6 Year Anniversary!

Wow where has the time gone? tomorrow Mitch and I are going to be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary! So in honor of our anniversary I think I'm going to mush it up a bit and tell you the top ten reasons I love my hubby, in no particular order:

1. I can tell him anything, because he is my best friend <3

2. He always calls me to tell me what is going on, which I love as his schedule is not of the norm and otherwise I would spend countless minutes waiting.

3. He always gives me the isle/window seat on a plane, I almost never have to be stuck in the middle with a guy that smells or a woman that needs to pee every 15 minutes.

4. I always get to fill my plate first, no matter if he hasn't eaten since whenever o'clock.

5. I can ask him to do a "blue" job around the house, and it's done without complaint in reasonable time

6. I get random "thinking about you flowers" whenever the mood strikes him to bring some home

7. He always comes to family functions, even if he would rather gouge his eyes out

8. He works hard everyday for us, and for that I can't thank him enough

9. He humors all my "health kicks" and joins in on the bandwagon

10. After almost 12 years together I have never had to ask him to put the toilet seat down

There of coarse are a million other reasons that I love Mitch, but on the fly that were just a few ;) I am a lucky lady, I know that finding someone that you can spend so much time with is hard, and when you add buying a house, getting some pets, and having a kid into the mix sometimes the love is lost. I'm glad that we have grown up in a matter of speaking together and I can't wait to spend the rest just enjoying the ride.

On a side note, tomorrow is also a sad anniversary in our family too. My grandmother Weitzel passed away 5 years ago, and if you would have asked me if I thought Grandpa W would be here to see this anniversary I would have told you no way. I hope that tomorrow he can remember his love and celebrate the 67 years that they spent together, but somehow I just know that he will shed a few tears and hope that he will get to join her soon. On that note please enjoy a picture that was taken at our wedding of the two love birds.

Potty Dance

Well there was a small celebration here at the Carr house tonight! After a trying day of Hailey running around with no pants we finally had a small success in the right direction! There was pee-pee on the potty jubilation! I'm not going to say we are in the clear by far, but I think the mental switch for mommy was finding out that Smarties weren't enticing enough for her to actually do the deed. I had an epiphany yesterday, my sister Lana and her daughter Carleigh were here for a visit yesterday and Lana had an extensive conversation with H about using the potty. I knew that she had all the physical concepts down, like what the potty was, what it was for, and what she would get if she used it. But to hear it from her own mouth I knew that she was probably more ready then I had realized. Today I put on a brave face, armed with Folex and a wet cloth we waited, and constantly asked if she needed to go. With no accidents before naptime, I decided to give it a second go after dinner. Unfortunately we had two accidents tonight but one big success (none of them poop... which I know will happen but we escaped the deuce today and believe you me that we will have our carpets cleaned when we are done!). I'll take it, because I now know that to get Hailey to go on the potty you just have to use a better bribe. Merry-Go-Rounds.... if nothing else our trip to the Calgary Zoo showed us that H does have a weakness, and when Smarties and stickers don't cut it we now have the big guns to bring out. Well I know that I won't be leaving the house for a few days, but it will be soooooo worth it when the ass-wiping stage is over! Yippee!!!! Lesson learned, here comes the Dr. Phil moment, you just have to figure out your child's currency to see results. I think the only challenge that we will have to face tonight is a very excited toddler who might not go to bed (the late night Smarties and the promise of working on more potty= merry-go-round) but in the long run it is worth it ;)

L

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner....

Well maybe except my baby, being that Hailey would rather play for hours with dinosaurs, plastic frogs/lizards/snakes or any type of animal over a baby doll.

I had a friendly chat with another mommy on Friday at our friends BBQ party about this exact topic. We decided to go sans kiddo, even though the hosts have a kid. The last few parties haven't exactly been very child friendly, but appears they now have a few more friends with children and their house is less of a death trap. Funny thing actually happened, I had actually met a mom and little girl that were at the party in my mommy day to day. My first year with Hailey I must have tried every single mommy-baby program out there, and after a bit of chit-chat we finally figured out where we had crossed paths, that being baby salsa. The point of this is her little one came with her baby, and she had about three more to pick from in the reserve bag, and her mom said that they had so many at home she couldn't even wager a guess. I on the other hand know that we in fact have three. One went to grandma Hanna's house, one ran out of battery power so she got sentenced to the basement, and I just bagged up the last of the babies in my last purge of toys that are taking up too much valuable real estate. I'm not saying that this is a problem, by no means do I have any issue with H deciding that playing with dolls are lame at the moment, but I just think that it's interesting. I know that a lot of parents go the extra mile to make sure that their homes are "gender neutral" and go ape shit to try and make sure that they aren't "gender stereotyping" their kids at a really impressionable age. Maybe tomorrow will be different as H has an attention span of a goldfish but for now it's really kind of interesting to see what she prefers to play with on her own. I love that in one day we can go from painting her nails, putting on her princess dress (plus a tutu) all while having a tea party serving our special guest of honor...frogs and dinosaurs. I guess my point of tonight's blog is that if you spend all your time worrying about how your kids are going to turn out, you are going to miss out on some pretty kick ass tea parties and lizard parties (oh yeah we had one of those today!). I'm thinking that when Hailey is out doing god knows what when she is older, the fact that she didn't haul a baby doll around everywhere might actually make me feel better....

L

Epic Weekend

I don't think that anyone would disagree that the weather was just awesome here this weekend, and I hope that everyone got out and enjoyed a little bit of it. Personally I don't really like it when the heat gets hotter then 25, but being that today was the hottest of 2011and that it's August 21st, I think that I can handle it.

We did a lot of cool things this week, and I have to say that on Wednesday I took Hailey back to the park, and am happy to report it was so much better. I guess that Wed is the day to go if you have a toddler, because it's mom group day, and even though I'm not in one of the few groups that meet there it was nice that the little ones ruled the place, well that and pregnant ladies ;) Thursday I took Hailey to the Fringe, and even though it's a little beyond her this year, she certainly enjoyed the face painting (she wanted a chicken) and making a "robot" at the Kids Fringe. Oh and the mini doughnuts were delicious, totally made the trip worth it (time to get back on the health bandwagon!!!).

