So much better

I woke up this morning with no stomach cramps and feeling tons better, not 100%, but better.

As a result, we are going to Boise after all. I am glad, as Carrie informed me that her children had been praying for my recovery and that none of the rest of my family would contract the illness. They are 3 and 2. So very cute. I woke up thinking that if I felt better that I needed to go, and now I know it is, among other reasons, to answer the prayers of the faithful.

I may or may not post this weekend, but if you are checking out my blog during a 3-day weekend, you need to get yourself some plans my friends.

Love to ALL!

Pitiful

Well, I didn't end up making it to BYU. I had gone to Spanish Fork to do a pre-employment drug test for my BILs company (I collect urine from other people for drug testing) and headed up to Provo to meet my mother who was going to go with me. We stopped at Carl's Jr so she and my grandmother could eat lunch. I had a Sprite and I had to force down the first few sips because I was feeling so poorly. I decided it wasn't a good idea to go traipsing around campus feeling so badly. So I went home. I slept, then I had to go to Mack's soccer game. I was praying I didn't have to go but it was his first game this season so I forced myself. While there I ran into a lady from our ward who is really into herbs. She gave me a couple of herbal remedies to "purge" the parasite. Okay people, I am 100% a medical doctor kinda girl. I do believe herbs have their place but I haven't found them yet. But I was so stinking desperate, I went and bought one of the products she told me about and I had Harold pick up the other product at her house that she was willing to give me. I am sitting here right now with Red Raspberry Leaf herbal tea while my stomach is cramping up and hoping it will work because this is one of the nastiest illnesses I have ever had.

In the meantime, we are supposed to go to Boise tomorrow, but there is no way I am going to make it at this point, which disappoints me. I was looking forward to this trip and seeing the cousins. My kids are excited, Harold was excited. I feel like a party pooper, but lets face it, 6 hours in the car isn't going to work out. Plus, I really don't want to expose them to this bug because it is HIGHLY contagious. I just feel lousy.

I didn't go to WW last night becuase of the game and because right before I would have gone I stepped on the scale and it registered 2 pounds up from last week. What the heck? How is it I stop eating and I gain weight? Then this morning I got on the scale again and it is down about 3 pounds from last week. Something very weird is going on.....If I feel better I might just take a drive to Provo to weigh in, especially if the weight stays low, I might even (finally) get my 10%, which is an award that WW gives when you lose the first 10% of your body weight. I have been struggling to get that for MONTHS. I'll let you know if I make the trek into Provo to do that.

Also, work has been suffering as I cannot sit here and type with cramps and a fever. I cannot get behind because next week school starts and I won't have the time to make up my hours.

Say a prayer for poor pitiful Jeanna today.

Parasite update

Okay, I feel better today than I did yesterday. But, I still have stomach cramps and the D word. I also spent a considerable amount of time sweating this morning for no good reason. What is that about?

Harold, the kids and I watched "The Ultimate Gift" on DVD. Great movie, I highly recommend it. It is clean and a great message. It is produced by Fox/Faith. Kinda odd that Fox has decided to see the light, but no matter, the movie was good.

I have decided to go to BYU today to get the lay of the land because I don't want to look like a complete idiot on my first day back. Does this make me a complete dweeb? I know where buildings are of course, but I need to see my classroom and I want to check out the books I will need before the bookstore becomes a mass of back to schoolers. I was just thinking that I first went to BYU in 1987, which means 20 years ago. So that also means that most freshmen and sophomores weren't even born when I went to BYU for the first time. Time flies people. I am a little horrified at what I am going to find when I go to class next week. I am sure those little teenagers are going to be wondering what the heck I am doing there and why the heck I didn't finish when I should have. Or, they will give me that "what a great thing for you to come back and finish school.....at your age." AAACK!

Cryptosporidium Infection

Okay, we have a name for it. Apparently there is this nasty parasite going around our area, and people are getting it from pools. It takes 2-10 days to manifest itself and guess what? I was swimming in a public pool exactly 10 days from yesterday when this whole thing started, however, I did not feel that great a few days before the actual touchdown of this nasty parasite.

If you want to read about it, check out this document by the CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DPD/parasites/cryptosporidiosis/factsht_cryptosporidiosis.htm#10

It is ultra gross, but at least I know what I dealing with here. Wish me luck, and since weight loss is a side effect of the parasite, I guess I can't be all that mad. I sincerely need help.

