I've got several things. I'll tell you everything that's going on right now. Even the sad stuff.
1. I joined LA Weightloss on Thursday morning. I have about 50 pounds that I want to lose. I probably could stand to lose more but 50 is the goal. I'm going to have this little ticker so that you can track my progress too. I'm going to need some encouragement. I've done Weight Watchers several times before but always seem to fizzle after I lose 10 to 15 pounds. This is more one on one with someone checking your food diary 3 times per week. My sister lost about 40 pounds on LA Weightloss and she's now wearing size 4 jeans. I'd be happy in a 10 and ecstatic in an 8. I'm going for it.
2. Lou's dad has cancer in his throat. He was diagnosed early last year - January I think - and he had a couple of surgeries to remove the tumor and then months of chemo and radiation. It didn't work. Lately he's had a terrible earache and has been losing ridiculous amounts of weight so he went back to the doctor and they found out that the tumor is growing and if something isn't done he will suffocate. Lou went there on Thursday. His parents live in Delaware, just over the border from Pennsylvania. He was in Colorado when we found out that his dad needed more surgeries. On Thursday there was a tracheotomy and on Tuesday the 9th he will have a procedure but I don't know what it is called. Basically they will remove the tumor along with his voice box. He has been a smoker all of his life and finally quit last December when he couldn't breathe anymore due to Emphysema. He had the Emphysema for years but still smoked through it. Moral of the story - don't smoke.
3. Brittney left today. Back to Utah. The problem with taking her to the airport is that I start crying about halfway there and almost all the way home. It's an hour drive in case you were curious. If someone else drives her I can pretend she's just going out for a while. If I'm the driver there's no pretending anything.. This is her third year of school and I think it gets harder every time she leaves.
The first time we dropped her off at school I got slightly misty. She was 18 and a know-it-all. She is now coming into her own and I could see her being one of my friends. I miss her happiness and singing and silliness in the house. I miss her interactions with the little kids. I miss our political discussions / debates.
She'll be back on April 26th for the summer. I'm looking forward to it.
4. I got bit by my dog today. She's just shy of 13 months old. She's been to Puppy and Intermediate obedience training. She has food issues that we are trying to work through. On Friday due to some escalations we went to have a private lesson with the trainer so that I could see how to better handle the food issues. One of the things she recommended was some dominance work and she showed me how and I did it.
This afternoon, Penny, the dog, was licking a place in the carpet where something must have been spilled. Maggie walked by and Penny growled so I grabbed her and tried to turn her up side down. My thumb got in the way of her teeth. There was blood but I didn't back off.
I have another appointment with the trainer on Tuesday morning. Until then it is out to eat and go outside and then back in the crate.
We'll see what happens. I hope this is just a phase.
5. I am a big baby.
When Lou and I got married, Brittney and Chelsea were 9 and 8. I had been a single mom for seven years. I was pretty independent. Lou had a job where he travelled almost every week from Monday to Friday. I worked for my mom at her Bed and Breakfast part time. Frankly I loved it. He was home on the weekends and during the week I could do whatever I wanted.
After about 4 years of marriage we moved from Pennsylvania to Michigan. He was still travelling A LOT for the first two years. Then the travel kind of calmed down. He got a new job where the main office is in Connecticut and so he has a home office. When he's not travelling he is totally at home. He leaves his office to have lunch with us. His schedule is very flexible. I love it. When he has to travel I HATE it.
On Tuesday, January 2nd, he left for Colorado. I expected him home on Friday. Instead he had to go to Delaware. The earliest he'll be home is this coming Friday - the 12th.
I miss him.
I want someone to hug who's arms aren't only a foot long. Someone who doesn't pee in his pants or on the floor. Someone who doesn't normally whine or have a high pitched voice. Or say "I don't like you" while he's hugging you.
6. I signed up for the Forest Path Stole KAL . I have been wanting to knit it for a long time but I've been a little nervous. The great thing is that Faina (the designer) has a lace knitting group that meets near here once a month and I've been invited to join. I think I may be able to do it with her personal help.
7. I'm in the Hand Spun Sock Yarn Swap. I'm supposed to be mailing it this Friday. I only have one bobbin spun. Guess what I'm working on this week. I have some dyed shetland that I'm spinning. They'll be warm socks anyway.
Sorry about no pictures. I have been trying to upload pictures to photobucket for days to no avail. It's probably me.
