I once read about a woman who had lost over 200 pounds. She didn't have surgery--she was doing the good ol' healthy diet and exercise. She was still overweight, but she was doing everything right. She had a perfect nutritionist-approved diet and was exercising nearly every day, both cardio and weights. She knew she was in the best shape of her life. Then she had a heart attack.

When I read that story, I was so infuriated! I was like, what's the point of doing everything right if you're just gonna get screwed anyway?! I talked to my mother and sister about it, and they felt the same way. It was so depressing to think that we can change and do everything "right" and still end up hurt.

Then, I talked to my boss at my old job about it. Her first reaction was, "wow, she's so lucky." Lucky?! I didn't understand how this poor woman who had worked so hard only to end up in the hospital could be lucky. My boss explained: "Well, if she were still as overweight and unhealthy, she probably wouldn't have survived the heart attack at all." What an amazing way of looking at it. I had never even thought about it from that side. She was right--the woman was lucky.

I guess my point is that maybe now that Howie has lost that 140 pounds, medical treatments will be easier for his body to handle, ya know? Maybe the surgery won't be as bad as it was the first time around because, even if he was lighter when he had surgery last time, this time his body is so healthy. He's got such a great diet and exercise routine that has helped him lose 140 pounds so far--I bet that super-healthy body of his could withstand surgery much better this time around. I hope he does what he needs to do to fix it before it gets worse :(

And my goodness, Aimee! How long will it be till they find out exactly what is wrong with your Josh? I really hope Howie and Josh both get fixed (well, we all know Howie's already been "fixed," but you know what I mean ;) )!!

As for pictures, my computer is all kinds of messed up since Jeff put Windows XP on it (to replace Windows ME--Mistake Edition--that I'd always had on it). Well, actually, my computer isn't messed up at all--it's running much better. However, programs that I had on it before are no longer available (since I got the computer back in 2000 and have no idea where any of my discs are). Included in the long list of programs that have since fallen by the wayside is my photo editing program. I can take pictures and upload them to my computer from my camera, but I can't resize them, so they are HUGE! There's probably a way to do it, but I haven't had the time to sit and figure it out.

Anyway, it doesn't much matter because I HATE my hair! Now I remember why I always kept it long--I could just brush it and leave it down or throw it up in a ponytail no problem. Now I remember how when it's short, the left side always looks perfect, and the right side always looks like sh!t. The left side does this thing where it just naturally flips out at the bottom, and it looks REALLY cute--I love it. However, the right side is completely ******ed. It doesn't really flip just out or under...it kinda does both, and the end result is horrible. I hate having to use a blow dryer or curling iron to fix it, and even when I do get it the way I want it, then I have to use hair wax to keep it there, and then it does its own thing after like an hour or so anyway, so my efforts were fruitless. It's just so frustrating. I SO don't have time for high-maintenance hair! :mad:

Oh, I was down 1/4 pound at TOPS last night. I'm pretty sure I would have stayed the same if I hadn't cut over 8 inches of hair off, but I'll take it anyway :p

Hey, hair has weight, but not that much. ;) Go for it.

Your post touched me, Jill, thank you. I sent the part about Howie to him in an e-mail. He's got so much going on in that back of his, he's really worried. I don't even want to think about it.

I hear you about the short hair. I look, umm, very interesting each day I get up. The best thing I did was get a little metal-barreled bristle brush. I twirl my hair around it as I dry it, curling it toward he front. When it's dry, I spray it lightly with hairspray (just a mist), wait a moment, and run my fingers through it toward the back. Then I give it a good "helmet of hairspray" covering. I do miss throwing it into a ponytail, and I miss not needing hairspray...But I love having it short.

Software-wise, check out these options. They're free and they work great, especially for someone who wants to do basic photo editing:

Google's Picasa2 catalogs your photos and makes them quickly searcheable. Its effects work pretty well, too. To resize a photo, you crop it and tweak the color as you wish, then click the export button. There, you tell it what size you want the image to be. One big plus is that you can crop images to the ratio needed for various print sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10).

