Merry Christmas!

I apologize; life's been crazybusy and I just don't think about this blog much anymore. My surgery was 4.5 years ago and I've pretty much stabilized. I had gained another 10, but I've lost that (although that's more because I'm having trouble with my teeth :) ); hoping I can use this as a jump start to get back on track. I've read that it's common for WLS patients to regain the few years after surgery, but then there are those that get back on track and lose it again, but then there are those that regain almost all that they have lost. I'm not even going there.

So, Happy Holidays to my family and friends not here with us this season! You all are very much missed - I swear, if anyone else thinks about moving, I'm going to have to come hunt you down and drag you back :)<

Merry, merry, joy, joy!

Fido Fest 2011

Yesterday was Gizmo Day; the HS walk (piece of cake) and then the festival afterwards. Very small but very nice. First time we've gone - I think if they went for a different venue (like Marymore Park), they'd attract more vendors and more walkers, and then we could walk through the park instead of city streets. But they did good - collected $140,000, I think the end total was. And we had a ball!

And because we wanted to avoid the presidental motorcade crap, we drove home the loooong way, over the top of Lake Washington. We headed north instead of south and had a very nice Sunday drive. We came up around through Woodinville and then Redmond, so of course we had to stop at Marymore Park and let Gizmo romp there. He is such a joy to watch run around and play with the other dogs. I swear we see him smile. Big. And then we get him home around 6ish and he proceeds to pretty much nap the evening away. All that fresh air and exercise - we need to do that more often.

Walk for the Animals!

Giz and I will be walking on 9/25 for the Seattle Humane Society's Walk for the Animals. Special K is coming, but she'll sit the walk out and then afterwards is Fidofest, for which she will join us. Think I'll borrow a wheelchair for that - we went to the Evergreen State Fair this Monday past with Mr T and had a lot of fun. We rented a wheelchair and it made it so much more enjoyable for her.

If you're looking and you've got a few extra shekles:

http://shs.convio.net/site/TR?px=1045687&pg=personal&fr_id=1070&et=FFRAtUDKBFBy3xDgCzAkWQ&s_tafId=1421

My donation page :)

Thank you!

R&W

R&W came to visit not too long ago; up from Patterson, California. They stayed for a nice long weekend and since Special K isn't very mobile these days, we took it easy and just caught up on stuff. Very good to see them. I'm happy that they get to spend their retirement as road warriors and getting to see so much of the country (yes, my eyes are green - some day our turn will come), but Lord, I miss them. Now they're thinking of relocating to Reno, NV (actually, a small town north of Reno - Dayton, I think they said). At least that's closer; would make for a nice drive. Love those road trips!

Company for Giz

We're having company this weekend; a little guy named Hugh (a pug/beagle mix). Very excited to see how the Giz reacts. He loves to play with other dogs his size when we take him to the park - the larger ones kind of freak him out a little, although if they're friendly, he comes around and will play just as well with them, too.

I certainly hope our Gizmo will be gentleman about sharing his space and his mamas. He's so sweet natured, though - I just know this is going to be a success.

Delft Blue

For my dad's birthday, my aunt (his younger sister) offered to either fly him to Holland for a visit or a cruise to Alaska. He chose the cruise - been wanting to do that for years, but Mum never cared to go. So she came week before last and they left a week ago Sunday, returning this Sunday past. They had a good time. And she's so sweet - every time she comes, she brings us "kids" something; this time, she brought me these: Aren't they gorgeous? I love anything blue and white; always have, so it's a no-brainer that I would love Delft Blue pottery. And I've been wanting a new canister set - was getting tired of my Coke ones. Thank you, Tante!!!

In February, she brought me the cutest shopping bag - also in Delft Blue style. I need to get a shot of that up here. I know these pics aren't terrific, but not bad for a camera phone.

Happy now, Miss T? :) I'll try to get better with this blog. The original intent, which was my weight loss journey, seems to have fallen to the wayside. I've gained back about 50 lbs. Not happy, but apparently, not willing to deal with getting it back off. It's on a back burner. I'm still way better off than I once was, and I can still fit into a lot of my new clothing, but I need to get back on the stick and at least get it back under 200. I was so happy there - not sure how I could have let this happen.

Girls just wanna have fun!

