Hello Orange Funk!

Isn't this refreshing? I love this new look! We have a nice family portrait taken professionally but our scanner has scratches and crud that we can't get off, so the picture scans are terrible. I may take the photo to Staples (that was easy) and have it professionally scanned.

I'm knitting scarves! They are $20 each. They are all the rage. Let me know if you want one. I'll even mail it long distances :)

I have white/beige, blue/turquoise/green, purple/light purple, pink/white, green/tan, and these colours too:

Here's me at my birthday party on Feb 25th, modelling a purple/burgandy scarf (my first one I made) that I gave to my friend Sabrina. Notice how awesome I look. LOL

Sage is posing with the cat we fostered for a month. We named her Heidi, cuz she hid all the time the first week. She was in the parking lot at work, all frozen and alone, with snowballs between her toes, so I rescued her. I put up signs around the neighbourhood and contacted the stupidest organization ever - Petsave - who were no help. They even lied to me and said that if I gave her to the pound, or she would be put down in three days. Later I found out the pound has a definite NO KILL policy, but since I had waited so long there would be a $70 surrender fee. I wrestled with the thought of lying and getting someone to help me drop her off as newly found, and when Heidi went into heat for the second time and started peeing on our beds again, I quickly realized that was going to be our option for her. Poor li'l girl. She was sweet, but with the baby coming and me not able to clean the litter as I'd promised Jake I would do with the extra cat, yah. We just couldn't keep her ourselves. When we dropped her off the attendant was so friendly and nice to us and the cat, she even assured us that she was so young and cute she would be snapped up very quickly. I've been checking online and her picture isn't even on the website, so I'm hopeful her destined forever family is loving her right now.

Here Hayden's modelling a green/tan scarf for me.

My birthday party, a few really good friends came over to help me celebrate. That's my friend Katie bringing me the cake I made - chocolate chip banana honey sour cream cake. YUM.

Well that was a long stretch

Hey! It's been a while.

Here's some quick catching up notes:

Christmas came and went and was wonderful. This was the last year for the old family tree (my parents bought it in '67 and gave it to me two years ago). So many branches were bent and broken that its saddness caused me to agree to put it to rest. Now it is up in Christmas Tree Heaven, looking down on us and smiling.

Hayden turned 7 years old on Dec 24th. That's been weird, having him so old. He's so OLD! practically double digits! My handsom li'l man.

We went to North Bay for New Year's Eve, me and the boys. We didn't have someone to watch the dog so Jake stayed home. We had a great time care of the loveable Szabbies.

January was kind of a blur, February was full of anticipation for the 27th, my 37th birthday, which was AWESOME. ("I'm 37, I'm not OLD!") I love my birthday, but this year was the best one EVER. We found out we're EXPECTING!! YAHOO!!!!

I'm about 5 1/2 weeks along, due probaby Halloween. The boys are stoked. Jake hadn't wanted a third child, but he's on board with this unexpected blessing and enthusiastically going over names with me already (!) and everything.

I haven't had any morning sickness yet, but I've been to see my family doctor for the referral to Dr. M. Franklin (who delivered Hayden) and the family doc gave me a Rx for diclectin just to have on-hand in case I feel nausea coming on. I've had a few mild waves so far, and I'm taking the diclectin for preventative reasons most days. I've also got the folic acid added to my regular vitamin and iron and calcium regime, so I think I don't have to take a specifically prenatal vitamin, with all this other stuff already.

The baby is the size of a sesame seed now, but when I first found out about him/her last week (we're hoping for a girl btw, if you pray, please pray for a girl for us) he/she was the size of a poppy seed, so I've been referring to the baby as Poppy. My friends at work who know and love me also call her Poppy. It's cute.

I have to explain to the boys that the baby will take a long time to get here. Sage has rubbed my belly and said he can feel her moving already, and they've both taken to listening for the heartbeat too. I told them the baby is the size of a crumb! You can't feel or hear her yet! They remain convinced they can. I know they're going to be amazing big brothers to this baby, brother or sister may she be.

Christmas In November

I. Put. Up. The. Tree. All. By. Myself.




Well the boys helped a bit, I mean without another adult to move the chair, vacuum the gross things from where the chair was, get the boxes from storage, put the entire thing up WITH LIGHTS and put the boxes away after. All while Jake is at work. I'm hoping he's surprised. Does Toys R Us have wifi?

