BEYOND FRUSTRATED!

FRUSTRATED!!!!
So, I was on cloud nine this morning during my walk to the library. I kept replaying all the positive thoughts and what not from everyone in my head and I honestly didn't feel any pain in my legs/feet or back while doing so...
I felt I could do ANYTHING this morning on that walk..stupid me!
I make it to the library, sit for 15 min. reading before deciding to trek further on to my doctors to weigh myself. I know, I know, I only weighed myself just two days ago on Monday, and before that I had only been super serious about this walking/eating right/losing weight thing for 3 days, but I was excited. I felt for sure I should be down AT LEAST A FRIGGIN 1/2 pound or something..I wasn't expecting miracles! But damn it, every ounce of positive thinking, and thoughts of conquering the world burst when I stepped onto that damn scale and the friggin' thing said I was actually UP 3/4 OF A POUND!!!! How the hell does that happen exactly? I have been walking my fat a** off for 5 days straight, 1 - 2 hours a day! Eating substantially less than I normally do, with no junk (ok, so I had some a 100 cal. bag of BAKED lays and a stupid grape slushy)...HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN???!!
I am so frustrated and deflated right now, I think if I wasn't at the library typing this damn message I would cry! Arrgghh!!
Alright, I'm over it..NOT! But I am gonna get my sweaty a** up off of this computer chair at the library, WALK DOWN THE STUPID STAIRS INSTEAD OF USING THE ELEVATOR and stomp all the way home until my feet bleed and fall off! Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deal of a lifetime..

So, I was talking to my friend from Dallas last night and she made me a deal...one, I could not refuse, I just hope I can actually follow through.  I am going to need all the help and support I can get.
She knew I needed/wanted to lose weight AND that I really miss her and want to go see her in Dallas, so she said, for every 30 pounds I lose, she will pay for a "leg" of my journey to Dallas, 4 "legs" equals a round trip to/from Dallas. I was so excited I couldn't say no.  This is the kind of motivation I need.  I have zero will power but I really do want to visit her and my other friend who also lives in Dallas.
I got up and walked my dog at 7 am this morning and then went for an hour long walk after lunch too.  I was planning on going for another walk after supper but it is storming here, so I will just have to settle on walking up and down our stairs a few times as my nightly exercise.  My feet are really sore, but I am hoping to fight through the pain and keep battling on.  I really hope things go well with my foot surgeon appointment in September, and maybe I will actually get some kind of relief from the pain and swelling.
Keep your fingers crossed and me in your prayers please.  I am going to need every bit of help I can get if I want to succeed at this.
Last night, my friend Chris came over with my Avon order....

I had forgot about it so I was excited to get it.  I painted my nails with viva pink which is a gorgeous hot pink then went over top of that with the black mosaic.  This was great to apply and just a fraction of the cost of shatter (only $4.99).

I also used the paraffin wax treatment on my feet last night and they felt so smooth afterwards..ahh!
The rose cuticle butter was silky and creamy and applied very smoothly.  I'm not a huge rose scented fan, but I wanted to give it a try and the scent fortuneately isn't too overpowering so I will continue to use it and  the silicone glove hand cream felt amazing.
The pictures don't do the nail colour justice, but trust me, it is gorgeous! The other colours I got were Blossom and Vintage Boutique. The treatment polish is for ridges.

feelin' down...

Not much to post lately.  I am feelin' a bit down this week, not sure what exactly is causing it, I think just a combination of things.  My best friends daughter, who I am close to, is moving tomorrow to Ottawa with her boyfriend, she came by today to pick up some stuff and say good bye...felt like saying good bye to one of my own kids...Then my hubby's comp cheque didn't come, they aren't sure why, but said it should be taken care of by the end of next week...Great..they obviously have never tried to live off of one pay cheque before, it's not like we have a nest egg or anything to use..we literally live cheque to cheque (like alot of people) and this is defin. a huge problem for us. Also, I have been trying to find places where my son can get a loan to go to school in California to play ball but there doesn't seem to be any place to do this!  Most places need the school to be on "their list", and Shasta College is a small college, and so far, not on ANY of the lists we have tried...ahhh!! 

Soooo...as you can see, it's been a pretty crappy week for me so far.  The one highlight was when my old time friend, who I haven't seen since my birthday in March came over for a visit (and to hide out from the thunderstorm she THOUGHT was going to happen...LOL).  It was a good visit so I was glad to see she hadn't gotten over her childhood fear of storms!  LOL

Couple of nail blogs are having contests right now, one of them being polish insomniac..you should check her out...

