Thumpity

Today's heart rate wasn't so good...168!!!! I think maybe because I had a hot chocolate and blueberry muffin at Tim Horton's while I waited for the gym to open. Usually I eat AFTER, and am at the gym right after papers, not taking any time to just sit.
Still have the cracked up van...absolutely NO rental cars are in Regina this weekend, as they were all shipped up to Saskatoon for the Junos. So the van goes in on Tuesday, and we get a rental at that time. The good side of it is that by that time, the garage should have all the bits and pieces in stock, and will just have to disassemble and reassemble the back of the van. Thankfully, they were able to tape some weather plastic onto the window hole....I had tried yesterday morning but ran out of duct tape, plus the stuff I HAD wouldn't stick. :-s
A note to make Jodi smile....by lunchtime I will own all 3 Neverending story movies...just for you. :-D

Good News

After talking with SGI all morning, and getting nowhere but stuck (yes, you can get your van fixed....IF you pay the deductible, etc, etc....yes, even if it's not your fault, until the other guy calls us, you'll get reimbursed, etc, etc...what? No money for deductible? Too bad. Kids have to sit in the back, eh? Too bad), Husband decided to try to appeal to the other guy's good nature. Phoned him, told him the situation....good thing he did. The other guy wasn't even GOING to report it! He thought since he had no damage that he didn't have to, and by the time SGI went through all their procedures and all, it would have taken over a MONTH to get everything through the works. The guy phoned right away and reported it, and I got a call around 2PM from SGI saying go ahead, rent a car, get the van fixed, they'll send the bill to SGI so the other guy can pay. So Husband has gone to do that, and hopefully all will be fixed and we'll have our van back relatively soon, depending on how long it takes the garage to get the parts and get them replaced, but in the meantime we will have transportation. What a relief. Thankfully the guy who hit us was a decent fellow and didn't try to deflect the blame....and I think it really hit him and his passengers hard when I opened the side door to get to Elizabeth, who was sobbing her eyes out (understandably) and realized they had just hit a van with two little ones in the back.
My upper back is still in a lot of pain, but I'm hoping an electric massager we bought will do the trick, and professional treatment won't be required. Husband's back and neck are bothering him, and I think he may need to see a massage therapist or something. The kids are fine. I thank God that just the day before, I had tightened Son's car seat straps to adjust for his lighter coat (instead of his bulky winter jacket he'd been wearing before). If they hadn't been tightened, who knows if he would have had whiplash or something.
Oh yeah....and Husband will be on CBC Regina talking about credit card skimming. Talk about great exposure for the business! Woo hoo!!!!!

Creak, creak

Well, I did get up and go to work...and to the gym this morning. I'm a little stiff, but nothing too major. My back muscles are pretty raw, and my joints are achey, but I think the fact that I got up and got out to do the papers and stairstepper has kept anything else from being a problem. Husband is still sleeping, so I don't know how he's doing yet.
It's a nice day out. No rain, which sure is a blessing in our situation. Not sure how long we will have to wait to get the van in, and how long it will take them to do all the work on it....and how soon the other guy will take to report it to SGI, or how long until they say definitely the liability is on his side (it is, but because he hasn't reported yet, legaleze, blah, blah) if he doesn't report it. Today I hunt up some plastic and tape....probably some of that stuff you use over windows in winter to keep drafts out.
Well, off to pop some Tylenol and take another stab at the house...including today, my sister and b-i-l arrive in 4 days.
Oh yeah....heart rate of 150 today.

SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, just when I thought the day couldn't get worse.
We headed out to do errands...library, groceries, that sort of thing. I'm driving. Stop at a red light. Next thing I know there's a Dodge Ram 2500 in the back of the van. I heard the screech of brakes before he hit, and have played the coulda woulda shouldas all day in my head....if only I had hit the gas when I heard the screech....if only I had tried to beat the yellow today instead of being good and braking to a stop on time...Son is fine, Daughter is physically fine but having a rough time with it, emotionally. Husband and I are really sore....no definite injuries, but all our muscles are seizing up on us, so potentially whiplash and that sort of thing. You should have seen the black skid marks he left on the road before he hit.
The hatch and bumper must be replaced. The back window totally shattered (funny thing is, the accident felt like it happened in slow motion, like watching it on TV, and I remember a sense of absolute fascination as I watched the window shatter behind me), but thankfully, because of the tinting and decalling, it mostly stayed together in its shattered state instead of flying into the kids' heads, the large proportion of it falling out of the back in mostly one piece (though shattered) as I pulled into a parking lot to exchange info. $4000 damage, and we can't do anything, even though the other guy was totally at fault, until the other guy calls in his claim.
It's a bit breezy in the van at the moment. Having somebody try to fit their pickup into your minivan will do that to you. I'm very shaken, very tired, and very, very, very sore. I am debating calling my boss to say I won't be at work in the morning.
I refuse to cook....i can hardly move. So I must now go flip phone book pages to figure out what to feed the kids.
Bad timing...just had the brakes fixed, car washed inside and out, tires changed and wheels aligned in the last two days....$800-$900 shelled out just so we could get our van smashed up. *sigh* It figures.

