Still waiting

So it's official. I've been on a 1000 calorie per day diet for 5 weeks. I've lost 4 pounds this week, I feel pretty good about that seeing how in the 4 weeks prior, I had lost .02 pounds. I've submitted my medical records to Rocky Mountain Associated Physicians and they have submitted them to the insurance company for approval. So now we wait. I hate waiting. Hate. Speaking of waiting. Robert and I are still waiting for word back to see if we'll be able to be sealed this year. We're waiting for a temple cancellation for my first marriage. It has been a process of 3 months of filling out forms and getting the ex husband to do the same...and..We're still waiting. yay. Did I mention that I hate waiting? HATE. HATE. HATE. Hopefully soon we'll have some sort of news.

OH DEAR HEAVENS!

So I pretty much avoid Wal-Mart as much as humanly possible, especially with kids. Well, it was my little sister's baby shower last week. Due to the fact that I now work 7:30 pm to 4 am, I barely made her shower....let alone bought a present. I finally decided to go and get her a gift. She had a great baby shower and got almost everything that she needed, so I got her a baby bathtub. I am with my two little boys trying to survive in Wal-Mart and I go to check out and the cashier said to me "Oh, did you buy that for a new grand baby? Um...are you frickin' kidding me? Ok, I did just have a birthday...but I just turned 31. 31 people.

On the surgery front, I did have my consultation with Dr. Sherman Smith for gastric bypass. I spent most of this week collecting my medical records which I am supposed to fax to their office. I'm hoping their office accepts faxes of 400 plus pages. he he. We're hoping it gets approved by insurance. We would already have to come up with $1,600 and we're trying to figure that all out. Because of my fatness....the doctor considers me high risk. He said people in the supra obesity category, (super...I have my own special classification) have enlarged livers which can block the view for surgery. So for the past 3 weeks, I have been on a 1000 calorie a day diet. This will help reduce my liver size prior to surgery. The travesty of all of that is that I have followed the restrictions to the dot. I have packed lunches with low calories and packed healthy snacks like fresh pineapple etc. I went back to the doctor and I have lost .02 pounds. Ok, seriously, how is that possible? I am just hoping that even though my metabolism is about as slow as my father drives, that it is somehow making my liver smaller for surgery.

I have struggled with some people's idea of gastric bypass. I didn't realize how taboo it is. I told a couple of my friends that I was going to have the surgery and they said to me (two separate friends) "Why would you do that? That's the quitter's way of doing it" or "Wow, you're taking the easy way out" or "Well aren't you worried about excess skin."

Um what? seriously? Ok, how many people do you know that have lost 30 pounds and kept it off for more that 1 or two years? I honestly have seen my cycle...I lose weight and gain it all back plus 15 pounds. etc. etc. etc. Looking at this rationally, statistically if I don't do something, I'm going to die, and most likely die young. Also there is very little chance of me losing 200 pounds on my own. Yeah, I agree, it's possible to lose 20, 30, 40 or maybe even 50 pounds, and there might be some chance of keeping it off for the rest of your life. Maybe. Statistically, only 1% of those who lose 10 pounds will keep it off for two years.

Gastric Bypass may be quick, but it is not going to be an easy fix. I am well aware of that. The doctor that is doing my surgery has a 70% success rate after 10 years, that gives me a whole heck of a lot better odds.

First of all, this is major surgery. There are some things that I will never be able to eat and drink again. Carbonation is one of them, Caffeine is another.

The first 4 weeks I'll be on a clear liquid diet (with no juice intake) Which means I can have broth. After that I can add other liquids, without solids like strained soups and yogurt. Then it progresses to pureed foods. Sounds like fun right?
During the first year, I will be allowed 3 meals a day that are 3 oz. Sounds ok right?
well 3 oz is the size of a medicine cup. Also the food that I will eat will consist of 80% protein, 20 vegetables. No carbs/grains, fruits or juices, sugars or fats.

Now, as for the excess skin. Um, I have it now, it's just filled with blubber, yeah...I'd prefer just skin...

Robert just got offered a job today, we're super excited about that. It's got good benefits, which is fabulous as well.

I'll post more about the surgery as I know. We are still waiting for approval.

Sick

Ok. So I've basically had it with being fat. I'm done. Well, ok. I hope I'm done. I decided a couple of months ago that I was going to try, once again, to lose some weight. So, I've been religious. SO careful with what I eat. And the pay off after all these months, I've lost 2 pounds. Wow. So if I keep that up. in 74 months, I'll be where I need to be. That's just fabulous.
This isn't my first weight loss attempt. In fact, there is a very small portion of my life where I don't remember being on a diet. I can remember being on a diet in second grade.
I started thinking, it has NEVER worked for me. (the whole diet thing) I'm thinking of something drastic like gastric bypass. Right now, we're going through the paperwork etc to see if the insurance will pay for it because I have type 2 diabetes, most likely sleep apnea, and a lot of "fat girl" symptoms, like continuous knee and back pain. All of which will most likely be improved with gastric bypass. I didn't know this until I attended the classes, but type 2 diabetes can be cured simply with the surgery. It's an absorption issue, but without losing a single pound, diabetes can be eliminated with the surgery.
Even if the surgery is covered by insurance, there is a good portion we'll have to pay for ourselves, so we're trying to figure all of that out.
I'm actually really excited about all of this. I've researched the diet you have to eat following the surgery and I think I'm prepared. I have a consultation with Dr. Sherman Smith next week. Dr. Smith did his residency with my Uncle Dean, and I guess is pretty well known for his work as a bariatric surgeon.
Anyways, I feel good about my decision and feel like everything is going to work out.

