Have a Merry (And SAFE) Christmas!!

Don't be a statistic, don't drink & drive! But if you have to tolerate insufferable in-laws, by all means drink.. but make someone sober drive.. hey you're nice to them 364 days of the year, they can drive you this one time!!

Thanks for reading my blog, and making feel all special. I just found out today I have 'followers'. How empowering does that sound?? Now if I could figure out how to follow people back. I am pretty computer savvy, and old-school internet savvy but all these automated programs that do everything for you confuse me very much. I can do html, but figuring out how to click buttons? Derrrr.
Anyways, hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!
The next few days are going to WOOSH past me quickly.. My dad made me promise to make him my (SECRET RECIPE--not) copy cat recipe for Olive Garden's Chocolate Lasagna, since they stopped making it at OG (I protested this, and was not alone).. so I have to go buy ingredients for that, finish wrapping gifts, then Wednesday night I celebrate with my parents & siblings.. Thursday morning will be Dirty Santa with my mom's side of the family if people get over there in time, otherwise off to Russell's parents house in Tennesse.. then we come back that night, and leave for Florida in the morning.. for 5 days. My grandparents on my dad's side have a condo in Florida they stay at every winter, and this year we decided to have a huge family reunion down there. My uncle who I haven't seen in 10 years, my cousin that I rarely see (and has not seen her dad--uncle mentioned above-- in some 15 years), and possibly my aunt in Canada that we never see.. all going down there. Should be fun, I get so exhausted from excitement lately (I feel like an old fuddy duddy) so I am glad to know Russell & I will have our own room in one of the rented condos for me to retreat to.
Plus that's a long time to be away!! Luckily, Russell's parents agreed to babysit our dog.
My g'ma promised to make her Kru Ka Ka!! OM NOM NOM NOM. It's a swedish dish (they are swedish), and it takes a lot of work so she hasn't made it in 5 or so years. My brother and I begged her to make it this year for Christmas--promised her if she would make it, we would come down for the holidays hah hah. So she hauled her grinder all the way down there to make it. I'm probably spelling it wrong, but it's hand made sausage, and then you boil & grind up potatoes and form a ball around the sausage.. then you boil them. It's so amazingly yummy, and it's a 'different' tasting sausage, couldn't really explain it.. very potent.

If you watched "Worst Week" this week, that's how I am with being pregnant. I sneak all kinds of food and when I get a disapproving look (from my mom or Russell mostly) I say "The baby needs ___". Heh heh. Russell heard how babies develop taste buds now when I eat, so he said I needed to stop eating sugar. HAHA. Funny man.

Baby Carson

Ok, well I guess I should explain how it all came about!
Russell was there for the ultrasound, and when it came to finding out the sex the tech told him to cover his eyes--which he did. I stared intently at the screen waiting for her to type it out. She did-- It's a boy!
I couldn't stop grinning after that, I did want a girl but only because of the cute stuff.. Healthy is what I'm really after, and healthy he is!
We were leaving and Russell said "The tech said "It's a boy" when she was typing it". What?!? I didn't even notice. I kept trying to confuse him, which I think worked. To this day I make a comment daily that makes it seem like a girl.. and then another where it seems like a boy. My parents wanted to get us a car seat/stroller/swing for Christmas. Since he didn't want to know the sex, it meant gender neutral or he doesn't see what we get for Christmas. I told him he's really putting a damper in things, people want to know the sex and family wants to be able to buy stuff.. Heck, I don't want a bunch of unisex stuff at the baby shower!! So I convinced him to let me tell him.
So I bought a footed set (onesie, jumper? Still learning terminology) that looks like a blue baseball uniform, complete with what looks like cleats on the feet! It says "Daddy's All Star" (and then a small stamp that says "Property of mom" hehe)..So I wrapped that and it's under the Christmas tree from Nattie-Carson, I told him he will open that first on Christmas morning and find out. Glad he let me talk him into it. I know he's a little disappointed, but I want to shop!!!
I bought the nursery set, and fell in love with a discontinued line (of course I did!) Kidsline's Silver Lining, but I was able to find most accessories on E-bay.. only things I couldn't find are wall-hangings & the mobile. But, I found a mobile that will match, and I made my own wall-hangings with an extra curtain from the set. You can see the set & hangings I made on the baby's website!

If anyone is interested, I think Lane Bryant has the best bras, despite not being able to wear their clothes anymore.. and my bra size is going up so last night I went to order some online.. they are having a Buy 2 Get 2 Free sale.. and then on top of that I found online codes for $50 off $150, etc.. I ended up paying $120 for 8 bras! Woot.

I know, I know..

I've been slacking with my blog.
Quick run down.. gaining weight, baby is a boy--but Russell isn't going to find out till Christmas, and I made the baby his very first website!

http://www.babyhomepages.net/babybarlow/

I will post more sometime this week with more details, I promise ;)

Gobble, Gobble!

How was everyone's Turkey day?
Mine was pretty good! The in-laws came early to our house from Tennessee, then we went to my granny's. I was picking at food while we waited, and a deviled egg caught my eye. I took 1/3 bite of it and didn't chew at all (old habit, I never use to chew food when I got hungry), so I swallowed it whole and immediately felt it clog me up. Ran and spit it up. Yum!
But then, somehow, I was able to eat a LOT of food. I take a sampling of everything and taste it, but I was able to eat all my samples, plus 2 whole pickled eggs my MIL brought(man they are sooo weird, and good). Eggs pickled in beet juice. Plus some dark meat turkey & ham. I blame the gravy, I put gravy on 3/4 of everything. I knew my band was letting me eat it, so I tried to be conscious of being 'full' (not satisfied, because it's Thanksgiving and I like food!). Well I missed it. Shame on me, that's what I get. I got this HORRIBLE pain in my left shoulder, like I dislocated it. I vaguely remember people on the forum talking about this pain. I googled it, and it said your diaphragm nerves are in your left shoulder (how interesting is that?) so, I assume that's what it was. I felt it after lunch a few days prior at work and it went away after an hour or so. This bad boy wouldn't stop. I laid in my granny's bed for about 30 minutes, then became a party pooper. Russell & I went home, and his parents left straight from there back to TN.

I'm still waiting for my dad to e-mail me the pics from Thanksgiving, I'm sure they won't be flattering, he took every one of them while we were eating.
Ever since Thanksgiving I feel heavy and uncomfortable, and one morning while rubbing my aching belly I realized.. it's very firm and there's a baby in there, and it's becoming known. Maybe it packed on some weight from my Turkey binge hah hah. I slept a lot on the 4 day weekend, 2 days I slept all day long, then slept during the night too. I would wake up with my belly uncomfortable, so I'm trying to figure out how to sleep to accomodate the baby violet.

I guess that's it.. well I could probably think of more, but it's 5pm which means I'm going home!

Biggest Balls

Yeah it's random, some song I heard on the radio the other day that my husband was singing along with.. my jaw was on the floor, really.
Then it turned into being a catchy song.. Weee for old AC/DC. Still can't believe they played this on the radio, but when a song says "heroin" they bleep it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B9pMJYXGBs

Went to lunch today with my childhood friend, who has a 6 month old. Her baby is actually how old my baby will be this time next year, so I have a lot of fun getting together with them. He is such a good baby, he may spoil me. I've NEVER heard him cry. We go to restaurants and he's just big grins, wiggling his fingers & toes. He likes to eat my shoulder too (I don't mind!). She had him dressed in this teddy bear outfit I got her for the shower. Hah hah hah. It was cute, little paw print feet and teddy bear ears on the hoodie. I keep thinking "I want one!", and then I go "Oh yah..".
This pregnancy thing takes forever, I want to play with my baby now! I want to eat its toes and kiss it and hug it.. and call it MINE. Teehee.

I'm also anxious to have the baby so I can get another fill and get back on track. I'm not starving all the time anymore (thank goodness), but still eat more than I should. My fill doc is 3 hours away, so I kept debating what I should do. I only need a small fill, but if I do it and then I get more swelling (since pregnancy started out with bad swelling) I don't care to run back & forth to the doc during this time. Plus, I still have 4 free appointments and I don't want to waste them doing this. I'm resigned to the weight gain, I'll do my best not to go overboard (anymore, right?) but I'm not going to kill myself about it.. my OBGYN does enough of that. But I know the band works great for me, and up until I got pregnant I was still losing steadily. Post-baby I can get it filled back up and not worry about making sure I eat all the good nutritious stuff for my little one. So I'm going to get to goal slower, I'm ok with that.

I also took it upon myself to plan my friends' 30th birthday bash. She's going to be throwing my shower, so when she said her 30th birthday is coming up and was lamenting about how she never gets a b'day since it's so close to Christmas, a lightbulb went off. I've never planned a real party like this, so I ran into a few issues..

She gave me a list of friends that hypothetically if I threw her a party, she would want there ;)
I've finally called them all as of yesterday, looks like 25 will turn out. I only knew about 5 of them, and I called 40ish total.. I got to hear some funny things, she has some comical friends. Several single friends who don't like being single, so I let them know other singles will be there.. ya never know what will happen!
So then I came up with a cute casino night theme.. she wanted us to all go to Tunica, but with holidays that just won't happen.. so bringing it to her! Bought a blackjack felt and stuff to play hold 'em. Going to raffle 2 gift baskets at the end people can spend their 'money' on that they play with. My next issue was where to have it.. then I realized we have someone with a big enough house, who likes to hold parties, and it wasn't too faux-pas because I had already invited him before I asked him to use his house. He was real excited about it, and said if the casino night works out he wants me to hold casino parties at his house more often. WE SHALL SEE. The last thing, was paying for it. I realize I can't ask people to pay me for the party, so I resigned that I will be buying decor and the stuff to make the casino night happen.. but I can't foot the bill for 25 people to get drunk and I know most of her friends (and her) like to PAR-TAY. So I figured out doing BYOB. It may seem a little tacky, I found about 50/50 on tackymeter when googling about doing BYOB.. But I'm not made of money and they can all get over it.. I plan on having a fun partay alcohol or not! It gives her, her first real birthday party too.. so.. yay.

