MORE Resolutions!

I told ya'll this was the year of change! I've been MIA recently, but did I tell you I've been working HARD on myself? Yay me!

Ok, I had my CT scan last Friday, with out going into the horrid details let me just say it went. I'll know the results some time this week, hopefully.

As far as the other resolution to eat healthy. I am. I'm eating healthy snacks, because I'm all about snacking and with my condition, I can't sit down and gorge myself or I'll spew like a new lawn sprinkler. So I snack, sometimes 5-6 times a day. I've been trying some of the Weight Watchers, Healthy Choice and Lean Cuisine dinners out there. Some are good and some are yuck, and when I say yuck, I mean why can't they all not taste like card board? Who likes wood by products in their diet? This coming from a not so picky eater. A lot of them have tomato sauce and that's a no no, so I'm really having to pick and choose carefully. As far as the pain is concerned, I've only had a couple of attacks. People, this is HUGE! I can function and eat without pain that sends me sprinting to the bathroom to throw up. That's really a bad idea when sans bolder holder, if you know what I mean. To be pain free is HUGE. Weight Watchers meetings are coming.

Remember resolution #5, use photo editing programs more? I did it! I have no less than $700 in photo editing software that are rarely used. The learning curve for Photoshop is so steep, I gave up before I snatched myself bald. Photoshop Elements isn't as easy as I thought it would be and it's very similar to Photoshop, obviously. I just don't like the formats of them. Combine those with my camera's software, 2 printers and a scanner's software and I can edit my photos till I'm blue in the face. However, none worked for me. They weren't user friendly enough.

When all hope was lost I got a recommendation to try Picasa. Made by Google (God I love those brilliant people) and.....and it's FREE. That's right try it for FREE! Oh, yeah, I'm all over that. So I downloaded it and for 2 nights I sat at my computer and played with my pictures till my heart was full and happy. It's by far the easiest program in the history of photo editing programs to use! Idiots can use this program. Uh, hello, I did.

You want to crop a photo? No problem they have manual, 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 modes. One click, done. You want to change the color of your photo? Black and white, sepia or any variation there of, click, done. You can add text to your pictures with only a few steps and change the color, contrast and brightness with only one click. Click, click, click, done. For those that want all of those settings manually, no problem, you can do that too! Click, done.

I must have gone through 30 of my best photos and tweaked them. It was so much fun and I was so pleased with the results. So pleased in fact, I'm going to submit one of my scrapbook pages to Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc. page call for everyday pages. It's due the 9th but I'll probably get it sent in tomorrow. That ONE photo inspired me so much that I made a great page I love and I want to submit! I'm so happy about that.

So even though I've been gone I've been busy. I promise to update more, honest.

Resolution #1

1.) Make my health a priority.

Remember that resolution? Yeah, well so do I and I've been making strides on that one. I'm going to be signing up for Weight Watchers either this week or next. It depends on when my buddy can join me. She just had knee replacement surgery and we're waiting on the OK from her doctor for her to drive again. She's really limited on where she can go because she's got to keep her knee up and weight off of it for a few more weeks.

She's got a lot to loose, like me, so we'll be in this for the long haul. I'm setting a 15 month goal for myself to have all of this weight lost. I'm not kidding around people! I lost 100 lbs before so I know I can do it again. We're going to attend actual meetings, not do the online thing, and I'm also signing up for Weight Watchers e-Tools too. I need all the support and help I can get with menus, recipes and being able to track my points with my Palm. I'm actually a little excited to start this!

I'm not a big fan of Dr. Phil, in fact I loathe the man. His condescending attitude makes me want to hurl, however one day I got sucked into his show about "big weight loosers". I sat and listened to one woman who sang the praises of Dr. Phil's Self Matters and Ultimate Weight Solution books after loosing over 100 lbs. Those two resources shed some light on why she ate and gave her the tools to modify her behavior.

