I am starting to get excited

Well I am starting to get excited!  My daughter and myself are off on a new venture.  We are starting a new business called " Patriotic Moms Boutique " we bill be selling handmade children's clothing,  things to keep the kids busy.  Beautiful hat boxes filled with goodies or empty to have for yourself or give as gifts,  clocks, wax less candles,  the list goes on!  We will even have items for the pets. We are so happy to put our love and talent out there for people to enjoy.

I never thought trying to get things in order was going to be so time consuming!  not to mention having to run a household and take care of pets.  There never seems to be enough hours in a day for all you want to do or accomplish. I wish I could pull all nighter's like I was able to do twenty years ago.

My poor husband isn't feeling well and it's been so hot here that it drains the life and energy out of you.  But that's OK, we'll get everything done one way or another.

My Mom

 Today marks nine years since my Mom passed away.  Sometimes it's still hard to believe she isn't a phone call away.  I can't tell you how many times over the years I have picked up the phone to call her and ask for a recipe or give her a new one I came up with.  I wish she was able to know we are alright and that we moved here to Tennessee  and have made a good life for ourselves.  She would be devastated to know how sick we both were and that I lost my leg and Steve lost so much use of his arm but,  she wouldn't be surprised we both have moved on and manage pretty well for ourselves despite any obstacles we hit.

Today I am just thankful that I had her for a Mom and for all she brought to the table, whether it was food, conversations, or something she could teach us.  It's because of her, my Dad, and husband I have so many interest and hobbies.

Morning Coffee

 As I sat out on our deck with my husband, daughter, and granddaughter I am trying to take my first sacred sip of our morning coffee.  I sat there desperately trying to listen to the conversations that was taking place but, with Yankee begging for a stick, a twig, piece of paper,  anything you could throw and Dixie trying to take it away from him, and Belle doing " tippey toes " as we like to called it in the water bowl making a bloody mess it's hard !  if you haven't figured it out by now Yankee, Dixie, and Belle are our Golden Retrievers...aka  our kids.

Now if you know my hubby his conversations are almost as important as his first sip of  morning coffee,  as our eyes meet  I can see he knows I am aware he feels like he is struggling for air space and I can see his frustration on his face. Now the granddaughter is crying because one of the dogs knocked her down or licked her, the daughter is trying to talk to me right along as Steve is still talking and I realize I now have no clue what either have said and my coffee is now cold.

So what do I do?  the husband loves the dogs, I love the dogs, but, I think I love our conversations a bit more.  You see when we met all those years ago we would sit on my couch and listen to music and talk and talk for hours,  sometimes till it was almost time to go to work. We always said we couldn't wait till the day we didn't have to work and could just sip coffee and talk  Conversations came easy to us, we both loved a lot of the same things yet we had our different interest also.  I count myself fortunate that after twenty six years we still can talk for hours on end,  and even more important we both still want to.

Miss Dixie & Mr Yankee

And then there was three ~~

Do diets work?

