Life is a Journey not a Destination

Kevin had all his photo gear home today so I asked him to take a photo of the me with the dogs.

I’m an only child and most of my childhood memories involve my friends. I always had friends over - sometimes they even came on vacation with us. Even though I have 2 children I love it when their friends over - makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that their friends like to be here so much. We had Amy’s friend on Friday afternoon, the neighbours on Sat and family friends today - one of them staying for a sleep over tonight. I also love when my kids play together and I just hope when they are grown they have such wonderful memories of their childhood as I do. I don’t feel like I’m the best Mum in the world but I really do try and I think I do a pretty good job of being a fun Mum (though I’m sure they disagree when I’m making them tidy up the mess they’ve made).

well, they will in a few hours - school holidays that is. I was hoping for a relax but I don’t think that’s going to happen till we go away in the second week. I’ve been pretty busy this last week and the upstairs hallway in a huge mess. I started to tidy up the linen closet on Wed and haven’t gotten back to it. Will have to do tomorrow morning as I don’t have much free time coming up. Good news my Stampin’ Up stuff came - it looks great - haven’t had much time to play yet though I did assemble all the stamps.

I’ve not even got as much scrapping done with week and today (my fortnightly scrapbook day) I’ve been finishing off our cruise/disneyland album - it’s so nearly done…. Also been making invitation for our Halloween Party (the girls are so excited). Oh, and I’m rather sad my Daily Dose class with Gretchen finishes on Sunday :-(. I have absolutely loved this class and have gotten so much out of it. Here’s another one from the class.

Kevin has been talking about weight loss surgery since the start of the year. At first I was opposed - so much so that I thought I might divorce him if he went ahead. But I was ignorant and as he did more research and reported that to me, I realized why I wasn’t losing much weight (despite eating well and exercising 6 days a week). Researchers have shown that the longer you are overweight the harder it becomes for your body to lose weight and only 5% of diets are successful. Not very good odds for someone who has been overweight for nearly 20 years. I undertook my own research and we’ve been watching “Big Medicine” on the Health channel which is all about WLS. Shortly after Kevin made his decision and got a date (22nd Oct) I decided to also have the surgery. We are both having a vertical sleeve gastroplasty - which basically removes most of your stomach - meaning you can only eat fairly small portions. I’ve seen the doc and my date for surgery is the 12th November. I will now much public some previous posts on WLS that I had made private.

Originally I was debating whether to tell friends beforehand or not (as a lot of other people have had negative responses from their friends). But I decided my friends all know about my long battle with my weight and have seen me try to lose the weight by dieting and exercising and know I’m not taking the “easy way out” - which was my own pre-conception about the surgery. Plus I also believe my friends and family only want the best for me and will be nothing but supportive. As for the newer friends or acquantiences - I think I’ll just deal with that as it comes up - but probably not tell them until afterwards.

We’ve told Amy and she’s excited about having a slimmer, fitter Mum and Dad. Mum and Dad are also very accepting now that they know more about it. I am very excited and can’t wait to have the surgery and lose this weight.

Here’s another song of his new album. This time I’m attempting to share the video via youtube.

….to Crafting Connection with Stacy Julian. I booked last night and am very excited. I’m going up Friday night for the Scrap Happy class and mega crop, staying overnight (only costing me $30 for an upgraded room using our Advantage Plus card - we get one free night each year), then 4 classes on Sat, then back home to attend Amy singing and drama concert. So it will a whirlwind event and I don’t know anyone (though I’m sure there will be a few familiar faces) but I can’t wait.

Not the date I wanted, or expected, but a date none-the-less. It’s Friday 9 th November - so 2.5 weeks after Kev. I am a bit dissapointed - I will miss Amy’s singing and drama End of Year Concert and I won’t be able to go Creative Connection with Stacy Jullian. But I will be having life-altering surgery. It’s hard to believe food will become so less important in my life. I guess it’ll be like when I was on Body for Life. I felt so good then - had so much more energy and time. Just time time around I will see the results on the scale.

Okay, it’s been a week but really haven’t had much exciting to report. Last weekend was pretty quiet. On Sat. Amy had singing and drama and Christy had a friend over - they had fun making cookies and even ventured into the pool for a quick dip

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On Sunday I went to help Amy tidy her room, then decided to move her furniture around a bit, then the girls decided they wanted to swap bedrooms. So that’s what we spent Sunday doing - though Christy had a bowling party to attend to and we grabbed some lunch out when we picked her up and did a bit of shopping at Target and Howard Storage. Amy’s room is very empty while we organise a desk for her but here’s Christy’s new room :

Pretty much an uneventful week - I went to the Chiro, P& C Meeting, Dentist with the girls (and again for a filling), the beauticians, the gym, groceries, etc, etc. Didn’t get much scrapping done this week but here are a few layouts I did manage. Still waiting for my Stampin’ Up stuff to arrive - hope it come Monday.

Yes, that is me and Kevin way back in 1985 - I think it was my 14th Birthday.

Yesterday I went to watch Amy play soccer for school sport - was pretty funny - most of the girls are too scared to kick the ball if another girl is right in front of them - pretty sweet really.

Okay, now that you’re all up to date on my very unexciting life, I need to go finish up the bedroom which I am deep cleaning this week. Then I hope to do some scrapbooking, then the highlight of the week……………… High School Musical 2!!!!!!

Well, I met with Dr Talbot yesterday. There is no reason for me not to have WLS so it’s full steam ahead. I’m to ring on Friday to get a date - should be within a couple days of Kevin - and get a full blood test. I’m so excited. In around 5 weeks I’ll be having surgery. Today I’m going through my wardrobe and sorting all my clothes in sizes. I think this will be a good thing as I’ll be dropping sizes so fast in the first couple of months.

I’ve been reading up a lot on the VSG and it’s hard to believe how quickly and easily people lose weight. The norm seems to be 8-10kg pre-op while on the liquid diet (which shrinks your liver and makes surgery easier), then 10kg in the first month, then around 5kg a month. Let’s say I have my surgery early Nov (which is what I’m really hoping for), then by 2008 I will be 25kg lighter than I am now. WOW!!!! Quite mind blowing really. I’d be rapt to be 10kg lighter by Christmas so anything over that would be a huge bonus. Oh, I just realized that I acutally have a chance to met my goal for the year - which was to be under 100kg. Currently 120.5 so I really should be able to make that goal - hmm….maybe I should return the size 20 I bought today or swap it for a smaller size…. I am so excited to meet with the doc on Wed afternoon.