Which Peanut Character am I?

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Which Peanuts Character are You?
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90 Pounds gone forever!

Here I am January 21, 2006 at 275. I have lost 90 pounds in 4 months. I put on the same clothes I was wearing in the original photo! I look younger to myself. (Is it wishful thinking?) Or I look like a kid playing dress up. What do you think?

Here I am when I started on September 22, 2005 at 365 pounds.

Oh, was I embarassed!

Yesterday, I decided to add swimming to my biking and walking. I swam right after work. I alternated 2 laps of the breast stroke with 2 laps of the side stroke until I had in 18 laps which is 1/2 mile. Then I treaded water for 30 minutes. After supper I did my 2 Mile Walk Diet with my 13 year old son. I held 1 pound weights while doing it. Then I rode my bike for 10 miles.

Today I did everything in reverse order. I got in my biking (10 miles - 40 minutes), my walking (2 miles holding 1 pound weights), and my swimming (1/2 mile doing the breast stroke the entire time. It took 35 minutes.) Then I treaded water for 1 hour.

I did not intend to tread water that long, but while I was swimming my laps in the roped off lap-lane, the rest of the pool filled up with children for a birthday party and when I started treading water I realized that there were 7 adults that I know there supervising the party. None of them were in bathing suits and although I have lost 90 pounds, I still need to lose another 160 pounds, and I REALLY did not want to exit the pool with all of them there watching me.

After treading water for 1 hour, I asked one of them when the party was ending and it wasn't ending for another hour. Well, I could not stay in the water for another hour. I was getting sleepy, I NEEDED TO GO TO THE BATHROOM, and in spite of the heated water I was getting cold. I did not think I could get up that ladder and out of the pool by myself (the day before I had needed the lifeguard's help), but I made it (quite quickly, in point of fact) and I did not die of embarrassment.

In fact, after I showered and dressed and went back to the pool area to mark my 1/2 mile on the pool wallchart, 2 of them said, "Wow, Missy you are looking so great! You have really lost weight!" I told them thanks and that it was Nutrisystem! An unexpected non-scale victory!

Missy
365/275/115

A snowy day

Wednesday, a little after 5 AM the phone rang and the superintendent informed me that we were on a 2-hour delay! Fine by me, I lay my head over on my pillow, flipped the TV on and tuned to a local station. It took another 25 minutes for the words to scroll across the bottom informing me that my sons were also on a 2-hour delay. Then I climbed out of bed and went from room to room spreading the good news. Tim was a little stunned, wondering why, but it accepting it. Then I lay back down and rested for another few minutes, before rising to eat my breakfast. Then deciding I could get in my 10 miles of bike riding before departing. I was almost through when another call informed me that my school was cancelled. I finished up the 10 and felt great relieve. 10 miles of bike riding complete and the day had just begun. I put clothes into wash and check on my e-mail and yahoo groups, kept an eye on the school closing web-site and posted some encouragements. It finally became apparent that the boys would have school and after a few calls to determine how Tim and Dan's finals were affected by the delay, I was able to work on some memory verses.
Then I found myself thinking back to the days of my youth and I wrote, saved, edited and finally printed and framed a free verse poem called "My Grandfather's Rose Garden" that somehow sprang from my head and fingers. It is now hanging in my dining room. I have a desire to share it with my mother, as I feel it will bring back latent memories of her own from that distant place in both space and time. But it seems most appropriate to read it in my home among the curtains, and stage in which I have set it - my own rose garden of fabrics and imagery, with silk flowers and copper butterflys and photos of bygone times. So it hangs there waiting for her to come through the door some day and happen upon it, much as visitors to the garden would happened upon some forgotten blossom hiding beneath a tree.
I spent many hours on Monday typing in entries from my 30 year old diary, but they are still saved as a draft, as I am yet unwilling to share the thoughts and feelings of myself at 19. For some reason the vulnerability I felt at that age is still present when I am reliving that time through the printed word.
A part of me is also drawn toward blogging many of my poems, yet I hesistate for I fear that some of them will be torn from me and I will find them tattered and scattered throughout the world and their meanings twisted and changed. I wait rather impatiently for the day when I will be able to assemble them in a form where I can have them published properly and retain the right to protest their manipulation.
I actually rode my bike for 20 miles yesterday. For while waiting for Joe to return home to do my 2 mile walk with me, I craved more exercise and I rode for another 10 miles. So my bike riding has propelled me further down the rode to some undetermined destination. Perhaps I should seek to travel to that rose garden, though I fear that it will no longer hold the comfort I once found in it. I have comtemplated the idea of beginning a land journey to Caracas, Nicaragua in anticipation of my flight there in June, but am still undecided. One benefit of a journey of the mind is that the destination does not have to be decided when the journey begins!
The phone has once again informed me of a 2-hour delay. So I feel compelled to bring this to a conclusion and retrace my steps of yesterday.
Until I return.....
Missy

