A really great day!!

Today was great. Today was how I wish my life was...

I took the day off from work today. I slept till around 10:30, i would have woken up earlier but my tummy was achy so I slept later. Anyways, I made breakfast, played with my dogs outside and went to town to check the mail and get groceries. Then I came home and worked on the interveiws a bit, went online, had lunch and then went over to the farm and spent a few hours with my horse. It was great to finally spend some real time with her. And I realized she needs alot of work, but Kathleen came out and taught me some stuff. I took the bike from Eric and biked home in my rubber boots. I listened to my Ipod and sang and it was great. Then I worked on interviews and while eric cleaned the garbage up that was flying around outside and cleaned the house a bit. Then we had supper and went for a walk. We went to visit Grandpa Dueck for a little while and then we went to see Sarah and Dayna. The dogs had a great time, and I was happy me and my husband finally had time to go for a walk together. I love watching my chihuahus rip around outside, they are so cute when they run as hard as they can . Maeve was so happy to be going for a walk too. I think working out and being more active has made me feel alot better lately. I feel like I have more energy and I am happier! It is great. Anyways, I have more interviews to do so I better take off!

I am going to puke!

Right now I am trying to choke down a curves protien shake. They are so gross, the smell of them makes me gag, it reallly does. So I plug my nose and take the biggest sip I can and try not to tase it... I don't know how I will ever drink another one. Oh wait! i just thought of something, one woman at the six week challenge meeting said to try putting instant coffee in, to make a mocha without adding anything, so I am going to try it right now! Urgh... it doesn't really help. Oh well.

My poor Paris, yesterday she must have gotten into something, cuz her lips and her eyelids were really red and swollen. I have benadryl for her, but you have to fight her to get her to take it. It helped a little bit and she looked good in the morning. But when I got home today she looked horrible again. But this time her lips were just a little swollen. But also her ears are all red, she has little bumps on her head, her neck is red and swollen (one spot it looks like she had one big jowel.) and she is scratching and she is really depressed. I gave her some more benadryl today so she is more comforatble. But I will take her to work tommorow to see whats up with her.

Today was pretty rough, which is becoming a common places lately. It seems that I just can't avoid working overtime no matter how hard I try! Sometimes I just want to go home! today I didn't get home until after 8 because i worked almost an hour extra and went to curves and went grocery shopping. I really wanted to go for a walk with eric but it was already getting dark when I got home... two days is a row already we couldn't go for a walk. Maybe Thursday will work! I was really upset when the clock showed after 6 at work. This kept going wrong (spilling water and food all over, animals peeing all over their kennels, etc) everything a new thing when wrong today, some tears sqeauked out of my eye. But I still forced myself to go to curves and it was great. I weighed myself first........ and I was VERY suprised. The scale said i lost 5 pounds since wednesday lat week.... WOW... that was very unexpected. It made me soooo pumped! I worked out so hard at curves and i felt so good after! I was so happy when I got home, even after my bad day.. I cried on the way home thought, partly because i had a bad day and was so filled with emotion, but mostly because i was so happy. Ijust felt so filled with happiness on the way home, happiness about everything. It was the closest I have felt to God in such a long time. So I cried, and prayed and thanked God for making things go great and taking away my worries for a while. So I decided to make today's three beautiful things!!

1. Watching the scale at Curves and suprisingly moving the balance lower and lower until it finally told me that my weight was 5 pounds less then wednesday!
2. Seeing 4 gorgeous deer, prancing throught the ditch with their tails as white as snow!
3. Eating a delicious Maple Turkey Salad that tastes more like junk food than diet food! (I think I will post the recipie later because it is so good and everyone has to try it.)

Eww....

Maybe instead of three beautiful things i should post three funny things that happen to me everyday. Laughing makes me happy.. So here is one...LOL!

I am stitting alone in my house, with my three dogs and all of a sudden i hear... ffttttt....ffttttt. bweep....fttttt.... and within seconds a foul stench fills my nostrils and I am choking for fresh air. No.... it is not my own farts, but the audible farts of a 50 lb Irish Setter in the room. SO GROSS. You are not supposed to hear dog farts, they are supposed to be silent but deadly. All day she has been farting like this, and it is really bizzare, but hillarious. After the last episode I had a good belly laugh at her, farting away... Poor dog, is probably sick or something and I am making fun of her. Anyways, thats all for now! Wow...I am a doddler... i should really be working on there interviews already!

