Life at the Zoo

A Long Lost Soul...

2011-07-04T07:00:00.003-06:00

Yep, that is me. I have gone through some bad times and had a hard time picking my self out of it this time but eventually came through. Wanted to get back on here but didn't know how to start.

I have decided that I would go through the year by month and just sum things up. Some of it has things to do with weightloss, some run/walking, work, and of course life thrown in the mix. I really have had some accomplishments I should add and I also have some really fun things to look forward to in the future as long as things don't get worse. lol :0)

Welcome...

2010-05-20T11:49:00.007-06:00

...to my daily blog

As this blog is about my attempts in running, weight loss, animals, and daily life events of rants and raves.

Feel free to explore the site through the menu above.

Cheers! :0)

Less Than 22 Days...

2010-05-08T19:10:00.002-06:00

And I am going to be walking a half marathon with my hubby and friend! I am not heading out for any PR's but just for the fun of it. Things have been going well on the moving around bit, but just can't sit down... lol. My friend and I walked last year and I am going to head out again with her and my hubby said he would like to join us! May I just add that he hasn't trained as of yet... I did politely ask if he was SURE about doing it... ;0) He said, "yep."

So, yeah, have not been around much as we have been pretty busy. Myself, I have been getting up at 5:30 am with the dogs out for either a brisk walk, or a run/walk every day except Saturdays where I bike with the two dogs. I am still doing my yoga and LOTS of stretching. I am trying to get to the pool for some laps but just haven't made it yet.

Heartrate Training is going wonderful and I am re-learning about putting on the breaks and not going full out wearing myself down. No new injuries to report so things must be going right. :0) My times are getting better so cardio wise I am happy. Not even close to where I was but heh, I am in no rush and not out to win anything.

Work wise I am back to full days at work as of this week and managing as expected. We still haven't completely finished the old house or even finished unpacking this house but... we have a NEW internet provider as of Tuesday!!! Yeah! No more problems. :0) I can write emails, blogs, play mahjong... with no more interruptions and lost information - spending WAY too much time recomposing everything.

Other than that things have been really looking up besides the odd situation like me leaving my lights on my vehicle and getting stuck in the snow storm till someone could boost me, or my little 3 lb puppy getting sick on me for a week... by the way, he is doing much better now and this morning he had his very first haircut.

It is so great to hear from all of you and I do read up on a lot of you here and there, I just have had little bits of time here and there to get on here.

So, there is what I have been up to in a nut shell, more to come, but enough for now. :0) I need my beauty sleep for a 17 km walk bright and early tomorrow...

LIfe... in General of Course

2010-04-10T07:05:00.007-06:00

So yes, been busy kept on thinking today I will update and... well, nothing. That reason of life really just gets in there. :0)

How has everyone been? I am eager to read about all the race reports and such that have happened. I am slowly getting a new routine down here but obviously it needs a bit of tweaking... I mean I used to blog in the mornings, tried the evenings for a bit but found that the mornings work best. But now... with my new routine I am trying to work out, things are not going as smoothly as I had hoped. I will keep trudging on though. lol

Thanks for all the well wishes on everything. My Nanny is at home now, has not really recovered hugely but she is managing to walk around a bit but tires very easily.

House, doing well minus all the little glitches that a person does not notice when you first move in to a new house. I am starting a list and it is slowly growing... The lovely blizzard weather we have just had here, my fence gate decided it was going to do a 'Dorothy and Toto' and went for a small tour. lol It is now safely (but not so prettily) tied down to the fence. I did what I could in the midst of the high winded snow attacking me. lol

I am loving my new furniture but my Husky has decided that the couch is hers to sleep on and she is being quite persistent about the whole thing. Good thing I am being persistent about her NOT being on there. lol It just has been the last couple of days here that she really wants to be up here. The ONLY good thing about leather is that her hair just wipes off. lol

Chewy, my puppy is doing very well and I am impressed. Litter trained already. I am not saying he will not use the outside eventually, but he really does not like the outside at all. So for now, I am saving my sanity and floors and considering how hard Yorkies are to potty train, I think we are doing well. Puppy socialization was on hold for two weeks due to some cases of kennel cough but back at it next week, and we start our puppy kindergarten class in a week. So tonnes of fun with the little man. He is now 2.5 lbs and full of energy - but HATES the leash.

This last week I have had off of work due to Easter holidays and this wonderful list of things to do and finally get done, like finish the other house cleaning and to get this house unpacked completely. Do you think I got anything done? Nope. Well I can't really say nothing done... I had appointments that I had to attend like vet, mechanic, chiro... those got done. ;0)

Mind you I did get something else done... getting outside and moving more! My pain is doing well, still having some bad flair ups but for the most part I am doing well. I am not going to head out and do any races tomorrow or anything but I am getting out there and working at getting back in the groove. :0)

I have really been trying to listen to my body to be more aware of my limitations and for the last week and a half I have been going back to heart rate training. So if you see a snail out there with two dogs pulling along ahead, that would be me. I haven't done some heart rate training in a while and forgot how humbling it can make you at the start (although the improvements are wonderful) and for someone whose cardio, strength, and endurance are not up to what they were, wow. Do to still in the mend, I am not doing any speed work and just keeping the heart rate between the 60-75% zone alternating days of a 70 and 75% max so I don't have two days in a row over 70%. So any grief my body is feeling or if I am pushing myself too much, that annoying little chirp goes off. (I say it is annoying but really I like the feed back :0) ) For all the people out there that are in to fitness gadgets, I am using my ol' faithful, Garmin 301 HRM for this purpose. This way I get all my info in at once. If you notice on the right side where I am to be tracking my mileage and such, I just keep forgetting right now to enter info and might just get rid of it as mileage is not what my focus is right now. We'll see. ;0)

As for races and such this year, I am kind of seeing how things go. My friend would like me to walk the half at the end of May and I am sure I could do it, but would it be wise? THAT I do not know. I have walked over 10km here last weekend... I would like to run it though and I know THAT would be out of the question at this point. lol If I do it, I want to dress up for it though. Last year when I walked with her for support (it was her first time walking instead of running due to can't run anymore), I kept saying I should have dressed up. I had my iphone blaring music the whole time (on its speakers not my ears) as loud as I could get it, and we sang pretty much most of the way... I also danced from start to finish the whole way. It was soooooo much fun and I really needed a goofy outfit and bells or something because I think I cheered on almost everyone other participant on the course we came across, which was a lot considering we were holding up the back end. lol So much fun! I had no voice, a very sore throat, and bruised hands from clapping - wearing rings does not help in the fact that they make the bruising worse... Any ideas on what I could wear if I did it? :0)

My work friends would like me to walk or run with them in the Local Bridge City Boogie 5 km in June. Again, walking it would be, if anything, at this point. I am out running but not ready.

In the fall I would like to do a running event of some kind... we will see how it goes.

So there you go, a bit of a book again but heh, I had lots to say. ;0)

Now to see if the wind has died down enough for the furries and I to head out for a small jaunt... yesterday was a right off with the weather and I am not too sure about today. I see the sun but, we still have travel advisories out. We shall see.

A Blistery Day

2010-03-18T06:26:00.003-06:00

Well good morning everyone! :0) I don't know about all of you but we had some wicked wind around here. It was so loud and at one point there was no gust just straight rumble... I got a bit worried and checked the weather station for anything serious. The result was that this wind was going to take away our lovely weather that we have been so graciously given the past little bit. So this morning we now have snow... again. My hubby laughs at me when I talked about wondering what March will bring since it came in like a lamb.

So some mixture of good and not so good news in my little end of cyberspace.

My pain is doing quite better and is much more manageable now. Yeah! I have been consistently getting my runs in 3/wk and good walks in the other days. Sunday morning was a repeat of last weeks accomplishment. I have had no increase in pain from it at all. I am still only half time at work with light duties but will see what happens on Friday here when I go back for my check up.

Internet? I think we have it solved? lol Didn't I say that last time... hmmm... I had finally had it when a couple of days ago I was composing a VERY important letter to Human Resources at my work. I went to send and *poof*. Gone. So nothing like rushing trying to recompose the email before going to work. NOT happy. So we are trying another router.

Chewy, my puppy Yorkie, is doing quite well and keeping me busy on the home front. Right now I am having fun writing this and trying to teach him that the plug in for my computer is not a chew toy... who was it that said be careful what you name him? lol I still have not managed to get a half decent picture of him as he is always on the move.

Work at the new school is wonderful and I am quite enjoying working there. The house I couldn't be more happier about and it really has changed all of us for the better here. My son with all this moving of home and school he could have really gone down hill but no, he matured and is doing the best he ever has.

I have managed to catch up on some of your blogs, sorry no comments yet as I really wanted to read as much as I could. I thank all for your wonderful comments and cheers.

Now for some not so great news, (the drama never really ends around here...) my Nanny (grandma) is in the hospital. She had a heart attack and is still not out of the woods yet. So this morning at work I am going to be carrying my cell with me.

So as I end my little tidbit for today, I am back to thinking happy thoughts and listening to the sounds of little pitter patters across my floors and watching my little Chewy steal all of the cat toys... You just have to find some good when things are bad. Have a good day everyone.

The Days Are a Runnin'

2010-03-10T06:21:00.002-06:00

And me too! :0) Not far or super fast yet or anything, The main thing is that I am back! Yah! I haven't been pushing it too much too soon or anything and I have been really reading my body on where I am at. Not quite back at a learn to run stage... but not too far from it. lol Cardio wise I really need to get that back on track here - and weight wise... this whole back thing really did not help me in that area... but then again I chose what to put in my mouth and how much of it. hehehe I am not worried because now that things are getting back on track again here, everything will fall back in to place.

So, I had mentioned before about the internet... well I am certainly frustrated!!! I never know when I am going to get it or not. I was really hoping that it would be sorted out by now but again, I must look at the positives? Not on the computer too much! lol

Some news: This week is my first week of Chiro only once a week. My back is doing better but still have no clue what is up, WCB is still in the air with it and my luck I will be all better before anything is done. Still not finished unpacking at the new house and old house is still not finished either. This weekend we have a blitz planned with a few people to get at least the other house worked on. I am really liking the school I was transferred to - not really as busy or as physical as my last one but that was the whole reason I was transferred so that I could heal. My son was transferred to a school out here in the new house area (not too sure if I had mentioned that one) and he was upset at first, but LOVES his new school. I am getting a puppy!

Ok, so I snuck that one in there and it is not like I have super uber tonnes of time here but we had to put our small dog Denver down last fall and we have all been going nutz and missing the little guy. Now we are not trying to replace Denver, but really like how a small dog just fit in to our family dynamics, like a missing puzzle piece finally found. I pick up Chewy (Chewbacca), our new little man, tomorrow. He is a Yorkie and just turning 12 wks old. I am loving this breeder so far and has been so kind and knowledgeable. I checked around a few others and ended up with them and not too mention they are not too far a drive for me. So expect some pics here at some point, internet pending... ;0)

Back to news: I received my black leather couch and bed!!!! Eeeeeek! lol THAT was an exciting day I tell ya and one of the best sleeps in a long time. Ok, last fall I dyed my hair red... well this weekend I wanted it back to normal... what was I thinking!!! After numerous attempts in trying to 'fix' the hair color and stop it from going orange, I now have dark hair which is almost a deep dark rich chocolate brown. At least I am happier with the color. I think the students at my new school are going to think I am crazy or something because I have arrived with a new color each day this week - note to self.... go to a proper hairdresser next time.

I would like to thank everyone for hanging in there/here during my time of transition to a new house. Things will get back on track here again and I know I have soooooo much reading to catch up on but I am going to enjoy every bit of it. We are still waiting for someone to check things out here.

Take care and be safe out there on those roads and paths! (and no falling off the couch if you are injured) lol

Whirlwind of Events

2010-03-02T07:20:00.002-06:00

Yes, I seemed to have been MIA again but it was all for good reason. No time and no internet.

Internet: Ok. I don't know what it is but getting internet here has been a major problem. I managed to get on here and there and as soon as I started something, POOF, internet gone again...Something is not configured right or it is the wiring. I believe we have to bring someone in now, not sure as hubby figures he has it now. ;0)

Time: well, around here it was OLYMPICS! Hockey, curling, and basically just every event. Oh! give a peek to the Daily Mile on the side... I managed to get out for a total of 5.3 km!!!! Mostly running... well jogging anyways. I took the time when I left the house with one dog, switched dogs after the run, and checked the time after my cool down. I think it worked out to something like 56 min? Kinda hard when I don't see it from this page. lol Felt great and I did no timing at all, like no set intervals or anything. I just wanted to get out there and do as I feel. Pain wise went well, only until I went to work the next day.

Speaking of work, whirlwind there. I have been transferred out of my school to another one that is less physical. :0( I found out Friday, and yesterday was my last day, today I am at the new one. Still only mornings but we will see how it goes.

Well gotta run, and I really am trying to catch up here.... lol

Busy But Productive Day

2010-02-23T07:16:00.002-06:00

So I did not manage to get back on here last night so haven't managed to catch up with everyone yet. Hopefully tonight...

Yesterday ended up being a whirlwind of events of trying to get things done and next thing I knew it was late at night. As last week's Thursday and Friday were inservice days, yesterday was the first day actually back working with the students. It did not go so well and I had really hoped things would be better. :0( I think I may have to look in to working at another school. For those that do not know, I am an educational assistant working in a special school of about 36 students ranging from ages 3-22. All of the students are very challenged and most are in wheelchairs. Even though we use things like lifts and such, it is a very physically demanding job.

So, yeah about yesterday's work... not good and I almost came home in tears. After I came home I took my husky for a tour among the path by the house. I did not calculate time or distance as this was just a stress reliever jaunt of sorts.

Now, time has gotten away on me yet again here so off I go to try another day of work and this time I am scheduling time to catch up. :0)

Have Internet!

2010-02-22T07:12:00.002-06:00

So yes I am back on (finally...). It seemed like forever not being able to update what was happening. lol

We are now moved in, not quite unpacked yet, and still have to clean, fix, and get all the outside stuff from the old house yet. It will come.

In breaking news... I have returned back to work last Thursdays half time for now and on light duties and chiro is now only twice a week instead of three! Every day is starting to get better but we still do not have a real diagnosis and waiting for this other specialist to see me. We have pin pointed the one main area and that is it. The only thing I am focusing on is the good and it is only getting better. :0)

I have some permission to do a bit more exercise wise so I will truly be taking advantage of that! lol There is a path that is just at the end of my street that I believe I will get to know well. ;0)

Well, a bit of a quick post this morning and will update more tonight. This morning is our first mother son trip back to the main city for school and work and we are a bit behind schedule... lol

Hope all is well!

Quick Update

2010-02-11T09:17:00.003-06:00

Everything with the new house is coming along fine and we went to check out our new flooring last night... it is soooooo gorgeous! Movers are now coming Tuesday instead of this weekend which is ok since we need more time to pack BUT phone and such is all going to be transferred tomorrow (Friday) so I may not have internet till next week when we are out in our new house. So if you don't see me around blog land for a couple of days here, you now know why.

Improvements are continuing with my injury and all the 'specialists' thus far say to go back on my old work injury claim as they think it is from that. So we will see, but I am doing better except for this stupid cold I managed to catch from somewhere... ugh. No worries though. :0)

I haven't had much time to much workout wise and now with this cold I think I should step back a bit and only do what is really needed. ;0) So lots of fluids will be my plan with a bit of extra relaxation to top it off and I should be rid of this cold in no time.

Thanks again everyone for all the great comments and well wishes! I haven't had too much time to catch up on reading but I will! And for the IT band thing, I know pretty weird but yet strangely funny.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Just a Quick Post...

2010-02-08T10:47:00.003-06:00

... to say that things are coming along with the whole moving thing and the flooring is being done as I write. :0) Hopefully next week by this time I will be living at the new house, pending of course if my lovely husband calls to set up some movers... lol My sister, son, and hubby painted all weekend and I was sent off to do errands since I can't do much.

I have scoped out some nice pathways that go around town but I am thinking it may only end up as a 5 ish km loop with a bit of an out and back. I think once I get my mileage up again here, hopefully soon, that I may have to invest in a safety vest to run on the side of the high way or back roads. Just the thought of getting out there is exciting... new places to run! :0)

Pain wise things are actually looking up the last two days where as the pain has not been as strong and not as much! Maybe there may be a dim light starting at the end of the tunnel... ;0)

By the way, my son is doing a bit better and has returned to school today. He still is worried but we are doing much better.

Oh! The IT band thing? I did have to laugh because to them I was almost speaking another language or something. I seriously would have thought they SHOULD know what that is. Mind you if sports injuries is not their specialty and they are just a family practitioner, maybe they just briefly cover it? I don't know... I am just making assumptions here and think maybe I should be looking at finding a new doctor that is both a family practitioner with experience in sports medicine... or maybe I am just asking for too much. lol Just go with the flow I think and it should all work out. :0)

Cheers!

The Good and The Bad

2010-02-05T09:49:00.003-06:00

Workouts? What workouts... lol Been to busy to even TRY to squeeze one in. Remember yesterday I had plans to fit SOMETHING in? Yeah, well it did not happen. I left my house around 9:30 a.m. and did not get back until 5:30 p.m. and was wiped, both physically and mentally. I think for the next bit here I will not force any plans for workouts of any kind and just be happy to get in what I can. Being realistic should be gearing my current goals at the moment and when we are a bit more settled with this moving stuff, I can re-evaluate where I am and continue on. As I manage to get the odd walk, swim, or whatever in I will be accountable and post it. :0) I am taking it easy and not lifting anything or pushing myself to the point that it will interfere with my healing.

Good thing is that the flooring is now bought and is in the new place waiting to be installed next week. My poor son had quite the workout unloading 2 skids of the stuff! We did cheat a bit though and unloaded it in to the heated garage right off the truck so he did not have to travel far. :0) Since I have a small truck we had to make two trips out there. (btw - the flooring guy had the name wrong with the Bamboo flooring, it is engineered oak hardwood which is susposed to be quite durable also - was kind of looking forward to just saying I have Bamboo... lol )

The doctors visit was both up and down. No answer BUT have decided to try to apply for workman's compensation based on a claim I made nine years ago (injured same area of back that hurts now) and see if they feel it is related in any way. I thought it may have been the knee that started it all but I am lost at this point now. Who knows, maybe they can shed some light or eliminate them so we can move on to the next possible cause. The problem with me is that some of the injuries that I have had in the past have been quite severe so how do you determine what the possible cause of this could be? It really is the million dollar question.

I do have to laugh though. You see I am so used to using lingo like IT band, SI joint, and such and I just had the ortho AND my family doctor ask me what IT band stands for... ok... this just really made me giggle. lol

So today my sister is coming over bearing timmies :0) and going to help with a couple loads of just some odd light stuff around the house. My son is home again today (will explain in a bit here) so he will be able to help also. You see I was looking around my old house here and I do not see where I could even put a packed box at this point it is so cluttered with stuff. So I felt maybe we could start clearing some stuff out to make some room for the stuff being packed in boxes.

My son? Well for those that do not know, my son has Asperger's, ADHD, Tourette's, and Asthma. Quite the combination I know... lol We are just having a really bad spell lately about this whole 2012 stuff going on. He likes to watch the history channel and they have covered a few things about this subject. One of them being about the Mayans. Now my son see's things black and white and not much grey areas so trying to explain this to him is really hard. He says the Mayans have always been right in their predictions so something bad IS going to happen 2012. He is a bit paranoid at the moment and quite fragile. I am trying my best to keep him calm but it is pretty hard when he tells me that when ever he lets his mind go bland (as he puts it) this stuff always pops in his mind and then he gets worked up about it. So I have been trying to keep him occupied with me (he also is showing signs of a chest cold so have to keep that in check before full blown asthma attack) and I am enjoying the time with him - he really is a great help. :0) I usually would try to take him to his doc but he just retired suddenly and now we have to find a new one.

So today my mind goes in to positive thoughts and being very optimistic about the coming weeks ahead. I am going to enjoy my coffee, dream about the new place, and plan some nice walking and hopefully soon to be running again routes in that area. :0)

Busy As A Bee

2010-02-04T07:01:00.004-06:00

That is what I have been. No wasted time around here Tuesday/Wednesday and I am so done in at this point. I had plans to go to yoga practice on Tuesday evening, my daily walks, the pool, and the only thing I have been able to do is some slight stretching. This prepping to get everything done for the new house is exhausting me. lol As of yesterday though, the only thing I have left to get is the flooring which is this morning. We have gone from wanting hardwood, then a laminate, and finally we made the final decision last night and Bamboo it is.

