Monday, February 28, 2011

Tax Time!

Unlike the richer portion of the population, I love tax time. Because of our low income and having 2 kids we get a decent return. Course some people's income in a month is more than we expect back, but hey, it's LOADS to us!

We're also impatient people who refuse to wait for the gov to send us our money, so we do the instant refund thing (yes, I know we lose some of our riches this way, but as I said, we're impatient!).

We were expecting Lee's T4 thingy from work last week. He already had the Friday off, so we figured perfect! We'll have all day to do our taxes and some shopping (a new oven is the first thing on my list!!!). Friday comes, T4s weren't delivered to work *grrrrr*

So we knew he'd get it today at work. Down side is, we never know when he'll be home. He has one of those odd shifts... starts at 5am, is done whenever there's no more work. He's been home as early as 9am and as late as 8pm. I was hoping he'd be home by 2pm so he could drive mom to work and we'd have the van to run around with. No such luck, he didn't get home til 4pm.

Since we were walking, we opted to go to a closer tax place than our usual one. Get there, 2 hour wait and only if you were there before the client cutoff (we weren't). Ok, we'll do the hike to our usual place. But wait! I grabbed a brain and thought to call ahead. Sure enough, same deal. They've already stopped taking clients. *grrrr*

Then I remember the Money Mart (one of those payday loan places) does instant taxes. Still having that brain on hand I call them. Yup, they do them, open til 9pm and have loads of time to take more people. YAY! 23457 mile hike there (ok, so it's not even a 3 mile round trip).... Since it's getting late in the day and it's the height of tax season, there's a 4 hour wait for returns and the store closes before then. We can do our taxes, but won't get our return til tomorrow. Well that sucks, but it's better than the other 2 places where we couldn't even start the process in!

So now we hope that Lee gets home tomorrow before 2pm so we don't have to walk back there to pick up the refund. YAY for a new oven!

30 Day Challenge

A picture of yourself

Well I don't think I have any recent pics of me, so we'll just blow up the one I use for blogger....

Gain

Only .6lbs though. I knew there'd be a gain, but I actually thought it would be worse! .6lbs aint bad to get off and then some this week!

Now, to figure out the next mini goal....

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Exercise Log - Week 2

Renaming this my Exercise Log since I do more than just walk. *fingers crossed* on the new DVD player so I can add even more!

As before, all treadmilling is done at the hardest (15%) incline cause I'm too lazy to change it.

This week I did craaaaaap. In pain for a lot of it cause of my stupidity. Next week WILL be better though!

Mileage: only 2.38 :(
Weights: 27 mins (killed myself here doing waaaay more than I should have. 5 days later I am finally almost pain free)
Other: 90 minutes of shoveling snow over 2 days.

30 Day Challenge

The Month You Were Happiest In This Year And Why.

Since it's only Feb, we'll go with the last 12 mths. I'll say November as it was the month that I finally got to do what I've always wanted to do, start homeschooling Brianna. Yes, it's been a rough ride, but I know we'll all be better off because of it!

Weigh In Tomorrow

I may have hit goal (well past it really) at 184.4lbs on Friday, but I'm worried about tomorrow's weigh in. Friday was my birthday so the diet flew out the window. Yesterday sucked too. Today has been better (other than the fact that I ate cookies for lunch), but still not great. *sigh*

On a brighter note, we should be getting our taxes done tomorrow which means a new stove and computer are in my near future!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

30 Day Challenge

Talk About Your Siblings

I have 2 that I'm aware of.

Theo is 12 and lives with my step mom in Edmonton. He's an awesome totally smart kid. He can go on for HOURS (literally) about trains, city buses and numerous other things. He loves being Uncle Theo to my kids even though he's only 7 mths older than Isaac.

Ivanna is 8 (I believe). I've never met her, nor seen a picture. She lives with my father and her mother in Edmonton.