Influenza or gastroenteritis?

I am sick. I have a fever and body aches and my stomach keeps cramping up on me. I went to bed last night at 8 p.m. (early for me) and had trouble sleeping past 4 a.m. because my body doesn't do more than 8 hours at a time. So, for the next 4 hours I ended up tossing and turning because in addition to the body aches, my back starting killing me. I finally took some ibuprofen this morning around 8:30 and feel better, but now I am hot and sweaty which indicates to me that I must have a fever (no thermometer in my house, I don't know why).

The interesting thing about being sick and waking up at 4 a.m. is that I ended up putting on Ocean's 11 so that I could fall asleep again. Then I ended up having a dream about Brad Pitt. It was a little on the racy side, I'll admit. But the funniest part is that even though I think he can be somewhat endearing/good looking at certain times, I by no means have the hots for him. I was going to tell Harold about my crazy dream, but I felt so awful this morning I could barely say a word. So, Harold is probably going to read about the dream before he ever hears it from lips. So, Harold, I love you honey and Brad Pitt cannot compare! By the way, Brad wanted me, but I turned him down.

Good stuff, bad stuff

Good stuff: I logged onto BYU's site today to see if I could get some OFFICIAL notice about being let back in for fall 2007. I found a placed called 'tuition statement' and guess what? They are billing me $1920. So I'm in, for sure. They want my money and that is a good sign. right? :)

Bad stuff: I feel sick to my stomach (overeating). But, I think I figured out my overeating problem has been for this past week especially. I am on hormone replacement therapy because of my surgery back in December. Being on HRT is by my choice. I am worried about not taking it and I am worried about having to take it for the next 20 years. So, I have been trying to dose myself so that I feel good and can keep the estrogen level up w/o taking the pill every single day. So, this past week I think I took the pill once or twice. Apparently this is not enough because yesterday I was down, down, down in the dumps. I couldn't figure out why until I looked at the HRT pill box and realized. I have had this happen before, I get low on hormones and I get depressed. Luckily it only takes me a few days to figure it out and then I can redose and feel better a few days later. But I need to be on top of this. Depression feels bad and I usually overeat when I am depressed. So, even though this is starting to sound like another excuse to me, I know it is a legitimate one.

Last night after eating at a friend's house my son decided that turning the hose on and dousing his friend with it was a good idea. Three kids came in the hose sopping wet. Another three got put to bed immediately and my two sat staring at me. The one because he was dripping, cold and feeling super guilty....the other because her friends had been sent to bed and didn't have anyone to play with. It was actually pretty funny and my friend was pretty glad it happened because she was sick of her kids anyway and she was handed the perfect excuse to put them to bed on a silver platter. Thanks Mack!

The party

We had a lot of fun with Mom and Dad at Mom's party last night. It was VERY low key but it sure is nice to get together. I gave mom and dad the gift "The Top 60 Reasons We Love Mom (and in Dad's case The Top 60 Reasons We Love Dad) on Her 60th birthday." They both seemed to really enjoy reading what the siblings wrote and hopefully the book will bring them some joy as the years go by.

This weekend I got hooked into some of Harold's extended family blogs. So, a shout out to Devan and Jackie, Collette and Brent, Blaine and Angie, Mike and Kathy and even Janet! I will of course be lurking on their sites as I find blogs so much more fun to surf than anything else on the internet.

Our whole family fell asleep watching a video last night. I woke up at 4:30 a.m. on the futon with a horrible backache, went up to bed, still didn't sleep well until about 45 minutes before I woke up and the deep sleep put me into a major fog. So, I am feeling a bit slow this morning.

I have some serious confessions to make in regards to WW but I am not sure I am ready to make them yet. Suffice it say, I have eaten this past week like I used to. I even had one day last week where I didn't feel good. It was the same type of feeling I used to get every day almost, the one where my sense of overall well being was gone. This week has been a good reminder as to why I follow WW even when I am not losing and only maintaining. I like having the sense of well being, of eating to live and not living to eat. But, I guess the 20 year habit of living to eat has been rearing it's ugly head.

