Fun & Friends

I love hanging out with my friends. Aside from the fact that it's always fun, I always walk away from our gatherings with new ideas.

While planning my upcoming roadtrip to Georgia, I came across a site that is tailor made for organized nuts like me! LOL www.independenttraveler.com. It's so great because you just select your type of trip, click on all of the things you'll need (broken down by category) then you can print or email your list! I made 2 copies (one for me & one for Cheryl) then highlighted what we'll each take care of, what we both need to do and left blank the things we can figure out for ourselves! It's taken a lot of worry off missing anything. :-)

Another site I came across was http://citybration.com/buff which gives a list of all the things going on during Old Home Week here in Buffalo. There's a few things I didn't even know about and am going to try and make a real effort to see.

I'm supposed to be taking a multivitamin since surgery. The problem is that they are all high in iron and well, lets just say that it's not such a good thing. So my friend April's pointed me to www.freedavitamin.com which I plan to check out soon. You can get low iron multivitamins! Yeah!! My belly will really thank her. LOL

Now that our friend Chris has welcomed baby Myra into the world, our attention is turned to April who's due in September. We're all starting to be pretty earth conscience so April was telling us about this eco-friendly diapers she heard about. You can check them out on www.gdiapers.com which I've currently got up on the next tab. Blogging & research.... so multitasking! lol

Today was some friend time with Cherrie & her kids. We have 2 major things in common - well, in our present day lives - baking & scrapbooking. We're TOTALLY hooked! She showed me a great site with lots of baking ideas that everyone will love. Check them out at www.bakearella.blogspot.com. She even shows you HOW to do things!!

Since we're both doing our best in the currently sucky economy, she's been great at finding deals. Scrapbooking can be really expensive but leave it to Cheryl to find bargains even there. Check out www.buffalostamps.com or www.dollarscrapbooking.net for some neat, cheap ideas! I left her house totally in the mood to scrapbook so I think that's what I'll do. Or maybe I'll organize things more............ hmmm........ what's a girl to do?? LOL

ENJOY!!

Celebrating Baby Nelson

This Saturday I got to spend time with some of my best friends and celebrate a future neice. Chris had her baby shower and there were about 30 of us on hand to help her celebrate the upcoming birth of her daughter...........who I've already named Babette, despite whatever her parents name her. LOL Mom Nancy & Sister Theresa made a wonderful salad, put out a lovely buffet and I was honored to be asked to make the dessert. Laughter rang out as stories flowed like strawberry punch and old friends were reunited. We had such a great time celebrating the baby now, I can hardly wait for her to get here!! LOL

Congrats Chris & Steve!!

Bariatric Update

Hey everyone! I know it's been ages but I wanted to let you all know of my latest accomplishment on my gastric bypass journey. Today I met with a doctor for my 8 month post op visit and got some great news. I'm officially down 103lbs!! Yeah!!

I'm going to the gym and have even hired a trainer. I'm hoping to be in a bathing suit this summer. Wow! Can't believe I'm even thinking that. LOL

Thank you all for the love and support you've given me over these last months. It's sure made all of this easier to get through. :-)

Tea Party 2009... now this looks interesting!

Voluminous Laws
February 20, 2009 by Agrippa
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be to-morrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?”
Publius wrote this in Federalist #62 on Wednesday, February 27, 1788. This time James Madison, Father of the Constitution and the fourth President of the United States was taking Publius. At this time in our history, it is vital that we lean on the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.
President Obama’s stimulus bill stands at over 1,000 pages. In fact, politicians admitted to that nobody read the entire bill before voting on it.
This is not what our Republic is about. We live in a representative democracy. We elect our officials with an unspoken pact that they will act in our best interests. With no chance to even read a bill, there is no time to act with any interests. The only honorable vote is “no.” Even if you are pro-stimulus package, the only honorable vote is “no” to uphold their end of the bargain.
We urge you to let your Senators and Representative know that they did not live up to their end of the unwritten contract. In closing, we leave you with more words of wisdom from President Madison:
“In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority”
Just because the Democrats are in the majority in the Executive and Legislative Branches, does not mean democracy goes out the window.
As always, go to our ABOUT section to learn what action you can take. Thanks to AmusedCynic for the inspired quote.
-Agrippa

New things, new adventures

So many things are still going on and cropping up in my world. Uncle Billy's still living with us, I've lost nearly 100 lbs, work is crazy busy. I've helped to start Dale Carnegie for our students, we're working on to get driver's ed, and I'm pushing really hard to have an Air Force JROTC program started for next year. Today we had the 914th in and made all the right connections. Now it's a matter of getting it started. Oh! And I'm going to the Lew-Port JROTC's first military ball next weekend. Folks this is hardly anything, I just can't type it all.

Exploring a new me

I've been blessed that I haven't had trouble with my gastric bypass. The new found freedom I have from losing almost 100lbs over these past 8mos is that I can explore me. I'm taking a stand in and for myself. One love I'm learning to embrace and explore is art and all things arty. I've been fortunate enough to meet Simon Griffis of the Essex St Studio and can't wait to go to his Sculpture Park.

Last Saturday, my most arty friend and I took a trip to the new Burchfield Penney Art Gallery. What a total treat. We got to see the art, bounce off ideas on what we liked / didn't like and why. Basically we got to catch up. It's so great to see her blossoming and embracing her future as a mom. She looks so cute preggers to!! LOL

So Sad

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster. I found out a friend was being falsely accused of something and sent home. Only to find out that afternoon that they were fired. I hope this friend fights back, I hope those around him who know the truth step forward. I hope I find a job with a company who has morals.

I cheated

I know I said I would only get on the scale at the doctor's office but everyone's been asking lately how much I'm down. I went shopping last night and got to buy pants in a size 18 and shirts in an XL (notice the lack of a number before that XL). So just now I cheated. I got on the scale and have discovered a milestone. I'm down 88 lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doing More

In an effort to clean up at home and get more organized, I cut out coupons from the phone book I knew we'd use and then recycled the book. Like I ever use it anyway. I came across a list of Things to Do and See. Well, now doesn't that just fit into my new year's resolution to do more?!?!? Yup!! So I'll be crossing off each thing on the list (some are seasonal so will have to wait) and will chronicle it here on my blog. I'll also be tracking my adventures in my family newsletter that last year was monthly but due to budge will become quarterly in 2009. Hopefully it'll be even better this way!
Off we go!!!!!

RIP Todd's Youth

Todd, beloved principal at mom's school turned 40 today. As we had off from school we'll be celebrating the demise of his youth tomorrow. Above is the celebration cake. Damn cute if I do say so myself. hehehe