October 20-26

SarahMaxx

LW: 130.2
TW: 130.0

As I mentioned on this week's thread, I'm starting this one in case I can't get back her tomorrow.
And it appears I'm just holding steady. Well really not. You ladies know I bounce around, and this week has been no exception. I saw 129.2 once and was so happy. I saw 131.0 once (and this was after what I thought was a very good day with intake and activity), so the old adage of making sure that I keep getting the low end a bit lower still applies. Therefore, if I can see 129.0 just one time next week and it I top off at 129.8, that will be progress. And I know that will be tough because we will be eating out for probably 7 meals. I just have to be careful not to get into that thinking mode that tells me it's okay because we don't do this often and after all, it's a mini vacation. But my girlfriend has some dietary issues, and like us, they are not fast food folks, so we try to find local restaurants that have healthier options. We have dinner reservations tomorrow night at a restaurant that serves Western Mediterranean cuisine, which means lots of seafood choices.

My goal for the week? No post trip gain. And my activity this week has been pretty good despite some tummy issues some days. My 7-day average as of today (Tuesday), is 10,248. With two days of long car rides, plus time in the car as we sightsee, I'm a little concerned about this coming week. But I'm sure the hotel has a fitness center if I can muster the energy.

Hope everyone is doing well. Who knows, hubby will have a laptop because of his work, so I may even get a chance to check in before we return.

Lastchancelj

AVGLW – 230.9
AVGTW - 228.9
LW – 230.9
TW 229.1

Kelly your birthday celebrations sound fun!!! So happy for you!!
Sarah - have a great time on your trip and please don't focus on your weight. Enjoy yourself!
Sheesh- can't wait to hear from you.

I've had a reduction, not sure why/how. I have been eating the beef I made for lunch and I've not been very hungry in the evening, but I'm not getting in activity either.

My Monday night phone call with my sister ended on a very sad note, well most of the way through anyhow. She told me that my brother had told her two of our old neighbors had passed away...the ones I usually went to see whenever I was in town for my MIL. Anyhow, my brother didn't get back to me until yesterday afternoon... One of them, Richard, who lived next door, passed a few months ago (I did speak to his wife and she sounded so good and ok with it all). They are 86 and 87 and had very good lives. Their kids, grandkids are all productive adults with their own homes and families so they believe they've lived a good and full life and she knows Richard is in Heaven happy and waiting for her (though she's not in a rush to join him she says). Anyhow, they had his service 4 months ago and she had wanted to call me, but didn't want to make me sad, so she didn't. Honestly, I was happy for both of them at the end of the call. My heart was warm with love. Manny, who lived across the street, he's the dad of the family I spent many nights there, went on a few vacations and weekend camping trips with them while growing up, well he passed away just a few weeks ago and his service is this Saturday. I'm headed to Cali on Friday to be there. My brother is also going to be there so we will ride over together. This Saturday is also his 3rd grandchild's first birthday so we'll have the birthday party after the service to cheer us on.

But wait, there's more. our elderly neighbor, Irene who is 90 passed last night. I was able to say goodbye with a good visit just before we left for Disneyland, but we also got to see her yesterday afternoon. Her daughter texted me minutes after she passed to let me know. She felt Irene was waiting to see us one more time. One of the other family members arrived just before we were getting ready to leave and she shared all sorts of stories and information Irene had told her about us and how fortunate she felt with us being her neighbor and checking on her etc. I laughed and cried. You never know how much a visit or meal deliver impacts another person. We ended up staying a bit longer to visit. Last night sleep was tough and I woke with a heavy heart and sadness today. These are my three. I pray for a looooong break before I have any more.

Anyway, thank you ladies for being my friends and listening.

wiredkell

Have a great trip Sarah! Just enjoy yourself!

I'm so sorry Lois to hear about your three. I believe in three's too when it comes to passing. It's crazy and sad at the same time that it always seems to happen that way. It's great to hear that they lived such full, long lives. I can only wish to be around for that long and be healthy at the same time.

Another day done in the office. I'm back here tomorrow and Friday this week, as I have a few meetings and we're doing interviews too. I got my flu shot yesterday and my arm is weirdly more sore with this shot than it was with the covid shot. Ah well.. it'll pass. I do it all for my parents who are higher risk.

Heading home shortly, only to rush out to buy hockey pants for both kids, as both of them have hit growth spurts and then it's off to our nightly hockey event.