Sending out prayers to my sister and my husbands grandmother...love and kisses your way!

Battle of wits and ice cream disasters...

Quiet day, my son and husband are in London at baseball and that just leaves my mini me (daughter) and fur baby Kramer..what to do, what to do??  Hmmm....ice cream?  Sure!  I am not a huge ice cream lover, it upsets my tummy for whatever reason, but every once and a while I get a hankering for some and tonight was one of those nights.
Load up the crap-mobile ( our nearly 20 year old Oldsmobile that looks like a good breeze could blow apart) with the fur baby and mini me and away we go (me in my nightie, because that's how I roll...LOL). My mini me runs into the ice cream store and gets the ice cream (because I am in my nightie, and we don't want people running out of the store screaming) and we head back home. Of course Kramer is whining in the back for some, so I let him have a few licks, until my mini me said I was going to crash the car if I kept turning around to feed the dog, so she proceeded to scoop out ice cream with HER FINGERS!!(from MY cone) ewwww!  (yes, I know, alot of you are going, "is she kidding?  wasn't SHE just letting her dog LICK the ice cream from her cone??) YES, Yes, I was, I know that grosses out most people but I am not squeamish when it comes to that, only when my kid sticks her dirty fingers in MY cone do I become grossed out!  LOL
Anyways...home at last, sitting on the couch in my nightie, fresh from my shower that I took before we left to get the ice cream, talking on the phone with my friend Christine.  All was going well until I decided to take a bite out of the side of the cone...big mistake!  Cone completely caves in, ice cream falls down my face and onto my chest, while the melted ice cream that was in the bottom of the cone oozes through my fingers, runs down my face, INTO my nightie, down my chest and drips all over my nice clean nightie,, and makes me a sticky, icky, blue mess (cotton candy ice cream..whats not to love?).  Of course I have to tell my friend I have to go, all the while trying not to choke on the mouthful of ice cream and cone that I have in my mouth, gather up my nightie and get my sticky self into the bathroom to clean up!  Eeewww!  That will probably be the final ice cream cone I have for the rest of the summer!  Damn!  What a mess!

Ok, now, onto the battle of wits..my daughter, aka Mini me is so much like me it is sometimes scary...I never realized just how sarcastic I can be, until I hear her throwing back the come backs like ninja stars!  She was complaining that it was hot in the house and we needed to turn the air back on..yadda, yadda, yadda..waaah waaah, waahh..so I say,"well, if you would shut your yapper for a while, it might cool down in here.", she, without missing a beat, says, "ya, why don't you grab some cotton balls for your ears, so they can block all the hot air that is seeping out of your ears from your head???" (Do you see what I have to put up with around here?? LOL)...BRAT!!!

Mini Sally haul

Today has not been a great day...not feeling well at all, very nauseous and tired today. Unfortunately I couldn't just lay around today (well, not the entire day like I felt like doing), I had to drive to Wallaceburg to pick my daughter up from my mothers so on the way home, since I was already passing Sally Beauty Supply I figured I may as well stop in and see what the August specials were...right?  Something had to make me feel better today!  August specials were pretty good...China Glaze polishes were on for $4.99!  I was actually really restrained too!  I saw at least 9 polishes that were on my wish list back at home and I only bought 3! (see?  Is that restraint or what??!!) I also bought a new buffer as mine is pretty worn out, a crystal file as I have heard great things about them, nail lacquer thinner for a few of my older polishes and Super Nail, blizzard glitter which was on sale for $3.99. Check it out!  I did feel slightly better afterwards...


I bought Strawberry Fields, Dorothy Who? and Purple Panic, I am wearing Strawberry Fields right now and let me tell you, it is gorgeous! It is so shimmery, I love the gold shimmer in it!

I did come home, took some gravol and went to bed, where I proceeded to sleep for 5 hours!  I felt slightly better after my "nap", but not much, I tried eating a little something but it didn't help either.  I sure hope I feel better tomorrow.  Night people!

whaaattss upp???

