Hello all –

Thank you to all who contacted me after my last post.  I truly appreciate the words of encouragement.

1. I’m down 51 lbs so far.  I feel amazing!  I have a lot more energy and just feel so much lighter in general. 
2. The news about my ankle is much worse than I expected.  I have to have surgery at the end of June because not only are all of my ligaments torn on the left side, but also 2 of my tendons.  So now I get to have pins and everything inserted into my body.  Lovely.

Well, I didn’t realize I had let such a long time go by without any updates. 

A lot has happened in the last few months. 

1.  I had weight-loss surgery.  Yes, yes, I did.  There were times in my life that I thought that was the easy way out.  There were times when I said that people who were doing that obviously hadn’t tried EVERYTHING.

I was wrong.  Ah yes, I was wrong.

During the two years I was out of work, I worked out 5 times per week for an hour each day.  I cut my calories in half.  I gave up all of the bad food and focused on whole, healthy foods.

And I didn’t lose a single pound.  Not one.

And after I went back to work, I started to gain more weight.  Which I didn’t need to do.  It wasn’t like someone was following me around and saying, eat something!  Nope. 

And I started to feel sluggish and couldn’t do many of the things I’d enjoyed before.  So I talked with my doctor and she said, it’s time to consider the surgery.

So I looked into it.  I found out that there was a program at one of the local hospitals that I trust.  You can find information about Fresh Start Bariatrics here. I went to the seminar.  I started my journey in October of 2011.

I decided that I wanted to have the Gastric Sleeve.

I am lucky, because my insurance paid for 90% of the cost. 

I had to pass physical and psychiatric tests.  I found out that I am pretty darn healthy for a woman of my size.  My heart is in good shape.  I was a good candidate.

I had the surgery on March 5.  I thought I was pretty tough, but the pain of this surgery came close to beating me a couple of times.  This is not the easy way out.  Not by a long shot.

I thought I would be out of work for 2 weeks.  It turned out to be 4.  I don’t remember much of the first two weeks.

Bob took great care of me.  He bathed me and cooked for me.  He had to do everything, because I was either in too much pain or too weak.

But now I’m 7 weeks out and life is much better.

I have already lost over 40 lbs and several sizes.  I am on 1/4 of the medication I was before. 

I have hope.

2.  However, I went from not ever having major surgery to having 2 in 1 year.  I found out that I have been walking around on a broken ankle for 8 months.

I slipped in some mud last August and fell, not quite catching myself on my left leg/ankle.  I soldiered on that day, but I do remember the pain being bad enough that I took off of work the next day.  However, I had dental work done later on that week and was placed on steroids.

Which made my ankle feel alllll better.

But it wasn’t.

And it was getting worse.  However, as I was having surgery in March, I knew that I could only deal with one thing at a time.  And I hope that by being laid up for 2 weeks (that turned into 4 weeks), I would just heal.  Not so much.

I saw an orthopedic surgeon.  The X-ray shows a piece of bone hanging out in my heel.  I will get the MRI results next week, but we know it’s surgery no matter what.

So, I am doing Aqua Zumba at my gym to get in some exercise that won’t further damage my poor foot.

3.  I don’t know if or when I’ll come back and write with more regularity, but I do know that you can follow me on Pinterest, where I keep some of the traditions I used to do on here (favorite furniture, design ideas, and of course, Etsy love.) You can find me here.

4.  I’m still reviewing for Amazon, though I’m terribly far behind.  Shhh, don’t tell anyone.  You can find those reviews here.

That’s all I can think of for the moment.  What’s going on with you?

Hello loves.  I’m coming out of bloggy retirement to say hello.

Normally, I do a whole bunch of end-of-year posts to talk about whether or not I met my previous goals and to make new goals. 

Well, I didn’t meet last year’s goals.  Not a one, I don’t think.  But that’s okay, as I made those before I found the job that I have now.  

I haven’t made any new goals for 2012, either.  And that’s okay.  I still believe in them; I just haven’t sat down and made any.

There are some big changes coming up for me in 2012 (hopefully.)  As soon as plans are a bit more cemented, I will let you know.

2011 was a great year for me and for Bob and our family.   I hope that it was just as wonderful for you.  I think 2012 is going to be even better.

Much love to all!

Dear beloved readers,

As you know, I took the month of July off of blogging, as I knew it was going to be a very busy month at work.  I had hoped that during this time, I would “blog ahead” some posts, such as the décor posts or my book reviews.

That didn’t happen. 

The truth is, I really love my job. 

I wave at the building when I’m not there – seriously! 

I love my boss.  I MISS her when she’s not there.

I love what I do.  I am stimulated intellectually, creatively, you name it. 

And because of that, I have not had any urge to blog. 

That doesn’t mean that I don’t love you guys anymore – quite the opposite!  It just means that I need some time away, some undefined time, until I feel like blogging again.

I have a lot to say – it’s not a content issue at all.

It’s more about me focusing my energy on my career right now.  I have finally found the perfect match:  the right job AND the right company.

