I'm in love!!!

No, I'm not going to gush on about my husband. (Tho, I do kind of like him!) I'm going to gush on about my new shoes!

http://www.famousfootwear.com/product.asp?product_id=1015553&variant_id=68143?CMP=KNC-Adwords&partnerid=Adwords&cpc=Adwords&campaign=FF-Nike&hbx_ou=50&cpckw=Nike%20Alvord&hbx_pk=Nike%20Alvord


They are super comfortable! I didn't want to go the gym today because my feet were hurting so bad yesterday. I did an hour on the treadmill and my shoes were slipping around on my feet. I ended up with some spots that were rubbed pretty raw. :( But, I got up this morning (a little bit later due to excessive snooze button punching!), put on my new shoes and went to the gym. I only had time to do the treadmill for 45 minutes. :( But, my feet didn't hurt at all. They actually felt better once I put on the shoes. Sarah had recommended some socks for me to get, but they didn't have them anywhere around here. I did buy some athletic socks with moisture wicking. What a difference new shoes and socks make!!!

We were out really late last night. I tried Foot Locker. They had the Nike + shoes that I'm really interested. But, none in my size. The good news about going there first is that I finally learned my shoe size. All my life, I'd had wide feet. I've always bought wide shoes. But, apparently losing weight has changed the size of my feet as well. I went to Famous Footwear. I found the above shoes. I bought them, still wanting the Nike+. I figured that if I found the Nike+, I would still need a different pair of sneakers for things other than the gym. Then we went to JC Penney. They had a pair of Nike+ in my size. They are pink. I will have to learn to get over that. :( I bought them. Now I need the Nike sensor. I tried Best Buy, Target and Wal-mart. NO luck! :( I did buy an armband for my 2nd Gen ipod touch. But, my arm is still too big for it. I don't know if I should buy a different one online. The armband I bought doesn't have a lot of stretch. Maybe a more elastic armband will do the trick, but I would really hate to waste money on something I can't use. :( Stupid fat arms! When are you going to get smaller?!?!

I did some looking online this morning. It turns out I only need the sensor and not the receiver. The second gen ipod touch has a build in sensor. How sweet is that? Now I just need to figure out what to do about an armband. The sensor does me no good without the ipod. :(

Here are my Nike+ Shoes:

http://www.famousfootwear.com/product.asp?product_id=1017093&variant_id=71945

Another post-op post!

I am just over 9 weeks post-op. I have learned how to eat. I have to take small bites, eat slowly and chew a lot. I have lost 56 lbs. I have lost two dress sizes. I have lost them and will never find them again. It's a great feeling. I am going to get my hubby to take pictures of me tonight. I don't know if i will post them. I kind of self-conscious about pictures. He's also going to measure me. I did my measurements a couple of days before surgery. I will be able to see some real numbers. I lost 40 lbs in the first three weeks. I started going to the gym. Then, I went three weeks with no loss! It was very frustrating. I finally started losing again and have lost 16 more pounds. I'm feeling great. I go to the gym at 6 am most mornings and do the treadmill for an hour. I'm going to start couch to 5k soon. I want to give running a try. I love walking on the treadmill. Hopefully, I will like running too. I just found out this weekend that there is a marathon in Disney in March. I think if I run a marathon, this would be the one.

Eating hasn't really been an issue for me. I make the right choices, eat my protein first and have no problems. The worse part was the liquid diet. Pre-op was horrible. I was hungry all the time. Post-op I was just so tired of sweet stuff. It seemed that everything I ate (or drank) was sweet. The protein shakes, pudding and applesauce. I was so happy to move on the soft foods. I had to be on soft foods for a couple of weeks. It wasn't bad. I have graduated to full foods. I can eat whatever I want. I have heard that some people "dump" after surgery. That certain foods don't agree with them. Eating sugar can make them really sick. I haven't had this problem, but I really don't push it. I don't eat unhealthy things. The worse I've done is one mozzarella stick at a meal. It's fried which makes it bad, but cheese has tons of protein. I'm obsessed with TVP. I use it dry and put it on Greek yogurt. It gives me the granola crunch but with protein instead of carbs. :) I eat a lot of ground turkey and chicken breasts.