Irfanview (be sure to download the plug-in's file, one of which lets you rotate and save your JPG files with no loss of quality). It's a marvelous little program!

A little more complicated, but very fun, is Photofiltre. You can do more with color correction, cloning to cover blemishes, etc.

I'm a complete photo junky, so I try just about every free photo editor I see mentioned. Irfanview I always keep on my PC because it lets me arrow through an entire directory of photos full-sized (rather than having to open one at a time) and quickly cull those that don't make the grade. It's also not a memory hog.

A whole day without me posting.. whats this world coming to?!?! Yesterday before work I managed to pull a muscle up my entire back and neck.. ouchies! I was pretty much paralyzed last night, and got on the couch and didn't move. This morning was a bit better.. but I had to work.. I arrived to work and my district manager showed up at 9:10 (I arrived at 8:30), the district manager from the interior of BC arrived around 9:25, and the regional manager and HER boss arrived at 9:35. They rearranged the store, moved the sterio, put one some peppy dance music, and started selling. They really did boost our sales for the day, it was impressived really... but at the same time unknown to me... it was a working interview for me. Which I wasn't prepared for, mostly because I had no idea. It was all over a stressful morning, and then a staff member didn't show up for work... I tell yah, I'm not sure I'm ready to deal with this crap.. I'd have fired this girl MONTHS ago!

Well enough venting from me! I could go on for hours/days/weeks! Some news came back on Josh, he tested positive for Mono. They are still waiting for some test results, and are worried about his liver, so more tests are being done on Monday.. I tell yah, that body is going to have NO blood left soon! Keep those fingers crossed that I don't have mono too!

Well gals! Hope you are having a GREAT weekend!!

-Aimee

Oh, mono...Lovely mono. I had that in high school, during my freshman year. I failed a class and had to take it again my sophomore year. Ready for the class? Health. Yeah, I had to sit through HEALTH class again due to mono. Blargh! Keeping you and Josh in my prayers. :)

I had a great afternoon and night. From 3-7:30pm I worked in the yard, planting a newly-cleared flowerbed. My MIL went with us to Caribou for coffee, then after we dropped her off, we headed over to Wal-Mart and did a little clothes shopping. Howie was on-call last weekend, so he has extra money coming in this next paycheck; he said we both needed clothes, so happy birthday to me (it's Monday, the big three-eight).

It gets better. I bought a clearanced pair of Levi bootcut stretch denim jeans....In size 16. OMG, size 16! They're just tight, but they'll loosen up when I've worn them an hour, and they'll fit for a while yet even when they get a little looser. But 16! And I got a couple of 18/20 button-up, fitted shirts. I have a little left in the clothes budget, so I'm going to cruise eBay.

And HOWIE? Are you ready for this? He bought XL shirts and size 42 jeans! This man was in a 4x at the beginning of the year! Some XL's fit him fine in the chest, but are too snug around his belly still, but some fit well.

Gee, it's nice to look forward to clothes shopping.

Kimberley - it's amazing the transformation Howie is undergoing... going from an 4X to an XL is VERY impressive!! And you in a 16! Good going :) I can't wait to start to enjoy shopping again too! I'm addicted to deal shopping, and there are MUCH more skinnier stores with sales!
HAPPY EARLY BDAY! We all have bday's pretty close to eachother, eh? Well mine isn't until the middle of August.. but I'm already preparing for it. I hope you have a GREAT day, don't eat too much cake! :)

I'm starting to feel a little under the weather, my neck and back are INSANELY sore, and wow, I'm tired. I am keeping my fingers crossed it's not from Josh, which I doubt because we've been making sure not to drink from the same glasses, or kiss (it's been 3 weeks with no kisses!). I've been thinking about the whole dieting thing, along with exercise, and I'm thinking combining a bunch of different things will work the best for me, I was thinking about the "8 Minutes in the Morning" guy, he has a diet where you eat every 3 hours. I'm sure it's just combining the same types of foods are most diets, but I like the eating every 3 hours idea. And the 8 minutes in the morning weight program is an interesting idea as well... I'm just babbling.. thinking out loud I guess. Anyways! Have a great Monday!

