So thought it was time again for me to update.
Just had July's blood work done - tomorrow I should be able to find out what kidney function - praying it has not gone below 9

Went to my TOPS meeting today - I had missed 2 weeks but found out that I did lose 0.8 since last time I weighed in. Have been somewhat discouraged with the progress. Told the ladies that it has been 7 years since joining TOPS and in time I have lost 50 pounds and in 8 years ( at my hightest weight 8 years ago) I have lost 76 pounds. Sounds good and am grateful for the loss but when you work it out it is between 7 - 10 pounds a year which means I am not even losing a pound a month. That is not good in my eyes. But as I said I am grateful for what I have accomplished but have so very much more to lose - and when I look in the mirrow all I see is the 100 pounds I still have to lose. Don't really understand why I just cant eat healthy as I know the damage it has caused my body. But the Lord is gracious and loves me through all of this. My strength has been renewed and I am praying that the rest of this year will be rewarding with seeing more progress - I would like to lose 33 pounds by the end of the year - and I know if I stay faithful it could happen. So I am back to keeping a journal with the goal to be down 1 - 2 pounds each week. I am setting a goal of 3 - 5 pounds by the end of August so please keep me in prayers that I can accomplish this.

Tomorrow we will be celebrating my husbands 80th birthday - he wants spaghetti, caesar salad and garlic bread - so tomorrow moring will start making my homemade sauce. For dinner there will be my husband, my sweet daughter Priscilla that lives with us, one of our other daughters along with her husband and their youngest child. Will be nice to be with them

Also in your prayers could you please pray that I would commit to walking on the treadmill daily in August even if only for 5 minutes as I need to get more movement in

Take care everyone - love reading about how all of you are doing.

By the way we still have lots of wildfires all around us but we have had a few cooler days so the smoke is not quite as bad.

Good to hear from you, Marilyn, and to know how to pray for you. Will add your prayer points to my list. Happy birthday to your dear husband. 80 is such a milestone. Glad to hear the smoke and fires are dying down too.

Linda, I'm with you on later mornings. All my life I've been a night owl so working for 44 years in a few 9 to 5 jobs was a strain! It's good to be able to follow my own circadian rhythms now.

It's cold enough to see your breath and get frosts at night here, but beautifully sunny in the day. Guess you are all in the heat.

We parked up at Kenilworth Showgrounds, about 3 hours from home. Colin got sick so we have turned back. He spoke to his Dr and he has antibiotics, painkillers and an order for X-rays of his spine now. We were able to get the drugs but have to go home for the X-rays. He booked us in here for 5 nights with an option to extend our stay if need be. Last night he coughed a lot and his back is quite painful. We'll see what happens.

Spoke to our daughter yesterday to explain and she is understanding. Everyone is disappointed we had to cancel our plans but the dogs who didn't know where we were going. They have their dog fence up so have some freedom so they are happy. We'll miss seeing our two granddaughters (11 and 9) as well as our son in law and daughter.

Here's a picture of the scenery around here. It's a pretty place. We have stayed here before. The town has a cheese factory, a nice bakery, a quirky South American clothing and gift store, all the usual small town amenities, and it's quite safe here on a grassy spot, so if you have to change your plans this isn't a bad place to be instead.

Happy August 1 for all.
Prayers for all too. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Judith
We will be away this weeknd, I will try to post when I can. We are going to Branson,MO 4 hours away to visit our son and family there. Our oldest & family will also be going. Separately. Thaty is Mariposa's parents.
Also how do you track the fiber? I can[t find it but I know with f & v I am geting them.
Have a good night
Praying for you.

I thought Judith is asking us to track our fiber for the month of August. Plus fruit & veggies & water. Maybe I read it wrong.
Good night all. I maybe able to go to the craft ladies at church tomorrow. As next week I’ll watch a grandson.
Sleep well all.

Susan, thank you for the list of names.

We have our first hurricane warnings of the season. We are in a state of emergency which just means start preparing for the possibility of a hurricane around Sunday. Praying it’s not too bad as we have areas that haven’t fully recovered from the one last year.

I enjoy reading all your posts even though I’m usually playing catch up!
I usually post all my foods on the Weight Watchers app so I will check on the fiber there.
Praying for each one of you and your health concerns🙏🙏🙏

Oh, you may be right, Barb. I am pretty slack at following the challenges. I have so many food intolerances/inability to process certain things that I can't do many of the challenges. And I haven't worked out how to lose weight with my food issues yet. It's been throwing me off for the past two years, trying to work out with a Dietician what I can safely eat and what I can't, so I just do my thing and track what happens to me if I eat certain foods. So fibre isn't even on my radar right now. Hope you find out what you need to know.