Russell woke up bright & early this morning to vomit a lot. I ended up coming to work early to get away from him. I do NOT want to get sick right now. Nooooooooo. Sneezing & coughing makes me pull muscles in my belly, I can't imagine vomiting.. plus the pain of vomiting with the band is miserable enough. Glad I didn't have morning sickness.
I did give Russell the anti-nausea meds my OBGYN prescribed when I first found out I was pregnant.. I'm assuming it's all generic anti-nausea, and nothing that's going to help him hormonally hah hah. He said it's been working, and he's not dead (he has medicine allergies, so that was a toss up.. I was half asleep when I handed him the bottle, so I just vaguely thought about the suffix and if that sounded like a sulfur).

Good times. Where are ya'll?!

Nothing Special Here

Nope, nothing. No changes. I have finally plateaud on that steady weight gain. I have bounced between 227-229lb for a couple weeks now.. whew!

I have been stressing about Thanksgiving.. My in-laws don't do anything special for holidays.. Ok, I think it may be special to them, but compared to my redneck (hah) family, it's very tame. They have them, their kids, and sometimes my husband's grandmother there for dinner.. that's it.
My family has a big gathering with like 30 people, plus any friends we can manage to get to come with us.. for a full day of par-tay-ing (and eating).
So every year we do Turkey day with my family. Christmas, we spend Christmas eve with (some of) my family and Christmas day with his. This year he mentioned doing Turkey day with his family.. I had to bite my tongue not to throw a tantrum like a little kid. I already miss the big Christmas gathering with my family because they celebrate on Christmas day and I'm not there. I don't want to miss this one too!! Luckily, quick thinking.. I invited his family to come, and now we're waiting to find out. They want to come, as long as his dad's leg surgery isn't planned around then (they can't plan it till he heals or something).. I dunno.. I just know my fingers are crossed and I am hopeful they will finally say "Yes we are coming down". :/

I really am a big baby with these things, holidays give me that magical warm fuzzy feeling and I'm like a kid again. Russell doesn't even care, except that he wants his parents to feel equal. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't celebrate any holidays in our house!!!! He makes fun of all my decorations.
And luckily for me, I don't give a crap.

In fact, I put up my tree this weekend!! I already finished all my Christmas shopping, and have some presents under the tree (for the cats to play with/sleep on of course).

That's about it. Still can't tell I'm pregnant. I did buy a fetal doppler heart monitor.. So almost every night I find the heartbeat and listen to it.. pretty neat, can tell it's moving around because it's real loud, then real faint, then moves, etc. Most the time the heartbeat is in my right hip area..

Dec. 11th I find out if it's a boy or girl!

Pepperocini & Fish

I could live off of fish & pepperocini.
The fun part is, both absolutely disgusted me a month or so ago.
Now, that's all I want in the world and I'd be happy!!

I made Russell go to this bar across the street, their menu said they put pepperocini in their salad so I had him go ask if he could buy a little container of them. They gave it to us free since I also ordered something.
I found out today you can buy them in jars.. in stores!! Who knew?? Then Terry gave me a recipe for roast w/pepperocini. That's on the menu sometime this week!

Still gaining more weight than I should, so today I am back on myplate tracking my food. So far so good. I can do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Grabbin' The Ankles

Really, I am going to just be so honest here.. cause, well I've told everyone in real life too--even a waiter, so it's really not that special-- I just think some people might go "OMG LOLZ WHY WOULD U SAY THAT TO PEOPLE U DON'T KNOW!?!?!!111oneoneone"

Tee-hee.

So I learned the definition of constipation. Due to the pregnancy, I feel as though the constipation is giving me 'trial runs' for real labor. Bathroom breaks bring tears, grunting, holding my ankles and all kinds of fun things you can imagine--but if you're imagining it, picture me as a cartoon character it's more funny. And this is WITH my prenatal vitamins that say they have a mild stool softener in it.. ah huh. I can't imagine life without them!

Besides this, no symptoms of pregnancy. Yes, I am looking for symptoms like I am sick. I want to feel pregnant.. not constipated. It all boils down to, I want a baby bump dang it. Then I'd have someone to talk to when I have to hold my ankles!

Oh and hunger, I have never been so hungry in my life. I could eat 24/7 and not bat an eye. Every single moment feels like I haven't eaten in a week.

Russell got that silly laptop.

Hockey season begins tomorrow, I am very excited to go watch our local team. We are in the owner's booth, so we have premo ice suite seats. Go Huntsville Havoc! :D Maybe this year we won't suck and I'll have a reason to brag about them.

Time to go hold my ankles........

No Smoking!

I know I haven't posted in a while, I'm not really sure why. I guess everytime I go to post, I get distracted.
I quit smoking last Monday. It's hard to explain all the things I think about it. So glad to save the money, not smell like smoke, and I don't miss it like I always thought I would. I also think I might be slightly brainwashed by this book my friend gave me to read. The Easy Way To Stop Smoking by Allen Carr. It's hard to explain, but.. something is weird, this was a little too easy.
I don't crave to smoke, the only time I miss it is when I don't have anything better to do (long car rides, standing outside with other smokers talking). Russell quit too using Chantix.

Russell has been bugging me for a month, wanting to get a new laptop that he can play his games on. The same person who less than 2 months ago demanded a budget so we could find ways to cut costs to afford a baby, since ya know, we don't make enough to survive.. not.

He said if he gets it, he can play the games in bed with me since I apparently live in our bed now. I don't know how that came about, but when I get home from work I go straight in there and curl up for TV till sleepy time. I put a limit of $1,200 on it, since he always seems to think he needs the biggest, best, most expensive,ridiculous toy out there. His current computer was almost $10k and has a fingerprint identifier. Yah. This machine that gets outdated and needs replacing.
Well he keeps texting me and e-mailing me info on computers he finds, none of which ever stay in the limit I gave him. I told him this will be his X-mas present, even though I've never spent this much on him for any holiday.. He finally found something roughly close, after taxes and everything it is $1,600. Fine, I'm just tired of hearing about it. Well, it's discontinued, only 3 left and some-long-story-I-zoned-out. Bottom line is he has to drive 2 hours to get it.. tonight. Fun times, see ya honey! But no, I have to go too some reason. If I ask him to sit in the car for 5 minutes while I run into a store on the way home from work I hear huffing, puffing, groaning, and moaning. But I'm suppose to go 4 hours total while he gets something I don't even want to get.

I got to hear my baby's heartbeat last Monday. 160 BPM, which means.. it's healthy!
I'm gaining weight, I hate it, but I quit smoking. I can only tackle one thing at a time. My band feels wide open, so I had an appointment to get it filled tomorrow.
But then this weekend I went to Tunica with my mom and low and behold it miraculously is too tight!! ARGH! I have had a hard time getting anything down all weekend. Cancelled my fill and waiting to see if it goes away.

Work is good, it's our busy season--so I am staying busy. That may have something to do with lack of posts. I go to post and my phone rings with a fire I need to put out.

I guess that's it, I am getting e-mails from customers so I'll post more another time.
Thanks for all the websites you guys gave me, seriously I am loving them. The "passive-aggressive posts" had links to some other funny pages I've been reading (Cake Wrecks, Best of Craigslist).
If anyone has some more, by all means.. share.

<3

Thank you for the websites!!
My favorite was this one: www.thebestpageintheuniverse.com
Oh my goodness, Russell loved it too. I laughed so hard, I still haven't finished all the articles.

I'm still broken, but I have an appt. with a physical therapist specializing in pre-natal back problems tomorrow. I can not wait, to find some sort of diagnosis & relief.

My restriction poofed, I was extremely tight suddenly when I realized I was pregnant, they unfilled, and now I'm back to nothing. I guess it passed.. so Oct. 15 I am having him put some more back in. My baby is definitely daddy's kid!! The stuff I have been eating, I have not eaten since pre-band, a lot of things I DO NOT LIKE and have craved. They are things my husband likes to eat. Things I should not even be able to eat. I'll spare the food porn.. pizza, cough, pizza.

If you have anymore websites, post post! I realized how resourceful it is, for people to share the obsolete websites they've somehow come across. They are hilarious and I'd never have found them on my own (except Snopes & Icanhascheezeburger.. I frequent both).

Poor, Pitiful, Me.

One of the main reasons I had to do some sort of weight loss surgery, is that due to the weight I had crippling lower back pain. I was doing injections and they had stopped working, so by 21-22, I was about to be confined to a bed for life.
What a drastic change this band helped me with. Sometime last year that pain went away completely, and I refer to those times as 'the dark times' hehehe. I felt 90 years old. Now I never complain about having to walk, like in Vegas or at a fair, or back row of a parking lot. I don't take for granted the beauty of being able to walk pain-free.

That being said, last Saturday evening I was cleaning the house. I keep replaying what I did over and over, and can't pinpoint what happened..but my lower back started hurting. Lower than my lumbar, more like my tail bone. I stretched, did pelvic tilts, warm baths, massages, and then went to bed early hoping it would be fine after sleep. Woke up Sunday, miserable. Can't bend, can't reach, can't sit on the toilet, moving positions are excruciating. First thing Monday morning, went to my chiro. He did an adjustment, then told me to go home and ice it and lay down all day.
Tuesday morning, no change, went straight back to him. Another adjustment then he told me I need to see my GP. They both wanted to do xrays, but since I didn't fall they are baffled. Can't do xrays due to my little blooming violet.. so he said anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxers, pain meds, and a steroid injection should help. He was going through his book looking at what class these drugs were for pregnant women. Then he called my obgyn to consult with her--I was really glad they did that.
She said no anti-inflammatories, she is not comfortable with them during the 1st trimester, but my gp had obviously conflicting opinions. She also said no injection.. so they agreed on a muscle relaxer and pain meds, and told me to stay out of work and in bed all week.
Done and done.. it's Friday afternoon and I am barely starting to feel better. My back still throbs, but not miserably. Still hurts to be in a sitting position, and getting in and out of the car is brutal.
I wish I knew what I did, I would hate for this to somehow be pregnancy related. I have a crooked lower spine, and I keep thinking all of these 'what ifs..'..like what if the uterus is pushing my spine and crushing nerves, or what if my bone spur is being pushed into nerves, blah blah.

