Nope, I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth ...

Although, it may have seemed so to you all! I can honestly say I've been very busy; although, off hand, I can't really say how. Well, let's see. I guess the big news first: my husband and I have officially moved back in with each other. The big move took place last Friday evening; I went with him to where he's officially been taking up residence for the past 5 1/2 months and helped him pack up what little he had there. I hadn't yet seen the place because I didn't want to see all of his stuff elsewhere. But, since he was leaving it (and coming home), it was ok. He didn't have a whole lot of stuff there, so it's integrated back into the house well. And, given that we only have 2 1/2 months left in this house (we've opted not to sign another year's lease b/c of the issues w/ the water), all that he has in storage will stay there. I'm happy to have him home; although, I found myself in a complete panic the other night as I was trying to fall asleep. I wasn't completely rational at the time given my sleepy state and became thoroughly afraid he was going to leave again if I didn't do everything right. It bothered me so much that I woke him up to talk about it. I've been doing much better lately, though.

On Sunday, my husband's dad and girlfriend were in town to visit. Although we think he knew I'd lost weight, he didn't know to what degree I had and that I had WLS. My husband and I had been sitting outside reading the Sunday Times, so when they called to say they were close, I moved inside so that my husband could greet them first and then I could make my grand appearance. I waited a couple of minutes after their arrival to go outside, so they were making their way toward the door as I stepped out. The look on my father-in-law's face was priceless. We'd surmised he would swear, but the look was even better. His jaw just completely dropped; he was without a doubt dumbfounded. I relished it. After giving them a quick tour of the messy house, we made our way to the Watkins Glen SP in order to do the gorge trail we weren't able to do last month. While we didn't do the entire trail, there are over 900 steps with some rather significant elevation changes, and nothing bothered me at all. Both my husband's dad and his dad's girlfriend were struggling, and their struggles brought back such memories for me. I'm so glad I'm not there anymore. We ended the evening with a nice dinner on the south end of the lake and a stroll on the pier. It was really good to see his dad; I'm glad I had the opportunity.

Then, Monday we met my parents about an hour away from home in order to see the latest IMAX movie, Roving Mars, and to go to the mall. The IMAX theater is part of a science museum, so while we were waiting, I found a scale that would tell you your weight on Earth, the moon and Mars. It's not something I ever would have done previously, but with my new-found confidence bolstering me and the quarter pricetag, I went for it. It was clearly geared toward kids as there was a cheesy, sci-fi sounding guy announcing that the ship was ready for blastoff or something, but even with my confidence higher than it's been in a long time, I almost cowered when I heard him say "and your weight on Earth is ..." b/c I thought he was really going to announce it. I liked what he had to say, though; my earth weight was 136.2 lbs, wrong, but cool. And, I don't remember my moon or Mars weights, but of course, they were significantly less. After the movie, we headed off to the mall as I was, once again, in need of some pants. Would you believe I found, and bought!, size six capris from J. Crew?! Size six! Holy buckets! I never dreamed that in less than a year I'd go from a size 26/28 at Lane Bryant to a size six at J. Crew. Never!! Yup, that made my day!

Next week will be my 1 year follow-up appointment at my surgeon's; although, my official 1 year anniversary isn't until the following week. But, I'll be in Chicago for training, so I had to push the appointment forward. My weight is currently 141 lbs, 6 lbs from my goal. And, while I don't think I'll be at my goal by my one year anniversary, it's so close I'm not stressing about it. I mean, dang, I'm at 141, I'm wearing size 6 pants and I've never felt better, physically, in my entire adult life. Although, there are still some niggling issues sticking around that I'll be discussing next week: dizziness, very easy bruising, foot cramps, potentially poor circulation in my extremities. I've got my most recent blood test results from my GP in hand, so they'll have those to compare to past/new results. Ok, did I make up for my neglect?