Anaticula

Time to gather my homework together for this week and get started. I've the usual 5 book reviews, this week the topic is nonfiction graphic novels. I've a paper about marketing nonfiction works that hopefully wont be too bad. Both of those are due Saturday night. Then for my social media class I have to write a couple paragraphs each about location analysis of tweets as pertaining to libraries and a thing on how emergency responders can sort hashtags by need in a hurricane. Shouldn't be too bad. Basically read the chapter then apply it to those situations. That's due Thursday, glad it's not working with python for once.

Yep. One minute they're sobbing on the floor, 'Why do I have to clean, you should do it, not me?!?!?!?' the next they're all, 'Oh! I didn't even remember I had this toy! I should look for stuff more often!' Zootopia was adorable. I think I enjoyed it more than they did, lol. Actually thinking of going to see it again this week with my fiance as he didn't get to catch it with us. I know I'll be buying a copy once it comes out. So many of the movies these days are written enough that I enjoy them instead of suffering through them. Inside Out was another like that. Also, as crazy as it sounds the Barbie Life in the Dream House one is something I enjoy watching even without the kids because it has really well written stories. I never thought I'd enjoy a Barbie cartoon as I'm not a huge Barbie fan, lol.

Not this weekend they didn't, lol, I made them clean their room. I think they hate me now. Or at least they did until I bought them off by taking them to see Zootopia as they did a good job cleaning.

Oh, that's a tough one. I'd say if you're taking a test on it go ahead and go with the sure diet soda is fine thing, but when you get to the point that you're working with clients, I'm assuming you're going in to a field where you'll be counseling people on loosing weight and stuff, then you can bring your own beliefs into it. Tell them that the diet soda and juice are better than regular soda, but that water is best of all.

Thanks, week one was mostly a success. Friday I was another day I didn't get all my water in, but I did at least log my meals and get my walking done while I cleaned the house some. Saturday was insane. M had a WarHammer game, so it was just the girls and I. I've decided that they have to start keeping their room clean and I have to start keeping the rest of the house clearer. We all have a bad habit of just leaving things where they are when we finish on stuff, and the house gets incredibly messy. When I'm stressed out I long for the house to be clean, but I don't want to clean it y myself, so it leads to 'fights' with M. And by fights I mean me getting angry and crying and sobbing about why can't he do the dishes or put his clothes int he laundry basket, while he says okay, then we grudgingly clean house together. I've decided that the best thing to do is clean some every day so the house doesn't get to that point, then I want have the clean the house crying fits anymore. So, Saturday morning I took the girls to the store and they picked out some storage boxes and a cone of those cubby hole shelves for the boxes to go in. Also got them some new bed sheets they begged for. Back at the house they cleaned their room while I worked on some homework. Because they did a good job with it we then went to see Zootopia at the theater. It was VERY cute. There were a lot of jokes that the kids didn't get, like all the Godfather references. Also there were some plot elements that were really more for adults than kids, like the working hard to achieve your dream stuff for when she's trying to become a cop. The kids thought this was cute, but it's really stuff that adults would get more as we feel that way quite often. Loved the movie. Going to buy it when it comes out. We then had to buy more cleaning stuff because I forgot to get some earlier. We did some more cleaning that evening on the rest of the house. Sunday I slept in while M cleaned the living room. We set up some painting stuff for the girls and they painted while M and I played on our computers. After lunch we went to my dad's for a couple of hours to make wedding plans. I ordered my wedding dress! It'll arrive in 6 to 8 weeks. I cannot wait to see it and try it on. Also, I lost 2 inches on my waist this month! That evening M drove the kids back to their mom's while I worked on some more cleaning. I still have a few things to do this afternoon, but it'll be scrubbed top to bottom soon. I fell off on my water drinking both days, but I logged my food and I got plenty of exercise. So all in all week one went well. Now for Week Two: my goals this week are as follows: Log all food, another week of trying to drink 3 litters of water 5 of 7 days, and to do the NF warm up exercises 3 days.

Sounds like a busy weekend, but it looks like things are getting better. You've increased your water intake and that's really good. I hope the weeks keep getting better. Just take it one day at a time and think of the things that are going right. That's what I try to do at least.

