BJean

Smart man, that husband of yours! Mine said that after I lose weight, if I still want one, he'll go for it. Yeah, a small car is right! But I've looked tired for quite a while. I don't want the grimace mouth or deer in headlights eyes, just something to make me look like I think I look. Until I see myself in photos, that is. Have you heard of Thermage? I'd be up for that except that everyone who has had it talks about how painful it is. You will only be uncomfortable for a little while with the lift, right? It can't be as bad as a friend of mine who had a very extensive chemical peel. It wound up leaving scars. Her husband has more money than God, so I never understood how she wound up with such a stupid doctor. She was prettier before the peel than after. :cry

Karey: I would have volunteered for keeping track of the July 4th challenge but I'm only one step away from not even knowing how to open email. :embarassed: So far, how's that new fill working for you? Any additional restriction yet? Does your doc suggest that you do liquids or soft foods for a couple of days after a fill? Mine doesn't, but after the one this Thursday, I think I will only do protein shakes for a day or so to see if it makes any difference.

Sorry Wheet. You're not getting any sympathy from the likes of my 5'1" small-boned frame. You have lots of hair, curly even. Mine is straighter than if you flat-ironed it, fine as a wisp of wind, and started thinning after 4 months post-op. It isn't even growing well yet. I'm eating my protein! When I gained weight, no one noticed my small frame anymore. Until they saw my little bitty feet. They started commenting on them, asking how I don't fall over, and I began to tell them that when I was a baby my mother bound my feet, hoping they wouldn't notice that my wrists and hands are tiny too. You sound healthy and attractive and so does your DH. My Dad's father was Welsh and his mother was Cherokee. Maybe you and I are related.

Dynamomini: Good plan. If there was a flesh colored duct tape, I'd give it a try. You are in luck if bread is a weakness. Bread is one of the things that the band will discourage you from eating.:cry I've never been a bread lover so my wish was that the band would discourage me from eating ice cream. It tends to like it as much as I do. Aaargh!:welldoneclap:

P.S. Green the bagels we found at a downtown indoor market in Montreal were unbelievable! They made them in front of our eyes and were so fantastic that I used to take them to friends in Orlando when I flew down for visits. I was nearly attacked several times by other airline passengers because of the aroma of warm bagels. These days with airlines no longer feeding passengers, I would no longer take that chance!

Gobble, gobble. Which is pretty funny when I think of it. Just a few months ago I got Synvisc injections in my knees... how appropriate! It's made from rooster comb.

Ok Green, now I'm completely spun up with jealousy. Not only is Green's significant other younger, he has been blessed by the hunky god, or god of hunkiness. As you can tell, BJean is not equal to Green's "smarty pants" intellect or she would not be stuck with a guy who is only 6 months her junior, who is beginning to suffer from some of the same ailments as BJean, i.e., roscea, arthritis, thinning hair, etc. But to be absolutely fair to the DH, all the other girls in the yard still like to chase him. One of BJean's recently single high school classmates was overheard to say at a reunion not so long ago, that BJean's husband should be cloned. :welldoneclap:

Green I am so jealous I am green with envy. 'cuse the expression. Seriously. I have wanted a face lift for several years. Needed one even longer. My neck is disgusting, have jowls like you wouldn't believe and eyes like I just crawled out of bed. Otherwise, I'm quite attractive. :embarassed: If they would lift some of the midrift about 6 inches, I might pass for Pamela - at least in the boob department. You're a blonde so you have more to worry about there... think of it... getting mistaken for her on a nice warm Mexican beach, getting hit on by all those attractive Latin margarita mixers. What's the worry, now that I think about it!? Are you doing this soon? How long since your LB surgery? Weren't you banded in September? I thought we were supposed to wait 2 years before we have any other surgery? I have noticed that there are several September bandsters who are having TTs, etc. Are you getting the full face lift? I'm positively green, Green!

I don't think the pre-op diet is that tough, really. The first few days are a big adjustment but after that it seems to get much easier. You know why it is important, don't you? They want to shrink your liver so that it won't be so vulnerable during surgery. I didn't even know that cutting out sugar, etc., would shrink your liver that fast. They told me I needed to lose from 7 to 10 lbs. I lost 7.