Bad day

Today is a bad, bad, bad day. The worst. One of those days when you just want to go back to bed and forget today ever was. It's only 8:14AM.
I have been betrayed and lost all trust and confidence in someone. They messed up...again. And I am mad. Not just hurt and sad, but really MAD this time. This time it is going to take a very long time to trust this person again, if I can do it at all. The biggest problem is that this is someone very dear to me, and it's so hard to not be able to count on this person. But this person knows exactly how I feel, and what I think about the whole thing, and this person knows that they have some major work to do to get things back on track, and that they are the one who will have to be solely responsible for doing so. Anyway....if I dwell on this too long, I'm going to go into a huge depression (halfway there already), so...
Heart rate of 156 this morning.
We were supposed to get 15 cm of snow, but didn't. Yay.
Hope to finish cleaning the downstairs today. I can dream.
Daughter and Husband have bronchitis. Yuck.
Son and I don't. Yay.
Have one friend with a new baby girl and one friend just working on one. Double yay.
I'm tired. The last 4 1/2 hours have been too long of a day.

It's about time!

I am one of those pathetic souls who, even knowing how dumb it is, watches reality TV...Apprentice, Biggest Loser, Survivor, that sort of thing. Now, in the past few years, one thing has been blatantly clear (okay, maybe a few things....)...Survivor is created for people who like to drool at flesh. Never is there an ugly, fat, lazy slob on the island. Never do you see them wandering around in much more than bathing trunks or a bikini. Also, due to this fact, the show never takes place anywhere that is not hot, tropical, and on a beach. This is getting a bit boring. They all look the same, location-wise, except maybe when they were in Australia. Their twists have been interesting, though the last two have been downright stupid...last season they had different ethnic groups, separated...hellloooooo racism law suit! This season one team gets a luxurious beach (shelter, hammock, dishes, food....) and the other gets poverty (a machette and not much else)....then they're all shocked that the poor starving team NEVER wins a challenge and the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and if they're not careful they're going to have a law suit because someone's going to reach a level of starvation where they will be hospitalized?
I heard on the radio this morning that maybe, just maybe, they're getting a little smarter....they're considering doing a season in Canada. They're a bit concerned about the boys not being happy to watch girls in parkas, but we Canadians have been saying they should send the players up to Nunavut in winter, make them REALLY prove they can survive.
In other news...
Heart rate at 158 today. So I've decreased my rate by 12 points in a week. Not too shabby! My weight is the same. Lost one inch from my hips....but put it on my waist instead this month. Next month should be better, I would think.
Daughter is sick with a nasty barking cough....hoping we are not going through another bout of bronchitis, especially since Husband always seems to catch it and hang onto it for several months at a time.

Eyes, Ears, Mouth And Nose

Well....ears anyway. :)
Today was Son's ear specialist checkup...he has been going about every 3 months since he had tubes put in at 8 months of age (which totally changed his life, by the way. Ask me if you haven't heard this one). The story this month is the same as 3 months ago...the right tube is still working its way out, the left tube fell out about 4 months ago. Everything looks good, just keep water out of his ears still and come back in 3 months. This is good....sort of. Ever tried to keep a 2 1/2 year old from getting water in his ears? It's harder than it sounds, especially if said child loves baths and going to the pool. He can't take swimming lessons until he can dunk his head. He has to be held and watched closely to make sure his ears stay out of the water. We have to be careful while washing his hair. Hopefully in June, the tubes will both be out, and he will have the okay to be a normal kid.
Took the kids to McD's for breakfast because Husband had a breakfast meeting elsewhere that conflicted with the specialist appointment....so we dropped him off and went to breakfast. Kids like pancakes, hashbrowns, and apple juice. Those of you who are just starting to have kids, WRITE THIS DOWN! :) You'd think we were having a party. :)
On the way, after dropping Husband off, we decided to drive by our old house in the hood. Just as I was turning the corner after passing said house, a young lady suddenly appeared in my passenger side front window. A lady of the evening, you might say. She wanted to talk to me, possibly ask for money, a ride, something else...in any case, she startled me. I hope I didn't run over her toes...two kids in the back, some stranger at my (unlocked) car door, in a bad neighbourhood, early in the morning (about 6:45AM)...my startled response was to turn the wheel HARD away from her, and tromp on the gas, squealing my tires around the corner and away. Betcha she was as scared as I was when I did that, maybe a bit mad...but lemme tell ya, I was about a block and a half away before I was conscious of what I had done and my heart started beating again...and at least I turned the car AWAY from her and not INTO her. I can't tell you how much adrenaline shoots through your veins to see a face in your car window out of nowhere. (I saw her on the corner, I did not see her run into the street towards the car until she was basically THERE)
Busy morning today...did papers, went to the gym (heart rate 160 today), got home in time to pick up the family, then what you saw above happened (drive, scare, eat, appointment)...picked up Husband, took car to a heavy duty car wash where they shampoo the insides and everything...home to clean for about an hour and a half, make lunch, eat, send Daughter to school, Son to nap. Laundry, dishwasher, bread machine...e-mail and blog.
Now I go fold laundry, etc, make supper, eat, and go to chorus. Home and to bed to start the day over again tomorrow.

