In My Defense...

I did not intend to come across as begging for comments. :) The person who commented on this fact did point out on e-mail that she had not intended to imply that, but I know that is how I came across. :) I just want to know what everyone is up to...I'm nosey and lonely for news. :)
Not much to report, really. Hubby's bruise is disappearing, much to his disappointment (he wanted it to turn rainbow colours, but it's just fading away instead)...he will just have to watch my bruise change colours. I walked full speed into a towel rod which was just at hip level.
There is a tornado watch south of us, so I will be watching, too. Since the huge tornados in Manitoba last week, we're a little skittish about the words "tornado watch" here in Saskatchewan.
Wednesday was the last day of school for Daughter, so she is officially on the way to Grade One in the fall, and Son is on his way to preschool in September.
Still doing papers, still going to the gym...have lost 10 pounds so far. Somewhat addicted to facebook...I think the next time I come on here, I'll have to make sure I have some material! :)

Roll call

Okay, everyone....you're all too quiet!
How are you all, where are you all, what's new, and all that jazz?
Let's see....
How was the business trip, Brad? Did you go alone, or did you get to bring 1 1/2 people with you?
How's life, Kendra? How are the kids? What kind of dog do you have? Going anywhere special this summer? Any more little ones? ;-D
Hi Lloyd. Glad the injury is subsiding. I know where you live, so can extort whatever info I want at any time. :)
Hi Ken...did you get your luggage back? Are you home yet?
Hi Angela....what's new...any little ones? ;-D
Ummmmm...hi to anybody else who reads this....what's new? What are you up to today?
Everybody sign in, now!
We are getting ready for a family reunion next weekend....one where we go to a place we've never been to spent a weekend where we essentially know NOBODY (except each other and my in-laws)....should be...weird. But the kids are happy because they get to see Gramma and Grampa and go tenting for 2 nights....and Daughter is old enough this year to sleep in her own tent beside ours, away from Son. :-D

Good Losers, bad losers, and injuries

Well, Daughter played her last game on Saturday. What a great bunch of troopers...it was 30C out, blazing sun, and they were to play at noon. So we arrived at 11:30 for pre-game warmups. Because it was playoffs, they were running half an hour late....a game before them had gone over because they needed extra innings to break a tie. They started around 12:30. First inning...tied 6-6. Second inning...tied 12-12. That should have been the end of the game, had there not been a tie. Third inning....tied 18-18. Fourth inning....tied 24-24. By now they have been playing nearly 2 1/2 hours in the blazing sun (a normal game goes 45 minutes), have run out of water, powerade, gatorade, etc. Everyone is either in tears or nearly there because they are so hot, tired, and thirsty, but the higher ups proclaim the game must be completed. Finally, the other team gets a point more in the fifth inning, and the game is called the second that point is scored, never mind that their team hadn't gotten 3 outs yet. All the players on Daughter's team, as well as their parents, were actually THRILLED that the other team had won. The winning team had to come back in an hour and play another game. Not surprisingly, that team lost their next game. It just wasn't fair to them....they had nothing left to give. So our team whooped and hollered and accepted their Participant medals, got giant freezies, and hopped off to air conditioning with the promise of a wind down party next week (this week, now). We were all feeling pretty sick that night, from heat eaxhaustion, dehydration, and sunburn. I was downright crispy. I still look like Rudolph, though my arms and legs are starting to settle down a bit in their redness. I was so bad, the kids and parents were BOTH praying the other team would get one more point to just end it all...it just wasn't fun anymore by the end.
The next day, Sunday, Daughter, Son, and I went to a camp to see the grounds, as Daughter should be going there for a 4 day-3 night camp in August, as long as her registration goes through. It was a lot of fun, but apparently we brought a tick home with us. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Husband umpired all weekend, and experienced both the bad losers and the injury.
Saturday, Husband took a baseball to the shin. The pictures of the bruise he got are quite something (I will attach them here). He says it feels okay now, but the bruise covers pretty much all the way around, and halfway up his lower leg.


This was on the first day.



