Today is my "Surgerversary"!

Six years ago today, right about this time, I kissed my husband goodbye...and wasn't positive I'd ever see him again. I was then wheeled into the operating room for open-heart surgery. Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought this would happen to me. Especially at the ripe old age of 43. I had gone in for a routine physical about 6 months earlier. My doctor listened to my heart, and said, "Wow, that's quite a murmur you have there". To which I replied, "Oh yeah, that's right. I guess I have been told in the past that I have a murmur". I really didn't think it was a big deal...since no other doctor had made a big deal about it, they just mentioned it matter-of- factly.
Anyway, the doc decides to schedule me for an echochardiogram. I think I did that the very next day. A week or so later, I get a call from the clinic saying I need to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist. What??? me? I remember I was laying in bed with my husband, Ray when we got that call. After hearing the news, he looked heavenward and said, "Lord, don't take the girl". There was a popular country song by that title out about that time.

I had to wait a month to even get in to see the cardiologist, but then things happened rather quickly. He told me I had MVP, (mitral valve prolapse), and that most people can live for years with this condition. However, mine was determined to be "moderate to severe" at this time. He told me then that I would need to make sure I had an echo once a year, to make sure it didn't get worse. Okay. I can do that.

At the same physical, they had discovered that I had cervical pre-cancer. Yippee! Ray says I didn't study hard enough, I went in for a bunch of tests~and failed them all! So anyway, we try a few different things to combat that situation, and in the end, decide that a hysterctomy is in order. By now, it is Springtime, and I ask a nurse if I should be checked out by the cardiologist again before scheduling my hysterectomy...just to make sure. She says it's "not a bad idea". I went back in to see the card, just to be "cleared" for my surgery. It was a different guy this time. He said, "If I were you, I'd put off this hysterectomy for awhile and get this little valve problem fixed". What???!!!! I didn't even bring my hubby with me to this appointment, after all...I didn't think it was a big deal. I then had to call him and tell him I needed open-heart surgery...soon.

I begged them to let me wait until after my parents' 50th anniversary party that was coming up in a couple of weeks, but that was as far out as they wanted to let me go. This was getting scary, was I going to just fall over and die if I didn't have the surgery?? I wasn't even having any symptoms so far. The day finally came, and I said my goodbyes to the kids the night before. I had to be at the hospital, (which was a good hour away) by 6 am. That meant we had to leave home at 4:30 am! Molly was only 5 years old at the time, and it was really hard to say goodbye to her.

The surgery took over 6 hours, the surgeon did a rather extensive valve repair, instead of a replacement, I will always be grateful for that. I remember waking up at about 2 o'clock. I asked where my husband was, and was told he went home. What??!!! how dare he. They then told me that he had gone home to sleep...and it was now 2 o'clock AM...not PM as I had assumed. I had been told I'd be able to see him that afternoon, but apparently, I was fighting the ventilator hose and they kept me sedated until it was safe to remove it. I was very angry, (I still am). I wanted to see my husband's face as soon as I woke up. I don't remember even waking up before that, how could I have been awake enough to even realize what I was doing. I don't think they gave me a chance to figure it out. I guess Ray had been there when I "awoke", and my brother, Bob had come to visit me too. I'll have to take their word for it. I don't remember any of that.

I ended up being in the hospital for 8 days. Ray would come down to visit me every night, and would usually fall asleep in the recliner in my room. He'd leave in the wee hours of the morning, and go home and start all over again. Jessica was working nights at the time, so she stayed home with Molly, who wasn't even in Kindergarten yet. One day, Molly wanted to call me, but couldn't find the phone number to the hospital...and Jess was napping. Amazingly, after having called me just a few times, little Molly had memorized the 10 digit number to my hospital room! That was amazing to me. I was glad that she could call me whenever she needed to talk to me. She did come down with Ray a couple of times, and she would carefully crawl up in my bed and snuggle with me. I kept threatening to keep her there hidden under the blankets with me. It was very comforting to have her there, but she cried every time she left me. That was the hard part.

The repair has held up well so far, and I was told by the surgeon that it should "last me a lifetime". I am thankful that I am not on ANY medication whatsoever, (I would have had a lifetime on blood thinners if I'd gotten the replacement), and my life has pretty much gotten back to normal. I did finally have the hysterectomy too... in October of the same year. That was pretty much a non-event after the heart surgery. I will never be a swimsuit model with all these scars, but then, I'd never have been one anyway even after I get down to my goal weight!