I have had nothing exciting happen to me lately to write about...boo!
  Actually, I did go to Wambo yesterday, that is a festival in my hometown of Wallaceburg...saw alot of people I haven't seen in awhile which was great and went to see the "MAMMELS" at the CBD...lots of fun!
My son Tyler got invited to play in the Canada Cup yesterday...Tryouts are in Toronto in September..not sure what we are doing yet...he has to go write a test in Windsor in September to see if he qualifies getting in to Junior College in the States so we have alot on our plate right now...I am very proud of him though for everything he has been doing lately...I hope all the hard work pays off in the end!
Tonight I went to Walmart and picked up a few cuticle creams, etc for my nails as I am not a  huge "moisturizer" person, and I know that it is important so I plan on trying harder at using moisturizer more often! Let me tell you, this stuff all smells amazing and if nothing else, my hands will smell delicious!  lol

 First up, is Hoof, hard as hoof...anyone ever try this stuff?  It smells great, hope it works!  Let me know if you have tried it...It is suppose to strengthen your nails...I can;'t even describe the smell, other than delicious!
Second...Burts Bees, Lemon butter cuticle cream, again, smells Delicious, a yummy, fresh scent of lemon...let me know what you think of this stuff if you have tried it...
Third up is Coconut butter, by Spa resource...the smell alone is yummy...

Today my honary niece Josielyn turned one..what a cutie this kid is...absolutely amazing...can't imagine her not in my life...

My mani today...

Lots of compliments of this one...I really like it too!

playing catch up...

Finally!  Last night I was FINALLY able to upload my pics from my previous nail mani's...these are a couple I have done over the past week...

I started off with painting my nails with a clear base coast, followed by the late night lilac by NYC, after letting that dry completely, I used my Bundle Monster plate #225, the flourish in the center right above the #, and stamped that on each of my nails 2-3 times in Orly, purple crush.  I then added a coat of China Glaze, Fairy Dust, allowed it to dry then topped with a top coat!

Pyschadelic Yellow is a great glittery, yellow from Finger Paints and I can't remember what plate I used for the stamping...I will have to go back and check it out!

This actually looks better than the pics display...I used Kiko's #295 and #341 which are two different shades of blue, then dipped the tips of my nails into Supernail, Icicle #239867 glitter while my nails were still wet then topped with a top coat.

Ahhh yessss!  What I had been craving while in Italy for the last 4 days I was there....

My goodness, this was so damn good I felt like I had died and went to heaven!! Mmmm mmm good!

And here are all my lovely little goodies I came back too!  It was like Christmas!!!!

f f f f f Farmacia!

LOL...WTH!!  I woke myself up at the un-Godly time of 5:15 am by loudly saying "f f f f f Farmacia!" I have no idea why, obviously thinking about Italy...strange!  Reminds me when I was on the bus traveling to Florence, I fell asleep, only to wake myself up with a loud snort/snore and saying..."and THAT'S how Canadians do it!" (We were the only Canadians on the trip!) LOL  Everyone on the bus got a good chuckle out of that one!

I do have a couple of new pics from mani's I have done this weekend, but for some reason I can't load the pics onto my computer...getting very frustrated!  Hopefully, I will get this figured out soon and post them when I do.

My son, and my husband went to Hamilton this weekend for a baseball tourney and my son's team won the whole thing!  WooHoo!!  Very proud mama here...
On the other hand, unfortunately, my daughter's team was not so lucky here at home with their final tourney of the season, maybe next year!

World's most embarrassing moment...

So, I'm up at the crack of dawn, partly because I am still screwed up from the time change/jet leg, and partly because I had to be up.  We were having new windows and a storm door put in/on, and they were suppose to be coming between 7 and 7:30 am. 
They didn't lie, they were prompt, here at 7:15am!  They worked hard all morning and by noon they had 3 of the 6 windows in with little mess to clean up after (gotta like a man who cleans up after himself!) All was going well, they were working like busy little beavers, the young one (maybe 30), was in my sons room across from the bathroom working on his window.  I went into the bathroom to use the facilities, and apparently didn't close the door tight because 5 seconds after I'm sitting down on the toilet, my beloved fur baby Kramer head bunts the door open and saunters in to keep me company...just as the young worker walks out of my sons bedroom!  That poor boy didn't know what to do or say!  He went 10 shades of red, and apologized, practically running down the hall!  If I could have flushed myself down the toilet I would have!  My God that was embarrassing!  Poor kid will probably have nightmares tonight!  Hope they don't add his therapy bills onto my bill!!! LOL
Lets just say, he pretty much avoided me for the rest of the day, getting the older gentleman to speak to me when needed...
Only me!!!  LOL

It's good to be back!

