I'm almost to my 10 pound loss!!!

Just .2 of a pound to go, I've lost 9.8 pounds and once I reach the magical 10 pound mark I'm going to celebrate by getting myself a short, sassy haircut. So hopefully it will be next week because frankly my hair is driving me nuts and I feel like cutting it myself but R (bless his heart) gently told me the last time I butchered my hair that it probably would be better to invest the money into going to hairdresser. Who am I to argue?

My Weight Watcher Journey.. pt 2

I decided to go on the core plan on ww.. in it you eat whole foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, whole wheat pasta, lean meats etc.. You don't count points but you restrict yourself to the core foods and eat only until you are satisfied so you learn to listen to your body and know when you're full...

I'm really enjoying it and since I gained a little, .2 of a pound last week I decided that the points system is not really what I want to do. I'm excited about it because I think that I may have reached to 10 pound mark and to treat myself if I did do it I'm going to invest in a haircut. And plan to buy myself something at each 10 pound mark..

You're Never Too Old To Be Surprised.

These pictures in no way do the scene any justice.

I drive on the same road every day to go to work. I had thought that I had seen everything that there was to see. Although the scenery is beautful in every season here in Prince Edward Island you come to take it for granted. But last week I happened to glance to my right and lo and behold I saw a wonderul, colourful sight before my eyes. A whole field planted with tulips. As a backdrop to a newly plowed Island field in it's red clayed glory, the tulips took on a glow and I imagined I could smell their perfume on the gentle breeze. Now my drive finds me alert to new sights and that makes my mornings more alive.

Ahhh the smell of eww'da Skunk in the morning

Why is it that I tend to awaken in the morning to the odor of skunk? Is it past carma coming back to extract its revenge? And since my cat tends to spend her nights out of doors I'm always a little afraid to let her back into the house since she tends to repeat her bad habit of "playing" with the skunks, perhaps in an effort to make friends? Also, she tends to sleep on my pillow (the cat, not the skunk, although sometimes it's hard to tell but this morning she just smelled like cat). And this morning the humidity lent to the pungent intensity outdoors. Living in the country ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Nature tends to interrupt my sleep lately, from roving skunks to marauding raccoons that are impervious to methods of discouragement like bright lights and loud noise. Sunday night I awoke to loud, weird noise, much like the sound in the city of teenagers driving around with their car radios blaring in the middle of the night. Turns out this was a raccoon giving my cat a piece of it's teeny tiny mind and my cat standing her ground, stupid but brave. I turned on all manner of lights thinking niavely that it would send the raccoon running but no, it stood in my driveway defiant and didn't leave until I yelled at it for a few moments.

Well off to work I go hie ho.

More childhood memories

OUR FAMILY HOME

I was born in 1951 so when I was a child we didn't have inside plumbing or electicity. I remember doing my homework by lamp light (which I contribute to causing my eyesight to be bad), we never played in the house no matter what the season. In the summer we played outside using pieces of broken pottery as dishes, our yard didn't have a lawn, just packed dirt so we would make outlines in the dirt to represent the rooms of our dream house and would play there for hours at a time, we used our imagination to create all kinds of wonderful realities.

I come from of family of 14 children so we never had a shortage of playmates, either my siblings or our friends. We didn't have much but neither did our friends so we thought we were rich.
In the winter we would skate, toboggan and sleigh down the hills near our home, make forts in the snow and snow people. In the winter was the only time we would have jello or great homemade frozen fudgesickles made from coco drink set outside in the snowbank and frozen. We had no electicity and our fridge that we used in the summer had a big block of ice that we bought from the ice truck that made the rounds.

I remember always having a garden to grow our own fresh vegetables and we got baby chicks at Easter that made it onto our table for Thanksgiving but we accepted that as part of life. I remember gathering eggs from our laying hens and taking them, still warm, into our mother to cook for breakfast. We didn't live in the country but our town was pretty small back then and we knew all our neighbours.

There was a pickling plant near our home and we would go there and collect the rejected cucumbers that our mother would make into our own pickles and so I guess we did our own recycling.. lol. My mother always made her own bread, biscuits, and deserts. We didn't have a lot but we were never hungry.

