Hmmm ... Who Smells Like Chocolate?


So, I've got the funniest story to tell you that happened to my 87 year old mother the other day. You all know that she's been on Hospice care for the past 3 1/2 years and is down to 87 pounds. She's a little trooper and has such a will to live. She decided to wash her own hair the other day and she's about blind. She got her shampoo out of the bathroom and took it into the kitchen and set in on the counter while she got the water going in the kitchen sink to wash her hair. She took off her glasses, set them on the microwave, bent over the sink and grabbed a bottle and squirted out a big glob on her hair. As she was trying to work up the lather in her hair she thought, "That doesn't smell like my shampoo." Then she looked at her hands and noticed that they were all brown. She had grabbed a bottle of chocolate syrup that was on the counter instead of her shampoo and gave her head a good dousing of chocolate. She wasn't sure how to get the syrup out of her hair so grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her head and called me for help. Unfortunately I wasn't home to help so she had to figure out how to get it washed out of her hair. I guess I'll have to be a better daughter and start washing and fixing her hair on a regular basis. I did think that her hair looked a little darker when I went over later. :)



We had a wonderful time camping in Logan Canyon towards Bear Lake. Bear Lake is one of the bluest lakes I've ever seen. More like Tempting Turquoise. It's been one of our favorite places to go in the summer. You can see the lake in the background. Ginger and D.J. and their three daughters came camping with us. I just noticed that I don't have any pictures of D.J. or Reese, their youngest. She was sleeping in the car when we took these pics and D.J. stayed with her.

Lynn and Ginny. Hey ... Lynn just told me that he's lost 20 pounds since my surgery! Way to go Lynn. I guess if I eat less, he'll eat less. See, it was all my fault that we were both fatty pants!

Our daughter Ginger with her little brother, Dieter! Yes, she thinks we pay more attention to him then her, and she's probably right!



This is one of our favorite spots to camp. Unfortunately there was no room at the inn so we had to camp about 7 miles down the mountain from this spot, amongst the 'mooing cows', quakies, and hot sun. But the campsite was quiet, the spot was nice, we had flushing toilets, and the stars were spectacular at night. Even though it was REALLY hot in the daytime, the evenings were really chilly. We all had to sleep with our hoodies over our heads and socks on our feet.
Time to buy some new jeans. These are a little baggy on me. I've gone from a size 24 to 18-20. Size 18 fit but they could be a little looser. Went to the surgeon yesterday for a follow-up visit. He said that I was 'spot on' for my weight loss. Down 41 pounds in two months. He said that I should have 1/2 of my weight off in three months. That's normal for his patients. I told him about my 'vomiting' episode at work last week and he chuckled. I asked him what all the phlegm was about and he explained it this way. He said that we don't realize how much saliva our glands produce and how much we are constantly swallowing. When the piece of chicken got stuck in the pipe that goes into the new stomach the saliva had no place to go but 'up'. So every time I would swallow saliva, up it would come. I told him that I was going to hold off on chicken for a while and he thought that would be a good idea.

I made meat loaf the other night and had that for dinner and breakfast too. It was wonderful and I didn't have any problem with it at all. I also tried steak for the first time. Mind you ... it's just a small portion, around 2 ounces. But it went down and stayed down very well. One of my readers commented that I needed to watch out for Bean and Bacon soup because it is high in carbs. The thing that you need to realize is that beans are high in protein and the amount of soup that I consume is only 45 calories. So, I'm not too concerned if it's high in carbs because of the calorie content and the fact that I'm still losing so wonderful. And, it's a good source of protein, which is 75% of my meals.

One of the most amazing things that has happened since my surgery is not having headaches any more. I used to have a major headache daily. I'm sure I'm sugar intolerant and that was what was making my headaches. So if any of you out there are experiencing headaches try going off of sugar for a few days to see what happens. A few years ago I went without sugar for two years. In the first 6 months or so I lost 50 pounds and when I went back on sugar I gained all of the weight back, plus some extra!

Tony Grove Lake is a mountain lake fed by the snow so it's VERY cold, but there were a few brave kids playing in the water.



O.K. ... got to get back to my presentation for Canada that's coming up in two weeks. Wish all of you could come. We're going to have a delightful time and I can't wait! Hmmm ... perhaps I'll consider doing some sort of event out in the midwest. How would that suit your fancy?

Terrific Day at Work!

