A Warm Fuzzy Story for Your Enjoyment..............

For those of you that read yesterday's blog, you know that my son was waiting for his passport. Without going into too many details, I wanted to let you know it is safely in his possession now. This was made possible through the assistance of my Congressman's office (The first time I ever took advantage of the fact that I DO have a Congressman working on my behalf..... So I guess if only in some small way the system does work.) and our local post office.

I live in a small city that is pretty friendly...... In other words, everyone knows everybody's business. As annoying as this can be, sometimes it works in our favor. When I talked to the postmaster, she assured me that the carriers would remember delivering a passport, and the fact that they did was very instrumental in locating it. What I want to share is a tale the postmaster shared with me. She said that each morning, as the mail is being sorted, they have what she called "a shout out" to help with figuring out mail that isn't correctly addressed. Yesterday, there was a piece of mail (that looked like a valentine card) that just had a name and our city and State on the envelope. During "shout out" a carrier recognized the name, and was thus able to deliver the valentine on time. Doesn't that just make you smile? This would never be possible in a large city, and made me glad that I live where I do even with all of the limitations small town living may have.

I also went to my trainer yesterday. Per my request, he re-measured my (approximate) body fat, so see my progress since last October. I have decreased my body fat by five percent, which is good news. Since I have only lost a couple of pounds since October, it must be I have gained muscle.......More good news right? So tell me why I ended up crying in his office as we continued to talk? Yup! That's right..... I broke down like a baby. (My poor trainer!) I am still trying to figure out all that went on in my head, and will come back to this experience in later blogs. One part that I have been focusing on is how the simple question (he ask) "why do you think you haven't lost more weight?" was a trigger? He had absolutely no judgement in his tone, he simply wanted to get my input. As I was telling him things like "I don't pay attention while I am eating so I eat too much, I am forty-eight and heading towards menopause, years of yo-yo dieting is catching up to me, I have lost a significant amount of weight over the past year so I am loosing at a much slower rate now." All things that are true, but what is amazing is as I was saying them, they sounded like excuses to my ears. This unleased a torrent of tapes that started screaming FAILURE, FAKE, BIG LOOSER, (and not in the good sense). When these tapes started playing, it was like all the positive messages I have been trying to believe (applied to the new and improved me) were totally negated, and I just fell apart. As I write this today, I am better....... When I tried to process it last night, I ended up crying myself to sleep. I don't really understand why yet, but I am hoping to learn figure this all out soon.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I leave for vacation in the wee hours of tomorrow morning, so I need to get off the computer now to be able to get everything in place regarding my business (pills, meals, bills) ........Sorry, I couldn't resist the rhyme.....The bills are of the currency type in case they need more milk, eggs, or bread. I stocked up last night on the way back from the trainer. As I was placing my staples on the counter, I noticed the lady in front of me had a much more romantic assortment of goodies for her purchase. What does that say for the state of my marriage? Before you jump to conclusions, let me add that my husband is the one staying behind to watch the residents while I go with two of my kids. (Wait!..... I told you not to jump yet.) He is doing this because the last time (last August) we went together, and had arranged the fill in care the November before the trip, the caregiver backed out only three weeks before departure. My best friend ended up taking the week off and filling in for us. (Yes! I know how lucky and loved I am!) I could not put myself throught the stress of that again, but didn't want to let the kids down either. (A nearly free trip is hard to pass up.) I was getting the supplies to be sure that his time filling in would run as soothly as possible. Maybe this isn't your idea of romance, but both things were done out of love and concern for the other, and I really value that I have this in my marriage. (You can jump now.)

As I was saying, I need to get off the computer, so I am REALLY going now. Bye!