Getting on the Float - animation

This is a little animation I made expressing the emotions I felt getting on the float. The very tall float. The worst part had a tiny teeny tiny ledge for my feet and very little to hang on to as I "swung around" to the bed of the truck. I WISH I had sweet pea hands that could've wrapped around the handles like the animation depicts.

Christmas Parade

Um.  Yah. I'm a delinquent blogger. My apologies, but seriously. Facebook, people. Facebook.

For those of you who still check here and who might not check  my facebook or have your own facebook or have passwords to someone's facebook and lurk with permission, here are some videos of the Santa Claus Parade we were in last night. Hayden and Sage's dance company Attitudes In Motion (A.I.M.) floated down the streets of town right by the traffic cops, and we only stopped a moment when we heard them holler STOP! Ok they didn't hollar. Hollur? at us. One obediently waved once at me, caught on film. We were float 30 of about 60 floats, so we didn't get to see much except for what you see in the film, but we had a great time waving and smiling and didn't even kill ourselves getting on and off the float. 168 pounds ago I never would've even considered getting up there.

So, enjoy. I miss you.
love
ME.



This video is for showing the public what we experienced, and why we might've missed your face if it was in the crowd. Dark. Busy. Speedy floats.

New Family Photo

Note regarding the picture above:

We were at our friends' 10th anniversary renewal of vows tonight and so we were all dressed up. What a perfect opportunity to have our picture taken, eh?

Sprinkle Sprinkle Little Star

It was very hot today so Jake set up the sprinkler for the boys. I love this picture. Classic sprinkler-in-the-face faces LOL.

Hayden hung back a bit and let Sage lead the way, as per usual. Sage was entirely soaked before Hayden was even 1/4 wet. I tried to get a shot of Sage jumping over the sprinkler but due to the delay between shutter pressed and photo snapped, this is as close as I was going to get to a mid-air shot LOL.

I love my new camera. Can you see the water droplets? Super fine details picked up. Thanks again, Carol's Husband, for the help selecting it!

Angry Birds Crochet Pattern

Hi!

Jake loves Angry birds so much he bought some wool and has commissioned me (for free) to make him some of the characters via crochet.

I can have access to a free pattern if I advertise the person's blog on my blog, so if you're an Angry Bird keener, here's the website you should definitely visit:

http://angrybirdscrochet.blogspot.com/

ta ta for now

Jennifer

PS hernia surgery went well 8 days ago and I'm recouperating nicely.

Lisa Young

I just discovered my cousin Lisa Young has her own blog!

http://lisa-youngc.blogspot.com/

It even looks like she updates quite often LOL.

Check her out! She's a poet.

Happy Last Few Hours of Easter Weekend!

I trust the Bunny found you all well?

Today was such great weather, we invited some friends over whose stuff we were storing (read: rotting) in our back yard, and we took several loads over to the dump. For $4 we got rid of A LOT of stuff, hers and ours. I also sold some of the kids' outgrown outside toys, so our yard is feeling a wee bit empty now. But that's okay, the kids have room to run! 

After supper we went to Fielding Memorial park and fed some birds and played on the playground and went for a walk. I will now attempt to post pictures, and NOT get so mad I stop blogging for 3 months.

Yup I'm mad, but not mad enough to stop blogging.

So here we are! On the playground! Me! Sliding down a slide! It was wonderful to play WITH my kids, instead of just watching from the sidelines like I have their whole lives. They thought it was hillarious. I must have gone down the slide 7-8 times with them.

 I held them up to the monkey bars and they got a feel what it was like to go from bar to bar. Pretty easy when Mommy's holding all your weight LOL. Don't worry, this didn't hurt my hernia.

 Swinging was so. much. fun. I got that swinging stomach lurch feeling as I swung, but it didn't nauseate enough to stop LOL The kids laughed so hard at pushing me on the swing I thought their heads were going to pop off.

I haven't sat on a swing since I think grade 9. My butt was too big even then. It hurt. Today didn't hurt at all! I don't know if they make swings bigger now or what, or if my deflating bum just fits .. but either way WHEEEE!