Wordless Wednesday #4 ~ Deadwood SD "Tourists"

Those crazy kids are at it again...

Week 8 weigh In ~ A day late

Because our town only has WW meetings on Mondays, and that being Memorial Day this week, I had to wait until today to weigh in. I also had to drive almost 40 miles to do so. I was really considering putting it off another day, since I didn't think I did all that well, what with the three day weekend and all. At the last minute, I decided to make the trip to St. Cloud after all...and I'm glad I did. It wasn't a tremendous loss or anything...but it was not bad. I'm down another 2 lbs. for a total of weight loss of 18.6 lbs! I just can't seem to break that 20 lb mark. The good thing is, I don't have far to go this week...and it will be fun to get my star at my home WW meeting site.
And...since I was in the area today, I decide to go across the street to Petter's Warehouse and see what I could find. I hadn't been there in ages. About 2 years ago, I found myself a bedspread, a couple of matching decorative pillows, and 1 matching curtain for my bedroom. The problem is...I have 2 windows in my bedroom. All this time, I've had one window with no curtain...just mini blinds on it. It wasn't too noticeable since it is mostly hidden behind the headboard anyway...but I really wanted another curtain. Guess what I found today....tada~ I found my curtain. Yippeee! I had all but given up finding one at this point.

I also found an audio book called "Finding God in the Land of Narnia" by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware at Petter's for just $2.99. I started listening to it on my way home...it seems very good. I had been looking for some kind of audio book to listen to while I use my treadmill. I figure if I only let myself listen to it while I'm on the treadmill, (and maybe while washing dishes), if it's interesting enough, it will get me to do those things more often. The same authors also wrote "Finding God in the Lord of the Rings". The funny thing is, my hubby and I were just discussing the other day about how I'd read some of the Narnia books as a kid, and other than the similarity between Aslan's death on the stone table and Jesus' death on the cross, I had no idea there was any deeper meaning behind the stories. I just enjoyed them because they were really good stories. Speaking of the Chronicles of Narnia...

I went to see "Prince Caspian" (the second chapter in the chronicles ), about a week and a half ago. It was VERY good. I would recommend it to everyone, but I would caution that there is a lot of violence in it, (not blood and gore, more like epic battle scenes), and may not be appropriate for very young children. We brought a bunch of 5th grade girls to it...I don't think I'd bring anyone much younger. They are working on the next 3 movies to be released in the next few years; "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", being the next one. That was one of my favorite books of the series...I can't wait. Check out the "Prince Caspian" Widget on my sidebar if you want more information on the Chronicles of Narnia.

May 27th is a date that brings both joy and tears to this family. In 1952 it was the day my mother and father said their wedding vows to each other. HAPPY56th ANNIVERSARY Mom and Dad!!!

And sadly, in 1998, my husband lost his first wife, and my step-children, their mother. So Ray, Sarah, Dan and Ruth...my thoughts are with you guys today too, as you mark the 10th anniversary of that loss. I'm sure you all miss her dearly.

KOFFEE House Karaoke Tonight!

I'm not the only one that didn't realize the first major holiday weekend of the "Summer" was upon us already. I stopped at a garage sale this morning and overheard the lady running it tell another shopper, I planned it for this weekend because I didn't want to have it on Memorial Day weekend! Only after placing the ad in the paper, did she find out she actually was having it on the holiday weekend.

We have no actual plans for the weekend, other than, tonight is our monthly K.O.F.F.E.E. House Karaoke at church. My dh and I own our own Karaoke system, but never really got the business off the ground, for a number of reasons. In addition to the country, rock, pop and folk standards etc., we have added quite a bit of Christian worship and Praise music to our collection over the years. We started doing a monthly Karaoke night at our church about a year ago. We were really hoping to turn it into a low-key outreach opportunity. We figured church members would come, bring along their relatives, friends and neighbors - just to get people in the door, that maybe would not feel comfortable coming to a service on Sunday quite yet. I came up with Karaoke Outreach For Fun, Evangelism and Entertainment for a name, and everyone seemed to like it. So far, it has not caught on as well as we had hoped, but we do have our own little following that come out each month. We serve coffee, my good friend, Jody usually brings us some yummy food to eat, and we all have a great time. The rest of them really don't know what they're missing.

