Disappearing Cake

Hey there was supposed to be a birthday cake at the top of that post yesterday! It disappeared on me. Well, here. Have some cupcakes instead. Happy birthday! Did you get your wish?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl today.

No, not that baby girl. Her birthday is coming up next month, when she will turn the magic age of one! And I am invited to her party to watch her dig into her first birthday cake and shmear it all over her face.

No, THIS baby girl is having a birthday today.

Bet you can't guess how old she is.

Have a good one, Sweetie!


And THIS little cutie patootie had a birthday not too long ago.


In July she turned .... gasp.... the big 30!
She'd rather not talk about it, but since I'm her mom, maybe I'm allowed to.
You are so young! You have your whole life ahead of you!
I love all my baby girls. :-)

Who Am I Kidding?

I tried really hard to like that diet system food at first. Really, the first one I tried wasn't too bad. Red beans, rice, and chicken sausage. The blueberry muffins for breakfast were OK, but tiny. But the beef stew...... EWWW! It was more like canned dog food. And then I tried some "chicken salad" in a foil pouch. You are supposed to eat it on melba toast. Who even knew they still made melba toast? Seriously, does anyone eat that stuff? So, I made a sandwich with two slices of toasted whole wheat bread, POURED out the chicken goo onto the toast, and topped it with a generous pile 'o lettuce, hoping to disguise the nasty appearance. OH. MY. GOODNESS. GAG!!! Did you ever hear of the lovely term the army uses for chipped beef (or in our family it is tuna) on toast? "$h!zz on a Shingle." Yep. Well, this stuff made bleep on a shingle seem like a feast fit for a king. I am not kidding. I have no idea why I even tried to gag the stuff down, except that I REALLY need to find something to help me lose weight and get this stupid diabetes under control, so I was desperate.

Appetizing, no?


Needless to say, the rest of the crap in that box is getting sent back pronto! And I am going to ask for, no, DEMAND a refund! If you were thinking of trying it, don't bother. It is a waste of money. My friend, Carolyn, said she tried the system years ago, and wanted to know if they had improved their horrible food since then. I'd have to say a big NO on that one.

Next? Any ideas? I guess I may go back and try sticking with Weight Watchers again. I think I kind of need the support and the hand holding and encouragement you get there.

And then there's the walking. Mostly, since it's hunting season and I don't want to get myself or my dog shot walking in the woods, I just walk up and down the driveway to the mailbox and around the yard with Cooper. Not getting much exercise this way, but it's better than sitting around on my @$$ all day!

Any and all suggestions are welcome!

The Big "D" (and I don't mean Dallas)!

Well, if you are on facebook, you may have noticed when I announced to the world that I have been diagnosed with diabetes. Gosh, that was probably a dumb thing to do, but hey, it's out there now, so I might as well talk about it.

A routine fasting blood sugar test alerted my doc to the possibility that I had a problem. She did the test again a month later, and told me, "If the numbers are good, I'll see you in six months. But if they are high again, I am going to want to see you right away to talk about how we are going to control YOUR DIABETES. No, she didn't shout it, but that's how it came across to me in my head... YOUR DIABETES. Hey lady, I said... I don't HAVE diabetes. We are just doing a blood test here to check, right? I went to my car and sat there thinking, "Well, I handled that pretty calmly." And then proceeded to fall to pieces.

Two days later I got a call from the receptionist, saying the doctor wanted to see me pronto. Uh-oh. I knew what that meant, and it gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. :-( Sure enough, my numbers were borderline elevated the second time, and she said that combined with my high cholesterol and lipids, that she would consider me to have diabetes. Ugh.

I tried reasoning with her. "But my numbers are in the normal range or just slightly above (by one point). Doesn't that make me a PRE-diabetic? Hope written all over my face at this point. Nope. Not in her opinion. So we talked about controlling it with diet and exercise -- no insulin or pills at this point, thank goodness. We set some goals for me, such as walking three times a week for 20 minutes (for starters), and losing some weight, and she said her secretary would set me up with some diabetes education classes at the hospital. Oh, fun.