Russell bought me some books yesterday, even though I'm working from home, I am sick of tv. I started reading The Glass Castle. Took a break to post here.
My granny called asking if I needed her to come over and clean, or needs anything from the store. Very sweet of her, but I reminded her I have a husband who is handling things.. although he is not cleaning and the laundry/dishes are driving me insane. I couldn't ask my granny to do that..
My musician friend just recorded some new songs, not released yet so he showed me where I can DL it from their server.. very good, sad, mellow songs. Great for my weepy mood.
I'm going back to my book..

If you know of any fun websites worth reading (funny, whatever) post in my comment, I am tired of my same 'ol.

Baby Time

Went to the ultrasound yesterday, I was extremely anxious and nervous. I think my hands were even shaking a little. I was a bit surprised when she said they were doing the internal ultrasound, but I tried to (as cool-y as I could) ask why they do that instead of the belly one. I didn't listen to the answer because she was already getting it going, and I was dying to see it on the screen and know it's really there.

I have no indication I am pregnant, so I kept thinking about all the what-ifs. I even spilled them out onto the poor ultrasound technician. I know they can't technically declare anything, so I prefaced my question with that and said "But does it look normal & healthy?". She said it does.

So here we have (it)..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyPkwkC_skY

My baby is on youtube at only 8 weeks! I didn't know my doctor did the 3d images either, so that was a cool bonus.

My lil' Alien!

Sushi, Furniture, And HAIR oh my!

Oh and cutsie dog stores too.

Last night I went to dinner with my mom & uncle. We went to this new hibachi restaurant about a mile from our house. That's pretty exciting, the nearest one since this one is about 20 minutes away.

First, next door to the restaurant was a Pet Boutique. A pet boutique, like I've only read about in People magazine about the NYC & LA crowd.. the places, I can't believe exist!!! It looked like a baby store walking in. 100's of costumes & tiny clothing.. a display case with REAL DIAMOND chokers.. strollers, hand-sewn quilts & pillows.. for dogs.. and cats. Then where the register was, they had a display case of hand-made gourmet "cookies & candies" for dogs. They had boxes wrapped with petit fours, and little shaped cookies with hand-piping. $4 a cookie. Mmmhm. I wouldn't even pay that much for a cookie--for ME. The lady came out, I asked if she was the owner (she was), so I asked if she made the cookies.. she said no, but she does make the birthday cakes. Apparently you can order your dog's birthday cake there, since you know, it's so hard to find a good dog food to feed them on their birthday. Just wow, I don't see that store lasting long here.

The hibachi was not that great, but their sushi.. YUM. I ordered cooked sushi, the tempura shrimp rolls & california rolls. My uncle on the other hand, ordered a ridiculous amount of about 10 different things--that filled up our table. One was a mango-lobster roll (fully cooked). I hate peaches/mangos.. but I tried it, and I have to say it was pretty good. Then he had a lot of raw stuff, which I don't eat anyway--but I definitely am not going to eat it with a lil' one in the oven.
The waitress was pushy, she kept asking me why I wouldn't try it, then she insists I try it (with her standing there), and wouldn't take no for an answer.. I had to get a little rude about it.

Then we walked to a furniture store on the strip. A hoighty toighty furniture store.. which was closed at the time. The stuff in there was gorgeous, and things I can only pretend I'd ever own!! But before all that, my mom promised me their coffee tables & end tables, when they one day get new ones.. which they've been 'looking' for years. I am tired of waiting, I hate mine and I gotta get new ones. She picked some out she liked, but I knew she didn't really like them, so I had told her she needs to just tell me she's not getting new ones--so I can go buy me new ones. Well this hoighty toighty store had just what she was looking for (YAY).. they were elaborate metal bases with a slab of granite on top. So she's going back to get them, and woohoo I get her hand-me-down ones!

When we got back to my house, my Jessica Simpson hair extensions came in. A co-worker said she has a friend who has them, and they looked great. I USE to have really long thick thick hair (before age 16). I miss it. So I have contemplated extensions for a long time, but I can't justify the cost for the good ones, and the cheapy ones look bad.. so I thought! The Jessica Simpson ones were around $60, and I love it! They clip into the base of your hair.. Ta-da:

World Moving Services/National Relocation Services -- SCAM Company

This is an old blog, 2 years old.. but I feel it's my duty to pass on when I find out a major scam.. and so I thought I'd repost this in case any of you come across this company, here is the original blog:

World Moving Services=SCAM
So we hired this moving company we found online (red flag) but it looked reputable and blah blah. We were talking to 3 companies, about price, and the dates. We HAD to be out of that house on the 31st, and preferred a 1-2 days for cleaning after they packed our stuff up. Steven (The supervisor--who never answered my call again from this day forward) guaranteed me I would be picked up by May 30th at the LATEST. That's the only way I would pay the deposit, is if they GUARANTEE it-- he said they do. That works. So I had to pay a deposit. Around May 24th I get a call, that someone will call me by that Friday to let me know the exact date of our move. Friday comes, no call. So we call them, no answer. Weekend passes, no call. Monday comes, no call. It is now the 31st (Tuesday) and we are PAST our moving dates, our lease is up that day and still can't get a hold of anyone. I freak out, call all over trying to find a last minute moving company. Look into renting U-Hauls and hired labor to move the crap. No luck. Finally moving company calls, they are CONTRACTORS. But their contract is basically.. we call and let a real moving company you want to move, and the time frame you want to move, and if they can't do it, tough shit, and they don't follow up. So after hours calling around, and yelling at people.. finally get the driver's number. He's in Arizona. So he says he's too tired to come to New Mexico to move us. We ask if he realizes he's already a day late from the latest date they were to come, and we HAVE to be out of there. He says sorry. So we call the homeowner, who has plans to renovate and move in the house that very next day, and he's pissed. We will have to pay to put his family up in hotel, and any inconvenience. So we have an idea.. we offer the driver 500 dollars cash, to get his ass down there that night and load up our stuff. Of course he makes it. I'm fuming because this company ripped us off. So he gets there at 1am (June 1). Packs the house up, takes the 500, and goes on. We had to leave at 1am, after being up almost 20 hours and drive 20+ hours to Alabama. The move costs a couple thousand dollars, and he calls and tells us when he arrives, we have to pay him CASH. That is really shady. So we've been calling the company for days trying to find out why he only wants cash. Is he ripping someone off, etc. We had a cashier's check for him, and their contract says they take it. But he said no. HMMM. So anyway, in short (I've left out tons of details of the nightmare) World Moving Services is a rip-off scam company. We ended up paying them 1k to literally do NOTHING. They aren't even the movers, they don't even set up your dates, they don't guarantee dates, they don't get answers for you, they don't do jack shit. They just take your money and say tough luck. I found out now better ways of finding reputable companies. Internet is not one of those ways. Live and learn. Now we hope our mover shows up eventually with our stuff. World Moving Services also goes by National Relocation Services.

I reported them to the BBB and the guy who actually moved us called me and said that $500 I gave him (to bribe him to come do his job) was a TIP. Yes, I always tip people who are ripping me off, who are late, in advance of the job, a gross amount of money. Don't you?

Also, WMS/NRS said they do not 'imply or guarantee dates' in fine print on the back of the contract-- which you receive after paying the deposit. Now, it's word of mouth unfortunately but Steven the supervisor GUARANTEED me the dates, otherwise I'd have told him no thanks (I'm sure they knew that). But in WRITING, the dates May 28-30 were ON THE CONTRACT. In the very least, that is IMPLIED.
Seriously, please do yourself a favor and run far far away from them. After this whole ordeal I found out plenty of people are scammed by them, people who worked for them also report them as scams.. ripoff.com I believe is the website, where people report a lot of bad stuff on this company.

---Also, this blog was written before they brought everything. It ends up, even though the contract specifically says-- take down AND SET UP... they would not reassemble our furniture that they took apart, and when I asked why he said they don't want to mess it up.. Lovely, right?
And, the cost ended up being nearly 2x the original quote-- which they didn't explain how. They certainly made a killing on me.

Hope this helped save someone's day, someday. I wish I'd heard this first! :o)

Little LaLa!

Ok, cat's out of the bag.. I've never been good at secrets. I was trying to follow protocol about 3 months, but I'm a blabber mouth..derrr I have a blog!

Tuesday morning when I decided I needed an unfill because no food was going down.. around lunchtime I realized I was "late"! Tuesday night, found out I was pregnant.

As exciting as I thought that day would be- someday- I started shaking and hyperventalating.
It's a lot scarier in reality than I imagined! Don't get me wrong, I am definitely getting into the excited stage-- but it is really hard when you read the pregnancy books and it talks about epesiotimies, and placental deliveries, and engorged nipples-- I'm just saying!

I have my first ultrasound on Sept. 11, so I'll find out the official age/due date, but from rough guesses I'm only 6 weeks right now.
I've told some of my family and some friends, and some of LBT, and now all you blog readers!

When I hit the 3 month mark, I'll let ya'll know some names I'm thinking of, maybe get a poll going so I can get feedback. I always liked really weird names, but who wants to traumatize their kid with a bizarre name?!

