It's My Birthday and I'll Blog if I Want to!

So far, I'm having a pretty pleasant day. The weather is very cool today, for the end of June in Minnesota. I'm not complaining though, because as much as I LOVE summer, I can live without the sweltering heat and humidity we've been having the last couple of weeks. Having just turned 51, (I guess I have to update my profile), I've begun having frequent hot flashes the past few months. They're much worse when the weather is hot too.

Anyway, today is not only MY birthday, but also my cousin Bonnie's and my youngest sister Kathy's. Bonnie and I were born on the same day, 51 years ago. Here is a picture of the two of us when they were visiting Minnesota last September:

My sister, Kathy was born on our 11th birthday. Although you wouldn't know it by looking at her, she's celebrating "the big 4-0" today. We had a party for her on Saturday. She kinda figured her husband "Fuzz" was bringing her to her surprise party, but thought that was going to happen somewhere else after they went to have dinner and drop off her boys at our parents' home. I guess we fooled her... the party was right there at their house. Here she is in her white-tiger- print- birthday-cowboy hat that our sister Laurie got for her:

I'm hoping to go see "My Sister's Keeper" and maybe have dinner with my hubby tonight, and then possibly meet up with Kathy for a birthday drink somewhere. I'll let you know how all that goes. Happy Birthday, Bonnie and Kathy!!

The Same...Only Different

Here's a pic of Bonnie and me. That's me on the left if you can't tell us apart. When we were growing up, we were always about the same height (and weight), and had the same eye and hair color. Even with all the weight I've lost, we are not anywhere near the same weight these days. We appear to be about the same height, although I thought that I was a little taller once upon a time. I think I was slouching a bit in this pic. Of course our eyes still match, and we do still have the same hair color...except these days it comes out of a box. I wonder if she uses the same brand as I do? Only our hairdressers know for sure.

My "Twin Cousin" is Coming!

Okay, I know there is no such thing as a twin cousin, but that's what Bonnie and I have called ourselves all of our lives. We were born on the same day at the same hospital 50 years ago, and loved to spend time together as kids. We would always pretend we really were twins, and actually had a few people convinced that we were during our teen years.

Shortly thereafter, her family moved to Iowa, where she met a man that she fell in love with, and ended up graduating from H.S. early and marrying him on May 1, 1976. He had joined the navy and was home on leave after basic training if I remember correctly. After that, they were off to IL...then CA...then the island of Adak in AK, and eventually to Burlington, WA. I'm pretty sure I've only seen her twice in the past 20 years...and that was out there. Bonnie and Tim have not been in MN in probably about 26 years. But they will be here this afternoon! I'm so excited. My gf's are a little upset with me that I'm skipping out on "Ladies night out" at church tonight to have dinner with my cousin and our husbands...but they'll get over it. I'm sorry I won't be there, but I hope you understand and have a great time without me. I know I'm going to laugh 'til I cry...cuz that what Bonnie and I do whenever we get together.

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 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.