We lived in a small house that is no longer standing (there's a Sobey's built on the land where we used to live. Imaging all us kids in this small little house. It only had three bedrooms, one for our parents, one for the girls and one for the boys. Although there would have never have been 14 kids in the house at one time, I think at the most there would have probably have been 9 or so. Our mother would get up early in the morning and get the wood/coal stove going so that the kitchen would be warm for the crew to get up from their warm beds. I remember as a child, on a cold winter night, our mother warming bricks to place at the foot or our beds, under the blankets, to keep our feet warm.

I also remember that at Christmas we would each get only one toy and we would be so excited to receive an orange or a Red Delicious apple in our sticking with a few hard candies and though we were in heaven. So how was your childhood?

This is the most amazing dog I have ever seen. You cannot believe that this dog would even be alive let alone walk..

Summer memories...

Summer to me meant playing Red Rover, marbles in the dirt, hop scotch, picnics on the beach (my older sister cooked a hamburger soup with sea water that was to die for.. I think the salt air sharpened our appetites.. you wouldn't dare use sea water to cook nowadays would you?), hide and seek, standing under a tree in a lightening storm (what were we thinking?), the stange light after a freak storm, making mud pies with flower for decorations (yummy), the smell of clothes dried in the sun, swimming in the warm Atlantic waters until our fingers were all wrinkly and then dripping water on our protesting parents as they lay in the sun on a blanket... ahhh summer.

Wow.. time sure flies when you're living your life...

The last time I checked in with you I was waiting for the call from the hospital about the catscan.. well they called and I went in and fortunately the stones have passed although it took a few days for the infection to go because of the grinding and scraping of the stones on the way out.. I know ... owwwy... and it was quite painful. But all better now..

I have started walking with my sister L. once again.. I'm on the quest for weight loss.. joined Weight Watchers.. have a bunch of weight to lose and I need to be going to the meetings in order to keep myself honest (with myself most of all). I lost 4.4 lbs the first week and 2.4 pounds that second week for a total of 6.8 pounds in two weeks. I'm suspecting that I won't have lost any weight this week for some reason. Well, I know what the reason is, I haven't been keeping track of my points on paper, just in my head, and you know how that can get.... Oh well, we'll see how much, if any, I've lost on Wednesday when I go to the meeting and if I lost, great.. if I didn't I'll get strict with keeping a points book.. otherwise I'll just keep going as I am.. I should try the core plan where you can only eat certain foods but you don't have to keep track of points. I'll keep you informed of how I do.

I've been trying to get my heart shaped garden all weeded out.. why is it that grass can grow so well in my garden but not so well on the lawn where you want it to grow?.. although this year the lawn is doing better as well... As you can see by the photos above, I've been working up the edge of the garden so that the rocks show around the edges. The rocks were buried under grass and so you couldn't tell where the edge of the garden was and the lawn began. I'm a bit stiff from working on the garden and my wrists are a bit sore from using the garden weasle.. but I now have it 2/3 of the way done and it's coming along really well... will post photos once it's all done...

Waiting for the call...

I'm waiting for the call from the hospital... I'm hoping that the stone/s have passed through and that I'm on the mend.. I know they caused some irritation in my kidney because of the pain and the fact that I'm on antibiotics... and when you're diabetic one of the worse things you can hear is that there's a problem with your kidneys... so for a few days I was running blind with fear... that on top of the pain... but the pain is easing so that I don't have to constantly be on the tylenol and have been able to go for longer periods awake which is good.. so I guess I'm on the mend... here's crossing my fingers that the stones passed when I was sleeping... and zonked out on pain killers...

Oh.. by the way.. I'm still on Weight Watchers...

Even through the pain I'm still doing well... in fact I'm feeling ill and don't feel like eating too much any way... it's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good your way... lol..

Not sore from being out of shape....

Well, on Friday I went to work still feeling sore.. I had been thinking it was a pulled muscle but it really didn't feel like one (I've had pulled muscles before so I can recognise them).. for one thing it didn't hurt to move in different directions but it hurt like hell if I took a deep breath... well as I said I went to work but around noon time I was so sore, sick and with such a headache that I decided I had better call my doctor to see if she could squeese me in.. well, I discovered my doctor doesn't work on Fridays and the walk in clinics were closed but I was feeling so rotten that I had to do something and that something was to face the probable all day wait at the emergency room at the hospital..

