Burning the candle at both ends

My birthday gift has arrived. Today I received my ebay purchase and was thrilled with it. It was so much fun going through everything and checking out all my new stamps and ink pads. I have received close to 40 different ink colors. Now all I need is some of those creativity juices to start flowing. My first project will be for my brother as his birthday is this Sunday.

Training has been lacking the past few days. I have just been feeling a bit down lately and have been feeling very tired. I just have been overwhelmed with work, the kids schedule, and my school schedule. It just feels like I have so much to do and just not enough time. Unfortunately, it is beginning to take a toll on me and I need to really sort things out before things get bad with me health. Today I went to the nurses clinic for ED and I went for some blood tests last week and my glucose levels are very low. My heart rate today was also pretty low and they want to keep an eye on things, so now I have to for blood tests every week.

Today after school the kids and I went to the blood clinic, so I could go and donate. Everything went well and I was in and out of there pretty quick. It took me 5:17 for my donation. Trevor was pretty happy about that as his donation on Tuesday was 4:53, so for the first time in a very long time he beat me. When I got to the refreshment area I noticed that Kamden and Simon had partaken in quite a few cookies. To be exact Simon had 12 oreos and a bag of chips and Kamden had 6 cookies and a bag a chips. Oh Great!!! I had to give the kids the lecture on making wise food choices even when mommy is not around. Needless to say they were not hungry for supper when we got home. Hopefully their little cookie binge will not affect their Terry Fox Run tomorrow at 2:45pm at school.

This is it...

Today I turned yet another year older. Fortunately, I am still closer to 30 years old than 40 (not that 40 is bad or good...I suppose it's all the same...just a number). The day started off with me getting up just past 7am. Just cause it's my birthday I wasn't entitled to have the day off of teaching the 4 year olds at Discoveryland at church, which is fine by me 'cause that is something I look forward to. Before leaving for church I got to eat breakfast with my 3 bffs and opened thier cards which they had for me. Kamden and Simon got me a LuLu Lemon gift card. As for Discoveryland, things didn't go quite as planned when one of the youngsters had an accident. The only upside of that was that it happened right when his parent came to the door to pick him up. Oh well...I guess those things happen. After church we went over to my parent's place. My mom was kind enough to plan a dinner for me for my birthday and had invited some other family members over. The food, the company, and the day was fun. I couldn't think of a nicer way to spend my birthday...Thanks, Mom!! Now to make my 34th year the best....

I am inspired to be crafty and make cards : )

Yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed my day off of working out, so much in fact that I decided to carry it over and ended up taking today off as well. I somewhat feel bad about missing it, but as the day passed by I am feeling better about it and I look forward to getting back to the regular schedule tomorrow. After doing some of my homework for my leadership course I decided to do some blog searching on handmade cards and found some fabulous sites. I am so ready to start creating cards, but am still waiting for my ebay stampin' lot to come. Unfortunately, since it is comin' from the US it'll have to go through customs, which may delay the arrival time. Patience.

Everyday I make Trevor's lunch and this week I've made an awesome salad for him (I have it for my lunch as well). It is so yummy. You don't even have to use dressing because there is enough flavor with the fruit...mmm....

-Romaine Lettuce cut up
-Apple peeled and sliced
-One tomato
-1/3 cup Vegan dried fruit, nut, and seed mix

Well I don't have much time before I have to pick up the kids from school. Today is a piano lesson day for the both of them. Thank goodness things are going well in that department and they are both enjoying it and eager to practice. I am surprised at how quickly they are learning. I am proud of them. I am hoping that this time around I will be able to continue teaching them through till the end of June. I actually did look into having someone else teach them, but with both of them taking lessons it would have been $2000...yikes.