This was a day later...he has his sock covering his toes, that's why the shape of his foot looks weird

Sunday I witnessed the biggest poor losers of them all. They lost their game, and were screaming and yelling about what a horrible umpire Husband was, and that they had lost because of a bad ump, and they seriously were ready to go beat him up (including these two old ladies), and the guy doing the point count literally THREW the score sheets at him! Apparently they are known as the team with the worst attitude in the league, players and parents alike. They may no be allowed to play next year because so many people complained about their behaviour.
Oh yes, also in the line of injuries, one player slid into base and broke his arm in three places, and a catcher (I think) took a ball to the wrist and broke it. Ouch!
Heh heh....also in the line of good losers, i lost another 6 pounds this week....that's 9 pounds in 2 weeks! Woo-hoo! Now I have to work really hard because I had my birthday dinner a few days late last night, and am full of stuff that is not conducive to weight loss. :)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Today will for the most part decide everything...Daughter's team lost last night by 2 points, which means they play today at noon. If they lose, they are out of the playoffs. If they win, we continue on at 3, then tomorrow at 10, noon, and 2...if they lose one of THOSE games, they are out of the playoffs as well. They have played so hard this year, it would be a shame to see them out of the tournament, but no matter what, I must remember how much they improved over the season, how good of a team they became, and should they lose, it is not a horrible thing because these kids play with every fiber of their being...they win honestly, they lose honestly, and even when they lose, they dance around and slap the other team on the back and whoop and holler at each other and the other team about how good a game it was, and then go dance around and get soaking wet in the spray pad in the adjoining play park. They have the true spirit of the game. I cringe at myself when I see how horribly competitive I am...I see that I have become a real sports mom...the bad kind, grumbling about the other teams and getting frustrated when Daughter's team drops the ball or strikes out, forgetting that we are talking about 5 and 6 year olds who before this year had never played baseball at all. So I work hard at improving my attitude and just being happy that they are having so much fun and rejoicing in the amazing skills everyone on the team has acquired, hoping for the best, knowing the kids will give it their all, and if they should lose, knowing that it is simply the way it should be, that they simply reached their level of "best-ness" and should be wildly happy that they got this far.
And if they lose either the first or second game of today, then we are free to go to the camp open house tomorrow, to see where she may get to go in August. That would be good, too.

Grey hair and rocking chair

Here I come! It's my birthday once again, and I have reached the ripe old age of 31. About a decade ago, I thought that was middle age, the end of the road. I'm not sure how I feel now. I feel old, but not REALLY old. I am coming to the realization that my youth is gone. There is no getting it back....and that actually scares me. I don't know what the rest of my life holds, and for once, it really bothers me. Up to now, I have pretty much taken life as it came. I was young, had lots of life ahead of me, it would be an adventure. Now I'm not quite so keen on the whole adventure side of things. I want to know where I am headed...what will I end up doing for work until retirement, what sort of life, financially, will I lead after these next few years, what will happen with the kids as they grow, and a million other unanswered questions.
Perhaps part of it stems from the onslaught of challenges we have been through in the past years....I've reached my endpoint...it's enough. I want some warning of future challenges, downfalls, issues, problems. I want to be ready for them, not blindsided by them and constantly picking myself up and making the best I can of what I've been handed.
What a cheery thing to talk about on my birthday. Oh well. It may be my birthday, but as far as people here are concerned, it will go by relatively unnoticed. I got my two gifts from my husband and children last night before Husband had to whisk back to work. Today I am cleaning, cooking a casserole for supper, taking Husband to umpire a game, and Daughter to play a playoff game. Perhaps we will stop for ice cream on the way home, then tuck everybody in for the night. The weekend will be crammed full of umpiring, playoff games, and possibly a camp open house if Daughter doesn't have to play Sunday afternoon (though we hope she DOES have to play). My birthday dinner will be homemade crab linguini, phyllo pastry appetizers, maybe Coke, and an angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream...on Monday, which I have told Husband he MUST be home for on penalty of death.
For those of you craving a happy post, sorry...um....the sun is shining, it's going to be a stereotypical summer day, I made it to the gym today and did two routes, which will bring in a total of $29 today. Kids are cute, kitties are fluffy, and my new photo ID drivers license is actually not as bad as I thought it was going to look. Oh, and my weight loss is going very well, though I plan to cheat a tiny bit today, just because it's my birthday.

