Versatile Blogger Award and Band Update

Hello Friends.  I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been trying to read all of yours and comment as much as possible.  Man, coming back from vacation is tough on many different levels and I'm going to New York next week for a few days, so I'm going to fall behind again.  Hopefully everybody else is having a hard time keeping up with blogging during the Summer.  As soon as I get my pictures downloaded, I'll do a post about my time at Ocean City.  It was so much fun and the weather was perfect.  It was also nice to want to get in front of the camera because I wanted plenty of comparison shots for next year.  Some were not as bad as I thought they'd be, but others - well, once you see them you'll know what I mean.  Here is one of the worst.

In case you don't already know, I'm on the right in front.  Eyes clossed AND rolls of fat showing - nice!  I blame the photographer.  : )  My hubby is across from me, my brother is to my right (the one I ran away with - see #1 below), his wife is to his right.  Across from my brother is our father and to my father's left is my sister-in-law's mother. 

On the band front, I am doing great.  I am almost a month post op and am 21lbs down.  I did lose 10 lbs prior to surgery, but I'm counting it in my total pounds down.  I lost it so think I deserve to show it.  I've entered the 250s and am excited to blow by them to the 240s.  I haven't been in the 240s in a few years.  My first fill is scheduled August 17th.  I'll be glad to have the experience behind me so I know what it feels like.  Most of you said it didn't hurt at all, so that's what I'm hoping for. 

It was nice to come back to an award nomination.  Thanks so much Sam for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award.  Looks like I need to tell you 7 things about myself that you don't already know, which could be tough.  If I tell you too much, I'll have to hunt you down and kill you.  Seriously, though, I feel like you all know me so well through my blogs, but I'll do my best to think of some new info. 

1.  When I was 14, my brother and I ran away from home.  Before you get out your tissues thinking this is a sad story of abuse, don't!  I had great parents.  The reason my 11 year old brother and I ran away is because....wait for it.....extremely good reason.....we had to get away.....we couldn't stand our youngest brother.   Don't laugh!   Our brother was more irritating than the average 8 year old.  We later found out that he is extremely intelligent, which is probably how he knew to push our buttons so well.   Anyway, our runaway plan was not very well thought out.  Initially, it was just me who wanted to runaway.  However, when my 11 year old brother found out, he wanted to come with.  My boyfriend at the time (who my parents hated, which in retrospect may have been another reason I wanted to runaway) said we could come stay with him and his father.  We took a bus (my first experience with public transportation and I was petrified.) to my boyfriend's house in the city.  Unfortunately my boyfriend hadn't cleared this with his father, who said that we could NOT stay with him.  Duh!  So we decided to go get something to eat, but I didn't have any money and either did my boyfriend.  My brother started crying saying he wanted to go home, so I tried calling my grandmother on a pay phone, reversing the charges.  She wouldn't accept the charges (I think she was confused on who was calling) so we had to call home.  My mom was extremely upset and came down to the city with my 8 year old brother to pick us up.  She didn't say a word.  On the way home she stopped at a friends house and we had to stay in the car while she went in.  Later we found out that she was making us sweat it out.  I know I'm not explaining this experience as well as I should.  Needless to say, since I didn't take any clothes or money and brought my brother along for the ride, subconsciously I knew I wasn't running away.  However, it did scare my mother to death when she found out we were gone, but in later years we laughed about it.   And the happy ending is that while my youngest brother still annoyed us for many years after, as adults we are all friends. 

2.  Last year when my husband and I took our daughters to New York (my daughters' first time) my youngest daughter wanted a Spongebob ice cream from one of the street vendors.   We kept putting her off because we were going into this building or it was almost lunch time or we were getting on the bus...but we kept promising her she would soon get her ice cream.  Finally, it was time.  We went to a street vendor and found out that in New York a Spongebob ice cream is like $5 freaking dollars.  But we had been telling her all day she would get it so we shelled out the $5 knowing that our daughter would be so happy to finally get her pop.  However, when she opened the ice cream, it was obvious that it had melted and been refrozen.  Spongebob had a wildly manic expression on his face and tasted like crap.  So we went back up to the vendor and showed it to him, but he wouldn't refund our money or give us another.  We kept going back and forth with him until it was obvious we weren't getting anywhere.  We walked away from the cart and I think for the sake of  my reputation before I say what happened next, I need to point out I was PMSing.  My daughter was upset that the ice cream she was promised all day turned into a bust and I was pissed that we shelled out $5 for nothing.  So I took the ice cream, marched back up to the vendor and told him he could take the ice cream and shove it.   At that point I threw it at him.  Not hard.  It bounced off his cart.  OMG.  I can't believe I'm telling you this story.  Hopefully you don't think less of me.  Again, it is a story that we now crack up about.  The cherry on top is that there were a ton of police cars in the parking lot by the vendor cart, which I didn't notice prior to throwing the ice cream.  We joked the rest of the trip that there was an APB out for me as a vendor terrorist. 

3.  I was very involved in drama growing up.  In 6th grade I was the understudy for Oliver in Oliver Twist and was in many high school productions.   My ultimate was when I was cast as one of the leads - Abby Brewster - in the play Aresenic and Old Lace. 

4.  My grandmother told me when I was 12 that I had the thighs of a 16 year old.  At the time, I thought that was a good thing.  I later realized it was not a compliment. 

5.  I'm addicted to reality tv.  I think you probably already picked this up in other posts, but just thought I'd put it out there.  I'm looking forward to watching Biggest Loser this year and not feeling like a failure.  I've made my own decision on how to lose weight and know that I will be successful. 

6.  I'm watching a dvr'd America's Got Talent as I type this.  (See #5).

7.  Linda of Linda's Bandwith and her husband, Rick of Band Together are coming with their lovely daughter, Cate to my house this Sunday to hang out with my hubby and daughters by the pool.  Praying for great weather and know we will have an awesome time. 

I haven't been able to keep track of who has already been nominated and I love you all, so it's impossible for me to pick only a few to nominate.