Hello 2012!

Hi guys,

How slack have I been! The good news is that I'm back at work so hope I can get back into weekly blogging! I started back in mid January 3 days per week. 2 days in the office and 1 from home with my mum looking after Asher while I work from home and she goes to daycare while I'm in the office. It's working well so far and I'm quite enjoying have a few days a week of someone else keeping track of food, bottles, nappies etc. I'm job-sharing with the guy who was in my position for the past year. It's a struggle I have to say. We have very different styles and I feel like he doesn't give me all the information. He is also one of those people who seem to know every word in the world and uses them all so much that you really have no idea what he's talking about a lot of the time. I also feel a lot of ownership over my job so I feel like the buck stops with me and frankly I will make final decisions!

This sunday Asher turns 1! Can you believe it's nearly been a year since she was born? I can't. She's such a great kid mostly, with a real personality and she jibber jabbers and sings and dances. Very close to walking, she's taking 3-4 steps by herself but wants to walk holding someone's hand all the time. I've entered into the Bonds Baby Search if you feel so inclined to vote for her - click here. At the moment she's got a chest infection which sucks, it means she can't sleep as well unfortunately although she's still in a pretty good mood. Really hope she'll be better for her birthday. We are having just a low key sausage sizzle at the local park with just our parents, my sisters, GB's brother and my mother's group.

The dogs love her. Well Baxter loves her and Westie tolerates her. Asher & Baxter have cuddles every morning, it's so cute. Westie just had an operation on her knee on Monday. A few weeks ago she snapped her cruciet ligament and we gave it a while on anti imflammatories to see if it would stabilise itself but unfortunately it didn't. When they did the op she also had a meniscal tear in her knee so it never would have healed. So right now's she's groaning under the bed. It's so sad. The pain meds don't seem to be helping much. It's a long road ahead too. The first 2 weeks will be the worst but she won't be back to normal for at least 3 months.

So I know what you're wondering - how's the weight going. Well to be honest, there's not been much change. I'm sitting on around 86kgs which is about 9kgs up from what I was when I fell pregnant and 12kgs from what I was when we were married 2 years ago. But to be honest, I'm lucky. My food is hit and miss. I find the week before my period I can't keep anything down. I haven't been back to the doctor since before Asher was born and I had most of my fill out. I try to do a spin class on mondays and body combat on tuesday nights but I don't like to be out every night of the week. I was doing a pump class on the weekend but I've got bursitis in my shoulder which has been excruciating and the cortisone injection hasn't really improved things so no more pump for me. I will have to try and get back to doing some more exercise on the weekend though. GB is in training this year for the half ironman in May and the full ironman in December both in Busselton. He tries to train in the mornings but usually goes for a long bike ride once on the weekend.

We had a quick visit to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago which was nice but what I'm really looking forward to is Bali for a week in July with a bunch of friends and my sisters and my family from sydney and melbourne are going for my aunty's 60th. We are going to get a nanny to help with Asher so that I can have a bit of a holiday too!

Anyway, that will do for now! I will once again promise to try and get here more often and hope I can touch base on your blogs soon!

13 weeks

Hi gang,
Well it's all out in the open now. Family, friends, work, are all in the know. It's a relief not to be basically avoiding people but I did kind of like having our own little secret. When I told my little sisters (aged 8 and 11), I opened with "how would you guys like to be aunties?". Miss 8 replied "No thanks". A little underwhelmed to say the least!

Everyone is excited. Me? More freaking out still. I've never been into kids. Have I ever mentioned that before? In fact I never even entertained the idea of having kids. I don't do babies. Everyone says it will be different when it's your own, but what if it's not?

Other than that everything seems to be ok. I'm still struggling to keep food down which sucks arse because it means I'm eating unhealthy slider food which is not good for Mr Scales. It's 3 weeks to my sister's wedding, the bridesmaid dresses haven't arrived yet so I don't even know if it's going to fit anymore! The good news is I'm still fitting into my size 14 jeans and most clothes. Had to buy new bras because the ladies have gone up a size. I did buy maternity jeans so that when the time comes I can move into those. My work pant's are still fitting - just. The other day I went to the loo and realised my fly was undone! Anyway, managed to drag myself to gym twice this week for 30mins cardio. Going to investigate pregnancy pilates which is done around the corner from work - look at doing that once a week.

Hope you have all read Amy's blog this week - it definitely gave food for thought. I wish I could find my bubbles though - at the moment I'm struggling.

Bah what a downer of a post! I should mention that I'm lacking in sleep after waking up at 1am to find out that hubby & his mate had drank an entire carton of beer last night and then his mate drove home. Pissed at his mate for driving. Pissed at hubby for letting him. Pissed at myself for trusting that they'd do the right thing. Boys are truly fuckwits sometimes.

