Isn't she adorable?

This is Gail of Gails Journey and me today at Cracker Barrel in St. Augustine. She was with her mama, who is just an older, adorable version of her daughter, and I was with Steve the photographer, AKA, my hubs! Steve and Gail made a date to go sky-diving in March along with her sister-in-law and aunt so he was a happy boy when we left. He actually said to me "this is so nice, meeting new people that like to sky-dive!" Yes, its all about my Steve, is it not? This will be Gails second time sky-diving...she went the first time to celebrate 100 lbs lost! She has since lost another 20 lbs! I am so proud of her!

This was the second time that I've had the pleasure of having lunch with Gail (Steve's first, nananana!_ Gail will be with her SIL in Chicago and we cant wait to get together again. Her mother even invited us to Gails dads Birthday BBQ the week before BOOBs so we just might be visiting with her and her whole clan again real soon!

That's it for now as I have to go cook dinner but I will be back later checking in on everyone!

***EDITED***I am exercising like mad and.....

***EDITED***Seriously stuck at dinner! Steak and spinach. Honestly, I think its the spinach, is that possible? I guess my fill really did do something!

Nothing on the scale! Well, I shouldn't really say nothing, its more like "nothing new". Let me 'splain. After my unfill, I proceeded to gain 7 lbs in two weeks! Nice job, Jax! Anyway, I have now lost those rotten 7 lbs and now I am stuck again! My fill from last week doesn't seem like enough but I am going to wait it out. The doc thought it would do me until the middle of OCt! Hah! I'm hoping it gets me to the middle of next week! Oh, Bother!

Other than that, I am good. Really, what do I have to complain about? I have two gorgeous daughters, my little Brutus and a man who loves me crazy. I am just going to be thankful right now for what I have and not worry about what I don't have (skinniness!).

I also want to be thankful and Thank all the BOOB's coordinators. I cannot believe how this weekend in Sept. has evolved into what sounds like what will be a GREAT weekend! I promise to pay it forward if we ever do this in Orlando or elsewhere in FL! You ladies are all great and so damn creative! I am also thankful, that I am travelling and rooming with Steph! Did y'all get your Race shirts? Mine came on Saturday and its HUGE! I ordered a LG but I think its a mens large because it is big!

Less than 5 weeks away, can't wait!

Friend visits, Family visits and Fills, oh my!

I have had a couple of crazy busy days! Yesterday morning Steve and I set out for a 220 mile trip across the state to visit my step-mom and my sister who flew in for an over-night visit. First, we had to visit with friends who we met on our trip to Italy last year. They live in the same town as my dad did and we always said we'd get together and while they have been to our house, this was our first time at theirs!

We had a great visit! They both could not stop complimenting me on my weightloss! I was at one of my highest weights in Italy (220 when we left and 215 when we came home. I lost weight in Italy, go figure!) Anyway, I had about 3 oz of NY strip steak and than a cookie for dessert. Delish!

Here is a picture of Steve, myself, Mike and Judy:



We than went over to my step-moms and went out to an Italian restaurant with my sister. We had a great visit and than this morning we went to Cracker Barrell and than Steve and I left for my 2 pm doctor visit which is almost exactly across the state from where we were but still 100 + miles from my house! Anyway, I gained 4 lbs since I was last at his office 2 weeks ago today! Yay me! He wasn't concerned in the least. He told me he fully expected me to gain after going through my starvation week! He had taken out 1 cc than and than today he put back in .5 cc's. I am now at the same restriction level, 2.4 cc's in my 4 cc band that I was at when I had my infamous way too tight 3rd fill!

I admitted to him that I questioned myself whether I needed that 3rd fill but figured since I was there, I would get one! Again, he was a doll and said that the rule of thumb is "if you don't know if you really need a fill, chances are you don't" Lesson learned the hard way! Anyway, I am now on liquids for 24 hours than mushies for another 24. I am hoping to get my weight loss moving again. He told me to call him if I have any problems but not to come back for 6 -8 weeks as he thinks that will be when I am ready for a little more. His thought is that I will have lost 10 -15 lbs in that time and will be ready.

I am now 5 months into this journey and all in all, I am happy with my progress and my hope is that I continue to lose, even if its slow. If I keep doing what I am doing, I can make my goal of 60lbs down by my one year bandiversary in March 2011. And you know what? Even if I don't, I will be ok with that too because I am on my way to thinville and I will get there!

Dinner in Orlando with the Boobs gang!