Sarah, (Sassyfrazz) and her hubby usually come out and sing with us. They're both great singers. Our other good friend, Lisa, (QTpies7) and her husband come to, although they don't generally do a lot of singing. Once in awhile we all get up there and sing some favorite like, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". When that happens, there are more people on the stage than in the audience...but that's okay.

If you were taken by surprise by the early holiday weekend too, and find yourself looking for something to do tonight...come on out! We start at about 7:30 pm and go 'til about 11:30. We promise, we won't make you sing if you don't want to...and if you always wanted to try karaoke, but were afraid to...this is a really casual, comfortable setting to try it in.

Wordless Wednesday #3 ~ Take A Flying Leap!

If only they could have gotten the dog to jump too!

Batman Park

My daughter Jessica, is in the USAF and stationed at Ellsworth AFB near Rapid City, SD. Rocky is one of the guys from her unit that spent 5 months in Iraq with her, and one of her very best friends. She and Rocky love to pretend they are tourists once in a while, and go to all the local attractions in the Black Hills area, like Reptile Gardens, Bear Country, The Roo Ranch, Mt. Rushmore, Dinosaur Park, Crazy Horse etc. Last Friday, my grandson, CJ called me on the phone and said he was going to the park "to-mar" with Mama and Rocky. Jess asked him, "Which park are we going to ?" To which CJ replied, "Batman Park". Apparently, "Badlands" and "Batman" sound very much alike to some 3 1/2 year old boys.

Here are a few pictures they took there. It looks like they had a great time, and saw some beautiful scenery. Jess had these posted on her MySpace in an album called: The Goodlands.

I talked to them again on Sunday and asked if CJ had been looking for Batman there. Jessica said he was a little disappointed that Batman was not there, and also kept asking where the slide was. CJ loves slides, and expects to see one when he goes to a "park". I don't suppose they found any swings or monkey bars there either. Here is a picture of the four of them: Rocky, holding "Bart" and Jess holding CJ. Maybe next weekend they'll tour Spiderman Park???

Week 7 Weigh In ~ Rainy Days and Mondays...

...always get me down. Well I was down a little, 0.4 lbs to be exact (an even 88 more pounds to go). The last few weeks, it has been a struggle just to keep the weight off that I've taken off thus far, so knowing I hadn't changed much since last week, I was just happy it was a bit of a loss as opposed to a bit of a gain. I did get on the treadmill a couple of times this past week...I guess I need to do more.

Have you ever had one of those days? I got a phone call last night, from a friend who was supposed to come up with some games for a wedding shower for a gal from our church. This friend was feeling a bit under the weather, so I was asked if I could get a couple of games together, and pick up some prizes. Sure, I can do that. Well, I guess I shoulda got started on it earlier today, and didn't really look at it until noon. Lisa had e-mailed me a few that she had planned on using, and then I did a search myself. I thought we'd do the ol' clothespin game, you know, where you all put a clothespin on yourself and if anyone catches you crossing your legs they get your clothespin? Okay, that will work. I found a game where you have to scoop cotton balls from one bowl to another while blindfolded too, that should be fun. Then I found a word scramble using wedding related words. Cool. All I have to do now is print out a few of these...oh, wait...I only have 2 sheets of copy paper left...okay, I'll have to pick some up when I get the prizes.

Flash forward to about two o'clock. I copy out the game, find the answer key to it and makea copy of that too. I'll make more copies when I get back with more paper. I go to three different stores to get prizes and gift bags etc. By the time I'm done with that, it's almost 5pm. I need to run home and change clothes before I go to WW to weigh in, because I know that the scale hasn't moved much this week, and I don't want it going the wrong direction just cuz my jeans are too heavy. I run home, change clothes and my daughter and I head back to town to weigh in....except, when I get there... I realize that I've forgotten my weigh-in book and monthly pass that shows that I'm pre-paid! Back home again...I find them, and now Molly decides she wants to stay home. Okay, I'll be right back.

And I zoom back to WW one more time. I stand in line, get weighed in, and figure I can stay for a little bit. At about six o'clock, I realize I haven't bought paper yet, and need to go make copies...gotta go! Stop at Pamida, pick up paper, look for clothespins...they're out of them.