And lastly, I am down to 212lb! I am so close to 100's it's exciting as all get out.. but we all know, I'm probably not going to make the 100's before I turn around and gain a few pounds. Oh well, there's always 9 months from now!

So I don't lose this picture again, here is my farting rainbow picture. It's not actually mine, but I like the term farting rainbows.. and I found this on GIS a while back.

Something Afoot

I have been slightly too tight since my last fill, but I could work through it. A week ago it became SUPER tight, where no solid shall pass my band! I called to get an unfill and my doctor's office--who I usually can GUSH about their promptness and friendliness--said they "Couldn't get me in until..." gah.. I hate those words from a doctor's office. Sept. 8! That sucks. I guess his practice is picking up or something. So I called a local lap-band doctor, who was at the hospital when they thought I had appendicitis (they wanted a WLS doctor present in case they had to operate). He was trying to sway me to come get fills from him, but I love my doctor so I wasn't interested. Now in my time of need, decided to give him a call. Despite being open, I got a voicemail on both nurse & reception line. I left a voicemail that I had an emergency and couldn't eat and needed an unfill. This was Tuesday AM. Well, it wasn't until TODAY that they called me back. She said "We will need you to do the pre-op interview, for $250 first..." (yes, she knows I'm banded) "It's mandatory".. give me a break. Then she tells me the outrageous fill price, and I have to cut her off. I told her, I'm not going to a doctor who responds so slowly to emergencies when they have been open and operating for days now. So much for that. But Wednesday, after explaining a new twist to the emergency my band doctor people said they could get me in this Monday. Good deal. Then I get a voicemail last night that they need to push it to next Wednesday..argh. I am living on vitamins and liquids. So I called this morning and the girl who left me a voicemail wasn't working. The girl who answered said the doctor is seeing patients Monday and doesn't know why that other girl called and told me that. !!!!!
Oh well, so Monday hopefully I can get at least 1cc out.
There's more going on, but if I tell you all now, you may not read my blog in the future!!
So stay tuned ;)

You Lookin' at ME?!

So funny, decided to check the keywords people google that pop up my blog and cause them to click it.

Some are random, and some.. well, I'll answer them for you (in case you ever come back!)


triple dove concierge service - not sure what triple dove is, but concierge service at Sandals Negril ended up being a waste of extra $$ If you're going to pay extra, go ahead and get the butler, they handle business! Or get nothing, you'd be the same off as concierge.

lap band cocaine - Lapbanders, RNY, DS, whatever.. cocaine is bad with anything. Even if you don't have a WLS, don't do cocaine.. that is all.


rice lap band pre-op diet - No, rice is NOT on the pre-op diet.


lorcets pictures - They look like this :

lapband procedure jamaica - I'll be honest,when we drove through Jamaica it looks very 3rd world. I even worried about if husband accidentally ate some seafood (which he is allergic to), what we would do. If you're not in Jamaica, I really don't recommend going there for your surgery.


why bathe with hibiclens before lap band surgery- It's actually good before any surgery, it is a topical anti-biotic, thus less germs get into your cuts.


universe mom - I'm not a mom yet :(


sweet n low picture frame - You're on your own with that... but you could buy a blank frame from wal-mart and hot glue them on there!


human remains found near Tunica - Eek, seriously???


i can't bite down on my back tooth - Not sure how this tagged me, but I can't either!


needing to pee - It happens to the best of us.


when andrew zimmern in finland - Glad to see other people watch this, I think it's great! Someone told me.. He is like if you made a circle graph of "Places I wouldn't go" and "Things I wouldn't eat", he's the overlapping middle piece.

Some Jamaica Pics

You know, everytime I hear/think "Jamaica", I think of "Jamaican Me Money"--the slot machine. I'm some sort of slot addict ya'll! Speaking of which, we're going to Tunica this weekend. Wooohoo, fancy resort, good room service and..SLOTS.
So, I haven't developed our disposable camera yet.. It's been a decade since I did those, I'm not even sure what you do with those anymore?? I also have the $80 5 pics I bought from the resort, I'll scan and add them to these tonight.







Russell & I sipping coconut milk.. they came right off the tree and a guy whacked it with a machete!





One of the nifty Bob Marley statues carved out of dead palm trees.

































Fire breathing man. Was a much coolor show to watch.









The view off of our patio, where people got married all week. And it had just stormed, so it was wet out. Ahhhh relaxation.













The swim up bar.. that bruised me a few times.









Russell & I in front of a palm tree. (Bonus: See the big bruise on my left knee?? Mmmhm.)

Back from Jamaica Mon!

Woosh, the time flew by crazy fast. I'll give an outlined play by play, but first it has to be said.. YES they do talk like that "Yah mon, no worries mon, no problem mon", and yes every single person and their relative tries to sell you pot (or blow).

Day 1, taking off from Atlanta to Jamaica, they stopped the plane and said.. "Our left engine won't start, so we're going to have maintenance look at it and we'll be on our way in 30 minutes". Holy cow. I am terrified of flying anyway, but when I hear something like that my mind was going "PLEASE give us a new plane, PLEASE PLEASE". So I took a Dremamine since I now get nauseated on planes too (sigh).. and luckily those things knock me out like sleeping pills! We arrived in sunny Jamaica. We take a shuttle to the resort, and we met a couple our age there.. they were on their honeymoon.. and ironically they live about 30 minutes from us. We were having a good time on the 1.5 hour journey from airport to the resort. The driver had alcohol in his hand the whole way (I guess it's legal there), they had Bob Marley blaring on the radio.. and he was driving so erratic I was hyperventalating. We're on these twisty turny 2-lane roads, FLYING.. and they pass cars going up a hill, where you can't see oncoming traffic. And not just 1 car, but 3-5. I had to quit watching.

Our concierge service (something we paid more for) wasn't there when we got there, so we piggy-backed with someone else's concierge service. Our guy NEVER met us while we were there, so I would never pay for that service again. Lucky for us, the honeymooning couple we met.. they had a BUTLER service, which they give you a cell phone to call him directly. They also had the awesome rooms- something towards 10k a week to stay in these room. We were HUNGRY and tired first day, so we ordered (free) 24-hour room service. I wasn't adventurous for Jamaicain food when we first got there, so I ordered a cheeseburger & fries. Can't go wrong there, right? Wrong! It was very weird tasting, I think they don't use sugar or salt on stuff.. then the condiments.. oy.. the mayo was curdled (all week long), and the ketchup was a dark brown bitter gunk.. not edible. Now I do complain about food, cause as a fat girl I like my food. We ended up going to bed immediately to just rest up for the rest of the week.

Day 2 (Sunday), we were looking for a lazy river, and ran into the honeymooners! That was cool, so they joined us and we went to the swim up bar.. a bar IN THE WATER.. I will post pics of this when I upload them.. awesome times there. We got hammered.. all of us.. and I have some bruises on my legs where Russell tried to carry me in the water, then accidentally run me into bar stools.. Then the bartenders kept trying to sell us dope. The honeymooners also watched "Locked Up Abroad"-- a show I love, you should watch it if you can. Real accounts of people who did illegal drug stuff in foreign countries, then get locked up for 5-25 years, etc. It's scary!! So we kept telling the bartenders no, and one busts out a joint and lays it on there going "yah mon, no worries mon".. blah blah..

Then there's a daily thunderstorm.. around 2pm.. for an hour-3 hours it storms horribly. So we got out of the pool, and just getting smashed at the bar.. and we meet 3 other couples: they came together from California to celebrate 10 year anniversary, 1 year anniversary (like us), and 30th birthday. They were a lot of fun, very hammered too. Russell got so drunk, he couldn't maintain himself. He was falling all over the place, so we retired. Our honeymoon friends had RSVP at a fancy restaurant that night, and we couldn't get our concierge to help us get in, so they called their Butler who made it RSVP for 4!! So we went back to our room, Russell passed out (naked!) I took funny pics of that too... but I'll spare you. Then I got dressed, woke Russell up for the RSVP dinner, and he starts vomiting his brains out. By time we were SUPPOSE to meet the other couple, Russell was still naked and rolling on the floor in the bathroom. We finally get down there-- and they aren't there! I figured they either avoiding us, or they're passed out too. I knocked on their door, no answer.. so we took the reservations by ourself (oh well). That food was wonderful, it was a hibachi and they give you a little of everything.. so I tried bbq mahi mahi and wow it was good. The shrimp was awesome too (I am super picky with seafood). I give it A+++. I tried getting RSVP there again through our concierge and they kept blowing us off. Figures.
Anyway, we get to dessert, and the guy from the other couple showed up.. and said they were passed out, his wife still was. We retired early that night too.

Next morning-Day 3 (Monday) we went snorkling. AWESOME!!!!! I will post pics of that as well. I held a sea urchin, and it dug into my hand, I started to panic but I got a pic out of it. And amazingly enough I don't look like a whale in the water! I was so impressed by that, I forked out $80 for 4 friggin pictures from the resort. Then we ran into all those couples.. they invited us to join them for party night at some bar on the beach later.. we took a nap (I was so tired through this whole trip).. went out to meet up with them.. More drinking, and Jamaica is so proud of their Rum--I don't care if I never drink Rum again. I would order drinks specifically that DON'T have rum, and they would use rum instead of whatever alcohol you're suppose to use. Ends up 2 (at least) of the 3 couples that came from Cali are swingers.. ahem. They hit on me, and the honeymooners at some point that night.. made it very akward.. We did toasts in a hot tub into the late hours once the bar closed, the hot tub was secluded.. and one of the women took her top off and was telling us we should too, etc.. and finally Russell & I, and the honeymooners acted like we were hella tired.. and went to bed.. whew. Since then, we avoided hanging out with the group.. they were really pushy and weird about it. No wasn't a good answer.