Product launch party - yes, they actually invited Issaquah employees this time; not just sales folks, although we didn't get the goodie bag :( This was at the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle - had a good time. Special K got tipsy! So rare lol and so fun :)

Meet our new boy - Gizmo

My heart had such a hurt when we had to send Sparks on. I was determined that we would not get another canine companion for quite a long time, if ever. One question I would like answered when (if!) I hit the Pearly Gates - why did You not make it so they last as long as we do? What is with this 12 - 16 years crap? To totally love some being so completely and unconditionally, as they do you, to have to let them go so soon after you get them all entangled in your life. Totally not cool.

Special K, as grieving therapy, was looking through the petfinders and craigslist sites, looking at all the available pups out there. She knew I didn't want another - she was of the same mind. Then we found this one. This is Gizmo. A 5-year old Westie Special K found on craigslist. On the Wednesday after Sparks left us. It was if he sent this one to us, saying "here's the boy you thought you were getting when you took me." I answered the ad; agreed to a meet and greet at a park close by on the following Saturday. In my heart, I thought, no dice - there isn't any replacement for Sparks.

So we go to the park on Saturday. And we meet "Yayo" and his little family. They have a 2 1/2 year terror, she was going back to school as well as working full time and they decided they could "no longer care" for "Yayo." I asked what Yayo meant (they're Asian - I figured it was a word for something), but she said she just made it up. Long story short (I know; too late); we loved him and he seemed to like us.

So we took him home. His birthday is February 9, 2006. His pedigree papers say so. They also say his birth name was Gizmo yada yada yada something Westie. Gizmo isn't much of an improvement over Yayo, but it kinda sounds the same and that's what we've been calling him. The name has grown me, much as Sparky had (he came with that name; didn't like it either. I always wanted a Westie named Sebastian or Basil; something a little more sophisticated, as that's how I picture the breed - not Three Stooges kinda names lol But I have to admit; they fit better than the ones I wanted).

He came with issues - like drinking copious amounts of water and peeing everywhere. And pooping. Everywhere. Inside. Should have had a clue when she handed me his leash, his medical and birth/purchase records, a toy and two pee pads. I thought it odd; no bed, no crate, no food bowl, no left-over dog food. Pee pads. Uh, huh. Found out why. But then she also shared that they kept him crated during the day while they were at work and at night while they slept. That's two-thirds of the day.

Because of these issues, we decided to crate him too, while we were at work. Monday, I came home on my lunch to let him out and to romp with him, give him some water and some lovin'. Tuesday, same thing. But when I went to put him back into the crate, I noticed the fluffy towel I had in there was shoved to the back, so I reached in to pull it forward and, ewwwwww, it was soaked.

I've always read and heard that dogs won't mess where they're confined. Not true. That towel was soaked in urine. No wonder the bottom half of this dog is yellow. He was made to sit in his own urine every day. Poor guy. We were so worried with the amount of water he was drinking and the amount he was peeing that we took him to the vet to have him checked out. Had blood work done. Urine and stool analysis; we figured if he had diabetes or some other disease, we couldn't afford to keep him. We wouldn't give him back to the family as we had agreed if we decided we weren't going to keep him, though - I'm thinking how they "cared" for him was border-line abuse. We would have surrendered him up to the NW Westie Rescue folks.

Never came to that, though - he got a clean bill of health. It's all in his head. Because it appeared they limited his access to water. And after a week, we noticed the drinking slowed down. So of course, the peeing did, too. He figured out that water was plentiful and always available, so he doesn't need to drink it like it's going out of style. Plus, he's so smart and we've been working hard to get him outside every chance we could. Here we are, almost 3 weeks later, and he's pretty much house trained. We leave two pee pads out for him, just in case, but he hasn't pooped in the house in over a week. He does get up in the night to go pee, but now he pees on the pad. Such a good, smart boy.

And he is the total opposite of Sparks - very affectionate (almost too much - always wants your lap if you're sitting), very alert, very active. Such a joy. Not that Sparks wasn't - just in a very different way. And he seems very happy with us - probably very grateful we have no rugrats in the house (while at the park that first day, we saw the toddler yank at his ears, kick him in the ribs and the mother told us that he kept trying to ride the dog like a pony, so yeah, I'd say he's real happy there are no little ones in our house.) He's a keeper. One thing that tells me that Sparks sent Gizmo to us - when I went to the craigslist ad to respond to it a second time (they didn't answer the first one); I noted that their ad was posted on March 7th.