Happy Sunday to all. I do enjoy Sundays, they are busy but this kind of busyness beats a Saturday cleaning jag hands down. By the way, Harold got into a "de-junking mood" yesterday. (His words.) He was throwing things out right and left. He kept asking me, "Do you use this?" "How many of ________ do you need?" And my personal favorite, "Can I throw this out?" and when I respond by saying NO he says, "Okay, how many times in the past month have you used it?" So I lost it and told him "If you are in a de-junking mood, then de-junk your own stuff and leave mine the heck alone!" Good times.

School, anxiety

So I guess I was admitted back into BYU. I haven't received the official letter yet, but I cheated and went online and tried to register for classes. I wasn't able to add anything a couple of weeks ago and the system told me I wasn't admitted. Then yesterday the system let me add classes so unofficially-I am back in baby!

Thursday and Friday went a little better for Mack. I offered a reward for staying in school all day on Thursday, a McDonald's ice cream cone, which he received. Then on Friday he had a party to go to in the evening so I told him he had to go to school all day to go to the party. He went to school and was totally looking forward to the party. Then about half way through the party he came home suddenly. He was stressed out again and worried that he was going to throw up. Harold and I had to go through the "possible, probable" scenario that we have recently learned. We ask him, "Is it possible that you could throw up? Is it probable?" We did this questioning with several of his anxieties, i.e. throwing up, breaking a bone, getting bullied. I am starting to get worried about him. Harold and I have learned a lot lately about anxiety disorders and how to deal with them so I hope that we can help him ourselves without professional intervention. I want to go to the school counselor, but Harold says that the problem with that is that if we go, then Mackson might start to think he needs to see a professional for answers instead of us. I know this sounds weird, but Harold is more of an expert on the mind of an anxiety-ridden person than I am, so I am going to trust him and we'll see where it goes.

Today is the celebration for mom's 60th party. I am excited about the gift I am giving but don't want to talk about it until after the party. I need to remember the pictures this time so I can post a few.

I would offer a Happy Saturday! to you all, but unfortunately I have nothing but cleaning ahead of me for the next several hours so I am bummed. I have always hated Saturdays for this reason.

Refrigerator, anxiety

Okay, I had to empty out the refrigerator for the second time in a month and take the food to two different locations, one for freezer food and one for fridge food. I was so, so bitter about it last night. Apparently there is some part of our refrigerator that is broken that helps the fridge keep from freezing up. Mom is going to let us have her old fridge from Hathaway Court. Thank you Mom and Dad! What a blessing.

Mack has been out of control anxious about school this year. Crying, not sleeping, making himself literally sick (with a cold) and stomachaches. We have had to reassure him a lot and he still called yesterday for me to bring him home. I am crossing my fingers that he is going to stay at school all day today. I wrote a note to his teacher explaining the situation and hopefully his teacher will be able to help reassure him. One of the school secretaries told me that 3rd and 5th grade are typically the hardest years for students, the ones where they get the most anxious. I was glad to hear he was normal. Sav never had much trouble, other than not wanting to take responsibility for missed assignments. Hmm, wonder where she gets that from?

A weight-in first

I weight exactly the same this week as I did last week. I am getting pretty good at maintenance.

Goal Met!

I was a very good girl. I ordered a salad that had a tiny bit of cheese, of which I had very little, and it came with Ranch dressing, of which I had about 1 Tablespoon and a slice of bread, which I ate because I had the points from exercise this morning. So, I did pretty darn good. Stayed on core, for the most part.

Denial

Okay I did a whole post and it isn't on my blog. The whole thing was in regards to the fact that I have been in denial about being a Weight Watchers member for about 2 weeks now.

Because I don't have the patience to re-create the last post here is what it boiled down to.

I have a birthday lunch to go to today. My goal is to eat 100% core. One meal, one goal. I will report back.

Tonight is weigh in and I have no desire to go, but I will force myself and take my lumps no matter how big they may turn out to be.

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and is super supportive.

p.s. My fridge is on the blink again which means eating is no fun (no cold milk and cold milk = cold cereal which is not a Core food). So, maybe that will help. :)

Denial

I was just talking to cousin Julie when I realized that I haven't posted about my weight loss efforts in about a week. Then I realized that it was because I wanted to be in denial about the fact that this week has been horrible and I just didn't want to talk about it publicly.

