Taking Stock & Following Resolutions

As many of you I myself had few New Year resolutions. These were resolutions that make me move forward and better myself every single month of the year.

A quote from my New Year Eve post:

"There are few things I will do my best to accomplish in 2010:

1. I will do my best to rebuild my credit and my savings account
2. I will do my best to take care of my mind, body and soul
3. I will continue spending quality time with my family and I will continue making happy memories and new traditions
4. I will do my best to change or make some body's life better every month of the year
5. I will LIVE...LAUGH...LOVE without any regrets. I will say what I mean and I will mean what I say....no excuses."
   

This is the last day of January and it is time to look back and see how I did with my resolutions.

#1 I found a way to pay off completely our cellphone bill, our Sears and Future Shop credit cards as well as our small, but high interest personal loan. I am not able to save as of yet, but we are bringing more money in then we are paying out. I am sticking to our budget and our life is coming back to normal.

#2 MIND - I am listening and learning with Tony Robbins. I am learning everyday how to build and run better websites. I am working on my writing skills.

BODY - I started regular exercise and I lost another 4lbs. I pay better attention to what I eat. I try to drink more water.

SOUL - I take more time for myself to do what I enjoy. I do yoga and I try to meditate when I get overwhelmed. I started to read daily scriptures and I start the day with a prayer.

#3 I spend quality time with Mr.Misery when he's home for few days here and there. I try to spend one on one time with my boys every day. We are finding ways to make new memories.

#4 I made a promise to support my son's school's Breakfast Club by donating fresh baked goods 2-3 times a month. Boys and I donated large box of food items to our local Food Bank.I organized and ran 3 day hockey tournament for Little Peanuts team. I slip few dollars here and there to people who are down on their luck without their knowledge. I donated to Haiti through my boys schools and we also supported bake sale for Haiti.

Please, do not take #4 as me tooting my own horn. I am just taking stock and making sure that I am doing what I set out to do also I do not want nor need any acknowledgement for doing this.

#5 I am having so much fun following this one. New world opened up to me and yes, I am saying what I mean and I make no apologies for my opinions. My best friend is loving it....aren't you (I know you are reading this).

So the way I see it I am on my way to Happiness in full speed.

My Wii Fit Plus Has An Attitude

I finally made myself to try our new Wii Fit Plus. We have the original Wii Fit for over a year now, but I haven't used it in.....hmmm.....wait I know this because the NEW Wii Fit Plus made a comment about it. Yes it's been 217 days since the last time I stepped on the balance board.

Yes, now I remember one of the reasons why I was annoyed with the Wii Fit. The constant little snarky remarks from......a.....video game.

So the Wii Fit Plus informed me that I haven't used it in 217 days. Did the little voice inside that console thought maybe I'll be ashamed, embarrassed perhaps? Well, I was not.

I stepped on the balance board and I ignored the little "OOOH" noise it made while checking my weight and then it happened. The little voice announced (I felt a bit of disappointment in it's tiny voice)that I lost 19 pounds since it last saw me....boo hooo....who's laughing now you little evil machine.

The little voice tried to have it's last word and it did say:"I see you reached your goal, well better late then never". I am not kidding you, that's what it said.

The gloves were off. Little voice asked me to set another weight loss goal so I put 2lbs in 2 weeks just to mess with it.

Then I was given crap for setting my goals too low and maybe next time I should set better goals and try harder.

Next step was my body age test and I am.....wait for it.....wait for it....."31". 9 years younger then my real age....WOO HOO.

Do you know what that little voice said after my age test was done and I was all proud of myself?

"It looks like your body is 9 years younger then your real age.So it is in still pretty good shape".

PRETTY GOOD SHAPE my "bleep". For what I've been through it's in phenomenal shape you little evil voice.

I tried to ignore the remark for the sake of our "new" relationship.

In order to stop the insanity I pressed the MUTE button on my TV and I plugged in my iPod.

From now on I will use the visual only. Sounds like good idea to me.

To sum it up for you. Yes, I am weird and I do have heated arguments with my Wii Fit Plus. However, I do love the little machine and I have fun using it.Besides I think my virtual yoga trainer is hitting on me...wink,wink.


Just to let you know I am having a GIVEWAY on my Guide For Busy Moms site.

Don't forget to go over there and enter my giveaway for American Fire Trucks Wooden Puzzle Set.
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DON'T MISS FRIDAY FOLLOW!It's back and it's bigger then ever.....