Friday we took a family day trip to the Calgary zoo, and all I have to say is.... It's freaking awesome. I mean if you like going to zoo's and watching wild animals locked up in confined spaces for your entertainment... I do have massive guilt when I walk through zoo's, but the Calgary facility is so much more accommodating to the animals, and if I had a choice of where I was going to be locked up it would definitely be there over the craptastic Valley zoo. I do know that they have breeding programs there that release some endangered species back into their natural environment, so at the very minimum they are trying to make a positive difference. Hailey had the best time, and bottom line that's why me made the effort. I really enjoyed watching her point and identify all the critters as she cruised around all day barely stopping for a second (and there is that much to see, it was an entire day of looking at stuff). It was such an awesome day, and it was a good thing that we went as a spur of the moment type of thing as I think we would have packed along two more grandma's, and Aunt and a cousin.... which wouldn't have been quite so fun for us.

The rest of the weekend (Mitch didn't go into the office at all! woohoo!) we got a lot of stuff done around the house, and a few of those projects done that you never seem to have time to do. Which is great considering that some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow already and there is nothing worse then knowing the snow is on it's way.

Oh and I am super happy to report that we officially have a big girl sleeping in her very own big girl bed! all the stuff I worried about for nothing... yeah take that mommy, I'm a big girl. Napping isn't totally cracked up to what it used to be, but I guess that's the way it's going to be. It will be nice to have control of my afternoons again, that 1:00 nap really is hard to work around when you want to plan something fun. Time to go and have a snuggle on the couch with my hubby.

L

Magic Beans

So for the past few months Mitch and I have been on a crazy low-carb no sugar diet. We both really like it and it has really worked for us. Our "goal" was to feel good on vacay to Vegas, and now that we are back is the true test to see if we can stick to the program. We did indulge in Vegas so transitioning back into a healthier lifestyle is hard, but ultimately I know we will get back on track, but we also have agreed to be a little more flexible then the Atkins program allows for. That being said I'm all for doing what works for you when it comes to weight loss. Everyone is different, and tempted by different delicious foods so if you have tried Jenny, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, Nutirisystem, Simply Suppers, Atkins ext and you are rockin' it, high five, weight loss sucks but you are doing something about it instead of just complaining.

But the point of my blog today is something out there, something that I especially loathe, and it just keeps popping up. It's called Body By Vi. If you have had the luxury of staying completely oblivious to this weight loss system I'm sorry I'm going to be introducing you to this pathetic excuse of a weight loss/health management company. Let me start at the beginning, being involved in our financial company we are exposed to a number of "other business opportunities" most being get rich quick scams and the like. Our company is extremely diligent on what agents are allowed to be involved with outside businesses with WFG, essentially stating that you are NOT allowed to be involved with any other companies and any other at home business is forbidden. Which is good, I think it cheapens what anyone does if they flip open their wallet and 10 different business cards fall out, not to mention I'm pretty sure you don't want to get your financial advice from the same guy you buy your shampoo from. But where all of this started is one guy out east started to sell Body By Vi (BBV) on the side, and it wasn't because he needed the money either because the guy was pulling in over 200K a year with WFG. Head office found out and he was canned immediately. In no time flat he started to "recruit" with in our company and getting a lot more people in trouble, bringing a lot of other people down with him. That's not totally why I have a hate on for BBV, but it was a good start to get me to start tuning in to what was going on. I casually clicked on the website curious to see what everyone had their panties in a bunch about, and I was totally pissed to find out that they were selling vitamins and protien shakes at $250 a month to people desperate to make a change. Ouch! seriously? all the people that I did know that left our company to go sell shakes were very fit, good looking, outgoing people. So what did they know about losing weight and battling the bulge in the first place... nothing. It just made me want to Hulk smash everything in sight. Mitch and I often would comment that we were doing our own "90 day challenge" and it was free! just included busting your ass and being on a diet. Needless to say people didn't like us saying that, which also added to the hate on.

I did however let it go, but a funny thing happened today that made me just shake my head, I logged into facebook today to see that a "friend", old buddy of yours Chad (Clay), was 15 days into his very own 90 day BBV challenge. He had claimed that he had lost 10 pounds and was feeling great. Super happy for him, and I told him that. He promptly messaged me back to try and recruit me to the business as "it's going to be huge". I politely wrote him back that it's a conflict of interests to be involved with BBV and that I wish him continued success. Which was all fine, because that is totally up to Clay and his wife if that's what they are going to do. But what pissed me off was that after Clay and I had our conversation a bunch of old WFG'ers all of a sudden requested me as "friends". WTF? seriously?? I wasn't cool enough when you were working with me everyday to befriend, I certainly am not going to let you troll my real friends and let you try to sell your crap to people I care about. So I guess buyer beware, there isn't any magic beans to help you shed those unwanted pounds, because if there was I'm pretty sure I would know about it and tell everyone.

L

Playground Fun

Being that the weather has been exceptional I have made a valiant effort to try and get out and enjoy the sunshine while we still can. I remember last year being so pitiful that I think we only used Hailey's kiddie pool twice and her water table about the same, I couldn't even tell you how many times we made it to the park. Not only is the neighbourhood park here really great for every age of kid, it's super new and it actually has sand. We have been to a few this year that have woodchips or small pebbles (which aren't really ideal for a toddler that likes to play barefoot). Kids these day's don't even know how good they have it, I mean the parks that were around when I was a kid were just a notch better then a condemned house full of rotting wood, rusting metal or reused old tires that smelled like pee. The cool spinning chairs, zip lines, climbing structures, slides and the like are where it's at.