Sounds like Thursday didn't realy go according to plan, hope today is shaping up to be a better one. For the family issues, the first month is going to be really tough, because you're going to go through a lot of emotional turmoil with it. For me I'd go through a stage of wondering if cutting them out was a mistake and a period of debating getting back in contact. Then someone would tell me something they said/or I'd remember something they had done in the past and I'd get really upset over it, sometimes anger, sometimes crying. Finally after about a month of this I started to get to the point that I wouldn't really think much about them, but there would still be times I'd remember something and get upset over it. In the case of my brother and his wife it's been over a year and I'm now at a place where I can think of them and not be angry all the time. As to my former best friend, well, I'm still learning to let go on that one even though she now lives on the other side of the US. I don't think about her often, but facebook will pop up with a 'hey remember this post' and it'll be something about her and I. TempestTiff has a point though, if you're upset over something, don't bottle it up inside, you have to find a way to get it out or it is really hard to let go. I'm not one to cry in public, but I've learnt that when I'm upset it's better to go ahead and say something and get it out rather than to hold it in until it gets to a breaking point. I used to never cry, but now I've come to realize that's it is a healthy reaction. It is possible that had I let my friend know what was bugging me about the things she would say while we were still friends that our friendship might not have taken the nasty turn it did. Or it could have just ended earlier/later, I'll never know. Point being, now when someone bugs me I tell them long before I reach the I'm ready to cut them out of my life point. Anyways, stay strong and give the family situation time, it will be tough, but in the end you'll figure out how much contact works best when it comes to spending time with them and still making the best choices for you.

Yep, that's EXACTLY how the toy argument goes at our house. There is one dress-up dress that is too small for the older girl, but fits the younger one fine. We have tons of dress up clothing for them, but if the younger one touches the too small dress the older girl has a fit because it is HER dress. However, if the younger one doesn't touch it she doesn't want it. I finally had to hide that dress and no one has asked about it for ages, but I'm sure that if it appears again the fights will break out once more. Now, I can understand that she's at an age where she doesn't want her sister messing with her stuff, so the dress fight is understandable. But when you are playing with the my little ponies you really don't need all three pinkie pies because they came in YOUR happy meal. As to the cleaning up, if I press the issue he and the girls will help clean, but usually I don't press the issue unless we have company coming over. I just wish that the house was cleaner in general because I don't care for stepping over a doll house when I need to pee at 3am and they decided to play with it in my bedroom instead of in theirs. I already have to wade through a pile of cats, and that's tough enough. I do notice that in general they come to me 90% of the time when they want stuff. We had discussed creating a snack shelf for them, but after we found a bag of baby carrots spread across the kitchen floor and them eating off the floor on hands and knees because they were reindeer, we had to set the ask for a snack rule. Even now they prefer to just face plant into their food at meal times because 'horses can't use forks' but we have at least gotten them to stop eating off the floor.

Day Five Yesterday was rough. I had to schedule a bunch of interviews for random people. We finally got them all sorted out and done. We have our new group of SGA officers, provided none fail their background check. We only had 4 of the 6 people we needed apply, so we will have to figure out what to do for the extra officers later. Afterwards I had to work late running the SGA popcorn machine for an on campus event. I wanted to eat all the popcorn so bad. But I held off. Instead I had a chocolate brain, a mini bag of skittles and only one bag of popcorn, and i logged every bite. The program went nicely, and my new SGA president was a huge help, I think he's going to be a good leader for the group. The current SGA president couldn't make it due to class and the two other current officers made excuses for why they couldn't be there. I'll be glad to see those two go. I did a lot of walking during the convention, so I got way more than my five minutes in. Saddly I was 20 oz short on my water, but I've only got to do 5 of 7 days, so as long as I drink plenty of water this weekend I should be okay. Today is going well so far. Drinking plenty, getting some homework done. Trying to have it all finished tonight as it's just me and the girls tomorrow and I want to take them to do something fun. I'm tired of just hanging around the house on the weekends. We took them to the park last week for a bit and they enjoyed it, so maybe we will do that in the morning, but at a different park with more stuff for them to do. We also bought a sprinkler last weekend, so we can do that in the afternoon, weather permitting. It feels nice out now, but in another month it is going to be VERY hot outside and I don't know how much we will be able to stay outside then.

Oh lord yes. I couldn't agree with you all more about group projects. I've been working in my chosen career field now for nearly 13 years. Would you like to know how often I've had to do a group project? Once. One time a co-worker wanted to publish a paper and I knew all the info for the paper she wanted to do, so I gave her the info, made a few graphs, and wrote some paragraphs about the policy. I handed it over to her and then had nothing else to do with it until she published it later. I was pleasantly surprised to find she had included me as a co-author as she did 90% of the writing on it. But anyways, group projects like we have in class don't exist in the 'real world' for most jobs. Yes, there are times I have to work with my boss who is on another campus to get something done, and yes I have to work with tech support of various companies when things mess up, but I have never had a random person from Chicago ask me to help them design a website for a customer in California. (This was a group project I had to do.) Maybe there are some career fields where that will happen, but I've yet to stumble across it at my job.