Run home, to find Jody in my driveway, (she's dropping off the gift from the two of us, and she says Molly's not there), make my copies, call and find Molly at her friend's house, run out to my clothesline to grab clothespins...we get in the car and I start it at about 7 pm. Right about this point, I realize I have a nosebleed! Why??? I don't ever get nosebleeds...and of course, it dripped on my blouse!! I am not having a good day. Thankfully, it quit just as soon as it started, but I now had to run back in the house and change my blouse.

Thankfully, I found Maggie's house, where the shower was being held, with no trouble at all. I suppose it was about 7:30 by then, and most of the guests had arrived. The games went pretty well, except for the part where I had accidentally copied the key to the word scramble...instead of the scrambled words ... aaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh!!!!

Oh well, it actually ended up being more fun that way. The bride's aunt suggested we each take a scrambled word, and come up with a definition for it. We have some pretty creative ladies in our church and they came up with some doozies. Did you know that right after you get married, you generally find yourself in a state of ohnomoney? That a subhand is an underhanded man? Were you aware that an agremair is a meter that measures your corn crop? How about that if you smoke cigars, you start to look a little scragi around the edges, (we never did figure out what the word cigar was doing on there). There were more, but you get the idea. We decided that Millie won that one with her agremair.

Anyway, it turned out to be a very nice shower, at the end of an otherwise mostly rainy, "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Monday".

One little P.S. to my sister, Laurie: With all my running around, I kept thinking about calling you and telling you happy birthday, but never got it done, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! a little late.

Another successful AWANA year all wrapped up!

My husband, Ray has been the AWANA* Commander for our church's program for 4 years now. In addition to helping him out with the behind the scenes stuff, I started out helping with the Cubbies, (3 and 4 year olds), for a year and then moved next door to the nursery 3 years ago. My favorite age of kids has always been from about 18 mos. up to 3 years old. They're just sooooo cute and lovable at that age! And now, as a grandma...I really enjoy giving them back to their parents when our time together is through for the night too ;).

This last Fall, AWANA clubs started a new program for pre-Cubbies, called "Puggles". We didn't want to completely open it up to the public, since we have a rather small nursery, and just two of us also need to watch the babies that are in there. We decided that we'd try out the Puggles program on our toddlers that were already going to be in the nursery on Wed nights, (due to their parents helping out with the older AWANA kids). We had a fun year, and the kids learned about 4 simple precepts: 1) God made all things, 2) God saw that it was good, 3) God loves us, and 4) We thank God. The little ones don't have a very long attention span...but we tried to get at least a few "teaching moments" in each night. We had anywhere from 2 to 7 "Puggles" throughout the year, but ended up with just two of them there for our awards ceremony last night. Here they are:My dd, Molly just finished her very last year of AWANA. She loved it when she was younger, but the last couple of years, we pretty much had to drag her there. After all, we figured if we were going to volunteer our time and energy to this great program, it wouldn't kill her to stick it out and maybe even "accidentally" learn a few bible verses ...whether she wanted to or not. I think she actually did have fun there most of the time...but she'll never admit to that...she's waaaaayyy too cool for that! She did look pretty excited to finally, (after 3 yrs), get her 1st T&T book award though...but she'd never admit to that one either. Our annual awards ceremony was followed by ice cream, cookies and lemonade for all. (I had one M & M cookie and black coffee).

Here are a couple of pictures of Molly accepting her award from her leader, Yevette:

And look-- there's our friend, Sarah, (Sassyfrazz), behind Yevette too! She's our T & T director. As you can see by this picture, Molly is at least a head taller than most of the other girls in her class. My "baby" is now 5' 7" at 11 years of age! I've still got about 3/4 of an inch on her, but she's bound to pass me up by 6th grade.

Yevette told her twelve 5th grade girls last Fall, that if they collectively learned 500 verses throughout the year, she would take them to a movie and buy them candy. It worked, they did...in fact they exceeded the 500! Rumor has it, they even got Molly to contribute a few of them here and there. Thank you, Yevette for putting up with my daughter for the last 3 years, even when she didn't want to be there. We never really gave her a choice in the matter, and appreciate what you were able to do with her. She's very excited about youth group next year!

I get to go along to help chaperone and drive them to the movie this Sunday. We're going to The Chronicles of Narnia~Prince Caspian! WooHoo! I'm as excited as the kids are I think. I've wanted to see that one ever since I heard they were going to do it. I'm reading the book again, just to refresh my memory about what happens in that one.

*Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed

Week 6 Weigh In ~ Going Down...