We went twice this week, H just loves going and playing with the older kids, it's hilarious watching her watch them and try and copy whatever they are doing. What isn't hilarious is that I think I'm the only parent there that is actually watching their kid. Hailey actually asked to leave on Tuesday when we went, which is crazy as I normally have to grab and go in hopes that we don't shed too many tears. The kids were totally nuts, and probably unsupervised, screaming, swearing, throwing sand, and ripping around there oblivious to anyone else. Yuck, H decided that playing in the sand would be a safer option, and for once I remembered to bring her bucket. Lots of little kids came up wanting to play, and I made it clear that we were up to share whatever we had, but all the mommies grabbed their kids away. At this point Hailey had had enough and I don't blame her. Today we went again, it was better as more kids were there with their families but it was still hard to avoid the crazies. But tonight there was a weird lone dude parked on a bench, clearly with no kids at the park giving out a very creepy "I'm totally watching your kids"vibe. WTF? do you call the cops when you see that? I don't know, but when he left I felt better. We had our bucket taken and all her digging tools left all around, and I'm totally up for sharing but respect people's things??! I'm hoping some of the very nice nannies I met earlier on in the summer will come back, but maybe they have been scared off too from the school kids taking over the joint, but for now I will continue to go back as long as Hailey wants to play. I guess she needs to learn how to deal with assholes eventually.

L

Taking the easy out

I have decided that I'm not going to be joining the summer blogging challenge, besides being late to the party, I took a look at my August calender and it looks like we are going to be just as busy as July, and I just don't want the fun to be taken out of blogging when I do have a second. But I am happy that it is happening because I actually have stuff to read when I log in on here! yay! I am going to try and make a better effort on here however as now that the glitchy stuff is "fixed" on my account it's not so discouraging.

We have had a very busy summer thus far and can't wait for the next few weeks, as there is still a lot to come. With the weather being better (and the mosquitoes not being so vicious) we have been able to enjoy some of what the city has to offer around here. Lots of fun at the playground, spray parks, bike rides, walks to grandma's house (yup she is officially that close to us now). Calgary Zoo is on the agenda, as well as the St.Albert farmer's market along with a petting zoo that's not too far from there, Jurassic Forest (which is a dinosaur park just North of the city) and plenty more of the same fun close to home until the summer is over.

Mitch and I are taking the big plunge this weekend and moving H to a "big girl bed" which will bring in a variety of new challenges to our day to day. No longer will she be locked in the crib, or baby jail as we like to call it and be free to destroy her room at all hours of the night. I'm thinking that will also be the end of her nap, as it already seems like most days she doesn't want to have one (which is so strange because when she does nap it's for 3 hours, guess it's all or nothing with her) which means it will be the end to my "free time" on the computer in the afternoon, another reason that the blog challenge isn't really right for me right now. Will be interesting here for the next few days that's forsure. Once the bed is off the agenda, potting training is right behind... and poof just like that we have a "big girl".

Well I should wrap this up, I have a few things that need to get done here before I leave for bookclub tonight! yay! Can't wait to talk about "Hunger Games", basically it's a series about kids killing kids, governed by the government for entertainment. The movie is due out in Dec for all those not too keen on reading.

L

Whoa.....

Ha! just when I was going to give up I managed to post a comment! yippee! WTF? The gremlins in my computer are definitely screwing with me..... hummm maybe it's time to get back to blogging! I have a bunch of stuff I have been thinking about for a while, like I said in my last post July was stupid busy. But I have used a lot of my afternoon time up trying to figure out what the heck was going on with this stupid thing, so time to go and catch up on my reading! yay!

L

Sometimes I just hate computers

So I have been struggling trying to figure out why I haven't been able to post comments onto other peoples blogs that I follow. It's been partially the reason I haven't been on here (well besides the month of July was totally nuts and we were crazy busy) as what's the point on reading someone's stuff if they don't know that I have read it... because isn't that the point? What is so frustrating is that one day it just stopped, and started booting me out to the log in page when I had typed something and hit the post key. I have left some comments via "anonymous" but I think that is pretty lame considering I used to have the ability to leave all the comments I wanted under my own profile before. So anyhoo I have been clicking all over the place and trying all sorts of things, unfortunately my abilities are limited and only know enough to get by on the best of days. So I think it's start a new blog, or continue with what I have... both don't seem that appealing to me. I am sorta interested in joining my brother's summer blogging challenge but I'm A) not sure how to get started in that and B) thinking if I can't leave comments then what is the point. The Help tab is totally useless, but it does seem like a few other people have had this same issue. If you are reading this and want to help I will give you my password, take a look around and let me know what you think... I'm getting pretty pissed and have no idea on how to fix it ;(

L

To Sask and back, and lived to tell the tale

We finally did it, took a road trip to Saskatchewan last week. I'm not going to lie I was a little concerned packing up a two year old and venturing out on an 8 hour road trip (well that is if you drive the speed limit... and my husband does not) to visit my aunt and uncle at their cabin at Gull Lake, SK. H was amazing and despite the fact that she will NOT sleep in her car seat no matter how long she is strapped in, I couldn't have dreamed that it could be that easy. I know people have been doing just that since the beginning of time, but nothing sounds more terrifying to me then a toddler screaming at the top of her lungs for hours on end. All my frantic packing of toys/games/movies/crayons/stickers/snacks ext. was plain over kill. Note to self, all you need is the travel DVD player and snacks, end of story.

So after a decade plus of my Aunt Karen's nagging about going to visit them at the lake we finally made the trip. I was a little worried about how H would react to all the dead animals hung on the walls (the result from Uncle Mac-A-Tony's two trips to Africa where he shot anything and everything that moved.... I'm not going to go there because between him and I we all know that I think it's just a total waste of life and we have agreed to disagree on the issue) but surprisingly, beside Scooby the dog, the creepy African animals were a total highlight for her. I bet she is the only 2 year old I know that can correctly identify a Koodoo, but I will have to admit the Zebra was her hands down fave. We did a bunch of things while we were down there including taking H on her first boat ride, and she had an absolute blast, the child is a dare devil and had the biggest grin plastered on her face the whole time. We ended up cutting our trip short due to my second cousin Michelle dying last week of a brain tumor, I knew that my aunt really wanted to go to the funeral but did want to kick us out either. Three days of listening to Tony and Karen get after each other and listing to the Dam gossip was about all I could handle anyway, so despite her disappointment we left to go help Lynne pack up for the big move to Edmonton.

