Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mine was very relaxing... on Saturday I attended our ball wind-up and while it was fun to be outside partying all day and night, common sense prevailed and I wandered home around 1:30am and was pretty much hangover-free on Sunday ;)

I continued to paint the deck Sunday and Monday until I finally ran out of paint. All that's left is a strip near the door which is Dog's path to the bathroom, so once I buy more paint I can finish that off - hopefully during the week sometime. The next house project will be to fix some paint that's chipping off in the living room, and find something to paint the basement floors with.

I got some groceries for the week and my meal plans are pretty simple - chicken and rice with steamed veggies from the garden as often as possible! I also made another batch of granola bars to snack on, and have lots of yogurt and some apple pie from Grandma's ;)

This morning i'm snacking on overnight oats:

I put a little too much milk in it, and i'm hoping that won't affect my stomach too much today. It was meant to be breakfast this morning, but it's so filling that i'm sure I can eat it as my snacks for the rest of the day too!

No exercise planned for today - tomorrow night is the first night of Zumba! Can't wait!

TGIF!

Thank goodness it's Friday and I have a long weekend to look forward to! Woot!

My eats yesterday were very good...

Mid-morning snack of cottage cheese with green onion. Wow, this was good and i'm not a fan of cottage cheese at all! Might become a staple in my house!

My lunch was a chicken ceasar salad from the cafeteria, $5. I was able to half it and save the rest for dinner so it was a really cheap eating day ;)

My afternoon snack was granola with yogurt. I was suffering a bit with heartburn after eating the salad, so the yogurt was nice and soothing.

I had more granola later in the evening. Pretty good day i'd say!

And I managed to get slightly more sleep last night, though I tossed and turned for about two hours before finally falling asleep. Anyways, I feel better today.

I have a few to-do items for tonight, but i'm going to try and get to sleep early so that I can do a whole bunch of things tomorrow before the ball wind-up, including cutting the grass and doing some gardening.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Another day, another dollar...

Dog has been eating really well over the last couple of days; I hope this continues for a long while! I've been adding chicken broth to her food, and softening it before she eats it and she's really been lapping it up. Thank goodness for a little reprieve as the stress was starting to wear on me.

I had an evil morning snack yesterday at work:

Red velvet cupcake with cream cheese icing... do you hate me?

The rest of the day was good though; ezekiel sprouted grain bread with peanut butter, leftover steamed veggies, pasta and grilled chicken, mozza cheese and triscuit crackers, and a homemade granola bar:

damn picture won't load... i'll try again later. There we go:

I made these suckers myself, and they're huge and thick and moist and yummy! What was in them, let me think... rolled oats, leftover granola, almond butter, whole almonds for some extra crunch, olive oil, flax seed... I think that's it. They're good! Only one left out of the pan, but I sent some home with my Dad and aunt when they were visiting; I think I kept five slices.

I slept horribly last night because there was another rainstorm. The lightening was ridic and kept me up most of the night. I am super sleepy today but my co-worker says I WILL get through the day ;) and i'll probably sleep like a baby tonight!

I forgot to mention the results of my TSH test: I am at 2.6, and the normal range is 0.3 to 3.0. So i'm in the high-end (hypothyroidism) but not at a level where my doctor will prescribe anything. Does anyone know if there are diet solutions to lower these levels?

I didn't get my walk in this morning because of the weather and the lack of sleep. If i'm feeling energetic after work, Dog and I will go on a short 20 minuter. I need to get back on the pushup bandwagon too, I haven't done them in awhile. And since it's September 1st (rabbit, rabbit, rabbit) it's a whole new month to get back into the routine of exercise. I can do it!

It was a good day yesterday; it's been awhile since i've been able to say that ;)

I headed to the optometrist and got my new reading glasses.

And this picture conveniently reminds me that i'm due for an eyebrow wax ;)

I changed dinner up a bit yesterday; I made chicken kabobs on the grill instead of baking it in the oven. It was nice and cool in the house and I wanted to keep it that way! I marinated the chicken with: greek feta dressing, lemons, tomato flakes, parsely, black pepper and a little salt. After half an hour or so I threw it on the grill on medium heat for... um... maybe 30 minutes? It was moist and tasty and I get the leftovers today woohoo! I also steamed veggies (zuchinni, red pepper, cauliflower and broccoli) and made up a pot of pasta with tomato sauce. Everyone loved it!

After dinner, we watched the first few episodes of Ghost Whisperer, Season 1. And during this time, my friend kept asking Dog to have something to eat or drink some water. Each time she would ask, Dog would do it. It was really crazy and bizarre, but Dog ended up eating all her dinner yesterday! I was so happy I almost cried. I asked Friend if she could come over every night around 8pm to feed Dog ;) I'll be picking up chicken or beef broth after work to go with her dinner; hopefully that will work. If not, canned food here we come. 

Today the plan for food is leftovers; plan for exercise is painting. Tomorrow morning I want to get up early and go for a walk before work. So tonight it's early to bed for me! Wish me luck!

Thanks everyone for such warm wishes; it means so much to me :)

Last night our town had itself a hailstorm. I was lucky enough to have the foresight to park my car in the garage, but I know a few people who weren't so lucky. The hail wasn't big, but it still did some damage. And the thunder oh my! Dog and I were both scared, although I was tempted to watch the storm through the living room windows ;P

I was going to continue my painting on the deck, but the rain started as soon as I got home from work. Hopefully it will dry today and I can start on it tomorrow.