I'm in my "honeymoon." Right now it doesn't really matter what I eat, I will lose weight. This only happens for 9 months to a year. During this stage when we aren't hungry, we are supposed to be learning to make the best choices. I have embraced this. My mom hasn't. I hope that she gets it before her "honeymoon" is over. She gets mad at me when she asks me about what she's eating. I think she wants me to tell her that she's doing fine, but I'm not going to lie. I've told her to stop asking my opinion if she doesn't really want it.

Anyhow! I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm feeling great. I have tons of energy and I already feel smaller. :)

Long time no blog...

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while. I finally finished that hell of a 6 month medically supervised weight loss period. My insurance approved the surgery quickly once everything was done. The doctor's office had some illnesses every time someone got my jinxed file. But, my surgery was finally scheduled for January 15th. I was so elated. My long wait finally came to an end!!!! I had to do some more pre-op testing. I was nervous through all of that. I kept thinking that something could happen that would cause the surgeon to not let me have the surgery. I did the two week liquid liver shrinking diet. That was very difficult. I had this big ole hungry stomach that didn't get any food... But, I made it through that.

The day of the surgery came. I had to be at the hospital around 9 in the morning. I have a two hour drive to the hospital. I didn't really sleep the night before, so getting up was no problem. Besides, I am usually at work at 7 am so it would have actually been sleeping in for me.

It took three people to get my IV. I sat in a little room with no door waiting for a while for my surgery to start. I was finally wheeled into the OR. Next thing I remember, I was waking up. I had some horrible pain in my stomach. They do the surgery laproscopically but they have to blow the abdomen up with air in order to work. It took a while for me to wake up. I remember seeing my son in the corner of the room and trying to get him to come over and see me. I was reaching out with my hand gesturing him to come to me. Once I woke up I got to eat a few ice chips. I had a catheter in and I hated that part the worse. It made me feel like I had to pee. I kept asking for them to take it out. I wanted a drink of water in the worse way. My mouth and throat were so dry, but I couldn't drink water. I had to be happy with the ice chips. The nurse from the recovery room finally wheeled me to my room late at night.

The rooms are huge. It's bigger than my living room at home. Once the catheter came out. I got to go for a walk. I had a morphine pump, but I'm not really big on using pain medication. The bed wasn't really comfortable. Technicians had to come in all the time to check my vitals. I ended up walking a few times during the night out of boredom.

The day after, I had to go down to radiology for a swallow test. I turns out that I had some swelling in the opening from my esophagus to stomach so nothing was going down. It took me an extra day in the hospital for the swelling to go down. Obama was speaking in Baltimore the day I was leaving the hospital. It would have been a mad house had I needed to stay any later.

The ride home was horrible! Baltimore has extremely bumpy streets. Every single bump made my stomach feel like it was going to shoot out of the top of my head! Fred kept apologizing and I finally had to tell him to stop apologizing. He didn't put the bumps in the road!

We had a friend watching the house and Jesse's dog freaked out. She went and stayed outside in the freezing cold. He said every time he shined the flashlight on her she'd run out of the light. My mom and dad finally had to take Jesse over to get her. Since I had to stay an extra day, they went and got all my dogs and took them to their house. Luckily all the dogs behaved,even the big beast of a dog! He could have cleaned off a coffee table with his monster tail!

The pipes in the house froze while we were gone so we had no water. We had to turn on some heat and put a heater in our pump house to thaw everything out. Luckily no pipes broke. That would have been a disaster. Our pump house needs to have an old fashioned 60 watt bulb on during the winter. That bulb is enough to keep the pump house warm. We forgot to check the bulb and it had apparently burned out. :(

This post is getting much too long... I think I'll post it now and post another later. :)

Thank you...

Thank you for all your support. :) I really appreciate all the positive thought and comments... (even if I didn't seem particularly receptive to them yesterday.)

Mom's surgery went well. She was up and walking around last night. She didn't do the liquid diet like she was supposed to and I was really worried the surgery wouldn't go well. I'm glad it did.

I should wear a warning sign...

You see warning signs everywhere... They are for the good of mankind.... They keep people safe. I need one.

Mine will say "Caution- Do not approach. Foul mood will likely last for several more months."

