Lose It!

All summer I've been trying to focus on my weight and fitness level, but have been hit and miss (mostly miss, sadly) with my results. I believe that any workout is good for your body, whether or not the scale actually does anything...so I know it's all been worth it...but clearly, I was missing something. My weight pretty much has not moved at all since school got out in May. Frustrating!

While I was sitting in my dad's hospital room, I stumbled across a FREE weight loss app for my iPhone (also available for Android) called LoseIt! In just the few days since I downloaded it, it has completely re-directed my efforts, and guess what? I've lost some weight!

It's really very simple and easy; nothing new or revolutionary. In order lose weight/get in shape you have to watch what you eat, and exercise, right? Right! So why do I love the app? Because it kind of feels like a game. When you create a profile, you enter your age, height, weight, goal weight, and how "quickly" you want to lose. (It allows you to choose increments between 1/2 lb. per week and 2 lbs. per week.) From there, LoseIt! establishes a daily "budget" for you. Then you simply enter the food you eat (it tracks all of the nutritional information), and all of the exercise you do...and it does the rest! It's so easy to see when you're "done" for the day. It's SO NICE to see how your meals stack up, and have a limit set to monitor your intake. Plus, there are fun little features like earning "badges" for sticking with it, etc.

Who knew the motivation I needed was an app?!? For the first time in a long time I feel like I'm on the right track!

(I was not asked to review LoseIt!, nor is this a paid endorsement...I just simply love this app and wanted to let you know about it!!!)

Home!

Oh, blessed home!

My dad came home from the hospital yesterday. Patrick and I brought him home around 4pm, thinking to ourselves "now we can take a nap!" But then we spent the rest of the day chasing prescriptions, getting the oxygen delivery, etc. We finally fell into bed around 11pm, lol.

But it's so great to have Dad back home. He's alive! He's recovering! Thank you, God.

I slept til 11:30 this morning. Can you imagine? But good lord, it felt good. Got up, and ate a hot breakfast and then went to the gym...where I KILLED it. You'd think I had some built-up stress or something, lol!!!

Tired

My Dad's surgery was a week ago, and he's recovering pretty well. He has COPD, so his lungs are having a hard time. Since surgery, he gets into respiratory distress when they have him move around too much, so we're having to be really careful of that. Plus, he's still retaining a lot of fluid in his chest cavity, which of course is affecting his ability to breathe deeply. We're looking at maybe Friday as the first chance he may come home. He will most likely come home on oxygen.

I kinda got to the end of my rope yesterday. It's been a long, long 2-1/2 weeks. I've been spending all day, every day at the hospital. I've been doing all the driving (it's down in Atlanta), running of the errands midday, hustling doctors, etc...and with all the worry, etc...I was just overwhelmed. I found myself just over-emotional. Weepy, angry, anxious, etc. Patrick took my mom today, so I could have a "day off." I spent the day with Shannon, which was just what I needed.

We did some back to school shopping, and got haircuts.

If you'd keep sending prayers this way, I'd appreciate it!!! <3

Surgery today

My dad had another bout of bad chest pains, and ended up readmitted, and then transferred to two different hospitals in a 24 hour period.

Today he is having a minimum of triple bypass open heart surgery. Please keep my sweet dad, Vince in your prayers.

A tough one

This week was one for the books. I am exhausted mentally and physically. I don't even know where or how to start.

My dad was taken by ambulance to the hospital with chest pains, and now we're looking at him needing triple bypass surgery...if the surgeon is willing to attempt it, due to his other health concerns and the locations of the blockages. He is home on medication now, and will meet with the surgeon on Tuesday to discuss his options.

Shannon was a counselor this week at Girl Scout camp, and on Wednesday slipped and fell on her foot. We thought it might be broken, but luckily an xray showed "just" soft-tissue damage. With a well wrapped foot she was able to finish her week at camp.

We had another major snafu this week with P's disability and a doctor's office, but it's way too detailed to rehash. We're pretty confident that it's all on the way to working out now, but it took a lot of miles and phone calls (and worry).