So off to the library I went and checked them both out. I'm reading the UWS first. So far, some interesting stuff in there. I'm a self help book virgin, by the way, I'll give my review when I'm done with both. Again, I'm trying to give myself a fighting chance at this. I'm trying to arm myself with tools and knowledge.

I had "the talk" with Roman. I told him we're going to have to change our entire way of thinking about food and preparing food. Menus will be planned and we're both going to eat on plan. Little did he know, he was going on Weight Watchers too! We both know how to eat healthy, we both just choose not too and that's our biggest problem. He's on board with less red meat, more chicken and fish but he poo-poo'd the idea of eating tofu and vegetarian dishes. The man needs his meat, damn it! Ok, I can compromise on that, I'm not too fond of tofu myself, Elmer's school paste has more flavor, in my humble opinion.

This past Monday I went to see another GI doctor. For those keeping count, this is #2 in 3 years. He looked over my chart from my other doctor and agreed with her diagnosis after telling him my continued symptoms and pain. He did order a CT scan of my reproductive organs just to eliminate cancer. Evidentially, uterine and ovarian cancers can present as GI problems and by the time they are diagnosed it's too late. He said it's fairly common, so he wants to do the test just to rule out any sort of cancer causing me my pain. He didn't seem too worried but he freaked Roman out good when he uttered the word CANCER. I go in the 27th, this Friday, for the CT.

He gave me a new diet to promote GI tract motility and suggested I stay away from tomato products, onions, peppers and caffeine. He also suggested that I not eat 3 hours before bed and he put me on Prilosec OTC two times a day to deal with the reflux from the hiatal hernia. He doubts the ulcerative lesions in my stomach are worse, as I don't have the signs of a bleeding ulcer, same with the somewhat functioning gall bladder. He says my symptoms are more reflux related. Other than the CT no other tests were scheduled, which surprised me.

I have to go back in 6 weeks for a check up. He wants to see if the dietary modifications and meds are working and taking care of the pain. He said he'll contact me with the CT results as soon as they come in. So now we're in a waiting game. Waiting to see if I feel better with the modifications and the CT comes up negative.

Thought For The Day

"I wish I were a bear... people would expect me to have hairy legs, store excess fat and wake up growling."

That's how I'm feeling and looking for that matter. If you didn't know, I've been ill. It's gone from the Henta Virus-Ebola Outbreak-Strepto Crappy-Bird Flu to a raging case of cedar fever. And yet I made the conscience choice to live in the middle of a freakin' cedar pasture! I sound like I should be locked up in a TP ward. I'm quite attractive, I'll have you know, I go nowhere without the standard box of Kleenex shoved under my armpit. Sexy!! It's the new accessory of choice, try it.

So now you know why I've been MIA, teach you to ask, won't it? So in honor of me dragging my butt back to the computer to blog I'm going to do a meme. Here goes:

Four movies you would watch over and over:

Sixteen Candles
The English Patient
Brokeback Mountain (fan-freakin'tastic, go see it!)
Friday Night Lights

Four places you have lived:

Denton, TX
Austin, TX
San Antonio, TX
Selma, TX

Four TV shows you love to watch:

The Bachelor (shuddup)
Walking The Bible (PBS)
Will and Grace
Gilmore Girls (that's a new one)

Four places you have been on vacation:

London
Scotland
France
Belgium

Four websites you visit daily:

Two Peas In A Bucket
blogs o' plenty-that's more than 4, fo' sure!

Four of your favorite foods: just 4?!?!?

EZ's chicken Caesar salad
any and all things Mexican (Charlie's is high on the list of good places)
seafood-crab cakes to be exact....mmmmmmm Trout St. in Port Aransas
Roadhouse's chicken tenders and honey mustard

Four places you would rather be right now:

in Hawaii visiting Terry and Angie
a bed and breakfast resting and recuperating
visiting the folks
on the sofa curled up

Four bloggers you are tagging:

April
Inanna
Zelda
Jeanette

Bringin' It Home!

