Hellooooo?

Hello! It's been awhile. The world of facebook, life as a nurse, mom, wife has taken my time up. I'm feeling the need to write again. Not sure if I remember how, but I will try. I couldn't for the life of me remember how to even log in...or post, so this shall be interesting. Life has been challenging the past few months, but I am taking it day by day. Will update in the next couple of days.... Is there anybody out there?

Eyescapade

I love a good deal. I'm always hunting to save money wherever I can. Yesterday while shopping for my contact lens solution(I am saving up for the eye surgery, not lasix but the new one) I saw an awesome deal for a contact lens solution. I read the box...and it said "clean and disinfect'. I bought the solution "Clear and Clean"(or clean and clear?) and was off. The first sign that this wasn't your run of the mill lens solution was the funky case it came with. I followed the directions and there was a voice in the back of my head that was wondering why you couldn't use a regular contact lens case with it. I reread the directions, and everything seemed kosher. Fast forward to 6 am the following day. I took my right lens out and did what I normally do with my solution, squirted some solution on the lens. I then placed it in my eye and for the love of god, I have never experienced such pain in my life. It felt like my eye was on fire, it was burning. I tried to take my contact lens out but my eye was instictively staying shut.  "Help me!" I yelled in desperation.  No response from my sleeping bear..I mean hubby, in the next room. Somehow I managed to get the lens out and immediately washed my eye in water. I had a few remnants of the "good stuff" left in my old bottle and used that to rinse out my lenses. My eye began to feel a bit better and I looked in the mirror and it was completely reddened.
  In the meantime I went into the bedroom and woke the sleeping bear from hibernation. "I burned my eye!" I stammered. "Huh?" he replied, half comatose. "What's for supper tonight?" he asked. My response to this question was not very ladylike so I won't share it online.
I spent the whole day at work complaining to my lovely coworkers about this eyescapade.By the end of the day my eye feels way better. Lesson learned: don't be a cheapskate on certain items. Spending 50 cents more on an item is worth it sometimes.
Hope everyone is fantabulous,
Jenny

41 Reasons to Celebrate....

This is a tad early...by 8 hours and 27 minutes but I am happy to be celebrating my birthday.  Why am I happy?
I'm 41, I've made it through another year without illness for myself, or my family. We have a beautiful home, I have a career I love and amazing friends and family.

F:  F is for family and friends...I'm blessed beyond measure by both. F is also for fun, which I love to have a lot of, and f#$%& a word I happen to say to much of. Please don't judge me, I say it in the most lady like way.

O: O is for old...am I old?? No way jose.  I honestly believe that I am young. I may have had a couple of wrinkles sprout up in the past year and my back may slightly ache (this will hopefully be remedied by a new King sized mattress....helloooo!)but I still feel young at heart. O can also stand for overweight...ughh...grrrr....I'm still working on this. I've been eating clean and doing Spark People...I'm hoping a marathon is in my near future.
U: U is for umbrella. I need to get myself a funky umbrella. I want a polka dotted or skull boned umbrella...the reason for the umbrella? We have been getting a huge amount of rain. I actually don't mind the rain. I find it comforting, in a weird way. We stay indoors, eat warm food and I love the sound of rain.  U is also for unorthodox...I like to think I am this kind of gal. Not your cookie cutter kind of girl....

R:R is for realistic. Okay, realistically I won't be running a marathon in the near near future, but in the "maybe one year away" I'd like to do a 10 k...R is also for Romance. I'm a romantic at heart. I love pretty things, lovely poems...beautiful art. I also love, love...which I have an abundance in my life.

T:T is for truth. I respect and admire those people that are truthful in their lives and to others. I strongly dislike (not going to say the H word) those that are fake, or liars. Although this statement is kind of funny. Like who really is going to say, "I admire fake people and liars."  Okay, T is for toblerone...I always love this chocolate at Christmas.

Y:Y is for yesterday. I am not focusing on my past. I am only focusing on today...and of course the future. Those that say you can't focus on the future is not a working mom of 3 boys. If I don't somewhat plan ahead...disaster strikes...what will we eat for dinner??So I have no shame in admitting I like to look into the future. Am I wasting my days away wishing I wasn't in the present...hell no!


O:O is for Ordinary. Who wants to be ordinary. Be extraordinary. Live on the edge...love the life you are living. What did Ghandi say? "Be the change you want to see in the world." Don't wait for life to become exciting, make it exciting...O is also for Oreo.  I have a beautiful cat named Oreo Cookie Damstrom, and I love myself a good oreo cookie.(the reason for one of the O's from above...eek)

N::N is for Nickleback. I saw them twice in concert years ago. They seem a little too commercialized for me. N is also for negativity.  I can't stand negative people....lol. Is that statement itself positive?