Like to Ride

A friend on Nutrisystem asked my how I chose my NS name and as I answered her I realized it would make a good post to my muses so here it is:

I like to ride my exercise bike in my house! My now 13 year old son used to always ask me when I was going to get a real bike! I told him that it is a real bike. A real good bike! If I get tired or thirsty, no matter how far I have ridden I can just get off and sit down or get a glass of water. I don't have to ride back home first.

One year I began riding it in the summer and rode 1000 miles by New Year's Eve. (I left the kids at mom's about 10:30 to go home and get in the last 20 miles before midnight. Then went back over there to watch the ball drop.) I pretended I was meeting some on-line friends at a cafe in Amarillo, Texas. But they dropped out of the race and never answered anymore of my e-mails and I never knew what happened to them. But it was a long time ago!

Then later my boys and I were visiting family on the Texas coast and I got a bad, bad burn at the beach in Surfside Texas that necessitated going to the doctor and being laid up for over a week. I wasn't allowed to drive and I sat around in my brother-in-law's house in my underwear. with a huge hole cut out of the back of my shirts and my nephews and sons couldn't stand to look at my back. I had 6 hard-boiled egg sized blisters on my back and my entire back had 3rd degree burns. My skin sloughed off in one huge piece about 1 and 1/2 feet by 2 feet.

But my brother-in-law's new wife (my sister had died 2 years before this) and I finally got to know each other. I learned humility when I had to call for her help as I was naked in the shower and all my children are boys. She was so kind and understanding and helpful.

When I was finally able to drive back to Ohio with my 3 children we spent the night in Nashville at a friend's house and while loading the car I fell down an outside flight of stairs and broke my tailbone and I couldn't ride for over 2 years.

During that time I put on a lot of weight and by the time my tailbone was healed I was so heavy I couldn't even get on my bike to ride. It was very sad and discouraging. So I chose the name to motivate myself to lose weight so I could ride my exercise bike again.

Now, I can. Which also helps in my weight loss. Now, I usually ride 10 miles a day! My bottom gets to hurting in spite of all the foam padding I have added to the bike seat and I sometimes stop for a few minutes to go use the bathroom or rest, but I actually enjoy the feeling of accomplishing something.

I am in an exercise challenge of 1000 miles with some on-line NS buddies again. And it is motivational. I think I need to think of somewhere to ride to again and put a map on the wall. That really makes it fun for me!

Missy
365/275/115

With a song and skip!

I chose to sleep in a little again this morning, then grabbed my breakfast and lunch from the fridge, hopped in the van, and made it to work in time to pick up my first group on time. Since it takes me about an hour to get to work, I had plenty of time to talk to God and drink 1 and 1/2 bottles of water (3 cups) and eat my breakfast and work on some of the scriptures I'm trying to memorize in Spanish, then call my mom and dad and tell them all about yesterday! I make the most of my driving time!

