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Moving right along!

The weather has been awful so there were cancelations, which meant openings for my appt to be moved up to today! yay!

I got a list of appts for me over the next month. Then a meeting with the case manager again, a few more appts and then surgery!

Today I was also able to go to a support group meeting. The bad weather meant only 2 other people besides myself. One of which had gastric bypass 7 months ago and has lost over 130 lbs!!! She also let me know of another support group that meets on Thursdays, she said the group is just amazing so next week I plan to hit that meeting up and meet some ladies who have gone through the same surgery by the same doctors. Never thought I would get so excited to meet new people haha!

The other lady that was there is working up to the VSG as well.

Well thats all for now :)

Here we go!

So much has been going on lately, life is always crazy in our house as it is.

I GOT THE CALL! This upcoming week I will officially begin my VSG journey...can I get a WOOOOHOOOOOOO?!

The first appointment is with the case manager, she will go over all my 9 pages of paperwork and put in the referals for all the doctors appointments I will need to complete prior to surgery.

I also have a few appts already set up, including a goal setting class and stress management class.

Um yeah, Im married to the military, Im fairly certain that I have learned to cope with stress ha. Even more so with ANOTHER deployment this coming year *sigh*

As for goals, well all I want is to be in a single digit size pants. Soooo many people get soo caught up in a certain weight. Most of my life my weight has been far more than most would expect so the weight doesnt matter to me, just the size and fit of my jeans.

If all goes well I expect to go under the knife in January, maybe February. Truth be told, I would do it tomorrow if I could ;)

Hubby is already joking that he wont recognize me upon his return from the next deployment ;) I *should* lose the bulk of the weight before he even goes so thats exciting. Hopefully I will be down enough shortly after to get the skin issues taken care of while hes deployed

In other news, the old people came to visit, they got in a few nights ago, my kids get sooo excited to see their grandparents, actually they are their great-grandparents, kids LOVE to see them. We are gearing up for a busy week of visiting and another big thing...

my son is going back to public school *sigh* Not what I wanted but my husband wants him to try it out again, something about my stress after he leaves and him needing more time around other boys. Most our friends are girls. Talk about upsetting, Im not pleased with his teacher but hoping she is not what she appeared to be today at our meeting. The boy is having mixed feelings but overall he is excited to meet the new kids.

Im not sure how the girls will cope with him being gone all day long, Im not sure how I will cope either, thankfully we know that if once again we are not pleased we will withdrawl him again and keep it that way. We shall see...

The husband and visitors

We had a great time a few weeks ago. My grandparents came to visit, well more like watch the kids while the hubby had surgery for accessory navicular. Surgery went well, he spent the first 2 weeks laid up and now is able to get around more. Hes still limited on what he can and should do but its been nice to have him around. Its amazing how much more I can accomplish when I can run errands kid free. Ive been able to go out with some friends too so thats been amazing. Who would have thought late night Walmart trips could be so much fun ;)

We also got to meet our way too stinkin adorable nephew Brady. His mommy brought him for us to spoil for a few days. It was sooooo nice to have them both around :) It was very sad to see them leave. The kids are still talking about Auntie 'roofy' and baby 'bwady'. Well enjoy the pictures, hopefully I can post more in the next few days :)

Its time to lose this weight!

For years I have struggled, and by struggled, I mean I really have struggled with my weight...for 13 or 14 years. Im over it. Totally beyond over it. I hate being fat. I hate trying to eat healthy, succeeding, losing the weight and gaining it back. Im tired of shopping for unfashionable, old lady looking, fat girl clothes. Im too young for that. Im tired of paying more for ugly clothes just because they are for fat girls. IM OVER IT!

So an unpopular decision was made. I have committed to having weight loss surgery. More specificially the gastric sleeve. I went back and forth on whether I would share this with the world, knowing how many nay-sayers there would be, but ultimately I try to live my life as an open book and really Im not ashamed that I am having the surgery. Unless a person has struggled with their weight in such a way they will not understand anyways. I am NOT taking the easy way out, surgery is never easy and more surgery will be in store in the future as I lose the weight. I already know I am on the list for a panneculectomy after having had 4 kids in just under 2 1/2 years, all by c-section, let me tell you, its not a pretty picture.


Every person in my family has struggled with their weight and I am putting a stop to my struggles, this surgery will force me to gain control over this issue.

Apparently Im the near ideal patient for this too. Im in my 20s, Ive had my children, though I am still safely get pregnant in the future if the Lord sees fit, I am on the very low side of the BMI scale for qualifying for the surgery. And for now my only medical issue that can be seen as weight related is sleep apnea. No hypertention, no diabetes, YET.

That is a big 'yet' too, as all those run in my family. In 2 of my 3 pregnancies I suffered from severe pre-eclampsia, my normally average blood pressure went through the roof, my liver and kidneys began to fail and I was literally dying. Having had pre-eclampsia increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes and all kinds of other medical issues later on in life. Being fat wont help guard me either.

