Eight Months Out

Friday night, I stayed up wicked late hosting my monthly online crochet-a-thon, so I was exhausted come Saturday morning. We had another early day, this time for Sophie's soccer game first. Chloë's wasn't until after noon.

Saturday was my 8-month surgiversary, so I weighed in - 127 lbs gone forever! And a lot of people have been commenting on it lately. At Chloë's math LD meeting at school last week, Mrs. P., the assistant principal, stopped me and said, "You look GREAT! Really GREAT!" I thanked her, and she said she hoped it was a planned thing and not that I was really sick or something. I told her about the surgery, and she asked me whether I was recovering well and all that. But it made up for no one saying anything at the back-to-school picnic!

That same day, I came home and my neighbor, Mr. C. told me that I must have lost a lot of weight. Again, I told him about the surgery, and he said, "Well, it looks really good on you!" And today, our neighbor on the other side, Ms. P., said, "You're doing great with your weight loss, it looks really great!" 

Oh, and last night at work, I ran into K, who used to work at the Farm Fresh around the corner from us. She was my buddy; I always went through her check-out line. But it's been so long since I've seen her, that I didn't quite remember where I knew her. Finally, she came up to me and asked if I was the FF customer who used to carry a ton of canvas bags and always had a lot of coupons. I laughed and assured her it was me. She said, "Wow, you've lost so much weight, I almost didn't recognize you! You look amazing!"

So yeah, 8 months out, and I'm doing fine. I can deal with all these nice compliments I'm getting lately! My goal now is to be below the 200-lb mark by my one-year surgiversary. That's only 14 lbs away, which is 3.5 lbs a month. I think I can do it! To get there, I'm amping up the protein intake and drinking as many shakes as I can stand. Working is going to interfere with that - I basically don't eat anything on my breaks, because... oh wait, I just remembered there is a fridge in the break room. Duh. I'll have to bring a shake to work for my breaks from now on. 

********

Anyway, back to Sophia's game: We had super-low expectations, based on last weekend's lack of play. Basically, we wanted her to go to the game and at least cheer her team-mates on from the sidelines. But then she said she wanted to go out and play, holding Daddy's hand. No sooner did they get on the field, than she changed her mind and balked. Rob refused to carry her around, so I carried her out to mid-field and plopped down with her. I tried again to get her to agree to run around holding Rob's hand, but this is what she did:

She hid under the watercooler chair for I-don't-know-how-long, until I gave up and just sat next to her, cheering on her teammates. She eventually came out and joined me, and then, surprising me, decided to go out and run with her Dad. I waved Rob over, and they went out and kicked the ball a few times with the team. Go, Sophie!

Mostly, she stayed on the sidelines with me, while her Coach (up there with the yellow shirts) tried to encourage her to play. Then, a second time, she agreed to run out there with her dad! Again, they only stayed for a few minutes, but she got a kick or two in and made us proud. Finally, in the last quarter of the game, she went out by herself without telling me she was going and stole the ball. She ran and ran with it toward the goal and very nearly made a goal, but missed. We were all shocked - Coach, Dad, and me! As Coach said, "I didn't know she had it in her!" Well, we did, but not during a game. Way to go, Soph!

During the game, while I was sitting mid-field (not in the way, the field halves are separated), I would talk to the other girls who were taking a break from play. One girl, Athena, told me all about her doggy who just went to heaven. Poor thing. And another girl, Alyssa, came sobbing into my arms to be held. I asked her if she was hurt, and she said, "No, my daddy says I have to do it right, but I just can't!" My heart broke for her. Hello, these girls are FOUR. It's about having fun, not excelling at soccer. I'd sure hate to hear that conversation on the way home, in the car. :(

Of course, Sophie's favorite part of the game is when it's over, and they get an awesome snack. Here, Coach J is telling all the girls (and their parents, since the kids aren't listening) what a great job they all did. I like him. I like both girls' coaches, actually. They really seem to care a lot about the girls' feelings as well as teaching them about the game. Unlike Jack's coach when he started at 4yo, who was a total dickwad!

After the game, we rushed home to get some lunch and have Jack get ready to sell popcorn again. He is getting so sick of it! He and Dad went off to their show-and-sell, where apparently he snapped back to life and did a really great job. They made a ton of money at that sale. Someone even bought Jack a $20 can of popcorn! Of course, that made his day. They worked the sale with a really nice father-and-son team, and the two hours went fast.

Meanwhile, we went back to the soccer field for Chloë's game. The prior game went way overtime, so the girls warmed up in a nearby area of the field for a while. I encouraged the hell out of my kid and even told her I'd give her, oh, I forget, maybe $10-15 Dad Dollars if she made a goal! In the end, I don't think I should have done that, because for her, it ended up being all about making a goal. She is very unsure, not confident, and intimidated by the other girls on her team - many of whom are practically twice her size - so she basically walked around through the whole game and did nothing. Sometimes she ran, especially when she caught my eye and I waved her on, but mostly she walked around, playing with her curls.