But, in an effort to get myself back on track, here goes. This week I haven't counted points, haven't stuck to Core and haven't cared enough to do anything about it. Last night I told Harold that I officially letting myself off the hook. I am sick of feeling guilty about eating poorly and so I was going to just relax, try to maintain, go to meetings and weigh in, try to eat decent but not fret, for at least a couple of weeks until I was ready to put my heart and soul into it again. But, my story has changed today. I want to put my heart and soul into it. I need to count. I need to stick to Core. I need to weigh in despite the fact that this is the first time I have tried to come up with an excuse not to go. Things must be pretty bad if I am trying to get out of weigh in, as I have never had to battle myself so much to go to Weight Watchers before.

I started WW near the end of January of this year, so I should be much further along in my weight loss. I have lost between 26 and 28 pounds depending on the week and I have about 100 pounds to go.

Ok, here is what I am going to do. I AM going to let myself off the hook as far as realizing that even though the pounds haven't come off I have learned a few things about myself and the reasons I eat and overeat. I have made progress, even if it doesn't show on the scale.

Today is Mom's birthday so we are going to lunch. My vow is to eat either a salad that is 100% core. Now, I have no idea where we will be going so I cannot control if we go to a place that offers salad. If there is no salad available I will eat core only foods off my plate. One meal, on track, that is my goal. I will update you later.

First day of School

Today was the first day back for the kids. Last night our son was completely stressed out about it and could not sleep. He was crying and carrying on. I feel bad for him but I not quite sure how to help. Of course the first day was not nearly as crazy as he thought it would be and he seemed quite happy when he came home today. Our daughter was a little miffed that in 6th grade they do not get morning recess, just a "break" where they have five minutes in the classroom or bathroom to take a breather. Guess what? That's life sister! They are honing her for next year when there will be no breaks except for lunch.

As for me, on their first day back.... I worked a little extra and then took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Yes I did. It was nice and I really had to force myself up at 2:45 to take a shower. I was so out of it. Naps aren't usually my thing because I rarely feel rested afterwards and am so groggy and grumpy I am better off pushing through the tired and waiting until nighttime. I have also had some serious trouble sleeping lately. Our bedroom is too dang hot and downstairs where we have a futon has better temperature control but I wake up with a serious backache. So, can't sleep upstairs and can't sleep downstairs, quite a quandry.

Tomorrow is the big 6-0 for my mother. Crazy. This means I am fast approaching 40 (only 2 years to go). I remember when my dad turned 40, we had a big party for him and I remember thinking how old he was. Sorry dad, you weren't old, I was just young and stupid.

I still haven't heard from BYU about admittance for fall. I am anxiously awaiting a letter in the mail. I can't get financial aid going until I get an acceptance letter so that is a bit distressing since I can't pay for tuition without financial assistance. My neighbor goes to BYU for work and she might be able to carpool with me and that is sounding super nice right now. A buddy to drive in with and she has better parking privileges than a mere student would get. I can pay for half the gas and we both benefit, I hope.

Mom and dad signed for their house yesterday and I am counting the days until I can go there and cook. That kitchen is a dream, so much counterspace I will never be able to look at my kitchen in the same way.

Four generations

I decided to take a few pics at grandma's the other day. Here are the four generations.

More on the gallbladder

Harold got the call, his test came back "normal." It was the nurse that called and basically that was all she said. So, we have no idea where the pain came from. The ultrasound said there was sludge in the GB, so the pain most likely was from there, but apparently it is not diseased, as previously thought. Very, very interesting. This is good news as this means no surgery for Harold.

Yesterday's birthday celebration had the wind knocked out of it as Grandma wasn't feeling well. The recent fall with subsequent break to her wrist had her feeling sore. We didn't go to lunch and we had to cancel the party that Jamestown was throwing for her. I know this was probably a huge bummer for her, as she loves to have all the attention. Instead Mom, Sav and I hung out with grandma, doing her laundry, cleaning her up (mom did that) and watching her eat her lunch and nap. After the nap the three of us sang Happy Birthday and ate birthday cake. When I asked grandma how old she was she replied, "78?, or 80? or 79?" When I told her she was 87 she was shocked. "87?????" then she shook her head in disgust. It was pretty funny.

