Month: August 2012 (Page 1 of 2)

I forget which week this is, but it was time for another bad weigh-in. I seem to be going every other week good then bad. So I gained a pound and a half this week. Actually I gained two pounds since Thursday, because I was down 1/2 pound Thursday. Oh, well. Back at it next week. Why is this so hard????

The new folks are doing some serious moving in today, although their official start date is the 1st. So I took a bunch of pictures so you can see what we ended up doing to the place. Sorry about the junk in some of the pictures. It is all theirs, so I didn’t want to move it around.

Thought we had it done last night, but it leaked, so we still have plumbing to do tonight. I’m trying not to get too concerned, but they do start moving in tomorrow night, so it would be great to have most of the jobs done by then. And we don’t. But there is tonight…

Other than that, I’m trying not to get stressed about moving this weekend. We will get done what we get done. No one is hurrying us. I hope to get the bedroom and clothes moved Saturday and the kitchen stuff. And a table. And the t.v., etc. I’m really excited to get the piano moved and set up, but I know it will need to be tuned before it sounds very good. I start lessons Tuesday, but I think I’ll use my keyboard. So we have to get that moved, too. Still, it should be an exciting weekend! Hope it cools down – it has been pretty hot and tomorrow is supposed to be hotter.

True, it was productive. But I wish I could just have a non-productive weekend some day and everything would be just okay. And I would actually be rested and ready for another week.

But we have renters moving in on Saturday and it turns out we can move into Chetek on Saturday and Sunday, as well. So my hope for restful days of any sort are well into the future. But my hopes of being hive free are closer. I hope.

We did a lot on the rental this weekend, but it is really taking a long, long time to do the plumbing for the sink and dishwasher. Dad decided to upgrade that whole side of the house to a bigger drain pipe system, so it is actually a huge project at the basement level. And it is a pretty big project under the sink, as well, since he decided to redo that cabinet, putting on a new floor and sides. Then we got stumped by the little things that hold the sink on. We bought both kinds they had at Menards and neither one seems to work with our sink. So Dad has to check elsewhere tomorrow (like Restore or a real plumber) and see if he can find the kind he is used to.

But things are coming together. 6 more evenings, counting this evening to work on it.

I stayed the same as last week. But that isn’t the whole story. Actually I weighed in last Thursday, then headed to Grandma Fritzes, where I proceeded to gain back all I’d lost, plus some. So beginning on Monday, I lost 4 pounds. Again. Still, I’m pleased that I didn’t end up higher than last week.

I heard a talk on strategies, so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the strategies that actually help me lose weight. I wrote some down and am concentrating on doing all those things because I know that each one is likely to help, rather than hurt, my weight loss.  It is funny, but when I think of them as strategies, rather than rules, I don’t mind doing them. One is not eating while I’m watching my movies in the evening. I wait and have just my planned snack after I turn off the t.v. Another I’m really going to try to do is practice my tai chi every afternoon in that really munchy time before I fix supper.

Believe it or not, it was 41 yesterday morning and about 47 today. I couldn’t ride my scooter because I don’t remember where I put my wind pants and I’m not riding without them when it’s in the 40’s. I’m bummed because it would have been a gorgeous ride home both days. So looking for those pants is on my list for today. Along with cleaning out the fridge and figuring out where that really funky smell is coming from.

We had a nice visit with the moms over the weekend. Got some chores done for each of them. And it worked great leaving on Thursday, because then we still had Sunday to get things done. Only about 10 days until the renters move in across the street and we are far from done!  Crunch time.

We are going to Waukesha tonight, so I won’t have a scale tomorrow. So I decided earlier in the week to have my weigh-in today.

Much better this week. I’m down 2.5 from my starting weight (a bit more from last week, but we don’t need to talk about that!) So, I’m pleased.Only 31.5 to go.

My hardest time is from when I get home from work through the afternoon and evening. So I have a little note card where I keep track of every half hour that I eat right. At the end of the day, I count how many points I earned. Not that i do anything with the points, but it keeps me focused on what I really want, which is to lose weight, rather than letting my focus wander to wanting something fattening. Anyway, it helped this week.

My hives started getting worse again a couple weeks ago. I was only having a few around my hips and all of a sudden I was waking up pretty covered again. Dad tried to convince me it was the new laundry detergent and I finally believed him enough to re wash everything that I wear often. That was the weekend we moved the washer and dryer over, so it was a much simpler matter to do a lot of laundry.

But I wasn’t any better. Then Dad thought of something awful. The insulation that we figured out was the culprit was too good to throw away (or so we thought at the time), so we reused it to insulate under the laundry room. And the laundry room floor isn’t totally finished, so it has cracks between the sheets of plywood. Rather large cracks right under the dryer. And where, we wonder, does the air come from that the dryer uses to dry? Could it be….. from under the dryer?

Ah. So that explains why I wasn’t any better. I took clothes that were probably fine and gave them a good tossing in air filled with the “toxic” dust.

Dad spent last evening putting duct tape over all the cracks and holes in the laundry room. I was so itchy by 11:00 that I got up and washed and dried all the bedding and finally got to bed at 12;30. But I didn’t wake up at 3:00 a.m. like usual, itching, and I had noticably less hives this a.m. So today I’m rewashing all my clothes. Again. Pray that it helps, because I am REALLY tired of this.

And, one more thing. Dad said we should move back to the downstairs apartment in Chetek, which we are currently trying to rent, since the renter is moving out. I ran the numbers and we can afford it, so I think we will be doing that in September. Ah, such a life!

I just realized I’d never posted about the show we went to see on Thursday. It was amazing.. It wasn’t just about Jesus calling his disciples. Actually it was an account from Peter’s point of view of everything from the time Jesus called him until after the resurrection. It was narrated, with music breaks, so there were two Peters – the one narrating, then the one singing Peter’s part in the songs. Sounds weird, but it wasn’t.

The music was amazing. The band was two percussionists with more percussion equipment than you could imagine, a violinist/bagpipe player, an accordion player, a bass guitar and a guitar, plus the person singing Peter (the rock) and the person singing Jesus (the rabbi). There wasn’t a song I didn’t love. I bought the c.d. If it ever comes to your area, go see it!