Brain is not working, but don't hold it against me

I want to apologize to all of you in advance. If this post doesn't make sense or if I ramble about nothing, please, forgive me.

I am so tired. My brain is on strike. Mr.Misery is gone since last Tuesday. He's been stuck in Yuma for 4 days due to those nasty storms waiting for his load.I am hanging on by a thread.

Hormone Boy had few rough nights this week. Couple night for some reason his blood glucose went really low hour after his bedtime. We had to stay up till midnight to make sure he's blood glucose is coming up to a safe level. That of course meant that mommy dearest was up all night keeping guard and going over to his room making sure he's breathing. Yes, when it comes to my kids I am VERY PARANOID.

We managed to fix the lows just to find out that HB's insulin pump came off somehow during the night and his blood glucose was very high. Well, that took us half a day to fix that.

He managed to go to school for his science test. He got 100%. I am not even sure if he studied. I'm telling you that kid is a GENIUS. If he would use that knowledge for something constructive I would be the happiest mom on the planet.

This morning everything seemed to be fine, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that the phone won't ring....

Honestly, I am just sitting here and thinking (don't laugh I do think sometimes)how much I changed since I started this blog and my journey.

I might be overtired and my brain is not working to the fullest right now, but I am calm, content, not stressed, not scared, not worried. I came a long way, baby.

Yes, I just padded myself on the back and it felt good.

I am finally at that point in my life that I realize there are some things I can't control or change. Such is life....

Now I need to learn how to give 100% to the things I can control and change. For that, ladies and gentleman I need fully functioning brain so that isn't happening today....but stay tuned....it will happen.

Did you have enough of my rambling? I know you did.

Anyway, today is Thursday and I joined with my Guide For Busy Moms blog Get Your Craft On Thursday over @ Life as Lori. Stop over there. Last time I checked there was 49 links to blogs participating.

My First Wordless Wednesday

I decided to do something different today.

I noticed that many blogs do Wordless Wednesday. Honestly, I am not big meme follower, but once in a while I like some and I follow....yes, I do follow.

So today I decided to do little Wordless Wednesday and let you peek into my kitchen and see what I've been up to since the boys left for school.

I decided to have THIS for breakfast

I ate it HERE

while looking THERE

then I grabbed one of THESE

and went to do THIS



HAVE A GREAT WEDNESDAY!

Who Was Your Donnie....?

Yesterday was busy and exciting day. Between all the excitement of catching the passing and running of Olympic Torch Relay on my camera and volunteering to go skating with Little Peanuts class I somehow managed to fit in little cardio.

Yes,you heard me. I started to take exercise little more seriously. I still don't like it.I love team sports and being active. I love skiing, skating, golf, tennis....but I don't like the gym, aerobics, step class. The number one reason why I exercise is still "so I can eat whatever I want". I do try make healthy choices most of the time.

The reason I exercised yesterday was so I can have big, honking piece of Southern Pecan Pie that was mocking me every time I opened my fridge. Lets put it this way...I took that pie out of its misery.It will not mock me AGAIN! (well, unless I buy a new one)

Back to my cardio. Sorry I took the scenic route to get here.

As I am shaking, moving, kicking (I was doing kickboxing), sweating and thinking about the PIE a song comes on on my iPod.

Donny by Ace Of Base - talk about blast from the past. I haven't heard this song in a while. I always liked it. I admit it I love Ace of Base, I do.

Anyway, as I am listening I started to go down memory lane to the time when I was 17....long,long,long time ago. It seems like the dinosaurs were still roaming the earth (at least that's what my kids think).

My question for you is.....Who Was Your Donny or in case I have male readers your Donna? Come on, be honest. I know you had Donny in your life. You can tell me. It will be our (and of course www) little secret.

My Donny's name was Joseph and he was "HOT". Every time I saw him my hormones were raging.At that time I would take a bullet for him....now....not so much.

Donnie's got a secret and you know it
He was yours in the summertime yeah
About ten years ago
He promised you to stay forever
Live with you
It's so bittersweet now
When you know what you lost

Donnie was the boy you always wanted
By your side
Donnie was the boy your girlfriends fell for one by one
Donnie was the boy you always wanted
Day and night
But Donnie had a girlfriend tender, sexy, sweet and blond

In the summer time, yeah
In the summer time, life was easy
On the beach you had him long ago, oh

He's always on your mind
The season changes
Years went by
But that chapter of love
Stays unfinished for you

Keep on dancing through your new life
Maybe, make a move
Make him see you again
As the flower you are......

