Imagine my surprise when I got on the scales this morning that I had dropped over 5 pounds this week! I not only get a massage (YIPPEESKIPPEE!! I get a massage!), I hit the first 10% of my total weight. I received a little key chain from Weight Watchers for that milestone.

So here I was, fresh from an hour and a half shopping when I weighted in. See, I spent the first few hours of the morning shopping. I hit one store--every year my daughter-in-law and I hit the one store--and buy all the items for a family we adopt every year. This year's family is a little three-year-old girl and her mother. They just escaped a home filled with violence and have very little. I bought them some warm clothes and some toys for the little one. I also make the family a quilt. I have the cutest one I am ready to quilt for the little girl and the one for her mother will be ready to quilt on Sunday.

One factor in this loss was I had not yet had Thanksgiving dinner. The kids went to my daughter-in-law's family on Thursday. My elder son really wants Thanksgiving and Easter and Christmas spent with family. I don't blame him, but I don't care what is the day. I feel sure this is a carry over from when he was a little guy and he never spent holidays with his "family," but always with his father's new family. The kids would spend Christmas eve with their dad and sometime Christmas day he would bring them home. Now some 25-30 years later he is feeling the need to be with us on holidays. Me too, only I don't care what day. Thus, we had Thanksgiving today :)

Whew. Thirty five pounds. Life is good. The weekly pic isn't all that great but I can see a little difference. The hair is bad from not washing and then spending hours shopping. Gawd I hate shopping!

peace~~~

Another 1.5 pounds sluffed off along the road of life. These ounces were hard-won as I was up almost 10 pounds the night before. That was a loooooooooot of peeing! And look at those numbers! The body is going to make me work for that last half pound! Grrrrrrrrrrr I want that massage reward at 30 pounds! Maybe when I weigh in the day after Thanksgiving that last half pound will show up. hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

It's been a busy week with finishing speeches and grading and lectures and meetings and sewing. Lots of sewing these past few days. Finished binding a king quilt for our bed. I had not played with a king in years (quilt, silly! Although now that I think about it, I never have actually played with a king. A bear on occasion but no king ;) )...anyway I had not made a king sized quilt in years and had forgotten how much work it was to bind!

I also made a baby quilt for a colleague. His life is busy. He is on a one-term sabbatical to finish his PhD, was just re-elected to the Oregon House of Representatives, is expecting his first baby in January, and is planning on his wedding in December. He's usually a slug, so this is a busy time for him!

Then, I finished a quilt top for my son's birthday quilt...only promised him this quilt last February for his birthday! He has been nagging me for about a year. His surprise at Christmas this year will be this quilt. It was made from a block of the month from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. Added borders to make it a queen sized quilt. It will be ready by Christmas this year :)

And the final thing I have sewn this past week is a dress for my grandgirl. Last summer I found this great pattern. Kaity always helps me select the fabrics for her clothes. I promised her two things last Christmas, after watching her face fall while opening different boxes that held the three complete outfits I made for her.

1. No clothes for gifts ever again
2. No surprise fabrics for any outfit

So picking out fabrics is a Mamaw and Kaity time together. I buy her a fat quarter each time we go to the fabric store. It goes into the Kaity Stash bin. Soon we will make a quilt together.

Tonight Kaity invited me to a Tea Party with her Girl Scout troop. She is a Daisy Girl. Five years old is the perfect age, isn't it? I walked her to the bus stop this morning. What a bundle of joy! She skipped and danced all the way. Lots of hugs and kisses. Life is good :)

A friend on the Quilting Forum on Delphi send me a cute panel that I am planning to quilt this weekend. It will be donated to Project Linus. Most years I try to make a few quilts for PL. This past year I didn't have much time to sew as my hands were full while acting the position of Division Dean. Now I have time again :)

Life is good :)

Weekly pic is not that different than the week before. People are actually starting to notice except they don't know they are noticing. Most people ask if I have done something different with my hair or ask if I have had a hair cut. I just nod and smile LOL

Take care of one another. Spread positive energy~~ Practice peace~~~

I have been feeling good lately. My naturopath has been giving me Lazar-light pain treatments for my lower back--I have constant spasms in my lower back because my gait is off. Even with a knee replacement, my right knee will not go completely straight nor bend more than about 100 degrees. So my gait is off. Anyway, we have been working with a Lazar-light pain treatment that is doing a good job. Less spasms, less pain, and more comfort! So I have been feeling good.

