HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013!!!
wow! we made it! right into a NEW YEAR!

i really kinda stopped posting blogs sometime last year, with being  overrun by 20+ facebook pages i run, and  nearly that number of blogs as well, and a life, and health, and a kid, and other responsibilities, blogging got put on the back burner...and thats sad, altho i do have most of the events of my life in pictorial and folder format, i dont have much to say about them, because i neglected to blog about them...i make a resolution to..ATTEMPT (bes ti can do is try, lol) to keep it up this year. NO PROMISES, because ill get tired at some point, and push it off, and neglect it, and then another one, and another, until im nearly where i stand now..lol
but youll get what i can give, when i remember to give it.

and, i can TRY to post blog and  have those moments that i havnt posted up, this year as well...youll just have to remember, if your starting here to go and  review my life , that there may be blogs youll need to keep reminding yourself to go and read, id set up an RSS feed for yourself or sign up for email notification, and be notified when i DO post a new public post.

BLAH! what a gloomy day to do anything in...ugh. skys all gloomy grey, and theres NO sun..just what you can see in the sky as  cloud cover, and its bitter cold! took forever to get any winter here in Oklahoma, but man, when it came and arrived, it decided to remind us, that the warmth we suffer might not be so bad, lol

ice crystals on the car...its just cold enough to form ice crystals!

so today both craig and myself got up to do the LAST day of dogg sitting for the JEnsen family who went out of town, Daniel was supposed to be doing this job for a fee of 25$ but, guess whos getting the money? I AM, cause i need a new screen for my used Iphone  he got me (or  gave to me, as hes upgraded his).

these dogs are..HUGE...im sure, with very little effort hey could completely knock me down, the size of the paws alone is massive, nearly the entire size of my fist balled up, they are nearly the size of a small pony!
the black ones an adult, and the browner one is still a puppy! and he eats! MAN! DOES HE EAT! lol, he INHALES that bowl of food! lol
from these images looks like hes lost some wieght, not a ton, but i think its because we didnt leave food out for him all the time, like we do our own dogs, and hes on a schedule, 9am..1 bowl...if he can get some from the other he would, lol, but theres no real ribs showing and no spine, so he seems to be doing ok. we did as we were instructed. 9am 2 scoops of food. and water.

after that, i took my husband out for breakfast...the kid (daniel) was still sleeping when we left, so..he missed out, oh well! lol

so, my plans for today (and every day henceforth, as long as i have the energy and time) is to make sure i keep an updated blog for almost all these blogs. some i wont need to, very little talk or activity happens on them to even post anything more than images if i have any...

but others i intend to actually discuss things...so..WELCOME TO THE NEW YEAR!!
i have a PC room i need to organize, so i can be creative with my doll making. :)
i may be back later to talk about that (on another blog).

MICHELLE

MICHELLES 45TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

so, i hadnt really had an enjoyable dinner for myself that i wanted just for me, even when its mothers day, i conceed to allow craig to have a steak, which forces me to go get some form of fish dinner, to minimize the caloric/fat/carb intake.

but THIS year, i wanted to have something i hadnt had in a LOOOONG time...totally against my diet on all accounts, but i had a craving, and my birthday was an upcoming event, and i deserved it.

i wanted to have PIZZA HUT PIZZA!
it had, literally been YEARS since i had my fav pizza last. and it was time, and i was due.

so, the quest came to find a dine-in pizza hut. believe it or not, theres one in my local area! ONE!
so when craig came home, we headed out.

we got there, seated ourselves. wasnt very busy, we were the third table with ppl at it, there was about 10 of us there, about.

took the waitress forever to get to us.

she asked what we wanted to drink, and we made our orders.

we each ordered our own pizza.
 i also ordered a salad. and wasnt told that the bowls were on the buffet, and i could go help myself.

eventually, i went and did it on my own. its my birthday after all, and i wanted a salad.

we enjoyed our pizzas.

 craig and daniel both had some sort of meat lovers pizza, with as much meat as you can pile on top of the pizza.

i had a super supreme because i like veggies on my pizza.

they ate about half of theirs before they were done. me? one slice!

i was DONE! finished! couldnt have put another peice in if i wanted too, i was STUFFED!

they had another meal, i had a weeks worth left over, lol

MICHELLE

PIC OF ME

PIC OF ME- DANIELS 17th BIRTHDAY (JULY 29 2011)

took this pic to show what i looked like on the day my son had turned 17.

not to bad for a woman of 44 huh? lol

MICHELLE

SELF PIC

just a pic of me, goofing off in the car with a camera.
ENJOY MICHELLE

i can tell i was walking that day. i have my MP3 player on my shirt and my hair looks all crazy..lol

FATHERS DAY 2011

This was craigs FIRST official fathers day as a DAD and not a step dad.
he Earned it too!
glad you managed to survive most of these tough teen years, honey! i know ill be glad when they are over with. lol

i enjoy holidays. most of them, anyway.
and i enjoy when i can share something creative with someone on one of them. it gives me the excuse to shower them with creativity.
this year, because i had found a white tie and told craig id tie-dye it for him for a gift, i decided to have daniel get a tad creative, cause hes as good an artists as i am (runs in the family, my mom drew pretty well as well), i ask (then demanded at the last minute, lol) to have him create a one of a kind tie for craig hed like and enjoy.


so, daniel put his mind to work
came up with something of a collage of craig likes.
put them on the tie.

came out pretty good.

