Life gets in the way

Sometimes life just gets in the way of everything. Our youngest daughter Mandi has moved back in with us with her two year old to try to get her life in order. Going through a divorce and custody fight and needs support so here she is. She has applied for jobs but so far no calls. She is going to go to school and learn a trade so she is more marketable.

Work has been extremely difficult this past week. Friday was the WORST! I'm up to nine girls now and it's making staffing extremely tricky since I still do not have a full staff. I sometimes wonder why I even bother! I know it's because I care and because I am making a difference.

Weight loss is up and down yet again. Some of it is my own fault as I'm not eating correctly or just not eating at all. Even with the surgery, it is still a struggle every day, especially when I seem to be able to eat pretty much anything I want (just in smaller quantities) and have no ill effects. It wasn't supposed to be like this so soon.

Anyway, just wanted to check in. I really need to make time to make the rounds of the blogs of all my friends. I've been so neglectful and for that I apologize. I used to be so good at making rounds daily and now it's been like forever.

Vacation starts Friday next week. Tim and I are going to FL with my sister and her man. I'm so looking forward to getting away from it all. I know we're going to have a good time and it's going to fly by way too fast. I'll have my laptop and will try to check in but we'll see how it goes.

I try ...

... to get here more often but sometimes there just isn't anything to say. Life has been busy and crazy but I'm hanging in there. I had a wonderful July 4th weekend visiting with my sister and my girls. It was just what I needed after a couple of really horrible weeks at work.

First there was the scare that I may be out of a job. Illinois government cannot settle on a budget (and is currently operating without one) and the IL Department of Children and Family Services made a bunch of cuts in anticipation of less money to operate on. Consequently, they cut all funding for Parenting Teen Centers. Guess what I run? Yep, a Parenting Teen program! For a couple weeks we had to wonder if our organization was going to close us down. It now looks like we're going to be okay but I'm not certain of that, yet. I'm taking it day by day and we'll see where that gets me. LOL

We had our therapist leave and a new therapist come on. She's doing a good job but she's not the therapist we had and the girls miss her. On top of that, I hired (or thought I had hired) new staff. Only half of the ones I hired actually showed up for orientation so it's back to square one. I really hate that whole process. This means I'm running my home short of staff and working a LOT of hours. Suffice it to say that as of yesterday I already have my 80 hours for this pay period in and still have to work today, tomorrow, and at the very least, Friday! All without real compensation as I'm salaried. Gotta love that, too!

I lost virtually no weight in June and was frustrated as I mentioned in my last post. Talked with a few "in the know" and came to the conclusion maybe I wasn't eating enough calories. Sure enough, I bumped those up and the weight is coming off again. Lesson learned, once again. It wasn't that I wasn't eating, because I do about six times a day but I needed more calories to fuel my body now that I'm more active.

I got my butt kicked at my circuit conditioning and cardio classes last night. I ran on the treadmill three times. It was still only a minute, but I did it. I don't really like running on the treadmill. I've ran a few times on solid ground but I'm not ever going to be a runner, per se. I'm starting to see some definition in my thighs, though, and that's encouraging. I also moved up to six pound weights for my strength training. My arms are killing this morning. It was a good workout and I'm okay with the sore and tender muscles, really. It's all a reminder that I'm making progress. Back to water aerobics class tonight and it's all good. I do enjoy my workouts, surprisingly enough. I miss when I can't go because of work.

I did run into someone over the weekend who had not seen me since my surgery. She didn't greet me at first and I didn't give it much thought. She isn't a friend or anyting, just someone who lived in the same town I used to live in and we'd exchange a hello from time to time when we met. I know who she is and she knows me via my girls as her husband teaches at the high school but that's it. Anyway ... a few minutes later she came to me and said, "I didn't recognize you. You've lost a LOT of weight!" It made me smile to know that others really do see the difference. It was nice to know my hard work is paying off.

On a side note to all of that, Tim took pictures of me with our granddaughter Chloe in the pool on Monday. I looked at them and realized, though I'm not thin by any means, I am definitely thinner. I compared that photo to one taken exactly a year ago and oh my ... Here is a couple photos from Monday.