As they say...

timing is everything. I was going to Vikki's house (cake lady from the other day) to cut her hair at 11am and worried about when I would have lunch. Christian and Isabella came over and then we were going to Vikki's. Vikki called to say that it would work better for her if we came at 1pm instead. Yay! We stayed home and fed Isabella and Christian had some tomato bisque and I had ch...oops! I almost spilled the beans!! No beans on this diet!!

We got finished at Vikki's, she gave Isabella some toys that her grandchildren had gotten too old for, we then went to a Ford dealer to get the code for the keyless entry for Christian's Taurus that they bought last month. We got home in time for me and Izzy to have a snack, Christian left for work and then I put Isabella down for her nap. Laundry time!!

Now I am good til supper!! Yay, no eating out, no cheating and still on track!!

Oh and the sinus rinse is helping with my headaches!!

P6, day 6

Had breakfast, working on my water. Fixin' to get up and vacuum the livingroom and sweep the kitchen. Christian and Isabella are on their way here, with her crawling around and I'm being more diligent with keeping the cat and dog hair up. Need to start brushing Ginger again, she just started shedding her winter coat. She isn't a long haired dog but she does have a double coat, she's ginger colored but with an under coat of blond and that gets EVERYWHERE!!!

Will post again later, hopefully about my success in not eating out today.

P6, day 5, part 2

Another gorgeous day in Memphis!! Diet is going well, no cheats at all.

Made tomato bisque for the hubby at the request of my oldest daughter. She and Isabella are coming over for lunch tomorrow, actually I bribed her with the bisque to bring Izzy over so that I wouldn't have to go get her.

Here is Isabella with the Easter Bunny like I promised. Her dress looks coral but it is a very vibrant pink, the store camera changed the color a little.

Found out today what the changes to P6 are, not much, 2 things removed and 2 things added. I think the reason the changes were made was because one of the items had a lot of sodium and was a concern for some of us. The substitution for this item has more calories so we lost something I really like for something with fewer calories. So, it was mainly a trade off. More calcium for less sodium. That's my theory, anyway.

It should be as successful as this has been, the calorie level is roughly the same.

Night y'all!!

P6, day 5, weigh in...

I lost 3.3 lbs in 5 days!!! This is since Sunday's weigh in. I can't wait to see what it will be on Sunday!!

I'm wearing a shirt I bought 2 months ago that was too snug across my belly to wear. Not anymore!!

Hallelujah!!!

Still on track with the P6 plan, working on getting my water in.

Later, gator!

Good night...

Today was gorgeous!! All the closuds have moved out of the area, the temp was a nice 72, breezy, we had the office door open all day and it was wonderful!!!

Vikki brought cake and it looked good and probably tasted good, I went and made coffee and had it instead. And it wasn't that hard to turn it down.

Allan mentioned on his blog that some of our food will be changing...some additions and some subtractions. I really hope that it's not much. I'm really doing well on this and I hate to change what is working and is easy for me. I have been extremely good and not cheated at all, no substitutions or additions. Saturday and Sunday will be the real test, that is when my will power is at it's lowest. Thankfully, Christina will be at a friend's house and we won't be having lunch or dinner out.

Praise and worship practice was really long tonight. There is one person that doesn't ever seem to have his act together. It would surprise me greatly to find out that he actually practiced during the week like we are supposed to, to prepare for practice.

I'm off to bed! Night y'all!

Cake...

The lady next door brought cake in for everyone. I declined.

P6, day 3, part 2

Took my youngest to the mall to get a gift for her friend whose party is Sat. Stayed away from the food court. The only food sign I saw was for Auntie Anne's pretzels. Not a real temptation, I do love soft pretzels, though. Sam's Club has them in their deli and those are wonderful!

Got back in the car and I realized that I was HUNGRY!!! Drank a lot of water once I got back into the car, it helped. Having dinner now while I type.n

I received the book I won from Debbi at Debbi Does Dinner Healthy in the mail yesterday, opened it tonight and it looks interesting. Probably start reading it later tonight. The Lean Belly Description by Dr. Travis Stork.

Not much else going on tonight, just kicking back and watching tv. I have praise and worship practice tomorrow night. I'll need to bring my stuff for dinner to work and eat before I leave.

Night y'all!

P6, day 3

About to have lunch. Doing well so far, no cheating at all, not even a bite of someone else's food. Like Tammy's zucchini lasagna that I brought her last night, even though it was tempting because I knew how good it was. Thank God she now has all of the left overs from Sunday.