Just after we took this next photo (there was a similar one taken last summer by my dad when we came to this same park in July or maybe August) I had a very interesting/odd geographical realization. We went to the little landing that we've been to a couple times in the past, which has a picnic table and a little water fall and the ducks and other birds gather for the bread crumbs. It had always in my mind been a Walk from the car. Not too far, but far enough. Just after Jake took this picture, we were all walking down the lane towards the landing, and I broke out into a jog with the kids. For about 10 seconds. And then we were there. Are we here? I asked. It seemed much shorter. Too short to be the same place. Nope. Yup. We were there. Major realization. As a slow moving invalid of COURSE it would seem much longer of a walk. I'm almost embarrassed at how short of a walk it really is. But I know no-one was judging me before, and most probably he (my dad and/or Jake) CHOSE that spot BECAUSE it was so close and wouldn't wear the invalid-me out to get to it. But it was a jolt to my brain's map of the world to suddenly cinch up the distance along that path.

And here, because we can, are two very funny poses by two very funny children:

I think Sage looks like a model here. He's got 3-D glasses with the lenses removed, and that far away look like all great models have.

Hayden.. well. He's a ham. LOL

I found the picture. From July 2010. crazy.

I'm Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

A song by Ke$ha. The tears in my eyes part is what brought it to mind.

January? The last post I posted was in January? That's not what's upsetting me, but it's adding guilt. I shrug you off, Guilt! GO AWAY.

You. Readers. You can surely stay, if you're still out there.

So to quickly catch you up on the last *gulp*4 months around here:

Jake quit smoking cold turkey and today marks a completely smokeless three weeks. He's doing awesome and reports his sense of smell is annoyingly acute now.

Hayden has lost five teeth.

Sage is developing rapidly into a basketball nut.

The boys and I joined the YMCA and the kids have taken swimming lessons and will soon also start their gymnastics and dance classes as well. Sage is in intro to dance and Hayden is in Contemporary/Jazz. I didn't feel that he should have had the social stigma held against him joining the ballet class, and I was thoroughly prepared to put both of them in ballet, but when Zumba ends Saturday morning, the little ballerinas are all lined up outside to use the same room and they're so pink and flowery and tutu-y that I crumbled and just couldn't sign the boys up for that much floof-foo.

I love to work out. Loving hour-long Zumba classes as well as the treadmill where I, Jennifer Huss, run. That's right, run. I started just walking, but about 2 weeks ago I took some expert runner friend's advice and mixed 1 minute of running in between 4 minutes of walking. I've been increasing the ratio and taking my time warming up, and now I usually start with 6 minutes of walking, 4 minutes running, then another 6:4, usually continuing that until about 40 minutes when I finish running and walk to cool down for 5-10 mins. A couple days ago I was in a total run-zone and didn't stop after the 4 minutes. I continued for 8 minutes and was comfortable, relaxed in my upper body, breathing hard but not belabouredly, no pain, brain numbed by the excellent music in my ears.. I felt like I could go and go and go. It was awesome! Unfortunatly the treadmill's computer suffered a system error which brought me to a screeching halt. By the time I got the attendant to come over to look, decide it needed service, and went on a different machine, my zen zone-out was gone and I just couldn't get it back. It's so true that running is mental. Now that I know it's out there, I'm gonna go get that zen zone-out again.

Weight-loss wise I'd plateaued (with a slight upward slant) ever since Christmas, but I've reversed it and am at my new all-time-low since 1996. I'm 295lbs, lost 146 total since Jan 2010. Health-wise my wound is frustratingly STILL AROUND and is preventing me from being scheduled for my hernia repair. I discovered it around Christmas (and was probably one of the factors contributing to the halt in weight-loss as I believed I couldn't start excercise) and in early January got it diagnosed by my family doctor. He sent me to a Sudbury surgeon whom I saw at the end of February. Dr Snider said he wouldn't do the repair until my wound was completely and well healed, as even in a perfect situation, hernias have about 20% chance of infection/complication/crapola because of the foreign mesh they have to stitch into you. With an existing wound in the same area, that would increase to a stupidly high percentage, which he wouldn't risk. The hernia is in the abdominal area between my ribs and belly button, and sticks out like 1/2 a volleyball. It's gross. And it's growing. It used to look like an elbow sticking out. Now it looks, like I said, like a volleyball. I wear a tight elastic binder every day all day to support it. It mostly doesn't hurt, except yesterday I sneezed and didn't hold it with my hands and that was painful. Also painful is when the cat jumps on me, or a kid elbow uses it as leverage to get off my lap. Whenever this stupid wound heals I can book my surgery and begin another HOPEFULLY MUCH SHORTER recovery. Whatever happens, the surgery will definitely be AFTER ->