After a long absence, UT is bring home a national championship! This one's for your Coach Royal. We deserve it because we out lasted and out played Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and USC. Who comes from a two touchdown deficient with 2:09 to play and wins?

Oh and Mr. Leinart, you need to look up the words "graceful loser" in the dictionary, because you suck at it. Despite not winning Heisman, Vince Young showed the world that he's a top notch player. He can run, he can pass (without question), he's a student athlete and when down he can bring his team to victory. Congratulations Vince, you deserve all the glory!

Sorry for shameless divine Mr. M picture, I couldn't help myself. He's another reason to love UT! Hook 'em!!

T-Minus And Counting

New Year's Eve Roman and I went to Austin to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. I saw a billboard with this logo on it and instantly fell in love. When we win tonight, I wonder what the National Championship t-shirts will look like. Despite being sick, I'm still looking forward to watching the game. It's time to bring home a National Championship, Horns. Hook 'em!

This And That Tuesday

For those of you that didn't know, I got a new PDA for Christmas. As of late it hasn't been called my PDA, it's been called Satan. I've been trying to use the thing for days and it's been acting weird. I thought I didn't have it fully charged, so back on the charger it went. I even went so far as to beg a girlfriend to help me with it, using hers as a demo. No dice, mine was still acting weird and she concurred that mine was "not quite right, like the owner." Check the instruction manual, you say? There ISN'T one! That's right, you heard me, no instruction manual came with the damn thing. Now I recently bought new phones for the homestead and I got an instruction manual with those, but really, how hard are they to use? Push the talk button and dial the number, push the end button when done. But they came with a freakin' instruction manual! Palm, just slightly more complicated, no manual. Bastards, I don't want to save a tree, I want to sit in bed and fiddle with my gadget and not have to be tethered to my computer via Palm.com's troubleshooting site.

I fancy myself somewhat tech savvy. I muddle through quite well, thank you very much. Last night, I gave in and went looking for a tech support number, to which there was none on their site. I didn't care if they were going to charge me $1934 an hour I needed help! By the way, if you need the number, I have it after I had to hunt high and low on a couple of their sites to find it. They hide that shit! By the time I got to talk with someone I was rather perturbed, no manual, no tech support number, no help from their websites. What kind of customer service is that!?!? "Here buy our product, after that you're on your own." Bull!

To make a long story short they don't publish a manual. That's right, no manual. It's all online or either on the software disk. I voiced my displeasure, over and over. I'm thinking my concerns fell on deaf ears. We had to totally reboot my Palm along with reinstalling all the software to my computer. Yep, something was definitely amiss and I'm NOT the stupidest human on the planet. Yay me!! Satan, is working fine now and his new name is Mo, as in Mo work than it's worth!

Now it's time to input all my data. Folks, do you realize how many dates, birthdays, anniversaries addresses, phone numbers, web addressed etc. etc. I have? TONS and it's going to take me the rest of 2006 to get them entered.

New Year, New Me

I'm not a big fan of resolutions. These past few years have been sorta, well, blah. Nothing to write home about, nothing fantastic. I've felt like I've just been marking time. Antidepressants do that too you. You just feel mellow and unmotivated, that's how I feel all the damn time. This year I want to feel different. I need to make some changes, nothing big from your vantage point, but big for me. I'm tired of the blahs and tired of marking time. So for the first time in years, I'm making some New Year's Resolutions!

1.)Make my health a priority!

I've been unhealthy most of my life, except for those few years in my 20's when I was practically bulemic. Don't ask. I'm joining Weight Watchers and going to get down to an acceptable weight. There's no magic number, I'm just going to loose till I'm comfy. I could take the easy way out and go for gastric bypass, I've done the research, but I'm not willing to take the risks when I know I can loose the fat by eating right, exercising and sticking with a life transforming program. For those of you that don't know, I have some serious, uh, plumbing issues with my stomach. I need to consult a doctor that will find a livable solution for me. I've lost faith in the one I've been seeing for years. I have an appointment with a new one in a few weeks.