We also did a dinner entertainment thing, an open air stage where they did contests and fun stuff.. fire breather, guy who balanced a ladder & beach lounge chair on his nose!! I got pics, and video of that.. then we did musical legs, us girls spread our legs, while guys walked around, had to dive between a pair of legs when music stopped. Russell got out, when there was only like 4 of us women left.. and the rule is, you pick a girl to go with you--not your partner;cause you want her to win.. but MY husband picked ME to go with him. He said he didn't realize that was the rule, gah.. men!!!

Day 4 (Tuesday) we had plans to go to Rick's Cafe which is suppose to be one of the top 10 bars in the world, they have cliff diving and stuff.. but we decided to take a break from the couples hanging out. We walked around the resort taking pictures.. they had dead palm trees, they carved into Bob Marley pictures (I'll post pics of that too!). We also went to the Spa and did a couple's massage thing-- Scrub a Dub 2-In a Tub.. hour long massage each, room was only lit by candles, guy did my massage, woman did his.. It was wonderful, never had a professional massage before, but I loved it. Then they scrubbed us down with oils & sugar granules.. made us softer than a baby's bottom! Last, they walk us to this bath tub in the corner filled with soap, and helped us in.. Russell first, then me.. with champagne.. Was a little weird, especially when (with both of them standing there and we're naked) he goes "Get between your husband's legs".. I was like uh.. ok.. wee. And we get 20m in there, we got out eventually and the guy said we got out before our time was out, and Russell said something about "We finished quick!".. Hah.. the whole time in the tub we were laughing about how weird that was. We bought souvenirs from the gift shop, I got some cool stuff to put in my china hutch! We came back to the room, and they gave us 2 more free bottles of...RUM. UGH!! I brought them back, gave one to my dad (who likes Rum Punch) and I put one bottle in my China cabinet since it says Special Jamaica Rum blah blah. Then we went back to the room and just hung out in bed the rest of the evening. Room service and TV.. they got satellite TV from.. Miami, FL and--CANADA.. how weird is that? So we watched a lot of TBS, Friends, Everybody Love Raymond, Family Guy, etc.. so nice to just kick back and relax. Packed up.. and bright and early the next morning we dropped off our luggage for concierge, and took a shuttle back to the airport. The airport & customs was a nightmare, I could go on for days-- it put me in such a bad mood for the rest of yesterday. It was also Jamaica's independence day yesterday so there was a lot of commotion on the island.
Our plane BACK to Atlanta, going down the runway about to take off, the plane SHUTS DOWN.. and they said "We lost auxillary power, we're going to turn it back on and get going". Deja vu, I started to panic again, thinking.. dear God if it powered off unexpectedly, what makes it not do that again?!!? Luckily, I did make it back alive. As soon as we landed in Atlanta we went straight to a Southern restaurant for some good eats. I had fried chicken, mashed taters, candied yams, and mac & cheese.. sounds real healthy huh? I only ate a bite of everything though, if I didn't have my band I'd have been eating all day yesterday when we landed!!

And now today.. back to work.. I'm wearing my tie-dye shirt with a smiley face that has dreds and it says "Smile Mon". hehe.
We had a company meeting, and I'm slowly catching up with work. Going to take my last final tonight and Russell is going to pick up our dog from his parents.
So glad to be home, and for the money-- I don't plan on going back.. but it was fun!!
The rooms were really run down, and leaked everytime it rained so the whole place smelled like mildew.. and they were at best-like Motel 6 rooms.. And for the $$ I could have been in a nice pent suite in Vegas..
I guess the world takes a lot of people, and now I know.. I'm not a Jamaica kinda girl. It was nice to see, but that was good enough for me in one lifetime!

Last but not least, I got on the scale last night. 218lb is officially. Hells yah.

218!!! TEENS

WOWEEEEE!!! After my long stall, I strapped down and started tracking on myplate, and being accountable with my Shrinking Violets. I have been doing good, and it's paying off!
I hit 219lbs yesterday, I was ecstatic... and today? 218!! TWO EIGHTEEN!! OMG.. Ok, let's see.. I probably haven't weighed this since I was..12.

So excited, and to reward myself I am treating myself to Jamaica! In 7 hours.
I have serious rants about one of my classes, I had to take most of my finals today before I left.. and one teacher, at about 6pm sends me a final assignment, due Aug 5. I told her for weeks I would be gone Aug 2-6, so I needed to finish everything early, she never mentions this.. and it's a flippin 5 page paper with works cited and thesis and blah blah, typical stupid paper. I did cry. I have had such a bad day, at work, with school, stressing, band tightening on me (couldn't swallow spit at one point today).. and I was finally home from work and getting things handled, and she sends me this assignment. I still had packing to do. Luckily my BS factor kicked in and I was able to pump out the paper in about 2 hours.. it's not an A paper but it's a 'keep me from failing because my teacher is a douche' paper. Yeah, I said it.

I'll see you guys when I get back from JAMAICA MON!

It's Been A While!!

Sorry, I kind of dropped off the face of the Earth. I am in my last semester to get a Liberal Arts degree, and for the first time in my life I am not doing good in a class. And I can't help it!! It's extremely frustrating and I've been spending a lot of time on it. Also, we're coming up on our busy season at work so they like to implement new "fun" stuff around this time.
I have 3 finals this Friday, I leave for Jamaica on Saturday--return Wednesday, and my last final is that Friday. Almost done! Just in time for the rush season at work. But with school all done with, I'll have more time for posting!

I had gained 3-4lbs about 2 weeks ago, I was binging! I could not eat junk food quick enough, I relate it to stress. But last week I got back in the saddle, I've been doing dailyplate lately to make sure I stay where I need to be. I am aiming at less than 1,500 calories a day and I have managed 1,300 for this week.. and I'm back to 221lb, so I lost all the weight I gained a couple weeks ago (whew). Now if I could just get into the TEENS.

I had a NSV yesterday, I went to Cato's to buy some Jamaica clothes.. if any of you shop there, you know one side is "Plus Size" and the other side is "Normal"(although I don't think it's called that). I officially do not fit in the "Plus Size". I found some cute shirts in 14/16.. and I saw they also had them in XL on the "Normal" side.. I took one of both, hit the dressing room.. plus size 14/16 was far too big.. XL fits JUST right, one inch smaller and it wouldn't fit though. I bought a fitted skirt and top, neither of which had an ounce of stretch to them.. Russell approved, he likes how it flatters my..curves. I think I look better in it, when I look in a mirror but here ya go:



Also, if you're not a member of LBT and want to join here is a referral link.. If I can figure out how to add this to my links I will: http://www.lapbandtalk.com/index.php?referrerid=15821

I'll be back to posting very soon, with Jamaica recap and all :o)

My Funny Hubby

Our one year anniversary is coming up, which is the "paper" anniversary. In keeping with the theme, I got him a jar of paper notes (yeah he'll be so excited? hah hah).. and also I hand-painted a picture frame for him and put a picture of me in it. I'mmmmm soooo vaaaain. When we were dating early on I would paint him pictures to decorate his dorm room.. he liked that.

So this week I had paint on my hands, and we're on a smoke break outside and he says "What is that?" I said.. "Paint!" and he asks what I painted.. I said "..Paint!". Somehow this turns into a rant. He goes "You are all mysterious, keeping secrets from me.. you have a blog I can't read.." Which is untrue, I just won't send him the link. It's bookmarked on my computer-we both know it- if he really wants to see it he just has to look!! ".. you hide your computer screen when I come by.." Only for LBT and my blog. I don't want him looking over my shoulders when I'm thinking about typing stuff.. he has his input and it pisses me off. Teehee? "..and now won't tell me what you're painting!".
I just said.. "You're right, I'm just a big ol' book of secrets". Pff, yeah right. Hopefully he feels a little bad about being a pissant because I wouldn't tell him I was painting him a picture frame for our anniversary!!!!!!!
For Valentine's day we always go to Pauli's, this fancy NUMMY restaurant in town.. now we have this fancy schmancy outdoor mall that opened up with a lot of high-class restaurants, so I called one yesterday and made reservations for our Anniversary *7/7!*. I told Russell and he goes "WOMAN.. that's a man's job". Wooooah. Now if you live with a man, you know how forgetful they are. If I didn't do it, odds are it wasn't going to get done. He won't tell me where, he just said he handled it. Yay for him.. although I could bet money he hasn't yet, he just remembered when I said that and now he's going to handle it.
I made my myspace pretty today. If you want to go be my friend over there, it's http://www.myspace.com/fairyfacade .

Had some real "Small world" things going on in myspace. I don't really use it, I log in to check messages, and that's about it. The other day my mom told me to look for this girl, that I literally grew up with.. we were 1 week apart, our moms were best friends so for the first 7 years of our lives we thought we were twins! Then our moms fell-out and I never saw her again. So we talked on myspace, very exciting, we're going to meet up next week. She's married, just had a baby (I so jealous.. my turn my turn).
But while looking at her myspace, she says "So and so" introduced her to her husband. So and so is someone I went to Australia with on foreign exchange when I was 14. What a small frickin world? And just to realize the exceptional-ness of this, we all live in different cities!!!

Weight is still being lost, slowly, but going down. I'm not working it. It's working me. I do drink a lot of water.. yeah, I'll give kudos to me.. I am losing weight cause I'm always thirsty. Hah!!

And they're off..

Belmont on Saturday!! I am so excited!!! We fly up to NY on Friday, going to do the touristy things.. my mom has never been to NYC and says she never plans to go again, so we are going to do the Statue of Liberty, the WTC's (which is just a park being built now), Chinatown, etc.
Saturday bright eyed and bushy tail, we are going to Belmont at 8am and will be there all day for the mini-races, parade, and all that jazz. I hope to see a TRIPLE CROWN!! With the hoof issues Big Brown is having, who knows. But how amazing that would be.

