Wednesday weigh in ?

I have decided that to weigh in every week at this stage in my weight loss journey is becoming frustrating, too record one pound up this week and then a half pound lost the next. Last week I decided that I am no longer going to post my weekly weigh in's on here anymore, I thought that from now on I would like to only post my weigh in's once a month. However lately my weigh in's haven't been the greatest and I am wondering if I should still post them so that I am liable for them and not feel like it's OK to keep gaining! I am now officially 4lbs higher then my lowest weight and even though it is only 4lbs it feels like 14lbs!! I feel really heavy lately, my clothes don't fit right and I feel like I have little energy. It's funny how 4lbs can make that much of a difference and maybe it's because TOM is around the corner and only a few days away but it still sucks to see the scale go up! I think it is time for me to smarten up, buckle down and get back on track! I feel like I am headed for a train wreck! I think I will set a new mini-goal ... it's been a while since I had one of those and with Halloween just around the corner with all those tempting mini chocolate bars I need to stay focused! My new mini-goal is too loose 5lbs by our race banquet on Nov 3rd, that's 2 weeks away - and I think should be achievable?! I want to look my best at the banquet and I want to be able to enjoy the meal without the guilt of making a piggy of myself! ? Then if I end up gaining a pound or two from the banquet meal it won't put me over my 5lb leeway that I said was OK to fluctuate between.

The hubby took the dog back to the vet today to get her stitches out and for him to see how she is progressing. Well I just got off the phone with him and he

said that the vet says everything looks really good. She seems to be healing good and it's OK that she is not putting full weight on her leg just yet, that it is part of the healing process. She has also had a cough since coming home and he said it was because they put a tube down her throat and it got a little irritated but should clear up on it's own (just like my MIL said). So I guess she goes back again in 4 more weeks too check it out again for the final time and by then she should be good!? ;)

I went out to St.Albert last night for the Jobie meeting, which was short and sweet but there was lots of people there that I hadn't seen for a long time so I ended up socializing longer then expected and didn't get home till 10pm. I also stopped by my Dad's house while I was out there to pick up some old puzzles I had. My MIL is going for surgery on the 22nd and asked if I could pick some up so she would have something to do. So I just grabbed them all - my back seat is full of puzzles! Some of them I have never even opened the box yet, they are brand new! I used to love sitting down and build a puzzle, I would put a 1000 piece puzzle together in an afternoon and if I liked it I would build it again and again. Now I have no time for puzzles but I still enjoy helping build them.

BBT = 36.84C (98.31F) -- It sure would be nice if my BBT stayed high!! If it drops to 35C then I may get grouchy! ;)

Sleepy today ....

Well they say that only 26% of our city voted yesterday!! That's pretty bad - they said before that they were expecting low numbers but 26% is really low!!



I'm really tired today, maybe I didn't sleep very well? Tonight I have to go to a Jobie meeting, I told them in June that I would come back for this meeting to return all the scrapbooks I borrowed. The only problem is that this is my late week at work so I am here till 5pm and then I have to go home, get changed, grab a quick bite to eat and be out in St.Albert for 7ish. And it will probably take me an hour to get there cause of rush hour!? I'm going to try the new freeway that they just built, hopefully the traffic won't be too bad on it and I can get there a little quicker. I also plan on it being a late night too, the meeting probably won't be over till 9ish and then I'll visit for a bit and drive all the way back home! ;)



The dog hurt her leg again yesterday, being an idiot outside and running with the neighbor dogs. Hubby was mad at her and when he brought her in the house she was limping so bad that she wouldn't even put weight on it at all - just limped around everywhere. I massaged her leg a lot and this morning she seems to be better!? Tomorrow is her doctor appointment and I'm hoping that he likes what he sees?

BBT this morning was 36.68C (98.02F)

Some pics of puppy!

I finally made time to upload a few pics of my puppy after her surgery. This first picture was taken when we finally got home from picking her up from the vet. She doesn't look too happy in this pic, maybe she is still doped up!? lol I bought her the little green frog in front of her as a "get well soon" gift, she seemed to like it but not as much as the stuffy my Mom bought her! :(

You can just barely see the cut they made on her knee, apparently there are no stitches there that need to be removed so they must all be inside stitches? You can also see another tiny little cut close to her tail where she had a skin tag and the vet removed free of charge for cosmetic reasons only! ;) There are stitches on that cut and they need to be removed in another week.

