Day 1: More...

Well I've just finished the 2nd go at the 30 Day Shred...and it was as hard as the first time...actually HARDER!

I made it through though. I stopped one time for about 5 seconds cause I thought my heart was going to explode, but that was it. I don't know that I will be able to move for the rest of the night, but it means it's working, right? *haha*

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes!

New wedding cake pic...

Forgot to add in my new wedding cake pic. I did the cake for a wedding at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club last weekend. The venue is gorgeous...and the Bride, Taya, was stunning.

I wasn't that pleased with the cake at all, but everyone at the wedding, especially the bride and groom, loved it.

Day 1: 30 Day Shred

Well I guess yesterday was technically day 1, but I'm not counting it as we didn't do the work-out to it's fullest. We started too late at night (10pm) and we were still working so we kept having to stop.

Jason and I have decided to do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for the next month. We took our weight and measurements and we are going to do it each day and see if her claims are true (BIG weightloss/inches lost as well as much more stamina). I am hoping to weightloss, to get toned and definitely more stamina. I want to be able to jog again.

So we started it last night and man oh man, was it hard!! I had watched it earlier and thought it looked easy *hahahahaha!* It literally kicked my ass! It kicked Jason's too, so I didn't feel quite as bad then. We collapsed on the couch after and literally didn't move for about 30 minutes. The stairs up to bed were rough. I slept better last night though than I have in a while!

This morning I was a little stiff, more than sore. So I got my shoes on and went out for a 3.5km walk which I did in about 30 minutes. Felt good!

Sometime today Jay and I will do what I consider Day 1 of the Shred. I am going to try and update each day to let you know how it goes.

Now onto my weight & measurements:

Weight: 173lbs

BMI: 30.66 *ugh!*

Neck: 14"

L Bicep: 12.5"

R Bicep: 13"

L Forearm: 9.5"

R Forearm: 10"

Bust: 42"

Waist: 36.75"

Hips/Butt: 46"

L Thigh: 21.25"

R Thigh: 21.25"

L Calf: 15.5"

R Calf: 15.5"

Food today has been good. 2 slices of raisin toast for breakfast and an organic apple after my walk. Salmon on wholewheat for lunch and fajitas for dinner. Organic carrots as a snack later.

Recipes haven't been that exciting lately, although last night I did make my best "chicken parmesan with aglio e olio" - it was super YUM and I could have eaten several plates, but didn't.

More later...after the next "Shred"...

Let the peace and quiet begin...

School started today!! WOO HOO! Although it was quite a surprise as we arrived to find that our kids were no long enrolled at the school! Yes, I was in shock! But why?, I asked. "Well because you've moved to Sudbury", was the answer. "No we haven't", I replied, "and I certainly didn't authorize you unregistering my children!". "Well somebody did", replied the secretary.

Well they've now been re-enrolled and are in the classes they had wanted to be. Grade 1 with Mrs. Pearson for Emily and Grade 4 with Mrs. Elliot-Cummings for Ben. I'm sure I'll hear all about it this afternoon when they get home.

So I left off saying what we'd have for dinner on Saturday? Well for the life of me, I can't remember. I am thinking we had sandwiches as Jason was at work.

Sunday was the Ribfest/street party here. I made cupcakes..."hamburgers" and "Corn-on-the-cob" *haha* Everyone loved them and I ended up giving out lots of cards :D

That night I made my first "from scratch" ribs on the BBQ. I'd done them in the slow cooker before, but never on the BBQ. I did a memphis style rib. A dry rub first of paprika, cayenne, salt & pepper. I BBQ'd them on low (only 1 burner lit with ribs on opposite side of BBQ) for 45 mins. While that was happening, I made the BBQ sauce on the stove. After the 45 mins I started basting the ribs with the sauce and did so a couple times an hour for about 4 hours total. Now I have to say, the ribs were FANTASTIC! The flavour went all the way through...the rub was spicy and the sauce was sweet and tangy. I was so pleased and almost wish I'd entered them in the rib contest. But it was nice to have just something for Jay and I (which we ate when he got home from work that night).