I went to chiro yesterday and one bit of good news is that chiro is a bit fed up about all this unknown cause of pain and is going to look deeper in to possible causes like the car accident, injury at work, injury while running, and my job as a possible cause. She kind of figures that someone needs to get on this and if no one else is solving anything, she will. Like the attitude. :0) I head to my family doctor this afternoon to get yet another note to give to work and to see about the referral to the next specialist. :0(

So enough about that. Have to focus on the good stuff around here like the house, number of bedrooms it has (6), bathrooms (3), am I ex-tactic... you bet I am! lol Family and friends are like 'why do you need so many rooms in your house?' I am like 'our bedroom, son's room, animal room, spare bedroom, office, and workout room.' :0) I think it is just the right amount, would like to get spoiled for once, and not to mention it should be way easier to keep things organized.

Today's plans are to grab some help, buy the flooring, and take it to the new house to climatize then it is me time. A walk, stretch, maybe the pool, and then the docs. Depending on the pain level, tonight may be either dance (just minimal arm work or zills), yoga practise (lightly), or just relax and enjoy one of my last fires in my fireplace at my soon to be old house.

Here's to a great day everyone and I will try to catch up the last couple days in reading here.

Cheers! :0)

My New House!

2010-02-01T18:50:00.005-06:00

Today I went and picked up the keys to it! :0) This is the oversized garage
My double wide front doors (noticed the missing shutter and found it)
Three tiered deck (the first tier is the small sun room
Arch to bottom tier on the deck
Double shower head and double seat shower in bathroom off master bedroom
Jet tub.. :0) in main bathroom
Living room
Kitchen (huge prep area on this side of the breakfast bar)
Dining room
Another view of kitchen (check out the sky light) and breakfast bar. Kitchen will have all stainless steel appliances.
And the entrance way.... Sorry the pics aren't the greatest but I forgot my camera and just had the camera phone with me, but I needed SOMETHING to show everyone! lol I didn't take pics of the finished basement because I felt maybe it would be a bit much. ;0)

On Wednesday morning, we are meeting a flooring guy to get a quote for putting hardwood everywhere upstairs but the bathrooms, kitchen and dining room. I soooooo can not wait to be moved in!!! I have to wait patiently for a couple of weeks yet. :0(

Health wise, today I have gone to chiro, went to the pool and swam 1000 meters, and then to the new house to get the keys. Pretty sore at the moment as today was a bit much for me so I think I am going to call it a night everyone. Thanks for bearing with me sharing my pics!

Swim: 1000 meters

Lesson Learned

2010-01-30T18:26:00.003-06:00

Today I have learned a valuable lesson.

DO NOT put on Lakota ointment on your skin anytime prior to going to a hot yoga class. WOW! I thought my skin was going to burn off because it sure felt like it was on fire. I had put some on this morning and once I started to warm up in yoga this afternoon, well that was it. I was wiggling around trying to get comfortable and even poured water on to my towel so I could try and wipe some of it off a good number of times - didn't work too well and only spread it. When I came home and checked out my skin, it was all really red and warm to the touch. Won't be repeating that mistake again.

So that was the biggest highlight of my day. :0)

(you can all laugh now)

Needless to say, I am done for workouts for the day.

Hot Yoga

No Light Yet...

2010-01-29T18:44:00.003-06:00

Went to ortho today to see if he could shed some light on what is happening and if there was something he could do. Nothing. Simply put my skeleton looks good and he is recommending that my doctor now send me to a Rheumatologist to see if they can pin point it. UGH. So no answers for me today folks. I am happy in one way that my bones seemed good so nothing major there, but I have to admit that I was a bit upset that I still did not have an answer. I know I can't just expect an answer immediately, but this has been getting worse and worse... kind of does a bit to your mental stamina.

But enough about the 'woo is me' stuff. I am optimistic and keeping active and in fact, I did 1100 meters in the pool today. :0) Flipper assisted mind you but I did it! I was going to try a small bike and walk again, then it was just going to be a walk... and well, time passed and the pain came so that was it for the day. Tomorrow will be chiro and then some Hot Yoga... I can just feel that warmth now... ;0)

So that is pretty much it for today in a nutshell. I am getting soooooo excited about the new house it is driving me crazy and I want to be there now. (there is a big jacuzzi tub *wink*)

Cheers!

Swim: 1100 meters
Stretches

Thank You!

2010-01-28T07:40:00.005-06:00

I just wanted to thank everyone for all their well wishes. I am keeping myself busy and doing what I can to keep some fitness up. As soon as they pin point what is up I will let you know. I know it is just going to be something small, but I am sure that some of you know just how frustrating it can be. Things have just been getting worse over time and it has just gotten to the point that I seized up.

I also would like to thank everyone for visiting my blog. It is so wonderful to meet new people! Last week when I was a 'stalker' going through many blogs, I came across all yours and read some wonderful stuff.

To Natasha, Mel, and Javachick, you guys have made it easy to blog again for me and I am so thankful that you are still around. :0)

Now yesterday me thinks I may have pushed the boundaries too much for myself... After chiro I decided to try just some easy stuff in the pool. THEN I came home and thought oh just 15 mins on the bike won't hurt... but not stopping there, I did my 30 mins walk. You see, I was just trying my own little tri in my world. lol BIG mistake! Let's just say I had a problem even moving for the rest of the day/evening and it became an early night for me. So, found my limit - which I know I should be getting permission for in the first place but boredom sure does make you do some crazy things some times! lol Tomorrow I go see an Orthopedic specialist to see if we can shed some light on the matter and to pin point what the cause might be.

Today my plans are not that huge, well I guess they are huge in that we sign the legal papers today for our new house!!! Yeah! We take possession on Monday and will post some pics then.

As for workouts I am going to walk, stretch, and some yoga at home. I am NOT pushing it today and if I don't get everything done, I am not going to worry about it as stretching will be my priority. Dance is tonight but I don't think that is going to happen either so I think Grey's Anatomy will be the plan. :0)

Here's to a great day!

Yesterday
Swim: 750 m
Bike: 15 mins
Walk: 30 mins
Stretch
Core work

Today
Walk: 30 mins
Stretch
Core
Yoga: easy 20 mins

Total Relaxation

2010-01-26T21:48:00.004-06:00

Yep. That is what I feel right now. Very mellow. :0)

I just came from an amazing yoga class at a new place for me and I think I just dropped about 10 lbs in water! lol We sqeezed 50 people in to a small studio, like I am talking mats are touching each other all the way around. You could not step on the floor because it was just not there, only a sea of mats. I got clocked in the head once which considering the set up I am surprised I did not get hit more. I did not know this but I guess tonight was raising money for Haiti. Glad I went. After wards they served this amazing chai tea that I sipped all the way home while my hubby drove (he was my taxi for the night).

Today was not too bad as I did my walk this morning and then I ended up getting a massive headache. So I ended up going for a nap for a couple of hours to get rid of it. It worked thankfully.

I must have been in the creative mood to try new things again because for supper I made a healthy version of fried chicken, curry cauliflower, and corn bread. Sorry no pics but it was super tasty and I WILL be making that again.

My back and leg only bugged me a bit today and was more on the achy side than anything else. I stretched pretty good at home but wanted another really good dig in so I headed to yoga, and very glad I did.

So that is my day pretty much in a nut shell. Tomorrow I am contemplating heading to the pool but we will see... not too sure If I should push it anymore.

Have a good evening all!

Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work
Yoga

Payback...

2010-01-25T18:29:00.008-06:00

For all those that post beautiful food on their blogs. :0)

It is payback time to post some of my own. I know it is not really running stuff, but it is ALL healthy stuff and some of it was from craving from your blogs. lol

My morning breakie consisting of an oatmeal made with egg whites, cinnamon, ground flax seed, non-fat milk, and apples.

Lunch consisted of a peanut butter, banana, and honey on toasted whole wheat bread.

Supper, I decided to try a new recipe called Greek Roasted Chicken. I liked placing the lemon under the skin as it felt like I was some kind culinary chef. lol

The end result... It was DELISH!
(The rice stuffing was cooked inside the chicken)
I am realizing now though that I forgot the veggies but blame it on the excitement of a new dish.

There was a small garden salad too but, I figured there was enough pics.

So, hungry yet? :0)

To keep up with the copycat theme of the day here I also had my very first Iskiate (Chia seed Drink) mentioned in the popular book 'Born to Run' - forgot to take a pic though. Which reminds me, I had bought the audiobook of this and quite liked it so I went out and bought the real deal also.

Well you know that snow I had taken pictures of before? We got lots more and still are. I got stuck just outside my driveway this morning on my way to chiro so I had to shovel myself out. Not something I am really supposed to do right now and I did end up in quite a bit of pain. I think that really threw off the rest of my day here as I just can not get comfortable. I did try to do my 30 min walk... finished it, but I think I maybe should have just called it for the day. The rest of the night here I am just going to veg with my ice packs. I was considering heading out to another yoga class to stretch out but I believe the ice pack idea with a good movie would be better for me. There is always tomorrow.

Dreaming of running...

Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work

A Bit of Snow

2010-01-24T12:01:00.011-06:00

Just a bit of snow started to arrive on Friday and then it continued... I was really hoping that the summer stuff that I had neglected to put away would be ok as we really did not get much snow this past winter, which was REALLY unusual. Now as the snow continues, I think I may be digging my stuff out when we move. We have weather advisories out as the visibility is quite limited at times. Even though the pictures may not show it, the blowing snow gets pretty bad and we had to shovel our SUV out of the garage this morning.

All I know is that I would like to go out and play! Go for a walk, sledding, anything to get me out right now.

I did manage to get out for a bit yesterday for a few things and one of them was MUCH needed. I went to my hot yoga class... the heat felt sooooo good. I took it easy and pretty much did all beginner or modified poses to get me through it. Going back out in to the cold after didn't really phase me one bit as I was in complete la la land.

I managed yesterday to get another great walk in again with the same increased pace I did on Friday and today my plans are to do the same. I am hoping that next week I will be able to increase the time. Hopefully by seeing the ortho at the end of the week we will more of an idea about things, where I am at, and exactly what CAN I do.

Eating wise things are still going really great and last night we all went out to a sushi place for supper. I honestly was going to take some pictures of it, but when the food arrived at the table, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. Great food but uber expensive. Two adults and one 13 yr old? May as well gone to Red Lobster. We will go back, just not very much and will treat that place as a treat. Also, with us moving to a bedroom community just outside of the city here next month, eating out will be decreased even more. More about that one later.

Here's to wishing all running or even just out and about this weekend a safe one!

Yesterday
Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work
Hot yoga

Today
Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core Work

Painful Awakenings

2010-01-22T13:56:00.010-06:00

The above lovable furball should come with a warning - Do Not Waken Abruptly In Bed. I was having a lovely sleep last night until something startled my furry friend and then blood wept. Ashes, my lovely cat, used my torso, arm and head as an escape path to safety. So lets just say that I woke up pretty stiff from the sudden tension and had lovely deep claw marks clearly marking the path he took.

Chiro this morning felt so good and was much needed. I didn't even go for my walk till after I went. As for my walk, wow, I haven't felt this good on the treadmil, or moving around at all, in a LONG time. I did speed up just a bit and kept my time the same. I felt no worse after so I hope it was ok to do so. This waiting to see an ortho is killing me...

I must say after that good walk I had a tune in my head: (tune of Raw Hide)

Keep runnin', runnin', runnin'
Through the paths we're movin'
Keep them legs a runnin'...

You get the just of it. lol

To keep myself from going insane I have been keeping myself busy though the last while. I have been teaching myself guitar the last six months, taking loads of pictures, yoga, dance, I was working at my job up until I couldn't even move anymore which was early Jan. here, trying to make sure I get at least on daily walk in, reading, looking for a new house (which we did find and I'll post another time), cooking more, sewing, movie watching, and listening to new music. I haven't biked or swam yet this year. Biking was a no for now because of what is going on injury wise (unsure) and quite honestly it has been cold and the thought of getting in to cold water right now just chills me... I promise I will look in to it though. :0) It really would do me a lot of good, at least just some arm stuff and no kicking.

Well speaking of swimming and yoga, maybe I should see about doing one of them this afternoon. :0)

My Asics

Walking: 30 mins (not too sure about this DailyMile logging thing - I have been logging but it is not showing up on my side bar widget thingy???? )
Stretching
Core work

Goal Ideas, Thoughts, and What Nots

2010-01-21T12:49:00.005-06:00

Goals

I have many people to thank for their contributions to this blog world. Through you I have reminded myself that goals help you through life especially when there is turmoil. I obviously have goals like:
1. lose wt
2. stay healthy
3. get running again
4. stay injury free,
but I need to remind myself of these.

Then there are the fun goals, the little or sometimes big ones that make things a bit interesting or perhaps give purpose to something. I am impressed with all the ones I have come across in my readings. You guys have the best of ideas out there!
-raising money for charity
-running in all states
-100/365 books in the same number of days (ditto with movies)
-100 burpees/crunchies/pushups or any other exercise
-Half marathon/Full marathon/ or even your very first 5k
-lose wt
-a picture a day for a year
-all food in pictures
-diary through pictures
I find them all so interesting and have decided to contemplate something for myself. Not sure yet but it will come. I know the best already would be.... Can I make it one full year with out getting injured? hahaha Now for the ones that really know me, you know that is a good one! lol

But seriously, I can't plan for any race at the moment until we figure out what is wrong and why it is getting worse with out me doing ANYTHING strenuous. So until we figure what is up, I am on the hunt for a fun, useful, or helpful goal.

Back in my daily life part of things, I have quite the busy day already. Did my walk, stretches, and core work, went to one specialist for some tests, came home to eat, plan supper, more stretches, ice, and to....

work on my laptop!!! wooo hooo! Yep, got it back and soooooo happy. :0)

So, if you don't mind, my laptop and I are going to do some fun reading with some new friends I have come across in our little cyber world so I can live vicariously though many of you in your running, swimming, cycling, and life just as it is. :0)

Walking: 30 mins
stretching
core work

Notice...

2010-01-20T17:56:00.003-06:00

Just to let all know that read my blog that in the near future all regular blog content will be on the main homepage. I still will have a navigation bar for other things like now and I will try to keep the blog stuff on the separate 'blog' page like now, for now...

So please bare with the transfer. :0)

Cheers!

Today I Am Stalking...

2010-01-20T14:28:00.003-06:00

I am on the hunt for some blogs to read to place in my new 'blogroll' of sorts. I was going through some of the other blogs that I used to read and there has been no movement in even longer than I have been away. So I am on the hunt and stalking some newbies for me.

In the mean time I have been trying to figure out how this blog was set up again. I was hoping to move some stuff around in my navigation bar like what is in the homepage - I would like that to be my blog page instead and use the other pages for what they are used for. Make any sense? Didn't think so. lol

Today hasn't been too eventful thus far. Did my walk on the hamstermill, stretched, core work, went to chiro, had some more x-rays done, exchanged some movie rentals, planned supper, playing with my blog, and searching for some new ones to read. Pretty exciting heh? I think I am done on the playing with my blog for now until I get my computer back as I have all the reference stuff for the layout and such on there.

So as I am stalking in cyber world, I am becoming more and more excited about getting back on the road running wise. I am reading about all these wonderful races, both the ups and downs of them, and just wish it was me. There is a list I have made up of all the races I would like to do in my life time and it seems I add more and more as I read on. I know I will never be fast - and I know it is wrong for me to say it that way, but it is the realistic expectation of myself. I just want to get out there and move, meet new people, and just enjoy myself out there. It's all just about having some fun.

Well, off I go again stalking away...

Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work

VFF's

2010-01-19T11:44:00.003-06:00

Official web site is Vibram FiveFingers (tks for pic)

Pretty neat stuff. I have come across the odd person wearing these and had always wondered what they were and now I know. In our world wide web I have read a few blogs about them and will pass on this info to you so you may find out a little more. That is if this intrigues you as much as it did me.

Fourhourworkweek
Runwithe
There were more blogs but I forgot to bookmark them... :0P

So like a curious cat, I searched my city online to see if and who may carry such a new thing to me. Well the one place that popped up was our locally owned running store, Brainsport, and then I saw another store that intrigued me even more.... Escape Sports. I phoned the place up to check and verify that they do, indeed carry these intriguing things and a variety of sizes I may think I was. They did so I clean up and off I waddled.

I must say I was impressed not only by the store itself but the service. When I arrived, there was another gentleman trying a pair of VFF's on and quite liking them. I really liked the down to earth atmosphere there and I was promptly helped. My foot was sized appropriately and then the trying on of these marvelous inventions started. I am in love with these things.

Now, after I had picked what I liked in VFF's, I was drawn to some jackets by Loki. Now these were also the cat's meow also. I am talking zippered vents, hood, built in mitts, and... built in face sheild! Now maybe I just live under a rock and have not contact with outside life but I have NEVER seen these before and they were just the coolest.

So if you haven't guessed it by now... guess where I am going shopping when I get some cash. :0)
Not just a want but a need because I need a new jacket as mine is falling apart and I haven't seen anything that has caught my eye till now. I also think that either one of the Loki jackets or hoodies is going to be great for my son.

As for the rest of today, doc in afternoon and figure out if there is a date yet that I can return to work.

Well I guess I won't be returning to work tomorrow... off for about 3 wks again here and assess again then. ARGH!!! Hopefully the specialist can shed light here because I am going to go crazy!
So much fun...

Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work

New Shoes

2010-01-18T11:52:00.006-06:00

Well this past weekend was spent looking for new shoes. I figure what can hurt me even more by getting them. So off I go to our 'better' running store to get checked out. Again, overpronating when walking but looking at the tread wear... I am on the outside. So Neutral with cushioning and then what ever worked after that with them watching my gait.

So, came home with my tried, tested, and true favorite brand, my Asics (Gel-Landreth 5 this time), and a bit of a newcomer to me in the walking world, some New Balance Walkers 845's. I figure with all this walking I am going to be doing for a while here I had better get the right shoe for the job. The New Balance aren't the prettiest out there for my taste, but they were the ones that worked. The runners, well, I am staying optimistic that I will heal in a descent amount of time and not to mention but there was a sale going on at the store...

I went to chiro again today as I am still at 3 days/wk for now and I so can not wait til I can see the ortho so maybe some light can be shone on the situation of what is up. This not being able to sit, walk, stand, ANYTHING for the past while now is driving me crazy. I am faithfully doing my stretches, trying to get about a 30 min walk in every day, ice, ibuprofen, a bit of core work, etc., and the list goes on. I am slowly getting the wt back down so there is less stress on the body. I am just really running out of answers/questions here on what to do next. This is where I need to practice my patience... to wait till I see the specialist. Tomorrow though I have to see the family doc to see if I am able to head back to work yet. I highly doubt it but work needs to have a note and tomorrow was the next check in day. I also have to start the EI process as there has been no income while I have been off. If I could pin point this injury to where/when it happened then great, this may be easy, but when things just got worse and worse... I don't even know anymore. I am scared that this is some bio-mechanic thing initially from my car accident that did not heal right or something I did wrong in the process. For all know this could be from one of my falls that I had on my long runs that I had treated with physio... See? Many questions.

Now this weekend I was not the only one getting new shoes, my son was also. All I can say is size sevens for my son! Ack! He has hit one of his growing spurts and I am sure he is going to tower over me by summer. He is now the proud owner of two new pairs of running like shoes.

Now for a bit of chic flic talk (guys you may want to leave now).

I just watched the movie My Life In Ruins and it was hilarious! I enjoyed this movie as it was just what I needed right now. A lot of humor, a bit of sadness, and a happy ending. Typical plot but heh, who cares! I was happy. The Rotten Tomato site pretty much summed up that it was a waste of a movie, but I do disagree and since this is my blog, I can. :0)

Weight wise things are going in the right direction. I am going to continue to do what little workouts I can until I am told I can do more.

Walking: 30 mins 3 mi/hr
Stretching
Core work

Shoes, Gait, Bio-Mechanics....

2010-01-15T12:40:00.006-06:00

And this list could go on...

The usual suspects and questions that I even asked myself about why this pain and now worse is happening.

1. Do I have the right shoes for me? It seems to change every time I go to get shoes and different physio recommendations

2. Have I had my gait analyzed? Ah, yes twice now... I thought the last one really nailed it but??? Mind you your foot needs do change...

3. Am I doing core strengthening exercises and any other exercises? Yes, but could be doing more I guess.

4. Am I stretching and not over stretching? Yes, I am stretching.

5. Am I doing the recommended exercises from physio to keep things well? Yes on that one to.

6. Do I need to get newer shoes? This one might be a possibility? I still think they are under mileage but maybe they are just done...

