I like a mouthful

It is true...I like a mouthful. I know one of the main "bandster rules" is to take small bites. But I have never been one to follow that rule. Instead, I still take big ole bites and chew and chew and chew, swallow a little.....and then chew and chew and chew, and swallow a little...and chew and chew and chew...and swallow a little more. For some reason I have never been able to deal with that small bite rule. I even bought the little forks and spoons in the beginning...but it just didn't work for me. I figure as long as I am still chewing it to death, and only swallowing a little at a time, then the concept is still the same.

In case I have never told ya, I am not one who likes a lot of variety in what I eat. I eat the same ole things over and over. Every now and then I will get on a kick of something new (new to me) that I will eat for days. This week it is soy nuts...

 

 

I love to eat these as a snack or in a salad. They have around 120 calories for 1/4 cup and 11 grams of protein.

 

 

Still no news on the tummy tuck. At first my surgeon's office messed up and it didn't get submitted to insurance. Then, my insurance requires everything to be mailed in, rather than sent in electronically (hello????....it is 2013, wtf??), then there was holiday (President's Day) so it took a little longer to get to them. They told me to call back on Thursday and hopefully I will know something then. I am still shooting for a surgery date of mid March, which is just 3 weeks away...so I hope they get on the ball about it.

 

 

A friend of mine had Gastric Bypass in August. She has already lost 100 pounds. That is just crazy fast. I had about 6 pairs of pants that still had the tags on them that were too big for me, so I gave them to her today. I have a feeling that within a month they will be too big for her. We are actually about the same weight, but she is in bigger pants sizes than me and smaller top sizes. It is crazy how  differently we all carry our weight. It is one of the very reasons that I have never been obsessed about the number on the scale. I am more obsessed with how I feel and what my clothes look like on me :)

 

 

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Tomorrow is Monday already?????

 



Chocolate Hangover

So after yesterday, I am having a total chocolate hangover. It was Valentine's Day...my favorite day of the year. It is all about love and chocolate...what's not to love about that?? I could care less that it is overly commercialized. People give me chocolate and gifts, and it makes me all warm and tingly inside :)

I told my kids/parents that we were NOT having a Valentine's Day party. I would have hated to see what it was like if I said we could have party, because this is what it looked like when we were NOT having a party...

 

 

I couldn't very well get upset about it, since they brought me goodies too...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, and did I also mention that my cookie pusher came by....

 

 

 

Why yes, that is 5 boxes of Taglongs that you see (plus 3 other boxes). Thankfully I had enough sense to give some of those away.

 

 

The Rockstar gave me two necklaces, a new wedding band set (but they don't fit and need to be sized), a big box of chocolates, and new yellow box flip flops...



 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a great day!!!

 

 

Today we didn't have any kids. We had a teacher workday and the kids got a 4 day weekend. When we don't have kids we actually get to go out to lunch like real grown ups :) We went to a Japanese Hibatchi Grill restaurant. I didn't eat much, but what I did have was super yummy. I have just very recently (as in the last 2 weeks) eaten rice since my lapband surgery. I used to love, love, love fried rice. It really doesn't taste as good to me now as it used to, so I only had about 3 bites of it.

 

 

I called my plastic surgeon's office to check on things today. Still no news to report. She told me to call back next Thursday. I am looking at having the surgery on March 19th. It is the week before my spring break, so I will take the week off before spring break and I will get the week of spring break, giving me two full weeks for recovery. I have decided that I am doing this rather insurance pays anything or not )but I am still hoping that it will).

 

 

So happy that this is weekend is a 3 day weekend!!! No big plans, but any day that I don't have to wake up to an alarm clock is a good day for me!

 

 

That's all I got for now my little bloggy peeps....toodles :)

 



Triple T!

1. I had to go to the dentist yesterday. As we all know I HATE going to the dentist. I get gas just to have my teeth cleaned. This time I was getting a filling replaced that the hygienist pulled out last week while she was cleaning my teeth (and didn't even tell me!!! I noticed it when I went to the bathroom before I left).

I hate, hate, hate getting shots in my mouth. I would rather have a hot fire poker up the vajayjay then to get a shot in the mouth. I may or may not have slapped the dentist while she was giving me the shot.


2. I got a letter in the mail from my doctor today. It said that he has affiliated himself with a healthcare program that will require him to significantly reduce the size of his practice so he can spend more time with each patient (sounds good so far). Now, the kicker...it's a first come, first serve basis on who will remain his patient...all you have to do is enroll and pay the annual fee. No problem, as I am thinking it's probably like a $25-$50 fee. Negative....it was a $1500 fee. I have NEVER heard of this before. I have been with my doctor for 14 years. And I hate change. But it looks like I will be looking for a new doctor.