I'm not even going to go into the whole debt ceiling thing...and lack of guarantee of the disbursement of social security/disability checks in August. I can't control that, so at this point, I just have to pray and have faith.

I've got enough other stuff on my plate that this point.

I swear I've aged 20 years this week!

Blur

My gosh, this week passed in a blur.

When I left off, Shan had piano lessons...and then she offered to help prep crafts for next week's Girl Scout camp. (And proud mom alert...she was the ONLY counselor that offered to help or showed up.)

That night, Patrick and I went out on a date. We went out for sushi...and I was SO brave. I ate EEL! Anyway, then we went to see Larry Crowne and enjoyed it a lot! It's just a nice story. No big drama, just a story. T'was fun.



Thursday, we took Shannon out to Rome, GA to see Berry College. I think we might have a top contender on her list now. Not only is it strong academically, has a small student population, and just feels *right*...Shannon thought it looked like Hogwarts, lol. In fact, as we walked around, she kept the Harry Potter soundtrack playing on her iPod and had one earbud in. Hahahaha!





That night, she and I went over to my bestie's house (who has a daughter a few years younger than Shan) for a sleepover. Oh my stars, we had so MUCH fun. "What happens at Vegas stays in Vegas" type of fun, lol!!! We went to sleep at 5 am.



And THEN, we got up at 9:30 to drop Shannon off for a counselor team building outing. They went to this cool thing called Dialog in the Dark, down in Atlanta. It's an exhibit that takes place in complete darkness, that forces you to rely on all of your other senses. She LOVED it.



At 5:30 when we picked her up, I expected her to be exhausted. Instead, she said "Hey mom! K is having her bible study tonight...well, right now. Can I go?" So instead of bringing her home and putting her to bed, I dropped her off at the neighbors.

Today has at least been spent at home, but we shampooed all the carpets and then went to the pool while they dried. Patrick grilled us steaks for dinner while my mom and I did asparagus and salt crusted baked potatoes. Yummmmm-o!!!

So anyway! The summer fun continues! Shannon's got open house for GS camp tomorrow, and then camp is all next week.

Adding to the list of fun

So, Shannon got home safe and sound from her mission trip to Appalachia. Once again she LOVED it, although I swear to you, I think that every bug in TN and KY bit her legs. Good grief. Anyway, she got home on Friday afternoon, and basically ate, showered, and went to bed for 12+ hours! Doing home repair in the summer heat is HARD work.

On Saturday afternoon, my friend Tricia invited Shan and I up to TN (lol! Back to TN for Shan) for an impromptu quickie visit while they did some work at the IL's house. We threw our toothbrushes in the car, and hit the road! We ate dinner with Tricia and her family, and then went next door to their aunt's house for a night swim. We saw lots of fireflies, bats, and satellites from the pool. SO fun. After the kids went to bed, Tricia and I sat up talking into the night. We headed home around lunchtime on Sunday.





Once we got showered up on Sunday afternoon, we went and helped build a float for our preschool to be in our town's 4th of July parade. It turned out very cute and patriotic. We ran back home, picked up Patrick and my parents, and then headed to see fireworks! What a GREAT show! It was long too...which I love. Probably 20 minutes or so!





Monday found us at one of our local high schools at about 8:45 am...putting finishing touches on our float.



We stood around, then got ready, then walked the parade, advertising our wonderful school.





It was memorable, and super fun. Doing stuff like that, you really feel a part of your community, y'know? Anyway, once we got done, we met up with the fam and had lunch at Chick Fil A. We were BEAT! I think we all came home and took a nap in the air conditioning. For dinner we grilled out hot dogs (while it thundered), and ate corn on the cob, baked beans, and chips. For dessert we had red/white/blue strawberries!



Today, Shan met up with friends to go to the mall, and then see a movie. It's her first time going without a grown up...and whooo...I think that was way harder on me than it was on her! Hahahaha! Now she's sleeping over at her friend's house. My baby's growing up! Tomorrow is piano lesson, and then helping prep some crafts for Girl Scout Daycamp next week.

I'll say one thing...we sure are keeping BUSY this summer! I LOVE IT!