Happy Birthday Weekend

On September 4th we celebrated my fathers 60th Birthday. My step mom and I planned a surprise birthday dinner for him at Cracker Barrell. We invited close family & friends and 17 people show up. He was completely surprised when he walked in & saw everyone. He thought he was just going to dinner with his wife and daughter. His facial expression was priceless. My father is a wonderful man who is always willing to give his shirt off his back to anyone he meets. He is caring, considerate & the funniest man in my life.

The night before his birthday dinner my friend and I went shopping for his gag gift. We went to DI & purchased green & beige checkered pants, Hawaiian shirt, suspenders, & a cane. We also headed over to Walmart where we purchased a denture bath, Metamucil, Prunes, Ben-Gay, & 4 different types of baby food. Everyone at the the party laughed at each of the gag gifts. My dad thought it was hilarious.

On Saturday September 5th my family celebrated my 33rd birthday. I love that my father and I have are birthdays so close together. For my birthday my family came over to my duplex to help me create my flower beds for next years planting. I wanted to get it done before the fall weather approached. I have lived at my duplex for over a year and wanted to make the yard look nicer. I probably will only plant bulbs at this time and wait for next year to plant a garden & flowers.

My dad & step mom took me out to lunch for my b-day after we were done with the yard work. I got to choose where to go and I chose Village Inn. Since I am limited in what I eat, I chose Village Inn because I could have scrambled eggs if nothing else looked good. I ended up having shrimp & sliced tomatoes. I ate 3 shrimps & 1/2 of tomatoe and I was done. The food was good. I really wanted to go to Olive Garden but I must avoid that place as I love pasta which would not be good for me to eat at this point in time. Part of my diet consists of staying away from carbs & fruits for the first year.

Later that night I headed over to one of my best friends house to make cards for our card swap. When I got there she had made dinner for me. We had pork chops & broccoli. It was delicious. It was the first time I had pork since my surgery and I did just fine with it. We had some much fun watching the BYU game & crafting together that we went until midnight.

These are the cards that I made. I thought they turned out really cute. They were easy to make.

I know this post is long but there is one more thing that I want to share. Over the last 2 weeks I haven't lost any weight but have maintained. I was worried about it but the doctor said it was normal to hit a plateau at 4-6 weeks. Today I stepped on the scale and lost another 2.8 lbs for a total of 55.4 pounds. I was thrilled. My pants are so baggy that if I didn't have a belt they would fall right off. My goal is to loose a total of 65 pounds before I meet with the doctor again in 2 weeks.

This picture of me was taken on September 4th when my brother was in town for just a few minutes. In the picture you can see how baggy my pants are. I might be hard to tell because its late at night. My brother hasn't seen me since my surgery. He told me that I looked good and could tell that I was loosing weight.

If you remember from my last entry I mentioned I was struggling with my emotions. I came to a realization. I no longer can use food to stuff or hide my emotions so they are going to be more prevelant then they ever have been. As long as I am aware of them and keep working through them I know everything will be okay. Thank you to all who support me & gave me wonderful ideas on how to get through those tough times.