Water really does work!

First things first, I want to thank all of you for your thoughts, prayers and best wishes regarding my last post. You guys are the best! :)

I've proven to myself that what they say about water intake being so important for weight loss is true. Over the past few months, I've had days where I'm bang on with drinking enough water and days where I haven't had nearly enough. Without fail, at the end of the days when I've had lots of water, my bodyfat is usually about 2% less than when I haven't drank enough. So yes, boys and girls, drinking water really works! :)

The past couple of weeks, I haven't gotten to the gym as much as I've been wanting to. I've been making do with some impromptu workouts such as pull-ups in the backyard, going outside and playing with the kids, and helping out at my inlaws' cottage (hauling huge buckets of water, walking up and down the hill to the lake, etc.). Even though these extras count (kind of), it doesn't feel good enough to me and I feel like it's time to sit down and really reorganize my schedule so that I'm fitting in more gym sessions. I'm feeling like I'm juggling so much right now that it's hard to find time for everything. It's not impossible, and I've done it pretty much all of my adult life, but for whatever reason, it's just feeling harder to get it all done these days...

So I was looking at my legs the other day, and I noticed I have a few new little spider veins. EEK!! I had some before, but it seems like there are more now. They're really quite minor and probably not visible to others, but they bother me, especially because I know my legs are the biggest area I need to tone down. Maybe that's my punishment for not working harder on them! Thing is, I've read that running can help prevent them from getting worse, but I've also read the opposite that because of the impact on the legs, running can make spider veins worse. Do any of you know anything about this?

I'm on holidays from work again this upcoming week, so yay! Then I'm back to work for 2 more weeks and off again the last 2 weeks of August. I'm so glad I spread my holidays over the Summer. I haven't decided what all I will do with my time off, but I know I will spend more time with the kiddos and get some school stuff done that I've been putting off for a couple of weeks. Ah, good times to come!

Surviving!

Well, this is Day 2 of on-call and so far, I'm making it through. Yes, there have been calls, and yes it has taken me awhile to fill some shifts, but overall it has not been as bad as I expected. I think it's what my coworkers would call a "good" on-call weekend. There are still 2 days to go, so hopefully I am not jinxing myself!

This is something I have never written about in my blog before, but three years ago in August, a dear friend of mine from high school was brutally murdered when she went for a bike ride on one of the city bike paths. She was missing for a few days before her body was found and me and some other friends took part in the volunteer search for her. As time passed, I knew it would be bad news, but I just kept hoping. I will never forget the day I heard on the news that they had found her. It was one of the most awful days of my life. They have a suspect in custody (thank God!) who was picked up last year and during the preliminary hearing, he apparently chuckled and grunted as my friend's family watched on. The trial continues on this year.

The reason I'm bringing this up now is that the other night, I had a dream that I was playing cards with some friends, and all of a sudden, there she was playing cards with us. I gave her the biggest hug and told her how scared I had been and how happy I was that she was alive. She just reassured me that everything was OK. And that's the last I remember of that dream. Three years ago after everything that happened, I went to her parents' place one morning to drop off a card with a mass offering in it to let them know how sorry I was. My friend always loved cats and she had one named Blue that looked like a part persian and it had the most beautiful blue eyes. That morning that I dropped off the card, I turned around to head back to my car and there was that beautiful cat staring me in the eyes. This may sound weird, but it was like my friend's spirit was there again, like the dream, telling me that everything was OK. I just looked at the cat for a moment but didn't want to pet it for some reason. And then I cried all the way home. Maybe I was looking for messages where there were none, but sometimes I wonder if these types of things are more than just coincidence. I still get a lump in my throat when I think of everything that happened.

Sorry this is so heavy. I must be thinking about this more because the 3 year anniversary is almost here. This was hard for me to write about, so thanks for taking the time to read.

Mini Getaway

Thanks for all of your great comments about the pull-up! Since my last post, I've been practicing on the monkey bars on our swingset in the backyard and I've proven to myself that it's not a fluke since I can still do one! Scot says that pull-ups are not about physical strength, but that they're all in the mind, but I like to think it's because I've gotten stronger too :)

We just got back last night from a few days away in Kitchener. Scot was giving a presentation for work and he has lots of relatives out there, so we decided to make it a family road trip and mini getaway. I didn't know how the kids would do with such a long car drive (6 hours) but they did great. We stayed with one of Scot's aunts who has a swimming pool so we got lots of use out of that since the temperature was in the 30 degrees Celsius range or higher everyday. The first thing the kids wanted to do when they woke up in the mornings was swim! My mother in law and I also went to a baby shower for one of Scot's cousins. We left to drive home right after the shower and we finally got back at around 11:00pm.

