge. How much can we add to that with this challenge? Ooooh, I may have to make a spreadsheet to track our accomplishments!

Hey Gals!
Just a quick hello! I am off to another Dr. appt. --- 3rd in 3 days. I'll update you when I get back. Should have time this afternoon!!!
Have a wonderful Friday! Talk to you in a bit!
Hugs!
Barb

Quick "Hi!" I'm off to the pool with the boys. (son and nephew)

Back later!

Getting ready to leave work for a quiet 3-day weekend!!!!

I'll be around and will try to get here for some personal responses. Keep reminding that just because I'm home alone doesn't mean I can eat everything in sight!

Good Afternoon Ladies!

I hope everyone is having a great start to Labor Day week-end. I have had a long week starting back at school and am grateful to be able to be home with my family the next 3 days. My son's school flooded last week, so his school year start was delayed from this past Weds. to next Tues. Damn, why couldn't it have been my school!???

At any rate, back on the South Beach bandwagon starting tomorrow. Looking forward to hommus mixed with a little peanut butter and fat free cottage cheese as a dip for celery. ( I know it sounds icky, but it satisfies every craving for sweets or bread type snacking, and actually tastes really good!).

DH is at work at Hannaford 'til 7 pm and so I am off to play with my little one. I'll be around this weekend for those stopping by. Keep up the good work everyone!

TTFN

Ugh! What a week! I am so glad it's Friday.

DH's work is just crazy right now, which makes everything else even more difficult. He was in Boston one day and worked until about 10pm the rest of the days. He is going to have to do some work over what should be a nice long weekend. The are on crazy deadlines for some projects they have going on. So, that's just made all the rest of the craziness even crazier!

Where to begin.....let's see, on Wednesday I had my yearly appt. with my OB/GYN. I haven't talked to her since she gave us the "zero sperm" diagnosis for DH last December and then left me hanging out there trying to figure out what to do, which left a bad taste in my mouth. So, I really had no desire to get into a lot of it with her because she is not involved in what is going on right now. When I do get pregnant (notice the positive thinking) I will have to return to my OB/GYN, but I am not sure I am going to keep her. I just felt like I had to get my yearly appt. out of the way. Of course she asked, "are you trying to lose weight" --- I wanted to punch her! I have discussed my weight with her in the past and she has been somewhat encouraging, but just doesn't seem genuine. I explained how much I had lost and discussed the emotions and hormones and the gain back and that I am working on it. Next question, "do you exercise, it might make you feel better". UGH!! Has she not listened to anything I've said?? I just wanted to get out of there. So, when she was done I didn't create any more conversation. I just wanted to get dressed and run. Ugh - over with!!!

Then on Thursday I had to hijack DH from work to go to the new IVF lab for an appt. We both had to get blood work - I ended up in the stirrups for a 2nd day in a row! DH had to stick a q-tip you know where for a test. That was all fun. Ugh! The staff was fabulous! We got a tour of the facility and went over everything, which we are pretty well versed in by now. As it turns out the nurse just had twins after her own infertility struggles. She completely understood when I burst into tears while we were talking. She gave us so much encouragement and support. We left there feeling on top of the world for a change. Then DH went back to work and returned around 10pm. Poor guy!

That brings us to today - Friday. Again, stealing DH from work we had to go visit the new urologist. Since we are seeing a new reproductive specialist we had to change urologists - even though we loved the old one. We are not crazy about the new one. He seems ok, but didn't make us feel warm and fuzzy. Poor DH had to have another exam (ouch) and more blood drawn - the nurse really hurt him today digging for a vein. We are back to square one with all his testing. Once we get the results next week we'll know what's next. Sounds like DH may be put on some meds to hopefully increase sperm production before the next biopsy. One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way with this new Dr. was that while we were talking about our treatments and switch to the new Dr. he had the nerver to ask me about my weight, suggesting that it could be a problem with my ovary stimulation. Listen here buddy - I am not your patient, my husband is and I have discussed my weight with my own Dr. who knows how hard I am working on it and doesn't not think it is causing any of my problems! I was furious. Of course I didn't say any of that. I said, "Yes, we have discussed my weight, I have lost some in the past and am still working on it". I just didn't think it was really appropriate.

So, now we wait.....again.

On the weight loss front, I am moving again, slow and steady. I had a pretty good exercise week and plan on exercising each day this weekend. Food could still improve a bit - it would help if I'd go grocery shopping and actually cook at home. I have eaten more at Panera lately than in my house. Thankfully I can get a nice healthy meal there --- they have salad, soups and sandwiches. They have yummy bread that they give you with your order, but I've been telling them not to put it in the bag - that way the temptation is not there! The weather has be gorgeous and the dogs have been getting lots of walks and loving it!

Gosh, I have rambled on and not even replied to anyone! Sorry!!! I will try to make more time for you all this weekend!!! I have to do a few things for work before I call it quits for the day!

I do have to say - Michelle, congrats on the quick sale of the house! Sounds like things are kicking in to gear! I haven't had a chance to ask Jeff about the 11th, but I'd love to see you and Andrew again and meet John. I'll let you know. Will you be down this way anytime soon?

Talk to you all later!
Love,
Barb

Back quickly to say.....WELCOME CHRISTINE!!! Sorry I didn't get that in sooner!

Barb...Sunday Andrew and I will be hanging around the house. If the weather is nice maybe we can meet at the park again! Bring a picnic lunch or something and Charlie of course!! I hope you can make the 11th!!

I'm so tired today! I left work at 2:30 today to take Andrew to the doctors. He has had a fever for about 3 days now. He tested positive for strep throat so now he is on antibiotics and feeling better already! Poor little guy!

I gotta go grill the salmon...I am HUNGRY TOO! Talk at you all later!

Oi, I am sleepy so can't write much..

Today I recieved my pack of Walk Away the Pounds in the mail! After cleaning my room I put in the first video (1 mile, 15mins). It was a piece of cake! It got me worn out just a bit but it still felt great. Then, around 11pm I decided to do the 2miles, 30 mins tape! It was very hard! Okay, I don't think most people walk 4mph! And its a lot more aerobic/dance based than I thought it would be. I was dying half way through but did it completely! I'm definitely happy, and I'm going to try the 2mile twice a day if possible If not, I'll just stick to 1mile twice.

Anywho, just wanted to say how happy I am about that I've been up all night doing artwork, so I'm going to crash! Have a good weekend all of you!