The good, the bad, and the just plain ugly

Well, here I sit on Day Ten...according to the scale, the weight is bouncing a little, but at least not going above Monday's measurement. Trying very hard to stick to the plan, but craving everything in sight.
I was so tired this morning that when I got home from papers and the gym, I crashed on the couch and stayed in a semi-comatose state, waking only to growl at my family about the noise, for 4 hours. That means I didn't drag my sorry butt back into daily life until around 10:30. Because we eat lunch at 11:30 (because Daughter catches the bus at 12:30), I didn't get breakfast. That means I didn't have my coffee and I'm 4 cups behind on my water. Which makes my mood downright UGLY. I have a headache and no real inclination to clean anything, though I know I really must.
That is the bad and the ugly.
The good is that, so far, Daughter's team is in the top 4. Friday will decide whether they stay on top or not, and then if all goes well, two more winning games and we get the trophy. If we lose a game, we keep going, but our game schedule packs a few more games into a very short period of time. I think they'll at the very least win this next game, and beyond that it's anybody's guess,as the next team they would play after Friday has been a real Goliath, tromping everyone all season.
Also good is that I am finally feeling some improvement in the pinched nerve area. Because it's been over two weeks, I have a fair bit of nerve damage, so I'm very tender, to put it lightly...my skin feels like it's sunburnt when it's touched, from neck to halfway to my elbow, and the muscles and nerves in that same area are very, very, very sore....but that pinched nerve feeling is fading somewhat, so I'm not having to sit up to sleep anymore, and didn't wake up wishing someone would shoot me because of the pain from sleeping normally....not that I didn't wake up in pain, but comparatively, it's easier to bear because I can sense that it's going away...the pain is down to maybe 50% now. Yay. Now I just have to work on strengthening the muscles again. I'm finding they are fairly weak, which is not a good thing, with it being my right side, and my being right-handed.
Well, off to try to complete the cleaning of the living room. If I manage to also switch the laundry, fold the dry stuff, and unload/reload the dishwasher, I will call it a successful day.

Day Eight

Okay, so I had a bad weekend...too much food, too much eating out, too many home baked cookies. Daughter is in the playoffs and has won her first two games so far. If she wins the next three, she will be the champion team. One way or another, this next weekend will be absolutely insane with games to be played. If she loses one game, there are more than 3 to be played, but she could still end up as the champion team.
After the first week, I weigh in at 202...a loss of 3 pounds. Not bad, considering the weekend's folly. That leaves me with 52 pounds to go. My hope is to reach that by my NEXT birthday (obviously not THIS birthday).
I have written up this week's new menu and hopefully will stick to it a little better, and at least make it to the goal of 1 pound lost per week.
Anyway, I have a lot of work to do today, stuff like laundry and tidying the house. I am still in pain, but feeling a little more motivated today, so hopefully I will get a good chunk done before the pain wins and I have to stop.

Day Five

Still trucking along. Have decided to allow myself a square of my 99% chocolate each evening with my last 2 cups of water. So far I have managed to stay away from the stuff I shouldn't be eating or drinking, though I must admit I've had craving at the strangest times...a lemon jelly donut crossed my mind while driving yesterday, today I really want pop (which is not really all that surprising....those who know me well know I LOVE pop, could LIVE off pop....as in if I go to 7-Eleven for a drink, I'm walking out with a Double Gulp of Dr Pepper, and I'm drinking it all myself)...but sticking to the diet certainly has its advantages. I have stepped on the scale each morning, just out of curiosity (and a touch of demented obsessiveness), and I like what I see. My official weigh day is Monday, and if the weekend goes well, it will be a VERY good first week....but I must remember that the following weeks will not be nearly as successful, in terms of the numbers on the scale. If they are, I must realize that I am doing it wrong and fix something before it becomes dangerous.
Finally went back to the gym after about 2 weeks. It wasn't the most comfortable experience, but I felt good for having gone. I have had this pinched nerve in my neck/shoulder for 11 days now and it is not gone yet. The pain now shoots strictly from neck through shoulder and down my arm through my hand, instead of an overwhelming, all-encompassing pain, but it is nonetheless a very sharp pain, and still a very constant one, varying from painful to the grip-the-ceiling jolts that zoom through every few minutes. My arm is getting tired of the abuse, is sore to the touch at skin level, and has started muscle spasms at the elbow level...they don't hurt, thankfully, but I look like a freak, the way that part of my arm keeps dancing around to its own little beat. Nights are very painful, waking up in the morning is excruciating, days are a little better, but as the day progresses, it gets worse again. I am very tired and very frustrated....it is very hard to keep up with the housekeeping and be a happy, helpful Mommy when constantly in pain that makes me want to just curl up and sleep the days away until it heals itself....if only it would actually heal.
Daughter is officially in 3rd place going into the playoffs. This week is going to be absolutely insane with all our regular activities, plus Husband umpiring the older kids' playoffs, and Daughter's playoff games squished in as well. They have scheduled all 31 playoff games into 8 days. Daughter could potentially be in 7 or 8 of them, depending on how the games go for her team. By the evening of the 23rd, we will have a champion, and if not Daughter's team, will know how they placed overall.
Typing is aggravating my nerve, so I will stop for today.

