I thought I would continue in filling y'all in on what transpires for "normal" births around here.
It is now September 5, 2006.
We stayed with our first OB/GYN because we really liked him. However, he moved from a private office and affiliation with the General Hospital to Head of the Dept at Montfort Hospital. I foolishly thought that working in the hospital would have him doing the delivery. 2nd time wrong on that score. I was going to encounter another group of strangers running in and out off the room with no regard for me or my desire for quiet.
At around 5am I am awoken with mild contractions that don't feel strong enough to cause any alarm so I rest until it is time to meet my oldest son's kindergarten teacher at 11am. Yes it is the first day of school. And yes I manage to cram my unusually large bottom onto a toddler chair whilst enjoying the mild progress of labour. Nutter! I should have called and postponed it. But it never occurred to my vacant pregnant brain.
I wanted to move things along so by 2pm I was power walking through Bayshore Shopping Centre and I mean I did 4 laps of the top floor in less than ten minutes! Seriously bookin my butt. After 5pm I felt that I had waited long enough and we were going to the hospital. My contractions were plaguing my lower back, hips and pelvic bone so I wasn't comfortable anywhere but on my sides. They put me on my back and check me out, only 2cm dilated. "Go away and come back later." Seriously! I was less than 5 minutes apart and I had to leave!!
It takes over 30 minutes to get home and I was not going home, so we wandered around an abandoned section of hospital, it was the day clinic area, and conveniently had a washroom, where I needed to pee a million times!
By the time things are progressing enough to say that I can no longer walk during a contraction it was after 8pm and I was marching myself back up there and refusing to leave. Thankfully, it didn't need to come to that as I was far enough along that they let me stay. I was surprised to notice the lack of nursing presence in these next two hours, however, as there weren't enough to go around and September is a popular month for deliveries....Merry Christmas(hehehe)!!
But I was visited by a quick acting nurse and rushed into the delivery room. Well, she tried to rush me, I preferred to walk at my own pace! The nurses tried to get the anaesthesiologist to come in but I didn't want it, even though I couldn't say a word.
What happened to me was surreal. Without numbing drugs to take me into a different reality, I went into a different reality anyway, but it was wonderful, swirly and clouded. All I felt was the movements my unborn son was doing. Sure there was heavy breathing, discomfort, pain. But it fell so much more connected, beautiful and real. I knew that I was probably scaring the crap out of DH who told me how proud he was of me, how much he loved me and how sorry he was that he did this to me by whispering into my ear for some kind of privacy. I couldn't respond but was overwhelmed with love for him that I know I cried and that it was probably misunderstood.
Before I could get a grip on what else was going on I heard a nurse say that the drugs weren't coming, even though I didn't care, and another say that it's too late anyway. I knew that baby was coming, my muscles were doing things I never thought possible, yet they shouted at me not to push.
Did these people come from the same place???
How can you not when your body says yes!! do it!! now its time!!
I literally had to squeeze my knees together because I felt him sliding out and there was no one paying attention to me to catch him....They were to busy with their damn computers and the millions of questions that they asked twenty times! seriously! (and had to answer another hundred before my three days in hell were over!)
After that I was finally able to push, and with two pushes he was born....I threw in a loud scream for the hell of it even though I didn't feel I needed to really, but wanted to protest the whole shebang. After getting stitched up by a student, which did a lousy job of it, even though I yet again felt it wasn't needed I was trying to breastfeed for the first time, with everyone coming and going with no regard to privacy or quiet. Not successful.
But this time no one took him away from me, although they lost his blood work three times over the course of the next three days and kept hacking at his heels to do it again, and this was on top of the few times they "missed".
I was brought to a shared room, even though I wanted private, at around midnight, a window seat again. I was left alone for a while but come morning my troubles were to start again.
September 6th, 2006
In comes the nurse, the breakfast tray, and a few loved ones....and my oldest boy with the sweetest ceramic flowers....because they last forever, Mommy! I was out of diapers very soon and when I asked for more was scolded for not bringing my own.
What?? Did I miss the memo??
I didn't have a hospital tour and my delivery was two weeks early but I don't think that would have changed for this info was just plain wrong!!
That is when I met my first "personal care" nurse...AKA The Breastfeeding Nazi.
I was faced with a pushy woman with clown makeup, (not kidding, hot pink cheeks and lips and bright blue eyeshadow!) She kept at me...try again, no not that way shove more breast in with the nipple. I got a great latch finally, however there was nothing coming out and he was screaming at me for the work he was doing with no rewards. Then she had me massaging my breast to help the flow and every time I did, it would pop out of his mouth. She asked me to give it a good squeeze so she could see how much was coming out. Then she asked my DH to help me squeeze and massage my breast for me! Well, OMG!! This was kept up every two hours!! I was hurting from all the squeezing and jaw grinding my baby was doing.
Then the lactation consultant came in, "So your not succeeding are you??" Does that sound like a nice way to ask if I could use some help? Where is the warm person who is supposed to understand?? She didn't have any kids either....what is with that?? Now to make matters worse, my beautiful window view became a little muddied up by the big burly man standing outside my window with a hammer in his hand.
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR??? WTF!!
Honestly four years later, and the same predicament.
My first two days were a whirl of the Nazis poking and prodding me repeatedly, nagging me and scolding me. Not only were they refusing to give me anymore diapers they flatly refused to give me formula to feed my baby because he couldn't get enough out of me, even after they brought a gigantic rolling machine to suck the milk right out of me.
So I did what any self respecting mother woulddo....I had my DH sneak out to buy diapers and ready to serve formula and I snuck it to him when the nurses left me alone long enough. They felt they had succeeded in converting me into a breast feeder. I continued to try because I wanted to so much, but I wouldn't starve my baby and let him scream in hunger for hours.
Day two and day three were by far the worst of the three days I spent in there. A new set of nurses came on and was poked and prodded again, and scolded for having hemorrhoids....I didn't actually...and scolded for trying to feed my baby when I felt he wanted it instead of by a clock. And then the man outside my window was there again, and another outside my door with a loud scrubbing machine and strong smelling chemicals to strip the floors of the filth....I hadn't slept well at all. The nurses kept taking him out of my room at night to I would "stop fussing with him and get to sleep already". They had made the woman in the bed next to me cry that last night because they told her not to pick up her crying baby and cuddle with her and talk and sing with her. The nurse turned the woman's light out herself before leaving the room....I opened my curtain (which they adamantly leave closed) and told her that it was beautiful what she was singing (some kind of sweet Arabic song) and to not stop, it didn't bother us. So gratefully, she did, and I fell asleep too!
The next morning I was harassed by a camerabed woman and told her to leave me be, I was not interested. But no others came by. Until the first nurse of the day. I told her I wanted to go home before the end of the day and wanted to make sure that I would get my paperwork from her before then. In a huff, she said that I would not leave until the doctors cleared me to go. I have to add here that I was getting feisty with this woman because for the last three days she kept treating me as a stupid invalid who could not care for her child, and when I constantly reminded her that this was my second and I knew what I was doing and wanted to get back home to care for them both, I was met with more disdain. But she got the point when the lunch time tray was brought in and I was dressed, packed and the baby was in his car seat....we were leaving whether she liked it or not and I was prepared to leave without the papers too...I figured my doctor could pull strings and get copies for herself when she needed it.
I was almost not given permission to leave however as they lost my baby's blood work again, now the fourth time, and I refuse to allow them to take any more. The pediatrician said "then we can't keep you, he's been fine and you'll see your doctor soon enough anyway".
So we left. Finally after 6pm.
It is interesting to note here that with two births, one drugged and the other not, how different I feel toward each child. The connection is definitely different between the two, and there is a part of me that feels robbed by that loss of connection.
Monday, October 3, 2011
My First Birth Story
I wanted to help all of you get to know me and my birthing history. I feel that it adds to the explanation of what it is I am doing now. So lets begin with ::
September 15th 2002
My pseudo-surprise baby shower in my parents backyard was a fantastic day. The weather was cooperating and everyone who mattered was there. I looked like hell by the way, I was pushing 265lbs and barely looked pregnant let alone like me. My best friends from school had actually walked right passed me not recognizing me at all! I had gained weight but was also retaining ALOT of water as even my hand and face were grossly squishy.
September 16th 2002
Monday morning- 5am- I woke up to use the washroom - again....and notice more than the usual amount of pee....hmmm....suspicious. But I went back to bed and there I stayed for the remainder of the day. Up to this point I would occasionally have mild contractions in my lower back and today was no different. I was incredibly tired and decided that today is as good as any to get those thank you cards written up. Thankfully I had done them all in this one day, because it would be the last chance I would have to get to them!
Monday night dinner at the In-laws and the contractions in my lower back had not yet stopped, but hadn't gotten worse either, so I figured that it would happen soon enough. My breathing had gotten thicker and heavier before the end of dinner so DH and I went home early to get some sleep. Laying in bed helping DH write up a new job description for a new job he was starting the very next day, contractions starting getting heavier. We had gone to those "birthing classes" and knew that if you could no longer hold a conversation through your contractions that it was a good indicator that it was time to go to the hospital.
But my contractions were coming every two minutes and I was still talking through it all, DH called the hospital to talk to the Maternity Nurse and while I talked to her she knew that I had a few contractions during it all. "Come on in"
10pm- arrival to the hospital to be strapped down to a table, on my back (did I mention the contractions were all in my back??) I didn't want to be in this position I wanted to be on my hand and knees, but I was Not Allowed. DH left then to move the care from the drop off area to the parking garage, and was gone for almost an hour! I was given the OK to move to a delivery room...thankfully they let me walk, and thankfully again those railings are held on the walls very well! By this time it is after midnight...then the anaesthesiologist comes in...and the nurse asks me if I have one of those "tramp stamps" on my back with an awful tone in her voice. When they see the I don't have a tattoo on my back they both say to each other "Thank God for that, cause we won't do it otherwise" no tactful explanation.
I will never have one of those again!!
September 17th- wee early hours.
Crouch over your belly tightly and don't move a muscle.
Hmm...my muscles are moving of their own accord in the process of expelling a baby from its midst....very useful person- aka man
The staff at some point decide to attach an IV drip to my arm, when I expressly stated I did not want one, as I felt that the need to move around freely during my labour was important. That was when I also learned that the drugs in my back were actually still attached to me...in my lower back....made the contractions worse for a while, until they stopped...and that does happen because the drugs they give you to dull the pain actually relax your muscles. They then pump in another drug into my IV to make the contractions step it up a notch or a thousand.
By this point I am devastated. I had so carefully avoided anything that may harm my baby, caffeine, excess sugar, salt, fatty foods. I ate healthier than I ever had, exercised by walking often and swimming. And here they were allowing my baby to swim in drugs. Professionalism stopped them from telling me to shut up, but I felt the words hanging there in the words they did use...Oh he'll be fine, it's nothing.
My stomach does this strange morphing as my body feels calmed by the need to push.....DON'T PUSH!!
What? Why??
They tell me when it is "safe" to push but I had to wait quite a bit longer. Finally, just after 430 am he's born.
I am stitched up, because it turns out that my 4lb13oz baby tore me....does that sound right to you??
Then they check him out, check his blood yaddda yadda.....I held him for a few minutes before they took him back and the entire room cleared out, including my DH. I am still attached to the IV and the stirrups and I need to pee and I am all alone and shaking uncontrollably.
The thing in my back was gone and I was beginning to feel my legs again so I got up with great difficulty and had to jump off the dang bed it was so high off the ground and make my way into the washroom alone. When I got out there was a nurse there and she started scolding me for not waiting!
Unreal!
I am then brought to my room and am happy to see a nice view from the window. Things are looking up! I was able to get some sleep but woke in a panic when I heard a baby cry in the cloth cubicle next to me. My mild panic turns into a wave to terror and tears ad still no one I know is to be found near me...including my baby. DH come to see me as I am trying to eat a hospital breakfast of crap tea and God knows what else! And he is able to tell me that the baby has been brought to NICU.
If you thought the tears and waves of panic before were bad, look out!