2.)Scrapbook more.

I have this amazing office and the only time I use it is when I'm on a deadline to get a project done or need to make a card for someone. I'm used to going with the girls to crops at our favorite scrapbook store and working on my pages there. I need to spend some time everyday doing the hobby I love. I've joined a challenge at 2Peas that April started last January and has continued this year. Hopefully it'll give me the motivation to catch up on my pictures I've got printed and do that album all about me that I've been meaning to do for years. I'll try and post as many as I can here so ya'll can see what I've been up to.

3.)Meet a few bloggers.

I'm wanting to go to Tyler to meet April, Austin to see the Trashman up close and personal and even pinch him to see if he's real, Zelda and Jethro because, well because, she's got big hooters and I loves me some ladies with big boobies AND who are republicans! Those are just the Texas crew, I'd like to make it to Cali to meet Jeanette, seriously Golden Gate and Jeanette would make me happy if I died tomorrow. West Virginia to meet the Peachy one because I need to thank her in person for the beautiful rosary that she made me and Ali, I need to get to Atlanta before you move!! You can't move till I come see you and Mike, m'kay? Who knows, maybe even Seven can swing by this year as he cris-crosses the nation. No doubt I'll continue to hang with Brighton et. al and maybe even get up north to see Jack again. I'm keeping the schedule open for travel this year. Impromptu road trips might abound.

4.)Continue to cultivate friendships.

I need to work on getting birthday and anniversary cards to friends. I've seriously slacked off the last few years. My new Palm will hopefully help me remember. I've got a few old college buddies that I would like to catch up with, I haven't seen most of them since my wedding 11 years ago and that's shameful. There are a couple of girls I went to high school with that I would like to check in on. I know where they are, I just need to contact them. I'm still going to work on making new friends and doing my best the be a good friend to the ones that I have.

5.)Use my camera and photo editing programs more.

I have a great digital camera and every kind of cheap to expensive photo editing software known to mankind and yet, I use neither to it's full advantage. I tend to shoot in auto mode and not use the other settings. I'm going to work on learning the features of my camera in order to get better pictures. I also tend to dump my photos from my camera onto my computer then upload them for printing. I don't do any color correction, changing to black and white or other options you can do with photo editing software. Again, it's the laziness factor. I'll be more motivated to scrap if I don't struggle with crappy pictures.

6.)Read something other than a scrapbook magazine.

I need to read more books. I tend to stick with magazines because they aren't time consuming. I like the sense of accomplishment of finishing a magazine in one sitting. I'm wanting to read some good books this year. If you have suggestions let me know, I'm all ears, no sci-fi or Oprah selections please.

7.)Keep the faith.

I guess my one accomplishment for 2005 was getting more involved in my church. I'm teaching RCIA to adults who desire to come into full union with the Catholic church and I've become a eucharistic minister who delivers communion at mass and to those that can't come to mass. Both are really rewarding. After Easter, once RCIA is over, I think I'm going to join one of the many bible study groups. At home I've go some much going on that I don't or forget to pray and thank God for his many blessings. That really, really needs to change.


8.)See the glass half full.

I'm way too negative. I need to start seeing the upside of situations. It's so difficult when you grew up with a totally negative parent. They almost teach you negativity. It's hard to explain, but anyway, this year I'm really going to work on seeing the upside of things and eliminate as much negativity from my life as possible. I have so much to be happy and grateful about but lately I'm caught in the trap of what I don't have. It's a downer.

I think those are the big things I'm going to work on. Once a month, usually at the beginning of the month, I'm going to do a little check up post so ya'll know how I'm doing. I'm serious about committing myself to change this year and if you feel so inclined you can cheer me on, I'd appreciate that a bunch.