3. I think The Rockstar is trying to sabotage me. He brought me a gallon of Purity Chocolate Milk (it's only available in parts of TN...it's a local dairy and it is to die for) and a bag of Reese's Minis....you know, the kind that you don't even have to unwrap. Which means you can shove like 5 in your mouth at one time. And eat the entire bag with an hour (which I will neither confirm or deny that I did).

                             


4. My student teacher is really doing a great job. I get so excited when I see the growth of a student teacher. I really try to teach them everything I wish my cooperating teachers had taught me. She is with me until mid March and then she will go to her elementary placement. I am making her a basket with teacher stuff in it (office supplies, lesson plan book, stickers, etc) to give her on her last day with me. I remember how expensive it was to start teaching, so I really want to help her out as much as I can. I am also going to give her $100 gift card to the teacher store. I know that she will be able to use that :)


5. Can some of you people please send me some of your snow???? I haven't had a snow day yet. And considering that it was 67 here today, I don't think I will be getting one.


6. When I drove on post this morning the guard boy (I say boy because I am old enough to his mama) checked my ID then handed it back to me and said "have a good day...and your hair looks beautiful today". It totally made my day. Sometimes I forget how one compliment can really turn someones day around until I am on the receiving end of the compliment. So, thank you little guard boy!


7. One of my former students (from about 5 years ago) now lives about 15 minutes from me in a group home for adults. He only gets to see his family once a year (at Christmas) because there really isn't anyone to take him back home (about 45 minutes away). I periodically go pick him up and take him to lunch. It breaks my heart that he really doesn't get to see his family, so I try to be his surrogate family.


8. Valentine's Day is next week!!!!! It is my favorite holiday! It's all about love and chocolate :)


9. I must be getting old. My bedtime has been getting earlier and earlier. I can remember when I first started teaching it was nothing for me to stay up until 11 or 12. Now I am lucky if I can stay awake past 8:30.


10. Grey's Anatomy is a new episode tonight....and that makes me a happy girl.

Tummy Tuck Consult....Take 2

I took the day off today because I had a 2nd tummy tuck consultation appointment with a different doctor. I was pleased with the first doctor, but when I initially went to him I didn't realize that he was not in my insurance network, and my insurance pays nothing for out of network doctors.

Now I know you must be thinking "how would you not check on that BEFORE you went to him???" Well, I did...kinda. Since the other doctor in his office is in my network I just assumed that meant everyone in that office was in my network. Ummm, negative. Since I didn't know anything about the doctor, or anyone who had used her...and the fact that she had only been a surgeon for 2 years (after residency and all that jazz) I decided to have a consult somewhere else.

This time I went to the plastic surgery center at the same hospital where I had my lapband surgery. It's a very well known, top rated hospital. The head of plastic surgery there did one of my bff's body lift (breasts, tummy tuck, thigh and butt lift) after her gastric bypass. So, I made an appointment with him.

He had a great bedside manner. He said that he felt sure that my insurance would cover the skin removal portion of the surgery, but any muscle tightening, lipo, and the belly button would fall on me. I am ok with that, although the last surgeon said I didn't need any muscle repair. He said I should hear something from the insurance in a few weeks.


In unrelated tummy tuck news...I have been craving strange things (strange, meaning things I normally don't crave). This is what I have been eating on daily basis for the last week...

 

 

Yep...cheese, bread and butter pickles, and Ranch dressing. I am normally not a pickle kinda gal, so it is strange that I have been craving them. And no....I am not pregnant. My baby making days are O-V-E-R...and have been for a very long time :)

 

 

Although my baby making days are over, I feel like I have been dealing with a very mischievous toddler. Harleigh is into EVERYTHING. I can't turn my back on her for 2 seconds. In the past two days her new thing is to jump up on the kitchen chairs and walk around. Yes, the chairs are pushed up to the table...

 

 

 

I have still been giving my neighbors dog treats every day. I still want to steal him (or offer to buy him from them) but I am a little afraid for the safety of my dogs. He is a pit bull mix, has been in a fenced in yard with NO interaction since they got him, and I worried that he may be unpredictable. He will let me pet him, but he won't let The Rockstar near him.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of The Rockstar, he surprised me with flowers delivered to me at work last week...

 

 

 

Yes, he got lucky that night ;) And the next night, and the next ;)