Find the recipe below (which I didn't follow exactly as usual).

Monday we were out for dinner at Karen's house. We had chicken on skewers with a spicy peanut sauce, various salads (including the best salad EVERY...Karens broccoli & mushroom one - which I MUST get the recipe for!) and fresh peach cobbler with whipped cream for dessert. All VERY delish. I brought the appetizer...a pizza style hot dip. It went within 10 minutes and everyone loved it. Am going to make it again this week for Jay and I one night as Jay didn't get any and he would really like it. I'm including the recipe for that below too (again, I made some changes - getting much more confident at that as my culinary skills improve!).

Tonight I'm thinking we'll have a creamy salmon pasta...new recipe I found. Will let you know how it goes!

Memphis Ribs

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 4 hours, 00 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds pork spareribs
• For Rub:
• 4 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoons cayenne
• For Sauce:
• 2 cups ketchup
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce

Preparation:

Prepare ribs by removing the membrane from the underside of the ribs. Trim off any loose fat or meat. Prepare smoker or grill. You will want to hold a temperature around 225 degrees F. for 4 to 6 hours so plan accordingly. Season ribs with Memphis rub and place on grill or in smoker. While ribs are cooking, prepare barbecue sauce. Blend together everything except the ketchup. Pour into a saucepan and add the ketchup. Simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Cook ribs until the internal temperature of the meat reaches about 145 degrees F. Brush with barbecue sauce. After about 10 minutes turn the ribs over and brush with sauce continually during cooking process.

Last night's dinner...and hopefully tonights!

OK, so the truly expensive organic beef & cheddar burgers from last night were...*drum roll*

Sooooo worth it! I've had quite a few burgers in my day, but these were exceptional!! So delicious, so meaty, so cheesy (with no adverse reactions to this cheese!! *yea!*)...just, for lack of better words, REALLY GOOD! I would definitely buy these again, even at the price (about $4 each). And it has really made me more and more interested in changing to organic meat.

As for tonight...I'm thinking it will be a pasta casserole made with homemade sauce and ground turkey. The only problem is, I'm working until after 8PM, so I'm not sure how making it will go. Might have to do something alittle simpler. I'll get back to you...

I know, I know...

I keep saying I'll blog regularly, but then don't!

So...inspired by Julie Powell's blog (ie. Julie & Julia), I have decided for the next month, to post the recipe of what I'm making for dinner.

Today's isn't much of a recipe unfortunately. Tonight's menu is: fresh organic beef & cheese burgers from Whole Foods with tomatoes/onions/etc and home-made french fries (chop up some potatoes & fry 'em style).

Tomorrow I'm working 12 hours and so I Jay, so I'm thinking of a casserole or the like that I can just prepare early on and then stick in the oven...or maybe crock-pot. Hmmm...I'll get back to you tomorrow on that one!

Other news??

Busiest month so far for my cake business. I have 8 orders (approx. 2 a week) and I find this very exciting! Fingers crossed things continue this well. Plus I suppose I should really start handing out some cards too!

More later...will let you know how what the burgers are like. They better be fantastic for the price I paid. I LOVED Whole Foods, but DAMN! I definitely couldn't afford to eat there exclusively. Plus I love how they don't put the price on a lot of things...must not want to put people off *haha*

Why does eating healthy have to be so expensive??!!

Monday Weigh-In - Week 2

Well this weeks wasn't as good...by A LOT!

I had a gain this week :P 2lbs to be exact. I know why, so there wasn't really any surprises when I stepped on the scale.