That's the day Sparks left us.

R.I.P. Mr. Sparky No-barky

R.I.P. Mr. Sparky No-barky. Our Sparlicious, our Sparklefarkle, our Snuffleopolus, Mr. Snufflebutt - our Handsome Dog Dude - we know you'll be waiting for us at the Rainbow Bridge. We love you lots! Mama Kat & Mama Car

Sparks

Something’s up with Sparks. Saturday night (about 3:00 am) I woke up to Special K freaking out – Sparky was stuck in a corner behind the dresser/printer cabinet, where there are all the wires from the TV/cable/printer/heater, etc., making all sorts of ruckus because he couldn’t get out. I got up, got him out (had to pull him out by his tail – so glad I caught a Westie documentary once where they said the tail was bred to be real strong, to drag Westies out of rabbit holes, etc, since they love to dig and tunnel.) Once I put him down, he kind of stumbled a bit, trying to get up, but it was like his back legs wouldn’t work. When he finally got up, he started walking. And walking. And walking. In circles throughout the house. Over and over and over again. I would pick him up and cradle him and rock him, but it was as if he couldn’t/didn’t either see me or know me. He would wiggle violently until I put him down where the walking would continue. And he kept getting into places that he couldn’t figure out how to get out of, and that would agitate him even more. After nearly an hour of this, I finally put him the hallway bathroom after I took everything off the floor except the fluffy rugs, plus I put one of his beds in there and then I closed the door. I sat up for another 15-20 minutes and listened to him bumping into the walls as he walked and walked and walked. Talk about scary. In the morning, I opened the door and he was lying on the rug. Once he saw me, he got up and was his old self again. Sunday night, he slept the whole night through. But then it happened again last night. This time I knew to put him right away into the bathroom and we listened to him thumping around for a bit, and this morning, again, he was on the rug, just lying there, like nothing was wrong.

I looked it up on the Internet – it can be a number of things, but the one that fits is that he’s having some sort of seizure and then the walking comes. He had a total blood work-up done about 6 mos ago, but it looks like we need to do that again and see what’s up. I certainly hope this is treatable.

Some of the other senarios: he's in pain and trying to walk away from it. Animals do that - weird, huh? Their brain can't comprehend that one cannot walk away from pain. Don't think that's it, though - he's not wimpering. And it could be part of the dementia/blindness thing. I guess I shouldn't try to guess and just get his furry little white butt to the vet and find out for sure. Won't be Banfields - fed up with those folks.

Just really hope it's treatable and that he's not in any pain that he cannot tell us about. I really truly do hope the Rainbow Bridge is real and that one day, he'll be able to share stuff with us. So frustrating not knowing what he's thinking and feeling.

Dr. Doolittle, where are you when I need you?

"NEED MY BLOG FIX"

Miss T, I love you :) Here I'm thinking no-one will care if I don't update and then I get your e-mail, "requesting" an update. Very cute it is that you are!

Nothing really new. My New Year's resolution lasted about a week and a half. Off again; on again. I am being more careful; not buying boxes of donuts and not having wine every night - just on the weekends... and maybe Thursday :) Trying to cut out at least the snacking. My pants still fit, so for now, that's working.

Yes, I'd like to lose the 40 I put on, but I keep having to remind myself that I am still 115 pounds less than I once was. In my mind, I'm totally all fat again - it's amazing how your mind can mess with you. I put on a Packer (GO PACK!) turtleneck this morning, thinking it was going to be way too tight (it's an XL). We bought it years ago on a trip to Milwaukee and it was half off and it was the largest size they had. At that time, it was painful to wear, it was so tight, but I did, under my Farve jersey (that was when we went for the Seahawk/Pack game at Lambeau field, so we're talking 8 years ago or so). Well, guess what - it fits; if anything, it's a little big! And the Farve jersey I'm wearing today - it's huge! So I'm not as big as I think I am in my head.

Weird, huh?

Co-hosting a SBS party at Mr. T's house on Sunday - very small group this year. Only 4 of us with 2 dropping in for a short while. T&J, we'll miss you :(

Can't believe that whoever is responsible for scheduling these things scheduled a nation-wide event such as the Super Bowl to start at 6;30 at night (which makes it 3:30 PST). Don't they realize folks gotta work the next day? How smart is that? Either schedule it for a Saturday, where it doesn't matter or have it earlier in the day.