I don't know many women who never had to lose a pound or two in the course of their life. When I was young I was always skinny!  Even when I had my children I never gained much weight at all, back then hip hugger's were in style and I could get into them as early as the day I left the hospital.  I think it was because I walked walked walked everywhere!  I loved it, most of us back then never thought twice about it.  After 12 long long years of marriage and being told every day of it how fat I was, I smartened up and moved on.  Oh did I mention I wasn't fat at all,  I was 5ft 5"  and weighed no more then 118 lbs at best,  and I have the pictures to prove it. A few years later I met my second husband, fell in love and got married.  As the years rolled on and I got more comfortable, I slowly gained weight.  I did the yo yo syndrome for over 20 years.  Got a splinter in my foot,  I got deathly sick,  had many many surgeries but, ultimately ended up losing my lower right leg  My husband and I decided it was the best thing for me to do. Well being sick for almost 5 straight years and many of them very immobile and living on IV antibiotics,  not only did I lose my leg but, I gained so much weight!  To make a long story short,  shortly after I had my leg amputated,  my husband got severely hurt at his job of 32 years and was unable to go back to work.  We both ended up retired and moving from New England to the South.  It's funny we ended up here because we both hate the heat!  After our first summer here and nearly dying from the heat and my weight I decided that this was it,  I am not spending my last years heavy and struggling to get through each and every day.  I was almost in a wheelchair 100 % of the time.  I was out of shape and out of practice with walking. So what diet was I going to do? All my doctors said it would nearly impossible for me to lose much seeing I was on so much medication, including a lot of insulin, and I had to pamper my one good leg.  After all I wasn't young, I was 51 years old and had a lot against me. So last New Year's Day My husband, son in law, and daughter's which all needed to lose weight desperately also said we do this together.  Guess what?  Everyone bailed on me within a week!  I was so mad,  it was then I said I would prove everyone wrong and lose all the weight that I felt I needed to lose with no ones help at all if that was how it was going to be. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. Over the years I lost 40, 50,  even 73 lbs once.  I tried Optifast, weight watcher's, the good old grapefruit diet,  the cabbage soup diet, pills, shots, you name it. Let me tell you,  if you listen to anything I have said so far,  all the bribes, threats, promises of gifts,  you name it,  nothing is going to work unless you want to do this for you first! You can't do it for anyone until you decide your worth the effort!  then and only then you'll find the will power.  Because as much as we hate to admit it, we are the ones who hold the fork.  So,  I have to admit  I still kept holding out for some miracle diet,  I tried new things to lose 10 or 15 lbs  only to gain it back and lose it again.  Finally my husband said make small goals and whatever you lose every week be happy with it and eventually 2lbs will become 4 lbs and 4 will become 8 lbs and so fourth and so on,  as long as you don't gain be happy your going in the right direction. My husband had great advice but, he wasn't going to use that advice on himself.  Steve has lost 90 to 100 lbs 3 times  in the last 26 years always to gain it all back,  why?  I think because he just deprived himself of any thing good,  so he finally would crash and go back to over eating. Well I took his advice and me and my friend Lisa decided why not put our love for cooking to work,  and find a way to reinvent recipes that would be healthier, livable, and honestly tasted good.  Well,  I have to admit we both loved food and wasn't crazy about eating the same foods day in and day out.  So Memorial day came and instead of having one last pig out, we started our journey on that very day. In a few weeks it will make one whole year, so far I have lost 73lbs  and Lisa lost 53 lbs. We survived every single holiday and special occasion, we never gained back more than 2 or 3 lbs. We never deprived ourselves.  We thought there really isn't any bad food,  just some you really need to eat in moderation especially if you want to lose fat. I wanted to show my daughter's that even though I had a lot of obstacles that anything is possible.  In a few weeks once I get settled here I am going to post favorite reciepes that I took and made over to be healthier, tasty, and better for your waistline. I will call it Makeover Mondays ~

Starting a new chapter in my life~

Well I haven't blogged for a long time and now that I have extra time on my hands I am excited to get started. I am retired now due to a long illness that I managed to survive thanks to all my doctors, awesome nurse's, and my best friend who is also my husband. I named my blog " Pots, Pottys, and Pistols " because I have dealt with it all, raising kids, my love for cooking, shooting with my husband, and everything in between.  I have a soft motherly side but, I also have a playful side who always wants to have fun.. I don't think there is any question that someone may ask that would shock me. I have had so many experience's that I am sure there is little I haven't done or come across being an all around every day American woman. I hope I can inspire young moms, new moms, and even moms with grown up kids. I would love to give advice, tips, and hints on anything from cooking, parenting, time saving, and organizing, being frugal,  and keeping a long time relationship even in these too modern days. One of my favorite quotes is " youth is wasted on the young "  or from my Mom  " learn from my mistakes "  and of course I bet most of us will agree we NEVER listened to any advice when we were young,  we always felt we were invincible and knew just about everything there was to know.  Unfortunately for me both my parents have passed away over the last several years but  I was one of the lucky ones who had the chance to tell my Mom,  you know what Mom?  nearly everything you ever tried to teach me was true.  She was in the hospital then and I knew she would die any day so we sat there talking and talking and when I told her that,  she just laughed when I said I was sorry for not listening more.  My Mom said that's OK honey,  I never listened either. Boy do I wish I knew then what I know now,  from everything to parenting, fiances, education,  the list is never ending. I named this post a new chapter in my life because that's what I am doing,  starting my final chapter in my life,  you know,  some call it the twilight years, retirement, etc.  Fortunately for me and my husband Steve, we're middle age so that's a plus! We aren't so old we can't enjoy anything. So for that I am grateful. I plan on writing often, posting recipes, photography shots, a little bit of everything,  even my long but successful weight loss journey.  Nearly anything can be done if you put your mind to it.  Lori ~