Although I did eat mostly whole foods, I didn't eat enough fruit and vegetables (need to up that this week) and too many grains. We also ordered in one night and had dinner at a friends one night. The dinner at friends was all great whole type foods (beef, chicken, salad, corn on the cob, mini new potatoes and homemade peach cobbler)...the problem was it was too great and I ate way too much! I also slowed down on my water intake and drank too much diet pop (which totally goes against my whole foods thing, so I need to break that bad habit ASAP!). Also, not enough exercise.

Now I know what I'm doing, I can improve this week and hopefully see a loss next week!!

The week was generally ok otherwise. Did my first grocery shop of planned healthy, whole meals and was a bit worried about the cost of eating healthy, but I did manage to do it a little cheaper than normal! Quite unexpected!

Couple of big storms this week that knocked out our power around here. Nice light shows though.

This weekend kept me very busy. Late Friday night we decided to change up the house and then slept on it. Saturday morning we got to work. We moved ALL of the kids toys out of the playroom and into the family room, including the cabinets and shelves. The LCD tv came upstairs to the livingroom and the armchair in the livingroom went to the back room. We juggled more and more stuff around until we'd redefined all the spaces. The backroom upstairs is now a sitting room with 3 armchairs, and also the piano. The livingroom now has the TV in it plus the 2 leather couches. The familyroom downstairs is now totally a kid space with the small tv for them and the old playroom is now a office/scrapbooking/cardmaking/cakestorage room for me :)

The office was looking ugly, ugly, ugly...so I went and picked up some paint and spent Sunday plastering, sanding and painting the walls and trim (and now have sore arms and shoulders!). It's now ready for another coat and I'm LOVING the way it looks! Next step is to get the furniture in, mine and Jay's computers and then all the scrapbooking/cardmaking stuff of my Mum's from Dads. I will include pics when it's all finished :)

Greif's Timetable

It's been about 3 weeks now and all that time I got asked the questions, "how are you?" or "are you ok?" and my response was always, "yes, I'm ok".

Well 3 weeks I guess is the time limit to BE ok, cause the questions have stopped. I feel like I was ok then...but as the time has passed I feel like I'm not ok now. I guess it's all taken time to sink in, because now I feel sadder than ever. But society seems to think I should be ok now. Well I don't feel it. I'm now breaking down a couple of times a day. I am really missing her...each day more and more.

And yet, everyone seems to be done talking and asking when I feel I need people the most...guess our busy schedules of today dictate everything...including how long you should grieve.

Lonely...

I'm feeling quite lonely today...thinking of Mum and missing Jay (who's on business in Sudbury & North Bay). Plus the 13 hour work days are feeling VERY long! Dad is coming for dinner tonight though...I'm thinking steak, potatoes & veg.

Eating is going well. For breakfast was 1 egg+ 1 egg white scrambled with garlic & herbs on 1 slice of toast (ran out of homemade bread so had to eat store bought *YUCK!*) with a little taco sauce. Definitely need to find a taco sauce recipe so I can eliminate that processed food...and a good salsa recipe.

Think I'm going to experiment with some new recipes for the kids for school this week. Got a couple of granola bar recipes to try. Also want to make some carrot/parsnip muffins and some pumpkin spice muffins...anything to get some vegetables into Ben!

Hmmmm...think that will be my quest today...find some more good school recipes for the kids and set out a couple weeks of menus for the school year. Will help me have everything ready for the week as well as making sure I don't over buy at the grocery store.

I am hoping to get back to exercising regularly again soon. Once the kids go back to school I'll have a little time in the morning to exercise. Want to get back to jogging again, but also doing some yoga and strength exercises. May do some of the "Wii Fit" again daily to get me started.

Decided to organize photos and home video on my hard drive...what a mistake that was. Had to close them and don't think I'll be able to do that for sometime. Much to soon I suppose.

Monday Weigh-In - Week 1

OK, every Monday, I will check in here with my weight loss...well hopeful weight loss!

Last week I was back up to almost my highest weight. VERY disappointing after losing most of the weight I wanted and getting down to 130lbs, but such is the PCOS beast. This time I want to forget "diets" and change what I eat for my health and not just to lose weight.

