Good Morning, Ladies!!!!!

Just a quick hello from me before I get caught online. DH thinks all of my stress comes from using the computer too much. Jerk. But, I'm gonna give it a try. I earned a bit of time this morning b/c I have all of my routine cleaning done already. I was also told I am not allowed to work on the upstairs while the kids are here. I am supposed to do it on the weekends. Yeah, so much for weekends off like some people who live in the house Oh well maybe he is right, maybe I am trying to do too much at the same time. So anyway I'll be back later to read the rest of last night's posts and the ones from today

Have a fantabulous THURSDAY!

Good morning!! I've been eating horribly (seriously, it's not even 8:30 and I've already had a brownie!) But, I weighed myself this morning, and one of my scales said 168 and the other said 166!! I don't know which one to trust! I think my weight is somewhere between the two numbers--which makes me ecstatic!! The scale that said 166 is the scale that I started with (that said 182 at my highest weight). Woohoo!!

Have you tried the Gatorade Propel Fitness Water? I really, really, really like the grape. I'm trying a peach now, and it's way too "peachy" for me. I highly recommend the grape though.

Have a good day! I'll be thinking of all of you!

I weighed my cat this morning just to make sure the scale was not broken to the point that it automatically reads 167 regardless of what is on it! The cat was 4 pounds, so I guess that blows my theory lol. Just stuck stuck stuck there. Half is my fault for blowing points some days, and half is probably some kind of twisted bad luck heh. Oh well, at least it is not a gain. Very doubtful I will meet my Sunday goal. Got my letter of employment, finally, but the e-mail seemed quite rude. "For future reference, your pay cheque stubs and your T4s are the best employment verification documents. You should keep them in a safe place for at least six years. " Maybe I am looking too far into it, is always hard to judge internet tones. Just seemed a bit lectury. The thing is, I tried with my T4 and my pay check but they would not accept it because nothing showed I left on good terms. And now I can not get that apartment. . . Must be nice to sit in your little corporate corner office in the crisp air conditioning with a view of the city, your feet on the desk, ordering coffee from your secretary and treating someone you never knew like a 12 year old. . .Can you tell I am cranky? Well, I have had no sleep and have a ton to do, but am going to go back to sleep for a bit. Will be less cranky and emotional if I get some sleep.

Sistas, it is almost Friday!

p.s. Hey, iowa! I did not realize that we started at almost the same weight and are about the same weight now, as well. Nifty. But, on your way down the ladder, take my hand please! Pull or drag me if you must.

No problem, Hippo!! I hope I don't have a mini-plateau at 167 either. It won't last too much longer, I promise!! At what weight did you start WW? I started when I was 175. I wish I started earlier, because I'm doing so much better now. It took me 6 months to lose the first 7 pounds!!

I want to lose 10 more pounds, so I can assess my size and determine my final goal. How exciting!! I'm 5'8" so I'm thinking 150, but i'm unsure if I get that low!!

First, just wanted to say, HH, I did the same thing with my scale, haha! The night before I finally decided to join WW, I grabbed my kitten, and first put her on the scale alone. Well, she squirmed, so it was kind of hard to tell, but I figured something between 5 and 7 pounds. Then I held her and hopped on the scale myself. And, sure enough, the scale went up to 218, making me 211 and my cat 7. Of course, I wanted to say she was fatter than she actually was...but when I was weighed at WW the next morning, I realized what the true values were, lol. It can be very frustrating at times, but you're going to get through this plateau!

And I also wanted to just spend a second to say that I managed to complete a round of cardio that I had never completed before. See, my personal trainer has outlined a calendar of daily cardio exercises for the entire month. There's this one called Strong N' Steady which requires one to walk on the treadmill for 45 minutes at varying speeds. But for this entire month, I've been prescribed this exercise four times and have only been able to hang in there for the first 25 minutes. Today, however, I thought to myself, "How cool would it be if I told my personal trainer as I'm leaving, 'hey, I finally did it!'?" So, when 25 minutes rolled around, I squared my shoulders, took a big swig of ice cold water, and told myself, "Finish it out, Amanda. Just finish it out." And what happened? I finished it out!! I'm so thrilled, hehe.

