Apples2

Hello Chickie-poos! Had a wonderful weekend. Saw some good friend that we had not seen since Sept (we call/email). Hung out with DH and helped him with some projects around the lake place. It looks wonderful and I am soooooooooo going to appreciate the extra space that the new deck provides. I'm going to try to go by memory here. I have the same problem as most in their 50's...CRS and it does not just flare up when a weather front comes in. No medication helps so bare with me. Janet...lamb...nope. Forced to eat it every Thursday growing up. I just never acquired a taste for it. I am a very picky meat eater. No roast beef cuz it has "stuff" in it. My oldest DS is a picky meat eater just like me. I will actually study my deli meat and pick away anything that does not belong. Ground turkey and chicken gross me out cuz don't know which parts they throw in. I grind it myself and it's usually the breast. Make my own ground turkey sausage too. Just the thought of some meats start my gagger going. I know, weird. Eva...sounds like you had a successful purse party. It's just fun to do things like that sometimes just to have the girls over. Make a couple little fancy foods and visit. Julie...hope your doc gives you a call back. Boy, I sure hope he is proactive in your care and will start some sort of regimine to get you some relief. I also hope your ins company does not do a screw job on you and hold back on the care you need. I'd be so pissed by now, I'd demand some action of some sort. Arlene...sorry to hear of your mom's illness. Hope she is better and home soon. Thinkin of you as you go through this. Also, hope your FM is better. My first paragraph of this post was not poking fun at your pain when the fronts come in. I totally understand what you go through. I was diagnosed with FM 15 yrs ago. Went to a couple of specialists in Minneapolis and they both said the same thing. All the pressure point pain and sooooooooooo sore most days. Well, they were wrong. Think it was just plain osteoarthritis cuz after the weight dropped off so did all the pain. Not one ache or pain nowadays. Cheri...my LB doc's nurse said that she learned with some ppl that when they lay down, the bottom part of their stomach sometimes come a bit into the stoma and stays there for a bit after getting up. She stated that that's where that tight feeling comes from Not sure about it myself cuz I don't remember taking a nap since being banded. We are all so different and you are lucky if you can lay down for awhile and control that loose feeling on the days you need to. Great...hope you got some feedback on your house and the ppl that looked at it. Also, good luck with finding a home you like in SLC. You'll have to post a photo of your new "do". Jessica...I so admire you for how you are keeping it all together and working on you. Sounds like you are enjoying your new found freedom. We all need to focus on our own little family and keep extended family at arms length when needed. Also, took a peak at your new photos you posted in your public info. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Such a beautiful woman you are. Keep up the hard work. You'll be at goal b/4 you know it and be giving advice to those that need it. You know your stuff and seems to me that you take the time to "study" up to make your LB life what it should be. Hey LauraK...good luck with organizing the move. We have been through so many moves with the DS's...don't envy you. Hey Laura....sounds like you had a "Family Fun Time" weekend. The days that Nels will remember forever. Hope you get some rest. Hi Linda....hope you are rested after your week-long bday celebrations. Happy the swing set is done. OK...gotta go get lunch for my men. Not sure where they are or if it will be a cooler lunch or at the table. Better think quick on what I am making. Will catch up later and sorry to those I did not address. You know I love ya!

I eat when I am hungry and make healthy food choices....always. I try to make every day well-balanced and that seems to work for me. I never feel deprived. I now have absolutely no unhealthy cravings and only crave wholesome/healthy foods. Some days I have 6-8 healthy meals...other days 3-4. I believe the trick is to eat when you are hungry and not let yourself get so famished that you set yourself up for a binge.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR LINDA (WE LOVE YOU) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! Morning All...up at 4am so I can cram as much work in this morning and early afternoon. Meeting a friend from the lake at 4pm so gotta make the most of my time today. Don't want to call and cancel on her if I don't get my work done. Eva...have a great purse party. So wish I could be there. I would love to see your place and all the interesting things you have done with it. When we were in FL, you described the type of purses (?) with the interchangable outer shell, right? Janet...it must be busy at work if you are thinking of working on the weekend. Take care and try to find some time to relax. OK...this is it for my posting today. You all have a great weekend and will talk to you on Monday. Sending the love!

Laura...been wondering where you were at. Your TOM issues do not sound like a lot of fun. All that goes with that is 7 yrs behind me. I was pretty lucky and no complaints in that dept. Happy I could make Nels happy. Sorry if you had to answer a lot of questions. Funny, when I was posting the photos, I knew I'd better post some descriptions for Nels. Knew he would want to know.

Julie...as I stated this morning...it's OK that Janet jumped in a day early. This way Linda gets 2 days worth of greeting. She's very special so that's just what she will get!!!! But, thanks for the reminder. BTW...it's so nice having that list you did for us. Arlene...1lb lost is better than 1lb gained. You are doing great!