I'll be back tomorrow to update my weight loss. I've got an appointment at 10AM. After that is my usually busy Monday with spinning class from 12:30 to 2 and then weaving class from 2:30 to 4:30. I usually have a headache by the end of the day. Maybe not now that I have an eating plan because I suspect that my headaches usually come from lack of food on Mondays but I have a plan.
6 comments:
Hi Beth-
I don't have any email from you asking to join the FPS KAL. Maybe you sent an email to Agnes but I don't want you to fall thru the cracks! If you still want to join us, shoot me an email, ok? :)
Debi
Hi Beth,
You've got a lot going on right now and I wanted to thank you for sharing it. Somehow, just putting things out there makes them easier to face. By the way, I'm with you on the weight loss thing. Last spring I lost 23 pounds, taking me down from a 1X to a 14. I'm ready again to go for another 20 or so.
My unsolicited $.02? Never, ever try to do a dominance roll to your dog. Forcing a dog on its back will just make any insecurities its feeling worse--in nature, dogs will roll over to show submission, but pack leaders never FORCE a lesser dog over. They roll on their own. I'm a fan of clicker training, myself, and helped my possessive Boykin Spaniel (Katy) with her "issues" with that. When I needed to make her really "feel" that I was dominant, I'd, well, LOOM over her and talk to her in as calm and deep a voice as I could manage, while asking her to sit or lie down or SOMETHING. If you can get your dog to do ONE behavior that you want, you're more likely to get a second one, like giving up a forbidden object or letting a growled-at person come into their space . . . but by asking for an unrelated behavior first (like sit) you're asking for something the dog has no real opinion about--sitting right now is no big deal!--but it gets the "obedience" pattern in the brain going . . . listening to YOU rather than ignoring . . .
Really, I'd question any trainer who told me to roll my dog--because, yeah, it's a way to get bitten, and who wants that???
(Climbing off my soapbox now....)
I hope everything works out for you.
I just joined the 100 Miles by April 1st blog and then at work I was talked into the Discovery Channels Body Challenge. We get a free 8 weeks at Ballys so that is good.
Ouch, so sorry to hear about your FIL. (My mother had throat cancer; not pretty.)
Sounds like you are moving forward in other ways, so that's good. Someone else mentioned the 100 Miles by April 1 challenge. I imagine you're pretty busy, but I'm finding already that it's motivating me to be healthier in general and while I don't have 50 pounds to lose, I would enjoy fitting into my jeans again!
Good luck with everything.
Wow, that's a lot on your plate! And I imagine it's all harder while your husband's away - that's the hardest thing for me, too. He'll be back soon, though! And the weight loss is great news. As for food plans - my new idea is to eat something every two hours instead of meals per se, because I've decided that at least some of my migraines come from low blood sugar. My theory is that I may also just eat healthier this way, too, but time will tell.
As for doggie problems - my mom's cockerpoo, Sophie, gave us hell for a couple years. My mom got bitten once, and she tried to bite me a couple of times (apparently out of jealousy - I'm her sister, you know, and she didn't like it when mom gave me more attention than her. One time when I'd just arrived home and mom was talking to me so avidly that she completely ignored Soph for all of about 10 mins, Sophie responded by marching purposefully into my bedroom, climbing on my bed, peeing directly on the middle of my pillow, then marching back out to face us!)
The good news is Sophie's been the sweetest, best dog in the world for several years now. I think our big mistake is that we never did the crate thing - we bought one, she whined half of the first night, and mom caved in and let her into her bed. It went downhill from there - mom was suffering from empty nest syndrome and made Sophie her baby. After the biting and "Cujo episodes" she called a doggie shrink, and his advice was: never let Sophie on furniture, never hold her or let her be as high up as human eye-level, and make sure she obeys 20 commands a day (of any kind - sit, stop, etc). We all tried to give commands in the deepest possible voice, and to make them short, and clear, while we stood over her. Sophie seemed much happier under this regime, and the biting stopped. After a while, we were able to let her on furniture (but still to this day she has to stay below human eye-level), and though we still give her commands just for the heck of it occasionally, we don't count and it's nowhere near 20 a day. Nobody tries to touch her when she's in her mom's arms (that's the situation in which she did her biting) and we don't look her in the eye from close-up - she sees that as a challenge. That's all. One vet told my mom after the biting episode to put Sophie to sleep because "some female cockers are just like that" - talk about chauvanism! But she's really been the sweetest, cuddliest, most wonderful dog in the world for so long that it's strange to remember what we went through when she was little.
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