Our trip to Texas was eventful, stressful, and it was great to see my family. They are all thrilled that I am getting married, and they seem to adore Gordon as much as he adores them!

It was a very busy week, though - we learned of two deaths in the family last week, had one birth, two birthdays, and Christmas. My great aunt Connie passed away (apparently in her sleep) last Thursday night and my dad's cousin's stepson, J., was killed in a car accident on the 12th of December, but most of the family only learned of it last week. God bless them both. My brother and his wife welcomed a baby boy into the world, Dalton William, and he and his mother are both doing fine. My grandmother had her 92nd birthday, and my uncle had his 57th birthday. It was a whirlwind of a week.

Through it all I managed to eat not too terribly, but I did falter considerably. I haven't dared step on the scale since our return, nor have I worked out in days and days. Mostly I'm wiped out. We returned home Christmas Day, went straight to Gordon's family's house for dinner (his aunt made me a spelt apple pie!) and we hung out with them and exchanged presents and visited. At some point during the evening I hit the wall, and Gordon looked at me and realized it was time to take me home. I got to sleep about 11:15 that night, and was out cold for nearly 12 hours.

Yesterday we went to Gordon's mother's for brunch, and we had a lovely brunch, and more presents. His family is very thoughtful and kind, and I felt very much as though I belonged with the family. It was great!

Anne came over yesterday afternoon, and we caught up - we hadn't seen each other in about 2 weeks, so we had dinner and chatted the evening away. I had been craving lamb after all the junk this week, so we had lamb chops, artichokes, and rice for dinner.

I am preparing for some serious detoxing these next few weeks as I readjust back to normal.

I hope everyone's holidays have been wonderful, and that we all have a happy, healthy and prospersous New Year.

I'm so busy I've been forgetting things - things to do, things to buy, things to take with me. I'm temping at a local hotel (right on the beach) and this morning I forgot my keys to the office AND my wallet. Gordon was kind enough to bring them to me late this morning, otherwise I would have had to wait for someone else to come into the department every time.

I'm still recovering from my cold - still coughing and blowing my nose quite a bit, mostly in the mornings. I feel fine, fortunately. I want to be done with the rest of it before we head off to see my family next week.

BTD-wise, I'm getting by on slightly less than my usual level of compliance. In other words, I'm still being compliant whenever possible, but it IS the holidays, and Gordon's mom's homemade apple pie was calling to me, so I ate it. Most of the time I would turn it down or have a small bite or two. Not this time. I ate the whole piece. And it was GOOD.

We've had various holiday parties to attend, and this weekend will be equally booked. Along with the holiday activities, we need to do laundry, pack, prepare the house for our departure, etc. It seemed a lot easier to manage when I only had to deal with ME, but I wouldn't trade back, either!

We're finishing up with Hannukah, and have lit the menorah every night, and I'm learning the prayer that goes along with the menorah lighting. Maybe by next year I'll have it memorized. Still have a few Christmas gifts to buy and wrap, a birthday present for my grandmother (92 next week!) and a birthday present for my uncle whose birthday is Christmas Day. I'm thinking flowers for Gramma and a bottle of wine for my uncle. Haven't decided.....

I'll try to blog again before we leave for Texas, but if I don't get a chance to it will be after Christmas Day.

Happy Holidays!

This time it seems more flu-like, but could still be from the cold last week..... I had chills yesterday morning, and was feeling terrible. My throat is a bit sore, with the discomfort going into my nose and ears. I came home from work early yesterday and stayed home today. I want to get healthy as soon as possible! As soon as I got home yesterday I started taking elderberry, and I'm drinking lots of water and soup and sleeping a LOT. I slept for five hours when I got home yesterday, and then for 11 hours last night.

Gordon went to see a couple of wedding locations yesterday, and is off to see another one right now. We have some great possibilities, and I'll probably go with him this weekend to pick one.

Not much else going on here.

My cold knocked me for a loop for a while, and I am still coughing and drippy, but feel fine. Just past the peak of it, when I was still not feeling great or ready to be functional, I got a call from the temp agency asking if I would take a temporary position earning about 60% of what I was before. Not ideal. I decided to take it, though, and I'm working in the engineering department of a large hotel on the beach here in LA. I can't wait until they hire someone full-time for the position, either - it's dirty, noisy, and when there was suddenly a large BOOM and my boss came running out of his office yelling "Did you hear that? That was the boiler!" and RAN out of the office, I just about picked up my things and left. They do have a free cafeteria for the employees, though, which is good, except that there is very little there that I can eat. Most everything they serve for lunch is beef, which gives me migraines, so forget that. And everything else has wheat or dairy in it, so I'm sticking with the salad bar, which is not great, but keeps me from starving.