This time, I went to my car, determined to DO something about this RIGHT NOW! No more denial, no crying, just get over it and get with the program. I drove directly to the Bangor City Forest, which has some lovely walking trails through the woods, as well as a boardwalk through a pretty bog. I was seriously trucking as soon as my feet hit the trail. I did about a mile, and I felt SO GOOD afterwards!

I have seen the diabetes education nurse twice now. She taught me how to stab myself in the finger and use a meter to find out my blood glucose level twice a day. And she confessed to me that she, too, hates her treadmill and can hardly force herself to get on it. Gasp! I like that in a woman. :-) She said to try the Leslie Sansone videos, Walk off the pounds, (and various other titles). I just happened to have one of those lying around gathering dust somewhere, so I dug it out and will (maybe tomorrow) hopefully start walking off the pounds.

The second week, I met with the registered dietitian. She taught me that there are no forbidden foods, you just have to work them into your eating plan. And she taught me to count carbs. Which I did. For about a week. Then it got to be too tedious, and I caved in and ordered the Nutri-System plan for diabetics.

So, here I am. Starting over. AGAIN.

I'll let you know how that works out.

Ticks

This is for my friend, Pam, who sent me this Brad Paisley video after I complained several times of finding a tick crawling on me (Yech!) after coming in from a walk in the woods with my dog, Cooper. I got a big kick out of it! And it's also for my daughter, Jen, who first told me about this song a while ago, but it never really made an impact on me until I was crawling with ticks myself. Notice the big screen behind Brad. Aren't those supposed to be a southern thing? What the heck are they doing up here in Maine?! Anyway... enjoy!

Rich and Kirsten, or I believe in the power of prayer!

I thought people might want to see who they have been praying for. (Family members, of course, know them, but everyone else who has been so wonderful in lifting them up to the Lord in prayer, has been doing so without having a clue who they were. And we appreciate that so much!)

So, here is my sister Kirsten, and her husband, Rich.

I have been asking people at church, family members, and people on facebook to pray for them, especially for Rich, the past few days. He has been in the hospital since last Thursday morning with (then) unexplained internal bleeding. Found out he had four ulcers, he lost so much blood that on Friday his blood pressure dropped to 40/21, and they almost lost him. He has received nine or ten units of blood in three days. Things seem to be going better now. I had a phone message from Kirsten saying that they were going to let Rich have breakfast of broth and jello. Whooppee! They have to go slow and see how his system will tolerate having food in it. Hopefully he will get to go home from the hospital in a day or two.

The kids are getting to go up to the hospital in Ann Arbor tonight to finally see their dad. I know they have been worried about him. So, it's a good sign that Rich is feeling up to having visitors. Things are looking up! He's getting better every day.

Thanks everyone for all your prayers!

(Sorry, had to remove picture of the kids, as I was advised by one savvy blogger.)

Three Chins

My dad used to tell this corny joke. It goes like this...

"How long is a Chinese name."



That's it. But of course, when you hear it, it sounds like a question, so it ends up being very confusing. Kind of like "Who's on first, what's on second, etc." (The famous Abbott and Costello gag.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M

The person will go, "I don't know. How long IS a Chinese name?," and Dad says, "That's right. How Long is a Chinese name." This can go on for a long time. Then it finally, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y dawns on them that it is a statement, not a question, and the groans ensue. It's all very hilarious in real life. Try it on someone. You'll see.



This however, is no joke. Three chins is not a Chinese name. I actually have three, count 'em, THREE chins! Egad! When did this happen?



My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter stopped by for a quick visit today. Sarah and Ella were doing something cute, so I got out my camera. We got lots of cute pics of Ella, who is adorable and has only ONE chin. Then after they left, I looked at the pictures on my camera, and there I was, holding Ella, and looking like an over-inflated Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon! With three chins. Ugh.



Weight Watcher's, look out, because I'll be rolling myself in there this week!