No subbing, but no down time either. One little first grade girl I work with was having a hard time today, so any time I didn't have anyone else, I let her come and sit and work in my room. She needed to tap and bang and whistle while she worked (lots of whistling, very little working) and get on the floor and I kept trying to figure out what was wrong. I still don't really know, but I finally just started singing whatever song popped into my head as I did my work and it calmed her. She stayed in my room until the other first graders were getting on the bus, then we went to her room and her classroom teacher helped her get her things together to go home on the bus. I was wondering if I had helped her at all (I know I was helping the teacher, because the other students couldn't get things done with her in the room), when she turned and said, "I really liked that song you were singing!" I told her "Thank you! I'll see you tomorrow!" and she skipped away down the hall. As I've said before "God moves in mysterious ways!"

I did not stay after school today. I came home for my snack and my 2 Mile Walk Diet, then my NS supper and my 10 miles of bike riding! Spent some time talking to my boys. They are now all in bed. I've had my 8+ glasses of water and I've been 100% on my food. I'm going to dunk my Chocolate Chip biscotti into a cup of hot Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea, savor my teaspoon of peanut butter, then brush my teeth, talk to God and go to bed!

Hope anyone reading this has had a great day!
Missy PS - Down another pound!
365/281/115

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step

1-4-06 What a day! I had intended to ride again at 5 AM, but I ended up spending time on the phone late at night encouraging and being encouraged by a fellow NS member. She has been discouraged lately, but has begun a new start and our conversation was so upbeat. When I got off the phone, I still had to get my meals packed for today and I didn't get in bed again until after midnight. When the alarm went off at 5 AM, I got up, took my morning meds, then started to go to my bike and thought, it would probably be wiser to reset the alarm and get some more sleep, so I did. It was the best decision! When I got up at 6 AM, I showered grabbed my food and things, talked briefly to my 2 older sons, and went to work. At 9:10, I got a call from the secretary saying she needed me to cover a kindergarten class for a teacher, B----a, who needed to leave. I told her I had a group of students and wanted to know when. She said the teacher wasn't feeling well and had requested she find her a sub. I said I could send my students back to their regular classes, but she asked when my group would end. I told her 20 minutes. She told me to finish the group then cover B---a's class. So I did. Then a sub, B----e, showed up and took over kindergarten, so I went and got more of my own students. When lunchtime rolled around, I was working on some paperwork, but I thought, "I better stop and eat my lunch." I eat with two teachers who teach next to me. We were in D----e's room, when her phone rang. The secretary was looking for me to cover A---e's 2nd grade class after lunch recess when A---e would be leaving for a meeting, as they had pulled her planned sub to teach B---a's. I said, "Well, I would rather do 2nd grade than kindergarten since I know the 2nd grade students." So before they came in from recess, I went down to check out the lesson plans. Her room is a long way down the hall from mine and in the opposite direction to the bathroom. Then I went to the 1st grade rooms I would be missing in the afternoon to let the teachers know. I had all my students turn in their folders, so if I had any spare time, I could check in their books, read comments from parents, put smilies and stickers on the ones who had their homework done, and check them out a different book. I dropped all the folders off at my room and walked the long hall to the recess door and bathrooms to supervise and pick up A---e's class. Then I walked them to her classroom (back down the long, long hall). As soon as we were in the door and had coats hung up, I had them get their math workbooks and supply boxes out and line up at the door. (The 3 second grades trade students for math, science, and social studies.) I then walked my group down the long hallway to C-------e's room, then picked up K----a's group for my room (well actually A---e's room). I taught Social Studies to that group on my feet the entire time with the only interruptions of any note being, M---s lost a tooth and I hunted everywhere for a small ziplock bag and never found one so I taped it to an apple-shaped notepad and another student's Social Studies notebook coming complete apart which I did put back together by having two students go down to my classroom and get my book binder. We just barely got the assignments finished when it was time to change groups. So I gathered this bunch together (we only had 2 supply boxes spill all over the floor as we started out the door and we had to pick them up) and headed to C-------es's room, then picked up C-------e's group from K----a's room and took them to my room (well actually A---e's room). I taught Social Studies to that group on my