Welcome Back!

Hi. Long time no see.

Yeah. I know. There are a couple of things that have held me back from posting.
1) Blogger now requires me to login each time instead of remembering me. I know it's only a few seconds and a few keystrokes, but I tell you! It is sometimes the difference between checking in on my favourite blogs and surfing somewhere else!
2) It always seems to take forever to write whatever it is that I want to say. I just can't come in here and bang out a post in 10 minutes or less. Usually, it's closer to 30 or 45 minutes.

Yeah. I know. Suck it up, Buttercup!

So, what's been going on?

Weight wise, I have really slowed down on my loss. I'm now down 140. I have been here for about a month. My poor food choices and lack of exercise lately has really had an impact in this department. I've been eating a lot of sugar and bread. I made bread on the weekend - it was really, really, really good - and cookies too. Now I have an excuse to eat them. They are here.

I've also been eating a lot of popcorn. No. Not the healthy stuff.

And really, anything else that has a reputation for being fattening.

My self talk has started to include lines about using my ability to choose better things for myself. With my surgery, I learned that I can choose to eat healthy - or not eat at all. Lately, I haven't been taking that option.


My dad has been in the hospital since August 27. He went in with a heart infection that antibiotics couldn't get. Then he had open heart surgery and was battling the infection still after that. His breathing tube was taken out only a few days ago along with reducing the drugs that were keeping him sedated and paralyzed. He has gone through a lot, but he has an aweful lot more to do if he is going to recover and live a somewhat normal life. But he has made amazing progress. He has been seriously beating down heaven's door, but God has decided to keep it closed a while longer.

I sprained my ankle a few weeks ago. Hence the lack of exercise. (It is so nice to get paid to exercise and really leaves a void when I'm not working. I don't have a routine to follow and therefore, little exercise actually happens.) I could probably walk a bit this week, but I have a pretty plum assignment for the week, so I will walk next week.

We have still been working on living within our means. I'm not sure we are quite living below, but I do think we are living within them. Did I tell you about the massive hole we dug ourselves into??? Let's just say that our interest payments are $700 a month. We (as in Norm) are working on getting our house ready to sell. The market is aweful, but I believe that we at least need to get it ready and listed and then God will show us what will happen after that. He can definitely provide us a buyer that will pay the price we need. Or, he can not provide a buyer and we can continue to live here. Or, he cannot provide a buyer and we can rent out our house and rent somewhere else. I'm not too concerned about the house thing. Where I do get concerned is our day to day budget and covering expenses. We always seem to find extra bills that take up any extra money that we may have. Today, we got a bill for a speeding ticket that I asked Norm to negotiate on. He didn't and now instead of just the ticket, we now also have a late fee. sigh. I guess we are too poor to speed!

My son, who is almost 5, is starting to be creative. Just in the last month he has started to play with lego and building towers and birds and tunnels and whatever else he can manage. It is really nice to see. He has never shown this kind of interest and intensity in one thing before. Usually, he will play with something for a bit, then leave it for a long time. Now, he is going back and back and back to the same thing making it new each time. I love it! Maybe he will be ready for kindergarten next year. LOL.

Those are the main things going on. Thanks for reading!