The pain was in the right side about mid way down... and since I'm a diabetic and had a brother how lost his kidneys to a disease that could be genetic I decided that it was worth the wait.. all in all it took about 5 hours and the doctor sent me for xrays and took a urine sample... turns out I have kidney stone... and DAMN they hurt.. the doctor said I also have a low grade fever probably caused by infection starting in my kidney from the stones... the xrays weren't 100% positive so he said the hospital will contact me in a couple of days to come in for a scan to determine exactly what I have... well I can tell you it's stones... owwwwyyyy...

But worse than the pain from the stones (I shouldn't say worse because that pain is horrendous) is how sick I get from taking Tylenol3 with codine and antibiotics... this is one sore, sick puppy.. do you all feel sorry for me now?

Day 3 and counting... lol...

I got through today without breaking my diet.. made for sure I had enough food on hand that I could eat.. but unfortunately my back is killing me so no walk today.. I'm not sure what the problem is, but when you're out of shape like I am you can easily pull a muscle and I believe that is what I did yesterday by walking for too long.. I really should have eased into it but being the all or nothing person I am I decided to walk for an hour... now my body is protesting and I wasn't able to go for my walk today at all (but since it's after 1 am I guess that would be yesterday).. I went to bed right after supper to rest and didn't get up until around 11 pm so I'm awake, sore and thinking I really should get back to bed...

Day Two of Weight Watchers

Ohhhh Gawwwwd I was hungry today... so on the way home I picked up some fruit and some salad makings.. tomorrow I'm not going to let myself get so danged hungry... I've been walking yesterday and this morning and boy am I sore.. my back is killing me.. so tomorrow I'll have to take it easy or I'll be twice as sore.. it sure sucks getting old!!!.. but I keep thinking that if I can get some of this excess weight off that I will be a lot less sore... well I'm off to do some more reading of the material I got on the Monday night meeting... and will be making a grocery list for when we go grocery shopping on Friday or Saturday... bbye for now.

Got the dreaded call from the doctor...

I went in for blood tests at the doctor's office a couple of weeks ago and when I went back a week later the results some of my blood tests came back and my overall blood sugar totals for the 3 month time frame was 7.4.. in the high normal and my doctor said she'd call me when she got the rest of the results back only if there was something that needed to be addressed.. well, yesterday I got the call. I have to go and see her to go over the final results and I have a feeling it's not because I'm doing so great.. so before I go to see the doctor I'm going to join Weight Watchers yet again.. I did well the last time I joined and lost around 12 to 13 pounds and then we bought this house in the country and I couldn't afford the cost of the meetings.. now we're in a better place financially and I figure if I can get down to my goal weight of 135 to 140 then I can probably get off most of my diabetes medications and save there plus once you're on maintenance you don't have to pay to go to the monthly meetings.. so an initial cost will translate in to savings in money and health... a win win situation.. and R's good at being willing to eat healthy with me and so that's half the battle.. so wish me luck.

*yawn*.. is it morning yet????

I went to bed at a quarter to 8 last night to read and thought that I'd get a couple of hours reading before I fell asleep.... wrong!! I was asleep by 8pm and couldn't drag myself out of bed when my daughter called at 9pm... also had a hard time getting up at 5:30, my usual wakeup time, so I hit the snooze until almost 6 am... As my late mother used to say "I must have needed the sleep.. ".. well duh. Why the hell do I feel like crap this morning after all that sleep.. or is it because of all that sleep?

Speaking about my mother.. she used to ask my why I never wanted to go to bed.. and I think she hit the nail on the head when she questioned.. "Are you afraid you might miss something?".. I'm like that ... I'm afraid I might miss life as it whizzes by when I'm asleep.. I guess I want to live every minute and not waste it sleeping... Living in the country I usually try to get up between 5:30 and 6:00 each morning but when I sometimes have to force myself to go to bed by 10 0r 11 pm.. that doesn't make for a lot of sleep...

I'm now on FaceBook...