Much, much better day at work yesterday! I felt tremendous. No more chicken for me for a while. Bean with Bacon soup goes down the hatch wonderful and feels so warm and good in the tummy. Just mix up a can with water in a container and then take out a small portion to take to work. Pop it in the microwave and savor each sip. Sit in the break room with your Stampin' Success and chew your soup and you'll have a wonderful lunch!

Some of you have asked what I'm doing at work. This is just a temporary job working two days a week until I find full-time work. I used to tend the owner's children 20 years ago and we just reconnected through Facebook. She asked if I'd come work for her and get her paper work caught up. She is the owner of Rocky Mountain Awards Distributor for the western half of the US. She's got a really nice little warehouse with three offices inside. She distributes trophys and ribbons and awards and all of the parts and pieces that go to them. She carries over 10,000 parts in her warehouse. She handles everything, from picking to shipping, phone and in-house orders, and all of the book work.

Besides being so sick my first day of work, I was pretty discouraged when I came home. I told my hubby that I was a 'people' person and this job just wasn't for me. I'm in a back office, all alone, no music, an occasional phone ring, and I'm generating invoices, running credit cards, faxing, filing, and making sure the pricing is correct on the orders. So, yesterday I went prepared to the office. I took my Ipod, speakers, a lamp so I could see the paperwork better, some chewing gum and sugar-free Jolly Ranchers. I was in 7th heaven listening to my tunes and chomping on my gum. I had a little more inter-office conversation with the young girl out front. I think she's threatened by my job. She's been working there for two years but can't understand the invoicing so that's why the boss hired me. And the boss even gave me a set of keys to the warehouse and I get to open up the office on Monday. The 'boss' has been running her own business for years and hasn't had the time to go to a Dr. or Dentist in over 10 years! Can you imagine that? She's finally going to the Dentist Monday morning because she's been missing a crown for over two years!

Anyway, I really enjoyed work yesterday. I'll enjoy it even more when I begin taking phone calls and getting to talk to 'real-live people'!

How do you think the weight loss is going? It's going terrific! I stopped weighing myself everyday and am weighing once a week. This morning I weighed 212 pounds! That's a total weight loss of 38 pounds in 8 weeks. Not too shabby. I'll take it in a heart beat. Just for fun I put on a convention outfit that I wore a couple of years ago and it falls off of me. It's really a pretty, dressy outfit and I hate to give it away since I only wore it once. I'm thinking about hanging onto it and after I have my weight off, altering it to fit.

We're going camping tonight and tomorrow night up near Bear Lake towards the Idaho border. It's a place called Tony Grove and it's where Lynn almost got the courage to propose to me, but didn't until later that evening. I'll take lots of pics and post them here. I'll try to take a picture of me now, but I'm all alone and I'm not sure how to set the timer on the camera. I'm in my camping clothes and don't want to put on the same ole' blue shirt and stretchy pants that I've been wearing in all of my weight loss pictures.

Later baby! I LOVE your comments and staying connected through my blog. Have a GRRRREAT day!

Who Likes to Throw-Up at Work?

So what have I been up to these last few days? LOTS!

So that wonderful retail job, that I got chosen over 1200 other applicants, called me to tell me that I would be responsible for the cash flow for the store and to also work in their customer service department ... and they wanted to pay me $7.50 an hour! Can you believe that? I was floored. I asked him to repeat the pay one more time. I told him that I can stay on un-employment and make more money than that. He seemed surprised when I told him that and asked me if I wanted the job. "Heck, no!" I replied. So, I'm back to job hunting.

One of my long-lost friends contacted me through Face Book and offered me some part-time work in her business. So today was my first day at work, outside of the home. I was excited and nervous for this new adventure. Her business is only a few miles from my home and it only takes me about 12 minutes to get to work. Score! I love that it's close. I packed some chicken that was left-over from dinner yesterday and some sliced tomatoes. Now mind you ... this is the first time I've been back to work since my surgery. I was being taught Accounts Receivables, Invoicing, typing product into the system, and was getting along quite well. She even pays us for our half hour lunch but I decided to just eat at my desk and keep working. I took one bite of chicken and I guess I ate it too fast and then followed up with gobbling a few slices of tomatoes. Will I ever learn to stop eating so fast and chew my food? I immediately got sicker than I've ever been after eating. I'm trying not to be a big baby and she's sitting there trying to teach me bookkeeping and I'm vomiting all over myself. Literally ... I threw up all over my pants, shoes, and the front of my shirt ... and not just once but many times. I'm sorry to be so graphic but I was disgusting. It's hard to explain but it's really not food that I'm up-chucking, but gobs of flem. This went on and on for about 2 hours. I just kept plenty of paper towels handy. Finally I just resorted to throwing up in the waste paper basket. Can you believe how impressive I was for my first day of work?

