I have neglected you so.

I don't blame you if you no longer want to talk to me my Dear Blogger, I have left you to gather cobwebs and acquire a strange odour... *what is that unpleasant smell?   I think it may be the dead mouse I found in my closet in a humane trap that didn't turn out to be so humane when I forgot to check it until I smelled a sweet, sick odour coming from it today.  I ended up throwing out the trap with the mouse because it smelled so bad.  ewww.

I am again among the unemployed.  A week ago I told Ron that we had to find some other way to pay the bills besides me working and if it involves selling the house then so be it.  I am in a lot of pain from my back as well as a new problem with my rotator cuff  so I don't think it's worth it to be in pain ever day for a minimum wage, part time job.  Ron said that we are paying down a bunch of bills and that we should be able to handle me not working if we are careful with our money.  I have an appointment with the physiotherapist on Friday to start some exercises for my shoulder so we shall see if I get any relief.

With me not working the amount of money that I can give for gifts is reduced in half and what Ron decided to do with his family is to donate turkeys to the turkey drive for needy families.  So he ended up getting 14 turkeys, one for his kids, grandkids and his sister and mother to donate in their names.  I have a pretty special husband don't you think?

If I don't see you again before Christmas my dear readers, may yours be merry and bright. 

Hidden Gem

We have been without satellite tv for a few months now and we decided at the time we got them to disconnect that we would get Netflix to watch movies for a lot less per month than we were paying for satellite service.  In looking through the available movies last week I came across some TV listings and noticed previous seasons of "Being Erica".  Being that it was playing for 3 seasons and I haven't seen even one episode, I decided to give it a watch from the beginning.  I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw.  It's a quirky, emotional, very entertaining series and I'm already on season 3 and would like to finish catching up before Monday when I get to see the new season.  I'm afraid I missed the first show of the new season but I can live with that.  Being that it's a Canadian series set in Ontario makes it even better.

Today was the day...

 Today was the big day.  Ron and I made it official today and exchanged vows.  It was a small ceremony with just ourselves and the two witnesses with a short and sweet ceremony and a nice meal afterwards.. Here are a few pictures with possibly more to follow.  The picture quality on some are not too great because it seems that whenever I get pictures taken with my camera at a special occasion they never turn out very good. 

An amazing sunset the other night...

There was an amazing sunset the other night.. I managed to snap a few photos...

which flowers should I choose????

The wedding is tomorrow and I can't decide which flowers to use in the bouquet.. I have four colours of lilies to choose from but can't decide.. here are the choices... [click to see full size photos]

 We have a vibrant yellow lily....

A yellow and orange combination...

 A beautiful shiny orange...

and a deep, passionate red colour... I need help in choosing!!

I now have the dress for the wedding...

With the wedding in a couple of days I was leaving it down to the last possible minute.. lol.  But I have picked out my dress.  We're doing a wedding on a budget with recycled rings [we were both married before], borrowed dress for the wedding dress, and flowers grown in my own garden.  This is the dress I'm wearing that I borrowed from my niece who is also my witness.. thank you Natasha!!!  Click on the pictures to see them enlarged. 

The dress is a simple shift dress but it looks wonderful on and I'm also borrowing a beautiful set of pearls to wear with the dress and also the shawl that is in the pictures also.  The shawl is taupe which goes wonderfully with the off white dress.  The dress has sequins on it that show up best in the first picture because they sparkle all rainbow colours under the right light.

"The" plans

I have been told a time or two in my life to "Never say never" and it is once again coming true.  I had said that I would never get married again and here I am making plans to tie the knot once again next month.  Since Ron and I have been together for 10 years [as of July 1st] we thought, what the heck, and decided to make it legal.  We're just exchanging vows, no one will be there except the two witnesses... there will be no party afterwards, just a nice meal for the four of us after the nuptials.  There will be some pictures but the whole process shouldn't take more than 10 to 15 minutes.  We are recycling rings, Ron has one from one of his two previous weddings and mine is my ex's ring that I had resized for a total of $35.00.  I'm borrowing a dress to wear and hope my Stargazer lilies are in bloom for my bouquet.  We have our license, paid for the justice of the peace and the total for everything should even out to around $500.00, less than what people would pay for the engagement ring alone [we aren't bothering with that ring, just the wedding band].  So it's a practical, level headed process.   Over the last ten years we have had all the romantic gestures our hearts could want.. and both of us don't want muss or fuss so we are left with practical, so in essence, that is the romantic part.