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=650620416 check it out.. I'm just learning how it all works.

Who Let the Dogs Out???

No, I'm not going to sing that terrible song but I know it's now stuck in your head.. you can thank me later.. here is the aforementioned Shitzu with the sleepers on.. he's a weird enough looking doggy with the terrible bite (his bottom jaw is jutted forward) but the added sleepwear ... well, I dunno... and on the bottom is our little butterball.. she really is a poodle.. I promise... and she's been on a diet.. I promise... and she has lost weight.. double promise.. I still say she's not fat.. she's fluffy..

Easter's Almost Over

Well that was an interesting day... we left this fair Island yesterday to clear skies and narry a flake of snow on the ground or otherwise.. only to be greeted this morning on our way back from an Easter trip to Amherst, Nova Scotia to see R's family by white outs and terrible driving in spots.. the trip from Amherst to the Confederation Bridge was not too bad with clear roads and a very little amount of drifting snow.. but once we cleared the bridge and got into North Tryon it was a whole new kettle of fish .. it didn't help that we had a car in front of us that was making the whole experience that much worse and almost made us get stuck a few times because they were driving so slow... but we made it in one piece only to arrive at our driveway to find it packed with snow.. and R finally got to use his snow blower on some real substantial snow.. made him feel like a man!!!

On another topic.. R's sister has a young little Shitzu dog (don't know if that's the right way to spell it but you get the picture) that had his little weewee snipped... well, R's son had told them to put a diaper on the dog so he wouldn't try to get at the incision... that didn't work needless to say because it was too uncomfortable.. so J (R's sister) bought the dog two baby nightshirts with the flap that goes between the legs and snaps on the front and sides.. once they got the hole cut for the tail they had him all set.. looked a little strange but it did the trick and that's the point I guess .. but I think that he will be traumatised because she took him in public like that!!!! Poor little pouchy...

'Tis the Season....

Ello... nottin' on TV so thought I'd spill some brains out here...

I know .. I have few enough so it's not good to be wasting them.. but TV sucks the big one tonight and I've lost my taste for Poser for a while... I've been downloading so much stuff for my Poser program that if I don't stop my brand new computer will grind to a halt because it will be so jammed full of "stuff"...

The above picture is of a sewing/craft centre that R got me a couple of weeks ago.. he got me a sewing machine before Xmas because he was tired of having his pant cuffs dragging on the floor and his mother lives too far away to take the pants over to her.. That unit is really neat, the front, big door swings open and there's a leaf hanging down on the left of the unit that lifts up and the door, when fully open, goes under it to hold it up making a large work surface... the smaller door opens to reveal three shelves and there is a large shelf behind the large door to place your sewing machine... over all a great piece so furniture and the beauty of it is that you can close it all up when you're done and wheel it out of the way...

I finally got the sewing machine to work properly and I was even able to hem some blue jeans.. they are the worst things to hem because they are so damned thick!!! And I got a huge pile of pants hemmed and my next project is the drapes/curtains for the house... I got a bunch of material at a blow out sale and it's just gorgeous but my sewing machine was acting up and I was getting big bunches of thread on the bottom of the material and nothing I did would correct it.. I finally figured out today that it was the thread and the tension... the thread was old and really cheap and kept breaking and jamming up in the needle... so I put in some good thread and decided to correct the tension...

Just a side note here* a woman at work that sews a lot told me never to touch the top tension.. she said that when she buys a new machine she leaves the tension the way it was when she bought it, she changes other things but always leaves the factory setting on the top tension... well, the factory setting on my machine was all the way one way and I couldn't see that working... but was afraid to touch it thinking that I would be doomed to never being able to sew properly again and my machine would be ruined... WRONG!!!! Never listen to so called "experts".. it's alway good to experiment.. and besides in the book that came with the machine (which, by the way, is in four different languages) it says to adjust everything depending on what you're doing but the directions on how to do that are not clear...

But I finally got it working by turning the top tension half way and like I said earlier, I replaced the cheap thread... now I can't wait to get going on the drapes... maybe next weekend.. oh no, next weekend I'll be out of province so that's out... but I will get to it... Promise.. and who knows.. maybe there will be pictures... lol..