Serial Starters

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  • ASalner
    ASalner Posts: 496 Member
    Friday

    Luckily, it is not "donut day" at work. We have a couple of people who regularly bring donuts to work on Friday. Neither did today. I consider it a good sign.

    Lana, I liked your comment about the Holiday Eating Season coming up in 3 months. I have been thinking about that and trying to tell myself that I can lose weight before then and maybe even during holiday season. I don't HAVE to gain weight during the holidays.

    So far, no date tonight. I mentioned it to DH but he didn't really seem to react. I'll ask again later.

    Does anyone here have any experience with underactive thyroid and the treatment for that? My doctor would like to have me stop in for a blood draw to check for it. I've been doing some reading and see that an underactive thyroid could be contributing to some other things I'm experiencing, including the weight gain or inability to lose weight. It could be linked to some of the pain I've had and my intolerance of cold and my Raynaud's syndrome. Just wondering if any of you have been treated for underactive thyroid and if it helped with anything.

    DS is struggling again. He's very lonely. Doesn't have many friends or a girlfriend. Sits home most of the time if he's not at work. I tried to console him last night and remind him that school starts in 3 weeks - he will have many opportunities to make new friends there. He wants to visit the doctor to discuss his medication for his anxiety and I agreed that he should. I asked about possibly trying a different counselor but not sure he wants to go there. He just hasn't had any success with counseling. But I did get a name from my sister of the counselor her son saw when he was in high school. He really liked the guy. So, I will forward that info to my son. He seems to think that everyone is always out running around with friends all the time. And that everyone has a million friends. And that no one but him has to work full-time in the summer as a college student. Sigh. He just doesn't see reality right now.

    Considering putting our house on the market. We didn't last year because we couldn't get as much out of it as we wanted. We refinanced in December to a 15 year mortgage and put all the closing costs into the loan. So we actually owe more on the house now than we did last year! Grrr! If we moved, we'd have to go back to a 30 year mortgage to keep the payment reasonable since the houses we are looking at are quite a bit more than our current home. I'm loathe to move and change the kids schools (although the neighboring districts have better schools) - but the neighbor really makes my husband crazy and we don't foresee anything changing over there. Even after the drug raid, nothing has happened. I hate to give up and abandon our neighborhood but do I want to keep living here and always watching what is going on across the street? Waiting for the next visit by the police? I like our house and our location and haven't seen much on the market that I care for that is affordable for us. What if we sold and then had no place to go?

    Sorry, this is a novella this morning. Lots going through my head.

    Enjoy your Friday! We're hoping to go shopping tomorrow at IKEA down in the Twin Cities to look for furniture for DS's room and our bedroom. We ordered our new KING size bed yesterday and it will be delivered August 9th!

    Annie

  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member

    Annie - for your son, volunteering is a very good way to get out there, be involved, do good things, and likely meet people. Habitat for Humanity? A bicycling club? A theater group? An insight meditation group?

    Also, people, including children, will flounder around and complain and bemoan their terrible fate.
    But so long as they are safe, you don't have to spend your own energy paying too much attention and trying to fix things.
    Some things take time. He has growing up and maturing to do; everyone does at that age.
    It is good for young people to learn that everything isn't all roses all of the time, and everyone's life is indeed different. Not everyone is the prom queen and the football hero, unfailingly popular.

    As for the neighborhood, is it the whole neighborhood that is annoying or just the one problem across the street?

    Courage dear.

    Lana
  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member

    So I looked in the fridge, got some vague ideas for the day. I scribbled on a post it 3 meals and a nighttime snack.....sat down at the laptop, entered everything into MFPal, and my bottom number was in the red. I went back and trimmed a little here and there, and the green number is 13! Lucky number? Ha ha!

    It's the planning and the "game" of entering it early in the day that seems to be working for me. I never seriously did this before.

    Lana
  • ASalner
    ASalner Posts: 496 Member
    Lana - thanks for your thoughts. I keep in mind he needs to grow and mature. Don't they say guys don't really reach maturity until around age 25? Sigh.

    As for the neighborhood, it's the bad apple right across the street from us that is the problem. Rich daddy and mommy bought the house for loser drug-dealing son who is now 41. He has lived there a little over 2 years with his skanky girlfriend who I think is now 20 or 21. There have been police calls to the house for a domestic (we called), a warrant was out for the arrest of the guy and we called when we knew he was home, some sort of altercation where the police came out (we weren't involved in that one), and now the drug raid. We were told there would be felony drug charges from the raid, but there has been nothing. We caught the girlfriend in a neighbor's backyard emptying their shop vac in the woods behind the house. (We were watching an elderly neighbor's dog while she was in the hospital.) Should have called the cops but instead only let Daddy know. Their "friends" hit our mailbox 3 or 4 times until it was broken. We contacted the Dad since the guy wasn't there when my husband walked across the street to confront him. The Dad paid to replace the mailbox instead of making anyone at that house be responsible. Their weird activities continue day and night. When the drug raid happened, Daddy & Mommy came over that night to talk to their son but never went in the house. Apparently they are not allowed in even though they own the property. This week there were a couple of episodes of arguing and swearing in their open garage that we could hear from our garage.

