Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Baby Girl Update



So let's see...

Baby Girl weaned herself from breastmilk this month (about mid-month).

She now eats apple slices, bananas (sliced) raw or frozen, raisins, cheese, crackers, Cheerios, baby cookies, buttered or garlic toast, pizza (though she likes the crust the best), chicken breast, turkey breast, gravy, baked beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, corn, peas, apple sauce, baby food (though not often), hamburger meat, pasta, bread and rice.

She's also had birthday cake, ice cream, cheesies and popcorn.

And she does not seem to care for apple juice so far but she will drink watered down orange juice, homogenized (aka "whole") milk and water.

She has also enjoyed having spoonfuls of my smoothie when I have one.

She has had red peppers, spinach, cucumber and celery but hasn't been over enamoured of them.

For words she says:

  • Mama (and it's the first one she used to indicate a person - ME!)
  • Dada
  • Baby
  • Bye-Bye
  • Good Girl
  • Big Girl
  • uh-oh
She also babbles a lot in conversational tones, if you know what I mean and she also shakes her head "no" and "yes."

Still no more than one unassisted step, but she crawls a lot, stands a lot and keeps trying to climb things!

And she's working on her canine teeth.  Lower left is probably going to be the next tooth through which would but her at 13 teeth.

Not too shabby for a 14-month-old, I think...

Friday, May 27, 2011

Still not feeling quite like myself

OK so let me start with the cardiac stress test I had on Tuesday.

It seemed to be going normally but once I was off the treadmill and they were monitoring me as I caught my breath, my heart rate spiked to over 200 and stayed there for just over a minute.

The cardiologist was concerned about it.

He also noticed a slight heart murmur when he was listening to my heart beat.

So I went back in on Wednesday for an echocardiogram and I have to wait until June 20th to go back in to learn how to use something called an "event monitor."

I will be using it for at least 2 weeks starting on the 20th and then once he analyzes all the results - I'll have a better idea of what's going on.

What I am finding really rather strange and disconcerting about it all is that I can't recall a time in my life where I didn't have breathing issues after really exerting myself and then, once I would catch my breath it would feel like my heart was racing and that there was the sound of thunder and water in my ears.

So it seems normal to me.

Now I feel very freaked out about it all.

Do you know what I mean?

As I got older, I attributed it more to my heart racing in a belated panic reaction to my difficulty with drawing what I feel is sufficient breath.

But I can remember having that sort of thing happen back in my bar days where I would dance all night and drink tons of water.

I can remember it happening in high school.

All the way back to elementary school.

I will say that it seems a bit more severe or incapacitating now - as in it feels like it takes me longer to recover but that could just be my perception.

In other news... Baby Girl is still not walking.  Though she has taken one unassisted step on two separate occasions.

And she is still not a fan of the outdoors, swings or slides as of yet.

Yesterday: "I love my brother THIS much!" 

Son had to make something that moves for school.

Tuesday: "AHHHHHH!!!!! I hate nature!!!"

Yesterday - a super-cute smile!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Today

Well I got home last night and Hubs and my kidlets were very happy to see me - just as I was happy to be home with them again!

I have my cardiac test this afternoon... hoping that goes well but it's also my TOM and I am very crampy and bitchy today.

One of my take-aways from Calgary was that I kept seeing pairs of birds that I was unfamiliar with.  I was told while I was there that they were mockingbirds.

Unfortunately, I was unable to catch them on camera but a google search turned up a picture of one from this person's Picasa gallery:  http://picasaweb.google.com/KarenMaine10433/AlbertaVacation2009# - I do not know Karen Maine but if you look at the third picture (in the top row) from that link - you will see a mockingbird just like the ones I saw while I was in Calgary.

I don't know if I can link a FB video like this or not but I got video of a guy trying to drum up business by tossing a sign... http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150627784060158&comments

On Saturday I went out for a walk in the afternoon with one of the girls and we encountered a 90ish old woman who was lost and we helped get her back to the retirement home she lived at, so that was a nice moment of good karma.

I spent most of Sunday dreadfully hungover after the BBQ on Saturday night and I think I handled the flight home on Monday far better than the flight out there BUT I was more nervous coming home because it was really crappy weather in Calgary on Monday morning.










water slide at the hotel pool


complimentary breakfast


Well on my way to the land of drunkenness

crappy weather rolling in (taken from hotel room)

On the way home!!!