Anyhoo, have a top weekend. Go the Dockers.

Pity party over!

Thanks for your comments guys, really do appreciate it! Can I blame pregnancy hormones for my little flip out? I'm as guilty as anyone of not commenting often so I shouldn't be surprised that it's the same for others! However, I will make an effort to at least say hi if you've posted something from now on! Hopefully you reading this will do the same!

I have decided to give it another 3 or 4 days and if I'm still not keeping anything down, I'll have to get some fill out. At the moment, banana smoothies and icecream just aint cutting it. Hubby is getting shitty coz he thinks the baby can't grow without me eating properly- which is probably true! And frankly I'm tired of looking at the toilet bowl!

Weight is holding steady around 79kg... Not impressed with the weight gain since the wedding but not a lot I can do about it for the next 7 months!

Have a great weekend all!

Anyone still stopping by?

Pity party, table of 1. Have I become even more boring than I was before being preggers? Am I not posting enough band related info? Is there something more or less I should be writing about? Just let me know folks.

Anyhoodly, remember Friday? I was feeling "fabulous". I miss Friday. Today I feel shithouse. I'm not sure what is band related and what is pregnancy related anymore. For the past couple weeks I've been struggling to keep much of anything down. Not sure what to blame it on. I'm hoping things will work out without having an adjustment to the band. I've managed for the most part to keep crackers & cheese down for lunch. I'm not hungry AT ALL. Dinner time though has not been great.

Last night and today I've had a shocking tummy ache, which has just added to how unfabulous I'm feeling today. Today about 10.30am I ate some yoghurt. 12.30 5 x cheese &crackers. 2pm Threw up yoghurt. Cheese & crackers stayed down. How weird is that!

On the positive side I managed to do 30mins cardio at the gym Monday & Tuesday after work. Can't imagine making it tonight though as I'm seriously contemplating locking my office door and having a kip under my desk! Really want to try to do at least 3 days this week though so fingers crossed I'm better tomorrow.

Anyway I will distract you from my whinging and moaning with this pic of our two pooches!

From one extent to another

So when I got my fill a couple weeks ago I was back in no hungerland which was great. Seemed to be able to eat enough too (as per my Food Porn post below!). For some reason though Sunday and yesterday I had moved from "no hungerland" to "PB/Vomit City". I know the difference between the PB and Vomit too. Last night couldn't even keep water down and I was up til about 4am back and forwards to the toilet ending up with reflux. Not fun at all. It's so weird though coz for the last few days I've felt like I've been about to get my period - seriously feeling bloated and having cramps. The thing is TTOM is not due until over a week away. It's not unusual for me to be more restricted during TTOM but it is unusual to be this restricted 10 days away. Very, very odd. GB wants me to have some fill removed but I only have 3ml in my 10ml band and I felt good last week. Next appointment is 2 weeks away - can't put up with it that long but will see how I go over the next few days.

In happier news, congrats to Yvonne over at http://banditblossum.blogspot.com/ who welcomed Lucas into the world a few days ago.

Pathetic - table for one

Hi gang... can I call you gang?

I wasn't going to post this but then I thought, what the heck. Let the people know what kind of loser I am. Why? Because yesterday I decided I was pregnant.

And here's why -

1) I've put on weight. Surely it can't be because I'm eating like a farking trooper and not doing any exercise.. Oh and deep fried food - bring it. No that can't be the reason. Must be up the duff.

2) I've been.. how can I say it... more flatulent than normal. Can't be from all that fatty food I've been shoving down my giant gob. Must have a bun in the oven.

3) I'm sick .. again.. Obviously the demon child in my belly is causing my immune system to shut up shop. It clearly can't be because I'm run down and not looking after myself.

4) I had a funky metallic taste in my mouth .. Clearly a pregnancy symptom and not from all the drugs I've been consuming.

5) I was about 24hrs late for my period according to my iphone app.

So I peed on a stick at lunchtime yesterday. Big fat negative. And then an hour later I got my period. In my defence, I did google early pregancy symptoms and did find these things on the list, but what the hell is wrong with me! I'll find any excuse except the most simple one - that I'm eating too much crap!

Incidently I felt a bit glum when the stick was negative. Which is freaking me out as well. Also when I told GB that I got my period (I'd told him I took a test) he starting pouting and said he had a bit of hope for a minute (Even though the test was negative). Holy moly.

So I'm DEFINITELY getting a fill tomorrow.

Move aside, crazy person coming through!