Day Three

Well, still at it, and seeing a few preliminary results. The weigh in on Monday looks like it will be a pleasant one, if things keep going as they are.
I continue to drown myself in water (16 cups a day), and managed to drown part of the backyard today as well...note to self....IF you decide to fill up the kiddie pool, DON'T walk off and get involved in something else while it's filling!
I am still in a lot of pain. Saw the massage therapist yesterday and got my back, neck, and shoulder poked, prodded, pressed, stretched, and so on. I was told there would be "discomfort" for a couple days. Shoot me now! If this is discomfort, I don't want to know what true pain would be in his estimation.
I am slowly sorting through the boxes of "stuff" in the basement, in the hopes of one day being organized, maybe a little richer, and rid of some stuff, too. But I had to quit for the day, partly from the pain, and partly from the allergic reaction to the dust in the boxed stuff. Breathing, for those of you who have ever wondered, is not optional.
It's a gorgeous day outside, and quite a few of my flowers are blooming, so I picked some from around the fluffy bumblebees to put on my kitchen table. Most of my laundry is done, most of my house is reasonably tidy, and I have a loaf of bread baking as we speak. Now I will go and relatively guiltlessly veg and watch something for awhile. Tomorrow will be busy enough as it is, so I will enjoy the rest of today.

Day One

My friend and I have officially started our tag team diet...she has a mere 12 pounds to lose, while I have a whopping 55. Needless to say, she will reach the finish line before I do. It certainly is a bit easier to stick to it when you know there's someone else out there not only struggling with you, but also who you promised to tell if you screwed up. The urge to splurge has been huge today for both of us, but so far we both have held strong. I am absolutely sloshing with water while I wait for my 3PM apple.
Daughter won her last game yesterday, giving them a final score of 9 wins, 4 losses, and a tie. Now we wait for the last team to play, then playoffs will start.
It is rather hot today, and i was out in the yard, hoping to catch a cool breeze, looking at my apple trees...I could make a fortune if all of the apples that have started to grow make it to maturity....each branch has something like 20 apples on it, and there are probably somewhere around 100 branches out there...no way am I going to be able to use that many apples, and I don't want a repeat of last year where the hornets invade to eat the remaining ones. So once they are ripe, I will pick and process as many as I possibly can, then invite people to come and get some for themselves....if I charge even a few bucks, we could make a bunch!
Anyway, I need to go do my Sweatin' To the Oldies before Daughter gets home from school and before Son wakes up from his nap.

I love Drugs

After nearly a week in pain that nearly drove me insane, I got my hands on a box of Robax Platinum, at the suggestion of the doctor. I thought that the Robaxacet we already had was the same thing, but obviously not. After taking some of this Platinum stuff, I am still in a lot of pain, but it has eased it enough that I can function on at the very least a minimal level. I highly recommend this stuff but they mean it when they say no driving and so on...it's got something in it, but I'm not sure what, which makes you a little loopy, or at least very groggy.
Daughter has one more game today before playoffs start. She won yesterday's game, so they seem to be on a roll.
I rototilled my garden on Friday, which made yesterday a nightmare, in terms of my muscles and the already pinched nerve....but as I said, once I got the Robax Platinum, I could think of something other than pain for a while, even though it still hurt like you wouldn't believe. I even needed help getting ready for bed last night because I was in so much pain, even WITH the Robax Platinum.
My friend who was here had said that she thought she saw 99% cocoa chocolate bars from Lindt. I thought she must be mistaken, but then yesterday, at Shoppers, I found it, and of course had to buy it. This stuff even comes with a warning to work your way up from a lower cocoa level. My first square was not so pleasant, but the second square I was able to thoroughly savour. It's really good beside a cup of coffee. Definitely not for those who eat chocolate for the sweetness....this is extremely bitter stuff. But for those who eat it for the endorphins and the true cocoa experience, this is the ultimate. It's expensive, but in a way not so expensive...you're only going to eat a square at a time, so it lasts a long time...it will take you days to eat it instead of minutes.
Having discovered the joys of dark chocolate and working my way up to this, I have found that I do not enjoy milk chocolate anymore. It is way too sweet and not enough chocolate flavour. I think the lowest level I would go for now is the semi-sweet, and even that is really sweet...but good for cookies. :)

