It's been a while.

I know - it's been a while since I have updated my blog. My apologies. The past few weeks have been incredibly busy and hectic for me on just about every front in my life.

It's birthday season in the DeVries house right now. It starts on April 13 with my sons birthday. Then 2 weeks later it's my girls birthday, 2 weeks later is my husband's birthday, 2 weeks later my birthday, 2 weeks later our anniversary, and in there we have Easter, Mother's Day, and Father's Day, and this year - Kindergarten graduation.

On top of that, my parents sold their house and have moved into their RV (a.k.a. hotel on wheels) which is now parked in my yard. A week before closing on their house my mom fell down her stairs while carrying some boxes and broke her leg! So that whole transition has been a little difficult. Her sister (my Aunt Linda) came in and saved the day (or the week I should say) and that was incredibly wonderful. Mom is now camped out in the RV (no pun intended) and is getting around a little bit better than she originally was.

I have also been having to take my husband to UNC hospitals 3 times a week for some procedures for the past 3 weeks. UNC is about an hour away and when we go we are there until at least noon. He is wiped out for the day - gets a day to recover and then we are back at it. I don't mean to be vague about this issue - but I just can't share more than that at this time. :)

At work I have been assigned to a new project and I am swamped there as I get up to speed on what we are trying to accomplish. I have also started out the project by raising some rather major objections to the current approach and tool. This has not endeared me to my systems counterparts. That is OK with me. I'm not paid to be friends with everyone at work - I'm paid to analyze business requirements and make sure that the solution that is delivered meets those requirements.

Whew! This week I hit 4 months post-op! What a wild ride! I am sneaking up on 75 pounds down since surgery! I have had some major WOW moments in the past week related to my weight loss. The first is that I have begun shopping in "regular" sizes! No more plus sized clothing for me! Most of the clothes that I have right now are way too big for me. I have taken to wearing belts a lot. Last week when taking my kids bowling I forgot to wear a belt and my pants literally almost fell off! My kids were victims of a major crack attack. Poor things. :)

Another WOW moment was that I was picking up my girls from a birthday party. There was a mom there that I had not seen for quite some time, but we knew each other. I walked up to the group of moms and joined in the conversation. I sat there talking with them for almost 10 minutes when this other mom Arlene looked at me with her eyes wide open and said "PAM?!?!?! I knew I knew you, but I couldn't figure out who you were! I totally didn't recognize you! You look like a totally different person!" I am so not sure how to handle these types of moments. I am flattered, but I don't know that I'm comfortable being such a focus of attention.

And this is the last WOW moment - I promise. :) I had lunch yesterday with some colleagues that used to work at the company I work for. Unfortunately, they were laid off late in 2008. One of them I had not seen since well before my surgery. He showed up late to lunch and ran into our booth to sit down and was going around the table saying Hi to everyone. He looked at me and he said "If you weren't wearing your glasses - I'm not sure I would know who you are! You look totally different! You look fantastic!" Again - I am unsure how to handle that kind of attention.

So I apologize again for not updating my blog more the past few weeks. I promise to be better!