I am also stepping down from the Ohio Blogging Association.  I started it when I was unemployed.  I just don’t have the energy for that anymore either.  I’m so proud of what the team has done.  Huge shout-outs to Alicia, Rachel, and Katie.  I have told them that I’ll support them from the sidelines.

I do post frequently on my Facebook page, which is here.  I almost always carry my status updates from my personal page over to that.  I hope you’ll follow me there to keep up.

Also, I will still Tweet, @purtyinorange.

This isn’t goodbye, as I’m sure I’ll be back here and there.  It’s just to say:

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for caring.

Thank you for reading.

Thank you for commenting.

Thank you for sharing your world with me.

Thank you for allowing me to share mine with you.

Love,

Hi all,

This month is going to be killer at work, and I know I won’t have any time to blog. So I’m taking the month of July off. 

1.  There won’t be a July Challenge of the Month.  We’ll resume those in August.  The winner of June’s Challenge of the Month is Miss Laura of Absolut(ly) Fit!  Go Laura!  This is her second win this year.

2.  If you would like to guest post, just email me at angela[at]prettyinorange[dot]com. 

3.  This is the first real break I’ve taken in the 5 years I’ve been blogging.  I think I deserve it

I’ll see you guys in August.  It’s really not that far away at all!

Love to all of you!

I have realized, over the last few months, that I am looking at life from a different angle:  The angle of being 40 in a mere 289 days.

:: pause for hyperventilation ::

After I had lunch with Steph and Dana last month, we sat around and discussed this age that we are at now.  And I revealed to them what I had sadly accepted:

We’re no longer the 20 year olds we once were.  We weren’t the up-and-comers anymore.  We were past our prime child-bearing years, which, even when you don’t want to have kids like me, you still treasure being in that class.  There is a true difference in choosing to not have kids and being too old to have the choice.

I think we all look fabulous – no one ever guesses our real ages – but our eyes don’t shine with innocence anymore.  We KNOW things, things we didn’t think about when we were in our 20s.  We’ve gone from thinking we could change the world into hoping to just make a difference where we can. 

I wrote about that part on Facebook last night:

I was reading something a 24-26 year old wrote about wanting to change the world. I was there once, too. Now I feel as though everything happens for a reason and we are all here for a brief moment and only see a tiny part of it. Now I see the Why Not, rather than just the Why. I choose to be water and flow around the rocks instead of hitting them.

There was a time in my life when I thought if anyone ever bought me a vacuum cleaner for my birthday or Christmas, I would have to kill them.  Now I appreciate such things. 

I hear myself saying things that were said to me:

You’re so young.

In my day…(the worst!)

This was before you were born…

How did I get here?  Because it seems impossible.  Everything you were ever told about time moving faster the older you get is TRUE.  And everything that people say about not changing as much on the inside as you do on the outside is true. 

My mother is 79 and she will tell you that she still feels like a young girl inside – it’s only in the mirror that she sees the truth.

There are wonderful and amazing advantages to being this age.  I just with that I could go back and do things again, with the clarity I have now.  It seems so unfair that we gain knowledge as we grow older, when we could have used that knowledge so much better as a younger version. 

I see myself being fine with letting the younger folk worry about things that I’ve worried about and let go.  Let them have that.  I don’t need it.

I see myself looking at people half my age and thinking, you just have no clue how that will change when you hit the next decade.

And yet, I still remember what it felt like the day I graduated from high school, the day my parents dropped me off at college, the day I went to my first college party, and the summers I stayed on campus.    On the flip side, I remember turning 35 and thinking that I had been so wrong when I was 16:  I thought that adults had it all figured out and I just had to wait for that time. 

Not so much.

The problems just change.

I appreciate the freedom that this age has afforded me – I really let go of a lot of my insecurities when in my 30s.  And that is an amazing, wonderful gift.  I guess that is a fair trade, but not being the ingenue any longer.

Love,

My new favorite things:

1.  If choir had been like this for me, I would have stayed in it forever.

2.  These amazing drawings by kids – KIDS as young as 5!  I wish I had 1/10th of their talent!  And not to be sappy or anything, but I really had hope for our next generations after reading through these.

Go vote for them now!

3.  This thing.   I will review it soon.

4.  All of you. 

Love,

So, had I been on the ball, I was going to post this ‘Mayday,” which is a call for help, on “May Day,” which is the first day of May.

But we’re on May 9th.  Pretend that it’s May 1st and that you find me amusing.

Anyway, May 1 was my new Day 1.  If you have ever tried to lose weight, you know that Day 1 is the first day of The Diet.  What Diet?  Whatever Diet you are into at the moment.

My Day 1 was different, as I did more than just try to start The Diet. 

The Background

First of all, lemme ‘splain. I have put on about 40 lbs since returning to work, as I’ve mentioned before.  I didn’t need to gain weight.  I was not one of those people who was told, “You’re getting to thin.”  In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard that in about 20 years, if I’ve heard it at all.