I didn't eat the birthday cake. I was super strong. Then on the way home I was starving because I only had 2 peaches so far that day and it was 4 p.m. So Sav and I stopped at Panda Express and I ordered the chicken/mushroom/zuchini thing with water. Then from there I had to wrestle the box of leftover cake (which I had insisted we don't take home with us, but it ended up in our car anyway) away from Sav who was trying to help me on my diet. But I gave her a dirty look, told her she should never keep food away from me and grabbed the dang box. I took one bite, handed the piece back to Sav who politely said, "No thanks." What? I have 1 bite and now you won't take it back? Harsh. All in all, yesterday could have been better because leftover cake is a huge weakness. Today, two peaches so far, but I am going upstairs to have some scrambled eggs right now so the protein will hopefully make my tummy full and happy.

1.4 pounds

I gained. I did. No big surprise there. The biggest surprise was that it wasn't more. So, as Karen said at weigh in last night, "A modern-day miracle happened here tonight." Yes, Karen, it did! I bought a box of peaches last night and am planning on eating those until I am stuffed. They are so sweet and yummy, grown on a local farm here. Yes, peaches are a core food.

Today is Grandma B's 87th birthday. Sav and I are going up to celebrate with her while I leave Mack behind. He is such a boy. He wouldn't appreciate lunch out and a birthday celebration if it doesn't involve gifts consisting of dart guns. Plus, he has cub scouts today and we don't want him to miss that.

The kids and I got our hair cut yesterday. I love my hairdresser. Is that the politically correct way of saying that? How about stylist. I love my stylist. I have yet to style my own hair so wish me luck.

Yesterday's primary activity Book of Mormon Water Blast was a lot of fun. The kids love anything to do with popsicles and water. At the end we had an "Epic Battle" where we had waterguns against water balloons. I got soaked. It really is fun for me to "let my hair down" (although it is much shorter so that isn't really possible) with the primary kids and just enjoy myself. And, they really like nailing me with waterguns. All the other adults sat out the epic battle which is too bad because I loved it.

I am desperately trying to get some pictures put up, but I'll be honest, putting up pictures of my kids on the internet makes me nervous. So, maybe all the pictures will be of me. Not as fun, but safer.

Red Vines and popcorn.

Yes, I did it. I overate last night and feel absolutely disgusting this morning. But, can I just say? I big shout out to Jeff who made me feel like less of a food monster by sharing his forays into the underworld of binge eating. Thanks Jeff, you made me feel better already.

Tonight is weigh in-which will not exactly be one of my finest moments. My friend Karen, who goes with me to WW, and I are going to start fresh on the Core plan again. I really do enjoy Core. No counting, lots of fresh food. After feeling so sick this morning I am ready for a change.

Last night instead of seeing the Nancy Drew movie with the girls we ended up seeing Evan Almighty. There is the obligatory dog in the crotch scene, which apparently Hollywood thinks we haven't seen enough of yet. And, like poop in the brownies the rest of the movie was pretty darn good. My favorite part was when God was telling Evan's wife, "When we pray for courage, does God give us courage, or the opportunity to be courageous? When we pray for patience, does God give us patience or the opportunity to be patient?" What a great reminder to me. When I pray for strength to overcome my weight problem, the temptations will not be taken away but when I exercise my ability to say no I am pretty sure it will get easier and easier to say no. Instead of food I need to try that word around in my mouth for a while. Eat that! No, No, No!

Excuses, excuses....

Okay, even I am sick of hearing my excuses so all of you must be as well. I have had not only a bad week, but a VERY bad week. I have weigh-in tomorrow and it is not going to be pretty. I am anticipating a major gain and this puts me behind by not just weeks but months. On top of that, whenever I have a terrible week I end up feeling so physically sick that I am reminded as to why I started this journey in the first place.

You want the list? Okay, here it is. Just today: Three Krispy Kreme donuts, 1 mint truffle, a waldorf salad with sugary walnuts (yum), part of Mackson's pepperoni pizza (CalPizzaKitch), and I am planning on going to the movies and I am worried about what I might do when I faced with popcorn, drinks and candy (specifically Red Vines). Having screwed up already today my attitude is something like Who-gives-a-care?

Harold had the test today but we don't know the results. The funny part of it was that they had to give Harold extra morphine to relax some muscle or something. If anyone is familiar with H you know that he doesn't even take a Tylenol when he has a headache. Morphine? Hello! He gets absolutely loopy and it is a crack up. The worst part is that he decided to drive to work after the test, still high on morphine. Stupid, stupid move. Can you imagine a DUI because of a medical procedure?