Stupid cough

Hi all,

Well I was sick as a dog the week before last with chronic asthma. Had to go on a course of steroids and antibiotics. Was pretty much at 80% last week with the cough subsiding. Well in the last few days it's been back with a bloody vengeance. I sound like a fricking barking horse. Had some steroids left still so starting those again. Hopefully it won't get to the stage of last time where I "slept" (and by "slept" I mean watched tv all bloody night) on the couch for 4 nights. GB needs his sleep this week for his 1/2 ironman triathlon on Saturday so will take myself out of the room if I have to.

Had a lovely weekend, gorgeous weather in Perth. Had friends over for lunch on Sunday where I cooked and prepared from Saturday afternoon and then all day and night Sunday! We had tapas style but certainly not healthy food by any stretch of the imagination (the deep fryer got a work out!) but most of it was really tasty and only 1 dish failed on the day! We had a fun afternoon of food and far too much wine and then watched the video of our wedding that they had recorded. It was really fun to relive it and reminded us of how fantastic our reception was - I'd do that part again!

Super short work week for me this week. Friday we're off to Busselton (2.5hrs south of Perth) for the 1/2 ironman. Seeing the doc at 8am before we head off though. DEFINATELY getting a fill. Don't want to make my dilated pouch worse but can I just tell you what I ate last night? 6 party pies, - SIX!, a slice of lemon tart, bowl of icecream and a cold milo. Lordy that is embarrassing.

So yeah getting a fill then off down south. GB's friend's fiancee & I are having facials in the afternoon while the boys check in (3 of them plus 1 of my best friends are doing the triathlon). Have I said what this entails? 1.9km open water swim, 90km bike ride, 21km run. And they're all doing it individually this year not as part of a team. They've been training hard though so I know they can do it. So that's Saturday and then we'll be celebrating Sunday and Monday before heading back to Perth on Tuesday.

Catching up with our wedding photographer on the Monday to talk albums. We hadn't booked one before because we weren't sure about $$$$ so the package we had chosen was just the edited photos on a disc with the rights to print. Still worried the album might be super expeno but I really want one! She said she should have our online gallery ready by the end of this week too. Can't wait to see the photos!

GB and I checked out houses to rent for my birthday weekend (the weekend after is a long weekend) as last year due to the wedding we didn't go away at all. So we might pack up the pooches and go away just our little family for a couple nights. It's heaps more expeno to rent a house or cottage but we love to take the dogs with us so we'll suck it up.

Anyone watching masterchef this year? Glad it's down to the top 24 now. I'm so sick of the crying though! Keep it together people! And if I hear one more bloody sob story I'll scream!

Anyhoo, best do some work! Hope you're all well.

hehe I have comments!

Wow the immediate effect of switching to Blogger - I've had more comments than ever!

Official weigh in this morning had me down 1kg from last week which is fabulous I know, except that I also know that I was down to 76kg flat on Monday and today was 76.5. I did do pilates yesterday afternoon - which I completely sucked at - even apologised to the instructor as I was just so weak I couldn't hold anything together. Also dragged my fat arse to the gym after work for a barely sweat raising 20mins on bike and 10mins on treadmill.

Cara may be right though, I've heard that some brides get post wedding blues because they live and breath the wedding for so long they don't know what to do with themselves afterwards. I don't know, I HATED the whole organisation of the wedding, Glad I don't have to think about it anymore actually! But it is hard after the high of the wedding and honeymoon to be back into our normal life routine I guess. Or maybe it's just my usual TTOM blues (due next week :)). I don't want to make excuses... But I will!

Sally - don't know where I found this template in the end - I googled "Free blogger templates" and searched around. I can't seem to adjust the labels though so I'll prob change it again soon. Hope to catch up with you over here soon! How lucky are you going to Chicago!

Long weekend this weekend - hooray! And because we're heading down south for the 1/2 Ironman triathlon next Friday, it means only a 3 day work week next week! WOO HOO!

Must write up a post on the Biggest Loser supersets I did on Monday which have crippled me all week but burned some serious calories. Speaking of BL, found the Friday night Masterclasses really interesting and also was surprised to hear the Dr saying that the contestants should weigh themselves every day to ensure they keep the weight off! Quite surprising.

Anyhoo, is it ice coffee time yet?

Thanks for all your comments, I'm sure I won't sit in my funk for long!

Em :)

Struggling

I am struggling in so many senses of the word.

Struggling to find motivation to exercise
Struggling to not shove my face full of chocolate and icecream
Struggling when I do exercise to actually do anything (seriously strength is pathetic)
Struggling to work out how to get that "recent posts" label off the background to the right
Struggling to control myself from eating a big mac when I know I could physically do it at the moment
Struggling to do any work
Struggling to go home and do any work
Struggling to be civil to people let alone nice
Struggling to understand why my flannel shirt turned my iphone cover pink.
Just struggling.

