Christmas Eve

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas!....
It snowed last night as we were settled down to watch a great movie "We bought a zoo" - can I please recommend it. I am pleased as I dont want a green/brown/damp Christmas.
This morning there is a sprinkling out there, its enough, as long as it stays.

I have spent two days doing petty much nothing. Its been a time of comfy clothes and time to chill. I had a great two hour yoga session on Saturday morning where I not only stretched every muscle I never knew I had but re-aligned my mind. I came out of there feeling a lot more peaceful than I have of late.

Paul and I had a nice meal out in Halifax on Saturday night, I say nice as I actually expected more from that establishment but it was nice to have that time, out, in a restaurant.
I finally took some pics of the bathroom too, our new bathroom that we saved for and had done in late October:

I am thinking of stopping my monthly payment to WW too, I still have 15 pounds to lose and all I am doing is turning up every other week and standing on their scales. I am not using the online tools anymore, I am now in a groove where I am very cautious of my eating choices, prefer fruit over high fat / high sugar options and am out there running.

I think that the best way to tone and lose this last bit will be to actually pay the gym and go to regular yoga and power hour classes whilst keeping my new eating habits the same.(I apologize for the toilet in this scene!)
This is me the other night ready to go out, I can see where the weight needs to come off:

 

leadup to the BIG DAY

Its the end of Friday almost, I have a week off ahead of me at home and its full of exciting things:

• Family PJ movie night tonight with Ruby and her oldest two at our house - complete with the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Now I did not see this last year, so I am "fresher" than I have been for a long time and just cant wait to snuggle down and watch this. They will all be there by the time I get home. I love that!
• Tomorrow night we have a sitter so Paul and I are heading on into Halifax to have dinner for two at The Keg and then some fun at The Ale House. WE are doing this after a stop off at a friends to say hi. Paul hasnt yet been to either venues and I have, so its high time he checked them out too. I LOVE them!
• Sunday should be a reasonably quiet day, maybe we will take the girls swimming
• Monday is Christmas Eve! I plan on doing some major exercise in the lead-up to the BIG DAY and then we are all out at a new work colleagues house for a fun evening. I am SO looking forward to this. 
• Christmas Day at a friends, we will pile into the car late morning and head on out. I didnt think this would be a good idea as I love our family dinners but this year I am all for it
• Boxing Day at a friends. Again hanging out with pals will be good!
• Then off until the New Year from work, I am planning some yoga, some working from home as I have some bits to do. Some chilling and re-connecting with my home and family.

Hope everyones leadup to Christmas is going well! The flippin snow outside is still there but unless it gives us a bit more there is real fear that this will NOT be a white Christmas!
You'd think that moving all the way to Canada would almost guarantee us a white Christmas wouldnt you! I mean really!

snowing!

Its snowing! Zippeeee
Because I am not so tuned into the weather anymore, I have no proper footwear, so I will need to slip and slide my way out to the car later.
I am not worried about driving home later, I know it will be horrible but it just is what it is.

The regional school boards crystal ball worked well and they shut the schools this morning - when it was only raining and everything was soggy, so my two babies are at the sitters no doubt having a whale of a time.

I have been pretty damn miserable lately - a cumulation of a LOT of things. I had forgotten how miserable miserable can feel.

But today I feel that I am at last coming out of it, there IS light at the end of the tunnel,and although I know there will be miserable moments ahead, I am on the mend. I will regain my former happy self if its the last thing I do. And considering apparently the world is due to end on the 21st, I need to hurry up in that respect. Who wants to view that in a miserable frame of mind?

We are still not ready for Christmas, I am not sure when we will achieve the last bits of required shopping - hmmmmm, I really dont know!

new shangri-la

I just went to the Le Chateau outlet at lunchtime which is one of my new Happy Places to pick up a small gift, one more ticked off the list!
On the way back I drove along Kearny Lake and was trying to pick a place to run in the day. I saw a road turning off and drove up to check it out, well its amazing!
I think I have found my new running spot, I drove the length and back and its VERY pretty with nice houses and a Canadian Prairie Creek feel to it.
Its 2.6km for the whole thing as its a dead end so its there and back. I am sure I could do the 2k and walk the rest back to the car and in time I should manage the whole lot.

Now this is GOOD news. I am making a massive effort this week to turn this new location into my new shangri-la.
So far I have a new running spot, this will be a good walk in the hotter months, as its stunning.
I also have a good sushi bar not that far away (10 min drive) that I plan to get to know well, to replace my Wasabi House habit. I think its actually easier to get to the Canada Games Centre from here too, so I plan to sort out some lunchtime yoga this week too - maybe Friday.