Going to land soon

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Too old to drink that much

Calgary has been interesting, met some great people, socialized, went swimming at the hotel pool all by myself one day and ended up getting WAYYYYYYYYYY  too drunk last night.

I have been hungover for a large chunk of the day.

Looking out the hotel window right now and it's getting cloudy and gray.  I really hope that it's not storming tomorrow when we leave for home.

I miss my kids.  I miss Hubs.

And I am not drinking for awhile... ugh!

Friday, May 20, 2011

I made it to Calgary!

Ending up being up for 22 hrs yesterday so I'm still not quite on my game today.

The plane scared me but I survived thanks to S-girl!

I miss Hubs and the kids but I think it's going to be a good time out here!




Thursday, May 19, 2011

Update on past life regression

OK so I still haven't finished packing for my trip (that I leave for today) so this is going to be on the quick side...

Popped into 2 past lives at the regression appointment.

Dori, female, somewhere in England
  • poor family
  • younger brother, Tom (same soul as my daughter)
  • very ill mother, skinny, gray-skinned, coughing - died before Dori was 13
  • closest relationship was to Tom and then father
  • did not attend school until mother died but was smart and an excellent reader
  • if she left home she was afraid "something bad" would happen
  • Tom wouldn't learn his ABCs when he was 4
  • father worked somewhere dirty, all covered in black (coal or soot???)
  • father died of heart attack (& father was possibly same soul as my male ex-bestie of a decade)
  • Dori worked in a mercantile type of store but found it boring
  • Tom grew up and married a woman (same soul as my soul sister C.)
  • I married John (Hubs' soul) when I was an old maid of 28 - no kids
  • I spoiled and adored my 3 nieces, the youngest, Cassie was my fav (& had the same soul as my S-girl)
  • died of pneumonia when old (late 60s or early 70s)
Joe, from a town named Bethel somewhere in America
  • farm family
  • older brother, Willie/William (same soul as my son)
  • not close to parents
  • mischievous child, very taken with animals and felt very controlled by parents
  • moved to Bethel with Willie & his wife (same soul as my oldest niece, Tonya)
  • they had 5 boys
  • Joe remained a bachelor -- too shy to talk to a young woman from church who eventually married someone else
  • worked at a mill, early on manual labour, later on doing the books
  • escaped into reading about faraway places and adventures
  • died being thrown from a horse while crossing a bridge while watching an attractive woman on the stairs of a store on the left side of the road in late 40s

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Past life regression, thoughts on reincarnation, ghosts and other things

I have a past-life regression session scheduled for 10 a.m. with Catherine @ Journey Healers who I met at MEfest.

I thought some of you might be interested in what some of my beliefs are before I actually have the regression done.



re: making an appointment for the regression...

I have been wavering on this for awhile, because I have always been fascinated with past lives but I always thought the regressions were too out of reach (price wise) but Catherine offers an hour for a very reasonable $25.


I have an acquaintance/friend, Ang, whom I quite like and feel comfortable with who is a BodyTalk practitioner and I heard from her the other day that she knows Catherine and she agreed that since I am interested in my past lives that I should go see Catherine


When it comes to more alternative health and lifestyle choices and practitioners, I really rely on a combination of my gut instincts coupled with personal recommendations (if possible).

On my childhood re: spirituality and influences

I can remember reading the Narnia series on my own when I was in grade school (Grade 3 or Grade 4) and that's what first actually made me believe in something other than Christianity.

I also remember making what I considered "deals" with the Universe or God (when I still believed in the version of God I was taught within the United Church) as well as praying.

And I would make up rhymes and recite them under my breath or in my head over and over because I believed that would give me the outcome I wanted.

Sometimes I have found myself drawn very deeply into my beliefs and just as often, they've freaked me out and I've fled... ignored them, pretended that it was all in my head, that I was crazy or wishful or just plain silly.

It's actually somewhat similar to the love-hate relationship I've had with my body.  I either connect and resonante and seem to tune into the synchronicity of the universe or I hide myself away and willing put on blinders because I have a deep-set fear of success as well as a fear of failure that rage war within me and have done so for as long as I can remember).