We got to Kindersley Friday night, and I was fully expecting to be there to help clean. I had braced myself for the atomic level of nastiness to which I had anticipated her place to be in. Being that Mitch had neglected to tell her that Hailey and I would be going with him to help out, she didn't have much of a head start to make sure the place would be safe for a very curious toddler. When we rolled up to the trailer and walked in I was in total disbelief to find that not a single box had been packed.... seriously should I really have been that shocked? after crapping my pants a little, it was go time. Mitch was incharge of the heavy lifting and I hit the kitchen like there was no tomorrow. Poking my eyes out would have been a lot more fun, but we did as much as we could before we got outta dodge. They arrived today (it's Monday) and after a snafu with getting the keys to the new place, she is finally in. Too bad that the new place is a dirty sty, but it will be scrubbed clean and Lynne is pretty excited about starting a new chapter in her life.

Well it's been a busy few days, and we are going to help Grandma Lynne tomorrow start getting settled. So it's off to bed for me!

L

Love it or Hate it, it keeps coming back every year

Happy Fathers Day! wow what a loaded sentance for me. *Sigh* without trying to sound like some pathetic, love deprived kid that was probably dropped on my head a few times, I really, really hate Fathers Day. I tried to tell myself this morning, today is going to be about Mitch, and not my dad. So Hailey and I let him sleep in, made him a card and tried to make some "pancakes" to eat this morning. The pancakes were a total epic failure, FYI if you try to subsitute soy flour for regular flour they not only will stick like a bastard to the grill but they will not cook in the middle. So I had to clean up the gigantic mess of the failed pancakes to make room to cook up breakfast #2. Slow start to trying to make today a gooder to say the least. I also decided that I will change all diapers, you know to be nice... and today of all days H decided she is going to drop multiple loads. WTH? oh well try to be positive, today after all is Fathers Day. Ugh maybe it's just be and the enormous load of guilt I feel every year when I wake up whether or not if I am going to make the call to my dad, it makes me want to puke a little thinking about it. I know about 4 years ago when I did decide to suck it up and make the call he didn't even bother coming to the phone to talk to me. Just makes me want to go and hide in a hole for the whole day and forget about it. I did however call over to the house about an hour ago and they all were not home (well minus the lazy slacker that lives plus all his children that must be visiting, one of them answered the phone all snotty because she knew why I was phoning and probably got a real sick kick outta telling me nobody was there). I did have a heads-up (plus an invite to hang out at the farm with them all this afternoon, but I gave Mitch the option to go or not as today is his day) that they were going to be out at Lana and Neils, so I called over there to which they hadn't arrived yet. So now after making 2 calls, to do something I don't want to do I will have to make a third call if I do actually want to complete this years painful obligation. Ack I hate the guilt, and I wish I could just not care... where was my gene for this particular skill that my brothers seem to pick up so naturally? Oh well time to go and get ready and appreciate a man that treats me like a daughter anyway, my awesome father-in -law. Suck it up princess, sometimes dead beats are dads. Life's a bitch and then you die....

L

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Hailey and I were at the Edmonton zoo this morning for a meet up playdate with one of my mom group mommies, and I want to state for the record the Edmonton zoo sucks. Not only does some of the animal exhibits boarder on animal abuse but everything there is just so outdated and old. It just breaks my heart to see the sea lions in their concrete "tub" no bigger then my kitchen, or the monkeys in their concrete enclosures that are no bigger then my bathroom, while the gophers have more real estate then they know what to do with. I know that the Valley Zoo got a huge cash infusion to do some upgrades on the property (probably thanks to good ol' Bob Barker and his public exposure on how sad our zoo facility really is) but I really don't know how much can be done with a lot of the animals that already have lived there since the 70's. We met a cockatoo today that the handler mentioned that she had no idea how old the bird was, she figured the little guy was about 30-40 years and he had been there since 1978. Makes me wonder what else they don't really know about the animals they have there. Speaking of Bob, Hailey and I were watching the "Lucy the Elephant show" today and I really don't think that poor elephant has that much left in her, and his insane pressure to move her to a sanctuary somewhere just might do the poor girl in. I'm in total agreement that Lucy should be somewhere better for her, somewhere bigger, better and with friends, but I'm not for moving her and stressing her out just to appease some crazy Hollywood nut job. I just know that there is no way that the zoo would give her up without too much of a fight simply because there isn't anything there really worth paying almost $20 for me and Hailey to get in. I'm pretty sure that I can go find some gophers, sheep, and ducks somewhere else and probably have a better time. Maybe I'm just a little jaded as most of the animal enclosures were still closed and we really didn't get to see very much, but that seemed to be the case last year too when we went. All I can say is that we are very much looking forward to our trip to Calgary where we will be able to see a lot more, and hopefully not feel the urge to "Free Willy" as we walk out of the gates.

L

Bad Neighbour

On the scale of good neighbours I will out right admit we are probably a 1.5. Giving us points only for waving at our imitate neighbours when they are outside, shoveling a little past our property line in the winter, and making sure our lawn in up to snuff in the summer, pretty minimal effort from us I know, making it kinda sad being that we have been in our house five years next month. I always just kinda blamed it on that we are by far the minority on the block and since nobody else was making any sort of effort it was how it was in our neighbourhood. Between the garbage collectors across the street with 100 different vehicles, the anal retentive retired couple right next door to the junk collectors and the multiple family homes we weren't too worried about being friendly.