FHE

For FHE last night we drove to SLC to see mom and dad at the condo the Sipes own. It was a nice place. It was directly behind the Conference Center so the view was really nice. The kids swam and Harold and I spent the time talking with mom and dad. It is kind of strange having them live so close, but it still seems like it isn't real. I am sure that once they are in their own house with the furniture I recognize it will sink in that my parents actually live in Utah.

Today the kids and I are accompanying mom on a birthday present shopping trip for grandma B. I bought some jeans last week for Sav but she insists they are too tight so we have to take them back and get a different brand. By the way, those jeans weren't too tight. I think she is used to wearing baggier clothes and when things actually fit they feel "tight" to her. This frustrates me but I am trying to look at it in a positive light. I am hoping this means she has this inherent need to feel covered up and modest and that I won't have to deal with that particular problem while she is a teenager. So at this point I am looking forward to a modest teenage girl in my house that likes to talk back and give me a constant dose of cheek. (One of my favorite Scottish idioms.)

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Mingle² - Dating Site

I did really great until.......

.......fill in the blank. That is how every weekend goes for me for the last 2-3 months. I am great Monday through Thursday on WW, but Friday through Sunday stink. My working theory is that since I haven't been below this weight since I delivered Savannah almost 12 years ago, my body is fighting to keep the weight on and even though I know I am sabotoging myself, I still overeat on the weekends.

So, today through Wednesday I will be super, super good so that I can at least maintain my weight. I am hoping that starting school will give me the added boost I need to overcome this horrible plateau. I am thinking that school will keep me so busy I will stop thinking about food as often. Cross your fingers for me, or say a prayer.

Grandma Bradshaw fractured her wrist on Saturday. I haven't seen her yet but Mom and Dad were there with her at the hospital and got her back to Jamestown after her arm was casted. I will see her this week for sure. It is Grandma's 87th birthday on Thursday, poor thing has to go and break her wrist right before the big day, and about 11 months after she fractured her pelvis.

Harold's HIDA scan is tomorrow. Some kind of radioactive material gets shot into him. The radioactive material is taken up by the liver and excreted into the biliary tract. Ick. A nuclear scanner takes pictures to see how the gallbladder fills and empties. Now that sounds like a good time. We will update you on the scan as soon as we get the results.

And, a side note on Harold......He is cute. FYI.

Stress level...

So, it seems that my stress level has everything to do with my eating habits. Shocker. I have had a tough summer and just when I feel like things are getting under control I go and overeat on pizza and some carmel bars. I had a bad day with regards to work which I will not go into the details about. I could have used this bummer of a day to really tell myself how lucky that I am going back to school and that one day I will be able to have a job that I really enjoy. But instead I was bugged, irritated and practically irate and used all that stress to order pizza and make a bad-for-me dessert.

I mentioned to Harold yesterday that I had a blog. He said, "Yeah, I know. I had to find out when someone emailed us to congratulate you on it." Oops, forget to tell Harold before I told anyone else. Sorry hon! Sometimes I forget to tell you things, but I am betting you forget sometimes too?

Today we are going up to Amy and Justin's for a swim and BBQ. We are excited and glad to get away from the house, but not before some serious cleaning goes down. I have been awake for almost two hours, and Harold has been asleep. But as soon as he wakes up the cleaning rampage begins. It is that time of the week that the kids and I dread the most. Why does cleaning always involve screaming, crying, pouting and fits? And I am NOT necessarily talking about the kids.

Gallbladder update, etc.

So, since I have received calls in regards to Harold's gallbladder, here is an update: Harold was afraid to eat all day Thursday but we had a dinner appointment that night. So we had a nice meal with the Carson's (a nice couple from our ward). The meal was pretty low-fat so I wasn't too worried about Harold. He ate and didn't have any pain. He is feeling pretty confident that he can eat fat because I (mistakenly) offered to have pizza tonight (date night). He was eager and I remembered and said, "Okay, maybe that isn't the best idea." Harold wasn't caring, so we are having pizza. Tomorrow's gallbladder update might include another ER trip. Stay tuned....