So ... I'm going back on Wednesday and this time I think I'll just take yogurt and cheese for lunch. That seems to be soft and should go down easier. And ... I'll take my 30 minute lunch break to really chew and savor my food! My boss felt so sorry for me and she was trying to make conversation and all I wanted to do was lay down on the floor!

I can honestly say that is the first time I've ever thrown up at work! And I'll probably go down in history as her first employee to throw up several times at work.

O.K. ... so now that I've made you all SICK, let's move on to another topic. It's exciting trying on clothes that have been too tight in the past to wear and are now quite baggy. I wore a dress and jacket to church yesterday that have never fit me as nice as they do now. It's an exciting feeling. I have a closet downstairs with smaller clothes and it's been fun pulling from that inventory and having them fit!

My good friend who just had the surgery has lost 50 pounds in three weeks. It's amazing and she's looking soooo good. We were at a support meeting last week and had fun visiting and talking about the foods that we can eat now on our diet. There was a gal who had her surgery the same day as my friend and she actually gained weight to qualify for the surgery. She then proceeded to tell me that she was going to try carbs and anything she wanted to eat to see how her system would react. I was amazed that someone who wanted the surgery so bad wasn't willing to follow the diet. She'll probably lose but if she continues being consumed with food and not following the plan, she'll never keep the weight off!

Got to go visit the folks. Have a great evening!

Hmmm ... Who Smells Like Bacon?

O.K. ... so I'm having a fabulous day. My calendar has been filling up with speaking engagements and I decided that it was time that I write my presentation. I LOVE writing. I had some soft music playing in the background and I can talk out loud as I type. I even laugh at myself, ask myself questions, and even answer too! Am I getting senile? Hope not!

It was just one of those days when everything fell into place. I looked sassy in my turquoise swirly skirt with a white blouse and cute sandals. You know that kind of day when you look in the mirror and you think to yourself, "Wow ... I look kinda good today! I like that color of lip gloss I'm wearing. Don't my eyes look pretty today?"

Dinner rolled around and I looked at the big bucket of fresh tomatoes that Lindsey had brought and thought that Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwiches would be wonderful for dinner, with a fresh ear of corn on the cob. (Not for me ... This is for Lynn. I get the BLT without the bread and no corn either.) So I took a pound of bacon and fried it up in the frying pan, not realizing that the house, my hair, my shirt, my swirly skirt all wreaked of bacon. I glanced at my watch and realized that I had a meeting at the hospital with the weight loss surgery patients in 10 minutes so I ran into the bedroom and changed into some jeans. As I grabbed my keys to go out the door I thought, "I'm going to smell like bacon. Oh well, if I ride to the hospital with my windows down perhaps the smell will be gone when I arrive."

I walked into the meeting late and the Dr. was doing a Power Point presentation in the dark. I quietly took my seat and immediately got a strong whiff of bacon. Gosh .. it's me and it was permeating the room around me. The gentleman next to me even scooted away from me. He must not like the smell of bacon. I thought maybe I should have put cologne on before I left. But wouldn't that be even grosser smelling perfume mixed with bacon? I smelled my fingers and they even smelled like bacon. Sheesh I wish I had some hand sanitizer. Perhaps if I chew a stick of gum that will sorta mask the smell of bacon. So I did. It didn't.

After the meeting I was talking with some patients and I mentioned that I had been cooking bacon right before the meeting and the one girl said, "I thought I smelled bacon!"

Remind me next time to NOT cook bacon or smelly fish prior to going to a meeting!

To Pick or Not To Pick?

Before I get to my story about picking ... let me first thank all of you who saw me up town during convention and stopped to give me a love and a hug. It was absolutely fantastic and I had so much fun getting reacquainted with you. I miss and love you all and this was such a fun way to re-connect. How about next year if I plan the dinner and the shoe box swap. Wouldn't that be a fun evening? And maybe I could even talk Jaron and Lori to showing up and helping with the event too ... wink wink! Many, many thanks to Dawn Rapsas, Belinda King, and Lydia Fiedler for inviting me to their events!