I've always had "vibes" and gut instincts. 

I was raised in a home and a family that wasn't overly into religion but very much believed in psychic abilities, ghosts and the supernatural, life on other planets (and UFOs), luck and superstition.

When I met my biological maternal side of the family, my Grandmother was (and still is) very much a believer in what she learned in the Catholic church  but there is still a strong belief in psychic abilities and ghosts and supernatural contact (including family members who have had experiences).

So not only was I raised in a way that made this way of thinking normal to me, it also runs in my biological family.

My late Mom used to tell me that when I was a baby, she remembered one night where she had me up for a 2 a.m. feeding and suddenly it got so bright outside that it was like day time and then brighter still, so she couldn't really see and then, just as suddenly, it got dark again and she said she saw something zip across the sky outside the window and disappear.

Yep, she saw a UFO.

re: experiences as a teen with different beliefs

My Dad took me to my first psychic fair when I was 16 years old.  I was fascinated by it.  And many of the psychics took time to speak to me, stating that I shouldn't be attending the fair but should be honing my skills and being someone working the fair once I was older and more balanced within myself.

In fact, every time I have been to a psychic, a fortune teller or a Tarot card reader as well as the two times I went to try a Reiki treatment - this has occurred.

In either Grade 10 or 11 I had an experience.  I was brushing my hair in front of the mirror in my bedroom when suddenly, as if in a mere moment, a rush of images came to me... different eras, different genders, different lifetimes yet, somehow -- all me.

There was a very dark-skinned black woman and her lower jaw was extended with what looked like a clam shell.

There was another woman with what looked like multi-coloured bracelets which elongated her neck.

A Scottish man, smoking a pipe and looking at the sky. Feeling happy or content.

A barefoot girl, milking a cow.

A scared boy, hiding in the dark and the smell of smoke.

An Asian woman (not a Geisha), bowing her head and ignoring laughter.

A beautiful blonde woman, who was awash in feelings sadness and hopelessness.

I can't remember more than that so many years later but that was kind of the gist of it.

I do think that was the first time I ever really thought about past lives and reincarnation beyond more than a fleeting comment calling it "interesting."

When I sort of came into myself - I looked at my alarm clock and it was an hour later.

I wrote a poem about the experience and then a couple of follow up poems (if I get inspired, I'll see if I can dig any of them up)

This is also when I first recall reading about Witchcraft.


re: experiences with ghosts

My ex-boyfriend, B. and I went to a party at his friend's house and stayed over.  I had a terrifying experience where I saw a strange figure (I still feel to this day that it was a demon rather than some strange ghost) and it exuded such malice and evil that I could barely breathe.

I could not move and I could not wake my boyfriend.

In the morning, I was told that the house was haunted and had been for years but no one had encountered anything as scary as I had.

Then there was the haunted barn in Mannheim where I went with my soul sister, C. and some of our other friends.

I saw a vision of a boy being run over and crushed by the wheels of a wagon.  This was before I met my birth family.

Years later, I saw that boy in some old photographs that my maternal grandmother had.

He would have been her great or great-great uncle.  And that is how he died.

A number of years after that, after my Dad died... My sister and her daughter encountered my Dad after they were involved in a major car accident.

Their car was totaled when they were stopped at the stop sign at the end of their street when they were coming to visit my Mom and myself.  

Mom and I were at home watching an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" and we were talking about a segment about angels.

My sister finally phoned and told us what had happened and she told us that she and her daughter both saw my Dad walk through their living room and then disappear.

My niece was quite young at that time.  But my former brother-in-law and my nephew didn't feel, see or sense anything.

Now for me, late one night in 1996 (3 yrs after my Dad died) I heard my Dad yell at me and I saw him at the side of the road.  I pulled over and right afterwards, a car came squealing out, drove OVER the median and then straight through a red light - right where I would have been if I had not pulled over to the side of the road.

The last time I saw or heard my Dad was when I was in labour with my son and things were going very badly and I was wheeled in for my emergency c-section.

my thoughts re: reincarnation

When my son was born, my Mom was convinced from the get-go that he was the reincarnation of my Dad.