Once I get my head around the workload, I am hoping that my actual working day will be more enjoyable. So far I am sorting out my lunchtimes. I need the daylight so this is a great situation right now.

Time to reconnect

Today I am trying to recall what it was like when I first met my husband and all the fun years that we had before children. Now this isn’t because I dont love and cherish my children, I really do.

This is because children take the focus from your relationship, 100% and its very very easy to just become these parents to these wonderful children.

You lose the carefree and wonderful side of your relationship when you were just into each other and thats all that mattered as you negotiate life and nurture the next generation into hopefully happy children and then later, balanced happy adults.

So today and lately I am trying to make something positive out of what I have coined my “midlife crisis” and use it to see what I can do to get some of that back. We had it a little when we went away for 4 days together to Gibraltar in 2009, 4 days of just us, it was like stepping back in time.

To just concentrate on OUR relationship and feel a little bit of youth and irresponsibility would be amazing and its absolutely needed right now.

I realise how much we HAVENT done this over the years and now its very very necessary. I need that closeness back and some time to reconnect.

(reconnect is such an American term but I love it, its the only word that really describes what I am trying to say)

 

Ideally, we would just head on down to the Florida Keys and sort it all there, but thats a little out of the current budget - sadly.

To sit by the water and be just us again would be the best tonic.

on the weight loss and suck it up route

Its been a while since I blogged consistently, its been a tough time. I struggled with leaving my old job and miss that office and my old colleagues more than I ever thought I would.
My new job is manic and I have been trying to come to terms with leaving the old job and how I feel about that, along with trying to learn this new one. Its been hard.

I also am trying to remain fitter and increase my level of fitness, I like my new self and I am afraid of going back to how I was for so long. I cant do that, I just cant.

I have been taking the running steadily but try to go every day, I now am able to run the 2k quite easily but anything further is hard, I realise that I need to build up steadily as I have come along way from that person that couldnt run down the road for love nor money. There is a Hot Yoga class at the gym near work on a Friday lunchtime that I am going to try to attend. I have already paid for 10 sessions at that gym, so I need to use that. This could be a GREAT way to do so.

I am 22lbs down and can now fit into a lot of my old clothes and also can choose a medium in Old Navy!!! Although these yoga pants are actually in small size (they must be a medium size of small is all I can say)
I cant imagine gorging on bad food now, I now and then have an A&W and enjoy it, but its really a rarity for me. Chinese takeout is long gone from my life (thank God) I prefer a more balanced diet of enjoyable healthy food and I am trying to stick to smaller portions and no desert.

It is of course Holiday Season - yes it IS Christmas, I still say Christmas, I use the term Holiday to cover the whole couple of weeks of parties, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year. This of course means lots of food around, I have deliberately not bought boxes of chocolates for the house, we just dont need them.

This New Years Eve I plan to be of an even state of mind to forgive myself for all my mistakes of this year and stop beating myself up about them.
At least I wont be once again vowing to lose weight, that is firmly in hand this year.

I still have 15 pounds to go, and I will. By my 38th (gulp) birthday that will be gone.
I hope that soon I will be able to embrace being older and view that as not so terrible, good health should help me there.

This is the old me - I felt awful here (8 years of awful in fact):

 

This is the current me:

 

Christmas Party weekend

Saturday was a pretty full on day, we headed out to the Christmas Tree farm in the morning to pick this years tree. There were many to choose from but we were worried about the "DFS effect" and ended up picking a smaller tree than last year.

The "DFS effect" means when you are in a sofa showroom and they are all massive and its hard to place your head back in your living room and you end up with a sofa thats enormous and takes over the whole place, that looked "small" in the showroom.

 

It was also raining that day - a steady drizzle that made me feel like we were back in the UK

 

Girls didnt mind that the tree was slighter than last year and happily decorated it. We just had to be very careful with heavier ornaments and have vowed that next year we will buy the biggest tree we see with strong branches and just empty the room around it.

The living room was pretty cosy that night. I love the Christmas feel in this house.

It was also the IMP Christmas Party night and my loss of 22lbs has enabled me to pick and choose through precious dresses that were previously out of my option range. I picked this one as its more "Holiday-ish" and I was pleased.

It was a GREAT night, so nice to see everyone back at Head Office. I do miss them.