Her leg actually looked worse a couple days later, you could see some bruising on her knee that went from purple to brown and now it is a shade of yellow. And it was like she had razor burn on the inside of her leg? It looks much better now and I think it must feel better cause she is being playful again and wants us to throw the ball for her when we go outside. I think she even forgot herself cause she squatted down really fast and then started yelping, she just over did it a bit. She is starting to eat more now, which is good, but she still isn't eating quite as much as before the surgery!? She is also coughing more now too so we will have to let the vet know about that when we take her in to get the stitches removed.

TGIF

We find out today if our dog is healthy enough to handle surgery! :( Yesterday my hubby took her back to the vet to have her leg looked at again. She is still limping and doesn't like to put any weight on her leg so she holds it off the ground just a little and then it starts to shake. I wish I could have went with him cause apparently our reg doctor gave the new doctor (the one we saw last time) sh*t cause she misdiagnosed a major problem! She told us that it was just inflamed and gave us some "doggie celibrex" and told us to take it easy for 2 weeks and now this vet is telling us that those 2 weeks were vital weeks and we could have done something about this a lot sooner had she not misdiagnosed our dog!? I'm no mad at her, but I definitely won't be scheduling any visits with her anymore!

So apparently (hopefully I get all this right), the vet says that there is a tendon in the knee that helps it bend/ twist (like our knee) and our dog has pulled this tendon. I keep telling everyone she needs a "knee replacement" cause the way my hubby was telling me about the surgery sure did sound like a knee replacement, he told me about how they replace some of the bone where the knee joint is and fix the tendon with what I described as elastic bands (and he agreed they are like elastic bands) -- sounds kinda like a knee replacement? So if we don't get the surgery done then eventually the joint will wear itself down and become very painful for her, to the point where she probably won't walk on it at all. She is only 10yrs old so she does have more years to her life and she is fairly active now so we agreed that surgery would be the best thing for her!

I'm on holidays the first week in October so this is probably when we will get the surgery done so that I can help my hubby out at home with her. I feel so bad for her, she is such a suck when she is sick and I'm sure she will milk it after the surgery. Just like a little kid! She is our baby and I worry about the surgery and how she will be after!? I have faith in this vet, he is the same one that spayed her and amputated her toe for a biopsy. I have never had any problems with this vet which is why I continue to drive the 45 minutes to see him. I just worry now cause she is older and like humans the older you get the harder surgery is on you. I also guess I have to kiss the siding for the garage good-bye this year cause that's about the same price as the estimate for the surgery ($1800)!! :o

Follow up

The hubby took our dog to the vet yesterday, she has been limping around for about a week and a half and it hasn't been getting any better so we decided to take her in. She is an older dog (a Rottie) and has some lumps and bumps on her which the vet says are normal as a dog gets older. But one of these lumps is on her hind leg, right where the leg joint joins the hip bone, this lump is what we think is causing her to limp around. My biggest worry is that because she is walking funny and seems to be favoring her other leg that she may affect her hip joints and in a large breed dog that could mean hip dysplasia!? My other fear is that the vet is going to recommend to remove this lump and do a biopsy, I'm afraid they will find out it is cancer!?

So the vet recommends for our dog to "take it easy" for 10 days, this means NO WALKING!! :O For 10 days!! At first I thought this was an excellent idea - a 10 day vacation for me! ;) But then I forgot how she stares me down after supper and won't leave me alone until she gets to go outside! grrrr It's frustrating, having her stare at me with a slight whine! We also got some anti-inflammatory pills for her, they are like horse pills (huge), she needs to also take these for 10 days - with food, of course! Oh - and they weighed her .... she lost another 5lbs! Now she is 85lbs!! Right where she should be!

Weekend

Well, for wanting a relaxing weekend it turned out to be quite busy! It never did rain on Friday like the forecast predicted so off to the race track we went! Although there wasn't very many cars that showed up so that made it an early night of racing. We decided to go out with everyone after the races were over for something to eat and ended up staying out till 2:30am !! It has been a really long time since I've been out that late but it was totally worth it and we had a good visit with friends we haven't been out with in a long time!

