12.27.07
Posted in wls at 10:25 pm by Shari
I stopped by Dr. K’s office today to check on a couple of things… when’s my next appt, could they call in a scrip refill and most importantly, could I find out if I was close to being able to weigh myself on their scales. Yahoo! I could weigh myself there. That means I’m down 18 lbs of the 20 I need to lose. Of course, there’s the possibility that their scale is slightly off from Dr. D’s, but given that I have almost 3 wks now until my next appt, there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll have a check mark next to that goal. The only other one will be insurance pre-approval. After that, I guess I’ll have some education to go to before the surgery. It just keeps getting closer… I’m so excited. I think everyone at work tonight found out my news because I couldn’t help but talk about it. It also occurred to me that this means 10% of the weight loss that I’m shooting for. Looking at it that way makes it seem like a lot and the whole goal is very do-able.
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Posted in wls at 12:12 pm by Shari
Amber is sad. I got up this morning all set to go out for a walk. Got dressed in sweats, put on a jacket, grabbed her leash and called her to the door. She was SOOoooo excited that Shari was going out for a walk with her. So I open the door and was greeted with…. rain….. DAMN. So I put her out on her lead instead so she could go out anyway. I don’t think she even went off the porch before she was knocking at the door to come back in.
They just featured a younger woman on Today who had gastric bypass surgery and lost 126 lbs. Wow, she looks great. Is it becoming that much more commonplace to have it done? Or am I just that much more in tune to the stories I hear about them? Anyway, it’s always encouraging to see the good stories.
I didn’t come to any conclusions on the YMCA vs WAC for water fitness classes. If I read it right, though, I could save a lot by joining a city YMCA and having access to the eastside and bayview Y’s for classes. Now I have to sort out if that will be better than joining WAC (or do I just sign up for the classes) Part of the debate, too, is do I plan for just the next few months or longer term? Decisions, decisions. Or do I just walk and maybe join that 24/7 gym after the surgery?
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12.26.07
Posted in wls at 11:22 pm by Shari
…. I called the ins company today to see if I could get a status of the paperwork that was sent in. They didn’t have a record of having any. So I called the doc office… they hadn’t sent it in yet! Okay, so it’s not like I was in a hurry for it to be sent in, I just assumed that it WAS being sent in after that last appointment and was needlessly watching for the response. So, being that they are going to try to put it together next Monday, Tuesday is a holiday and Wednesday is my next appointment, we changed my next appointment. We need to have a chance for the paperwork to go to insurance before I go back in to the surgeon. One good point is that it gives me another 2 weeks to get down the last 12 lbs. I have NO idea where I am right now, but 2 weeks extra gives me a fighting shot at having dropped the remainder of the weight to be dropped.
Going to Friendly’s tonight wasn’t exactly the best of choices, but I did eat well, I think. Chuck got loaded waffle fries, which I did have about 5 or 6 of. I got the veggie fajita quesedillas, which came with a side of spanish rise, some lettuce and tomatoes and sour cream and salsa. I has 1/2 the rice, 1/2 the quesedilla and 1/2 the sour cream and boxed the rest. Then he had a sundae for dessert. I had 1/2 of the banana and 4 or 5 spoonsful of ice cream. As good as I should be? nope, but out of hand, absolutely not. The biggest problem is that for 3 days now, I haven’t had as tight control as I should.
A guest at the store today was showing me her pedometer. I’ve been totally frustrated in the past when I tried to use them because they all seems so inaccurate. Pat swears this one is really great, having tried a number of others before. So, I told Chuck about it and he’s going to look at maybe getting one. I know I don’t walk enough. I know I need to walk more and even more and more after surgery. Having an accurate one will help me to 1) figure out what I actually do now and 2) set goals to increase what I do and 3) help me set longer term goals after surgery for the walking I’m doing. Pat also goes to a gym that’s open 24/7 near here, so i had a chance to chat with her a bit about that gym to consider going there later. I’ve also been trying to find out about aquatics programs at WAC and YMCA. More checking to be done there though.
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Posted in wls at 9:53 am by Shari
We had a nice and very quiet Christmas this year. Went to PA to visit my mother and Shaundra was there too. We had decided on just stocking stuffers to exchange amongst us, though Mom decided she had no idea and got a bigger gift instead.