Today is the day of mom's surgery. Today is the day her life will start over. I wish I had one too.

(I'm really sorry that all my posts are grumpy. I'm not a grumpy person. No usually...)

Another egg...

I managed to get another egg. :)

Please visit my egg...

I finally got a dragon egg. Please visit him so he can grow big! :)





Clicky, Clicky! :)

Thanks!

Jenn

I am such a horrible brat...

Wednesday night, Mom called. She got all her paperwork and stuff for her surgery at the beginning of October. I know I should be happy for her. I told her congrats. I got off the phone and cried unconsolably for a couple of hours. I want to be happy for her, but this was my thing first!! I was the one who wanted it! But, because I work for the state and she works for the federal government, she gets to go so much earlier than I do. By the time I even get my surgery she will most likey have lost at least 50 lbs. She will be thinner and I won't! I understand I'm being a brat. And I try to look at the bright side and I try to be happy for her, but it hurts! She only went to the information session to see what I was getting into. She didn't even finish her paperwork for the information session until after the session because she said she wasn't going to get the surgery. I convinced her that she wasn't too old to change her life...

Ok! I'll shut my bratty mouth now!

No change from yesterday...

Still waiting! LOL

Tonight I have my sleep study. Apparently, they want to find out if I have sleep apnea so that they can be aware of it during the surgery. I snore. I think I snore a bunch. I think I snore loudly. Fred says I snore most nights, but not all (like he really could tell... he sleeps like a rock.) I think he's just being nice. I think he has to be nice. LOL

Some things I have heard about the surgery....

85% of couples end in divorce- a couple of friends of mine have been married 13 years and are now getting a divorce... she had the surgery not too long ago. I wonder if it's a factor.

Fat cells hold a lot of estrogen, so:

1. I will be in a constant state of PMS.
2. I will have a very high libido (worse than now!)
3. I will be very fertile! (good thing i have the IUD!)

So, it seems like if I'm not screaming at him, I will be jumping his bones. I hope we (mainly he) will survive!

My life is on hold... :(

Honestly, I think Sarah is the only person who really reads my blog. I think that's why i don't blog very much. I just tell Sarah everything over IM, so why would I make her read it all again????

Right now, I feel like my life is on hold. I have started the proceedings to get Gastric Bypass surgery. My insurance will cover the surgery, but I have to go through a 6 month medically supervised weight loss program. :( So, I'm doing that right now and waiting... and waiting and waiting! I feel like my life can't move on until after this surgery. I have had enough of being the size that I am. I want to get a much more active life. I want to be able to do more. I have spent my entire adult life on and off of diets. I never really get anywhere. This surgery really is my last chance.

I think part of what makes this waiting so much worse is that my mom's insurance doesn't require the waiting period. She only went to the informational meeting to see what I was getting into. She kept saying, "I'm not going to get the surgery." Well... she is getting the surgery. She is getting the surgery in the beginning of October. I have to wait until about January of 2009. It's so frustrating. I'm the one who wanted it and she's the one who is getting it. She's going to be thin and I'm still going to be my fat self! I am happy for her that she is going to be thin, but I just wanted to be thin too!

Here's a Meme- Let me see your answers.

Here's how it works:
1. Put your mp3 on Shuffle All.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter what.

Q. What would best describe your personality?
A. Water Runs Dry- Boys to Men

Q. If some one says it's okay you say...
A. It's All Been Done - Barenaked Ladies

Q. What do you like in a guy/girl?
A. Here's a Quarter- Travis Tritt

Q. How do you feel today?
A. These Dreams- Heart

Q. What is your life's purpose?
A. Under the Bridge- Red Hot Chili Peppers

Q. What is your motto?
A. Can't Buy Me Love- The Beatles

Q. What do your friends think of you?
A. Blowing Kisses in the Wind- Paula Abdul

Q. What do you think about very often?
A. The New Style- Beastie Boys

Q. What do you think of the person you love?
A. Riot Girl- Good Charlotte

Q. What is your life story?
A. Drive- The Cars

Q. What do you think when you see the person you love?
A. It's my Life- No Doubt

Q. What will they play at your funeral?
A. What the World Needs Now Is Love- Jackie DeShannon

Since the last time we left our intrepid hero...