unwanted stress

For about the past month I have come to the conclusion that I really enjoy card making and have decided that this would be one those stress relief activities, which I will start doing. Kamden loves making cards as well so as long as I can remember that she is just 7 years old and her cards should not be that of an adult then I think everything should workout. Last month I went to my first "Stampin' Up" party at Kamden's grade one teacher's place. I brought Kamden along with me and both of us had a great time being creative and learning new techniques. Before I left her house I made a purchase and bought a kit consisting of one stamp set of 4 small stamps, 2 ink pads, and some paper totaling to just over $60. As soon as I got home I thought that I'd check out e-bay and see what they have on there for "Stampin' up" goods. After placing 6 bids for 6 different items and not winning over the course of 4 weeks I was kind of thinking that I'd never get anything. Just this past week I saw two lots of stamps and ink pads, which I loved and decided to place a bid on both of them. The first item auction finished at 12:30pm today. When I got home from my mom's I ran to the computer and guess what...I actually won...yeah. Oh no...I still have the second item and I am still the highest bidder on that. What am I going to do. The second item was up at 9:30 pm. I watched the item hoping that someone would outbid me as I don't want a million stamps...this wasn't supposed to turn out this way---lesson learned...don't bid on two similar items at the same time. 3 mins left..still I am the highest. 2 mins left...1 min left....48 seconds...there is some bidding going on....yeah...I am no longer the highest bidder...phew that was close. I am sure I would never have heard the end of that one from Trevor. Anyways in the end this is what I ended up getting with my winning bid:



Tomorrow I get the day off from marathon training, but I will still be hitting the gym for back, biceps, and abs. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to taking my measurements or taking photos in order to show you any of the changes that have taken place, so it'll have to wait till next weekend, which will workout okay 'cause it'll end up being the last picture of me at the age of 33 as I will be turning 34 yrs old next Sunday the 21st. Fun!!! I will be hitting the pool in the afternoon for some laps. I want to keep with the swimming this time around and not take a 10 month hiatus before the IM next year.

Life is going by too fast...too busy

This past Monday the kids went to their first gymnastics class. I managed to get them in the same time slot, but they are in two different groups, which probably works out better. Since gymnastics starts at 4:15pm and goes till 6:00pm I had to get the kids to eat part of their supper in the car en route to "Gymtastics". As soon as we got there we had a bit of time to sit in the viewing area and watch some of the other gymnasts who were on the floor practicing. Kamden was watching them in amazement. Both kids survived their first day of gymnastics and are looking forward to the season. I am not sure if I can say the same as waiting up in the viewing area for an hour and 45 mins does seem pretty long, but at least I get a lot of my school work done (especially the reading). We purchased a new body suit for Kamden, which she absolutely loves. I'll be sure to get a picture of that.

Yesterday Kamden had her first day of tap dance. Last year she started 1.5 months later than the rest of her group, which resulted in her missing out on some of the fundamental tapping skills. I am hoping that this time around she'll be able to pick up on it this time around. For Kamden I believe she wants to do tapping as it is more of a social thing for her. She enjoys the company of the other girls in her class. I think all girls need to have good friends and just have fun.

I have officially started the marathon training this past Monday. So far so good. Since I am working 3 days a week I have had to really juggle around my gym time. I have Mondays and Wednesdays off, so I can get to the gym for my entire weight program and my run. However for Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I try to get up at 5:30 am to get in at least a 30 min bike (get the metabolism moving) and then I drop the kids off at school at 8:30 am and head to Gold's Gym for my weights and abs, which typically takes an hour. I start work at the school at 11am - 2pm. Once I finish my shift there I head across the street to one of the city recreational facilities. We have a membership there for the purpose of swim training for Ironman, which, unfortunately, does not get used nearly as much as it should. At least now I am getting our moneys worth even though it is in the weight/cardio room and not the pool : )

Saturdays make me HAPPY!!

I think that I am really going to love my weekends from here on in. I think once September rolls around and every one's summer vacation is over, which means no more sleeping in. The only sleep in day is Saturday. I love Saturdays!! I didn't really sleep as long as I would have liked as we had to take the car in at 9:15am, which means we had to leave just before 9am. I get really paranoid about being late for anything so I kept waking up and could no long sleep past 7:15am. During the week I get up anywhere from 5:30 - 6:30 am (depending if I ride my bike or not), so I guess it is still sleeping in a bit.

After dropping off the car we headed to the gym for a short 2 hour bike ride. I was actually starting to get tired and my right knee was beginning to bug me about 1.5 hours into it, but I managed to shoot out the next 30 minutes. Tomorrow marathon training is under way for me as I begin training for the Goofy Marathon and half challenge. I just have a LSD 6.0 mile run, which seems like a joke. C'mon a long run of 6.0 miles. Oh well. It would be so easy to say I'll just go for 2 hours, but I am not going to do that. I will stick with the mileage and the pace. I am supposed to do my LSD runs between 10:15 - 11:33 min/mile pace....slow---but I am on the 4:00 marathon training pace.