7. Or is this all just results of an old injury that was not healed correctly or treated correctly? This one seems to jump out as an answer also as this could be anyone's fault including mine. Not fault per say, but just not right?

8. Am I training too hard, too long, or too fast? Ah, I can't even get to training at all for the last while. No over use here.

So these are the the things that are going through my mind right now and I just wish there was a magic wand that could fix things in an instant. That really would not solve the initial problem though because if this is my fault in something I am doing wrong, I would like to know so that I do not repeat it. You should try to learn from the past right?

I now know why even more why the sport of Tri's is so much of a temptation and a fast growing sport. Not too much stress on one part of the body... But it really does have it's challenges that is for sure and it is quite hard. I was going to look at it before and maybe once I get things better here, I should really consider looking at something like this for me. I know it is a different thrill and it is just hard for me to imagine getting in to a zone like I do with running. *Remember I am a last of the pack girl and not a speedster. lol

Once again, I am going to vear out to the best running store here and see what I can find, get fitted properly, yadda, yadda, yadda. I will just start with the shoes and then go from there and then just patiently wait to see the ortho at the end of the month. Maybe I am just missing something...

Ahhh, runners really are the worst! lol

Walking: 30 mins
Stretching
Core work

Dance

2010-01-15T08:03:00.008-06:00

One thing I did start up on again was tribal bellydancing (ATS) as I did miss it. I used to do it before but ended up focusing more on my running instead. So I figure while I am out of commission for a bit, I need to stay active. I am not going all gung ho and such with the moves right now cause it would hurt but even just the trying to walk around and move my arms and such is great. This pic was taken in December after a small performance. Dig the makeup? :0) Maybe I will be brave and post a full body pic of what I wore, full belly and all. lol Will make a great comparison pic later on though.

My poor little Mac laptop is in for repairs. :( So right now I am using my hubby's old laptop (microsoft) and I am going nuts!!! Not to mention most of my pics are on my mac to show, but just the ease of use for me... I am not used to it again and it makes for some interesting typing and usage. lol The only thing that is great about this thing is the huge display. :0) I sure would like access to most of my pics though...

So, chiro is this morning again and boy oh boy do I need it. Last night was the first night at dance since before the holidays and even though I did not do much, just the moving around did me in a bit. Mind you I move around for anything, just walking for a few minutes and I am in pain... I am going to ask about some water activities even if it is just light walking in there. I know when I tried to swim before it hurt the knee pretty good and with the SI joint involved now??? Who knows. I can just keep trying.

Eating wise not too bad but yesterday did not get as much veggies as I had hoped. Must change that today.

It was really great to catch up a bit on some ol' bloggers I used to read. I still have the links and I am going to keep them for now - but of course if you want me to delete them just let me know. I like a familiar face to this cyber world. :0)

Other than chiro, my plan today is to just get moving and try not to over do it. Will report later.

New Year... New Life

2010-01-14T15:22:00.004-06:00

Well, well, well, it has been quite a while now hasn't it. lol

I don't want to really give a long and drawn out novel about what happened to me the last while but I will summerize as much as I can. I don't want to give a bunch of excuses either because I must become accountable for what has happened. This is my third attempt at wt loss and I will make it this time. If running is not to happen any more then so be it I will find something else to or try tri's or something... that would really be a feat in itself! I just can't sit back and do nothing as I have always been active. So here it goes.

I was doing great, then bad and all over the place... Between family heart attacks (x2), strokes (x1), attempts of suicide (x1), cancer (x3), pancreatitis (x1), and many other general misfortunes... I let myself down and did not take care of myself. Simply said. Then whenever I had tried to, something else happened.

I tried to keep up my running and that even went to the wayside as my stupid knee just does not want to give up, more like it is prob the IT band but we have done pretty much everything besides surg and I am seeing the surgeon here at the end of the month. Right now I am off of work due to the fact that the pain is now up in to my lower back. Yes, have done the evil roller, stretches, ice, wrap, etc... you name it. I just can't be comfortable in any spot at the moment.

One good thing about this past year is that I am officially a non-smoker!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOO! I will admit that I slipped here and there but as of the end of March beginning of April. I don't have the exact date because I was not trying to focus on it which worked for me - not to mention the Champix! lol Which I will mention, that stuff is EVIL but it worked. I found that if I did not focus on how many days and stuff it was easier for me. Some people want the exact day and I am like what is the diff, I am not smoking now. :0)

So my weight... ah yes... not too pleaseant. I started of the year at 158.6!!!! my highest in such a long time. I gave in to old habits and used food too much as a comfort. So let's just say I did not handle the stress too well.

In other good news, I did take some trips this past summer. My son and I did a driving trip by ourselves in my new truck - yes you read right, a new truck. Not a huge thing, just a Ford Ranger but I LOVE it. It is my third one and my car finally had it... I do wish that I would have bought a 4x4 though... So, yes, my son and I did a mommy/son trip to Jasper and around BC, mainly Prince George and such. We had a great time together and I taught him how to gold pan which was in prep for my next trip that we did in August. Alaska!!!! The three of us, hubby, son and I, drove along with the two dogs (Denver had to be put down - another not fun thing last fall) and off we went. We originally were just going to drive to Anchorage, but we felt that since we were there we may as well see lots more! So we ended up going to Fairbanks, then took the Top of the World highway (not for the sqeemish) to Dawson City, Yukon. It was an amazing trip and I will fill in pics of some of this later.

So, my new plans? 1. get my life back 2. have better coping mechanisms 3. get healthy 4. fix knee so I can run again or start speed walking lol but mainly find cause and see what can be done 5. get physically active again with other things 6. lose wt back to healthy norms again

So there is a brief summary of what is up... oh and by the way - We got a new house and moving in 1 month. Lets see how I can do this... lol

Wii Active: 1:14 hrs (including day 3 of 30 day challenge)

A Beautiful Warm Weekend

2009-02-09T06:36:00.003-06:00

We had a bit of a warm spell hit us the past few days and I managed to enjoy some of it. I did not try to run outside yet as it is WAY too slippery at the moment for me. So I ran on the hamstermill instead. :D

My mom is doing way better and the same with my grandmother. I have been over to both places the past couple of days visiting and my mom really wanted my son to stay over night on Saturday night so I let him. It was nice so that my son could see that his nanna was OK and it made him feel better.

Hubby and I took advantage of not having my son around and went to the thriller 'The Uninvited' on Saturday night.

I still have been pretty busy and trying to freshen up on my sign language skills as some of my team mates at work are taking level 1 of sign language and I am practicing with them. Man I can not believe how much you lose of it when you don't use it anymore! lol I almost feel like a beginner all over again. :D

Food wise things are going really well and I definitely need to get my rings adjusted here. They are getting really loose. I am scared I am going to lose them anytime here.

Well just a quick note here again this morning and will read up on everyone tonight. Hopefully some of you won't be snowed in like they say in the news!

OK...

2009-02-05T17:54:00.002-06:00

So here it goes.

First of all, around x-mas time it was a schmozel at work and everyone was so busy and getting sick. I was trying to arrange my son's early x-mas because he was heading out to his biological dad's for x-mas this year. So that went ok in the end. I ended up getting really sick the day after school ended and I finally broke my fever on boxing day. The rest of the time I was trying to get better so all plans to go thru my house kinda went down hill. The only thing I managed to do was get rid of 7 huge garbage bags of clothes! Six were mine and one was my son's. Towards the end of the holiday before school started, my husky, Tala, started to cry and things got really bad and she acted like she was dying or something. So we took her in and they didn't know if it was arthritis (she's 3.5 yrs), a growth, or a fracture. They did blood tests also and put her on pain killers and anti-inflamatories. I just took her back today for a month follow up and more x-rays to see if they could figure things out. She, in the mean time was back in good health and up to her hyper self. The x-rays finally showed that she had fractured her leg last month. So, no more meds, thankfully and just another 4-6 weeks of light activity and to lose more weight. I really did not think she was over weight...

My son got pretty sick one week there, then me for the next week, and last week my mom had a heart attack (a few other things go with that one that is just to complicated to get in to... let's just say that I have contacted Mental Health about the matter). That same day my grandmother fell and broke her hip and had to have her hip replaced. This Monday, my aunt's father had a heart attack and was transferred here to the city.

I have been doing really well otherwise and just had to miss a couple of days of work to get things sorted out on Monday and Tuesday here.

Running has been there but not as much as I had hoped with everything that has gone on. Cardio wise things are still good so I hope now that things have settled I can get back on schedule my plans and goals for this year.

Eating wise I have never felt better and am still pretty happy with the decision I have made. In fact I have never felt healthier than I do now.

I have tried my best to catch up with everyone and if I haven't yet, please bear with me. lol There is tonnes of reading to do! :D It really motivates me to read about everyone's progress in all areas of their lives.

Well, that's it for now in a nut shell.

Until tomorrow, cheers!

Heh Everyone!

2009-02-04T06:38:00.002-06:00

Yes I have been MIA for the last while and some are good reasons and some are not...

Great news is that I am now 129 lbs and feeling WONDERFUL!!! :D I am still doing the same eating plan and quite honestly I have cheated twice and I knew I learned a lesson about how certain foods made me feel icky after but just had to do it again and felt utterly disgusting! lol So I know this eating plan for me.

And for my new reader... ;) Thank you for your comments and I am glad you found some inspiration to find your own eating plan that works for you. You go girl! You are doing a wonderful job. I believe I do have a couple of clean eating books around and just LOVE them! There is also a magazine I have picked up on this as well.

Well, I am off to get ready for work here and life has finally gave me some time to get back blogging. I will fill everyone in here later.

Take care and I am excited to catch up with everyone!

Cheers!

And It Continues! :D

2008-12-06T08:57:00.002-06:00

New wt is 132 lbs! I am feeling wonderful and continuing on with my journey this time - and it feels soooo right! Tomorrow I will be taking my measurements to see how the inch loss has come along because this time my clothes are feeling way loser than before. Things are leaving in the right places for once and I swear my waist is smaller than last time even when I was 124 something. So I am checking tomorrow to see. :)

My week has continued on as busy as it was at the beginning and I am still having eye twitches from all the stress and business around here. This weekend I am catching up on a couple of things, x-mas shopping with my son, and going to my niece's baptism tomorrow morning, groceries, cleaning, laundry, and attempt time to put up the x-mas tree!

Well, that's all the time I have here for now. I will catch up with everyone here later tonight when I take a break. :D

Animals and Christmas

2008-12-02T14:35:00.003-06:00

For all those animal lovers out there, I came across this site looking for Christmas trivia for my work's holiday party. We put a spin on the typical grab and steal game that is always played. We ask a trivia question to the group and if you answer there are two things: you get the answer right you can steal a gift or grab from the table, if you get it wrong you just grab from the table. A gift is only allowed to be stolen twice. We figure this will get a bit more interaction between co-workers at the party as some tables might work together on this. :) Only myself and one other co-worker knows the official answers and has the list.

Now on to some holiday humor...

Wrapping Presents with a cat/dog (scroll half way down)

We got a good chuckle out of these. :D

So Much Fun...

2008-12-02T11:21:00.004-06:00

NOT!!! Well I did not get as much done as I wanted this weekend, but we did get some stuff done. We ended up getting a couple of x-mas gifts for my mom and son. I am a bit afraid to mention what my son got on here as he sometimes reads my blog. lol But I am going to take the chance. :) My son has an old desk top computer that is WAY out of date but a great monitor. So we decided to get him a new desk top computer that was less than fixing and re-building his old one. It also came with a printer which is wonderful so he can have his own one instead of always using mine. We also got him a new back pack that has a compartment to hold his 12" macbook (my old one that the hard drive was replaced) so he has a proper one to use to take it to school, and then some Calgary Flames stuff (little things). He did ask for the new Guitar Hero but we ended up having his uncle get that for him because we spent so much already. My son asked for quite a few things that were all quite good ideas so I was proud of him for that. The one last thing that I thought might be a good thing that he can use is a digital camera (he asked for one). So, I am going to go hunt for a cheap one for him - nothing expensive as this may just be a novelty. We did see one in the store that was really cool but we would have liked it for ourselves, since ours isn't that great anymore for what I like it for, so we considered just giving him ours and getting this new one. Wow! That was a mouthful! lol

Anyways, now I am trying to figure out what I am getting hubby for x-mas - have NO clue. I have some good ideas but every time I mention one, he says that is for the house/family and it is not fair for just me to buy it. So, my son and I have gone out and looked around but nothing has hit us yet. So the search goes on...

How is everyone else doing in their shopping endeavors?

My treadmill is AWESOME and I can't believe how much I missed having one around here since my last one broke down in the spring. This new one is so cool - literally! <- it has a fan!! lol Javachick - yes the convenience is just WONDERFUL! I was going nuts not having one around here. lol

I have been a bit tired here as on Sunday night my son and I worked on making a power pt on China for his school assignment. We were both up till about 2 am then he went to bed and as I was shutting it down, something happened and we lost most of it. I ended up staying up till 5 am getting all the pics back on and putting all the special effects back on. Needless to say I got 2 hours of sleep and I did not go to work yesterday. ;) I tried to take a nap but couldn't... but I think I ended up wearing myself out because now it seems like I have a cold - which generally happens when I don't get much sleep. :P So today I am not at work again. I can't take the risk of getting the students sick.

So, besides getting on the treadmill pretty much everyday here, lol, things are still going wonderful and I really do feel this is the best plan for me. It really feels like I am losing inches like crazy here and yesterday, I wore a size 7 jeans! Besides the carb withdrawal feelings for the first little bit, I have never felt better and I am enjoying everything I eat without wishing I could have the 'white foods' as I call them. I am still eating more veggies than I ever was before even on ww, and get to have my butter. :D Last night we went out for some Chinese food with hubby's dad and with making some great choices, I never felt deprived one bit and quite satisfied.... I may even ate too much but the scale was still the same so no harm done. ;)

Well, I am off to check on everyone here and then head out to drop off hubby at the court house since he is off to training for 1 week.

I Got It!!!

2008-11-30T09:44:00.003-06:00

I got my brand new treadmill! I am sooooo excited... (can't you tell! lol ) I found one for 1/3 the price at Canadian Tire at their Saturday Special with a great warranty. We showed up for 7 am and stood in line for one. I must say that I was VERY impressed on how they handled everything. It was the first time that a place actually brought enough stock in to cover the need as they brought in over 225 of them. When you paid for it you were given a chit and then drove to just behind with your vehicle where they had two lines going; one guy to check the chit and then 4 guys to load each treadmill up in the vehicles. It went fast and smooth and I was quite happy about the whole thing... then we got home! lol This treadmill is WAY bigger than any of the others I have had and with just my hubby and I to bring it in, it was an experience to say the least. Hubby ended up hurting his back a bit but we made it. Last night I put it all together and gave it a spin..... All I can say is oooooooooo.... :D So nice and quiet and love everything about it for the money! The fan is so nice to have so I don't have to rig one up for my really long runs. It is set back up in the living room like I used to before I had everything set up downstairs before we got tenants again. I even have a special blanket for it to cover it up afterwards to help with the animal fur not getting all over it badly. lol My son even insisted that he had a go on it!

So last night I did about 3.5 k (it is in miles which I have to get used to again) and today I am going to do about 45 mins worth. I downloaded a widget for my computer to convert things for me so I have an idea of what I have done when finished. I may just have to switch right over to miles here again!

So, that's my big news! I still have not been able to start anyone's homework yet or groceries and cleaning! Yesterday's activities did go well though as my son did better in his bowling and he was surprised at how much fun he had at my union's x-mas party - I should have taken him before but never really felt like going... I guess who you work with can really make a difference on many things. Next year he will be too old to go. :(

I hope all are doing well and I will try to catch up later this evening when I have a bit more time.

Yeah!

2008-11-28T08:06:00.002-06:00

I am back to 133 lbs! I have now hit my first goal milestone like the picture beside.... now to hit the next one. ;)

Things are going really great and my mind set is soooo stable! I don't have anymore of my up and downs mood swings or blood sugar drops that I had before. My co-workers even commented on how I am really coming up with good ideas at work lately and how great of mood I have been in. the one thing that I have found easier also is getting over the little things that would normally set me off for a whole day. Now it is just the really bad things that keep me flustered. lol (not many of them!)

Well I was supposed to go and pick up a treadmill from my aunt's house last night and my cousin decided he was going to use it so I am now going to go looking for one this weekend. It is working out because there are sooooo many sales going on right now that there are some good deals to be had - also makes a GREAT X-mas gift for me! :D I will just get to use it earlier. :)

I had a great run last night and just went around the area with some good ol' tunes on with nothing else to worry about. Felt great!

This weekend is going to be pretty busy here as we are moving my youngest sister in to her first place with her new baby, my son's bowling, my union's kid's x-mas party, help my son finish and assignment for Monday, do 2 assignments of my own, and the rest of the normal weekend stuff around here like cleaning, laundry, groceries, etc., and I still would like to get a good run in on Sunday morning! Whew! I get tired just looking at it all. lol (kidding) :D

So, I hope everyone is having a great day where ever you are and not getting too snowed in. We lost all ours, and I am really hoping for a dumping here at some pt.... (I know crazy talk) :)

Things Are Right On Track!

2008-11-26T18:17:00.002-06:00

Well I have not been around the last bit because we have been so busy around here with everything. Between daily chores, homework (my son's and mine), getting all meals done and ready for the next day including breakies, I rarely am getting a break!

I have some GREAT news amongst all of this though... My hubby got a job with the sheriff's here! So as long as he likes it, we are staying where we are and not moving. :D So, next week my application will go back in to the RN program here and hopefully I will be accepted again and NOT have to drop out before it starts because of finances.

In the wt. loss depart things are going AWESOME and I could not be happier with it. I get a great night's sleep every night and fall asleep hard. I have no cravings still what so ever and I am finding new recipes all the time to try. The one thing that I thought was the neatest was making mock mashed potatoes with cauliflower! I never would have thought of that one.

Running is still about 3 times a week right now and just taking it easy. This weekend I finally get to bring the treadmill from my aunt's house over here to use. I am sooooooo excited!!!! lol

Well, time to catch up with everyone to see how everyone is doing.

So When is The Snow REALLY Arriving?

2008-11-16T09:40:00.002-06:00

You know, I woke up and still... only a scattering of snow on the ground. I am not super gung ho about winter and all, but could it at least give us a dumping so I can have a real excuse to wear a winter jacket? lol Some days I feel real silly with my mitts and that because there is nothing on the ground! Just doesn't feel right to me.

Thanks to all who comment on my previous post. It really is quite hard trying to go through everything again as I tend to get some flashbacks. The main point why I do share though is for the motivation for others. Even if only just one person 'gets' it, then I have done my job.

Well, I was so busy working on my homework here that I forgot to report my wi.... 135.4 lbs! :D Down 0.6 lbs and I am quite happy about that as I did have a hot wing fest on Thursday night. lol I only ate about 12 of them... but they do contain a bit of what I don't want to eat right now. They sure tasted pretty good though and in another family night 'what's for supper' pickle... I just may do it again. ;) (there wasn't that much of the other stuff - at least they were not breaded)

I did manage to head out for a couple of small runs this week and I am realizing that it is time to get another treadmill here. I HATE ice and those ice grippers only do so much as I still feel quite unsafe. I contemplated asking for one for x-mass... but I do have one ready to come over here already - just have to find a truck. My aunt has one in her basement and said I could have it and just haven't found a way to get it over here yet. Mind you, she only lives about 5 blocks away... I wonder if it has some small wheels at the bottom and I could just roll it over here.....

Anyways, x-mass is around the corner here and this is the first year that I am at a complete loss on what to get everyone! Usually I have ideas up the wazoo but this time... nope, nadda. I serious have to get cracking on this. My son is in that still likes toys age but becoming a teenager... my hubby? Well, who knows... I think he'll like something and be totally wrong about it or never use it. I am at just a complete loss here.

Since I worked on homework from 8:30 am yesterday to 1 am last night (and handed in two assignments), I think today is house cleaning, laundry, groceries, and plan the week day. My goal is to get as much as I can get done now and then hopefully tonight I can just sit back and relax.

Have a great day!

My Life

2008-11-13T16:17:00.012-06:00

Ok... you are going to have to bear with me here as I go through all this. It hasn't been an easy life and I have had my share of the hospitals. lol Right now I will share the stuff that I share with people about me. I have had the usual kid bumps, bruises, and have grabbed the odd curling iron or placed my hand on the hot stove as a kid, but the rest have made me who I am today.