So first my starting weight...here goes....

August 10th = 178lbs

Today's weigh-in: August 17th = 172.5lbs

I am VERY pleased with the results...shocked actually! So I will keep this up and hopefully it will continue to drop off. More slowly I hope, but still consistent losses would be great :)

Until next Monday...

Well it's official! I am running my own cake business now. It's called "Sweet Ideas".

A lot has changed since my last post about cakes. I started taking classes and really enjoyed them. I continue to learn new techniques. People started seeing the cakes and asking if I could make some for them. A friend who works with brides wanted some cards to hand out. So to make a long story short...

Now I've got the website (http://www.sweet-ideas.ca), the business cards and the orders are pouring in. It's hard work, but I'm really enjoying it. Had no intention of doing this when it all started, but it seems like people are enjoying the cakes, so I will continue to make them as long as people are ordering :)

The website says it all, so I'll just include a few pics here:

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've posted. Why? Guess life gets in the way, especially lately.

On July 31st my Mum lost her battle with cancer. It had been more than 9 years, but it doesn't make it any easier. Jason and I were away camping when it happened and we didn't find out until the Monday. This made me feel guilty, but I know that being there wouldn't have changed anything. My Dad had lots of help from our wonderful friends. The week went by in a flash. Tuesday was the visitation. A lot of people came, including some old friends from high school. It was lovely to see everyone...but naturally bittersweet. Wednesday was the funeral. There were 18 of us. It was probably the hardest day of the week. Was hard to say good-bye. That night, Fran arrived. It was lovely to see her. She reminds me a lot of Mum. Thursday was the memorial service. So many people showed up (hundreds!) and every single one had something amazing to say about Mum. She was the most amazing woman...and I hope I can be just a little bit like her in my life.

Now life has gone back to "normal"...back to work, back to my cakes, back to being a mum and wife. But will life really get back to "normal"? I'm guessing some day it will feel like that. It does a lot of the time now, but then something triggers a thought or emotion and I get overwhelmed with sadness. Watching a movie, smelling Mum's smell, seeing her jewelry... Sometimes there isn't a trigger at all and I just feel sad. I am not trying to get rid of those feelings though, just trying to ride them out and feel those feelings and emotions and enjoy the memories they bring.

I went to sort through her clothes, jewelry, etc. on Saturday. It was tough. Not while I was actually sorting, but it really built up through the day until I felt out of control emotionally. I am now happy to have Mum's charm bracelet. I will wear it at all times.

Two things I've become aware of since this has happened, and they are quite opposite in nature:

1) I feel the need to defeat this horrible disease in some way. For now, that seems to be helping prevent myself and my daughter from ever having to deal with it. So Jason and I have decided to change how we eat. We are cutting out the processed foods (hopefully completely within the next year), start eating organic produce and organic/hormone-free meats...perhaps even one day going vegetarian and then vegan. So far so good with that. I have lost 5.5lbs this week from doing that which is shocking to me! We have also started going for walks every night with the kids. It's important for them to understand how to look after their bodies also and starting them off young is the way to go.

2) So above I'm trying to be careful, but I also feel the need to be a little reckless and take some risks. I want to live life...I want to indulge in all this world has to offer. I want to uproot and travel, try new things, suck the marrow out of everything! Carpe diem, right?! To heck with "high-powered careers" and "luxury cars" and "Starbuck's coffee"...I want to take my kids up north and show them how to make an eco-friendly house, grow their own food, appreciate nature...I want to take them to impovrished parts of the world and let them see life there and teach them to help others and realize life isn't about "things" but about "people". I want to simplify life and get more out of it...which seems "risky" to me in todays society, but I feel it's the right thing to do. Will I end up doing all that? Hopefully. Realistically? Maybe not. But I'm going to do my best to try.

First "risky" move though...a tattoo. Plan to get a pink ribbon tattoo for my Mum :)

Life...

