I know it has been a long time since my last post, but things are good!
I am down 95 pounds since January, and 75 since surgery.  I had my three month appointment with my surgeon, and I thought I was doing fantastic, but found out I am way behind on the weight loss.

Well, needless to say, I was blown out of the water!  It took me several weeks to recover, because I am so hard on myself.  I am doing everything he says to do!  I am exercising 4 days a week.  Walking for 2 miles a day, and doing an hour long super hard exercise class 2 evenings a week.

So, I came to this conclusion.  SO WHAT!!!  So what I am not in the top of the weight loss class!  I have never lost this much weight in my life!  I am happy!  God is in control, and as long as I am faithful to my diet, and exercise as much as I can, God is going to have to do the rest.  I don't care how fast it will come off, just that it is going to come off.  I am just going to keep on keeping on!

We went to the beach last week, and I walked the beach in my Junonia Swimsuit, and I didn't care what other people thought of me.  I was on top of the world.  I can breathe!  I can walk miles on the sand and not die of a heart attack!  Thank you God!  We did so much walking, and playing that I could have never done this time last year.  Wow!  and thank you God!  I can see the 100 pounds mark, and I am blessed!  The Devil will not take my joy away!

So, if you are reading this, know that this journey is not without it's lumps and bumps, but if you trust in the Lord, he will carry you over them.  If you don't know him . . . He wants to have a relationship with you, and loves you very much.  It is not about religion, people have religion, but there is a God who loves you, and wants you to know him too!  You don't have to change, he will meet you where you are, and loves you just as you are!  I love you all too!  

Keep the faith!  Keep walking the weight loss trail!

Later!

Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law?  What can go wrong, will go wrong!  I just have to laugh!  

All of this just happened Thursday, (yesterday), and today, Friday.  Wednesday night, our dishwasher started making this noise in the middle of the night, that we could hear all the way into the master bedroom.  Kinda like a grinding noise.  Both me and DH get up and make sure there is nothing "jammed" in there, and to no avail.  We decide to call the repairman.  (I stil haven't, and later you will realize why.)

I come home on Thursday night, after going to exercise,  (Yes, I am in an exercise class . . . who would have dreamed it! ha ha), I come into the house at 8:00, and my kitchen sink is filled with wet, soapy clothes!  UGH  The washing machine has died.  RIP 16 year old washing machine.  I take those clothes, and rinse them the best I can, and wring them . . BY HAND, UGH!, and then put them in the dryer, and low and behold, the Dryer is dead!  It will not provide any heat to dry clothes, whatsoever.  RIP 16 year old dryer!  They died together!  How sweet.  They just couldn't go on without each other!   We went shopping for a new washer and dryer, and they are expensive!!

Well, later on in the day, I took the kids fishing down to the pond, and we caught some blue gill fish!  The kids had a blast, and they wanted their daddy to see the fish, so we brought them in a bucket filled with pond water back to the house.  Well, our beagle then takes and shoves his head into the bucket, grabs a fish, and runs off, and rolls all over it, and then proceeds to eat it alive!!! EWWWWWW!  He ate the entire fish!  Bones and all . .  . double EWWWWWWWWWWWW!  Then he runs through my home smelling of fish!   YUK!  

Well, the dog has had a bath, we are rationing our clothing until Tuesday.  (If you see us in Walmart this weekend, we are buying underwear!)  And I promise to call the Dishwasher repairman on Monday.  Murphy has got to go!!!

On the weight loss front, I have lost a total 70 pounds, 50lbs since surgery, and I am feeling great.  Others are losing faster, and yes I feel like I should be doing better, but, I am waiting on the Lord!  He knows what is best.

Laugh, and God Smiles .  . . . . . God Bless you all!

O.K., I know I haven't written for awhile, and right now is the calm before the storm.  In just about 30 minutes I will have both of my babies home for spring break.  We have a great week planned for them.  We are going to visit My DH's family in Kentucky, and stop off in Pigeon Forge.

I am excited about this because I am 60 pounds down, and I can walk soooo much easier than I could not even 60 days ago.  

I had a "wow" moment this morning, that I want to share.  This morning I dropped my daughter off at pre-school, and went walking for an hour.  It was tough, and my legs hurt, and I huffed and puffed, put I just finished walking the longest I ever had in a very long time without having to sit down.  Well, it gets better . .. . .

I ran home, and took a shower, and when I came out of the bedroom, I saw my son's library books laying in his floor.  Well, today is library day for him in school.  I thought to myself.  "I feel so good, I think I will take them to his class so he will have them."  This was a different response for me.  Before surgery I would have said . ". . Too bad, there is no way I am going to walk through Matthew's big school and get out of breath and sweaty."  So I picked up the books and went to Matt's school.   Hang on the good "Wow" part is coming in the next paragraph. . . . . 

Well, I get there, and park, and walk from the office to Matthew's first grade class (that is at the back of the school), and I immediately noticed that I was not out of breath, or sweating!  Then the most amazing thing happened . . . . 

My son saw me as I came into his room, and his face just lit up!  It was the most wonderful proud smile I have EVER seen my son smile, and it almost brought tears to my eyes.  WOW!

Now here it gets funny, hang with me.  The teacher sees me and says . . . . (HI!!!! do you have a minute?  Can you run out in the courtyard and hide these 400 Easter Eggs?  I don't have anyone to help me, and if you can't . . . they won't have their Easter Egg hunt!)  She then handed to me a HUGE container filled with 400 CANDY Easter Eggs!  Guys, there was no way I could say no!  So off I went with this heavy container, back to the FRONT of the school, to the courtyard, and quickly ran around by myself and hid 400 easter eggs.  Before surgery, I could have never done this, not even half of this.  WOWWW!

I stayed with the class as they ran and gathered their eggs, and I could here my son telling his friends, That's my Mom, isn't she beautiful!  He just made me feel like a million bucks!  You bet He is going to get the BIGGEST Easter basket I can find and make!  LOL

This surgery has been a blessing already in my life, and the life of my family.  I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us this next year.  O.K. God . . . WOW me!  I am ready!!

I know that the above comment may sound weird, but in the back of my head there was some doubt that the surgery would really help me to lose this ton of weight I have been carrying around!

I was really surprised when I started the optifast pre-surgery and lost 20lbs in 4 weeks.  I couldn't believe it.  I cheated very little, and the pounds just seemed to fall off.  Wow!

Then the surgery happened, and the first check up I had lost 13 pounds!  It still didn't sink in.  I just told myself that anybody would lose weight after getting your gall blader taken out, and a surgery.  I just couldn't make myself believe it.

Well, last Thursday I had my stinky drain taken out, and I had lost another 6 pounds, and Dr. Bour was happy with my 20 pound weight loss, and told me that I should lose another 20 before I see him on March 9th.  Well, I told myself, "What?  I only lost 6 pounds . . . It is really going to be slow going now right?"

Well, I couldn't believe my eyes yesterday when I went in for the Pureed group meeting, and weighed in, just 5 days later, and I had lost another 5 pounds!   WOW!  I can't believe it . . . . that is a pound a day!  If I can keep that up, I should dissapear soon!  (ha ha!)

Needless to say . .. I am believing it now!  I can do this!  Thanks Dr. Bour!  

And as a side note;  I am so happy that I can eat "pureed" food now!  whooo hoooo!