This morning I am going to do things backwards. I'm going to write my blog entry now. I always put it off and then it's 9PM and I'm starting to feel tired and not in the mood to spend the time on it. Wow! For someone with no job I am REALLY lazy so far this week. You'd think I'd have plenty of time to get things done and do them. Oh well . . . on to the update.

Weekend Update
I had the best weekend! My husband and I took a quick road trip "down home" to the Columbus suburbs to visit friends and my family. I grew up two and a half hours south of where I live now and my parents, sister and family and so many friends are so close, so you'd think I'd keep in touch better. It's a long story, but I may see my parents three times a year and my sister less. Lots of dysfunction in my family history. Anyway, this was a good trip and I got to see the 'rents and sis. I also got to visit with my bestest ever friend and two of her daughters - my babies! - and got to see alot of folks from the church I grew up in - they've been the BEST since everything with the cancer last year and it's just wonderful to come "home" to their love and support. Other trip highlights:
- found a plus size consignment shop and got TONS of smaller (career mostly) clothes I needed for CHEAP!
- had a good time with a friend picking up the first twelve of about 36 photo albums that I'm going to scan the photos from for her . . . now if I can just get her to get a computer . . . or just a netbook, even, so I can e-mail her some results and touch base more often. How can someone not have some sort of digital access in this day and age?!?!?! I mean she's in her early sixties . . . we're not talking about someone too old to be connected. (Is it possible to be to old to get online at this point?)
- ate crap. I think this trip moved me on to the stage three (mechanical soft) part of my diet even though it was a little early. Just wasn't gonna pull out the blender for the weekend away.
- decided to make a better effort at prayer and Bible reading again. I've always had a good relationship with God, distant at times, but always know he's there, I just haven't stopped to take the time to enrich the relationship. No time like the present. I should have plenty of time on my hands until I find a new job to make daily time for my relationship with God a priority . . . I hope.
- looks like after fifteen years together, thirteen of those as married folks, that Bob and I are getting better at this relationship thing. Every new experience has taught us something about how to be as a couple. He was great on this trip and I think we're really starting to mature in our relationship . . . it's about time! LOL
- attended my first cheerleading competition - Wow!

Post-surgery/Health Update
I've been feeling pretty good for the past week. Exercise was good the first couple days of the week, but I got sidetracked with work and the trip and some cold weather and didn't do as much dedicated/planned exercise as I should have. I've got to try to get out there today and walk. I know I'll feel better if I do.

I'm still having pain and discomfort. Pretty much ran out of all narcotics the middle of last week. I'm trying Tylenol and the heating pad like the surgeon suggested, but still not feeling the greatest. I took the very last dose of percocet this morning just to give me a boost to get out there walking. I know I'll feel better if I do that. What I'll do tomorrow, who knows. Maybe the Tylenol will work.

I'm really feeling the lack of antidepressants lately. Very weepy and at the silliest things. We attended a friend's daughter's cheerleading competition this weekend and in the middle of this huge expo hall with pounding music and screaming and cheering kids I started getting all teary-eyed. Best I can figure is that it was children critical mass (all these sweet kids with potential and Bob and me not able to have one), plus being there with my sister (with whom I have a distant if not strained relationship that we're trying to work on), and stupid Bob having The Blind Side on the TV while we got dressed that morning. Really?!?!?!? Really?!?!?!?!? I hope that this gets better as more and more time off the antidepressants passes.

Eating has been tough. I'm finally feeling hungry again. I think it's mostly real hunger, not head hunger, since if you look at what I'm taking in calorie-wise I'm way under my calorie goal. CK has me at 2000 cals/day, I bumped that down to 1800 pre-surgery per dietictian reccommendation, and now my diet from the bariatric program wants me to be at 1200 - 1400, although portion size (1/2 cup per meal, 5 meals daily) and protein (60 - 80 grams daily) are what they really want me to watch. The weekend road trip pushed me into more food choices . . . not pureeing anymore. I'm eating these soft solid foods too quickly which results in discomfort and potentially pain and nausea, so eating speed and portion size (to some extent) is something I have to work on. Additionally, I'm learning what foods my new tummy is ready for and which it's not. The new foods are also higher in sodium so I am fighting some water retention right now. I really need to stay off the scale except once a week. Weigh-in this week was 321.4 which is down three pounds from last week and I'm dissappointed - - - Crazy much, Kris?!?!?! LOL

Work Update
I got my layoff notice on Thursday. It was harder than I thought. Even though I had a pretty good idea that I would be let go and had been preparing for it, it was much more emotional for me than I thought. Lots of legitimate (not antidepressant withdrawl) crying Thursday and Friday. Feeling somewhat better about it this week and trying to move on. I'm hoping to hear something from an old boss I touched base with last week. It would be great if she could use me at her company and I could get back to work soon. (By the way, yesterday was supposed to be my first day back to work since the surgery.)

Other General Nonsense
We got my husband's truck back from the shop. It wasn't totalled and it's fixed now, but for a 10 month old truck it's just not the same. Sad. I spent alot of time last week in "retail therapy" plus had the great weekend . . . unfortunately very broke now until Thursday payday. I mean it's not like I can't go a couple days without spending a buck, but alot is going on and I could use some cash to get working on it . . . I mean, I have less than a week to get Bob's Lady Gaga meat dress ready for Halloween. That's an entire blog entry in itself, really. My husband is a Halloween nut and likes to push the envelope with costumes. I'll share some photos over the next week for your entertainment. Here's my guy last halloween as a fairy princess.





So that's the tip of the blog update iceberg . . . Maybe I can start working on more frequent, less lengthy posts. Maybe.

Namaste.