Embracing the Journey

I’ve been having a hard time blogging lately.  My blog has evolved from a weightloss blog to a ??? blog.    There’s the problem, the ????.  I don’t know that I want to write about anything specific, maybe just life.  But that’s kinda boring, my life.  That’s OK though I like life boring….sometimes.  That means no crises right?

I posted some pics on facebook Weds.  Boy did we get some rain.  Here see for yourself!

That’s our yard out there under all that water!  I wish I would’ve taken a pic of the parking lot.  Hubby, J and I went to see Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs and we drove through a foot of water to get out of our complex.  I bought the tickets online, otherwise we would not have been so gung ho to go to the movie!

Hubby and I have managed to work out 3 days this week so far.  We decided that our workout days will be Tues thru Sat.  We are splitting our routine doing 30 mins cardio every time we go, then we do upper one day and lower the next.  So we are there about an hour a day.  J loves the Y!  He comes out all sweaty from running, jumping, crawling!  So it’s win/win.  So much easier to get to the gym when your kid loves the play area!

Yesterday J and I went to the International Mall and met up with this lovely lady!  Scale Junkie! She’s the best.  We have so much in common.  We’ve decided that we need to meet up more frequently.  It’s so nice to have someone to relate to. :)   That was a great way to start my day.

Life is pretty good.  I haven’t been stepping on the scale these days.  I have decided or maybe realized that the scale doesn’t motivate me.  I suffer from fools logic where the scale is involved.  If my weight is up, I feel crappy about myself and on most occasions will convince myself that I should eat.  If my weight is down, I decide that I have some room to eat more.  If my weight is the same, well then I obviously there is still more room to eat.  Bottom line I eat when I weigh!  So I’ve been going by how I feel, how I sleep!  When I have lots of energy and sleep well I know that I’m eating OK.   I know that exercise helps me sleep better and gives me more energy.  I’m focusing on my hunger cues!  I’m focusing on making better choices!  I’m really trying to make life choices that I can actually live with.

Mizfit had a great post today that really got me to thinking.   It really fits in with making lifestyle changes.  The phrase: You are repeatedly what you do, really speaks to me.  If I repeatedly exercise, and I repeatedly make better food choices….I will become a fit healthy person!  I like that thought!  If you haven’t read the post you need to check it out.  Love Miz!

Well I’m off to catch up on my blog reading I’ve been MIA there too.  My google reader says I have 489 posts to read!  Ya’ll have been busy!

Hey the two giveaways are over!  But everyone that entered is a winner!!

Hypnotransformations and tinahdee beautiful jewelry have generously offered a 20% discount to everyone that entered their giveaway!

At Hypnotranformations you can pick out your download and follow the instructions below.

At tinahdee Beautiful Jewelry you can pick out your dog tag necklace or bracelet and follow the instructions below!  (20% discount is only being offered on dog tag necklace or bracelet)

All you have to do is visit their Etsy store - linked above- and  put in the notes that you entered the Embracing the Journey giveaway, pay for your order and you will get 20% refunded back to you!

Doesn’t get much better than that!  Thanks to all of you that participated! :0)

Winner of the Hypnosis download:  Seashore

Winner of the Dog Tag: Jenny of this comment ” i would write BEAUTY on my necklace!”  Comment #43

Please email me at embracingthejourney at gmail dot com!

This giveaway is finished and the winner has been selected.

Celebrating my one year blogoversary with some giveaways!  My next giveaway is from my sister Tina.  Some of you may be familiar with her work.  You can visit her site on Etsy.

I have decided to offer the lucky winner a choice between this:

and this:

Everyone is eligible to win!  All you have to do is leave a comment below and tell what word or saying you would put on your necklace or bracelet!    You can get up 3 entry’s:  1. leave a comment  2.  Link to this post from a post on your blog come back and leave another comment letting me know you linked! 3.  Go here and become a Facebook Fan of Tinahdee Beautiful Jewelry, come back and leave a comment that you did so!  It’s that easy!!