When I was finally calmed down, DH brought me to see him, and I was promptly scolded again for not coming sooner! How was I to know? No one told me! Remember me, anyone?
He was so tiny I was afraid of him. But I held him and fed him formula from the most tiny bottle ever. But by the end of the day I was finally able to bring him back to my room and keep him. Then it came time for lights out and then he screamed and couldn't be soothed. I wanted to feed him but the nurse came in and said "Don't feed him again....you need to feed him every four hours, he's already fed he's fine." Then she took him out of my room and left me alone again "to get sleep" I am not sure about you but being under 5lbs with a stomach that can only handle about 2-3 ounces a feeding, waiting 4 hours before the next one is too damn long. But I am a first time mom and know nothing, right?
I couldn't breastfeed the poor darling, even though I tried so hard that the lactation consultant told me to give up. He wouldn't latch on. How can you blame him? His mouth opened as large as a quarter and my nipple and area was the diameter of a pop can....proportions are wrong here. So I pumped the meager amount that was willing to drop and that lasted two weeks before giving up completely.
But while the lactation consultant, whom had never had a child of her own and therefore could not understand why I was crying out in pain, was spending her afternoon trying to convince my baby how to latch on, the view outside my window had changed considerably. I was now staring into the face and large torso of a burly man with a hammer. I was on the 8th floor. Not a comfortable predicament to say the least.
Needless to say that I was itching to get out of there.
September 18th
I was finally getting into the swing of things. I was changing diapers, feeding him with a bottle (which the hospital gave me both of liberally) and even bathed him, even though the nurse did not want to show me the correct way to do this. When a knock at the door provided me with my first unsolicited visitor.
Over the next two hours I had the welcome wagon lady drop in, a life insurance lady drop in, the photobed woman drop in and countless nurses and students. The photobed lady came in with her camera and infant bad step-up and we thought it would be a great picture to have, until she started poking him in the face with a bottle nipple on her finger to make him open his eyes. She had told me not to feed him but she was on hour late, so he fell asleep and scolded me for not listening to her instructions. Sigh! Who's the child in this room?? Eventually I got a picture taken with his eyes closed and am still grateful as the eyes open pictures look like they have been possessed by the devil. But if it weren't for my DH she would have been wearing her photobed around her neck for poking him.
By the next morning we were packed up and waiting to go home.
September 15th 2002
My pseudo-surprise baby shower in my parents backyard was a fantastic day. The weather was cooperating and everyone who mattered was there. I looked like hell by the way, I was pushing 265lbs and barely looked pregnant let alone like me. My best friends from school had actually walked right passed me not recognizing me at all! I had gained weight but was also retaining ALOT of water as even my hand and face were grossly squishy.
September 16th 2002
Monday morning- 5am- I woke up to use the washroom - again....and notice more than the usual amount of pee....hmmm....suspicious. But I went back to bed and there I stayed for the remainder of the day. Up to this point I would occasionally have mild contractions in my lower back and today was no different. I was incredibly tired and decided that today is as good as any to get those thank you cards written up. Thankfully I had done them all in this one day, because it would be the last chance I would have to get to them!
Monday night dinner at the In-laws and the contractions in my lower back had not yet stopped, but hadn't gotten worse either, so I figured that it would happen soon enough. My breathing had gotten thicker and heavier before the end of dinner so DH and I went home early to get some sleep. Laying in bed helping DH write up a new job description for a new job he was starting the very next day, contractions starting getting heavier. We had gone to those "birthing classes" and knew that if you could no longer hold a conversation through your contractions that it was a good indicator that it was time to go to the hospital.
But my contractions were coming every two minutes and I was still talking through it all, DH called the hospital to talk to the Maternity Nurse and while I talked to her she knew that I had a few contractions during it all. "Come on in"
10pm- arrival to the hospital to be strapped down to a table, on my back (did I mention the contractions were all in my back??) I didn't want to be in this position I wanted to be on my hand and knees, but I was Not Allowed. DH left then to move the care from the drop off area to the parking garage, and was gone for almost an hour! I was given the OK to move to a delivery room...thankfully they let me walk, and thankfully again those railings are held on the walls very well! By this time it is after midnight...then the anaesthesiologist comes in...and the nurse asks me if I have one of those "tramp stamps" on my back with an awful tone in her voice. When they see the I don't have a tattoo on my back they both say to each other "Thank God for that, cause we won't do it otherwise" no tactful explanation.
I will never have one of those again!!
September 17th- wee early hours.
Crouch over your belly tightly and don't move a muscle.
Hmm...my muscles are moving of their own accord in the process of expelling a baby from its midst....very useful person- aka man
The staff at some point decide to attach an IV drip to my arm, when I expressly stated I did not want one, as I felt that the need to move around freely during my labour was important. That was when I also learned that the drugs in my back were actually still attached to me...in my lower back....made the contractions worse for a while, until they stopped...and that does happen because the drugs they give you to dull the pain actually relax your muscles. They then pump in another drug into my IV to make the contractions step it up a notch or a thousand.
By this point I am devastated. I had so carefully avoided anything that may harm my baby, caffeine, excess sugar, salt, fatty foods. I ate healthier than I ever had, exercised by walking often and swimming. And here they were allowing my baby to swim in drugs. Professionalism stopped them from telling me to shut up, but I felt the words hanging there in the words they did use...Oh he'll be fine, it's nothing.
My stomach does this strange morphing as my body feels calmed by the need to push.....DON'T PUSH!!
What? Why??
They tell me when it is "safe" to push but I had to wait quite a bit longer. Finally, just after 430 am he's born.
I am stitched up, because it turns out that my 4lb13oz baby tore me....does that sound right to you??
Then they check him out, check his blood yaddda yadda.....I held him for a few minutes before they took him back and the entire room cleared out, including my DH. I am still attached to the IV and the stirrups and I need to pee and I am all alone and shaking uncontrollably.
The thing in my back was gone and I was beginning to feel my legs again so I got up with great difficulty and had to jump off the dang bed it was so high off the ground and make my way into the washroom alone. When I got out there was a nurse there and she started scolding me for not waiting!
Unreal!
I am then brought to my room and am happy to see a nice view from the window. Things are looking up! I was able to get some sleep but woke in a panic when I heard a baby cry in the cloth cubicle next to me. My mild panic turns into a wave to terror and tears ad still no one I know is to be found near me...including my baby. DH come to see me as I am trying to eat a hospital breakfast of crap tea and God knows what else! And he is able to tell me that the baby has been brought to NICU.
If you thought the tears and waves of panic before were bad, look out!
When I was finally calmed down, DH brought me to see him, and I was promptly scolded again for not coming sooner! How was I to know? No one told me! Remember me, anyone?
He was so tiny I was afraid of him. But I held him and fed him formula from the most tiny bottle ever. But by the end of the day I was finally able to bring him back to my room and keep him. Then it came time for lights out and then he screamed and couldn't be soothed. I wanted to feed him but the nurse came in and said "Don't feed him again....you need to feed him every four hours, he's already fed he's fine." Then she took him out of my room and left me alone again "to get sleep" I am not sure about you but being under 5lbs with a stomach that can only handle about 2-3 ounces a feeding, waiting 4 hours before the next one is too damn long. But I am a first time mom and know nothing, right?
I couldn't breastfeed the poor darling, even though I tried so hard that the lactation consultant told me to give up. He wouldn't latch on. How can you blame him? His mouth opened as large as a quarter and my nipple and area was the diameter of a pop can....proportions are wrong here. So I pumped the meager amount that was willing to drop and that lasted two weeks before giving up completely.
But while the lactation consultant, whom had never had a child of her own and therefore could not understand why I was crying out in pain, was spending her afternoon trying to convince my baby how to latch on, the view outside my window had changed considerably. I was now staring into the face and large torso of a burly man with a hammer. I was on the 8th floor. Not a comfortable predicament to say the least.
Needless to say that I was itching to get out of there.
September 18th
I was finally getting into the swing of things. I was changing diapers, feeding him with a bottle (which the hospital gave me both of liberally) and even bathed him, even though the nurse did not want to show me the correct way to do this. When a knock at the door provided me with my first unsolicited visitor.
Over the next two hours I had the welcome wagon lady drop in, a life insurance lady drop in, the photobed woman drop in and countless nurses and students. The photobed lady came in with her camera and infant bad step-up and we thought it would be a great picture to have, until she started poking him in the face with a bottle nipple on her finger to make him open his eyes. She had told me not to feed him but she was on hour late, so he fell asleep and scolded me for not listening to her instructions. Sigh! Who's the child in this room?? Eventually I got a picture taken with his eyes closed and am still grateful as the eyes open pictures look like they have been possessed by the devil. But if it weren't for my DH she would have been wearing her photobed around her neck for poking him.
By the next morning we were packed up and waiting to go home.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
My Good News
It is not a surprise anymore that I am having another baby. It is also not a surprise to those of you whom have read my blog posts in the past that I want to have a girl. Well, we'll just have to wait and see what the ultrasound will say at 18weeks.
And at 6 weeks, the wait will drive me crazy!!
But, I have so many things to keep me busy until then. For example, I no longer have anything that is useful for anyone under the age of 5. That means there are no clothes being hoarded, blankets, hats, carriers, bottles or nipples(which I pray to all the Gods that I will not need this time), soothers, strollers, car seats, cribs and mattress, infant tub and slider, NOTHING!!
I am a little worried but not overly so, because when you have friends with kids of all ages there is bound to be something you can buy, borrow or be given to use.
So, the point of this post is not to beg for stuff, I've already done that, thanks a million.
But I wanted to catalogue(?) the progress that I am going to be going through. For no other reason than my own if no one cares to read about it....but I am sure there will be a few who may be interested.
To begin, I am going to spend Monday Oct. 3rd (tomorrow) looking for a midwife. That is a decision that I have not come to lightly, having heard about it from many friends in the homeschooling community about the benefits of this over traditional hospital care. I believe that this will be step 1, then step 2 is to cancel the appointment I made for the 18th of October with my doctor for a prenatal checkup. I feel really bad about doing it because we really like her. It is rare to find a family doctor that really cares for you and your family, but she won't be delivering my baby, and she will still be our family doctor at the end of the day so, I hope she won't be offended.
So wish me luck in finding a midwife! I hear it is not easy to do as they are booked up quickly!
And at 6 weeks, the wait will drive me crazy!!
But, I have so many things to keep me busy until then. For example, I no longer have anything that is useful for anyone under the age of 5. That means there are no clothes being hoarded, blankets, hats, carriers, bottles or nipples(which I pray to all the Gods that I will not need this time), soothers, strollers, car seats, cribs and mattress, infant tub and slider, NOTHING!!
I am a little worried but not overly so, because when you have friends with kids of all ages there is bound to be something you can buy, borrow or be given to use.
So, the point of this post is not to beg for stuff, I've already done that, thanks a million.
But I wanted to catalogue(?) the progress that I am going to be going through. For no other reason than my own if no one cares to read about it....but I am sure there will be a few who may be interested.
To begin, I am going to spend Monday Oct. 3rd (tomorrow) looking for a midwife. That is a decision that I have not come to lightly, having heard about it from many friends in the homeschooling community about the benefits of this over traditional hospital care. I believe that this will be step 1, then step 2 is to cancel the appointment I made for the 18th of October with my doctor for a prenatal checkup. I feel really bad about doing it because we really like her. It is rare to find a family doctor that really cares for you and your family, but she won't be delivering my baby, and she will still be our family doctor at the end of the day so, I hope she won't be offended.
So wish me luck in finding a midwife! I hear it is not easy to do as they are booked up quickly!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Affiliate Mumbo-Jumbo and other concerns
I am trying my hand at the affiliate marketing money making craze. It seems that there are plenty of people who are making decent money and of course there are a select few that are making a killing!!
What I hate most about Internet marketing is the coloured, bolded, and/or highlighted texts that are splashed all over these pages and the too-good-to-be-true customer testimonials. So, then, What's a girl to do??
I am trying to think outside the box and look at alternative methods of earning income and came across a few success stories in a book that DH and I are reading...see the side bar on the left....and am using amazon (obviously) a little bit, but have had no luck with that.