Of course, where there's good news, there's annoying news bound to follow, right? Lol. I have to take the GRE again if I hope to apply to a PhD program (because my first score is laughable). So I tried applying on-line, get all the way to the confirmation step, and then when I hit, "confirm $115 charge to credit card," I am taken to an error page which reads, "Error: Your credit card failed." Excuse me??? My credit card failed?? I don't think so. I paid off the $3000 balance last month (hallelujah) when my student loan check came in. There's no way in **** my credit card should fail. So I called GRE and talked to a rep; she tried scheduling for me; same thing happened. So I called Capital One and (after TWENTY minutes on hold), I get in touch with a rep whose accent is so thick I can hardly understand him. He finally tells me, "Hm. That's a good question." (I'm thinking, "Duh. That's why I'm asking.") "But I can't tell you why your credit card won't work because we're updating our system. Call back in a few hours." AAAAAAAAAA! I was so frustrated. Er, strike that. AM so frustrated. I'm thinking I might just need to give the GRE folks my bank debit card number (though I'm loathe to do it). I have to sign up for this test! I only have a couple more weeks before my preferred test date.

*sigh*

Ah well. But I need to go and continue reading for comps. I'm so close to the end of my reading assignment for The Faerie Queene that I can taste it. Just have to finish Book III...just 120 more pages. Gah.

Have a great Thursday ladies!
~Amanda

My day is going much better than you ladies. It is so frustrating to have to fight over the phone for things that should not even be an issue!

HH don't you realize that you made your previous employer actually have to do some work. How hard is it to just type a few kind words. People!!!!!

I too love Propel it helps me to get the water all in. My favorite is Black Cherry

We are going this week end to Stratford to see a play and to celebrate our 33 wedding anniversary I am nervous that I won't stay on program so that is my prayer request that I will persevere!!!!

Pray you guys have a better day tomorrow and it will be Friday

Hi Ho, Sistas,

Glad to see everyone up and at it today. HH & Iowa, I hope you aren't both stuck on that same plateau. I wish I could just get to that range myself. The smallest I've been in the last 4 yrs is 175. Wah.

Amanda for doing all of your cardio workout. Now that you've crossed that hurdle, it shouldn't be too hard to do it again. I know what you mean about the credit card thing. I don't do business with Capital One anymore because they outsource their customer service to a foreign country. Nothing against anyone from other countries, I have a good friends from India, China & Japan, but I think jobs should stay here. I don't want to talk to someone whose understanding of our language is not very good. OK, down off the soapbox.

Luflic, happy anniversary! Hope you enjoy the play.

I've been doing what cleaning I am able to today. Had to scrub & mop the kitchen. Yesterday with the rain, the dogs tracked in tons of mud. I worked for 25 minutes cleaning the floor. I took 2 APs for it, too, since I don't usually mop because it's too hard on my back. My DD made me a scrub brush attached to a broom handle with duct tape to scrub with. I'll tell ya, she's always thinking of me... lol.

TTFN,

Hi all!

Well I almost had a day off tomarrow. Still might, but I'll have to wait and see.

I had a pretty good day. I am working on some lessons plans for next month. I have been slacking off on working with the kids on learning stuff. I usually do crafts and worksheets with them along with circle time and such. It's been summer and I've been slacking. So I aheva ton of that to do.

HH-Canada must be a weird country LOL It's not enarly THAT hard to get an apartment here. I don't think they would even be allowed to ask on what terms you left your employer. We live in a small area and I know in cities it's harder to get a place, but we've NEVER been asked for personal references. We've had a credit check and been asked to provide proof of income and that's about it. That was when we were in Rochester, NY large but not HUGE. I really hope you are able to gather everything you need. It just seems insane that you would need so much stuff, good grief!