-Aimee

Hope you feel better soon. Is your neck gland-sore or muscle sore?

I eat about every three hours, and it keeps me from being ravenous and overeating when I do eat.

We just got done watching the "Double Crossed" episode of "What Not to Wear" and "While You Were Out". Did you see that one? Great fun! I used to want to be on WNTW, but now I have a clue about what I should wear. Still, it'd sure be nice to have my new goal wardrobe funded by TLC. Can you imagine?? :D

Ahh, Monday morning--struggling to keep my eyes open, as per usual :p

Aimee--I hate that Josh (and possibly you!) have mono, but at least they found out what it is so they can treat it and make everything all better! I've got my fingers crossed that YOU haven't caught it :crossed:

Kimberley--I can't WAIT to be excited for clothes shopping, too! A size 16--ooh, it seems SO far away! How awesome, though, to be able to buy things in the "misses" section instead of PLUS sizes all the time. You guys are doing splendidly!!

My weekend was a bust food-wise. Well, I stayed on-plan for Friday (except for the soup and breadstick I had at Olive Garden..."pasta" was my meal for that night, so I didn't give myself any grief for the cheese ravioli I ate ;) ). Saturday, I was perfectly on-plan (except that I didn't wait the full 2.5 hours between my first two "meals"...I had my mixed nuts about an hour after my fruit, but I still stuck to my menu). Then yesterday, all H-E-double-hockey-sticks broke loose! Jeff's older cousin had one of those PartyLite parties (where they come to your house and sell candles and stuff), and she made so much awesome food! She made a pina colada cake (yellow cake with rum in it and icing with shredded coconut) and Toquitos and home-made bread and fruit with AWESOME dip and this croissant roll thingy with chicken and cheese...ooh, I am drooling just thinking about half this stuff! And yes, I ate it all. And yes, I had more than one piece of each (except the cake--luckily, I am not a huge fan of coconut :p ). And according to my diet, yesterday was supposed to be my all fruits and veggies day. So much for that!

So of course, I came home expecting to weigh at least 2 more pounds than when I'd left on Friday, especially since I also hadn't been drinking enough water all weekend (oh, and did I mention the jr. bacon cheeseburger, fries, and small frosty I had in the car on the way home from Jeff's last night?! I was so out of control!!). Lo and behold, I peeked at the scale this morning (so what else is new?), and was pleasantly surprised. Just to make sure, I stepped off, let it turn off (it's a digital scale), and turned it back on, and stepped on again. Down by 1.5 pounds. I swear, I will NEVER understand my body! If I ate like that every day, I would be 500 pounds by now, but I guess my body was happy with it this one time. Who knows...but I certainly am NOT complaining and will be strictly on-plan all this week, since my parents are coming down from Connecticut and my sister is coming up from Va Beach to visit me this weekend, and we are having dinner at PF Changs (AWESOME Chinese bistro) Friday night and Maggiano's (AMAZING family-style Italian food) on Saturday night. I'll be sure to eat lots of yummies but try to stick to much smaller portions to limit the damage.

I spent $73 at the candle party. For that amount, I got this REALLY cool purple lantern thingy (called the Zen Lantern) that holds 3 tea lights and a set of votive holders that can actually be 2 little glass votive holders and 2 ball candle holders. I also got a 12-pack of votives (since they were on sale for $3 a dozen!). I LOVE candles, and they had so many awesome things in that catalog, so I am considering hosting my own party in order to get the discount on stuff I want. I also spoke to the woman about possibly becoming a consultant (so I could kiss Ruby Tuesday good-bye!), and she seemed very excited and encouraging, saying that there was SO much opportunity in this area and so few consultants. I am thinking about it--there is no financial obligation (as long as you hold a party that takes in at least $350, you get the kit for free, and Jeff's cousin took in over $450 in sales at her party, so I think I could do it), and if you don't like it, you can just stop doing it, so there's no real commitment. My sister did something similar with pearl jewelery and didn't have much success, but she enjoyed the parties she did do, plus she got to keep all the sample jewelery ;) I will have to think it over a bit more and talk to some people here to make sure I could have a successful party to start it off, but the consultant at this party said she made about $38,000 her first year (that was doing it part-time for 5 months, then quitting her full-time job and doing this full-time for the rest of the year), and that she made over $137,000 last year (not that I would EVER expect to reach that point, but it's good to know some people can be so successful with it). She was so nice and not at ALL pushy, so I think I might be able to do it. We'll see...

