I have no idea who the author is, but whoever it is, they are right on target.

'SAVE THE BEANS!!'

My husband and I went camping this past weekend and had my step-son Thorin and his boys over Saturday night and Sunday morning.

I decided on Saturday to make a ‘bean stew’ type dish to go with the hamburgers and hot dogs and such.  I didn’t have the exact recipe so had to kind of work on it thru the day.  Starting around 12:30ish, I started making it…throwing in three different cans of beans, a pound of hamburger, a can of tomato sauce (these are the basics)…then adding onion, worschterschier (sp?) sauce, brown sugar then taste testing and adding mustard, salt and pepper, seasoning salt, taste testing, then ketchup, more brown sugar and more worscheterschier (sp?) sauce.  Letting it cook and simmer for about 4 hours.  It was really good and Erik just loved it and it was something I could eat.

I was so looking forward to having Thorin and the boys try it.  So, come dinner time, Erik was finishing up the meat on the grill, the boys were helping me put stuff on the picnic table and the last thing to come out was ‘Ronda’s bean stew’!  I grabbed a pot holder and with the pan of bubbling stew in front of me walked down the RV steps when all the sudden, there was no ground under my foot.  The step stool was gone and I went down about a foot and half on to the ground.  It was weird how it happened.  It was like super fast, but also in slow motion.  I just remember thinking before my body hit the ground ‘SAVE THE BEANS’…I hit the ground pretty hard.  I sat up and Erik and Thorin were running towards me, but all I could think about was all the time and effort I put into those beans which were now all over the ground.  L

A split second later, I noticed that although there was a huge pile of stew on the ground…about 2 feet away sat the pan…upright and still almost half full!!! 

Erik and Thorin helped me up and checked to see if I was okay (which I was), but all I cared about was those beans.  Then I turned to my left and saw the stew sauce splattered all over the side of the RV.  (HORROR!!!!!!)  I picked up the pot of beans and put it on the table then ran in and grabbed some wet paper towels to start cleaning off the RV and Erik tried to stop me.  He’s like…hmm RV or wife in hospital.  The RV was fine…leave it!  He grabbed some Windex and started cleaning it.  All was well.

Everything turned out okay…just a few scrapes and no broken bones.  Everyone cleaned out what was left of the beans and really seemed to enjoy them.  (They probably ate them just to make me happy after all that, but it didn’t matter…I didn’t have to go to the hospital). 

I’m also very grateful that the stew didn’t end up over anyone.  That would have been really bad!!

Oh…and my wonderful husband allowed Loki to eat some of the bean stew off the ground. Guess who WASN’T cleaning up her poo! (I did anyway)  ;-)

All in all, it was a great weekend...a little too hot for my taste, but fun regardless. 

Hi All! :-)

It's been quite a while since I've blogged.  I really need to get back into this. 

I had my gastric bypass surgery on March 13th.  I came back to work yesterday (March 26th)...and I'm tiiired!  Erik has been keeping me up to date with his blog and the kind responses from everyone concerning my surgery and all I can say is Thank you!  The hard part is over...now on to healing and going forward with a healthier lifestyle.  For me and hubby!! 

I've had pretty much a year of thinking and contemplating and crying and seeing my nutritionist and psychologist along with family and friends that were both supportive and undecided.  (Or even worse...extremely opinionated without doing any research or just hearing from a 'friend of a friend' how this or that didn't work). 

During this past year, I've learned that sometimes you just have to do what you feel is right...in your gut!  (lol...figuratively and literally in this case! :-) ).  This wasn't an easy decision to come by.  Yes, I've heard of the nightmares and complications in some cases.  I've heard of people dropping the weight, then in time, gaining it back.  (Singer Carnie Wilson for one example had the gastric bypass, lost the weight, gained it back and is now having the lap-band done).  She admits that she went back to her old ways.  I've been finding out more and more that people that go through this have not followed up on what they are supposed to do.  This includes counseling, support groups, exercising and of course, eating healthy. 

I know a person who is a friend of the family that went through the gastric bypass just a few months ago and she is now at a point that she can pretty much eat whatever she can tolerate.  She's dropping weight regardless of what she eats and she is gloating to everyone how thin she is getting and can eat whatever she wants.  THIS IS NOT TRUE!!!  Right now, she's like in a honeymoon phase.  Once she hits the end of that, if she continues at the rate she's going, she's going to gain all her weight back.  She hasn't gone to any follow-up appointments with her doctor, she isn't taking her vitamins, she's doing nothing she's supposed to do.

I just don't understand how anyone can go through the psychological classes, all the testing, and the surgery (including the pain afterwards), basically being on a liquid to soft food diet for almost two months and spend almost $30k (depending on your insurance coverage) and not at least make an attempt to follow-up on everything you've just gone through.  It's one thing to go on a diet and maybe not follow through with that...this is something completely different.  I understand that the surgery is just a tool to help you, but it's a MAJOR life-changing tool!

I know I might have some setbacks in the future and I know I have to be careful.  Like right now...the smell of food, ANY FOOD, makes me drool...but I can't eat it.  I know I'll go through my own 'honeymoon' phase, I just have to make sure that I go to my classes with the psychologist and to the support group and talk online to people going through the same thing.  I have to do this!  It's vital to my life now!  My biggest fear these last few years is that I would have a stroke or drop from a heart attack.  I don't want to do that to my husband if I can help it.  I love him too much!  I have to start loving myself now. 

Speaking of hubby...he has been absolutely AWESOME during this whole thing and I have so much to be grateful for.  Thank you Erik for loving me and standing by me through everything.  I love you honey!  ;-)