Luckily we were able to sleep in on Saturday but since we didn't go to bed early we never gained any sleep out of sleeping in!? Saturday was busy, I cleaned the house in the morning and then went to get my hair cut and do some shopping. I'm so excited about shopping now, I loved it! I never used to like shopping, it was just something that you had to do - like go to the dentist. It used to be quite painful for me to go shopping, everything fit funny and hated the way it looked. Well after Saturday I told my hubby that he needs to put me on a budget for shopping cause holy cow I never knew shopping for clothes could be that much fun! Everything fit really good and I actually looked in the mirror and liked what I saw! I ended up buying two pairs of jeans, a pair of capri's and three tops. AND guess what size I bought! ?!? Yup .... size 9 !! They are a little tight and I probably would have got the 11 if I wasn't still loosing weight but I think these will fit perfect in a few weeks! After supper we went over to my moms for a visit, she had a bunch of tops that were too small for her and she thought they would fit me. Which they did so now I have lots of summer clothes, now all I need is the sun to come out so I can wear them!! After visiting mom we heading downtown, where we used to go every weekend to see friends. There were a few people out so we had a good visit and once again never got home till 3:00am!!

We were planning on going to the Grandparents for a visit on Sunday but since we got home so late we slept in and missed going to the one grandparent. We gave the FIL his Father's Day's/ early birthday gift and had a good visit with them and then headed home for a quick bite before

we went to my brothers. When we got home our dog was coughing really bad and we were a little worried about it but figured she would be OK and left to go to St.Albert. How ever when we got home from the BBQ there was a mess in the house! My poor puppy was still coughing really bad and coughed up a bunch of flem!? We put her outside while we cleaned up and kept an eye on her. I thought that maybe the cough would go away after she got what ever it was bugging her out but I don't think she ever did. It seemed like every three hours she would start coughing so we would wake up with her and try too comfort her while she was coughing. It almost sounds like she has bronchitis, her coughs sound really flemmy and I'm worried that she is going to give herself a hernia from coughing so hard! ? The hubby is taking her to the vet today to see what's wrong, hopefully it's nothing serious! I can now appreciate new mothers who have to get up every three hours to feed the baby, I sure could us a nap and it's only 9:30!

Friday .... at last!

Things are getting better, I find that the more I tell people the easier it is, which is odd for me because usually I would just hold it in and hope no one asked questions. But because I deal a lot with customers on the phone and they call in regularly they know my voice and most of them are asking if I am sick?! I didn't think I sounded that bad but I guess they can tell that I'm not my usual self so I have to tell them that no I'm not sick and that we had just put our cat down. Each time it seems to get easier, I was thinking yesterday that this is probably how a parent would feel when their child leaves the home to go to college or moves out. It's odd to come home to one less 'kid' but at least I still have one 'kid' at home that brightens my day.

This weekend is fairly busy for us, the hubby has a booth set up at the local car show called 'Powerama' - so he will be there all weekend starting tonight! Then tomorrow we have to attend his grandparents anniversary, 60th I think? After we finish eating with his family I need to scoot over to the bowling banquet to pick out all our prizes!! I'm so excited about winning the top prize, I hope there are some good prizes to pick from! I also think I will go shopping tonight or tomorrow morning for some new boots to wear with the outfit I want to wear. I'm not sure what I have planned for Sunday yet, I know I want to keep myself busy so that might mean a road trip to do some visiting or I might use my hubbies free pass to go see the car show - or both!? LOL If it's nice out I would also like to clean the inside of my car - there's nose prints all over my back window! ;)

Good news ..... only 3 more weeks till my holiday's!! YAH!! Not that we are going anywhere or doing anything exciting but it will be nice to have some days off! :)

You Are the Very Gay Winnie the Pooh!

Come on, he doesn't wear pants!And he's a little too obsessed with Christopher Robin

What Gay Childhood Icon Are You?

I'm ok with this .... I like Pooh Bear! :)

Well we did it..... took Kitty to the vet..... it's for the best, she really was just suffering. I was doing fine, keeping my "tough act" up, until I got home and found my hubby very upset, this is only the second time in 6 years that I have ever seen him cry! It was tough, probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do! I don't ever want to have to go through that again but I know will cause we also have a dog that is getting old and it's inevitable. After we got home from the vet I started cooking supper, my hubby picked up some Chicken Quesadilla's the last time he was at M&M meat shop he even compared them to my NS dinners to make sure they were "healthy"! As I prepared dinner I noticed he kept going downstairs and sneaking past me, he was bringing up flowers from the basement! When I went into the living room it was full of flowers!! Three dozen roses (red, blue and purple ones?) and a bouquet of Gerber Daisies, there was a card that he signed and had the dog sign by tracing her paw print out on the card - isn't he a sweetie!! ? I love him! I couldn't even read the card cause my eyes were so full of tears! After supper I took the dog for her walk to clear my head a bit, just a quickie cause the in-laws were on their way over. My FIL works with a guy who absolutely loves animals and has tons of them, he lives out in the country and his vet bill is like $10,000 a year! So we were going to give all Kitty's stuff to him cause we knew he could use it and it would be going to a good home. This was why the in-laws were coming over - to pick up all the stuff. They also brought with them a bouquet of flowers, I wasn't sure if I would feel up to having visitors so soon but I think it was good cause it made me forget about what had just happened. Needless to say it was a crappy day yesterday but the good news is, is that it is over now, no more worrying about Kitty, no more stress about what to do. It's better where she is at now -- the weird thing about it all is that this morning we woke up to a lot of snow and deep down I thought it was Kitty's way of saying good-bye. Maybe she is up there playing with a roll of toilet paper!? Yeah - I know I'm crazy!?