We are having more rain and tornado warnings today. Nasty weather, lots of rain. Tomorrow it's supposed to be gone and clear skies again. YAY!!!

Wonder what I will have for lunch today?? Oh yeah, same thing I had yesterday and the day before! Good, but boring.

I survived!!

and resisted!! Thanks so much for the encouragement! I am about to leave work and it is Tuesday!! That means it's dinner at Tammy's and we watch the crying fat people tonight. That is what one of our local radio stations calls "The Biggest Loser". We love that show. I am bringing her dinner which is the left over zucchini lasagna that I made for Easter lunch on Sunday and I will also be bringing my dinner of ... oh sorry it's a secret! SHH!!!

Y'all enjoy your night and choose your food well!

Much love!!

P6, day 2, part 2

THE OTHER AGENT IN OUR OFFICE ORDERED DOMINO'S PIZZA!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!! NNNNNOOOOO!!!!! MUST RESIST! SMELLS SOOO GOOD!!!

P6, day 2

Things are going good so far. Working on my water, lots of it! Not really having hunger issues yet, but being busy helps. I'm sure the repetition of this will get boring but maybe that will be a help distancing me from the love of food and help me make it less important to me. It's just 13 days with 11 left.

I have a headache but this has been going on for a week or two, so it's not the new plan. I think it's sinus because it started in TX and just has not gone away. I did a sinus rinse this morning and I will do this for a couple of days to see it helps, if not, I'll make an appt for Friday to see the dr.

Later, gator!

P6

Today was not too bad. It was really very busy at work today and that helped distract me from food. There is a lot less food in P6 and a lot of liquid!! I missed my high blood pressure medicine this weekend and it is a diuretic that helps with the swelling in my ankles. Over the last 2 yrs, when I was first diagnosed with high blood pressure, I have lost weight and the medicine has been decreased as I have lost. I am down to just the diuretic part of it and after missing 3 days, I remembered this morning, took it and have peed all day long!!!

We had some severe thunderstorms today and some tornado warnings for about an hour this afternoon. It got pretty ugly for a little while. We seem to be having a lot more rain than we ususally do.

Today is Allan's one year anniversary since he started his weight loss and in that time he has lost 192 lbs!!! That is amazing! He has been so dedicated, focused and single minded about losing weight and getting healthy that it just blows my mind. That's an average of 3.69 lbs per week, 16 per month. Those are some pretty consistant and awesome numbers!

Off to read some other blogs!!

Night y'all!

Happy Easter...

Church this morning was awesome! Izzy looked absolutely adorable! I'll post her pic with the Easter Bunny tomorrow from work, that way I can scan it and post it that way. If I just take a picture of it, it won't be clear.

Phase 6 starts for me, Debbie, Amanda, Kelly and Allan tomorrow. I bought all my supplies yesterday and am ready to go. I have to say I think this is going to be tough. Very regimented, with exact foods and amounts. Good news, though, we can have all the water we want!!

I will do this, it won't be easy, but it will be worth it. I am losing on average 2 lbs per week but during Phase 4 it was 4-5 per week. I think this may help kick start me again. I just wanted it to go faster. I didn't get fat overnight and I know I won't get healthy overnight.

Tired tonight. I think I will go soak in the tub and then go to bed.

Night y'all.

Friday night...

The passion party was fun. I did well resisting the food and marguaritas. I had dinner before I went and that helped.

Came home with Isabella. We are going to take her to have pics done with the Easter Bunny tomorrow. That'll be fun. Need to stay away from the food court!!! I love the cookies and pretzels and chinese food. I can't even imagine how many calories are in the bourbon chicken that they sell at the chinese place.

Night y'all

Kettlebell...

I did the kettlebell workout with Jillian this morning and made it through about 10 min. Smacked myself in the knee with a 5lb kettlebell switching hands. The getting down and up from the floor was hard. My knees aren't in great shape but with the weight loss they are getting better. I will keep doing this because it does feel good. It's not jarring and the swinging of the kettlebell is kinda soothing in a way. Weird, I know.

Got the food list from Allan this morning and will go shopping this weekend for supplies. This will be an interesting 2 weeks, I thought it was for 1 but I guess we need to do it for 2 to get accurate results. I really hope I can stick with this, it should really boost my weight loss.

