Time to Start the Loss

Wow! What an eventful time I have been having!  Baby number 2 is here and is almost 2 months old, growing well and developing into a happy and healthy baby boy.

I've been enjoying time off work, and I must say that yes it's enjoyable to be at home looking after a newborn, my 4 year old boy and husband, I admit that I miss getting up and going to work each day.  All going well I should be returning to work at the start of next year.

But getting down to business, my weight.  I have decided to document my weight loss following baby#2.

Before I got pregnant, I was well aware that I had put on weight, but I didn't really have any motivation to do anything to lose the weight.  During the pregnancy I really packed on weight, I ran the risk of not being able to deliver my baby in the local hospital because of my weight.  I didn't get a final weight when I was pregnant, during my last weigh in I had weighed around 113kgs (me plus baby), which made me feel somewhat sad and disappointed about myself, but also really annoyed at myself for allowing this to happen.

Since baby#2 was born, I've been trying to be careful about what I eat, as I couldn't really do too much physical activity until I was given the all clear at 6 weeks.  So needless to say, for the last 7 or so weeks, I've been feeling fat, gross, ugly and disgusting (just a few adjectives).  And even though people say that I shouldn't be worrying about these things and that I don't look all that bad, I've been avoiding full length mirrors, reflections and photos, and I really hate going out in public because to me I look awful.

I know that this all might sound like I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself and making myself feel even worse by having these thoughts and feelings, but I have always been semi concerned about the way I look and now it is just amplified.

Anyway, trolling through my Facebook newsfeed one day, I came across a link to this product called 'Skinny Tea Time'.  Yes you all might say that this is yet another one of those stupid weight loss fads, I even think that.  But I figured, why not just try it.  I need to do something more than what I'm doing, and anything has to help.

Today is the first day that I have decided to try the tea.  The first lot that I had early this morning wasn't too bad, and I'm feeling pretty good having had it.  I have to have some different tea before lunch, so it will be interesting to see what it tastes like and makes me feel.  I have to drink at least 3 litres of water a day on top of the tea, which wouldn't be so bad except that it makes you pee lots (not an understatement!)!!

I have also purchased a 28 day weight loss plan that includes meal plans and recipes that I am going to start in the next couple of weeks.  I'm hoping that it will help with my food intake and improve what I'm eating.

I'm also planning on becoming best friends with my treadmill downstairs, that will be a little harder to do as I really need to force myself to do that!

Will keep you all posted over the next couple of weeks!

Skinny Tea Time



Before Photos (looking forward to changing this!)

And, I'm Back!

Okay, so it's been just a little while since I last shared any of my thoughts or happenings.  To be honest, I'm not quite sure why I've decided to do it now.

What a crazy year we have had, I cannot believe it's almost over!!

We moved to Tannum Sands and settled in really well, although we struggled for a long while with the cost of rent (it's a bit crazy here!!).  I found that I loved my job and the students that I encountered where also pretty good.  Kurt fell into a good rhythm at work and with the referees too.  Life, if I can be so bold, was awesome!

In May, we finally got married!  It was a beautiful day, but it was over before we knew it.  And to be honest, I don't remember much of it!!

I continued to enjoy my job, and Kurt moved around to a couple of different jobs - ending up pretty much where he started.  Unfortunately, he hates it, so my happy, loveable Kurt is hidden slightly.  Hopefully greater and better things are on the horizon for him though!!

We're very excited about next year!  We will be hosting a German exchange student for 6 months.  I'm looking forward to organising the bedroom for her and making it somewhere that she will hopefully feel comfortable. We can't wait to start showing her different places, and hopefully learning something from her!

I have made the impusive decision to re-enrol into my Masters of Letters course to finally finish it off next year.  It will be a challenge and will be a very full on year, but I'm sure that I will be fine - if I can survive the crazy of last year, I can do anything!

This whole year has seen me struggle quite a lot with my weight.  I just cannot seem to lose any - I have zero motivation to 'want' to lose it, which worries me a bit... it seems to just keep piling on and I feel horrible and gross!  So that's why I've decided to start writing this again.  I think, maybe if I can write down my weekly weightloss adventures, then maybe I might get somewhere...  9 days until I start the Michelle Bridges 12 Week Weightloss Challenge.

Fingers Crossed!



Kurt and I on our Wedding day



My new mantra!



I went blonde!

After stressing for 6 or so months about the rental prices, we finally got some teacher housing, luckily for us it came with a pretty sweet view!!

So until next time... Keep smiling!  And remember 'Be your own kind of Beautiful'!
xx

The What If...

Without really thinking or knowing that I'm doing it, my brain suddenly goes into over drive and just over thinks every single little thing that is going on in my life.  Take for instance, at the moment, I'm over come with thoughts - mostly bad ones - about the fact that, what if we can't get a house?  What if the real estates don't think that we will be able to afford to pay the rent down there?  What if I'm going to be homeless and living out of my car?  What if?  What if?  What if?