Penfold (from Danger Mouse Cartoons) and The Tick (from The Tick, Cartoons)

Craigs a PC guy, who likes Linux over windows, so daniel drew  windows logo and crossed it out with a red bar, lol, also added CTRL, ALT, DELETE buttons for a keyboard since it is mainly the device craig uses for his PC work, job, and fun

A turtle, the LINUX name, and its logo, the penguin. 

i really like this tie. i wish daniel made me one.
craig actually wore this tie to church that day. what a great dad!

we went out to eat, of course, lol
we will always go where craig can have HIS dinner on those days set aside for him.
happens to be LOGANS ROADHOUSE (because the kid doesnt enjoy mexican)

we all usually get the exact same dinner every time. and because im restrivted on what i can have, i always try for the highest in protein, lowest in fat and carbs.

i had a salad
with a vinegrette dressing

and also had a fish dinner. with a side of seasoned veggies on a skewer. i give craig the tomato, i cant stand them, yuck!

the guys get the same dinner each time,
craig gets a steak with a side of potato, with butter, and a side of apple something (baked im thinking)

daniel gets some BBQ burger with bacon.
side is fries.

i cant eat all my dinner anymore since my gastric surgery, so i always end up taking it home, for an additional meal the next day.

after some time to eat, came the fun part. GIFTS!
i so enjoy this part, i dont think ill ever get tired of seeing people open gifts around me, as well as myself ever opening them.
but this was craigs day...so HE got the honor of all those gifts. (including that awesome tie that was hand made)

CHEESEY POOFS! craigs a HUUUGE fan of cheesy puffs... when i saw this at walmart i HAD to get it.
wasnt a bad investment either. craig told me it took him about 6 weeks to put this all away at work!

a fake turtle. he collects them, cause he loves them, stems from the time he found that baby turtle in the woods and when he went off to college, his mom "did something to it" (im guessing let it free), but he has had a love ever since. so he collects them.

picture of that turtle he got.

along with the love of turltes comes a love for lizards. so, you can never go wrong when you get anything turtle or lizard.

and the tie....AHHH! save the best for last! i really think this was the best gift, besides the person who made it, himself.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY CRAIG!


oh yes, i was there too, but i dont get as many photo op, because im ususally taking them, i do however request that a pic or 2 be taken of me.

MICHELLE

STEAK N SHAKE PICS

when these pics were taken i was still trying to figure out how much i could eat, and had no idea about calorie allotment, in all the preperation up to my surgery, discussion about calorie intake had never happened.

i was still VERY highly in tune with the idea that i had to have as much protein as possible.

so at steak n shake they have (or had) a burger that was 2 patties, of chopped beef (very heavy with fat, you can tell) and an egg on the top of it.
i had decided to try my hardest to NOT consume any Carbs since my surgery. so i asked for this to be ...bunless.

and it came that way.
oh, AND bacon, just that much more protein.

i have since been back to my bariatirc facility and been enlightened and told my caloric intake should be between 800- 1000 cals for a day.  pretty sure this bad boy has over half of that allotment. but is it ever good!


i also had the unique chance to have a husband take some pics of me.

ENJOY!
MICHELLE

MEMORIAL DAY 2011 CELBRATION

why do WE (myself and craig) celebrate Memorial Day?
well not to honor its purpose, lol (sorry, but thats the truth)

we met on a memorial day.
and we make sure , every year that we have that chance to celebrate that moment, we do it.

the day we met, we went out to eat. dutch (so craig wouldnt feel like he was dating me), and his favorite MEXICAN place in Columbia, SC.
so, to memorialize that day, we ALWAYS go eat mexican.

this would be my 1st real celebration since my surgery (2 months prior) and i was just at the stage where i could eat real food. i had been eating real food for a little while but we were gonna see how well i did on bigger dinners, and eating out.
id been other places had a salad, or a burger, or something along those lines, but not a full meal.

so, we adventured out.
one thing about not going to a buffet, i can take hm leftovers.

we had , in the past, frequented ON THE BOARDER. as our destination of choice each year. and wed go because when we tell them its our anniversary, they give us a free desert.
but i couldnt do that anymore, because of the amount i can ijest, and the sugar amount in the desert itself.
so, we decided on a much closer destination we frequent: PUBLANOS GRILL

Dinner is the same every time.

i start with an appetizer of "relish" and cheese sauce. i chose the cheese sauce for the extra proteins (NOT the fat)

pretty common that you get free chips and the cheese dip along with  salsa as well. i didnt have the chips. (fillers! a bad NO NO) craig got the entire thing! lol

Craig, enjoying those chips. lol

Me enjoying a carrot chip from my small cup of  "relish". YUM!

Craigs dinner. A Shredded beef Burrito, with sides of, refried beans. Ugh! look at all that fat! high in protein tho! :)

My dinner. A Taco Salad with Ground Beef. comes with A scoop of Sour Cream, and a scoop of Guacamole.i use the cheese sauce and the relish as my dressing. so i dont use anything for extra fat added.

craig enjoying his dinner.

its funny looking at this image of craig and his dinner. i can remember sitting there after i had given up on trying to finish mine (i had about 5 bites and i was full) he can eat that entire plate. i used to be able to do that, and more, now, it just grosses me out to see him consume so much food. cause i cant do it anymore. (6 months out as i write this post, still have the same issue. cant eat nearly the amount i used to)

thats about 5 bites in, and done. couldnt put another bite in there.

proof i had to take the thing home..over half full.

our annual kiss picture. 

thats one happy couple right there. :)

2 month post op full shot picture.