In other news, I'm still on the Dove Chocolate diet, except instead of Dove Chocolate it's more like Swedish Fish, Reese Pieces and Sunchips. I have avoided the scale for a little over a week so not to kill my buzz for Belmont. I stopped there last night, just to calculate damage and try to encourage me to eat better.. And it's 223lb! Another few pounds gone. Who knew?! I don't get it. If I would quit eating crap and move my ass a little, I'd be at goal by now I bet! I am doing everything wrong and still being rewarded. I don't see it in my body right now though, I am losing so slow now that I don't see any drastic changes. I am wearing size 14 juniors capris & shorts from Target right now and they are comfortable. Still got a big flabby gut.

We've been saving up for Jamaica trip, have to pay off the balance next Friday so I've been moving money around and being a stickler when people borrow money. I get a lot of eye rolls, because normally I don't care if I get paid back, but I'm literally counting every dollar right now between bills, and saving up. I still haven't posted the V trip pics.. I need to get on that, I've just been lazy.. maybe today.

Back to..Something

So no more tres leches, fudge, m&m's, and endless chips & salsa! You'd never guess I was at a get together for other weight-loss folks. Or.. maybe you would. Mwhaha!

Time to get back to....
Now I'm not really complaining, I admit this chef salad is pretty darn good. I haven't posted all my Violets trip info yet, there's SO MUCH to share, I haven't had time to sit and blab. That'll be soon though.. with pics & all. The gist of it, it was ABSOLUTELY wonderful, I can't wait to do it next year, and I so wish I lived close to these ladies. Especially my BOO HAYDEE. She was such a wonderful driver (mmhm) and kept me from going nuts sitting in an airport all day. She is so gorgeous too, I can't get over it. Then there's Terry who was such a trooper.. and by trooper, I mean hardass on wherever we stayed, she made sure we got what we needed! Our momma hen. I wish I could have recorded her talking to Drury Inn, I was about to cry and I didn't even give us the room with no view! Judy was a trooper too.. she went into Coyote Ugly with schmexy girls hooching it on the bar, while screaming the lyrics to "Killing In The Name Of"--this is by far my husband's favorite story. Judy is our resident pastor's wife. Atta girl Judy!!
Jane for being the brave little toaster on the rapids, Tracy M for saving her, other Tracy for not smoking, Jen for getting on the plane, Michelle for taking our polls, Kat for being such a doll, and Pam for being one of the funniest chicks I have ever met. I'll post more later, in fact I posted more than I meant to already!

Back to work, school started up.
I AM GOING TO BELMONT!! I can hardly contain myself. The day Big Brown won Preakness my mom got my dad to arrange for us all to go to Belmont. It's not that expensive either (thank goodness) since Russell doesn't want to go. I hope to see a Triple Crown, what an amazing part of history that would be.

Mother's Day!

Happy day-late-mom's-day to any of you who are moms!

I even got a "Happy mother's day!" from my granny. Granny moments, remember? I just laughed and said "Not yet!".

Here's a picture of me and my husband yesterd, we rarely take pictures, but I am on pain meds for my teeth extraction (yow), and was feeling goofy.

When they pulled my tooth on Friday I was in no pain, but slowly but surely it's getting painful. Thank goodness for Lorcets!!
Only a few more days till my Violet's Trip!! I am sooo excited. I can't wait to go tubing.. and get a tan?!

Oh, in this pic the lady behind my head is my mom. I took a picture with her too, but she would kill me if she ever saw me publishing pictures of her on the internet, so I won't.

They found ANOTHER set of human remains near us. Eek. Now it's getting a lil' creepy. I am making sure to lock all my doors during the day now.

Went to lunch with my g'ma and my cousin(who I never see) today, and I had beef queso & chips. Not a lot, wasn't too hungry but needed to eat something with the pain meds. Thirsty as all get out, so downing lots of water (yay), and suppose to do the gym afterwork with dad today.

Workin' it!

Alas Tooth, I Knew Thee Well

I have a lot of random things to post today, and on pain meds, so kiddies this should be fun!!

This morning I went to have a back tooth removed. My jaw is small so I have issues with back teeth, they already took one out. I told them please knock me out, I hate being aware when they do those things. So dentist, nurse, and anesthesiologist are in the room and I brought up the news article I read 2 weeks ago about the lady who was put to sleep for oral surgery and they forgot about her and she woke up in the middle of the night freaking out. We were all laughing and next thing I know I wake up. I guess I was annoying them! Russell drove me home, we got my pain meds on the way. I feel great, I can't believe it. This guy rocks. Unless I bite down on the gauze, I don't even notice it.

The human remains found near our house, are in national news right now. Because of Nancy Grace. Some reason (makes NO sense) the other night on her show, she says she thinks the remains are probably Stacey Peterson, the cop's wife in Chicago that is missing. Why? No idea. They don't know anything about the body, male, female, etc. But to stir up news, she said that. So now CNN & Fox are all over the area.

If you watched Survivor.. can..you..believe...it. Ozzie's face when Erik gave up the necklace was priceless. Poor young, naive, ice-cream scoopin' kid. My husband knew at 21 that women are evil.. this kid must not have ever had a girlfriend, the only thing I could come up with to explain his stupidity. And then James standing up and saying "I'm finally not the dumbest survivor ever!!" and the girls LAUGHED at him, if I was them I'd feel so bad, I'd probably cry a little.

Everyone ready for mom's day? I ordered flowers she should be getting any minute now, and then my brother called yesterday, he and my sister decided we should go in on something.. and I should handle it because I'm better at those things. So during lunch break me and husband went to the mall. My husband is like a kid in those situations. A bored kid in the mall with his mom. He kept huffing, pacing, staring, picking at things, then when I'd say "Knock it off" he'd go "But I'm booooored". He did the same thing at the dentist this morning, they were running behind and I had to hear how put-out he was that he's having to sit there. Like I didn't?
Anyway, so we went to Belk's and I asked to see some necklaces, they were having a mom's day sale. Everything was $400+ 'originally', I hate how you can't just see the price without having them bring it out and try to sell it on you. So I finally said, my budget is $100, I want something ornate and not flashy. I saw this really cute ornate gold ring, with tiny diamond chips in it. My mom needs a new thumb ring (currently wearing an old pewter one I had in high school). It would look great as a thumb ring. I ask to see it (and the price) and it's like $350. I said, nope.. so she plays on her calculator talking about "I can take it down to $180!" and she's very proud of herself. I didn't budge, I said "My limit is still $100, I'm going in with siblings and can't change how much we spend". So she plays with her calculator and it's a miracle! She can sell it for $90. Mmmhm. I don't haggle, or like to haggle, I say yes or no. I don't counter offer, or except prices to go down. But I will say no and stick to it, if it's not what I wanted, so it works sometimes. So, got the ring for $90.

Pain killers knocking me out, guess I'll have more random thoughts later!

The Dove Chocolate Diet

No really.. no, I mean no. Maybe.

I seem to be creeping in weight loss again. Working out, making good eating choices, water water water. But then Tunica happened. I couldn't eat well, so I ate lot of dessert (tsk tsk) instead of meals, and I had Shirley Temples, and quite a bit of alcohol. And when I ordered coffee & Baileys with sweet-n-low.. I know they put sugar, every time.
I got back from Tunica avoiding the scale, then decided I better face up. And I lost another 1lb. Figures right, I stop all the "good" stuff and I lose weight.
Since then, I figured to feed into it. Just a shameless excuse, duh. I have been eating Dove Chocolate caramel things since I got back from Tunica. I keep it to 5 a day, which is still 200 calories, but it's not the whole bag!! I am trying to take in more protein too, eating canned chicken in a chicken salad, egg salad, etc. So today, my weight loss is back to kickin ass and takin' names. 226! I feel like giving an Oscar's style speech. I love my band. I would never have ever ever dreamed I would weigh 240's.. or 230's.. or 220's. I haven't weighed 'this much' since gosh.. middle school? My body seemed pretty comfortable in the 300's for the past few years. I say comfortable, even though I was a cripple, because my weight wouldn't budge.

Update on my office, I got to keep it, my husband got the big conference room next door to me.

On our way home today, traffic was horrible. It's always horrible, but it was even more so. Found out, we're backed up 10 miles due to GAWKERS. "Police activity" on the interstate's access road blocked us up. Then I found out, it was 'human remains', so I forgive the gawkers a little. We took 20 minutes to go .5 miles to our exit. Waiting for the news to explain what happened since it was new while we were driving home.

I guess that's it. Hope all you current banders & bandsters-to-be love your band as much as I do. It's completely changing my life.

Meeting My Violet Sistahs!

I am so stoked!!! On Lap Band Talk, if you're from there, you know about the monthly groups.. Well our group, the Shrinking Violets (April '07- mostly) have planned a trip. The planning started out rocky, but we actually pulled it together. We finalized plans in January I guess, and we're going in May.. and today is a day in May! That means we're almost there! I am so excited!!

These ladies have become so important to me, I feel like I've known them forever. I don't think I'd have stuck with my band so.. patiently (for the most part!) if I didn't have them to lean on.
We're going to Gruene, TX. Why you may ask? Everyone else asks me that, so you may be wondering too. Frankly, I forget how it was officially picked out, maybe because there's a lot of the V's in Texas and they suggested a good touristy place. But they have TUBING (I love me some tubing), and we're going to do a Tex-Mex eatin', and.. Riverwalk shopping. I hope we are going to the Alamo too, it was mentioned but I'm not sure if it was pushed to the wayside. Lots of fun & relaxation with a big group of funny girls. Margaritas won't hurt either!

Ok, just realized how close the trip is, so I had to make a post about them! I guarantee some fun pictures when I get back. We leave May 16th, and wouldn't you know my last semester starts the day I get back (at 10pm), so it's going to be one of those days. Hopefully, I'll be loaded enough by then!