First of all I have to apologize for not blogging.  I am sorry.  I was too busy in Italy to blog, and then on our return home I have found it very difficult to get my mojo back. That being said, I am attempting to get myself "back on the saddle"....

I am sooooo happy to be back in Canada!  There just aren't words enough to express this... Yes, Italy was an amazing experience and I am grateful to have had the chance to experience it.  That being said, I realize just how much I love my country and the people in it.  Italy had beautiful landscapes, and buildings.  It has a great history, and museums in abundance, but none of that could make up or compare (for me anyways) to my own beautiful country.  The culture shock was like hitting a brick wall at 100 miles an hour.  The food, the time change, the people, the language, EVERYTHING, was just so very different to me.  Would I ever go again and see if a second visit would change my views?  No.  It just wasn't for me.  I realize other people LOVE Italy, just as I LOVE Canada.  I get that.  I know that there are people who would do anything to visit Italy, that it is their dream destination, it just wasn't mine.  As much as I love travelling, and want to continue doing so in the future, I think I will stick with places that I don't think would be such a shock to my system...Australia, Ireland, Scotland, New York, Arizona, Texas (Dallas..as I would love to visit my amazing new friends), and I would really like to travel around Canada to get a more in depth view of my own country.

I met some amazing people, parents and kids from the team.  I hope to continue with these friendships and visit them in their home towns, as well as have them come visit me here. Those friendships are what really made the experience in Italy a positive one for me and my kids.

When I got home, the most beautiful sight awaited me....all of my ebay goodies had arrived!  It was like Christmas in August!  Woo hoo!  Nail polishes and nail paraphernalia in abundance...ahhhh!  Can't wait to get my little hands on all those amazing colours and start painting!

Italy

So much for blogging everyday!  Sorry!  It has been crazy here.  We are on the go non-stop from morning til night.  My feet are so darn sore, the first thing I am doing when I get back to Canada is get a pedicure and a massage!  We have gone all over Rome, Florence, Grossetto and tomorrow, back to Rome. 
Italy is a beautiful country with gorgeous views and buildings, but I have to admit I miss Canada very much.  It is so hard to communicate with people here, the food, though delicious just isn't what I am use to or what I like to eat, and I really miss my family and friends.
It is sooooo busy here.  Non-stop traffic and crowds, arrgghh. I would never be able to drive around here or anything..
Well,, gotta go, my new friends are calling!  Ciao..

Day two in Italy

So tired! Time change is a killer! Up at 8:30 am Italy time (2:30 am my time), and I have to tell ya, I looked like a bag of dog poo that was smashed against a tree and left out in the sun to dry up!  Seriously, my eyes were so swollen, I thought I had been in a fight and blacked out!  I have bruises all over, 3 on my upper right arm, 2 on my upper left arm and a big one on my right hip..I don't have a clue as to what or how I did it either.

I doctored myself up and tried to make myself presentable, but I don't think it worked to well, I just looked like a fresher version of what I described in my first sentence!!  LOL

Breakfast in Italy is so not like anything we have ever experienced.  We are use to eating bacon, eggs, pancakes or waffles and cereal with muffins, bagels or toast.  In Italy we got hard boiled eggs, ham, cheese, rolls, granola, red orange juice and a really sweet tasting grapefruit juice.  I took pictures of what their version of toast was...I found it quite funny...

It comes in a package, like melba toast but slightly larger, it's cute!

After breakfast we were on th bus and off to the Coliseum!  Very hot day!!  In the high 80's mid 90's but felt like it was 110!  We walked, and walked and walked.  We walked from 10 am until night, and I have the huge blisters to prove it! 

We walked so much today, I swear I should be 50 pounds lighter!!  When I got back to the room after supper and took off my shoes I couldn't believe how swollen my feet were, within 2 mins. of taking my shoes off my feet looked like footballs!  Showered and propped them up on some pillows and they were good to go in a few hours, I'm willing to bet I'll be in some major pain tomorrow though, in places I never even knew I had muscles to strain!  lol

The boys had a great game against Italy.. They won 9 - 3!  I even got some video of Tyler hitting, unfortun. I stupidly kept the video camera on him and didn't show where he hit the ball out to, which he actually hit the fence, almost a home run hit!  Great job Tyler and the rest of the USAAI team!