Susan hope you can figure it all out prayers 🙏.
Safety with the hurricane. Where do you live?
Prayers you can get your diet to work for you.

Linda so glad your hemoglobin is better. Hope all work out.

In Branson safely. Going to the butterfly house tomorrow since Mariposa’s name is butterfly in Spanish. So that will be fun.
I don’t need to record fiber so I’m ok.

Thank you. Continued prayers for Judith. Health & her place with redo. O pray you don’t need to replace lots either.
Having lived in Philadelphia suburb I’ve been thru hurricanes. Not bad in Philly but NJ wow. Now living in Kansas tornado alley. We’ve seen them but praise God not experienced any.

Goodnight all.

Just thought I would drop a line. We all met at butterfly palace. It was neat. We all had butterflies land in our food for them. Even Mariposa, whose name means. Utterly had some on her.

We are all together at more. Then we went to an Amish store to get Lebanon bologna. I grew up with that meat in PA.

Then back to 🦋 motel so she could sleep. T
Some played games. We played pickles to penguins. A game I gave the kids from
Collective goods

I have no food allergies
Enjoy the holiday Judith
Safety Susan with the tropical storm maybe hurricane
Also prayers for your husband.
Have a great day all.

Barb, it sounds l8ke you all are having a wonderful time! A butterfly house is so nice to visit. The Amish community would be good to see too. Glad you are enjoying yourselves. Thank you for your prayers but the weather here in Queensland, Australia is too cool for a tropical storm right now. I think it is Sandi who is in danger of a storm? It's Winter here. We usually get our worst storms in summer which is from November to March.

Judith, my list of foods is so long! I might have to send them to you by messenger. In a nutshell, I need low FODMAPS food and no gluten or Lactose. I can't have mushrooms either. That's the easiest way to put it rather than listing all the individual foods. I do have a Dietician working with me to puzzle things out. Each person with IBS needs slightly different things that can only be established with food trials. I'm a bit complicated. L! It's lovely of you to want to help, but don't feel like you need to, hon.

Karen, I was glad to hear your anaemia is correcting itself but a bit concerned about the abnormal red blood cells. It will be interesting to know what the Dr thinks. Your own thoughts about it will be important, I am sure. I hope it's easy to figure out.

I have Colin's head cold today and we have to pack up the van so we can drive home tomorrow. I really just want to sleep. Lol!

Everyone is gone from our small group service this morning and now we have two more meetings to go. We had a meal with the first group - taco's and people brought different things to eat. For desert they had key lime pie but I did not have any due to the high sugar. Glenn and I had some sugar free ice cream in a cone so I could enjoy dessert with everyone else.

Yesterday we got a peck of fresh peaches from an orchard near our house. Our area is perfect for grapes, peaches, apricots and cherries to grow. The peaches were very ripe and unfortunately when they were putting them from the basket into the box, some of them were bruised. We will need to eat them quickly. We may be going back to Denver this weekend so if we have any left over, we will take them to the family. I may freeze some but they are not as sweet when thawed in the winter.

Susan - I am sorry that Colin shared his head cold with you. I hope you are feeling better. Get some good rest and keep hydrated! Safe travels back home too.

Sandi - I am sorry that you are still waiting in anticipation for the hurricane to come ashore. I find it is easier to deal with a problem than to have to wait for it to happen. Prayers that you will not have too much damage.

Judith - I am with you in having to deal with the heat. Last night we had a small thunderstorm that did take the temperature down some. It is 95F here today but at least it is not 103F like it was yesterday.

Barb - safe travels back to your home from Branson! I am sure you have made a lot of memories while you were there.

Good Monday morning. We're packing up to go home so forgive me that this is brief. We have a lot of little things to do. Things are much the same as yesterday.

Hopefully tomorrow I can visit longer.

Barb - I hope you get rested up from all your travel and unpacking. When we travel, I think sometimes the preparation and the clean up are the hardest part. I get rested on the vacation then get tired again when I get home.

Susan - I am praying for safe travels back to your house. I hope you are feeling better with your head cold. Is Colin's pain any better?

My husband and I were sitting out on the swing on the patio last night and enjoyed hearing the rain hit the top of the swing but it never made it to the ground. The patio cement never got wet because the rain evaporated before it got that close to the ground. It did make our humidity go up but as for watering the trees and grass, it was as if it did not rain. the humidity helps my dry skin feel better so I am enjoying that part.

Judith - have you noticed any mold growing in the moisture that may be left in your apartment? I hope that the fans took the majority of it out but there might be some left although with your hot weather, it may have evaporated some too.

Sandi - keep us updated on your weather. We are praying for you.