Happy 50th Birthday, To My Sister, Patty!

We are supposed to be celebrating another big birthday in our family this year. While I'm sure that Patty is celebrating it in style this year, as she has for the past 6 years...in heaven with Jesus and her family and friends who have also gone ahead of us, (and I'm sure it's an absolutely magnificent party)...but she will be sorely missed here on earth today.

Patty passed away on April 27, 2003, after a valiant, 2 year battle against breast cancer. Since I was just a year and a half older than her, she and I were quite close. In fact, I have another sister, Connie, who was born exactly one year and 4 days AFTER Patty was, and the three of us were all very close, and were always referred to as the "three little girls" growing up.

I come from a very large family, having 4 other sisters and 3 brothers as well...and though I dearly love all of my siblings, none were ever as close to me as Patty was. We shared a room for a few years at home...where we told each other our deepest and darkest secrets...and swore we'd never tell a soul. We giggled the nights away, or at least until Mom or Dad yelled up the stairs to be quiet. Once we were over 18, we ended up sharing an apartment along with a friend of ours. During those days, we took care of each other. If we wanted to go out, or needed groceries, and one of us didn't have any money, the other would say, "That's okay, I'll buy." We never, ever kept track of who "owed" whom. We just didn't care. As adults, she taught me a lot about Christianity...even though she was the younger sister. I always knew where to go when I needed advice and an advocate, who would be in my corner, no matter what. Even though in later years, she lived a few thousand miles away from me, she was just a phone call away.

Patty was a wonderful sister, daughter, friend, wife and mother to 11 children. Yes, 11 children. I'm praying today for her entire family, for all of her children, for their health and welfare, and that while they remember and celebrate their mother today...that they would also remember the importance of staying together as a family, and lifting up and supporting each other. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Patty!

Wordless Wednesday #6 ~ My Birthday Party Invite

(Designed by my talented sister, Kathy)

Wordless Wednesday #5~ Forty Pound Frog!

Happy Birthday to...Us!

My family threw me a great party last night, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that was involved in the planning and preparations for it. It was awesome! There were frogs everywhere...and not an over-the-hill embarrassing gag gift to be found...they were actually nice to me, believe it or not.

I would also like to take the opportunity here to wish a very happy birthday to my "twin cousin" Bonnie. She's even OLDER than I am, having been born at least a few hours before me! When we were kids, we were always the same height and weight, and both had blond hair and blue eyes. We even had a few people convinced that we were twins. We celebrated every birthday together, but then she moved to Iowa...and then on to places like Chicago...California...the remote island of Adak in AK...and finally to Washington state, which has made it a bit difficult to get together for birthdays. She had hoped to come for a visit and celebrate with me this year, but is now planning to visit this September. I can't wait! Here's a picture of her, as you can see...we don't look a lot like twins anymore. Happy Birthday, Bonnie!!!

On my and Bonnie's 11th birthday, (which was also a Monday), I believe we had celebrated the day before, and then I spent the night at her house. My mother was pregnant with baby number 10, and we kids were all "farmed out" to the cousins, because the doctor had scheduled Mom to be induced that day. I was pretty excited that I was going to get a new little brother or sister for my birthday. Yes, I really was...even though I already had 5 sisters and 3 brothers! We waited anxiously for the phone to ring all day, with the news of my newest sibling. At last, it came, somewhere around 4 pm, if I remember correctly. I'd gotten a brand new baby sister for a birthday present. Her name was Kathleen Jo, and she looked as different as night and day from Bonnie and me, with tons of black hair and almost black eyes. She was a beautiful baby...and 39 years later, she's still beautiful. Happy Birthday, Kathy!!! See you tonight!

Week 12 Weigh In ~ 25 lbs Off!! WooHoo!

I can't believe I haven't posted in an entire week! I guess I haven't done anything exciting enough to post about lately. However, I am pretty excited about losing another 2.6 lbs, for a total of 25.4 lbs to be exact, which leaves just another .6 lbs to go before I get to my target weight, and earn my bronze key chain. I did get a "25 lb weight" charm to go on it tonight. Of course, being my ADD self, I managed to lose that too before I got out of the building ...but I went back there and it had been found. I'll try to hang on to it 'til I get the key chain.

I'm going to try to be really "good" the next 4 days, maybe try to go for a walk at least once a day, and write down everything I eat. The challenges will come with the weekend because first of all, we are going camping with a group from our church, and then on Sunday afternoon, a "surprise" party is planned to celebrate my big 5-0! Don't worry guys, I'll act surprised when I walk in and you all yell "SURPRISE!". No - no one let the cat out of the bag...remember, I was the one that suggested the time and place for the party in the first place, because of everything else going on...and I knew my family wouldn't let me get away without a party. And I really do love that about all of them.

My plan is to weigh in next Monday, which is my actual birthday, (and If I play my cards right), I should still have a total of at least 26 lbs off by then and will have reached my first short term goal, which was to reach my target weight by my birthday. After weigh-in, we'll probably find someplace to go for a free birthday meal. We generally go to the supper club here in town for our birthday dinners...but unfortunately, they're closed on Mondays and if your birthday is on a Monday...well, you're just out of luck that year!

Hopefully, I'll keep busy enough with organizing and packing things for camping this week, that I won't have time to think about eating much.

Week 4 Weigh In

Yes, it has been 4 weeks now that I have been back on the Weight Watcher's program, and after a bit of a gain, (+1.2 lbs), last week...I had some good news at the scale tonight. I'm down 3.4 lbs from last week! That means in the past month I have taken off a total of 13.4 lbs. Not too bad.

Now, if I can just keep that up... Part of the reason I decided to go back to WW was, that even though I can't do anything about turning 50...at least I can be a little thinner and healthier by the time I get there. I was looking forward to my cousin, Bonnie visiting from WA for our birthday. She and I were born the exact same day and have always called ourselves "twin cousins". Growing up, we were always the same size and weight, her sister Terry was a year older, usually an inch or so taller, but always weighed 5 lbs LESS than we did. We were out to WA to visit Bonnie last August and I'll tell you what...we don't look much like twins anymore. I'm sure I outweighed her by 100 lbs or more. The last I heard, she won't be coming for our birthday, but plans to come to visit us this August, so it would be really nice if I can have a lot of the weight I need to lose OFF by then.

I know that I have to take it one step at a time, and speaking of steps...I should really (literally), dust off the ol' tread mill and start taking some steps on that. Who knows? I just might do that in the morning...I'll let y'all know how that one goes.