I wanted to post this recipe for a salad that I am completely addicted too, it's really good for a change!

Shredded Asian Cabbage Salad

5 cups cabbage, thinly sliced

1 sm. red pepper, cut thin

3 green onions, cut thin

1 med. carrot, cut thin (matchsticks)

1/2 cup snow peas, blanched, halved

1 pkg. Ramen noodle soup mix (any flavor)

1/3 cup roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1/3 cup KRAFT Asian Sesame Dressing

#1- Mix veggies in large bowl. (Reserve season packet from soup mix for another use)

#2- Coarsely crush noodles. Add to veggies along with peanuts, toss lightly.

#3- Drizzle with dressing right before serving.

***NOTE*** Jazz it up by adding cooked shrimp, chicken, pork or tofu cubes along with the noodles and peanuts.

Calories = 138

Fat = 8.1g

Carbs = 14g

Fibre = 1.6g

Protein = 3.8g

I do a few things different from this recipe -- I just buy a bag of shredded cabbage (coleslaw mix) cause it has carrots in it and it's easier. This way I don't have to make a big bowl of it at once, I can just make a bowl as needed. I didn't have red peppers so I use green and I forgot to pick up the snow peas so I left those out. It's a nice salad for a change and I use the peanut serving as my daily "fat". I hope you enjoy!

Wednesday weigh in!

Well my weigh in for week 34 was not so good .... I gained, only +0.6lbs -- I'm OK with that though. I had a huge loss last week and this week has been quite the challenge~! A co-worker celebrated her birthday which meant birthday cake was being offered (I refused), then I had Denise's boy's 1st birthday party which was a total blast and this time I enjoyed the birthday cake being offered. Then on Sunday we had a BBQ with friends and even though I brought my own Veggie burger (instead of having a beef patty) there were no veggies to be seen anywhere and I ate way too many carb's (cheesy garlic toast, a bun for my burger and half a baked potato with whipped topping!) Then with all my emotions running wild my hubby called me last night to say he was stopping at DQ to get himself a Peanut Buster Parfait and asked if I wanted anything? Immediately the little angel and devil appeared on my shoulder to duke it out. The angel saying "but tomorrow's weigh in day and you really want to break into the 170's" and the devil responding with "but you've had a rough week and you have to put your precious Kitty down tomorrow - enjoy!!" So the devil won and I ordered a Kit Kat Blizzard (the smallest size possible) which stilled worked out to an extra 700 calories for the day!! But I shared it with Kitty as her last meal that she didn't really eat. It was really good, the chunks were a little too big but it was still yummy. I think I would have preferred a bouquet of flowers and I think next time I would be OK with just having the chocolate bar and skipping the ice cream all together!? So for this week I have two goals that I would like to accomplish or at least try:

#1- I would like to start a food journal, this way I can keep track on Sparkpeople of my calorie intake for the day to make sure I am on the right track. I am getting closer to the end of using NS and even though somethings seem to be working I would like to know exactly which ones are the better choices.

#2- I would like to get in more exercise, I think this involves me using the treadmill a little more (which I like) but there is still no satellite on the basement TV and the hubby needs to fix the box !? It looks like we are in for some rain for the next week so I should have no problem completing this challenge. I can take the dog for a quick 30min walk (hopefully without getting rained on) and then get on the treadmill to do an additional 30+ minutes. This will be good for two reasons - it will keep me occupied so I don't think about Kitty and the fact that she is no longer around and it will help me in getting into the 170's!