It's been over a month since I blogged. A very long, very stressful month. I somehow survived half the move to the new building. I'm not sure how, but I managed. I had three students come in the Sunday after Thanksgiving and we packed up a lot of the stuff in the lab. The movers came over on Monday and moved all the stuff we packed over to the new building. Since that time, I have been there 6-8 times getting stuff that were okayed to pack and apparently weren't really okay to pack. :( It's a long walk from the parking area to the building, especially if you are carrying stuff. It's just so backwards. We are supposed to be moving into that building, not out of it...

Jesse turned 12 yesterday. I can't believe he is so old! :( We went to Cici's Pizza on Tuesday with the family to celebrate. My mom picked up a very cute ice cream cake (scroll down to the snowman). Jesse got a Special Edition Nintendo DS Lite. He was very happy with his gift. Yesterday we stayed home all day. I made him cupcakes. He really wanted orange cake with strawberry frosting. I put the strawberry frosting on four of the cupcakes but vanilla on all the others.

I have been doing a lot of reading and playing my early Christmas present.

Reading:
Lover Revealed by JD Ward (Book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood)- This book is Butch and Marissa's story. Butch was the only human allowed with the vampire Black Dagger Brotherhood. Lover Unbound by JD Ward (Book 5 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood)- This is Vischous' story. It was a good read. I loved the background information on Vischous. I guess she ran out of happy endings. :(

I'm really looking forward to the next book in the series.

Dance with the Devil by Sherrilyn Kenyon- This is Zarek's story. It was great. I loved the depth of the character. Zarek was a former slaved (to his father's family) he suffered untold abuse and ended up dark and misunderstood.
Kiss of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon- Cassandra is the only remaining relative of Apollo. It is told that her death can stop the curse. Wulf is a Dark Hunter who is cursed to never be remembered by anyone he meets that is not of his own blood. Definitely a good mix! :)
Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon- considered a Dark Hunter book, but not really. More of a Were Hunter book. Vane is friends with Dark Hunters, tho. And Bride is friends with the family of girls that are featured quite a bit in this series. It is a great book to go against all the body image problems. I really liked it. I couldn't put it down at all!
Seize the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon- Kenyon turns the villian into a hero. Very masterful. Valerius and Tabitha. We have been hating Valerius since the beginning. He gets hooked up with his enemies' wife's twin sister. We learn to love him with Tabitha.

I have enjoyed the Dark Hunter books. As soon as I can, I will be ordering more. :)

Games:
I got a Nintendo DS Lite for an early Christmas present. I got to get it now because Christmas is about watching Jesse open presents. :)

Nintendogs: A very cute game. You get to take your dogs for walks, teach them tricks and enter them into competitions.

The Sims 2 Castaway: Love it! I finished the game, but I haven't finished the collecting. It's really cool. Once you escape the island, a host of new things open up for you. You get to spear fish, dig, explore the temple, cook, forage, plant seed, hunt for bugs, make stuff, and sew clothing. I'm at 98% of stuff collected and am just waiting for some stuff to drop at my SOS sign.

Brain Age: A great game, but not something you can play for a long time. You train a little each day to make your brain work better.

My Sims: Not as good as Castaway. I haven't played it a lot, but I hope to get the strategy guide this weekend and give it a try again.

Puzzle Quest, Challenge of the Warlord: A puzzle game with a role playing element. The battles are like Bejeweled, but you and your opponent take turns on the same board. I had to retrain myself how to play the Bejeweled game. I like to set myself up for a good move on the next turn. If I do that, I'm really just setting my opponent up. :(

Sim City: I have barely scratched the surface of this game. So, I don't have much to tell you.

I want Rune Factory pretty badly! :(

I just found this game... It cracks me up! Sprung! How can I not want a game with the tagline "A game where everyone scores" LOL!!!!

For you knitters... (and for those who love a knitter...)

There is a great contest going on over at Shut up, I'm counting. Cass has made it to her 333 post. Wow! That is great! :)

And for those of you who love (or like works too) a knitter... Here is an awesome gift! I want everyone I know to send me one. :)

And again... (Warning- Vent in progress!)