Kathump

Back to the gym today. My average heart rate is at 161 now, which is great. My legs haven't been sore at all when I've come from the gym, so I must be doing it right....I was pretty stiff and sore after papers today, I guess from no papers and no gym yesterday, but now that I'm home from the gym, and have eaten and all that, I'm fine...no sore spots at all.
My sister and maybe brother in law arrive in about a week. I have the upstairs pretty much under control now, but the downstairs still needs help.
It's really nice and sunny out today....it won't be as warm as yesterday, but it's going to be above freezing, anyway. Almost all the snow and ice is gone....pretty much just piles that people made while shovelling are still hanging in there, in various stages of meltage. I'm happy about that...it means I can squish around my backyard and dream about gardening....my original plan had been to let my garden lie fallow and fertilize it, doing container gardening this year, but financially I don't think that will work, so I might just go ahead and plant it this year, and take what measly, tired veggies it will squeak out, and try for the treatment next year. It's very rocky and full of Regina Gumbo (very high clay content), you see....not the best for growing big veggies.
Well, off to do my daily whirl of cleaning!

Sleep

Well, my intention was to get up at 7, head on over to the gym, and proceed with the day from there. Amazing how plans change when work is not involved. I can get out of bed at 4AM, 6 days a week, because I have to. But get out of bed at 7AM on a Sunday because I WANT to? ha hahahaha. Let's just cut it short. I got out of bed at 8:30. Oh well. Back to the gym tomorrow. It's a gorgeous, sunny day.Yesterday was, too. Took the kids for a walk, shared a slurpee. Today we go to church, bring home lunch (burgers?), take the kids swimming, phone family, eat supper, and go to curling. Then back to sleep until 4AM. :)

Off Kilter

Nothing quite puts a wrench in your gears like having your schedule perfectly planned....and then finding out you missed an important detail. This morning, I headed off to do my papers. It was relatively warm, and the ice was going away, so that part was great. The wind was a bit hard today, so my ears started to get cold, at which point I discovered I had lost my ear warmer headband. Never found it, but that was okay, my ears stayed attached. Finished in good time, a few minutes over an hour, and headed off to the gym, all happy to be done and off to the stair stepper. Herein lies the problem. Today is Saturday. All week, the gym has opened at 5:30. It was 5:45-ish when I arrived. The lighting looked....different. People were still going into the building, so I figured maybe they were just a bit slow with the lights. Parked, grabbed my bag, headed in. Could not beep in with my card because the kiosk was closed. Why? Because on SATURDAYS (and Sundays), the gym opens to the public at 7:00...and the other people who went in? The swim team. I guess they have access at that early hour anyday. So I had to trudge back out to the car. Bought myself an Irish Cream Latte on the way home, and here I sit, feeling a little displaced. I think I might head back out and go to the gym now, before everyone gets up.
I'm hoping today will be better than yesterday. I was NOT feeling very well in the afternoon/evening. Vertigo, slight nausea, headache. And then while making spaghetti sauce, the thing bubbled and splurted boiling sauce on my wrist, causing severe pain for a good half hour, and was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back....tired, sick, and hurting,plus just generally in a bad mood that day anyway, I was not a happy camper. Husband came home and asked what was wrong. I told him, and he said he'd had such a good job that day, to go ahead and order pizza. So I did. Friday is their busy night, so it took a very long time to arrive....we ate at 7.
Well, i guess I should get my butt back out there and get to that stair stepper before I put it off and end up not going at all....MUST make this a habit.

CRASH!!!!

I was so tired this morning that when I got back from the gym, I lay down on the couch for a bit, thinking I'd snooze a little (it was around 6:45AM), and be up and running by 9, to do some cleaning....stayed asleep until somewhere past 9:30 and so my schedule is shot. And I'm still tired. Oh well....I'll get SOMETHING done today anyway.
Today's heart rate was 164. I'm doing well! If it keeps dropping like this, I'll be below my target rate and ready to bump things up a bit in no time! Now if only my weight will go down at least somewhat proportionately to how fast I'm building steel legs. We shall see on Wednesday.
Just for fun, looked up Dad's book on Amazon.com. It's there for ordering....comes out on April 24th. :)

101

That's apparently how many floors I "climb" in 30 minutes on the stairstepper. 321 calories burned. Average heart rate of 170. For anybody who cares. :)
Two days down, 19 until it becomes a habit....theoretically. I wonder if that theory (21 days to create a habit) still applies if you have to take weekends off? Based on the time the leisure centres open, I definitely can't go on Sundays....have to check on Saturdays....if the fieldhouse opens at 7 on Saturday, I could probably go for a jog.
My leg muscles are a sight to behold...the combination of the walking I've been doing with papers over the past few years, plus the muscles I'm going to build on the stairstepper....wow! My legs jiggle a tiny bit when I walk, but not much....and when I stand on tippy toes, you should SEE the muscle definition in those babies! A few weeks on the stepper, and I won't jiggle anymore cuz my legs will be so RIPPED. :)
It's a wonderful day today....no wind, it's warm....supposed to get up to 8C. Saturday they say is supposed to get up to 18C!
About a week and a half until my sister comes. I'm already behind on my cleaning plan, but hopefully will have everything sparkling by the time they arrive.
I have decided to let my name stand as a nominee for the Board for my Sweet Adelines group...a few people have really been pushing me to do it, and I think it might be fun.

