This will only sting for a second...

Good Friday morning!  You have no idea how good it really is.  Compared to Wednesday, it's night and day.  See, Wednesday I felt like I had been beaten in the head.  My body ached.  I had a horrible fever.  My glands were so large I could hardly swallow.  I learned at the doctor that afternoon that a raging bacterial infection had raised the ol' wbc to 17k...hence, me feeling like hot garbage.  Top that off with a double ear infection as the massive swelling had blocked their ability to drain.  What in the world had I done to obtain these horrid creepy crawlies?!

So, nurse wonderful comes in to save my day.  I've become accustomed to the drill and would think it would be less painful knowing it's coming.  Nope.  This nurse was like an old west gun slinger.  Whip-cha!  *insert lone cowboy whistle*  She drew that syringe and fired a shot in .0012 of a second.  Before I could wrap my brain around the fire that now consumed my right backside, I heard her reach for her other holster. Again she took the prize for being quick-draw-mcnurse.  "This will only sting a second."  Yeah. Whew!  I felt so relieved it was over, yet a little unloved because she didn't pet me at all.  I felt like a grown woman who has endured painful surgeries and procedures...like these two shots should be nothing. Oh wait, that's true. Guess that's a good reason not to have fallen in the floor crying like I kinda wanted to do.

Fast forward to today given as to how I pretty much missed the rest of that day and yesterday I was useless as well.  Today...I feel so much better.  So blessed for medicine that kills the creepsters inside.  So blessed to have the healthcare we have.  So blessed to be back to "normal".  No comments or giggles, please.

On another note,  it's worth mention that since January 14th, I've lost 16.6lbs.  :)  I'm happy with that number, but hate a lot of it was due to sickness.  Hoping by Feb 14th, I can bring it to a nice even loss of 20lb....with diet....no more sickies for me!  I'm no longer accepting germs.  Thanks though.

:)


Yahoo for a good weekend ahead!  We'll see what we can get into next.  On the agenda...dining room to office conversion.  Should be interesting!

On my mind today...

I have had this butterfly image saved to various hard drives for the last 12 years.  It captured my heart as I felt like it was created just for me.  It's a perfect representation of what I feel a butterfly should be.  The hearts and flowers clearly there for the love and beauty that I desire to obtain.  I promised myself, so many years ago, that if I ever came to a place of contentment in my life I would have this image tattooed and filled with color somewhere on my body.  I was 20 then and the idea of a tattoo seemed fun and cool.  I'm a grown woman now, 2 babies later, and inside a body that is hardly worthy of art.  However, a promise is a promise.

Would I really go through with it?  Sure would.

Remember back where I said I would have to be at a place of contentment in my life first...yeah...that's the biggie.  That's the journey that I took a side path from when I got married, had a baby, got a divorce, got married again, had another baby, etc, etc, etc.  All parts of my life that have led to a spiritual and faithful contentment.  I didn't know coming to know Christ and walking with our Lord to become closer to Him daily would be so amazing.  I didn't know it was possible to love a man like I love my husband.  I didn't know that being a mother (and step-mom) would mean four people for which I would give my life. 

So, in all aspects of life I am truly happy.  It's beautiful.  It's more than I could have ever imagined.  Blessings abundant.  There's a little teeny tiny part missing though.  Me.  Yeah, you know, the one writing the words you're reading.  Good ol' Mandy!  Who is she?  She is a girl that longs to be in the body that she sees in her dreams.  Not to say that I believe outer beauty is required to be happy in life, but it's kinda like chocolate syrup on plain ice cream...it sure does make it better.

Listen to me...bringing up chocolate when I'm on a diet!  Shoot myself in the toe why don't I?  Not certain which is worse the word 'chocolate' or 'diet'.  I prefer to call it my transformation or something cool like that.  Diet makes it sound like I'm being deprived.  I am, in a way, if I place my happiness in that hunk of sweet goodness by the makers of Hershey.  Instead, I am headed toward placing that happiness in the sight, touch, and feel of a body that I had once long ago.  I'd also refer to that as "sweet goodness", but let's not get crazy!

How am I gonna get there?  Well, I'm starving.  No, seriously, I am simply changing my thoughts about what is good to go inside this awesome body of mine.  Making better choices.  Eliminating the junk.  Cutting out the huge amount of crap I had become accustomed to consuming.  So far, so good.  Also, looking forward to getting up and moving around.  Getting the heart rate up and Lord willing sweat a little bit without passing out from the pain.

My wonderful husband is joining me in this venture.  He is helping me tremendously.  It's nice when your best friend holds your hand.  It's gonna be fun one day when he takes me to get my first tattoo.