Well, I have successfully babbled entirely too long. Thanks for not strangling me for these long-winded posts :D Hope your weeks start off on the right foot (and stay that way!)!!

FIRST! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBERLEY!!!!! :) :hb: :hat:

Kimberley - my muscles are sore, and last night my ARM was all tingly (the right one), it went away.. but SO very weird feeling! I'm falling apart, I'm hoping that I'm just tired from all this working stuff. I LOVED that double crossed episode, I got all hyper watching it.. lol. I'd like to be on the show because I have issues finding clothes that fit my body properly.. and would LOVE input on that! I think I'm also boring with what I wear and how I do my hair... wouldn't it be fun to spend 5000 on new clothes?

Jill - don't hurt me please :sorry: I heard from a WW counsellor that it takes up for 3 days for a binge on bad food to appear on your scale. I had that experience at Christmas too.. it was very un-nice... mostly because mine resulted in a 5 pound gain! (over 3 days.. scary!) Just get back on plan and I'm sure you will be fine though ! :) I have heard of Partylite as well, and definitely if you know a group of people who enjoy those things it can be profitable! Do research! I feel like a bag today, you canslap me now! :lol: There is only one Olive Garden in the lower mainland (span of 12 cities), I went to it, and it SUCKED. I remember going to the Olive Garden when I lived WAY East of here, and it was soooo soooo good.. I guess in a way it's good that it sucks here.. pasta is always my downfall!

Well I work today, but then get Tuesday and Wednesday off, I am looking forward to that, hoping my back muscles can heal! I am planning to hit the beach tomorrow with a friend, its about an hour away by car, but it's SO worth the drive :) Now if that sun will stay hot... ! Have a GREAT Monday :)

-Aimee

Yeah, I have heard that overeating can take a few days to show up on the scale, too, but I am usually up on Mondays from eating too much over the weekend, and I was down, so even if it goes back up a little, I think I will be okay for my weigh-in at TOPS on Thursday night.

I checked a little online this morning about PartyLite stuff, and the only negative comments I found were from 2002 about orders taking too long to come in or something (and then this dumb lady who b!tched about how her check bounced because her bank hadn't cleared other checks she deposited--SO not PartyLite's fault!). I will, of course, research a bit more. I also have to book 6 parties in my first 2 weeks, so I need to make sure I have friends who will be willing to have parties if I decide to try this. Worst case scenario, I don't like it or don't get enough bookings, and I quit doing it and stay at Ruby Tuesday. No harm done (cept maybe a few more hours without sleep for that week :p ). I'm really not expecting to make my first million through PartyLite ;)

And, of course,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIMBERLEY!!! :D :balloons:

Jill - I felt like such a downer with that post to you.. take it as caring! It's great that you can get out of Partylite if you want to... although.. you should do the sex toys parties! ;) teehee

Kimberley - how's your day going?? I hope you are out having TOO much fun to come in and post on your bday!

It looks like I'm going to the beach tomorrow! I bought some beach snacks today, some 100% juice boxes, and some mini rice cakes. They have this place on the beach that makes the BEST hot dogs and hamburgers... a little splurge on day 3 of my re-dieting.. oh well! heh.

