Sunday, April 29, 2012

I seem to be writing now about once every 1-2 weeks.  We can’t seem to keep up with our lives at the moment, everything just seems to be so busy.  I did so well with my running regimen when I wrote last time and then we got that nasty weather and we got busy with packing and other things and I only got out for my run once last week.  I did do some of my Wii exercises in lieu of running when the weather was bad and I have been keeping with my calorie count when journaling what I’m eating.  Nevertheless, I got really frustrated when I weighed myself this past week and I have gained 0.7 kilograms.  This is the norm for me, I basically have to exercise 2-3 hours a day in order to see any change in my weight whatsoever.  Oh well, I will not give up, I will just try to get back on track this week.  I should be running 2 minutes and walk 1 minute for 10 sets which I will start this week.  I just have to be patient and hopefully the 5-10 pounds I would like to lose will come off by July 21st!! 

We have been babysitting the grandkids this weekend while Breanne and James are in Windsor as James was the Race Director for a race he organized there which had over 200 runners registered which was an awesome turnout.  We took the girls out for a long walk this morning and then later to watch David run 15K in the Billy Taylor race here in Guelph.  It is a beautiful sunny day out but still has that nippy cold wind.  I hope soon it gets warm and stays warm.  I’m really ready for the warm weather to get here and sick of all this cool or cold stuff that seems to be the norm right now.  Selena is having her afternoon nap and Annika is playing quietly with papa.  Once Selena wakes up, we are taking them both to the Butterfly Conservatory in Cambridge.  I understand now why we have kids when we are young; it is pretty exhausting and I think we will be thankful to see James and Breanne return later this afternoon.  They are both such good kids though; they go to bed and sleep and eat and are definitely not whiny; so it is a pleasure being with them, just exhausting keeping them busy!

We took a look at our condo (through the windows again) on Friday and our kitchen is now in and I am quite happy with my cupboard choice although Brian seems less so but to him a kitchen is a kitchen and he really doesn’t care too much about colors and what they look like, as long as they are functional and do the job they should do!  I am just dying to get into the condo to walk around so hopefully they call us soon to go through our last walk-through before closing at the end of May.  We are starting to get packed now and have got a rid of a few more things we don’t want.  We are going to have a neighborhood garage sale on May 26th, and anything that doesn’t go then, we are going to ship off to the Thrift Store. 

One other thing that we just found out this week is that my dad does have a fractured sternum from the car accident he was in.  He was just not getting over this pain in his chest very quickly, so the doctor did a chest x-ray and he definitely does have a fractured sternum.  There is nothing they can do other than just keep him comfortable with pain medication and over time it should start to heal and he will feel better.  Unfortunately for dad, that seems like a long time as he really struggles with the pain when he coughs or sneezes or has to use those chest muscles to pull himself up out of a chair etc. 

So that is all our news for now; will update again in another week or two!

April 17, 2012

Well, life is certainly zipping along at a fast pace.  Here we are now halfway through April, six weeks before we move and three months before David/Jenn’s wedding.  Last weekend Breanne and I went out to look for a “mother of the groom” dress at Le Creme downtown Guelph and I actually found a dress!  It was the second dress I tried on and although I was more critical of how it looked, Breanne kept saying it was the one; so after trying on a few more that were definitely not for me, I tried the one on that Breanne liked and admitted to myself that it was the one and thankfully it was one I could buy off the shelf and didn’t have to order.  I even bought some jewelry to go with it at the same time!  Now all I need are the shoes.  You have no idea how happy I was to have that over with!  We have so much on our plate right now, that worrying about where I was going to get a dress and/or shopping from store to store certainly wasn’t appealing; so this is one huge stress I don’t have anymore. Of course, for Brian (as for all men) it was easy.  David booked an appointment at the tuxedo store, and all the men including the fathers go there for half an hour, pick out a tux, get measured and their done!  They don’t even have to buy shoes, that is also included in the Tux rental.  Women definitely have it harder than men! 

So now I have a goal, I HAVE to lose 5-10 pounds in three months.  My dress fits but it is a bit snug and would look so much better if I lost a few pounds; so this week I have started back to running and I am starting from scratch and building up from there with the Running Room Program; so I have started with 1 minute run, 2 minute walk – 7 sets; then subsequent weeks I add 1 minute until I’m running 10 and walking 1 – 10 week program.  I also found this awesome app for my I-pad that counts calories. All I do is put in the bar codes for any foods I eat and/or add in food portions and it calculates calories, proteins, carbs, etc.  It even calculates how much I should be eating (RDI) in a day for my age, gender and whether you want to maintain or lose or gain weight.  It has to be one of the best apps ever and is so quick to enter things.  If even has calculations for foods eaten in restaurants. So in 3 months I hope to say goodbye to 10 extra pounds! I just have to stay motivated now!

Our condo is looking good; all the painting is done now, baseboards and doors are up, ceramic tile is down at the front door.  The rest of the floors are going to be hardwood (except the finished basement which is carpet); so that will probably not be done for another couple of weeks so that the workers do not damage the floor.  When we went through our walk-through in March, the site supervisor told us that although hardwood floors are beautiful, they are a nightmare for him as he has to “babysit” it so that they don’t get damaged, so I’m sure he was not pleased that the whole house is hardwood.  On the outside they have poured our patio at the back and have the stairs in up to our balcony. I will have to get a couple of pictures this weekend and will post on my blog.

Brian has actually started to do some packing and we had the moving company over yesterday to give us an estimate on moving us; so things are falling into place and I can’t believe we are only 6 weeks away now.  I am definitely not looking forward to the actual move but am looking forward to getting settled in our new place and especially being just down the street from my kids’ homes.  It is going to be awesome being all so close.  Oh yes, and another thing we did last weekend was buy a dining room suite!  We have put in our order and it will be ready in about 8-10 weeks!  Now we just have to buy some living room furniture but we are going to wait until we actually have possession so we can visualize more of what we need for the room size. 

Health-wise, Brian is great and we are all doing well and excited for life!  We are truly blessed!

HAPPY EASTER

Brian and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter and hope that you are enjoying your Easter weekend.  Here in Ontario, the weather has been nice and sunny although still on the cool side with a cold breeze.  I love the spring though and seeing the buds come out on the trees and perennial plants starting to sprout; it is like a fresh new start to life and saying goodbye to the winter.  We certainly can’t complain about our winter this year though, it has been a very mild winter indeed. 

We are looking forward to our Easter today; we are heading off to church with David and Jenn this morning and then heading over to BJAMS for Easter “brunch”.  We were going to pick up my dad today so he can celebrate Easter with us but unfortunately dad just called to say he is just not up to coming as he is still suffering with chest pain from the car accident.  He has started some physio to see if that will help but it looks like it is just something that is going to take a while to heal. It certainly has gotten him down though and I hope that it starts to get better soon.  He feels that he really needs to stay put so that he is not moving around so much and pulling at those chest muscles. My prayers today will be for my dad and that he soon gets over this chest discomfort. 

To all our friends and family, have a very Happy Easter!