    But beyond that, like I said, it makes my husband crazy. He takes picture of new vehicles and license plates and those have been fed to the police a couple of different times. He can't keep himself from looking out our windows to see what's going on.

    And I do have concerns about my kids living across the street from that ilk. We have already made adjustments to our teenage daughter's after-school arrangements so she doesn't come home by herself and have to walk past that house alone. It's not so much that I worry about the two people who are actually living there - but I don't know anything about the "friends" that seem to stay and visit - sometimes for days/weeks.

    I have contacted the City Attorney to see if there is any sort of complaint we can file against the actual homeowners if the drug raid does result in arrests and charges. Something trying to get them to be forced to "cease and desist" drug activities at that house once it's a matter of public record that those activities have been occurring there. I have followed up but have not gotten any response. I was hoping if we could put pressure on the actual homeowners, they might move the son and sell the house.

    So much drama!

    Annie
  • arniedog74
    arniedog74 Posts: 2,086 Member
    Sara/Lana- turmeric has become quite popular around here...a bit of a fad I would say... supposed to work wonders on dogs...I tried it on myself and girl dog for a bit... didn't notice anything, so quit... probably didn't give enough time... if I don't see quick results, I give up...
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    arniedog74 wrote: »
    Sara/Lana- turmeric has become quite popular around here...a bit of a fad I would say... supposed to work wonders on dogs...I tried it on myself and girl dog for a bit... didn't notice anything, so quit... probably didn't give enough time... if I don't see quick results, I give up...

    I've seen this too. It's supposedly an anti inflammatory I think

    Omg what a day so far. Woke up to crazy messages and calls from my mom. I guess her meds got off and she was hallucinating, beligerant to the staff at the hospital, trying to wander around, so I had to head over there and figure out what was happening. I inquired about a posse stroke and they just think it's stress and the meds being off. Of course I'm the bad guy now because I had to inform her the pictures she was seeing on the wall weren't there, her dog wasn't there and no I do not live with you at your apartment. We did see the cardiologist and she did in fact have a heart attack. My brother is dealing with her now. I'll probably go back tonight.

    Hope Friday is treating you well
  • tlsb2016
    tlsb2016 Posts: 307 Member
    Happy Friday, all!

    I'm so impressed with those of you who are able to reply to multiple people at once! I hold out hope that I'll get better at it as I get to know everyone. Just know that even if I don't comment on something you said it doesn't mean I don't care!

    Ali, so sorry to hear about your Mom. How stressful. My Mom died several years back at 82, but I still remember the stress of hospital stays and her own craziness. She was a life-long smoker and we finally clued in that the nicotine withdrawal of the hospital stay would put her over the top on the irritability scale. Once we figured that out, we had them slap a nicotine patch on her which helped immensely. I'm not saying that's what your Mom is experiencing; just commiserating that I understand what it's like to deal with an unexpected side effect. Glad to hear you're able to share the load with your brother.

    Lana, I think you mentioned holiday eating. I'm definitely worried about the fall/winter months, partially because of the holidays but mainly because my metabolism goes down with the change in seasons and shorter days. I'm not as motivated to work out and then there are all of those lovely carbs and sweets to eat! Feeling absolutely rotten after the holidays last year (we celebrate Christmas, so lots of sweets at the end of the year) combined with getting on the scale on 12/31 and realizing I was at my highest weight ever motivated me to start using MFP. It's worked well for me but I've never stuck with anything a whole year - or beyond. I want this time to be different. Hence why I screwed up my courage and crashed this party! (Have never been on a public message board before).

    It's a rainy weekend here in DC, but at least the humidity broke.

    Enough rambling from me for now!

    Tess
  • tlsb2016
    tlsb2016 Posts: 307 Member
    Annie, your situation across the street sounds like a nightmare! So sorry....
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    Good evening,

    Oatmeal cooking as nothing easy or appealing exists in fridge/ freezer.

    Ali - hang in there and so glad brother can take some of the burden. They are probably keeping her off any psych meds so they can see the heart situation - makes for some "Reality Show" moments. Just know you can walk down the hall to get away.

    Hot weekend here, but more water is not a bad thing.....

    Annie - wow keep looking at open houses just to see if maybe there is an option.