Paint The Town Red Celebration

I had completely different post ready for you today, but something really awesome happened and I have to share it with you.

As many of you know I am Canadian and I live in beautiful British Columbia.

What you might not know is that Mr. Misery was born and raised Vancouver/Burnaby boy. All of his/our family is there and we live 400km away. Not too far to visit few times a year.

Anyway, as you also know the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are being held in Vancouver and Whistler this year.

Communities across Canada are being part of very special celebration called "Paint The Town Red". You are encouraged to wear read, fly the flag, paint your face...support Canadian athletes. Part of this celebration is also The Olympic Torch Relay. The Olympic Flame is making it's way from one side of Canada all the way to Vancouver.

Each town/city is represented by various members of community (children, adults, teens, seniors)and their job is to carry the flaming torch across their town/city and hand it over to another community till it arrives safely in Vancouver.

The Olympic Torch arrived to our little town (population 4,000) this morning and there was a celebration at Town Hall.

Both of my boys attended the celebration with their schools and I felt bumped out that I couldn't make it. I couldn't be part of the history and I couldn't cheer on two torch carriers I personally know.

I was sitting in my office, reading blogs and posting comments when suddenly I heard a loud music.....

....that's when I realized that we live right on the highway out of town and this is the only way to carry the torch and pass it along.

I was right and so lucky. The torch was being exchanged few feet away from our house.

I did not miss anything I have awesome pictures to show my kids when they get home from school.

One of the Torch Carriers waiting for the Olympic Flame to be passed on

First car

The Olympic Torch Relay Team is coming...



Some of Canada Olympic Hopefuls

Ready and waiting for the Flame

The Flame is coming...

The 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games Torch


Waiting for the flame....

The Flame was passed on....

It's off to Vancouver

Not Your Typical Hockey Mom

It's winter time and in my household it means Hockey Season.

I spend 6 months from September till March driving my two boy to and from hockey. Yes, I am a HOCKEY MOM. I am sure most of you heard scary stories about hockey parents and yes they are all true.

Today as I spent 3 hours watching my sons play hockey surrounded by screaming hockey parents I came to a realization.

I might be a hockey mom, but I am NOT typical hockey mom.

I like to think that I do not belong to that group directly. I do not feel the way most of them do. I do not behave the way most of them do. I do not think my children are the best players on the team and I do not think my children will ever make it to the NHL. Let's face it I have a better change of winning the lottery.

I do not wear HOCKEY MOM pins, sweatshirts, hats or any article of clothing that lets the world know that I in fact am a hockey mom. I do not have a bumper sticker that says:"My hockey mom can beat up your soccer mom".

Courtesy of Google Images

I do have our association's hockey jacket with my name on it from the years of managing my son's team, but I do not wear it all season long everywhere I go (yes, I live in a small Canadian hockey town). I wear the jacket in support of my son's team during the games and when I volunteer.

I've been hockey mom for almost eight years now and I can safely say: "I am not TYPICAL hockey mom".

Don't get me wrong. I am very proud of my children and their many accomplishments. I do go to all of their games and I cheer on them no matter how they're doing. I do not scream out their names. I do not tell them how to play. I do not carry blow horns or cow bells in my purse.

However, I do not need my children to play hockey for me to be fulfilled and happy. My children play hockey because they want to not because "I" want to be part of some "cool" members only club and wear "cool" hockey jackets with my kids names and jersey numbers on it.

I pride myself on being "the troublemaker" and "the unwanted" one. I know the rules, I follow the rules and I question the rules. I speak out and I don't back down.

I am the worst nightmare of crooked Minor Hockey Association Executive Board whose majority of "volunteers" consists of egoistical and ruthless people with empty lives trying to manipulate others with lies, disobeying rules and deception.

Because of the way I am I no longer am an executive of our Minor hockey association (lucky for them). My husband is no longer allowed to coach or be part of coaching team in this association (their loss). I caught too many of the "volunteer executives" disobeying rules, twisting the rules and hiding behind lies. I called out every and each one of them.

I am a hockey mom and I still volunteer to help out with my sons teams(I have no choice - most of the parents won't), but I will never be typical hockey mom.

Ramblings of Overtired Hockey Mom

Thank Goodness It's Friday.....yes, it's been quite a week and I am so happy it is finally over.