E: E is for emotional. Sometimes I have been known to be a tad bit emotional. I can easily burst into tears watching something on tv, or listening to a song. Sometimes even if the song makes me cry I still want to listen to it a few times afterwards?? E is also for exhausted...I have found that by working full time and coming home I am most often exhausted physically and sometimes emotionally.  The woes of a working outside of the home mom....

And there you have it....fourty one! Fourty one reasons to celebrate today(ahem tomorrow)....
Life if great.....

Jenny

Guess who's Back....

I'm back...and I'm fabulous. Well today I am. All is well in my world. My boys are chugging along with running club, vball, powerskating and hockey (no not all 3...I'd be exhausted!) Hubby is still up to the same ol, same ol...(and I'm not referring to me...hehe).
I was in a deep funk for quite awhile and feel like for the time being the fog has lifted. Work has been going great. I'm fortunate to love the job I am doing, and continue to try and balance a life with full time work and being a busy mom. There really is no happy medium. I'm probably not as organized as I would like to be, and on most days except for Thursdays(when my cleaning lady friend comes over to clean) you will find my house in semi-chaos form. That doesn't matter though, does it?  We are healthy, happy(except for Monday Mornings...I don't like Mondays) and are living a full life.
Tomorrow I am going to make a couple of dinners for this upcoming week. My husband is good around the house...he is super clean and an amazing dad, but his cooking skills aren't all that shit hot...So I need to be more organized in the food department. I find when I come home from work the last thing I want to do is cook a dinner from scratch. So I will try and be prepared and get some dinners done for this week. On the agenda is a shephards pie, canneloni(from my new awesome Clean Recipe magazine) and a butter chicken. 
My life is about the same as when I left writing here.  I haven't been exercising as much as I would like, but started up a few days ago. I either need more hours in the day, or to be more organized with my time...lol. I think the key to my life is organization. I have joined spark people and love it. For those that don't know about it, you record your food and exercise for the day. It calculates your calories eaten and calories burned. It also does a review of what foods you eat and where your short falls are. I eat too many carbs and never eat enough protein...ughh....I'm working on this, truly I am.
Fall is my favourite time of the year. I love the briskness of the air and the colours of the foliage. It is also a reminder that Christmas is right around the corner....have you started shopping for Christmas? What are must buys for your family? What are you wanting to get?? I'd love some feedback.
Anyhow, this was short, but hope to hear from some of my blogging buddies...
Miss you all...
Jenny

Broken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6cdPeYJh0s&ob=av2e

I'm not sure why, but this song is how I'm feeling today. Must be all the snow...wetness, slushy, dark. I drove back from a quick jaunt into town feeling sad and heavy hearted. I'm missing my dad. I feel like my life is going by so quick in front of my eyes and I can't say that I'm loving every minute of it. Maybe it's that I turned 40 and I'm having a mid life crisis. I don't know. I know there are many positive aspects of my life, but I miss our family and close friends. I'm sure if the sun starts to shine tomorrow I'll be proclaiming how fantastic my life is. Please bear with me and my rollercoaster of emotions!
In other news, my van wouldn't start this morning. Probably for the fact that it had a soaking wet battery from my swamp driving and I haven't started it in a couple of days. Shay and I went to use our handy dandy battery starter, but lo and behold, it wasn't charged. I am ashamed to say I said words that are not too fitting for a lady. I did manage to jump start the van using the truck and it seems to be running like a hot damn. Somewhere along the way I've lost the second set of truck keys, so that will be causing my hubby to share some very unladylike words with me.
It is my middle son's 12th birthday today. I was coming off of night shifts so I couldn't do too much celebrating, but I did make him a special breakfast of pancakes. Tonight he requested McYucky's for his birthday supper, so I obliged and am having the after effects of a gut bomb. Shite...clean eating wasn't happening today...more like on the dirty side of the plate.
I have 4 glorious days off and am loving them. I have so much housework to do around here. I swear we were on the verge of being nominated for the hoarder's show...thankfully, I will try and put a stop to this impending ballot.
Christmas is only 30 days away and I haven't bought one present! Holy Muther Effer...but...I don't feel too stressed. I have an idea of a few things to get the kids, but they have everything. I'm just looking forward to spending some quality time with the family.
Tonight I have some floors to wash and wine to drink. Hehe..who says alcohol and cleaning doesn't mix! I'm a true multi tasker. I am on night shift mode, so I am setting up a couple of playlists and will clean to the music.
I've been on the hunt for some new music these days. Feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions of some good music choices.
Have a fantastic evening... I leave you with this clip that seems to bring a smile even to the most sullenest of moods...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA0iLtT46fY
Stay warm!
~Jenny