I've learnt already that we have a different parenting style. He's a let them do what ever unless they are actually fighting type and I'm a I hear them arguing I need to go break it up type. I'm trying to ease off a bit and let them deal with stuff themselves. (They always want the same toy at the same time, sigh.) I think the biggest difference he and I have is that he is of the mindset that it's the weekend they should just play, but I want them to put their toys away when they're done, because I know if they don't then I have to clean them up after they go to their mom's. When it comes to everything else though we're on the same page. We do time out for yelling or hitting each other. They can be horses/cats/etc all they want around the house, but they have to be human at the grocery store (meaning no you can't crawl, you have to walk while we're in the store). We don't have a tv, but they can play their tablets for 2 hours a day on the weekends. Unless it's raining they have to play outside each day for at least an hour. We don't actually time them, but they enjoy being outside now while the weather is good. Once it gets too hot this summer we'll have to figure something else out. They love arts and crafts, so I try to always have art supplies around, even though it means we have to do a massive amount of cleaning to get the paint/glue off the table once they're done. There are days that they get on my nerves. Mostly I'm doing homework and instead of asking their dad for snacks (who is in the room right next to them 90% of the time and would have gotten it for them if they had asked) they come ask me. Then I have to tell them to ask their dad, then they have to tell me that he said he'd get them a snack, then I have to tell them to go get the snack from their dad, then they have to bring it to me to show me they got a snack, then I have to tell them that they still aren't allowed to eat in the library, then they have to come tell me they finished their snack. We then repeat the whole thing because they are now thirsty. Takes four times as long to get the homework done as it used to. Luckily I've only this semester and next and then I'm done with school. I can't imagine how tough it is for parents who had to do that for years while in college.

Oh yes, definitely. We've went to several water parks last summer and make sure that an adult is always near her. We are planning to get her one of the swim vest that help them learn to swim and are going to see to it that she wears it when she's in the pool. For the 7 year old,she should be okay as she can swim a little, but we're not letting her in the pool without an adult near by. As I love to swim (even though I'm not very good at it) I'll be in it with them most of the time. We wanted to get them swimming lessons, but decided to hold off until we can find a different place that offers them because the one we found charges $150 a child per week and we don't have that kind of money.

Day Four Yesterday went well. Got all my water in easily, logged my calories and took a ten minute walk. Doing what I can today, but it's going to be tough. I have to work late, but maybe I can slip out for a quick walk. Work has got me really stressed out right now. I was asked to be the SGA adviser at the beginning of this semester. It hasn't gone well. We are getting new officers today and it's been a fight to get people to run. You'd think that free tuition would be an incentive, but nope, in return they have to do work for 6 hours a week and that's evidently expecting too much. I'm at a loss. I've done all I can, and now it's out of my hands. I'm so ready to pass the job on to someone else. It is too much stress. Classes are going okay, actually understood my homework for once and got it turned in early. Still have to do my book reviews, but that's it. Going to try to get them done tomorrow so I can hopefully enjoy this weekend.

Eepp! Chemistry. Good luck on that one. That's a subject I never could figure out. Finished all my homework but the book reviews. Got two more books to read and then I can do them. Busy day at work today, and I have to stay late, so I'll be doing my best to read them tomorrow and review them tomorrow night. I want to have it done before Saturday as I've plans.

My fiance and I are getting married in September, and he has two daughters ages 4 and 7. We get the kids every weekend, but they live with their mom and step-dad during the week. I have no children of my own, just nieces and nephews. I was just wondering if anyone had any advice on how to handle becoming a step-mom? It's been a little chaotic going from no kids to just me and the girls some days (my fiance has to work a couple Saturdays each month). For the most part the girls and I get along great, but there are other times they drive me crazy. For example, the 7 year old was playing 'wild cat' which meant she was running around on all fours hissing at people and meowing at the other cats, which was fine, but then she tried to bite my toe off. :/ I'm 33 and never considered having kids, so it's pretty new to me. Is this normal?

It's spring where I'm at, but we also get a lot of rain. I don't mind still going for walks in the rain, as long as it isn't lightening. The children on the other hand do not like going out in the rain. They love going out afterwards to play in the mud though! For me as it's coming up on summer time, I'm thinking of getting an inflatable pool for the back yard. We get the girls on the weekends, and it'd be nice to have them play outside as opposed to inside on the weekends (I'm still scraping glue and paint off the kitchen table from last weekend, lol). The issue we're facing is whether we want to get a deeper pool I can swim in while we don't have the kids, but then we'd have to constantly hold the 4 year old as she is very timid around water, or a much shallower one that's only a couple feet which she could stand up in, but I wouldn't really be able to swim in. Most likely we'll end up going with the shallow one just to be safer.

