Good for you Theresa. I look forward to nice clothes that I buy because I like them, not because I am grateful that they fit.
Laura

I finally figured out how to get an atavar from my photo files. That's me and a friend on the beach last January, happily missing 10 days of miserable winter. I hope this works.
Laura

Theresa,:bravo: on the new jeans, it always feels great to buy a smaller size.

Melissa, I hope you get your money soon. I think there should be a national law forcing these deadbeats to pay their support on time. It's not right that they can slide by month after month.:judge:

To answer your questions, the reason I'm on bedrest is I have 2 ovarian cysts, one has ruptured and the other is bleeding. Bad thing about it is when I was having a lot of abdominal pain 3 weeks ago, the Dr I saw then said I had gastroenteritis and told me to drink clear liquids for a few days. After 3 weeks I went to my regular Dr and she found the cysts. Hopefully with bedrest I won't have to have any surgery.:no:

I recently joined netflix in order to save money on dvd rentals and found out they have a good selection of exercise videos. I figure it will be a good way to try them out before I buy!!! I'll let you know how it works out when I can start exercising again.

NSV for today----I haven't stomped my hubby yet!!!!

Check in later, Suzette

Sorry to hear you aren't feeling well, Suzette. I hope you can get back on your feet soon and don't need the surgery. I'm glad that at least your doctor was able to diagnose the problem.

Hooray, Theresa on the new jeans!! Doesn't it feel great to go down a size?? It's turned me into a shopaholic...I was never much interested in clothes until I started losing weight. Now you can go to the party and not worry about what you are wearing, know you look great, and just enjoy yourself!

Great picture, Laura...I love the beach! Especially this time of year I would really love to go for a stroll on a nice warm beach. We can never get away during the school year so our trips always have to be in the summer and we never get to get away from our lovely midwest winters.

Melissa I hope your shopping trip goes well! You are so brave! I don't know how you do it. I remember how hard it is to take just 2 little ones to the store.

Sandisuze...THAT is a lot of baking! You are amazing for not sampling!! I have been in the mood to do some Christmas baking (and it's a VERY rare thing that I'm in the mood to do ANYTHING in the kitchen besides EAT) but I've been afraid to do it because I know I'll want to eat it. I am in awe of you for making all that yummy stuff and not eating any of it! Great job!

We've got quite a bit of snow on the ground here and it's been SO COLD! Like -9 the past two mornings, and -14 the morning before that. Awful. I hate the cold, but the snow is really sparkly and pretty right now at least. Hopefully it'll warm up at least a little bit soon, though. I don't even like to leave the house when it's this cold out, and my house doesn't feel all that warm, either.

Tomorrow is the first Christmas party of the season for us. We have at least one every weekend from now until New Year's. It's fun but I do worry about getting off track and having a hard time getting back on. The one tomorrow night shouldn't be too bad. I am taking some almost fat free appetizers to share and lots of diet pop to drink and I know there won't be tons of things there that will be too tempting for me so I'm not stressing about it too much. The one next Saturday at my Grandmas...now that one will be tough. She always has tons of candies and cookies and party mix and I could go on and on. I will have to keep reminding myself how SICK I felt Thanksgiving night after spending all day at her house. I know I can have a few special treats, but I just feel so yucky when I overeat and it's not worth it.

I was off track again today. Below 1200 calories, but some of it was 4 cookies. I really have to plan ahead to stay OP.
Tomorrow night I am going to a dinner party. 3 of my friends and I are doing the food. I can stay OP if I stay out of the appetizers, bread, drinks and dessert. The main course is chicken, rice, salad, string beans. It will be hard. I must keep telling myself how good I will feel if I do it and how miserable I will feel if I fall off. i can't drink because DH is away so I am driving, and the dessert really can be passed over.
Suzette- It sounds like you must be in pain and I hope yourecover soon without having to stomp on your DH. I just looked at netflix and they certainly have a lot of exercise dvds. I do love netfix.
Kayelle-I will think of you when I am struggling to stay OP tomorrw night.
Laura
Laura

Suzette, so sorry about the cysts, it sounds so painful. Does hubby know he's in the danger zone when he comes near you? :lol:

Good luck on you party tomorrow Kayelle! We are getting up early to watch the Christmas parade downtown here in our little bitty town, then going to MILs because she is paying us to muck the horse stalls for her, then home to clean up and go to the Christmas party. I'm not looking forward to any of it really, but I am looking forward to wearing my new jeans :carrot:

I feel kind of silly about the jeans because they are the new fashion style, and I used to just buy the normal old styled jeans, you know high waists and narrow ankle holes :lol: I love the way these new ones feel and fit and how they look, but it's what the "young" people wear and I feel I shouldn't. My mom laughed at me and said I'm only 29 I AM young. I guess I just feel over the hill. But I will wear them because I like them and think they look good.