No, I added 40lbs to a body that was already burdened with excess weight. 

Of course, I didn’t do it “on purpose.”  I didn’t walk around saying, sheesh, if I could just GAIN weight!  But I didn’t do anything to stop it.

I was passive with my weight.  I have been for most of my years. 

Sure, during the two years I was off, I worked out, I ate right…and I never lost a pound.  But I didn’t gain any, either. 

I haven’t worked out since…November?  I started eating out again.  I started eating more than I should.

And then I realized that my clothes weren’t fitting.  But I didn’t change anything.

And then I realized that the stairs were getting harder and harder to go up.  And I didn’t do anything.

I started having heartburn on a regular basis.  And I didn’t do anything.

Do you know what finally motivated me?  What my wakeup call was?

Dunh –dunh – DUNH

It was Bob.  It was something that I finally made him admit to me.  It was something that I forced out of him. 

It was that, while he was still in love with me and still attracted to me, the attraction was less than what it was when we first met.

And I know that he loves me.  I know that we are in this until death do us part.  Even without a marriage license, we are together.  We are committed.  And yes, I sometimes romanticize it to myself that we are even more committed than married people, because we are together because we want to be, not because we are legally bound.

But to know that he had lost some of the lust that he has had for me all along, well, that was the kick to the head that I needed. 

Before you get upset

I’m not upset at him for saying that – I am not thrilled with my body right now, either. 

What’s funny (or not) is that I felt that I owed Bob a better, healthier me. Would I have found the strength to do it for myself?   I don’t know.  Should I beat myself up right this minute for wanting to be better for him and not doing it just for me?  No.

Now what?

Like a good general, I marshaled my troops together in order to create a support group.  All of you are part of the larger support group, of course.  But I have another one in which I’m posting more intimate details. 

And…

1. I will be working with my friend, Chef Jenny Mrkobrad, who will be preparing raw lunches for me every 2 weeks.

2. I will be working with Jen Wampler, who is a massage therapist/Reiki healer. If this is based in emotional crappola, then she will work it out of me. I’m seeing her every two weeks.

3. I’m determined to get back to the gym and I’ve told Bob that he needs to come with me sometimes.

4. I’ve already given up pop and iced coffee drinks, as they were annoying my ulcer.

Okay, this is a long post.  I will be back another day with more updates.

Hugs to all!

***This is a new feature on the blog where I discuss my TV viewing habits.  I may lose some readers when they see what I watch, but oh well.***

I should probably give you a brief rundown of what I watch on a weekly basis.  Prepare to be impressed/unimpressed.

Sunday

• Challenge (Food Network)
• Desperate Housewives
• Celebrity Apprentice
• Family Guy
• Ax Men
• The Real Housewives of Orange County
• Undercover Boss
• The Killing
• Pawn Stars

Monday

• How I Met Your Mother
• Mad Love
• Mike and Molly
• Harper’s Island
• The Event (though I haven’t been caught up on this in a few months)

Tuesday

• Glee
• Raising Hope
• Traffic Light
• Top Shot
• The Good Wife

Wednesday

• Modern Family
• Top Chef or Top Chef Masters
• Sons of Guns
• Happy Endings

Thursday

• The Office
• Grey’s Anatomy
• The Real Housewives of New York

Whenever I can

• Nurse Jackie (we don’t have Showtime right now)

And you can add The Young and the Restless to the daily viewing during the week.

Obviously, the schedule changes depending on the season/time of year.  In the summers, I pick up Drop Dead Diva, So You Think You Can Dance and Big Brother, for example.

I feel like I’m missing some shows, but that’s what I can think of off of the top of my head. 

Obviously, I use the DVR and OnDemand to watch some things, as the Powers That Be have put as much as they can into the 9pm Sunday slot.  I may not get to watch everything on its appropriate night.  For example, I haven’t seen Desperate Housewives or Celebrity Apprentice or anything from Monday night yet this week.

I usually Tweet during the reality shows that I watch.  I Tweet my reactions or comments to the outlandish behaviors of The Real Housewives or Top Chefs.  You can follow me on Twitter:  @purtyinorange.

This week, during The Real Housewives of Orange County, I tweeted:

So what are you watching?  Do share so that we can talk about it together!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have lunch with these lovely ladies:

Me, Dana, and Steph

I know that you have seen Steph on here before.  Steph, Dana and I went to college together.  Steph and I are the same age and Dana is a year younger.  After college, we lived together for awhile.  I love these girls. 

I look at this picture, and I don’t see us as the nearly-40 year old ladies we are.  I still see the girls we were in school.  I can still remember when we lived together in a flat and then a townhouse. 

Of course now, we all are very busy.  Steph and I live in the same city, so it’s easier for us to get together.  When I was off, I could meet her for lunch more often.  Now that I’m working, we will have to find other ways to get together.  Dana, however, lives 3 hours away and this was the first time in 6 years and we were in the same place.  I have truly missed her. 

We committed to doing this at least once per quarter.  I can’t wait to spend more time with them.