Comic strip promotes the upcoming inhaler changes

Day 2 in progress

I woke up starving. But then I got on the scale and was down 0.6 pounds. Not bad for the first weigh in! I had my motivation for the day.
I'm in the ICU today and it had been busy (until now, obviously) so I really hadn't thought too much about it. I woke up too late to pack lunch this morning, therefore I treated myself to a trip to the cafeteria and the salad bar. I'm not being sarcastic here, I really love our salad bar! I piled my bowl high with lettuce and spinach and cucumber and hard-boiled eggs. Added some cheese and grabbed a Ranch dressing and was on my way. Woo hoo!
Then, I walked into the department with my ever-so-exciting lunch. The smell of pasta and pizza almost knocked me off my feet. One person was eating Bazbeax's. Really? Come on now! Another person was eating Clarian's Healthy Choice meal for the day...lasanga! On top of that, they FINALLY filled our snack cart and what do you think was in it?!? Yep, HO HO'S!
Thinking I'd be smart I ate quickly and read my book to not notice all the wonderful food around me. Then I headed back up to the ICU. I had to take the elevator 6 floors with a woman with a HUGE slice of chocolate cake.
Now I find myself sitting here, proud of my day. One of my co-workers walks in and says the nurses had a pitch in for lunch and we can have the leftovers. He has proceeded to bring in (for all of us to share), 3 large chocolate chip cookies, 1 large brownie, 1 GINORMOUS piece of yellow cake, and a plate of soft tortillas to make tacos. How sweet of him.
I'm going to check on my patients before everyone notices the large puddle of drool on my keyboard.

Day 1 Recap

I made it through my first Atkins day. And...I SURVIVED!!! I only ended up eating 9 net carbs, but I didn't eat any of the veggies, so I technically didn't do it completely right. Oh well, close enough for me!
Things I learned today:
1) Atkins Advantage Chocolate Chip Bar tastes like stale cardboard.
2) Atkins Day Break Chocolate Crisp Bar tastes like stale cardboard with artificial flavored chocolate cardboard chips.
3) Atkins Milk Chocolate Delight Shake is, in fact, no delight. More precisely, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever choked down.
But, I made it through the day. A little grumpy at the end, but I made it and there were no fatalities. Yet.

How long will I last?

Today I officially started the Phase 1 of the Atkin's program. I tried yesterday, but we didn't have the right food at home so I ended up eating regularly and going to the grocery.
Side note, I'm trying this out per my doctor's recommendation. I was having some (who am I kidding...a lot!) of trouble getting the ball rolling on my weight loss so I started going to the Piatek Clinic. I've seen some progress, but not as much as everyone claims to see with Piatek. He recommended trying the Atkin's program...the meds he's given me have decreased my appettite enough that if I add low carb into the picture, the weight should really drop. I'm skeptical, but trying it.
First off, going to the grocery was depressing. I had the printout of what you can eat the first two weeks and thought there was a lot on it (look here to see what's on it). Yea, that's what I thought until I got to the grocery. I would go up and down aisle after aisle and not see anything on the list. We don't have enough money to get good meat, so I was rather limited. I have a feeling I'll be living on eggs for the next couple of weeks. (According to Atkins, it's nature's most natural food!!! Ugh.)
Last night before bed I read a couple of more chapters of my current book, Jen Lancaster's "Such a Pretty Fat". (BTW, if you haven't read any of her books, you need to! It's hilarious!!!) Of course in the chapters I read she started the Atkin's program. Although it was quite amusing, it also made me a little more negative about starting the program. I think so much like Jen Lancaster that it led me to believe I'll face the same hurdles.
Anyways, today was D-day. So far it's ok. I'm not hungry, but not exactly satisfied with my eating. Then I read a chapter where she discusses Olive Garden...NOT HELPING!!! I did just talk to JM and ask him to eat dinner before I got home from work so I didn't see it. I figure this is just 14 days. I can work hard for 14 days, right? Right???

Balls and Claws update

I forgot to let everyone know that Scout is doing fine! He's back to his loud, demanding, meowing self. Except he's missing a few things :-) His bad eye seems lazier though...weird. On the sheet from the vet it showed that he weighed in at 6.3 pounds! What a hoss! When we found him he was just at 1 pound.