feet the entire time with the only interruption of any note being R----r's beaded necklace coming apart and him wanting it put back together which I did not do (I told him to put it in his box) and A----r suddenly standing up and announcing that she had to go and get ready to leave as her mom was taking her to a doctor's appointment and it was time to go and the students saying that she had to wait for the office to call for her (which they did within 1 minute of her announcement). We got our assignments done except for 2 students who did not have a Social Studies workbook as they had left them at home when it was time to change groups. So I gathered this bunch together only I made sure all the supply boxes were securely closed before they were allowed to line up. Then A---e's original class returned and I had to get them ready with their art supply boxes making sure all the supply boxes were securely closed before leaving the room and walked them down the long, long hallway past the restrooms, past the office, down another long hallway through the middle school, around another corner into the junior high part of the building to the art teacher S-------e's room, losing 4 girls along the way who had stopped off at the bathroom. They showed up momentarily informing me that their teacher was "back", so I told S-------e I guess A---e will be picking them up then and I can get back to my own students. But on my way around the corner, down the long hallway through the middle school, as I started past the office I saw A---e and she told me her meeting was not over they had just taken a quick bathroom break, but she thought she would get done with the meeting about 30 minutes before school let out. So I went past my classroom and part way down the long, long hallway to one of the 1st grade rooms and picked up the only Reading Recovery student I hadn't gotten in the morning and did a shortened 1-1 lesson with him. Then took him back just in time to walk back part way down the long, long hallway past the restrooms, past the office, down another long hallway through the middle school, around another corner into the junior high part of the building to the art teacher S-------e's room just in time to pick up A---e's class. Again I carefully made sure all the supply boxes were securely closed before leaving the room and making my way with the class around the corner, down the long hallway through the middle school, past the office, past the restrooms, past my classroom and down the long, long hallway to A---e's room where we all got out our Social Studies workbook, turned to page 17 and ... A---e came back! Hurray! I quickly told her a brief synopsis of what we had done and scurried off to my own classroom to check in their books, read comments from parents, put smilies and stickers on the ones who had their homework done, and check them out a different book. They were lined up in the hallway by the time I had the folders, but I got them all handed out as they were walking out! Hurray! Then I went back into my room to get ready for tomorrow. Who should come by, but 4 teachers who were walking the hallways for exercise because "Missy, you have inspired us all to get in better shape! Come and walk with us!" So I decided to walk with them for the 1st time ever! We were walking and walking and walking and I told them I couldn't keep up with them. They are all taller than I am and I was walking as fast as I could. I'm 5'1" tall. We walked part way down the long, long hallway past the restrooms, past the office, down another long, long hallway around a corner, down a long hallway through the high school, around a corner down another long, long hallway through the junior high school, around another corner, down a long hallway through the middle school, around a corner, past the office, past the restrooms, past my classroom and down the long, long, long hallway past A---e's room, past the 3rd grade rooms, past the 4th grade rooms to the double class doors that lead out to the farm and the river. We touched the doors and then did it all over again. And then we did it all over AGAIN! And then we did it all over AGAIN! EXCEPT before I went past my door that time to head down the long, long, long hallway to the farm, I said "I've got to drop out! My toes on my right foot are numb and I can't walk any more." I know I got my exercise in today, but I didn't do any of my bike riding and I didn't do any of my 2 Mile Walk Diet! I was 100% on my food and 100% on my water and I am tired. A single step... Just start with that single step... You never know how far you will go!
Missy

30 years ago today I was....

I could not get to sleep last night and I knew that I had to get up and get back to work today! 11 days off was great, but it can't go on indefinitely. I kept getting up to do one more thing. I got up to look for something and instead found a diary that I started keeping on January 1, 1976. That was 30 YEARS AGO! I started reading it. I had entries on and off through the end of 1983. It still has room for a couple of more years of journaling, so I might pick it back up again.
I still was able to get up at 5:00 and ride my bike ten more miles before I took my shower and headed off to work. Sure was tired at work though!
Missy