My daughter is having a uummm... party at her house tonight and I have been invited. I am, by no means a prude, but there is just something strange about going to one of these with your daughter. I will be leaving Christina (16) at home. I told Christian that I would only come if I could bring Isabella home tonight so that I wouldn't have to make that 45 min drive to her house tomorrow to pick her up. She reluctantly agreed. She has to be at work in the early afternoon so it works out for her as well. So I get Izzy for 2 nights, yay!!

Coffee time!

I may have bitten off more than I can chew!!!

Allan is letting me preview phase 6 starting on Monday with him and Kelly. I'm a little scared, now! LOL I have gathered from his post that the plan will be top secret for now. I can't wait to get it and see what it will be like.

I feel so much better now. I have a little distance from grandmother's death now and I can think of her and not want to cry. I miss her, but I know she is not hurting anymore and now we can talk about some of the silly things she did and enjoy her memory like she would've wanted.

I am off to bed. Oh, btw, hubby is off having his sleep study done. Lucky duck will only have to do one night, whereas, I had to do two. One to determine if I have sleep apnea and one to decide what air pressure I would need. His is so severe that the dr. took one look at his survey/paper work, that he said that there was no need for the first night. He texted me to say that he loved the bed. They use a sleep number bed and it is very comfortable. Now we BOTH want one. Time to start a savings plan for one!!

Night!

Thurs...

47 days left to the challenge. I wonder where I will be then. It would be awesome to be under the 300 lb mark! Each decade of pounds is a milestone for me. When I think of needing to lose 155 lbs, it seems impossible, but looking back at where I started, maybe not. I mean, I've lost 68 lbs from my highest weight 2 yrs ago. I am getting close to that century mark and it's kind of scary. I don't know why. Will I be the same person then? I don't think so. I feel the differences in my personality already. I am more out going and feel more confident in myself. I don't feel as lazy as I used to. I was getting to the point, that it was all I could do to get to work and come home. I would sit and have my children get things for me. I would fix dinner and then I was done for the day. I don't do that anymore. I have more energy so I do more for them and myself. If this is what 68 lbs feels like, what will 223 feel like? OMG, did I just write that?? When I first started this, I had my goal set higher on my tracker so that I wouldn't see over 200 lbs to go because I just couldn't face that number. Now I am waaay under that amount and it feels good! WHEN I reach my goal, I will be less than half of myself!! That's mind boggling to me. Ok, I need to stop scaring myself!!

I read a comment that Allan made to someone saying to look at food that you love like it is killing you and that is so true!! He hit the nail on the head with that one! It's like being in an abusive relationship, it will wear you down and make you weaker and weaker, then it will eventually kill you, not just spiritually but physically, as well.

I am really curious about Phase 6. I hope with his "follow or get out" on this one, that he will give us more details before it starts, that way we can know what we are getting into and those that can't follow it will just not start, instead of dropping out. I know it is discouraging to him for people to quit and maybe this will prevent that.

Later!

Great day...

Today was great!!! My husband found another job to replace the one he has now. Monday, for the second time, they have fired him and rehired him at a much lower salary. I am sick and tired of him getting jacked around and I told him so. It is not right. He called a company that he had turned down a couple of months ago to see if they still had some openings. He said not really but to come by and they would talk. He turned it down because it was for the same money and he was trying to increase his pay so the change was not worth it, even though it was for 5 days a week instead of the 6 he works now, goofball. Well, today they hired him and he starts on 5/9. He came by my office today and we talked and he finally took my advice to leave his current job. He is going to see if they will pay his vacation time when he turns in his notice. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Diet is back on track, because of an all day binge on Sunday, I had gained 2 pounds, but as of today they are gone plus a little extra. Sticking to it like glue!! Thanks, Allan and Debbie for the encouragement and advice, it helped.

Now I need to get my butt to the gym or use the kettlebells and dvd that came in last week. I'll give it a shot in the am before work.

Night y'all

It's Sunday...

We came home on Friday, took our time driving and having fun with Isabella. Just sat around on Saturday doing nothing and feeling sorry for myself. Today we had church and I dropped Isabella off at her MiMi's house this afternoon. I will miss her, but we get her back on Saturday. Still somewhat depressed, it is worse now that I am home and not busy but I think it will be better once I am at work. I have 81 emails and I have already deleted a few. Not a good week...for me emotionally or eatery(I know I didn't use that word correctly). No weight loss this week.

Things to do....

This is what we did on Tues at 3pm, the crying, not the face painting....

This is what we did today....

My grandmother loved the TX state flower which is the bluebonnet. There is a bluebonnet trail around the city of Ennis, TX. The trail goes through fields planted with nothing but bluebonnets. There is even part of the trail that is on private property where you can legally pick them. This is where these photos were taken.