I stopped by the Marriott Sunday to pick up a friend and ran into more demos as they were heading off to the airport. What a reunion! I still can't believe how much love you all have for me. Your love strengthens and supports me and I can't thank you enough! Kisses to you all!

O.K. ... so to pick or not to pick? Yesterday was an interesting day. A VERY interesting day. There's a retail store that's opening up just a mile away from my home. On a whim I decided to go on-line and apply. "I'll take anything", I thought. I answered a few on-line questions and immediately was scheduled for an interview at 3:00 that day. "Yippee, a real-live interview!" Before closing out of the website I read that we were to dress professionally, come with four personal references, arrive 20 minutes prior to our interview, and have our application in-hand and filled out. Now comes the interesting part. As I arrived for the interview I noticed a LOT of people in ALL kinds of dress. There were short-shorts, tank tops, tattoos, piercings, black chipped fingernails, facial hair, and most everyone in the room were young enough to be my grand-children. I knew right away that I had made a big mistake and this was a waste of my time. But then I recalled the words of my daughter, Natalie. "Mom, this is good for you. It will give you experience." Well, if nothing else it will give me something funny to write about on my blog!

Back to the picking ... So, I noticed a young boy with a faded, too-tight t-shirt, with a picture of a walrus on the front and very, very, too-tight faded jeans. He had a scraggly red, chin hair thing. I watched him filling out his application, (remind you ... we were supposed to have it filled out when we arrived) and then he stood up and picked his melvin in the back (wedgie for those of you who don't know what a melvin is) and then as he walked to the front of the room he adjusted his front. So, the answer to the question is, "Don't pick when you're in public. And for heavens sake borrow or buy a pair of dress pants that fit!"

So ... on to the interview. Very, very interesting. I've never had a group interview before. They selected about 12 of us to go into a room and we sat in a circle and the asst. store manager and her asst. asked us two questions. All of us had the same two questions and we went around the room in a circle. Then she left the room and there was dead silence. Finally I piped up and said that there were really secret cameras hidden in the room and they were spying on us to see how we interact with each other. That created a lot of laughter and we started chatting with each other. She came back into the room and said how refreshing it was to hear laughter. Usually she enters and you can hear a pin drop.

After she excused everyone she asked this young boy and I to stay afterwards to sign our application. I was puzzled because I knew that I had already signed it. As we went to get our applications she whispered to us that she wanted to hire us on the 'spot' but she didn't want the others to know. That's why she told us to come sign our applications. As we were filling out additional paper work she asked me if I had ever had cash flow experience. I drew a blank for a minute and then remembered that I used to be a teller in a bank years ago. She was elated because that's the position she slated me for. I will be doing the store deposits, along with sales, and can come into the store as early as 5:00 a.m. and be home by noon. How perfect is that? I don't know what the salary is, probably not much, but IT'S A JOB and I got it over those young whipper-snappers!

Got to run ... I have morning Relief Society.

Love You!!! MMMMMM..... Hugs and Kisses!

Hugs, Kisses, Tears, Happy Moments!

Congratulations, Robyn Merriman on being selected for the Advisory Board!! Hooray!!!

Thanks to Belinda King for inviting me to the SCS dinner. It was amazing, awesome, fun, exciting and a wonderful chance to see all of you and get my loves and hugs!!



My great Mile Hi Stamper friends from Denver --- Connie Ingram.


This was the cutest group of demos who had used my idea from last year's convention to make their darling swap bags. Aren't they adorable?


Another Mile Hi Stamper with a beautiful project!

My darling table demonstrators!


One of my favorite friends, Sylvia DeJong-Simpson from Denver! Love, love, love her and Cheryl. Dang, I didn't get a pic of Cheryl!

One of my great blogging friends, Lydia Fiedler!









I'm bummed because I didn't get a picture of Dawn Rapsas who invited me to her Shoe Box Swap Tuesday night. That was sooo much fun. I actually experienced life as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator working two days on 60 full-sized card swaps and then getting back 60 incredible full-sized cards to use. I just found out that Dawn was named Demo of the Year (US) at last night's award's ceremony. Way to go Dawn! It didn't surprise me! I'm blessed to get to work with her on UStamp with Dawn and Friends again this Fall. Can't wait!

So what are these pictures all about? Since I wasn't a part of convention this year I received several invites to demo events this week. Talk about a wonderful time. In fact I had more fun this year than I've ever had at convention because I didn't have to work convention. I just got to play and be with the most fantastic people in the world!