I have to say, I am enjoying life very much. What I wanted when I was younger was to be married, have some kids, own my own home and do things I enjoy. Well I have to say, I definitely have that.

And yet, I still feel somewhat unfulfilled. Now some people may think, "it's because she has no career". Well I don't think it is that at all. I spent a year travelling to Toronto everyday, spending 11+ hours out of my home and I can assure you, that DID NOT fulfill me. The idea of spending my days away from my home and family is definitely not something that makes me feel happy.

I think what I'm looking for is a life change. A change to simplification. A change to slow down. A change to spend more time with my husband and kids. A change not only good for my mind but also my body. Thankfully, Jason shares this view.

We have always wanted to live out in the country...and by country I mean, Northern Ontario. How far north? Well the furthest would be Sudbury. I'd prefer closer to Huntsville, just South West of Algonquin Park or nearby North Bay.

As for how, when, etc.? Well that is unclear. Right now we are considering our options.

With the current housing market it really would be an opportune time to buy, but unfortunately not to sell and we'd have to sell our house here. We also want to do some work on this house before selling, so the "when" sort of depends on the economy. But time is a good thing as it let's us research this change.

We are currently tossing around the possibility of buying land rather than a home. The most important things is where for us. We want a couple acres, waterfront and some isolation, although not too, too much as we do want the kids to be able to get to school easily and have friends.

We would then rent a mobile home of somekind to live in while we build. The house would be a small to medium sized house this is ecologically sound. Green building materials, using "grey water" and rainwater to irrigate the gardens, solar panels or wind energy, a solar hot water heater, and so on and so forth. We would like to lower our energy costs and become more self-reliant, while reducing our carbon footprint.

Part of the self-reliance is living off the land. The couple of acres would include gardens with vegetables/fruit and fruit trees. At some point we'd even like to keep animals, chickens at least. But that is further down the road. Fruits and vegetables would make us happy in the meantime.

So those are my thoughts and dreams of the future. I will blog more as this comes into fruition. Hopefully sooner than later!

Easter Cakes

So I'm getting into cake decorating so I thought I'd share my cakes up to this date. Next week I start my first decorating course, so I will continue to share my cakes with you as I progress through that.

My first decorated cake was one for a dinner party we held in March. It was an "Indian" night and dessert was mango ice cream and spice cake. Here is the finished product. I'm pretty pleased with the outcome, considering this was my first try at anything like this. This is a spice cake with vanilla and cinnamon buttercream icing. Everything was homemade.

Then for Easter I offered to make cupcakes for Emily's class. I did confetti cupcakes with green buttercream icing to look like grass, and candy eggs on top. Again, all homemade.

For Easter Sunday dinner at my parents I made a "bunny" cake for us all. This one is butter pecan cake with vanilla buttercream icing. The bunny, fence and vegetables are all made from fondant that I hand coloured. The "dirt" is made with oreo cookie crumbs. The next pictures show my progress:

Butterpecan Cake Batter

My current cake tins with parchment in the bottom

My homemade buttercream icing

My crumbcoated cake

My fondant pieces - took me about an hour to do with the hand colouring

The finished cake. I was pretty pleased with it, especially with it being my 2nd cake :)

Fishies...

OK, onto one of my passions...my fishies! This post talks about my 45 gallon aquarium and it's recent changes.

