My Diet's Next Phase

Today is Thursday, January 2, 2014. I am 6 days out from having had gastric sleeve surgery, and I've lost about 16 pounds. The thing is, I have told almost no one, especially at work, that I had this surgery. I just said I was taking a couple of weeks off work! People are judgmental, and I just didn't feel like I could share it with them. 

I joined a gastric sleeve support group on Facebook, and they often post really good information about the various stages that they are in. One I found today was about moving into the soft food phase, which will be my next phase. Here's what one gal said she eats:

Refried beans with light sour cream and puréed salsa a little cheese.
Cottage cheese.

Puréed bean soup.

Pudding

Yogurt

Instant potatoes 

Puréed chicken n noodle

Scrambled eggs

Puréed cornbeef hash

Laughing cow cheese

Oatmeal

These just sound like normal things, right? you have no idea how wonderful they sound to me right now!

Here's another receipe I just got:  Ricotta Bake: 8 oz ricotta, 1 egg, add Italian seasoning, mix well spread in a dish sprayed with pam, add 1/2 cup low sugar low carb marinara to top with 1/2 cup of low fat mozzarella cheese bake at 350 until brown. so so good slices like lasagna

Wedding Withdrawals

I think I'm having wedding planning withdrawals. I thought I'd be happy to get a break after almost two years of planning her wedding with my daughter, but I really miss the creative outlet that it allowed. 


I've been reading about current wedding trends, and some of the trends I've seen are photo booths (whether the real deal or improvised staged areas), vintage photography, and lots of attention to detail. Basically, it just seems like couples want to ensure that their guests just have a lot of good old fashioned fun !


I've always thought the colors navy, yellow, and white would be a beautiful color combo for a summer wedding. Both the ladies and gents of the bridal party could wear navy...the guys could wear white shirts and yellow ties, while the ladies could carry beautiful yellow and white bouquets.


Another color combo that strikes me as beautiful and romantic is a mixture of grays and pinks. Picture sheer, gray floaty chiffon dresses, with bouquets centered around huge, pink peony blooms.... or pink ranunculus....arranged in mismatched pink floral china pitchers. Here's a pretty example: http://www.cypresshomedecor.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=AA59339


 The ideas are just endless!

PWRMS-Post Wedding Relaxation Mode Syndrome

Well, we're a week out since Abby and Mike were married. First, a quick recap of the big day:

• It was awesome!
• Everyone had a great time!
• Great food! (Thank you, Top of the Market !http://www.topofmarket.com/ )
• Great venue! (Again, big thanks to Top of the Market!)
• Outstanding cake! (HUGE thank you to Julie Rosfeld at I Dream of Cakes! http://juliescakes.com/)
• Great DJ ! (Big thanks to Chris and staff at Party Pleasers DJs!  http://www.partypleasersdj.com/)
• Great photographers! (Jenny and Will of Jenny Haas Photographer are so awesome, thanks!http://blog.jennyhaas.com  )
• The flowers were GORGEOUS ! (big thank you to Jeff Martin Florists!  http://www.jeffmartinsflorist.com/)
• Great decor! (My daughter had a vision and made it come true ! also big thank you to Prime Time Party Rental http://www.primetimepartyrental.com/ and eFavormart!  http://www.efavormart.com/  )
• Everything turned out just as we wanted!

Now it's a week later; the kids are on their honeymoon cruise, and I just can't seem to get out of lazy mode ! I've been sleeping in til 9 am on the few vacation days I've taken. I'm not accustomed to sleeping that late!


I'll post pictures of the big event !

French Inspired Bridal Shower

My daughter is getting married October 1st, 2011. I've been helping her matrons of honor (my daughter's two best friends, one of whom is getting married in August and the other who is getting married in September) plan the bridal shower, and we've decided to go with a "French" theme. The reason we picked this theme is that my daughter and her fiance'  will be taking a honeymoon cruise, departing from the fabulous city of New Orleans. Since they plan on spending a couple of extra days in New Orleans to explore and have beignet, the "French" theme seemed appropriate for the shower.    

Here's the menu we came up with:
"French Onion" meatballs (I made up a recipe for these!)
Mini-croissant chicken-salad sandwiches
Fresh crudite'- red/yellow/green pepper strips; carrot sticks; cauliflower; broccoli; and    mushrooms
Fresh fruit and goodies with white chocolate fountain: strawberries; blueberries; pineapple; grapes; melon; pound cake; marshmallows; pretzels; etc
Petit Fours and sugar cookies
Coffee, iced tea, lemonade, Chardonnay and Merlot wines, and iced water       
                         
Luckily, my future son in law is the dining facilities manager at an elite retirement community, so we will be able to use the banquet room there for the shower. This is great, because we're expecting about 50-55 people!

All of the tables will be set up with lace table cloths and fall centerpieces. We'll be using my Johnson Brothers Devon Sprays china for some of the serving pieces (creamer, sugar, platter, serving bowls). I love the colors in this pattern: http://www.replacements.com/webquote/JB_DESBRM.htm. The browns, blues, and roses are gorgeous, and they'll go very well with the invitations I'm making.

Speaking of invitations, I found everything I needed to make her shower invitations at Hobby Lobby. I found the prettiest brown paper with an orange, green, pink, and blue floral pattern on it, and I also found a corresponding striped paper. I bought a package of plain white cards with envelopes, and I'm going to measure the brown floral paper so that it's just big enough to cover the fronts of the cards. I'll then cut a strip of the striped paper and lay that over the top, at the bottom edge of the card. The word "LOVE", in an all-caps carnival style font, will be stamped in dark brown ink right in the middle of the striped paper. For the information inside, I'll just type it up on my computer using a font that's similar to the stamp, and I can then print it out and glue the information sheets to the insides of the card.

The matrons of honor are responsible for the games, and I think they have some great ideas planned! I know they want to do something different than the normal, boring shower games. I'm leaving all of that up to them!

My daughter had a cute idea for favors-macaroons! I purchased some small favor bags in chocolate brown with a cut out pattern at the top. Each bag is held shut with a ribbon, so I'm going to get ribbon in the colors that will correspond with the invitation colors, and a macaroon will be placed in each bag. 

I think we're going to have a beautiful event, and I am really looking forward to the shower ! I'll post pictures of the invitations once I've finished them.

Prayers for Japan

I wanted to take a quick moment to ask for prayers for the people of Japan and all those impacted by the earthquake and tsunami over the past 12 hours or so. The devastation appears to be huge and unimaginable. I feel for the parents who must try to comfort their frightened children, all the while not knowing for sure what might happen next. 

Please remember these folks in your thoughts and prayers today.