-> We are renting a cottage at the end of June on Lake Mindemoya on Manitoulin island, and we can't wait! There's no way I'm NOT going in the water again this year, so my hernia repair will be AFTER this week-long paradise vacation. My sister and family are sharing the 4 bedroom cottage (camp) with us, and my dad too. The yard is huge, the lot is private, the beach is rocky but the water is sandy sandy sandy awesomesauce.

And on that super-high note, I will end this here. But I promise, it won't be 4 months before I post again.

Love
Jennifer

Squirrel!

Happy New Year!

Today Tilly barked at the front door. I was getting ready to go out, so wondered if someone were here. The kids wondered too, but nope. No-one was knocking. Then Jake said "Jennifer! Come quick! Numbnuts is trapped between the screen and the door!" Numbnuts is his name for the squirrel who likes to hang around on our wall and eat our birdseed and chatter at Kitty and Tilly from a safe distance. And there he was, trapped between the screen door and the inside door. How would that happen? you might be asking. Well, our screen door latch is broken. We usually hook the little hook we attached to prevent the door from banging in the wind, but Jake had recently let Tilly out and hadn't re-hooked the hook. The door had banged open, and then banged shut with Numbnuts on the inside. At first we thought it was cute and I tried to take a picture, but then we realized we couldn't easily resolve the situation. I had to go meet a friend, but we couldn't open the inside door and risk Numbnuts running into our house. The wind had died down and the door seemed too heavy for Numbnuts to push himself free. I suggested to Jake he go out the back door and go around, but the snow back there had drifted deeply against that door and since we never use that entrance, we hadn't bothered to shovel it free. Yes I know it's a second escape in case of fire. We'll get to it. So what we decided to do (since I was then late to visit  my friend) would be to guard the tiny crack in the door we were going to open, I would then snake my arm in and push on the screen door so Numbnuts could escape. We hoped he wouldn't try to bolt through the house. With Kitty and Tilly and the boys and us there, I can't see that he would've thought to try and get past us would be the safest option, but to a squirrel's brain, who knows? Do they even have logic?

Anyway that worked, and he chittered away quickly. Tilly went out to make sure he wasn't hanging around. And I met my friend for soup.

Cute Forward

I got this in a forward and while I don't like to forward things myself, if you felt like reading it here, go ahead. It's very cute.

KIDS IN CHURCH


3-year-old Reese :
'Our Father, Who does art in heaven,
Harold is His name.
Amen.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A little boy was overheard praying:
'Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it.
I'm having a real good time like I am.'


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the christening of his baby brother in church,
Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car.
His father asked him three times what was wrong.
Finally, the boy replied,
'That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home,
and I wanted to stay with you guys.'


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


One particular four-year-old prayed,
'And forgive us our trash baskets
as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.'


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they
were on the way to church service,
'And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?'
One bright little girl replied,
'Because people are sleeping.'



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3.
The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake.
Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson.
'If Jesus were sitting here, He would say,
'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.'
Kevin turned to his younger brother and said,
' Ryan , you be Jesus !'



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



A father was at the beach with his children
when the four-year-old son ran up to him,
grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore
where a seagull lay dead in the sand.
'Daddy, what happened to him?' the son asked.
'He died and went to Heaven,' the Dad replied.
The boy thought a moment and then said,
'Did God throw him back down?'



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



A wife invited some people to dinner.
At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said,
'Would you like to say the blessing?'
'I wouldn't know what to say,' the girl replied.
'Just say what you hear Mommy say,' the wife answered.
The daughter bowed her head and said,
'Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?'

Sick Sage Inna Snuggie

New Background

I should've had this background earlier. Oh well. I just couldn't put up a wintery one yet.

