My week of no sugar concludes

Well I did it! A week of no sugar and processed foods. I'm holding steady at 133.5 pounds and I feel better. No belly bloat. My fatigue is as is. My neuropathy as is. Inflammation in my ribcage seems to have ebbed. I'm still as "fuzzy" and have the Dex crashes as usual. I will chalk it up to REAL side effects of the medications that I take. And I can't expect that a whole seven days of no sugar will make miracles happen. I plan to keep up how I'm eating as long as possible and, if I must, have a slice of birthday cake, then I will. Like Saturday, we went to the Real Salt Lake soccer game (pro soccer). Super fun, I've never been to a pro soccer game before. Totally sold out. There were NO healthy options. Not one. So I ate part of a hamburger. And last night, my mom hosted dinner. I ate a little desert. So not perfect, but pretty dang good, if you ask me.

Over the weekend, I accomplished packing up both of my daughters for our trip to Europe. That is no small process. Now I need to work on packing me up. It won't be easy and I absolutely detest packing. But the reward (a great trip) is totally worth it. We leave on Thursday for Venice- whoohooo! We fly to New York, have a three hour layover, then from New York to Venice. We'll have about six hours to rest up and then we have a gondola tour scheduled for seven o'clock. The next day, we check onto the ship but we don't leave until 6PM so we can get some (free) lunch on the ship then get off and explore Venice as much as possible. Then when we leave, we have a week of stops in Athens, Ephesus (Turkey), and Debrovnik and Split (Croatia). When we get back from the cruise, William flies home and we take the train to Milan and from there, spend two weeks in Northern Italy and Switzerland before flying home. Then we are back in Utah for 20 days then we go to Long Beach for two weeks, then home for a few days, then Montana and Canada for another two weeks. That is our busy summer. Hopefully restful, I can't wait to take a break from myeloma, divorce, and my usual life. We all need those breaks.

While I'm away, I have written a series for Divorced Moms called "Marriage Hell." It's an 8-part series that will run every Monday and Thursday, with part 1 running today (I'll post links tomorrow) that details how I ended up married. I get so many questions on how and why that happened and, hopefully, I'll explain that coherently and in order in that series. Stay tuned!

Happy Memorial Day! Yesterday, we visited my grandparents' grave. My grandfather trained fighter pilots for World War II. He was one of the greatest men that ever lived, if you ask me. Funny, smart, interesting, loyal, faithful and loving. I miss him so much. My grandmother, too, was a smart, resilient, strong woman. I look up to her. She was a survivor and an amazing woman. Memorial Day, indeed.