Things have started to change. First off the neighbourhood "hoarders" have moved... or I should say evicted from their house, and the story goes remortgaged too many times for them to afford. Which probably should be the most exciting thing about living here on our block as now there is actually parking on the street in front of our house if we were to have guests over, and we aren't fighting for space with the garbage trailer anymore. Hooray for not having to call the by-law people anymore! (ooohh should I deduct a point for being the nasty neighbours that call by-law??) But something happened a couple weeks ago that I never thought would happen, we actually met the anal retentive elderly couple that lives right across the street from us. For years Mitch and I called them the "crazy people" that were out the second it would snow sweeping the snow from their driveway in the winter and central vacuuming up the leaves in their planter in the summer. The dude always seemed a little on the creepy side as he smokes every 15 mins on his driveway watching everything that goes on. But I have to honestly say that they are actually not creepy or weird, it's really funny what having a nice conversation with someone will do after creating a whole image of them in your mind for five years. The guy actually came across the street and helped Mitch and me with a large box (we bought Hailey a sandbox) and carried it for me into the backyard. We got to talking and eventually his wife came over and we stood there talking for awhile. Now I wave to them when I see them out, add a few more bonus points to my score? Which is getting me to the reason I decided to blog about this today, Mitch actually went and asked a guy if we could borrow his lawn mower! From zero to hero in the neighbourhood I tell ya! Our lawnmower crapped out last year right before it snowed and we were about to go and buy a new one, but since Lynne bought a new one last year and her new place (yes she already found a new home approx. 2.5 blocks away from us) won't require a lawn mower we are just going to wait to buy hers off her. So it was either load up mom's from her house bring it over and back or just suck it up and ask one of the locals. Wow how have things really started to change in a matter of 3 weeks!

I hear Hailey bear, time to go get her up from her nap,

L

Breaking the habit, giving up sugar

Three months ago a friend of mine posted some really disturbing youtube videos outlining the true nature of sugar and what it does to your body. Being that I am a total sugar junkie, and was left a little sick by watching the videos (I guess ignorance was really working for me). A few factors went into the decision to challenge myself to make some serious changes, these videos were a good start.

If you are interested google; Sugar: The Bitter Truth. It's about 90 mins and if you can make it through the sciencey part the rest will be smooth sailing.

Well I wouldn't exactly say that we have totally given up sugar in this house, but over the last 90 days we sure have made an extraordinary effort to slay the "white devil" from our diet. Mitch and I made the decision together that we were going to try the unthinkable, ditch refined carbs and eliminate sugar from our diet and see what happened. Good thing he was on board with me too, as there would be no way on this earth that I would be able to stick to avoiding all the delicious foods that were part of our everyday life. All I can say is three months down and 20 pounds lighter I feel great. Minus the little road bump that included a total "carb crash" that lasted for three days as my body went through withdrawal (that really sucked and I wish someone would have mentioned it as being a normal response to cutting out refined carbs) It's surprising how really good I feel and that I don't miss the loads of pastas, perogies, grilled cheese sandwiches, ext which were definitely a staples here. I'm not going to lie we joke almost every night on who is going to go pick up the blizzards... I guess once a sugar fiend always a sugar fiend. It's been amazing on all the products we have replaced in our house for a home-made version. Not only do they taste better, I know that they are better for us. Eating on the run or having us over for a BBQ has already proven to be a bit of a challenge, although I don't want people to worry about how difficult we actually are, making it work is causing us to be a little more creative when we are out with other people. While Mitch is out there shouting from the rooftops too everyone he talks to about the simplicity of eating a low carb diet, he forgets to mention how hard it actually is to stick to it sometimes. I'm glad that we found something that works for us both, and that with the incorporation of running three times a week it's a lifestyle that when we get off the program (oh yeah I know that we will eventually go off the wagon) that we can take some things from and we will keep in our regular everyday lives.

I guess the bottom line is we have to keep a careful watch over what we eat, and what we feed our families. I think the more you know the better decisions you can make for yourself. That being said, have a wonderful summer everyone enjoy everything that comes with the warm weather... just in moderation ;)

L

Bye Bye Saskatchewan

There are some big changes happening here as of this week! It looks like in a matter of 3 phone calls Lynne, my mother in-law has decided that she is indeed going to be moving back to Alberta, and if the listing is right might just be down the block from us. With the realization that this is actually happening hitting me on Thursday, I have had a few days to come to grips with what I actually think about this. Initially I have to admit I was only seeing some of the downsides with this transition, but after the shock subsided and had a few nights to sleep on it, the clouds are parting and I can officially say I'm on board with the move. Who can say no to a very loving grandmother insisting that she take my kid at least once a week? That in itself is a reason that I should be randomly high-fiving strangers in the street. Maybe the ten zillion text messages to both Mitch and me will stop too, freeing up some of our evenings up... well that might be going too far but one can wish right? So just a little forewarning, more Lynne might result in more interesting blogs, she is a firecracker, but at least this firecracker will have her own home to go home to!

Which leads me to another interesting observation about myself this week, with this crazy fast move, it certainly brought out a quirky side of me over the last few days. I know I can probably finger the family member that is responsible for nurturing this trait in me, that is the inability to make spontaneous decisions. I can hear my grandmother now "Lisa, now put that back, let's just think about it first and if you still want it we can come back and get it..." Seriously I was having a heart attack when the conversation went from "maybe moving" to "get me some realtor's numbers, and I have a for sale sign up" in one night. I have noticed that Mitch is so like both of his parents in this regard, when he gets an idea in his head, he is ready to take action and runs with it. I on the other hand need to have all the facts straight and slowly hit the gas pedal. I mean there is so many things that need to be considered, like what is going to happen to Graham? Mitch's brother is in an AWESOME group home in Kindersley, and he probably won't want to move here, but it just breaks my heart to know that he will be alone and almost 4 hours away from anyone. He is prone to really great days but also really, really bad ones. I'm sure that there is a variety of adult assisted living homes here, but will he want to move? I'm not sure, all I know is I don't really get a say in the matter. So that's the skinny on what's been happening all week, that and I'm finally filling my social calender again and it feels good to be out of the social rut I have been in. Time to get out and enjoy the summer, oh and go and look for houses... which is on tomorrows agenda when Lynne arrives. I suspect this will all be wrapped up in 2 weeks, that's my prediction, I will keep you posted.

