Andrea's Wonderful News!

I told Andrea I would copy her comment and make a post, so here it is!!


I just wanted to announce to some of my closest and most encouraging friends that I have officially been accepted as a member of the Math for America Los Angeles Fellowship! I'm very excited about this opportunity! This entails a five year commitment; the first year will be spent in school earning my teaching credential and masters. The next four years will be spent teaching in the L.A. Unified School District. One of the best parts of this program is that I do not have to pay for the schooling and I will be receiving a stipend each year. This means that where I would have been accruing more debt by pursuing these degrees on my own, now I will have the finances to pay back the debt I have from my undergraduate years. Not only that, the University of Southern California has a great reputation, and I know that I will be receiving a great education in the next year. Needless to say, this is a great blessing from God!


Congratulations, Andrea!! You have our permission to celebrate with food if you want to!!

And the Winner is ...

...drum roll...

The "Elmo Award"
goes to ... Pat, AGAIN!

SAME
SAME
SAME
SAME
SAME

Honorable mention to Andrea too -- for accomplishments other than weight-loss! Hey, there IS a life, girls, apart from our scales!

From Andrea!

I just got Andrea's email, and I decided to post it here for you to enjoy...


"This week I have some personal bad news... my current weight is: 181.0!!!
Between stress and PMS food cravings this is what I deserve. I hope you all fared better than me!

By the way, my presentation went fabulously and I got an 'A', so I suppose a few extra pounds isn't too bad! haha! Me and Michal had the goal to drop 10lbs by graduation and yesterday, as we were feeding our faces, we decided we had heard each other wrong! We actually want to GAIN 10lbs by graduation!!! Well, if we keep it up that will be exactly what has happened. It's funny until you step on the scale!"


This is a new week, all, so let's try again!

Hanging in there!

Barry left on Wednesday to visit his mother in New Jersey, so Coral and I and Najee the cat have been on our own, rattling around in the house and keeping each other company. Najee is a pretty little thing, but she is really just a big bundle of nerves wrapped up in way too much fur! However, for the last few days she has been my silent little shadow. I don't really see her come and go, but everywhere I am, there she is nearby. She seems to feel that someone is missing and wants to make sure that I am not going anywhere!

Coral really hates it when Barry is gone. She sits with a worried expression, and when she sees me look at her, she says plaintively, "I miss my daddy!" So I say, "Me, too, Coral!" After a few minutes go by, she says again, "I need him!" So I say, "I know you do, Coral. So do I, but he will be back on Sunday night." In a few more minutes, I hear her again, only this time she is talking to the people she knows on her TV programs: "Cosby, I need my daddy!" So I say, "Cosby knows it, but he says Daddy will be home soon." That makes her happy for a little while, but then she says: "I need him to come back here!" Thinking to branch out a little, I ask, "Why do you need Daddy to come back here, Coral?" and she answers, "I need him to yell at Elmo!" Elmo, all innocent, is sitting in Daddy's computer chair and certainly needs to be yelled at!

All I know is, Daddy better get back here soon!!

Here's hoping for good numbers on the scales. I'm feeling a bit gloomy about it...Not enough proper cooking while Barry is away and too much picking, I'm afraid.

Spring is a wonderful time to be losing weight!

We had a quick winter storm this week. It was here one day and gone the next. Oh, how I love those cold gray blustery days! (Is it the African rainy season I am longing for??)

Look at the bushes by our front porch! Yesterday, all covered with snow, they looked like they were still sleeping the winter away...







...but look at them today! Look what was really underneath that white blanket!! Beautiful cherry blossoms!

This cherry bush has sprung up underneath the evergreens. A little bird must have eaten the sour cherries from the hedge in the back yard and then dropped a pit or two in the front just to give me special joy with the first delicate flowers of spring.


We are cherry blossoms bursting out from under the snow! Take heart, friends!

A Correction!

Unfortunately, we have to change Andrea's weight for this week. She emailed me to say that she is really one pound up from what I had posted, so I have changed it. Still, this is wonderful weight loss for her this week.

Way to go, Andrea!

Up, Up and Away!

Well, I guess it should really say, "Down, Down, we're all down!" Now Pat, don't get stuck here again! Give your scale a tap on the side before you step on!

Good work, Andrea! Three pounds! Wow!

And as for you, oh thou 'umble "sickly-ickly", we're sad you've been up-chuckin' and actually hope that you'll have put something reasonable back on by next week!

I was happy to see myself at 159.0 until I came gleefully to post and realized that I have actually gone down only a twip over 5 pounds in FIVE MONTHS! At this rate it'll be almost a year before I reach my goal!

Oh well -- 2009 is coming ... do I want it to arrive and weigh 150 pounds or at best, still be at 164.7!

Midweek Report!

Here is the update I promised!

I just came back from my tax appointment. Good news! We have a refund that will pay my first quarterly self-employment taxes for 2008 so that I won't have to pay any more until June 15th, the end of the second quarter!! I am so pleased!

Now for the REAL important stuff...

Sleep: I have made it to bed by midnight 2 out of 3 nights. Not total success, but definitely an improvement.

Water: Every day I have been able to drink 64 ounces or more of plain water, so that is success.

Food: Any snacks eaten (which have been few) have been fresh fruit or vegetables. Overall food intake has been less but might still need a bit of improvement on quantity. Quality has been good. I think I am going to call that success!

Exercise: Every morning I have been up by 6:10 to walk on the treadmill for 20 to 30 minutes. It was a struggle this morning because of working later last night, but I have felt quite a lot better during the rest of the day because of making myself do that, I found out. Total success!!

Best wishes to the rest of you, and thanks for keeping an eye on me to help keep me on the straight and narrow!