THE FINAL CHAPTER :O)

Omg, I'm so excited! I have booked my surgery for breast reduction/lift and abdominoplasty with a touch of lyposuction (on the sides just to shape the tummy tuck properly) for OCTOBER 15th!!!! That's not very far away! I met with this plastic surgeon over a year ago. I have been saving money ever since our first consultation. Finally, his office contacted me with a surgery date and I have all of the funds! I can't believe this is finally happening! The most depressing thing ever was losing all of that weight, only to be stuck with a saggy flap of skin on my tummy and saggy breasts to go with it. Finally, I will feel "normal" and be able to fit clothes properly. I have been working out really hard this past month. I've been alternating between running 5k and cycling for my daily workouts, and throwing in some dreaded strength training every second day too. I've also been following the "Endometriosis Diet". My gynecologist suggested it (as well as a birth control pill) in an attempt to avoid surgery. Well, the diet is working! I am pain-free for the first time in 3-4 yrs. One problem, I am very limited as to what foods I can eat. No gluten (wheat), no dairy, no soy, no red meat, no caffeine, no chocolate (omg), limit refined sugars and honey, no ALCOHOL, and limit tinned and frozen foods as well as foods with alot of preservatives and additives. So what do I eat? Alot of fish, chicken, nuts and seeds, veggies and fruit, which is resulting in WEIGHT LOSS. My weight is creeping down and I am thrilled. I've never felt healthier, and I feel well prepared for surgery. I will of course blog the before/after pics as well as my healing progress after surgery. You know me...I share it all! :O)

I also want to say thanks to Happychix (Shirls) for sharing so openly about her surgery with me and for being a supportive friend. She is always so positive and encouraging. There should be more people like her in this world ♥

I went to visit some old friends back in the city that I grew up in. One of my friends got a few pics of me and some of my kids too. I thought that I'd share, as it's been awhile :O)

Just poppin' in to say Hi :O)

And to let everyone know, I am doing well. I'm trying to be active and still religiously counting my WW points. I am still in the "healthy weight range for my height" after THREE YEARS on maintenance! I'm bouncing around the 160's, but gradually dropping weight because I finally quit taking the "Diane35" pills for acne treatment. My doctor assured me that the prescription wouldn't cause me to gain weight, but it has gradually causing me to gain (went from 140's to 170's) so I quit taking them, and I'm losing again (16 lbs in the last month). I've decided that if the acne comes back, I'd rather live with that then be fat again.

I'll be back when I have some good pictures to post. I just went on a LULULEMON splurge 2 days ago. Omg! I got 2 "Remix" hoodies (dark blue and light grey), a black "Admiral" jacket, the Turqoise "Zen" wrap, a yellow "Shape" jacket, a black "Cool Racerback" tank top, 2 "Scoop Neck" tank tops (one black, one peach), a bright pink "Power Y" tank top, a "Knotty" tank top, the black "Totally Twisted" dress, a pair of the black Wunder Under full length pants, and a "Flow Y" bra, a "Scoop" bra, and 2 "Tata Tamer" bras. PHEWWWW! Now THAT'S a shopping spree!!! :O)

Cool website! Bellaboo from the GDT posted about this website called www.fatsecret.com It is AWESOME! I am totally going to use it. It's for tracking your food, exercise, and weigh ins, and you can set it to keep track of your WW points as well as calories, fat, fiber etc. I totally love it! Best of all it's FREE and it has a mobile app that you can put on your itouch, ipod, blackberry for FREE as well.

As far as how I'm doing this week, so far so good! Doing well with points (haven't used any flex yet), and earning those AP's!

I'm still here :O)

Not much going on really. Still waiting to get in for surgery, but I've started running again. I went in and had a big talk with my doctor. I told her that if I didn't get back to running, I would need to go on antidepressants for my panic disorder. It's getting pretty bad. She agreed that I could run but not to overdo it, and I had to promise her that I'd do blood tests every 1-2 months to check on my anemia.

Here's a pic of my cute Yorkie girls.

Down 5 lbs in my first week back on track. It seems that I can count points alllll I want and I don't get anywhere, but as soon as I throw some exercise into the mix, things start to move in the right direction!

Happy New Year everyone!!!

First, I have to share recent pics of my Yorkie girls...

Missy





Dora






Second, I have to show you the Santa Chocolates and Gingerbread men that I made for my kids to bring to school for Xmas.




Thirdly, I'll fill you in on what's being going on with me medically. I went to my doctor and insisted that she send me to a gynecologist. I haven't been able to run or do any high intensity cardio for a year, and I'm sick of it. I feel like crap, and I've been anemic for a full year. Not to mention that the scale has crept up, and I am now at the very top of the healthy weight range for my height. I want to know why I'm losing so much blood and why iron supplements aren't helping. So, I had my appt with the specialist a couple of weeks ago, he did a hysteroscopy and found that everything looked normal, except for unexplained bleeding inside my uterus. He's come to the conclusion that he thinks it's due to hormones and he is going to do a procedure (day surgery) called "Endometrial Ablation". It is going to take awhile for me to get a date for when he will do the surgery. He said that he is so overbooked that I likely won't get in before Spring. Until then, I am fighting back again my body. I may not be able to do high intensity cardio, but I can sure as heck lift weights, do ab/core work, and walk my butt off. I've already started, and I had an AWESOME week. I was strict with my point counting and I earned a fair amount of AP's. I have no hopes of the scale budging (weigh in is tomorrow) BUT I feel a bazillion times better. For the last while, depression has been starting to kick in and I just can't sit back and let that happen. So it's back on the exercise train for me *toot* *toot* :O)

Check out Crazy Dora at the breeders yesterday. I am picking her up TONIGHT!!!! WOooO HoOoOoo, so excited!

