I'm back from my blog-cation!

I'm so sorry, faithful blog readers, that I haven't updated in so long. I've received many phone calls and emails asking if anything was wrong because it's been so long. One sweet friend even left me a voicemail saying "if you ended up stopping the diet because of thanksgiving and are now afraid to tell people, it's okay we all still love you." very sweet.

No, I haven't stopped the diet and things are still going great with that. I think it's been 2 or 3 weeks since I updated on my weight loss progress, so i lost track of what I blogged about it, but as of yesterday, which was exactly 4 months to the day, I've lost a grand total of 75.8! I'm still very pleased with my progress. Didn't cheat even one bite over Thanksgiving weekend or at any of the many holiday parties we've been hosting and attending the past two weeks. I'm still going strong with my swimming and going to the gym three times a week and it's all good.

Others have just been asking "what's wrong? Hope you're all okay." I'm pleased to report that nothing is wrong and we're all totally fine. I'm sorry to have worried so many of you and sorry to have disappointed others with no blog posts.

I've actually just been really, really busy - busier than usual, and just haven't found time to update. And, actually, I was hoping to post pictures from Thanksgiving weekend and was waiting to post until I got them downloaded, but since that has happened yet, I figured I'd just do an update. I should've just done it long ago and not waited for the pics.

Thanksgiving weekend was awesome. We had a great time with my family in Scottsdale. The not eating during Thanksgiving dinner and other weekend meals was fine. I just ate plenty of shakes, entrees and bars and felt satisfied. more or less. :) I was able to get all my exercise in, including lots of extra walks with Midnight (who also had a great time on the trip) although I often had to swim at 10 p.m. in the dark! But the pool was right outside the door of our hotel room, so it was fine. We saw a couple of movies (Twilight is awesome), had our annual family poker tournament every day (Jacob won!), read a lot, and had a nice 4 days of unstructured down time, which we all desperately needed.

Since we got back, it's been hectic. All three kids have had lots of school projects and tests to study for. Harrison and Michela are busy with basketball practices and games and Harrison's soccer team is still going strong, now in area playoffs. They won the Mayor's Cup! And they're STILL undefeated, although they did tie last night. It's been something like over 20 games for them! Jacob is busy with dance and it's a relief to have that West Side Story production over with, although it was fun for him.

Our house is all decorated for Hanukkah - I'll post pics of that when I can. Have to take some first. :) We've already hosted our first big party - Marlon's department's annual holiday potluck. I think there were something like 60-70 people here and it was a big success. No parties this weekend, but a ton coming up next week and weekend.

I'm behind, as usual, on getting out our holiday cards (I'm aiming for monday!) and gift buying (which I'm trying to keep minimal this year.) I hope to get a lot accomplished next week with buying for the family we adopt, teacher gifts, getting the kids' stuff organized, etc. They get out of school on friday for three weeks, so I need to get stuff done before that.

I've been really, really, really busy with work stuff the last two weeks. Not just my regular work with patti, which I'm really trying to get a lot of done before the kids' break, but I also had a research project for another client and I had a big meeting with the Asst Dean and Dean of the new UCI law school to prepare for --I'm trying to get involved on the ground floor of the law school seeking a position planning and coordinting student programs and events and other events like open houses for prospective students, community wide lectures, conferences, symposia, etc . It's not a job that was posted or anything, but one that I approached them about. I spent a ton of time researching what the other area law schools have in the way of this and making notes about program ideas, etc. and then put together a very impressive packet of my newly revised C.V. (which took awhile to do - it hadn't been updated in many years), recommendation letters, tons of writing samples from my Kids Konnection (because that makes me more marketable because I can write promotional literature about the events, publicity, etc.) They were impressed and the meeting went very well. They aren't "there" yet in terms of need and funding (the school doesn't open til next year) but I planted the seed and we agreed that we'll have further discussions soon. It would be my dream job, combining my legal experience with what I love to do (planning and programming events) and it would be such a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Who knows, in several years maybe i could work my way up to be Dean of Student Affairs! We discussed possible part time or full time positions or working for them on an independent project basis. We'll see what develops, but we had a great rapport. If it's part time or project work, i can do my other work with Patti too - it'll just make for full-time working, which at some point down the line I'll be ready for. I'm also working on my writing portfolio so that I can seek some additional freelance writing jobs. And I'm trying to figure out how to get those books written.

That's pretty much all that's been going on. So, as you can see, nothing wrong, just really busy with work, normal activities and holiday season stuff.

I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with the kids and Marlon over the holiday break and the plan is to get most of the Bar Mitzvah planning and preparations done this break so that we're ahead of the game. (right now we're a tad behind, but not horribly so.) Harrison's not behind- he's learned his whole Torah portion and is working on his Haftorah.

I will try to post pictures soon. Not tomorrow b/c I have to spend the whole day in traffic school starting at 7 a.m. because I got a ticket for making an illegal turn WHILE talking on my cell phone (against the law now in CA!) "My bad" as they say! I guess the saying is true - "you do the crime, you do the time!"

How are YOU???????? What's up with YOU???????? Feel free to COMMENT about all that. Hint, hint!