Wowie! Maui!

George is a lucky guy.... he got to live in Maui for 4 months last year.

Can you imagine having THIS to see everyday?

I can see why they call in PARADISE.

I am still battling a sore throat. And my weight loss is slow. But at least it is still going down and not going up. I did cheat last night. I know, my bad! I baked cookies and I just ate one without even thinking about it.

David was so ticked off at me. The way he acted you would have thought I drank a bottle of booze or something.

I kept saying, "One cookies isn't gonna kill me."

And he said, "Yeah, but you'll have another, and another, and another...."

Nope. I won't.

Working hard....

As a present to his boss' daughter, George has been working all this week on remodeling her bedroom (for free).

What a great guy! She's a cute girl too. Her name is Danielle. Her older sister's are named August and Shaylee. Their dad is currently building one of the temples. (he's doing the tile)

I'm not sure which one.

24 pounds down!

I've reached the inevitable plateau on my diet. Have only been losing less than a half pound per day the past few days... but FINALLY dipped down this morning and so my grand total so far is 24 pounds.

I have about a week of injections left. I'm going to try to make each one count!!

I am looking so forward to Phase 3. I can eat WHAT I WANT as far as meat and veggies and fruit! I have been craving huge plates full of vegetables! I actually want a nice tossed salad that has lettuce AND cucumber AND tomato AND chicken AND onion, etc....

I'm so excited for this phase and hope that I don't go overboard and eat too much. I am sure as long as I stay within the guidelines I will be fine. No cheating!!

I found some green tea that tastes really good. It's called Yogi Tea, Green tea Slim Life. It's formulated specifically to complement a weight loss program. And it TASTES GOOD! It actually has orange and blueberry in it and I can really taste the blueberry. YUM YUM.

I think I am getting strep throat though. Last night I got hit with a sore throat really bad all of a sudden. I woke up this morning and my throat still hurts, and now both ears hurt too. So I am taking some amoxicillin and drinking warm tea to soothe it. I am feeling better, but I still wish I was home resting.

Hopefully I don't get George sick. He plans to come down tomorrow if he finishes the job he is doing, and also come down Saturday and Sunday.

So my visiting teacher came over last night and I was telling her about George. She was so excited but then she made a comment that was so racist! She said, "Well, I am so glad you finally got involved with somebody that doesn't speak spanish."

I know the look on my face must have been total shock. I jumped up and grabbed the picture of me and George that is on my refrigerator and I said, "Here is a photo of me and MY MEXICAN BOYFRIEND."

She just went "oh." and then promptly jumped up to leave very quickly.

She is so racist. How on earth does she call herself a Christian when she is like that? Grrrr.

Not the best photos

We both look a lot better in person than in these photos.... but they were taken with my crappy camera. David will take some of us tomorrow with his nice camera.

Anyhow..... life is good. Down another pound. WOO HOO.

I still have a ways to go and I will have to repeat this HCG part again in 6 weeks, but by the end of the year... I should be looking real good!

I broke Protocol.... but... it was worth it!

I'm not supposed to have more than one veggie at a meal. But I was CRAVING a hamburger and so I grilled my extra lean ground beef and I also grilled the onions... put it atop a little bit of shredded lettuce and sliced up a tomato to go with it.


OH it hit the spot. And I still lost weight!

I also broke protocol yesterday -- big time.... I ate a pork taco at Costa Vida. I have not had cheese, or tortillas or bbq sauce since last year and I gotta say.... every bite was so heavenly. I was not planning to break my diet and I worried I would weigh a bazillion pounds today, but I walked for like 2 hours after I ate it, and I actually lost a pound!

I'm not going to make it a habit to break protocol. Yesterday was an extenuating circumstance. I was going to order a salad.... but the salads at Costa Vida are HUGE and George was paying for it and I knew I would only eat about 1/4 of it and I didn't want to waste his money, so I ordered the single pork taco which I knew I wouldn't waste. I skipped the beans and rice.

GREAT Sunday!

I decided to drive up to West Haven (about 50 minutes away) and surprise Jorge (George) by showing up at his church today. When I got there, I saw my coworker, Keith, who is Jorge's bishop and also my coworker and ALSO the person who set us up. He walked over to me with a huge grin and asked, "Does Jorge know you're here?" I said "No. It's a surprise." He laughed and said, "He's gonna have a heart attack."

I had sneakily asked Jorge what row he usually sat in, and I put myself in that row. Well, when he came in, he didn't really look at me, he went and sat two rows in front of me. Bishop Barnes caught his attention and started waving his arms wildly from across the chapel, and telling Jorge to turn around! This got everybody looking at us... Jorge turned around and saw me and he was so excited to see me he actually cried. It was so sweet!!! We sat together all through sacrament and it was a really special meeting. We caused a LOT of whispers. LOL. I left after sacrament and I guess everybody (including the young men) were going up to him and asking who I was. The young men thought I was "really cute" and some even said "Yeah, she's hot!" (wow.... that makes me feel great!!!)

So everyone was asking him, "George, is that your girlfriend?" And he told them YES. He asked me to go "steady" with him. It was so cute! LOL.

He is so amazing. His faith is so deep, and his knowledge of scripture is astounding. I have never met anyone so filled with the Holy Ghost. Especially for being a brand new convert to the church. He is just ---- WOW. I can't wait for my kids to meet him because I KNOW they are going to really like him. He has that affect on everybody. He is just very friendly and he says what he thinks, and he receives respect from everybody and it's soooo coool!!!


Great things are going to happen as we get to know each other more and spend more time together. He's such a good guy.

Anyhow..... this was a fun day. I had a great time. I am going to go up there to church again. And he will come down here sometime too.

Awesome.

Can I just gush about Jorge (George) for a second? The guy is just awesome. He's been called into Young Mens and the kids just adore him. Less active ones are getting active again. He is having such a positive effect on everybody in his ward. I certainly understand why. He is a very likeable person.

He loves to shoot pool, bowl, play basketball. He's not a big TV watcher. He reads a LOT. He writes in his journal every day.

He makes me smile. All day long. People at work keep commenting on how happy I appear to be. Partly due to losing 20 pounds, but also because of George. I am thankful to Keith who was definitely inspired to introduce us to each other.

Yee haw!