I hope all is well with your Sheesh. Praying for a happy, healthy grandbaby.

GaGasheesh

LW: 122.4
TW: 122.8

I’m attaching photos of Loa Isabelle 💗 born October 17.

I’m sorry I haven’t had time to read all of your posts. I’ll check back tomorrow.

Happy belated birthday Kelly!! I’m sure it was wonderful. 40 is so young from my perspective. 😉 And, I hope Sarah’s sister had a happy birthday as well.

wiredkell

Congratulations Sheesh!!! She is absolutely adorable. I love the name

SarahMaxx

Hi, Ladies. We're back. I had a good time, but it turned out to be more tiring than we thought. We traveled a different way, thinking we'd avoid the dreaded I-95 traffic, but that put us through small towns just as people got off work and school buses were running. On Wednesday we had to laugh. We got behind a school bus on a long stretch of a two-lane road with no passing zones. And that bus stopped at EVERY house. It literally stopped every 20 feet. And if a mom was there to meet the child, she and the bus driver chatted for a minute. Took us forever.

Then we ran into an issue at the restaurant that evening (they said the oven went out) and it took 90 minutes to get our food and the four entrees did not all come out at the same time. (And we were treating our friends because they had never been to this restaurant and it has been a favorite of ours!) There did not seem to be a manager on duty and the young wait staff just kept ignoring us and didn't keep us informed about what was going on. Finally, my friend took it upon herself to go back to the kitchen!

Luckily, Thursday went better and we had a lovely tour of Winterthur, the weather was amazing, and we had dinner at a family-owned restaurant that had great food.

Then the trip back yesterday was another matter again. We had planned to stop in Lancaster on the way home at a big market--probably Amish vendors. Our friends were following us. I think hubby accidentally chose the wrong option when he set the GPS (there were several Central Markets), and before we knew it, we were almost into Philadelphia, which is northeast of Kennett Square, when we should have be traveling northwest, and mostly west. Arghhhh. And things got complicated because as we tried to get on route, we hit road construction and Friday afternoon "get out of town" traffic. So we had to scrap the stop in Lancaster and we were still on the road more than 2 hours longer than usual. I was so tired when we go back last night that I unpacked, petted the kitties, ate a bar-b-que sandwich and hit the bed.

Sheesh, your new granddaughter is beautiful. Congratulations to the parents, grandparents, and all the other loving relatives this wee one will have. So glad you shared the pics!

Lois, I am so sorry to hear about the triple loss of dear neighbors. There is comfort in knowing that people lived good long lives, but sadness, too, for those left behind.

Kelly, your life is so busy now, but it's good busy. However, nightly hockey sounds like a lot. Reminds me of when I was working and had myself over-committed in the evenings. It was fun to have things to do, but doing those things made other routine things feel stressful. Be sure to take a break for yourself if you need to.

Well, it's mid-afternoon and I've done little today other than a few household chores and getting to the farmers market. Hubby just left for his friend's farm (hunting at dusk) and so my plan is to get in some walking before dark. I did not make 10K steps on the two days we traveled, although I took advantage of the hotel fitness center and did get them in on Thursday. However, I left here weighing 129.6 and came back weighing 131.0. I attribute that to eating 7 meals out. Normally, we eat out or get takeout for one meal a week, or maybe two if it's a really busy week. So my intake has been off-normal big time.

One good thing that came out of the trip was seeing how my girlfriend who has never been very active is faring far worse as we age than I am. She's only from November to July older than me, but she moves like someone at least 5 years older than me, if not more. And seeing that motivates me to keep active. The only issue I see for me in the short-term is dealing with this ongoing belly issue. Some days, I am fine, but on others, I'm aware that something is still "off." I think I'm going to contact my doc and suggest that we just go ahead with the CT scan so I don't have worry about it.

Well, glad to be back and I hope by this Wednesday that I'm at least back to where I was when I headed out of here last Wednesday.

GaGasheesh

It's a beautiful autumn here this year, lots of fall colors that have lasted a long time, and I'm so happy that our new granddaughter is here and mom and her are doing well. Childbirth is no joke, even with all the medical advancement. We helped care for our step granddaughter while her half sister was coming into the world. I'm so proud of my hubby He cared for her by himself at our home one evening while I was with dad and mom at the hospital. He made tacos, played with her, they got into the hot tub and had a good time. She spent two nights here . . the second night I was here too. We got some good bonding time with her. We were with them last night at their house, and we'll be heading there again tonight, taking dinner. So far, Loa has been a good sleeper. Fingers crossed, lol.