I have had a bit of a rough life to start. Born with huge dumbo ears and had the 'old way' of correction using the pins. I basically had a football helmet of bandages on my head and lost my balance all the time - something to do with the surgery affecting my inner ear? So that was fun. At the age of two and just getting my bearings to begin with, not something that a kid looks forward to. Things did work out in the end though. :)

At the age of 3, I tripped over a cord attached to a kettle and burned my body from the neck down all over my arms and torso, both front and back. A lot of complications arouse and I was in the hospital for six months dealing with all kinds of stuff including pneumonia and physical therapy. I was not eligible for skin grafting as I was too skinny and under weight. It has taken me till after high school to wear a tank top as I was too self-conscious of my scars. I do not have much left except one that goes from over one shoulder, down my arm a bit, and across my chest.

As the years progressed, I started to have seizures that my mom noticed. She did take me to the doc and they did not really look into it far. It was not until things got bad enough at school that one teacher finally got involved - it was then that I was diagnosed with juvenile epilepsy. I would either have the grande mals or the petite sensory ones, as it depended on the circumstance I was in. I had to actually laugh at this because I was always sent to the principal's office from a different teacher because she thought I was being a smart ass and not paying attention to her. She was kinda silent too me after the verdict came in. :) So, the pills they had me on I swear could knock out a horse. It is nothing to actually have to sit in a chair to take a pill because I would be a walking zombe with them and out of it. Physical exercise was a no go because I just had such a hard time with it. I am lucky today that I have grown out of this but it will always be a constant worry to me if they start to occur again.

Now, if I didn't think I had it bad already... on July 7th, 1992, the world for me came to a halt.

I was in a serious car accident that took them almost an hour to get me out of the car. I was hit by a truck doing about 80 kms/hr and pushed in to another truck. I was the driver and was embedded under the steering column and the clutch went in to my right foot. They could not use the jaws of life because it would have caused more damage to me so they had to take the car apart from the back, across the top, to the front and get to me that way. I was taken to one hospital and stabilized till I was ready to transport to another city. The family was called in as they did not expect me to make it.

It was touch and go for a while there as I coded a few times and they had to cut the surgery short because I was not doing too well. In the end I ended up breaking numerous ribs, right humerous, shattering my left femur (they had to put a rod in), hip, both scapulas, shoulder bones that I can not remember the names of :), fractured left skull by my ear (head injury), completely severed radial right nerve by the broken humerous, severe contusions to both my lungs, and spleen (they were going to remove this), damaged the right ventricle of my heart, and fractured my neck. Yep, you read it right... my neck. There were some other things but, these were the main ones that I can remember.

I had no feeling from my neck down for a while and until the swelling went down, they were unsure of the full extent of it. Luckily, things worked out well that I did not have as much damage as they thought I may have and I did end up getting feeling back. Well... that is except for my arm... the whole top of my arm that is connected to the radial nerve that was severed that does things like being able to lift your fingers or open your hand.

So, throughout my almost couple months stay in the hospital, I was told many things. First of all I was told I would not be able to walk again, and then I could walk - but would always need a cane... as I would always have a severe limp. I was told I would never be able to run, have kids, and would never have the full use of my arm and hand. Now each time I would have a success, they would always shoot me down with another one of there downer comments. I will never forget the first day that they put me in a wheel chair... it took almost five people to put me in because everywhere they touched, I was broken. lol As time moved on and through physical therapy, I was shown how to get in myself with help and told myself I can't live like this. I won't accept it!

The last bit I was in there, I insisted that I needed to live as normally as I could with what I had. My family and boyfriend at the time came in every morning to get me dressed, do my hair and help feed me. I HATED my hospital room and any chance I could get I would sneak around in my wheel chair using my right toes and my left hand to move the chair. I was finally transported back to my home because the nurses said I was too stubborn and refused all their help as I insisted I did everything my way and that as long as I continued my physical and occupational therapy, I could go... with home care visiting me everyday of course.

It took over a year of physical therapy and a couple of years of occupational therapy to see remarkable improvement. Yes, I did walk again (obviously) as I graduated from the chair, to a modified walker (because of the limited use of my arm/hand) to a cane, to walking and now running. The limp was hard to get rid of but I found the more active I became the better things went. To this day, if I do not stay active, my limp may show up. I still have a hard time sitting in some chairs for a length of time because it hurts too much. Sometimes I would have a hard time just sitting in a university class. Going to watch a movie at a theatre was torture. Thank god for when the Galaxy Cinema came - much better. :)

Now the arm took quite a long time. Around the 1.5 year mark, they sent me for a test to see if any nerve signals were coming to my hand yet. If they did not see one, they were going to put a fake part in to attach it together again. Thank goodness a signal finally showed up! The nerve naturally healed itself. :D

A few years later, when I could finally be like almost nothing happened, I met a man, got married 6 months later, and he insisted on kids. Now I tried to tell him what had happened but he did not believe me. I told him that I was advised that I would not be able to carry a child safely full term. He won. He soon learned that I really couldn't. I spent one month in the hospital before my son was born, and he was born one month early. There were complications and my heart really could not handle everything. They were close to losing us both in the delivery room.

Today my son has Asperger's, ADHD, Tourette's and Asthma. Whether or not these are related to the pregnancy or not, I don't know. But I love him even more for them. I will never be able to carry children again as the doctor's made sure of this a couple of yrs ago. It just is not safe. Oh ya, and that man is no longer my husband. ;) I have had problems with my blood pressure and wt and have managed to get myself off of meds and down in wt to make things better. My arm/hand will never be 100% like it used to be as I still have some weird feelings and tingles on the top, but you'll never know how proud I was when I could finally give a thumbs up to my doc! I also have some memory problems and have lost part of my life memories due to head injury form the accident. My neck gives me grief now and again too.

Now, the question is... why do I run? Because I can! I was told I would never be able to do anything that the doctor said. Grant it he was right in some things, but I just knew that I could do more. I am a very stubborn person that loves and searches for new challenges all the time. It is by this stubbornness and all the prayers to god that family and friends made that I am here today. It was on my persistence and love on continuing on going to the gym how ever I could and did what I could. I am not going to give up. If I do... I know I will end up like the last words that the doctor had told me - you will most probably using a cane by the mid 30's and in a chair in the 40's. I need to continue to stay active to keep my mobility or I seize up. I need to stay active to keep my heart in the best shape it can. I need to stay active so I can be there for my son and husband. I need to stay active for me.

So there you go, a kind of run down on my life and why I run. Every time I go out I think about what I have accomplished in my life and what I have overcome. I know if life was different and I was still in a chair, I still would have the determination to get out there and do what I could. I also know that if I did not experience all the trials that my life has given me, I may not have been as strong. I used these to fuel myself to move on and get past many obstacles that were there.

I am not the fastest runner out there by any means, but I am out there doing what I can. So when I get to that 'wall' in running, I think to myself... this is just a walk in the park.

Splenda

2008-11-11T09:54:00.004-06:00

It was a great relationship while it lasted.... but I am sorry to say we must part our ways. You have allowed me to indulge in things that would normally be bland or bitter, giving it your sweet kisses to make it all better.

You see, you cause headaches with me. I never realized this before but have now pinpointed the cause and you are it. I know we may cross paths now and again, perhaps in some baking some day, but you will never be the first choice I reach for anymore. Good-bye.

The past couple of weeks I would get headaches at certain times of the day and luckily I hope I have figured it out. I believe Splenda was causing me some grief and did not notice it before because I went in between using a couple of different things. Some days it would have been some fat-free stuff or something else. The past four weeks I have just been using the packets of Splenda for some sweetener. I tried something else for a couple of days and boom no headache!!! (this was while eating the exact same things - just without spenda) Now a new search for something I can use safely! I hear about Stevia is not too bad so I am going to pick some up today to try.

Oh, I was not dehydrated if any of you may think of that one... I have drank almost 3 L/day here. lol

Other than that things have been going very well here and the rt calf has no problems at all. :) So, after a bit of time here after eating, I am heading out for another run! :D

Last night I gave a speech on motivation at an RR clinic using my life experience in what I have been through, overcome, and what I have accomplished to this day. I have given this speech 4 times now in front of a small crowd and each time I still get the jitters and uneasy feeling of talking about it. But, I think I am ready to share with all... so next post will be about that.

Have a great day everyone!

My Run

2008-11-09T13:11:00.006-06:00

Well I finally made it out there again! My first cold weather run. The last time I managed to get out it was a bit warmer out. The wind was terrible and boy oh boy you could smell that snow in the air. I know its coming and I think sooner than later. :(

The run felt WONDERFUL and NO problems with the knee at all. I stretched and had some macadamia nuts after with my water and then went to stand up... rt calf cramp.... wth???? NEVER have had a problem on that side before. I just finished icing as a precaution and going through what may have happened. Conclusion - jumped in to fast for the workout today. I didn't think I was pushing it at all as I took a good warm up walk and did not go out too fast, then a good cool down walk. I didn't even do a total distance of 5k! I am glad that I chose the nuts after though... a good dose of protein, carbs, fat and salt (which helps me with the cramping - since I tend to lose a lot of sodium). :)

So... a couple of days taking it easy and I will see about heading out on Tuesday night for an EASY run... maybe even some run/walk intervals to back up a bit. ;)

But I do feel wonderful and just love that feeling after a good run. Total distance was 4.73k in 38 mins... see, told ya I took it easy. lol

Warning: Contains talking about greasy food!

Tried something new to eat this morning with my bacon and eggs: Fried Cabbage. It is not the deep fried crispy stuff (which I have not tried) but you cook it in the bacon grease that is left over. You can add some bacon pcs to it but since I wanted my bacon in larger pcs, I added some mushrooms to it. I added just a bit of butter near the end of cooking and boy oh boy was it nummies! Let's just say that I ate at 9 a.m., had just my nuts after my run, and it is now 1:30 and I am NOT hungry in the least bit! In fact I have to have something here soon just so I am not going too long in between eating. :)

Warning over.

Now for the rest of today.... HOMEWORK!!!! lol I have to get that done already...

This week will be a short work week as I work tomorrow (but no students) and with Tuesday off, my Tuesday will now be my Sunday while I will be watching Remembrance Day Ceremonies also.

Well I hope all have had a great weekend!

Update: The SNOW has arrived!!! We had a couple of hours here of little visibility and then some sleet afterwards - making it VERY slippery out there. Don't know if it is going to stick around or not since this is our first but it sure was interesting trying to drive from one end of the city to the other.... I swear the city shuts down because of all the traffic when the snow first comes... ARGH! lol

Hairspray!

2008-11-08T08:21:00.004-06:00

Sorry I did not get back to blogin' like I was going to last night but I got a call from my aunt. She had an extra ticket to go see the musical Hairspray because my Nanny was to sick to go so of course I jump on it! ;) It was excellent and really got my feet tapping. It was funny because I had saw the movie and I could not believe how close it was. You know it always seems that they change so many things but the dialogue alone... I guess my family had bought tickets for it just before we went to England... it sold out fast. So for anyone who love a good laugh and a toe stomping good time.... This is a must see!

Now for a little rant... I love my cell phone and use it lots to talk and text and take those sudden pics of when I don't have my camera around... but when you are enjoying something in a dark theatre watching a play... I don't feel kindly about someone in front of me, in my direct view of the play, using theirs to text and take pics!!!! The whole first half of the musical, this girl was taking pics and texting! At one pt she did lower the brightness but still, VERY distracting. :( At the intermission, I went and reported her seat. All they did was warn her. The second half was not as bad, she tried to hide what she was doing and not as much. We paid $58 for each of our seats and this was not appreciated in the least.

There rant over.

As for some good news... I am down another pound!!!! Yeah! :) 136 lbs! It is funny because I still have not had any flour of any kind, avoided sugar, no popcorn, potatoes, corn, carrots, bananas, and most fruit for 3 weeks!!!! I can't believe that there are no cravings what so ever still. I must say counting the carbs is way easier than ww and I find I am eating less calories to make me satisfied. Caloric range is between 1400 and 1700 a day. :) And still losing wt. *wink*

Man I love this!!! Counting the net carbs was a bit confusing at the beginning and it took a couple of days to figure it out, not really hard.... but to me I still think I made the best choice for myself and sticking to it.

Exercise wise, running, did not happen this week, but lots of walking and at work I was breaking out in to a sweat everyday because we were so busy. My son and I also played around with the Wi Fit and Wi Music a few good times. So no shortage of exercise here. lol

Well, my plans for the weekend are to get caught up on my chemistry and pack away my summer clothes. It has cooled off here quite a bit now.

As for moving, we still have no clue and just when we have our hopes up, it doesn't happen. :( Soooooooo frustrating!!!! Oh well, life moves on and I will just make the best of how things are now. :)

Now off to catch up on some blogs. ;)

Busy Week.

2008-11-06T19:50:00.002-06:00

I don' really I think I sit and stop from the time I get up in the morning till the time I go to bed! lol I have been getting better and getting things ready the night before like making lunches, preparing what's for breakie, clothes and such, but man oh man I still run out of time in the morning and I get up at 6:30!!!! (my son and I leave the house at 8:30) I have not really done my hair nicely in a while and have just stuck it in a pony tail...

So, this weekend I am going to try to get more things done on the Sunday to make my weekdays easier. During the week I just don't have much time to focus on homework like I would like. My son's homework is getting more and more and there are the problems that come with that. We have spent on average this week at least 2 hours a night on it. It is getting more and more frustrating for him.

Well things are going quite well still and I am very happy about the results. The last two days I have wore some nice dress pants to work that I was not able to wear because I my wt gain. So feeling great about that one! ;) I still am walking to work everyday but have not had time to run. :( Just have not had the time. :( :( *pouting*

Well it was great to hear from all of you! I will check on you all tomorrow when I have a bit more of time. ;) Take care!!!

Why am I Doing This?

2008-11-02T10:14:00.002-06:00

Well I know some may disagree with about in the last post about ww just not doing it for me anymore. Yes... I can have as much veggies that I am comfortable on core with and meats... the problem was that I was still having some craving issues on some days. It was just like I still seemed out of control with my carbs and wants. The freeness (is that even a word? lol ) would seem to get to me and I was taking advantage of my flex pts and APs and still not looking at controlling them for a life time. Yes, ww worked for me and I know I can stick with it and lose everything again... but... a big BUT here... I was going back again and wondering if this just isn't me for the long run.

Looking at my family's habits of eating and everything that I want, the Atkins just fits better with me. Yes at the beginning it is a bit daunting it seems, but I really felt all the withdrawals from the carbs I was eating. It kinda makes me wonder really what is happening in my body. I know I re-signed up again online with ww, but I am canceling it again here. I am using www.fitday.com to record all my food to keep track. This is nice because it is free and then the cost of the small paperback book and carb counter is all that this has cost me. Much cheaper than ww.

Another thing that seems to work for me is the thought of eating more back to the basics of how we used to eat many years ago when obesity was not an issue as it is today. I am feeling more and more strongly that all these things that we have like the low-fat foods are making us fatter. The same goes with the processed stuff. As far as I am concerned, the real tastes better and I do not need as much of it. Like cheese for example: one oz of this of the low fat stuff and there is not much taste, but the real chedder? You don't need very much and you get that lovely taste. :)

As for running and doing this with controlling the carbs, I eat LOTS of veggies and eat as I am hungry without worry (as long as I am eating the right foods). As my distance increases, so do the carbs and I adjust accordingly.

Now I am not trying to convert anyone here at all. Everyone must do what works for them because everyone is different.

Enough of all this now. lol I will just update about my progress. ;)

Well, this weekend I have not done as much as I would have like here but I still have today to get some of it done. So... wish me luck as I move on and conquer. :D

Happy for a Loss Again!

2008-11-01T12:50:00.002-06:00

I did it! I moved the scale. :D I am at 137 lbs which is still almost 13 lbs from where I was at in the spring but I will take what I can get. lol

It would have been a larger loss I believe if I hadn't cooked a huge ham (bone in) on Sunday that took us just over 3 days to finish eating! I was wondering why I was feeling a bit blah still and then realized about the sodium content.... hmmmm... now that would affect things wouldn't it. ;) Then when I didn't eat it, things went much better. So I learned a new thing this past week.

Another good thing is that it has been almost two weeks since I have touched bread, potatoes, carrots, and corn! I really thought the bread thing would do me in but I am quite happy about that. Not a craving in sight and yesterday at the school, there was cookies, cake and rootbeer or orange floats and I didn't feel like having anything!!!! I am soooooo happy right now and very proud of myself - usually I would have said ah... I could have it now and make up for it later or start again tomorrow... NOPE! not this time. ;)

Javachick... I have you to thank for all of this right now because of your challenge to yourself not to touch sugar. I thought about it myself and figured why not, but went a bit further with it. So right now I am avoiding sugar, most dairy, wheat, and rice just to name a bit. I was happy on ww but thought I am still not quite GETTING IT! Something is just not right and I need to find something that will work for me and my tastes.

So... the jig is up. I am doing Atkins... not the old one... but the new one that is way better and more to my tastes of food. I like my meat, butter and things that are more fattening. What I have read makes so much more sense and I am eating way more veggies than I was on ww - which I think is a better thing. I have no cravings and lots of energy. It is extremely close to core which I compare it to to make sure I am not going over the edge too much. lol

So there you have it. Now let's see what next week will bring. ;)

Running? 3 times this week. I have also been walking to work and back and lots of moving around at work so I am definitely getting my exercise in.

I feel fabulous!!!!

One Chapter Accomplished :)

2008-10-27T17:10:00.002-06:00

I did it! I successfully finished a chapter yesterday in Chemistry. It wasn't easy but I worked my way through it. Now I don't think I will get top marks or anything for the stuff that I handed in but it is done. I have already started on the next chapter, so things are going well.

Today at the school I work at, we had some Haitian dancers perform and it was amazing. My son's school gets to see them on Wed. Tomorrow though I am completely jealous as my son's school gets to have Triathlon Silver Olympic Athlete, Simon Whitfield at their school! I SOOOOOOO would like to skip out of work for the first hour and a half to listen to him. I am still trying to figure out a way. lol ;)

Still no cravings here and yesterday I even made a cake with a strawberry mouse filling in the middle and didn't even feel a twinge of want! I am impressed. So things are going really well in that area... now just to see what happens with the scale on Friday. :)

As for exercising, I managed to go out for a small run late last night and my regular walk to work and back today.

Well, time to sit back and get some more homework done here so I can relax for the rest of the evening. Hope all had a great day!

I'm Getting Blown Away!

2008-10-25T18:03:00.003-06:00

That wind is terrible right now! Everything that was not basically tied down in my yard is now all over the place... must remember to go out and put things back before the snow. lol I am serious though. Branches and that are breaking and getting thrown at your car as you are driving. I had to laugh at my son because he was saying that he didn't see any funnel clouds or anything. He couldn't believe how strong the winds were without them. :)

Today has been pretty busy so far and I am hoping to get more stuff done here so I can relax and watch the new Hulk movie with the family later. My son had his Halloween Bowling party this morning and then we went to do a bit of shopping. I then went and tutored my friend in stats for about 2 hours. Now I am going back and forth between working on my Chemistry and doing some housework during my breaks. It is kinda hard when you haven't done something for a few months and then jump back in to it... but I can do this. :)

Exercise wise it just was not happening yesterday or today as I have been pretty busy. We spent one hour waiting for my hubby at the airport last night - the time I was going to go for a walk with the dogs. Then today with all the wind... I just could not talk myself in to it. I sure hope tomorrow is better...

On the food front things have been going really well and I have done super well with not touching certain things like my bread. I still am having my timmies (reduced of course) and still have not looked at the scale. Pretty proud of this as I usually have the ww bread stuff and that but this time... I am really going back to the basics and naturals. I am loving core, but I must admit that I have tweaked it a bit to gear it more for me. No more low fat or fat free anything. In fact... I am having more fat than I usually do. The water area is really good too. I feel better and I sooooo can't wait to see how things go. Cravings? Don't have any. :)

Well, I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!

So...

