Onederland!! Yippe!!! :)

Hey Ya'll,

I guess it was the extra long walk last night that pushed me lower.  I am now officially below 200 lbs!!  And this was with my pj's on & after I had eaten!!  I am sooo happy!!  Please don't let me screw it up & go back above 200!  I have officially lost 30% of my weight loss goal!!!

As I said in last nights post, my DH & I took an extra long walk that turned out to be exactly 2 miles according to Goggle Maps.  During the walk, the only problem I had was my feet kept cramping up on me.  This is a problem I have had for some time, which makes it not very fun to walk.  Luckily, my DH has been walking as slow as I needed since I am still recuperating from the Surgery.  Normally, he walks much faster, or rather, he takes much longer strides (he is 6'4") making me have to walk much faster than I prefer which causes my feet & legs to cramp up!!

Anyways, I just assumed I was having the normal cramping up of the feet.  But later last night after I had been sitting for awhile at the computer.  When I got up, my left foot hurt like hell!  I am not sure what I did.  I don't remember twisting it in anyway.  But it hurts all across the bones on top of the foot & the pain radiates down into the ball of the foot as well.  So we are not going to walk tonight to see how it does tomorrow.

TMI ALERT, TMI ALERT!!

Last night I was in bed by 2:30 am (or so I thought).  Before I could go to sleep, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom (BM-Bowel movement).  Well, I don't know about you guys, but since Surgery, if I don't go when I need to, it usually builds up to the big C (constipation).  And I don't know about you, but I do not like the big C!!  So of course, I got up & went to the bathroom.  Once I was finished, I went back to bed & started my Bi Pap machine AGAIN, only to realize that I still wasn't finished!  So again, I got up & went in to do my duty!  Finally, the third time was the charm, & I was able to start the downward spiral to sleep.  Unfortunately, it was 3 am by then & I didn't go to sleep until after 4 am!!

I say unfortunately because I was meeting both of my Daughter's for a movie today.  So I set my alarm for 9:30 am.  We went to see "Old Dogs".  We all enjoyed it.  It was exactly what we expected it to be.  A cute fluff of a feel good movie.  It had plenty of laughs as well.  I definitely think it was worth the $5.50 matinee price.  But then again, I am a sucker for feel good & cutesy movies.

I didn't intend for this to happen, but Kat paid for our tickets & Christa paid for our snacks.  They both refused to let me pay!!  Eating wise, I did pretty well at the movies too.  I did have a Diet Coke as they wouldn't let us bring in our own food or drink.  And I had about 2 cups of Popcorn lightly buttered & 5 Red Vines.  I let them eat the rest of the large box of Popcorn & the rest of the Red Vines.  All in all, I did very well.  I usually would eat at least 1/2 of the Popcorn & could eat the whole box of Red Vines!

Well, I retook the pictures of my Mom's Rose Vase Painting & they turned out a bit better.  At least they are the best I can get them.  So I am going to post it.  Please remember that I am a beginner & I only began painting about 1-1.5 yrs ago & this is only my 7th Painting & I would like to think that I get a bit better with each one (with the exception of one).  I will post a photo of each for your critique.

This is my first painting, which my Mother & Father-In-law wanted.  I loosely based it on a photo from a Calendar.

My second painting that I gave to my Step-Daughter Kat.  This was loosely based on a painting I saw in Aaron Bros.

My third painting.  It was based on several photographs of Lake Tahoe taken by my Mother-In-Law & seamlessly pieced together by my Father-In-Law.  This photo took 2nd place in Nevada Magazine.

My fourth painting that I loosely based on Kat's painting, with some changes.  This painting was for one of my BFF's Kelly.  I placed cardboard on each side & wrapped it with a ton of bubble wrap.  Then I placed it in one of our large suitcases as we took it back with us to Cape Cod & New Hampshire where we gave it to her in person!!

My fifth painting.  Also based on the Lake Tahoe photo.  I like the mountains & rock in the foreground better, but I didn't do as well on the reflection in the lake, & I think the colors in the original painting matches the photograph better.  I am still trying to learn how to do reflections!!  This painting was for our friend Jerone, but he moved to Paris, France & we decided to give it to someone else (maybe).

Here is a photo showing the actual Framed Photograph of Lake Tahoe on top, then the two paintings based on it.  Christa's in the middle, & Jerone's on the bottom.  Here you can really see the difference in the colors between the two paintings.

My sixth painting that I painted for my other BFF Nadene.  She requested a Butterfly, so this was my first attempt at something other than water & sand!!  I wanted to test paint a Rose that I placed in the right hand corner for Mom's painting.

And of course the painting that I have been talking about for a while, my Mom's Rose Vase.  It is my seventh painting.  This one I used photographs of different Roses & pieced them all together.  I know the leaves aren't correct, but what the hell, I am not very good at leaves yet.

This shows some of the sketches I did of a few Roses & the actual sketch of the Rose Vase taped to the wall.

This is the photo of the next painting I will be starting shortly & the sketches I have made off of it.  This painting of the Plumeria Blossoms is for a good friend of ours that my DH works with.  She requested something to do with flowers.  I hope she likes it.  And I hope it turns out at least half as well as it could be.

And this is a painting in progress.  It will be for my Daughter Christa.  It is based on her photograph that she took of the California Coastline, North of Monterey.  The photo is of course on the left & my painting is on the right.  I still have many hours left on it.  But someday it will be finished!!

Well, I guess I will go for now, hope everyone had a great day.  Till next time.

Aloha My Friends

Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)

Happy Holidays