The "Dog" Whisperer

This is literally the story of the "Dog" whisperer, that is my dog, Tinka, the ShihTzu/Pekingese mix who is a total of 12 pounds + has a way with animals that are huge!!   Like big, scary horses or cattle that like to rub noses with her.  She amazes me because these animals seem to be drawn to her and her to them.  She never barks at them and she seems to think that they are overgrown dogs or something.  She is a wonder dog.

Making a list and checking it twice...

• decided to get married *check
• picked the date *check
• got copies of needed documentation *check
• picked the witnesses*check
• picked the location *check
• decided on a Justice of the Peace *check
• recycled and resized my ring *check
• got the marriage license *check
• picked what  vows to recite *check
• decided what to wear x nope, not yet
• got flowers x nope but hoping my star gazer lilies are in bloom when the day arrives next month
• decided where to take the witnesses after the short, but sweet ceremony x nope but we have a month to decide

A sad goodbye.

Ron's 21 month old grandson died yesterday.  It was so sad but at the same time was a relief that he's finally at peace. 

RIP little Charlie.

Growing up

I had a doctor's appointment today for a followup on the fact that I had increased my dosage of Victoza the last time from .6 mg to 1.2 mg, so it's been doubled.  I still haven't started to lose weight again but good news is that my blood sugars are back down into the normal range.  Normal is below 7 and my readings on my A1C's were 6.4, down from my last readings which were 6.9 so they were on the verge of being over normal.  So that gave me some comfort. 

I told Michelle, the nurse who has been with me during this whole process and who is a nurse practitioner, that I'm unsure what I should do, whether I should increase the Victoza again to the highest dosage of 1.8 [which will be very expensive] or stay on the dosage I'm on now and see if I can get my head in the right place to start eating right.  She told me it's entirely up to me whether I should do that or not but that I'm on the injections mainly for my blood sugars and that it is doing the job because my blood sugars are perfectly normal.  She also said that I'm being too hard on myself and that I know what to do because I've done it before and that is to get my eating back on track. 

I agree that it's something that I have to work out in my head and that the Victoza is not going to do it for me, I have to do the work.  I also feel like there is a weight lifted off of my shoulders because, even though I'm not eating properly, the medication is working and imagine how much better it will work once I take control of my life again.  Losing the weight isn't the end of it, it's just the beginning because the rest of my life I will have to be diligent to maintain the weight loss because I know how easy it is to slip back into the old habits and to put the weight back on before you know it, even to the point of gaining more weight.

I know that I don't have to rush to take the weight off today because it took me 60 years to put it on and what makes me think that I could take it off in a couple of months?  Pretty arrogant I'd say.. lol.   I've been struggling since I came off of the clinical study with my cravings and my mind set that I'm somehow entitled to eat whatever I want.  Crazy thinking that I've been trying hard to overcome.  In a way it was a mixed blessing that the first injections worked so well so quickly because I've been expecting these ones to do the same so that I don't even have to try.. well it's been a rude awakening but a learning experience as well.  I don't know, I may finally be growing up, maybe?

Stay Below the Radar

Over the last few days something rotten is afoot and as we all know, rotten feet can be quite unpleasant.  You see, it's election day in Canada today and the political parties are trying to vie for our votes.  We got a call a couple of days ago when I was at work from the Conservatives wanting to verify that I gave them permission to put a sign on our lawn.  Ron told them that he was sure that I would not do that but they said for me to call them back as soon as I got home from work because they have word that I had given said permission in a phone call.

Now Ron is aware that I would rather have bamboo shoots under the finger nails than have a Conservative sign even within sight of our home.  But I called them as soon as I came through the door and said "No, under no circumstances would I want their sign on my lawn!!"

Well, as we are aware, the Conservatives don't like to admit that they have made a mistake so I am now in their radar and on their list for "special" treatment.   Multiple times a day I have been getting spam phone calls from Stevie and his cronies because they believe I'm so in love with him and want him to continue his dictatorship.  I have also received flyers every day addressed to me personally from the sleaze.. I feel so dirty!!  