Knowing Mom would overdo things if she made dinner, I had volunteered to bring food for Christmas eve and Christmas dinner to save her the hassle. For Christmas eve, I had gotten loaves of italian bread, sliced them in 1/2 lengthwise, hollowed them out some and made big sandwiches that got baked until they were warm and bubbly. One had fresh spinach, sliced roma tomatoes and shredded parmesan cheese, another had that fake crab stuff and swiss cheese and the third had sandwich steaks and cheddar cheese. They had all gotten a dressing of balsamic vinegarette as well. Everyone seemed to enjoy them. I had also taken along salad fixings as well. Christmas day was a casserole of wild and brown rice, shrimp and fresh asparagus with some cream of mushroom soup to hold it all together and shredded parmesan cheese on top. And of course a salad. Mom had set the table w/ dinner plates for the casserole and cereal bowls for the salad. I flipped them and used the dinner plate for salad and just a spoonful of the casserole in the bowl for my entree. The night before I managed my food by having a big salad and then not eating 1/2 of the bread on the pieces of sandwich that I took. Yeah, I probably had more bread than I have been eating, but still, it was managed to be less than it once would have been. Last night, on the drive home, though, I couldn’t do that as well, so I did have more bread then. Still not a lot, and it was Christmas day, so I’m not feeling bad about it.
I had a chance to talk to my brother, Don, about the surgery. I was pretty nervous about that because I didn’t think he’d be supportive of it. I figured he’d have an attitude that I should just be able to lose it all on my own. He was actually very supportive, and I guess he and Shaundra talked about it some after that too, and she said he sounded really supportive as well. I told him that I had been tempted to not say anything and just wait til next summer when I see them, having lost a bunch of weight, but decided to fess up now.
We also had a chance to visit for a short time with Brian and his family. Turns out it was a good thing we did because he noticed some smoke coming off our engine and being a mechanic, decided to check things out. We needed some antifreeze and oil, so he and Chuck got those things taken care of while we were there.
Christmas for me and Chuck will come later. I talked to Lori and she said she’s hoping that my HS paycheck will come next week, so then I’ll finally have what I need for what I want to get for Chuck. He hasn’t been feeling very well, so he didn’t get out shopping, so he’ll shop for me in the meantime and we’ll exchange gifts some other time.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
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12.21.07
Posted in wls at 3:22 pm by Shari
from the insurance company, and again it’s not my pre-approval. This time I didn’t have to open it to find out. It was for Chuck, but I saw the return address first, so I did get my hopes up.
I’ve had a couple times in the last week or so that someone I know has commented that they could see I had lost weight. In one case, it was someone I hadn’t seen for months. In the other, it was someone I see pretty frequently, but on that day, I was pleased to be wearing slacks that hadn’t been fitting well and were fitting better that day. I knew that I was standing a little taller because I was happy with how the pants fit, so I guess it came across.
We finally have resolution on the router/adapter thing. Chuck FINALLY installed the adapter on his computer and announced this morning that it is working on his computer. Yippee! Not that I have his wishlist (he realized that now it’s too late to give me a wishlist that references web sources)
We also finally have a non-blinking porch light. The light adapter had been acting weird. Sometimes not working at all, and more recently blinking on and off for hours. Eventually it would usually switch over to a steady light. So I bought a new adapter over a week ago for Chuck to put in. It didn’t get done and I finally decided to do it myself. All went well until I tried to screw in the new adapter. Oops - the area from the threads to the part that flared out was too short to fit into the socket. Damn! So back to Lowes I went, exchanged it for another adapter and last night, in the dark, replaced it. I’m not sure Chuck even noticed it last night when he came home 
Then again, I was pretty much dead to the world because last night I had 14 Jr Girl Scouts at work for a sewing badge. Not a good idea. It went very well, but it’s really too much. I’m going to HAVE to cap it lower than that in the future. I did set up the room differently and I think that helped things go smoothly. We had 3 parents helping, which was necessary with that many kids, but it also means that much more congestion in our space. I think any future meetings will have to be capped at 12 and 2 adults.
Christmas is nearly here and of course I’m not ready. I have to work this evening and tomorrow morning/early afternoon. After that, Chuck and I will go do some shopping together, where hopefully I’ll get something for him and the rest of whatever I need to take to PA. Sunday I’m getting together w/ knitting buds at Fairport Village Coffee for our every other week knitting group and later in the afternoon, we’ll head to John and Kelly’s place. Then it’ll be Monday and time to leave for PA. Somewhere along the line I have to make the food for PA and get everything wrapped. ARGH!
Time for work - actually errands and then work… then hopefully some wrapping of the gifts tonight.
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12.16.07
Posted in wls at 5:43 pm by Shari
but it wasn’t what I thought it was….
The piece of mail had the return address of our medical insurance company (just the address, not the name). So I was guessing it was from them - hoping for surgery pre-approval. The other clue was that they are the ONLY ones, other than my father, that include my middle name when addressing stuff to me. So I anxiously opened it up before I even got out of the car.
Dang - it was a brochure about dealing with diabetes and the holidays Useful information - yes…. What I want to get from them - No! Oh, well… tomorrow is another day.