We will be going home tomorrow, it's sad to say, but with grandmother gone, I doubt I will be back to Grand Prairie. We do have 2 aunts and uncles here but I don't think we are close enough that I would feel comfortable visiting, well maybe, my Uncle Jack and Aunt Barbara. Their daughters used to pick on me for being fat when we were kids, so I never really liked them. But we are grown ups now and you would think we would be past that but only the older daughter spoke to me at the funeral and introduced her husband to me (her daughters weren't there yet), but her sister ignored me and didn't introduce her daughter. Oh, well, their loss.

This house feels strange without grandmother.

Who put the fun in funeral???

Today is grandmother's funeral. We are all walking on egg shells around my mom. She is a very strong woman and seems to hold onto everything and then it just erupts. I am finding that I am like this, as well. I cry by myself and try not to in front of my children because I feel that I have to be strong for them, but who will be strong for me? My husband was unable to come and I and my children are the only ones from my mom's children to come, except for one nephew who is in town repairing his house that some tenants left a mess. My sister and all of her family and my brothers and their families were unable to come. I am so glad that we could. I can't imagine how hurt my mother would have been if none of her children were here. But I know that she would have given people the excuses that we used and never said a word to us about her being dissappointed.

Here is Christian and Isabella ready to go. Christopher and Christina wouldn't let me take pics of them.

Here I am driving to the service. My friend, Tammy always takes pics of herself driving so I thought I would give it a shot. Not too bad.

These are the beautiful flowers that my sister sent. She couldn't come because she had just taken time off for her daughter who has been in the hospital for the last month trying not to have the twins that she is pregnant for because it is waaaay too early! My brother-in-law's company that he works for has gone bankrupt.

And, oh my word!!! The funeral food!!! Wow! We have enough to feed an army!!! And with this family, that's just about right! I didn't do well resisting this. The pastor said at the funeral that grandmother had, I think, 24 grandchildren and 32 great grandchildren and 10 great, great grandchildren!!! Amazing!!

My grandmother's pastor spoke at the funeral and it's funny because she attended the chuch before he did and then he was there about 30 yrs before retiring and she was still there!! She became his second mother after his own had passed away.

The chapel sat 95 and there was standing room only. She was well loved and will be missing a great deal.

Yesterday's drive...

We left Memphis at a few minutes to 7 on Monday morning. About an hour outside of Memphis we ran into some severe thunderstorms until we reached Little Rock, then after that it was smooth driving.

Once we left Texarkana, it was beautiful, clear skies all the way to Big D!!

We stopped for lunch at a Denny's just before Texarkana. Christina saw this and had to have some. So, I can't believe I am going to say this, but I paid $5 for a bag of rocks!!!

The Denny's was attached to a gas station for truckers and they had a deli. Does this look obscene or is it just me?

This is Christina talking to her boyfriend on the way! She'd kill me if she knew that I said that!!

Here is Dallas!!!

We got to grandmother's at about 4.

We've gotten to see family that I have never met and cousins galore.

oh, wow!!

I just realized that I have lost a little over 50 lbs since the beginning of Phase 4. YAY!!!

oh, wow!!

oh, wow!!

Church...

was hard on Christina today. She cried through most of the praise and worship part of the service and everytime someone asked her what was wrong. She kept saying she just wanted to go home, but I was singing this morning and didn't want to leave. She said later that she was glad we had stayed. It helped. We are leaving in the morning to go to Grand Prairie. It will be just the 2 of us as my older 2 children and grandchild left this afternoon. Christian wanted to be there early to help my mom in any way that she could. I wanted to leave today but I had some things at work that I needed to finish up since I won't be there this week. Just about done packing. Took the car to my son's work and we detailed it. He works at Carwash USA and we went through the wash, I vacuumed and then he said that I didn't do it good enough and did it again. He put some rainx on the windows and sent me through the wash again. Van looks great. Came home and took the bench seat out of the back to make room for the hope chest. I'll bring my laptop but I don't think that my uncle (who lives with my grandmother) has internet, but I will try to go somewhere with wifi and do updates. I can check my email and read blogs on my iphone but I haven't tried to blog on it. Don't know that I have the tolerance to try to figure it out right now. Thank you all so much for your good thoughts and prayers, they are needed and appreciated!! Love y'all and God bless!!

Heart broken...

