We're in...random look at my life

I told my husband that this is the LAST TIME we're renting. Seriously.
So tired of being forced to move and having nothing "permanent". Don't care where it is in the world...just a "home" that's mine. Yeah, yeah, I know "home is where the heart is" but still...MINE, MINE!!!

Oh Canada! We beat the Russians. We're happy. Sweden lost to Slovakia. Kinda sad. I mean, I do live here so I do cheer for them. And they're doing GREAT this Olympics!
They're dominating any event that involves cross-country skiing! NO surprise. My kid cross-country skies at his school. Pick any random winter day and everyone is skiing everywhere. Nevermind winter. In the summer, people walk with the assistance of their poles. Swedes have a habit of doing that, taking a season's activities and transferring them to seemingly inappropriate seasons. Take bicycling for example. How many of you can look out your window in the run of a day and see someone bicycling through the snow? These people are freakn' crazy! A friend whose Dad is a doctor said there are loads of bicycle-related injuries in the winter. No kidding. For every 10 cyclists I see braving the elements, one is always wiping out.

I ate bread today. Pizza crust. I had no choice. It was that or die from starvation. Ok, that was extreme. Let's go with headache and spins.

Oh and I'm down 2 more pounds...so that's four! woot, woot.

Our little guy is such a trooper. He just rolls with the punches on the surface. He does feel stress though, with change, it manifests in his bowels. Poor guy hasn't pooed in I don't know how long. Time for an intervention.

I was blown away today. Took the little man for a long overdue visit to his international Godmother's house where his "sisters" live. He was chatting away to them...in Swedish. He was answering questions perfectly, questions I have been asking him in English that he couldn't answer. He couldn't answer them because they made use of vocabulary he uses in school...in Swedish (not in English). They were amazed. I was flabergasted. Who knew he was such a chatter box? Not me. Fire.under.ass.to.get.serious.about.learning.Swedish.

He woke up when I came home from my upteenth trip to the old house (and hopefully my last). He just wanted me to lay down with him. So I did. And he wrapped his arms around my neck and he fell asleep while we embraced.I loved it. In those moments, I thought about how much I loved him. I remembered the baby I nurtured. I admired the little boy he is becoming. I realzed these moments will soon be replaced by him pushing me away, embarassed....So I was reminded to cherish this.

Weigh-in Wednesdays: Week 2

Well team, technically it's Tuesday but our big move is tomorrow so I gotta post tonight (my time). And dang it, I packed away the scale so we'll just have to go with 2 lbs down so 75.3 kilos, 166lbs.

What have I been doing? Now I haven't been REALLY cheating. A couple of candies here and there and a few swigs of fruit juice in a hurry never killed anybody, right? The killer for me has been to actually find time to EAT. I likely would have been down a couple more pounds if it weren't for the constant skipping of breakfasts this past week but that's only because of all this moving chaos. So I have a valid excuse, right?

Exercise? How's schlepping heavy boxes and being off my ass more than on it? It counts. By bedtime, my eyes are closed before my head hits the pillow.

My next challenge will be once I've settled in to our new home. I'll have no excuses to NOT find and stick with an exercise regime AND I'll no longer be able to walk to the little man's school so will be bussing it on the days hubby has the car in Stockholm. So I'm really gonna have to make time for something substantial.

Exercise works for me when there's no way around it (ie. when hubby has the car and I'm forced to walk a few kms/miles). I cannot "go to the gym". First off, the time it takes to actually haul my arse and stuffs there, work out and haul it all back, well, I just don't have that kind of time. Sure wish I did. Hold on a minute, that's a defeatist attitude if I've ever heard one! Maybe I will have to make time. Maybe hubby will have to realize I'm serious about this and give me the time. I've heard serious health coaches say, "You always have time to exercise. You have to make time." Any suggestions on things I can do from home though?

I'm hoping by Thursday morning, I'll have some bacon and eggs cooking on the stove and maybe, just maybe, a Get Started exercise regime.

Here's a fun little add-on to our weekly weigh-in. How about posting an Inspiration Pic? It could be of you in your slenderer (yup, made that word up) days or perhaps of someone else. Mine takes me back to the Summer of 2007, little man and I on the beach in Herceg Novi. Look at that muscle in my thigh! I swear I do not know where that came from. I think maybe it was always there, just hidden under a few layer of uhmmm...insulation? See? I was no skeleton. Still have some meat but am able to wear a bikini sans wrap! Take me back there!



How about you all? What's been working for you? What are you eating/avoiding? Any tips or advice for the rest of us?

Bitch and Moan

Is all I wanna do and stick my cracked Granny hands into a vat of vaseline. It has to be said again: Moving sucks. Finally got my ass stationary for a few minutes and even as I'm typing I'm nodding off.dkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkaakhhhhhhhhhh...sorry bout that.

And as for the diet, well surprisingly when I find time to eat, I'm eating sorta what I'm supposed to. But I'm not eating enough of it so my system is on sleep instead of burn.

Oh well. Dreaming of sitting in a "home" again instead of this half-empty, extremely messy house.

2 more sleeps...

I.hate.moving

But yet in the past 4 years, we've moved..let's count:
- From our home in Ontario to my parents house for 2 months while we waited to move to (doesn't REALLY count, transition)
-Montenegro, apartment #1, 2 weeks (sort of tourists, transition)
-Apartment #2, a few months (transition)
-Me @ my parents for 2 months waiting for the baby (transition)
-Baby arrives and off to live at sis-in-law's for a month until I can go back to Montenegro and join hubby in (transition)
-Montenegro Apartment #3
-Montenegro Apartment #4
-Sweden House #1
- And now, Sweden House #2

so that's 9 abodes? A total of 6 for the 3.5 year old. To be fair, we're really talking about 4.

Boxes, staring at shit you know you should be throwing out but pack anyway, newspaper, cleaning, more cleaning, buying, more buying, calling every company imaginable to transfer services, changing addresses, unpacking, settling into a new area..oy...

And when we first made the move overseas, we sold a lot, gave a lot away, loaned some stuff out and stored a lot of stuff. I miss my stuff. Just wondering when we'll ever "get settled" again and get our stuff back.

I am grateful for these wonderful opportunities life has placed in front of us for sure. But it's hard to feel blessed with masking tape stuck to your butt, a zillion "must-do-that's" in your head, worrying about another transition for the little guy, trying to find quick Atkins-approved food, cracked hands and no time for a shower.