Welcome Baby Matthew!!!

I spent yesterday with my daughter and son-in-law helping to bring their 2nd son into the world. What a joyous thing to share with them. Words cannot express how proud I am of my daughter. Childbirth is not for the faint of heart. She took the contractions one at a time and worked her way through. I choke up thinking about it.

Daniel Matthew was born at 2:21 in the afternoon and is a whopping 9 lbs 1 oz and 19-1/2 inches long! When you hold him, you know you've got something in your arms. :-) Early impressions are that he's pretty easy going and he's hungry ... all the time.

I also found out that the biopsy report on all 4 growths were benign. Yay! The stitches come out tomorrow. Yay again.

We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. And we are.

Waiting for Daniel Matthew

Our daughter is ready to delivery grandson number two any day now. Her doctor has scheduled her to be induced on Wednesday if he's unwilling to make his debut on his own. They are all ready for baby Matthew's arrival (he'll go by his middle name) and so are we. We have the grandparents' equipment ready to go -- pack & play for a crib, bouncy seat and stroller. I can't wait to see the little guy. Grandson #1 thinks he's ready to be a big brudder. I'm sure there will be adjustments as he will no longer be the ONLY center of his parents' universe. But he's such a good boy, I'm sure he'll be a good big brother. Little Matthew is a lucky baby. :-)

Week one with the stitches is over. One more week to go. I popped a couple of stitches on my calf -- the doctor warned me that calves are hard and I see that now. It's just really hard to not stress that skin. Just lying in bed, the calf spread out and tugs on the stitches. But I also squatted down a couple of times because I wasn't thinking and started to cross my legs with that leg on top -- ouch. Who knows when it popped. I went to the doctor and they said it was healing well. They gave me "sani-strips" which are wonderful. I don't know what that adhesive is, but man, I think it would hold the wings on a 747. I use the strips to reinforce the middle where the stitches popped. The other 3 are all holding together well.

Thank goodness the stitches come out before Thanksgiving. We'll have a full house and I'm really looking forward to it. Jay's mom will be here along with our daughter and her family, plus her mother-in-law who will be down for a couple of weeks to help after the baby is born. It will be crazy and I'll be exhausted, but it will be a really nice time. And we definitely have a lot to be thankful for what with the new baby and all.

Then, it's on to Christmas! Good Lord!

Mole follow-up

It's Sunday now and I'm still feeling pretty good. I changed the bandages yesterday and everything looks good -- a little Frankenstein-ish with all the stiches, but good. There is no bandage on the one in my hair, but I still put some neosporin on it.

I'm amazed (and delighted) and how much they don't bother me! In a way, it's a problem. I don't have pain to remind me that they are there so I forget and hurt them by accident. Like when I folded my arms -- or tried to -- man that hurt the one under my boob! Or when I squatted down for something, that really hurt the one on my right calf. So I just have to remember to be careful about things like that for the next couple of weeks.

The doctor said no working out until the stitches come out. That worries me. I worked so hard to loose the weight, so not working out for so long is worrisome to me.

Moles, moles and more moles

I am a farm for moles. I swear. I've had a pretty big one under by left boob for several years now. Every year, during my annual checkup, I ask about it and, every year, the doctor says it's nothing -- it's just a mole.

This year I noticed a new one in my hair at my right temple. I asked about that in the spring and the doctor said the same thing. But it's gotten really big now in just one year. I was at the doctor for a blood pressure check (we changed up my medication) so I asked about it again. She still thinks it's not a problem, but says it looks irritated -- probably because it gets brushed when I brush my hair, I'm always pushing my hair behind my ear and I wear glasses. So she suggested that I get them both removed.

So, I went to a plastic surgeon and he agreed, they needed to go. While I was there, I asked about 2 other things that aren't moles. He didn't like the look of them and said we'd lop those off too. He's pretty sure they are basal cell carcinomas. We'll find out when they are biopsied.

So, today was lopping day. I was pretty nervous. I really expected the one at my temple to hurt. Just the thought of the injection into an area where the skin is so thin, made me nervous. I just didn't see how it wouldn't hurt ... a lot. But it didn't! And I definitely expected a bald spot for a bit, but nope! He didn't shave my hair or anything! Yay!

The one on my temple did hurt a little, but very little. And a slight burning sensation when he shot the lidocaine in, but also very little. The other 3 sites were a piece of cake. I felt tugging as he cut and stitched, but that was it. I was amazed. I was so tense going in; expecting a fair amount of discomfort. But there wasn't any. I was even chatting with the doctor and his nurse while he worked! Heavy sigh of relief.

Now I'm pretty tired ... probably because I was so tense for a while. But it's been 5 hours and I'm still not feeling horrible. Actually, I'm still not really feeling anything. I guess the lidocaine is still having some effect. Because at some point, I expect it to at least smart.

So if anyone out there is reading this and facing having moles removed, you can relax. It's really an easy procedure. Honest!