30 Day Challenge

Your Religious Beliefs

None.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Weights

I added weights into my workout routine last night. OWIE! Apparently I worked my arms too much cause all day my elbow have been KILLING me! When I first got up I could barely bend them. Funny thing is, it was my shoulders hurting while exercising....

I also went to the library today to pick up some exercise idea books. Last night I went through my whole (made up) routine (twice!) and still only came up to 27 mins. I'd like to be able to do what you're supposed to do, ya know, arms one day, core the next, legs after that... yeah, last night was all of them and still only 27 mins. Clearly I need some new ideas.

30 Day Challenge

10 Ways To Win My Heart

1.Love my kids for who they are, not who you think they should be
2. Love me for who I am, not for how you imagined I am.
3. Make sure there's coffee made, always.
4. Don't ask for my advice then ignore it.
5. Let me put the kids clothes away in my own anal retentive way.
6. Accept my body pillow, it will never go away.
7. Let me be the touchy-feely person I am.
8. Let me know what you really think of a new meal I cooked. "I ate it, didn't I?" is NOT an opinion.
9. On that note, if I ask your opinion on something, give it to me! I'm asking cause I truly want to know what you think. "Whatever" is not an opinion!
10. Tell me you love me often, there's never enough

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

30 Day Challenge

5 Things You Want To Say To Different People

"Rather than complaining about what your kids do/don't do, MAKE them do it or DON'T let them do it!"

"I really do feel sorry for your infertility issues, but that doesn't mean that you can be mean and insulting every time someone complains about being uncomfortable/tired/whatever during their pregnancy."

"You have serious fb game addictions, no joke"

"Maybe if you paid as much attention to your wife as you do everyone else, you wouldn't have to complain about not getting laid"

"Please activate brain BEFORE opening mouth!" (ok, so that on could be said to a LOT of people lol)

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Random Tuesdays

randomtuesday

Rrrrrroll Up the Rrrrrrim to Win is back! Woooooooooo for Tim Hortons!

I am a total comfort food lover. Going through my recipes to try to menu plan is killing my diet all on it's own. For every 1 healthy recipe I have, I have 9,836 comfort food ones. *sigh*

My birthday is Friday. I actually forgot how old I am. I was telling my mom that I was gonna be 30 next year. Wait a minute... I'm only 27!

I seem to be afraid of laminating with contact paper. You lay the contact paper down, sticky side up. Then you *perfectly* apply your paper. THEN you've got to *perfectly* seal it all up. Yup, it's still sitting in it's factory wrapping, like it has been for the last 2 weeks.

Head on over to The UnMom to see more Random Tuesdays

30 Day Challenge

Something You Always Think "What If..." About

Well, a more current one would be what if I had started homeschooling from Kindergarten like I wanted to when Brianna was 4. Unfortunately I knew the laws by rumours and the rumours (incorrect as they turned out) made it impossible for me to homeschool. If I had only actually researched it further I would have found out how easy and legal it would be for me to do. Then maybe I wouldn't be having the problems I am now with Brianna.

30 Day Challenge

10 Things About You People Don't Really Expect

1. As much as I loooove my computer, I love writing by hand on paper.
2. Even at over 200lbs I could sprint pretty damn fast.
3. I'm very OCD about somethings, very "I don't care" about others.
4. It took my mom over a year to teach me how to crochet, yet I taught myself how to cross stitch in less than a day.
5. I'm a high school dropout yet I started school a year early AND the school wanted to skip me ahead another year.
6. As loud and outspoken as I am, I still don't fart in front of people.
7. I have a large collection of required reading books from Elementary school that I still read frequently.
8. As much as being overly flexible can be fun, I have chronic pain because of it.
9. Even though I grew up with a professional photographer of a father and take 543,216 pictures a day, I actually know very little about cameras.
10. I love lists yet this was very difficult to write!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Walking Log - Week 1

I joined Daily Mile to track my walking each day (treadmill that is, I don't count walking otherwise). I thought it would be interesting to track a weeks worth of progress here to see how I get fitter. All treadmilling (I made that up!) is on the hardest setting (15% incline) cause I'm too lazy to change it.

