I'm So Horrified And Ashamed!!

No matter how hard I try, I can't get the Orange or Yellow colors to come out right in the photo!  But you get the idea right?  This is the Afghan that I gave my Mom last weekend.  This photo shows half of the Afghan so that you can see the pattern.  Of course she loved it, since it came from me!  And she did get the idea that I took from the colors of the Bird Of Paradise Flower.  Which was my Grandmother's favorite Flower.

Hey Ya'll,

Well, it has been 3 weeks since my last post, and almost that long since I have been able to read others posts as well.  And as bad as that is, it isn't what I am Horrified and Ashamed about!!  What I am Horrified and Ashamed of, is that I have been avoiding the scale now for quite some time (I know, slap my hand!!)....I knew that I had gained weight.  In fact, I knew by the way my pants fit that I wore over this past weekend, that I had gained at least 15 lbs.

Well, I stepped on the scale this morning, and....to my utter horror (just in time for Halloween!), I weighed 189.0!  Which means that I have gained 19.4 lbs in 6 months (since April 30th)!!!  So if you look at my weight stats above, I have changed my weight tape to my now current weight, to keep myself accountable!  This is one of the hardest things that I have had to do since my Weight Loss Surgery....to admit to EVERYONE that I have gained back so much weight, and post it in my Ticker Tape as well....But I knew that I needed to do this, to try to keep myself accountable to both you and myself.  :( 

I am going to try my best to stop my GRAZING, which I have been doing all day long for months now!!  I no longer have any sweets in the home now, as I know that if they are here, I can't stop myself from eating them, until they are completely gone!  I am not one of the lucky ones, that has the will power to Eat Just One....I have to Eat Them All!!  So I am going to do my best to not buy anything for the home, that I can graze on.  Keep your fingers crossed that this time I can get myself back on track and stay on track!!

Especially since we are leaving in 1 month and 6 days (no, of course I am not counting!!  LOL) for Hawaii!!  I had high hopes after losing down to within 30 lbs of my goal 6 months ago, that I would be down to my goal by then.  But now all I can hope for, is to lose down to about 175-180 lbs.  If I can get below 175 I will be thrilled.  I will keep my blog updated as the weight comes off (notice that I said that it will come off???).  I am doing my best to be positive right now.  I will try to update my weight change at least once a week, assuming that it changes each week.

So, in 5 weeks and 1 day, we will be driving to California, which is where we will be catching our flight to Hawaii the next day.  I can't wait!  I have just one purchase that I still need to make for the trip.  Walt promised me that he would buy me a new pair of Maui Jim Sunglasses for the trip (I love Maui Jim Sunglasses).  We decided that my Distance vision wasn't bad enough for me to have to wear RX Sunglasses now (Reading is another story!!  LOL  I DO need glasses to read), so a pair of good Sunglasses (non RX) is much less expensive than a pair of RX Sunglasses, of much lesser quality.  And since I can still pass the DMV Vision test, then I am ok!

Walt went to a Vascular Surgeon last week, about some ugly looking Varicose Veins in his legs.  And luckily the Surgeon said that although they look horrible, they aren't as bad as they look, however, the ones in one of the legs could be causing a lot of the problems that he has been having, so he is going to contact our Insurance Co and find out if they will cover Surgery to remove the bad Veins.  I will keep you posted....

Our oldest Daughter Christa finally made it up to visit with the Grand kids a couple of weeks ago.  They got a late start though, and didn't have enough time to do everything that we were hoping to get accomplished!!  So hopefully she will be able to make it up one more trip before the full Winter hits the Sierra's.  I hope so, since we forgot to give her some "stuff"!!  Plus the kids didn't get to explore Scheel's, one of the biggest two story Sporting Goods store anywhere!  We got to Scheel's just in time for the kids to take the last Ferris Wheel Ride of the night!!  But no time to shop....Not to mention that Christa didn't get to shop at the Outlet Stores that are attached in this group of stores. :(

Last Thursday, Walt and I rode the Bike down to Sacramento.  On Thursday, we had appointments to get our hair cut, then after the cuts, we met my parents for Dinner at one of our favorites Mexican Restaurants in that area.  By the time we made it to our Daughter Kat's house, it was around 6:30 pm.  Then we had to leave by 7 am the next morning, in order to ride to our friend Don's house (2 hours away), in order to get our new back tire put on the Bike.  So by the time we made it back to Kat's on Friday, it was 7 pm.  I stayed at Kat's on Saturday while Walt took the bike to get the Trike Wheels back on.

So Kat and I went to Lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, then shopping at the Mall.  The Cheesecake Factory has the best BLT Salad!!  Of course I substituted the Cheese and Dressing, but it was so good that I will probably order it every time that I go there from now on!!  In fact, I was checking out to see if they have a Cheesecake Factory near where we will be staying over night, the night before we leave out for Hawaii.  One of our friends lives near the Airport, and we will be eating Dinner with her that night, so we need to figure out where we will be eating while there (insert picture of me drooling about now).

So Sunday, we rode back up to Reno.  Walt had threatened that I was going to do all the riding back up, since we would have the Trike Wheels on.  But he ended up riding it back.  Probably a good thing, since I have never ridden the Bike except on fairly flat ground.  Definitely not over the Sierra's in traffic!  The thought of having to worry about Walt on the rear commenting on how I was riding (down shift, up shift...), that I was glad to not have to deal with it and just enjoy the ride.

I did ride the Bike on Monday though, to get some shopping done.  And this time I actually got on the Freeway (in not the best conditions).  This is amazing since they are doing major roadwork on the Freeway around here and the "Spaghetti Bowl" as they call the Interchange here, is horrific in the best of circumstances.  Everyone avoids it at all costs!!  LOL  But I braved it in order to go to Cabella's (another huge Sportsman's Store) to save some time, in order to get another T-Shirt for my Grandson Walker.  Of course, they didn't have his size in stock once I was there, even though they told Christa over the phone that they did!!!

So Christa called back that night and complained.  They promised her that they would ship one out directly to her postage free, since Reno is the closest store to her, and she lives in the Sacramento area, and they also promised they would enclose a pre-paid return label to return the damaged T-Shirt!!  So we will see if they follow through as promised.  If so, then we will be very happy with them, if not, then Corporate will be getting a nasty notification about their Customer Service....

The weather here is quickly turning very cold!  It is already getting down close to the 20's overnight.  Now remember that this is the Desert!  I was not expecting it to get this cold when we moved here.  But last Winter was a very cold one, with lot's of snow!  More so than usual they said.  Lucky us, our first Winter and it was one of the coldest!  But at least this Summer, turned out to be a mild one!  I don't even think that we had a day where the temperature went over 98 degrees!!  At least not while we were here.  And I will take the cold over the heat any day!! LOL

So I have finished two new Afghan's.  One I have already posted photos of, and my Mom's which I have a photo above.  I have one more to make for Christmas, and that is for Walt's Mom.  Luckily she lives near us, so it isn't any real rush to get it done.  However, I will still attempt to get it done by Thanksgiving if possible, since we will be spending Thanksgiving Day with her, and we will not be here for Christmas (neither will she, she will be on vacation!!).

I am also making a Tote Bag for one of my BFF's Kelly, who lives in New Hampshire for her Birthday.  Unfortunately, the colors that she wanted it to be made in, makes it not as thick and stable as I would like.  The colors are in softer yarn, which makes the Tote kind of flimsy, meaning that it won't stand up on its own as well as others that I have made.  But at least it is in the colors that she wanted....I am also going to make her one of my Bear's.  I will probably make her the Chef Bear.  And I would also like to make her a new hat for Winter since I have the perfect colors for it!!

Oh well, so much to say but this is getting to be so long already, so I will just have to continue it another time....so, till next time.....here are some photos of the Afghans, etc that I have made recently.

Aloha My Friends  :)

Again, this is showing half of the Afghan.  I was hoping to get the colors to show better, in different lighting, etc.  But the Orange and Yellow just will not cooperate!

This is another photo of Hannah's Afghan.  Hopefully you can see the colors better in it as well.  The colors reminded me of the Ocean, so calm and serene.

This is a photo of the Chef Bear that I made for our friend and Hairdresser Roxanne!!  This is the first time that I have tried to put a name on one!

Christa in the play Shooting Range in Cabella's.

Walker in one of his favorite hats, and yes, he had at least 3 knives on him (real knives too)!!

Emily having a great time!!

And of course me!  I don't know how I did it, but I managed to find the only gun in the Shooting Range that gave more than 10 points per shot!  I managed to get a high of 660 out of 20 possible shots!