I will give you guys a little upate on me and how I'm doing lately. I'm still not exercising. I just hate "light exercise", so honestly, I'm not doing anything at all. Remember how my doctor was sending me for all those tests (blood, urine, stool, ultrasound)? Well, the blood test came back as still anemic (although I've been taking iron supplements) and laying off the high intensity workouts/running, so she upped my iron intake to 3 pills per day. At the ultrasound, my doctor had ordered an abdominal and pelvic exam. While the radiologist was doing it, she asked me why I needed these ultrasounds. I started explaining to her that I have sporatic and heavy bleeding, along with being anemic for a year, and I have alot of pelvic discomfort. It's been going on for 4 yrs now. When she was done, she asked me to wait while she talked to the doctor. When she came back, she said that the doctor would like to do an internal ultrasound, so I agreed. They said that if my doctor needed to see me she would let me know this week because she gets the results in a matter of 2-3 days. I didn't hear from my doctor, so I thought that all was good, but she did end up calling me...8 days later :O( When I went in for the appointment, my doc told me, "you have nothing to worry about, it's just polyps, they are almost always benign, we will just wait 6 months and do another ultrasound to see if they've changed. I went home and felt very nervous. It was really bothering me that I'm having these symptoms. If we know what *might* be causing these symptoms, then why aren't we doing something now to fix it? It's gone on for 4 yrs! So I wrote a letter and dropped it off at her office requesting a referral to a gynecologist. She did so immediately (within 5 mins of dropping off the letter). For the next day, I kept visualizing the little diagram she had drawn on the ultrasound report describing to me what polyps were and blah blah blah...but the whole time she was drawing, my eyes were scanning that report...I didn't remember seeing the word "polyp" anywhere. It drove me nuts for 2 days, so finally I just went in and requested a copy of my ultrasound report. Sure enough! I read the report and it says that I have thickening of my endometrium (6mm) at the fundus, and NO VASCULAR STALK indicating that it was polyps. What am I crazy? Why would she tell me I have polyps and nothing to worry about, when it says right there in black and white that I don'thave polyps I have thickening of the endometrium? Anyways, I see the gynecologist on Dec 17, we'll see what happens then. If anyone has any experience with these things, feel free to fill me in. I am still counting my WW points and being a good girl, but I can't lose weight. I am stuck at the upper end of my "healthy weight range". It is SO frustraing eating with my points set "to lose weight" and just being stuck at 167 lbs. I'm still considered healthy, but not where I like to be. I guess the lack of exercise is why. Anyhow, that's how I'm doing in life these days. Now, on to happier things... :O)

New pics of Dora! Her breeder was telling me about how crazy she is. She said that I'd better be ready to give some time-outs LOL! I guess she's a real handful and thinks she's a little Diva. I think that I can handle her ;o)

New pics of little Baby Dora! She is 7.5 weeks old now and 1 lb 11 ozs, the breeder says she can come home when she is close to 2 lbs. She had her first set of shots today, and I ordered her 2 pairs of jammies. One is a yellow "retro puppy" nightie with purple trim, the other is a pair of 4 legged jammies that are pink with pigs all over them.

I love this pic where she's tilting her head to the side when the breeder is talking to her. It's cute to see her with her Mommy too. Doesn't it look like she's smiling in the last picture? Missy does that too. Awwww, can't wait to finally have this little one home, but I'm not going to rush it because I know that it's so crucial that this little one stay with her Mommy as long as possible.

Earlier pics of Missy's Mommy with the new Yorkie babies.

I've got exciting news! It's two new furbabies. One is with me now, she is a black kitty named "Princess". This is the first cat that I've ever liked. She is an awesome little kitty, and so great with my kids. The 2nd furbaby is not home with me yet, as she isn't weaned from her Mommy. She is another Yorkie that comes from a litter that Missy's Mom and Dad had, so basically they are sisters! She is only 6 weeks old right now, so I have to wait another 4-6 weeks before she can come home. Isn't she precious? My husband named her Dora. I like the name, it's cute and original :O)

Woo Hoo! I can't wait until December when I get her!

Finally I got to bake something for my middle childs kindergarten class! The teacher didn't want cupcakes, so I was stuck decorating cookies. I think she wanted to cut down on the sugar, BOY DID I FOOL HER! Ty picked out the cookie cutter, then decided how he wanted them designed. I did my best to make them "cute". We will be packaging them all individually in little cello bags that have a skull design on them. These were made with roll out sugar cookies and royal icing. It took me 9 hrs to make 4 dozen cookies.

*sigh* They just put a new Sephora store AND a new Lululemon store in my local mall. I am going to be so broke! I'm posting this picture to show off my new "smokey eye" make up that I bought :OP

Notice anything different? :O)







Yes, I got a new haircut, and I got BANGS! It's been awhile since I've been to the hairdressers, so I thought that I'd share.

I'm still kickin' around. Counting my points, and also counting the days until I'm allowed to run again. I'm still anaemic, and my doctor is doing all kinds of tests and stuff to try to figure out why I'm not absorbing iron. So for now, I still have to stick to only light/moderate exercise. It sucks!

Here's a recent pic of me n' my crew, the cake I made for my son's bday (Transformers), and a couple of pics of Missy on her first birthday :)

Take care!

I made a cake for my friends birthday this weekend.

Me and the kidlets at the Zoo :O)

Cupcakes that I made for my son's class.

Hey guys, I've been really busy the last 2 weeks celebrating 4 family birthdays (mine, my dad's, my son and my daughters) and my anniversary.

This is Ty's cake. 18 batches of rice krispie squares for the stadium and four 13 X 9 cakes for the hockey rink. The icing was rootbeer flavoured.





Jade's cake. She was very specific. She wanted one big butterfly coloured purple, pink, green and yellow.