After my Mom died, one Sept 14th (my Dad's birthday) I was driving home from daycare with my son and he asked me when he was "going to be married again" and I said he hadn't been married and he replied that yes he had and said that he "was married to Grandma Hackett BEFORE I was a baby!"

Now, in his 9th year, he still sometimes talks about or asks about "the baby world" which is the place where he lived before he was a baby and chose me to be his Mom.

One thing that's different for me is that I don't so much believe in soul MATES but I do believe in what I call soul GROUPS

I have believed for well over a decade that groups of people tend to choose to reincarnate with the goal of re-connecting with one another in their new lives.

I feel that these people are involved for us for various reasons, and usually because we learn and grow and evolve from having them in our lives, whether or not they are a catalyst to us via positive or negative measures is debatable though I tend to feel that most would be positive.

thoughts re: Reiki

I have had two different experiences with Reiki... my first was at a place called Wisdom Whispers (which now has a new website and only one of the two people I met involved with it from what I can tell).

I went with two of my girlfriends for a free demonstration/session and it was very interesting and very different.

The second time... hell, at the moment I am blanking on the woman's name but I went to her and I thought it was going great, I was feeling great but then she stepped a bit beyond what I am personally comfortable believing in.

She talked about me being an Indigo which is something I had already been reading about and then, she told me that her guide had something I needed to be told even though I was not likely to believe it.

I was told that I was what she called, a StarSeed.

Anyway, I think that covers a lot of what I wanted to fill people in on before I go for the session tomorrow.

An update...

Well, being in fear of the scale... I am sitting at 209.6 lbs so I am up 5.4 lbs from my April weight.

I am looking fwd to getting my cardiac stress test over and done with on the 24th and then getting back on track re: exercise.

On Sunday we spent the day with Hubs' family.  We also visited his grandmother in the Extend-A-Care home.

She seemed happy to see us but she never once called any of us by name so we can't be sure she actually knew who we were (though she was very engaged with Baby Girl and seemed to recognize Hubs even if she didn't once use his name).

Baby Girl took ONE STEP without holding on to anything or anyone and Nanny was delighted!

Earlier in the day we were with Hubs' parents and that was nice.





Sunday, May 15, 2011

Vote for my Blog (if you are so inclined)

Circle of Moms/Mums has a Top fitness blogs thing going.  (You may have noticed the vote for me in the top right corner of my blog).

When you follow the link - the blogs with the most votes are listed first but you can do Ctrl + F and then enter Fat, Angry into the search box to get right to my blog.

Looking at the list - I don't even have as many followers as the top voted blog but I'd still like to make a decent showing, if you know what I mean...

http://www.circleofmoms.com/top25/health-fitness?trk=t25_health-fitness#_

 Thanks!


Today, it's supposed to be rainy and gross and we are off to take Rhyme Girl back to her mother's and then we'll visit with my lovely in-laws.

Though I hate driving in the rain and by driving, I mean sitting in the passenger seat of my PT cruiser cautioning Hubs to, "give yourself more braking space" or "slow down" or "those cars 8 feet ahead of us are braking" et cetera.

I cannot believe that Thursday night is when I leave for my trip with S-girl and Suze.  I guess I really need to figure out what I should bring with me.

Have a great day, everyone!

Friday, May 13, 2011

I had a decent day today

Since Hubs had a temp agency recruitment thing to attend today, he picked up Rhyme Girl (aka Step-Daughter) on Thursday so she had today off of school.

We went shopping and got her a few things and then after school we went back out with Little Man (aka Son) and the wee Lambikins (aka Baby Girl).

The kids were surprisingly good today.

Though I do have to go to public health when they re-open on Monday because 1G1D1Y was kind enough to remove what I thought was a stinger from a bug from Little Man's neck late this afternoon and we're pretty sure it's actually some sort of TICK!

How creepy and scary and gross.

I called the DR's after-hours number and spoke with a nurse and answered all her questions and it ended up that if he develops a fever or any sort of illness within the next two weeks, I should take him to the DR.

Um, hello -- I am going to bring him to Public Health (with the tick-like thing in a Ziplock bag) with me on Monday.

So let's hope that even if it IS a tick that it won't be carrying Lyme disease or something else that's bad...