Facebook & Email Contact

Frick, trying to figure a way to let you know my email address without giving it to the whole world is too bloody hard!!! I thought that whole "Gravatar" thing was supposed to be public. Oh well.

Not to be too cloak and dagger about it, but if you want to add me on facebook, send me an email to emmaf106@gmail.com and I will give you my full name to search.

There's lots of things I like about wordpress but increasingly more things (like this) that are bugging me. With my banditblossum wordpress buddy abandoning me for blogspot, perhaps I should give blogspot another go. I used to have another blog there a few years ago and found it very user unfriendly and the layout pages weren't particularly attractive (I'm not creative, so have to depend on others!). But given that 95% of bloggers I follow are there maybe I'll give it another go. Will see how hard it is to import all my posts from here over there. What are everyone's thoughts?

Will get back to you in a few weeks on the clothes issue. I commented below but just to repeat, I have no idea what I've got really and my sister wants first dibs, so I'll try to sort through it over the next couple of weeks, then post some pics.

Em :)

PS - Clothes

I noticed that there's some bandits who are giving away their too big clothes to other bandits. I'm more than happy to do this too - I usually just round up a bag and donate to the salvos but I'd be just as happy giving them to someone losing weight. I know how bloody expensive it is to keep replacing your wardrobe. Is anyone interested in this? Leave me a message and if there's enough interest I'll go through my clothes and take some pics and post them here.

I'm back - grab a cuppa it's going to be a long one!

Hey guys,

Thanks for all your comments on my photos. I mentioned facebook having more photos so if you want to add me as a friend that's cool but pls don't publicly say anything on my wall about lapbanding because as you know, it's a bit of a secret! I've added a little avatar thingy to the right which if you click on it will give you an email address for me - not sure if you can use this to search for me on facebook or not but if you flick me an email we'll work it out between us!

I've started wading through all the blogs I've missed but I'm a bit all over the shop. I use this RSS feed toolbar that scrolls across my browser with unread posts but they're not in any sort of order that I can tell so it's a bit like Blog Post Lucky Dip! I'm especially loving the ones about "lady bits"! I will comment when I can but until I get through the backlog I may not - don't be offended! If you're on my bloglist I'm reading you!

The last 6 weeks have been so insane I don't know where to start! I'll start with my hens night the week before the wedding. My sisters had planned the whole thing and I knew some vague details but that was it. They picked me up mid afternoon and we drove to some hotel apartments in the city. They'd booked a 3 brm apartment for us to stay in over night for the 3 of us plus 2 of my close friends and my cousin who lives in Sydney who came early just for the hens night. We had a few cosmos and some nibblies and then I was told that I had to sit in a seat and they were going to tie me to it and blindfold me. I was having none of that shit! I refused to be tied up but sat there blind folded. They knew I didn't want a stripper so I wasn't too stressed and then someone came in behind me and I think they were playing "You can leave your hat on" and someone started blowing in my ear and giving me a lapdance! I assumed it was one of my girlfriends and then my blindfold was taken off and in front of me was one of my best friends from England! My sisters, dad & mum had paid to fly her over for the wedding! It was amazing, there were tears and screaming! After more cosmos we all frocked up (we all wore masquerade masks and caught the bus to Northbridge for dinner with about 20 other friends and family members. After a bit of kerfuffle about where the table was located, we tucked into some champers and dinner. During the night my sisters had arranged rounds of Emma Trivia. It was heaps of fun. Then about half of us headed off to a karaoke bar where as usual we got shitty about our songs not being picked and were almost about to leave when we finally got some on. We partied on there (numbers dwindled) till about 2am, then headed to a club which had an area upstairs playing 80's' & 90's music. There we came to an epiphany. The girls of today wear FLAT shoes!! Here we were being all hardcore in our ridiculous heels and they've smartened up and worn flats! Anyway at about 4.30am we decide a trip to Fast Eddy's (24hr cafe) is in order for some chips and sundaes (what else would we eat at 4.30am?). We walked back to the apartment and finally fell asleep at about 5.30am. I could only sleep for a couple of hours and I'm telling you I was unwell. I'm far too old for those sorts of shenanigans!

