So a few of you have emailed asking how the First Place thing is going. I assume when you ask you really mean, 'Are you losing any weight?'

To which I am proud to reply YES! To what extent? Let's just say thank the Lord I am able to dry my blue jeans again.

Tomorrow will be our 4th meeting and it is none to soon. The four week mark is typically the point in any diet in which I will completely blow it. I don't know if there is something significant about that time or if 30 days is the maximum amount of commitment my DNA can manage at one time.

I could tell that I had reached the critical point today when I actually found myself petting, yes you heard me correctly, PETTING like a kitty cat a package of McDonald's chocolate chip cookies. I was tenderly contemplating the taste of them - counting the cost if you will. Would all that chocolaty goodness be worth the sense of failure and the pound I would most certainly gain if I ate one? The little red guy on one shoulder was screeching, 'yes, yes it will be SO worth it!' and the little white one on the other gently reminded me, "you just taught Children's Church about temptation. How can you expect those little ones to choose the right over wrong if YOU can not even say no to one measly cookie?"

So I took a huge bite.

And then immediately spit it out.

I couldn't let down the Children's Church Kids. Or God either. Let's not forget Him.

Even though it seems a cookie and God have nothing to do with one another, I can assure you any food issues I may have are completely rooted in spiritual matters. A gooey chocolate chip cookie or piping hot cheeseburger represent a sick kind of satisfaction to me. If I'm having a rotten day, a big bite of something disgustingly fattening seems to make all those stresses disappear. Until it's time to get on the scale and I've outgrown my 6 month pregnant weight. Until I have to air dry my jeans so I can zip them. Until I realize that I am settling for the slum over the sea.

So with that said, saying no to a cookie is about much more to me than a number on a scale. It is very much about evaluating where my joy lies and not settling for anything but God's best.

(Have ya'll gotten over yet that I was petting chocolate chip cookies? I'm still a little unsettled by it.)


On to other things, I have to say a huge THANK YOU to my dear mom today. Remember back at Christmas I told you she got these?

Well, seeing as how she's so generous, I inherited her old washer/dryer. I use the term 'old' loosely. I should really just say 'pre-owned' because they aren't old at all. They are almost brand new and in most excellent condition - much better than the ones I had.

Mom was very proud to give me her set when I shared with her that our current dryer only operated with the aid of a popsicle stick. You know those trays you buy for kids in the summer where you can pour in juice and make homemade popsicles? Well, apparently some piece broke off the door of the dryer that has to be depressed for it to run. SO, my darlin', handy hubby determined - after much searching through household instruments -that the stick would be perfect to cram into the hole where the piece broke off. He was right and VOILA, my dryer would still work! All that without an over-priced repairman or nuthin!

Have I mentioned before how I do love that man-o-mine?

My camera is broken too or I would truly love to show you his handywork in all its glory, but maybe I've given you enough of a visual. Fortunately, the dryer is now in the dumpster. I'm still instinctively looking to wiggle the popsicle stick on the dryer to get it going but alas, my new dryer has no such apparatus attached. Dearest Popsicle Stick, we'll think of you everytime we have to make 5 popsicles instead of six. But then again, maybe hubs can find something suitable to use in your place.

Cause he totally rocks when it comes to finding replacement parts.