How's the weight loss going? Well, for almost a week I didn't lose a single pound. Usually I gain weight when I fly, but I weighed the same weight when I came back as when I left. Kinda bummed because I didn't change my way of eating at all. Finally the scales went down three pounds this week. I weight 219 --- a weight loss of 31 pounds in 6 weeks. Not too shabby!

The diet is getting easier and easier to manage. This afternoon I made some homemade chicken noodle soup to take to some shut-ins in the ward and I was able to have a little bit. I just picked out the noodles and enjoyed the carrots, chicken, and celery. It was delish!

I started exercising last night on the recumbant bicycle. I only pedaled a little over 3 miles in 20 minutes so I'm pretty slow. But at least it's a start and I don't mind it because I can pedal while watching TV.

Night before surgery!

I don't think you can really tell how much weight I've lost from this picture. Lynn took it too close. I need to show you how lose the shirt is around my tummy as well as my pants. Those pants are stretchy pants and they just seem to conform to my shrinking size. I think they truly could be called one-size fits all!Model pose ... kinda turning to the side, just a little, to look just a little thinner! Ha ha ha ha!.This blouse was really tight on me in Hawaii. In fact the bottom botton didn't quite button.

Gotta run ... I made some homemade chicken noodle soup to take to some shut-in's in the ward and then I need to visit a sister (in the gospel) in the hospital.

An Amazing Week!

Sorry ... this post is going to be sooo long today because I have so much to share with you.

Many of you know that I went to South Carolina to see our youngest son, Reese, graduate from Basic Training in the Army. It was an amazing experience and one that I wish all of you could experience. Reese's girlfriend, Laura, and I flew together, rented a car, and shared a room to help cut down on expenses. I wish that my hubby could have gone but we didn't have enough FF miles for the both of us to attend. He would have gone but he wouldn't have been comfortable sharing a room with Laura! :)

We arrived in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, which was lovely by the way, a Marriott Courtyard. I placed a bid on Priceline for $50 a night and was accepted. Not too bad, considering that the rooms were going for over $100 a night. I took our GPS system with us so we had a ball discovering Ft. Jackson and Columbia. We headed out to the base to get our bearings and to see if by chance we could go on base. Sure enough ... they let us in and gave us a pass for a few days for Family Day. Ft. Jackson is HUGE .... miles and miles of post. We had NO idea where Reese was staying and he hadn't been given access to his cell phone so we just drove around base, hoping to see him crossing the road. Yeah right! There were thousands of soldiers crossing the road, dressed all in the same uniform, and they ALL looked like Reese!
After spending some time wandering around on the base we received a phone call from Reese who tried to describe where he was. Since they haven't had cars and had to walk everywhere he had no idea what road he was on. But he described what he could see out his barracks. And lo and behold we found him! We weren't able to stop the car and get out and chat, but we both screamed when we saw him on the back porch of his barracks. We waved and kept on driving. Didn't want to get him in trouble with the Drill Sargeant!

The next morning we arrived at a field to see some pre-graduation exercises for Family Day. I had just told Laura that quite a few people questioned why Reese would want to join the Army and how I felt about his decision. I told her that my son shouldn't be an exception to serving in the military to protect my freedom and that I was proud that he chose this path. Shortly after that comment, loud bombs starting going off in the distance and soldiers started running across the field with their weapons. With a horrified look on my face and my heart in my stomach I turned to Laura and said, "I changed my mind. I don't want him to have to go through this!" And then I started to cry. I wish words could describe the scene that took place and the feelings in my heart as I watched 1200 young men and women running across the field in the similitude of battle. And of course they had music playing which always makes my emotions run higher!




Remember the books, Where's Waldo? Well kidlets, see if you can find Reese. Laura spotted him right away. If she hadn't been there I don't think I could have ever spotted him.

This is our first real glimpse of Reese after the cermonies. We were in the bleachers coming down to meet him. We both screamed because he has lost SOOO much weight! Ladies and gents ... if you need to lose weight fast, join basic training and they'll knock it off of you in a heartbeat! He's lost about 45 pounds and looks amazing. His uniform hung off of him. His pants were cinched as far as they would go.


It rained every day we were there for a short while in the afternoon. I thought this was an amazing picture of a soldier out in the field during the rain. Reese mentioned that 11 soldiers have been killed by lightening in Ft. Jackson so the army takes thunder and lightening very seriously and provides cover for them.