Great...hey...shop til you drop! I always figure if it is in the budget, fine and dandy. A really good deal is hard for me to pass up. But what is even tougher for me is paying huge prices for something that I know will be at a really good sale price a few months down the road. I do a lot of "out of season" shopping and have closets full of good deals and plenty of clothes. Shopping is a great past time if what a person spends does not put the budget behind. I assumed the test you were having is where they would go down with the tube. Happy to hear it was just the swallow test and that things look good. Really don't have an answer to the questions as to why it is called tiling. Think it might have to do with the fact that many years ago round concrete (about 12" circular) were used and placed in the ground end to end. You got me on that one! Busy day so far but minimal running to the field. Only spent about an hour. Helping DS in the yard. Getting machinery ready to go to another field for tiling. Did some experimenting today with making a protein shake. I picked up a few chocolate Pure Pro ready made shakes. Added ice and a tsp of dry instant coffee crystals. Put in blender. Yum. But, shakes seem to keep me really full and have a tough time getting in cals the rest of the day. Think they will be my evening treat during the summer. Went on Amazon and ordered the banana and vanilla flavors.

Sandi...first of all, congrats on your success. I could write a similar post..minus the beach part. LOL I was banded June, 2008 and am thankful every day of my life. I can run circles around any 19 yr old and have unlimited energy. I consider myself to have had the ideal LB journey. This did not come without hard work and determination and consider myself fortunate to not have too many bumps in the road. We are farmers which requires us to be on the move on a daily basis. Prior to banding, it was such a chore to accomplish the little tasks. Now, there is nothing I cannot do that is required of me. Life is good!

I was always the "inside girl" when we built our bins. I would hold the nuts while DH used the drill on the outside. Sweltering, humid weather and stifling heat inside those bins.

1st photo is the tile I was trying to describe. They use big spools that the rolls go on and string it into the trenches 2nd...is a photo of the catwalk so we can check the grain dryer fans and check the grain inside the bins. The orange you see are the burners and the cause of the fires we had the last two years during harvest. 3rd...not a very good photo but that little white building with the door is my little station I use when unloading trucks, etc. Usually bitterly cold during harvest so I have some protection from the cold and wind. Also this little building is set up for checking moisture of the grain.

1st photo is the little sunporch where DH and I have Breakfast each morning and watch the crops grow...we do crop rotation so soybeans will be out our back window this year. 2nd...grain bins where crop is stored. The largest one holds about 80,000 bushels where the smaller are about 30,000 3rd...more bins 4th...the space between these bins shows where we load and dump our grain. The semis drive in between the bins and dump their load into a big grate under the truck and is distributed to different bins. All I have to do is push a button in the control room and it goes to the correct bin (hopefully...have not screwed it up and put Beans in with corn yet) Also...that funny looking upside down cone shaped overhead bin is where we transport the grain to when we are loading the trucks to take grain to town.

Phyll...I cannot get rid of books either. I am very protective of my stash. If friends borrow, I make them sign them out (embarssed). I do re-read some books. I have taken many journeys as I read those books and they mean something to me. And...you are correct...my dog cannot be considered an animal. Like I said last week...he is a lab/human mix.

Happy Anniversary, Lori. Nice to hear that your 31 yrs have been happy ones. I can say the same. 31 yrs in Nov. We all have a little quirks and I am sure there were times DH would have loved it if I just "poof" disappeared, and, vice versa. But, after all this time we still enjoy each others company. I still get excited for a date night. Funny about DH and his brother. I raised two boys on this farm and they were also little DARE DEVILS. Their dad made them work and they did earn money for certain jobs. This allowed them to buy "toys" with their money. From the time they could barely see over the steering wheel, their dad had them out in the fields driving the pickups and tractors. I grew up in town so would tend to be a little protective (which I should have been). They had all kinds of go carts they built, dune buggies, snowmobiles, etc. with a lot of acres to test them out. Our oldest was in the snowmobile racing circuit for years. Anyway...to get to one story brought to mind when you mentioned your DH on the farm....The one and only time we had any livestock was the summer the boys were 3 and 5. I kept a pretty close eye on them but I guess this time not close enough. I could see out all our windows and could see where they were at all times. We decided to feed out 8 black angus that summer. Had a barn at the place we lived and just put up fence outside the barn. Well, looked out the kitchen window and there was a major stampede. The boys decided to "brand" the angus. They heated up sticks from a burning barrel that had some warm embers and were poking these HUGE angus on the hinder. Many, many stories of those two little risk takers. Good luck with your test today. Makes me wonder why your doc would be so invasive with a test like that. Maybe just a cautious kind of guy.