Oh one more thing, if you watch the Kentucky Derby, hope you enjoy it as much as I will!!

Tunica!

Well we went to Tunica Thursday night after Survivor. 4 hour drive. Good times. Me, Russell, my parents, my sister & her girlfriend. We had the buffet almost everyday for b'fast & dinner. Amount of food that would go down? NONE!
I was doing alright, hit a couple big hits, hit $1,100 on a $2 bet. Woot. But Russell was losing, so I had to keep giving him my money. We were suppose to come home Sunday, but since everyone still had money (and don't you know, you can't leave a casino with money) we stayed till Monday. We still ended up coming home with half the money we brought, which is a win in my book!
We contracted someone to sod our backyard, he said he'd come today. I got an e-mail this morning that he sodded it already and will drop the invoice off today. What? Hah, we didn't even notice! So now I'm anxious to get home from work and see our new sodded backyard. What if he sodded the wrong house?!
I finished my classes for this semester officially last night. I worked on a final essay this weekend, then took my Spanish 2 final last night.. 66%..doh. The good news is, I had a 90 in that class till the final, so I will still be passing, just not an A like I thought I had. I am DONE with foreign language for the rest of my life. Another celebration, the last one was when I finally finished all my math classes a couple years ago. No more math for me, ever again. Never ever.
My dog, who is such a good dog, but an indoor dog.. is a little turd when we put her outside. I always forget because it's rare. But for Tunica, we left her at my parent's house (who have grass in their yard) and when we came back she ripped to shreds a float. Grr! She always rips something up when we leave her outside. So when we start leaving her in our newly sodded backyard, we can't put beds or anything out there for her.
Uhm.. so I'm way behind at work and need to get to it. Just wanted to post!

Work.. Schmerk.

Well, my company decided to move me. Actually, they decided to move all of sales to a newly renovated part of the building. A million miles from everyone else. Most sales staff doesn't care, they work from home. I cared a little bit, but gotta do whatcha gotta do (my attitude quickly changed, as you'll see). Part of the renovation is nice new offices, but the heating/air units are broken. They are 6k a piece to fix, and 3 need fixing back here. Since our company is officially moving to a new building in the next year(ish), they don't want to spend the money. My office is the closest to the 'rest of the people', so I get a backwash of their air right now.. that's fine. And if you see below, I have a little fan in here. Winter might be harsh, last year we designated a smoking room in this hallway to be out of the cold, and we had 3 space heaters in there to keep us warm.. it gets that cold. We'll see. In any event, I was told we're moving Monday. I get a call this weekend that the NEW PEOPLE (hired more staff) are moving Monday.

Us old folks gotta get out that weekend.. wish I had a heads up. So husband and I came in Sunday and moved everything. I somehow hurt my back, I don't know at what point, I felt fine till yesterday. So yesterday I re-organized, got my desk set up, hung pictures on the wall, blah blah. I like it. I'm not freezing, so my attitude may change in the winter, but for now.. it's better than my old office.

Now, I had options. I could have this office, or one 3x as big-- but even more into isolation. I wanted this one. I only have so much furniture, so wasted space. But they call last night and said "It makes more logic for us to move you to the 3x big office.." I was not acting like an adult, I got upset and complained and said "But I REALLY like where I am now". They said we'd talk about it today.

Today at the coffee pot gathering I said "So have you decided not to move me again?". Heh. This time I was more of an adult and got to explain logically. The kicker---- the reason they wanted to move me, was to give this new office to... MY HUSBAND!! Argh. He is an IT guy. Now, this is the part that floors me. Beside my office is an office about 2x size of this. Down the hall is the 3x as big, that I turned down. My husband ASKED for the 3x one. Why? Not because he wants to be manly with a big office, but because as the IT guy he has a lot of desks, equipment, and 4-7 computers being worked on at any given time. If you've been around lots of computers, you know the heat those bad boys generate! So he could definitely use the room. Me? Not so much.

Ok, so here's the flooring me part.. They don't want to give the 'bigger offices' to my husband, because he's just an IT guy and it would look bad. It would look bad, that I have a smaller office than him. I'm pleading to KEEP this office, and they are wanting to displace me again, so that it doesn't look bad that he has a big office. For the love of all that's good in the world!

I think I made a good case explaining why he should get the bigger one, and why this appearance stuff is crap.

My back is killing me, it has progressively gotten worse since Sunday and right now I can hardly move. I took tylenol & advil (NSAID.. shame on me). I take advil once in a blue moon for occasions like this, where I know I need an anti-inflammatory. And I had 4 bites of the inside of a sandwhich called "The Kitchen Sink" for lunch. How fun is that? It really had everything & the kitchen sink. I loved the big chunks of pickles in it.

For anyone wanting to see if I gave up yet, NOPE.. I'm still hitting the gym. Despite my back problems (and this probably didn't help) I went to the gym yesterday and did my longer grueling work out. It's not fun yet, maybe next time I post ;)

So here is my new office for now, if I end up moving again there will be a lot of bad words being posted.

Free Clothes Ya'll?

Alright, edited to take what's left down. If I've contacted you, you know what yer getting blah blah blah, I'm sending them out tomorrow or Thurs. I promise! I ended up moving offices Monday and I've been running around like a freak. More to come in next post ;o)

But, I can Snoop Too!!

That's right, I've been snooping. I got a blog tracker, so I get to see where all you readers come from.. how you got here, and where you live (creeped out yet??).

I'm shocked to see Singapore, Germany, Finland?! And no one is commenting?! All you US readers too!
But, I can tell my husband hasn't found my page yet, no hits from our city. Teehee!

I'm loving this new fill. Except once, I was sooo hungry and could not get anything to go down. That's the downside of being so tight. Scale is bumbling down again, I love my scale again. I want to be happy in my bathing suit by August for our Jamaica trip. I want husband to be oogling ME and not the Baywatch looking people that frequent surfs.

I watch this show, I think it's called Weird Eating with Andrew Zimmern? Something like that. Talk about turning you off of food, he eats nasty crap all over the world. Last night in China, he went to some restaurant that exclusively cooks Penises..Peni? They had snake, seal, deer, blah blah, all kinds of animal penises. Seal penis is $500. You couldn't pay me $500 to eat it. Much less me pay them! ......Anyone else just imagine PBing on a penis?

Went to the gym yesterday (yay me), and going again today. The trainer man is going to 'step it up'. I asked dad what that meant, and he said he doesn't know. I need to target my gut!! He has us doing cardio, arms & legs. My arms & gut are what I worry about. This gut is not going away, I could hold up my stomach last night and I looked like a sexy bitch.. the kind I never could pull off. I need a mons lift too. TMI? I don't know any exercises for the pooch of fat on the mons. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying to figure one out. It looks like it has not lost one iota of fat, where as everything around it is deflating. It looks horrible, and you'll just have to take my word on that.

Here's my latest B&A pics. Today is my 1 year anniversary. This time last year I was coming out of my sleep, and seeing the Virginia Tech crap happening. What a bizarre day that was. I am not unhappy about losing 104lbs in 1 year. I still have a ways to go, and just being impatient. And I won't lie, I was hoping if I lost 104lbs (which is a weight I have not been since middle school) I would look skinnier than I do.

Start April 07 - 333lbs Today April 08 -229lb.

Bein' Snooped On!

I mentioned how it's weird that I don't tell my husband that I blog, well somehow I mentioned something about it tonight and he reacted like I thought he would-- 'You blog? And I don't know?'. After all these years, we're pretty boring, so I decided this will be my mystery. I wouldn't tell him where it was. So, he said he's going to look for it. In case you found it Russell, congratulations-- Love ya ;o)

He really could just look at my bookmarks, I always wonder if he does that anyway. I have a lot of pregnancy stuff bookmarked, hopefully that doesn't freak him out hah hah.

Worked out yesterday like a good girl. I'm oober tight from my fill. No fun & exciting story from it.. I ate a cracker & drank water. Came home, and I normally have a late night snack. I had crackers & peanut butter. 2 hours after falling asleep, I woke up choking on acid. It was pretty bad. Drank milk, took tums, and 2 hours woke up choking again. That sucked. So yesterday I was pretty darn tight. Nothing but liquids getting through. Today is a little better. I refuse to go back for an unfill, I think eating at night is a bad idea for me now though, and it irritated my pouch. He filled me to 2cc's. I was 1.5cc. I lost 2lbs since the doctor visit, and I've been stalled for a month.. so WOOHOO!
Tonight I had egg salad on 1/2 a garlic wrap. Uhm-- YUM! And it went down fine as long as I took little bites. I'm back in the game!

Workin' It

Well, Saturday morning came, I was so tempted to cancel. My dad called (and woke me up) and said he was on his way to pick me up..for working out! Unggghhh. But I did it! And I'll be darned, I really did feel great afterwards. By 3pm though, I was dozing on and off. I hate napping, makes me nauseated.
We went and saw "21". Good movie! Great story, and Kevin Spacey is awesome. Nice twist at the end.
I took my sister for lunch too for her b'day. Who knew, 4 people at Ruby Tuesday's would be $80? Gah. And I'm banded!!!!!
Monday came, and despite the hectic day, me & dad made it to the gym again. The 'burn' and 'soreness' didn't happen this time. Well, it burned DOING it, but I didn't feel it afterward. Bummer, I like the pain.. makes me feel productive. So I think I'm upping my weights. We changed it to Mon-Wed-Fri. But today I am leaving soon to go get a fill, which is a total of 6 hours driving, so no gym today. Eeps. Tomorow is employee meeting.. with pizza. Yuck. I am glad they pick foods I don't like, then I don't feel the need to 'cheat' and eat crap.