*nervous*

I've seen my friend, S. at the school a few times this week and even though she says she has no "filter" she's great.  Always has something nice to say about how I'm looking and she's just a sweetheart.

Crap, the Lamb is shrieking upstairs and there goes the door - I think Hubs is going to be summoning me to join him forthwith!

Be well, everyone!




Oh wait... the other day we took my baby to the park to have her first swing in an infant swing. She was less than impressed. WAAAAYYYYYY less than impressed.

We did end up taking turns swinging on a "normal" swing with her on our lap instead so I have a couple of shots of that...


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

My 2nd guest-blogger -- my friend Sarah

The wonderful Sarah is from Finding my Fabulosity!

I was glad to get a post from Sarah since she also likes the term "FAB."  As well, my step-daughter, like Sarah, has ADHD so it's something they have in common.

I introduce you to, Sarah...

-------

My name is Sarah, I am overweight, and I have ADHD (also known as Attention Hyperactive Attention Disorder).

Over the years, I have been on NUMEROUS “diets” such as the Atkins Diet, Weight Watchers, and multiple variations of these and counting calories.

I’ve been skinny twice in my life, well since hitting puberty that is, after doing the Atkins Diet at the end of 2003 and with Weight Watchers in 2006.

Both of those skinny times were because others were around me to help, in some way, shape or form. My family decided in 2003 to do the Atkins Diet, so it was easy to just eat the meals my mom made, not stray because there weren’t ANY temptations in the house, and just simply lose weight.

I would say I was about 178 lbs (a size 12) for about 6 months before some emotional issue sent me crawling back to food. In 2006, I had moved into my first apartment. My roomie was doing Weight Watchers, so I decided to try it. She kept me accountable, and helped me keep junk out of the apartment. That was my longest stretch of “skinnyness”, and it lasted about a year.

Weight loss is hard. Weight loss with a mental disorder is, honestly, harder. It’s one thing to eat mindlessly, but you eventually go “Why am I eating this?!” then put it away. With my disorder, I eat mindlessly, put it away, and 2 minutes later wonder WHAT I had just ate.

It’s a struggle for me to remember to do normal daily tasks, such as put on deodorant or brush my teeth; and yet I wonder why I can’t remember to take my multivitamin once a day.

“Out of sight, totally forgotten” should be the motto for anyone that has ADHD, or I will at least claim it’s my motto.

I wish I was somewhere near “normal”, but then I think I would take the weight loss for granted.

Since the end of July 2010, I have lost 23 lbs. However, at the peak of my weight loss, I had lost 31 lbs, but gained some back over the past few months.

This journey takes work, and I just have to work that much harder to get what I want. I should be used to it by now as that’s the way it is with everything for me, not just with weight loss.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

FAB - on feeling disconnected

I tend to think that the more external stress that I feel, the more I try to hibernate (whether physically or emotionally).

When I feel like I can't control a situation, I hide out.

It gets harder for me to leave the house, to take initiative, to enjoy various aspects of my life.

I will also tend to read more or watch TV more and avoid phone calls.

This time around, what I've been avoiding the most is the internet. Blogging, Facebook and Twitter.

All have been receiving less of my attention, so to speak, since that is often the primary way in which I communicate with others.

I confess that I am really obsessing negatively over the damn cardiac stress test as well as continuing to freak out over Hubs state of joblessness.

So it's making me a neglectful internet user.

I expect that once I have the test and Hubs finds a job, I'll be back to my usual self.

I have to run out and pick up test results from my DR to pass along to Dr. W. so if I can make sense of them, I'll possibly edit this post to talk about them...


Edited to add:

The blood work done with my physical all came back with results within normal ranges but I'll vopy the info here before I pass it on to Dr. W.