Not a problem, LauraK...I was just surprised that you remembered what kind of farm we have.

There are soooooooooooo many ppl that have had successful results with the band that do not post as much as they used to on this forum. There are a lot of negative posts, but, we are going to hear more from ppl that are struggling than ppl where things are going good for them. Never hurts to hear some of the negatives so you can prepare yourself and learn from them. This procedure and the months after are not an easy road. But, so worth it all in the end. Wishing you luck in your decision!

Thanks for the reminder, Janet...but I thought Linda's bday is tomorrow...Doesn't matter cuz then maybe she will get bday greetings for two days! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR LINDA (WE LOVE YOU) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

OMG Julie.... the girls look like they could be sisters. So cute. Deb...know where you are coming from with the ADD. I was the odd ball in our little household with DH and oldest DS way off the charts ADD and youngest DS ADHD. Was tough sometimes but I had a rule....they could NEVER use it as an excuse. It was a lot of work with the organization thing. I really don't think I was that organized b/4 marrying DH. But, after raising the boys and living with DH for 30 yrs, I am the most organized person due to our daily routine and keeping everybody on task. I found that the biggest factor in dealing with this disability was scheduling and being consistant. It worked but not without a lot of stress. I would not trade any of those years though for normalcy. ADD ppl are extremely innovative and new ideas every day. Nothing surprises me any more when I get a call from one of my sons explaining what they are up to. Always something new. What they have done makes me look boring.

Haven't hit the road yet, LauraK. Waiting to hear which way I go today. So funny on the farming thing, Jodi. I can just imagine the images you have in your head. Me on a little round stool under a cow pulling on teats. Separating cream, churning butter, feeding chickens, singeing and plucking the chicken, candling eggs, laying down bedding for the baby pigs, pitching manure. NO WAY IN HELL! Even though it was love at first sight with DH, I would have had to run as fast as I could the other way. That LauraK is pretty smart. We farm just under 3000 acres of strictly corn and soybeans. We are conservations farms. We do not go out with big old plows and dig up the top soil. 31 yrs ago we became "ridge tillers". What that entails is...all those years ago (or when we pick up another peice of land) we built ridges 36" apart the length of the feild (usually 1 mile length). In the spring we go in with the corn or soybean planter and cut off a bit of the top of the ridge and planter drops the seed in and also covers it up at on the same pass. Doing it this way limits erosion and saves the top soil. We just let it grow. At harvest time the corn gets picked and shelled out by the combine. It gets brought back to our farm, dried in the grain dryer and then transported underground to different grain bins for storage. We usually "forward contract" which means we sell about 10,000 bushels at a time. Kind of a safety net not to sell all at once. Never want to have all your eggs in one basket...it actually all evens out nicely in the end. Most farmers go in the feilds b/4 planting and deep plow the soil. Then again after harvest. We don't turn the soil at all. DH has been farming since the late 60's, so been at it for a little over 40 yrs. It's a good life. We also have a custom agricultural tiling business which our 29 yr old son manages. We have very heavy rich soil in our area and it needs to be drained or it will drown out the crops. They have huge rolls of plastic pipe and dig about six foot deep trenches, lay the pipe, cover it up and do intakes every so often in order for the farmer to maintain the tile. They put in miles and miles of the tile every year. DH helps with the tiling when he is not farming. As I explained yesterday, I am their "gopher". I run for loads of the tile, run wherever they need me to to get parts for repairs, etc. Our farms are up to 15 miles away from each other so I do a lot of running between. I will try to take some photos today of the bins and tile just so you can better see what I mean. Cannot take photos of equipment as it is all miles away out in the feilds being used. As I said in a previous post, since hiring our son 4 yrs ago, a lot of my "farm wifey" duties have been taken away from me...OH NO!!!! Which I am fine with. The toughest part for me is going from the 24/7 thing to just what I do now. But, I take off for my lake place on Thursdays and come home Monday mornings. I just make up a bunch of food b/4 I leave. Guilt hotdishes, guilt sandwiches, guilt cookies and I'm set to go!

