I'm here to help...

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE.

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE. Is this a new guy

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE. Is this a new guy or someone you knew or

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE. Is this a new guy or someone you knew or dated before?

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE. Is this a new guy or someone you knew or dated before? Have a great time.

[ljv52 2]

Morning everyone. Meredith, so sorry about the possibility of the mono, but with your busy schedule, it's not too surprising. Hope you get better quickly and it's a good thing you had already planned to take this semester off school.

Now when I type the font is stalling so it's hard to even type. I wonder if they'll ever get this back up and running properly?

LauraK, so excited about your date for NYE. Is this a new guy or someone you knew or dated before? Have a great time.

Arlene,

[ljv52 2]

That was weird -- I did absolutely nothing to make that post -- it just did it all by itself and now the typing is flowing correctly.

Arlene, congrats on the weight loss -- wtg girl!!! Keep up the good work.

Eva, you make me tired with all the hard work you do -- I just can't do that stuff anymore and marvel that you can do it.

My shoulders have been bothering me for several months. I've given up weight machines on upper body cause the doctor thinks I over do it -- but even without doing them they still are bothering me. I sometimes think it's just stress - -- I can even feel myself stressing up in that area but it sure is painful. Arlene, do you ever experience this? It doesn't feel like it could be fm cause it is painful INSIDE my shoulder joints. I'm sure tired of having these type of ailments.

Well, gotta get to Water aerobics -- have a great day everyone. WTG on the shopping Great -- good for you.

CBL

Linda

[ljv52 2]

OMG how many times di it repeat that post? LOL, That IS so bizarre!

[Tinagrl 0]

That was weird that it just repeated and typed a little more of each sentence each time hehe! Strange.

Janet is that all you are able to eat because of the band or is it just the portions you chose?

Counting the days. Monday meeting with Surgeon! Hopefully setting a surgery date! Its Wednesday! Woo hoo!! I cant wait to start my new life!

Laters,

Tina

[Charlene K 1]

Good Morning Gang! It's gonna rain all day. I went to bed last night feeling crappy. I think that dizzy thing I had was FM It is gone now.

My DGD should be here this morning to put up my Christmas stuff. I love to take it out, but putting it up is a pain. I always buy stuff for the next year.....well, hopefully it will be for 2012.

Linda, When I first read about FM which was about 15 years ago, the symptoms were pain in shoulders and knees. I hurt all over when the weather changes especially my back and abdomen. My trainer said if it is nerve pain the only remedy is to rest.

Choo! Choo! I'm on the train today. If I stop at the station today it will be to eat a salad and fajitas. Choo! Choo!

Apples, I am blessed to live so close to a major medical center. I did go to a PA this year for my check-up. Going to new young doctors reminds me of the military. You never saw one twice.

[llkb4me 1]

Linda, I actually met him online in a singles chat site. We met in person at a singles party, have gone out to lunch and then went to another singles party.

Apples, not sure how sparkly I"ll get since this will be casual. We are going to the casino in our area. Cleavage is a given, have to have some draw. lol

Nah not my way but I'll be looking good.

LauraK

[JeweI 2]

Morning everyone, I got back from our brief vacation yesterday. We had a great time and food was not an issue. We even went out to eat twice and I did great. I have decreased my carb intake even more than I had previously and stuck to it even on vacation. I even worked out on vacation. There was an exercise bike and heated pool in the house we rented. I have exercised everyday so far this month. Just a few more days and I will meet that goal. Also another huge goal I must have reached while on vacation I hit ONEDERLAND! I was 198 this morning. My goal was to reach it before New Years day. This is awesome an I never wanna go back. My sister came over on Christmas Eve, she hasn't seen me since last Christmas Eve. She was stunned.

Yesterday I also ran for 25 minutes nonstop. I have 3 weeks left in my 5k training. I should be complete by my next race on Jan 22nd. Which means I should be able to run 3.1 miles nonstop. I can run about 1.75 miles so far so I am beyond being halfway there.

Tina, Sorry to hear you and your spouse are struggling. I have found that on this journey I have come alive. I use to spend all day in bed or lying on the couch. Couldn't even stand long enough to shower so I would just sit in the tub and let the Water run over me. Then it was a pain to try and get back out. I felt like I was dieing. Even on high doses of antidepressants. Losing weight and sticking to my meds has brought me back to life. My entire family is enjoying the new me. My doc has even cut my meds to only 1/3 of what they were. I feel like I have fought to get my life back and I love being back in the game. I hope the same for you. Fight to get your life back because you are worth every ounce of energy it takes. I am excited to be here in the begining of your journey because I will get to see your progress.

[Apples2 19]

Linda...now that's what I call "junking up the thread"! Sorry about your shoulder problems.

Jessica....CONGRATS ON REACHING ONDERLAND!!!!!!! And, I love your statement about never wanting to go back. Also, way to go on exercising on vacation and not over-doing it on the food. Not easy to do...sometimes we validate going off of plan during vacation and don't get back on plan after. Way to go!!!

