New Beginings

The black shirt is from Christmas - its the original before.

The red/hospital gown is after losing 20 pds in the two weeks before surgery.

He is home.

No more complications.

A few very long days of recovery and then we start to walk!

I have lost and gained back the 4 pounds and am still working on losing.

Healthy diet, exercise and sticking to it - should help.

This is the last stage on my Path to Me.

The first few stages were waking up, getting active, accomplishing goals and re-finding my sense of humor.

The last phase and the longest is to lose all the depression and baby weight that I gained.

Will keep you posted.

This is a little bit of the amazing moments that kept me away from my blog. Sorry, its been so long. Will keep you posted on our weight loss.

The hub's and recovery

Monday Hubby went in for Gastric Bypass Surgery.

He was supposed to come home today.

Supposed, is the key word.

There was a minor complication.

Minor as in, it won't cause any problems, need surgery ect ect.
Complication as in, he's not home.
Tomorrow they will x-ray him again, check his progress and decide whether or not to release him.

You see they have to check to make sure there aren't any holes. However, sometimes - like this time - they see something else.
The upper intestine was LARGE, filled with air. The small intestine wasn't moving. Two things can cause this, a blockage and a temper tantrum.
Luckily for my hubby his is due to a temper tantrum. (They have a very technical term for it) However its when the muscle refuses to squeeze again.
In other words its angry at being cut and throwing a baby fit.

On its own it will start to work again within a few days at max. They will go in and x-ray him again tomorrow and see if its moving yet.
If it is then he will be released.
If not he will spend another night in the hospital.
Thankfully all of this is covered by insurance.
As long as the doctor notes it in the charts (and he has) we have already met our out of pocket deductible so this is all a free ride.
Too bad its not more fun.

The kids and I, miss him, miss normal and frankly I think I could drive to the hospital blindfolded.

Will post photos hopefully tomorrow.
The good news is in the 2 weeks pre-surgery hubby lost 20 pounds! Can you imagine how quickly he might lose the weight over the next few months?
I really have to kick my butt into gear so I can catch up!

A long time with a long road

Its been two months since I have posted. I am sorry.
I have so many things I would love to share and document.
So many projects, activities, and family events that I have stored away wanting to share.

They were swept away with our recent choice. My husband is going in for Gastric Bypass Surgery, tomorrow.
For the past two weeks he has had nothing to eat, drinking only fluids and protein shakes.
I tried to follow the same diet as he did, I made it 2 days. Kid you not, I get grouchy without food!

Instead I swapped to eating breakfast (smaller portions and calories) and dinner (also smaller portions).
In the two weeks I have lost 4.5 pounds. Tomorrow we will find out how much hubby has lost.

We are determined to have our lives back.
Since this is a very physically demanding task - losing so much weight so quickly weakens you - we have been running around the house finishing off projects, getting the house as ready as we can for the next few months.

We have even worked more on the kids playground as they will be off school soon.
In the mean time while my husband is off work recovering (you have to be able to move around and his job is sedate) we are hoping to get some house painting done.
Today we finished fixing the out side lights, the leaky faucet and a few things out side.

Tomorrow at 1:30 pm we go in and he should be released to come home Tuesday.
 I will post more - hopefully some before and after photos as well!

An Eye Full

So today was a full day of running around.

First off I dropped off Patch for his hair and nail cut appointment.

Then I came home (attempted to clean but didn't).

Ran back to pick him up and run him by the house.

At which time I then had to run to the school grab both kids for their first eye visit.

First off I am not a slacker when it comes to getting things checked but I have paid attention to my children and Prissy has always seemed to have great vision.

It wasn't until this year that G'man started complaining about seeing the board at school.

Then he started getting closer and closer to the TV to watch it.

After talking with his teacher I made an appointment for both of them.

No surprise Prissy has 20/20 vision.

G'man is nearsighted,

but he also has astigmatism in his left eye.

Which can cause blurry vision, tired eyes and cause further damage if left to struggle on.

The good thing is that he will only need to wear the glasses at school.

For sports, summer and around the house he will hand them over to me to take care of.

So the above has a photo of the glasses we ordered and will be here shortly.

I have to say that I LOVE our Shopko eye center!

Our Dr. Broadbend was amazing with G'man. 

Talked him through everything, calmed him down about what was going to happen and was amazingly patient!

Patches before and after photo!

He is so cute!

Sunny Day Picnic

I know I haven't been blogging lately - I wish I could say I was very busy - saving the world - something fun.
In truth though I have been done with the cold crappy weather. I lacked ambition. Focus.

Today, however, the sun came out! It was actually warm and dry!
The kids decided to celebrate by spending most the day outside - including begging for a picnic lunch outside.

A few months ago (my southwest Miche party) I bought 120 nacho bowls. (and yes that was the smallest amount I could buy at a time!)
Now I have been finding tons of fun uses for these containers around the house.
Today was another great day!
I made their sandwiches (turkey for G'man & PB&J for Prissy) in the cheese area I added some chips.

Yesterday we ran to IKEA, my hubby has a chair. A very special chair. The only chair.
You see a few years ago hubby had back surgery. This makes it very hard for him to bend, or move up and down.
Thus he can not have a soft, plushy, squishy chair. It needs to be firm. Supportive.
This is a chair we bought a few years ago at Ikea. Then the kids got a hold of it and... well after a few years of my children trying to climb the chair and their papa, it broke.
As this is the ONLY recliner we have ever found (5 years searching) that does not hurt his back, we went and got him a new one! This is his b-day, valentines day & fathers day all rolled into one.

I have lots of fun news I will be posting this week so I will be back! and soon!

Valentines 2013

First off - Happy Birthday to my Sweet Sister Dawn Marie! I love you!

For the holiday I helped make both of my children's Valentines Day "boxes".
Prissy's is actually a soup can I painted and then she added stickers too.
G'man's was the funnest box I have ever done. Thanks to pinterest, I found several variations of the Monster box and had lots of fun creating a monster for my son.
He LOVED it! and he won the best box award!

I also, to celebrate, did my nails yesterday. I also got this tip from pinterest to use a freezer bag to help make the shapes before adding them to your nails!
Thank you pinterest!

Prissy also has a "special" friend over today. She likes him, he likes her... yeah its rough being a mom.
However, as I won't let me daughter date so being special friends is as close as its getting.
N had a rough day today, some of his friends left his jump roping team and stole several of his other team mates as well.
So today he started training Prissy and G'man.
I told him good luck.

G'man - he would do amazing if he would settle down to take directions.
Prissy - she is my shining star, my love, but her balance.... well she got that from her Auntie. (okay and a little bit of it from me)
But N likes her and wants to spend time with her - and have a jump roping team - so I said good luck.

Now I am not much for this over the top lovey dovey day. I don't mind hanging a heart on my door and doing my nails.
The rest has always been my sisters birthday day and I am okay with that.

I don't like flowers - they make it hard for me to breathe.
I don't like expensive jewelry as I am allergic to gold and silver.
I don't like Chocolate's (well I will take a little bit) because I am FAT.
I don't like Pink.
I don't like Red.

My hubby has it easy with me. Once before we were married he bought me a pearl necklace. I love it. It has silver and is now waiting for my daughter to grow up.

I am cooking a special dinner tonight as we did our special Chinese dinner over the weekend.
After that its life as usual.

So for those over the top lovey dovey people... good for you. I however, would rather have my hubby treat me like an angel all the days of the year than waste it all on one day. (or wasting our money)

Wordless Wednesday