This is an amazing story of encouragement and support from your platoon. Private Fitch is a high school student from Kentucky doing his Basic Training during the summer. He's just a young kid, never been out of his home town and missed his mother dearly. He even wore a picture of his mother around his neck. He had the cutest souther accent and really admired Reese. While he was in training he got word that his grandfather had passed away. He really had a hard time and Reese took him under his wing and supported him.

When it came time for Fitch to take his Physical Test to pass Basic Training he failed miserably. He had never been physically active prior to his training. He only had a day to improve his scores and pass the test. At 4:30 the next morning he was supposed to meet at the field to take his tests. His entire platoon got up at 4:30 and went with him to the field. As he was running the track, his platoon would take turns running with him, encouraging him on. They continued to do this for the sit-ups and push-ups, and Private Fitch passed his Physical Test with the help and encouragement of his platoon!
They have a beautiful temple in Columbia. They are only open for a few sessions an evening. We weren't able to fit it into our schedule to attend but at least we got to see it. It was a beautiful evening with the sun just going down. Columbia is really a beautiful place!
Reese's pretty girlfriend, Laura. How we love her! We had a fabulous time with each other.
Graduation exercies were the next day and this is Reese after graduating.
Here's the proud Mama!
Scary Larry Drill Sargeants! Let me tell you ... they scared the hajeebies out of me everytime I saw them. One of them came up to Reese while I was with him and told him to take off his glasses. Reese did and then he told him to put them back on. Reese did. And then he told him to take them off. Reese did. And then he told him to leave them off. Reese did!

I asked Reese what that was all about and he said that he was just messing with him and that's what they do all of the time. Reese really enjoyed his Drill Sargeant. One day they were talking about Mormons and his DS told him that he had many mormon friends but they didn't live their religion. He asked Reese if he lived his religion and Reese told him 'very much so'! The last night we were at the barracks telling Reese goodbye and the DS was staring at Reese and Laura and it made Reese really nervous. Later that evening Reese asked the DS why he was staring at them. He replied that he was just putting on an act for the parents. Reese asked again why he was staring and the DS said, "Private Hansen, are you still living your religion?" "Yes, Drill Sargeant, very much so!", replied Reese. The DS said, "Very good!" Quite often the religious boys get picked on but Reese said that his platoon knew that he was LDS from the start and didn't swear. They were quite respective of him ... perhaps it was his size!

Home Sweet Home!

Before Boot Camp .... After Boot Camp ... down about 45 pounds!
Yikes ... more Drill Sargeants!

When we flew home there were 4 Drill Sargeants sitting in front of us! I about died when I saw their hats. I finally got brave and started talking with one of them. He was from Utah and is LDS and they had just finished their training to be Drill Sargeants. I asked him if it was necessary to talk filthy to the soldiers. He told me that the Army actually tells them not to, but most of them do it anyway. I then told him what the DS did to Reese's platoon on their last night before shipping out to their Advanced Training. (He made them detail his barracks and personal car!) This Drill Sargeant told me that that wasn't right and he would never do that to his men!

Saying good-bye, again ...

On Saturday Reese left for Ft. Eustis, Virginia in Newport News for his training as a crew chief on the Apache helicopter. He actually arrived in Virginia, by bus, before we had even left SC! Right now he's waiting for his classes to start. They have to wait until they have enough soldiers for the class as well as wait for the class in front of them to graduate. I learned something about the Army that I was really disappointed in ... they don't start anything on time. Reese said that the Army is known for hurrying up and waiting. There was a young solider sitting behind us on the plane who said that he had been waiting for three months to go home from his Advanced Training. He was through with his classes but the army had messed up his paperwork and it had been 11 months since he had seen his family!

O.K. ... you're probably bored out of your gord with all of this army talk and pictures! Last night was amazing! I was invited to participate in a shoe box swap for Dawn Rapsas and her group. It was so much fun uniting with many demonstrators and getting loves and hugs. And it was my first shoe box swap as a demonstrator. Geez ... it was alot of work putting together 60 cards for the event. Now I know what you all go through for the events ... even though some of you make 100's of swaps! It was fun connecting with demonstrators who I've met through my blog too.

I have another big night planned for this evening. Many of you asked if I would miss convention. The answer is 'no'. I don't miss convention ... I miss you! And thanks to many of you who have invited me to dinners and events that you are having, thanks a gazillion. This is just what I needed to get my demonstrator fix!

Love to you all! I'll talk about weight loss tomorrow and post pictures!