Dog and I had an argument regarding her not eating her supper yesterday. It ended with me in tears, cutting up cheese and putting peanut butter into her dish so that she would eat something. I even tried forcing her to eat, but of course that didn't work. She did manage to eat all the cheese though, so at least there's that in her stomach. I think she felt bad for me because when I went to bed she followed and cuddled with me for a bit.

I got a big zuchinni from a friend on the weekend as mine still hasn't grown to the point where I can eat it. I steamed a big slice of it for lunch yesterday and it was so yummy! Tonight i'm having friends over for dinner and i'm planning on making baked chicken and steamed vegetables with penne pasta. Sounds good, right? I can't wait!

I also get to return to the doctor's office today after work to find out the results of a blood test. I asked to have my TSH bloodwork done to see if my thyroid is working properly, so hopefully i'll find out if there's an issue or not. Then off to the eye doctor to pick up my new reading glasses!

All in all, even though it's been a difficult time lately, I know it could be worse and i'm grateful for a lot of things... Dog, friends, family and the support I always seem to get no matter where my head's at ;) I am a very lucky girl.

Dog!

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile...

My Dog was diagnosed with lymphoma, high malignancy. We took her off the anti-biotics and i've been noticing her breathing is labored and her lymphnodes are taking over her throat :(

I was told she could undergo chemo treatments, but I don't think I want to put her or myself through that. So far she is still showing me that she's happy and until I see or hear otherwise we're going to continue "business as usual". But it is sad and I don't look forward to the day where i'll have to make that final decision for her. The really sad part is because the degree of cancer is so high, it might only be a few weeks.

While i've been not dealing with that, i've also done some positive and fun things. I ran another 5k and finished without gasping for air! Yay! I also went golfing twice and realized that I forgot how much I actually enjoy it and how much exercise you get when you have to walk the whole course ;) Also, our ball team finished the season with a horrible loss in the playoffs, but we are confident that next year will be our shining year.

I also took on some major jobs at home and managed to get halfway through washing and re-painting the deck and re-painting the hallway, and did some weeding in the garden and started pulling some things up. The swiss chard I planted is in full swing and it's lovely! Along with potatoes, onions, a few carrots and some peas... and lots more still to come too!

Last night, a friend and I went to the park with Dog and did a photo shoot; the pictures turned out great and i'm very happy to have something to remember her by when she's gone.

Coming up in September: ball windup, zumba classes, another 5k run, a day trip with Dad, a golfing date!!!, and some community work. It's going to be a good month, I just know it!

Just a quick check-in today. Dog is under the needle getting a biopsy done; they think she has lymphoma. I won't find out the results of the tests until at least Friday. I am pretty upset about this, mainly because I don't have the money to be putting her through treatment for cancer and also because I didn't think i'd be losing her this soon in her life. It would be pretty surprising if they don't find anything so i'm trying to prepare for the worst.

I'm doing alright with eating and exercising but it's just not my priority right now. Talk to you girls soon.

I really dislike it when someone i don't care for is better than me at... well, anything. One of these days i'll not be so competitive. One of these days...

So my day yesterday didn't really get any better, but I did manage to remember to do my pushups so YAY! Unfortunately I still didn't re-check my grocery list and ended up buying about three items that I already had stored in the house. Grr. That little memory fart cost me about a week's worth of mochas >:(

I'm off after today for the rest of the week. Tomorrow afternoon I will head across to another province to attend prayers for a family member; Friday afternoon will be the funeral.

I don't know what i'm going to do with Dog while i'm away. This will be twice where i've handed her off with a strict eating and medication schedule. My friends won't be happy with me if I continue to take advantage of their generosity. Might have to have a BBQ on Saturday night to make up for it ;)

Eats yesterday: mocha, pasta dish from yesterday, yogurt and granola, more pasta and some crackers with mozza cheese.

My leg is now starting to bruise and feels much better today although i'm wearing heels to work which really isn't helping matters much. I kept an ice pack to it most of the evening yesterday and I think that really helped but we'll see if the bruising and beautiful coloring continues! I think I will have to change into flip flops for this afternoon.

This morning I had some banana, almond butter and honey on a pita for breakfast, along with a mocha. Next time, only half a banana and pita and iced coffee instead of a mocha (less calories) - I am stuffed full and it's almost time for lunch! Which is a planned chicken salad. Gotta get those greens in.

I've been taking some extra fibre lately by way of a daily pill as well as a powder I mix into my water bottle every day. With that, and the addition of salads and greens in my lunches, my GI issues are almost totally cleared up thankthegoodlord. That was not fun.

Ok, well you might not hear from me for a few days so cheers to you all and have a wonderful rest of the week! KickAss!

I feel grumpy today :(

Played ball last night but we didn't have enough players so we lost the game. I still managed a couple of good hits out to right field and I pulled one straight at the pitcher. I'm glad he caught it, if it hit him it would have hurt.

Just like the ball that I took on my right calf hurt. Note to self: when running from third base, remember to keep your eyes OPEN and watch where the hit goes. Unfortunately, I didn't see the hit at all AND I turned my body right around so had it not been a grounder I might have eaten the ball to the back of my head. Dummy. So. Yeah. That hurts a bit.

AND I forgot all about my pushups yesterday! What the heck Early Dementia?

I forgot to do a lot of things yesterday, like check my grocery list so that I don't double up on things I already have. At least I got the dishes washed.

I had chicken salad for lunch yesterday and turkey sausage with pasta, green onions and swiss chard for dinner, with a little parmesan. My snacks were yogurt and granola, and almonds with caramel-chocolate dip.

Today's plan is the same as yesterday, sans forgetfulness.