Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Confirmation and last pictures of "before Kate"

Confirmation Class
Presenting the Candidates

Fr. Coyle during the Homily
Connor
Sam
The weekend was crazy yet wonderful! We had my nephew all weekend, which was a blast! It was a lot of fun to hang out with him and play all weekend with him and Gram and Pa! Sunday was full of lots of joy! It was Confirmation at St. John's - by far a highlight of my 4 years there so far! Fr. Coyle, the new Episcopal Vicar of the Merrimack Valley, was the Celebrant - and he was GREAT! This years Confirmation class is just outstanding. 3/4 of them are involved in some way in the parish, whether a Liturgical Minister, a Peer Minister, or an active participant in Youth Ministry happenings. It was a bitter sweet day for me, I was so happy and excited for each of the 48 teens being Confirmed (very small class this year - and only 12 of them are girls - rest are boys!!) but I was also sad because I don't have set days and times that I am guaranteed to see each of them again. I know most will stay active and involved - which makes me happy too!
The diet is going well... not so hungry anymore... which is a good thing. I am however VERY tired of Salad... I was very excited for a hot cooked meal on Friday night and Saturday night at home. Dad made me chicken on Friday night with steamed broccoli and carrots, and on Saturday he made a pork loin roast with steamed broccoli and carrots! I LOVED them both - it was a great change from salad! Salad is just easier when I am at work - no cooking involved!
I have been occasionally have VERY red, itchy, hot cheeks over the last 10 days or so. That is how I typically react when I am having a mild allergy to something I have eaten. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what, of the little I am eating, is causing a reaction. The shakes are Gluten free, water - nope, banana's - nope, apples - nope, pineapples - nope, hhmmm - what could it be?? It dawned on me last night as I again had hot, itchy, red cheeks, that I had a strawberry protein shake in the afternoon.... and the dummy that I am - I have a Red Dye 40 allergy and well those shakes have red dye 40 in them! Mystery solved - but a bummer - cause the strawberry ones are quite tasty!! Oh well I will survive!
On other fronts, I had my yearly physical with my Primary Care Physician on Monday. I think she might be more excited than I am about the surgery. The other crazy thing is I lost another 7.3 pounds since last Thursday!!! Which is a total of 21 pounds since late August. Mind boggling... I really beginning to think the scales are off! I got my flu shot as well. Dr. Taylor said that in her experience her patients that have had Gastric Bypass usually have some complications that has them in and out of the hospital a couple times after surgery (what?? Dr. Lautz didn't say anything like that??!!! - I am praying she is wrong!) I am looking forward to my cholesterol levels dropping, my thyroid regulating, and seeing the numbers dropping!
I did wake up on Monday morning and realized I could go back to sleep for another hour or so before I had to get up for work! As I was laying in bed trying to go back to sleep it dawned on me that exactly a week from this time I would be in the hospital already getting ready for the surgery.... then the nerves REALLY set in. Once I did fall asleep - I had some of the most wacked out dreams I've had in a long time! Dreams of waking up during surgery, the doctor leaving surgical instruments in my stomach, having a creepy room-mate post surgery... really all of my worst nightmares coming true! The funny and wacky part of it all was that the people in my dreams were friends... Jamie Cappetta (a youth ministry friend) - my surgeon; Brian Reinhart (my CHWC Camp Director) was the creepy room-mate - who I might add had a bar tongue ring horizontally across the tip of his tongue!, Margo (youth ministry friend) was a nurse in the OR, some of my teens from St. John's where walking in the hallways as nurses and doctors... really it was just creepy! lol! I hope that this is just a reassurance that everything is NOT going to go like I dream - since really - dreams don't really come true too often!!

1 comment:

margmor said...

Aw, when I was a kid I wanted to be a nurse, briefly, because they wore those cool hats back then... good thing I didn't pursue it cause they don't even wear them anymore. But anyway, now that you've dreamt your fears maybe it'll be easier to let them go, maybe it's God's way of saying you don't have to be afraid because your friends are all around you, even if they have weird piercings and such.