Hey Carlene: As long as it's a fair fight in the voting rituals, I'm all for putting things to a vote. But the problem is that many times the fight isn't fair. Without me having to reiterate what I have earlier argued, you do understand that this is why I have said what I have about clerical influence, corruption in elections (meaning the actual voting process itself), outright lying by politicians and popular media people, lying by elected officials, etc., etc., don't you? By the way, the cannabalistic Indians in Mexico (probably near where Green is going :heh: ) weren't interested in trading their carved animals for my little boy. (Except maybe for supper, but I didn't ask. He would have made a sweet, plump little morsel for their stew!) Green, the carved animals that I'm talking about are not the kind that are painted and made of a somewhat porous wood. They carve them from a very hard (perhaps somewhat petrified) wood that is polished to an extremely smooth, hard finish with no hard edges and no defined details. Look for them while you're down there. They are exquisite. I too suffer in the sun. My natural hair color is mousy, reddish brown and I have the Irish skin of my grandfather instead of the beautiful easy to tan native American Indian skin of my both mother and my father. My white legs would put the eyes out of anyone who might accidentally spot them in the gleaming Mexican sun. I wouldn't be caught dead in shorts or a swimsuit without a spray on tan of some sort. Thinking of the greater good!

Green: I went to a "Fat Farm" in Vermont when we lived in Montreal. They were anti-meat and the menu everyday consisted of high carb content foods. Sugar wasn't on a no-no list with them. Just no far or meat. I didn't gain weight during that month, but I only lost 7 lbs. and had stepped up my exercise by about 60%. For breakfast they served mostly bagels with a tablespoon of natural peanut butter. When I got home I looked up the calorie content and I could have had some scrambled eggs and half a piece of toast for that. I learned a lot at that boot camp they called a spa (HA) and one of the big lessons was that too many carbs are not my friend.

Good point Wheetsin. My point is, if you attend church every Sunday and your pastor interprets the Bible and relates it to daily activities and preaches to the congregation over and over on how they should live their lives, and preaches over and over about what the doctrine of the church says is right, you're pretty well going to know how your church and how your minister expects you to vote on issues and for people. Some preachers stand up and tell you exactly how he thinks you should vote and some are not so obvious. There may be some exceptions, but one can say generally that people do get voting instructions in church. I am continually amazed at the number of people who say they do not.

My family life has always been centered around food. When I was growing up, meals were a time where we shared all our daily experiences with each other. That was cool, because we laughed and cried together. But make no mistake about mealtime, the best part was the food. We didn't seem to kid ourselves that food was for nutrition only. We prayed and thanked God for helping "this food go to the nourishment of our bodies", but we knew that we ate it because it looked, smelled, tasted and felt good. We loved to linger over the table after a meal, talking and laughing and sharing, until we were able to have that second helping of dessert. When you have those kinds of memories related to food, it is no wonder that with food I'm always trying to recapture those wonderful, fun, loving moments (and that wonderful filled up body) every day of my life. Never let it be said that LB Talk isn't therapy!

QTkidsmom: I am impressed that you are a thinking for yourself woman. You are not endoctrinated in any way. You make your decisions based on your own personal beliefs after perhaps talking with your minister outside of church. That's smart. You are very fortunate to attend a church (or more than one churches in your lifetime) where the pastor separates his church from matters of state. Maybe I should say that where you attend church(s) is not a matter of fortune, it is a matter of you choosing a church that separates religious matters from social/policial ones, by your thoughtful consideration. You are not the only person who is so thoughtful and considered in their approach to religion. However you may be from the top of your class in religious education. I am too. By being from the "top of my class" I know that many churches and ministers are not separating church and political issues. They believe it is their job to address social issues... it is what is expected and what separates (sometimes) one church from another. Your experiences with church and ministers is quite different from mine. I have never attended a church where they only speak to issues of the Bible. They always have related Biblical passages to issues that people encounter every day of their lives - and many of those days and lives are intertwined with political issues. You named a couple. There may be some atheists who are saying that church goers are "drones and voting as instructed" but I am not. However, I can assure you that ministers from all kinds of churches absolutely do involve themselves in all areas of people's lives. That's why so many people rely on their pastors for answers and for input when they are voting - in fact, that's part of the reason why people go to church at all - for guidance on the big issues in their lives. I am amazed frankly at how many people here who say they are Christians are very quick to point out that their particular church and minister does not ever discuss political issues from the pulpit - ever. However, I've never been to one that does not. It is a part of what churches do - they help people with the tough issues of the day. They provide guidance in things that are good and bad in the world. We put our money in the till and go there and expect our preacher to tell us what the church doctrine is on every religious AND social/political problem we are faced with every day. Some do not preach politics to the extent that they are obvious in their efforts to influence their congregation to vote for a certain issue or person. However, even though you haven't experienced it, many absolutely do!