Tomorrow is my last Sunday before I start Shepparding the 4 year olds in Discovery Land (aka Sunday School) on the 14th. It'll be a change for me as I had the 5 year olds last year. So I guess we'll see how the little youngsters are...hopefully not too wild for me at 9 am in the morning. Next year I am going to go over to the Grade School kids.

Oh Yeah....we are officially on the confirmation list for Ironman Canada 2009 : )

Kids are back at it

Today is day two of the kids being back in school. Actually it was a first for me as well as I started my first day of work yesterday. The last time I actually worked for money was February 2001 and then Kamden was born. It didn't really feel like work as my work consisted of what I did for free (volunteering) at the school. I am assigned to 3 different teacher on 3 different days and basically I do whatever needs to be done. Then at lunch recess I get to go out and watch all the kids and supervise. Since my shift ended at 2pm I headed across the street for a 35 minute run. I had a pretty good run---managed to stick with 6.0mph the entire time, which is quite something for me.

Last night I went to see Mamma Mia (2nd time) with Kamden, my mom, and my sister-in-law. It was the sing-a-long version, which was kind of cool. I probably would have burst out singing if I was alone in the theatre, but wanted to set a good example for Kamden : ) To my surprise, as soon as they sang Mamma Mia Kamden burst out in song...wow...she actually didn't sound too bad. After seeing the show I realize that it wasn't the best selection or a 7.5 year old, but we had a talk about it and she knows what is right and wrong, so I am okay with that. I was exhausted by the time I got home and was unable to stay up with Trevor. I think I was out before 10pm.

Today was my day off of work, which meant I didn't have to get up at 5:30am for a 35 minute bike ride. Instead I headed to the gym after dropping the kids off at school. Today was Quad and hamstring day. It went okay. My body has been hurtin' for certain since I've started weights on Monday. It actually feels like I have been beaten and kicked numerous times. I guess that's a sign that I should probably not take any time off of weights. Today was my 3 day of abs in a row and man...I so wanted to start crying, but managed to make it through the 4 sets of 25 crunches, 4 sets of 25 each side crunches (obliques), and 4 sets of 25 back extension---all done on the swiss ball or exercise ball or whatever everyone calls it now a days. Fun...Fun...Fun!!!

Day 3 of the diet....TODAY WAS WEIGH IN DAY...and....

I've changed my goal weight to 125 lbs. I felt that 125 was more realistic and better suited to my body type. So....13.6 lbs to go...haven't decided if I should do pictures on Saturday as it may be too soon to see any results.

The diet is HARD as I don't have energy on it. I am going to have to make changes to my original diet and follow something that suits my life a little better.

Day one of the diet

So far so good except for the 6L of water that I have drank today. My bladder is always full and I am constantly having to run to the bathroom. Maybe I should have slowly let my body adapt to that much water instead of going from 2L (on a good day) to 6L. As for the food---everything is on track. It is almost 7 pm and I still have to eat two more times. I am not sure how I am going to fit that in, but I will manage. The day started off with the us heading to the gym for my first day of weights. Man have I lost a lot of strength since I lifted on a regular basis. I am hoping that it won't take very long to build up my strength again. When we got home it was around lunch time and I had scrumptious chicken and broccoli...mmmm. Trevor left to go to the football game with his brother shortly after lunch and I spent around an hour and a half preparing every ones lunch, including mine (it's my first day of work tomorrow). Man, this is going to be a lot of work. Next week is going to be even more crazy as I start 2 new courses next Monday. Yikes!!!! I am overwhelmed just thinking about everything. This year I have opted to drive the kids to and from school, but because I work at 11am-2pm I get to go to the gym right after I drop them off and do weights and then go to work. After my shift ends at 2pm I am off for a run as I they don't get out of school till 3:20pm. Trevor says that I am one of the busiest individuals he knows.

Well it is almost 7:15 pm, so I better go and have my chicken and beans. Oh don't you wish you were me??? I keep saying to myself that this will be all worth it when I fit into all the small clothes in my closet and reach my goals. There will always be chocolate and cake. I'll have some chocolate at Christmas time : )