Exercising My Way to Good Health

I woke up this morning full of vim and vigor. I rode my stationary bike for 10 miles which took me 40 minutes. Then I waited 1 hour and did Leslie Sansone's Two Mile Walk Diet which took me 30 minutes. I felt able to do much more exercise, but I am afraid that if I overdo it, I will be unable to exercise tomorrow. I would like to ride 2 more miles before I go to bed today, so that my bike's odometer will be at a multiple of 10. Then I'm planning to ride 10 miles each day and do the 2 Mile Walk Diet each day. This should get me in the kind of shape I want to be in as I continue to lose weight. I have been 100% on my food and 100% on my water so far. I have already got my breakfast and lunch packed for tomorrow as I have to go back to work. I am kind of excited about returning as I am down another 4 pounds from when I was last there! Hope you are all doing well.
Missy
365/282/262FFG/115
9 PM update - Biked that other 2 miles! Yay!

I was able to use Sign Language

1-1-06 God moves in mysterious ways! I took a sign language class when I was 15 or 16 from a man named Ford Jenkins. He came to our church building from a neighboring town one night a week and taught a 2 hour class. I had already learned the manual alphabet from a biography on the life of Helen Keller and I was fascinated with it. I don't remember how many weeks or months the class lasted, but I worked hard at it. I even got a book on signing. Then when I was an undergraduate college student 1974-1978, I got to be friends with a girl named Terri who was deaf. I got to practice some with her, but she was an accomplished lipreader and had learned to talk, so she only used sign language to humor me on rare occasions. From 1980-1986 I lived in St. Louis, Missouri and there was a deaf group that attended our church. We had a full-time minister for the deaf and several translators. I really brushed up on my sign language and learned to sing some hymns in sign. I would "talk" with the deaf Christians and tried to speed up my fingerspelling as well as learning more signs. I got another couple of signing books and practiced often. In 1986, I moved to Fairborn, OH and didn't do much more with sign language until my youngest sister, Rachel, became gravely ill and her two little boys came to live with me. Rachel had minored in American Sign Language in college and she interpreted for the deaf in Tennessee and then in Texas. She had been talking to her boys in both English and ASL from the time they were born and didn't want them to lose it, so for the 2 and 1/2 years they lived with me I worked at it again. I signed most of the time whenever we were singing a hymn that I knew most of the signs for, and they would sign, too. My sister died and when her husband re-married the boys went to live with them. I continued to sign in worship during most of the hymns and encouraged my own 3 boys to learn ASL and sing and sign with me. I even taught a very short class in my home for anyone wanting to learn to sing hymns in ASL, but only one other person besides my own sons came and she eventually stopped coming.Then I became ill and it required too much energy to keep my arms up and sign during worship, so gradually I quit doing it altogether. Well, today, just as evening worship began, one of the elders came up to where I was sitting and said "Missy, could you come back and sign the services. We have 2 deaf visitors." I felt like Moses at the burning bush and I stammered "I don't think I know enough! I'm really very slow." He told me, "You're the best we've got! Please try!" I hesistantly agreed and gathered up my things and went to where they were sitting, praying all the while! As I approached their bench I signed "I know very little!" As the service continued I found myself signing all the hymns and the prayers and the sermon and the communion service and the announcements and realizing that God was right there with me and in me helping me to remember the signs and the alphabet and thinking of alternative words. Plus during the sermon the man would give me the sign for things I fingerspelled, so that as the sermon progressed I could use the new signs I was learning and not fingerspell the same words over and over. After worship service, I met the man and his wife and learned about their hearing children who were at their grandparents' house for a visit. I introduced them to my children and my parents and lots of people in the church. It turned out that they had known the man who taught me to sign all those years ago. (He died a few years back.) They thanked me for all my help. I told them to please come back any time. They live in the neighboring town that Ford Jenkins was from. I am so thankful to God for His help today! I am so thankful that I had signed those hymns with my nephews and sons, so that someone knew that I knew some sign language. I am determined to get back to my studies, so I can be prepared. Maybe there will be some deaf people in Nicaragua. I will need to know signs and not just fingerspelling there! Since I have lost 83 pounds, I now have the energy to be signing again! What a wonderful day!
Missy