Some weekend shopping

While husband was away this weekend I had Saturday morning to myself and I had woken up pretty early so decided to hit some outlet stores before visiting my grandparents. I went to Winners and bought this door mat above. It sorta camouflages with the tiles, not too sure If I like it or not, but it was extremely hard to pick one to begin with. So it's staying aahahah!

I also found this scarf for $14.99 it's nice and big and can be worn as a shawl as well. Love pink!!

I had a budget this weekend and really did not want to over spend so I stopped myself from heading into the mall...what I do not see I will not buy :)

But... my uncle has a an outlet store for designer fashion and he was having a big sale this weekend. My sister and I really wanted to go but were worried about over spending since we have done so many times while there. But we love the clothing there so decided to go anyway!

While there I found 3 cute blouses and fell in love with a winter jacket. I couldn't decide what to put down since I did not want to spend that much. I brought my items to the cashier and asked how much it would all be... and to my surprise my uncle made me pay for the coat only! So I only spent $60.00!!! For 3 gorgeous blouses and a winter jacket! (Winter jacket had a price tag of originally $295!) I was soooo happy!!!! Love Love my family! :)

Next on my shopping list is knee high boots for fall/winter. I'll be on the look out for a good deal!

Happy Monday everyone!!

Lazy Sunday

After a very busy Friday and Saturday with family and friends me and Zoe are just pooped.

Yesterday was my sweet grandmas 78th birthday. I love my grandparents so much! Look how cute they are. My uncle requested a song for them on the radio and they absolutely loved it!! They danced and danced until the song was over ahaha. <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoy3pI65zbNI_wMwR1T7pGxUvuS3qmguUoEgb6r2vgWegCPg7vmxoCZluYEM0H-NruoSg8xENyfKpgkiw7dyEg8SeqoDsNgJq_7R5WVeFEibUqvADhiR8_6Ts0X1AwLbwp-4-xzKAtoy4/s1600-h/nonna.JPG">
This my grandma and my sweet aunt having a mommy daughter hug. Love them. My aunt hasn't been feeling too well these days and has been going to through many tests and doctor visits. I hope she gets better soon and feels like her amazing self again. Praying lots for my dear aunt!
Husband went away to Niagara falls for the weekend for a Men's weekend get away lol. So I decided to have all my girls come over Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. In the picture below are baby cousins and my sister. heehee not babies anymore! I can't believe I'm 10 years older than "L" the red head on the left and and 7 years older than "J" next to me with the long gorgeous brown hair! Me and sister are only 4 years apart. I love my girls. They help me be a better person they are smart beautiful, inspiring caring girls!


Fun!!

Just to send a shout out to two new blogs on the block! Check them out! Sister's blog and cousin's blog :)

Jogging in trails

Last night when I was getting ready for bed I had the TV on and it was on one of those health hour special channels. It mentioned a study that exercise helps depression and increases happiness, something I've heard before many times. But what it said was, not just any exercise, specifically out door exercise and specifically in Green areas! The one thing husband and I love to do is jog through trails, it always makes us feel really good and we always have more energy and feel positive after our runs. We have a small trail near our house and we always go through it when we jog, and now I know why we love it so much! It makes us happy!

I did my weigh in today and it's the exact same, no surprise ahah. I did really well with my jogs 3 times this week and jumped on my trampoline twice :) This weekend I am going to wear my pedometer all weekend in hopes of achieving 10000 steps per day Fri/Sat/Sun.

I'm so happy the weekend is here!

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Leaves are turning colors...

Fall is here and the leaves are turning colors and starting to fall to the ground. It rained the past couple days and this morning I woke up so cold my nose, hands and feet were frozen! Weather right now is 12 C (53.6F) I will not be surprised if we get snow in early November this year.

On this day last year I got laid off from my job. My vision last year was much different than it is today. Hahah Cause I'm looking for work instead of enjoying being self employed! But, My blog is "Growing Towards a Dream" and that is what I will continue to do. Over the year I did increase our monthly amounts and gained many new customers. I also had a chance to blog and meet amazing new blogger friends ;) My goals will still continue. Husband and I have short term goals and Long term goals and we will keep at them ;) No matter what life throws at us. Life does throw curve balls huh... I once read that God throws these curve balls to see how badly you want something. So I will make sure that our goals continue to be acheived no matter what trys to get in the way. We have a 24 hour day and a lot can be done one day at a time ;)



Past couple weeks I've been feeling really down, as I mentioned before I never had an issue with with finding a job. It was never an issue I had to deal with so I find this experience extremely new. The feelings are overwhelming at times and husband reminds me that it is a recession and I am not the only one feeling this way. I guess you can say the "Ego" really gets damaged during these types of scenarios, when I always made X amount and jobs out there are paying much less than X or require much more experience which was never the case before. Damn you Economy Damn you LOL. I took a Business Analyst course over the weekend and met a lot of people in the IT world, many of them are unemployed and looking as well. It is funny here in Canada because the news continues to say the recession is over and throws out these numbers as if all is ok. I guess they do not want to scare people but just from a group of people I know I can count at least 10 people looking for a job right now.

I hope all of us can find something in the next couple of months because as soon as December hits companies do not hire until after the new year.

Trying to stay positive and I will continue to work hard in all areas of my life!!! So take that curve balls! :)

(Drinking a large coffee and getting to work!)