I was so excited to find out that Grace and her sister Farrah were coming to Orlando to visit Universal Studios for the new World of Harry Potter! My husband and I drove to Chili's in Orlando to have dinner with Stephanie, Grace, Farrah, Maria and Amy and had a wonderful time.

My husband is such a good guy and when I told him I was going to go he offered to come so I didn't have to drive by myself. It was about 1 1/2 hr drive to Orlando from my house. He really enjoyed himself though. He loves meeting a lot of the people from the blogs as I read them to him quite often so he gets to put names and faces together.

These are a few pics from our evening together:

Sitting: from the left side is Steph and Amy. Standing: from the left side is Grace, me and Maria





I was so happy that we were all able to get together while Grace and her sis were in town. It was just a taste of what Chicago will be like. I cannot wait to see everyone again and try to pack so much into just a few days. All of the girls on the Boobs committee have been doing a fantastic job of putting together a great weekend. I am so lucky to be travelling with and rooming with Steph who is one of the planners!

I just read Camilles post about her gym plans this week and I am planning on leaving in a few minutes myself for a Cardio Core class. I than have a personal training session at 10 but than thats it for me at the gym until Thursday. We are heading over to the west coast of Florida to visit with Peggy, my dads wife and my sister who is flying down from NY for 2 days. We will be home early evening on Wednesday so who knows, I may be able to go Wed. night but we'll see!

Have a great week all!

Sunshine State? uh, no its been raining all day!

That's ok though. I am actually quite fine with it. I started the day at the gym and than came home, showered and went out for a manicure appt. This afternoon I went shopping with the hubs, well, I shopped, he stayed outside in the parking lot fiddling with the automatic car seat adjuster or something to that effect! It worked out just fine...I bought a new pair of shoes and I got a pair of jeans. I hate buying clothes right now but sometimes, I just give in because I want a decent pair that fit for now. With the sale and 20% off coupon, they came out to $27 so really, very inexpensive.

So, as most of you know, my oldest daughter Mallory is getting married next March. (actually, her wedding day would have also have been my sister and brother-in-laws 22nd wedding anniversary) Anyway, I have started to look at gowns and have found two that are very possible maybes. I am debating on whether I should bite the bullet and get one in a smaller size just so that I don't have a problem if I wait and then can't get it.

Here are the two dresses that I am leaning towards, both from Dillards and both in Royal Blue which is my favorite color too:

This one is my favorite!



Here is the runner-up!



I have a very tiny waist in proportion to my hips and I think the top one would fit better than the 2nd which is fitted right at the waist. What do you guys think I should do? I am currently in a size 14 and still want to lose another 35 lbs. I am thinking that at most, I may possibly be a 10 by next March so if I order a 12, I could always have it taken in. Should I do it or should I wait a while longer?

Happy Friday and Spin Class for all!

As my Italian Nonna used to say: "Oy Vey" (ok, she had a lot of Jewish friends!) I finally got up the nerve to do a spin class last night and man oh man, is my ass killing me this morning! I did my regular 1/2 hr training with my trainer and we were talking about it as she was teaching the spin class immediately following our time. She talked me into it! So I went and for 45 minutes I can honestly say I never stopped pedeling and I even stood up about 1/2 the times that she said to! All in all, it was the most intense 45 minutes of Cardio I have ever done and it really felt good. Than..not so much now! I will be heading to Sports Authority this weekend to invest in a very padded pair of bike shorts!

On the band front, since my unfill, my dear friend "the scale" has gone up 6 lbs but as of this morning, its only up 4 lbs since the unfill. My head says that the 6 lbs I lost during the week of not even being able to drink liquids wasn't real. I was so dehydrated so that when I started to eat/drink again, my body became a sponge and is holding onto everything that goes down! My heart says...phooey! Very discouraging but I go on.

I have been exercising like a demon this week and I am so sore so maybe, just maybe, by Sunday, my day that I track my weight, I will be rewarded. I am going to the Doc on Wed to go over the results of my Upper GI that I took on Tues. He called and said everything sounds like its fine based on the Radiologists report but he still wants to see the CD that they gave me. I looked at it and I have to tell you, my upper pouch looks big but I really don't know what I am looking out and how magnified the picture is so I will have to wait for the Doctor to look and tell me his opinion. I keep fearing that with all the PB'ing I was doing I dilated the pouch. We'll see. He didn't think that was the case so I am praying he knows what he's talking about.

All I know is, when he took out the 1 cc of fluid, I was able to eat again and it was heaven. The problem now is, the level of restriction I have is 0. None. The amount of fluid in my band is exactly what I had after my first fill and that was the same, no restriction at all. I think I need to be brought up the the level of my second fill to get results again.

