Tina’s Treasured Thoughts

Well, hello everyone………….

I have been gone too long.   I am doing great from my by-pass surgery.  I have now lost 78 lbs., feeling great, looking so much better, getting new clothes, and I would say Life Is Good !!!!

We [my husband Jack & I] have done 2 Lay Witness Missions and doing one at Hermitage, Tennessee on the 25th of this month.  The theme is “Pass It On”.

News about one of the past missions:

It was at McMinnville, TN and I do a meeting with the women on Saturday afternoon and so my presentation was on the new little book that Max Lucado has recently put out about “God Thinks You Are Wonderful”.   I had purchased many of the gift items he has available and had a gift bag for each lady [around 40] and talked about my own experience and how I know now that God does think I am wonderful. 

It was such a blessing to do and to see the results of that meeting.  On the one coming up, I am doing the box of love gift and have made one for each lady, but this is a large church and this has been a challenge.  I will probably have 200 women on Saturday and it has taken a lot of effort to get all these gifts made.   I am still working on them, but such joy to give.  

When God said, “it is more blessed to give than to receive”, he certainly knew what he was talking about.   Why would I ever doubt that?  lol

Well, take care and I will be back soon, hopefully not as long as this last stretch.    Oh yes, I am finishing up the last afghan to send to Shelley at This Electric Life on Share A Square.  

Making some bags for my quilt blocks that I am working on and finishing up some crocheted afghans that I am also working on.  

Don’t want any moss growing under my feet ……… lol

Bye for now………….

I am still trying to get my Christmas tree decorated.  I got all my lights out that were on it last year and guess what?  they didn’t work this year.  Only 1 string was good.   I spent hours putting in new lights that I knew were good and even changed fuses, but NO… that didn’t work either.   I really don’t get why they were working when I took them down and now they don’t.   I threw them all away finally and went and got new ones today.   Hopefully I will get it done tonight.   I am leaving on the 20th, so if I don’t get them done soon, won’t be any need to do it.    One reason I haven’t gotten it done earlier is because of the surgery I had done on Oct. 30th and just couldn’t seem to get the “get up and go that I needed”.   Went to one Christmas party that was given by the Bariactic Hospital and staff and that was really nice.   We are going out to eat with our friends, Karen and Lynn Moser tonight [what little I can eat] and I’m sure that will be a good time.   They have been very busy and we haven’t seen much of them lately.   Any of you who know her from “The Pond” know she is a busy person.    I hope you all have a wonderful week and oh yes, Thank you Karen, for putting Ben Sparks link on my blog page.   Ben, she got it done.   Talk to you all later.   Thanks for all your comments and good wishes.

I haven’t written for quite a while.   I’ve had quite a few days that I have felt weak and just didn’t feel like doing anything, but am better now, that I am getting a little solid protein.   I am at 40 lbs lost now and it is soooo wonderful to get into a lot of my clothes that I couldn’t wear before.   Someday, I will get some new clothes, but not for a while.  I have another afghan put together now to send to Shelley Tucker at http://thiseclecticlife.com/  She is the one who has the “share a square” afghans for the children victims of Cancer who are going to camp again in the summer of next year.   I love reading her blogs.  She seems like such an interesting person.   I’ve got to vote for her for best blogging I think by the 15th if I can figure out how to do it from her instructions.   I have a brother in Prison in Elmore, AL and I am going to see him on the 22nd of December.  I haven’t seen him for 3 years.   I am really looking forward to it.   He is one of those few who is in prison for something he did not do.   Believe it or not, there are a lot of people like that.    If I don’t get back here soon, I wish all of you a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2008.   I hope to get back here soon.   God bless all of you.

Hello all,

I am doing so good after the Bariatric By-Pass surgery.   It has been 2 weeks ago on this past Tuesday.   My stiches are almost totally healed.   I had about a 2 1/2 inch incision and it is fantastic how I have healed.  I am diabetic and I was concerned about how I would heal.    But my sugar has also come down and maybe that is why I am healing well.

When the pre-op class instructor said I would not be hungry, I thought “sure”  but honestly I have not been hungry at all.  At this time, I am getting 2 oz. of liguid per meal which is 3 times a day and 2 snacks in between.  

I actually have to make myself eat because it is for my health and I must get the nutrients that my body needs.  I have lost 28 1/2 lbs in this short time and it feels great.

I drink protein shakes and calcium supplements, thiamine and B-12 to keep healthy.   As you can probably tell, I am very excited about this new lifestyle and new journey I am on.

I have spent a lot of time crocheting for the “Share A Square” program and am putting together another afghan kit together for Shelly Tucker.   This is such a great time to just relax and enjoy the time I have to do this.

Well, I pray that all of you will stay well and thanks for all the comments.

Just wanted to let all of know that my gastric bypass surgery went well on Tuesday and I am still in the hospital at St. Vincent’s Bariactric hospital and hope to go home tomorrow.  I will come back and post some more when I get home.

It seems as if I hardly cook anymore. My husband, Jack, says our stove is just a decoration. LOL I used to love to cook and I was good at it. I have so many things going on that there just isn’t enough time to plan menus and get to the grocery. We eat out often. In fact, we meet our friends and get to visit with them because they eat out too! I guess everyone is busy these days.

There is nothing worse than being out with friends and having a tooth break. I was eating Mexican food with our friends and all of a sudden, I felt something hard in my mouth. I thought that maybe it was a hard piece of rice but it felt bigger than that. I found out that part of my tooth had broken.

It was very uncomfortable to try to eat without getting food into that tooth. I wish I would have had some Dentemp OS. It is a great temporary fix when you get into trouble. It would have given me a 60 minute solution to get me through dinner at least! I need to carry this temporary dental repair with me to avoid the situation next time. We live and learn!

What a whirlwind weekend! They all seem to be that way lately. Jack and I had a great time going up north and then dinner at friends on Saturday. It turned cooler here on Sunday. I might be ready for fall. Oh, I got my hair cut in a new style.

It is a bit hard to tell from that picture but that guy is sculpting logs. He made some awesome things. There were some beautiful benches I would love to have for my yard. I don’t know how we would ever get them home though. I’d never been to a Bass Pro Shop before. It was amazing.

Don’t have much time again.   My daughter from Georgia that I went to visit not long ago has come to visit and we are having a wonderful time.   We are going to shop, eat, crochet, scrapbook, go to a movie, go to the casino, shop, shop and shop and have fun, fun, fun.    I will get back here as soon as I can. 

I have been reading about almost all day today about Louis L’Amour and all the books he wrote and it is quite amazing that so many people have read all his books. I had never read one, because I am not one to read western books, but I may have to start now. http://www.louislamour.com He was really good it seems. What got me started, was the fact that I have a brother in prison and he wanted to read his books and can only get 2 per week, so went online looking for his books and spent the day there. Anyone ever do that? Go looking for something and then get stuck there? I also want to thank all of you who have gone to visit my site. I will try my best to visit you soon.