And, Jessica, will be really great for Tina to have you to talk to. You have been through so much and have crawled out of a couple of pits in this short period of time since banding. And, what a great role model you will be with all that you have accomplished. 2 yrs ago would you ever have dreamed that you would be training for a 5K let alone running one?????

No sleep for me last night or the night b/4. Maybe tonight.

[ifyourstomachoffendsyou 1]

Linda, what you thought was your font stalling was your post continually posting. Very wierd. They must still be working on the site because people's problems keep changing. I don't try to do anything other than Fast Reply and hit the color and font size. So far, so good.

Had my last Christmas party last night. Sunday we were with Ken's kids and his one grandkid, and last night it was my three kids. My two DIL's were MIA but my four biological grandchildren were all there. I'm going to go to my daughter's on NYE for a while to bring my two stepgrand's their presents. I had my parents over as well because they don't get that many chances to see their greatgrandkids. Plus, they need to get out of the house and the weather wasn't too bad last night. I got each of these grandkids a "pillow pet", which is a really hot item for kids right now. My two grandsons had asked for one for Christmas and after Christmas, when they hadn't gotten one and saw them in the stores, they were giving my daughter fits about buying them one. They were hauling them off the shelves and trying to stuff them in the cart.

My husband made his spaghetti with mild italian sausage and angel hair Pasta, and I had leftover KFC I'd frozen after my Christmas Eve party that I reheated in the oven. I had the leftover mashed potatoes from the Christmas Day party and made some gravy for them. Now I know what to do when my husband buys a bucket of chicken for just the two of us. Freezing it worked really well. There's so much grease in the original recipe that the skin crisped up beautifully in the oven. Got rid of a lot of Cookies we'd been given and used up more of the hummus and salsa my DH had bought for the Christmas Eve party. People brought so much stuff to that party they hardly touched the hummus. But my kids like it, so we made a big dent in it. Kids ran all over the basement playing with their new toys while the adults sat upstairs. Very relaxing party, actually. We ate in the basement but had appetizers and Desserts in my living/dining room.

I'm taking my mother today to tour a retirement village with various stages of independant to full nursing care living. Both my parents are getting quite decrepit. Playing "catchphrase" with them at my sister's Christmas Day, I could really see my dad's mental deterioration. My mother was also struggling with processing speed and expressive language. It was interesting to see everyone making accommodations for them and for my niece, Olivia, with her processing delays.

I'm thinking of making Tuesday night a go visit my parents night. I've got to start getting my mother out of the house more on weekends. On bad weather Sunday's I'm thinking of driving them to their church so my dad's not driving on bad roads. We're all getting very uneasy about him driving at all, but he's pretty belligerant about being able to keep driving and my mother has never been able to stand up to him. Hopefully, his next Dr.s apptmt. the Dr. will insist and will inform the state to take away his licence. I almost hope he get's in a small accident or gets himself lost so that he gives up his keys on his own, but he's not to that point yet. His sense of location is excellent but he is blind in his right eye. My daughter, who goes to the same church as he, said he pulled out of the parking lot and cut them off and never even looked.

My dad has always been extremely stubborn and somewhat belligerant, but Alzheimers makes that worse. Both my parents have bad balance now and my mother's knee has frozen. She's supposed to stay off it but doesn't. My dad is very restless and has never been able to stay in one place for long. Taking away his driving would confine him a lot and he already drives my mother nuts when he's home a lot, which is partly why she'll never be the one to stop him from driving. She can't wait for him to leave. It's going to be a very difficult time over the next few years as we get them out of their home and into a more appropriate setting. My brother wants them to move into assisted living village by him in MI but then they'd be away from my baby sister and her kids as well as me and the majority of their greatgrandkids, and they'd be leaving the area they've always lived in and the broader Dutch community with whom they have many connections. They'd also be leaving their church, which they love. So, I'm hoping that it goes well with today's visit. It's near their church and near my daughter's and when I retire I'm likely to move out there. My mother worries about the money, but I think my Dr. brother and sister would help them out. My other brother and I might be able to contribute some each month as well. We'll see. There are no good solutions. In the old days, Iif they'd both lived this long, my parents would have been living with or on or near the same property as one of their kids and their other children would be close by. They'd have grandkids and great-grandkids swarming all over them and a neighborhood community to watch over them. They'd be the neighborhood adopted grandma and grandpa and people would be stopping by and bringing them meals, and shoveling their walks, etc. Now, even though I'm only one town away from them, I'm gone 11 hrs a day and I'm not in the mood to go over there when I'm finally home. We've gained a lot of "things" with our modern lifestyles, but lost a lot of values.

But, for today anyway, I'm having a mother/daughter day. We'll go out for lunch after our tour and then go to the courtyard shops in Crown Point IN. Magnificent old courthouse that's been turned into a lot of quaint shops. There's an antique shop on the square my mom like to browse through and several restaurants. Maybe some after Christmas sales in the courthouse which has some Christmas shops.

Have a great day everyone.

Cheri