Anyways, he's up to date on all his shots and happy as can be. I was even able to switch back to the regular litter today. Thank goodness!

Sand Ceremony

During the ceremony, JM and I are going to use the sand instead of the unity candle. Mainly, because I like the idea of it better. I'm not losing my past, I'm just merging my life with his. (Plus, the colored sands are pretty!) Then, the more I thought about it, I realized that the ceremony is outside. What if there's a breeze or it's windy??? Then the unity candle will blow out and that CANNOT be a good omen for the marriage. I don't usually pay too much attention to signs...but that one would be obvious!

Anyways, I'm trying to decide which 'sand ceremony' kit to get. Here are my options:

On this one, I liked the nesting unity sand vases (because you could use the vases later on), and the 'new oceans away'.
http://www.makingmemoriesandmore.net/sandceremony

This one I don't really like the vases, but they have a wider variety of sand.
http://www.moonglowcandles.net/wedding_sand.htm

This was kind of neat because we could each have our inital on our vase.
http://www.daisy-days.com/decanter-unity-sand-ceremony-set.html

Let me know if you have any grand ideas!

Tuxes, dresses,and cakes, oh my!

Well, we're another step closer to being prepared for the wedding. We emailed all the guys today and let them know the tuxes we picked out. We got them through A Step Above Bridal, which is where my dress is from. The guys will all wear black notch lapel tuxes and french vanilla shirts. The dads will have black ties and vests while JM will have an ivory vest and white and ivory striped tie. The groomsmen will have chocolate brown vests and chocolate brown and black striped ties.

This is the tux and JM's ensemble...Then this is the swatch for the groomsmen's...My dress came in last week so Mom, Lynds and I went over on Saturday morning and I put on the whole she-bang. It's still wonderful! And I still need to name the dress!!! For those of you who don't know, the first one who buys one of Antonio Fermin's designs gets to name it! This is a MUCH harder task then I had imagined. So much stress!!! I would love to name it 'The Shannon', or after seeing myself on Saturday, 'Princess Shannon'. But, my mom used Grandma Haines's inheritance money to pay for it, so I feel I should pay tribute to her somehow. 'Elaine's Love' (Connie's idea) or something of the sort. Anyone have any suggestions?!? Maybe I'll make it a contest...whoever comes up with the name I use wins something. Hmmm...I don't really have any prizes!

We also decided on a cake. Ritz Charles will be bringing the cake as well as the food. They won out pretty much solely on price. I was amazed at how good of a deal they gave us. Anyways, it will be the 'Ritz Buttercream' frosting, yellow cake and chocolate truffle filling. This is what it will look like (minus the flowery thing). The main color will be more of a lime green and then the borders will still be chocolate brown.We still have to decide on a cake topper. No clue what to do about that. We may just go with a big 'L'. How creative!

Our engagement photo session is in a couple of weeks and will be done by our photographer, Erin Hession. We had been planning on having it downtown on the canal (with Kodi, of course), but a friend of mine did hers at the Oliver Winery and the pictures turned out amazing!!! I emailed Erin today to see if that was an option. Also, it's my last name, and we're going to a winery for the honeymoon, so how fitting!

I think I need to hit the hay now. I'm not working tomorrow except for a class at 3, but I'm hoping to check out a couple of places and find out about bridesmaids dresses. Less than 10 weeks now...need to get my butt in gear!

I'll blog later about the honeymoon, rings, and hopefully other things that have been accomplished!

Balls & Claws

Scout (the recently rescued kitten) finally reached the weight to get declawed! Yay for my furniture!!! And for my hands and arms which are constantly scratched up!!! We decided while he was sedated, we might as well get him neutered. Although we felt bad...the poor little guy was going to wake up missing a few things he loved dearly!
This was him the night before surgery playing at my mom's house.
Here is one of the claws that I'm NOT going to miss!
and I was attempting to get a picture of the other 'items' he was going to lose. Murray's laughing at us.
JM picked him up this afternoon from the vet. (The vet requires them to spend at least one night there after the surgery for observation). When he went to get Scout out of his carrier, his paws were bleeding. He had to take him back to the vet and they're going to keep him for at least one more night. The vet said it wasn't a big deal, the wounds had just opened. I feel bad though!!!
I don't think Boo and Kodi are missing him too much. Boo slept on the bed...Kodi's not being batted at. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow to tourment the others!