I am off to work now and will pop back in tonight after my step class to check out Draz's BYOC. Have a great day my lovely ladies (and Andrew too!).

My sister....

found out today that she received a grade on a paper that will allow her to receive her Masters degree! She went back to school 6 years ago to get her teaching degree and has been teaching H.S. Italian for the past 3 years. I am so proud of her!

She called me up to tell me and she was crying. My brother-in-law would have been so proud of her and because someone was texting when they should have been paying attention while they were driving, he isn't here to celebrate this huge accomplishment with her. Will I ever be able to move past the anger that I feel whenever I think about my Dad and BIL?

My sister has come so far these past three months but everywhere she turns she is reminded that her husband will never be coming home again. I am so blessed that my husband came home from that trip and I keep asking myself "why am I the lucky one?" I know I have to just accept what is and move on but it is so damn hard! So many questions and "what ifs" keep playing in my head. Sometimes I feel like it will never end. You want to hear something "funny"? A week before the accident, I actually signed Oprah's "no phone zone" contract. Very out of character for me.

Life really does go on....my sister, my husband and myself are living proof of that!

2.5 lbs up and does anyone have a Kindle?

At least I knew this would happen when I started to eat and drink again. No worries....I have increased my working out to 5 60 hour sessions a week so this should get the scale moving down again. Thank you Draz for the latest exercise challenge! I need this.

On Tuesday I am going for my upper GI series test. What can I expect? I have no idea how they do the test although I do know that I have to drink barium. They told me it takes about an hour. Am I nekkid during the test? Am I laying down? Any help or advice is appreciated!

Providing that all is well with my band, I think I will be getting a little of the unfill put back in on 8/25 when I go back to the doctor. I understand why we took so much out but I would think that in 3 weeks, all the swelling will have gone down to the point where he can put in a little of the fill, yes? I am hopeful because right now, I can eat EVERYTHING. I did feel a little restriction at dinner last night and it was such a good feeling! Thankfully, I am measuring and keeping my calories under 1200.

I cannot believe that Chicago is in about 5 weeks! I remember when it was first mentioned thinking that it would never get here! Well, here we all come. I cannot wait to go shopping for something to wear to the dinner on Saturday. I figure I will be about 38- 40 lbs down by then and will need a new dress! I also need to go shopping for jeans. Nothing fits! I am not complaining though!

Any advice on Kindles? I just ordered one from Amazon. I've been kicking it around in my head for a while. We just booked 4 nights in Vegas where Steve will attend the SEMA Car show and 7 nights at Sandals Exhuma resort in the Bahamas for November and I will be needing a lot of reading material as we plan on doing NOTHING in the Bahama's except laying on the beach or at the pool reading. After these past few months, we are just going to relax!

So far, so good!

I went to my doctor yesterday and he does not think that I have any damage to my band considering the tightness I was experiencing. However, he did schedule me for an upper GI to put my mind at rest! He also took out 1 cc which brings me to 1.8 cc's in my 4 cc band. I am very happy to say that I was able to eat solid food yesterday for the first time in almost 2 weeks! The bad part is that I had virtually no restriction but I don't care, I so needed to eat again and to give all the swelling a rest. He wants me to wait at least 2 weeks before he puts back any of the fill and when he does, he is going to do it in tiny increments!

I'll be back later when I am more awake.

Ticker Update!

As of this morning, I have lost a total of 32.6 lbs.! I have another 30.2 lbs. to go so this brings me more than half way to goal! Wow! I am also officially Overweight...no longer obese. I never thought I'd be so happy to be overweight, but I am now.

I was 180.2 this morning and my first mini-goal, if you will, is 178. Why 178 you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Don't ask me why I remember this but, the morning after my daughter Mallory's Sweet 16 party that is what I weighed. I was slowly losing weight due to the fact that I was in the early stages of filing for divorce (Nov. 2002) and I just know that I had not seen that number in a long time. If my memory serves me correctly, I didn't see it ever again either as before long, I steadily gained until I hit an all-time high of 234! I lost about 30 lbs. on WW but I was never able to get out of the 200's until now. What a great feeling!

As most of you know, I have been having major problems with tightness/PB'ing for a few weeks now. Due to my doctor being out of the country and my not wanting to see his standby guy coupled with the fact that the tightness was coming and going for the first 2 weeks, I chose to stick it out. Well, of course when I went to NY for a week all hell broke loose and it is at the point where I can only drink liquids and very slowly at that! No wonder I've lost weight this past week, right?