Ok, I have no life.

Sorry for the generic catch up post, I work graves and basically have no life. Here's what has been happening around here in a nutshell.

In February, Robert and I celebrated our first anniversary. For our reception, I ordered a kind of elaborate wedding cake, The lady that was going to make it never showed up, and never returned my calls. She did so kindly email me and say that she forgot the date. So we didn't have the 1 year old wedding cake top to eat. Not wanting to miss out on two traditions I ordered a little cake from a bakery in Kaysville called "Sugar Daisy Bakery." Rarely, and I mean rarely am I in aw of anything. So often people do the bare minimum for what you pay them. My cake was $30 and I told her to make it pretty. She did a great job. Not only was it pretty, it was one of the most delicious cakes I've ever eaten. The bakery specializes in cupcakes...but oh man, that is some darn good cake!!!

We stayed in a cabin at the Alaskan Inn, and it was lovely. It wasn't "the nicest place I've ever stayed" which was how it was described to me...but nothing as far as bed and breakfasts in Utah will ever compare to Kay Malone's Wolfekrest. I think I am just kind of a snob and I don't really dig the whole "theme" rooms. I much prefer the posh.


It was a great weekend and a fun getaway.
For those of you who are unaware, I am currently working two jobs. I work full time at Delta Airlines (graves) and then part time writing for the Standard-Examiner.

So during my online sabbatical, the boys both celebrated their birthdays.
For Jonah's 3rd Birthday in March, we had a transformers theme. We went and got gourmet cupcakes at the sugar daisy bakery, we went to "How to Train Your Dragon" and we had a party at grandpa and grandma's house complete with transformer pinata.This is my brother David jumping on the tramp with the boys. He got tickled pretty adequately.

For some reason David and Lisa (my siblings) both thought it would be a great idea to put tatoos on my kids. It did emotional damage. Each time you put a sticker on Jonah now he has to make sure it comes off.

We also had Easter. We got each of the boys a new church outfit for Easter. Don't they look cute?
Robert sent me these

For Logan's 5th birthday in April, we had a "How to train your dragon" theme, but there weren't any kid movies playing that they hadn't seen. Logan opted for me to make his cake instead of the gourmet cupcakes. He picked his usual...pink cake with pink frosting. (his favorite color is pink) Again, we had a big party at our house and then at grandma's house too.


OK, you've all witnessed the ghetto-ness of my family. When I was little, we NEVER had wrapping paper. I mean NEVER. My mom always "wrapped" our presents in towels. I promised myself I would never do that. This year I even bought wrapping paper. I just never had a chance to wrap them, so my kids opened presents out of plastic bags. I know. It's awful.

It's a tragedy

Ok...I know it's been a long time in coming. (almost 2 years). We'd never have gotten to this point if it weren't for the help of my awesome uncle Drew! He did tons of work in the basement. We have finally painted the toy room and I'm making the decorations, curtains and even chairs. We painted the room a bright red and we're going to decorate it in all Disney. Here is where the problem comes in. The accents in the room (except for crown moulding) are going to be painted black. The chairs I am making are black, red polka dot, and I'm looking for the perfect print of disney fabric...sadly all of the ones I have found are just not "it." Then I saw these curtains on line that were home made. They sucked, but I loved the fabric. I have not been able to find any of this fabric since. I have found things on line made from this fabric, which is apparently out of print.



This is the mickey mouse print that I want, no NEED!


These are the chairs I'm making.

At this point...I'll pay a reward if you can find this fabric!!!!
Oh, why does it always have to be hard!!!

I am, however so excited to say that the room is almost done!!!

I'll post pictures soon!

Diary of a fat chick

I went to the gym for the first time....in about ever today. Ok, maybe not ever...but it's been at least a year, probably longer. I've decided that I have GOT to lose some weight. I know I can do it, because I've done it before. It's the sticking with it thingy. But I figure if I post updates on here, then I'll have to be accountable right? Yeah, I know, no more junk food. Suckish. Hopefully that will prevent premature death, heart disease or the other garbage they say is going to happen to me if I don't lose the weight.

Oh, we both have jobs now. Robert starts working at the Census on Wednesday. I can't even start to explain how excited I am to have him back at work. I love him dearly...but oh.my.gosh. there is only so much gaming I can handle, and I've reached max capacity!!!

I landed a job at Delta. I don't start that until the 16th of February but I am also going to keep my writing gigs for the Standard-Examiner and also toptenreviews.com.

I'll be working at Delta full time. I'm so happy for the opportunity to work there! I'll be able to get insurance shortly after going to work there, so that really is a blessing.

Oh my gosh. I'm so hungry. Why is it that working out always makes me so hungry?! I think it's time for bed!!

Christmas Village

Yesterday, we took the kids to the Christmas Village in Ogden. They had such a good time! We waited in line FOREVER to have the kids sit on the lap of the world's grumpiest Santa! (Oh well, the kids didn't seem to mind!)











On Thursday, Logan had a Polar Express Party at school. All the kids got to go to school in their pajamas and they watched the polar express and decorated gingerbread houses. Here are some pictures of Logan's little gingerbread house.







Also here are a few of my favorites from October and November.





Feeding the ducks at the duck pond in Layton.









I took the kids to the Treehouse Children's Museum a few weeks ago. Logan got to take home "Licorice the bear" and he had to draw pictures of everything he did while Licorice was staying with him. He kept drawing pictures of "driving in the car" so I figured the trip was necessary!






This is the typical holiday at the Stephens house! On Thanksgiving, David found a laundry basket, and somehow decided it was a good idea for him and my kids to ride down the steps in it. *sigh*