Off to Italy..

Wow...BUSY,BUSY day... Very tired!  Didn't know if I would survive Shawn's driving to Toronto to the airport but I did (LOL), we were stuck in traffic for more than 30 mins and we still managed to get there 4 hours before our flight took off.  Our flight to Philly was delayed by about 1/2 hour in total.  Made it to Philly, just in time to haul ass to our departing gate and hope in the line to board.  Bought a really nice frame with the Liberty bell on it, so I took a quick pic of the kids in front of a cool display so I can put it into the frame.

On our plane going to Italy, there was 2 seats side by side that were empty and the steward offered them to a single gentleman who was sitting in a middle row with a family..he declined so I threw my hand up and said I would take it (forgot my vaseline for my hips and it was one hell of a tight squeeze with Madi and I squished up against one another. LOL)  Yea me!  Madi ended up sitting by herself with 2 seats, and so did Tyler and me...wonder if we will be so lucky on the flight back???  Here's to miracles... What a long flight that was!!!  We boarded 20 minutes early, but then got held up in a airplane caravan situation for 40 minutes so that blew our lead out the door!  Flight was good.  No turbulence at all..Only complaint, the on flight meal we were served, it tasted good, bbq chicken ( all 4 paper thin slices of it that were no wider than my index finger), the ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes, and a good portion of green beans, accompanied with a baby roll, bite sized brownie and if you wee lucky one whole leaf of lettuce with 1 cherry tomato and 1 cucumber slice as your salad.  Oh yeah... I started to laugh and told the steward if he was smart he would stay away from Tylers seat until he fell asleep because he was liable to grab the guy and start chompin'!  Surprisingly, Tyler didn't complain about what little he had...I was inpressed!

Didn't get to Rome until 8:30 am THEIR time, 2:30 am OUR TIME and then we had to wait around for the rest of Tyler's baseball team players and the girls from the soft ball team too...we were there until 1:30!  We hauled butt to the Sistine Chaple as we were late, took in the sights, and I took a bunch of pictures.  Check them out at my facebook sight.  You can find it here at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150245430712610.327767.534812609.

Enjoyed dinner at a great little restuarant where we had homemade bread, drizzled with olive oil, cracked pepper and sea salt, followed by homemade lasagana noodles smothered in a delicious blush sauce, cheese and meat. YUM! Oh ya, can't forget the dessert! I believe it was Tiramusu...

Back to the hotel, did some stuff on the computer and showered, now I must get my butt to bed for our big day at the Collisieum, a tour of Rome, our first game and a trip to an authentic pizzaria!

Ciao!

At the airport in Toronto

So, I never did sleep, not even for a minute.  Horrible, horrible case of the nerves.  The only good thing about it was that I was up and ready to leave before everyone else and didn't have to fight for the bathrooms.

Going to the airport, which is normally a 3 hour drive from where we live (2 1/2 when my speed demon husband is at the wheel), but apparently there was an accident so we had a detour and got stuck in a traffic jam for about 30 min. Lucky for us, we left really early because I was worried there would be lines, I would get us lost (I am geographically challenged), etc, etc.  Even with the delay we arrived at the airport before 11 am., 4 and 1/2 hours prior to our flight takeoff..  Since parking cost $28, my hubby just dumped us at the door and left.  We managed to find where we needed to go, get our tickets and head to the US customs line.  You will never guess who was standing in front of me...Lil' C, from So you think you can dance! I LOVE that show, one of the 4 shows that I watch on a regular basis.  For those of you who don't know who he is or watch the show, he is a super cute, dance choreographer for the show, both US and Canadian.  He was sooo...nice.  We talked for at least 10 min. while we waited in line, and he even posed for a picture for me (I'm upset though, because my son didn't take his time and zoom in on the pic so it turned out fuzzy!) I wish I had thought to get his autograph!  He was just heading back to the States for the American version of the So you think you can dance show, he was here working on the Canadian version. He was so laid back and friendly.  He talked to my son about baseball, we talked about the show and my favourite genre of dance as well as who my favourite dancers were for this years season. Anyways, here are the pics, I don't know if anything can surpass this.  Definitely the highlight of this summer for sure!

Well, I gotta go for now.  Our plane should be here soon....