Anyway, in the book a woman in B.C. made over 400K in one year using a bunch of different affiliate programs on her websites. I was intrigued and looked for her. I found her book in our public library, many sites where her videos on learning about affiliate marketing were shown, and her personal/business blog that seems to be marketing even then.
And I wonder Can I do this? Where can I do this? This kind of deep Internet marketing work had always intimidated me. A few years ago I ran a home business as a consultant with a very popular, reputable and all-round exceptional company and I still managed to fail in the marketing department.
Yes, I do know that it was entirely my fault, but I have no idea how to fix that! I mean, here is an example...I decided that I wanted people in my region to find me instead of the competition so I signed up for GoogleAdwords. Great! I was getting top search line and the side bar ads from the search pages. I had many click throughs and thought I had figured it all out!! Look out 'cause here I come!!
Well, that didn't happen. I didn't get one party booking, online order or even an email or phone call asking about joining the business. What I did get was a number of obscene phone calls (you know the kind -the heavy breathing, the -what i wanna to do you- calls, and hotel services requests), and a whopping 600$ bill over three months!
Online marketing gone terribly wrong!!
So armed with the above book and Timothy Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week DH and I are racking our brains thinking up something and coming up with almost nothing...... How do you make money with something if you can't think of what something is supposed to be?!!!?!?!?!?
Uhhh, We have been reading Tim's book over and over for the past 6 weeks, and can even bring ourselves to tears wanting this soooo badly, but having no idea what in the hell to do, or how to go about doing it the right way!!
We'll just have to keep you up to date and maybe we'll have something figured out.
All I know is that DH's daytime job's boss is going to Italy tomorrow, and his nighttime boss will be heading off to Lebanon soon......and somehow we can't go away for a weekend.
Something amiss??? HELL YES!!!
What I hate most about Internet marketing is the coloured, bolded, and/or highlighted texts that are splashed all over these pages and the too-good-to-be-true customer testimonials. So, then, What's a girl to do??
I am trying to think outside the box and look at alternative methods of earning income and came across a few success stories in a book that DH and I are reading...see the side bar on the left....and am using amazon (obviously) a little bit, but have had no luck with that.
Anyway, in the book a woman in B.C. made over 400K in one year using a bunch of different affiliate programs on her websites. I was intrigued and looked for her. I found her book in our public library, many sites where her videos on learning about affiliate marketing were shown, and her personal/business blog that seems to be marketing even then.
And I wonder Can I do this? Where can I do this? This kind of deep Internet marketing work had always intimidated me. A few years ago I ran a home business as a consultant with a very popular, reputable and all-round exceptional company and I still managed to fail in the marketing department.
Yes, I do know that it was entirely my fault, but I have no idea how to fix that! I mean, here is an example...I decided that I wanted people in my region to find me instead of the competition so I signed up for GoogleAdwords. Great! I was getting top search line and the side bar ads from the search pages. I had many click throughs and thought I had figured it all out!! Look out 'cause here I come!!
Well, that didn't happen. I didn't get one party booking, online order or even an email or phone call asking about joining the business. What I did get was a number of obscene phone calls (you know the kind -the heavy breathing, the -what i wanna to do you- calls, and hotel services requests), and a whopping 600$ bill over three months!
Online marketing gone terribly wrong!!
So armed with the above book and Timothy Ferriss' 4-Hour Work Week DH and I are racking our brains thinking up something and coming up with almost nothing...... How do you make money with something if you can't think of what something is supposed to be?!!!?!?!?!?
Uhhh, We have been reading Tim's book over and over for the past 6 weeks, and can even bring ourselves to tears wanting this soooo badly, but having no idea what in the hell to do, or how to go about doing it the right way!!
We'll just have to keep you up to date and maybe we'll have something figured out.
All I know is that DH's daytime job's boss is going to Italy tomorrow, and his nighttime boss will be heading off to Lebanon soon......and somehow we can't go away for a weekend.
Something amiss??? HELL YES!!!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Who My Hubby Would Leave Me For
There are times in every couples lives where the conversation comes up about who they would leave you for. Be it for one night or for a lifetime, does that really matter?
The point is there is some kind of fame fascination that leaves a person wanting more. And usually the conversation also falls into permissiveness about this because the likelihood of it actually happening is slim, or so we hope.
So, gleefully, I admit that my hubby would leave me, be it for a night or not, for the awesomeness of Pink. That is one woman he says he would never close the door or kick out of his bed for eating cookies.
So who would you leave your partner for if you ever had that chance?
I would have a tough time answering that, but I may have to say Gordon Ramsay. However, if Pink came to my door with her super sexy hubby, Carey Hart, well now that is a whole other ball game!!
Yup, my attraction to tattooed, and pierced muscle men has not changed only lessened in severity. But all in good fun, seriously who would YOU leave your partner for, and do you know your partner's answer??
The point is there is some kind of fame fascination that leaves a person wanting more. And usually the conversation also falls into permissiveness about this because the likelihood of it actually happening is slim, or so we hope.
So, gleefully, I admit that my hubby would leave me, be it for a night or not, for the awesomeness of Pink. That is one woman he says he would never close the door or kick out of his bed for eating cookies.
So who would you leave your partner for if you ever had that chance?
I would have a tough time answering that, but I may have to say Gordon Ramsay. However, if Pink came to my door with her super sexy hubby, Carey Hart, well now that is a whole other ball game!!
Yup, my attraction to tattooed, and pierced muscle men has not changed only lessened in severity. But all in good fun, seriously who would YOU leave your partner for, and do you know your partner's answer??
Thursday, August 25, 2011
I have been challenged- and I have failed it already!
That's right, I have been challenged and have already failed it.
Doesn't that suck the crap right off the fan that it hit in the first damn place!
So, you see why I have to fail the challenge without even starting it. I am being sent to a physiotherapist to rectify this problem. I know that I am naive enough to think that it won't take too long to be normal again, but one can hope!
So, my Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 video will have to wait.
And then, maybe, the challenge will be on.
Doesn't that suck the crap right off the fan that it hit in the first damn place!
I have been challenged to a 30-day health challenge.
And I am admitting defeat before I can even start the g-damned thing.
Why??
Because of my health. I know don't say it, isn't that the main reason in the first place to accept the challenge?
Well, in my case, NO. You see, not too long ago I had to get treatment for a nasty kidney infection, and while we thought that the second round of treatments had still not made any effect, my doctor found out differently. It had healed. But I still have pain in the same area as before. What gives?
An x-ray later proved the easiest method of locating the problem. Thankfully because my doc wanted MRIs and CAT scans done....no thank you!
Well, my lower lumbar area around my spine is curved to the right therefore causing the pain in my right side as a nerve is being shoved around in unnatural positions.
So, you see why I have to fail the challenge without even starting it. I am being sent to a physiotherapist to rectify this problem. I know that I am naive enough to think that it won't take too long to be normal again, but one can hope!
So, my Jillian Michaels Ripped in 30 video will have to wait.
And then, maybe, the challenge will be on.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
My Idea
In my last post I mentioned that I was developing something. And I was purposefully vague.
I would like to share my idea with you now, as I am about to purchase stuff to make it and need to know if the demand is actually there.
So this will be a general test among my friends, family, and 3Women followers.
I am developing a diaper rash spray made from all natural-organic-herbal ingredients. I am tired of thinking "I should really do it" and of course I never did. I have wanted to do this since I had my first son, then realized a deeper need for it with my second son.
Do you hate having a pharmacy in your diaper bag of 10 different types of rash creams? I definitely did. And I realized that rash creams made my boys' rashes worse. It took a while to figure out why : zinc oxide allergy. Both my boys were sensitive to zinc oxide and all rash creams have a large portion of it in them. I saw one brand as high as 15%!!
Do you hate having to rub on super thick creams onto your baby's sensitive and sore bottom? Now you can spray it and leave it!
So, Whadda ya think?? My rash spray will not sting, and it will not need you to touch your baby's sore bottom.
Please let me know your feedback in any way!
I would like to share my idea with you now, as I am about to purchase stuff to make it and need to know if the demand is actually there.
So this will be a general test among my friends, family, and 3Women followers.
I am developing a diaper rash spray made from all natural-organic-herbal ingredients. I am tired of thinking "I should really do it" and of course I never did. I have wanted to do this since I had my first son, then realized a deeper need for it with my second son.
Do you hate having a pharmacy in your diaper bag of 10 different types of rash creams? I definitely did. And I realized that rash creams made my boys' rashes worse. It took a while to figure out why : zinc oxide allergy. Both my boys were sensitive to zinc oxide and all rash creams have a large portion of it in them. I saw one brand as high as 15%!!
Do you hate having to rub on super thick creams onto your baby's sensitive and sore bottom? Now you can spray it and leave it!
So, Whadda ya think?? My rash spray will not sting, and it will not need you to touch your baby's sore bottom.
Please let me know your feedback in any way!
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Worst Nightmare ever ~ and I wasn't really sleeping
Two nights ago I had the misfortune of not being able to sleep. Chalk it up to way too much caffeine and an overactive imagination. Nevertheless, I was unable to get a horrible movie out of my head long enough to stop crying and fall asleep.
Has that ever happened to you? You aren't quite wide awake, but you know you aren't sleeping either and the most horrible events that could actually happen to you are playing a non-stop tirade in your head.
All I could say is that I had a bad "dream". But it wasn't a dream...was it?
I dreamed that I was at home, as usual, with my boys playing the Wii in the basement, when two men knocked at the door. I never answer the door when I don't know who it is, so they kicked the door down. In the melee of screaming and running to the kitchen (I firmly believe I was going for a knife) they killed our dog that was taking chucks out of their legs and then hit me over the head and knocked me out.
Then the dream continues, I am now watching the boys like I am watching a movie. They heard what was going on and instead of running upstairs to see or help, my oldest grabs his brother, turns off the TV, and runs into the storage closet and hides behind a big Rubbermaid container in the dark. The men went down to the basement and seeing nothing they left, my oldest left his brother there in the closet and tiptoed to the stairs and heard the men saying that they were going to leave by the back door so no one would see them take me with them, and one would go to the street while the other went back to the parking lot to get their truck.
My oldest then grabbed his brother and ran out front with a few water guns and they begin to pretend to play, the guy that went around from the back to get his truck had no idea that they were in the house and when he left my oldest got his plate numbers and then called 911.
The police do eventually find the truck but I had already been transferred to another vehicle and am gone. fingerprints and DNA from my dogs mouth are all they have to go on, but they never find me.
I am locked in a white room that is lit like daylight for an unknown amount of time and am fed very little. somehow I keep my wits and don't freak out. When the men are not in my room, I exercise and build my strength, I am hoping that I can fight my way out.
There does come a day when I am able to trick them into both coming into the room and I kick their butts and lock them into the room and run. I climb the stairs to what turns out to be a beautiful house with pictures of a woman that looks exactly like me, but is no where to be seen. That's when I remember that one of the men said that he would do it right this time....what happened to the other woman??
For some strange reason I started roaming the house and found the woman's bedroom and raided her closet for clean clothes. I found a lot of expensive clothes and empty suitcases, so I helped myself. Behind a shelf of purses I found a partly opened safe. I figured that the men had no idea it was here because the purses were still hiding it. Logically it made sense to me because men would not put the purses back on the shelf. When I opened the door to the safe I found stacks of cash and bonds and certificates. Yes, I took them and put them into a cute purse. I felt I deserved it. Then I put the purses back, because that is what a woman would do.
Then with the suitcases and the purse filled I went back downstairs looking for a garage door and found it in the kitchen. When I found the light switch I was pleasantly surprised to find three vehicles and the keys to them on a holder, my ticket home. I took a few minutes to fiddle with the GPS unit in one of the cars and prayed that I wasn't in the States, so that there wouldn't be a border to cross. And when the GPS locked into my location and the address I wanted to go to I knew that I wasn't crossing borders, but I still had no idea where in the country I was. But I was happy to be leaving.
Half a tank of gas later I stopped to fill up, and called 911 from a payphone. I didn't want to leave those guys locked in the basement room and I definitely wanted them to go to jail for what they did to me, but the only info i gave the police was my first name. After paying for the gas I decided to ask where I was, and to double check the date, I was on a tight schedule I told the worker.