Man, just got my pc "migrated" from one server to another - pain in the ass; don't like it one bit. Now my e-mail's all screwed up.

That's it - I'm done. It's the weekend; I'm taking Monday off! You all have a great weekend and of course,

GO PACK GO!

2 or 3

So far, so good. I have lost 2 or 3 pounds since Monday. I have to remember to bring my glasses into the bathroom with me in the morning when I go get ready for work. That's why it says "2 or 3" - I'm fairly sure it was on the 215. Thought for a fleeting (very cold) second to go run & get my glasses, but it is freakin' cold in our house during the winter (too dang expensive to keep the heater running too high for too long - old house; too many leaks/drafts), and I wasn't about to run out to the kitchen in my all-together just for that.

It's being harder than I hoped it would be, with my new mental resolve. I have not had anything with sugar (meaning, chocolates, cookies, donuts, cakes) all week and I've been eating well - salads, fruits, soups. No wine or any other alcoholic libations. In the evening, I nurse a cup of coffee so I feel I'm having "something," but I still need a munchy something or other. One night it was some Gouda cheese & a few crackers, others - a little handful of stick pretzels. I'd rather not be eating that time of night, but if I don't it'll roll over into something bigger, so I have to be satisfied that this is what's working. I am such a sugar addict, though - I'm really missing my pastries/cookies - also my squishy-white-bread sandwiches; such a big no-no!

Last night I made BLTs for Special K - she got hers on a Kaiser roll; I got mine as a lettuce wrap - piece of bacon, smidgen of mayo (I was going to buy the "lite" but I just couldn't bring myself to do it), nice tomato slices all wrapped up in a nice lettuce leaf. Had two of those - very satisfying. Didn't miss the bread then at all. I'm making baked gnocchi with Italian sausage tonight - eating lighter during the day so I can have a few - just going to skip the melted cheese & the sausage. The sausage; no big deal - never cared for Italian sausage much, but it will be hard to pass up the melted cheese! I bought oranges, though; going to cut one up and snack on that after dinner; hopefully that will satisfy my sweet tooth.

Started a food diary again; it really helps to jot down every little single thing that goes into my mouth to see how the calories can add up. I'm averaging 1000 - 1100 calories a day. I know I will have to cut even further in a week or so, to see more weight drop off, but I figured I'd ease myself back into the right routine.

The cookie isn't winning this time.

Happy 2011!

It's a new year. Yea. Stepped on the scale this morning. No yea. 218. A gain of 48 pounds. Ugh.

A new resolve and so far, so good. Had plenty of opportunity today to blow it and I haven't. Had my yogurt & cereal for breakfast (instead of the sandwich I've been accustomed to) - had a protein bar at about 11:00 and just now have a spring green salad with light honey mustard (Newman's Own - killer dressing). My boss asked me to provide lunch for a meeting today; typically, that means lunch for me, too, but I didn't order myself one. And then, just now, had an errand to run with Special K and she wants Mickey D for lunch. Damn, I really could have gone for some fries, but no, I didn't order any :)

Let's see how long this lasts. I just have to remember to how good it felt to feel my hip bones and my collar bones and how much easier the stairs were (they're still OK - I've kept the habit of using the stairs as opposed to taking the elevator, but I've noticed the last month or so, that I feel my upper thighs a lot more than I have been). I have to remember how good it felt to fit in smaller sized clothing. I had to go buy a few pair of pants and I bought 16s (I now know not to get rid of everything big - stuff happens, right?). I'm fitting into XL shirts - my L's are a bit tight and not comfortable. Some don't fit at all, like my pretty purple vest that I loved so much that first winter.

But I am determined. I've read that many gastric bypass patients have a weight gain the first few years out, but then they get back on track and lose it again. And since the good doctor said my pouch isn't horribly stretched out, I feel it's totally doable.

And I need to find someway to exercise, since the Sparkster can't go that far anymore, even if it's just going for a walk by myself, and I know exercise is key. Going to be 52 next month - wanna keep all mobile for as long as I can.

2008 was the year of the "new" me; 2011 will be the year that "new" me comes back :)