I'm posting again. Mainly cuz I have something I have to get off my chest...

I am the one in charge of moving the lab into the new building. I am the one working every single day of the week. I am the one who did NOT get a vacation this year. I am the one that was here all summer... If I hear one more time about how stressed this stinkin' move is making other people that did not work all summer, only work part time now and can take off work when they want, I'm going to blow the top of my effin head off!!!!!

(That's all for now!- Back to our regularly scheduled happiness.) :)

This makes me smile. :)

Posting...

Sarah says that I need to post. She says there are all kinds of things I can talk about... I don't know.

My weeks have been crazy lately. Last week I went to NIH in Bethesda, MD to pick up some mice. One of my students is doing some behavioral testing on mice. He's looking at Bi-Polar disorder. It should be really interesting. The trip to NIH was crazy. I hate driving on the beltway. Do people really need to drive that crazy???? They have signs saying "Aggressive Driver Imaging in Use- For your safety." What exactly does that mean? Honestly, I don't think it's working.

I had to walk a lot. The NIH campus is horrible for parking. And then I had to follow this cute boy for miles. Kind of back and forth... All I can say is that at least I got to follow a cute boy (Don't tell my hubby!) LOL

This weekend was nice and relaxing. Tho, I did spend a good part of it upset with my hubby. On Friday night, I really wanted him to play World of Warcraft with me. Instead of playing with me, he took off to play with some people in our guild. It seems silly, but that upset me. He had plans all weekend (plans without me...) I don't think asking him to play a video game with me was asking too much. I am about the least needy female. I tell him to make plans to play with his friends. He goes out every Sunday to play a game with our friends. Nearly every Saturday he goes and play a war game with his friends. Most guys would love their SO to want to play video games with him... (I think what I'm trying to explain with this paragraph is that my husband is whacked in the head... I didn't hit him, honest!)

I read two books this weekend:
Lover Eternal by JD Ward and Lover Awakened by JD Ward. They were incredible books. I haven't read anything that good in a while. I stayed up until 3 am Friday night reading. I won an auction on eBay for the next two in the series. I paid for them this morning. I really hope they don't take too long to get to me...

Sunday, I made a big pot of chili. I love my chili. It's great because I know I don't have to cook the rest of the week. With it now just being the three of us again (SQUEE!), that pot will last us a while. Fred and I don't mind eating the same thing every night, but Jesse will be complaining very soon! We got tomatoes, tomato sauce and chili powder at BJ's. Fred said this will be a chili winter. Honestly, I don't mind at all. I spend all summer wishing it would get cooler so I can have chili. I did tell him that I will have to make my beef stew this winter. Beef stew takes all day because my stew meat has to practically melt in your mouth, or I'm not happy.

Okay, so I found some stuff to tell everyone... Nice.

I do have one confession to make... I haven't picked up knitting needles in a couple of weeks. I'm so failing the Secret of the Stole. :(

Meet Bigga...

This is Bigga. He's an attention hound. He doesn't understand that there are times when I am not ready to love on him.

He's very cute and cuddly. He has lots of silky fur.

This is Bigga when I am trying to sleep. (Please click link.)

Ravelry and ppl's blogs...

I finally got my Ravelry invite. I'm Devilwmn there as well. I have already joined 50 groups!!! It sucks up a lot of time. :)

I think very few people actually read my blog. Most of those that do know me in person. I read a lot of blogs. I really don't comment very often. I often feel when I comment that I'm sticking my nose into other people's business. When I was a kid, my mother's best friend had a dog that had puppies. One of the puppies was everyone's favorite, but they were pure-bred and needing the money, my mother's friend had to sell that puppy. Everyone was crying. I was with them in the car when they took the puppy to it's new home. I was crying too. I spent a lot of time there and loved that puppy just as much as everyone else. My mother's friend turned around and looked at me and said "Why are you crying? It's not your dog and you have no business being upset." I try to keep out of other's business. I find it very hard reading blogs and getting to know lots of things about people's lifes. I like to comment. Generally, I'm a pretty happy and empathetic person. I like to send my good thoughts out into the universe. Maybe the good vibes will get where they need to go. It doesn't hurt to try, right? But, every once in a while, I feel that maybe I shouldn't even be reading ppl's blogs. I had been reading a particular blog and commenting several times when the owner of the blog had a give away. I thought it was a contest like i see on several blogs. I commented. I figured if she was doing a drawing to give something away that I wanted, it wouldn't hurt... Boy was I wrong! She sent back... "What are you doing commenting on my blog. I don't even know you. This is for friends only." The thing of it is, she's a knitting designer. She had a lot of neat patterns for toys. I liked her patterns and was going to purchase some... Upon getting that email, I cancelled my bloglines subscription for her blog. I have not been back and that was a year ago. Now whenever I comment on blogs, I feel like an interloper. I'm very sad that someone could ruin it for me. :( Now I think I only regularly comment on blogs of someone who is a friend or someone that I know is okay with comments from me... Hi Chris! :) and Rhonda! :)

