It has been 3 weeks since my surgery! The first day after the surgery I was able to get about 2 teaspoons of liquid down and I walked to the door of the hotel room and back, and to the bathroom. By the second day, I had made it to the end of the hall where I walked right into someone else's suite, because I thought it was a recreation room.

I was able to go to Cirque Du Soleil's Love, which had the music of the Beatles. Amazing and fun, till I had to climb the stairs to get back to my wheelchair. I almost passed out. I was able to spend the next week and Lance's and Caetie's with the rest of the family, except for Drew, Faith, and Baby Rowan. They were sorely missed. I realized that my sense of smell was a huge trigger to wanting to eat. The ugly part of the visit happened when I took a microscopic piece of crumb topping from an apple pie to let it "melt in my mouth." But I was caught! Embarrassing and shameful!! It was awful! The doctor told us about a man who almost died when he ate a hamburger the day after his surgery. Split his stomach in half! In my mind, the size of the crumb made it not so bad, but I know how everyone was shocked because it showed a lack of commitment. It was actually a very good learning moment for me. Since then, I have had to make choices every day. I realize it's going to be a DAILY battle for the rest of my life. It's good that I could learn that lesson during the first week. It was kind of a shocker for me and a "Come to Jesus" moment. I thought, "Oh no! What have I done?" But I almost immediately realized that I am very thankful for the sacrifices my family made to make the surgery happen. So... a few numbers here. I started out at 330. By the time I got to the office on Thursday, November 15, I weighed 323. I had already lost 7 lbs!

Here is a picture of me a day after the surgery. I'm feeling a little better. I weighed on Saturday, December 1, which was 2 weeks and 1 day after the surgery. I weighed 306! Tomorrow, December 7, marks 3 weeks since the surgery.

Here is a picture of me tonight, December 6, wearing some red pajamas I got 2 Christmases ago. This is the first time I've been able to get the pants on and button the shirt all the way up. I'm not so thrilled about my stomach, but I can definitely see a difference in my face! Wow!

My bags are packed. I'm ready to go.

So I feel like I'm living in a dream. The time ticked away slowly at work today. I'm very excited, but still a bit nervous. I always get scared that I'll miss my flight when I fly anywhere. This trip is really important, so it makes me even more nervous. I chose to spend the night with my daughter Amie so that I could get more sleep, but here I am. Up at 11:30 p.m. I left my purse in the car when my brother Kim dropped me off at my daughter's. I had to borrow a car to go get it. I hope it's just nerves and not early onset Alzheimer's. The flight leaves right before 10:00 a.m. EST and my appointment is at 1:00 p.m. in Las Vegas. Just 8 minutes from the airport. Nerves! Whew!

Pre-Surgery Measurements

Here are some pictures that will serve as official "Before" shots. We had a little trouble with the camera. A couple of notes are warranted. I measured on the morning of November 2 before my feet and ankles swelled up. This was 2 weeks before my surgery date. And now... Onward!

Surgery

I am going to have a gastric bypass surgery and I will be documenting my big adventure here. My children have offered to pay for this procedure for me to help me get healthy. A once-in-a-lifetime gift that blows you away. Some of this is going to be embarrassing because I'm going to be exposing my life through pictures and stories that will bring you into my private world. I'm happy to do this to share with my family and friends, past, present, and future my journey. I don't know that it will wind up being amazing. I expect that many of the days will seem boring and plain, just like everyone else's lives, but I plan to share the joyous, fun, and exciting moments as well as the mundane, hard, and "I can't believe she did that" times. I'm going to have a gastric sleeve done at Blossom Bariatrics by Dr. Tom Umbach. I found out about his practice through my doctor, May Bullecer. I thought she made a mistake because it's in Nevada, but his pricing is REALLY affordable, and his staff is AMAZING! They are the NICEST people you will ever visit with. Their desire to help people just comes across in every conversation. I cannot wait to meet them in person!! My surgery is going to be on November 16 and I will be flying with my daughter Amie and my daughter-in-law Amy to Las Vegas the day before. We'll meet my other daughter-in-law Caetie there for a pre-surgery meeting. I hope to do something fun that night to enjoy the city with them before I have to take it easy to recoup.

35 years!!!!

So I'm not even going to comment about the fact that I haven't blogged in FOREVER. I just want to say that I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 35 years as of May 6, 2012! It was fast and testimony day and I got to hear Cailey's testimony. She talked about how her mom and her Granny Robin can do anything and she talked about families. I also bore my testimony that because we are God's hands, we help each other to accomplish things here. He offers tender mercies and opens the windows of heaven in our behalf and gives us amazing families and friends to help strengthen us during this earth life. I know that through God nothing is impossible. I feel the Lord's hand in all that I do and I need his guidance every day. I haven't been perfect in the last 35 years, but I know my Savior more now and I have learned a lot. I have the most amazing children in the world and they all have the most awesome partners! I have 14 grandchildren and number 15 is on the way!!! Lucky! I wish I could find Ralph Nicholson to thank him again for telling me about the church. He gets an A+ for member missionary work.

New Calling and Taxes

Well, I definitely need to get better at keeping people posted about what's happening with me.

I got realeased from Primary today as the Sunbeam teacher. I was just getting to know my 4th class, and I'm really going to miss Primary, but I'm actually pretty excited about getting to know more of the sisters in the ward. I was feeling inadequate but certainly willing. Getting set apart always makes a huge difference.

I've been helping people with their taxes at Jackson Hewitt. Finished up the classes and passed everything I needed to pass, so I'm helping out in a couple of the stores. I love the face time I get with people!

I haven't been seeing a lot of the family, but I spent the night at Bryce's and then I got to see Megamind with Amie and the girls on Saturday night.

Six weeks till our family vacation to Destin!!!

Tax classes and Roaches

I'm taking tax classes through Jackson Hewitt on Monday and Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 9:00. I am always the last one to finish my tests and I'm not leaving until 9:30. We haven't had books to take home and study, so it's been a challenge. I'm diggin the fact that I'll have a second income in January. I'm hoping to put together enough to get a car.

I'll be getting some shopping tips from Bryce on the car. He just traded in his truck and bought a different truck for his new side business AND a car that he can drive to work. Not sure what he paid for the truck but the car was under $3,000. Sweet!

So everybody knows that I have a paralyzing fear of roaches. You also know that I have seen the big ones that look like Transformer bugs with unnaturally large bodies that seem like tanks because you seriously can't kill them with less than a very powerful swat with the heaviest shoe you can find. Wimpy fly swatters from the Dollar Store are ineffective.


I found one of these still alive but upside-down and flailing its ugly legs on an over-turned pot I had left out to dry. I FREAKED OUT! I grabbed some bug spray that has the attached pump sprayer and left the mutant to die in a pool of poison. Yeah! It WAS STILL MOVING after all that spraying! Well, Amie and Clay came over the next day while I was at work and got rid of that one, a dead one under my bed, and another I had left by the downstairs bathroom as an example to his mutant friends of how THEY would be crushed if they showed their ugly faces.

They put some killing powder around the walls and put out roach traps. The next day Bryce told me he laid down 3 gallons of spray. I sleep snug as a bug in a rug now! Especially on Monday and Wednesday nights.