Mommy!!! *sniff, sniff* It's Oveeeerrrrr!

A week has gone by and my friend has gone home. It was a wonderful week, one that went way too fast, and that I wish could have lasted forever. She is what I would call one of my bestest, bestest friends (because there isn't really any term that accurately covers how good of a friend she is). She is the kind of friend you can talk to about pretty much anything....or sit and say absolutely nothing with, including listening to the radio over the phone together, 2 1/2 provinces apart. She is the kind of friend who won't let you get away with anything, who will call your bluff every time, and who doesn't give a flying flip about how mad you may be at her doing so. She's been gone less than a day, and already I miss her horribly. It had been 2 years since we had seen each other, but when she walked off that plane, it was as if time hadn't gone by at all. No screaming, jumping up and down, just kind of "Hey, you made it, let's go find your luggage" "Hey, the kids are so big now!". We talked a lot, we hung out almost constantly, including her willingly getting up with me in the mornings to do papers with me and then sitting in the kitchen over coffee. We ate a lot. And I REALLY mean a lot. We ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream, chips, pop, pizza, we went to a buffet once, we found new or favourite candies and chocolate bars, we ate girl guide cookies...for the most part, if we ate, we overdid things. So next week we will both be keeping each other accountable to get the pounds off again. I'm kind of looking forward to it, if we can in fact stick to it. We drove up to Saskatoon, I showed her some of my favourite places and things, made her fall in love with the place, scared her with hungry geese (which was pretty funny, looking back on it), and enchanted her with my new church. I got her into Crazy Frog, and we sang a lot to Christian music and country radio....and of course I took her to chorus with me to show off a bit. :-D
It will be a little less than 2 years before I see her again....November 2008, to be exact. I wish we didn't live so far apart. I could really use a friend like her nearby. I had a rough spot this week, which she went through with me, and she still likes me anyway. She made me promise if I ever had a bad day, I would call her and talk to her. I promised, because I know she means well...but talking over the phone like that probably isn't going to help a whole lot....she's way out there, I'm way out here, so all we'll have is words...and I'm honestly very afraid of what would happen if I did keep this promise....the last time I talked to people about how I was feeling, thinking, acting, they handed me a letter saying they couldn't deal with me anymore and not to talk to them anymore, and to stay away from them. I'd be afraid that I'd get too comfortable with sharing my thoughts and feelings, and drive her away as well.
I have a pinched nerve in my neck again, so am moving pretty gingerly today. My house is slowly creeping back into insanity with my slowed speed at cleaning up after everyone, the inclination to "leave things for later because it hurts too much right now", and maybe a touch of depression. I'm hoping tomorrow will be better and I will catch up and keep up.
Daughter is now tied for third place in her little league. She has 2 more games, and then we are into playoffs. She is an amazing player, and her whole team is becoming quite the oiled little machine.
Son had a little girl wander over from 2 doors down this morning, so they were wheeling his baby doll around in her doll carriage on our driveway....such a cute little couple.
Tomorrow I will have an increase in papers again (which is good, as I'd been delivering 23-31 papers the last 3 days), adding a route, though just for tomorrow, of about 56 papers. Brings tomorrow's income up to $23. Not a huge week...my total for the week will be $99...but better than nothing. Next week will be slim for me again, as I can't work Monday or Wednesday, since Husband has a job overnight those days that will bring him home too late for me to do the papers. On the upside, he makes more than I do, by far, so maybe he can let me keep a bit more of this month's paper income for myself, to pay for chorus and my Leisure Pass and such.
My neck is seizing up ferociously, so I'd better stop typing. I will try to write here a bit more often than I have the past few weeks.