Wasting no time

I got my Leisure pass last night, on my way to chorus, and showed up at the gym after papers, promptly at 6AM. Sweated my way through 30 minutes on a stair stepper machine that hated my guts (I set it to fat burner...hopefully that's what it burned, aside from my energy). I feel pretty good, and definitely pleased with myself for having given up the dream of Internationals and replacing it with focusing on my health. Also printed out the Canada Food Guide and revamped our weekly menu around that, to be sure everyone in the family is eating what they are supposed to. I weigh in today, but haven't gone downstairs to do so yet. I think I gained a bit this week....but now that I have the pass, that should change, or at the very least, change to muscle.
The weather is warming up again, and everything is melting....a very fitting first day of spring.

Disappointment, but Calm Acceptance

In October of this year, Sweet Adelines International is having its International Competition (the best of the best) in Calgary. Very rarely does the competition take place in Canada. Maybe every 10 years or more, if we're lucky. So I signed up, paid my registration fee back in early January. What an experience it would be to go watch INTERNATIONALS.
But I started planning things yesterday, such as looking into hotels and transportation and meals and all. It's not going to happen. No matter how I twisted and turned the numbers, it just isn't happening. With the financial struggles we encountered last year, and our plan to get out of the hole this year, to spend that much money in one place would not only be painful, it would be downright dumb, as it would put me further in the hole.
I realized that it was better to just pull out and hope that one year we will get to go to Internationals as competitors...and maybe it will be some exotic place, no less! If we win this year at Regionals, we would go to Internationals next year...in Hawaii.
So really, it's a case of so close, and yet so far...but there is a good side to this...by not having to save up for Internationals, I can not only afford to get my Leisure pass, but have some extra money left over for "extras".

Eggs and toast

Breakfast of champions....or at least of this Mommy. :)
No routes this morning, so I got to sleep in until 8:45. woo-hoo!
My sister and brother in law are coming for Easter. Yahoo! :) They have never visited us yet. For that matter, my sister has never visited me at all since I moved away from home in 1994. So this is a big thing!
This means I really have to get my butt in gear and clean this pigsty. At least I have 2 weeks to whip everybody into shape.
Speaking of being in shape, Wendy's has a promotion on where if you buy a salad, you take your receipt to Curves, and you get a free 2 week membership. I think I might take my receipt from yesterday and do just that sometime this week....milk them for all they're worth, get totally in shape....and then go buy that one-year leisure pass from the city and use their stuff now, instead of waiting until the fall....they have a payment plan, and I really think it's what I should do. Keep me from going insane, anyway. :) Keep me doing the RIGHT things and not the wrong ones.

A Difficult Day

Most Sundays are good. I enjoy Sunday mornings, they make me happy. But some Sundays, like today, are harder than others. They come rarely, more rarely as the years go by, but every once in awhile, the day just kind of crumbles me up and spits me out. I was fine when I got to church....Husband dropped us off and headed off to a job that turned out to bring in about $250. I was helping to lead the singing again, so I was happy, since I love to sing, and we were singing one of my favourite songs in the session too, Agnus Dei....but somewhere near the end of the sermon, it just kind of crumpled. The pastor was talking about how God answers our prayers, how he heals us from our sicknesses and sins and sufferings, and how we can trust in Him and as long as we are living for Him, even if we do bad things (and we do, all the time, of course), we will go to Heaven. Most people are all "Amen, alleluia, that's right"....it is a Pentecostal church, after all. But it just kind of tore my heart out. I couldn't help it. We started singing the last song (and thank goodness he only asked the pianist to go back on stage, so I wasn't at the microphone at the time), and I started to cry. I tried really hard not to show it, but after the first 4 tears dribbled down my face, I couldn't do it. People were leaving, some were in front of the altar for prayer...I just sat back in my pew, put my head in my hands, and sobbed for about 5 minutes. Everybody just kind of left me alone....I think they're used to that sort of thing. One elderly lady kind of sidled up beside me and handed me a kleenex once I settled own and lifted my head to dig for my hankie, but she didn't say anything. Now most of you, I'm sure, are baffled as to why this was making me cry. The simple truth is that I was lonely, very lonely, and scared, and frustrated....and sad. I have prayed many, many times, and each time, the answer seems to be no. Husband cannot go to church with me. He was not a Christian when I married him, though he swore to me he would always support me in my faith and encourage me to keep on with it. I thought that would be enough. When we had been married a few months, he had an experience that had him pray the Believer's Prayer. It was one of my happiest nights ever...but when he tried to go to church or read the Bible or do devotions or anything like that, he would have a panic attack, of sorts. He zones out and starts scratching his hands HARD, to the point of bleeding, he'll rock in the chair, basically totally freak anybody out who sees him doing this. And so I have nobody to do devotions with...and so I rarely do them, which I know is bad. I am reading my Bible daily....or at least most days....following a read-the-Bible-in-a-year plan that is printed in the back of mine, but I'm doing it alone. I don't pray minutely enough, partly because I get so busy trying to keep everything organized and failing miserably at all of it anyway, and forget, and partly because there's nobody to remind me, nobody to pray with me...and I have nobody to sit with in church, nobody to help me take care of the kids in church, nobody to go home and discuss the sermons with or share the exciting and joyful parts of church with...but if I ask him to try, he won't. If I ask him to think about possible ways to try to work through it, he says he will, then it erases itself from his mind and he acts as if nothing happened, discussion wise...I love my husband dearly, and would marry him again in a heartbeat, but I do understand now why some of my friends were so upset with my choosing to marry a non-Christian. Maybe they could see what I couldn't....it's not that he isn't a wonderful Husband...in every other way, he's amazing...but because my life is wrapped up in who I am...a Christian, there is such a huge gap in what we have in common, which is only widened further now that the "honeymoon period" is over and we see what other differences we have.
I feel abandoned in this area...I don't understand why God would say "no" to healing him, I don't understand what the purpose is of having him suffer like this. Is this to punish me for my choice? Is this to punish me for something I've done? Am I such a bad Christian that He won't heal somebody on my behalf? It's killing me because I know Husband wants it gone as much as I do....at least I think he does...and I know he suffers horribly if I FORCE him to do anything and he ends up all raw and bleeding....but if I don't, literally years go by and he never tries, he never comes, nothing changes. No matter what, there is disappointment, hurt, and anger.
And because of this, how am I to know where he stands? He has no Christian upbringing, no Christian experience, no real Christian knowledge. He prayed the prayer, but never got past that....IS he saved? IS he going to Heaven with me?
And so I cried. I cried hard and lonely. And still have no answers, and no release. Husband said I looked angry when I got into the car. I said, no, just a hard morning. He asked why, I said "I was lonely". He said "oh?" I said "Yeah, my husband wasn't there." and i got "the look"...so I told him he had asked. He asked. What am I supposed to do? I can't help how I feel any more than he can help his reactions.

