Tales of a Shoebox Princess

I am losing weight. Thanks to a diabetes diagnosis, I have had to ditch eating sugar (well, not completely. I had half a cookie this morning as part of my breakfast. But that's way better than my previous habit of like 6 cookies before lunch) and excess carbs. I'm not a very careful measurer; so far I've gotten by on eyeballing it and just generally going for smaller portions. Also daily exercise. DAILY. Sometimes, twice daily walks. I'm no longer addicted to the flavored carbonated water I used to NEEEEEED. I haven't had pop in months. All I drink is water. And I've lost 20 lbs in three months. I haven't been this weight since 2008. I'm going to treat myself to a modest shopping spree at Lush. Then I set other rewards for future goal achievement. If I lose 30 lbs, I get an expensive cupcake from HyVee. Yes it's sugar, but I'll eat little bites over the course of the whole day so I don't spike my BS too bad. And I will ENJOY it. If

In the last year and a couple of months, and really throughout our whole marriage, Jim has been the hospital patient (with the exception of me having the babies) and I've been the supportive spouse. Yesterday it was finally my turn to be the patient! I had been to see a gynecologist who suspected I had an endometrial cyst. He wanted to scrape out my uterus to relieve my menorrhagia and, if there was a cyst, to dig it out and have a look at the tissue. I'm the adventurous type, so I was keen to do something I had never done before. I had only been put under twice before many years ago, once when I was five and was a very uncompliant dental patient, and then again at 19 for another dental reason--to have my wisdom teeth removed. I wasn't worried about surgery; it was going to be minor and I would go home after recovery. I was most interested/freaked about being put under. I get the willies when I think about being forced to take a nap. And also with the idea that I might

I have been told wedding pictures will be available by the end of July. I'm excited to get them! I don't regret not taking pictures during all the wedding festivities, but sometimes I get impatient! But I do not want to rush the photog. She will come through and a month is not unreasonable. So part 1 of Hayley and Austin's wedding festivities will wait. Part 2 is the open house in Ohio. I did take a few pictures. And the trip wasn't just an open house; we drove Austin's truck to Ohio. He left it up here when he and Hayley flew to New York for their honeymoon. We packed it with some furniture, a TV and a lot of Hayley's stuff and drove it all down. That meant Jim and I did not ride together. That meant I drove all the way in the van. Matt went in the van with me (to Indiana to attend a robotics meet). He was a decent passenger except when he argued, and then he was really fun. Our arguments are fake arguments, I enjoy hearing him use his own personal logic to

This isn't a post about Hayley's wedding. I haven't posted about that because I took very few pictures during the wedding week. Now that I think about it, there is a short series of pictures I took that I will post. So I guess this is a little bit about that wedding. Or the couple at least. I found another one I wanted to post, but it isn't part of the aforementioned series. This is a gift from Cindy, and it has a backstory, and since Granddaddy has passed away, it is a precious story. Cindy said that she and Jim (my Jim's dad) had the same sayings on their pillowcases and they said "I love you" every night before they went to sleep. I hope Hayley kept the card.  The series. Part one, the couple on the night before they got married Part two: poking.  Part three: more poking. Neither of them wanted pictures, but I made them stand there and submit to my will. They will thank me someday. Or even if they don't, I'm glad I took e