I was in Northern Manitoba, and It was May17th, 2013.
Holy shit.
I was taken from home in August 2011.
I continued the drive home and hoped that my family was still there for me to go home to. I hoped that my husband hadn't moved on and there would be another woman raising my boys. But I also worried as I had over the past 21 months that the men hadn't killed my boys like they had our dog.
When I finally arrived in the parking lot of our condo...I parked and waited. I didn't know if anyone was home, or if I was in the wrong place now. Eventually, my husband came out of the house. I went to him as he was locking the door.
I called the police officer that was in charge of my case, whom is an old friend from childhood(seriously), gave back the car to the woman's family (it turned out that one of the men was her ex husband who killed her and made it look like suicide) and they sent me a new car of my own. and i kept the money that no one knew about anyway.
To shorten the rest of this "dream" the boys were fine, they did wait for me, and we did sell the house asap.
But what a hell of a nightmare.
Some kind of dream reader would have a field day with this one. I am going to explore this as a book option.....maybe it really will be a movie.
Has that ever happened to you? You aren't quite wide awake, but you know you aren't sleeping either and the most horrible events that could actually happen to you are playing a non-stop tirade in your head.
All I could say is that I had a bad "dream". But it wasn't a dream...was it?
I dreamed that I was at home, as usual, with my boys playing the Wii in the basement, when two men knocked at the door. I never answer the door when I don't know who it is, so they kicked the door down. In the melee of screaming and running to the kitchen (I firmly believe I was going for a knife) they killed our dog that was taking chucks out of their legs and then hit me over the head and knocked me out.
Then the dream continues, I am now watching the boys like I am watching a movie. They heard what was going on and instead of running upstairs to see or help, my oldest grabs his brother, turns off the TV, and runs into the storage closet and hides behind a big Rubbermaid container in the dark. The men went down to the basement and seeing nothing they left, my oldest left his brother there in the closet and tiptoed to the stairs and heard the men saying that they were going to leave by the back door so no one would see them take me with them, and one would go to the street while the other went back to the parking lot to get their truck.
My oldest then grabbed his brother and ran out front with a few water guns and they begin to pretend to play, the guy that went around from the back to get his truck had no idea that they were in the house and when he left my oldest got his plate numbers and then called 911.
The police do eventually find the truck but I had already been transferred to another vehicle and am gone. fingerprints and DNA from my dogs mouth are all they have to go on, but they never find me.
I am locked in a white room that is lit like daylight for an unknown amount of time and am fed very little. somehow I keep my wits and don't freak out. When the men are not in my room, I exercise and build my strength, I am hoping that I can fight my way out.
There does come a day when I am able to trick them into both coming into the room and I kick their butts and lock them into the room and run. I climb the stairs to what turns out to be a beautiful house with pictures of a woman that looks exactly like me, but is no where to be seen. That's when I remember that one of the men said that he would do it right this time....what happened to the other woman??
For some strange reason I started roaming the house and found the woman's bedroom and raided her closet for clean clothes. I found a lot of expensive clothes and empty suitcases, so I helped myself. Behind a shelf of purses I found a partly opened safe. I figured that the men had no idea it was here because the purses were still hiding it. Logically it made sense to me because men would not put the purses back on the shelf. When I opened the door to the safe I found stacks of cash and bonds and certificates. Yes, I took them and put them into a cute purse. I felt I deserved it. Then I put the purses back, because that is what a woman would do.
Then with the suitcases and the purse filled I went back downstairs looking for a garage door and found it in the kitchen. When I found the light switch I was pleasantly surprised to find three vehicles and the keys to them on a holder, my ticket home. I took a few minutes to fiddle with the GPS unit in one of the cars and prayed that I wasn't in the States, so that there wouldn't be a border to cross. And when the GPS locked into my location and the address I wanted to go to I knew that I wasn't crossing borders, but I still had no idea where in the country I was. But I was happy to be leaving.
Half a tank of gas later I stopped to fill up, and called 911 from a payphone. I didn't want to leave those guys locked in the basement room and I definitely wanted them to go to jail for what they did to me, but the only info i gave the police was my first name. After paying for the gas I decided to ask where I was, and to double check the date, I was on a tight schedule I told the worker.
I was in Northern Manitoba, and It was May17th, 2013.
Holy shit.
I was taken from home in August 2011.
I continued the drive home and hoped that my family was still there for me to go home to. I hoped that my husband hadn't moved on and there would be another woman raising my boys. But I also worried as I had over the past 21 months that the men hadn't killed my boys like they had our dog.
When I finally arrived in the parking lot of our condo...I parked and waited. I didn't know if anyone was home, or if I was in the wrong place now. Eventually, my husband came out of the house. I went to him as he was locking the door.
I called the police officer that was in charge of my case, whom is an old friend from childhood(seriously), gave back the car to the woman's family (it turned out that one of the men was her ex husband who killed her and made it look like suicide) and they sent me a new car of my own. and i kept the money that no one knew about anyway.
To shorten the rest of this "dream" the boys were fine, they did wait for me, and we did sell the house asap.
But what a hell of a nightmare.
Some kind of dream reader would have a field day with this one. I am going to explore this as a book option.....maybe it really will be a movie.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Pricing Wars ~ Canada or US??
I came up with an idea for a product about 7 years ago and have never FOLLOWED THROUGH with it...are you getting tired of hearing that yet??
Well, now I don't have to listen to it either.
I have researched off and on for these past 7 years and feel that I have finally found what I have been looking for. 4 or maybe 5 ingredients are all natural, herbal products that are good for you instead of riddled with chemicals. So, now I need to price out the ingredients to test out my idea and make sure it works...There's the trouble you were probably sensing was on the way!
I wanted to go with a Canadian company and I found one that I have been window shopping with for years, out in Vancouver, B.C. and then there is the company that I had previously purchased from for soaps and lotion ingredients, way out in Oregon.
I cannot believe it! The same five ingredients cannot actually be calculated to the same weight (damn it!!) so while in Canada you an buy something for 5mL and in the US you can buy something for 1oz, neither one will be even close to comparisons!
I made a chart- sort of- on a white board
company A company B
ingredient 1 2oz 9.50 (59mL) 20mL(0.68 oz) 10.12
4oz 16.50 (118mL) 100 mL(3.4oz) 35.71
ingredient 2 1/2 oz 31.75 5mL (.17oz) 27.11
ingredient 3 1/2 oz 8.75 5mL (0.17oz) 4.72
1 oz 15.00 20mL (0.68oz) 10.98
ingredient 4 1/2 oz 3.50 (14ml) 50mL (1.7oz) 18.39
1 oz 6.00 (30ml)
ingredient 5 16oz 6.50 100mL (3.38oz) 7.48
500mL (16.9oz) 31.74
now, it may take a minute to read the differences, but the left column is faaaaaar cheaper for the product which in most cases there is more of. And thinking of it now, shipping from the US is far cheaper than shipping within Canada- thanks a lot CanadaPost-You suck....
Now I need to price out packaging my little wonder and then I will tell you all about it! (and give a few away!!) Stay tuned...for my newest adventure of actualizing my dreams!
Well, now I don't have to listen to it either.
I have researched off and on for these past 7 years and feel that I have finally found what I have been looking for. 4 or maybe 5 ingredients are all natural, herbal products that are good for you instead of riddled with chemicals. So, now I need to price out the ingredients to test out my idea and make sure it works...There's the trouble you were probably sensing was on the way!
I wanted to go with a Canadian company and I found one that I have been window shopping with for years, out in Vancouver, B.C. and then there is the company that I had previously purchased from for soaps and lotion ingredients, way out in Oregon.
I cannot believe it! The same five ingredients cannot actually be calculated to the same weight (damn it!!) so while in Canada you an buy something for 5mL and in the US you can buy something for 1oz, neither one will be even close to comparisons!
I made a chart- sort of- on a white board
company A company B
ingredient 1 2oz 9.50 (59mL) 20mL(0.68 oz) 10.12
4oz 16.50 (118mL) 100 mL(3.4oz) 35.71
ingredient 2 1/2 oz 31.75 5mL (.17oz) 27.11
ingredient 3 1/2 oz 8.75 5mL (0.17oz) 4.72
1 oz 15.00 20mL (0.68oz) 10.98
ingredient 4 1/2 oz 3.50 (14ml) 50mL (1.7oz) 18.39
1 oz 6.00 (30ml)
ingredient 5 16oz 6.50 100mL (3.38oz) 7.48
500mL (16.9oz) 31.74
now, it may take a minute to read the differences, but the left column is faaaaaar cheaper for the product which in most cases there is more of. And thinking of it now, shipping from the US is far cheaper than shipping within Canada- thanks a lot CanadaPost-You suck....
Now I need to price out packaging my little wonder and then I will tell you all about it! (and give a few away!!) Stay tuned...for my newest adventure of actualizing my dreams!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Heart for Art-We are SO on board!
Stay at Home Babe has given us an opportunity to create beautiful pieces of artwork and send it to kids in Bali as a way to have penpals! My boys are gonna love this!! Thanks!!
If you are interested in sending your pieces of artwork to new friends in Bali click on Stay at Home Babe's link and keep note of the mailing address and mail them ASAP!!
http://stayathomebabe.com/2011/07/heart-for-art-the-world-isnt-big-or-bad/trackback/
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Italian-Style Sausage
Alright folks!
Here is the first installment of the recipes I used this week for my great big cookoff!
1 lb mild italian sausage, cut into small pieces
1 can (15oz) navy beans, rinsed and drained.
1/2 can chick peas (i used these because they were in the fridge but not needed in the recipe)
1 cup pasta sauce
1 green pepper, cut into strips
1 onion, sliced
I doubled this and cooked it in a 7quart slow cooker.(not quite full)
The recipe originally calls for precooking the sausage in a fry pan, but i decided that the little fat that was in the sausage would actually be good for flavour, so I just threw everything into the pot together...and it came out great!!
Eat this with cooked rice, or whatever you like!!
Cost breakdown:
I bought a $10 package of sausages from Food Basics' freezer deals....
sausages used $4.00
onions guessed $0.10
green peppers (2) $1.67
can of beans $0.77
half a can of chick peas $0.50
pasta sauce jar-Ragu old style $0.99
There was no spices in this dish because of the sausage and the pasta sauce that I used, it already had great flavour in it! But feel free to add some if you like it stronger.....my kids don't.
I got 6 decent servings outta this one......total cost is $1.34 per serving!
Bon Appetit!!
Here is the first installment of the recipes I used this week for my great big cookoff!
1 lb mild italian sausage, cut into small pieces
1 can (15oz) navy beans, rinsed and drained.
1/2 can chick peas (i used these because they were in the fridge but not needed in the recipe)
1 cup pasta sauce
1 green pepper, cut into strips
1 onion, sliced
I doubled this and cooked it in a 7quart slow cooker.(not quite full)
The recipe originally calls for precooking the sausage in a fry pan, but i decided that the little fat that was in the sausage would actually be good for flavour, so I just threw everything into the pot together...and it came out great!!
Eat this with cooked rice, or whatever you like!!
Cost breakdown:
I bought a $10 package of sausages from Food Basics' freezer deals....
sausages used $4.00
onions guessed $0.10
green peppers (2) $1.67
can of beans $0.77
half a can of chick peas $0.50
pasta sauce jar-Ragu old style $0.99
There was no spices in this dish because of the sausage and the pasta sauce that I used, it already had great flavour in it! But feel free to add some if you like it stronger.....my kids don't.
I got 6 decent servings outta this one......total cost is $1.34 per serving!
Bon Appetit!!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
What I am doing for me this week
Well, what I am doing ins't really considered for me....yet. I am cooking a whole bunch of meals and freezing them, so that I can spend less time in my kitchen and more time doing everything else. I spend a majority of my day in the kitchen making 6 meals a day and snacks so there is too much time going on in there!
What I need more time for....