2008-10-24T17:44:00.002-06:00

Things are going not too badly at the moment for me and cravings are getting less and less. I have been run/walking with all three of my dogs (at the same time) which has been leading to some very interesting maneuvers. lol I am trying not to be too consumed by the scale at the moment because I would like to see how next week's wi will be. I think the hardest part is when I just all of a sudden decided to jump in to this and my cupboards and fridge were not prepared... oops. ;)

Other than that, I am really trying hard to get things moving downwards again. I know it will happen... I just have to have the right attitude. I know I am going to slip up now and again but I have to stop the continuous tumbling that comes after the slip up. I just have to say to myself that it is OK and tomorrow is a new day. So, if I have that danish... I will focus on when I can have another. lol As for the timmies coffee, I tried and boy did I ever try! lol I can't do it! I know I should never say can't but I have decreased my consumption though and the size that I drink. So I figure I am compromising. ;)

Well, the weather is getting colder and colder here and usually it is the time of the year when we start getting snow. For the most part we usually have a small storm to start off the season in time to cover the ground white for halloween. It hasn't hit yet but you can just feel it coming soon. It feels like we should all just curl up on the couch with a nice book by the fire with some warm apple cider... the snow days are a coming. :)

Well, I hope all have a great weekend and enjoy the warmth if you have it while you can. :)

Going Core

2008-10-23T20:18:00.003-06:00

Yep, I am going back on it. I have been stuck here on a plateau for a bit here and just can't seem to budge the scale one bit. So I am going back to the basics. I have started this a couple of days ago so next week will tell the tale if I am back on track on the downward train again. :)

Well I have not posted in a bit here as things have been pretty hectic around here again and we STILL do not know if we are staying in toon town or not yet or making the big move to AB. I just wish that we would have known by now as some of the schools in AB are on a first come first serve basis for nursing. :( I have a bit of time here yet, but I still would like to get my stuff in.

I hope all are doing well as I hope to catch up with all of you tomorrow. :)

My Thanks!

2008-10-13T10:24:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Awaiting the Outcome

2008-10-10T06:58:00.002-06:00

Well, we thought we would find out what was happening yesterday about if we were moving or not and the phone call did not come, so today? Maybe? I am coming to better terms with it if we have to move but I just hope that it is one of the places that we prefer. We did glance over some houses in Red Deer, Grande Prairie and a few others... I really liked one certain old one in Red Deer... But who knows what will happen at this pt.

I did jump on the scale this morning and what a surprise I am still sitting at 138 lbs. I thought I would really have put more back on with all the varied eating or more like binge eating at times and others not. It has been a whirlwind of a week.

I still have not made it out for a run here this week so I am thinking that tonight is going to be the time to head out. In fact I am sure I will. :)

My son survived his 3 day school camping trip and came home yesterday. It is a good thing that he has today off because I think he needs the rest. lol Not to mention maybe to warm up a bit also... :) It is freezing here! I know... just wait till it gets colder and I will be wishing for days like this. lol

Today is an in service day for all the school workers here and this morning I will be heading to a seminar (a repeat for me) and then this afternoon decorating.

Hope everyone is going to have a great weekend! :)

Waiting...

2008-10-09T06:51:00.002-06:00

Well, the decision, I believe, will be made in the next couple of days here if we are moving to Alberta or not. My hubby was offered a job here and is waiting to hear from Alberta to see if they offer one or not. He rather take the one in Alberta if they offer it. We had quite the in depth conversation last night about moving and if I would move in January when he would be done his training if Alberta was the one. I am quite undecided about this as I just got my job back this year in the schools and I am not too sure about leaving it half way through the year, and not to mention taking my son out also. If he is offered a job there, we are hoping that it will be in a center that has a nursing course offered since you can't take it through correspondence anymore through Athabasca (my last resort choice). The only nursing that is offered is the LPN through correspondence these days. :( So who knows what is going to happen and my stomach feels so icky right now thinking about it...

On the Chem front, I am happy that I am able to finish it finally and will be able to in time. I am just waiting for them to receive my cheque and put me back in the system.

Food wise... it is just not happening at the moment. I am either not eating or eating everything in sight! lol As for running... I haven't this week yet, but hope to soon.

My son gets back from his camping trip today and I am sure he is going to want to have a nice hot bath when he gets here as it is getting colder out. I sent some nice warm clothes but there is nothing to him so I can just imagine how he is doing right now.

Well, back to the waiting... today is a Friday for me at the school kinda. There is no regular school tomorrow, just the staff and then a nice long weekend. So tomorrow I am going to refresh a course about Autism and then do some Halloween decorating in the sensory room. :)

The Light is Getting Brighter

2008-10-07T08:25:00.003-06:00

I did get my phone call that I was waiting for yesterday and I get to finish up the chem class that I had started! I received permission from the director and set things up with his assistant so I should be back working on the class by the end of the week. :) Now to just finish it up for good here and move on to the next one. The departmental for the chem class is not until January and I know I should be done it by then so in the mean time in between the finishing the class and the final for it, I am going to get back in to one of the other ones and chip that one away.

The electricity also got fixed! Yeah! So things are looking up.

Well, gotta run and drive my son to school. He is leaving for a 3 day school camping trip this morning and his bag is bigger than he is. lol

Getting Back On Track

2008-10-06T13:44:00.002-06:00

Well if fate wasn't trying even harder to tell me what I am supposed to do with my life, I am not too sure what it would try anymore. I hear you fate! I am getting back on track with my career goals and moving forward by finishing up what I have not.

You see... it is my fault I let things slide and get out of hand around here and let stress get the better of me. I could have tried harder to finish the classes I needed but took the easy road out. My last days here I have continually heard more and more from people talking to me about nursing. I have gone on to my chem class site to see about finishing it and it is closed. So, this afternoon (I am actually supposed to be at a funeral right now - another story) but I am waiting for some phone calls back to see about them letting me finish (the class is not longer offered for new starts). If they don't let me do that then I am going to be starting from the beginning again with a different class I just found out is offered here this year. So once I am done the chem class then I will re-register with one of my other classes one at a time until the ones I wanted done are done. Now I just sit and wait. Since financially things are still not up to snuff and we still do not know if we are moving away, this is the best I can do while still keeping my job at the moment.

Now the funeral... My hubby's half sister's mom passed away and I was going to go... BUT... first of all a breaker blew in our breaker box and I am also waiting for a phone call on when someone can come and fix it. We don't know if it is the breaker or a short somewhere. Now between waiting for the electrician, I am waiting for a phone call from the Sask. Correspondence School... it feels like watching a pot boil. ;P

So, there you go. I am trying my best to lift my spirits up by putting some energy back in to my career goals. I am hoping things work out. Worst case senario is that I start from the beginning but it is not that bad considering that the school here will let me jump in. :) Gotta find that rainbow somewhere! lol

So, Things Have Still...

2008-10-04T17:50:00.002-06:00

... been pretty busy around here. Work has been great, my run was awesome and well needed, but the food situation has not been well. I was up 1.5 lbs on Friday and I did deserve it. On Thursday we had a staff lunch and the spinach dip with Nachos did me in. lol I just could not resist them! :) I have to be stronger...

We had some bad news over the last couple of days. My hubby's half sister and half brother are in town for their mother's funeral. No relation to my hubby but she was well known to all of us. So that funeral is supposed to be on Monday so I will be taking off from work early to go. I am still debating on taking my son.

On a personal note, I don't know what is going on with me lately but I seem to have lost my Jazz somewhere. I got my hair cut (which I mentioned before and LOVE it!) and thought it might help me out but I still seem to be in a slump. I know not being in the RN program right now when I should be is bugging me more than I thought it would. Everyone that finds out that I was supposed to be in it right now is like do you know how hard it is to get in to that program??? I had no choice, or I should say we had no choice but for me not to go this year because of the money. It just really bugs me and right now I have the urge to work on a class but I can't even find my workbooks right now because they are buried in the spare bedroom from moving everything from downstairs. :( I know things will work out eventually but I know I am capable of more in life and just sitting here doing what I am doing at my job (which I really do enjoy) is just not as satisfying. It just feels like something is missing. Everyday this week there has been comments to me about school and I just seem to be falling deeper in to a slump. Maybe another road trip is in order to one of my friend's place for a weekend to get away from everything may help... I don't know. I know things are not the best around here with my hubby and all. His other two wives (the computer and work) take up his time... and I take care of everything else. Did you know he STILL has not completed the bathroom downstairs? I don't get it - not at all. In fact I find it down right rude. It is one thing to skip and procrastinate with us, but NOT the tenants who pay to stay there.

Sorry... rant over. I am just not happy. I will be fine, honestly. I just have to look at life again as a single parent here and do things like I would do if it was so. Anything that involves my hubby, well I guess that is just a bonus. I just have never lived like the condition/state of my house before and things have always looked neat and tidy. Now... I can't stand it and too embarrassed to have anyone over - not even my family. I said rant was over right? lol Sorry again. :)

Well, I guess I have depressed the world enough for today. May be I can sneak in to Stacy's suitcase and take off to Japan. lol

Now to check on everyone. :)

New Hairdresser Again...

2008-10-01T06:55:00.002-06:00

Well I took the plunge yesterday and managed to get in to get my hair cut... It is the same as when I had it cut in the spring so no real big change there but I had to see another stylist! How come every time I want to get my hair done they always move? Maybe I scare them. lol

Food wise has been back on track here and I am hoping tonight to head out for a run after my son's swimming lessons. My food is all ready for the rest of the week and I am doing much better on the water end of things. I sure hope there is a loss this week...

Well another short one here as it is just about 7 am and time to get rolling on my day. Hope everyone is doing well!

Well That Was Fun

2008-09-29T06:40:00.002-06:00

Sitting around sleeping for the last week. :( I tried going to work on Thurs. and got sent home right away, then Fri. went to the doc and got some meds. Infection... how nice. So I have not done anything but read books. I finished all 4 of the Twilight saga plus my audiobook of Nights in Rodanthe. I have also watched at least 8 movies! Then the new tenants came yesterday and I had to get them all organized about what to hook up and where everything was. Lots of fun. ;) I think they will work out well though... they have two kitties!! :D My zoo got to meet everyone so they know who is down there - not the kitties yet though... they may be later today when they arrive.

So today will be my first day back to work in a week and right after school I will be picking up my hubby from the airport.

Food wise? Not so good here lately as I was just eating when I was able to and exercise... not unless I wanted to lose a lung. lol

So a short and sweet one here today and I will catch up with everyone later tonight on what all I have missed. Hope everyone is doing well!

Been at Home

2008-09-24T08:48:00.002-06:00

Well today is my third day at home... I think my body finally wore itself out with fighting with all the colds and stuff going around. Also, I think really pushing myself this weekend to try to get everything done with the basement didn't help matters. Oh well... it's done now.

So... while I have been off, I have decided to read the novel 'Twilight' because I have heard so much about it. Let me just say that I could not put that book down!!! lol It is located in the teens and young adult's section but I figured I would give it a try. So, I finished it - great read- and bought the rest of the series. lol I am now on the last book (#4). I must say though that the others are not as good as the first one though... But if you ever have a chance to read the first one, give it a shot as it may just surprise you like it did me. :)

So, if you have not guessed yet, there has been no running here for me the past couple of days. Every time I try to go do something I break out coughing. :( So, I have been just laying around reading.

I have been back OP and trying to get as much water in as I can along with some nice hot drinks. We will see what the lovely scale has to say on Friday....

Well, that is it for today!

Done Finally

2008-09-22T06:45:00.002-06:00

I worked my butt off for two days and I am finally done getting the basement suite ready for the renters that are moving in next Sunday. My hubby is the only one who has something left to do now... repairing bathroom ceiling and cleaning up the bathroom afterwards. He was supposed to have it done already within these last two days (he did have Fri., Sat., Sun. off), but I believe that his computer and football were more important. :( He did try... but left it a bit late because when he went to go get his stuff ready, he could not find everything (took too long but eventually did), and when he needed the cordless drill - it was not charged! lol So all he has left is today and then he is gone for a week - I will make bets to see who is going to be suckered in to cleaning the bathroom up... Oh ya! We also have left to find a fridge as the one isn't that great. We have a newer stove to put in but I am only so strong and the one down there works fine till we can have more help. I must note here that my hubby knew that things like repairs had to be done down there for the last year and a half... since the last tenant left.

So, there was no running or yoga for me this weekend as I have been doing some pretty physical stuff downstairs. The upstairs looks like a tornado hit it and the same with the garage... but one step first - get the suite ready. It is kinda sad though because now I do not have me wt room anymore or computer room (study area). :( Right now it is all buried together in our spare room upstairs. Good thing I have my yoga and my running! As some may remember from before, my treadmill had a silent death here in the spring and it is now waiting in the garage to get hauled away along with a bunch of other stuff. Now I just have to bring my aunt's over here to use for the winter. :)

Food wise... I haven't been really OP this weekend. :( Number one, I didn't even have any workable counter space to use to cook! Everything was piled up all over the place. So, I ended up eating the rest of that veggie pizza over the weekend, went for dim sum, had a half order of fish and chips, timmies coffee, and a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. End result as of this morning? Up 1 lb. That just shows how much lifting and hard work I did over the weekend. lol

I called in sick to work for today as I am pretty sore and super tired so realistically I would be a safety hazard to do my job at the school. I was up pretty late trying to clear some counter space and the kitchen table off, and not to mention that every single part of my body right now is screaming at me. lol

Not much planned for the day today except going back to bed for a bit after my son goes to school and then after school taking him to bowling practice. And we will see if I have to do that cleaning that was mentioned before....

Have a great day everyone! :)

Picture Day...

2008-09-19T15:44:00.003-06:00

... at the school. All I can say is man oh man is it ever tough to get some of these students to smile or even look at the camera. I have laid on the floor to hold feet, hid behind wheelchairs to hold feet, and acted really goofy... I even broke out in a sweat trying to do this! lol But, in the end the parents will be proud of their special children with their pictures. :)

Well my shoulders are a bit tender today as to be expected, so just a light yoga workout later tonight any maybe even just a small run outside. It has cooled off here now and the nice running outside days are coming to a close here soon. :( I have to take advantage of it while I can. lol Tomorrow will be a day off though as Sunday will be another run day and hopefully a bit of a longer one.

WI was today and I am down from 138.8 to 138. :) A loss is a loss and with the exercise I was doing this week, I did not expect too much. Next week I start counting APs so everyday I should be doing at least 30 mins of something to count with maybe 1 or 2 days of lighter stuff to recover.

One thing I have to share about today is about this new thing that Nintendo DS has. It is called My Weight Loss Coach, and while it is a bit cheesy... it is kinda cute at the same time. My friend and I both bought one to use and keep track of our steps and food and such to see how it is. It has this pedometer that you wear around, and plug it in to the DS at the end of the day to see how you did. You also enter your food intake to see how your food intake relates to how much moving around you did. I have been using it for the last couple of days now and I will let you know next week my full report of how it is.

Other than that, this weekend will be full of cleaning up and emptying the basement suite, getting it ready for the new tenants for the end of the month.

Till tomorrow... Have a great day everyone!

Update: I just came back from another 5.33k run outside and BOY was it WINDY!!!! I rather run in the cold than in the wind... that wind just makes things way harder... In a bit I am just going to do a quick 20 min yoga session to stretch things out a bit and not a hard one. My arms are killing me. lol

I think I just earned myself a pc of veggie pizza! :D

A little Sore

2008-09-18T06:47:00.003-06:00

I have to laugh! I have forgotten about how sometimes I get sore after doing some yoga. lol My arms and shoulders felt it yesterday and this morning. I guess that means that I did something in yoga. :)

The heel is doing better today so I think that I will finally get out for a run! Yeah! My MP3 is all ready to go...

Food wise things are going well and yesterday ended up being a salad day it seemed with salad for lunch and supper. lol It was good though and I really wasn't all that hungry for some strange reason.

The school dance went really well and I am sure that I burned off some extra calories dancing with those wheel chairs! (majority of the students are in one) The students had a blast and it was so nice to see their faces light up like that. :)

My time flies though... it is already Thursday! One more workday to go and it's the weekend. :) Mind you my weekend is going to be full of cleaning out the basement for our renters that will be coming in at the end of the month. We decided to go back and rent it, so this means I have to rearrange everything and bring stuff up here. Back to the cramped living space. :( Oh well, at least we can managed to get caught up on some stuff.

Have a great day everyone!

Edit: Well, I did it! I just came back from my run. :) I did 5.33k in 40 mins with walking and running to the first podcast in the to a 10k series from podrunner in itunes. My heel was a bit tender so it should be good by the next time I head out.

I also did a 30 min yoga session from yogadownload.com in itunes and man did it get my heart going and I was sweating by 3/4 in to it! lol

Right now I feel pretty good and just looking for something to fill 1 more pt in my daily pts. I am not tracking APs yet so I am not eating those yet. I have decided I like to wi on Friday's way better than Sundays like I really liked before, but I am finding that it is WAY easier to stay on track during the week. lol Here's to lots of water to tonight and a good sleep. :)

Meet the Teacher Night

2008-09-16T21:27:00.002-06:00

Well tonight I finally got to put a face to my son's new teacher which really helps. :) He seems quite nice but a bit on the 'old school' kind of way. Not much in to integration I think. My son has had two good days at school now including bringing home his homework and completing it right away after school. I was so impressed that I gave him back his Nintendo DS and another audiobook. :)

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the audiobook that I downloaded and am listening to right now. It is the novel of the movie coming out here soon, "Nights in Rodanthe." I have been using it to listen to when I go to bed and have managed to turn it off before conking out except last night... fell asleep with it on and woke up to a drained ipod. lol Now it is charging for tonight. :) Quite a good book so far!

Another new thing for me is doing some yoga from podcasts. I found some in Itunes from www.yogadownload.com and they are 2o mins of free yoga! Not too bad I must say and just nice for a quick something when there is a lack of time or in the morning when I am rushed.

Well, I hope all have had a great day! I had better check to see if there is enough of a charge on my ipod here and get to bed. My tummy is starting to rumble a bit and I don't want to eat anything more for today.

Fun Times at Work

2008-09-16T06:41:00.002-06:00

You know, I really feel for teacher subs that have to walk in to a classroom and try their best during the day. But there is one word there, 'trying' that is important. We had a sub in and she sat on her butt the WHOLE day!!! There was no can I help with anything or nothing like that at all. Grant it we don't expect a sub to just jump in and change someone or use the lift, but there are other things she could have done. It made it for an interesting day to say the least.

My son had a good day finally at school so he was rewarded with being able to pick out an audiobook from Itunes to listen to before going to sleep. I know this may sound crazy but my son LOVES books and we go through tonnes of them. If you have ever listened to one of them you would see that you have to really focus on listening... A great skill I would like my son to have. :) (hidden agenda) lol

Food wise things were good yesterday and we had a make your own pizza night where I made a veggie pizza with low fat mozza cheese. My foot still hurts to wear shoes yet so running is still not happening.

Well, a short and sweet one this morning as I am going to do a bit of yoga here to try to start my day. I miss it sooooo much!

Have a good one!

Calmed Down

2008-09-14T09:55:00.003-06:00

Well things have calmed down here a bit even my wt. :) I am down 2 lbs to 138.8 as of this morning. Yeah! A far cry from where I was but I am stopping it sooner than letting it go further than it did.

I had a good chat with my son and more things have been taken away. He understands that in order for him to get any of them back he has to earn them. In the mean time I am trying to build a strong relationship with him and reward him when I feel it is deserved. Yesterday morning he had a wonderful time in his bowling league and improved. His behavior was really good and controlled himself when things did not go his way. I was very proud of him and decided to take him to a movie. Well it was between the House Bunny and Step Brothers. We chose Step Brothers and boy oh boy did I make a mistake - not about the taking him, but about the movie we chose to see! I thought ok, there is a warning any it is rated 14A, he is 12 and saw Tropic Thunder with my ex and that was rated 18A. I saw it too and figured it was bad but not that bad. Well, Step Brothers was funny and all but I really felt uncomfortable watching it with my son and asked him if he wanted to leave. He said he didn't mind leaving but we ended up staying so he covered his ears and eyes for lots of parts - without me telling him too! I was really surprised because it was all families there with their kids watching this show and I am thinking - am I the only one who thought this should have been rated stronger? I think I should have asked my friends more about this one or any of you about it before I do that again. Since yesterday was not the greatest for a movie and my son really did not get to enjoy it that much, I am thinking depending on his behavior this morning, we may go see The House Bunny instead. It is rated PG so I THINK we may be safe. Edit: The House Bunny was hilarious!!! My son, sister, and I went and had a great time... The main actress did a wonderful job at playing so dumb. lol This movie ended up being way better than I expected.

I have not done too much this weekend here as I have planned but my son and I are trying to get on better terms. After our movie we went to see the pitbul puppies again (they are almost 12 weeks now) and it was so cute to see them smother my son. He was enjoying himself so much with all of them chasing him and giving him puppy kisses. :) And NO, we are not getting another dog. :)

Today, beside possibly another movie, it is grocery, laundry and cleaning day. I really need to get outside and work out there but inside is pressing dearly. So on that note, I am off to plan some meals so I can get a grocery list going and finish what needs to be done. Still not running as it really hurts to wear runners at this pt.

