Gabe’s new thing is Veggie Tales. Which is pretty cool. The message in these shows is very good and I’ve got to tell ya, they are enjoyable for even us adults. Now, those of you who have children may understand…but let me tell you. Your music preferences just might change drastically when you have kids. This is what I mean…I LOVE THIS SONG!! Seriously, I totally love this song!

There isn’t much to look at here…just listen. I sing it in my head all day long at work. I had to buy it from iTunes…not because Gabe would want to hear it. In fact I knew if Gabe heard it, it would just make him want to watch the TV show. Nope, I got it just for me.

I’m in the kitchen tonight making a Tzatziki salad to take in my lunch tomorrow. Gabe comes running in to the kitchen, exclaiming, “I made a statue, Mommy!”

I responded, “You made a statue?”

“Yes,” he replied, “its and obelisk?”

“Its a what?”

“Its an obelisk, Mommy. Come see.”

He’s 3 years old, people. I’m fairly certain, I had no idea what an obelisk was at 3 years old. I’m 35 years old and I wasn’t even sure how to spell it!

He showed me his statue and then he knocked it down. I asked him to rebuild it for a video. Here is Gabey’s obelisk:

Here is a “traditional” obelisk:

You know we are in quite the financial predicament. We are all ready living paycheck to paycheck, trying to keep a roof over our heads while we swim in medical debt. To top it off, my husband’s pay check bounced. This is the 3rd time his pay check has bounced in a year. In addition to the check bouncing, his checks are always late. His payroll isn’t current. His 7/20 paycheck (the last one he received) was actually paying him for the end of June. So, his 7/20 check bounced and he’s yet to receive his 8/5 paycheck. So, basically, he hasn’t been paid for over a month’s worth of work.

We don’t know what to do. His “boss” was someone we loved dearly and called family at one point and time. She made a choice to walk away from our family, but that choice was never ours. In fact, I recently extended a hand of friendship, in the hopes of letting her know that it wasn’t too late.

Mike asked me if he should even go to work tonight. If he hasn’t been paid for over a months worth of work, does it make sense for him to keep working? Now, while the company Mike works for pays his check, the place he actually maintains contracts his company and they have likely held up their end of the deal and paid for the services.

What do we do? Regardless of what he does tonight…how do we survive financially, if he doesn’t ever get paid for the work he’s done and has to find a new job?

We were supposed to visit my Dad’s family in Missouri today, but Gabe is home bedridden today. He either strained his neck while wrestling with Daddy yesterday or he slept wrong, but he woke up at 4 AM this morning crying and repeating over and over that he hurt while grabbing his the back of his neck with both hands. We didn’t have much children’s pain reliever, so I gave him what we had and held him while he cried for the next 4 hours. He did sleep for about an hour in the middle.

I finally had to wake Mike up at 8:00 AM so I could go to Walgreen’s and get more pain reliever. Gabe is in pretty good spirits though, as long as he is laying on the couch in a position that doesn’t hurt. I had to make him go pee-pee a little while ago. That was no fun. Moving causes him great pain and he can’t understand how to manage it like an adult would. So, I basically felt like I was torturing him just to carry him into the bathroom.

So, we won’t be going to Missouri and Gabe is going to have a movie marathon day today. My poor little boy.

Today is “Free-For-All Friday” which means you can post whatever you want on my blog. Say what you want to say, share a link, complain about household appliances, etc…all you have to do is login and post!

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to the log-in prompt by clicking here.
• Login/Password: guest/FFAF
• You will be redirected to the dashboard - Click on “Write” on the top menu bar.
• In the categories box on the right, make sure there is a check mark next to “free for all” .
• Type a title in the “Title” field and type whatever you want in the “Post” field.
• When you’re done, click the “Publish” button.

I’m not a smoker. I don’t like to be around smoke. I limit family visits because of the smoke. That said, smoking is legal. As long as it is legal, if I CHOOSE to smoke, it is just that. It is MY CHOICE. If I own a business, I should have the right to CHOOSE whether it is a smoking or non-smoking environment. We used to frequent a local steak house. It is a very small building and the entire building is always full of smoke. After we had children, we quit dining there. It was their CHOICE to have a smoke-filled environment and it was our CHOICE not to go there.

That is how it should work. Government doesn’t need to start taking away my CHOICE to use a legal substance or allow people to use a legal substance in my business.

What is next? I’m an obese woman (albeit 24 lbs lighter). Obesity is a killer. When do they take away my potato chips?

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Today is the first day I’m really noticing the weight loss in the way my clothes fit. The slacks I am wearing today have always been snug. So snug that it pulls on the button. Today, not only are the buttons not pulling, but there is some room to spare.

Wow, that feels good. Watching the scale, can be a tad depressing…even if you are having slow but steady loss. Seeing this makes it worth it.

One problem though…can’t afford new clothes!

I had my 1st follow-up doc visit today. The news is both good and bad…but overall it is good. I’ve lost 7 lbs since my visit a month ago and the doc was very pleased with that. I’ve lost 14 lbs total since I was in the hospital. My blood sugars are much better and out of the danger zone. They are still a little higher at fasting than they should be though. For those of you that understand these readings, here it goes. My blood pressure…which hasn’t ever been an issue outside of pregnancy was 110 over 64. Still not an issue. My pulse was 70. I think that is fine too. Now here are the results of my lab work:

My A1C (which basically determines where my blood sugar averages over time) was 10.1 when I was at the hospital. Today it was 7.3. For people without diabetes the normal range is 4-6. For people with diabetes the goal is to be under 7. I’m almost there.

My overall cholesterol in the hospital was 158, now it is 155. My HDL cholesterol, the good cholesterol, was 12 in the hospital. It should be above 50! Now it is 35. So, that is getting better too. My LDL cholesterol was 100 in the hospital. It needs to be under 100 and ideally below 70. Today it was 90.

My triglyceride level was 229 in the hospital. Normal: Less than 150, Borderline High: 150-199, High: 200-499, and Very High: 500. So I was way over where I should be. Today it was 147!

My doctor was ecstatic. He even left to tell the P.A., who I saw a month ago and she came in all excited too. He said that he hoped I didn’t mind that he shared with Noell, but they were excited to actually see someone make a change and improve so much.

So that is all very good news and things are going even better than expected. The bad part though is that not only do I still have to take my current medication…and I’m currently taking $900 worth of medication, but I need to add to it. The test results show that there is protein in my urine. Which, the doc said was probably because of the diabetic strain on them for who knows how long. So, add yet another medication to help my kidneys. He does suspect that as I lose more weight, continue to eat well and exercise that I will be able to reduce and/or cut out medication, including this one. So, between vitamins and my medication, I take 3 pills every morning. 4 pills with dinner. 4 pills at bedtime and a shot at bedtime. I don’t like taking medication. I never have. I don’t even like to take over-the-counter medication when I have a headache. So, I really hate this and I feel like such a financial burden to my family. That really sucks.

I do feel much better overall and I think this has brought about a long overdue change, not only for me, but for my family.