Sing sing sing Sing

Last night and today I have a coaching session for chorus. 2 1/2 hours yesterday, 7 1/2 hours minus an hour for lunch today. It's a lot of fun and really tiring all at the same time,. We are getting ready for competition at the start of May. We really want to regain our winning streak. I think we may have a shot, but we really have to work our butts off to get there. Must remember to bring lots of water to drink, as we'll be sweating pretty hard by the end of it, from all the singing, expression, and choreo.

I Jinxed It!!!!

I said yesterday as long as we "don't get another blast of winter wind and snow."
By suppertime, the temperature was fairly cold and the wind was blowing. By 6;30, big, fat flakes started coming down. By 7:00, you couldn't see 2 cars in front of you on the road for the blowing snow. It snowed most of the night. I awoke at 3:30 this morning, donned my big winter boots (as opposed to my smaller ones I had been wearing the last few days), and slogged through drifts and semi-deep snow. 117 papers this morning. Took me 2 hours, 45 minutes. And that was WITH a sled to help pull the papers around, so I didn't have to keep returning to the car for more.
Needless to say, I cashed in one of my lovely "Free Hot Beverage" coupons at 7-Eleven afterwards....peach cobbler a la mode latte. Yum!!!!!!!!!!
We are porting our home phone to a new cell phone, as that will be cheaper in the long run, and that should take effect tomorrow, sometime. I was having a blast playing with the new phone....it has a camera, video camera, and plays really cool music. It's going to be nearly impossible to choose a ring tone. I'll just have to rotate them. I get three at a time (caller ID, no caller ID, roaming), so will start with the CanCan, Rock and Roll, and Flight of the Bumblebee.
Today is grocery and library day. Today we buy a baseball bat sized pepperoni. Yum! Can hardly wait to make pizza....we make them BIG....so loaded with veggies and toppings that it weighs a ton and pretty much has a cutlery requirement unless you want a HUGE mess on your plate (which can be fun, too).

Yahoo

Well, today is weigh day. I will simply say it was a good week. I have chipped a chunk off the blob that is me. Hopefully next week will bring results as well, and so on, so that maybe I could look great by summer.
Today is colder, and the weather says it's going to stay that way for a few days. I won't complain, as long as we slowly continue to creep towards spring weather, and don't get another blast of winter wind and snow.
We are definitely canning the whole Primus thing....when I start breaking up while talking to one of my BOSSES, right in the same city, it's time to throw in the towel. We are very disappointed with this...we had heard that VoIP was such a great alternative....but it's been nothing but frustration. we will look into number portability....pretty much any call to our house is for me, so if we can port the number to my cell at some point, we don't have to worry about a home phone, since I always have my cell phone nearby.
Son is going through another growth spurt. He is in size 3X/4 clothes now, just like Daughter when she was his age. He eats everything we can put in front of him, and then some.

Melting

Everything is melting quite quickly. It's a relief to me, but also a bit of a stressor. The kids have new rubber boots and are enjoying using them...but it causes problems. The biggest problem is that Daughter takes Son out to play. Daughter sees friends, Daughter forgets to use her brain, and leaves Son sitting, alone, beside the puddles. Thankfully we noticed, and got Son out of the situation before we were dealing with a drowning, but it certainly was scary for a few minutes. Not a lot is really new around here....we are thinking of returning the VoIp because it's causing way too many problems. If anybody else has used it, I'd love to hear your stories and see if you've had issues with it. Husband is lurking over my shoulder, so I will cut it short so he can use the computer. :)

Sunny day

Today is another warm and sunny day...tomorrow may actually be halfway decent, in terms of ice, as things are melting quite quickly this weekend.
This morning I started my first time of helping lead the singing at church. What a difference from the old church! Wow! We four singers were backed up by piano, drums, guitar (electric acoustic), bass guitar....very cool. After church we had lunch (beef on a bun, salad, and squares...yum!), then the annual general meeting. After that, we went rubber boot shopping for all except Husband who rarely even wears boots in WINTER. Now we are home, will have KFC for supper, then off to curling.
Got a phone call just a bit ago...paper is desperate so juggling everybody around to get all routes covered. Big one for me...should take at least a couple hours. Thankfully it is warmer out, and the area is not too bad...just an older part of town, so until the sun comes up, the lighting may not be so great.
Diet is going well (except today, but today is my "S" day), so hopefully will stick to it and see results soon. When I stop looking pregnant, I will be a lot happier. :)