My appt. is tomorrow morning and I am praying that a slight unfill or maybe more than slight is all that is needed. Of course I am thinking worst case scenario's but that is me...you know the type...I get a headache and it has to be a brain tumor?

I will let you all know the outcome of my appt. tomorrow.

On the road again...

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift. that's why its called the present." -taken from a friends post.

Brutus has begun his nap marathon and we are not even off Long Island yet . I miss everyone already! But I will see my sister in 2 weeks and will be back on LI in Oct. for a wedding so I shouldn't be too upset right?

My official weight loss from my week of band tightness hell is 5 lbs. Wednesday cannot get here fast enough. I am praying that my band is fine and all I need is a bit of fill taken out. Time will tell. All I know is I can barely eat anything solid.

Have a great Sunday!

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Still in New York....

with my family. We have decided to leave early afternoon on Sunday and make the trip back to FL in two days instead of one like we did coming here! Thank you Stephen! The last 4 hours of last weeks trip nearly did our marriage in! 18 hours in the car is way too long!

I was on the phone with my doctors office yesterday and I have made an appt. for an unfill next Wednesday! I hope I can make it. I am really scared that something is wrong with my band as it makes no sense to me why after all this time, I am so much tighter! I had a fill on 7/1 and .15 cc's taken out on 7/8. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that I was tighter. My doc was in China and I kept putting off going to see his back-up. One day I was fine, the next day I was pb'ing. Then my doc came home but I was here in NY when all hell broke out! I am so tight in the a.m. I cannot even drink coffee or water until at least 10 a.m. Crazy. By lunch time, I can usually manage to get a protein drink down and dinner is soup. My current fave is Egg Drop soup as I have had this for the past 4 nights! I am mixing it up tonight with a Strachettella (I can only imagine how wrong the spelling is for this) which is an Italian Egg Drop with spinach. We'll see.

I was so upset 2 nights ago that I actually started to cry. I told Steve I was so hungry and frustrated and I just know something is wrong. When I spoke to my docs assistant, I flat out asked her if, God forbid, I have a slipped band or band dilation, would it make it worse if I waited 6 days to see him. She checked with him and he said no. I was that upset, and I would have gone to the ER if he said to. I was a little relieve at least to hear that. If there is anything seriously wrong, I would want my doc to take care of me. Hopefully, I am just being overly dramatic and all I am is too tight! I wish I could even get excited over what I am seeing on the scale...183.0 today and I was 186.8 on this past Sunday for the Challenge.

Anyway, I only have a few more days left of this and then one way or the other I will feel relief. Please pray for my Husband, he has been a saint during this period and we have another 18 hours a head of us in the car on Sun and Mon!

Lovin' New York but can't eat!

I don't know if it was the stress of the 19 hour car ride on Friday into Saturday, but man am I tight! Nothing goes down without a struggle. I am so frustrated that I even called my doc today. I have had issues with reflux and I am getting nervous that I could do serious damage with all the PB'ing going on. He told me to do liquids for 2 days to let the swelling subside and than to move onto mushies. Also, he wants me taking 2 Prilosec tabs a day for 2 weeks. He wants to see me as soon as I get back next week if I am still having a problem.

It is great being with my family and seeing some old friends. The only problem is, my mom and step-dad have literally kidnapped Brutus! We were over their house Saturday and they asked if he could sleep there and they'd bring him back to my sisters house on Sunday. No problem except we didn't bring any food for him. Mom said, not to worry, I will make him scrambled eggs in the morning! Ok, fine. Morning comes and she calls to tell me she went to Walmart, bought food, snacks and a BED! There is no need to bring him to my sisters house...they'll just keep him!

On the one hand, I really miss the little guy but on the other, this is so good for my mom and step-dad. They really love him and I know that they miss him a lot since we moved to FL. He would always be with them whenever we went away so I know they are very attached to him. My sister and I always talk about getting them a small dog from the shelter but we are afraid to just show up with one. We are going to talk to them about it more this week as we both think it would be great for them.

Tomorrow I am going to Macy's with my girls to order my younger daughter her maid-of-honor dress for her sisters wedding in March. It will be nice to have some mommy/daughter time. Steve will have a scheduled visitation session with Brutus at my moms and we'll all meet for lunch later in the day. Can't wait to see what liquid lunch I will be having tomorrow. Actually, tonight we went to a restaurant and I had the lobster bisque and it was truly delish...the fact that it didn't come up was a major plus!

TaTa for now my lovelies...