L

I'm still kicking...

Whoa almost forgot how to log on here... been a few moons since I had the ambition to sit here and think about something intelligent to say! Well I guess I can start off by saying that since the world didn't end this weekend then we all might as well get on with things... aaahh those religious nuts always crack me up, don't get me wrong I like my purple koolaid every now and then too, but when nothing happens and everything goes back to normal, makes me wonder what would make anyone get behind something like that in the first place. Don't they all know that we are probably going to blow everything up on or own one day?

Just about done winding down "birthday season" here at the Carr house, man I can't wait until May is over and we don't have to hit up at least 2 birthday parties a weekend. That and being sick for 3 weeks really killed my ambition to really get out there during the week and get stuff done. I have a few things I want to get done this summer and with it probably being almost over (just kidding it better not be....) I better start enjoying the snow free weather a bit more. This year it's going to be fun with Hailey, she is ready for so many new things this year that we weren't able to enjoy last year. I swear if I could have chosen to have a 2 year old over a new born I probably would have signed up for that option, who knew babies weren't my thing?! Probably has something to do with my insane control issues, but with the freedom of skipping a nap, allowing her to explore a little further and trusting her to listen to instructions (well as well as a 2 year old can) we have a fun summer lined up with lots of exciting adventures.

Starting to plan my 30th birthday party! while all my friends went through some kind of "freak out" or starting the beginning process of their freak out I'm really just worried on who is going to make it out to get drunk with me! Honestly, I just think about all the great things I have going on for me right now and aside from a few small things I really wouldn't change very much. I guess that happens when you are happy, you don't really cling on to the past. I'm just so out of "get shitfaced" mode that I don't know where to go for a good time anymore, so I better start asking around to the few friends I have left that haven't entered "mommy-daddy mode".

Well I don't want to over do it on my first crack back at blogging, it might cause me to take another 3 months off!

L

Face Punch...

Been awhile since I have been on here!

Ever had one of those days where you just wanted to punch someone in the face? Well normally I don't, but today I was primed and ready to bash a nice little old lady's face in. I know it sounds just dreadful, I'm really not proud about how I dealt with my feelings today but sometimes they just have to run their course. I am technically considered a stay at home mom however, I still do work from home and I take that role very seriously as it effects our quality of life and our future. My absence from the office is defiantly felt each time we have a work function and I know fewer people, I don't know any of the gossip, and I don't have to pretend to care as much about all the day to day office politics. I get that since I'm not there on a regular basis it might be easy to forget all the things I used to do around there, especially when it comes to the administrative stuff that effects more people then just our immediate business. For example we (the executive assistants) are on a rotation to coordinate the financial presentations that run in our office every week amd every second Saturday. These presentations are critical to our business and when it's your turn to run the dog and pony show you best be doing a good job. Needless to say I take pride in my work, and have for the last seven years that I have been running these presentations for. There was a time and place where there wasn't a rotation it was me, myself and I coordinating it all week in and week out. It was nice that other people started to help out, it sure made it easy to transition out of that role and stepping back and being a mom.

What happened to me today was probably a combination of a few things, for the record I have to say that Mitch and I for the first time were going to pay someone from our office to help me facilitate running the show as my mom is gone for a month to South America and with her being gone so is our babysitter. I simply couldn't be there to do part of the job, and so we were going to pay one of the little old ladies that has been helping out with these type of duties. Our arrangement was going to be different then what she was used to, I was going to do all the scheduling, e-mailing, organizing ext and provide her with all the sheets, calenders, lists required. She just was going to be there in person for me where I simply couldn't be. I had told her that I already had all the schedules done for the month (March) and we would be touching base by Wednesday. She wrote me an e-mail back spouting out office propaganda verbatim from a guy I like to fondly call Captain Asshole regarding not being able to do that, as certain duties were only to be given to certain people that are "leaders" in the company. Mitch and I had already discussed this months ago, so I was aware of who could be on there in the first place, but the way that the e-mail was written (from a lady that I had shown the ropes) made my blood boil. I was seething with anger... I'm not proud and I'm glad that I didn't write this earlier because there would have been a lot more swears and the like. Bottom line is I'm very territorial about what I do and I really don't like being told on how to do it. Needless to say there was no little old ladies hurt today, but I'm glad that I didn't have to speak to her in person as I really didn't realize that I would react the way that I did today. Ladies and gentlemen this is not my first rodeo, please just step back and let me do my job...

L

Climbing Mount Everest

No this isn't symbolism for anything challenging or demanding of me in my life at this point, I just finished my book club selection for tomorrow on the horrifying first hand account of the Mount Everest disaster, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

First off I want to say that you really have got to have a few screws loose if you think that climbing Mt. Everest is a good idea, and if you have the notion that you want to attempt this feat at some point in your life (which I never have, and officially never will) you should really read this book. The whole book I kept telling myself "Why would you even want to do that" followed by a good head shake as Jon weaves a gripping story of one of the deadliest events to ever happen on the mountain. Nothing, and I mean nothing sounds appealing about the whole process of getting to the top, and once you are there you have to figure out how to survive the trip back down. I guess you can walk away (if you are lucky enough to live through the whole experience) with bragging rights that you indeed "knocked that bastard off". Maybe it's why the majority of people that have made the summit are mostly men, it just takes the right combination of ego, determination and sheer stupidity to want to take on such insurmountable odds for a little pat on the back. Maybe the reason that this book was written was to keep people safely at home in their pj's and steer them as faraway from attempting anything this foolish, but if that wasn't the message it sure hit home with me. The horror that occurs to the people on the expeditions is just excruciating to read, and all I could think about was that they did it to themselves.