I have homework due Thursday and Saturday nights, and actually made myself get started early for once. Got halfway through the Thursday night homework last night and for once I actually did the python crap right. I still have to create a concept map to explain 60 pages of text, but I plan to do that tonight. Picked some really good books this week for my book reviews as this week's topic is biography and memoirs. I read one this morning about a child slave brought to the US from Egypt who was discovered by CPS. It was a really sad, but good book. I ended up reading the whole book this morning at work because it was so well written. I never knew that kind of thing still happened in the US today. Now I'm reading a set of memoirs from an African American girl (well, woman now) growing up in the US in the 1960-1970s, which I'd enjoy more if it wasn't all poetry. It's a captivating story, but I hate poetry. After that is one about a Navy SEAL who trains dogs, then last I have one about a girl who discovered she had HIV when she was in middle school.

Day Three Had no trouble at all getting my water in yesterday. After work I swung by the local park to get my walk in. I even (surprisingly) managed to stay below calories for the day as I wasn't super hungry come suppertime and was more focused on getting my homework done than on eating. This morning is a different story though, I've yet to drink any of my water. I had a smoothie for breakfast instead. I need to get a start on getting my water in soon!

Only 20 oz of water left to go for today and I'm not yet off work. Should have no problem hitting today's goal. Been stress eating today due to work issues. Had a candy bar and a bag of chips earlier, ate way more fried rice than I meant to as I thought it would help me keep my mind off things. No luck. But at least tonight I can focus on homework which should be easy to manage.

Day Two So yesterday was a success. I'm hoping today will be just as successful. I'm going through some stressful times right now, so I'm hoping that keeping this challenge simple while getting back on track will ease the stress I'm going through. Between class, work, planning a wedding, and life in general things get tough. In the past I would have let this get me down and fallen off the wagon, I'd then stay in the same 'poor me' rut for a month before trying again. I've really got to stick with it this time though. I don't really have much of a choice. I need to put my health first. Otherwise, even when things do ease up stresswise I'll find some other reason to ignore my health. At any rate, today is going well. Only 8am and I've already drank one water bottle. Filling it last night and sticking it in the fridge helped as it was ready to go when I woke up this morning. Wore my tennis shows to work today and I hope to stop and do the five minute walk on my way home. Foodwise I am still not eating healthy, but I am tracking it, which is the goal for now. After a week of food tracking and drinking tons of water I will start to worry about eating healthier. I plan to keep tracking food even once I start eating better though, I know myself, and eating crap is one of my biggest downfalls. I will say there is one good thing about drinking all this water, i am too full of water and to busy running to the bathroom to get bored and stop at the vending machine for a snack. Yesterday I only ate at meal times, which was a good thing. I did have a late night snack, but that was after I stopped drinking the water. I ended up eating 2913 of 2150 calories. This is why I'm slowly gaining weight. Imagine if I'd been drinking my normal sodas and had my chips and candy bar in addition to that. I've got to stop the mindless eating. I can only hope that as I keep my log and drink the water and then progress on to the next step that I will get better. I know that losing the weight I've put on will take a long time, hopefully I can at least stop putting more on this week and next then start the long process of taking it back off as the summer begins.

Logged all my food, drank all my water, and got a 10 minutes walk in. I'm sure I actually walked a while lot more than 10 minutes given how much time I spent walking to the bathroom today.

So much water... I'm on my third 20 oz water bottle. I've been refilling it at the fountain. Still, I don't know if I'll finish my water for the day. I keep drinking, but it is just so much. Tomorrow I need to get an earlier start and drink a bottle at home before I leave. Lunch was bad, but I recorded it. I had some McDonald's coupons and ate there for lunch. At least I gave up the soda for water though.

I know exactly how you feel. That's why I'm going to make sure I get something done for my group project today or tomorrow.

My bank has a payment program where I put all the information in and selected the pay every two weeks option. It automatically come out the same day my paycheck goes in so that I'm not tempted to spend that money. You do have to have a bill with you when you are setting up the account to make sure the information is 100% correct. Now, not all bills will be available this way, for example if you pay a neighbor for yard work like I do they aren't in there, but for big things like car notes, electric bills, etc, you should be good.

Fencing class sounds pretty awesome. So jealous of you getting to take it!