WW Part 2

Well I weighed myself today, and I am holding steady. Not gaining and not loosing. I'm just glad that I'm not gaining - as I know that my eating habits the last couple of weeks haven't been the greatest. Having that piece of carrot cake last night didn't help either ;)

Rude

We invited a guy that Mitch works with and his family over for a BBQ today. Mitch told them anytime between noon and 1. At 12:30 we get a phone call that they had heard that Home Depot was having a sale on grills - and they wanted to go get one. They finally showed up at about 4pm. They had gone shoe shopping and some other errands. I just found this to be very rude.

Grrr. That is my pet peeve - being late and I was not a happy camper.

Too funny

Braeden has been struggling with acne for a couple years - it has really been bad this past year. We have tried prescription face stuff, Proactive, Murad - it all helps for a little bit - but then nothing. We had a consult with the dermatologist to see about Braeden going on Accutane - a prescription acne medication that is supposed to work wonders. I was thinking that we should take before photos, because a lot of times you forget and don't really "see" the difference as it is gradual. So I mentioned it to Braeden that we should take a before photo, and he got this horrified look on his face and said "Mom, you are NOT scrapbooking my acne." I started laughing so hard, cause I hadn't even thought of that.

How Stressed are You?

Took this little quiz - and I'd have to say that this is dead on accurate for me :)

Your Stress Level is: 55%



You are somewhat prone to stress, especially when life gets hard.
When things are good, you resist stressing over little problems.
But when things are difficult, you tend to freak out and find it hard to calm down.

How Stressed Are You?

Mothers Day

Today is Mothers Day - and Emma made me a very nice card, with a coupon for 30 hugs, which she promptly gave me. Brett made me a ceramic heart necklace and a nicely decorated padded envelope to put it in. Braeden forgot, but did make me a card on the computer. Mitch fixed a nice breakfast and dinner and tried his best to make it a great day. In all honesty though, since my Mom passed away a couple years ago - I could care less if there we a Mothers Day. I know that isn't fair to my kids, and I try and keep up a happy front. I don't know why it bothers me so much - but it does - it is just flat. I hope that it is just part of the grieving process and eventually I will care again. I hope.

Happy Mothers day to everyone.

Isn't this the cutest thing?

Emma and I made this using the Doodlebug Plain & Simple Chipboard house and the Scrap Addict Emma Pie SDJ. We had so much fun making it. Emma picked what papers went where and I did the cutting and pasting. Only problem I have, is that it must be a tad humid - and some of the adhesive that was on the house isn't staying stuck. But every so often, I give the little roof a pat - and it sticks again for awhile :)

Weigh In

Today I weighed in, after a week of being on WW, and trying to stay within my daily points. I am proud to say that I have lost 5 pounds! I haven't been eating great - but I have been staying within my points range. If not my daily - then I am definitely not using all the extra weekly ones. So yeah me!!

Septic Woes - long and boring.

We have to pay $250 a year to carry an Operation and Maintenance contract on our type of septic system. The county Health Department requries it. So for the past 6 years, we have paid - they have come out once a year to check the system and then submit a report to the Health Department. We get a copy of that report in the mail along with an invoice for the next years contract. No problems until this year. The company that carried our contract Indigo Design - found descrepencies in our system and didn't bother to call us or send us a letter about them or anything. All they did was submit the report to the Health Department and give us a copy - along with an invoice for the upcoming years contract. When I contacted them - the receiptionist was LESS than helpful. I asked her what the report meant, as we didn't understand some of their verbiage - and she replied that is what written the way the Health Department required it and they would know what it meant. I then asked her what we could do to fix the descrepancies before the Health Department came out - and she offered to email me pictures of the system - hello - it is in my back yard - I can walk out there and see it for myself - what good will pictures do me? I then pressed a bit more for what was required by us to bring it back up to code for the health department - to which she replied that it looked like an animal had been digging in our septic mound - and she couldn't tell me how to kill a mole. And that we seemed to be using too much water - and she couldn't tell me how to cut back on our water useage. Totally less than helpful right? So a couple weeks later - the health department shows up at my door and he takes a look at our system and tells me it is failing - first one of this type in the 15 years he has been in the business that he has seen fail - (lucky us!) but not to worry because they have low interest loans for up to $20,000. YIKES. So he leaves, we get a certified letter in the mail from the Health Department - stating that our system is a public health hazard and within 30 days we have to file a repair plan and obtain a permit to pump the septic or they will charge us $513 per day until we do. So we immediately start calling contractors who repair these systems - no one calls back. We finally hook up with Zimmer Construction - and Steve comes out and looks at the mounds and tells us that they aren't failing - they look good - he fills in the hole the animal dug- but that our system is running high - so we should monitor our water useage. He says he can bring the mounds to the new code - and it'll cost about $1000. So we are breathing a bit easier - that is a lot less than $20K! Phil at Zimmer says we don't have to put a repair plan in at the cost of $1200, that they just file some other thing with the county and it will be fine. The guy from the Health Department says that is true and we think everthing is swimming along fine. Phil suggests that since we aren't re-contracting with Indigo that we write to the county and let them know that as soon as the repairs are finished we will sign with a new Operations & Maintenance Contract provider. So I write and let the county know - and they respond with a certified letter telling me that I am in violation and to get a new Operations and Maintenance contract provider within 30 days or they are going to fine me $513. In order to get a new provider, they have to inspect our system - if it is not up to par - they won't take the contract - but the Health Department is unsympathetic to our tale of woe - so off we go to find a new O&M contract provider. Sigh. I then get my estimate from Zimmer construction in the mail - it is not the $1000 we were told verbally - in fact it is closer to $5000 and I am ready to stroke out. %5000 to fix a system that is operating correctly and doesn't have a problem - WTF? The new O&M contract guy shows up to inspect the system shortly after that - and he tells us that the system is functioning correctly but that running high. We fill him in on our septic saga - and he says that we don't need to do anything to the system - it is working fine. So he is going to go to bat with the county for us - and we will see what the bare minimum is that we need to do to satisfy the county. If my system were truly a public health hazard - I would pay whatever to bring it back to working order. But I see no need to pay that much when it is due to the incompetence of the previous O&M provider and an overzealous HD worker. So now we are in the wait and see mode - hopefully this will get resolved soon. Sigh.

Some more scrappin;

A layout of my sweetie Emma Pie - using the Scrap Addict Kit named after her - the Emma Pie SDJ. Oh and I keep forgetting to say that this is based on Sheila's sketch.


Using the Junkitz Extreme Boy line - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this stuff. Picture of my 3 boys - have to laugh though - cause one of those "boys" is my husband - but I think some people think they are actually all my kids :)

Weight Watchers

I am starting my weight watchers again today. Signed up online to use their e-tools. I tried in November of 2005 to go to their meetings - and that was a bust. But I see that I have put on 13 pounds since then - so I have got to do something to get this under control. My buddy Jen is going to be my cyber partner in this. Wish us luck!