Missed the Parade

Tonight we'd had big plans to go to the Santa Claus Parade with Sabrina and Robbie (newly confirmed as my bestie and her 3 1/2 year old son) but Jake's back has been out since Wednesday when we got a new free dishwasher and we dragged it into our house by ourselves, and yesterday after school Sage was crazy whiney and then napped and we realized he is sick. He had a fever that broke on its own and has a cough.. and sitting in the cold for 2-3 hours was probably not the best course of action for his quick recovery. Anyway we didn't end up going. I heard it was great.

Incidentally the dishwasher doesn't attach to our tap, so it's basically just another counter top in the kitchen until we can order the specific nozzle from GE required to connect to the hoses. We tried 3 different nozzles from Home Depot and 2 different ones from Lowes. None of them worked. I am very close with their returns counter reps now though.

This morning Hayden wrote a letter to Santa for him and Sage. We mailed it. His writing is so cute! Then tonight he wrote another letter to a boy we're sending a christmas package to through our church. We don't know who it's going to, we just know it will be a poor deserving kid across the sea. They fundraise and lift spirits by giving out shoeboxes that people fill with toys and gifts, then bring back full and pay $7 for shipping to send it across the sea. You attach a label to say what age group and if you bought for a girl or a boy. We bought for a 5-9 year old boy. We put in a huge lolly pop (like 4" diameter) some reindeer socks, a cute whales notebook, some pencils with sports balls erasers, a super ball, lazers that attach to your fingers, a snowman stuffy, and some colourful markers. I think I'm forgetting something. Oh well. The boys had fun picking things - DINOSAUR FIGURINES that's what I forgot - for the poor boy across the sea.

Who let November in?

Well! I'm doing lots better now, thanks. I had a minor surgery on Oct 22nd where he removed a large plastic stitch that was being rejected by my body, and slowly making its way to the surface. It felt like needles in my belly after the nurse saw the tip of it coming through my flesh and told me what was happening. It felt like needles in my belly before that too, but who thinks there'll be needles in their belly? After I knew what it was, that's exactly what it felt like. The doctor said I might "need to have this done again" which to me means there's another stitch like it down there, but we're going to cross our fingers and hope it stays PUT and doesn't get rejected. He also cut between the two holes and made one nice large hole which is showing progress towards healing.

My total weight loss is 125 lbs, but I missed my tuesday morning weigh-in this week and will have to "cheat" and check my progress tomorrow. I normally don't like weighing in off-schedule because I'm trying to stay sane. LOL. If I check more than a couple times a week, what's to stop me from checking every day? And if I check every day, what's to stop me from checking twice a day? I don't want to become obsessed.

And also now I am a twit. I tweet. I have joined Twitter. (I copied my sister.) See the feed on the side there?

I'm off work healing until November 22nd, so if anyone wants to stop by for a visit, feel free! I'll be home. I'm talking to YOU Americanos!

Been a while, eh?

Well folks, I've had another complication/setback.




To recap my story in a nutshell, I had the original RNY surgery on May 17th 2010. Then I had open surgery on May 20th to correct an obstructed bowel. Third surgery that week was May 24th to clean out absess and other pockets of infection. The open incision got infected around my belly button before I left the hospital in June, and after I got home another infection opened up another hole about 2" above the original hole. Both holes were 4-5 cms deep, and about an inch across at the surface. I go for daily care at a nursing office where they irrigate, clean, and pack me. I love those ladies. I haven't been sorry that this has been going on so long because most of them are so lovely and funny and caring. But it really has been going on a long long long long long long time.



To try and a-speed things hup (anyone watch Princess Bride?) this past week they changed the way they changed my dressing. No more irrigation because they figured it was not all coming back out since the openings are so small and keeping it that wet impedes healing. After three days of dry dressings and no irrigation I was hopeful that I would show some improvement. The wounds were 2.5 cms and 3 cms a week ago. Then Friday I felt a change. My wounds which had been quite nicely numb were not numb no more. Lots of pain and suddenly copious amounts of drainage. I was leaking through the sponges left right and centre. When I saw the nurse the next morning she said I must have had a pocket of infected fluid inside that burst. Both wounds deepened considerably. The 2.5 cm one became 4 cms and the 3 cm one became 5.5cms. I've had to take tylenol 3 to cope with the pain, which I haven't had to take since the first week or so I was home, back in June.