So after I struggled to get to the cables for the router and adapter and move things the other night and made sure Chuck knew it was there, do you think he installed it? 3 nights in a row he talked about needing to get it, but that he didn’t want to mess with my computer. I thought he’d put it on right away. Afterall, he needs it to generate his wishlist so I can think about getting something he actually wants for Christmas.
I’m re-thinking what I bought for all of my nieces the other day. It felt so good to get it done, but as I think about it, I picked something to give them all that was more about getting something similar for them all so it was easy and done. I barely even know these girls anymore and certainly not what they’d really like. So now I’m debating about what to do. I still have a week, so I’ll put it on the back burner for a few days and dig out the receipt just in case I decide to go back.
I didn’t get that dang payroll sheet in for the HS, so now I won’t get paid on Friday I think I can count on something from the web work I’ve been doing, so that’ll help out. My main idea, though, for Chuck will be back-burnered until right after the holiday and I get that check. I guess what I’ll do is cut out a picture and wrap that.
Yesterday was Shaun’s birthday, so I did a lot of reminiscing about that day. With a blizzard in the wings, it reminded me a lot of that year. I did get to chat with her a bit, but she was getting ready for friends to come over for the evening. It’s hard to believe she’s 26 and amazing to see the young woman she has become.
Today I’ve been a total bum. It’s getting dark and we haen’t even gotten shovels out of the garage, nevermind tackled the snow that has the cars trapped. Gotta get that started soon or I’ll never get to work in the morning.
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12.14.07
Posted in wls at 12:06 am by Shari
After some rain and more moderate temps earlier this week, we’re getting some beautiful looking snow out there right now. Hmm… until I have to leave for work, that is. I’ll probably change my mind about it then.
I am so anxious about where my weight is… I KNOW I’ve been much more consistent with what I’m doing. Some blips, of course, but generally better than I was last month. My next appt isn’t until next month - 3 weeks from yesterday, but I’d really like to see where I am NOW.
Monday night was guild night. It was a pretty surprising one for me. I had felt very rushing-at-the-last-minute getting things ready for distributing the membership directories. I was also much later getting there than I planned since I had taken the time for dinner w/ friends at Panera on the way. Anyway, it was my last “official” activity as newsletter editor since I resigning 2 wks ago. Our prez is out of town and we were going to announce the new VP, so our previous president was MC for the evening. There came a point where she asked the board to join her at the front of the room. Yeah - I’m not on the board, so I won’t have to go up. Wrong… they insisted I join them. Come to find out, the reason we were going up there was so they could acknowledge the time I’ve spent on the newsletter and board these last 6+ yrs. I was so surprised! In addition to a (too long) round of applause, card from the board and guild pin, there was a Barnes and Noble gift card. I’m going to save that for when I go for surgery - get something that I can read/listen to during my recovery.
I’ve been starting to watch the mail very closely. I’m hoping that I’ll soon have the letter from the ins company saying that they’ve pre-approved me for the surgery. Nothing yet, and I’m probably jumping the gun.
<later…. after work>
So the roads weren’t wonderful, but not so bad either. By the time I came home, they were actually pretty good. Yippee.
And now I’m moving hardware on the computers in the sunroom. We’re hoping that replacing the belkin adapter from my desktop to Chuck’s will give him the Internet on his computer. To do that, though, I had to move the router from the old desktop to the new desktop, which seems to have worked just fine! One more test - does the laptop connect too. And if so, the adapter gets a new home upstairs. Hopefully that will cheer Chuck just a wee little bit.
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12.07.07
Posted in Crafts, wls at 10:14 am by Shari
Well, the snow is definitely here to stay. And the cold. Brr…. Enough already with the cold. Our old farmhouse is drafty and I hate when it’s cold and windy!
Along with the snow and cold we have icy sidewalks and parking lots. Every year, it seems, I end up making my not so good knees worse because of slipping on the ice. I haven’t fallen, but just walking on it means I keep twisting my knees a bit here and there and limping for awhile. It’s getting old and winter is “officially” still over a week away. I keep reminding myself that NEXT year it’ll be different - I won’t be carrying so much weight, I will have strengthened my knees and all will be well.
So as fun (and productive) as it was to have a snow day on Monday, it dawned on me that now it means that if I wait until class is over, I can’t turn in my payroll sheet in time to get paid before Christmas. NOT a good thing. I definitely need those $’s for Christmas. So, I planned to turn in 7/8 of that class paysheet along with all of my Wednesday night paysheet on Wednesday, and of course, I didn’t have it with me on Wednesday to turn in. Dang - another errand that has to be run now.