This week I generally did 30 min spurts once or twice a day. There were a couple walks over or under 30 mins. I start at 2mph, jump to 3mph (for about 25 mins) then end back at 2mph.

Total Mileage: 14.72
Time: 5 hours

30 Day Challenge

Something You Just Can't Seem To Let Go Of

Caring what others think. I do succeed most of the time in just living my own life, but still too often I look for approval.

30 Day Challenge

The Last Argument That You Had

Whether I should care or not that one of Lee's co-worker's (who we don't hang around with or really even talk to) wife (who I've met once and never spoken to other than hi) is pregnant, outside of saying congrats. Lee is of the country living thought that everyone is interested in everything that everyone does. I just truly don't care. If I don't even know the person why would I care about their mother's sister's best friend's dog?

Friday, February 18, 2011

30 Day Challenge

Something That Never Fails To Cheer You Up

Reading. I don't care what. I. Must. Read. I have several zillion books that I've read that I keep so I can't just pick them up whenever and get lost in them again.

And clean baby smells. *siiiiigh*

Wind and Working Out

Holy Wind Batman! I had to trek around the yard to pick up the recycling cause a huge wind gust sent both of my recycle bins off my deck and decided to ever-so-nicely empty them.

Olivia, warming up the treadmill for me....

30 Day Challenge

Disrespecting Parents *another late one*

Oh crap. I could go on foreeeeeeever about how much kids are idiots nowadays. Disrespecting parents is just the tip of the iceburg. I think most kids need a good ass kicking but most parents are to afraid to give it. Hence idiot children....

Wooooooo!

I've been busting my ass off all week on the treadmill and *really* watching what I eat. It paid off! This morning's weigh in clocked me at 185.6lbs for a loss of 3.8lbs!!! I only have .6lbs to go til next Friday for my mini goal! Wooooooooooooooooo!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

30 Day Challenge

Things That Make You Scared

Spiders.

Losing my kids.

Pushing myself too hard in an activity I'm not supposed to do and permanently hurting my back.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Random Tuesdays

Found a new thing to do in the blogging world. Random Tuesdays. Let's see if I can manage to do it right (since there's a link-type-a-thing to go along with it and all)....



randomtuesday


I am soooo glad I write out our curriculum plans in pencil. I change crap so often I would have gone through about a gallon on white-out by now (though I have gone through countless erasers for my mechanical pencils).

Blogger is pissing me off lately (or it could be my computer). I go to hit enter twice to go to the next paragraph and it just sits there. If I hit the down button it goes right to where I want it, but otherwise, just sits there.

I've discovered that working out to my MP3 player is so much more effective than watching tv. I don't know why I ever though that I (the non tv watcher) would ever want to work out while watching tv.

Never judge a book by it's cover is pretty accurate. I judged my last 52 Books in 52 Weeks book would be great by it's cover and I was wrong.

I'm almost worried I won't remember to take pics now. After being without my camera for almost 2 mths and having to skimp on taking pictures (due to memory space) since October, I almost always forget that I CAN now!

Why does the handwriting Q look like a 2?

30 Day Challenge

Three Things You Are Proud Of About Your Personality

That I *can* have an I don't care attitude. Of course there's many things I should and do care about, but I'm able to look past a lot and realize it doesn't matter.

That I can be both loving and tough loving. And that I know the difference when to give which.

That I can be (and often am) silly. Not enough people know how to be (and actually do) silly.

Butt Kickings

As per my last post, I am kicking my own ass. Both yesterday and today I stayed a couple hundred cals under my "recommended" limit and worked out. Yesterday I got in 2 walks totally to 50 mins at 3mph. Today I only did one walk at 25 mins at 3mph. My right leg felt funny and my right ankle kept threatening to give out, so I didn't push the 2nd walk. Hopefully I'll be able to get both in tomorrow!

