I know we have a place to tell our story, but I thought we could add little tid bits in the girls room so we could get to know each other better.

I grew up in Chicago, and if you ever saw that movie "my big fat Greek wedding" that is like the family I grew up with. I think one of the main reasons I moved to Oregon was to get away from my Greek family.

My h.s. sweetheart and I got married when I was 19 and moved here when I was 21. He wanted to live near the ocean and we knew Calif. was expensive and crowded. We picked this town because it's the biggest town on the Oregon coast. We got divorced shortly after I moved here, and he moved to Portland. We remain good friends. I married my 2nd husband at the age of 25 and had a daughter at 28 and a son at 31. My husband had an on the job accident when they were 3 and 6 and was killed instantly.I never remarried. I raised them by myself and they have turned out to be good kids. My daughter is an RN and my son is an electrician. My daughter had my 1st grandson and he was a year in April. My son just became a dad and his baby girl is 2 weeks old.

Life is good!

I am 27 years old, Born the day after Christmas...

I have 2 older sisters and 1 younger Brother.

I have very Old fashioned parents, My Father is a typical Mexican MACHO. His word was our Command. My Mother was has always been at his beck and call. She has no life and lives in Constant fear of him... He is not physically abusive but he is verbally abusive. What he says goes always has and always will.... He has always been a very demanding person. Would always tell us off for the smallest thing.

He has been an EXCELLENT FATHER and Role Model.

He is very strong and he never gives up....

Due to my father's character, My Mother was addicted to Xanax for many, many years...

Due to my Parents Constantly fighting , my Mother would take out her frustration out on us.

At the age of 7 my father had his first heart attack he was 40

At the age of 10 my father had open heart surgery 5 by passes

At the age of 16 My father had an eye surgery gone wrong which left him blind in one eye and reduced vision in the other.

In 1998 (I was about 16 as well) My Mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.

So, My father being the type of man he is, made my Mothers battle that much harder.

Both my sisters were already married so that left me to take care of the House, take care of my brother, and manage High School at the same time.

Also at 16 I met who is now my husband.

Things at home were very tough, and I needed a way out.

My Boyfriend 9who is now my husband) moved 300 miles away and we maintained a long distance relationship for a couple of years,

Came year 2000 it was my senior year, My father's attitude only got worse, I broke up with My now husband and started going out with the Ever so popular Football player.

He gave me that shoulder to cry on, while things at home were terrible.

After 5 months of dating Prom night came and he told me he too was moving due to a College Scholarship to play football.

Till this day I dont know why, But we Eloped.... we went to the court house and got married at the age of 18.

35 days after he left I had to get it annulled. He left and that was that. I was my own Lawyer at 18 I got all the papers together and Annulled my marriage.

2 years later my now husband shows up tells me he loves me, and we got engaged Jan 5 2002, and got married Nov. 7, 2002.

I got Pregnant Feb. 2003 and had my daughter Nov. 28 2003.

Moved to Houston in 2004.

Lived there till 2007 and Moved back to My home town that same year cause of my Husbands Job.

I thank God everyday for my Family, my parents, and siblings,

But I think it has made me to be a very tough person.

Long story but this is me......Thanks to that I Became a resposible, well mannered, dont take any BS type of perosn.

I am a girly girl, but dont push my buttons cause you will see a part of me NOBODY likes....

I Now have a Great life. I Became a Christian (catholic up bringing). My DH got the job of his dreams (Homeland Security)and I became a Stay at home Mom.

My life was full of drama, and stress. I am now suffering the consequences of all that.

I am overweight and suffer panic attacks.

All thanx to my childhood...........

Oh well thats life....

Edited July 6, 200917 yr by NewSexyMe
forgot to add things

I know we have a place to tell our story, but I thought we could add little tid bits in the girls room so we could get to know each other better.

I grew up in Chicago, and if you ever saw that movie "my big fat Greek wedding" that is like the family I grew up with. I think one of the main reasons I moved to Oregon was to get away from my Greek family.

My h.s. sweetheart and I got married when I was 19 and moved here when I was 21. He wanted to live near the ocean and we knew Calif. was expensive and crowded. We picked this town because it's the biggest town on the Oregon coast. We got divorced shortly after I moved here, and he moved to Portland. We remain good friends. I married my 2nd husband at the age of 25 and had a daughter at 28 and a son at 31. My husband had an on the job accident when they were 3 and 6 and was killed instantly.I never remarried. I raised them by myself and they have turned out to be good kids. My daughter is an RN and my son is an electrician. My daughter had my 1st grandson and he was a year in April. My son just became a dad and his baby girl is 2 weeks old.

Life is good!

Good idea for a thread, Daisy!

I was born in Michigan and we lived there until I was 14 and then moved to Florida. I met my first husband at the beach after graduation. Despite my parents warning me, I got married one month shy of my 19th birthday. They were right, I was too young, but I was in love and thought I knew everything. He immediately changed and started not coming home at night until 11:00 p.m. and every weekend was gone both days fishing and golfing. It got worse after we had kids. I put up with him, though, for twelve years. Then, my best friends husband found them coming out of a hotel together and that was the final straw. I spent those twelve years consoling myself with food. But, I can't say I regret marrying him because I have two amazing kids as a result.

Justin is 18, just graduated high school and will be attending Florida State starting next month for sports medicine. He has always been in gifted classes and everything seems to come real easy for him. Danielle is my Christmas baby. She is 16 and a sweetheart. She is also in all honors classes and hopes to be a vet someday. I couldn't be prouder of them.