AJ wants to finish off the Sonlight program we purchased back in April. We had a rocky year trying to find interest, focus and seemless progression. We didn't find it with me burning out creating all these topics from scratch only to find out after it was done that it wasn't fun, interesting or motivation for him. So, after a few weeks with Sonlight we have decided that it was truly a blessing however because it puts him "behind" his grade level he is upset that he cannot tell his neighborhood-schooled friend that he is going to grade 4 too.
This is a huge upset for him, so we will be plowing ahead through the summer to try to finish it faster. And for that I need more time away from the kitchen without anyone going hungry at the same time!
Last night I started preparing all the veggies that I will need, and even managed to start a meal in my crock pot. Italian-style sauages. i made a double batch of this recipe and it smelled good overnight and it made it hard to sleep!!
I calculated the cost of all the ingredients I used for this whole pot and then decided that I would get a good 6 servings (technically I should have 8, but my hubby eats more than the standard serving size) and figured it would cost ......
$1.34 per serving!!
I love that!!
This morning I am cooking up some dried beans I've had soaking to add to a few recipes, as I am now out of the cheap cans. Which I think is kinda funny, I paid 77 cents for a bunch of cans of beans yet I am still saving money with the cost of them dried....although I don't factor in the cost of the electricity to cook them, that is just a fact of life and will never be able to eliminate that!
So what i am going to do is post here the recipe name and the total cost of what i spent and how many servings i get and we'll see how well i have done!
next: pork porkolt- an amazing hungarian dish!
and cookie dough to freeze!
What I need more time for....
AJ wants to finish off the Sonlight program we purchased back in April. We had a rocky year trying to find interest, focus and seemless progression. We didn't find it with me burning out creating all these topics from scratch only to find out after it was done that it wasn't fun, interesting or motivation for him. So, after a few weeks with Sonlight we have decided that it was truly a blessing however because it puts him "behind" his grade level he is upset that he cannot tell his neighborhood-schooled friend that he is going to grade 4 too.
This is a huge upset for him, so we will be plowing ahead through the summer to try to finish it faster. And for that I need more time away from the kitchen without anyone going hungry at the same time!
Last night I started preparing all the veggies that I will need, and even managed to start a meal in my crock pot. Italian-style sauages. i made a double batch of this recipe and it smelled good overnight and it made it hard to sleep!!
I calculated the cost of all the ingredients I used for this whole pot and then decided that I would get a good 6 servings (technically I should have 8, but my hubby eats more than the standard serving size) and figured it would cost ......
$1.34 per serving!!
I love that!!
This morning I am cooking up some dried beans I've had soaking to add to a few recipes, as I am now out of the cheap cans. Which I think is kinda funny, I paid 77 cents for a bunch of cans of beans yet I am still saving money with the cost of them dried....although I don't factor in the cost of the electricity to cook them, that is just a fact of life and will never be able to eliminate that!
So what i am going to do is post here the recipe name and the total cost of what i spent and how many servings i get and we'll see how well i have done!
next: pork porkolt- an amazing hungarian dish!
and cookie dough to freeze!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Budget should be a four letter word!!
After realizing that we had spent well over 1200 bucks on restaurants and food last month alone I realized that we needed to rethink our so called budget!
I've done this before. I have a great excel spreadsheet to keep track of where we spend our money. Problem is it take a lot of time to enter in everything we are purchasing into their proper categories.
The bottom line is we know that we are spending more on STUFF than what we actually need, so do we really need to track every penny that way?? I wonder.
Gail Vaz-Oxlade (book) has us tracking everything to see where it is all going. But I already know where its going...and that doesn't come as a surprise to me. We need to stop shopping without purpose. Just cause I want it is the problem we are having.
So with a list of the things we are going to need to buy for car and home maintenance is going to help keep thing into perspective. Not to mention the damn condo board is going to have us paying for more assessments to fix something in the next few months.
I made a list of all our non-negotiable bills and expenses and a list of the income we have. (well I had to average this because it isn't always the same in dollar amount) and realized that we actually do have enough coming in to pay for these bills, but the problem is that the money isn't always around when the bills need to come out.
I wish our pay would be as predictable in dollar amount as well as expectancy date as our bills are. I always know what dates the bills are due, but the pay is always off. That is why we are OD'ing our bank account. How in the hell does one fix that??
I think for the next month or two, we are going to have to cut out all non-essential spending to keep more in our account to catch up and then find out what can be paid with an extra dose of money to get rid of it faster.
so armed with that and a grocery budget of $500, we'll see what we can accomplish. Miracles I hope!
it would help of course if i could make money from home, but I am not interested in doing another party based business. One car is not able to be used right now, and the other is used very often by hubby for his two jobs. I am homeschooling, so being home is imperative. american opportunities are just that- american. so what now!
I've done this before. I have a great excel spreadsheet to keep track of where we spend our money. Problem is it take a lot of time to enter in everything we are purchasing into their proper categories.
The bottom line is we know that we are spending more on STUFF than what we actually need, so do we really need to track every penny that way?? I wonder.
Gail Vaz-Oxlade (book) has us tracking everything to see where it is all going. But I already know where its going...and that doesn't come as a surprise to me. We need to stop shopping without purpose. Just cause I want it is the problem we are having.
So with a list of the things we are going to need to buy for car and home maintenance is going to help keep thing into perspective. Not to mention the damn condo board is going to have us paying for more assessments to fix something in the next few months.
I made a list of all our non-negotiable bills and expenses and a list of the income we have. (well I had to average this because it isn't always the same in dollar amount) and realized that we actually do have enough coming in to pay for these bills, but the problem is that the money isn't always around when the bills need to come out.
I wish our pay would be as predictable in dollar amount as well as expectancy date as our bills are. I always know what dates the bills are due, but the pay is always off. That is why we are OD'ing our bank account. How in the hell does one fix that??
I think for the next month or two, we are going to have to cut out all non-essential spending to keep more in our account to catch up and then find out what can be paid with an extra dose of money to get rid of it faster.
so armed with that and a grocery budget of $500, we'll see what we can accomplish. Miracles I hope!
it would help of course if i could make money from home, but I am not interested in doing another party based business. One car is not able to be used right now, and the other is used very often by hubby for his two jobs. I am homeschooling, so being home is imperative. american opportunities are just that- american. so what now!
Monday, July 4, 2011
This week's Adventures
We had a great long weekend of family time, going to the Deifenbunker museum (i am sure i spelled it wrong), Dairy Queen, hiking in the Gatineau hills and enjoying a trip to the "quebec loblaws" as we call it and then finishing it off with a 2 hour drive to and from Arden ontario.
We drove our oldest to summer camp and hope that this year he'll cry a lot less than last year.
a sensitive creature he is!
but thankfully (i can't believe i am saying this!) it is a catholic-faith-based western-themed camp, so friendship and support by everyone including his peers is the name of the game.
Last year he spent a lot of time crying and being upset by the whole experience that he never wanted to go back. A few months ago he changed his mind, so i agreed to go along with it. The night before we left he broke down and he welled up as I was leaving (after sticking around for an hour and a half) I hope that his first night went better.
I think it may help that they actually remembered him! can you imagine that! every week for the entire summer they have new kids and a year has passed since he spent a week there, and as soon as they saw him they new his name! One teen boy was his cabin councilor was so happy to see him he practically hugged him as he told him how happy he was to see him again! Talk about making it easier to stick it out!
They had even sent him a birthday card and greeting magnet in September! I like this place alot! I may not talk about religion or faith in our home, however, I appreciate the values that the camp upholds and even appreciate the fact that the kids he is with are so much more faithful than other kids that "go to" catholic schools. The cabin he is in now was listening to rock music on the councillors ipod boombox....after listening for a while it turned out to be faith rock. not a bad influence if you ask me.
The only trouble i did have yesterday was convincing my 4 year old to come home with me, and that he was not able to stay there yet...boy was he upset!! They are usually attached at the hip, and this does cause problems most of the time! As he already missed his brother.
And i am going to spend the week with Gail Vaz-Oxlade's book and try to figure our how to do the same for our finances, so we can leave our condo by next summer and not move into another one!
Wish me luck with that one! I have tried many different versions of a budget work sheet and they all end up being too much labour to follow so end up being left behind...maybe i am not committed enough to them...or maybe they just didn't work. i know that there was one version of having "accounts" on paper for each category of spending and that the money was put into each category, and that was what that account had to spend. it looked great on paper, it looked great in the book i read ( which i cannot remember) but it never worked for us in reality, because the money never balanced.
Never give up and keep trying to find the one the works!
We drove our oldest to summer camp and hope that this year he'll cry a lot less than last year.
a sensitive creature he is!
but thankfully (i can't believe i am saying this!) it is a catholic-faith-based western-themed camp, so friendship and support by everyone including his peers is the name of the game.
Last year he spent a lot of time crying and being upset by the whole experience that he never wanted to go back. A few months ago he changed his mind, so i agreed to go along with it. The night before we left he broke down and he welled up as I was leaving (after sticking around for an hour and a half) I hope that his first night went better.
I think it may help that they actually remembered him! can you imagine that! every week for the entire summer they have new kids and a year has passed since he spent a week there, and as soon as they saw him they new his name! One teen boy was his cabin councilor was so happy to see him he practically hugged him as he told him how happy he was to see him again! Talk about making it easier to stick it out!
They had even sent him a birthday card and greeting magnet in September! I like this place alot! I may not talk about religion or faith in our home, however, I appreciate the values that the camp upholds and even appreciate the fact that the kids he is with are so much more faithful than other kids that "go to" catholic schools. The cabin he is in now was listening to rock music on the councillors ipod boombox....after listening for a while it turned out to be faith rock. not a bad influence if you ask me.
The only trouble i did have yesterday was convincing my 4 year old to come home with me, and that he was not able to stay there yet...boy was he upset!! They are usually attached at the hip, and this does cause problems most of the time! As he already missed his brother.
And i am going to spend the week with Gail Vaz-Oxlade's book and try to figure our how to do the same for our finances, so we can leave our condo by next summer and not move into another one!
Wish me luck with that one! I have tried many different versions of a budget work sheet and they all end up being too much labour to follow so end up being left behind...maybe i am not committed enough to them...or maybe they just didn't work. i know that there was one version of having "accounts" on paper for each category of spending and that the money was put into each category, and that was what that account had to spend. it looked great on paper, it looked great in the book i read ( which i cannot remember) but it never worked for us in reality, because the money never balanced.
Never give up and keep trying to find the one the works!
Friday, June 24, 2011
What do Visitors know that many Locals don't??
You must hear it often. Well you would hear it often if you spoke with Ottawa natives often enough.
It often sounds like complaining, maybe even whining. It may certainly sound like a beautiful city taken for granted. I know because my hubby and I are definitely one of those many locals that complain.
And what are we saying??
There's nothing to do. Ottawa is boring. If you are going to do anything worthwhile with your life you have to leave Ottawa.
Hmmm.....
Is that true, really??
Even I am beginning to wonder if that is a false tale.
Take a drive around town and you will see many new homes being built, many new businesses that offer something that used to be reserved for Toronto or Montreal. There are many expensive cars that were not around years ago.
While this may not be clear to you why this point would be important to notice, to my hubby and I, it is. It shows us that there are lots of people with lots of money, solid careers and businesses and that Ottawa really is growing in a positive way.
It shows us that people are moving here, by choice. Ottawa has something that people want. And we don't get it. We don't understand what "it" is. But we aim to find out.
So we are going to start with gathering a list of the things to do around this city of ours to see what brings people here to visit over and over again.
There are many tourists who visit Ottawa repeatedly as this is their favourite city to travel to. Our favourite place to travel to was found by accident, we love the coast of Maine, mostly Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, and Wells. Why we love it there is really not the point of this post, however, why people love Ottawa is, and that is a point we don't see because we are too close to the question (or maybe to close to the answer).
I may have to start with a list of what Ottawa has to offer as a whole. Looking at the city with a tourists eyes may accomplish that...
I will start a post for What to do around Ottawa (and area) and I will add to it often. I will add links if they are available, and welcome additions that you feel I may not find on the scattered information on the web.