I'm actually, kinda, looking forward to weigh in on Friday!

Monday, February 14, 2011

30 Day Challenge

The Best Thing That Happened To You This Week

Well, since this week just began, we'll go with last week.... I got my computer back! After soooo long without it (since mid Oct), it's soooo nice to have it back! All my pretty bookmarks and programs *sigh*

Yup, I Suck

Today's weigh in put me at 189.4. That means I've got 4.4lbs to drop before my birthday next Friday. That also means I need to get off my ass! I wish I had a DVD player downstairs so I could try out my videos. But that'll have to wait for income tax (maybe this week!).

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I Suck

So yesterday I eat at Taco Bell. Today we have dinner at Grandma Rutley's. And MyPlate isn't even working right now, so I can't even see how horrible today was. My weigh in is gonna suuuuuuck tomorrow!!

30 Day Challenge

Something Disgusting That You Do

Um.... I'll pick Olivia up and smell her butt to see if she pooped or just farted... that's all I can think of.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

30 Day Challenge

A Date You'd Love To Go On

Really, I don't care about dates per say. Lee and I will typically go out to eat, but that's mainly cause he likes take out lol Really, I just love to be with him. Heck, I'm happy just going out for a coffee :)

30 Day Challenge

Things You Want To Say To An Ex (another falling behind day!)

"If you paid as much attention to our relationship as you did to the tv we might have lasted longer" (actually, I think I did say that to him lol)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

30 Day Challenge

You Current Relationship, If Single Discuss How Single Life Is

I live Common-Law. Lee and I have been living together for 3 years next month. We've both been married, he's divorced, and legally, I'm still just separated. Eventually my ex and I will get divorced. We have a very agreeable separation so there's no big hurry. I'm in no hurry to be re-married. As much as I love Lee, I don't see how a piece of paper would change anything. Maybe we will eventually....

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

30 Day Challenge

Your Views On Drugs And Alcohol

Drugs: depends. If you *need* them, great, if you abuse them, you're dumb.
Alcohol: again, depends. If you have a drink here and there, or even get drunk once and a while, fine. When you abuse it or even feel the need to keep drinking just cause there's still some in the house, you're dumb.

30 Day Challenge

Your Last Kiss (oooooops! this should have been up yesterday!)

From a super cute kid on her way to nap time!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Computer Up And Running!

A gazillion thanks to my BIL Stephane. He actually managed to fix this hunk of junk wonderful computer. While I did lose a LOT (apparently I had one of the worst worm type viruses you can get), he managed to save my extensive bookmark files and most of my pictures. I haven't brought myself to actually check how many pics he got to save, but he said he knows he got a lot (like 6 gigs worth). I have to re-program all the games and such, but I think I'll just load Brianna's stuff since I'll be getting a new computer with income tax and giving this to her.

30 Day Challenge

Something You're Currently Worrying About

Money. Isn't that the usual one? Right now we're in waiting to file taxes mode. Until that's done and cash is in hand I just keep seeing how far behind we are. I know it's like this every year after Christmas as Lee's hours at work *always* suck after Christmas. I also know that every year at income tax we get all caught up and generally happy again. But it's that period in between....

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Apple!

Olivia's new word is apple. No one really knows where it came from since we're not huge on apples here but in the grocery store the other day she popped out with apple!

Today, Lee went to the store to get tomatoes for toasted tomato sandwiches. When he got home he put them down so he could take off his coat and shoes. Olivia runs over saying apple, apple! Grabs the bag and tried to eat the tomatoes through the bag. Apparently we need to give her some apples!