Not a Good Friday

2008-09-12T16:40:00.002-06:00

Well, today was as expected as far as work goes. Every Friday we have a different teacher that comes in and works (job share) and she is completely backwards from the one that is in during the rest of the week. I makes for a very confusing day to say the least. I just arrive at the house and park my bike in the garage and go to the house and hear the phone ring. I am like... who is calling me now? Just as I am coming in the door I close it and my foot and finger get caught. OUCH!!!! There is now about an inch of skin gone from the upper back of my heel and my finger is swelling up. I hear a voice message start and it is my son's new teacher so my son answers it (screens calls) so as I am trying not to pass out from pain I get to the phone only to find out that my son has not had a great start to the year. OK. We are done two weeks now and you could not have told me this sooner or called me at work, let alone call me a bit later? Grant it, this teacher is new to the school and all but calling right after school is not a good time when the rest of the school knows me well and where I work. So... as I am cleaning up my own blood, in terrible pain, feeling like puking.... this teacher is saying that my son might not be going to camp and such. Fine... if he does not deserve to go then ok... but you could have told me what has been going on sooner. I have had my son grounded for a different reason the past week and now what am I to do? What else can I do? I explained that you changed his EA and his teacher to him (completely new) and in a split classroom - talk about rocking a kid's world. Of course he is going to test his boundaries but you need to be on top of things in order to stop it. Then we had a discussion about what some of the arguments were about, I am like well if you had read his plan report you would know that he doesn't do certain things and we have chosen for him to do something else so we are only picking the battles that are worth picking. He says he will check on it... hmmm.... I am acting as a parent here and not an EA so don't you think I would know! He then asked well is he taking his meds? Is everything ok at home? Yes... in fact at home is going better than ever.

Sorry about the rant, I am just upset about a couple of things all at once and not happy with my son. I am kinda having one of those lost parent moments on not knowing what to do now. Any ideas? I am quite willing to listen to any suggestions... TV, computer, Nintendo DS have all been taken away already earlier this week (forgot to bring home homework a couple of times).

On a good note though, last night since I was so happy with my chicken recipe that I tried out, I got in to a baking mood and made an angel food cake recipe from scratch from the ww site. I have never made one from scratch before and was quite proud of myself. It tasted quite good. See? I found a tasty way to use those 2.5 pts. lol

So, I guess I am not running tonight now due to the foot. :( Maybe tomorrow...

Another thing... I am not really a drinker but boy oh boy do I feel like having one now!!!! (trying to think of positive thoughts...)

Switching Things Up

2008-09-11T17:44:00.002-06:00

Well, this morning went well routine wise but it still just does not feel right to me, so I am switching things around a bit to see how that helps and if things go better. I know some things can be done anytime, but I just was so used to them being done first thing in the morning. Like blogging for example. I have decided that I am going to try to blog at the end of my day instead of the mornings and the same with checking my emails. OK... maybe I still will check my emails in the morning... :) but the blogging is just taking a bit more time. So, I guess starting now, my blogs are in the evening.

I finally made the Polynesian Apricot Chicken for supper and it is NUMMIES!!! Thank you so much Natasha for that book! It was quite pts friendly I found also. For one serving it counts as 7 pts (not counting the rice) but the serving was quite large so I had 1/2 of a serving and 3/4 cup of rice which turned out to be nice and filling. And as a bonus... I still have 2.5 pts left for this evening. :) Now what kind of dessert should I have? lol

Today was the first day that I have been headache free and starting to feel normal again. Work was quite busy and we were all discussing how right now we are just doing the job of a Special Care Aid and not an Educational Assistant. Very physically demanding. I think I have figured out the amount of food to get me through the day which is nice and makes it easier to plan. Oh! I am finally using one of the tools on ww that I never had used before - the meal plan ideas. I am just picking out some of them, then transferring them to my pts planner and then plugging in my own ideas. It is sure helping me with trying to decide what to have.

As for this evening I have to go out and get some dog food as my lovely husband has forgotten about it. I just gave them the last of what we had now and breakie won't happen unless I go get it now. I also have to pick up more lunch stuff for my son as he decided to snack on what we had here for it and I have one day left to go... back to school fun!

I think tonight I am going to play on the Wi Fit and do some bowling and then some boxing. :) Tomorrow... running. :)

Have a great day!

Morning Routines

2008-09-11T07:11:00.002-06:00

I don't know what I am doing differently but I just can't get it straight in the morning lately and falling behind in my regular routine. Yesterday after school we went to my son's swimming lessons and then I came home made supper, washed dishes, made lunches, prepared breakfast to go in toaster oven, laundry, got clothes ready for this morning all just to make sure that I get ready on time this morning. By the time I was done everything it was 7:30 at night! So we will see how it goes this morning.

I was not able to try the chicken recipe last night as my hubby was invited out for supper with one of his friends and wanted me to make it when he was there, so my son and I had something different. Tonight though... it is happening!

Water is still a weak spot for me and I hope that I can get drinking it again here. It really helps me losing wt.

Running... what can I say! I did not run again last night.... I wish I did though. No promises tonight.

Other than that, food wise is still going well and I am noticing a difference in the scale with my little peaks every morning. I just hope I can keep this up as I really need to find a balance with my eating and not let the food get the better of me. Again this summer I have let it take over and with my family heredity, small figures are a rare sight. I must re-train my thinking.

Well gotta run! Take care!

Brought the Ferrets in

2008-09-10T07:09:00.002-06:00

Last night was a busy one! It is our usual Tuesday family night where we have take-out and rent a movie. I was very good and had a chicken taco salad with no dressing and shell bowl. Then we never did make it to watch the movie as we moved the ferrets in for the winter. So between scrubbing their cage, putting all new hammocks up, water container, bathing, and doing nails, it was an adventure to say the least. They like having their nails done but one of them just HATES the bath... Try to imagine bathing a cat!

So, no running again yesterday as I had hoped but did get some exercise in with the ferret stuff. Now on to a new day. Still no timmies coffee and food wise things are going well. The tuna wrap I had for lunch yesterday did way better to keep me tided over with the veggies, so I will be having that today.

Tonight for supper I am trying a new recipe from Natasha's book I received, the Polynesian Apricot Chicken! I will let you all know how it turns out. :)

Well, better get going again as my mornings are still not quite down in routine yet.

Have a good one!

One good thing.

2008-09-09T07:16:00.002-06:00

Is that I live so close to my new school that I work at that I can walk or bike to it! I have been walking the first part with my son to his school and then biking the rest to mine. It is nice to be able to do that.

Well yesterday I am sure I almost OD'd on veggies here that I struggled for a bit. I think I need to balance my meals more with some more protein. I told myself that I could eat... it just had to be veggies if it was not planned. Water was not the greatest so have to work on that one also. Caffeine headache was not as bad as before and no timmies again. Just my one cup from home. I did treat myself to some flex pts last night with a child's size expresso gelato in a bowl. It sure hit the spot!

I did not manage to get out for a bit of a run yesterday as I ended up getting some groceries that I forgot to pick up, my laundry, and odd things around the house. Was just too tired after.

Well just a quick note today as I am running just a bit behind here. Have a great one all and I will check out posts after work.

First day done.

2008-09-08T07:01:00.003-06:00

Well, I made it in my first day back on. :) with my school job and my current wt I am allowed 22 daily pts and have reset my wi day back to Sundays for now. I only had 24 pts yesterday and had only one time that I felt a bit too hungry - supper was late. ;P Also, I could have made my breakie a bit better... Today will be a bit of a test as I didn't really have much experience being on ww while working in the schools let alone the type of school I am in now - very physically demanding. I have packed extra veggies and and apple and we will see how it goes. I tried just having a home made coffee yesterday, and just one... and boy did I have a headache!!! Caffeine withdrawals.... I am going for it again today.

I am so happy right now as I was just going through all my clinic members that ran their goal race, the half marathon yesterday and I am amazed at their results!!! They did an awesome job and I am sooooo proud of them. :D I just received an email from a few detailing their race and I so wish I was there for them... I can't wait for more details and pics to come. It is funny... yet absolutely amazing that one girl in particular, with her half time, it puts her in the running for Boston qualifying! If she could manage to run the full, I am sure she would make it. What an accomplishment.

Well, besides a bit of house work yesterday and raiding my mom's garden, that was about it for doing anything. We were going to head out bowling last night but we were all just being lazy. lol Today is working and then finishing up the laundry. Maybe a bit of a run in there. :)

It was great yesterday to catch up on everyone! Catch ya later!

Finally back!

2008-09-07T07:10:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been a rough one here for me. Super busy between instructing the half marathon clinic, and working my summer job which I ended just before my regular school job. Yes, for all who don't know, we could not afford for me to continue to go to university so I managed to get my job back with the school system here. My mom and my Nanny have been in and out of the hospital here also.

The half marathon clinic just ended here this past week and this morning they are running their goal race in Regina! Pretty excited about that one. :) I decided not to attend as I have tonnes to do around here and finally catch up with everything.

Back to running is going well and I am continuing to take it slow here for time out there. It was hard to face the fact that races for the rest of this year were going to be not happening for me and maybe I will just do the Santa Shuffle here and the Resolution Run. That is pretty much it. I was doing quite well with swimming, biking, and running... then my schedule just got way to busy so I just have been running when I can here. It is kinda nice though to just go out and not have the pressure of that race right now with the demand of making sure I get so many k's in.

Wt. wise...? Now that is a sad one. It seems like I have let the food get the better of me here and I am officially 140.8 lbs here this morning and registering back with ww. I was careless and just could not control everything. All my baggy pants that were falling off of me before are now tight. McD's, Tim Horton's, DQ were my best friends this summer - pretty sad to say. I have been weening myself off here of them to get ready for re-starting today. It is weird though as I am starting to believe that wives tale about Timmies putting something in their coffee to make it addictive as I just HAVE to have like one or two a day!!! When I drank coffee from home or work before, I would have just one and it would last all day... not to mention it would be with sweetener and skim milk! NOT a regualer double double... ;P

Now here is the worst possible bad health thing for me.... smoking. Some of those death daggers have been silently slipping back into my life again. I need to get on top of that one NOW!!!!

Now all the bad news out of the way, my son and I finally managed to get to the lake here the Sept. long weekend (last weekend) and we had a blast. We were able to go fishing a couple of times but my son got upset when my uncle said we were only catching and releasing. So I told my son we would do more next yr and I would finally teach him to filet some fish. It was too bad though as we would have had 3 fish worth of filets to bring home. :(

My son has had a few rough days in there up until Wed of last week. My ex-husband decided to changed his flight home and we could not get in to refill his meds with his doc because they were busy. So it was a bit rough to say the least.

My son has decided he wants to try bowling and swimming here this yr so we have started that last week. I am still trying to decide about what extra activity for myself here and if I want to do anything besides running. Our community association has some yoga classes I may look into that are quite cheap but not quite the same as the expensive hot yoga I like so much. But I do miss it...

I have really appreciated the comments from all you guys and I have thought about all of you often. I just have been overwhelmed with everything going on. I know I am more accountable when I blog even if no one reads it, it is just nice to have those cyber kicks in the but once and a while. lol I am ashamed but not ashamed of how I let myself go and know what I have done wrong. I was going for the quick meals to satisfy my needs and should have been prepared more. I knew I was putting on wt but still continued with it - which leaves me thinking I have some sole searching to do around here. I have to find my balance again.

Well, enough about me already! Now to see how everyone else is doing!

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

2008-08-02T10:03:00.002-06:00

Went to see this movie with my hubby last night after work and it was so so for me. I do not know if it was the new casting of Evy or how warriors and such were but it just did not click. It might have helped if I had not seen the real ones and knew the history behind everything. The chemistry just did not happen and the others were WAY better, for me anyways...

Well this week is turning out to be a week of lack of exercise here. I thought I could fit some in but so far I have only had 2 bike rides and one was quite short. Last night we decided to head to the theatre instead. So... tonight I am going to head out for a run. Promise.

Other than that, not too much exciting to post here. Got slammed at work - super busy and off to work for another 8 hrs here.

My son is gone now...

2008-08-01T08:50:00.002-06:00

He is now gone till almost the start of school. :( We headed out on Tuesday.

My son and I had a good weekend prior as we went for a real trail ride on our mountain bikes and a picnic, then we went to the pool where he ended up swimming for 3 hrs. I gave up after 1 hr as I was getting pretty cold. We had lots of fun though and I wish I could have done more with him as we never did get to the lake to go fishing. :(

Man the weather here has been interesting! Wicked storms and tornado sightings, watches, and warnings here. The wind the past couple of days has been furious! One of our friends was in a car accident 2 days ago because of the wind. It pulled his car so much that when he tried to keep it on the road, it lost control.

Speaking of highways and accidents... it was pretty disturbing to hear all about what had happened on that greyhound bus. I could not possibly imagine what everyone must have gone through and still is. My condolences to the victim's family.

I haven't had much time to go for my runs this week or even swimming for that matter. I managed a short bike ride last night with the clinic group but only did a couple of hills. I was going to go for my run last night but felt pretty drained, so tonight after work I am heading out there for one. I have moved up now to the big 4 min runs with a 1 min walk now!! Once I have done my 3 of those, I move up to 15 mins steady. :)

Wt wise... oh my... 136.4!!! I really have to get smartened up here... not too happy with myself at the moment.

Well, I hope all are managing to enjoy their summer somewhat. I hope to be back again tomorrow here.

Activities this Week

2008-07-25T09:19:00.003-06:00

My son and I have been trying to keep busy by doing some stuff together before he leaves for his visit with his dad.

swimming....

I took the camera and used it underwater for the first time, since I can with it, but those pics are hilarious AND embarrassing... :)

Go Karting at the new go kart place here. I had to change karts three times because the first adult one the seat slipped back and I could not reach the peddles. The second one we realized the adult ones were just too big, so I ended up in a kids one. lol We had lots of fun!!!

Then we went for some mini golf at the same location as the karts. Loved the course as it was way longer than where we usually go. It even had some REAL greens for puttin!

Last of all we went to the driving range for a bit which was located there also. They only had one size of club so it was pretty big for the both of us. My son was trying to teach me how to drive a ball out there... I guess you need to have some of those tee things. Thankfully one man gave us a few. :)

So, today my son is going to visit my mom and sis with the new baby, and Nanny while I head to work for 8 hrs here. Tonight will just be some relaxing and maybe a small run later when it is cooler. Tomorrow we are going swimming again and then not too sure what else. I would still like to get a nice bike ride in with my son on the trails with a pic nic lunch also... I guess we will just see how the time goes.

Other than that, I slept in again for my swim. :( So I will need to either find a time this weekend for some lanes or just call it done for the week.

Wt wise... still up. :(

Should have brought the camera

2008-07-24T08:28:00.003-06:00

Those puppies were so CUTE!!! Austin had a blast with them. The mom was just a darling and sooooo sweet. I am not sure if I gave any back ground to these dogs but a breeder for pitbulls could not do it any more so my friends (which are family to the breeder) were trying to find homes for everyone. In the mean time two of the dogs got pregnant and all were soon to be meeting a bullet if no homes were found. They managed to find one home that would take one mom and puppies, but the other mom they couldn't, so they drove to Alberta to get them. The one male is still out there though, but supposively has a home. The mom, Mysteek, is a gorgeous well trained dog and the puppies are the cutest. My friends are going to keep one of the puppies and the mom may be going out to a farm. It is a good thing I do not have a farm right now or otherwise the mom would be coming with me. She was so well mannered and just loved Austin. :)

Yesterday, my son and I did not manage to do very much besides go out for supper, look at the puppies, and then played a board game. It was so rainy, stormy, and ugly out that we were not able to do very much. Today they are saying rain again here so I am going to look in the phone book to see if I can find some indoor things.

I have hills on the schedule tonight with the running group and I will be out there with my bike with them. I may be going out for a run here in a bit before my son wakes up so I can get it done.

Other than that, not too much else is happening here.

Condolences are sent to Tanya and her family right now... ((((hugs))))

Sleepy Wednesday

2008-07-23T09:19:00.004-06:00

I did it again... I slept in on my alarm this morning and missed my swim. :( It looks like I will be fighting the crowds here at noon now then.

Later this afternoon I will be going to my Physio for an assessment in the gym and such. I was going to email him earlier this week to get my new running schedule for the week but decided to hold off until today when I see him. I finally managed to go out for a run last night at about 10 pm when it was cooler out. I only headed out for 30 mins since my son was home and no hubby. Since yesterday afternoon at work, I have had a bit of a tight ITB - not affecting the knee, up in the side of the thigh - so I took it easy on the run and stretched before and afterwards. I woke up this morning and I could still feel some tightness so all exercise will be gaged on that today. Something has to be out of alignment here as I am doing all core work, stretches with foam roller and such and still something is a a bit off here. Physio was to look at my hips and see if there is anything there so I will maybe see today. Knee feels wonderful! Still continuing to ice lots after everything just to be careful. Something tells me that I either have to go for some orthodics or my shoes are off. You know I never had a problem with my body until I got fitted for some shoes? I always used to wear just regular cushioning or the ol' Asics 1000's series and not a problem. It still seems like I am running on the outside of my shoes at the moment which would mean too much arch support. Good thing that I am just about due for some new shoes here... I can justify it more. lol

Well, it is cloudy and rainy here so I am trying to think of some indoor stuff to do with my son here today. I have found someone to take my clinic group out for their run tonight so I can spend some time with my son also. We are not heading to the lake (cabin) now because it is going to be full of men. :( Later tonight we are going to head to my friend's house and let my son check out the pitbull puppies they have - NO... not for us... just to look at them since they are sooooo cute and my son would LOVE that. :)

Well, off I go to feed the zoo and then some core work for me until my son wakes up. :)

Edit: Well I just got back from physio and a running store. I am now in a neutral shoe... lol I have also received some new running drills for pre and post runs to do to correct some of my gait problems. My toe out on my rt foot has been corrected, I just now have to run with a bit of a wider stance - feet wider apart so my center of gravity is below my hips and not in the middle. So in between going for my 1500m swim... then having a bit of a work out at physio... I am wiped! Now to break in some new shoes. :)

Wow... two days in a row :)

2008-07-22T09:12:00.003-06:00

Well I did not manage to go out for my run yesterday so it looks like tonight I will be heading out after work. I was pretty bummed out yesterday as $20 was missing from my till. :( I was hardly on it as I was out doing some other stuff around there. Not too overly sure who else was on there besides the two other managers that I know of. So I stressed myself out over that. Things happen I know but I have never had that happen in over 20 yrs that I have dealt with cash! Also... I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to a few things. lol

So, besides working and running tonight, I am heading out shortly to pick up a new swim cap and goggles as the ones I have fit a bit funny and hurt. So I am going to try some different ones. With all the talk about bikes on blogs and another forum... I just may go look at some here. NOT BUY, just look. :) I would not mind a cyclocross or a road bike as it seems that a tri or du is in my future I think. Next yr though.... I have to focus on getting my base back up to a comfortable level here. I have thought more about a cyclocross as it would be good for commuting and for some tri's. It won't be as speedy as the road bike but would suite my needs more. I won't go for a tri bike as I won't be focusing on winning anything, just out for the fun and experience. Heh, I have even seen some MTB's out there!

You know, I checked on the scale this morning and things just do not want to budge here. Soooo frustrating!!! Stress, lack of sleep, and a few other factors I know are affecting it but I thought for sure with the last couple of days here things would have gone down some. OH well... keep on moving! lol

Nanny is still the same. My hubby is heading out here till this weekend for work so it is just going to be my son and I around here. I am trying to plan some interesting stuff around my work schedule.

Well, time to go get some more stuff done. :)

What can I say...

2008-07-21T10:07:00.002-06:00

But holy hanna I have been sooooo busy! If it was not one thing it was another here. I am finding that I am going to bed really late and having to get up super early just to fit everything in. :( Time for some restructuring here...

My Nanny came out of the hospital on Monday cause she did not want to be there anymore. Then on Sat. she was admitted again. She is coming back home today but with home care and family taking care of the IV. She can't stand the hospital and feels that it is just making her worse so we are trying to make her as comfortable as we can here.

Two of my Best Friends are moving this last week and I have been too busy to even help them! I feel so bad as they have always been their for me. As soon as I have some time here, I am going to see if I can go and help them somehow.

We are driving my son to Calgary here next week and I am trying to do as many things here in my spare time as I can because when he gets back, it will be time for school and we have not managed to enjoy our summer as planned. :( We haven't even gone camping here this year!!!! I don't think we will have a chance either. :( So.... I am going to try to do things here in between everything so we can have some fun. We have gone swimming together once, minnie golf, movie, Taste of Sask., 20 minute RR challenge, and I hope we can get out for some more swimming, minnie golf, fishing, and biking before he goes.