Blizzardy Day

Well life as I once knew it has changed dramatically in the past few months. I have gone from a stay at home mom with oodles of time and energy on my hands to a working mom with little or no energy. I am not complaining. Well, not at this moment.
My boys have had an adjustment period as well. I think my youngest especially. He's not used to not having his mom always at home for him,but we've made it work. My husband has had an adjustment period as well...for the exact same reasons as my youngest son. Some days I find myself infuriated with him, as he can come home from work at the same time as me, yet I am the one rushing around feeding the family and doing the errands...grrr...Oh well, I promised I wouldn't complain.(I'll save that for another post)
The weather outside is frightful today. On the way into work I started weaving through the road, and I'm sure I resembled Cruella Deville as I tried to miss sideswiping the vehicle in the lane next to me. That gave me the biggest adrenaline rush. To make matters worse I drove through the biggest puddle(lake) and by the time I got into the parking lot my van died. Of course I was stressed out. I said a little "911 prayer" and came back out to the van 10 minutes later and it started up with no issues. Thank you lord!
I have been busy in my free time doing the Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels work out dvds. These dvds are amazing. I'm hoping I stay focused so that come spring I will be ready to hit the pavement for some walk to run program. I'd like to try a spin class as well. I think that will keep me going for the winter. I have been trying to do the Eat Clean diet, but do find myself sometimes "cheating". My sugar intake has been minimal, which I am glad. I've done good with the carbs as well on the whole.
So where have I been? Between work, family, home..and facebook...I haven't been up to much else. I can kind of feel the winter blues coming up strong, so I need to make sure I do what I can to try and fight them off.
I hope everyone that reads this finds themselves well!!
Stay warm!
~Jenny

Walking for Facebook

Well here I am sitting in a deep pit of despair...or most likely feeling the hangover of the msg that I piggishly consumed 5 hours earlier. A proper nursing diagnosis might read: potential risk of abdominal dehiscence as evidenced by bloating due to the increased uptake of msg. Potential side effects may include: edema to the feet, hands(also called "snausages"), the Elvis'ism of the cheeks and necks, and dry mouth. So dry in fact that your tongue has made its home outside of your mouth in hopes of a droplet of anything moist!

I had myself one big old pity party tonight. First off I made the mistake of going down memory lane. Not just going down memory lane, but opening every door of memory I had of my dad and my last words I shared with them. I felt regret, guilt...you name it. The should haves, could haves and would haves were coming out of my mouth. If onlies were next..."if only I could just say goodbye..." Do I feel better now?? Not really. I just feel sad. I do know that life is what it is. There will be no more second chances, no more hugs or fond farewells, and I am okay with that, but the simple truth of this all is that I miss my dad and life sucks (big ol' donkey balls )sometimes. Plain and simple.

So after wallowing in my sadness I began to feel pretty pissed off with myself. I work my butt off at work...I don't saunter down the halls or down the stairs. I work hard. I go, go go. But...when I'm at home...I am slothlike in all of its glory. Normally comfortably fitting shirts have become Richard Simmons-like on me. I'm rocking out the look of the half shirts my friends. At first I was convinced that my dryer was shrinking my clothes but a closer look in the mirror (which was followed by a "holy muther effer who the hell is that" kind of shriek!) I realized that it was just my gutt growing..ughh... Seriously...I swear I'm the laziest person known to mankind right now. Tonight, instead of going to the basement to call my kids to bed, I sent my oldest a facebook message telling him to send him and his brothers upstairs so I could say goodnight. Frig...what have I become??(and did I really admit this to everyone??)

I lack motivation. If I could get an exercise bike that could power the computer..man I'd be in shape. I know that I NEED to start moving. I need to start eating better at home. I see some of the patients that come into the hospital and I don't want to become that person. I know that there are many people in this world that would love the gift of mobility. I am mobile, and don't treat it like it's a blessing. Things need to change.

So in my post msg hangover state that I'm in, I'm challenging myself to"Walking for Facebook". Every minute I walk will be a minute I can spend on the computer. This sounds quite difficult, drastic some may say,perhaps even impossible but I am doing this. (or will try doing this). I know my extra chins and gluteus gradiose will thank me in the long run.

Will anyone join me in this challenge?(and if you don't hear from me for a few days, you know things aren't going quite as I planned...)

~jenny