Story Chain

Well, here it is; my portion of the story chain. If you'd like to see what was written just prior to me, head over to the lovely Catherine Johnson's blog.


By the time Dio got to the first floor of the house, Uncle Tony was in the driveway. “Hey, wait up,” she called.

“Glad to see you changed your mind,” he said when she hopped in the passenger seat. “I have a feeling today is going to be amazing.”

Dio processed his words as she played with the funny little fuzz balls hanging from the rearview mirror. Nothing in her family was said or done that didn’t have a hidden meaning, so just what was Uncle Tony up to? She guessed his mind-reading abilities had something to do with it.

When they reached Sandy's house and Dio saw the taxi in the driveway she knew something was up. What's going on, she wondered?

Sandy came rushing out of the house. Well, as fast as she could go carrying two very heavy suitcases. "Oh, hey Dio," she called when she looked up. She dropped the luggage off with the driver and hurried over. "Sorry about all this," she gestured around, "but I leave for Europe today. Which reminds me, Tony, have you finalized the adoption papers?"

And for what happens with Dio next, go check out our beautiful and tremedous host, Ms. Deana Barnhart.

Happy Dance!

First of all, have y'all seen how many followers I'm up to?!? Sixteen! Woot woot! I know that 16 isn't exactly an astronomical number or anything, but I had...count 'em...ZERO until about, oh, a month ago. So I'm pretty psyched!

Secondly, I'm happy to announce that tomorrow is going to be a great day! Yup, I already know it for a few reasons:

1 - I have a doctor appt that is going to go smashingly well. He's a wonderful dermatologist at Vanderbilt; such a sweet man and I enjoy my appts with him every 6 months.

2 - As part of Deana Barnhart's Gearing up to Get an Agent blogfest, several of us are doing a story chain. My portion will be up before 8:45 (Eastern time), which is before said doctor appointment. Nothing like getting the creative juices flowing first thing in the morning. ;)

3 - Due to said appointment (and two more un-said ones) Halen is going to a sitter tomorrow. After several days of just her and I at home, I'm *so* ready for a break. I love her, but I was NOT built to be a stay-at-home mom and we need time away from each other to stay sane. Plus, I can't write when she's around which means...hoping to get some writing done.

Okay, so your assignment is to come back here after 8:45 (EASTERN TIME) tomorrow morning and check out my part of the story. See you then!

Just gotta ask...

Now that I'm getting a bit more serious about my writing, I have started doing more research about agents, platforms, editors, etc... One of my friends Deana has recently started a a blogfest. It's called Gearing Up to Get an Agent; you can find her blog and more about the contest here.

Part one of this contest is all about questions. A lot of times aspiring (or sometimes even veteran) writers have questions that seem silly, stupid, or crazy and they never want to ask them for fear of looking silly, stupid, or crazy. You get the idea. Now is my chance to ask one of those quesitons. So here goes.

Since I'm writing about my own life, is it a memoir? Then again it was so long ago that I don't remember every detail, so is it creative nonfiction? My book is definitely YA; can you even have YA nonfiction? I am having a hard time trying to figure out which agents to even approach because I'm not sure what my book is.

If you feel like you need to know more about my book to answer these questions for me, just read below. The first couple of chapters are listed here as previous posts.
Thanks, y'all!

Anybody out there?

I know there are a few people that check this blog once in a while, but I'm not really sure how many followers I really have.

So, if you're out there post a comment or do something so that I know you are listening. =)

In the coming weeks/months I plan to change the blog a bit to make it more about my life/family/etc and less about the weight loss journey. Of course, that will always be a part of this blog because it will always be a part of me but there are other things to write about too.

For now, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Snow Day!

Nashville has been blessed (or cursed, depending how you see things) with its first snow fall of the 2010 - 2011 school year. I was actually really hoping we'd have school today as my class has been looking forward to this day for a long time.

See, we were scheduled to attend a viewing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader today. We read the book last year and have been waiting for today since we finished it. Now we have to wait until after Christmas break to see it. The good news is that I'm confident the movie will continue to be at the theater three weeks from now; the bad news is we have to wait that long.

In the meantime, Halen is having fun with the snow...well, for about the 10 minutes she was able to stand the cold.

After we tried (and failed) to build a snowman, we came in for some hot chocolate. Funny how that makes everything better!

Enjoy the snow...and the hot chocolate!

It's so cliche`...

...but I'm going to say it anyway: what a difference a year makes!!

This was me one year ago:


See the date stamp? Oct 7th, 2009. More importantly, see how I didn't even have a lap to set that pumpkin on? I had to rest it on my belly to work on it. Sad when you think about it.

And here is a picture I asked Halen to take of me two days ago, Oct 7th, 2010.

So it bears repeating: what a difference a year makes!

Now for some really cool news; at least I'm excited about it. Next Wednesday, which will be my actual 1 year "surgiversary", I am having a friend take some photos of me. We're going to do it like a real photo shoot with me wearing a couple of different outfits and taking the pictures outside while having some fun. I can't wait; I even bought a new dress!


I also want to share my new stats from the body analyzer with you.


Weight: 142.0
BMI: 26.0 <---- OMG!!
Fat%: 28.5% (desireable range = 21 - 33%)
Fat mass: 40.5 lbs (desireable range = 27 - 50 lbs)
Fat free mass: 101.5 lbs (this is everything in my body that is NOT fatty tissues)


And, as I've done before, here are my beginning stats for comparison:


Weight: 288.0
BMI: 51.8
Fat %: 53.0
Fat Mass: 150 lbs
FFM: 133 lbs


Everything has gone great and the surgeon was very pleased, which makes me very pleased! My 1-year post op appointment was a success--as am I!! =)

September Pictures

Gosh, time goes by so fast...I just realized that I didn't put up any Septemeber pictures.

The picture of me sitting down at the bottom of this page is from August, so even though I didn't do the three pictures like I have in the past, you can see me from August.

I'm down 140 lbs, weighing in at 148 in these pictures. I've stayed the same weight for about a month now, so I've been focusing on learning how to stabalize and then maintain my new weight. Anyway, here are my 11 month post op pictures:

Also, just for fun I thought I'd post pictures of me from this past week. We had Homecoming week at LHS and I dressed up for our spirit days. Here I am on Favorite Team Day:

GO BUCKS!!

Since next month is going to mark 1 year since surgery, I'm asking a photographer friend to take some "real" pictures of me. I can't wait to get them made and show them to y'all!