Sunday, April 29, 2007

Zap-happy

Well I'm back from a weekend of defibrillating and resuscitating. I went to Kalgoorlie for the Advanced Life Support 2 day course. I left on Friday even tho the course didn't start until Saturday morning... had to squeeze in some retail therapy! Shops...oooh shops! I could touch real things for sale instead having to browse at them on a computer screeen. Such fun!

I'm going to go to bed tonight with the squealing noise of the defib alarm and prompts ringing in my ears. I have to say I'm pretty much over anything defib-related after 2 mega-intensive days doing nothing but zapping the crap out of plastic mannequins. I was actually secretly hoping someone would fuck up and zap themselves so i could do the 'real' thing on someone that wasn't just a plastic limbless torso! Is that wrong??

* * * * * *

My vino impregnated carpet is still just that... Vino impregnated.
Bloody Bicarb and salt trick is crap. It looks awful. Will have to try some of Melissa's linked 'tips' tomorrow.


Going to bed now, will perform a decent posting tomorrow!
Promise.

x

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Vino de'splat


This is what happens when you try to balance a glass of red on the heater while scoffing apricot chicken down your gob - after already consuming a tad too many beers.

Nice one husband. (doooooorrrk)

Guess who had to clean it up? yup, me. Well he looked at me with this horror confused look on his face (that men always seem to put on when they want to get out of doing some kind of crap-ola job) and kind of mumbled ' awww Drea, can you help me??' I had to help... plus the vision of a HUGE stain right smack-bang in the doorway of the lounge forever to come, was also somewhat motivating. I remember my friends very 'Martha Gardener-ish' Mum using Bicarb on a wine spill once... so I did the same.
Except I used up all our bicarb in the process.
So then I used salt as well (thanks Google for your advice)
A Big tub of salt.... all gone on the spillage (there was a lot of wine in that glass)
Maybe I shoulda soaked the wine up with a towel first. God i'm clever.
Now it looks like a big science experiment in the doorway of the lounge... the most obvious place it could possibly be.
Suggestions anyone???

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Birthday tears

I'm sick of my grey blog, I'm going to mess around with the format a bit, so expect some changes. I'm in one of those moods where I just can't make my mind up...so it could take a while!

It was my sisters birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday Jo!). She rang me in the morning to say she had got her album thingy i made her and she'd been sitting in the car at the post office looking through it bawling her eyes out!! It wasn't supposed to make her CRY!!!!! It was supposed to be a happy warm-fuzzy-i-love you-your-my-sister kind of thing! She said she loved it... which is great (since it took me like a gazillion years to actually complete!)

I'm off to do some housework before Wayne gets home and discovers I've spent the whole day wasting time in blog-land!
*shriek..who me?*
x

Sunday, April 22, 2007

A Dogs life

Well it's Sunday and it seems forever since I last blogged.


The town is covered in big angry grey storm clouds, and until about 20 minutes ago we had been in a blackout for a couple of hours. Wayne came home from work to find the place in darkness and me on the couch with the dogs on top of me (both quivering in pathetic-ness from the thunder outside) I was trying to snooze between offers of reassurance to the whimpy mutts.

Wayne was pacing around in boredom, it was dark and quiet, and his afternoon of footy watching had been destroyed by a storm. He was trying to find something to amuse himself with and he said to me 'Do ya wanna root??'. I just about fell off the couch choking with laughter - for a start who says root these days?? And... although we've been married for 9 years puh-lease try to make the offer somewhat romantic and not just because your bored shitless and it's the last thing you could think of to amuse yourself!! What a dork, thank gawd about 20 seconds later the power came back on and I haven't heard from him since, he's reverted back to being a footy-head.

* * * * * *



I took a heap of photo's of the dogs yesterday. I sat out on the back lawn with them, they were playing tug-o-war with a dog toy thingy, then doing laps chasing each other, it was funny to watch... aww i love my dumb doggies! I've posted some of the pics.





I did a couple of good runs last week, other than that my fitness wasn't as great as I had planned. My eating was okay, lots more fruit n veg and nutrition.