The boys have few hockey games over the weekend, but that's nothing compare to last weekend.This weekend I will be able to sleep in and maybe do some baking for Little Peanut's school's Breakfast Club I decided to support.

Since I don't have anything prepared for today due to my temporary (keep your fingers crossed) brain shut-down I decided to name this post "Ramblings of Overtired Hockey Mom" and go where ever it takes me.....

Courtesy of Swagbucks Images

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Yesterday I went shopping with my Best Friend. Once a month we head for the border and visit Superwalmart in Washington State to stock up on cheaper groceries and have lunch in our favorite Mexican restaurant.

I love our little shopping trips and I love my BF. We are totally different, but we bring out the best in each other. She's Nuts & Caramels and I am Creme & Truffles.

Courtesy of Google Images

How do you know you met your friend for life? It is when you realize you just ate the entire box of Assorted Purdy's Chocolates and there is none left. Not a caramel, not a nut, not a creme or truffle. I don't know about you, but I haven't met a person who likes them all (I mean really like). So if you ever find yourself in that situation celebrate it with more chocolate because you just met your friend for life.

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Today I am getting my hair done. My hairdresser is also my friend and a fellow hockey mom. I stopped by her salon yesterday to make an appointment. I wear bangs and I figured it is time for a trim when my bangs start touching the tip of my nose.

I was only going for a trim, but she asked me if I wanted a color as well? Hmmmmm, not sure, should I shouldn't I......

Courtesy of Swagbucks Images

Apparently my friend/hairdresser/fellow hockey mom figured that I could use some "sprucing up" (her words not mine)so I am getting color as well. I think she just wanted me to have some "girl time". Bless her heart.

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Last Friday I joined Lynn @ Midday Escapades for FRIDAY FOLLOW.

Friday Follow is hosted by One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families and Midday Escapades!

It is fun way to get more blog followers and to follow other interesting blogs. It is all about sharing and having fun.

Last Friday 133 blogs joined in and it was awesome. I had to leave at noon for the hockey tournament so I missed most of them, but I am ready to have some fun and read some blogs today.

I Will Never Give Up....

I am back.....again. This time I mean it.

I apologize for the luck of bloggy and comment love in last few days, but when you find out why I am sure you will understand.

As most of you know I spent the long weekend at the hockey arena running my son's hockey tournament.

Mr. Misery works out of town, but he surprised us by making it to our Little Peanut's final game on Sunday.

I was so excited about his early arrival for my own selfish reason. I was exhausted and I knew with him being home I would be able to sleep in on Monday even if it was a school day.

I was right. Sunday night my wonderful man treated me to a dinner for two at our favorite Italian restaurant. By the time we got home I managed to make boy's lunches for Monday and it was "Good Night, Irene" for me.

Monday morning I woke up to smell of fresh coffee and quiet house. The boys were at school.

I knew I had lots of catching up to do with all of you so I got right to it. I spent hours returning comment love. I managed to write a post and hopefully follow all my new followers I gained during the awesome Friday Follow.

If I missed any of you, please, let me know. It wasn't on purpose.

After I kind of caught up with my blog I decided to write an article and work on some stuff for my Guide For Busy Moms site.

I wrote a great article (my creative juices were flowing)and I added few new pages.
Life was good. Mr.Misery even took over my volunteering duties at Little Peanut's school's skating lessons.

After dinner I wanted to do few more little changes on my site and.........

.......I could not sign in into my WordPress (WP) administration. I was getting Fatal Error message. I started to panic. Every link I tried from my site I was getting the same message.

Oh, no. My site was gone. What know?

My host is HostGator so I immediately got in touch with them through the Live Chat on my control panel just to find out that apparently something happened that wiped out bunch of pages from my WP. The junior tech couldn't fix it, but he filed a ticket for me. I had to wait till senior tech contacts me through email.

This was Monday night.

Mr. Misery told me to take a deep breath, have a good night sleep and in the morning everything will be fine. He was suppose to go back on the road Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning. My site is still missing. The senior tech sent me an email letting me know that lots of pages are missing from my WP and I need to go and manually install WP upgrade through my FTP files......???????????????????????????????

At this point I am freaking out, yelling at everything and everybody in my way.

I decided to go and try to contact WP. I found out that if WP is not my host the only help from them I get is in the Forum.

Reading through the forum I found out that this happened to many others in last 8 months or so. This happened when they were upgrading their WP to new version.