Everyone is eligible to win!  Winner will be picked by random draw on Sunday June 28th and announced Monday on June 29th!

This giveaway is finished and the winner has been selected.

Today I want to introduce you to Kym of Hypnotransformations.

~My name is Kym Tolson. I am a Hypnotherapist certified by the National Board for Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists. My hypnotherapy sessions are available as a CD or as an mp3 download. The hypnosis sessions allow you to be hypnotized whenever you have a spare hour to spend transforming your life.~

I’ve had great success with Kym’s hypnosis downloads.  I wrote about the codependency download here.  I also bought a relaxation download that I LOVE!  When I was stressed waiting to go see the cardiologist, the relaxation download helped me sleep.

She has graciously agreed to give away a $20.00 MP3 download.  All you have to do is visit her site, pick a $20.00 dwnld and leave a comment telling which download you want to win!   If you add yourself as a follower to Kym’s blog come back and leave another comment for another entry AND if you do a post on your blog and link back to this post, leave another comment and you have another entry!!

Doesn’t get much easier than that! :)    Winner to be picked by random draw and  announced Monday June 29th.

I have enjoyed this year of blogging.  I’ve “met” so many wonderful people!  If I continue to blog I hope to meet many more.

Frank and Jared

I hope that all you dad’s out there have a terrific Father’s Day and know how much you are loved and appreciated!  Enjoy your day!!!

To my husband:  You are a great dad!  Love you, have a great day! XOXOXO

My giveaways are starting next Monday the 22nd.   Anyone and everyone welcome to enter.  My sister tinahdee beautiful jewelry will be giving away a piece of her beautifully hand crafted jewelry.  Lovely lady, Kym over at Hypnotransformations has generously agreed to offer up a free download!  I’ve decided to give away a bar of body glide for those of us that have rub issues!    The other two days will remain a mystery, even to me!  LOL  Nothing like waiting til the last minute.

Hubby has been pretty busy he’s added lawn mowers and small engine repair to his biz!  :)  My part time bookkeeping job has been going well.  I like that job.  I like the freedom it gives me.  I def like not having to be somewhere for so many hours a day.  I like being able to say, I’ve had enough, I’m done for the day!    I like being able to work from home.

For a while I was thinking about selling some things on Etsy.com .  It’s a great place.  I was going to do Kumihimo braiding but then it felt too much like work.  I like doing it but I don’t think I like doing it that much.  I thought I did, but then decided I didn’t.  I’m fickle.  I like the IDEA of doing something, but then the ACTUAL doing of it, not so much.  It’s very frustrating to me.  Maybe I’m just not supposed to do that type of thing.    Now I’m thinking of putting some of my pictures up.  At first I was all gung ho on that, then I start over thinking it.  I wish I could instantly shut my brain off.   Well, not all of it, but the part that thinks it has to have things all figured out.  I tend to view life’s little decisions as life and death.   I have to warm up to the idea of things.  The thing I realized or realize about photography is that I really know nothing about it, I just like taking pics.  So now I look at my pictures and think why would anyone want to buy one of my pictures.  They’re so amateurish!  Just because I like them doesn’t mean other people will like them.   This is when I start realizing one of many lessons I wasn’t taught as a child.  Failure is part of success, you can’t have success without a certain amount of failure.

This is the reason I didn’t try out for any sport in school.  What if I don’t win, what if I’m not good enough.  The only thing I ever did in school was sing.  I love/d to sing and that’s the only time I really put myself out there and tried.   I even failed at it a little bit.  I was singing a solo and day dreaming while singing and FYI, not a good combo.  I came out of my day dream and totally forgot where I was at in my song.  I looked around at the audience and then my choir teacher started singing to get me back on track.  Boy what a horror that was, not the mistake, but what I took away from it.  I focused on the 5 longest seconds of my life that I messed up, not the other 2 minutes or so of the song that I did well.  Why is that?

