Trials of a Long Haired Girl

Happy Thursday a/k/a Friday eve! My thoughts today are on the fact that I just celebrated 10 years of marriage with my sweet husband. I am not sure I could be more blessed than I am with this man who supports me and loves me. We have been through so much during our time together, including moving my Mom in with us and then losing her. Being with me after my son’s multiple hospitalizations for various things. Let me tell you that I honestly don’t think I  could have done or handled all of that without him. He has been my rock. There is no one that I  would rather do life with than my sweet husband. Even though he really doesn’t need to lose weight, he has been so sweet as to support me when I  buckle down to get control of my health/weight loss. He eats what I cook, without complaint.   No fat, low fat, full fat, vegetarian, Southern cooking, he eats it all. He gets up early to go walk  with me. I know not every man would do that, but he does.  ...

Happy Independence Day friends!  I hope you are getting to enjoy some family time today.  We're going to have a family cookout.  I doubt that we go to watch fireworks as a family, but I'm just glad we'll have some time together.  Fun memory from before Mom passed is spending the 4 th in her front yard under the pecan trees watching the Denison fireworks display.  I can remember one from shortly before my husband and I got married.  So many fond memories of that house and time with Mom and my family.  I think that the allure of going to Mom's is that we could see most of the fireworks because she was only blocks away from the location of the display and we didn't have to deal with the crowds.  We often had friends and family that would come over and share a seat in the yard.  I am simply not a fan of crowds anymore.  I will suffer through when I have to, but I do not like it. What traditions to you have?   

Happy Thursday a/k/a Friday eve friends! Happy Valentine's Day!  This one is a bit of a two-for.  My Mom always made Valentine's Day special for me, even when I was single.  I still have a red teddy bear with a rose that Mom got me years ago.  I have so many great memories of hanging out with her having a special dinner and she was always my Valentine, even after I got married.  For our Valentine's day dinner, I am making a meal that I know everyone likes.  I was reminded again recently just how blessed I am with my husband.  I know now is a time to get a little sappy, but I have been thinking about this for a bit.  My husband and I were everything that we thought we didn't want.  God clearly had other plans.  Mom told him at our reception that there was no exchanges and no returns.  Seriously, I firmly believe that if I had gotten married when "all my friends" were getting married that I would not have been truly prepared for m...

Happy Thanksgiving friends!  I have not been good about posting this week and for that I apologize.  I wanted to take a moment and say thank you to those of you that stop by and read my blog.  Also to say that I am thankful for an amazing church family, my biological and unbiological family and my friends.  Today I want to focus on the things that I still have.  Today is sometimes a difficult time for me after losing my Mom.  I can remember feeling so alone in a room full of people.  I am so thankful that God gave me another day.  It is all about perspective.  My heart is overflowing and my cup is full.

Happy Thursday a/k/a Friday eve! I hope everyone has had a fantastic week!  My week was full of many things, including celebrating one of my bosses' birthday.  We have now sort of made a tradition of making a breakfast casserole/muffins or something edible to enjoy when we celebrate a birthday.  It reminds me how blessed I am to work at a place where we enjoy each other's company and are small enough to celebrate together.  We have a great crew that supports each other when the tough things happen.  This was abundantly clear when I was going through multiple hospital visits with my Mom, surgeries, and then ultimately losing her.  I cannot begin to express thanks enough that the door was opened here for me when I needed it.  I am a firm believer that God opens doors and places you where He needs you to be and I'm thankful that I am here.   Honestly, my work crew is more like a part of the family and that is a blessing. 

This has not been my best week; I’m not even going to lie.  I will likely go weigh in tomorrow morning to see just how bad it was.  However, I have decided that I would take this opportunity to re-focus on my weight loss efforts.  I feel like I’m recycling the same pounds over and over again and this cycle needs to stop.  I was listening to Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes.  It brought some things to the forefront of my mind including how important certain things are in my life and how I need to stop being afraid and focusing my mind on all of the “what if” and “could be” options that swirl in my brain.  Bad habits like soda have been creeping back in to my workday.  I have decided, honestly, that I am going to try to focus on what I CAN do this week.  My goals for this week are to: I will pack a lunch/snack each workday. I will change up my breakfast at least 2 days out of the com...

First off, let me apologize that it has been so long.  Secondly, I just want to see if anyone else has experienced this as well.  For some time, I have been feeling an urging to be a better me.  I have been reminded of hobbies that I used to enjoy and things my Nanny did (sewing, canning and such) and just the way she was when I was younger.  I know she was raised in a different time than I, but even when she and my grandfather weren't in agreement, she still respected him as the head of the household.  To that end, I have been working on ways that I can be a better me. I have recently been reading Darlene Faye Schacht's The Good Wife's Guide: Embracing Your Role as a Help Meet.  If you are interested, she also has a blog called  Time-Warp Wife .  I will be honest, while there are many things that I will not be implementing as I am not a stay at home mom, I have found several things that I am going to try to implement slowly.  One of whic...

I was going through my blogs on Bloglovin' and ran across a blog post from Coffee Cake and Cardio entitled  Focused on the Wrong Thing .  I have to say that I was a little blown away and it felt like she was in my head.  Although I have not been working with a behavioral nutritionist, I can definitely relate to what she is saying for sure.   I have been doing Weight Watchers for a number of years and, honestly, I should have hit goal a number of years ago.  I managed to successfully lose over 40 lbs on Weight Watchers when I first joined, but with the stress of job changes and planning a wedding, I re-gained my weight.  I know that when I was a small child (and I do mean small since I was wearing toddler size clothing when I started school) my focus was not on food for comfort.  Unfortunately, between my second grade and third grade year, everything changed.  I am not overly fond of change but my school district decided to close my school...

So much has happened since I have posted last that I hardly know where to begin, but I celebrated my 45th birthday on Tuesday, the 29th and on Wednesday, the 30th, my mom was taken by ambulance to the emergency room for breathing difficulty and swelling in her legs.  She was diagnosed that Wednesday with congestive heart failure, which add to her previous diagnoses of C.O.P.D. and Diabetes.  To an extent, I walked this road before with my grandmother. We moved forward with her admission to the hospital.  On Thursday, we were told that she couldn't eat because she was having a procedure.  Hours later, we became aware that her procedure was being pushed to later in the day, so she was able to have liquids.  A few more hours passed and we were told that it was being moved to the following day, so she was finally able to eat late in the day.  On Friday, she was pulled down for her procedure.  When it was over, there were no stents placed but it was deter...