Spent most of the weekend flopped out at home not doing much- it was cold and rainy, so it was a good weekend for that. Had a drink Friday evening with a friend of mine, and then Gordon and I went to his mother's to talk wedding stuff. We spent about 5 hours eating dinner and talking with her. She made lamb chops, and they were wonderful! Gordon wasn't too happy about the lamb, though, since he's an A and has generally given up red meat. We were there until after midnight, and crashed when we got home.

Saturday I went and had coffee (soy chai!) with my dear friend SF, and she and I spent a few hours together catching up. We also went to Ann Taylor Loft and shopped a little bit, and we both found some GREAT stuff on sale. Gordon and I spent the rest of the day flopped in front of the TV catching up on some shows and just relaxing. I needed to rest and heal from my cold, and we were both tired.

Sunday we went out for breakfast, and then I went to Anne's and we went holiday shopping. Neither of us had done any shopping yet, and she wasn't in the mood to do it, and I just had no good ideas for people. So we wandered the mall, and I started AND finished my holiday shopping for Gordon! I don't need to do much else, he and I will figure stuff out for his family, and my most of my family stopped exchanging gifts years ago. Anne had a holiday party to get to, so I headed home and picked up a rotisserie chicken, some dairy-free cream of broccoli soup, and some black beans for dinner, and Gordon and I hung out and ate dinner and watched more TV, and I was in bed about 10:45.

I think this week will be fairly relaxing - I have some social things to do, but all fun stuff, so it should be good. And we will probably spend most of next weekend finding a location for the wedding!

Wednesday I got laid off. Not fun. It was only my 7th week, and the company has been changing like quicksand since before I arrived. Apparently they've changed direction yet again, and won't be needing me any longer. Great. And the day before Thanksgiving, to boot.

So Wednesday evening Anne came over to comfort me and hang out, and my headache ended up as a migraine. She stayed with me until Gordon came home, and then they chatted for a bit and made sure I was asleep before she went home. Even though I was in pain, there was a lot of love in the room that night, and it was very cool. After midnight the phone rang, and Gordon picked it up. It was the emergency vet hospital asking if my cat Maggie could donate blood. She's got a rare blood type for a cat, and was typed a couple of weeks ago when there was another cat that needed a transfusion. Maggie couldn't donate for that one, but I told Gordon to call Anne and they could take Maggie in. I knew I couldn't move, but that they would make sure Maggie donated for the other kitty. I heard Gordon call Anne and ask her to come back over here because there was no way that Gordon would be able to get Maggie into the carrier. Then he went downstairs, came back up with the carrier, opened it, and put it on the bed with me and Maggie. And Maggie walked right into the carrier! Even I laughed. Fortunately, Gordon caught Anne just as she was heading out the door to come down here, and they met up at the emergency vet's office instead. Maggie was able to donate blood, and they let her stay there until Thanksgiving morning, when Anne picked her up and brought her back home.

Fortunately, I woke up Thanksgiving morning and felt great! I was able to do the cooking I didn't get to do Wednesday evening, and Gordon and I went over to his mother's for dinner with the family. We had a fabulous dinner, and I ate remarkably well considering it is a day filled with avoids. The only thing that I knew I would eat that I didn't was Gordon's aunt's pumpkin cheesecake, and I took one tiny bit of it and didn't touch it again - we think she used salt instead of sugar or something. Other than that, the dinner was fabulous. I made Ezekial bread stuffing, a spelt crusted chocolate pecan pie, and garlic mashed sweet potatoes. Yum.

Friday we went and looked at some possible wedding locations - so far we are running up against scheduling issues unless we want to start planning the wedding for a year out or for Spring 2006. Not going to happen! So we are still looking. And since I'm not working at the moment, I may have time to check some locations out this week while I jobhunt. Last night we had Gordon's mom and sisters over for dinner, and Anne came over, too. We had leftovers, and sat around and talked and ate and had a really nice, relaxing evening. His family is so terrific! Like all families, I'm sure they have their issues, but they certainly do seem to enjoy each other's company and respect and love each other. It's a wonderful thing to see and be around.

Unfortunately, while the gang was over last night, I found my throat getting scratchier and scratchier, and by the time we went to bed last night, I knew I had a cold. Sore throat, froggy voice, and coughing. Yuck. I FEEL okay, mostly low energy and unless I talk I'm not coughing, just kind of a heavy feeling in my chest. And we've laid around and done nothing but watch TV and read all day. We do have to get up and dressed to go to dinner and a play tonight, but no other committments for the weekend, and I definitely want to go tonight, so I've got my lozenges and plan on having soup for dinner and doing very little talking tonight!