Sarah, I'm so happy you took the time for that trip with friends. Hubby and I were talking about how long it's been since we did that . . a trip somewhere that doesn't involve family is sorely needed. I know it was a lot of driving for you, but they say a change is as good as a rest, and reconnecting with friends is so great! And Bella did just fine, too.

Lois, reading about your losses made me feel emotional and philosophical thinking about the circle of life. What a ride we're on. . I'm so sorry for your losses. But, as Kelly said, they had long and well lived lives.

Kelly, it sounds like you had a really great birthday celebration! Your hockey schedule reminds me of when my kids were in various activities. It felt like constant driving them to practices, games, etc. It took a lot of planning of schedules, carpools, etc. When my youngest daughter was getting her black belt (Tae Kwon Do), it was daily practice leading up to testing. Then our whole family took time off to fly to California for her grueling testing! She was never interested in piano, dance, gymnastics, etc. She liked punching and kicking, lol. Those days were extremely busy Mom days! Good thing my schedule was flexible. I know it's nearly impossible, but do try to fit in some time for yourself too.

Well, I'm working to get laundry / housework done and cooking portable dinner. Have a great rest of your weekends. I'm hoping I can get my workout with my trainer Monday. I need it.

Lastchancelj

Welcome little Loa!! She is so preciously adorable!!! Oh my goodness. And my co worker had her little Abagail on Friday!! Such cute little babies to fill the spaces on this earth. So much love and happiness they bring! Good job Grandpa!! I'm sure his bond with that little girl is strong now like Gorilla Glue!!

Sarah - so sorry about the challenges you encountered on your trip - but I'm so glad you went and had a good time with your friend. And didn't the Braves move on to the World Series? I thought I saw them mop the floor of the LA Dodgers Saturday night! WOW! I was in Cali and a room full of my family and friends were not very happy. I think it was the Braves that won.

I left on Friday and made it to Temecula in decent time, considering there were several sections of the main highway under construction and squeezed us into one lane. When I had left in the am, I was hoping to meet my brother and his family at Ontario Airport. However, as I reached a shortcut, I was still over an hour away and their flight was to have landed about 20 minutes prior, so fearing I had missed them, I took the back roads to town. They called me when I was too far east and south to change direction, so we opted to meet at the rental. I made record time, they got caught in the Friday afternoon traffic and met up with me a couple of hours later. We had a good evening walking a mall and just "visiting". Saturday was tough. My brother and I headed to the funeral, while his wife and daughter headed to their DIL's parent's house to prepare for their grandbaby's first bday party. The funeral service started at 1:30 and were well over an hour's drive to get there, so I did opt to carpool with my brother instead of going separately. We got to see family and friends. I got to hug all but one of the six kids…and I hadn’t seen most of them in over 20 years. Most are all older than me by 3-8 years. And the family of the other neighbor who’d passed away that I wasn’t told about was also there, as it was their uncle Manny, so I also got hug and chat with most of them as well. It was emotionally loving and draining at the same time. We didn’t get to attend the post services reception as it was my brother’s granddaughter’s first bday celebration that day as we still had to drive back. I can’t drive in the dark very well and the new fwy systems weren’t there when I lived there. Even with both of us, we still took a few wrong turns and missed exits so I was exceptionally glad to have not made the trip alone (Sarah - I know how you and hubby felt). I was going to (and should have) detoured west to see the family at my old neighborhood when heading home on Sunday. It would have added an additional hour or two drive time, but I wanted time to visit with the kids who are now in other states. I decided not to go as I didn't want to intrude on their family time, however, I got text messages and voicemails telling me I should have stopped...after all I am her Goddaughter and an extended family member. I made the drive home in record time by taking another back road that avoided the construction (which is where that extra 2 hours would have impacted). When I was close to home, it was 2:30 and I hadn't eaten lunch, so I stopped at Canes and picked up chicken tenders. When I turned on the last freeway home, dang my eyes felt heavy. I ate when I got home, and even without unloading the car, I went upstairs for a nap. I was and am EXHAUSTED.

I did get groceries for MIL and hubby ordered. Unfortunately, he didn't notice his lunch meat wasn't delivered so having another delivery today. I'm going to be Door Dashing my lunches this week. I don't have the brainpower to meal plan right now. Work is very busy and I'm taking a break to allow my brain a second to refocus.

I'll be checking back