Cute dog photo! A poodle? We have two Min. Schnauzers. They're a handful! Are you on your pre-surgery diet yet? Or does your doctor require one?

gailannr: That is a wonderful tribute to your parents. They may not have been absolutely perfect in every way, but for their children and grandchildren to have a legacy of laughter, love, music and dancing is great as far as I'm concerned! I love the idea of having my children think of my DH and me when they hear the words, integrity and fairness. Those are two of the most important qualities that I believe we strive for every day in every way.

Carlene: The description of the weather reminds me of much of the year in the high desert in Arizona. It really is ideal because it is so dry. You do have to adjust to using cocoa butter body lotion - most lotions just don't hydrate you enough. I think I'll still go for Canada if I have a choice. I like their politics better. I don't speak Spanish, and I'm happier near mountains than being closer to the tropics. Although we did spend some time near the Mexican Baja penninsula and it was very beautiful there. If we hadn't been so afraid of the cannibals that we'd heard about living a few miles out in the desert, we would have more fun on our camp out. We wound up trading some of our kids clothes for some of their beautiful wooden carved animals.

Bubble I too find it very disheartening that we can't fully rely on our media to report the news. Everyone seems to have a bias and it shines through like a freight train's headlamp! And just as frightening. TOM: I got one word for you: hurricanes. We have friends with a beautiful home just south of Tampa on Manatee River that they bought when he retired. They aren't in an area that floods easily, but every year since they've been there, they've had to worry about a direct hit from a hurricane. They're looking to sell their home and second business. So far no luck. A few years ago, that would have been an unheard of situation. They plan to move to high and dry parts of Texas, if they can get buyers interested in taking their chances with Mother Nature.

Thanks BubbleButt. I try to read everything everyone offers up here. I very much like to read the info from both sides, even the biased stuff. It lets you know what everyone is up to. The difficult part is sifting through the lies. Proof that something posted on the 'net is 100% accurate isn't always readily accessible. So it is important that we keep our intellectual and objective hats on. I find that some of the more insidious lies are perpetrated by people with the motivations of money and power.

Bubble: I would believe anything! It might also explain why we had no significant recounts or election monitoring.

Oops. Sorry NV girl! We're so used to talking about it and dealing with it, we don't think twice about openly discussing it. Hope you weren't too put off~!:rolleyes

Bubble: It's nice to know that there are some Catholics that are being vocal about their opposition to some of the church's political/doctrinal actions.

Green: I learned the hard way about why Mr. Roger's changed into his house slippers every afternoon. When we put our first house on the market, a lovely Asian couple came to see it but decided not to buy. When I asked their realtor why, she said that "The Chung's noticed that too many shoes had walked in your house." Darn that shag carpet and my son's cowboy boots!

We would be hard pressed to have a totally paper ballot in this country now. The interesting thing that was offered up not long ago was that the electronic voting machines were either "accidentally" or intentionally tinkered with to cause a glitch that made the machines add votes periodically in the process of counting, to favor the Republican count. Sounds like something a director would get hold of and make a movie of. Something like "Soylent Green" :heh: Or the one where all the books were burned. :omg: Corruption can happen in any sized country. Greed isn't exclusive to the United States. But we could be the poster children for it.

We grow up thinking that our parents aren't just people. We think that they are the know all, be all, end all. When they do something that is... just human, and make some very basic mistakes, even stupid painful mistakes, then we children are completely shocked. I mean these are the same people we relied on for every piece of information in the world during our first years of life. For many of us, we relied on them long after we started school as the people who always knew best. When they had us, they were charged with the responsibility of making only the best decisions in life for us. Fact is, most of our parents are just like us. No Ph.d in parenting prior to getting the job. Everything you do as a parent is either flying by the seat of your pants or from something your parents told you or something you may have picked up in a book or from a friend. Trial and error mostly. And almost NEVER perfectly correct. Too many parents are self-centered children who just never grew up. Just because someone births a child, it doesn't automatically turn them into a responsible parent. The best advice I was ever given was to always keep the best interests of my child in mind whenever I make a decision that involves them. Sounds simple. It isn't. If people thought of their children first, they might never get a divorce. If adults put a potential child's needs ahead of their own, they might never choose to have the child. Having a child should be a completely selfless decision and far too many people have children only for very selfish reasons. I am impressed with people who are smart enough to figure this out before they have children.