    Wave to all who stop by - I am under Lana's Palm Tree snoring loudly- just want to warn you. Cute dog is Tillie.
  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member

    Hi Tess!

    Hi Annie - So sorry about the people across the street. Also sorry that it drives DH crazy. I wish there were a magic pill that you could take to just not care about them. Reacting to them and being concerned with them is so stressful, but moving somewhere else would be a huge burden and take a lot of money and energy.

    Ali - I know from when my parents were ever in the hospital the years before they passed- it is a horrible place for them when they are old. They cannot get any meaningful sleep, so are badly sleep deprived, and then they hallucinate! My father would sit in his bed, appear to be wide awake and would tell me to go and "tell the people over there" (pointing to an empty wall) that they were not using the tools properly and that they were doing it wrong (whatever it was). Poor Dad; it was awful, especially the times he was in for a week or so.
    And your mother is in over the weekend. Is she in cardiac care or the regular part of the hospital? It is dicey with the elderly, but can they give her any sort of sleep aid or anti-anxiety med? How old is she? That did help my father a little bit, but he really needed sleep and couldn't get it.

    Lana
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    You guys are the best thanks for the support. She's just gone in for her angiogram and has slept all afternoon. She needed it. My brother said she woke up and seemed normal. I suspect she needed a good sleep. Hubs is pushy so he'll visit with us tomorrow and hopefully push for sleep aids or something and I'm not sure what area she'll be in. They told us the third floor. Oh ya the third floor of course

    I haven't had oatmeal in a million years I think. That sounds good.

    How's a party at Lana's palm tree sound?
  • arniedog74
    arniedog74 Posts: 2,086 Member
    Sleep deprivation is definitely a huge thing in hospitals. When Gpa was in hospital, he didn't sleep for 4 days... he had serious hallucinations... was constantly "working" on something... turned out, it was a UTI... which, I never had a clue caused hallucinations like that... but, apparently, that is incredibly common in the elderly... who would have ever guessed...
  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member
    arniedog74 wrote: »
    Sleep deprivation is definitely a huge thing in hospitals. When Gpa was in hospital, he didn't sleep for 4 days... he had serious hallucinations... was constantly "working" on something... turned out, it was a UTI... which, I never had a clue caused hallucinations like that... but, apparently, that is incredibly common in the elderly... who would have ever guessed...

    Dawn!!!

    *slap forehead* YES! That was a big part of it: the UTIs my father would get in the hospital. The poor guy would go in for one problem (pneumonia or something) and then get sicker with more problems. He went through this a bit too much in his late 80s and early 90s. I think he was 92 when he died.

    Somehow I suspect that Ali's mother is younger. Ali - glad to hear she got some rest.

    I forgot all about The Cabana Boys Happy Hour - I must have slept through it. No spring chicken here. LOL

    See you all tomorrow~~

    Lana
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    My mom is 72 but has Parkinson's so she's very frail. We lost my dad last year so I'm calling this her broken heart. She apparently has several blockages so next step is a surgical consult to see what's up. I think this is a good thing. She gets out to breath walking a few steps and we'd get so frustrated with her. Now we know it was this causing her issues
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    SATURDAY

    Good morning,

    Two extra errands this morning as so long as it happens before the heat kicks in completely I am fine. Library to pick up and re-donate book I bought and a visit to CVS to see about getting a lower dose B12 or B complex supplement. Can do and just rolling with it.

    Ali - is 3rd floor so they dont wander off? I know many elderly care places put their mental health /dementia on the highest floor for that reason. Hope you and your family get some answers so you will know what the next step could be. Hang in there.

    Good morning Missy - you posted as I was writing, I learned to cut/paste - old dog / new trick hehehe.

    UTI's - wow you know I see medical records all the time and I cant confirm that connection, but any infection at that age can have a ripple effect (like Missy wrote). I have been thinking it is the grocery list of meds they were on that may/may not interact together.

    Okay dog is done and I can with any luck get a little more sleep.

    Wave to those who follow. BBL.
  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member

    Hello Ali and Missy and Sara -

    Waving to Annie and Kathryn and Dawn and Tess and Saltine and anyone else who stops by later on.....

    Busy today. Food is all planned out. I've managed 3 good days in a row with simple meals that don't require a lot of cooking or prep. When I get to NYC apartment, I can print them up from MFP Diary and stick them inside a kitchen cabinet for days when I am too busy or frazzled to plan.

    Time for water exercise.