And I have been moving better. The less pain is part of the reason and the loss of 28 pounds! Yes! A loss of 3.6 pounds showed up on the scales today at weigh in. I still have excess fluid, but the weight was leaving....the body finally let it show up! YippeeSkippee!

I also figured out why the fluid is hanging around so much--along with other problems that had been working just fine for the past few months. A few weeks ago I had serious arthritis pain in my "good" knee and the orthopedic doctor gave me a shot of cortisone. Now cortisone has never worked for me, but I thought maybe this was okay this time. Naw...my body just doesn't like cortisone. It blocks hormone replacement stuff, gives me headaches, I get all weepy and cranky and my body just falls apart...and meanwhile the cortisone wears off within oh maybe 1.5 weeks rather than the usual 4-6 months. So this accounts for the extremes I have been experiencing. I thanked myself for my diagnosis, paid me my usual fee, and told me to call me in the morning.

Twenty eight pounds. I can see a difference this week in my weekly picture. Peace~~

Ornaments and Applique

On the Quilting with a Passion forum, we are having an ornament swap. I am not very crafty. Oh I like crafts, but they always tend to look like they did when I was in grade school. Now that wasn't a plea for compliments, but the truth. But I still go forward with projects, even though the finished results are very different than what was in my head. Here is my contribution to the swap... They look pretty good because you can't see the glue LOL Hey. I just noticed that sitting there they are kind of cute :)

And back in September, I took a trip with my friend Dorothy to visit our friend Sheryl--scrapquilter--who is an excellent needle-turn applique quilting person.

She made this beautiful wallhanging for me and one for Dorothy! It jes don't get no sweeter than this!

Sheryl helped me get some of the blocks ready for sewing and taught me how to needle-turn...none of these hearts are great but they are finished!This is just four of the 12 I will be making for the quilt I have in mind--each block has a different color theme of scrappy hearts.

I am really not very good at this skill (I am not a perfectionist in my sewing) nor very fast, but I am determined to finish this quilt top before I die :) I have a small wallhanging I want to make my mom for Christmas--bought when I was back in St. Louis with Dorothy and Sheryl--that is 100% needle-turn. I wanted a bit of practice first, but now it is time to start my mom's so that it is finished before Christmas!

This week was better in how it showed up on the scales. I dropped the three pounds that I had gained last week plus half a pound more. That's a total of 24.6 pounds. I am happy with this.

I am still having a problem with excess fluid. As I have said before, my naturopathic doctor and I have been working on this problem. I have the ability to retain over 10 pounds, up to 20 on occasion, of fluid at times. My feet and legs are horrible like elephant legs with piggy feet, and then given a few weeks the fluid goes down to a normal five pounds excess. Historically I simply have an extra five pounds of fluid all the time. I could get rid of it with daily doses of diuretics, but usually I just lived with it. In part of my medical wholeness, we have been trying to find the cause of this and other pain and fluid problems--it could be an autoimmune disease. It is more likely morphed Fibromyalgia. But we are working on discovering the problems. Part of what I am taking is suppose to reduce the fluid without depleting the body of things it needs--it is not a diuretic. But it has been doing its job because I have only three pounds rather than 10-15-20. I did finally take a diuretic last evening. If I hadn't, I would have had a gain once again. Therefore, I do not believe that .6 pounds is the true loss for the past two weeks.

Evidence: while I can't tell a difference this week in the weekly picture, I see it at other times.

• I have noticed that I have some bones in my shoulders on occasion.
• When I put on the same each weigh-in week blouse and skirt, I noticed that the blouse tended to fall straight down across my hips rather than show a bulge on each side.
• Movement is a bit easier; walking is not as big a deal. I had to walk the four blocks home from the bus stop a few nights ago and actually enjoyed it.

So I have lost almost 25 pounds. I am feeling good and pleased with myself, although disappointed that what I am doing is not showing up in traditional ways. I still have some fluid problems but am sludging my way through :) It is all about the journey, isn't it?