I'm going slightly insane thinking about all of these things.  And of course I've talked about some of them with my man, but seriously, in all honesty, I'm slightly over stressing everything - and to the people who know me best, they will know that this is just a 'Stacey' thing!

The dream house, I'm pretty sure is well and truly out of our reach - the real estate really doesn't sound too positive about that one.  One of the other houses that we applied for, well, I've heard absolutely nothing from - coincidence?  I think not!  Yesterday I stumbled across a decent sized 3 bedroom unit/townhouse for a good price, while I was trolling about on one of my favourite real estate websites.  Turned out to be a blessing as we were not required to inspect the property before applying for it, so off I went, scrambling together our applications, and putting together all of our documents, and then begging my Uncle to use his fax machine again to send the application off!  And then, today in more of my trolling, I discovered another property for a good price through the same real estate, so I called and added that to our application.  I even know that they are processing our applications as I've had a few calls from them to send some more information and to find out some more things.  So now I have my fingers crossed - not sure if it's a positive sign or not, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I mean come on, just let me cross the house off my list!  And let me know so I can finish the applications for the removalists!

Ah so stressful!  But alas, I must make some attempt to cover that all up, push it aside and try to think about other things.  But whenever I seem to do that, I stumble across Christmas presents - and the large volume of them that I need to buy with the huge lack of money we have!  Arrrgggghhhhh!  Things just seem so screwed up at the moment.  And I know that it sounds like I'm just whinging, but really, I'm allowed to!  If anyone had/has bothered to ask me simply, 'how's things going?', or 'is everything okay?' in another form than just facebook - make it more personal if you will - they would know and understand what's really going on - and to the few people in my life at the moment who have actually taken the time to talk to me and support me through this crazy year (you know exactly who you are!!), I thank you from the bottom of my heart!  No words can describe the gratitude I have towards those people!

Yeah so, my thoughts just seem to be pouring out at the moment - which is okay I guess, it gets them out of my head at least!

Sorry to be so boring, whingy and ranty - just needed to get this out of my head!  Please give me a house!!

Til next time, with hopes of much better news! xo

Like a Big Clap of Thunder!

So, ever since I was a little kiddy, I've been terrified of thunder and lightning.  Not sure why or what it is about it that scares me, I just know that it has always been like that.  Now thanks to the insane heat that we have been experiencing of late, almost everyday for the last few days we have had some sort of storm.  Perhaps Sunday afternoons is the only one worth mentioning.  So while the storm crept up from us, I was bracing myself for it.  My little man had no idea what was about to happen and thus continued to play as per usual, my other man decided to disappear next door to 'see what was going on' leaving me all to my lonesome (he is aware of my fear!).  So I was off to a great start.  When the storm finally hit, holy cow it was crazy!  Lots of big wind and the thunder and lightning was intense!  Big flashes and even bigger claps of thunder, a few of which sounded very close to home.  As I was cowering under a blanket on the couch in the lounge room, my little man ran around the lounge room laughing at me and playing, and I could hear my other man next door carrying on each time there was a clap of thunder.  I was petrified!  To make matters worse, by the end of it, I think that I had actually started to scare my little man each time I jumped.  So when my man came home, I was practically in tears and the little man was cowering on the other couch - to get away from me!  I know, it does sound pretty pathetic coming from a 23 year old, but hey, everyone has things that they're afraid of, mine just so happens to occur when it gets really hot!  Thankfully yesterday there was only a few little rumbles of thunder and no real storm, just a bit of rain!  I'm already sort of sensing that today we may be in for another storm due to the fact that when I got out of bed at abotu 8.30am it was already disgustingly hot!

Yesterday's storm clouds rolling in!

Shananigans!

So in all the madness that was last week, I still had these thoughts in the back of my mind - what will I write about next??  And alas, as I sit here writing this, I'm still a little foggy on the 'what to write about' part!

Since our last meeting, I have secured my son a full-time spot at a daycare (thank god for that!), and am now waiting patiently to hear back from a couple of real estates about a house - that's the last thing on our list!

Now one of the awesome little 'perks' I suppose you could call it, is that I don't have to 'move' any of my own stuff, there is a company that comes and does it for me.  Now my mum told me over the weekend that I probably need to book in with them as they are really busy and will move me when they want.  So today in a bit of a panic, I went onto their website and started to fill out the information etc for the move - of course some of this is a little difficult as I don't know where my new home is and when I can move into it.  Still completely non-the-wiser about what was going on, I gave their call centre a ring to see if they could help me out and I'm seriously annoyed - the lady who spoke to me sounded so impressed and thrilled to be at work.  Everytime she spoke to me to answer a question, she spoke at me, and it was if I was really stupid.  Not at all impressed with that.  Needless to say, I still don't really know what the hell I'm doing!  All I can hope is that I have sort of done what I'm supposed to, and pray that I hear something about a house in the next couple of days!!

In saying that, what a weekend!  It seemed to be packed and very full on!

