Welcome to my internet sparkhome. Kick off your shoes. Sit in the swing beside me for a while. (Or you can sit on the bench by the fountain next to my "buddy" - LOL.) Enjoy the beautiful fragrant flowers. Listen to the birds sing while they splash in the birdbath, play in the fountains, and help themselves to a meal at our feeders. Sip on a cup of steamy orange herbal tea (decaffeinated, of course) and snack on some of my chocolate covered homegrown strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or ...

Welcome to my internet sparkhome. Kick off your shoes. Sit in the swing beside me for a while. (Or you can sit on the bench by the fountain next to my "buddy" - LOL.) Enjoy the beautiful fragrant flowers. Listen to the birds sing while they splash in the birdbath, play in the fountains, and help themselves to a meal at our feeders. Sip on a cup of steamy orange herbal tea (decaffeinated, of course) and snack on some of my chocolate covered homegrown strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries. Later on we can take a stroll through the woods and possibly encounter an owl or a deer with it's fawn(s). There is always something wonderful to discover on these walks. And it's even better to enjoy it with a friend.

Hi, I'm Morticia. I live in a cabin in the woods on 6 1/2 acres in a rural area of Southern Illinois, a mile from a small lake, 2 miles from another lake, and the same distance from a state scenic site. We have a large garden and grow a lot of our own fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, plus we raise catfish and bluegill in our pond. We are into self-sufficiency and do everything we can for ourselves - such as all of our own remodeling, repairs, and maintenance on our house, boat, 5 outbuildings, and 4 vehicles. It keeps us very busy and we work hard, but when it's time to relax we know how to do that as well.

We have a lot of hobbies that occupy our free time. Most of them are outdoors activities, like astronomy, mycology, pontooning, bird watching, landscaping, etc. We enjoy relaxing in our spa in our screen room while we listen to music from around the world.

I'm a 57 year old retired R.N. who worked mainly in critical care, dialysis, and supervision, but I also put in some time in med/surg and rehab. I like to collect things, especially cookbooks. I'm a former moderator of almost 50 internet cooking groups.

My sole mate is supervisor in a small manufacturing plant. He's very artistic, unlike me. He plays acoustic guitar and composes music. He's an avid photographer and amateur mycologist and entomologist. He does stained glass and wood carving, plus he makes bread, primitive stick furniture, kaleidoscopes, and fiberoptic decorations. My husband thinks canning is fun and I have no intention of telling him otherwise. LOL!

I have one 25 year old son who is a graduate of McKendree University which is located in the metroeast area near St. Louis. He is a secondary science teacher with an emphasis in biology but he can teach chemistry and physics as well. He plays the keyboard and is into computers, video games, and movies. He enjoys reading and is writing a book. He is also into Tae Kwon Do and Gumdo. He is on the local demo team and helps the master with young beginners.

We have 8 chinchillas - Rico Suave, Dust Bunny, Runtster, Blocker, Baxter, Squeaker, Stinker, and Porkie. We had another one named Wheeler but she died and two others who died shortly after birth. Actually the chinchillas have us because they are in charge around here. LOL. Most people are curious as to what chinchillas are like. They are like people - each one has his/her own unique personality.

I was never overweight until after menopause but I started having medical problems when I was in my early 30's. I was on a low fat, low cholesterol, low salt diet for years but my BP got worse and I developed more health problems. I ended up on 3 BP meds and still had poor control. Finally when I became extremely ill with pneumonia and MRSA, I went to a new doctor who nursed me back to health, put me on an exercise program, and changed me to a low carb diet. It changed my life. I felt 20 years younger after a few days on the diet. My severe hypoglycemic attacks stopped. Many of my medical conditions went into remission. I'm down to one BP pill a day.

I had always hated exercise in the past but after my brush with death I finally decided to knuckle under and start a walking program. I started in mid July of 2007 and within a couple of weeks I made it to a minimum of 12,500+ steps a day and have managed that almost every day since that time. My husband made me a walking path through our woods that is almost a mile long and I love it.

I didn't get really serious about my diet until May of 2008. A short while later I finally chose to do South Beach as my son wanted to try it. We weren't too fond of Phase 1 but we made it without cheating and he lost 13 pounds and I lost 10 during the first phase. We both continued to lose steadily until he reached goal after losing 120 pounds. We are both very pleased and intend to continue South Beach or low carb. I'm finally motivated to succeed.

Thank you for coming to my site. Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you would like to. Tell me about you, your family, your home, and your weight loss challenges. I would love to hear from you. I always have room on my swing for another friend.

Read More About MORTICIAADDAMS (Updated November 20)

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