A little background...we set up a 45 gallon fresh-water aquarium about a year and a half ago. We had great success early on. The tank cycled well, our plants were growing like crazy and our fish seemed really healthy. Then last summer we had what we refer to as "The Reckoning". We went away for a couple of days and came back to a tank full of dead fish. It seems the heater malfunctioned and kept heating the tank up more and more. It looked like the fish were cooked. So we cleaned up and started some new fish. Since this point, we haven't had the same success. Plants aren't growing well. Fish do poorly. And then we had an outbreak of brown algae (well diatoms anyway) that has lasted months, with no fixing, not due to trying though.
So I had decided that this tank needed a serious overhaul and that's what last night's trip to Big Al's was about. We purchased the following:

• Large bag of black gravel (I had wanted to go with sand, but the pro's advised us against it with the type of filter we have *Eheim Canister Filter)



• Large bag of Eco-Complete (plant fertilizer)



• 6 new plants: 2x Nesaea crassicaulis, Limnophila aromatica, Bronze Windtii, a Crypt and an Amazon Sword



• 2 silk plants: I know I said I'd NEVER have fake plants in one of my aquariums, but silk plants have come a long way - anyway, these are just filler until my plants get bigger and/or I purchase more real ones - that being said, I'm really pleased with the way they look



• A ship wreck: Another thing I don't normally go for, but I liked this one as it has many holes for "Headly" (our Raphael Catfish) to hide in



• 2 large pieces of driftwood



• 2 large rocks and a piece of slate (to make a cave for "Headly")



• And some extra "Big Al's Bio Support" to help with any good bacteria lost in the move
  

So we started by removing all the fish into a 10 gallon tank. We currently have:

• 1 Spotted Raphael Catfish



• 1 Glass Catfish



• 1 Redwag Platie



• 1 Albino Cory Cat



• 4 Spotted Cory Cats



• 2 X-ray fish



• about 4 or 5 each of Neon Tetras & Rummy Nose Tetras (haven't counted lately)

Then we suctioned out most of the water, saving what we could. Got rid of all the old brown gravel and fertilizer and scrubbed down the glass inside with RO water and a very clean cloth. It looked like new when we were done.

Next Jay cleaned out all the filter tubes, our "bubbler", the heater and the hood. We rinsed out the pads from the filter, in the tank water as they were FULL of brown algae, but hopefully did not destroy too much good bateria.

Added in the Eco-Complete, the new black gravel hooked up the filter, heater & bubbler and started "aquascaping". I like the way it turned out! Can't wait for the plants to grow and take over more though.

We filled half full with fresh, de-chlorinated water, added in the saved water from the old tank set-up and turned on the filter and let it filter for a bit. We then topped up with a bit more fresh de-chlorinated water.

Once temp was good and filter had had a chance to deposit some of the good bacteria around, I added some "Bio Support" for good measure and then released the fish back in.

They all seem happy, especially one guy! "Headly", who we normally never see as he's always hiding and nocturnal, has been swimming around checking out the new space for several hours now...in the daytime! Hopefully this is a sign he really likes the new place.

Now if I can just get Jason to splash out on all the stuff needed to set-up our 90 gallon tank...as a reef aquarium!!

The first post...

Well it seems that the rest of the world has a blog, so why not me? Although I will admit, this is much more for me to ramble on than it is for anyone to actually read. I guess it's more of a diary of sorts with which to express myself.



As April is turning out to be a rather properous month for us, yes even amid this financial climate, we decided that last night was "treat night" for us all and headed out the door to do a little shopping.



First stop was for Jason. His beloved and ancient Bulova wind-up watch had broken again and we were off to get it fixed again. Due to it's age and quality, we found it would cost more to fix than to purchase a new one, especially with the sales going on these days. So Jason got a new watch. Similar to a kinetic watch, but instead you tap it twice each morning to keep it running. He's pretty thrilled with it!



Next stop...toy store! The kids got new Webkinz. Pink Poodle named Daisy for Emily and a Turtle name Thupy (sp?) for Ben.



Then it was dinner. Chinese for Em and me. McDonald's for Ben (so he could get a Monsters vs. Alien toy) and some REALLY horrible pizza for Jason. He took one bite and couldn't eat the rest. Do not worry though, he got something else to eat later!



Now off to my get my "treat". To my very favourite store...Big Al's Aquariums. Man, I LOVE that place! It was a great day to go too, as it was shark feeding night. More about this in my next post!