I get all gung ho and then I sit, all I have to do to list my pics, is order some mats and storage bags and then start putting the pics up.  That scares the crap outta me, putting myself out there to be rejected.  Why doesn’t it scare me more to not even try?   I know in my heart of hearts that not trying will be the biggest failure of all!    Yet here I sit!

Well, I finally had my drs. apt with the cardiologist.  Nothing stood out about my condition except my weight. No surprise there and really out of all the things that could be wrong with me, I can change that.  He indicated that I could go on medication, ( NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, I was screaming in my head), but he would like me to lose some weight and then in December they are going to do some blood work and see how much the CRP level drops.  Basically, and we all pretty much know this, being overweight is very hard on your/my/our hearts!    So all in all I say it was a positive, and a little bit of an embarrassing experience.  GUYS - you may want to go start scrolling down no…it ain’t pretty…..

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KEEP SCROLLING GUYS!!!

You’ve been warned!  So the embarrassing part was when it came time for the EKG.  This poor nurse that happened to be a guy, had to put the sticky things on to hook up the leads to.  I think that’s what they’re called.  Anywho, they had to go on my chest, that wasn’t the embarrassing part, that came when even while I was laying down my boob had to be lifted up so that he could put a sticky thing or two under my breast.  I have to say, big boobs, uh, big REAL boobs are highly over-rated.  How sad is it that while I was lying down, wearing a bra, mind you, I STILL had to lift my boob up a bit so he could put the sticky thingamajig on.  At least I can laugh at myself, and at the male nurse.  He was funny, trying to be as delicate as possible, asking me if I could lift up my boob.  He wasn’t sure if he should lift it up or not.  He really was very sensitive and trying not to embarrass me.  But, I am who I am I just started laughing hysterically.  Poor guy!

OK GUYS, IT”S KINDA SAFE HERE!

Next up…I would like to know if anyone has tried “Body Glide”.  I know a lot of athletes use it for when they do marathons or triathlons.  But has anybody used it, uh, because it’s hot out and stuff is rubbing together.  Like, uh, thighs for instance?   I was wondering if anyone has used it and what your experience was with it.  Like, dislike, love, hate?  Whatever, I want to know!

Working out has been great.  Hubby and I have been going together to do weights.  It’s been fun.    It’s time well spent, and it makes me happy that we are doing it together.   It makes it easier to go and it makes it easier to get through all the weights.    Jared loves the Y play area, so he’s running around having a blast.  So it’s win/win!

Alright, well I’m off to try and check on you guys and do some chores…ha ha, really just gonna check on you! 

When I bought my laptop 3 years ago, it was shiny and brand new!  But it came with its share of problems.   It all started with the cd/dvd drive.  It would slide out for no reason.  If you tipped the computer at all while setting it down, it just slid on open.  Eventually I couldn’t get any cd/dvd’s to play on it at all.  So I sent it back to Gateway.  Customer service was great they sent it right back!

Then shortly after that problem was fixed, I started having a problem closing the laptop.  It was ripping the case apart, thankfully still under warranty, I shipped it right back.  Gateway customer service, not so fast this time but still got it back to me in a reasonable amount of time.   Unfortunately, they didn’t test the laptop BEFORE they sent it back to me and it would not turn on.

Back to Gateway she went.   Finally got it back.  All was well for a while, really until the warranty expired.  Then I started having trouble with my power cord.  At least I thought it was with my cord.  That would have been too easy, the problem was actually inside my computer.  Since it was out of warranty anyway I let my husband open her up and try to fix it.  Unfortunately no matter which screw he took out he could not find a way to get to the doo hickey (that’s the technical term) that the power cord hooks into.     Soooo, we did what any intelligent person would do and we bought some rubber bands.    At first one did the trick, now, it takes 7 or 8!

But at least it worked.  Except for the fact I could not  unplug my computer.  But I could live with that.  Whenever it lost the connection with the power cord it didn’t just lose it, it would lose it, find it, lose it, find it.  With words that doesn’t sound too bad, but think of a light switch turning on, off, on, off, on, off.  My screen, bright, not so bright, bright, not so bright.  Almost enough to trigger a seizure.  But I was not discouraged.  That just meant we needed another rubber band.  Or maybe we needed to take off the stretched out rubber bands and put on new ones.

