NOT 44's! (261 lbs)

Wow, I was hoping that a weekend without the twins, and without a softball game would be slow and relaxing. Boy was I wrong.

I leave work at 4 on Friday, and start to head home, calling Nancy on the way. She has not left her friend Rebecca's yet, she has all the kids, and we need to get the boys ready for their camping trip.

So I get home and pack them with tent, sleeping bags, lantern, clothes, tarp, etc....Nancy picks up food for Walt (gluten free), and comes home but doesn't have Frances or Rut. Where are they? back at Rebecca's! She left them there to play!

Well she has a dinner with people at 5:30, and going to Rebecca's is an hour round trip. There goes a relaxing early evening - I was hoping to go out to eat with Nancy and the younger kids, or at least the younger kids, once I found out Nancy was going out. Now it looks like I have to go get them and we won't be back till close to Rut's bedtime. Sigh.

But it gets worse! We drop off the boys, and I head out to Rebecca's house. Nancy calls me and tells me "we'll" be cooking for Rebecca and her family on Saturday. Read this - I will cook for them. Nancy makes soup from a can, and often burns that. So, I now have to shop for a dinner party.

And worse. I show up at Rebecca's and she asks me - before even saying hi - "How's your back?" So, I knew I would be moving crap in her house all night. And I was. They have a huge German storage/presentation unit called a Schrank (sp?) it takes up a whole wall, and is composed of 9 separate pieces. So, the move involved disassembly, move, and reassembly. I did make it know that dinner would have to be provided somehow, because it was now 6:30 and I was getting way hungry.

So we did get to eat - Chinese takeout, which was very good. And then it was home and to bed.

I get up on Saturday and life is not too bad - making breakfast, cleaning up a little for the impending dinner party, etc. I do get a little surprise as I am thawing steaks - a brisket we had gotten when we split a cow with someone - was in the fridge thawing. "What's going on?" I ask. Nancy replies "I told Walt we could thaw it and eat it." We had a conversation specifically on the brisket - we were supposed to share it with the people we split the cow with, so now I had to call them and invite them to dinner on SUNDAY. AHHHH! I am seeing the relaxing weekend just flying away from me.

Then we go to counseling. It was good. I really like our counselor. I am not sure if she can save us, but she's at least listening and not making any judgements on either of us. Yet.

And we go shopping, first for lunch (salad bar at Martins - yummy), then for groceries (also at Martins). I am planning this dinner party for 8 - 4 adults, 4 kids. We get foods we think everyone will enjoy, including ingredients for a Quinoa salad, which I have never made, but I go ahead and get it going.

So we come home - I begin cleaning/cooking to make sure all is done by the party, which is supposed to start about 5. It's about 3 now.

About 4:30, Rebecca calls and says "David (her 5 year old) is sleeping and we don't want to wake him up as he is feeling under the weather and foul" - ok so we will have a foul 5 year old in our house. Neat. But we have dealt with grouchy 5 year olds before. We are not scared.

However - here is where things get scary - she mentions, nonchalantly - "Oh, did Erica (or Emily or whateverher name is) call you about coming tonight?" WTF? "Nancy?" I ask..."Who is this other person and why didn't you tell me you invited them too?" To which I was somehow in the wrong. I got yelled at while I am still on the phone with rebecca who assures me that if we hadn't heard, they won't be coming .

15 minutes later, I get a call from this other person. "We're coming" she says. 15 minutes until party planned start - we have the planned on people still at their home (30 mins away remember) and 4 more people now coming. I have food planned for 8. now we have 50% more people. Nice.

I rush out to the freezer and find two more rib eyes and ground beef to express thaw in the microwave. Microwave thawing is the worst kind, as the meat never tastes just right - plus the other steaks had been marinating all day and these would, well, not be.

We had 8 baked potato halves prepared. 12 people. Loaves and Fishes, Loaves and Fishes....I cut them into thirds...they were now appetizers. I added more to the fruit salad and green salad. The quinoa salad would have to do.

So people show up finally. Dinner goes pretty well - one steak was a mess of gristle, but I had made a backup sirloin, which while not cooked to the desired rarity of the guest's palate, it was ok. She ate it just fine.

Nancy did come through with some brownies and we put ice cream on them. But now it was close to 9, kids were breaking down, and I had had enough of the day, so I went from gentle hints to things closer to "it's time for you guys to leave. now." I put Rut in his pajamas, even, while people were still there. I was getting ready to take him up to bed when the last people left.

So, off to bed, then I have to get up early on Sunday, because I play in the church praise band. I had a lot of trouble sleeping. My wife is avoiding the children's minister because the minister has asked her to volunteer. She has said no, but this woman keeps asking. So I don't even know if Nancy is going to show up. I like the kids to come to church when I am playing, so they get an understanding of what it means to volunteer one's time. Nancy does show, and church goes ok. But I have to ferry Nancy from church to sunday school so she isn't met alone by the children's minister. My wife is 38, not 8. Just a reminder. And she's afraid of the children's minister.

So then we have to go pick up the boys from camping - the drop off is down at the community gym. They are soaked and dirty from a weekend of night thunderstorms in a leaky tent (we threw it out - they will need a new one for their next trip. It was 15 years old and had been taped and seam sealed so many times - it's time for another tent.

It turns out that not all the gear made it to the drop off point. Some of it is at someone's house. So we go to get it, and take the kayak over to the community storage t-racks, and I am given the oars. I bring them home, and find out the fish tank is low on water, so I have to go to the fish store. Fine. I go to the fish store. I go to Martins again, to gear up for the next dinner party of the weekend. I have to get ingredients for this brisket marinade, and more food.

I come home, and it's almost time to get frances from choir. So I bring in the groceries and pick her up. they are 20 mins late. I come back home, and start to work on dinner.

I have a release meeting from 4-6. It's basically just all hands on deck, ready to support if something goes wrong during deployment. So, it means I am home bound. I warn Nancy of this, but she decides to go out at 4 anyway to go drop off things at goodwill. I am busy cooking and I don't notice, but it gets to be 5:15 and while I told her she would have to take the boys to youth group at 5, since I was already doing two things - making dinner and checking in on the release.

She had forgotten obviously, and went to costco instead. So she comes and gets them, late, to youth group.

The guests for this dinner party show up at 6, and the dinner goes off very well. I was really happy with the way this one turned out - the brisket could have stood to be a little more tender, but other than that - the company was good and the meal was a success.

And, to top it off, after a weekend of red meat, chinese food, ice cream and brownies, I had not gained any weight!

Even a better topper to the weekend happened this morning. I go to look in my drawer and poof - no business pants. I have never been a husband to expect Nancy to wash my clothes and have them ready for me, which is what my mom always did for my dad. Even though Nancy does not work outside the home, I don't necessarily think it's her job alone to wash clothes for 6 people. Nevertheless, it was frustrating to see no dress business clothes. I am in a panic because Mondays are tight - I have an early meeting every Monday. So, in a hopeful moment, I reach for a pair of pants that Nancy has hung up on the far side of the closet - ones she never thinks I will fit in again. I grab a pair of blue cotton pants, and omg - they fit! they fit! They're a tad tight, but not so much that I can't breathe or my boys down below are in any danger. This is awesome! I am so proud of myself. Being stuck in a plateau is frustrating, and after this weekend of eat eat eat, I thought it would be hard to get back on track, but when I fit in these pants, I was given a new hope in this weight loss journey. I wanted to go right to the gym (impossible with today's schedule, but I still wanted to), and to macy's or the gap to get a whole new wardrobe.

Don't get me wrong - these are 40's or 42's, but they're NOT 44's! NOT 44's!

NOT 44's!