I’m teaching a “Fiber and Wire and Beads” class at JA’s on Saturday. I am thrilled to have 6 students and they haven’t even seen a sample! So I’ve been busily working up some samples for the class. For one piece, what I thought was going to work so well turned out to not quite work. When I first started playing with this stuff, I had several 1 yd pieces of 28 ga wire in different colors. I had loaded the beads and crocheted the full length, thinking to make a bracelet. They looked cool when done. Put it all together and it was WAY too big for a bracelet. Okay, so if you have a length of cording and it’s too long, if you tie a simple overhand knot, it shortens, right? So that’s what I decided to do. WRONG - it ended up as a big and SHORT knot. Dang! Hey…. it’s a pendant now. I had attached it to a length of chain and turned it into a necklace. Well, the chain kept breaking, I decided to add a fiber-y neckpiece rather than the chain. I made the neckpiece and put it together with the pendant and while the concept works, the colors aren’t quite working. The pendant is too bright for the neckpiece. Oh, well - the piece shows the concept and I’m working with the same idea in different colors/yarn and hopefully that will be more successful.
I did another piece with jingle bells on one length, red beads on a second and green on a third then braided them. That turned out really cute for a holiday bracelet. I have more lengths with silver and pink for a necklace and black/silver for another bracelet and necklace pair. I suppose I should be taking pictures of all these things and posting them. That requires some organization I don’t seem to have at the moment.
I’ve been able to continue the progress started on Monday with reducing the chaos of the house. Still chaos - long from finished, but any progress is better than none. Food hasn’t been so good the last 2 days though. I start each day on the right foot, but get off track by mid afternoon or so. Thankfully I’ve not strayed TOO far, but I do need to buckle down.
I have a stack of images to incorporate into a website and Chuck has a doc appt soon, so there’s much to be done and not much time, so it’s time to get on to the business of the day.
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12.04.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:05 pm by Shari
I was almost as excited as a kid finding out they had a snow day. We had our first real blast of winter. Sure, we’ve had some snow already, but yesterday seemed like the first that might stay longer than 24 hrs. Still, it was a surprise to get the call that we didn’t have classes last evening. Luckily, I was actually home to get the call and take advantage of it. At least once before I didn’t find out about a snow day cancellation until I arrived to teach and found an empty parking lot.
Normally I head back to town mid afternoon for a knitting group at the library. I stayed home from that too. That meant a whole afternoon AND evening with “nothing to do.” So, I took advantage by TAKING A NAP! Then, feeling guilty when I woke up, I dedicated myself to getting a little bit caught up in the kitchen. The whole house is in chaos, but it won’t be turned around in a day, so I just did what I could. I also made sure to actually make a decent dinner for Chuck and got some of my food prepped into individual servings so it’ll be easier to stay on track with that too. Amazingly, 1/2 cup of cereal is LESS than I had guesstimated earlier yesterday and 100 cals of All Bran Garlic and Herb crackers is more than the pre-packaged 100 cal packs of crackers. That all felt good, and hopefully the good feelings will last and make it easier to come back home today and get more done.
With all the Christmas music at work, you’d think I was into the mood for Christmas, but not really. Chuck’s asked me several times to put together wishlists at some websites to give him ideas to work from. That’s another thing I worked on a bit yesterday. Truth is, there’s not really a lot I can think of. We have so much “stuff” around here. He keeps thinking craft stuff, but really, I can’t really think of much. I’m NOT getting any clothes until after I get started on the weight loss, and then it’ll be minimal stuff from Goodwill and Salvation Army to get through the changes in weight. Well, I’ll buy underwear in each size I need because that’s something I can’t go without, nor will I buy it used. Last night I realized that I haven’t really done much for the neices and nephews yet either. I kinda have 2 gifts done or almost done, but I’ve been second guessing myself on whether the girls will like this gift or not. If I’m making, I have to really kick butt SOON so I can be ready. We’ll be taking stuff for all my family to Mom’s on Christmas day and leave it there for the “family” Christmas get-together, which we miss because I have to work on the selected day. What IS done is the major gift for Shaun - her GPS is ordered and will arrive on her doorstep early next week. She already knows about it and since it’s a combination birthday/Christmas gift to prepare for her move to TX, we all want her to have it early so she can get used to having/using it. The other major gift recipient is Chuck and I have a GREAT idea for him, as long as I can re-arrange the $’s to cover it in the right timeframe. He’s also giving me some book ideas, so I’ll probably be getting stuff from his list too. For Christmas day itself, we’ll be celebrating with Mom and Shaun, and Shaun suggested we do stocking stuffers for one another, so I’ve started on that already.
It looks like another day to spend a lot of time home after work - they’re predicting lots of snow again. Hopefully I can be productive today again.
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