Whew! I had a 2 lb loss this week! I know I was down a few more pounds somewhere around Thursday or Friday, but with the weekend I just had...I was happy for any loss at all. I got another 5 lb star sticker for my WW bookmark, so that was encouraging. My total weight loss so far is: 16.2 lbs! And no...I never did get on that treadmill, (that is sitting about 6 ft away from me staring at me at the moment), but I did buy myself some new tennis shoes...maybe, just maybe tomorrow will be the day.

I met a gal at the meeting tonight, who has lost just over 50 lbs in 4 mos! Wow~ if I could do that, I could have 50 lbs off by age 50! But I know to do that...I'm going to have to exercise.

Mother's Day Weekend

Well, here it is...weigh-in day again... After a weekend of Friday night "Ladies Night Out" , (where we all stuff our faces), and the "Ladies Spring Brunch" on Saturday, both at church, and then of course, Mother's Day on Sunday. I think I was down a couple of more pounds than I am now, about Wed or Thursday of last week...but I will go weigh in tonight anyway, and hopefully show a bigger loss than last week.

I really wanted to share what I got for Mother's day this year: From my grandson, "CJ" I got a beautiful bracelet, (like the one here except the inscription on the heart was "Love, Christian"): Thank you CJ, (and Mama Jessica)!

From my 11yo daughter Molly, I got this lovely photo mat that she made for me in an after-school craft class. I framed it, and hung it on the wall and will cherish it forever. Here it is:

It's a little hard to read here, but the top square says, "Being a mother means that your heart is no longer yours; it wanders wherever your children do. -unknown". The middle one says, "Live-Love-Laugh", and the bottom was says, "You Make My Life a Beautiful Thing". She also created and printed a nice card, a bookmark, and a coupon that is good for one breakfast in bed. Thanks Mo, You are so creative!

My daughter, Jessica, (CJ's mom), got me a few things to finish off my "Fun Frogs" bathroom, a wastebasket, a decorative hand towel and a toilet brush holder that is shaped like a frog...too cute! Thanks Jess! You always know exactly what I want.

From my DH, (darling husband, for those of you not familiar with blogese), brought me a dozen roses on Friday night. They are beautiful-yellow, with red tipped petals. That's not all, he got me a 50 pc. cake decorating tool caddy, which is something I've wanted for a very long time. I know that my friend, Lisa will appreciate this the most. She and I get together to decorate cakes for church on occasion, so now I can have all of my "tools" in one place, and can grab it all and go. Here's what it looks like:

He also took me out to the Chinese buffet...but of course, we do that EVERY Sunday! Thank you Honey! I Love you.

We then went out to my parents' house for supper, where we grilled, and each brought something to share. I got to meet my great-great niece, Maya. What a cutie! I can't believe that my oldest niece is now a grandmother... Happy Mother's Day, Everyone!

Wordless Wednesday #2 ~ AJ Meets His Hero

Week 5 weigh in ~ Not great...but I'll take it!

I went to WW a little reluctantly tonight. I had done pretty well most of the week, until Thursday, when my daughter, Jessica and my grandson, CJ came to town from Rapid City, SD. I asked CJ on the phone what he wanted for supper when he got there, and he answered, "Pizza". I don't get to spoil my grandkids very often, so I stopped at "Mama Vee's Take and Bake" and picked up a couple large ones. They were very good, and I only had 2 slices, but I also had some of the "supreme nachos" that came free with the special.

Then, on Saturday night, we went to a Cinco de Mayo fiesta at my brother, "Roberto" and his wife, "Rosa's" casa. The food was delicioso, but I ate too mucho! I never took Spanish, (and I'm pretty sure that is not correct Spanish)...but you get the idea. Sunday, we did our usual Chinese for lunch, and that's not normally a problem, but then we went to my parent's house for supper. Mom made goulash. You know, one of those "comfort foods", that we probably ate at least once a week when I was growing up with my 9 siblings. She did make brussel sprouts too...which have 0 points...as long as you don't load them down with real butter...oh well. They sure tasted good.

Anyway, I lost .8 lbs this week. Nothing to write home about, but at least it wasn't a gain, and it makes my total weight loss 14.2 lbs. I just have to keep telling myself that that is an average 2.84 lbs per week so far. That's still not too bad if I can keep it up.