I've been slacking again...

I was doing so good posting for a while... Then I got busy... I'm back and am going to try to do better...

Tuesday, I took my boy to the airport. He's going to be in Kansas with his grandmother for a month. It takes me a while to get used to it. I'm usually starting to enjoy it when it's time for him to be back. LOL He had just gotten back from Boy Scout camp on Saturday afternoon. He left for Kansas a few days later. I feel like something is missing in my life. I pack my lunch in the morning and feel like I don't have something important. Normally, I cut him a piece of watermelon every morning. I go to bed at night and feel like I forgot to do something. I try to check on him when he isn't even there. :(

This is how we got him back from Scout Camp. Apparently, they didn't teach him how to duck. He was hit by a flying log. An adult leader was banging a log against a tree. (I guess to make it smaller for the camp fire.) A piece went flying and got Jesse right in the face. Luckily, nothing is broken. I just hope the log looks worse.

I was in the living room playing video games with my husband and roomate. When I got up to walk through the kitchen, I found this. I had to check to see if it was alive. Can you believe that any self respecting cat would lay like this? This creature is crazy! He's such a fat lazy cat. I love him! :)

Yesterday...

Yesterday I went to see a Midwife. I was looking for a new gyn because I'm not happy with the doctors in my area. I had been really bad and hadn't been for a couple of years. Not since I went to the health department last. I had insurance, I just didn't want to go to the gyn that did my grandmother's hysterecemy. My grandmother got a staff infection from that surgery and never really woke up again. :( So, I heard about this doctor that several of my friends really like. The doctor had a midwife that works with him. The receptionist asked me if I wanted to see her and I said "Sure, why not." I like things like that. They are unconventional by today's standards, but a way of life in the old days. That's why I like knitting and sewing so much. It's also why I heat my house with a wood stove in the winter. I have a furnace, but oil is expensive and I like the wood stove better. Not that I don't like new stuff too. I love my laptop, DVR and big flat screen tv. I love World of Warcraft, but I just like the old stuff to, so I'll pick and choice which older things I can happily live with and which I can't. :)

I don't think I've ever explained the irony of my nick. As many of you know, I'm a wiccan. Hence I don't believe in the devil. How could I? I would have to believe in the christian god in order for one of the fallen angels to exist. So, you may ask, why Devilwmn? I like the irony of it shortened like that. It's actually short for Devilish woman. With devilish ( adj. playful in an appealingly bold way; "a roguish grin" ) being an accepted word in the english language. I don't have to agree with the origin of it... :)

For Freak Knitter: This is the hair tie culprit. He's so adorable, that it hides his troublesome personality! LOL

Here's some of his most interesting pictures:

MeMe

This is my first ever MeMe... I read it on Scarlett's Blog... that makes me tagged...

Rules:

go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday month and day only. Then post 3 events, 2 births and one holiday that occurred on your birthday, then tag 5 friends

Events:

1. 1692 - A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony declares that three teenage girls are under domination of Satan, leading to the Salem witch trials.
2. 1855 - The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
3. 2001 - Disney's California Adventure, a new Disney theme park opened in Anaheim, California.

Births:

1. 1828 - Jules Verne, French author (d. 1905)
2. 1851 - Kate Chopin, American author (d. 1904)

Holiday:

1. Nirvana Day - an annual Buddhist festival.

If you are reading this, you too are tagged... :) It's actually a lot of fun! :)