And that started a downward slide that week. I assumed it was lack of sleep and a hangover but all of a sudden food was revolting - I couldn't stomach anything (YAY I hear you say? Not that much fun in reality). Then the reflux started again and it was BAD. I was nearly in tears each night. Tuesday I called Watson's rooms and they didn't have any doctors in that day but got me in the next day. I saw Maria Ingram (think I blogged a bit about it). She was concerned because I didn't have that much fill in to begin with. She took out about half and said she'd left about 1.7ml in - which is less than you have when you're first banded. As I mentioned she sent me for a barium swallow in case I had a slip. I might add that trying to fit in time for a doc appt and a barium swallow while you're trying to get the final bits of your wedding organised is NOT easy! Anyway it turned out I had a band dilation which is a stretched pouch probably caused when my band was too tight (regular readers will know I've had quite a bit of probs with this). Dr Ingram called me while I was having my nails done to say she got the report and basically I need to get back to basics to relieve any pressure on my band to allow the stomach pouch to retract to its normal size. Which has not been easy as the hunger has slowly returned and my portions are getting back to pre band sizes!!! Hard to manage while you're on your honeymoon! Anyway I decided to put that all aside to concentrate on the big day.

I had the beginnings of a head cold that week before too. Then on Friday (day before wedding) I woke up with NO voice. Pretty hard to say your vows when you can't speak! Over the day it came back, scratchy but back. Thursday night we picked up all my family who were coming in from Sydney & Melbourne. It was a great reunion. Friday we all headed to Margaret River (about 3hrs south of Perth). I should mention that since December Perth has had virtually no rain and the weather has been ridiculously warm. Well in Margs on Friday it was cool and overcast. I was not impressed. Everyone said though that its good that there's clouds because it makes for better photos! Anyway, Friday night we all surprised GB with one of his best friends from England. He was over at Christmas and told me he was going to try to come back but with his job and $$ it may not be possible, but it all came together. GB almost lost his mind! Fri night it was a friend's birthday so 10 of us headed to Must Winebar and had dinner (yummo). Saturday morning arrived and GB took off first thing for golf with his friends - the last I'd see him before the ceremony.

A little bit later my sister called from her apartment to see if i wanted to walk into town for a coffee. So we did that. We also had to go to the chemist to see if they had anything to numb her throat. She had the WORST case of pussy tonsils I've ever seen! So bad that one of her glands was so swollen that it was causing a massive lump on the side of her neck! She really wanted to have a good night. The chemist suggested this spray thingo which we used and she said it was immediately better. From then on we moved all the dresses to my apartment, the hair/makeup lady showed up at 11am to get us all started. The day seemed to go quite slowly, and then all of a sudden it was 4.30pm and we were all rushing around to get ready!

I knew that I'd lost a couple kgs in the past week from being so ill but hoped it came off my arse. As soon as my sis did up my dress though I knew my boobs were smaller than at the last fitting. Sure enough I had to keep hoying it up after the ceremony, during the photos!!! Luckily I'd had spaghetti straps sewn into them so I pulled them on for the reception and it was smooth sailing. We arrived at the winery and that's when I finally had a meltdown - I couldn't stop the tears! It was almost funny. I think I was so overwhelmed that the time was finally here! I pulled it together and got the show on the road. To be different, both the boys & gal's walked down either side of the guests (rather than a centre aisle). It was a bit hairy walking in heels on grass and down a few stairs (and I stepped on my dress a couple times), but I had a great laugh when I looked over to see my fiance doing a dance down the stairs to the music. (All you need is Love - The Beatles). The ceremony was pretty quick and I managed to hold it all together! Although it was a bit cold outside it all went really well.

From there the bridal party had a few pics and then returned to the winery for the cocktail reception which was fabulous. We got the 2 very quick speeches out of the way and then did our dance. GB and I danced for a minute to our song (Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol) but as that's a difficult song to dance too (no beat!) we had been practicing with the rest of the bridal party to do a evening quickstep sort of dance to Love Will Keep Us together. There was a bit of confusion at the start but we pulled it together and apparently it looked fabulous! Can't wait to see the video! Then the party got started in full swing. Our DJ was fantastic - I had to ask him to play a shit song so I could go and pee!. The cocktail food was great and everyone seemed to have a brilliant time. We'd set up a kind of photo booth with a backdrop and camera on a tripod for our guests to have photos in front of and there was a little white board for them to hold up messages. It was a bone of contention between GB and I which I won and it was a massive hit! We've had really good feedback that it was one of the best weddings they'd ever been too. After the reception we all hopped on the bus transport we'd arranged back to the hotel and then partied on in my sister's apartment till the wee hours again!

It was like a big 3 day party. The next day we had a lunch just with our immediate families and then put the word out that we'd be having a bbq in the middle of the apartments for dinner which a lot of people rocked up for.

Monday we took my Aunty from Melbourne to a few wineries and the chocolate factory and slowly headed back to Perth. That was the day that Perth was hit by the hail storms and a few of our friends have bad damage to their cars. We were lucky that we were late enough just to hit torrential rain.

Tuesday night we headed off for our honeymoon. Details of that I'll leave to another post.