Hematology



Hemoglobin     133     ref range     115-165     units G/L
Hematocrit   0.393     ref range   0.37-0.47     units L/L
WBC count       4.7     ref range     4.0-11.0     units X10 9/L
RBC count       4.49     ref range   3.80-5.80     units X10 12/L
MCV                87.6     ref range         80-97     units FL
MCH                29.6     ref range   27.0-32.0     units PG
MCHC                338     ref range      320-360     units G/L
RDW                 14.2    ref range    11.0-14.5     units %
Platelet count     242    ref range      150-400      units X10 9/L
Absolute: neutros 2.7   ref range       2.0-7.5      units X10 9/L
Absolute: lymph   1.5   ref range       1.1-3.3      units X10 9/L
Absolute: mono    0.4   ref range       0.0-0.8      units X10 9/L
Absolute: EOS      0.1   ref range       0.0-0.5      units X10 9/L
Absolute: BASO    0.0   ref range       0.0-0.2      units X10 9/L

Chemistry

Glucose fasting-ser  4.1  ref range 3.3-6.0  units MMOL/L
Creatinine               77  ref range 60-115   units UMOL/L
eGFR                      72  ref range not listed  & units not listed

Sodium                  140  ref range 135-146         units MMOL/L
Potassium               4.7  ref range 3.5-5.2          units MMOL/L
Chloride                106  ref range 95-108           units MMOL/L
Alt                           9  ref range  4-43              units U/L
Cholesterol          3.97  ref range TARGET <5.20  units MMOL/L
Triglycerides        0.60  ref range TARGET <1.71  units MMOL/L
HDL Cholesterol   1.41  ref range TARGET >1.29  units MMOL/L
LDL Cholesterol    2.29  ref range not listed       units MMOL/L
Chol/HDL ratio     2.82  ref range not listed  & units not listed

TSH                     2.35  ref range  0.30-5.60    units MU/L


looking for info on what these mean here:   http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/ldl/test.html#what

and here:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_ranges_for_blood_tests

Monday, May 9, 2011

Talking Ken - vlog

OK, not really a vlog but a very short video...




This doll cracked me up!

(Shot this at Walmart on Saturday with 1G1D1Y)

Had a good day

I hit the mall with S-girl earlier (like I previously mentioned) and then we went to my birth Mom's and had a good time and a nice dinner.

Baby Girl still isn't walking but she did stand for the longest consistent chunk of time I've seen thus far and then plopped right back down on her butt when she dropped the squishy ball she was playing with.

Here are a couple of pics from today.

Didn't get any of my sister though... we weren't all in a "let's take pictures" mood.






Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Here is a pic of me with both of my Mom's from May 2001 (when I married Husband v1.0)


Well, Hubs gave me a "to my wife on Mother's Day" card as well as a "To Mommy from Baby" card from Baby Girl.

Son phoned from his Daddy's house early this morning (and is being dropped off at my birth Mom's this afternoon).

I heard from my 3 BFFs (went shopping with S-girl) and in about 15 minutes, Hubs and I are taking Baby Girl and picking up my sister and her fur-baby dog, Zack and we're going to my birth Mom's.

I took Son to see Thor at the theatre on Friday afternoon and he loved it.  I thought it was pretty good.

Last night Hubs went to the movies with K. & her good friend D. and they saw Fast Five.  Not my sort of movie so Baby Girl & I hung out with one of my sweet, fun and rather flamingly gay friends.

I did have to hear about a medical procedure he had to remove a benign lump - but other than that - we had fun :>

I have to say that Mother's Day can be so tricky for me... being a Mom, having had 2 Moms with only one still living...

I also have to check a video I made when I was out shopping with 1G1D1Y yesterday - if the sound is good -- I'll try to post it later.

What else?

Oh, the people I know of with heart disease in my family are my maternal grandfather, maternal uncle (both have had heart attacks), my maternal grandmother has an irregular heartbeat and then my birth father, 2 of my living paternal uncles and one paternal uncle who died of a heart attack.

But they are (were) all smokers and drinkers.

So I'm trying to be less nervous about my test on the 24th.

Friday, May 6, 2011

FAB... on politics

I live in Canada.

I am very anti-Conservative.

I am appalled by the election results.

The Harper government was found in contempt of Parliament and yet, they then managed to pull off a majority government in our May 2nd election.

How did this happen?  Well, beyond fear-mongering ad campaigns and always talking about why the other parties are no good without giving an accurate representation of their own plans (ahh deflection - what crap!) it's also one of the major issues with our election system.

Commonly referred to as the "first past the post" system - it gave Harper's government a majority government even though it had less than 50% of the actual votes from the Canadians who actually got off their asses and went out and voted.