What I am looking for is not only the larger scale events that would be publicised for tourist attraction, but also events for locals, as there are many of these, we tend to miss out on them and hear about it after the fact. Talk about frustrating!! I am also looking for general activities that are not event related.
So help me if you can! Here's the linky for the post I am making.
We could make a great one stop place to look for ideas as there are no one stop places for this kind of info.
That is what I feel makes a great city, the attractions for the locals, that is why we fell in love with the areas I mentioned in Maine.
It often sounds like complaining, maybe even whining. It may certainly sound like a beautiful city taken for granted. I know because my hubby and I are definitely one of those many locals that complain.
And what are we saying??
There's nothing to do. Ottawa is boring. If you are going to do anything worthwhile with your life you have to leave Ottawa.
Hmmm.....
Is that true, really??
Even I am beginning to wonder if that is a false tale.
Take a drive around town and you will see many new homes being built, many new businesses that offer something that used to be reserved for Toronto or Montreal. There are many expensive cars that were not around years ago.
While this may not be clear to you why this point would be important to notice, to my hubby and I, it is. It shows us that there are lots of people with lots of money, solid careers and businesses and that Ottawa really is growing in a positive way.
It shows us that people are moving here, by choice. Ottawa has something that people want. And we don't get it. We don't understand what "it" is. But we aim to find out.
So we are going to start with gathering a list of the things to do around this city of ours to see what brings people here to visit over and over again.
There are many tourists who visit Ottawa repeatedly as this is their favourite city to travel to. Our favourite place to travel to was found by accident, we love the coast of Maine, mostly Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, and Wells. Why we love it there is really not the point of this post, however, why people love Ottawa is, and that is a point we don't see because we are too close to the question (or maybe to close to the answer).
I may have to start with a list of what Ottawa has to offer as a whole. Looking at the city with a tourists eyes may accomplish that...
I will start a post for What to do around Ottawa (and area) and I will add to it often. I will add links if they are available, and welcome additions that you feel I may not find on the scattered information on the web.
What I am looking for is not only the larger scale events that would be publicised for tourist attraction, but also events for locals, as there are many of these, we tend to miss out on them and hear about it after the fact. Talk about frustrating!! I am also looking for general activities that are not event related.
So help me if you can! Here's the linky for the post I am making.
We could make a great one stop place to look for ideas as there are no one stop places for this kind of info.
That is what I feel makes a great city, the attractions for the locals, that is why we fell in love with the areas I mentioned in Maine.
Things to do in and around Ottawa- Updated regularly
Check back often for new additions to this list, as it will be a work in progress.
**MAJOR NOTE** Please feel free to comment or email me if there is an event or activity that you feel I should add to the list, we could use many eyes, ears and typing fingers to find the fun things to do around this city!
This is just a place for me to keep track of different things to do. I hate how Ottawa events and activities are thrown out to the wind of internet space in a million different locations instead of one place.
So I am trying to compile my own list of potential things to do, to see and go to. Feel free to browse. I put in links if they are available.
Cyco's rent a bike for the afternoon or day and ride the many bike paths that Ottawa has. Bring water and a small picnic.
Do you like a water park?? Do you have more money than GOD? Try out Ottawa's newest Calypso WaterPark
Or you can try out Mont Cascades Water Park which is more affordable.
Got a day or two to spare??
Two hour drive- Mont Tremblant Resort
Montreal
Calabogie Peaks Resort
These all offer plenty to choose from on their own. Boat rentals, hiking, bike rentals, swimming, water parks and/or beaches. Montreal has museums, galleries, botanical gardens, bio dome, a zoo in Granby, as well as a kick ass Space and technology museum in Laval.
New: June 26th:
Gananoque Boat Line is celebrating their 60th Birthday and they have family fun activities that your pirates may like!
July 8yh-10th Osgoode Medieval Festival. Education day is July 8th. jousting, knights, princesses, archery demos and more.
Royal Canadian Mint- Gold Rush tour sussex ave.
Currency Museum- Sparks street - FREE ADMISSION! they even have a teachers package that they will mail to you complete with overhead projection sheets, handouts etc.
Day trip to the Papanack Zoo- Wendover ont, 25 mins east of orleans.
If you are looking for another location to tour while looking in at the Upper Canada Village then you need to stop in at Prehistoric World. very reasonably priced and at an hour to tour it is a great stop.
At the Science and tech museum, weather permitting there are daily outdoor demos on a variety of science related topics including water rockets!
Stay tuned for more finds!
**MAJOR NOTE** Please feel free to comment or email me if there is an event or activity that you feel I should add to the list, we could use many eyes, ears and typing fingers to find the fun things to do around this city!
This is just a place for me to keep track of different things to do. I hate how Ottawa events and activities are thrown out to the wind of internet space in a million different locations instead of one place.
So I am trying to compile my own list of potential things to do, to see and go to. Feel free to browse. I put in links if they are available.
Cyco's rent a bike for the afternoon or day and ride the many bike paths that Ottawa has. Bring water and a small picnic.
Do you like a water park?? Do you have more money than GOD? Try out Ottawa's newest Calypso WaterPark
Or you can try out Mont Cascades Water Park which is more affordable.
Got a day or two to spare??
Two hour drive- Mont Tremblant Resort
Montreal
Calabogie Peaks Resort
These all offer plenty to choose from on their own. Boat rentals, hiking, bike rentals, swimming, water parks and/or beaches. Montreal has museums, galleries, botanical gardens, bio dome, a zoo in Granby, as well as a kick ass Space and technology museum in Laval.
New: June 26th:
Gananoque Boat Line is celebrating their 60th Birthday and they have family fun activities that your pirates may like!
July 8yh-10th Osgoode Medieval Festival. Education day is July 8th. jousting, knights, princesses, archery demos and more.
Royal Canadian Mint- Gold Rush tour sussex ave.
Currency Museum- Sparks street - FREE ADMISSION! they even have a teachers package that they will mail to you complete with overhead projection sheets, handouts etc.
Day trip to the Papanack Zoo- Wendover ont, 25 mins east of orleans.
If you are looking for another location to tour while looking in at the Upper Canada Village then you need to stop in at Prehistoric World. very reasonably priced and at an hour to tour it is a great stop.
At the Science and tech museum, weather permitting there are daily outdoor demos on a variety of science related topics including water rockets!
Stay tuned for more finds!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
For the water lovers and their moms
I thought i would post this for all of us ottawa moms that would like to try a new park with a water feature...enjoy!
Locations have been divided into two categories: East and West. The dividing line follows the Rideau Canal and continues south along the Rideau River.
Outdoor water ban now in effect for Riverside South, Barrhaven and Manotick. Splash pads in the area will not be in use during the ban.
Splash pad locations:
Join in the summer fun at splash pad parks!Locations have been divided into two categories: East and West. The dividing line follows the Rideau Canal and continues south along the Rideau River.
Outdoor water ban now in effect for Riverside South, Barrhaven and Manotick. Splash pads in the area will not be in use during the ban.
East | West |
|---|---|
| Aladdin Park (East) 3939 Albion | Bandmaster Park (West) 230 Mistral Way |
| Arnott Park (East) 691 Hartman | Banner Park (West) 90 Banner |
| Barrington Park (East) 1705 Orleans | Beechcliffe Park (West) 2 Beechcliffe |
| Beacon Hill North Recreation Centre (East) 2132 Radford | Brewer Park (West) 100 Brewer |
| Bearbrook Park and Pool (East) 99 Bearbrook | Bridlewood Park (West) 75 Bridlewood |
| Blue Willow Park (East) 6011 Longleaf | Centrepointe Park (West) 114 Centrepointe |
| Bordeleau Park (East) 349 Bruyere | Chapman Mills Park (West) CLOSED 139 Windhurst |
| Butterfly Park (East) 711 Long Point Circle | Charing Park (West) 37 Chartwell |
| Cardinal Glen Park (East) 11 Dunbarton | Citiplace Park (West) 285 Citiplace Drive |
| Cedarcroft Park (East) 1200 Cedarcroft | Glebe Memorial Park (West) 75 Glendale |
| Champagne Park (East) 1861 Markwell | Greenbank Park (West) CLOSED 895 Greenbank |
Chapel Hill Park (East) 1556 Forest Valley | Harrold Place Park (West) 1 Harrold Place |
| City Centre Park (East) 1800 City Park | Hintonburg Park (West) 1064 Wellington Closed due to park construction this summer |
| Claudette Cain Park (East) CLOSED 660 River Road | Huntley Centennial (West) 108 Juanita Close: Sept. 20, 2010 |
| Cummings Park (East) 980 Cummings Ave | Kilbirnie Park (West) 665 Kilbirnie Drive |
| Cyrville Park (East) 1420 Meadowbrook | Kilreen Park (West) 1250 Southwood |
| Delorme Park (East) 6591 Delorme | Laroche Park (West) 52 Bayview |
| Dr. John Hopps Park (East) 300 Den Haag | Leslie Park (West) Dayton Crescent |
| Elmridge Park (East) 1841 Elmridge | Lincoln Heights Park (West) 175 Lincoln Heights |
| Emerald Woods Park (East) 3795 Alderwood | Morrison Park (West) 1095 Morrison |
| Fairfield Park (East) 49 Appleford | Plouffe Park (West) 930 Somerset |
| Fallingbrook Park (East) 681 Deancourt | Roy Duncan Park (West) 295 Churchill |
| Four Seasons Park (East) CLOSED 4386 Spratt | South Nepean Park (West) CLOSED 700 Longfields |
| Gardenway Park (East) 2001 Gardenway | Teirney Park (West) CLOSED 50 Heritage Glen Drive |
| Gerald Poulin Park (East) 1899 Du Clairvaux | Upcountry Park (West) 310 Upcountry |
| Glen Park (East) 1766 Grey Nuns | Walden Park (West) 130 Walden Drive |
| Greenboro Park (East) 1505 Cahill | Walter Baker Park (West) 100 Walter Baker |
| Heatherington Park (East) 1560 Heatherington | Westcliffe Park (West) 681 Seyton |
| Hiawatha Park (East) 6218 Voyageur | |
| Jasmine Park (East) 2040 Jasmine | |
| Joe Jamieson Park (East) 6940 Bilberry | |
| Kaladar Park (East) 2554 Kaladar | |
| Kiwanis Park (East) 395 Levis Avenue | |
| Lawson Park (East) deactivated for the summer 491 Lawson | |
| Manor Park (East) 100 Braemar | |
| Marcel Beriault Park (East) 1691 Sunview | |
| McCarthy Park (East) 3320 Paul Anka | |
| Meadowbrook Park (East) 1485 Meadowbrook | |
| Montgomery Memorial Park (East) 61 Main | |
| Nault Park (East) 325 St-Denis | |
| Mountain Meadows (East) 3740 Mountain Meadow | |
| New Edinburg Park (East) 193 Stanley | |
| North Vineyard Park (East) 6026 Voyageur | |
| Owl Park (East) 185 Owl | |
| Palmerston Park (East) 1326 Ogilvie | |
| Portobello Park (East) 670 Aquaview | |
| Queensway Park (East) 1580 Telesat | |
| Queenswood Heights Centennial Park (East) 1485 Duford | |
| Queenswood Ridge Park (East) 346 Kennedy | |
| Roy Park (East) 6210 Meadowglen | |
| Sheffield Glen Park (East) 2320 Southvale | |
| Sieveright Park (East) 2999 Sable Ridge | |
| Silverbirch Park (East) 6105 Silverbirch | |
| Sir Wilfred Laurier Park (East) 288 Chapel | |
| Stanstead Park (East) 861 Stanstead | |
| Stonehenge Park (East) 1434 Ridgebrook | |
| Thornecliffe Park (East) 45 Provender | |
| Whiterock Park (East) 1245 Matheson | |
| Winterwood Park (East) 1844 Johnston Rd |
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Gardening trials and gnomes from hell??
I have been trying new variations in my front garden every so often for the past 7 years to find a low maintenance method for beauty. I thought I had finally found it! I ordered expensive bulbs from a mail order catalogue that had these bulbs arriving for fall planting all the way from Holland itself! So they had to be fantastic! Right?
