One of my heroes, Sonia Loper, died Saturday.

After a 20-year battle with cancer, the disease won.

Sonia was sick most of the time I knew her. I watched her go through chemotherapy more than once, which usually meant she'd lose all her hair and her voice.

She poked fun at sounding raspy and her hair situation.

Always beautiful, and damn funny, Sonia would jokingly say she was "sexy bald," and giggle about the short curly hair on head, as it grew back saying, "My poor little hairs are just struggling, trying to grow."

The woman could turn a phrase, and always ran a lively beauty shop.

Her loves were doing hair, raising Breah and being married to Rick Loper, not necessarily in that order.

And when Sonia laughed, oh, she laughed as if all the joys in life were in that moment.

She was good at hunting down a good bargain, whether it was on a cute top for Breah or another gold bracelet for herself.

Sonia was generous with her love and friendship, and welcomed others into her life, home, church and beauty salon.

That's why I loved her, and why I'm so devastated about losing her.

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But I am still at 259 pounds.

This has been a really busy week. I hate that they make me do my real job and that it keeps me away from blogging.

I know, my employers are really no fun.

Anywho, things are OK. I'm still doing the Sutri-System thing, but now drowning in extra foods.

They send so much stuff. . . there's no way to get through all of it, especially the stuff that sucks.

Most of the food, though is really good.

I will have some new posts up Friday, and next week.

Give me a shout out if you're with me.

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Hello, dear readers.

Do you remember how I told you I found one gray hair?

Well, it brought friends with it.

As I combed my hair this morning, I found out something horrible.

I'm going gray!

I'm only. . . 30-something!

That's too young for gray!

What should I do?

Ok, Michele, do not panic.

For those of you who have gray, you know what I'm talking about. You just wake up one morning, and it's there, staring back at you.

Where did you come from, gray hair that just clashes with the dark brown hair surrounding it.

One, two, three, four, five. . .

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Ok, I'm not in a panic. I'm OK with this.

I'm calling to schedule a hair appointment right now.

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Hello, dear readers.

I'm going to be out of town for a few days this week, so I'll be running some of the older blog posts again.

Those who are new to the blog can catch up. Faithful readers (what's wrong with you people?) can laugh again at some of their favorite posts.

Have a good week, and enjoy the blog reruns.

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I did something unusual this weekend - I washed my own hair.

This may seem strange to some, but the truth is - I rarely wash my own mop top.

The reason: That's what the hair dresser is for. I go every week or so.

So, I washed my own hair this weekend, and left it a little frizzy and wild so it could air dry.

As I was combing through it, I saw what looked like one of my cat's hairs (you'd be amazed at where these things show up. . . )

But it wasn't.

It was my first gray hair/

(Cue the screaming crowd)

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As a general rule, I love my birthday.

May 24 is the best day of the year, hands down.

I blame my parents. They always spoiled us, but our birthdays took it to a whole different level.

On your special day, you got gifts, some of your favorite meals and to wear your (usually new) birthday outfit.

Even at 30-something, I still get butterflies the night before my birthday, in anticipation of what my day will bring.

This year, it brought flowers - lots of them.

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Now that I'm trying to lose my extra chub, it seems that I'm really noticing everyone else's.

From the jiggly belly of a woman who reached up for a box of diet crackers in front of me at the grocery store to the rotund man next to me at the gas pump, I'm noticing more fat folks.

Now, I'm not trying to be judgemental.

Remember, I am still a fat chick.

But it appears that we are all getting . . . rounder.

Any thoughts?

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These overcast days really mess with me.

My body just wants to sleep today.

Just when I was starting to get the hang of this morning thing, I got a break at work and was able to sleep a little bit longer this morning.

Not a good idea.

When I woke up after my normal time, I was groggy, and there was a cat standing on my chest with his nose right up to my nose.

That would be my youngest furry child, Mo, who has no idea of the concept of sleep and wanting your personal space during your sleepy time.

Sigh.

So, it's roughly 10 a.m., and I feel like I was hit by a mack truck.

Tell me, dear readers, what do you do on a morning like this?

Me, I'm just trying to make it to lunch so I can go home for a nap.

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I was at home for almost a week with my family, including my sister's children, and the cute faces you've seen on this blog before, Kaiya, 2, and Aisha, 6, and my nephew, Jason, 8.

While in Newport News, I took 100 or more pictures of them for the holiday. They were tired of me and my Kodak.

In this first photo, they are all wearing Santa hats. My mom and I had to go to Walgreen's to get them all a hat, because they were fighting over the one we owned.

Here they are:

One more time:

They are so freakin' cute.

But wait, there's more. . .

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I found this neat slide-show of beautiful Christmas trees around the world.

I thought it would be a great way to bring in December and my favorite holiday, Christmas.

Despite the fact that retailers have been shoving Christmas stuff down our throats since Halloween, I still love celebrating the holiday and all its nuances - religious and otherwise.

But seriously, is there any reason to be playing Christmas songs in stores before Dec. 1?

I love Christmas, and even I was a bit annoyed by the "early" Christmas at most stores.

On a positive Christmas note, these trees are look awesome.

For the record, though, none of these trees look as good as the Christmas trees at my house (Yes, I have more than one.)

This is also my warning to you that I will be boring you with Christmas stuff all month, so you should be prepared. (Get over it! Christmas rocks!)

Anyhow, enjoy the Christmas trees.

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