    Will check in later~~

    Lana
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    edited July 2017
    I keep meaning to mention - was it Kathryn who said they have no skills to barter with???? Baby sitting is a skill and valuable to mothers who need time off!!!! o:)
  • AliNouveau
    AliNouveau Posts: 36,287 Member
    Babysitting is always appreciated.
    So my mom will need bypass surgery. We learn Monday when it should be. Of course Monday we fly out west on the evening. Let's hope we get to go I need a vacation. Even if it's just a couple of days
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    Good evening,

    First pot of tumeric rice oozed out while cooking and made a nice orange/yellow puddle on my stove. Tomorrow is brown rice for traditional fried rice. I have zucchini enchiladas in freezer, so 3 servings of my tumeric rice (with mixed veg) will be frozen to have with it. Brown rice/ fried rice is another set of 3 meals (after tomorrow night's dinner) - too hot to cook - reheating in toaster oven is much easier.

    Will drop off dvd at library and grocery shop. Dog to vet for her monthly visit - will pick up one dose of flea meds as there is a gap in coverage somehow and she will need her flea meds before her bi-annual check up. I am lucky in that I got a nap this afternoon while waiting for the vet tech to call me back.

    Weather pretty gross most of week but low 100's is better than the week of 108 last month.

    Anyone buy fruit/veg at Target?? Neighbor recommended and so I am hesitant.

    Wishing all a good night.
  • enichols147
    enichols147 Posts: 13 Member
    Hello! I'm new here. I have been on a roller coaster with my weight loss journey. So far a few months ago when I thought I was losing weight I ended up gaining weight lol I have no idea how it happened. At that point I was at my heaviest (about 238lbs) now I've lost about 20lbs on my own, but it's getting harder. I don't diet anymore because that is what happened when I gained my weight the 1st few times. I just need a group to talk to wow that was quite a paragraph
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
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  • tlsb2016
    tlsb2016 Posts: 307 Member
    Hi enichols147 - welcome! I'm Tess and I'm new too, having been on this board for about a week (although using MFP since December 31 when the scale proved I was at my heaviest!). Congrats on losing 20 pounds- what did you do differently than you were doing when you gained/but thought you were losing? Would love to learn from your experience.

    Totally agree with you about not using a diet. The problem I have with such diets is the weight comes back when you go back to regular food. What I appreciate about MFP is it has taught me about portion control and balance between protein, carbs and fat. It also showed that while I was losing steadily, the rate at which I was losing started to slow down so lately I've tried to pick up on the exercise. We'll see how that goes.

    Tess
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    enichols - welcome!! dont worry we are chatters here and we can "out-paragraph" you, so dont apologize. Find small habits to start with that you are willing to do forever and make a list of foods/ drinks you will not do without completely, that is usually a good way to start a long term structure.

    Keep falling asleep reading a book, so it is time to call it done.
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    SUNDAY

    Good morning,

    Paper here, dog up and fed. Sleep more before breakfast? Nice thought.

    Library/groceries/Vet - busy weekend. Less next weekend (so far).

    Rice - Spanish rice turned out okay added enough veg for 1/2 cup each serving. Will make brown rice today with soy sauce. Do not want to cook in this heat, but reheating is not as bad.

    Wave to all who follow. BBL.
  • arniedog74
    arniedog74 Posts: 2,086 Member
    New yogurt flavor... hungry salted caramel by Coburn Farms... not as yummy as it sounded... but, not too bad... not sure it's worth all the calories... only 69 cents, so was worth trying...I love "salted caramel" flavored stuff... New fad that I actually like :)
  • tlsb2016
    tlsb2016 Posts: 307 Member
    Happy Sunday, all!

    Just walked into AC Moore for some tapestry needles (for a counted cross-stitch project I swear I am going to finish) when I had a revelation. Apparently I'm a "serial starter" when it comes to craft projects too!
  • tlsb2016
    tlsb2016 Posts: 307 Member
    edited July 2017
    Oops...I cut off the rest of my message (mental note: don't use emojis when using the app).

    All of the soft, vividly-colored yarn turned my head but given the abundance of yarn I already have, I stayed strong and left with just the needles.

    Hope everyone's Sunday is going well.

    Tess
  • Tilliesmommy1
    Tilliesmommy1 Posts: 5,394 Member
    Tess, I knit and am knitting down the years of "I need this" yarn it became a furry monster in my living space - good for you for not giving into temptation getting the needles you needed to finish your project.
  • enichols147
    enichols147 Posts: 13 Member
    Tess, I actually started losing the weight after I find out that I was a couple of points away from being prediabetic. Diabetes runs in my family and I knew I had to change my lifestyle. I started logging everything I ate for a week, then reduced my sugar and sodium intake. I portion out my meals and exercise 3-4 times a week(burning at least 500 calories). If I don't exercise I eat less to make up for it(about 500 calories less).
  • LanaCabana537
    LanaCabana537 Posts: 3,994 Member
    edited July 2017
    Peep

    Hmm

    Where did the rest of my post go?
    Oh well. Very tired.

    I will stop by again tomorrow

    Lana