Saturday

Today is a slow day, a laid back day. Did the two routes and didn't fall. Took my wrist brace off to no major effects. Have a few minor bruises and cuts from yesterday's fall, but nothing a few days won't heal. Fell asleep on the couch until about 9:45. Cleaned the kitchen. Made Daughter clean hers and her brother's stuff out of the living room. Daughter went out to play for a few hours, Son went for a nap (after lunch), Hubby went to do some errands, and I watched DVD's from the library..."Return From Witch Mountain" and "The Lizzie Maguire Movie". Daughter joined me partway through the first one. Had a niiiiice hot bath with bath oil beads, so I smell all pretty. And here we are.
Tomorrow is my big day. I will tell about it tomorrow, so I have something to write about.
And if Moosh is reading this....I WANT DETAILS OF WHEN YOU ARE TRAVELLING TO KNOW IF I SHOULD LURK AROUND BUS DEPOTS!!!!!! ;-D

Kind of a D'uh, but might work

A friend of mine, in case you don't read comments, responded to a post a few days ago with a link to a website that somebody put together with a diet, of sorts. It's called the No S Diet. If you are interested, check it out. The link is www.nosdiet.com
You will see, upon looking at it, that it is kind of the "Diet For Dummies"....very simple, straightforward....and possibly exactly what will get me where I want to go.
It is another warm, sunny day today. Re-injured my wrist on the lovely wet ice doing papers this morning, so back into the wrist brace we go, after nearly a year's reprieve. Oh well...it seems I'm still used to it, so it's not really all that aggravating to have the brace on. It's more the pain of he injury that bothers me, and as long as the brace is on correctly, that is minimized as well. One more day on those particular routes, then a day off....then hopefully a route or two where people salt their walk like crazy...or the weather jumps up to 30C and everything liquifies and runs down the drain before Monday. Hee hee. As if.
Getting freezer packs from the butcher today, so I can feed my poor, hungry freezer. For $120, we will get 9 lbs ground beef, 5 lbs blade steak, 10 lbs pork steak, 10 lbs pork and beef sausage, 11lbs chicken legs and thighs, 5lbs chuck steak, 5 lbs beef short ribs, and 5 lbs chuck roast. This should feed us for about 3 months.

Whoa! What is that? Oh....sunrise.

Today was quite a different morning. Two new routes. No wind. The temperature was -2C...and dawn was actually creeping in by the time I was done. Because of the different temperature, I was sweating like a pig, my glasses fogging up instantly after I wiped them off, because I've been so used to -20C or close to it. It was really nice, and tomorrow I will be dressed a little less thickly, so I can enjoy it more. The sunrise was a major bonus....I'm doing my papers and notice a very bright line on the horizon above the roofs. My first reaction was to wonder to myself what major factory or whatnot was over there that could be giving off such light. After a few minutes, it suddenly occurs to me that this is a foreign sight I am seeing...one I have not seen for months....DAWN!!!! The sun is starting to come up, so of course the horizon is starting to brighten in readiness for the soon-to-come appearance of the sun for the day. For the past few months, it has been pitch black when I have headed home from papers, so today was very special, and I savoured the sight of the brightening blue and yellow of the sky as I drove home.
Now that I have had one dawn arrive around 6:30, I think things will brighten up considerably, mood-wise, as well...having that little bit of daylight creep in at the end of my routes makes a huge difference in my day. It makes me that much less tired because, I guess, my brain registers the daylight and convinces itself that since it sees daylight, it must not be so early, and therefore it's okay to be awake and stay that way. :) And there will be more and more daylight to come in the weeks ahead, to the point where it will be light around 4:30, just a few minutes after I start my routes for the day. I can hardly wait....especially since it also means gardening season.

Change of Attitude

Over the winter, I have been taking on, more and more, the appearance of a walrus. One of the problems with winter is that I spend a lot more time indoors. And indoors is close to the kitchen....or in the kitchen. This means I tend to snack a lot. If I'm cooking, I taste, if I'm baking, I taste. If it's there and I like it, I eat a bit. If I'm watching TV, I might have a snack. If we're watching a movie, we do popcorn....with margarine and flavouring. This, of course, means my weight keeps creeping up and creeping up. It's a little disheartening when Husband and I go to hug and our bellies get in the way.
So today I am going to try a new attitude, the PROPER attitude...I'm going to try to eat to live instead of living to eat. This will not be easy for me...I like food A LOT. But I know I am capable, and I know I will feel a lot better for doing so. So I am going to work really hard at eating only when I am hungry, even if it's not at mealtimes (as in, if I'm not hungry at a usual mealtime, I'll wait until I am), and thinking about WHAT I am eating instead of just eating what I have in front of me...no more cookies, smaller portions on a smaller plate will replace the "fair" portion on a bigger plate that comes from cooking something up and splitting in half whatever the kids don't get, half for me, half for Husband. More veggies, less fat, that sort of thing.
I managed to get the laundry folded and all yesterday, and was only about an hour behind. Today I will get the upstairs tidy and do more laundry. Make another loaf of bread. Take Daughter to Sparks. And get to bed at a decent hour so I'm somewhat alive for my 4AM alarm tomorrow for work.