Ah... the RR 20 minute challenge! It was a blast! My son walked with me since I was the leader of the walking group because I did not want to take my bike for the runners - too crowded. We enjoyed some cake afterwards and received this year's green hat to our collection. :)

Wt. wise it has been crazy here. First of all, at the beginning of last week I thought things were coming back down and then on Friday's wi, I was high again at 135.8! I am really going to try to get cracking here to see some improvement by this Friday.

Running is slowly coming back as I am moving up to 3 mins running this week with 2 mins walking and still my 10 mins of both warmup and cool down. On Friday I made my first 5k since my injury and was sooooo excited!!!! I have been managing to swim over 1000m twice a week, and bike 3 times a week here (one of them being over 20k). Mind you, part of it is with the runners on their long runs but the rest of about 7k is there and back. I know I am doing something because my muscles are getting harder and showing more, so I know I am gaining muscle but I would really like to see some wt disappear. It will start to show sooner or later... I know... my body is just in transition getting all my muscle back, but it can be sooooo frustrating! I am trying my best to be patient though.

It was great to catch up and read everyone's blogs here again and I really need to find some daily time again to get back on here again. I feel that it really does keep me on track and I am missing it. :(

Work is crazy busy and I have been asked numerous times to work extra since they are sooooo short staffed. I just wish we had more time during the day....

Food wise I am trying my best and there has been some weaker days... but it is getting better. This week I will be really focusing on going over and beyond my water intake to flush things out a bit.

Well take care all and I hope to be back here again tomorrow!

What a week!

2008-07-12T22:33:00.003-06:00

Ok... sorry I have not been around to post lately but things sure have been a whirl wind around here...

First of all... McD's has sure been keeping me busy and on my feet. The people there have been great and very helpful. That till though is going to be the death of me. lol I have worked every day here except Sun., Thurs., and Fri. Yesterday I even went and got some gel inserts for my shoes cause boy oh boy have my feet been killing me. lol

Last Sunday, I get this phone call and my Nanny was rushed in to the hospital because she had broken out in a rash all over the front part of her trunk and was throwing up continuously. In the mean time my youngest sister (23) was starting to have labour pains.... We were wondering if we were going to have to take her in also at this pt. So... my Nanny got worse and things spread all over her body and we just found out today the cause of it. Something must have gotten in her during her surgery to take out the cancer when her breast was removed earlier this year. :( They are hoping to get it under control but said it may come back again. What!?! She is finally starting to see some improvement but she is super tired and is sick of being in the hospital here and wants to come home NOW. We are still not sure when she will get out.

In the mean time my sis's contractions were getting worse. Monday morning she was taken in and finally on Tues., July 9th, my first niece was born. Callandra (Cally for short) was born. Here is a pic that is of Cally and I on Wed.

We had to laugh because she was born at 7:11 am and so we said we should all celebrate with big gulps for everyone. I had to have a big laugh also because we have something in common. 7 11. My birthdate is that number also. lol My son was so excited to see her! He insists though that we have to call her by her proper name, Callandra, though. :) That is so him.

So... as we back up a bit here to Tuesday... I went for my last acupuncture appt. and guess what... I get to start my back to run program!!!! Wa hooo! You should have seen the smile on my face and the guy just laughed at me. I guess I will be continuing to see him as he is also going to take over my physio part too. I see him again here hopefully this week if I can manage to get an appt with him. They were all booked up when I called for this coming week. :( And... I don't have my schedule yet for the next week. So, my back to running program is a 10 min walk warmup, 4 x (1 min run/4 min walk), 10 mins cool down, so basically 40 mins in total. Things feel pretty good so far.

I have to confess though... once I heard that I was so excited and tensored up my knee and went to a ball tournament and played 2 short games of 4 innings each. :blush: I know.... BAD. I think I was just full of adrenaline. lol but no pain...

So, I have gone out running twice now with my new program and no problems so pretty happy about that. As soon as I can get an appt with my physio guy, he is going to take me in to the gym and go through some stuff like my gait and that to see if we can get some stuff sorted out. I have noticed that my gait is off a bit since I injured my leg so I need to get on top of this now.

So... as the week continued.. if you have not figured it out already, it was my birthday yesterday and what did I do? I woke up at 6 am to go swimming. lol I counted laps for the first time yesterday to see how far I was swimming. I have gone a few times here and this past Thurs was also another day and it felt so good that I wanted to go again the next morning... thus going Friday morning. :) You know how far I went? 1450 m!!! This is in 41 mins mind you and not really fast at all, but I am surprised. But happy. I am still swimming however I can and swollowing and sputtering lots, but I am doing it and having fun with it. I even went out and bought myself some new goggles (I lost my last pair) and a speedo cap so I would not choke over my hair anymore.

I then treated myself to a Timmies coffee and went home. Then my aunt called me to take me to breakie for my B'day. So I went. Came home and then took my bike to get some more of a road tire on it to make life easier since I am on the roads more right now and not trails. Then we went to the movie "Journey to the Centre of the Earth." Check out the cool shades. :)
If you thought this was a nerd convention... wrong... we are wearing these funky glasses because the movie was in 3-D. All I can say is that this was a super cool movie to see and boy have they come far with these 3-D movies! My heart was just a racing! I just had to have someone take a pic of the 3 of us while we were there with our cool shades. By the way... I had a water during the movie... no popcorn!

In the rest of the afternoon, we stopped by to see my mom and my sis with Cally. We were informed that they had forgotten a huge bag of brand new gifts for Cally at the parking pay thing at the hospital. So my hubby and I drove there to see if anyone had turned it in and thankfully someone did. The cloths... fine... but there was a $140 breast pump in there that they were worried about and you know what? Everything was still account for! So we returned it back to my sis. :)

The rest of the day, my hubby treated us to OPA (greek food) and we watched the movie "The Ruins." I had read the book already and really wanted to see the movie. Let's just say that not too many people will like it... but I thought it was not too bad... just not one of my favorites - just a renter. Then it was early to bed for me since I had to get up early for my longest shift yet at McD's - 8 hrs.

This leaves me to today. My feet are sore... I am tired... and I think I have finally caught up on everyone's blogs for now. I finally managed to visit my Nanny in the hospital tonight which was good. Now, since I get to get up early again tomorrow to bike with the run club as they do their first 14 k run, I am heading to bed. For me in total it will mean about a 24k bike ride. Then tomorrow night I work at McD's.... long day for me again. I am supposed to go out for a run but it may wait for Monday after a good night's sleep. ;)

Well, take care all and I am off to sleep.

Happy Fourth of July!

2008-07-05T22:00:00.003-06:00

I hope all our southern neighbours are having a great day today! ;)

As for the not running right now... I am ok with this and know that I am not ready. I still feel like my knee is not right and the pain that I have that comes is just plain wrong. Even when there is no pain, my knee still feels like it is puffy somehow - just not right. Thanks for bearing with me everyone! :)

Today has been quite the busy day for me here as I finally managed to sleep in till 8:30 am for once :) and then I realized that I still had not written my weekly email to my running clinic members! So... instead of taking advantage of a bit of quiet time before heading to work, I completed my email including all the running routes planned for the week.

Then I went to work for my second orientation training time as the Wed. night one was cancelled. It was a pretty good joke around the restaurant about me working there 20 yrs ago and I had many questions about 'did you have this... or that then?' lol It really was quite cute. Then they left me to continue showing some of the other new people there with me on how to do some things since I guess I remembered correctly. lol So all in all it was pretty interesting and I am actually quite surprised at how much the chain has changed in some areas. It is in fact a better place to work employee wise than before! There are WAY more perks too. ;) So I am finding a light with this and making the best out of it. In fact I actually had fun. It is so different to go to work and not have to think (not saying it is a no brainer job) and have so much pressure and responsibilities like my school job. Depending on my injury... I may even try a bit of softball on Tuesday if I get the OK since McD's is having all the restaurants here in a tournament against each other then.

As for food... I have to confess... this morning since I was in such a rush to get going and get my email out I did not have time to make something to eat so.... I took advantage of my food discount and ate just before my shift at McD's. I was weak, but it tasted soooooo good! lol I must remember to plan to eat more at home because I can't have me eating there like that because it is WAY to convenient. I also can't have all that weight come back on either.

Speaking of wt.. I was up 1 lb this week. Not overly happy but then again, I did not manage to get some swimming in and I also had a bit of a flare up with the injury again. So I was not moving as much as I was last week.

Tonight I am relaxing and taking turns between tensoring and icing my knee, and watching TV. Tomorrow is about a 20k bike ride so I need to be rested up here.

Well, I hope everyone is having a great day!

No Running Yet...

2008-07-04T17:56:00.002-06:00

The verdict came... and I was not to happy but understand. There was some hope that since my pain and discomfort has been almost completely gone here, I had a flare up yesterday working outside on the yard. Today there has been some pain also. It is funny though because just before I headed out for my bike with the running clinic last night, the pain went away, so I attempted to bike up one hill with the runners... no problems! So I biked up 2 more times with them and then back to the store. I drove my bike there instead of riding it there because I did not want to take chances with the earlier pain.

So anyways, my acupuncture person (also a physiotherapist) said that running is going to have to wait a bit more yet here. :( He is hoping next week will be ok to try running a bit. I just have to remember that sometimes things healing can get worse before they get better... I was careful in what I have been doing and making sure that I was not over doing it and the biking they said I could do only if there is no pain doing it - I had zero last night! Oh well, I have the rest of my life to run and make up for it. :) I guess they call this stage the 'runner's blues'... I am trying hard though to find a replacement activity like my biking to stay active, but it just does not feel the same. And now that the summer hours are happening for the pools... the times SUCK!!! I really don't feel like getting up super early to go swimming. I liked it better when they offered the mid-day times for lane swimming. :(

Well, the temp here is quite high and thank god for the air conditioning! My son is at my mom's tonight for a sleepover and my hubby is away till tomorrow night, so I have the place to myself with my zoo. I am going to have to find a movie here to sit and watch and would love to go on the stationary bike right now while watching it, but I was told to take it easy tonight. :( I just have a hard time staying still sometimes! lol

I hope everyone has a great weekend here and has some lovely weather to take advantage of!

HBC Canada Day Run

2008-07-02T08:25:00.002-06:00

The HBC Canada Day run was FANTASTIC!!! Picking up our race/event package was quite smooth, the shirt was awesome, and the goodie bag was the best ever. :) We just made it to the start of the 10k race at 8 am and I took loads of pics of people that were in my clinic and of many others that I knew. We then headed for our huge pancake breakfast where we were offered pancakes, sausage, ham, bacon, and eggs all buffet style with a choice of juice or coffee to drink. After we had finished eating we headed over to watch the 10k runners cross the finish line where I took many photos. lol

My son had his 1k event next and managed to finish under 7 mins and I was quite proud of him on his first ever 1k event! The picture above is of my son's Educational Assistant, my son, me, and my BF Kerry (we ran my first full marathon together).

Next up was our 3k walk event and I ended up playing a bit of cat and mouse with my son's EA to keep her moving. lol I would keep on saying 'I am catching up to you' and she would move quicker and at one point she broke in to a jog just so I would not catch up. I eventually did. ;), with NO running. :) I am not too sure what the 3k walking time was and I really don't care too much. I had stopped so much to take pics along the way of everyone and even the spectators that I knew! lol I was basically just being a goof and having some fun.

The main thing was that my whole family managed to get out and do something together. My hubby was there to but I don't quite like the pic of me. :( That is why it is not posted.

The weather was beautiful and we ended up staying after for some cake that was made for the event which was 4 feet by 8 feet! Then we sat on the grass and enjoyed some multicultural dances by various groups. We ended up leaving around 1:30 pm to get back home to the animals and full intentions to come back for the fireworks, but some people forgot to wear sunscreen and ended up a bit burnt. So needless to say we stayed home for the rest of the day.

In running news... there is a possibility that I may be able to start the back to running program here come Friday! The acupuncture is doing so well that things are healing up great! So, pretty happy here. :D

Tonight is my second orientation with McD's. The first night we spent most of the time watching cartoon training video thing. It was informative, but WAY different then what I watched 20 yrs ago!

Because of the McD's shift being an orientation, I have made arrangements for me not being with the running group tonight. I believe the manager will do it in stead. After tonight, I should not be scheduled to do another shift during my run times again.

Well, I should get going here as I wanted to do a bike ride and some physio exercises before I start some cleaning on the house.

Hope everyone has had a great Canada Day and today you are recouping nicely. :)

Beautiful Morning

2008-06-30T09:41:00.002-06:00

I just came back from a small 7.5 k bike ride to see the new development by our newest mall. Things are shaping up there and there are many businesses and such that I did not even know were going to be there! I even saw a timmies that was behind everything. I swear that place is taking over Saskatoon as there are way more Timmies than anything else. lol I worked up a good sweat though biking along and finding that only when I have to turn right does my leg act up. Something I will be bringing up today at my physio/acupuncture appt. I am sure hoping that this acupuncture appt goes as well as the last one because I am seeing remarkable improvements. :D

The weather here is going to be a HOT one today. +33 for this afternoon and I sure hope that the rain that they are calling for later this evening arrives so that it can wet things down a bit.

This morning I am off to get my 'official' McD's uniform! I still don't think it has hit me too much yet but I need the money and it is SOOOOO close to my house. :) Tonight I have my first orientation at another location.

Well, I hope everyone is enjoying their soon to be holidays here and maybe a few of you are taking in some of the Canada Day festivities where ever you are! Just be safe and have some fun. Tomorrow we are celebrating Canada Day by all of us doing the HBC Canada Day Run. I will post pics here from that when I can.

Have a great day!

Friday's WI

2008-06-27T08:46:00.003-06:00

Well I am FINALLY happy to report a loss and NOT another gain here for me. I was getting a bit scared there as I was trying so hard and the scale just kept showing me going up. I don't know exactly what I did right yesterday but I will take it. I do know that I did swim twice this week which I think helped me for cardio since I can't run at the moment. I will be looking in to getting a pack of 10 passes here maybe next week so I can continue it. I am feeling the difference in my whole body which I am happy to feel again like when I was running. I am still sputtering my way through it but I keep moving for 45 mins in the lane back and forth. :) Not a great speed mind you but at least I was moving. :)

So last night I tried a new way of BBQ'ing my chicken for the burgers and it went really well. Tonight I am not too overly sure on what I am going to make yet but a BBQ again seems like a plan. It is raining steadily here so we need a bit of a mood booster.

Since it is so cold, rainy, and miserable out, I am going to pop a movie in and go on the stationary bike for a good ride and hoping for at least 1 hr of it. We will see how the leg handles that. Any pain though and I stop. I also will be doing my physio exercises here.

The leg feels really good again here today and I can really notice that on a weekly average, it is getting better. The time spent with pain compared to without it is getting less. I just wish that it would hurry up and heal already though because on the days that there is pain it seems like I back track for some reason and I didn't do anything to aggravate it. It must have just been the way I took a step or something. Who knows... But it is frustrating though because this one area does not want to heal very fast at all. Everything else is taming down and less flare ups but this one part on a bone is not. <- kinda makes me wonder if maybe I should have had an x-ray...

This morning I was to be going to a job interview for respite care. I was excited about it at first but thought about it more and was not sure that it would be good. Some reasons for this was that it is out of town (would have to drive there when they needed me) and the schedule was just when they needed you. I have responsibilities to my running clinic and physio right now. I can see some of this clashing and not to mention that financially I can't really afford to drive out there right now till I get paid. I also would have to pay for two different record checks right away and can't afford that. So instead of us all wasting out time, I doubt it would work. It would have been a great part time/casual job but the uncertainty of my schedule and their schedule was not mixing very well. So I tried to call here to cancel the interview and such and no one was there so I had to leave a message. :( I feel pretty bad about it but what can you do... better to figure things out now then later when they are depending on you. Edit: I have to laugh at this one.... remember I said once upon a time that if I had to I would work at McDonald's I would? Guess what. I am going to be working there as of Monday! lol I thought about it and was just sending out resumes today and filling out applications to places that were close to my house to make things easier. Well, I got to McD's and they hired me on the spot. I figure it is a job that will get me through the summer and a wage is a wage where ever you are. You can't be too fussy when you are looking for 2 mths summer employment and want something close to your house. Money is money I figure, and right now I need it. The one great thing about them though is that they will work around my running clinic schedule and stuff which is really good. So there you go... a new summer job for me. :) I came out of there laughing and thinking here I am again! (I used to work at the same location 20 yrs ago) lol How funny is that to go back to a place that I worked at for a bit while in high school. And for those who may wonder about all the temptations of food there... don't worry, I LOVE their salads more and the rest you get sick of pretty fast. I have worked WAY to hard to get the wt to come back off again and I would like to get back down to where I was before I left for England. So... eating there will be avoided at all costs! I never did hear anything further about working at the Running Room so I needed to move on and make sure I had a job not matter what and that respite job? I decided completely against it - just not suitable enough for me right now.

Well, for everyone going away here for the long weekend, have a safe and fun trip and give me all the juicy details when you get back. I am sooooo jealous here! I just love camping, hiking on the trails, swimming, fishing, cabins, exploring, the open fire... ah... the list goes on. I will just have to settle for a fire in my fire pit and swimming at the pool, oh and my stationary bike. lol

Have fun!

Thundershowers?

2008-06-26T09:35:00.002-06:00

We actually may get some here! I know I sound a bit crazy but I really do like them. :)

So today I am feeling pretty good here and just had some problems yesterday during the day a bit. It's weird right now because I do not feel any problems what so ever... not like I have been moving around much or anything but usually after I feed the dogs and take them outside I start to have some pain. Now let's just hope that it stays this way. :)

In a bit here I am going to go swimming again for a bit. Then later tonight I am biking to the RR clinic, biking with them during their run, and then biking home. I have a funny feeling that I should put on those fenders on my bike that I was talking about the other day. I never did put them on but considering that it looks like it is going to be rainy all day here, I really should do that at some point here. lol I can just envision one of those brown streaks up my back and up the front. :)

It is going to a BBQ night again here for us and I am thinking it is going to be chicken burgers. Other than that I am going to be preparing my clinic discussion for tonight before the run.

Since wi is tomorrow, I am trying really hard to try to move the scale down again but it is really being quite stubborn. I know my exercise is not quite the cardio that I did before but my eating has been quite good and I am still moving... well, TOM I think may have been the culprit for last week's main gain but this week it should have started to move down a bit.... not much has been showing though. :( OH well... onwards and downwards... eventually. :)

Have a great day everyone!

Last Day of School!

2008-06-25T14:14:00.003-06:00

Well my son's last day of school was today and so it was also my last day of working this school year for me and I did not sub today. I didn't really think I would get called in but you never know. So, I went and took my bike for it's first little tune up to adjust anything from after riding for a while from the factory. I was having a bit of problems with it engaging in some gears but that was about it. I also priced out some strictly road tires since right now I have some dual ones. They are OK but I am finding that I am riding more on the road and not much for gravel and trails and such so road tires would be better.

I then went to visit my new school for next year that I will be at full time. :) I am looking forward to it because I can bike or even walk there if I want! It is SOOOOO close.

Leg wise today, I am having a bit of an off day. It is just a bit sore in the places where the needles were in.

I also put on a bit more grass seed in where the last batch was not taking. I then went and picked up a starter pumpkin plant because mine are going a bit slow. My son really likes to see the pumpkins when they grow. Then I put a few more corn seeds in since you can plant them staggered so they are ready in stages. I finally have about 15 up so pretty happy with that with all the struggling I had with what ever was digging the other seeds up. No sign of them since I laid the poison down.

As for my hubby and a job, he is going to stick to what he is doing for now and then most probably apply with the Edmonton and Calgary police services. In all honesty, I really do not mind except the moving but when we move we will be stable and I can get my new place just the way I want it out side and in. :) He is still pretty upset with everything but is moving on from it. I on the other hand still withdrew from my RN program till we are more settled in where we are living. Eventually I will apply again and hopefully I can get in to where ever we are.