Well then my keyboard started getting all gunky.  First it was just the space bar, or the “s” key.  You’d have to hit it like 6 or 8 times to get the “s” to work.  Nothing major.  Nothing one of those cans of air couldn’t fix.

Then one day the shift,  a, s ,r,e,d and c keys wouldn’t work.  Well I kinda need those!  I looked for my can of air, didn’t have any and thought, no biggie, I’ll just pop the keys off and wipe the crumbs out.   I’ll start with the shift key.  Hmm doesn’t pop as easy as a regular keyboard, huh, I know I’ll get a butter knife.  Turns out there’s a reason those keys don’t just pop right off.  er, you’re not supposed to take them off.  Really?  he he .

OK, then I spilled something on it.  Some liquid that got under all the keys, that can’t be wiped off, because well you can’t take the keys off.  Genius!

So now I basically have a paperweight, but I can still use the mouse.   While in Wal*Mart  I saw some wireless keyboards and a mouse and thought, well that’s much cheaper than buying a new computer.  So back in business once again.  I think the computer actually cussed when I hooked up the keyboard and mouse.  I think it might have begged me to put it out of it’s misery.  But I can’t be sure.

Life was good with my not so mobile laptop.  I could work, I could surf, I could even watch episodes of Lost!  What’s not to like.

Then I decided that I need to run my weekly (uh, really monthly) virus scan.  So I plopped set my computer up on  my tool chest/night stand.  No worries, it’s running fine.  I pick up my mouse and keyboard and put them in one of my tool chest drawers.   I get off my bed, not realizing   the laptop had strategically wrapped it’s cord around my leg and the drawer.   I’m convinced it was a suicide attempt.  The computer cord yanked against my leg and before I knew what happened,  it got pulled off the tool chest.  It must’ve somersaulted in mid-air, although I didn’t see it,  and managed to land face down, closed.  Remember it was sitting open?   The screen is shattered!  Now somebody else might have said it’s time to buy a new computer.  Me not so much I just hooked it up to my pc’s monitor.   Hey, it’s cheaper than buying a new computer!   What was that noise?  I think I just heard my laptop sigh!

Laptop after tragic jump, uh, I mean fall.

This is what I imagine my face looked like after the tragic fall.

Well, life has been pretty uneventful here.  That’s a good thing.  Summer is almost upon us.  We have had some pretty hot days already.  Lots of  afternoon and evening thunderstorms (love those)!

For us as it starts to get hotter it’s time to spend more time inside or in the pool.  Thankfully we have access to a pool.

Exercise is becoming a regular part of my life again.  But a doable, maintainable part.  I’m even doing some weight training and core work.  Planks!  Those are hard.

On a totally unrelated note, I buy my chicken breast, boneless skinless on sale at Alberstons.  They have some great prices.  The last time we bought chicken we put it all in the crock pot with some chicken broth.  We let it cook all day long.  That evening when we took it out we fork shred the chicken and put it in the fridge.  That was a great idea we had cooked protein ready to go, we had sandwiches, salads, stirfry, pasta.  It was so easy to prepare meals.  Next time I’m going to freeze half of it.  That was an awful lot of chicken this week, but that’s what we had in the fridge!  None of it went to waste.

Oh and I have a tip for you guys.  White Vinegar, it’s an amazin product.  I have a softener ball for my clothes washer.  Instead of putting fabric softener in it, I put white vinegar in it.  My clothes come out smelling so fresh!  Without any chemicals or fragrence!  I found a website that suggests tons of uses for vinegar.

Well you are probably feeling pretty sleepy after my boring post.  So I’ll let you go so you can take a nap.  I’ll try to make it more interesting next time.

My blogaversary is coming up soon.  One year!  I’m going to do a week of giveaways!  :)  I’ll be doing that in June!