I got married to Lee in 1999. He has three kids from his first marriage and four grandkids. He is seven years older than me. I thought we had the fairytale relationship. Unfortunately, we recently went through a very rough period in which our marriage almost didn't survive. But, one night we sat up talking until almost 4:00 a.m. and realized we both love each other very much and our marriage was worth saving. We have done the things we need to do to fix our relationship and I am happy to say things are going much better now.

I work for a non profit agency that takes care of abused, abandoned and neglected kids. I am the database specialist for the foundation and also help plan our major fundraising events. It doesn't pay well at all, but the rewards I get from knowing I am helping these kids are far greater than a paycheck.

I am a technology geek, especially when it comes to smartphones. My main hobby is phones, forums and computers. I also love animals and have two fabulous dogs. On the weekends, my hubby and I like to put our redneck on and go jeeping in the forest. It is fun to pack a lunch, take the dogs and just have a blast on the trails and what not.

I guess that is enough about me for now. I am sure we will all learn a great deal more about each other as time goes on, and I am looking forward to it.

Hey everyone, my name is Tiffany. I'm 32 years old, married to the greatest husband in the world, John (27), and mother to the most amazing son in the universe, Caysen (11).

My husband is active duty Air Force, and we are currently stationed in the NW panhandle of Florida near Pensacola. We've been together for over 3 years, and were married in Feb 2008.

I'm a licensed insurance agent, and have been in the insurance industry since 2002. I just recently resigned my position with a small agency due to the extended recovery time I am dealing with, and wanting to spend time with my family. My husband is currently deployed to Afghanistan, and is due home at the end of September.

I love to write poetry, fish, go to the beach, and just about do anything with my family. John and I have a date night once a week, and are enjoying our life on the beach.

John is going to adopt Caysen, and we will try for another baby next year.

I'm excited about what sleeve life has to offer. I'm doing great with the weight loss. I'm seeing changes, and my clothes are definitely too big at this point. It's exciting, but I'm also looking forward to moving to regular food with some consistency.

Ok, this could be long. Born in 1954 a week before Christmas, I grew up in Southern Illinois, a country farming community, with 5 other siblings. I was the 2nd oldest and very independent and at times rebellious. My parents were fairly strict but hard working people. I learned alot about growing our own food, canning and feezing produce, making butter, butchering and anything else farm folks did to exist. I was a corn fed girl raised on organic veggies and fresh eggs and meat not to mention fish. That was when the country was still very innocent and clean cut.

I went to an all white school (it was an all white community) we didnt know diversity then and had little need of any. Everyone seemed the same but all I knew were Christians and Jews.

I graduated HS in 1972 and went into the military after going to college for a year. I didnt have the money for tuition and couldnt ask my parents to foot the bill since I had 4 younger siblings at home. My parents didnt believe in borrowing money so school loans werent an option. The military was a good thing for me as that rebellious part of me was toned down a bit by a bunch of really gun ho drill seargents. I wanted to go into nursing eventually so I became a field medic. I worked in the hospitals and for the Division surgeon until I was discharged and got married. Wow That was a really long time ago. 1976 I married my first husband who was also military. He eventually got out and we moved to Florida where I went to college for my nursing degree. I got pregrant during my last yr and graduated from Florida State in 1980 with a 7 week old daughter.

We stayed in Florida while she was growing up. I wanted another child but couldnt get pregnant but instead had to have a hysterectomy at age 26 for a tumor. It was a good thing in the end. My husband was well into his progressive disease of alcholism by that time. I continued working as a nurse as my daughter grew older and I grew fatter. It was part stress from the bad marriage and part from the hysterectomy I think. I went on some diet pills and lost about 75 lbs but gained it back plus some and we all know what that is like.

When my daughter was 12 the marriage was over after I found out the creep I was married to was as deranged as they come as well as being a drunk. He attempted to molest my daughter. I took her, divorced him and moved to Illinois and quit nursing. I went to work with the Federal Government in an environmental office so I could be home in the evenings and weekends with my daughter.

3 yrs after moving to Illinois and remarried, this time to a man who was a dumb as a box of rocks. He seemed ok when we were dating but you just never know a person until you live with them. That marriage lasted 5 yrs and we divorced when the doctors discovered a hemagioma (blog clot tumor) on my spine and had to do surgery that required a yr off work for recovery. He decided that since I wasnt working, neither was he and I kicked him to the curb. This led to a bankruptcy but I didnt care. I was done. I went back to school that yr while off of work and got an engineering degree. The day of graduation, I packed up everything I owned into a Uhaul and drove myself 2200 miles to California where I have been since. I have worked my way up in the positions and now have a nice home near my younger sister. All the while getting fatter and fatter. I started thinking last year when the job market got so bad, how was I going to get another job when or if I lost this one.(all good things come to an end) Even having nursing as an option, with my back problem, my weight was going to be an obstacle and I was seeing my doctor on a regular basis and up to 7 medications a day that were mostly due to being obese. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I researched the lap band and hurried to get it done before I changed my mind. I had it done on 9/19/08 and all was well for 6 months. Then on Friday Mar 13th, one day after oral surgery I took a pill that changed everything. My stomach swelled up till the blood flow was constricted and stomach turned necrotic. I had emergency surgery for band removal a partial gastrectomy. I recovered quickly and soon started gaining the weight back. I had to do something and the sleeve has been my salvation. I am doing well and if you notice my photos, the journey has been paying off. Thank God for this forum and everyone on it. Escpecially my sleeve sister V Angel.

PS My daughter is now 30 and doing great, she doesnt hate her father but he does creep her out so there is limited contact with him.

Edited July 9, 200917 yr by Ruthi