Well, right now I am contemplating just lounging around on my deck and enjoying the weather before we get a thunderstorm here. They keep saying we are going to get one and we haven't really yet so who knows. For now the deck is calling my name. lol

Supper tonight we are going to BBQ again here so food wise I am still doing pretty well. :)

Acupuncture

2008-06-24T15:51:00.002-06:00

Well today was my first day of trying acupuncture! I had the consultation first and then for my first time he put 10 needles in, 5 in each leg. It really did not hurt at all and had to tweek them, push them in I think, a couple of times during the 20 mins that they were in. There was some tingling, numbness, and a weird feeling but nothing uncomfortable. Right now I am just sitting and relaxing for a bit to let things settle. We are going to try it 3 more times to see if it can help me. All in all it was a great experience and I will keep everyone updated on how it works. :)

The rest of the day I did not do too much. We just had a bit of bad news here about my hubby. He is not going in to the RCMP. It seems that for some strange reason the interpretation of his last polygraph was different then all the others that he has taken. I know that these things should be great and all but they are not 100% correct. We are quite upset right now about the whole thing and was really hoping that it was a definite thing this time. We have been preparing everything for this.

Other than that, tonight we are going to BBQ again and just sit back and relax at home. Tomorrow is my son's last day of school and he is quite excited about the whole thing this year. I was supposed to go to listen to another clinic talk tonight but I am choosing to stay here instead for a variety of reasons.

Exercise wise, I have done one set of physio stuff and I will see how I feel later on doing another set. Right now things are aggravated and I do not feel like moving. Gee... wonder why.... lol

Have a great day!

First Day of Swimming!

2008-06-23T14:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday my ex-mother-in-law gave me a couple of pool passes to try swimming to see if it helped me at all with my leg. So, today I went and tried it out. I did not too badly and managed to stay moving for a good 45 mins. There were a couple of things that I could not do like the whip kick or use the flutter board but I manage to keep moving and sputtered my way through the front crawl. ;)

I also hooked up a cheap bike speedometer on my bike instead of always wearing my garmin to keep track of pace and distance for the group runs and my biking. I figured this would be easier since my hubby likes to use the garmin again and I always have it. I can't hook up my polar to the bike because I do not have the bike attachment so I figured this is the cheapest thing to do to solve the problem. :) Now my hubby is going to help me make a quick chart for common paces for the group to keep on hand when I am with me. Depending on how I feel later I may put on my fenders and rack. On Sunday I told the group that I may as well make myself useful and carry extra water on the runs and such to fill everyone's water bottles up. lol I can also carry their extra clothing and such as needed. This is since it looks like there will not be much long distance running here for me for a while now.

I am at some point here going to go for a short bike ride to test the new toy out. Done :) I went out for just over 22 mins and did just about 7 k. It was a great ride and no pain. ;)

Some bad news about the hot tub though... I had it all filled up ready to go and when I turned it on, the water would not circulate. So, I have been working on it for the last couple of days trying to fix it and called the help centre with some ideas on how to fix it. I tried what they suggested but it will not continue to stay on very long and stops working. So, I have priced out a new power pack thing and we may be buying a new one here next week when we can afford it. So, no hot tub for now... just a cooler for my legs... :(

Other than that we are having a BBQ for supper tonight and I am going to relax some here. Tomorrow is my first acupuncture appointment for the very first time. Should be interesting but I hope it helps me out some.

Well, not much else to report here and I hope everyone has had a great day!

Relaxing day

2008-06-22T20:14:00.002-06:00

This morning I biked a total of 18 km with 10 of it with the running clinic. I had to stop a couple of times to stretch but all went good. We had a great turn out even with the heat and wind that was against them. A few started out too fast for the heat but learned in the end as they had to walk it in. I think I will be reminding the clinic on Thursday's clinic night about the importance of running slower on our long slow runs and even slower on hotter days...

This afternoon my son went with his grandma to see the new Narnia and my hubby and I went out for lunch and then took two of the dogs to the dog park for about 45 mins. We did not walk around much as the dogs were out running around and meeting everyone and we were talking to other humans. lol Right now the dogs are pooped! They have not really moved around much since we came home. :)

Tonight I have already done my second set of physio and now I am icing and relaxing... that is about it for me. Nothing else planned as I want to be rested up just incase I have to work tomorrow.

Have a great day all!

Hot and Humid

2008-06-21T09:45:00.002-06:00

The temperature is already +22 and going to 26 this afternoon! Sounds like a relaxing day outside for me... After my *hopefully* final repairs on my hot tub cure, I can fill it up so we can take a cool dip this evening. :) It generally takes a day to warm up to its hottest temperature and I just put some on it to repair a hole again yesterday afternoon, so maybe... I can fill it up this afternoon! It is just so hard to tell if it is dry enough in the location the repair was to tell. hmmmmm....

So other than that, I am taking a day off of exercise other than my physio stuff since the clinic has their 10 k long run tomorrow. I would like my leg to be ok for this as there is a couple of smaller hills on this run. *gulp* As I have always just rode my bike for fun and commuting, I have never kept track of speed and cadence and stuff. My physio would like me to be at about 90 for cadence (?) and light resistance so I can work up my endurance again here for cardio and such. I think I may have to pick up one of those cheap bike things that shows me what I am doing.

As for food, today is so far so good and I am drinking my water like crazy. Last night was almost a slip up as I wanted some chocolate covered hobnob cookies, so I baked some. After all that I tried one and decided I did not want any more so I told my son they were all his. lol Not the healthiest for him but great as a treat. Saves money that's for sure!!! :)

Well, off to get ready for my day in the sun. I was not too sure on how the weather was going to be as it was looking pretty ugly when I took the dogs out this morning... now it is clearing up fast and getting HOT!!! I think that cool dip later tonight will definitely be in the plan. :)

Have a great day all!

Cancelled

2008-06-20T12:16:00.004-06:00

My half marathon that I was going to run in Sept. has been cancelled now due to my injuries. At this point the physio is just hoping that I can make a 10 km run that day instead. :( I will be trying some acupuncture next week under physio's suggestion for pain management.

I am allowed to do my biking with light resistance and small walks only still.

A super TGIF!

2008-06-20T07:20:00.002-06:00

Yesterday's talk ended up having to go completely not as I had planned. I did not end up talking about the online stuff... it ended up me demonstrating how to use the foam roller and stick. There were some technical issues that we could not fix right away... so it was a good laugh on me because here I was wearing my running skirt showing all this.

The bike ride went well up until the very end and then I had some issues. As of this morning, things are ok again here and later this morning I am back at physio to see what she says.

My wi this morning is not too hot and I am up... 135.2! Things are supposed to go down not up... This week I am just really going to have to give it my all here and get things back down. I can already tell in my clothes that things are not fitting so hot as they did before.

I still do not know if I am subbing this afternoon yet. I booked the morning off because of the physio, but left the afternoon open. I guess last night while I was out there were a bunch of calls - seems kinda funny that this late in the year a bunch of people are taking some time off. Suites me just fine, but after last night, I was just hoping to rest my leg a bit. The school I was at in the afternoon was a blast as it was a pre-school program for special needs kids of 3 and 4 yr olds. They kinda kept you quite busy.... lol

Well time to wake my son up and get him ready for school here. Have a great day everyone!

All is good

2008-06-19T09:21:00.002-06:00

So yesterday I did not end up subbing but I did some work around the yard and started to reseed some of the grass that did not come back this year. I had to hand rake the whole area because my little rechargeable lawn mower... there is no power rake that I can buy for it yet. It is quite the small blade. It was a bit windy but I managed and then finished looking for and patching any holes in my inflatable hot tub. I think I have found all but one... because I still think there is one on the top level but I can not find it. :( It is a really small one so it is barely leaking. So I am hoping tomorrow or this weekend I can finish setting it up so I can finally enjoy it. :)

Last night my 3 km bike ride with the running group went really well and so well in fact that I went out for my 20 mins brisk walk afterwards! I was quite surprised because earlier in the day my leg was really bugging me but by the time that it came for the group run, things felt better. So yesterday was a really good day for activity.

Today I am subbing this afternoon and then a 4 km bike ride with the running clinic tonight. Tonight's clinic should be interesting as I will be speaking about all the on-line stuff that is available for the group at the store web site and I have to go with a plan b because the LCD projector that I was supposed to use is not working now, so I have to bring in a laptop. It is going to be quite small to see, but we do what we have to do. :) I can explain it well... it is just nice to see an actual visual.

Thanks to everyone for the congrats and condolences the past two days! It really was a bitter sweet day again for me. As for the fish... the way that they died so fast and that there really was not any struggling to stay alive at all, I am attributing it to something they ate. I am not sure my son is telling me the whole story, and I know that he would not intentionally kill the fish on purpose, but he does tend to do things with out thinking first. He told me after the fact of them dying that he fed them. I am not sure I will ever know what happened but it seems that there was maybe something on his hands or he decided to try feeding them something that he thought may be good for them. Who knows... :(

Well, I should start to get things done this morning. I have already done my first set of the day of physio stuff and will do the next set after the clinic.

Tomorrow is wi day... I am not sure how it is going to go as things have really been fluctuating quite a bit here.

Have a great day everyone!

What a day!!!!

2008-06-17T20:00:00.002-06:00

First of all, some back ground...

I had phoned Human Resources, with the school board, yesterday to see what my options were on how to get back on contract and if it was possible given that I had resigned and then restarted straight away on the sub list. They were closed for the day and so I left a message. They phoned me back at 7:45 am this morning and said that I may not have a chance with the EA III position because I lost all my seniority, but would I be interested in an EA II position again. I said sure! They then asked if I wanted to go to this one certain school and I just laughed and said that was kinda funny because this is the school that this one certain principal is at really wants me there and has been bugging me to get my application in there for an EA III position! So... they said that they would see what they could do for me and because of my reputation (which they assured was a good one) they would do what they could and phone me later. Well I just happened to be at that certain school today subbing and I told them I would be there. They just laughed and said it was fate.

I went to the school and talked to the principal and told her about the phone call and she was excited and awaiting there call to see if she was interested. At 3 pm... I got called to the principals office and was offered the job!!!! I am back on full contract starting in the new school year! And get this... the EA that caused me a bunch of grief that was supposed to be at the school? Let's just say that the story was embellished by someone and that she only had an EA II position and she was moved there without her requesting it. And the next best news? Her name was taken off of the list for my new school and mine was put on. :D I don't mean to sound mean or anything but I felt wonderful!!! After all the things that some of these ladies did or did not do for me through the years, it is about time that things went a bit against one of them. Requested move or not, her posting next year is still up in the air. :) What comes around goes around...

So... I am all excited sharing my news with everyone and then I look at my big fish tank. One koi is down... then my huge one, then my German one.... and it went on.... I only have one koi left and 2 goldfish!!!!! It was sudden and I am not too sure what happened as I never have had problems... my son then told me he fed the fish before I came home.... He is usually pretty good but something happened. All my prize ones are gone. :( My husband just came home and took them out for me because I just could not do it. I rushed around trying to save who I could but they just kept dropping. This all happened within the first 30 mins of getting home. They were all alive and swimming around when I first arrived home.

So now I am a bit sore, the work part did not bug it, but rushing around did it in. I guess I will not be going for a walk tonight now.

So now you have heard about my day. As for school (university) I am just going to take nursing classes as I can and I will have to drop out of the program that starts in the fall. We just can't afford it this year. I will be earning a good income again so maybe I can catch up again with the finances.

Food wise things were doing well but I am unsure of what is going to happen tonight. On one side of the equation I want to celebrate, but on the other I just want to cry...

Hot and Sunny

2008-06-16T23:16:00.002-06:00

That is sure what is was today! :) I almost did not have to work but later on in the morning I had a call for the afternoon. I sat back and debated it but thought I would give it a shot because it was a new school that I have not been at before.

Found out some not too overly hot news though. In the school that I was at for the previous almost 5 yrs, I had some issues with a couple of co-workers, or more they had a problem with me. I thought they were great... I have come to the conclusion, with some help from another co-worker that I just did my job too well at times and I was there to work myself out of a job with my student... to make them independent from an EA. I guess I took my job too seriously and they did not like it and caused quite a bit of problems for me. I have gone through the appropriate things to do when there are personal issues like this but it never worked. I even used all the right language like the 'I' statements for the proper communication but as I said... it never worked. Now, as one teacher is retiring, this EA no longer has her queen as her back up and has asked for a transfer. Now here is the kicker... she is moving to the school that I was trying to get in to where the principal was going to try her best to get me in! Now the other thing I do not understand is this person used to be a nurse a long time ago and when it came to helping me out with transfers and such, she refused and said she did not like that stuff and did not feel like it was her job to do it. The school that she is going to, that is all they do there besides a bit of acedemics. It is a highly personal care type school where students are sent that do not or can not be integrated because of their disabilities. I am at a loss here and upset. When I found out this I really was not sure about what I was going to do because I could not handle going through all that sh*t again! I talked it over with a former co-worker and said that I knew it may come up eventually because this city is not the biggest, but I did not expect it so soon... my friend said that the one good thing is that the principal is on my side and knows me and this place is more like my 'turf' sort of speaking. I know the students and staff and they all know what I am like. I know I can never get along with everyone but a few people really had caused me some superb grief where I would basically end up in tears at work.

In the end, I will apply and see what happens. If I do get the position I will just walk in there like nothing is wrong. This time though... grievances WILL be made. I never last time because the president of the union could never keep her mouth shut and shared too much info that she shouldn't have. It just would make to much of a mountain out of a mole hill.

So, I am not trying to have a pity party here or anything, but these guys have cause much grief with many EA's and teachers alike and the atmosphere at the school was not great because of them. Now, their clique has broken up a bit. I am generally a tolerant person but they just really got under my skin and the safety of my student at the time was jeopardized.

Well, enough of that because I am getting myself worked up again from all the old feelings. Time to turn a new leaf and start fresh. I will be applying to other places now too.

So, eating was really good today and the only treat I had was a Timmies coffee to stay awake while waiting for my hubby's plane to arrive. I even did not order anything from McD's as my hubby picked up some to eat for when he got home. NSV!!!

I went out for a walk again today and things went really well. I am starting to feel much stronger now and the pain is less.

Well, off to bed. I should have gone a while ago but I wanted to visit with my hubby.

Cheers!

Things are coming. :)

2008-06-15T11:10:00.002-06:00

Well this morning I drove my bike to the running clinic and then biked with the clinic on their 8 km run. It was a beautiful day out and just perfect for everyone. I had no pain or any issues what so ever so it went really well for me. When I got home I stretched a bit and still no pain so I thought I would try a 15 mins brisk walk for the first time. I did it!!! I did not break a sweat or anything and it felt a bit awkward at the start, which was to be expected, but things worked out and I felt it was safe to continue. I just finished stretching a bit again and had to take a break and share my good news. :) After my post I will go back and do all my physio stuff.

Tomorrow I will try to walk again and will continue until things feel good right from the start, and in a couple of days... maybe I can try my 1 min of running every so often as my program states. :) SO HAPPY here. lol

The rest of the group had a really good run and things are getting easier for them. There were only two that had some issues (self inflicted) and listened to my advice and I biked while I took them walking back to the store. Even my not so fast paced person today had a wonderful day!

Last night, well all day yesterday, I had a craving for taco chips and a taco salad... I think I am going to blame this one on two things... one: at the one school I was at we had taco salad for lunch, two: I read a post about tostatos lol (won't mention any names) :) So yesterday I bought some taco chips and some salad stuff for a salad. In the mean time... the chips were nibbled on. lol Just could resist. I did make sure though that I used low fat sour cream and a low sodium seasoning mix for the beef and rinsed the beef well after browning. I even made sure that I did not use to much cheese. So, all in all, it could have been worse. :)

Tonight my son and I are going to make chicken curry with cous cous. The sodium will be a bit high again but it is a home cooked meal and portions will be watched. Usually on Sundays, I do not worry too overly much about what food I eat because of all the running but right now there is not too overly much going on.

Well, I hope the weather has improved for all and you are out there enjoying it some.

Cheers!

Could things settle down just a bit?

2008-06-14T10:07:00.002-06:00

Well yesterday I had hoped that things would settle down some... did not happen till later last night. My day in a quick recap: Woke up, bathed, got son up and ready for track meet, made sure track meet was not cancelled again, phoned ex to tell him track meet was still on, sent son to school, went for breakie with my Nanny and aunt, went to physio from breakie, while in physio cell phone rang continuously from dispatch from school board, a person from the school board, and my hubby, my dispatch was cancelled and they were trying to tell me this as the computer kept calling me to accept a new one, finally talked to my hubby (he is in Idaho right now) and then finally got a hold of a person from dispatch to settle things out and go to a new school for the afternoon. Raced home to get ready and race to the school to work at for the afternoon. At the school there was a dance! A bit sore from that one being with the student. Saw the postings for the positions that certain people wanted me to apply for in the school system - did I mention that they also called me at 8 am to tell me they were up! Went to my Nanny's to pick up son because ex dropped him off there and chatted for a bit. Went to grocery store to pick up a few things and went home. Made supper for son and I and then took care of the supper routine for all animals and supervised their outside stuff. Finally realized that I did not do my weekly email out to my clinic members yet to give them the info for the training for the week and make up the routes for our runs. Making up the email is easy... it is the mapping of the runs that is the hard and LONG part! Finally at 10:30 pm I managed to relax...

So... I never managed to get on even in the morning when I like to. All in all it was a pretty busy day for me again here.

The physio app't went well and she was happy that I have not tried to start the back to running program yet. I told her of some of the problems that I am having with a couple of exercises and we adapted them so they would work for me. I have to hunt for a tennis ball today to work on some muscles a bit more specifically. I thought we still had some in stock here with the dogs but I believe they have all disappeared. :( Time for a new stash. The physio also said that I am looking at another 4 weeks of recovery here... but in the mean time to still do things to my comfort level. I also told her about the working and she would like to see me cut it down a bit - I knew I was biting a bit more off than I could chew with this one.

As for the wt, I checked yesterday morning and I was down a bit and realized that Friday's were my wi days and not Thursdays!!! So I am just leaving things the way they are for now and hopefully next week will look better. :)

Food wise, things are still getting better as I am not sitting around as much bored out of my tree on the couch.

Exercise wise I am still just doing what the physio requested for the leg/knee and today I will be working on some extra stuff for strengthening on the abs and arms.

Other than that, today will be some general house cleaning and some much needed relaxing. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!! :)

Another cold busy day...

2008-06-12T21:38:00.002-06:00

Well, here I thought that I would be able to manage to get back on here again last night but things kind of ran away on me here. First of all I went to the practice run with my group and biked there and ended up talking for a bit, then came home and my husband had rented a movie so we watched that. Today, I raced somewhat around getting my hubby and his dad to the airport and then driving like a crazy women to get home in time enough so I could clean up, eat and get ready to work in the afternoon at my son's school! Then I come home and wait for my son's biological dad to pick him up for a visit, go to the bank, then come home and get ready for my clinic this evening. I biked with them and then got around for talking again for ever after then came home to a zillion phone calls... My son has just been dropped off and now he is settling down for bed. I am pooped!!!!! I managed to get in my 2 sets of physio required stuff in and now I am thinking about hitting the sack here also.

Tomorrow morning is physio and we will see about starting the back to running program. I am still having good and bad days as it just all can depend on the slightest thing to even how I wake up in the morning. :( Last night was a bad one but tonight is not too bad so far. Another reason for me to call it a night here as I do not want to tempt things.

Well, I updated my wt tracker on the side... not so good but better than it was. So new wt is 132.4, better than 136!!!! (that is what it went up to!!!). Hopefully once I can get moving more again here it will continue to go back down.

On the good news front is that I do not have a shortage of schools that want to hire me next year if that is the route that I will end up going... just as long as the school board will hire me back. On the other side I also have some good news on the summer job front as I was offered a summer job waitressing which wouldn't be my first choice but it would bring in better money! The girls there bring in on average $100 a shift! And NO... it is not at a bar. The one I wanted though I just heard tonight that I may find out next week here if I have the job as the manager says that he would like to hire me and is just waiting for head office's approval. He needs another day person which would be PERFECT for me! I SOOOO can't wait!

Well anyways... before I rant on here, I should get some sleep and hope that tomorrow is not as crazy as the last couple of days. Rest and recovery? I am trying....

A great day!

2008-06-11T14:29:00.002-06:00

I was a bit worried this am when I did not have a phone call yet to work today... then I got a call just before 8 am. It was a good day and all the students were really great and the knee held up!!! Wooo Hooo! :) I was a bit stiff first thing this morning but once I got moving around a bit, it just got better from there.

Tonight I will be out biking with the running clinic tonight for a short run. Since I worked today, I am just going to drive my bike there and then ride from there. No need to temp fate here...

Yesterday I had mentioned about the choices I have for next year. Since my hubby may be getting on with the RCMP, after depot, we really would not know where we would be moving to. They may accept suggestions, but in the end it is where they can place you. So, we have absolutely no clue.

Well, I should get going here and wind things up. (I am still at work with some spare time)

I will catch you all later!