30 day Challenge

Your Opinion On Cheating On People

Random cheaters are assholes. People who have multiple lives and cheat are dumb. Sometimes the relationship is over but not completely dissolved. Sometimes it is cheating, sometimes it isn't. I don't think cheating is a cut and dried thing though.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

30 day Challenge

The Person You Like And Why You Like Them

I like a lot of people. It's usually cause they're weird like me :D

Friday, February 4, 2011

30 day Challenge

Things That Irritate You About The Same/Opposite Sex

Men: farts are not funny, nuff said
Men or Women: golf. I get mini golf, but regular golf??? Zzzzzz
Women: adults that still act like high school stereotypical cheerleaders
Women: any one who still does the "I'm just a woman, I can't do that" act
Women: (of any age) who will wear miniskirts and middrifts when it's -20 then have the nerve to bitch about the cold. Put some freaking clothes on!

Weigh In and Menu Planning

Wooooooooooo! Down to 188.8lbs! I knew today would be a loss cause of all the shoveling I did on Wednesday, but I didn't think it would be that much! YAY!

Now I'm taking a crack at menu planning. Both to eat more real meals (instead of some pasta and sauce or something equally lazy) but also to get rid of the random food in the house. I mean, I love having lots of food in my house, but when it's been in the cupboard for a year and no one's given it a second glance, it's time to use it and not buy it again! I will try to make things as diet friendly as possible, but sometimes you just need comfort food!

I'm not a perfect menu planner cause I often cook on cravings or energy (as in, I don't wanna cook!). So my menu plan is basically, I'm gonna cook this as some point in the next while, but who knows what day. I figure, if I can get 2 1/2-3 weeks worth of meals planned, that'll take me through a month (with Lee cooking, leftover days, or serve yourself days to fill in).

Here's what I have so far for Feb:
Mexican Mac & Cheese
Pork Stew
Mexican Casserole
Home Style Mac & Cheese
Dogs & Taters
Calzones
Honey Garlic Pork Chops with Corn and Rice Casserole

There of course will be repeats for favorites, but I'm also trying to go through all my recipe cards, one by one, and try all the stuff in there to see if it's even worth keeping. I have a slew of recipes online too that I need to go through (I'm really bad for writing/typing out a recipe just cause it sounds good, then keeping it forever without even trying it).

Thursday, February 3, 2011

30 day Challenge

What You Wear To Bed

Classically, I wear a nightgown. I'm not a fan of pj pants in bed. Around the house sure, but not to bed. That said, in the winter, on freaking cold nights, I have been known to wear pj pants under my nightgown.

Woooo!

According to Daily Plate I burnt over 2600 cals yesterday in my 5 hours of shoveling! Oh, and I clocked in just over 5 hours of work!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

YAY For Snow!

So called "Snowmagdon" hit today. With all the hype it got, we got ripped off. They were talking about a foot of snow, super high winds, ect... We got about 8in and a bit windy. Oh well, at least I got my free workout in in spades! I'm currently sitting at 4 HOURS of shoveling and I still need to do one more plow through before bed. Talk about calories burnt! I better have a loss on Friday or there's gonna be hell to pay! 

I've also done really good on my calorie intake today. I'm still under my recommended calorie intake for the day. I'll probably grab a quick bit of protein when I come in from my last shovel and that will put me over, but with all the calories burnt today? I don't think adding 100-200 extra cals is gonna hurt me!

30 day Challenge

What Kind Of Person Attracts You

Someone who isn't a pretty boy. Someone who actually loves kids, not just says they do. Someone who is willing to talk for hours, but also can be happy in silence. Someone who can appreciate the kind of person I am and the things I do. Someone who can be silly but can also be serious. Someone who can put up with my weirdness :)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

30 day Challenge

How Have You Changed In The Last 2 Years

Well, I became a mom for the 3rd time. Due to, I guess, hormonal changes in that, my back pills work for the most part now and I am able to have more active days. None are pain free, of course, but being able to be active at least sometimes is great! I began caring more about the house in general. Cleaning, organizing. Probably cause I have more help now, it's not just piled on my shoulders alone. In general, I'm happier :)