Yay, Cool Fall Weather

FINALLY, we are past those horrible 95+ degree days. We have been having some fantastic, coolish days. I love it!

This past weekend, a friend who owns a farm with a couple of grass strips, had a fly-in. We went and what a fabulous day! There were easily over a dozen planes there. We all brought food so there was an enormous amount of food. Jamie's place is heaven on earth -- truly. It was a glorious day to fly and I can't remember when we've had a better aviation day.

Jay decided he's done trying to deal with the Ocean City Airport manager. He's just plain mean and we're tired of asking permission to enjoy the airport we are based at. So he's not been hanging out at the airport at all for a couple of months now. Instead, he's started working on the LeMans again! I'm so excited to see that. He has literally torn everything off of the rear end and is now starting the process of replacing what he removed. It won't be ready for the fall cruising weekend in Ocean City, but that doesn't matter. Eventually, it will be road ready again and we'll have fun driving around in it. AND, even better, because Jay isn't constantly dealing with that asshole, he has been in a much better frame of mind.

And no posting is complete without an update on my weight and general health. I am still holding at 160 lbs. I bought a few more pair of slacks for work in size 12. I was tempted to get a size 10 in one of them, but opted for the 12 instead figuring that I might not be as active in the winter months. I'll try to be, but it is more difficult when we aren't riding bikes every night after work. :-( I've actually been wearing the slacks, even though the weather is still ok for capri's, but I really like wearing my size 12's. And now that I'm wearing clothes that actually fit, people are really noticing the weight loss. :-)

Let's hear it for HGTV!

I have been an avid HGTV viewer for years and it paid off! I've been so bored with my kitchen since we moved into this house. Cream walls. Cream appliances. Cream floor. Cream counter. It's like a sensory deprivation tank. So I decided to spiff it up by doing something to the back splash.

I put tile behind the stove and the sink and then painted the rest a deep red. We liked the tile so much that we took it up and around the kitchen window too. I've been watching the folks on HGTV lay tile a million times, so I decided to give it a try. And, you know what? It IS easy. It really turned out great and my kitchen is no longer blah.

I also went shopping for clothes and, it's official, I'm a size 12! I couldn't stop smiling. I even found a couple of pair of shorts in a size 10, but I know that's not real. They were cut a little large. I am a 12 not a 10, but that's soooooo much better than an 18 or a 16 that's cut large. My only worry is that I achieved this as a result of a lot of physical activity which is easy to do in the summer. It's hard to maintain that activity level in the winter. So I need to not let my snacking bad habits return. Just because I can get away with it now, doesn't mean that I'll be able to that this winter.

Ahhhh Football Season begins

Well, last night was the first pre-season game and we decided to stay home and watch it rather than go out. We haven't gotten the pre-season games since we moved out to the eastern shore -- something that has bothered us both enormously. But every year we try and this year, lo and behold, we're able to watch the game at home! Yay!

We were very curious to watch our Redskins to see if all the changes (AGAIN) paid off THIS TIME. I know pre-season games aren't really much more than exhibitions for the coaches to pick the starting line-up, but you know, we haven't had a fun football game in a LONG time, pre-season or otherwise, and last night was fun! They were actually playing football! They were passing and catching and tackling and blocking! It was awesome! It gives me hope for the regular season. I know you don't get to the Super Bowl in one season after changing things as much as the Redskins have, but I'm hopeful that I won't be embarrassed to be a Redskins fan this year. Just don't humiliate me boys. That's all I ask. For now, I'm actually looking forward to next week's game.

I'm still sticking to my new routine and it's great. I'm feeling really good. Even my golf game has improved -- probably because my belly isn't in the way. Like I've said before. I'll never be tiny, but I'm smaller and it feels good. And my blood pressure has been awesome. My doctor had added a third medication to control it this past winter and my asthma caused us to drop one of them, but it doesn't matter now because my numbers are better than they were before on just 2 meds, so I'm good! And, my weight is still trickling down. I'm almost down to 160 lbs. I haven't gone shopping for clothes, but I might be close to a size 12 which would be wonderful. I will definitely need slacks for work this winter. I think I only have 3 pair of pants that fit right now. It's so much fun to get back into clothes that I haven't been able to get into for years. I don't even know why I kept them, but I did, and it's just plain fun to put them on. It makes me smile every time.

And, for me, it's all about exercise. No one can really loose weight with just diet. And I definitely can't. First of all, it's boring to eat the way you have to eat when you do it via food alone. But it's also about the metabolism, and the only way to rev up your metabolism is to build more muscle -- can't do that through diet alone. I am way more toned than I've been in a really long time, maybe ever, actually. As a runner, I burned a lot of calories, but running doesn't tone you. I think the exercise videos that I have that combine light weights with exercise, have been incredibly effective for me. And, as a result, I don't have to eat like I live in a refugee camp. I really do eat. My body is just using it.

Who knows. Maybe I could be a size 6 if I also ate less, but I'm not that interested in being a size 6. I just didn't want to feel like a blob -- and I don't anymore. :-)