I guess the most startling part for me was the harsh backlash the surviving members received after they recovered, being as only a few actually survived the disaster you would think that it was probably pretty bad. I for one have no idea what depriving your brain of oxygen, having my body in a constant state of near hypothermia, worry about HACE (high altitude cerebral edema), have totally frostbitten fingers and toes, suffer hours of sleep deprivation, disintegration of your muscles (due to lack of oxygen and food), and not eating for days will do to you, never mind your ability to rationally decide how to not only save yourself but others that are dying around you... Oh and throw in that a raging snow storm is whipping down the mountain and made the already terrible conditions that climbers suffer from during great weather conditions 100 times worse. I figure that if you decided to take that $60 000 (in 1996, so who knows how much now) hike up the mountain you are ultimately going to be responsible for yourself. Even at the lower elevations you would have passed by countless bodies before you were even considered to be in the "death zone" (Death zone... do you really want to be going somewhere that has a death zone! Please check yourself before you wreck yourself...)  you know that it isn't going to be a cake walk to the top even with the most seasoned professionals.

I really enjoyed this one and encourage you to at least check out the article Jon wrote when he got back from the mountain. In the book he regretfully talks about some of the factual errors he made in the article when it was published, but I guess an oxygen deprived brain does some strange things to you when trying to remember intimate details.

All I have to say I guess is, girls and boys do not attempt this at home.

http://outsideonline.com/outside/destinations/199609/199609_into_thin_air_1.html0

L

Not So Deceptively Delicious

Like all moms that actually care what their children are eating on a daily basis, I try my best at trying to get Hailey to eat a balanced, healthy diet full of good foods. Some might think I'm a little on the crazy side and restrict her from take out, store bought refined treats, and even something it seems every toddler has in tow... juice. I'm not a total freak about sugar, but if my baby is going to have it, I'm going to be the one baking the goods (reducing preservatives and excess junk) and I think that is a system that has served us well so far. When she gets a bit bigger I will be a bit more lenient on what she eats, but my rule is now if she can't ask for it she isn't going to be getting it. The only exception to the rule at this point is grandparents, because I know that when Hailey goes and spends time with her loving grandparents they will spoil her. I might not like that her Popa gives her ice cream after almost every meal, but I know that Hailey also doesn't spend a lot of time with him so it's not really going to cause too much damage. I guess it was all a part of letting go of some of the control when I went away on our vacation last summer, but I'm at peace with what happens while we are away in the eating department.

But getting to the point of this blog, for Christmas this year my BFF gave me a cook book by the master of vegetable disguise Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious. If you haven't heard of her clever little books, they are basically recipes crammed full of vegetables but all sneaky like. I was super excited to give this a try, Hailey gets a lot of veggies in a day but if I can get in a couple more servings in then I'm totally game. So yesterday I got out my baby food making arsenal and steamed/cooked/roasted/chopped/peeled/pureed all the veggies I had bought, bagged them up and froze them for future use. I had totally forgotten how much work it was to do! It's been close to a year since I whipped up my last batch of homemade baby food, and back then I had a system one batch a week, needless to say yesterdays task was quite ambitious. I have made two of the "supper" recipes so far and I haven minded them so much and Hailey eats it, the hardest person to sell on the idea is Mitch. He actually said to me yesterday while eating dinner "if this is the way Seinfeld lives, what is the point of having all his money". So now I don't even tell him what I have put in the food so he will at least try the food that I make for dinner, it seems to go over a little better when he isn't concentrating on the butternut squash or the peas hidden in the pasta. Sigh... I think I might have to stick to the baking recipes as I have tried a few of the cookies and bars that my friend has had out on play dates and I'm sure Mitch wouldn't even really know the difference. So I guess what I'm saying is that dispite my best efforts on trying to get our little family to eat a little better, Jessica you are not so deceptive and you do not have very delicious ideas. Although I'm not ready to quit after 2 recipes I have lost a little faith and quite a bit of enthusiasm on what could have been.

I don't believe that children (or husbands in my case) should be tricked into eating vegetables, and they should know what it is like to eat them in their natural form but I was just hoping that this might be a way to get us all eating better. It's a lot of work to get all the ingredients prepared to make any of the recipes, so if I'm not getting the feedback I want then I'm pretty sure that this cook book is going to be gathering a bit more dust then the rest we have in our house.

L

been a while

Wow it's been a few day's since I have been in here to write something, guess it's because I don't really have much to talk about! It's been snowing here like crazy over the last few days so needless to say I haven't had any ambition to venture very far from home.

Tonight we are having a work shindig here at our place, I think we are going to have a full house as the last time we did a head count there was going to be about 25 people here. Hailey is going to sleep over at grandma's house so I can relax and enjoy myself and not worry about the noise level (one of the drawbacks to our house is that Hailey's room is on the main floor where the party is going to be happening). I'm a little anxious for this party as I have been absent from the office since August and there is a bunch of new people working for Mitch that I haven't met yet. One couple for instance, are expecting a baby and there is a chance that there is going to be some major complications. They found out the sex of the baby yesterday, and they are going to be having a girl, and next week they will find out the results of the genetic tests. I just have been sick thinking about these people and tonight I'm going to be meeting them. I can't imagine getting that much information about my baby before the dr's recommends if you should continue with the pregnancy or not... I guess that is why Mitch and I didn't opt for all the tests that they can run when you are expecting, I would never want to be put in a position to have to choose. However I have seen the devastation of continuing a pregnancy to full term knowing that the baby will not survive when it is born and that is just as tragic to watch. A girl we worked with had a baby a few weeks after Hailey was born and her daughter was born with a brain/heart and lung problem, something that would occur again with the combination of her and her boyfriends genes. Mackayla only lived for 3 days, and they knew from about 25 weeks into her pregnancy that the baby wouldn't survive. It was very hard to see and it made me feel a lot of guilt having an absolutely perfect baby to have an hold.