Amanda-I can't stand Capital One. Once I tried to pay my bill over the phone and they took out the payment TWICE, which caused a check I had written to bounce!! They returned my extra payment, but refused to pay for my bank charges or even write me a letter stating their mistake. I hope you get everything straightened out. WAY TO GO ON THE WORKOUT!!!!

Enjoy your night out Luflic!! If you know where you are going you cna plan your dya ahead and your meal ahead. I fyou have an idea what you want you cna go in with a plan and feel much more in control. Enjoy the play!!!

Stephaine-I hope your day has gotten better. The scale thing cracks me up At one point I had to buy a new scale b/c my other one weighed me between 2 and 10 pounds different even if I stepped off then right back on. My new one weighed me higher, but I decided to just take it as a gain for that week and continue on with the same scale. I've also stopped weighing myself at home b/c the WW scale is different from my home scale. I have always weighed in the morning and I don't want to see that number go up by 6 pm.

Well the natives are restless. I shoul dget them involved in a game or soemthing. Talk to you laters
~misty

I started at 178 and am on Week 7. I have not been keeping up with water, though, so I am hoping that once I do I will uh flush away all the extra hanging out in my belly. . .pardon the pun.

Hehe so I am not the only crazy one using the cats trying to make myself look better lol. That is so awesome about the cardio!!!
About the person with the language, like Kitty said some companies outsource to different countries to save money. This is something that really bothers me, as well. . .even though I used to work in a Canadian call center for an American company (customers rarely knew/cared though). The thing that irks me is now I work in a call center that constantly hires people who barely speak English. Usually they have think Pakistani accents. It makes my skin crawl to hear them repeat the same thing 5-6 times on every call. It is frustrating for them and for the callers. Usually they end up quitting the first day. Not trying to be racist at all. . .just do not understand why a call center would hire someone who can not clearly speak the language of the callers or callees. Offices usually have typing tests, would not see anything wrong with having a speech test.

Misty, am surprised to hear that! I guess it is just a city thing or a Canadian thing. :shrugs: I am quite worried about the credit check aspect. I never had good credit.

Calpurrnia, ironically, I had a credit card problem when I paid for my GRE too. It's been a while since then though.

Luflic, I haven't tried the black cherry. It sounds good though. Have you tried kiwi strawberry?

Do any of you ladies go to Bath and Body Works. I use to be addicted, but I'm better lately. Here's a link for a free lip balm:
http://www.bathandbodyworks.com/agcoupon/index.jsp

I'm getting a cavity filled in about an hour. I'm certainly not looking forward to it.

After a nap that was much too long, I went looking for apartments. The first place I went to, I waited outside the door of the office for 5-6 minutes because the manager was on the phone. His language was so nasty that I got a bad feeling about it and was not sure if I would have wanted an apartment there. Is so bad of me to make such quick judgments of people! Anyway, after he told me that they had nothing, he spent a good half an hour, calling around to all of the managers in this area and asking them if they had anything. It was soooo nice! He said at one point that I probably wondered why he was doing it and that it was because of karma that he likes to do nice things and he wants to get points upstairs because he has a lot of points downstairs because of his tongue! So weird because I just keep thinking about karma lately. Unfortunately, no one had anything at all. He felt so bad and I felt so bad for taking all of his time. Wow, though, what a nice guy. Is nice to find there are decent people around still that go out of their ways to help someone! He also gave me good tips on areas to stay away from, what to say and not to say to the manager and such.

Bad thing though, is that I do not have a place still. Everything that is available is either 25+, exactly my income or more, or like 2 hours to walk to work or bus stops.

Finally got through to this one townhouse. The disadvantages are that it is quite a walk to transit, it is way over budget, utilities are separate, and it has no dishwasher. Advantages are that it is available, quiet, and looks nice. I am going to go look tonight, but I doubt they will approve me with only the part time job. I know that is not very positive thinking, but positive thinking just leads to disappointment. Negative thinking can sometimes lead to happy surprises.

Haha, HH, I took a nap that was way too long, too!! Lol. Gah. I blame it on the rain.