I went to work today, but there's lots of jumping up and down out of my chair which was painful. I can't take the T3 at work, but extra strength took some of the edge off at least.



My nurse today said she was faxing my surgeon and that the most likely course of action is going to be another surgery where he goes in, cleans out any and all pockets of infection, and the two wounds cut into one. With the larger opening at the surface of the skin it will be more conducive to healing. Bigger wounds heal faster. Sounds weird, but that's what they assure me. She said sometimes wounds like mine that don't heal are due to a reaction to internal sutchers.



I have otherwise been doing very well. I am finally happy I got the surgery. I weigh low enough to get on a Wii Fit. My plumbing is good, and I've never thrown up any food. My hair has almost all fallen out and I'm seriously thinking I will be cutting it super short (or shaving) but I have lots of pretty scarves and bandanas that I AM allowed to wear at work and I think I rock the look pretty good.



And of course I'm surrounded by wonderfully supportive friends and family and I will be around to do a lot more with them for a lot longer now. I'm only 9 pounds away from halfway done my weight loss journey! 111 lost so far.



Okay I ended on a positive note. I feel better. Thanks.

ONE HUNDRED POUNDS LOST

Yup you read it right. Since January of this year I have shed 100 pounds. 40 pre-op and 60 post-op.

CELEBRATION!

My Story, Part III

On Tuesday morning I awoke from my anaesthetically induced slumber before they pulled the tube out of my throat. I could feel them pulling what felt like EKG stickers off my legs and arms, maybe they were straps. I was still quite drugged. I thought I could tell what they wanted to do next, and that was going to be pulling out the tube from my throat. For some reason that seemed like a bad idea, so I sat up (weird cuz I was so weak) and grabbed the wires that one of the male nurses was holding. There was a nurse on each side of my bed, doing stuff like pulling off batches of wires or whatever, and I held onto the bundle of wires and didn't let go. I can clearly remember the expression of confusion and possibly anger on his face as he tug-o-warred with me over the wire bundle. Then I realized I DIDN'T know what he wanted to do next, but I couldn't talk  because there was something in my mouth. Oh yah. The tube still in my throat. That. I tried to indicate that he should take the bundle of wires out of my hand, but I don't think I had much brain-to-muscles-in-hand co-ordination. And then it all went dark again.

I woke up again as the tube exited my throat. I forgot to mention that because I was vomiting so much when they did the second surgery, when they put me out they had to push on my Eve's Apple to suppress the vomit if I did so while they intibated me. When I woke up that time, it was at the moment they were pulling out the tube and I did throw up, into my ears. Back to the third (fourth) wake-up. The bed I was in was inflating and deflating in a very relaxing rhythmic motion, under one leg, under a shoulder, the other leg, the other shoulder,  the bum; a very high-tech bed for bariatric patients who can't prevent their own bed sores. I felt I didn't need this bed. Even though I was as weak as a kitten.

The rest of the week was full of pain, drains, more IVs, and looking forward to visits from Carol. At least I was moved to a room that had a free tv and a phone.

I'm having a very hard time relating this story to you. Going through all the negatives is making me feel awful. I am so sorry, my family and loved ones, that I put you through the worry and anxiety of this whole mess. I am going to synopsize the rest of it.

I moved out of the ICU into HDU (High Dependancy Unit) on that Friday. That was the day Jake came from Sudbury to take over from Carol who had to return to North Bay. I was able by then to get out of bed to the toilet, or for small walks in the hall, or to sit for brief periods of time. On Sunday night my roommate went into code blue and died. I moved into a regular room on Tuesday. The surgeon said I could possibly be discharged on Friday. False hope. I was still there over the weekend. Monday was awful and I will relate that story in more detail, but not right now.

To end on a much happier note, I've lost 93 lbs since January. I feel good except for the wounds still in my belly. One of the most wonderous perks is that formerly painful waiting room chairs with arms are no longer painful. That part doesn't seem real. My bum fitting in chairs. In a couple weeks Sage will be going into JK all day every day, and Hayden will be going into Grade One. I can't believe my boys are so old! I will probably cry, sending them off to school together on the 7th. And the plan is that I return to work on September 8th.

Ta for now.