Let me state, right now, that I respect people who came out and voted for ANYONE more than I do people who willfully stayed home and didn't bother to use their hard-earned right as a Canadian citizen aged 18 years or older to have a voice.

I read an interesting blog post about First Past the Post which nicely sums up my issue with the system.

In fact, I am still bitter about the half-assed attempt at electoral reform in 2007.  I felt at the time that the public was not properly educated on how the proposed changes would work and that the ballot itself was rather off-putting and would likely confuse many people.

As for what I would like to see in a political party, putting aside my awesome idea of a coalition party called Cerberus (3-headed dog consisting of Jack Layton - NDP, Elizabeth May - Green & I picked Justin Trudeau for the Liberals) and their party colour could be a nice plaid, but really I have been keen to see the following issues addressed for YEARS!

Here are some of the things my dream political party would address:

  • electoral reform
  • income tax changes - everyone pays in 6 % of their gross income for taxes unless they made 20,000 or less annually as a single person or 10,000 PER person additional person in their family (family of three pays taxes on gross FAMILY income over 40,000)
  • significant changes to the Young Offender's Act (it's too lenient and I think harsher measures should start at the age of 14 or as of the year the person is turning 14)
  • wages of ALL government employees would be frozen at the rate of calculated cost-of-living (or at the rate the employees were being paid at the date of freezing) for the term of the party being in charge
  • complete accountability of how tax-payer funds are used to pay for government decisions and initiatives
  • minimum wage (for all employed persons) would always increase to match the calculated cost-of-living
  • major health care changes (mental health - therapies & medications and basic dental covered for ALL Canadian citizens and more reimbursement for verified medical expenses during the income tax process INCLUDING a fitness tax credit for adults re: gym memberships & personal training)
  • political campaigning can only be about the individual party platform THEY are presenting so it's about the issues and promises

 That's all I've got for the moment, I'm going to set this to post tomorrow.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Always consult your DR

Until I have my cardiac stress test, I am walking and doing "normal" things but not over-exerting myself just in case.

Dave was really great about me postponing my first training session until after I have my cardiac stress test and the results and he told me that when I do come in for my first session there is a form I have to fill out about having DR approval to begin the training.

Sometimes we forget to look after ourselves and sometimes we might want something so much that we will disregard any potential consequences.

I am nervous about my upcoming cardiac stress test but it would be far worse if I hadn't mentioned my concerns to my DR because who knows what could have happened?

With the weight I've lost so far, I increased my activity but never talked to my DR about it until Tuesday.

I never even THOUGHT of talking to my DR about it.  Yes, I know - I see those warnings about talking to your DR about any new exercise or meal plan but I didn't think it really mattered but it does matter and it can impact you.

My Mom used to always say, "It's better to be safe than be sorry."

She was right.

This also fits right in with the blog post one of my BFFs, 1G1D1Y wrote earlier today.

Read it.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

I've been busy

But I thought I'd post a quick post so y'all know I'm alive.

I am not happy with Harper's effing Conservatives getting a majority in Canada's federal election (but I am too tired to go into detail about that).

I postponed my personal training sessions after my annual physical today because one of the issues I addressed with my DR was my discomfort and breathing difficulty when exercising.

He thought my description was atypical in regards to my thought that I might require an inhaler/puffer and decided that I need to go in for a cardiac stress test with consulting (there was also an option on the test order sheet for the test without the consult).

My uncle had a heart attack in the past year, my grandfather has had heart issues and I'm not sure if there's any heart issues on my biological paternal side of the family or not.

I had heart surgery when I was 2 weeks old for patent ductus arteriosis.

Needless to say, I'm freaking out a little bit over here.

And, if any of you are curious... when I am exercising, I find it hard to breathe, it feels very tight in my chest and it's like someone with large hands is pushing down on chest while holding a brick against me. 

An extreme heaviness and weight seems to exist and then I can only draw my breath in a very shallow manner.

So I go for the test on May 24th (the day after I return from Calgary).

Right now I feel like I need to stay away from the computer a bit because I want to start googling my symptoms and that generally leads to me scaring the shit out of myself.

Sorry I'm being a bit incommunicado.

Miss you all!