Today I did an official weigh in and I'm back up to 77.5kg which is disappointing but it has been 4 weeks with basically no fill in my band and drinking wine like it was water and eating out nearly every single day.. oh and no exercise, so a 3.5kg gain is understandable! I've been pretty much fluey this whole time but this past week my asthma has been chronic. Went to my GP yesterday and he put me on antibiotics & steroids. I haven't slept properly in 3 nights which totally sucks. Was planning on getting back into exercise this week but just haven't been able to. Did do pilates on Tuesday and also went to the gym after work for 45mins cardio where I thought I might actually pass out. Will give the weekend for the drugs to kick in and hopefully will be full steam ahead on Monday.

Well that's enough for one post!

Talk to you all soon!

Mrs Em :)

Crisis over

After no sleep and an abundance of vomitting since Friday I got in to see a new doc at watsons called Maria ingram. She was fantastic. As I said earlier she took out 1.7ml which was about half of what I had in there saying even if I put on a kilo or two over next few weeks that's ok as I could stand to put on some anyway! I weighed in at 74.1kg! She was worried that I had so much probs given I'd had a relatively small amount of fill in and wanted a barium swallow to rule out a band slip given I was off overseas on Tuesday.

I got an appt at 2pm and let me say it's farking awful. Not only did I have to fast for 6hrs, I was completely parched and had to swallow this horrible chalky stuff! Anyway the doc there said he couldn't see any slippage but that I had some other common band prob (which I've already forgotten what it was called) which basically meant that the pouch was out of shape which was causing the reflux and inflammation. Basically the only solution is to remove fill until it settles down and regains it's shape. He said to resume normal eating and drinking and if I have any more probs in the next day to get the rest of the fill removed. Very scary proposition!

Having a pedi right now followed by my acrylic refills and then were off for our tans!

Ps had too good of a hens night on saturday which started this whole reflux prob in the first place! Will write all about it when I have time ... Prob in April!

Em

Perfect timing

Just had 1.7ml removed which was about half of my fill. Booked in for barium swallow at 2pm. Wedding in 3 days. Perfect.

Sorry don't have time to go into detail.

Em

Holy Moly

Hey kids,

Forgot to bloody weigh in this morning! I doubt I've lost anything - possibly have even gained (yesterday I was 75.1) because my exercise and diet have been awful this week. Did pilates twice and started week 5 of C25k program on monday but that is it!  Eating has been shite too because I've been so busy I haven't really cooked anything, just been snacking snacking away.

Cara - I did wonder where'd you'd gotten too having been missing your comments! Just assumed you were busy busy busy! Glad I've returned to your blogroll. Oh and Easter is 2nd April (well Good Friday anyway).  Maybe we can catch up the following week or week after. Will flick you an email when I get back from the honeymoon and set something up. Oh and thanks for my sunshine award :)

Have been feeling quite overwhelmed with the wedding stuff and getting quite nervous about the big day. Funnily enough though not nervous about the ceremony but about the actual party side of things! Everyone has been building it up as the best night ever and I just want to deliver! I can't tell you all how much I'm looking forward to the honeymoon, a chance to unwind and de-stress!

Frick I'm having all sorts of probs with this blog post today. My paragraph about Baxter seems to  have disappeared and I can't be buggered retyping it so here's some dot points -

• balls removed


• lump removed


• getting big


• great dog


• graduated from puppy kindy!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="369" caption=" Even with 20 toys, this is what he plays with!"]

Baxter playing with "red dog"

Still under that wedding goal!

Sorry for my lack of activity, posting & commenting over the past few weeks. I'm so fricken busy at work and trying to finalise wedding stuff I just haven't had the time for my blogging friends. Just know that you're in my mind and I have been reading (well to be honest, skimming) your posts still even if I haven't commented.

I was SO excited to reach my wedding goal last week that I proceeded to eat and drink a four day weekend away and was pretty sure I'd be back above 75kg this week. Even my exercise has been lacking - only did some on Monday and yesterday! But today I weighed in at 74.7kg (164lbs) so another couple hundred grams off! Yippee! It's TTOM this week, my first since coming off the pill and I'm happy to say I've had no increase in restriction or reflux this time! It can't be discounted that since coming off the pill a month ago I've lost weight and restriction (apart from the very first week off). Maybe it's a coincidence maybe not. I've had a little bit of heartburn but nowhere near as bad and a quickeze is doing the trick.

The negative side is that well I've always been moody around TTOM but this week has been awful, culminating in a massive argument with GB last night which ended with me having a breakdown and crying on the bathroom floor in between dry heaving into the loo. Not my finest hour. So does anyone know of any remedies for PMS? Should I check out some vitamins or supplements or something?