I will be leaving work early today in order to take Kitty to the vet. I have been running the situation through my head all week to try and help myself prepare for it. I like to think that i am a strong person and I hate showing too much emotion in front of people. This usually causes me to wait until I'm by myself (like the car ride home yesterday) or when I'm in the dark (like going to bed the other night) and then the water starts flowing and I can't stop the tears. Hopefully I can keep my composure while at the vets but I think the minute I get in my car it will hit me and then to go home and pack up all her toys, food and clean the litter boxes it will be even worse. The best thing for me to do is to keep busy, and hopefully no one asked about her in the next few weeks. I need to make an announcement I suppose but I'm sure I'll forget someone and they will unknowingly ask "how's Kitty doing?" and that will be a very awkward situation. Here is a little poem I found that I thought was appropriate, I hope you enjoy it. :(

Kitty 1996-2007

May she rest in peace.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glint on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,

I am the swift, uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there, I do not sleep.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I am not there, I did not die.

Mary Frye

Tuesday ....

It was a rough night last night, I became very emotional about the whole Kitty situation!? Like I just realized what was going to happen. She still hasn't eaten anything, except for licking a little gravy on her wet food. I made some phone calls today to see how much it was to euthanize her and if I needed to make an appointment. These calls were much harder then I had imagined, they asked if I wanted a private room to say my good-bye's and if I wanted to keep her ashes. I said no to both - I couldn't even imagine being in the room when they give her the needle, I get very emotional just thinking about it! :( I was also surprised to find out that it cost over $150 to get this done! Not that price really matters too much in the situation but I just think it is one more thing to worry about, what if someone needed to get this done but just couldn't afford it!? How much worse would that make you feel!? I also called the local humane society (used to be called the SPCA) to see if they would take donations of all her old toys/ litter boxes/ and scratching posts -- they said they would but they needed to be cleaned (duh-like I'm going to give them the litter box full of litter?). I'm not sure if I want to give them the scratching post though, we just bought it and it is fairly big -- I think I'll see if family or friends want it first?!

We had a really late dinner last night so by the time we finished I didn't bother going for my walk. I think I'll go for one today though, I find my walks to be somewhat relaxing and I can clear my head a bit.

my Kitty is sick again! :(

My Kitty is sick again, she was doing really good for awhile - eating lots and putting some weight back on!! But now I don't know what happened just one day she stopped eating! ?! She hasn't eaten for 4 days! She is back to looking like a bag of bones and has very little energy. I've tried everything to get her to eat, she is even having a hard time getting water down?! On the weekend I tried to cater to her a little and would bring the food/ water to her in hopes that she would eat/ drink something. After sipping on a little water I noticed that it looked like she had fallen asleep at the water dish and her little chin was dipped in the water!? Like she didn't even have the energy to pull her head out of the dish! I think it is time..... I'm not sure how long I can let her keep going without eating!? She doesn't look very good at all, I was so hoping that she could have one last summer - sitting in the sun relaxing, chasing butterflies but I don't think I can prolong the inevitable any longer. :(

On a happier note -- I went to Denise's son's 1st birthday party on the weekend! It was awesome, he got tons of gifts and he actually took part in unwrapping most of them (unlike my nephew who was much more interested in having people do the work for him)! Every time I see the little guy I'm amazed at how much more advanced he is from other kids I know. He walked younger then most kids I know and got teeth pretty young too!? I suppose all kids are different and you can't compare one to the other but as a parent and having a child that seems more advanced then most it must give you a huge sense of pride?!?

We also went over to our friends house for a BBQ (the friends that the hubby was helping put the floor in for) and she has a 16 month old that I haven't seen for a while and has turned into a vicious little girl!! I was amazed at both the parenting and the attitude of this little girl! She is such a bully, there was another little girl there that was 15 months old and a little smaller then her that she would pinch on the cheek (hard enough to make them go rosy red) and she bit her nose (I thought she was going to give the other little girl a kiss - but then she went for the nose!! ) She would grab toys from this other little girl and when my hubby said "oh-no no ... you need to share" the mother got a little excited telling us that you aren't suppose to say "share" !?! WTH ?? She works in a daycare and that's what they taught her! You're not suppose to tell them to share until they are over the age of 2? And when this little girl started pinching the other girl the mother handled it by pinching her back? Now I don't know much about raising kids but I would think that by doing it back it would teach the little girl that it was kinda OK to keep doing it and that it is a way of getting attention? The mother blames my hubbies friends dad cause he will innocently pinch her checks or rough her up a bit!? I don't know.... I do know however that this little girl is evil - she would get this evil look in her eye every time she was going to do something bad!