So the ball is rolling. I have gone to my bariatric surgery consult. I have a number on the wait list and now I wait. In the next 2-3 months (hopefully) I should recieve a call to meet with the bariatic surgery nurse. Then a visit to the nutritionist, psychiatrist and my primary care doctor. After that I choose my surgeon and meet with him and should have the surgery within a month of my visit to him YAY!

It looks like the two weeks before surgery I will be on a liquid diet, then after surgery I will continue the liquid diet a few weeks, then a pureed diet, then soft foods and eventually back to eating normal foods. By normal I do mean normal foods. There are not restrictions on what I can eat, I will just be very limited on how much I can eat, my new stomach will not allow for it.

Maybe as I get close to surgery I will get brave enough to post pictures. For now I hide behind the camera but this time next year, if all goes as planned I will finally not be ashamed of how I look and jump right in to those pictures.

Crazy days...

I had intended to be more faithful in blogging...so has not happened ;)

That's life for you...

Many things going on around here right now. Most important husband started Bible College! How exciting is that?! A friend from church has also started the same program at the same time so the guys can work on it together. Thankfully its a 'work as you have time' type of program, his assignments are up to him when he has time. Perfect for someone in the military that can not always meet specific deadlines.

He is also working on a sermon to preach at the request of our Pastor, how exciting! Weekly I hear him preaching to the little ones in our class Sunday mornings but very excited to hear him preaching to adults soon, a little nerve wracking to him though...

Its amazing to me how much I do enjoy teaching with him on Sunday mornings to 4th-6th graders. As awful as it sounds, prior to this I was just on the nursery schedule, once a month, and I dreaded those days! However now we go to church and I look forward to our class, I guess the nursery is just not my 'calling' right now.

Right now its VBS week! This is my first real experience with VBS, I went once as a child but I don't remember anything but one time sitting in a class while children recited books of the Bible, other than that I have no recollection of it. The theme is "God's Pony Express". I had no idea how much went in to planning these things. Thankfully our Associate Pastor took the lead in it and just told me what to do and let me get creative where needed in creating the paper work that went along with it. Surprisingly I was able to figure out how to design the 'buckaroo bucks' and other things needed. I'm still new to using Publisher, truthfully I had no idea the program even existed prior to taking over the secretary position LOL! I sure can find my way around the Internet but other than that I know nothing of computers ;) Which was very apparent this last week as well while I redesigned the bulletin, it took me HOURS. Thank the Lord for a good husband that is ok with watching our kids plus whatever other kids were at our house those days while I went to work at the church. Much more still to learn and a few more programs to figure out this week but Lord willing, I can pick them up quickly.

Anyways, after all that VBS is going good! We have been running 20-25 kids each night and they all seem to love it. Hoping we can get a few more kids in these last two days. My kids ask every day if they get to go to VBS, I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they are so excited to go to church.

In other news we started our homeschool year, its slow-going right now due to crazy schedules but that's the best part of homeschool, we have all the time we need to accomplish what needs to be accomplished :) Our son has started 1st grade and our little ones preschool. They will also do a two day a week preschool at an indoor play space that I work at, a volunteer was needed which included free tuition, PERFECT! Our little man will be a 'junior assistant teacher', hes excited about that.

We are very excited for next week. My grandparents are coming in for a visit and to watch our kids while the husband has surgery. Most folks don't get excited over surgery but it *should* enable him to run again and better yet, walk without pain! He has an overgrown bone in his foot, how and when this happened, we have no idea, but finally after YEARS of physical therapy and several drs one finally saw what was so obviously his problem, its amazing it was not found sooner. He will be in a cast for 6 weeks...praying he handles it well. After that his other foot will be x-rayed and decided if he needs surgery on that foot as well, when you feel it you can feel the same 'extra bone' that is in the other foot, just not as bad.

We will round out the week with my SIL coming in for a visit, I can NOT wait! She just had her first child, an adorable, chubby little man :) He will be 3 months old the day she flies in! Soooo excited to finally get to meet him, we had planned to come down for or around his birth but as usual things came up and we were not able to get the time off, but at least hes coming here for a visit! I'm looking forward to spoiling him and loving him and pinching him and kissing him ♥

Well, 2 of the 3 are up now so I better run and feed them before they starve ;)

REALLY!?!

Gotta love when life throws you curve balls.

Two weeks after my accident skating, I'm still in pain *sigh* More x-rays were done yesterday, just waiting to find out, hopefully tomorrow, that I'm just being a big ol sissy and that there wasn't some kind of hidden fracture. Apparently its easier to see the healing than fractures themselves in certain areas. I'm certain that I'm just a big baby though.

I ended up being only able to attend one night of the ladies retreat. We had a great time goofing around and then trying not to get in trouble while listening to Debi Pryde while she gave her message, it was just a good time of fellowship and nothing too formal, it was all very relaxed. On the drive home I realized that until this eye issue I'm having is figured out I just cannot drive at night.

Hopefully this week I can get the eye issue figured out too, the eye dr is doing some kind of neurological test. FUN FUN!

Apparently my body thinks its far older than it actually is.