This should be an interesting week at work. Our whole office is moving down the street so I've got to pack up all of my things and get ready for that. I'm also going to be doing my first (and hopefully last) round of on-call from Friday night to Tuesday morning. That means I have to take the agency's on-call phone home with me and answer calls all weekend. From what I hear, it can be real hell and I'm dreading it. It used to be that part-timers didn't do on-call, but our former executive director asked me if I would do half a week instead of the regular full week that full-timers do. I agreed since I thought everyone was in the same boat, but I've since found out that another part timer is being exempted from on-call, so when the supervisor in charge of it gets back from holidays, I'm going to have a chat with him about this. Either all of the part-timers should do it, or none of us should as far as I'm concerned. Plus, the days that I have to pick up and drop off the phone are days I'm not normally at work, so I just don't think it's fair.

OK, rant over for now. I'm sure I'll have alot more to say about this on Friday when the real fun begins!!

Who would've thunk it?!

Today, Kyle went to a birthday party at a park and when we went to pick him up at the end, we hung out for a bit and let the kids play on the structures. Scot said to me, "See, you could try to do a pull-up here." I immediately said I knew I couldn't, but he said, "How do you know?" So, I went ahead and tried, and OMG, I did ONE UNASSISTED underhand pull-up!!!! And then I tried a few minutes later and I did another one!!! Wooty, wooty, woooooooo!!!

And that's it for today. Short and sweet, but I had to write about this since this has been one of my biggest goals!

Ew, ew, ew!!

And ew again! Every Summer we have lived at our house (this is our 6th year), we end up with ants in the house at some point or other. The first year, I completely freaked out because I didn't realize there were ways to get rid of them and since I hadn't been expecting them, I only found them after they had been in for a couple of days so there were lots. I now know I can use "Ant B Gone" which is a bait that ants find attractive but that has a bit of poison in it that they bring back to their nest to eventually kill the queen and the whole colony. Of course, I have to be careful where I put this stuff with the kids around. I have figured out the usual places where the ants tend to come in, so I look around everyday and put the bait out as soon as I see even a few. And for the most part it works. The problem is, I now have some in the garage that seem to be completely ignoring the bait and if I can't get rid of them, they will likely end up in the house. Anybody got any tips that have worked for you? Hmm... are you seeing a pattern here? Don't like ants, don't like mosquitoes, but you know what? Funny enough spiders don't really bother me!

I still haven't taken the progress pics, but I plan to do so soon. Although I'm still feeling smaller, I need to make some serious plans to improve my eating. It's like I can't resist sweets to save my life these days! I need some of that mojo that I'm reading about that many of you blends have lately. Bah! Why does this have to be so tough? And why can't I get my ass in gear about this? Something has got to change and soon. It's so frustrating!

Sorry if I've been a little MIA in the comments department on your blogs lately. I've been reading but haven't had a lot of time to comment. I'm going to dedicate some time over the weekend to catching up!

Happy long weekend!

Happy Canada Day and Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone is having a great long weekend. For Canada Day, we celebrated by going to a BBQ at my sister-in-law's place. She has a pool so the kids had a great time. Scot's aunt and uncle are up for the weekend, so yesterday we spent some time at his parents' place visiting with everyone and playing cards. Then, last night, we got to give away some old furniture that's been lying around in our basement to my sister who is moving out for the first time. I was really glad to be able to do that not only to help her out, but also because it helped unclog our already messy basement. Now I actually feel more motivated to go down and start working on the rest of the mess.

Today has been a family day for the most part. This morning, the four of us were outside and the kids were playing in the sprinkler and having a blast in the kiddy pool. One thing led to another and we all ended up having a big water fight! The kids thought it was hilarious watching Scot and I try to soak each other, and I have to say it was actually a lot of fun!

Fitness wise, it has not been the best weekend in terms of food, but I've been getting lots of exercise and I'm just feeling smaller. I think it will be time to take some more progress pics soon just to make sure I'm not imagining things.

This week, I only work Wed. and Thurs. and then I'm on holidays next week. Yay! I haven't had a whole week off in awhile so that should be fun.

Have a great day blends!