Hey folks! I'm still here!

I updated my latest weight loss in on www.myfitnesspal.com and was really stoked to go back to my blog and see "70" staring back at me.  WOW.  That's pretty heavy stuff!  70 pounds!!!

So what's happened since I went to oBand Surgery Center on August 13th, 2010?

• I've lost at least 12 inches off my hips/waist.
• I've lost 4 full dress sizes... I even got into a fun cocktail dress from back in the day - that looked GREAT -  that was 5 sizes down from my highest regular size.  I won't count the one size above regular that I bought when I was 8 months pregnant with the Twinkies or the other few larger sizes with very unforgiving fabrics.
• I've lost 3 notches on my watch, which originally was pretty snug on the very last hole...
• I've lost 5 bathing suit sizes.  It really felt good to hit the pool this summer!!
• I've lost at least 6 inches from around my back/chest.
• I've lost 2 cup sizes. Not so awesome.  Oh well.
• I've lost my mind...wait, that was the lobotomy I got recently.
• I've even lost a width of a shoe size.

But what I've lost the most? 

• A little inhibition.  I still do want to crawl into a corner when the spotlight is on me, but I'm less likely to avoid the camera flashes.  I even voluntarily got up and did some karaoke at a twins convention this weekend!
• A little humility. In a good way of course... I am happy to accept compliments now. I love it when friends and family goes out of their way to tell me how great I look.  I actually say thank you, and mean it.  And I don't feel like I am fishing for them... they come naturally and easily.  I still sometimes blush.  ;-)

I've GAINED:

• confidence.
• happiness.
• more friends - because I'm exuding the aforementioned confidence and happiness!
• and apparently, "longer arms" because I can wrap them around other people farther!

Yay me!  But I still have a long way to go. Maybe this time I won't be absent for so long!

The funniest place you've ever nursed or changed a diaper!

I was just visiting MomBloggersClub website and saw a title that tickled my fancy...  I clicked on Granola Grizzly Mama's site to check out her latest post. First of all, I liked her name.  Random thing about me... the vast majority of my new mom friends (i.e. friends I met while pregnant or BECAUSE I had kids) are the more naturalistic "crunchy" breastfeedin', natural-birthin' kind of mamas.  And I am so not.  But I think I would have been if my circumstances were different.  I digress...  The post was about the funnier or more unusual places Granola Grizzly Mama nursed her babies "on the go," so this is my take on it (which is pretty much like my response on her posting, but I added to it!)  And, I just had to change the rules. 

If I could recall all the places I've changed a diaper on the fly, that would be an impressive list. For the past 4 1/2 years, I have had at least 2 in diapers and for well over 1 year, I had 4 in diapers. No... my kids aren't still peeing themselves into the 3rd grade... I just had lots of kids in under 2 years. :-) I am the queen of changing twin toddler girls both in under a minute flat. It is possible, so long as it's just pee! So also note, when I am changing one diaper, chances are, my other 3 are strapped into the car, a stroller, all of them cloistered in one toilet stall, or out in public and told to hang onto my shirt with the fear of God put into them that if they let go, they will surely regret it.

So... I've changed diapers:

• in a car (in the trunk, back seat chair, back seat floor, drivers and passenger seats and passenger floor, and with child standing on the tailgate)
• at a park
• at the mall
• in grocery stores
• at Disneyland (in line at a ride)
• at the zoo (on the tram)
• on the Queen Mary (out on the deck)
• at the beach
• at a concert (during a song, of course)
• at church
• on the ledge of a pool
• on a bus bench
• in a booth at a restaurant (yeah, I'm one of those moms but only if I am certain no one will notice what I am doing)
• at a bar in a country club (did I mention I was one of those moms too?!)
• on the set of Dexter, Two and a Half Men, Ghost Whisperer, and According to Jim (yep, studio exec's just love me for that... and Charlie Sheen may have been slightly annoyed)
• I am sure the list can go on and on and on... but my memory is pathetic sometimes.

But the BEST one? Just happened this week. I was being questioned by the police and I changed the crappiest, nastiest diaper ever right in front of the cop with a gun and a clipboard.  I mean, my poor kid had a nasty diaper and was whining about it, so was I going to make her sit in it for another hour?  Nope, because that's the kind of mama I am.

Do I win?  Or can you top that?!

Photos courtesy of Google Images

You got all this candy… Now What?

Let’s face it: Halloween candy is totally unnecessary for the human body to consume.

Humans do not need the massive quantities of refined sugar, fat, preservatives, and questionable filler that make up most of the candy passed out on Halloween by your neighbors, shopkeepers, and friendly strangers whom you encounter. Does anyone really need 20 Snickers, 14 Milky Ways, 55 tootsie rolls and pops, stale bubble gum and other impossibly sticky things that make Dentists both cringe and get excited for the overwhelming number of November 1st phone calls at the same time?! No, we don’t.

Does that mean I’ve never touched a delicious King Size Butterfinger bar or dug into a Milky Way Dark Mini before? That would be no… I’ve had my fair share as a child, as a teenager, and now as an adult, because we have to give it out to total strangers who knock on our door on the 31st, right??! It would be downright criminal to turn off the lights and hide in a back room somewhere because we didn’t want to answer the many calls of social pressure that occur between dusk and the late evening on Pumpkin Day!

Besides, do we really need to send our children out into the night, dressed up in all things from princesses to superheroes to creepy crawly things or undead monsters we don’t want to run into in a dark alley somewhere, all the while begging total strangers for treats with the unspoken promise that they won’t in turn smash their pumpkins, egg their front door, or cause other illegal forms of mischief and mayhem?? Again, no. But it sure is fun!!

So now that the night is over, and your kids have gone trick or treating on no fewer than 3 different days at 5 different venues, they have amassed a gianormous fortune in hard candy and chocolate. What do you do with it all? What will keep you from having to put 2 pieces of poison in your kids’ lunches every day until next Halloween?

My October

October is always a super busy month for me.  Like, really busy.  So busy, in fact, that I've had a heck of a time trying to get to the gym this month and most likely won't go more than a handful of times the entire calendar month!  I really want to... but it's just not gonna happen.  Blogging?  I haven't even averaged once a week this month. Here's why:

Where I'm From

I stumbled upon a post by a fellow blogger, On the Rocks and Straight Up.  Her prelude was:  This was written for this week's writing meme at the Red Dress club. The prompt was kind of a Mad-Libs fill in the blank poem called "Where I'm from." Where I'm From template.

Countdown 3...2...1

*10* Random Things about Me:

1. I have 2 sets of twin girls, 21 months apart

2. E.T. was filmed across the street from my house when I was a kid; our house can be seen in several scenes.