It's already Friday! Cool.

Yesterday afternoon a co-worker brought me a snack. I couldn't possibly say no and therefore had to icksnay the Skinny B for the day in favor of something a little more rich...

That plate used to have poppyseed cake on it. With cream cheese icing. I guess the sweets at work thing has to stop. I had to have this so badly that I didn't even have time to take a picture of it ;)

I went to Zumba again last night! I'm pretty proud of myself, even though i'm a little achey today. Especially my hips. I need to stretch them out better. Sleep came to me just after 9pm so i'm happy about that! I woke up this morning at 6am and was wide awake! I was going to do some push-ups but I ended up using the extra time to make Dog and I a super great breakfast instead. She got beef and brown rice, and I got ezekiel bread, toasted, with peanut butter and a boiled egg. I don't know if Dog liked hers, but she was eating it when I left for work so i'm happy about that. I sure liked mine!

I take terrible pictures, I know. But you can kind of see the toast... and that's egg in between the slices...

Tonight I get to eat SUSHI!!!

I am so excited! I haven't had sushi for more than a month because the restaurant in town has been doing some renovating over the summer. I'm sure i'll spend half my paycheck tonight on sushi ;)

An evening meeting after supper, and that's it for today.

For the weekend: finish painting the deck, some painting inside the house, stake out our dog park area, cut the grass, do some gardening.

My peas are looking gorgeous! I picked a bunch of them and took them to Mom and Grandma, so I still need to try them for myself. There might also be some yellow beans ready for picking. Still waiting on the zuchinni... unfortunately while the plant itself takes over my entire garden (slight exaggeration) there are no zuchinnis growing on it yet.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Today I feel like a million bucks! Aside from the head cold that kinda snuck up on me somehow, I could seriously paint this whole town red, aching body and all.

Hopefully the feeling sticks for the rest of the day ;)

Yesterday afternoon I had an awesome snack:

That badass picture features strawberry yogurt, a piece of my homemade granola, and some Skinny B: gluten free, lactose free, vegan source of iron and dietary fibre, omega 3 and 6, calcium and protein. BAM! All that in just two tablespoons, which I stirred into my yogurt and let sit for a few minutes. It got all nice and thick. Yum.

When I got home I had a quick meal of chicken and salad greens. Then later I had some brown rice.

Then Zumba! I was about as red as a tomato when that was over. I would have taken a picture just so y'all could laugh at me, but I left my camera at work. I've paid in advance for ten classes so i'm hoping i'll get to that many before December. The classes are once a week.

I might head into the next city over and take another Zumba class tonight, but we'll see. I might need to nap by then ;)

I had so much energy when I was done the class that I couldn't fall asleep until well after midnight. I feel okay right now, but i'm sure i'll be pretty wrecked by the end of the day.

This morning I started the day with Ezekiel bread toasted with peanut butter:

oh.

I don't have a picture because I quite literally inhaled it within about three seconds.

I have some running around to do today but I think if I keep busy the day will fly right by! Here's to it being 4:00 soon!

What a busy day so far at work! I've been running around multi-tasking all morning; whew. Time for a quick break for a DD update!

Yesterday afternoon was spent in meetings, so by the time I got home I was spent. I barely managed to get Dog her food before passing out on the couch. Obviously, not much got done at home. I did manage to do the little tasks though - folding laundry, washing dishes, etc. so all is not lost!

I purchased a mouth guard on the weekend because I noticed I was waking up with headaches and jaw aches, and I thought I might be clenching my jaw together while I was sleeping. I tried it out on Monday night and managed to bite right through the guard sometime during the night! Yikes, I guess I really am clenching my teeth. It did help a little though, I didn't wake with a headache and my jaw hurts considerably less so far.

Chicken and brown rice. Chicken and brown rice. Some salad, a few veggies, apple pie, granola. That's what i've been munching on for the past two days besides the awesome bowl of oats I had yesterday. Dog somehow managed to get me to start cooking her meals too, so she's enjoying brown rice and either chicken or some beef I had in the freezer. Spoiled little thing ;)

Zumba tonight!

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!