I went to Zumba this morning and got there and it had been cancelled, I went home planning to go to a local church at 10 to attend a Zumba class. I was sitting reading and my sister text me and asked it I was still going to be able to go. I asked her, to TX? No answer. I called my mom and told me that my grandmother had passed away in the night and that she was waiting to hear from someone and then she was going to call me. My grandmother, Annie Autin Seal Johnson, was a wonderful woman whom we loved very much. She lost her hearing when she was 2 after a bout of scarlet fever. My mom and I went to TX every summer when I was a child for 2-3 weeks at a time. I loved this time with her and my step grandpa Charlie. She had a hard life, she was born on June 29, 1909. My real grandfather was a hard man and very abusive to her, she survived that and before I was born married a wonderful man name Charles Johnson. They were the loves of each others lives. He died when I was in college in 1982. My mom is the oldest of the 6 children that my grandmother had and the only girl. Momma always said that her children were grandmother's favorites because we would play with her and talk to her, with voice and sign. My cousins only spoke to her when they had to. My children were her favorite great grandchildren for the same reasons. She especially loved Christina, my youngest. She was also very special to Christina. She has cried almost non-stop since I told her. I told Christian and Christopher this afternoon after they had dropped Christina off at the mall to hang out with her boyfriend. I told Christina tonight after I picked her up. It has hit her the hardest, but I did most of my crying this morning when I was alone, now it is time to be strong for my children. My mom will be packing her things at grandmother's house and moving back to Louisiana in a couple of weeks. My Uncle Bob will be helping her and using his truck to move her things. I know my mom will be glad to be back in her own home soon. She has missed my sister and brother and their families that live there. My youngest niece is in the hospital for a while with the twins that she is carrying, she came really close to losing them and she is being kept in the hospital until she gives birth. I know my mom has missed being able to go see her. We were planning a trip to LA next month but now I won't be able to afford to. Maybe in the fall when I have more vacation time. Christian and Christopher will be leaving tomorrow afternoon to go to TX and Christina and I will be leaving early Monday morning. I'm able to stay for the entire week if I want but Christian and Christopher need to be back at work on Thurs. Also, I will be bringing back a hope chest that my grandmother wanted me to have and also a sewing machine that my mom had bought for her years ago. Mine is broken and mom has a really nice one at home in LA, so she doesn't need it. Plus a few nick nacks that grandmother made me pick out a few years ago. Grandmother was 2 1/2 months away from her 102nd birthday. She was welcomed into Heaven with the loving and open arms of our Savior and all of the family that has preceded her. She will be greatly missed...

November 2010

Grandmother and Isabella

Friday!!...

THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY!!! I am STILL not caught up from the power being out on Monday!! I really should go in for a couple of hours some time this weekend, but I don't know if I can face those 4 walls when I am off. Took Christina to Christian's house last night after practiceand she will be home tomorrow. Christian is bringing her home and then she and Isabella are staying and spending the day with me. We will be dropping Christina off at the mall so that she can spend some time with her boyfriend. Yikes!! They like each other a couple of years ago and then they had a big fight and broke up. She was really hurt and he has been trying to get back together off and on for a while now. We'll see how it goes. She is 16 and has not had a first date yet. She made the purity promise when she was 12 and swears that she will keep it. I will be trying Zumba at my gym in the morning. I really hope I enjoy it and can do it. I used to love to dance but it has been years. I know y'all will think I am crazy, but I loved disco!! I was in jr high/middle school when it was popular and adored the Bee Gees, Diana Ross, Peter Frampton, Abba...those were the days. I remember going to a birthday party and we danced for hours!! Been very diligent with the diet and following the plan, I just hope I don't blow it this weekend. Weekends are my downfall. We tend to eat out a lot and I don't always make the best choices when we do. I have told my family that we have to stop doing this. They have said that they will stop pushing me to take them out or if its me and the girls, we will go somewhere that I can get a salad or something else plan friendly. With the last couple of weeks of meal that Allan has given us for the challenge the calories have been different on each day. He said something (paraphrasing) about helping us to be flexible but still keep losing weight. Having a high calorie day and then a low calorie day so that we can learn to adjust. In keeping with that, I have been reading a lot of label and oh, my gosh!! I had no idea the calorie content of some of my favorite foods. I have been looking at label with the phase 4 food plan in mind...basically 3 meals at 300 calories and 3 snacks at 100 calories for a total of 1200 per day. Easy to remember. I looked at mac and cheese and me and Christina would split a box and have that for lunch on a lazy Saturday. The way I made it, with a whole stick of real butter instead of margarine, it was about 2000 calories for the box, I would eat about 2/3's of it. A bologna sandwich, 2 slices of bread, 2 slices of bologna, 1 slice of am cheese and mayo and mustard. Easy 500 calories, my husband would eat 2, with chips. Dear God, what we were doing to ourselves?? It is really scary when I look at what we were eating and some of my family still does. I stopped buying snack food 3 months ago. My husband will go and buy him a stash every now and then, but I am realizing it is not always what I would consider junk food that is making us fat. It is the ungodly amount of carbs that we were eating and I don't mean all carbs but the bad ones. White bread, starchy veggies breaded foods, sugar and pasta. I realized today that I have never been on a diet for this long before in my life. It will be 3 months tomorrow since I started. I took phen/fen for a few months but that doesn't really count because I didn't change the way I ate, I just ate less. I didn't learn anything. I pray that this time is different, it feels different, it feels like I could do this for the rest of my life. I pray that this is a permanent change in my life, my attitude towards food and my health.