Well they were incredibly beautiful, I won't knock them down for that. However, I ordered two varieties of red lilies; one was a border variety that was supposed to grow to about 12-15 inches tall, and the other was a "Hedge" variety that should have come up up to about 25-30 inches tall. They are meant for full sun as the catalogue stated which is what it got....the first grew to about 25-30 inches tall and the second grew to about 45-48 inches tall! plus they were supposed to grow in stages to have blooms all summer long. Well half of them that should bloom in July were ready to open this week, and the august blooms wouldn't have been far behind.
So by the time august comes around all the green and reds are brown.
Well I noticed last year and again this year these damned buggers.....
And they turned this:
Into this:
and you can still see the damned thing eating away at my plants.
So, I thought I would learn a little about these little adversaries. They hibernate in the soil, in the bulb, over the winter and start their eating/mating/laying eggs/ becoming larvae that cover themselves with poop procedure over and over again. One plant can have three or more generations!
Since this is the only plant that I have that they will eat, I am vacating the all-you-can-eat buffet and will drown them after I remove the bulbs and throw them away tomorrow.
Then I will get on with the rest of my gardening adventures. I am starting late but I have vegetables growing from seed in little pots on trays from the garden centre that I have been chasing the sun with around the house. I had even made a make-shift green house to protect them from the rain and potential rodents.
Wish me luck, I will try to keep posting here even though I have been keeping a gardening journal.
Well they were incredibly beautiful, I won't knock them down for that. However, I ordered two varieties of red lilies; one was a border variety that was supposed to grow to about 12-15 inches tall, and the other was a "Hedge" variety that should have come up up to about 25-30 inches tall. They are meant for full sun as the catalogue stated which is what it got....the first grew to about 25-30 inches tall and the second grew to about 45-48 inches tall! plus they were supposed to grow in stages to have blooms all summer long. Well half of them that should bloom in July were ready to open this week, and the august blooms wouldn't have been far behind.
So by the time august comes around all the green and reds are brown.
Well I noticed last year and again this year these damned buggers.....
And they turned this:
Into this:
So, I thought I would learn a little about these little adversaries. They hibernate in the soil, in the bulb, over the winter and start their eating/mating/laying eggs/ becoming larvae that cover themselves with poop procedure over and over again. One plant can have three or more generations!
Since this is the only plant that I have that they will eat, I am vacating the all-you-can-eat buffet and will drown them after I remove the bulbs and throw them away tomorrow.
Then I will get on with the rest of my gardening adventures. I am starting late but I have vegetables growing from seed in little pots on trays from the garden centre that I have been chasing the sun with around the house. I had even made a make-shift green house to protect them from the rain and potential rodents.
Wish me luck, I will try to keep posting here even though I have been keeping a gardening journal.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Another step closer!!
I have decided that I want to learn about holistic health care. Not as a patient, although with my aching kidney it wouldn't be a bad idea! But I mean for a career choice. There are many great and accredited schools that offer online or correspondence type courses that would allow me to learn at the kitchen table while I teach my kids there too. Not a bad idea!
I was interested in this option about a year ago, and then decided that the time wasn't right. Right now isn't either, however it is something that I will take into serious consideration for a very near future prospect.
There are many different schools that give different titles, certifications, and diplomas to what they offer so I know that I will need to be very clear about what it is that I am looking for and find out if they are going to fit that expectation.
The ideas that I am interested in are holistic nutrition as it pertains to the health and well being of a person and how they eat and exercise and herbal alternatives to doctor prescribed medications that may be safer on the body. So far this is what I am looking for and am not sure if there is a program offered by one place that will fulfill this desire.
anyone know please share!!
I was interested in this option about a year ago, and then decided that the time wasn't right. Right now isn't either, however it is something that I will take into serious consideration for a very near future prospect.
There are many different schools that give different titles, certifications, and diplomas to what they offer so I know that I will need to be very clear about what it is that I am looking for and find out if they are going to fit that expectation.
The ideas that I am interested in are holistic nutrition as it pertains to the health and well being of a person and how they eat and exercise and herbal alternatives to doctor prescribed medications that may be safer on the body. So far this is what I am looking for and am not sure if there is a program offered by one place that will fulfill this desire.
anyone know please share!!
Friday, May 27, 2011
I think I may have figured something out
I've written numerous times about my failure to follow through with things that I want to do, try to do, or think about doing. It may be fear holding me back but it may also be a restlessness that had been satiated long enough to move on to something else.
I may not have be destined to actually finish anything off!
But this is not what I have figured out.
I figured our last night when I was so tired that thinking was rendered difficult. I love this time because that is when brilliant ideas hit you, that is when solutions to problems pop up. The only problem with this is that you are so tired that more often than not, you don't get up to write these things down and have forgotten them by morning. However, in this case, I didn't need to write it down (highly unusual).
I like learning and researching about something new.
I like looking at millions of books about different subjects and then dropping it.
I guess that can explain why I could never figure out what path to take after high school, there were so many interesting ways to go and I couldn't think about choosing only one!
Case in point:
With each of my boys in infancy there was the typical diaper rash experiences. Who doesn't go through that, right? Well, with each of them I noticed a sensitivity to the zinc oxide in the creams that you can buy. Most have about 12-15% of this remedy in them no matter how expensive or how "natural" they claimed their product was. Both of my boys were slightly allergic to the zinc in the creams as the higher the percentage the worse the rashes got. So, being the fantastic mom I am, I began to research natural, holistic, organic and herbal ingredients that exist and I was going to develop my own product.
Great idea!!
I grabbed every book from the library, and read almost everything online that I could find.
The result: I am more confused than when I started!!
I also thought that if I could learn about the ingredients that I would need then I could buy them and experiment on the combinations. But the only place to get them here in Ottawa, is online. So then I found a shop in BC that sold all types of ingredients for home made products. I loved it! They were offering up franchise opportunities! How about that! Then I obviously thought that I could open my own shop and there for learn all I needed to learn about all homemade natural beauty products. I knew of two areas in Ottawa that would definitely be the best locations that I could think off for success! The Glebe and Westboro! Amazing idea! But what if I wasn't really good at running a business? I proved myself capable in a home business, however, after two years I still was not running into actual profits over all the expenses. And then there's the idea that I'd have to stay here in Ottawa if I were to start a business with a location presence. Hmm...still sitting on that business idea.
Then I decided that I needed to learn about holistic and herbal healing more deeply in order to understand what it was that I wanted to do with this product. Not a bad idea seeing as how I love to learn new things and to study something that interests me.
However, online courses or mail order courses to learn these things are expensive and I am left wondering if it is indeed worth it to do this. Why? Because it would then make me compelled to start a career in the one field, and I question whether it is the only thing I want to do.
That is what I figured out about myself!!
If I study something, to become a qualified someone or other, then I feel that I may have shortchanged myself from being something else. Second guessing whether or not I made the right decision.
I had wanted to study to become a nurse, and I had to do correspondence courses to upgrade high school credits, and found that I was better at those courses than I thought! But I never went ahead with nursing because I learned how emotionally involved I am with people no matter if I knew them or not, and knew that this would not be helpful.
I recently looked into studying holistic nutrition. As I am looking for healthier ways to live my life and have had an interest in the health of my family, I thought that if I could learn more, I could help more people. So what stopped me? Two things. One was the cost...yet again causing me to rethink whether this was the "it" I had been searching for, the career I really wanted. And second, the most important one I believe in this particular case, local need. This particular school, which is nationally acclaimed, is here in Ottawa. Great! Even better!! Then I found a list of some graduates that worked here in Ottawa and decided to email a few of them and ask them to give me an honest answer to a burning question.
How was business?
One woman answered that it was not bad, but she struggled to make it prosperous.
Another woman answered that it was not good at all. She had five different businesses going at the same time, most of them related to each other, but a few were not related at all.
Another woman told me that she continued to have her certification and struggled just to keep her license going as she barely has any clients.
Verdict, Hubby and I think that Ottawa is not ready to embrace holistic health and nutrition the way more advanced cities are. Maybe that is why an old friend from high school that has taken this exact same course here in Ottawa and is now located in Windsor. And doing well, I am so happy for her!
Then there's the desire to become a writer.
I can't just write the story in my head, I've been trying that for the last 8 years. I have journal upon journal and even have a whole bunch of files started on my computer of the same damn story started in different ways. Mostly the same story but in many cases they are different. I have been trying to incorporate a particular scene that I has come up with and a main character but have yet to figure out how to tie it all together.
So what do I think will help? Studying how to write books by reading books that teach writing. Redundant, I know. But I don't have the time or the money to study it in university.
I recently found my portfolio. In my early twenties I was a sculptor. I went to great lengths to stylishly photograph all my pieces to make a portfolio and sent them off to universities with outstanding arts programs. I was accepted to the University of Windsor, they said they were excited to have me come in, I never went. I like to think that I chose to stay because I fell in love with the man of my dreams, but hindsight is 20/20 and I know now that I would never have lost him if I had went anyway. But then again, I wouldn't have my kids now. So things work out for a reason, But I admit that I was nervous about spending ten thousand dollars to study to be something that I thought I already was. I haven't sculpted a damn thing since then either.
I have offered many examples of what I have thought of in these past few years as proof that I figured out that I am eager to learn new things but afraid to make one thing "my" thing. Lost I guess. And afraid that if I decide to do something tangible that it would be the wrong thing and have wasted time and money in that process of figuring it out.
any advice? Sometimes it is easier others that aren't as close to the problems as I am to help me see it clearer. What do you think?
I may not have be destined to actually finish anything off!
But this is not what I have figured out.
I figured our last night when I was so tired that thinking was rendered difficult. I love this time because that is when brilliant ideas hit you, that is when solutions to problems pop up. The only problem with this is that you are so tired that more often than not, you don't get up to write these things down and have forgotten them by morning. However, in this case, I didn't need to write it down (highly unusual).
I like learning and researching about something new.
I like looking at millions of books about different subjects and then dropping it.
I guess that can explain why I could never figure out what path to take after high school, there were so many interesting ways to go and I couldn't think about choosing only one!
Case in point:
With each of my boys in infancy there was the typical diaper rash experiences. Who doesn't go through that, right? Well, with each of them I noticed a sensitivity to the zinc oxide in the creams that you can buy. Most have about 12-15% of this remedy in them no matter how expensive or how "natural" they claimed their product was. Both of my boys were slightly allergic to the zinc in the creams as the higher the percentage the worse the rashes got. So, being the fantastic mom I am, I began to research natural, holistic, organic and herbal ingredients that exist and I was going to develop my own product.
Great idea!!
I grabbed every book from the library, and read almost everything online that I could find.
The result: I am more confused than when I started!!
I also thought that if I could learn about the ingredients that I would need then I could buy them and experiment on the combinations. But the only place to get them here in Ottawa, is online. So then I found a shop in BC that sold all types of ingredients for home made products. I loved it! They were offering up franchise opportunities! How about that! Then I obviously thought that I could open my own shop and there for learn all I needed to learn about all homemade natural beauty products. I knew of two areas in Ottawa that would definitely be the best locations that I could think off for success! The Glebe and Westboro! Amazing idea! But what if I wasn't really good at running a business? I proved myself capable in a home business, however, after two years I still was not running into actual profits over all the expenses. And then there's the idea that I'd have to stay here in Ottawa if I were to start a business with a location presence. Hmm...still sitting on that business idea.
Then I decided that I needed to learn about holistic and herbal healing more deeply in order to understand what it was that I wanted to do with this product. Not a bad idea seeing as how I love to learn new things and to study something that interests me.
However, online courses or mail order courses to learn these things are expensive and I am left wondering if it is indeed worth it to do this. Why? Because it would then make me compelled to start a career in the one field, and I question whether it is the only thing I want to do.
That is what I figured out about myself!!
If I study something, to become a qualified someone or other, then I feel that I may have shortchanged myself from being something else. Second guessing whether or not I made the right decision.
I had wanted to study to become a nurse, and I had to do correspondence courses to upgrade high school credits, and found that I was better at those courses than I thought! But I never went ahead with nursing because I learned how emotionally involved I am with people no matter if I knew them or not, and knew that this would not be helpful.