Friday night seemed pretty good, ended up having a couple of drinks with some new friends and the little man had an absolute ball running around and playing - though he didn't really like bed time which cut our night short!  Saturday was a bit better.  While my man was at work, I went out shopping with my mum, dad and little man.  Now I had to drive them to the shops as they only brought their ute down - imagine a teeny little old school Ford Fiesta - about the same age as me - with 4 of us crammed in there, funny right!! Now my parents don't often end up in the same car as the one I'm driving, so this was an experience, I think I may have freaked my dad out a little - he reminds me of a backseat driver sometimes - cause I will admit that on the odd occasion, I do have to 'plant' my foot just to get the old girl to move anywhere!  So Saturday ended up being a full on day out shopping - but there was a little bit of success - I found my wedding earrings!  Saturday night, my man and I went to a Christmas party/BBQ (well can't really call it a BBQ, as there wasn't any food cooked on the BBQ) for the refs.  I ended up getting my foot nicely scratched up thanks to the owners 2 massive dogs having a fight right in front of me!  Sunday turned out to be much the same - although I swear it was soooo hot that it felt like I was swimming in my own sweat (just to paint you a picture of just how hot I was!).  And then it was more SHOPPING!  I had a bit more success, finding the last few pieces of jewellery for the wedding!  At least that's crossed off my wedding to-do list!

Wow, so sitting here thinking that I really need to get some ideas and get my butt into gear and sort out my wedding invitations once and for all.  I have so many ideas in my head of what I want, but I just can't seem to find anything that I really like!  If you have any ideas on some artsy photos ideas that we could do for a picture of the 2 of us to use on the invites - please let me know!!

But for now, I think I'm just going to chillax and do very little.  I think that seems appropriate, given the weather!

Rollercoaster of Eventfulness

Wow!  That's all that I can say!!  The last few days have just been super crazy!

After finding out about my job last Thursday, the following night I decided, hell yes, drinks at my place - which no one joined me for! :(  I had a couple anyway, and woke up feeling really really sick - no not hungover!  I spent the day out and about with my parents, accidently left my lights on in my car and drained the battery and had to be jump started, and then witnessed my uncle do a sneak ploy and get married at his engagement party!  I was so tired by the end of this, but no sleep in on the Sunday, no we were up super early and on the road to check out job opportunities for my man and to check out the new town we would be living in.  I then stayed in an awesome, swanky hotel Sunday night - and found that I couldn't sleep!! :(  Induction for my new job was on Monday and Tuesday at the school, and I have to tell you, it was full on!!  I was tired, nervous, excited, overwhelmed, exhausted and suffering from information overload come the end of it.  But I'm relieved because at least I can start planning for my classes and I know what direction I need to head in!

I love the school I'm going to.  Everyone is just super nice, friendly and very welcoming.  I got the sense that it was like a big family opening up their arms wanting to take me in!  Love it!

Yesterday my man spent most of the day going and inspecting houses and collecting application forms.  I have to tell you that even though the rental prices are so high, doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have an awesome house to live in - some were just a bit dodgy!  Couldn't believe it!  So now I am surrounded by a number of application forms trying to fill them out and work out exactly what I need to get photocopied etc!  Crazy times!

My man did get a job though! So happy for him!!  Well 2 jobs really!  One during the day as a parts interpreter, like he wanted, and then some after hours tow-truck driving.  He's pretty stoked about that!

So now, for the next few days I'm filling in application forms for rentals to get them in ASAP, cleaning the house - we have an inspection on Friday and I've been informed that the owners are selling so a guy is coming to do sale photos, and I will start to pack so that there's not a huge massive rush around come time for us to move!!

Yep, busy little bee!!

Love this pic that I snapped of the two of us using my iPhone App 'Instagram' at my uncles engagement-turn-wedding!

Small sneak peak at what my day entailed - let me tell you, rental applications are not 'fun' to fill out, specially when there is more than one to do!! :S

Holy Smokes!! :S

So now that I have my awesome job sorted and organised - OMG am I excited about that, my first real 'proper' job!! - we have the fun task of finding ourselves a home to live in!  EEEEEK! OMG that's a task and a half! :S

I applied for teacher housing, but there is an and I will quote "extensive waiting list", and I will be contacted next week regarding availability.  Doesn't sound too promising if you ask me!!  So I've been looking online at what's available to rent privately - now Rockyites, imagine what you're paying in rent and then add an extra $200 or so onto that and that's what we're looking at... Although in saying that, I should be able to afford it with myself and my man both working, would be a stretch, but hey what's new? We've been living off nothing for the past year or more, what would be the difference?

I did come across one house that I quite like... It sounds dreamy!  If only, but I'm pretty sure that at $600 a week my man will tell me to dream on!  But I swear it's pretty!  I want it!!  Only issue there will be finding the money to pay the bond and first 2 weeks rent... Hmm, who can I suck up too I wonder??

Plus I have the issue of trying to find something to do with Wyatt, hopefully I can sort that out relatively smoothly and cheaply... Daycare waiting lists are ridiculously large so I've been told, that could be the other big issue that we face!

But NO!! Nothing is going to rain on my super excited, extra happy and over the moon parade!!  I've done it, I really have done it!!