Wasting Time

The computer is a great time waster. The problem is that it's just so much FUN!!!!!
This afternoon, when Husband headed out to work, my plan for the afternoon was this: 1:30-2: Read e-mail, do blog, etc. 2-2:30 have bath 2:30-3:50 fold 3 loads of laundry, start new loads, watch some Dr Phil on PVR while knitting on blanket that needs to be redone, take bread out of bread machine.
It is now 2:50. I have read e-mail, I'm doing my blog, I played a free trial game for the allotted HOUR the trial gives you. My bathwater is likely cold, the bread machine should be nearly done, I have folded NOTHING, knitted NOTHING, and started NO laundry.
Fun, fun, fun.
Oh well. The upside is that Son seems to have recovered from his horrible day yesterday (somebody gave him a cookie at church on Sunday...store bought...and it either contained some unknown preservative or traces of tree nuts, and we discovered he had barfed AND had diarrhea in the night, and continued to have a nasty day until around supper last night). Now we know....absolutely NO store bought cookies (oh yeah, poor guy....has to eat homemade, what torture, eh?), and NO tree nuts (tried him on chocolate bar with almond in it awhile back...definitely NOT again). Daughter is back at school after a 4-day weekend. And I have Chorus tonight. Yay! :)

Oh Wow!

Every once in awhile, I get a glimpse of how things used to be. Last night, i was talking to a friend on the phone...the kind of friend you meet out of nowhere and just click instantly, becoming best buddies forever. The problem is....she lives very far away now. I miss her very much, so when I get the chance to talk to her on the phone, and tease her about when she's going to come and visit me (because somehow it's always me who has to visit everyone), it's a time I cherish.
We were talking about my blog, and the fact that she's been so busy that she hasn't read it lately, and the fact came up that she, in fact, has a blog, too. I had forgotten, but she pointed out that I had written in it once, very briefly. So we looked it up. I searched her blog, and sure enough, there was an entry on July 30, 2000. Very short and absolutely hilarious. Not because of anything I had written, but because of the glimpse of the strange, hilarious sense of humour of Husband, who also wrote in it. The content of that day's blog was as follows (I am S, he is S's Husband):
? 7/30/2000
S and her husband are here and I thought it would be ... interesting ... if we all wrote an entry together ...

Um...hi...I'm S, I guess. I don't really know what to say, but I was told to say SOMETHING. So....howdy!

S's husband here. I like to eat the needles hidden in haystacks underneath the lunar eclipse.

... (stunned look) ...

Well. As you can see, all is going well here. Over and out.

I laughed and laughed and laughed when I read this. Called Husband in to show him, and he denied his part in it, but it was him. That was totally him back then in our,as my friend put it "Still mushy newlywed stage"...which also happened to be the end of a one-month Greyhound trip across the country where at that point I was 3 months pregnant and barfing each morning as part of my daily routine. Not sure how we managed to still come across as mushy newlyweds. :)
I can't believe it's been almost 7 years since that entry! Wow!

Coffee

I like coffee. I like flavoured coffee best...amaretto is good. My brother-in-law got me caramel apple cider coffee for Christmas. My favourite so far is Mistletoe Mint coffee...it has chocolate flavour plus a natural mint leaf type flavour to it which is really yummy. Didn't see it this year, but Safeway had it the year before.
I have nothing much to say today, in case you haven't noticed. My brain has come to a standstill.
Went on a date last night with Husband. We had planned to go to Earl's, because we had a gift card, but ended up at Kelsey's because we didn't have time to wait at Earl's before the movie. It was a rushed dinner, which was really too bad. We saw "Epic Movie" which was hilarious...and crude and gross...but we really liked it. It was fun seeing if we could identify all the films they were making fun of, and seeing what they would do with them. It's a movie I would recommend for people looking for a pointless, stupid, silly kind of movie...but not for people who are looking for something classy. Definitely NOT a movie for children (although a HUGE group of Native people butted in front of us in the ticket line, glaring at us with an "Oh yeah? And what are ya gonna do about it?" kind of look, and brought their kids with them). I haven't seen the Scary Movie films, but I would hazard a guess that if you've seen on of them, you're pretty much prepared for what "Epic Movie" has to offer.
This afternoon, Daughter and I will go see "Flushed Away" while Husband and Son go play at Tot's Cafe....then Husband will pick up a fast food supper and off we go to watch Husband go curling while we eat.