* * * * * *

Mothers Day Classic update:

The Fun Run planning is going great guns. JB and I decided to go down and sit ourselves outside the supermarket Saturday morning to advertise the fun run/walk and to see if we could sign anyone up. We had a great response, signed up approx 15 people and also managed to get over $140 in donations (from people who weren't willing to walk 4km but wanted to donate to the Breast Cancer charity) and some surprising generosity. One guy signed up himself and his wife to do the walk ($15 each) gave us a $50 note and said 'keep the change, it's for a good cause'. Amazing eh? There are still 3 weeks to go, so hopefully we'll get a few more people registered and walking/running for a good cause.


While we were sitting down there this very friendly dog hung out with us, he was beautiful, still a puppy with the hugest ears! He must've escaped from someones yard, we think we worked out who he belonged to and eventually sent him home, but not before I (the crazy dog lover) took some pics of him. I could've stolen him, he jumped up into my lap and was just so cute & super friendly. JB (a non-doggie lover!) was not impressed. I should've signed him up for the fun run, He could've been our mascot with a pink bandana or something.
Check out the flappa ears!


This week I plan to do 3 runs, attend the ANZAC dawn service and dig out my Tae Bo DVD's! (Not necessarily in that order). I have to go to Kalgoorlie this weekend for a course, so will be away Friday and Saturday night, back Sunday arvo.

This is the last week of me 'playing' boss. Wow that 5 weeks has flown and it actually hasn't been anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It just shows that sometimes we have more ability than we sometimes believe we do.

xx

Monday, April 16, 2007

wobbly when running




Yeah well, so much for my post about not worrying about what i eat and focusing so much on my weight. It seems my brain won't just 'turn off' that stuff.

Here's the deal. Basically I've been eating like a freak, (what? you mean normal people don't sit and eat whole boxes of Tiny Teddies for lunch??) and the Pope has probably done more exercise than me. Now my clothes don't fit. Funny that.

Sooo, I've decided to head toward the 'healthy' side of the fence again, to give my brain some well deserved Nutrition, my muscles some tone (under that flab) and my buttons a chance to do up!! Ha!

In all seriousness, I'm feeling wobbly and lazy again. You know that constant groggy - yawny feeling? Its AWFUL & I prefer feeling fit and 'alive', not puffing when I walk up stairs, not squishing into clothes and feeling self conscious about the spare tyre developing around my girth. Most importantly I prefer to feel focused with clear thoughts, and diet plays a huge part in that.

Today I have tried to eat smaller more regular meals. I drank WATER instead of IC (wow!) and I went for a fabulous 56 minute jog with Tan which made me feel on top of the world.

Yeah! Feeling better already!

* * * * * *

The Fun Run update:

The Leo 'Mothers Day classic' is happening!!! Woo Hoo, we're registered as a regional event and I'm excited! Its not on the web site yet, but is a work in progress. All we have to do now is to get the lovely Leo folk to register & join in.

Friday, April 13, 2007

The girl moves

I just had to post and say I JUST WENT FOR A RUN!!!! Yay!! Miracles do happen.

I managed to move my hefty butt out of bed at 0445 am to meet Nikki for a jog out to Gwalia. I got up to find she'd left a message on my phone (I have to guiltily confess after a crap-ola sleep I had kinda hoped it was her cancelling the jog... hee hee) but no, she was telling me the visiting maintenance man from Kal had kind of 'invited himself' on our morning jog and she was for-warning me & apologising her little heart out (not her fault tho...plus i don't really care who comes jogging, the more the merrier). Anyway we did a hospital to Gwalia jog and I did really well! I was worried because it's been ages, my fitness is at an all time low, and last time i jogged my shins felt like they were about to explode. Not to mention the fact that Nik is an awesome long distance running queen, and maintenance man looks like a wirey-natural-runner-kind. (You know that look... when u can imagine people in little running shorts and a sweaty singlet going for miles n miles?) But I did fine... managed to hold a half reasonable conversation with them the whole way and Maintenance man found it tough going, so i felt secretly great about that.