Just want to give a quick shoutout to another Perthite, Lauren who tracked me down on facebook to send a message. She's being banded in 3 days so my best wishes and good luck vibes are heading her way! She's not a blogger (yet!) but hopefully you can still send her cyber good wishes.

Anyhoo, best be getting some work done!

Em :)

Wedding goal achieved!

At a pub so can't write much. Just wanted to say I weighed in at 74.9kg so finally reached my wedding goal! Also in said pub I'm currently wearing size 12 top and jeans! Yay me !!!

I look like a spazz in this photo coz it's 2000 degrees and like 100% humidity! So yeah it's hot!

Em :)

Easy come, easy go

Well I put on 300g this week. Which I think should have been impossible given my band has been super tight and I've been PBing and having night  reflux all bloody week! I'm not sure if it's related but I went off the pill a couple of weeks ago. It's the first time I've been off it since I was 16! I wondering if my hormones have gone all nuts because of it because for the past week I've felt bloated like I was going to get my period and the PB/night reflux is also something I would normally have around period time but no period has eventuated. Do you think I've used the word period enough in that sentence? Well I won't use it again. Period. I've also been backed up all week, something which I just took care of at work unfortunately post weighin. And that concludes this week's Too Much Information blog paragraph.

If all the night reflux doesn't settle down over the weekend I think I'll have to get some fill removed. Pooey.

Baxter started Puppy kindy last night and he was a little superstar! Then he turned into a devil dog at bedtime and proceeded to hump Westie's bed for a good 15mins whilst looking at himself in the mirror. It was farking horrific. In the end I put him on our bed to settle him down to sleep. And this morning I awoke to find 2 turds & 2 pee stains on the carpet in our activity room. Little bastard. When he's there just with Westie, he does his business outside no probs, we never come home to any accidents. But when we're home he seems to think he has free reign to do it wherever he pleases. Grrrrr ... Fricken puppies.

Wedding wise, things are coming together and the bills are coming in thick and fast! I got pissed off at one of our friends though and this is why. We sent out Save the Date's about a year ago with the date of the wedding and venue. Then the formal invitations went out first week of January with an RSVP date of 5th Feb. At the beginning of Feb, GB sent this friend of ours (as well as a few others) a reminder that the RSVP was due on the 5th. Said friend calls us on the 5th when we were driving back from Geraldton with Baxter asking "when do we actually have to have RSVP numbers finalised because he'd like to come but he has soccer, his kids etc to organise so he's not sure if he can do it blah blah blah". Sorry, but 1 year isn't enough time to sort your shit out? Caught off guard we say the 20th. Then last week I thought screw it, he's had ample time so I told him I needed numbers on the 11th and he says he's sorry but can't come. Which is fine. Which also would have been fine if he said it by the 5th of Feb. I can't believe he wanted more time! People from overseas and eastern states have enough time to RSVP on time! Farker!!! End vent.

Got my final wedding dress fitting on Monday, had hair and makeup trials Tuesday just gone. GB is going to see the DJ in Bunbury tomorrow. Still have a heap of smaller things to do but I think we're on track.

Still doing the Couch to 5k program. Started Week 3 this week. On Monday GB and I did our normal 5km lunch walk as 60 second run/walk intervals. It was really humid and it's so hilly I thought I might actually die, but I got through it! Although had to have 90 second walk breaks up the hills!

Big thanks to Sally too for nominating me for a Beautiful Blogger Award! There are pay it forward rules that come with it so will give it some thought and try to post them over the weekend sometime.

Anyhoo, best be doing some work!

Em :)

PS - Forgot to put in my NSV this week. I needed new 3/4 workout trackies so went to Target as they had 20% off. Walked out with size 12 and they fit thank you very much! mwah ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Kicked that plateau to the curb

SOOOOOO close to my wedding goal! I even did a few star jumps in the bathroom this morning - which, FYI, is not a pretty look when you're doing them naked! So today I weighed in at 75.1kgs. A whopping great loss of 1.7kg this week! I can't remember the last time I lost that sort of number in one week without it relating to TTOM. To  be honest I haven't been doing anything massively different except for that Couch to 5k program and also last weekend I was REALLY restricted. I even did this loss still eating my chocolate and drinking my light iced coffee!

I made an awesome and super easy salad last night for dinner out of the Woman's Weekly Salad book. Here's the recipe:

Goats Cheese, Fig & Proscuitto salad

150g Goats Cheese
4-6 large figs
6 slices of proscuitto
180g rocket

Grill the proscuitto till crispy and drain off excess oil, roughly chop.
quarter the Figs
crumble the goats cheese (put it in the freezer for 10mins to make it easier to crumble)
Combine and toss!

