Losing Weight

I have so much going on in my life at this time that I have decided to start this new blog to use as a journal. If any of you have been following my other blog you may already know that earlier this year I decided to lose some weight. I knew that I did not want to go on a DIET because in the past that has always been a temporary fix for me and I always end up gaining back more than I lose. I managed to lose a few pounds but soon realized that I had worse problems that I needed to work on first and then worry about my weight. First, I needed to stop smoking. I have been smoking for 32 years, since I was 16 years old. Over the past few years I have tried several times to quit but I have never been able to do it on my own. Needing help, I have chewed the nicotine gum, used lozengers, wore the patches and still failed. Recently, several of my friends have quit using the Chantix so I went to my family doctor and asked for a prescription and he gladly gave it to me. I have not smoked in 8 weeks and already feel so much better. Now maybe I will have the breath I need to walk and exercise. Next, I needed to start taking medication for my high blood pressure. In the past I have refused to take the medication but I realize that I need it for now but hope to get off of it once I lose some weight. Again, I am already feeling much better. Lastly, get my bladder fixed. It is hard to walk and exercise when you have a leaking bladder. For years, I have had this problem but I have avoided discussing it with anyone. I was actually ashamed to admit it for some reason. However, recently I switched to a female gynecologist and the first question she asked me was "how is your bladder?" She went on to tell me that she had to have bladder surgery herself when she was 37 years old. For the first time, I was comfortable talking about it. She sent me to a Urogynecologist who was also a female and I had surgery a week ago today. After having surgery, it seems that word has gotten around and now several women that I know have admitted that they are also having the same problem and want to know who did my surgery. When I switched to a female OBGYN some of my friends said that they didn't think they would ever be comfortable going to a female but I hope I never have to use a male again. So far everything involving the surgery has gone well. I am still not able to sit straight up and down for very long but otherwise I feel good. Since quitting smoking I have gained back the weight I lost a few months ago plus 5 more but I'm not worried; I am ready to tackle my weight....

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Saturday, November 15, 2008
5:15 P.M.

I love to read and last year my husband and I closed in our back porch and made it a sunroom for me to sit and read in. I am sorry about the poor quality of the photos but maybe they will still give you an ideal of what it looks like. We did most of the work ourselves except for finishing the sheetrock and laying the slate tile. My husband has laid ceramic tile in other areas of our home but did not have time to do this project. He owns his own business building custom built homes. He and his 71 year-old dad does all the framing of the homes by themselves. He works very hard and likes to have his free time to do things that he enjoys. I understand and respect that. I did all the painting and clean up. I also made the curtains, pillows and recovered the cushions on the wicker loveseat and chairs. I furnished it with things that I already had. The bookcase I purchased at an antique store about 10 years ago. My husband actually laughed at it when I brought it home and said, "I can't believe you bought that." Then he asked me how much I paid for it. I was too embarassed to tell him. I just told him that I'd rather not say at this time. To which he jokingly replied, "if you paid anything you paid too much." I must admit it looked bad. Someone had used it to store paint in and it had many different colors of paint spills inside and out. I had to do alot of refinishing to get it like I wanted it and received a lot of compliments afterwards. My daughter used it while she lived next door to keep her Precious Moments collection in. The other items, I was either using in other areas of my home or had stored. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I have not had much time to actually read in there but we enjoy sitting in there and relaxing with each other or with friends.

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Friday, November 14, 2008
9:43 P.M.

This is our daughter and son with my nephew, Skylar, who was in an automobile accident last year. He is now 20 years old and paralyzed from the neck down. This picture was taken last November while Skylar was a patient at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Skylar had his accident on September 29, 2007 and broke 3 vertebrae in his neck, C4-C6 and severed his spinal cord. Seeing him go through everything that he has to endure has really had an effect on all of us. I help take care of him and I thank God each day that he is alive. The doctors have told us that it will take a miracle for Skylar to ever move his arms, hands, or legs again . I believe in miracles and I believe in God. I will post more about Skylar later on.

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Friday, November 14, 2008
8:09 A.M.
Time passes so fast. I always thought that as you got older things slowed down. Growing up I spent alot of time with my grandparents and their life seemed so slow. My grandfather was a farmer and my grandmother was a homemaker who also looked after her grandchildren. I can remember my grandfather getting up early in the morning to feed the livestock and go to the field. Immediately after breakfast, my grandmother always started cleaning up and preparing a large lunch for everyone. Lunch was served promptly at 11:00 a.m. and afterwards we would clean up and take care of other chores such as gardening, canning, churning butter, etc. Then it was time to prepare supper which usually consisted of leftovers from lunch. We would set around and talk for a short while and then it was time for a bath and bed. As a kid and later teen, time seemed to go by so slow when I was with them. Even as a young wife and mother, I thought time passed so slow until my children became teens. It seems I looked at them one day and they were almost grown and then I started noticing how fast time was passing. I did not want them to grow up so fast but they did. Our daughter moved out on her own about the time our son was graduating high school. Her moving out was very hard on me but I understood her need for independance and although it hurt I respected her for wanting to try and make it on her own and I still had our son at home to mother and take care of. However, he signed a baseball scholarship with a college in Tuscaloosa and moved there in August. This was almost too much for me. I spent alot of time crying and being depressed. I still had my husband but it wasn't the same. After crying for a couple of months I began to enjoy the house staying clean all the time and my husband began to enjoy getting all the attention. After about a year and a half our daughter decided she wanted to move closer to home. We own a house next door and she moved into it. A few months later our son hurt his arm and was not able to play baseball anymore (he was a pitcher) and he moved in with her next door. Now I was happy, I had the best of both worlds I had our children close by and my husband and I still had our home to ourselves. A year later, our daughter took a job in California and lived there for almost 2 years. That really hurt but once again I had to let go. She was an adult and I had to respect her decision. She moved back and got married here at home. She and her husband lived next door with our son for about a year and half until they built their own home. Our son still lives next door to us and I enjoy having him close by. While our daughter lives about 30 minutes away, it isn't like having her close enough to see everyday. But our son lives next door and we don't see him everyday either. He is busy with work and his personal life and I understand that very well. These days I find that I do not have the time to do all the things that I would like to do but I am thankful for the things that I have the time to do. Yet, I also find myself yearning for more time......