Thanks everyone for your input on the outsourcing thing. I was trying so hard not to think that myself (living in the South is so dangerous, even when it comes to truths like how one feels about outsourcing because everyone's so touchy about racism *shakes head*), but you know...I think it's highly possible I was on the phone with someone in India or wherever. I could hardly understand him, and we both had to repeat things so much to each other, which was even more frustrating.

In the end, I decided the GRE was far too important to wait for my credit card crap to be smoothed over. So I just decided to pay for it directly out of my checking account by using my debit card. Miraculously, it worked, and I got the date and time I wanted. Now the hard part: raising my verbal score by 100 points. Ha!

I've got some good news, though! I finally got my teaching schedule figured out for Fall semester...which is good, considering classes start in three weeks!! Haha. I have to plan for these classes, you know? But, I'm very pleased with my schedule. I have Tuesdays AND Thursdays off (woohoo! ), which means I can schedule to meet with my personal trainer on Tuesdays and Thursdays and not have to worry about going back to the office later in the day! Lol...I'm really happy about this.

And finally, and most importantly I think, HH! *hug* It sucks trying to find an apartment, but you seem to be having a very difficult time...I'm so sorry it's been this hard for you! But what struck me the most about your post was your positive thoughts thing...and I have to say sista...I mean, yeah...positive thinking can sometimes lead to disappointment, but it's not a bad way to live. Thinking negatively all the time can possibly lead you to this rut which will leak to all areas of your life. And I know I don't want (nor do the rest of us ladies here) to see your emotional health suffer. I think there's a difference between positive thoughts and delusional thoughts. It's delusional to think that a princess on a unicorn will come and let you live in her castle for free (fun...but delusional ). But, I don't think it's harmful to have hopes and positive thoughts about the townhouse. Stay positive about all this, HH! Your sistas are pulling for you and we're all staying positive for you (right, sistas?)!

Have a great evening everyone,
~Amanda

((((hippo))) I hope that you are able to find some where to live soon! And that was very nice of that guy to help you out, even though he couldn't find anything.

iowasteph2 - Hope your filling went ok! I'm a dental assistant no one ever wants to come see us!

I'm feeling a little better today, so I'm glad about that. I haven't exercised though (well I walked yesterday) in 2 days... but hopefully I can motivate myself to exercise later tonight. I have tomorrow off

I weighed myself today, and I'm down .5 lb, but its not my official weigh in time, so hopefully I'll be down more

Thats about it for me

~Liz

hehe yeah. I say things that I do not mean, though. No matter what I say, I am always hopeful and optimistic. :-p I got halfway to the townhouse, though, and turned around. It would have been absolutely foolish of me to try to apply. I would never have been able to afford it with my job and if I got a second job, I would still be struggling to make ends meet. That is no way to start a new life, regardless of how nice the place might have been. I will be much happier in a small place with money for the little things like, uhhh milk! than a nice big place where I am fighting the cats off for cat food! :-D I do not remember breaking a mirror, so I must have walked under a ladder or something. After turning back from the TH attempt (where, by the way, it started thundering and pouring out of nowhere and then when the train came the other way it was all sunny and bright O_o), I decided to walk home to get some exercise. It was sad realizing it may be the last time I use the walkway. I stopped and had quite the length conversation with the cow pig (picture to soon follow). Why? I do not know. I pass it every day and never have said hi. :-p Anyway, it was a half an hour walk and I was glad I took it. At the end of the walk, the apartment building behind me had a sandwich board out reading, "1 bdr apt available NOW"!!!! I -know- it was not there when I had left! What unbelievable chance of luck, right? Right?? Sorry, someone took that apartment about ten minutes ago. *mumbles* Man, if Cinderella's fairy godmother was this sloppy, she would still be cleaning chimneys!

p.s. I will be looking all over tomorrow for a place. If I do not get one, I fear the %$)&%$ will really hit the fan. Do not want to have to live through that headache. Sure, I already talked to the cow pig about it, but if my sistas could keep their fingers crossed for me, I would appreciate it.