Theresa

suzette, i hope you are well soon and off your bed rest. that doesn't sound like fun at all. i am so glad i bought all my gifts online this year so i don't have to deal with all the rude shoppers. you wouldn't catch me dead in the wal-mart toy section here -- the rest of the store is bad enough year round. i bet it is murder now!
congrats on the new jeans theresa, that's awesome!
i'm not sure what is with me today. i slept until two, then got up for a couple minutes, and then slept until four. at five i went back to sleep and then i got up at 8:30. i bet i am going to be up all night. that's no good. i have so been stressing about this job. i really hope they call me first thing on monday and tell me one way or the other because this waiting is driving me nuts!
candice :sp:

Get well soon Suzette-that sounds so painful!

Cadwell there is nothing worse than waiting to hear about a job or test results! Just know that if it is your job all will fall into place.

Theresa I am so glad to hear about your jeans and yes you are still young! You won't really realize it until you get into my age bracket. You enjoy those jeans cause you deserve it!

Today is shopping day and I have mixed feelings. Both Odessa and Logan were up at 5a today and Logan just went down for a snooze after playing and having some breakfast. I would love to be able to sleep all night again. Getting up this early wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been up at least once in the night. I figured Logan would sleep better since he didn't go down until 730 and he had a full tummy. Boys definately eat more often. Logan just started giving kisses-they are very wet and juicy but he is a kissing bandit! I cracked up laughing the other day cause Logan drooled on Odessa and she was absolutely grossed out by it. She just carried on and kept telling me "gross". How quickly they don't remember what drool machines they were at one time. Since I have a couple hours at least before other people wake up, I guess I will clean out the fridge and get some stuff straightened up. When I get home, I will get those menus done. I am really feeling great about getting totally back OP but a littel apprehensive about getting on the scale tomorrow. What a riot-I eat OP and can't leave the scale alone but since I have been mostly off-I haven't been anywhere near it or even thought about weighing myself. Will check in later
melissa

Well the shopping is done and everyone came out alive. Of course now I am ready for a nap but I need to do laundry and start the bath brigade too. I got my menus done through Thursday too-woohoo. Has anyone tried that weight control instant oatmeal yet? I bought some today to try. I just can't believe how expensive it is. Of course healthy food is more expensive. I figured it out and the other night when I made top ramen for the kids, it cost me a whole .50 to feed the whole family but at what price really?
melissa

:wave: I did it!! I bribed the guard :burger:(my dog who barks everytime I move), snuck past the sleeping general :fr:(dh), climbed down the mountain, ;) ( 2 flights of stairs) and infiltrated the communications room :comp: .(can you tell I'm bored???)

Melissa, glad to hear you finally got to go grocery shopping. I don't know how you managed with 4 kids:dizzy: I hope the miserable ex coughs up the support soon, :rollpin:

Theresa, you earned those new jeans so go out and strut your stuff girl, You Rock!!!:dancer:

Candace, I hope you hear good news about the job real soon:crossed: :goodluck:

Laura B, just keep taking it day by day, each day is one day further from the old Laura and one day closer to the new, fabulous you!!!:encore:

Kayelle, you are truly an inspiration to us all. Everytime I look at what you have accomplished it helps me realize that I can do this weight loss thing. So, :thanks: for being a bright light in a long tunnel.

Ok, I know, enough with the smilies!!!!

Time to sneak back upstairs, Have a great day everyone!!!

(This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds in order not to incriminate the writer):s: :bomb:

ROFLMBO!!!!! Too funny! Boredome is sometimes one of the great aspects of creativity. Sorry it is so boring for you but remember you are important and even though it is hard, gotta follow dr.s orders! I wound up getting menus done for the whole week and there is only going to be a day that I will have to fix. I just found out this morning Maryann is coming to visit today so that will be a portion that I have to factor out-but oh it is sooooo worth it. It will be so nice to see another grownup-even though my house is a mess. After the shopping yesterday, I wasn't worth a plug nickle and my hips were killing me along with the lower back. I feel much better today and took an extremely hot shower to loosen up the muscle. I will check in later on. Right now gotta run around like crazy before she gets here.
melissa

Good morning everybody!

Melissa glad you survived your shopping trip! Sounds like it was exhausting and glad that you are feeling better today. Hope you have an enjoyable visit, too! Good job with the menus...that's a great way to stay on track. I am the same way about not wanting to step on the scale if I've eaten something that I feel like I shouldn't. I usually just allow myself a few days off until I feel like I'm back on track.

Misty...lol...enjoyed your post! And yes, you CAN do this weight loss thing!! It just takes lots of time and patience and not giving up. I still struggle with old habits wanting to sneak up and take over sometimes, I just have to remind myself how hard I worked to get to this point and how much better healthier I feel and more confidence I have.

candice...guess you needed to catch up on sleep! You must have been overly tired and needed the sleep. Hope you hear about the job soon and hope it's great news!


