4/8/09 On The Road Again!

Well, we finally got everything straightened around, work schedules covered, and we're off Friday morning to Ohio (to see my family) for Easter and for the boys Spring Break (they don’t ever have a whole week here, it’s just a long weekend…where days disappear if we have snow days…crazy). I’ve decided since I’m not on a Dr’s. pre-op diet (just my own self imposed one) that I can swing being around the family without telling them about my surgery. I’m taking some of my shakes and I’ll just tell them I’m doing Atkins again…2 of them have been on Atkins before with me, and several of them are doing Weight Watchers now, again. I’m probably either the ‘lighter’ one/same as my 4 siblings, so it’s going to be hard not talking about something that has to do with weight loss, but like I've said, I don't want to have to defend my decision now or talk about it all the time, and the timing is bad with the graduations.

I just realized I need to get my act together because, other than candy, I don’t have a thing for the baskets yet. If you weren’t around for my Christmas festivities, let me explain that holidays are a huge deal in my family…and Easter for my Catholic family is a biggie. There will be several trips to church, eating of fish, caravans to people’s homes for lots of meals including Easter brunch and Easter dinner. Then there are the Easter bunny things. Not only does everyone (my Mom still insists on doing these for the adults too...yes, even my 43 yr. old bachelor brother still comes over for his basket hunt...you're still a kid when you go home) have to hunt in the grandparent’s house for their basket, but then there are several egg hunts. As the teens have gotten older we’ve increased the number of eggs (but not the total amount of candy) they have to find (or it would be all over in minutes). We’re up to 60-80 eggs for each and they each get their own room…they still love doing it. Then a little while later we do an easier hunt for the little ones. The Easter baskets are filled with goodies and little gifts and I’ve just realized I’ve forgotten to start collecting things for these…yikes!! All that shopping for Lap Band stuff got me sidetracked from life…how dare I think about myself first (I have the Catholic guilt too). DD’s BF is coming with us, so I’ll have an extra basket to make for him now…my Mom has set the standard and turned this into a monster LOL…I’ll be making up baskets when I’m 90 for my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. At least with the LB I will have a chance to live that long!

I’m off to stuff several hundred plastic eggs, finish the laundry and start packing. Tomorrow is a busy one, routine blood work for DS1 and drive him to school (1/2 hr. away), my abdominal ultrasound (for the incontinence Dr., not LB), afternoon at the pre-op class (3 hrs.), and then pick up DD over at college (4 hrs.). I’ll try to let you know about the pre-op class before we leave town (and I’ll take the laptop, but my parents don’t have wireless, so who knows) so if I’m not back…have a great weekend all!