The soup diet

Well as I guess I should have known, my soup and egg diet did not go so well. I did start a journal for my food intake daily and I am noticing that I eat way too much at some meals without even realizing it. My will power was not that great and at times I found myself hungry I ate whatever I found, including m & m's!

My workouts have been going really well. I even went for my jog yesterday despite the rain...I was drenched! But felt great.

The good news is that I have not gained any weight, whew! All numbers are the same as of today.

Weight 145
Upper Arms: 11 1/2"
Waist above Belly Button: 28 1/2"
Waist below Belly Button: 34 1/2"
Hips: 44"
Upper Thighs: 25

My major focus this week is to continue making food at home and working out and filling in my food journal. I will also try and continue soup for lunch. (eggs for bf are not sitting well for me so I will just include a small bf with coffee or tea)

Love eating out!

I'm one of those people that just love eating out! I have been cooking at home everyday lately so when I get that chance to eat out, I go and I love it! (Minus the fact of huge calories taken in when eating out).

I went for a sushi dinner with my good friend. We chatted for 2 1/2 hours at the restaurant, good thing we were pretty much the only ones there, I usually talk much too loud ahah.

So far my egg and soup diet has not been constant but I will keep at it in hopes of seeing some sort of results.

Tomorrow husband and I are taking a 2 day course, it will add a little extra to my resume and hopefully opens some doors for me... I do not even want to go back on the topic of job hunting, you know how I feel about it... ugh.

Wish me luck! :)

Did I mention - I hate looking for work...Pt 2

Thanks for the support blogger friends ;) It's hard to ignore these feelings, they are overwhelming! I've had other issues in my life before but working has never been it. From the last job I had I was at the point of building that "career" or at least on the path to. I never had an issue finding a job and I always moved jobs the minute I felt I needed change and it worked well for me until I was laid off. When I was laid off it was bitter sweet. At the time husband and I had big dreams of moving to San Diego and experiencing different living, I took time to work on our online business and helped it grow alot over the year. But of course life takes over and we did move, but to suburbia and here I am today looking once again for that career. With the job market so crummy it makes things much much worse!

Well to relieve some stress I'm going out for sushi tonight with a friend ;) Ah leave it to food to put a smile on my face. Yesterday I made my favorite dish Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp. I love it, husband doesn't like my cooking too much but I think the dish came out perfectly tasty.

I did not do a Hump day update today since I am still working on the lunch soup diet, I will just do a weigh in on Monday, and hoping for some results ;)

My body is extremely sore from riding with the husband last night on his motorcycle. I think it's only my third time on it, I held on so tight I'm sore from my neck to ankles ahah.

Did I mention - I hate looking for work...

Almost October and no job yet. I'm having one of those days, I'm just fed up! I'll be honest, I am really really hating this job stuff! Thanks to looking for a job I feel my summer was sacrificed with no reward and now Fall has started and I'm pretty much at square one. My days feel more and more depressing. I feel that my daily job hunting is wasting my life away, my days have no meaning, no point almost. Just day in and day out of looking for a job, going to depressing interviews at places I do not even want to work at and then it gets repeated all over again. Thank goodness for my blog that helps keep me sane! I'm usually a upbeat person but the weeks have been flying by and I feel the drain more and more each day! I never thought looking for work would be so hard nor did I ever think it would drain me as it is...

Some better news, I worked out really hard yesterday and now my legs are in so much pain and wobbly ahah a good sign. I'll do it again today. At least this is one part of my life I have control of, somewhat... :)

weight loss ideas - new weekly menu

Thankfully my Monday weigh in was back at my regular weight minus the 2 lbs I was up on Friday. This weekend I carefully watched what I ate (except for at the Movies last night with popcorn and gummybears! I just can not hold out at the movie theater!)

I made a delicious omelet the other day, it was healthy and very filling. I think I will make omelette's more often!

Over the weekend I got some weight loss ideas from a blogger friend suggestion as well from some girlfriends this weekend.

Some weight loss ideas they gave me are:

2 boiled eggs for BF - I'm going to try this, this week! Thanks blogger friend! :)

Another friend of mine lost lots of weight this summer on what she calls a soup diet!
She skips BF then eats soup for lunch and a light dinner. I am one that needs my BF so I am thinking up my own combo plan.

My new weekly menu, below:

2 boiled eggs with tea for BF
Veggie Soup or salad for lunch
light dinner, lean meat with small portion of carb
fruit as my snacks

wish me luck!

Have any weight loss ideas let me know, I may add it to my new weekly menu!

PS. Can I boil eggs all in one day and keep them refrigerated for a week?

Random Friday

This morning I weighed myself and noticed that I was 2lbs... UP! Today I'm working out on my gazelle and trampoline and I will make sure to eat lighter this weekend for my next weigh in on Monday and hopefully these 2lbs will have dropped!

Yesterday I had a small dinner and added lots of fruit for dessert. Mango's, Bananas, and Strawberries. Yum!

I'm making my grocery list for the weekend and adding lots of fruits and veggies and lean meats. This week I did not work out as much as I should have so next week I really need to step it up already! Fall fashion is out and I want to be a happy shopper!

I just can't believe summer is over and Halloween is so close too. I'm excited being my new area, there are much more kids here so I will be sure to get lots of candy, and hope there's no left overs ;)

I bought this oven mit and dish cloth at Walmart for a dollar each. They are so cute. Now I just need to think of costumes for me and husband.


Have a great weekend!