As for WW: Yesterday wasn't my best day, not my worst either. The dinner was fine, but I got home and was feeling like I needed a dessert. Why? I have no idea. I crave sugar in the evenings. So I had some cold cereal and the kids ended up making brownies. The brownies were overbaked but did I care? No! I ate some anyway, overdone and icky. But, since my WW week resets on Thursdays I had some wiggle room for crappy food. Tonight is pizza, as I said before, and I am planning on eating it. I have some more points for non-Core foods so I will use a bunch tonight. I am really, really liking not having to count everything I put in my mouth.

As for my familia: Sav babysat today and made a whole $15. She wants to open a savings account. She wanted to know how much they cost and how often she could withdraw. She is her mother's daughter. Mack is taking to ignoring my request that he shower every day and it is gross. He smells like a boy and even though there is part of me that thinks that is cute, the largest part of me is sickened by having essentially a wet dog in my house.

Harold's gallbladder

I know the title is intriguing, but let's talk about me first, shall we? I went to my weigh in last night and lost 2.8, which is basically what I gained from the past two weeks. So, I am feeling super good about my choice to switch to the Core plan at WW.

Okay, to Harold. At 12:15 last night H wakes me up and tells me we may have to go to the ER because he is in severe abdominal pain. I was out of it, I'll admit. I tried to go back to sleep but I knew in the back of my mind that H doesn't wake me up every night of the week so I better get a grip and get up and see what is going on. I did that around 12:25 or so. (So, my timing wasn't super bad, was it?)

We drove to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and arrived at 12:48 behind a swarm of people with bumped heads, crying children, and what I think was a mental patient hitting on a poor unsuspecting immigrant lady. I seriously watched him flirt with her and she liked it and he got her phone number. YIKES!

Anyway, it took forever to be seen because of the "unusual Wednesday night" they were having. We were in a room, separated only by a curtain, with a man with schizophrenia who reportedly had a fight and got a stab wound. When the doc talked to him the doc wasn't at all sure that this kid was in a fight, but that he probably cut himself. Apparently they kid wasn't on his schiz meds either. Sad, but I was a little scared to be honest.

Harold had lab tests and an ultrasound and he has sludge in his gallbladder. He got a Rx to get a HIDA scan which is the definitive test to see if he truly has GB disease. He will have that next Tuesday.

We got home at 6:00 a.m. and were so tired. Mack had to go with us because Sav was at a sleepover and so the three of us were bushed. I am awake now because the call of work and other duties is louder than the call of sleep right now. Harold is still asleep but told his boss he will be in later.

Adventures in the ER. Good times.

Picture test

Okay, this is a lame photo to choose to try out, but it does have my kids in there, barely. This is Sav and Mack at Grandma and Grandpa's house, before the walls went up. Of course the house is nearly done now, but I needed a "test photo" and this is the best I have on the computer at the moment. All other pics are on my other computer so I will need to do something about that. (This is my daughter's attitude most days, by the way!)

I am definitely needing to get my rear in gear with regards to this blog. Here is my WW update. I switched to Core one week ago and have weigh in tonight. I know I have lost what I gained (about 2 pounds) so I am happy about that. I am also happy about the fact that I don't have to count everything I put into my mouth. Sure, Core foods are limited but I get milk and avocados as well as one serving of a whole grain cold cereal. Yum. I am really enjoying this. I am sure laying off the carbs is going to be great for my diet. I still eat them and I use my exercise points for them, but 4 points of carbs is better than over half my daily allotment on the Flex plan.

On a different personal note. I am going back to school. I was seriously considering nursing and still might do that, but I have decided my #1 priority is to finish my bachelor's degree in English. This will not guarantee me a great job, or any job at all, but maybe I could find something different than what I do now (transcription). I know I sound like a lame complainer but I am tired of working in my basement and need to get out of the house. Plus, I am looking for a "satisfying career." Something that makes me feel good at the end of the day. That is why I was considering nursing: The pay and the feel-good feeling you get from helping other people. So, as I finish up the last 1.5 semesters of credits, I will take a couple of prerequisite classes that will allow me to take nursing prerequisites and see if nursing is still something I am interested in once I am done with my bachelor's degree.

I wouldn't work at all but I have come to accept the fact that I will NEED to work for a while and I may as well pursue something that I like and enjoy.