I could tell that she was just too afraid to get into the mix and try to get at that ball. So she hung back, afraid to get hurt or trampled, and did nothing. After the game, she came up to me, sobbing about not getting to make a goal. I hugged her tightly and, darn it, started crying myself.  I told her how proud I was of her just getting out there and running with her team, and that I knew how she felt. We went over and talked to Coach M, who hugged her and told her that she did a great job, showed some real hustle, and that he would put her in whatever position she wanted to try. She chose the middle, so I guess he'll put her their at the next practice. But he was very sweet and soft, and he encouraged her and made her - and me - feel better. I like the guy, gosh darn it.

Oh, and since there are only 7 teams, the Purple Dolphins didn't have another team to play against this week, so they split in half and played themselves. No win, no loss.

Here's where Sophie spent much of Chloë's game! She was cold and tired, so she huddled up in one of Rob's camp chairs. It was pretty cute. When she wasn't doing that, she ran around with our soccer ball and the other tag-along siblings, or catching bugs, or visiting the other parents and telling them her short life story. She's a charmer, that one!

We pretty much finished the game at the same time the boys finished the popcorn sale, so I wanted them to meet us at the S***c where I had a mystery shop. They never made it and went home instead, so the girls got to eat the lunch themselves. We missed church that night, because Rob was working on his truck. I don't know what's going on with his truck and his motorcycle - every other day, one of them has a dead battery and needs to be jumped. It's driving me nuts. But he doesn't think the batteries are the problem, so... I dunno. Whatever!

I took a nap and then did another S***c shop at night, by myself this time, since Rob had cooked a frozen pizza for the kids. That was Saturday.

Sunday, I worked 12-8. I gave Rob a honey-do list of things to work on while I was gone, and he basically got very little of it done. But never mind about that. At work, I spent the entire 8 hours on the computer, doing my cashier training. It was, eh, a little interesting, but mostly old hat, since I've worked so many years in grocery, already. The only things that really piqued my interest were the differences, like how to take the different tender forms. I'll have to unlearn my old ways as I'm learning the HT way to do things. And I was given a store tour with R., a teenager who is also starting as a cashier. Nice kid. I'll probably never see him, though, except on Sundays.

Today, I worked while the kids were in school. It kind of sucked! First, I had three more training sessions to do, but because I couldn't find where they were on the computer and decided to do the tests anyway, I failed them. Hehe. (It was non-intuitive stuff that I could never have guessed.) So I was locked out of re-taking them until tomorrow.

Then, because my trainer wasn't there, no one knew what to do with me. The other cashiers on duty were all pretty new themselves, since the store just recently opened, so they didn't want them to teach me. So I had to bag groceries all day. Boring! They told me it was good to get the practice, which is when I informed them that I actually have a lot of experience bagging and cashiering (and didn't say that I'm a better bagger than any other 10 actual baggers they have hired, thank-you-very-much)! That surprised them. And it's little wonder they didn't want the cashiers training me: I caught multiple mistakes and could have taught them a thing or to!

But lest you think I'm getting too cocky, I'll admit I made a couple major blunders myself: Not once, but twice, I forgot to give the customer a bag of their groceries! When that happens to me, and I get home and discover I'm missing something, I'm pissed! So, of course, I was very apologetic and felt shamed. I'm just not used to having four bag racks set up at once, and it's easy to miss the bags in the back. Something to work on, at least.

I carried out a few orders, and one lady insisted I take a tip. I kept telling her, "I can't, I really can't!" but finally, she just threw the dollar at me and said, "Oh, yes you can, the last guy did!" and walked away. Hee. I went in and reported it, and they told me just to say "thank you" and put it in my pocket when that happens. I am all about the honesty and rule-following, though. Something of a stickler!

After the kids got home and snacked, we went back to my store to get some groceries. I hadn't paid attention to the ads for this week, but there were some really great deals. For the most part, they behaved well - and I may have bribed them to do so with the free balloons and cookies HT offers the kids. Hey, whatever works, sometimes.

Rob was home before us, and I was really sore and tired by then. He gave me a lovely foot rub and then let me take a nap. Ahhh, what a nice boy. I can forgive him for not mowing the lawn, then. ;) The menfolk went out to Jack's den meeting for Cub Scouts (or is it a pack meeting? I don't know), Sophia colored half a coloring book all night, and Chloë and I worked on her homework and studying for tomorrow's Social Studies test. She knows the material pretty well, so I'm expecting good things. We'll study a little more in the morning.

And one more thing: I got my new camera in the mail today. I didn't pay a lot for it - less than it would have cost to fix the old one - and I'm happy with it. It will definitely do the job for now. I haven't figured out how to charge and upload it, but I've got a few pictures from tonight to show.

Maybe later. Hope you have a good week!

Fin.

Comments

[Smellyann]

Yeah, she was amusing!

~m 

[Smellyann]

Same here!! ;)

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I never played sports as a kid, so that would've been me hiding under the chair. ;-)

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[Nadine]

I never played sports as a kid, so that would've been me hiding under the chair. ;-)

[darci]

The tip lady sounds funny :)

[Nicole P.]

I cashiered at Wallyworld for a while, back in the day. Yep, I remember the tired feet.

And yay for the new camera!! I'm sure that feels good. :)