Dressing:
1 tblsp wholegrain mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp honey

Yummo! This served 4 of us as a side salad (a main for me) comfortably.

Was going to post some more gratutious pics of Baxter but for some reason I'm having huge issues uploading pics from work so may have to try a different way. Baxter is a great little dog, going outside to do his "business" most of the time and he's sleeping through the night. We have come home to a few messes though. On Wednesday it was drizzling rain all day which made our mulch wet which meant we could tell exactly where he'd been all day! Also the same day he decided to eat the bottom of the bin out (we just hang a plastic bag to the pantry door) so there was rubbish across the house and backyard! And he's enjoying eating the agapantha plant out the back too! oh well!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="277" caption="Puppy footsteps"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="277" caption="Rubbish!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Baxter"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Another Bax pic!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="277" caption="Westie, Baxter and their Dad"][/caption]

Sneak Peak...and a long diatribe about the new puppy!

So I popped on the scales this morning to see..... 75's.... NO SHIT. First time in a LONG time that I've weighed less after a weekend from my Friday weigh in. Of course it could have something to do with the fact we got called out to Dwellingup (100kms south of Perth) for a fire yesterday. So had to be up at 3.30am and worked till 7pm. Had a salad for lunch and PB'd the thing all afternoon. Not great. Decided to go with a cold milo for dinner when I got home which did stay down thank goodness.

Last week I restarted the Couch to 5k program. Already had the podcasts downloaded from when I attempted it a few years ago and after 4 weeks was only on week 2! But feel better about it this time around. Did the week 1 program, three times last week. Normally when I run I do it around 8km/hr. Not terribly fast...especially when I walk around 7km/hr! So decided to up the tempo this time around (was on the treadmill at the gym so it is easier to regulate). Week 1 is intervals of 60seconds running, 90 seconds brisk walk. So I ran at 9km/hr for 7 intervals and then for the last one I ran at 9.7km/hr! YAY! On the 3rd session on Thursday I even did the last interval at 10km/hr! I kept the walking to about 6.7km/hr. Tonight I'll start on the Week 2 program so will see how I go.

In addition to the running I've been doing the bike at the gym still (30mins if no running, 20mins if running). Still pilates on a Thursday too.

And yes we got our new pooch, Baxter on Friday! We've been looking at getting Westie a friend to keep her company and had started enquiring with breeders. We thought we had one sussed that would mean she'd deliver pups in Feb and they'd be ready for pickup after the wedding. Unfortunately, that pooch decided not to go on heat as planned and so subsequently didn't get preggers. We made some more calls and found out we'd basically have to wait a whole other year for a puppy as they'd just gone through their cycles and we'd missed it. Then one of them recommended an unregistered breeder who had puppies in Geraldton ready to go. We had a talk - spending some of the wedding money now - what would we do with 2 dogs while we're away? etc etc. Decided it was meant to be. So we drove up to Gero - took just under 4hrs - and went to meet this lady. She had 3 males to choose from. They were all great dogs. The one we chose was actually the biggest. We thought we'd choose the runt of the litter but his ears were already up and GB wasn't happy with that! I have no idea why. Anyway "Mr Yellow" (she had paint dots on their heads to tell them apart) came straight up to us for a cuddle, then went and played with his mum & dad and brothers and then came back and sat on my foot. So he became - Baxter.

He's been a fantastic dog so far. He's 11 weeks old. He's already worked out the doggy door at our place. He was getting in ok but struggling to get out so GB decided to make him a ramp. He was measuring it up and cutting the wood and Baxter just started bounding in and out the door to see what he was doing! So obviously doesn't need the ramp! He's had a few accidents inside but has been going outside too. He's been only whinging for 5mins when we put him to bed in our ensuite (we've put a divider across the door to keep him on the tiles) and then he sleeps most of the night, only waking to cry to tell GB he needs the toilet - goes outside and then back to sleep til about 7am! Awesome! He's got TONNES of energy though. He goes psycho nuts playing, chewing whatever for about 30mins then he crashes and sleeps for an hour.. then repeats it again!

Westie was happy on Friday when we brought him home, then standoffish on Saturday when he hadn't left yet but they're firm friends now. She even pushed his bum through the doggy door and helped him up the stairs! SOOO cute! He can't get down the stairs yet though. Gotta enroll him in puppy preschool this week, try and train him a bit!

Anyway, better do some work I guess! Have caught up on most blogs, but haven't had too much time to comment, sorry. Oh I installed firefox (as opposed to Internet Explorer) on my PC and am now finding it heaps easier to comment on blogger blogs which is great. I've also set up RSS feeds for everyone's blogs whom I'm following so I get a notification if you've posted a new blog! YAY for technology!

Em :)