Well I really should stop procrastinating and get on cleaning the bathrooms, getting the food ready, washing the floor.... you get the idea.

L

things that make you go hummmm

So last week I was labeled.... I was called a Homophobe. I was talking to a bunch of my favorite ladies in a very relaxed setting without fear of judgement and I was really surprised that I was given the title out of all the ladies in the group! I like to think of myself as a pretty forward thinker on the issue, I don't really care who you are with, as long as you treat that person the best you can, then I'm cool with that. Soooo why was I singled out? I had mentioned that I didn't especially like the lesbian love scenes in the book I was reading. But I also want to make it clear that I don't read romance novels because I really don't like reading about any kind of hot lovin' in any book I read, regardless if it was between a man and a woman or some other combo. Wowsers, I have been meeting with my bookclub for almost two years and I thought that these people would know that I'm pretty tolerant when it comes to quite a lot of various issues. I'm really not too sure why I got so bothered by it, but maybe the bottom line is I don't like being put in the same category as all the psycho gay bashes that get up on their soap boxes and talk about how it's morally wrong, thus going to some kind of hell, or that they in some way are making the wrong choice (as if it was really a choice that they are making...), or that it is disgusting in some way. I'm going to put it out there that no matter if you are hetero or not I don't like gross PDA's and think that it should be left to do in private no matter who the heck you are kissing. Hey I'm the one that firmly believes in marriage remember!!! If you want to go get hitched to your mate then go nuts, besides there are plenty of examples of how not to be married out there so maybe it would bring up the percentages for couples staying married. Ack maybe a little fear bubbled up in me because I know that there is a high percentage of homophobes in my family and I certainly don't want Hailey to be exposed to attitudes like that, I think that tolerance is essential for her and for everyone I spend time with. Oh well, I tried to reason with the group and I don't think that they care either way but I wanted to make it pretty clear that it doesn't really matter to me. Guess I just should keep my dislike of love scenes to myself because that could open a whole other can of whoop ass on me altogether.... ps I'm not a prude but I would totally prefer to read about someone solving a crime or kicking someones butt over pure romance cheese. But I'm in my bookclub to expose me to books I would never read on my own and even though I might not like the book, I like the people.

L

It Must be Genetic

I have been doing a wee bit of self reflecting in the last couple of days as I watch my little baby girl transform into an independent toddler and wondering what the next stage holds for us. As I mentioned in the last post with the failed time out lesson I'm beginning to think that we are a little over our heads as Hailey heads into toddlerhood or as some may call it the "terrible twos". I consider myself as a pretty patient person, lack of sleep, lack of time and handling Hailey on my own most of the time has nothing on me, but I fear that I will be tested in the next couple of months. I have noticed that she has a tendency to be a little bit of a diva sometimes when it comes to deviating from what it is she wants to do, and I was wondering is that something that she gets from me? or could there be another guilty party hanging out in the family tree somewhere? I'm pretty sure it's not Mitch modeling this behaviour for her so where on Earth is she learning it from? Overall I do believe that you are a product of your environment, paired with parenting structure and a lot of love I think you will produce a pretty normal kid someday ready to be released into the wild. But there is this side of me that thinks man "you act just like your..... enter family member name here" even if that person has been totally absent from your life for the majority of it, maybe we can't escape totally from our DNA. Pretty scary considering my gene pool, let's just hope that most of the retard gene gets bypassed for some of the better options, let's just hope that natural selection will do it's job. I do know a lot of people that use family history as an excuse to suck at life, that's not really the point I'm trying to make here I just am left thinking, if it's not Mitch or me teaching her this behavior then it really must be coming from a deeper level. I know Hailey is one smart little cookie, the tantrums were bound to hit our house at some point, I know it was delusional of me to think that we could get away from it altogether but I'm hoping that with a few tricks we can sidetrack the majority of them. I know she is only one, it's hard to say what will happen or not happen with her in the next couple of years, but my feisty, strong-willed, independent little lady certainly has me a little on edge when it comes to me thinking about the teenage years. Bottom line is I guess I really don't want to fail her by not giving her the skills she will need to be a success, and it all starts with what we are doing today that will have an effect of what happens tomorrow. I best be brushing up on my Dr.Phil episodes, seems like that dude knows a little something about somethings.

L

Happy New Year!

The CEO of Casa Carr is back to work, the holidays are officially over and it's back to the grind. Christmas has officially disappeared off the face of the Earth and we are ready to welcome 2011! I for one am very excited to see what will happen this year, and I haven't felt this way in awhile I normally lament over the ending of the past year and the starting of a new one. Looking back at 2010 we had a resurgence of weddings to go to and a few more little babies entered the scene but otherwise it was a pretty flat year for us here at the Carr house. Maybe it's Hailey being a little older that is going to allow us to adventure a little farther as a family this year that has me really excited or just the fact that almost all our friends have found a groove and are returning to life after all being shell shocked with newborns. Thinking about another baby? Hell no especially after the last three nights of not sleeping, that will not be happening by our helping it this year and that makes me happy as well. Which by the way means that we will not be moving this year either, which also makes me very happy.

So were there any of the superficial New Years resolutions made this year, nope. Just going to try my best to be at my best. I need to brush up on some new "Super Nanny" techniques for timeouts so that means a little more time devoted to reading some parenting books but that about is it for me. Mitch and I tried to time Hailey out last week which resulted in a total and complete failure, she thought it all was a big game and you might as well have stamped a big fat L on both of our foreheads. Mental note, do not let your one year old start controlling the situation now you have far too many years ahead. Ah well at least we can laugh about it, and in the meantime I will develop a new strategy to handle the little miss. It's just hard to be serious when she goes around "what does mommy say... No! Mommy says No plants!" with finger pointed, ahhh to be in her head for just a day...

So my major slacking has left me to a humongous pile of house work, but it feels good to have my house back and to ourselves.

Happy New Year everyone

L