Happy New Year!!! I can honestly say that I behaved myself pretty well over the holidays. I banked points for New Year's Eve and still had 3 left over when all was said and done.

Yobo's youngest brother got engaged and plans to marry in May 2001. His other brother (the one who lost the baby) is getting a divorce. Neither one could handle the situation very well and she started smoking pot to extremes and running around on him. I guess they are better off apart. Keep the faith ;)

Today was the first day back at work after the Christmas break. It was hard to get up this morning. When I got home, I was beat and took a nap before fixing dinner.

Had a bad evening. I have eaten everything in sight. I did so well at work and drank plenty of water, then I came home and the day just fell apart. I have got to get this together. I did well over the holidays, but seem hell bent on destroying everything now. I will have to do some deep thinking and planning to get past this. Keep the faith ;)

This has been one long week. The kids are still getting back in the groove from being off so long and they are very hyper. I have a huge bruise on my leg from one of the wheelchairs and am sure I will have another one tomorrow from when I got hit today. We have to wear ID badges with our picture on them. Thank God the part that goes around our neck is break-away. One of the kids got hold of mine when I was lifing him out of the wheelchair. If it wasn't break-away, I would have been in trouble.

I have been doing pretty good with the eating part of my diet. I just can't wait til I can exercise. Still haven't gotten the all clear from the doctor yet. I go back next week and hopefully he will say I can start in walking again. I am still coughing and hacking and getting all kinds of ick up out of my lungs. I am getting pretty tired of all this. Will keep you posted. Keep the faith ;)

Sorry it's been so long, Tripod wouldn't cooperate. I lost 1.5 pounds last week and am down to 228.5. I am on an all out mission to lose weight before December. We are going to Disney World on 4 Dec. I have not gotten the all clear to exercise yet. I did try walking on the treadmill the other day and felt like I was gonna die when I was done. I was wheezing and coughing all over the place.

To help keep my hands busy and out of food at night I am working on shirts for Jai and I for Valentine's Day. I am cross stitching hearts on them and then am going to backstitch things on them like the conversation hearts you can buy. That should keep me busy for a while. Keep the faith ;)

Another four days have snuck by since I last updated. Seems like working, keeping a house running and being a mother to 3 teenagers (well, almost 3, Timothy will be 13 on Thursday) consumes all my time. I went and got the second in my series of Hepatitis B shots. Only one more to go. Haven't gotten the okay to exercise yet because I have been unable to go to the doctor. We had to change our insurance because the insurance we had would no longer insure government employees. Our new insurance doesn't even have us in their computer yet and we have no ID numbers. We do have a sheet of paper we can use to go to the ER if we need to. All it does is prove we have insurance and then I guess it will be their hassle to figure out how to get paid. Until the insurance company gets on the stick and issues us the numbers we can't go to the doctor or get prescriptions filled. I am going to have to call the doctor on Monday and see if he has any sample inhalers as Timothy is out and I can't get the prescription filled. What a hassle this has been. The personnel office called the insurance company, but so far that hasn't helped. Guess we will have to end up doing what one guy did and getting our congressman involved.

Not sure how the weight loss is going. Will weigh in on Monday, but I have a feeling it is not too good. I haven't been drinking enough water, and while I have been watching what I eat and eating lots of fruit and veggies, not exercising is not helping a bit. Keep the faith ;)

It is a beautiful, snowy day here in Maryland. Schools were closed state-wide. The kids had a blast. They were sledding, and even built a snowman. This is the first time in years we have had a snow wet enough to build a snowman. Lately we have had those real dry, blowing snows. Now comes the task of digging out. We have over six inches so far and it is still snowing. The big problem will be tonight when the temps drop into the single digits. They are also calling for more snow on Sunday.

I went and joined the Y yesterday. I took a single parent, 3-month membership. I only joined for 3 months because if the kids poop out on me, I can join just for myself after 3 months.

My baby turned 13 today. Now I officially have 3 teenagers. We had snow like this when he was born, only it was two days after he was born and kept me in the hospital an extra night.

There is a big debate raging on the local news over whether it is safe for kids to eat snow. A neighbor told the one newswoman that it wasn't safe for the kids to eat snow. I would think the main trouble would be eating too much and lowering their core temperature too much. (Of course, you have to watch real little kids to make sure they don't eat yellow snow. Ha, Ha!!) Keep the faith ;)

Just an update on what is going on. I went to the Y last night and met with a trainer. He weighed me and took my measurements, and then figured out my target heart range. Then he introduced me to some of the machines. I used a rowing machine, the treadmill, and a life cycle for 10 minutes each and he checked my heart rate. I was within the range on all three machines. He wants me to use them for a couple of weeks then he will show me the weight machines. He said he doesn't want me to get too overwhelmed all at once. I really liked the guy and wasn't even too intimidated. Everyone seemed nice and a lot of people came over the me to offer encouragement and tell me what a great trainer Cliff is. I think I will enjoy going there.

I'm not sure when I will get to the Y again because we are having another snow storm. Six inches so far and plenty more where that came from. The radar is a mess. Schools, of course, are closed again. That means it has been six days since the kids have been in school. They had off Thurs and Fri of last week for snow and yesterday the students had off and we had a professional development day. Now another snow day. That means between snow and Floyd, we have five days added onto the end of the school year. We are now going to 15 Jun. At this rate we won't get out of school til July.

We share a common driveway with the neighbors and it would be a big help if we could get them to help shovel out the drive. We have to have it clear because my husband is a firefighter and is considered essential personnel. He has to go to work even if the post is closed (he works at APG). He is home today - it is the second day of his two day break. He will have to go to work tomorrow, no matter what the weather is.

Will keep you posted on how things go at the Y. Keep the faith ;)

Finally we are going back to school and work - 2 hours late today. The kids haven't been in school since last Wednesday. I worked Monday (we had a professional development day) and have been out ever since due to snow. I don't think it would have been so bad, but the snow kept drifting and covering road they had already plowed and they had to keep going back over the same roads again and again. Right now it is only 10 degrees and we won't even talk about the windchill. Jeez, I hope we have decent heat in the building today. Thank heaven for space heaters.

I haven't been back to the Y since Monday, but believe me, I have gotten a ton of exercise. I have shoveled more than my share of snow. And to think, they are calling for more of this stuff on Sunday. They aren't really sure what, exactly, we will get. It could be all snow, a combination of snow and sleet, or a combination of snow, sleet and freezing rain. It all depends on what track the storm takes. Keep the faith ;)