Lindsey Likes Boys Like Girls

I just got back from a Hellogoodbye/ Boys Like Girls/ The Hush Sound concert! It was sooooooo good. Boys Like Girls was definatly my favorite, and I knew they would be, they were the reason I went! The Hush Sound was really awesome too. Hellogoodbye was good too, but not the best of the night! Kelly Ann came with me, I snaked a deal with some people and freed her up from babysitting for the night so she could come with me! I am glad she came cuz she had lots of fun. Colton was supposed to come, but he had other things up and thought the concert would be too girly (and it was, there was like 95% girls). I am really pumped I went. I bought a cool shirt too! I haven't been to a good concert in a while, and this one made me even more excited to see Brand New when they come, I am going to be so excited I will probably cry! I should get to bed, I got sunday school to teach in the morning!

Oh, I will leave you with the cutest love song ever by hellogoodbye, download it! NOW!:

"Oh, It Is Love" by Hellogoodbye

Oh, it is love

From the first time I set my eyes up on yours

Thinking oh, is it love?

Oh dear

It's been hardly a moment

And you are already missed

There is still a bit of your skin

That I've yet to have kissed

Oh say please do not go

But you know, oh, you know that I must

Oh say I love you so

But you know, oh, you know you can trust

We'll be holding hands once again

All our broken plans I will mend

I will hold you tight so you know

It is love from the first

Time I pressed my hand into yours

Thinking oh is it love?

Oh, dear, it's been hardly three days

And I'm longing to feel your embrace.

There are several days

Until I can see your sweet face.

Oh say, wouldn't you like to be older and married with me

Oh say, wouldn't it be nice to know right now that we'll be

Someday holding hands in the end

All our broken plans will have been

I will kiss you soft so you know

It is love from the first

Time I pressed my lips against yours

Thinking oh is it love?

Your heart may long for love that is more near

So when I'm gone these words will be here

To ease every fear

And dry up every tear

And make it very clearI kiss you and I know

It is love from the first

Time I pressed my lips against yours

Thinking oh is it love?

Oh it is love from the first

Time I pressed my lips against yours

Thinking oh is it love?

I kiss you and I know

It is love from the first

Time I pressed my lips onto yours

Thinking oh is it love?

Mmm... Cottage Cheese...

... is so gross. It is day two of my diet, and it is going not bad. Except for the fact I am eating all my meals late and I am feeling hungry. The point of the diet is to eat lots of small meals, so you are never hungy, but I have been so busy that I haven't had time to eat all the food! Yesterday I had my breakfast at 8:30, my snack at 11:30 and my lunch at 4:30!!! You are not supposed to go more than three hours without food, and I was starving when I ate lunch. I worked so late supper was at almost 9. Today is similar, it is 3:15 and I am just having my morning snack right now! It is pinapple (yum!) and cottage cheese (gross). I think you are supposed to mix them together but i am eating them seperate. The serving of cottage cheese was 1 cup, and I have managed to eat 3/4's of it with not problem... but the last little bit I am just choking down, but I have to eat it! Anyways, I should go, I have a million things to do this weekend, and not enough time to do it. I have to get ready for a concert, do the dishes, clean the house and work on those interveiws (they are never going to be done on time at this rate). Eric is gone but I am so busy I don't have time to be with friends or anything. And tommorow I have to groom a dog so that is 2 hours thrown away for 15 dollars....i should have really taken monday off...

Paris is back!....

Today after work I went and picked up Paris! I am happy to have her back, i missed her! She was so happy to see me! She has put on some pounds, I think she likes to overeat when she is away from me, cuz she always comes back chubby! So far she is NOT excited about Maeve. I didn't think she would be. Right now it is kind of stressing me out. I have had a long day, and listening to Paris condtantly growling and having to constantly tell them to stop it, leave it alone, get out of there, Maeve get off the couch is giving me a headache. My house is also a mess so that doesn't help, and Eric is gone. I just need to sleep right now... hopefully tommorow will be better.

I went to my first Curves 6 week challenge meeting yesterday. It was good, and I am excited about doing it! The girls there are really helpful, alot of them have done it before, so they have lots of tips and stuff. And they all say if you stick to it, it really works. One girl even said that it is impossible to not loose weight if you stick to the plan completely. Tommorow I am starting the diet. I already made all my food for my breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch tommorow. You are basically eating all the time on this diet. You have 5 small meals a day, so you never feel hungry, there is not alot of food there, but I think I can do it!

ARGH.... THESE DOG ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY RIGHT NOW!!!

I love them but they are just relentless, everybody is being bad right now. Maeve is being especially bad, jumping on the leather couches, putting her paws of the counter. If everyday is like this, she has to go to a new home. I don't want Paris to stress out and loose her babies, I have to be really careful of that. I should go cut up my canteloupe and go to bed. I really need Eric right now, and of course he has to be 1400 km away......

