Thanksgiving and WOW Moments

I know, I know, I know - I have been neglecting Pamelot yet again.  I apologize profusely.

I had a great Thanksgiving.  I was able to go visit my sister and have Thanksgiving with her as well as go to a surprise birthday party for my grandmother.   She is an amazing woman.  She is 90 years old and still lives alone in her own house.  It was great fun to see cousins I don't get to see very often.

So I've been thinking about some things that I am thankful for and I wanted to get them down.

I am thankful for:

• my family
• healthy children
• healthy parents
• my marriage
• my job
• my health
• my friends

The list could go on and on.  I am a very thankful girl.  And as I reached my 11 month surgiversary I am especially thankful for how different my life is this year than it was last year at this time.  I am down about 110 pounds from when I had surgery.  And amazingly enough - I still get some WOW moments on this journey.  Here are a few I have had recently:

• I have never, ever, in all my life, shared clothes with my sister.  She's always been much smaller than me - even as adults - we're just built completely different.  But when I got down to my sisters I tried on some of her clothes!!  And they fit!!!!  I even managed to fit in a size 10!!!!!!  You just have no idea how great that felt.
• I love hanging with my sister.  LOVE IT!  We went out on the town one night and something happened to me that HAS NEVER happened to me before.  I got hit on.  HA!  I have been with my husband since I was 15.  Those there waters have never been chartered before.  I didn't know what to do with myself.  Thanks to my brother-in-law for keeping the wolves at bay for a while.  :)
• I have been wanting to commemorate 100 pounds down and I did while with my sister - I got a new tat.  No - I can't show you where.  HAHAHAHAHAHA!  I'll just say it's not somewhere that would be affected by any future plastics - which I hope to get at some point.  Have I mentioned how much I hate all this extra skin?
• I also love seeing my cousin, Angie.  While together down in the Keys for my grandmother's party we went running together.  I don't know if she will ever know how much that little moment in time meant to me.
• While down in the Keys for my grandmother's party we all stayed in a fantastic vacation home - a ton of us.  In the past this would have filled me with dread - the thought of being in such close quarters with others while I was sleeping - because I snored.  I didn't just snore - I really really snored - wake the dead with the sound snored.  But I didn't have to worry about that.  I shared a big room with a lot of other people and no one heard a peep out of me. Normally I would have had to lug my CPAP machine with me, make sure I was sleeping next to a power outlet, get it all set up, and wear it at night to ensure that I didn't snore.  NO MORE!
• When I got home from our trip I had an appointment for a stress test.  Doesn't sound like much opportunity for excitement, but I passed with flying colors.  The most impressive thing was that my blood pressure was great.  My diastolic number stayed around 70 the entire time.  My doctor was impressed with how much better I am doing since this time last year.  It felt good.

So as I approach Christmas and my 1 year surgiversary I am anxious to revel in all the changes that 2009 has brought into my life.