Crazy Week

As you can imagine, it's been a crazy week. I have a lot to catch up on so this will be a long post.
Ian's dad passed away on Easter. I know I haven't said anything further about it here. As you know we knew it was getting close. I will say that we are happy with the WAY it happened - we were all there with him. Ian, me, Ian's mom, his sister & her husband, and Ian's grandma (Neil's mom). He had us all there with him and we know that's what he wanted. For the last two days though he was completely unresponsive so it's not like there was any communication. It was really tough and sad.

Monday we all went to the funeral home for the initial meeting about everything. My friend Kelsi (the funeral director for my mom's funeral) worked her magic and got us transferred to her funeral home at the last minute so we felt so much more comfortable knowing that everything was going to be taken care of and go smoothly.  Monday Ian seemed to be doing okay and fairly at peace with everything, but Tues-Thurs were really hard for him this week.

Tuesday night my BFF Sarah came into town to spend time with us. We both loved having her here. She made Ian laugh a lot which I appreciate so much.

Wednesday morning Sarah went to Curves with me. It was SO fun to have her do the workout with me!! She thought Curves Smart was really cool. I also had two different ladies at different times that day tell me how much change they saw in me in the last month there and that I was looking really good! That was so awesome to hear!!

On Wednesday Sarah and I had also joined my sis-in-law for mani/pedis. I don't have any pics except of my nails:

Wednesday night we all had dinner at Runway Grill which is at a small local airport here. Dinner there is so-so but dessert is AH-MAZING and the view ain't bad either:

This dinner included the whole family plus a couple friends. I was nervous about having dinner with my mother-in-law drinking, but it was actually bordering on pleasant. We had some laughs... the family really enjoyed being together that night. Kinda cool.

On Thursday (yesterday) she went to AquaZumba with me. Class was really awesome and a killer workout. After that, we took Ian and went up to Estes Park so Sarah could see my finished house. The last time she saw it, it was just an empty shell. She totally raved about it and it felt great :) Speaking of the house, I also wanted to share the guestbook entry from last weekend's Easter guests:

I love this job :)

Anyway, back to Estes Park... it was a good time and I think it was really good for Ian. He had been getting really down and withdrawn those couple of days but we had a talk on the way up there and I think he was able to clear his head a bit. By the time we had lunch after seeing the house, he was laughing again and being more himself.

Speaking of lunch. We had lunch at a restaurant called Poppy's in Estes Park. I've eaten there several times and liked it, but had never tried a burger there. I just don't have a lot of taste for burgers anymore (on of my FAVE foods before) because I can't eat the bun (too bulky) and just don't care for it as much without one. Well at this restaurant they offer the choice of a THIN wheat bun (like a sandwich thin) so I went for it! I still only ate the bottom half of the bun but it was delicious and they put SO MUCH bacon on it (well done like I asked!).... it was the first time I've truly ENJOYED a burger since before my surgery almost two years ago:

Sorry to jump around but while we are on the topic of food... our Easter dinner with my family was turkey tacos (before Ian's dad passed). I had taken this pic for the blog and never had a chance to share it:

They were super delicious. A bit untraditional for Easter dinner but we all enjoyed them. My hubby makes his own spice mix for the taco meat and also mixes refried beans in with the meat. Really tasty. The veggie on the side is a steam-in-the-bag southwest veggie mix from Target. It was perfect with it.

Alright so back to Thursday. After we got back from Estes Park Ian was ready for some relaxing. He stayed home to watch a movie & have dinner with my dad while Sarah and I met up with Amber for some crocheting & dinner. We had a nice time at Starbucks. I worked on my blanket:

We all smiled a ton when this awesome old lady came in and she had a crazy rainbow outfit. She looked like a roller derby player too lol.

Isn't she awesome?

After Starbucks we went to Panera Bread for dinner.....

The one in front is mine :) I asked Sarah to take this photo and unbeknownst to me she also took this one of me and Amber talking:

I saw this in my phone today and was just kind of taken aback by how NORMAL I look. Of course this isn't a full body shot but still. Amber is super skinny so just to think I look normal standing there talking to her.... it's amazing how we just don't see ourselves how we truly are. Yes I have a ways to go but seeing this is really encouraging.

Speaking of which. The clothes I shared just two weeks ago that I bought... they are all looser on me now then when I bought them. Like, really noticeably. My weight hasn't really changed at all these two weeks but obviously my shape is changing. YAY muscle. I'm going to do another weigh & measure (and body fat measurement) at Curves this coming week and see what's new.

Today I did Curves again and my body was like OH HELL NO. I mean, I made it through and all but my muscles were WORN OUT. I think AquaZumba still used a LOT of muscle cuz I was sore from it this morning and my muscles didn't get enough rest and just didn't have the oomph for my Curves workout today. I sitll burned 600 calories, but I really had to fight my way through it and it sure showed. All my bar graphs and percentages dropped way off compared to the steady incline I had been experiencing. I'm going to give my body a break til Monday! Maybe just a walk tomorrow if anything.

We went to lunch with my sister in law today at Olive Garden after some shopping at Old Navy. I got two cute jackets which I have really been wanting - found them in the clearance, too!:

 Yes it's really that bright. I don't know how I feel about it yet but it is SO comfortable. I might need to take up the sleeves on the yellow one and then length of the trenchcoat a little bit (yep, I'm shoooort). But they fit great otherwise and I love them. Both XL from Old Navy, btw.

There were beautiful Wisteria flowers blooming just outside the restaurant:

After lunch we came to get Ian and then we met up with the whole family at the funeral home. Had to pick up his dad's ashes today :( Man this stuff is hard. Then we had to take Sarah to the airport to go buhbye :( She has to be in Mexico tomorrow so she couldn't stay any longer. :( happy to report though that Ian is still doing pretty well with how he's feeling right now.

When we got home from the airport we found these waiting for him:

All the way from NEW ZEALAND. Well I'm sure the flowers themselves were from here LOL but our thoughtful friend Raina (a.k.a. mmmarshmallow) in New Zealand sent them to Ian with some encouraging words. SO AMAZING and sweet, especially since he has "friends" HERE who can't manage a text, facebook note, phone call or condolence... but I won't get all worked up about that again right now :-P

He also got this bouquet yesterday from his boss and coworkers! He's been there just FOUR DAYS and these thoughtful people who barely know him all wrote sweet notes in a card for him.

It's just so nice. Okay I am finally caught up for now and I'll report back soon :) Thanks all for your well wishes and just know I am still truckin'!