Enchantress

Am I Ready?

The training is complete and the lady I'm replacing will be heading off to her new job next Tuesday. I'll be on my own after four, ten hour days with her. Not sure if I feel confident enough, but I think I'm ready. The boss is very nice, experienced and devoted to his crew. The crew (the ones I've met) are hard working, loyal and diligent. Most of them work two to three other jobs, if their not in school. I give firefighters the utmost respect but even more so after learning a bit more about them.

I scheduled a physical for the first part of March. Initially, I wanted to see my OBGYN, but he doesn't have any openings until April. Yeesh! The physical is needed because it's time, but also because I'm beginning to wonder if the early parts of menopause haven't set in with me. I have hot flashes at night (primarily), with the dieting and exercise I was doing, I hardly lost any weight, my mood shifts on a dime and I'm not feeling balanced. If it's not menopause sneaking in, perhaps it's my thyroid. Either way, I'm going to have a heart-to-heart with my family practitioner. I hope he'll have good information/advice for me when I do.

We had our first dinner party in our new apartment, last night. My girlfriend, her husband and their two kids came. Hubby made chili, I made hotdogs for the kids and pecan pie for desert. It was very nice, but also very cramped. It really made me miss having a house with space to move. We were all sort of cloistered in the kitchen, living room area. The younger kids were in Indy's room and my eldest was under foot (no longer a little kid, but not quite an adult). They were here for about three hours and I really had a good time. I look forward to doing more girl nights but will opt for some sort of babysitting when I do.

My new plan was supposed to start late next week but I'm holding off until I see the doctor. I would be utterly bummed if I got going and saw no results again. I need to have this extra twenty gone from me and soon. Normally, I get going and it comes off pretty steadily. This hormonal whatever I'm dealing with needs to be resolved first.
Enchantress

Thoughts Become Things

Do you believe this? I certainly do. I've seen it play out time and time again, even with the simplest of things. Sometimes, it shows up in the music I hear on the radio or some advice that someone shares with me. I've decided that I need to start emitting more positive thoughts so that I receive more positive things. It can be tricky because emotions are strong and complicated. I may be feeling pretty crappy and those perceptions may be sending out some serious negativity. Absolutely not what I need in my life. Where's this all coming from, you may ask? I'm in the thick of it with my hubby right now and I'm very unhappy about it. I think I totally brought it on myself by thoughts I had earlier in the week.

It's been a while since we've had an argument and things are going so smoothly. Jinxing myself is exactly what I did, at least, I believe that's what happened. Now, he's off and about with his friend and I don't know when he'll be home. Yep. Totally brought this on myself.


Meanwhile, the negative energy swarmed around my house and my eldest ended up grounded. This was not a coincidence. So, what am I doing about it? My initial reaction was to write this all out so that I'll remember for next time. I'm also going to do some mediating, praying and positive thinking. Have you ever read/watched The Secret? I'm re-watching this as well for a bit of a boost. This is a life that can be full and abundant. Enough with my pity-party, onto good thoughts.



Enchantress

One Fish, Two Fish....

Tonight is $1.00 night at the local swim facility in our city. My plans are to take the girls this evening as a treat/surprise. I haven't decided yet if we'll do this before or after dinner. I kind of think it would be better to pick up dinner afterwards, that way we can make the most of the time we have there. My hope is to do something similar each Wednesday, so that my youngest can get used to the water. She's had a few lessons but it's been a little while and she tends to be rather skittish. We plan to go to the ocean for our vacation this year and I want her to be as comfortable with the water as possible. I'd prefer to have two little fish instead of one.

As part of this, it's fantastic exercise and tones the body all over. I'm eager to use it as an additional means of exercise. It's great when you can get the best of both worlds.
Enchantress

I'm Gonna Be a Working Girl!

Hooray! I've been offered a job! It will have been 8 months of unemployment for me, come this Friday. How weird to say and read that! Being a stay-at-home mom has been very rewarding and beneficial to both my girls and myself. It's had its stressful moments, but I can thank my calm, cool and collected hubby for getting me through the rough patches. The great news is that the new job is part-time, so I won't have to sacrifice loads of time for work and neglect my kids in the process.

I will begin working on Monday of next week and I couldn't be more pleased. Today, I started prepping myself for the earlier wake-up time, along with the kids. They will have to be dropped off and I'm truly grateful for my competent friends. Some years ago, I would have shelled out loads of money for daycare just because I couldn't rely on my so called "friends" to help me the way I needed them to. I've discovered that those who have similar parenting styles to my own are much more reliable. The neighbor who lets her kids do whatever they want is not the one I want shuttling my kids to school. Yeesh!

Something else I've been doing; working on me. I had so much stress with my last job that I really didn't take out enough time for myself. It's hard to do when your a mother. So much of your life is devoted to sacrificing. In fact, that is what I began to feel like my purpose in life was to do; sacrifice everything for everyone elses happiness. Not so. The trick will be incorporating the new things that I've learned, while still taking on a new job.

Nervousness doesn't even begin to describe what I'm feeling. It's been so long since I've worked. Can I go in and master things without having to reteach myself the tools of the trade? The people in the environment; are they going to be kind and welcoming or feel the need to test me? Will I be able to do everything without feeling overwhelmed? I will, at some point, need a uniform for my job. This is terrific since I haven't worked in a regular office setting in years. I told my hubby that I probably have four outfits that fit (I'm not even sure about that..) and I'll need to be in business/professional until the uniform comes. I've lived in the land of sweat and yoga pants for far too long.

My health and weight are not where I want them to be, but I'm working on it. I've been working out the entire time I've been at home; however, there hasn't been much weight lost. I feel stronger and I've got more stamina but the holidays were deadly. I'll be working on my eating a bit more in the coming weeks. Part of that is getting to the root of the issues in a completely different way. I've identified my weaknesses (I did that when I was on the HCG in 2009), but I didn't deal with them completely. The major stress that came about just pushed me into a spiral of weight gain.  I'm coming from a different place now and I'm very optimistic about how I'll handle each of those stressful times when they arise. It's a battle I plan to win.

Finally, I'm planning my 20 year vacation celebration with my best friend. It's so exciting! When she came out to visit last September, we narrowed down the location and dates. I called her today and we talked about some of the places where we'd like to stay. The trip isn't until September and we commented on how hard it's going to be to wait until nearly the end of the year to go. By the time we do, I know I'll be in need of some sandy beaches. I'm also hopeful that I'll be fit enough to brave my monokini again...and with even more pride than the last time.

Philosphy: Sweet Nectar & Sandalwood body Lotion
The winter months are murder on my hands! I found a lotion that I simply adore and it keeps the ash at bay. Sadly, it is no longer available (unless you get lucky enough to find it on discount somewhere or on eBay). We bought our bottles for $6.99 at Ulta, marked down from twenty-four. 



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