Santa and The Easter Bunny Suck!

I was thinking today on the way home ( i think alot while I am driving. Actually sometimes I get so into my thinking I forget I am driving!) and a question came to my mind that made me really angry. Why are both the major Christian holidays represented in our society by fictional charaters. Santa takes away from what christmas really is, and the easter bunny takes away from easter. Who's idea was it to do this? Just because some st. nick guy gaves presents to a bunch of poor kids doesn't mean he gets to take over Christmas.... And the easter bunny? He makes even less sense...... i don't even know where to start. Where did he come from? so stupid....

ANYWAYS!!

I am going to steal an idea from Dayna! (thanks babe!! lol) Here are my days Three Beautiful Things!!:

1. Watching a vicious toy poodle almost swallowing a tongue depressor! Ok, maybe it is not that beautiful, but it sure caused me and two coworkers (including a vet!) to be rolling on the floor and crying with laughter, and laughter is beautiful. Why was he swallowing a tongue depressor?? Well i groomed him today, while he was under anesthetic, and when he woke up we realized i missed some long hairs by his mouth. I tried to cut it with scissors but he attacted them when I stuck them through the cage. So Maryann pulled his leash tight against the kennel door and Wendy thought she would distract him with a tongue depressor so i could cut it off. Within a second of sticking the wood stick in his face... he attacted it and it was halfway down his throat. We all screamed! and wendy quickly pulled it out. The best part was some of the hair that was sticking out was stuck in the shards of the stick... so we half accomplished our goal!
2. Going for a walk with Eric, Fleury and Maeve. It was nice out, our dogs had fun, we exercised and we had a good talk! We also walked in the field and planned my horse fence a bit!
3. Watching Fleury, my 4 lb chihuahua, swallow a slice of garlic sausage whole, 5 times in a row. I have no idea how she does it, but she doesn;t chew at all. She just swallows! The piece is bigger than her mouth, it just baffles me, but it is funny to watch so we gave her lots. I am sure she will be sick later now....lol!

Why I Love My Dogs

Now that I have three dogs, I am sure people are thinking I am crazy. So I just wanted to make a list of a few things that make me adore my four-legged babies:

1. They are so cute. How could you not think they are?
2. They are always, and I mean always, excited to see you when you get home. There is nothing like coming home everyday to little beings that are shaking with excitement to see you. It makes me feel good about life.
3. They make me laugh. I am pretty sure everyday my dogs do something new and original that makes me smile.
4. The love you with all their hearts and want nothing more than to spend time with you. Again, it makes me feel good about life.
5. They give me something to come home for. They are something for me to be resposible for, I know I have a husband to come home for too, but he can take care of himself. My pups need me to survive.
6. They make my life happier. I love having dogs so much, I am passionate about them, and any period if my life that I haven't had a dog to live with, I wanted one badly. For me, life without dogs is hardly life at all. There is a good saying that describes how i feel perfectly: "Dogs aren't your whole life, but they make your life whole"
7. I love that they eat the food that I drop on the ground. They are helpful around the house.

And more individually now:

1. I love Paris' brown oval eyes, and how they always look like she is wearing black eyeliner.
2. I love how Fleury always has to act like a theif when eating her food, because she is a theif and steals other animals food, especially canned food, at every chance she gets.
3. I love how calm and gentle Maeve is, she relaxes me.
4. I love the white spot on the tip of Fleury's black tail.
5. I love Fleury's huge eyes, that are always crying, but always adorable.
6. I love how smart Paris is, she picks up on new tricks I teach her so quickly.
7. I love how obedient Paris is. She almost always listens to my commands the first time.
8. I love how Fleury runs, she is just so excited and so cute when she come barreling toward you.
9. I love how easily Fleury gets along with everybody, she has such a wonderful personality, the best one I have ever seen in a dog, especially for a Chihuahua.
10. I love how brave Fleury can be, she always tries something at least once. I remember the first time she went swimming, at Star Lake. She just barrelled into the water at the beach without thinking twice, and she ran in at such a speed that she was up to her neck before she realized what was happening. It was hilarious, she immediatly turned around and swam back out and never came back in again.
11. It is hilarious watching Paris pee, she always pees doing a handstand, always. I always get comments from people when they see her doing that!
12. I love watching Paris with big dogs. She gets so upset and walks around looking like an angry wolf with her hair standing up on her back.

I am sure there are many more, maybe I will add some more later. Plus I hardly know Maeve, so I am sure more will come when I get to know her more. I know many of you reading this don't understand. I know there are lots of negative to having a dog as well, but the postitive totally outweight those negatives for me. It is so worth it. I think everybody should get a dog, if they will take care of it properly. I think they are amazing companions, and my kids will never grow up without at least one.