Yesterday, I went to Nashville to meet with a potential customer. They have their plant set up like a museum, it was SO COOL. They were the first to do Beatles & Motownish records back in the 60's in America. They have rooms with all the original furniture from the signings, etc. And they had a motel room in their plant, that was for the black artists, because in the 60's, black people couldn't rent hotel rooms in Nashville. How weird is that to imagine?? So they had this motel room for their black clients to stay in. Again, everything was the original furniture (minus the Kennmore refrigerator and coffee pot in the kitchen). Then we went to Shogun (a hibachi restaurant) for my sister's bday. This time the tab wasn't on me (thank goodness). I had a few pieces of sushi, and way too many scallops. I need this fill so bad.. waaaaah.

When my doc fills me, I always have a funny story. So I'm sure I'll post again tonight!

Hell Musta Gotten Pretty Cold

You know, it was only a couple weeks ago when I was rambling about how I felt good about not having to exercise or diet, and weight just melting off. And no less than a week later, the band-gods SMITED (SMOTED?) me!!!!
I realized my restriction has poofed quite a bit too, which I'm sure is part of it-- so I'm taking care of that next week.

Meanwhile, I've been yapping about working my flab one of these days.. Today finally came!
We have a gym at work, I have no excuse not to be doing it.. just lazy. Lazy La!
So last night my dad said, let's go during lunch. Now, I always wanted someone to go with. Everyone else, wants to come in early (no thanks), or stay late.. and by the end of the day I want to go home. I said let's do lunch, but no one wanted to get sweaty and be at work. Finally, my dad sees it my way. So last night we agreed to go today at lunch. On top of that, we were at Cracker Barrell and both ordered a salad to-go for lunch today. He had a personal trainer come in and make specific workout plans for us. That was neat.
So now I have a plan. We were in there 1.5 hours. I worked out pretty well if I do say so myself, I had a hard time just flicking my lighter afterward (you know, work out-smoke.. derrr).
We said we'd go Mon, Tues, and Thurs for lunch. I could commit to that. Then while we're in there, the trainer said the gap from Thurs-Mon is too big, we need to work out on the weekend. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I kept trying to get out of it, but he insisted. Damn it all to hell, stupid exercise people. (See funny story below, makes me think of this). So now Saturday morning I'll be in here busting my butt. I guess in a few months, if they keep a prod on me and make me go (mmhm), I'll have something to show for it. I hope so, I'm so flabby I could donate skin to a whole burn victim family.
Time to go enjoy my oven-roasted turkey salad.. nom nom nom.
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(ENJOY THE LAUGH!!)
Dear Diary, For my birthday this year, my daughter (the dear) purchased a week of personal training at the local health club for me. Although I am still in great shape since being a high school football cheerleader 43 years ago, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and give it a try. I called the club and made my reservations with a personal trainer named Belinda, who identified herself as a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and model for athletic clothing and swim wear. My daughter seemed pleased with my enthusiasm to get started! The club encouraged me to keep a diary to chart my progress.

MONDAY: Started my day at 6:00 a.m. Tough to get out of bed, but found it was well worth it when I arrived at the health club to find Belinda waiting for me. She is something of a Greek goddess - with blond hair,dancing eyes and a dazzling white smile. Woo Hoo!! Belinda gave me a tour and showed me the machines. I enjoyed watching the skillful way in which she conducted her aerobics class after my workout today. Very inspiring! Belinda was encouraging as I did my sit-ups, although my gut was already aching from holding it in the whole time she was around. This is going to be a FANTASTIC week-!!

TUESDAY: I drank a whole pot of coffee, but I finally made it out the door. Belinda made me lie on my back and push a heavy iron bar into the air then she put weights on it! My legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made the full mile. Belinda's rewarding smile made it all worthwhile. I feel GREAT-!! It's a whole new life for me.

WEDNESDAY: The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the toothbrush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I believe I have a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was OK as long as I didn't try to steer or stop. I parked on top of a GEO in the club parking lot. Belinda was impatient with me, insisting that my screams bothered other club members. Her voice is a little too perky for early in the morning and when she scolds, she gets this nasally whine that is VERY annoying . My chest hurt when I got on the treadmill, so Belinda put me on the stair monster. Why the hell would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by elevators? Belinda told me it would help me get in shape and enjoy life. She said some other shit too.

THURSDAY : Belinda was waiting for me with her vampire-like teeth exposed as her thin, cruel lips were pulled back in a full snarl. I couldn't help being a half an hour late, it took me that long to tie my shoes. Belinda took me to work out with dumbbells. When she was not looking, I ran and hid in the restroom. She sent another skinny bitch to find me. Then, as punishment, she put me on the rowing machine -- which I sank.

FRIDAY : I hate that BITCH Belinda more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. Stupid, skinny, anemic, anorexic little cheerleader. If there was a part of my body I could move without unbearable pain, I would beat her with it. Belinda wanted me to work on my triceps. I don't have any triceps! And if you don't want dents in the floor, don't hand me the Damn barbells or anything that weighs more than a sandwich. The treadmill flung me off and I landed on a health and nutrition teacher. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like the drama coach or the choir director?

SATURDAY : Belinda left a message on my answering machine in her grating, shrilly voice wondering why I did not show up today. Just hearing her made me want to smash the machine with my planner. However, I lacked the strength to even use the TV remote and ended up catching eleven straight hours of the Weather Channel.

SUNDAY : I'm having the Church van pick me up for services today so I can go and thank GOD that this week is over. I will also pray that next year my daughter (the little shit) will choose a gift for me that is fun -- like a root canal or a hysterectomy. I still say if God had wanted me to bend over, he would have sprinkled the floor with diamonds!!!

Hospital & Needing a Fill

What an eventful week I had!

Last Tuesday I had a really horrid day. At 3am that morning, I woke up dizzy and in so much abdomen pain, that I fainted. Twice. I hit my head on the bathroom counter as I tried to get to the toilet. I was ghostly white and sweating. I thought.. I'm dying!!! I grabbed my cell phone on the way in there. I called my mom, who was awake at 3am.. weirdo! I got in the bath tub after some diarhea, and took a long bath, talking to her about what I was feeling. She was looking up webmd, while I soaked. I felt relieved enough to go back to bed. That morning I went to a clinic--I REALLY need a general practicioner, these clinics suck. At this point I had about a 5 in pain (on scale of 1-10), and then every 2 minutes, it waved up to an 8. My mom thought maybe it's false contractions, she told me about that. I thought maybe that is what was going on, it was so miserable. However, when I was passing out I will say it was a 10. It never got to 10 again, but 8 was bad enough.
The clinic sent me to a medical mall for ultrasounds. They did upper organ ultrasounds, then sent me off to drink 32oz of water, and come back for the lady parts.
Well, 50oz of water and 4 hours later.. I could not pee!!! I went back twice, and they said my bladder was not full enough. They were getting irritated with me, my mom (who came with me the 2nd time around) was irritated I wouldn't pee.. she blamed it on my stubborness. At some point I finally filled up, they did the ultrasound and said my right ovary was hidden, then needed to go in my hoohoo box. Waaaaah. So they stuck something resembling a dildo with a condom up there, then made me bend and stick my left leg up in the air and tilt that way, etc. Finally got a picture, and I left without my dignity.
Clinic tells me to go to the ER and meet some doctor there (it ends up he's a bariatric surgeon in town). He was trying to sell me on coming to him for fills, I finally realized it after the fact.. that's another story.
So I get to the ER, they rush me in. The person doing the IV was a moron, surely on his first day doing an IV on a real person. He put it on the side of my wrist, took him 10 minutes to get it to go in right, and it was excruciating-- on top of my current pain. I've never had IV problems before, and it's a week later and my arm is black & blue and yellow from it. It constantly jabbed into me everytime I moved my arm too. Idiot. Anyway, so the doctor comes in an hour or so later, feels around and said my white blood cells are through the roof, and he doesn't think it's appendicitis.. so it's no longer an emergency. Just what I want to hear in the ER. So he said while I'm there he wants to do a cat scan. They brought me 3 glasses of contrast (mixed with sprite and ice.. my hell). They said they're coming in 20 minutes to take me to get a CAT scan, so I needed to get it down. Sip, sip, sip. Finally get it down, the 50oz from early is finally catching up.. I gotta go! 2 hours pass. No CAT scan. I'm nearly in tears. Nothing is happening!! Doc comes by, asks how the CAT scan went.. I said.. I DON'T KNOW THEY NEVER CAME!!! The nurses station was a bunch of blithering idiots. 40 minutes later they finally take me, I'm all tears by this point. I'm hungry, I'm in pain, I want to go home. They do the scan, so I could finally pee. The guy wheeling me back said I'll be there 'all night' because the person reading the CAT scans isn't there. So when I get back, I ask a nurse to call the doc, and tell him I'll come back tomorrow when he gets the results. They don't call him. 30 minutes pass.. I am literally going insane. I got dressed, they had taken my cuff and pulse thing off. I was just sitting there for no reason. Overnight? No way. So I caused a huge scene, screaming and crying, and they brought me forms saying I would be signing out Against Medical Advice. I did. At the moment, it was immediate relief to walk out of there.. now I'm going to be facing insurance not paying for it. I'm going to fight it though.

So that was that (for now). The next day he said it looked like my colon lining was thick, indicative of food poisoning. I didn't know I had food poisoning, but ok. He told me to take magnesium citrate and drink lots of water. Now, last time I did MC was for lap-banding, and it hit me in like 30 minutes and lasted an hour. This time, it lasted TWO DAYS. I had anal leakage for 2 days.. yuck, I know! And I had to work.

Then on top of that, since I hit 232lb, it's like my restriction miraculously is disappearing. And the band gave me an inch, and I took a mile. I've been eating horribly with this new found open-ness.
I am scheduled for a fill next Wednesday. Whew. Gotta get this bad boy working again.