Yay!!! It's hump day!!

Only 2 more days of work!! Thank God! We had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings on Monday and we lost power at work at about 11:15. I went home at about 1:30 and the office next door to us called at 3 and the power was still off. I am still trying to catch up!! Diet is going well. Went to the store on the way home and bought stuff for the new plan that starts on Friday. This will be interesting, low cal and low carb. I found out that my gym has Zumba classes and I am going on Sat to check it out. My friend, Tammy started going to some at local churches and she loves it!! But she is much lighter and more fit than I am and her energy level is incredible! Later, gators!!

Fun...

had so much fun with the girls yesterday!! I spent too much money, of course! Bought some clothes for the girls, some kitchen gadgets and sugar free syrup for coffee, Torani syrup. Hey, Julie, this is for you!!! Here is Christina trying to eat Isabella's face!!

This is Izzy's imitation of a baby bird.

Here is Christian and Isabella once we arrived at church and changed her clothes.

Night y'all!

Saturday...

and waiting for my girls to show up!! Christian's husband has drills this weekend, he is in the National Guard, and she has the day off, so I get both of them for the day!! Yippee!!! We will go somewhere for lunch and then shopping. I am being smart this weekend and I am checking nutrition info at a few places that Christian mentioned that she wanted to go. Red Lobster is my top choice, the Rock Lobster, Crab and Shrimp are listed at 310 calories. I know that I will need to have them not use butter and stuff when they cook it. And no Cheddar Bay biscuits, they are 150 calories each!! I can't afford it yet, but I want to get a Wii. I have heard the the dance games are really fun and good exercise. Tammy went to a Zumba class the other day and loved it. I need to try one to see if I would like it or if I could keep up. The girls are here, gotta go!!

Holy cow!!

This has been a week from the hot place!!! Busy at work, busy at home. Hubby had a job interview this am and it went well. I really hope that he will find something that he likes soon. He still has a job but he works 6 days a week, about 61 hrs per week. No benefits, except for vacation which he hardly ever uses. He is in the car repair/maintenance business. This was a second interview and he is supposed to hear something next week, so hopefully... We got some bad news the other day. My grandmother, who is almost 102, fell, Sunday, while my mom was changing her clothes (grandmother's), she hit her head and had to be taken to the hospital. She has a couple of cracked ribs and lots of bruises. She was then taken to a trauma hospital and then released on Tues. She is not interested in eating or drinking and the hospice nurse told my mom to emtionally prepare herself for the end. I know my grandmother is ready to go home and be with the Lord, but I pray that my mom will find new purpose once she is gone. My mom has taken care of her for over 15 years, about 6 months after my dad died. Mom will be 81 on Wed. My husband took our van to work the other day and did a lot of work on it to make sure that it was ready for the drive to Grand Prairie TX. He had the oil changed, rotated the tires, fixed the broken window motor, changed all the filters and filled all the fluids. I'll have to email Anne H (Carb Tripper) and see if we can meet for lunch or dinner somewhere!! After reading her blog for 2 1/2 months, I feel like I know her!! Just finished putting red highlights (big streaks) in my youngest daughter's hair. She has med brown hair with bright red highlights and she puts black on the ends around her face. We will be trimming her hair and putting the black in tomorrow. I'll post a pic of the finished style. We have been doing the red for a while now and she got a wild idea about black ends last month and loved it. So, it was time to do it again. Well, I am off to bed. Night y'all!