Time Goes Trotting By

It's March already. Tomorrow is military day (old IB joke...March 4th...forth...get it? Okay, okay, stop groaning). My kids are growing up. I'm getting old. It's weird...I spent so many years waiting to be grown up, waiting to be considered mature and taken seriously....and suddenly one day I turned around and everybody took me TOO seriously, I was now considered old, people think I'm odd if I act immaturely....and I keep wishing I was young again. And yes, I know I changed verb tenses and I shouldn't do that. Tough.
This morning was a lot colder than it has been the last few days, and it got me thinking about time, hence the topic today. What I was thinking about was simply that, in a few weeks, the temperature would start to change again...it would start getting warmer and staying warmer, instead of the varying stages of cold that exemplify winter in Saskatchewan, playing havoc with our health by slamming us with one day of bone creaking cold, then the next day being barely below zero, so that you are dripping sweat in 5 minutes because you are dressed for yesterday's weather...a few days to get used to that, then about two weeks of freeze-your-eyelashes-to-your-cheeks-if-you-dare-blink cold...and the next morning the roof is dripping all over the driveway. This is one reason I have an indoor/outdoor thermometer by the door....glance at that puppy each morning, plus see if the tree branches outside are moving, and gauge my level of outdoor wear by that. I hit it pretty much dead on today...-16C, but no wind...winter jacket (NOT Kenny coat), balaclava style toque (big hole for face instead of just eye holes, but can be pulled up to cover chin and mouth if desired), big boots, stretch gloves and mitts with the removable end for finger access. Should have worn long underwear for my legs, but aside from that, was quite comfortable.
It will be nice when winter is over, even the stage of spring where there is still snow on the ground, but things are beginning to melt...I like seeing things reappear out of the snow, I like the feeling of the temperature changing to warmer days, the increase of daylight, and eventually the sight of grass and blossoms and leaves. All of these will also lighten my moods. February and March are my most negative months.
I hear Son singing songs to himself in his room. I will go see what he'd like for breakfast..."ce'al", or "o'meal". And maybe some "Owinsch joosh" He's a cutie. :) And Daughter tells me she had a bad dream. She seems to be having an awful lot of them.

Deep Thoughts

Yesterday I bemoaned the fact that my blog is not deep and serious sounding. Today I have deep and serious thoughts. I would rather I didn't.
Last night, I had a fun evening...got together with a few other Prairie Gold members, and talked about membership....how to get people, how to keep the ones we have...a lot of laughing and talking and sharing....and some goodies, too. No singing because we didn't have any baris there last night. They want me to join the board in some form, but I really don't know what I'd be any good at...certainly nothing involving phoning people I don't know or dealing with people I don't know. Our chorus director gave me a gigantic compliment, in my mind, last night. We were talking about me and the board, and I had said I just didn't think I was the right kind of person, too shy and definitely not the leader type....she said I AM a leader already....that I'd make a great leader because I lead by example (I'm there on time, I'm where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to do, I've taped and passed all my songs..), and some people in leadership roles are terrible examples.
Then came the serious stuff. I came home and before I headed off to bed, I checked my e-mail. My Mom had gone in for some tests awhile back, on something the doctors found during a different procedure...basically the tests are back, and they found pre-cancerous cells. Mom tells me the procedure is relatively fast and easy, but it doesn't really put my mind at ease. I don't think it really will be at ease until she is deemed cancer free and stays that way for quite awhile. It's quite a blow to hear this latest news....a few years ago, my Dad was found to have bladder cancer. He is cancer free now, as far as we know, but I remember it was a tense time for all. It just doesn't seem fair. They take care of themselves, they don't smoke, they're still young and active...and they both get cancer. I know how it feels to be told that your parent has cancer, but I can't imagine how it must feel to be the one the doctor says "You have cancer" to.
To be totally selfish, I have to admit this really scares me. Most, if not all, of my grandparents died of cancer. Husband's grandparents on his Mom's side had Alzheimers. What kind of future do we have waiting for us? I used to think the cancer was because they smoked or lived with someone who did...and now I have relatives who don't smoke, but still got cancer. Am *I* going to get cancer one day? Is Husband going to get Alzheimers? What about our children? Are my parents going to have to go through cancer again, or will they stay healthy after this?

AVALANCHE!!!!

Okay, maybe not....not in Saskatchewan. But we ARE getting an awful lot of snow suddenly. It's the pretty, fluffy kind. They say we have about 8cm so far, and it's still coming down. It sure did make papers a lot harder today, as I had to slog through the unshovelled snow to everyone's mailbox....but it was relatively warm, so that made it a lot nicer.
We are likely scrapping the whole new phone number thing...it has been causing so much frustration just in the 2 days we have had it...it's VoIP, and it keeps kicking out so we can hear people on the other end, but they can't hear us. If we can't fix it by the end of the day, we're just going to have to find some other way to save $$.
I read the blogs of two friends every day, and have come to the conclusion that my style of blogging is not so much the way most people blog. Mine is kind of like a public diary, a letter to all, a way to keep people up to date with me...most people, I guess, go for the super deep, serious, hard issues. Makes me wonder if the fact that I don't do that makes me seem shallow. Maybe so. But then, I want this blog to be "me"....and writing the way they do and about the kinds of topics they do,well, that just wouldn't be me. I'd much rather be real and have the "me-ness" come through than be forcing myself to come up with deep topics and essentially faking my way through the whole thing, pretending to know something about pretty much anything. As I was saying to Husband last night, I graduated university with a GPA of somewhere around 3.2 or 3.4 (I forget), but since becoming a Mom, my brains have leaked out my ears. I remember very little academically, and my world is pretty much housework and interacting with a 6 year old and a 2 year old, with church and Sweet Adelines thrown in. Not that this is a problem....my point is simply that my brain doesn't run on that academic level anymore....I run on the "this is my house, these are my kids, this is my Husband...they must be cleaned, fed, cared for...this is my plan to achieve this today" mind loop. My concern is simply that people will think less of me because I am no longer the academic whiz, the scholastic keener I used to be, but rather have settled into the role of humble housewife and stay-at-home mom (which I personally think should be a paid position, but hey, I'll do it anyway)