Last week, I threatened to dust off my tread mill...and I did dust it off! Maybe this week, I'll actually get on it and turn the thing on! Maybe I'll even walk a few miles, what do you think? It's such a crazy idea, it just might work?! I'll let ya know next week.

Prom 2008 ~ One Crazy Morning!

What do you do when you need to find a prom dress...fast? My step-daughter, Ruth, (who went to her Sr. prom in 2006 and is now actually in college), was asked to this year's prom by a friend of hers from youth group. I found out about this a couple of weeks ago via her dad, whom Ruth had told over the phone. I was happy for her that she'd been asked to prom again, but I said, "What does she plan on wearing?". Her father had no idea, (since guys don't necessarily think about those things). I figured she had something in mind, and hoped she wasn't planning on wearing the same dress she wore two years ago, fearing it wouldn't fit her anymore and just because it would be much more fun for her to have a "new" dress to wear.

Ruth was coming home from Bemidji that Friday night, the night before prom. We were doing our karaoke at church that night, so I asked my friends if any of them had an idea of where I could come up with a dress for her on such short notice. My friend, Sarah, (sassyfrazz), volunteered that she'd been a bridesmaid quite a few times and had a fairly large collection of dresses that just might work. She would have her husband drop some of them off in the morning.

Ruth tried on the dress she had planned to wear, but it didn't fit, so that was no longer even an option. Terry dropped off 4 lovely dresses around 10:00am, and Ruth tried 3 different ones on. We, (Ruth, Molly and I), decided on a beautiful sea-foam green strapless number, that fit Ruth to a tee. The only problem now was, we had to run to the store to get her a strapless bra to wear underneath it. The three of us jumped in the van, and knowing we had very little time to get everything done before her date would be there to pick her up, (because pictures were at 2:00pm), I was maybe driving a little fast for the road conditions...

Yes, it was Spring, yes, it was prom...but it had SNOWED the night before. The roads were wet, and had just a little slush on them. My van, which never slides around, started skidding sideways, I corrected it, but must have over-corrected a little, cuz then we went sliding the other way. Thankfully, the oncoming drivers saw what was happening and waited for me to straighten things out. I did manage to get it back under control, and we stayed on the road and didn't hit anyone or anything. Another potential crisis averted. Thank you Lord!

We got to the store, found a bra, pantyhose, and a little make-up and proceeded back home to get her ready. Ruth jumped into the shower, while I pressed her dress. She has never been what you'd call a "girly-girl". Preferring the natural look, Ruth has never worn make-up, except for the few times when her friends have tried it on her. On the other hand, my 11yo, Molly has been experimenting with make-up for about 3 years now. I don't like her to wear it outside of the house, but once in a while she manages to slip out with some on anyway. I told Ruth that I'd do her hair, and Molly was going to do her make-up. I put her hair up in a french braid, (because that's pretty much all I know how to do), and it looked very nice that way. Molly did her make-up, (quite well I might add), while we all ate a frozen pizza for lunch. Her date was coming between 1:30 and 2:00pm, and I was so afraid that morning that we'd never get everything done. We did, with about 15 minutes to spare! Thank you, Sarah and Terry, it just goes to show you what you can do with a little help from your friends! The kids all ended up having a great time that night, despite the cold wintry weather outside. Here's a pic of Ruth at home, and one of her with her date, and a couple of friends at the Grand March.

Thursday Thirteen #1~ 13 Reasons to Lose Weight

This is my very first "Thursday Thirteen". Since I've now lost Thirteen pounds, I thought it only appropriate to list my top 13 reasons to lose weight. Here they are...

1. To feel better about myself.



2. To be healthier.



3. To not be afraid to go to the doctor, because they'll make me get on the scale.



4. So I don't have to worry about other people's lawn chairs breaking when I sit on them.



5. To NOT get "those looks" when eating at restaurant, even when I'm making wise choices and taking only ONE trip to the buffet.



6. So I can cut up my "Catherines" credit card and wear clothes that don't say "PLUS size".



7. So I don't have to hide behind someone or something when posing for a picture.



8. So my doctor will never again have to say, "You really need to lose some weight", but just says, see you again next year.



9. So a regular bath towel goes all the way around me.



10. So my grandchildren will never remember me as being fat.



11. So my 11yo daughter is never again embarrassed for her friends to meet her fat mom.



12. To be able to get up off the floor or out of my couch without making a loud groaning sound.



13. So I don't think evil thoughts whenever I see a skinny woman.