I recently looked into studying holistic nutrition. As I am looking for healthier ways to live my life and have had an interest in the health of my family, I thought that if I could learn more, I could help more people. So what stopped me? Two things. One was the cost...yet again causing me to rethink whether this was the "it" I had been searching for, the career I really wanted. And second, the most important one I believe in this particular case, local need. This particular school, which is nationally acclaimed, is here in Ottawa. Great! Even better!! Then I found a list of some graduates that worked here in Ottawa and decided to email a few of them and ask them to give me an honest answer to a burning question.
How was business?
One woman answered that it was not bad, but she struggled to make it prosperous.
Another woman answered that it was not good at all. She had five different businesses going at the same time, most of them related to each other, but a few were not related at all.
Another woman told me that she continued to have her certification and struggled just to keep her license going as she barely has any clients.
Verdict, Hubby and I think that Ottawa is not ready to embrace holistic health and nutrition the way more advanced cities are. Maybe that is why an old friend from high school that has taken this exact same course here in Ottawa and is now located in Windsor. And doing well, I am so happy for her!
Then there's the desire to become a writer.
I can't just write the story in my head, I've been trying that for the last 8 years. I have journal upon journal and even have a whole bunch of files started on my computer of the same damn story started in different ways. Mostly the same story but in many cases they are different. I have been trying to incorporate a particular scene that I has come up with and a main character but have yet to figure out how to tie it all together.
So what do I think will help? Studying how to write books by reading books that teach writing. Redundant, I know. But I don't have the time or the money to study it in university.
I recently found my portfolio. In my early twenties I was a sculptor. I went to great lengths to stylishly photograph all my pieces to make a portfolio and sent them off to universities with outstanding arts programs. I was accepted to the University of Windsor, they said they were excited to have me come in, I never went. I like to think that I chose to stay because I fell in love with the man of my dreams, but hindsight is 20/20 and I know now that I would never have lost him if I had went anyway. But then again, I wouldn't have my kids now. So things work out for a reason, But I admit that I was nervous about spending ten thousand dollars to study to be something that I thought I already was. I haven't sculpted a damn thing since then either.
I have offered many examples of what I have thought of in these past few years as proof that I figured out that I am eager to learn new things but afraid to make one thing "my" thing. Lost I guess. And afraid that if I decide to do something tangible that it would be the wrong thing and have wasted time and money in that process of figuring it out.
any advice? Sometimes it is easier others that aren't as close to the problems as I am to help me see it clearer. What do you think?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Rough work, but will you read and comment?
I have decided to start writing...again.
I have this Character in my head and have had her there for about 8 years. There are many different ways that I have attempted to execute this particular story line and feel that maybe I have finally found it. I wrote three "word" pages the other day and have not edited it for the sake of just puttingg it onto "paper".
I would like to add it to the body of a blank post, but I wonder if I should? Will you read it? Will you give me feedback on how you feel about it?? Yes I actually do want that! Good Bad and Ugly!!
Maybe I should post here instead of making you wait...
Here Goes....
“This is so right up my alley!” Rena sighed deeply, and happily. It’s true, this is exactly what she could handle, and she knew that she was going to do very well in her new job.
I have this Character in my head and have had her there for about 8 years. There are many different ways that I have attempted to execute this particular story line and feel that maybe I have finally found it. I wrote three "word" pages the other day and have not edited it for the sake of just puttingg it onto "paper".
I would like to add it to the body of a blank post, but I wonder if I should? Will you read it? Will you give me feedback on how you feel about it?? Yes I actually do want that! Good Bad and Ugly!!
Maybe I should post here instead of making you wait...
Here Goes....
Rena was a lawyer, technically speaking. There was a long line of lawyers in her family so it was expected that she would do the same. No one ever thought for a moment that the experiences she had would cause her difficulties in performing the job that was expected of her. That is until she was leading her first case in court.
She had done a great job in the three years since passing the bar, at avoiding any court time at all, by being a very good negotiator and settling to make everyone happy. That is until her most recent case. A very public and very nasty divorce that turned even nastier when the husband supposedly killed his wife. Being the husbands divorce lawyer, she was turned into his defence lawyer by her superiors.
That was when she lost control and began with tremors, sweating, dizziness, and progressed; in the middle of what was a very long and tumultuous day; to passing out cold on the floor as she rose to begin her round of questioning of a particularly vital witness.
She was relieved of the case by her superiors because they thought that she needed stress leave from overwork. And when she was given another hefty case upon her return, the same happened again. That was when she realized that she would never be able to stand in court in front of large groups of people and steer the case where she wanted it to go. While she was very good at every thing else a lawyer needed to do, she just couldn’t be in front of people.
That was when her superiors decided to transfer her to a different department within the firm, working solely with real estate high rollers. She was mortified. Her family would not accept the defeat and tried to convince her that she needed to appeal for her job, and had in fact tried to do just that behind her back.
She silently packed up her things from her desk and moved to her new job, with her head down and her heart stricken. No one spoke to her as she left. “So much for friendships” she thought to herself. “They obviously really weren’t her friends”. Sighing to herself as she waited for the elevator doors to open onto her new office floor she wondered if this was going to be better, or worse.
As she looked out of the elevator she noticed a lot of open space, big open windows, and desks in a large circle around the room. No cubicle walls, no offices, no closed doors, no roller shades blocking the sunlight, and lots of greenery. The people closest to her looked up and actually smiled at her. What a shock this was after the cold stares and smugness that came off everyone on the upper floors.
A redheaded woman with more curves than her small stature could handle came racing towards her with the biggest smile Rena had ever seen.
“Hi, Rena Doyle, right? I am Marsha Hicks. Let me show you to your desk so you can put this stuff down, and I’ll show you to the boss man”
“Um, Thanks, Marsha. How did you know?”
“Boss Man knew since yesterday and had a desk brought up for you and had me looking out for your arrival.”
“What did they tell you, from upstairs I mean?
“Did you come from upstairs? I had no idea, I thought you were a new hire”
Marsha wasn’t looking directly at Rena this time so she knew that she wasn’t telling her the truth, but was grateful that she didn’t seem eager to gossip, or to hold it against her.
After settling her things onto her new desk, she looked around and admired the layout, very personal but also social as well.
“Do you like the layout?” Marsha asked.
“I think that I do, there’s less ‘each man for himself’ and more ‘all for one and one for all’ going on here. Is that the angle?”
“It sure is, I’ll tell the Boss Man that you got it on the first shot. He’ll like you for that! The higher powers that be are constantly giving him a hard time for his layout, his work ethic, his candour with the staff, etc,etc,etc, you know how it goes, when someone does something differently he accused of rocking the corporate boat. Let’s go see him now”
They walked to the end of the large room and found a large desk joined in the circle inhabited by a man in his mid fifties.
“Hey, Boss Man, This is Rena Doyle, our new recruit…Rena, Boss Man.”
“Marsha, please, it’s Ron. Rena, welcome, Marsha is going to show you the ropes around here, but if you have any questions you can ask me or anyone else for that matter, and if no one here knows then you don’t really need to know! Kidding!”
“Rena likes your layout, Ron, she actually got the meaning, too”
“Good then we’ll get a long brilliantly. Now we are heading into morning meeting time so let’s gather everyone.”
All the associates in the office sat on or at their desks and put their full attention to the Boss Man, Ron, and waited silently for the days’ news.
“Good Tuesday Morning folks, a brief recap on our Monday progress, 5 closes…and three new bids put in, good work, Today has six closes lined up, and lets see what we can do to beat our daily best of 10 bids!
We welcome Rena Doyle to the group, let’s show her the ropes and give her a hand in settling in, professionally Mack, I mean it…I’ve got two new clients for us to work with. Marsha, since you are going to bring Rena up to speed you two will take a client and go through it together. Also, there are three new buildings that were put on the market yesterday, and they are hot properties, I posted them on the board and I want you to go over them carefully to see which of our clients are most likely to want to benefit from them in the immediate future. Any questions…No. Good. Dismissed.”
“Alright, So I have a full client list as it is right now, and that has me pretty darn busy, so we are going to give this new client to you to work with independently, but I will work with you to show you how it works here. Sound good?” Marsha asked Rena.
“That would be really appreciated, Thanks, So what exactly am I now? Am I a lawyer, or a Real Estate Agent?”
“Technically, you’re a lawyer, we all are, however, in this firm we have clientele that buy and sell real estate like they buy burgers and toss the wrappers, so they alone keep us in business full time. And many of them are busy trying to rebuild broken down properties to sell for profit so we find them properties to keep ourselves useful and profitable too.”
“Interesting, how then, do you know what to look for?”
“That’s what I think is part of the fun, when we get a new client, like this one that Ron handed over, we build a profile on their current businesses, past businesses, successes, failures, and all that. Then we interview them. Most times we interview with the assistant or secretary first, then the client themselves. It all depends on how much of a high roller they are in business. We build a profile on what they want, what they don’t want, and what they may be up for if the challenge in just right. This part takes a while because we need to be really thorough so we don’t miss our clients any opportunities. And then after that we put together a few prospective properties and go and meet with them.”
“So, we do research, on the client, on the properties, and then put the paperwork in motion for the sales of these properties”
“Exactly”
Saturday, May 14, 2011
My Follow-Through
As you may remember, I told you about this little problem of huge consequence, my trouble with follow through. Well, I am just going to post a quick update, as my arms are killing me and typing is increasingly difficult with little blood in my hands!
I tried, three days ago, to find a video on Youtube of Jillian Michaels doing her thang, and found a 6 min video posted. While all the other videos that came after were deleted by the Youtube powers that be, I realized pain very quickly anyway! Squats are not fun!! And yes it is true she is hard on you, but that's probably why she's so popular and so good at the results....it is what we want right?
Then I searched around plenty on Youtube and found a full workout video by the very sweet Zuzana at the Bodyrock.tv blog site...and have found IT!! New workouts every other day, food helps, articles, photos, videos, and its all free!!!! Nice! and so far i haven't had to work out longer than 15 mins...technically...I am so damn out of shape that I can't finish the whole thing...in fact i could barely finish one "burpee" or "dive bomber" push-up three nights ago when i tried it out...and now i have done three nights in a row and have finally, and vereeeee painfully ,finished one of each...I am proud of myself and in serious pain! I have been hobbling up and down the stairs for two days now...the thighs are killer!! not to mention the arms....i have a hard time with the push ups even the easy on the knees style. i had to modify the modified push-ups to the point that i may have looked like a seal or walrus trying to lift herself to a standing position!
Well, as I was trying to say, I am following through! I am moving my Not-Too-Fat Ass and working up a sweat (EW!) and raising my heart rate for a little while....we'll see what happens when I can actually handle more than ! of each move before collapsing in a stupor!
I tried, three days ago, to find a video on Youtube of Jillian Michaels doing her thang, and found a 6 min video posted. While all the other videos that came after were deleted by the Youtube powers that be, I realized pain very quickly anyway! Squats are not fun!! And yes it is true she is hard on you, but that's probably why she's so popular and so good at the results....it is what we want right?
Then I searched around plenty on Youtube and found a full workout video by the very sweet Zuzana at the Bodyrock.tv blog site...and have found IT!! New workouts every other day, food helps, articles, photos, videos, and its all free!!!! Nice! and so far i haven't had to work out longer than 15 mins...technically...I am so damn out of shape that I can't finish the whole thing...in fact i could barely finish one "burpee" or "dive bomber" push-up three nights ago when i tried it out...and now i have done three nights in a row and have finally, and vereeeee painfully ,finished one of each...I am proud of myself and in serious pain! I have been hobbling up and down the stairs for two days now...the thighs are killer!! not to mention the arms....i have a hard time with the push ups even the easy on the knees style. i had to modify the modified push-ups to the point that i may have looked like a seal or walrus trying to lift herself to a standing position!
Well, as I was trying to say, I am following through! I am moving my Not-Too-Fat Ass and working up a sweat (EW!) and raising my heart rate for a little while....we'll see what happens when I can actually handle more than ! of each move before collapsing in a stupor!
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