* * * * * *

I'm wagging work today (well half a day of work) to go to Kal with husband for a dirty weekend! yippee. well actually it's only one night, we're coming back tomorrow arvo. Thats still ample time to stay at a nice hotel, sip cocktails in the bar, have a relaxing spa in their ginormous spa-baths and perform some much needed retail therapy.

Halle - bloody- lujah

Monday, April 09, 2007

Easter bunnies

I now understand why all the non-shift workers I'm surrounded by RAVE like lunatics about the Easter break. I have just (for the first time in my entire working life) had a real Easter break. F O U R days OFF!!! Yay...yahoooo, yipppeee. Oh my gawd it's been wonderful! It is the only truly wonderful thing about doing the bosses job for 5 weeks - not only do I manage to have Easter off, but I also jag another short week when ANZAC day comes around. As a nurse I usually work public holidays... half the time I don't even realise it is a public holiday (until I go to the shop or Post Office and realise it's closed!). So YAY, I feel refreshed and rejuve'd.

So what have I done the past 4 days?

I've had a gardening and scrapbooking FRENZY! My two favourite 'relaxation' hobbies have been done to death. Today I spent no less than 8 hours gardening. Weeding, digging, pruning, weeding, potting, watering, weeding some more. It was great. I've got blisters to prove my efforts, but I feel fantastic that I managed to clean up the entire back and front garden beds. I wish I'd taken before and after shots - I could've sent them to Backyard Blitz & they might've hired me to be part of their team!

Scrapbooking... well i finally finished my sisters 'better-late-than-never' 40th Birthday album thingy. It's awesome (pity she turned 40 last year...haarr!) and I know she'll love it. Here are some pics.... (I hope she doesn't read my blog)

If Scrapbooking bores you ... you'd better scroll down fast!








Well I'm off to bed to have dreams about pulling weeds, digging trenches and cutting and glueing bits of paper!!
xx
PS: I've eaten like a 'normal' person today... healthy but not obsessive. It felt great!

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Obese or obsessing?

Have you ever noticed how pathetically weight obsessed we all are?? Hey...I'm one of the biggest offenders, but lately I'm starting to think seriously about it all. I appreciate the health benefits of maintaining a 'healthy weight range', but the amount of time, effort, depression and obsession that people put themselves through.... trying to achieve something that they think will make their lives a 'whole lot better'... when in fact many of us are in a healthy weight range.
I've come to the conclusion its sad, very sad. Why don't we spend equal amounts of time learning to love the body we have, appreciating that we're healthy and fortunate enough to be around people we love, in fresh air and sunshine, in a country that's peaceful and beautiful.

Instead of spending millions on 'weight loss' drugs and regime's, why doesn't some of that money & focus go towards accepting ourselves for who we are. I know that I seem to have an all or nothing approach. I'm either fixated on eating like a saint, or I switch off and don't give a toss. I have problems with binge eating at times, I eat when I'm emotional, I eat 'forbidden' treats when my husband isn't around (sneakily hiding the evidence!) and I've finally come to the conclusion that a lot of my life seems to revolve around obsessive food behaviour. I'm sure if I stopped focusing so bloody hard on what I'm eating, when i should eat, and my left and right brain stopped arguing over whether i should exercise or not.... if i just TRULY ate and did whatever i felt like, then I would be much better off. The problem is i can't seem to turn that part of my obsessive brain off... and that sucks.

I was looking through some old photo's yesterday when I was 12kg lighter than i am now. I remember thinking then (approx 6 years ago) that i was overweight. WTF?? I wasted so much time feeling miserable when there was nothing wrong with me!! Aarrggh.

So in summary, i have to admit I'm a bit lost at the moment. I read other blogs and so many of us seem to be in the same boat. I want to lose a few kgs and be fit, but I'm sick of obsessing about it and feeling so down on myself when i get off track. I'm wasting time by not appreciating what i have and should be grateful for.

Happy Easter.