-Aimee

Goodmorning! I keep waking up with these headaches, we are trying to keep drugs out of the house so Josh won't take any. I also got up early this morning for the beach, however my friend is nowhere to be found... meaning I can't get ahold of her. So I get a few minutes to myself this morning, not always a bad thing :)

Have a GREAT day gals.. I'm going to go read my book curled up on my bed!

-Aimee

For some reason, I didn't get any notifications for the posts here; wonder what's wonky with the watched threads this time. I got some notifications, just none for this thread. Sorry I missed your birthday greetings -- Thanks so much! :)

Aimee, if you wanted sun and heat THIS was the place to be. It got to 97 yesterday, and the heat index was 111. Today was cooler, only 95. A rainstorm that blew through here yesterday really hammered my veggie garden, blowing stuff around. If you can picture it, my cucumber vines were blown so they stretched out in the opposite direction than they had before. They started out stretching across the ground toward our driveway, but ended up trailing into my neighbor's yard. LOL!

I overslept and missed a hair appointment today --- geez, I felt badly about that. The guy's been doing my hair since the late 1980's and we consider him a friend. Bless his heart, he got me in late this afternoon. After that, my MIL and I lounged at Caribou Coffee for a while. By the time we got home, it was dark, so I set up my spotlight and tied up the tomato plants by lamp light. Boy, those tomatoes are getting big, and so are a few of the peppers. Won't be long now...*yum*.

Kimberley - Wow, 111 is 42 degrees C! Thats crazy hot! While it definitely gets that hot where my mom lives, its never that hot here. We are too close to the ocean I suppose, it's also a different kind of heat here... anything over 28 degrees C and you are melting! Sounds like you had a nice day, and a nice sleep in :) I absolutely love birthdays and try my hardest to get everyone as into them as I am... it doesn't always work though. This year however, I totally got my mom into the birthday spirit. I even got her making a list of everything she wanted, some of them we couldn't get, because they were pretty out there... but making the list is the fun part! :)

So I ended up going to the beach after all! And you can all slap me... I got ANOTHER stupid sun burn. Now, I'm SO careful, I got a sunburn on my arm this year in May, and since then I put on sunscreen even if I'm only going out in the sun for half an hour. I always wear stuff on my face, ugh! And so yesterday when we arrived at the beach the kids immediately wanted to go into the water (my friends son, and the kid she babysits), so they wanted me to come along. I quickly got my arms, legs, chest, reapplied on my face, but missed my back. Grr! It was QUITE the adventure going to the beach with an 18 month old boy, and a 3 year old boy. I was in charge of the 18 month old, so I chased him all over the beach, got down and dirty with him playing in the sand, splashed water with both of them... and today my back is aching, my arms want to fall off, and my thighs.. oh my thighs! Lets just say I'm not ready for children!

Today I was called into work, but I just can't work 6 days in a week, my body just won't let me. Instead I slept in, and might go to the beach this afternoon.... but I will apply sunscreen to my back BEFORE I leave the house!

Where is Jill?!?! It's the middle of the week!!

-Aimee

We've got to rally the ladies -- this is getting ridiculous, LOL! Oooooh, sorry about your sunburn.

Last night, we got the MOST encouraging e-mail from someone we know from another site. This lady had a neurological problem last year and was very sick. She ended up being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital and received excellent care and shared with us the toll-free referral line for their neurology department. She said she knows a couple who has been very blessed financially this year and, if it comes to Howie needing surgery and being accepted at JH, our travel and hotel expenses will be covered -- no questions, for as long as needed.

THAT, friends, is a God thing.

Kimberley - thats great news! I hope it all works out :) My brother's gf fell ill a week after their vacation to Nelson, and had to go to the hospital and get TONS of testing done. Well, since her medical doesn't cover everything 100%, it's going to cost her a few bucks.. It often shocks me that people have to pay for health care, I wish I could adopt you and Howie and then he could come get better for free. But since I don't think thats possible.. I will keep all my fingers and toes crossed that everything works out!

We really DO need to get all these chicks back here..it's FAR too lonely eh?

-Aimee