A Very Full Weekend....

This has been such a busy weekend! On Friday we went to the city for one of Eric's family gathering, we left from there in the evening and drove 1.5 hours to Glenboro where some of my aunties were visiting the Coates' for the weekend. We played lots of cards and slept in. We took the dogs with us too. Maeve had a great time with Jennifer's dogs. On saturday morning, I did the stupidest thing and let her off leash with the other dogs, thinking she would stay around and come when the other dogs did. Well, after she was loose for a while nobody could get within 10 feet of her. We tried everything, chasing her, calling her, bribing her with food, other dogs, sticks; giving her a bone. Finally I threw a bone at her, thinking she would sit down and chew it, but she just took off with it. I thought she would run forever in the fields, but she ended up burying it in some hay in the Jenn's horse's pen. So I dug it up and showed it to her. She finally got close enough to me so I could slowly reach for her collar and grab it. I think it took about an hour to catch her. I was so frustrated, i just wanted to break down cuz i had no idea how we were going to catch her. The woman I got her from told me she ran away, but she didn't tell me she was impossible to catch! So Maeve just bought herself a long time of leash time!

On sunday morning we drove 3 hours back to Riverton for Eric's other family gathering, which we just got back from. I am tired now! But I have lots of work to do. In the next three weeks I have almost 12 hours of interveiws to type out, to try and make ourselves an extra 500 dollars, which is much needed right now! I can't wait to go to Europe, but we are going to have to put off alot of things that I want to do around the house until after we go. And that really sucks. We made a budget the other day, and we are really going to try and stick to it, it is going to be hard.

Something I have been struggling with for a long time is my weight. I want to loose weight and be healthy, but nothing seems to work. I try for a while and give up. It is just so frustrating, it is like I am addicted to sweets or something, I always crave them. I am starting the Curves' six week challenge on Wednesday, and I don't know how well that will go. It is so hard for me to stick to something. I am really getting sick of not doing anything and just getting bigger and bigger. Today I was thinking " I wonder if I could loose 20 pounds in the six week challenge",. and the sad thing is, even if i could, i would be NOWHERE near what I want to be. When I was in High School I was 20 pounds away from my ideal weight, now I am more like 80. Just seeing those numbers makes me want to cry, yep here come the tears.... I can't believe I gained 60 pounds since high school, that is just so disgusting. Maybe this is getting way to personal but it feels good to get it out. I just NEED to get this weight off of me. I am sick of going shopping and loving so many clothes but not being able to buy them because i know they will never fit, I am sick of getting tired when I run a little bit. I just want to look good for my husband. I hate seeing pictures of myself or catching a glimpse of my self in a window or a mirror, I don't even recognise myself. But the killer is that I don't feel any fatter than I ever have. My whole life I have always been told I was fat and I had to loose weight, I never felt normal, i never felt thin. Now I look at old pictures of me and think that i was barely fat, i WAS normal! I just don't understand why people couldn't have just told me I looked good, or that I was beautiful. I love my family, but they think that always critizising is loving, they don't realize how much it hurts sometimes, they think they are just helping out. But if someone would have said better things about me maybe things would be different. But maybe i just didn;'t deserve them either, so why would people tell me i looked good when i don't. I know I am lucky to have a husband that thinks I am gorgeous no matter how much I weigh, but sometimes i wish he would care a little more. He would never say I would look better thinnner, but he must think it. He always just says "as long as you are healthy, thats all i care about, i don't care about how much you weigh, as long as your not a bone rack." I know, i know, he is amazing for saying that, and I love that he never calls me down so i should just be happy about it. i wouldn't want a husband that called me fat all the time. Anyways, I think that is enough for tonight. I still have alot of work to do!

My new family member!

Yesterday Eric, Paris, Fleury, Spitfire and I got a new family member. Her name is Maeve ( it used to be Charm but Eric & I changed it) and she is a two year old Irish Setter. Her owner wanted to get rid of her, and was going to euthanize her. I has been thinking about getting a setter. The vet, Wendy, had told the owner to try and find a home for her, but she couldn't, and had lost her patience and just wanted the dog gone. She said she wanted to get rid of her because she always runs away and didn't like her Neufie puppies. But when she came in she was such a sweet beautiful thing, and there is nothing wrong with her, so today i brought her home. She has been great so far, she is very docile and calm inside. I love it. She is also very shy so that is something we have to work on. The only this is she doens't take treats from me, so it will be a problem when it comes to training her. But I am sure she will warm up soon. She has even warmed up while she has been home tonight!