Theresa I know exactly what you mean about the new style jeans. I'm 35 (29 sounds sooo young to me) and really felt weird wearing the new styles at first, but now I love them. How did the party go? I'm sure you looked fabulous in your new jeans and I hope you had a great time.

Laura those 4 little cookies wouldn't hurt you since you stayed in your calorie range anyway. You did great to not let them lead to a binge! Did you have a good time at the party? Hope it was fun!

The party I went to was lots of fun and I was able to stay on track so I'm pretty pleased. The meat was pork loin and I don't eat pork at all so that was easy. There was a huge table full of yummy appetizers but there were a few guilt-free choices so I was ok there. The dessert table was small and I had a harder time staying away from that but I somehow managed without even a sample (I really wanted one of those oreo balls but I resisted). Sweets are just really hard for me still sometimes. I had some grapes and cantaloupe before I left home so I know that helped me get through the night. I did keep a bottle of Diet A&W in my hand all night to sip on, too, and that helped me stay away from the Irish Cream & Buttershots (my fave). So...I had a good night overall and it was A LOT of fun so I'm really glad we went.

We got home late so I slept in this morning and then started off my day with my Tae Bo cardio DVD and I plan on getting on the nordictrack for a while this afternoon. I find working out is the only way I can keep warm lately. My hands and feet are freezing all the time.

Hope everybody is having a great Sunday!

I am so glad you had fun and I can't wait to get to where you are! I guess you could say I am fortunate on one hand that there are no parties for me to attend during the holidays although I do miss the adult conversation that goes with it. With all my kids, we don't get invited over much and I can't blame anyone either. Amanda has officially started the twos and is into everything! I can't get over how busy she has become. Everyone keep up the good work!
Melissa

Best part of the party: a girl of about 11 or 12 was followig me around to play with Tyler and ask how old I was. I told her almost 29 and her eyes got real wide and she said "you don't look that old. I thought you were a teenager and had all these kids!" :lol: She's too young to know what teenagers look like I guess.

Oh, but if hubby's ex-girlfriends looks could kill, I'd have been dead on the floor the second we walked in that. She kept giving me these horrible looks, like I murdered someone. I just brushed it off and ignored her.

I got to go Christmas shopping today....ALONE!!! Hubby and I struck up a deal, I got to go shopping while he kept the kids, and now he is out joy riding the motorcycle while I keep them. It was nice to be on my own, even in the mess called Walmart. I saw this man slam his cart into another cart on purpose and yell at this scared lady "Move outta my f***ing way!" It was a very loud bang when he slammed the carts and it pushed her cart into a display and knocked a few things to the ground, then he pushed by her because everyone had cleared the way for him. His wife went along behind him, eyes on the ground, red faced, and I wondered what it is like to live with someone with that much anger.

Kayelle, glad you got to stay OP at your party. I hardly ate anything at mine because I shared my plate with Ty and he ate about all of it...good way to control it I guess!

Melissa, very glad you have good food in the house again. You deserve that and much, much more.

Cadwell, nice day of napping there! Your body must have needed it and it helped you pass one day of waiting, so no harm done I'd say. Bet you were up all night though!

Theresa

Hi ladies,
Good to see everyone in such good spirits!!

Suzette-You are a crackup! Hope you feel better soon!

Theresa- :carrot: WooHoo!! New jeans! I wore my 20's today, not too bad! How was the party???
We only have one party this year, next Sunday at church, shouldn't be too bad, I will take something healthy. There is actually a weight loss group at my church called Prism. I read through thier literature and said NO WAY! It's like a cross between Atkins and Sugar Busters-no carbs, no sugars, no white anything. You have to sign an agreement that you will follow all the rules and you have a buddy to call if you break a rule. I am in this for a lifestyle change and that is just something I cannot follow for the rest of my life.

Kayelle-I have to echo everyone else-You are an inspiration!! Don't ever feel unworthy of our praises! You started where we did and you are where we would like to be. We all wish we had your determination! GOOD JOB!!

Melissa-Once again you managed to get shopping done with those little ones :bravo: I can see why you would have no energy afterwards. I still haven't managed to sit down and make a menu, kind of hard right now with no stove, but the landlord promised someone will be here this week. (I'm not holding my breath!!) My kids don't mind living off Hot Pockets and waffles! Hubby will be on his 6 days off starting Tuesday, so I hope someone does show up for the stove!

Have you all read through food here at 3FC? There is so much! I got some really good chicken recipes last night. I have to go look up some beef today. Hubby's brother is a cowboy and got a whole cow, and is giving us half! Will definitely help on the food bill, just wish I liked beef more! Chicken is my choice. Too bad he didn't work on a chicken ranch!!!:dizzy:

Well, gotta get these kids moving. All they want to do is watch cartoons today!

Kathy