So Canada, please, please, please get it right this time and vote in someone, anyone else, than Stephan Harper!!  But do vote, because if you don't, than they will win and we will lose.  Also, vote smart, if there is a close race between a Conservative and another candidate, vote the one that has a chance of gaining a seat over the Cons... Let his reign of terror finally come to an end!

The cuteness factor

We had the electricians in today to install our heavy wiring for our new electric heat and our dog, Tinka, a Pekingese/Shiatsu mix decided to do her Rambo impersonation.  At first she was cute with her charging the baby gate in the kitchen, yapping and generally being all macho.  And then she became a nuisance.  I'm not sure exactly what the tipping point was but there must be some kind of formula to determine where it occurred.   Something like [cuteness] by [ fluffiness] minus [dirty feet] divided by [sharpness of bark] by [% of sleep previous night] = [degree of irritation] / [cuteness factor] or something like that.

The perfect storm...

There is a perfect storm going on.. not outside.. but in my body.  You see, I have the flu.. and I've started a new medication, which, as it turns out is conflicting with my present medication.. and the flu.  The new medication is to replace the injections I was taking last year when I was on a clinical study for an injectable  medication for weight loss and  diabetes.  It was a 6 month study that was over in November.  Well, since I have been off of it I have gained back 10 of the 45 pounds that I lost, and my blood sugars have increased as well... not a good thing.  So my doctor put me back on the injections, well, not the ones I was on before because they still aren't available in Canada, these new ones are a once-a-day kind instead of once-a-week.   Also these new injections are easier to take because they are premixed and you just need to place a needle on the end of the pen device and inject.. easy peasy with no mixing, or measuring or removing of bubbles that form from the mixing etc. 

Now back to the perfect storm scenario.. I am on a medication from the pain clinic that is supposed to help with the pain in my back.  And one tiny, tiny problem with it is that it... wait for it... it.... has the side effect of weight gain and increased appetite... and that sort of defeats the purpose of the injections that reduce weight and decrease appetite don't you think?  So next week, when I go to the pain clinic, I'm going to tell them to take me off of the pain meds... I figure once I lose more weight then the strain on my back should decrease even more and besides, I don't plan on working much past my birthday in July anyway.  And when I'm at home I can manage the pain better because I can walk when I need to and rest when I need to.  

Now if I can just get rid of this terrible flu and stop running to the bathroom I think I'll be able to make it! 

Eagle Sighting

We came home Monday and there was an eagle flying in circles over our house, very close to it, about 10 feet from the roof.  It circled a few times, I so wish that I had had my camera with me at the time because it would have made a wonderful photo.  Thank goodness our dog and cat weren't outside at the time.  


Here are a couple of photos of it after it had landed on the neighbour's tree.  The pictures aren't that clear but you can see it in the centre of the photo at the very tip of the tree.


(if you want to see the images larger just click on them)

 In this photo you can see that there is a crow that was flying at the eagle, cheeky little bastard, and then the eagle took off after the crow, I'm not sure if it caught it or not because they flew out of sight behind the neighbour's house.
                                    

Wrong.. Wrong.. Wrong

I had to admit recently that I was wrong.. well, not wrong exactly, but mistaken, yeah that has a better ring to it.. mistaken.   I don't see wrong as a way to describe myself or my actions.  I was told years ago that I was stubborn, yeah right, and passive-aggressive.   Well the passive-aggressive one I can attribute to my late mother, she had the passive-aggressive thing down to a science.   I remember her saying to my father on more than one occasion when they were having a disagreement  "yeah, you're right, whatever." when they were arguing... meaning, I'll agree with you just to shut you the fuck up... is that passive-aggressive?... hmmmm maybe.  And the stubborn thing.. well, I was told that right before I got married to my now ex that I was stubborn and so was he and that we should work on that but what do young, early 20's people know about working on themselves, not much apparently because I couldn't see that trait in myself until many years later and that combined with passive-aggressive.. well, I pity my poor ex for having to deal with that from me, especially since I felt like the one put upon.  But now, many years later, I can admit that I was mistaken, I would say that's progress, don't you think?    Oh and the mistaken thing, I had to admit to Ron that CBC radio was better to listen to than the local radio station that had music from the 70's, 80's etc..  and it actually flexes my brain muscle... which is good at my age.   So whenever I'm in the car driving to and from work I have the radio set to CBC radio and find the time passes so much more quickly.