Cheri...sorry you were so devastated by your experience with fellow chior members. I hope you can work through it all in your own mind and find peace in the fact that you know you did not mean to hurt anyone with your statement. Sending hugs...Karen

Hey Deb...nothing wrong with a pound a week. Congrats. That's over 50lbs a year. (I always need to look at the big picture in order to get there). The work on the farm is really not too physically taxing...just a lot of running...which is good for anyone. We are sooooooooo automated. DH does not even have to steer the tractor or load the planter. It's all computerized. But not too many years ago (maybe 4) we were lifting 50lbs seed bags and filling the planter boxes. No wonder I have had over a dozen hernia repairs. Lori...Yes, Tanker rides with momma. He sits or lays on the passenger side floor of my truck. Gets up and kisses me about ever 10 minutes and then settles down agin. We stopped at DQ today for a treat...his fav place. We usually stop there on the way to the lake but he was such a good puppy today that I had to treat him....good excuse for me to stop for a treat also. We originally named him Tank and the "er" got added on. He has lots of knicknames also. Too many to mention. He got his name because when we got him at 6 weeks old, he was built like a tank. Very broad through the chest and paws the size of frisbies. It's dark here and have not gotten my call yet for rides. Two more trips...8 miles north to pick up DS and 6 miles south to get DH. Dinner is warming in the oven. Then time to hit the shower and bed. 4am is rise and shine time. Happy Fake Anniversary, Lori! I would do nachos anytime over a steak. Sorry you have to spend your anniversary alone. Ours is Nov 10 and is harvest time around here. Very little time to celebrate but usually bring dinner to the field and ride in the jump seat with DH for a few hours. You all have a great evening. I sure do miss Janet posting like she used to. I understand, Janet...but just miss your words of wisdom.

Hey Peeps! Yes Julie...if I had a butt, I would have run it off today. What a day and it's not over yet. But, I do really enjoy what I do for the farm and the business. Official Gopher. DS and DH are working in two different fields about 15 miles apart. DH is planting corn and DS is doing field tiling. My day started with getting them to and from their fields and while moving machinery. Ran for some parts for DS, just stepped in the door and DH called for me to run for parts for him. My thought was that new planters should not need parts but who am I to say? Had to travel 70 miles because our John Deere dealership did not have what I needed. Was back from my little trip for 20 minutes and got a call from DH to run back the 70 miles for different parts. Delivered parts to different fields. Had a message when I got home so ran 15 miles back to town to pick up my wedding ring that I knocked the diamond out of last Thurday night. (Got up at 4:45 to go to restroom, tripped over a basket that I had not yet emptied, hit a wall mirror with my hand and spent the next 4 hours searching for the diamond. I decided I would take a break, eat something and post for a few minutes b/4 I run water tanks down to DH. I often wonder how I did not go nuts a few years back. Worked more than full time, did kids, sports, volunteered, did my own housework, etc., plus, helped on the farm til dark when we were in the fields. I really, really love the days like this when we are busy but I also really, really love the days I am able to take and veg when I want to. All I have to do is say I am going. Very thankful we do not work 7 days a week anymore. We did for years. Now, when I start feeling guilty about the time I take to myself, I need to be reminded of those first 25 yrs of picking rock while all our neighbors were heading down the road with the camper behind their pickup. Julie...hope those treatments do not flare up things. Just hand DH the cleaning bucket and the toilet brush and go out for a walk. And, doing dishes is good for a man. Gets the grime off their hands!

Fast Fly By...Good Morning to All....Hope everyone has a good day. Beautiful sunny day in MN. High of 73 today. Will spend the day running between farming and tiling projects and helping the guys get equipment to the fields. Off and running. Later.

Gosh...it really does work to cross my fingers and toes! Congrats to your daughter.:thumbup:

Julie...WTH is your insurance company thinking? You would think they would let your doc make the decision as to how many shots he feels you need. I just don't understand how someone sitting behind a desk can make a decision on the medical needs of a person. Yep, deck will be playground for adults. We will be able to have campfires right on the deck with plenty of room for ppl to sit around it. I will have to take a photo...didn't have my camera this last weekend. I don't envy you in your remodeling job. We did 90% of our main floor a few years ago. We were lucky enough to have a kitchen in the basement and just moved down there for 3 months (I spent one of those months in Australia while DH and contractors toiled away...princess). Another thing that makes me UGLY...living with the mess that contractors make. I walked around with a broom in my hand. But, it is all worth it in the end.

Melissa...about the same cals in onion rings and fries. If you google, McD fries has 290 cals for their small pkg of fries...about the same when you google onion rings. Probably the two together that you ate would be around 200 cals. I know it's tough to get that water in. But, try to never be without a container at your finger tips. It's the easiest way to make sure you get in your daily requirement. I have to put some flavor in mine. Not sure why but since LB I have a tough time with plain water.

Hey, Jessica...nice to hear from you. Been missing your posts. Happy to hear you had a nice trip and that you are settled in and happy with your new place. Sounds like life is good. Also, way to go on getting back on track. Not easy but you did it. That's what counts. A "high five" if you can handle that pig dissection. We had to do one in 10th grade biology class. A fetal pig. I made a few trips to the little girl's room and lost lunch over it.:sad: Nice to have you back!:thumbup: