Down 32 Pounds... and eating FOOD!

Well, I'm about to begin week 4 post-op and I am down 32 pounds. The best thing is that I can eat REAL food beginning this week, but, I've already tried some foods over the past week or so... with good results and bad! This really is a learning process!

I just finished dinner of grilled chicken and salad. Of course, I only had a few bites, but, still.... REAL FOOD! Yahooooooo!  :)  And, it didn't make me sick. Unlike earlier in the week when I tried some ground beef that had been cooking in a stroganoff-like sauce. OMG!! Sick! Sick! Sick! I had two small bites and was awake all night and still sick all the next morning! That was NOT good! But, it wasn't the ground beef. It had to be the sauce, because I had a small nibble of Kerry's hamburger a few nights before that and that went down just fine... no problem at all. But that stroganoff hamburger... no no no no no no no!

I think I'm getting overly concerned... no... obsessed, really, with trying to get enough protein. If I follow the diet I was given from the surgical weightloss program people, I'd only be getting about 30-40 grams of protein each day -- about half of the recommended 60-70 grams each day. I need real food! Real meat! Real chicken! Real tuna! There's the protein! So, I'm very excited that I can now have those things. And I shall have those things each day! Yay!

It's otherwise been a downer of a week. We lost two friends within a day of each other this week. One had been sick for quite a long time with Alzheimer's disease. He was diagnosed when he was in his 50s and he died at 64. The other was suddenly stricken with a lung ailment he endured for about a month before dying this past week at 72. The uncanny part of it all is that both of these guys hunted together with my husband for several years. And, their wakes and funerals are at exactly the same time, at funeral homes about 20 miles from each other! Somehow, we'll make it to both. Just all the more reason to live it up, while there's still living to do! May they both rest in peace.

Thank goodness for grandchildren! They can cheer anyone up! And, it's the weekend and, as usual, they come to Granny's house... playground... amusement park.  My two oldest granddaughters, Cailey and Juliana, 8 and 9, respectively, are so different! Juliana is a daredevil, while Cailey is overly cautious about everything... both, just like their fathers! So, last summer, my oldest son (Juliana's dad) was given a 50cc four-wheeler ATV by a friend whose kids had outgrown it. For you ATV-challenged folks, that's a small ATV recommended for 6-12 year old kids. It needed some mechanical work, but my boys are geniuses at getting broken things working again, and, in no time, that little four-wheeler was buzzing around the yard and we took it to Maine on vacation, where there are miles and miles of deserted dirt roads to ride on. But Cailey didn't have one. But, Juliana shared hers, and their cousins, Zach and Lex (whose families also go on vacation with us), shared Zach's ATV. And life was good.

Then, this week, my oldest son found another 50cc ATV on Craig's List for $200. It, too, needed work. Scott bought it and Steve worked on it to get it running. And, in no time, that bike, too was buzzing around the yard. Now comes the weekend. And we have two sweet little girls buzzing around the yard with their motorcycle helmets on, splashing through every puddle in sight, on their ATVs. I love to hear them giggle... and they were giggling with delight, so proud of themselves for getting all muddy... until (oh, you KNEW this was coming, didn't you?)... until Juliana -- the daredevil -- caught the corner of a trailer and ripped part of her bike body right off the bike!  So, they were back to sharing one bike, riding double, with Juliana -- the daredevil -- driving! Meanwhile, my 3-year-old grandson was toodling around in his little powerwheel Jeep, out of my view, when I heard a loud smack, followed by my grandson's wails. Apparently, the girls ran into him, flipped his Jeep over and he fell out and scratched his leg. Oh and how he loves showing off his leg and "all the blood" (truly, it was a scratch... no blood). All parties were fine, but that was the end of the ATVs for the weekend. It was fun while it lasted! LOL  :)

And, for those of you who are wondering, my little Glory's doing fine now. She's my other dog, a Jack Russell. She's stopped looking for Gizmo and, I think she's thinking that all this extra attention isn't such a bad thing after all. She always wanted to be an only dog.  :)

That's it for this week!