The only help in the forum is whole bunch of mambo-jumbo and people letting others know that they followed the steps and the issue is now fixed.

......but how did you fix it? I didn't understand the steps and instructions in a first place. Lots of words and terms I don't understand.

BTW, I learned about FTP files.

At this point my anger turned into tears and hysteria. Mr.Misery decided not to leave till Wednesday and I was ready to give up (if I remember I gave up about 5 times).

I decided to email the senior tech at HostGator. I explain to him how "stupid" I am and how he needs to explain to me very slowly and step by step how to fix it.

Well, he was very nice and said he will try to do it for me.All he needed was my username and password.

4 hours later he fixed my WP and upgraded it manually. He was able to get me back into my WP admin......and then I noticed that everything I had is missing. All of my files, layouts, articles, comments.....all of it was gone.Over 60 articles I wrote myself.

Another breakdown followed by more tears and another email to the HostGator tech.

The wonderful man got all of my files back within an hour....except everything I wrote and did Monday. I was willing to settle for that.

He taught me how to back up my files regularly through their control panel and he even waived the regular fee for finding and re-installing my files.

Rest of the Tuesday I was re-writing my article and fixing whatever needed to be fixed.

By Tuesday night I apologized to Mr.Misery and my boys for showing the very ugly site of me. Everything was calm and happiness returned.

LP came to me and said:"Mommy, you didn't really mean it when you said that you're giving up, right?"

No, LP your mommy isn't a quitter. She'll keep getting up, dusting herself of and she'll keep going.

So, I am back....again and this time I mean it.

Bits and Pieces From Hockey Arena - Part I

I am back.

Yes, I survived 3 days locked up in hockey arena dealing with HOCKEY PARENTS. I am pretty sure there must be some bravery award for that. If there isn't one there should be...

I must admit it wasn't as bad considering this was Little Peanut's tournament and he's only 7. If it was Hormone Boy's tournament for 12-13 year olds the bad words would be flying around right about now.

There were little bits and pieces that made my weekend enjoyable and all worth it.

LP helping HB running the music booth

Just to let you know my Little Peanut is not future NHL player and he's nowhere near with his hockey skills like Hormone Boy was at his age (HB is awesome). He loves to play hockey and hang with his friends. He loves his coaches (so do I). They are not in it for the competition. They are in it truly to make sure all the children no matter what skill level have fun. It is very rare to find team of coaches like that in my neighborhood.

With that said and with the knowledge that LP is not the "star" of the team his coaches always try to encourage him to do little bit better each game.

This is a conversation LP had with his coach D before a game.

Coach: "So LP are you going to try and fight for the puck?"

LP:"I try, but what if I knock the other player down?"

Coach: "That's OK. It's all part of the game. Just pretend that the puck is yours and someone took it from you and you want it back"

LP: "Can I pretend it's a hamburger?"

Coach: " Sure, you can pretend it's a hamburger or you can pretend someone took your allowance"

LP: " What's an allowance?"

I had to tell coach that LP doesn't get allowance.

Coach: "or pretend it is your $20 bill and you want it back. What would you do?"

LP: "For $20 and a hamburger I would chase them down and find a way to get it".

Coach: "OK then the puck is a hamburger with $20 bill stuck in it...go and get it LP"

LP: "I will try"

LP after his game

Little Peanut didn't score, but it was his best game ever...

Yes, food and money speaks to my child. I am such a proud mother...

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Mr. Misery was away for the whole tournament and was due to come home Monday night. LP was so sad that his dad is not there and me not being able to see most of his games (due to running the tournament) didn't help either. My friend (the only hockey mom I am friends with because she was my friend before hockey)was taking LP to all the games.

LP hanging with mom at the office between games

Sunday 5 minutes before LP's final game for 3rd place I was walking through the lobby and I look and there at the concession stand is my WONDERFUL husband who drove through the night just to make sure he makes his son's last game.I love that man.

LP was already on the ice for the warm-up.Mr Misery knocked on the glass and when LP turned around and saw his dad he got the biggest and brightest smile I ever saw.

Before the game LP didn't wanted to go on, but when he saw his dad there was no way of stopping him.

So, I survived the weekend at the hockey arena and I have lots more stories to tell you

Random thoughts and such....

My crazy week is almost over. Now I need to survive 3 days at the hockey arena running the tournament and organizing the worst parent group ever - hockey parents.

I swear, most hockey parents are special breed, but that would make a good blog post for another day.

I can't wait for Sunday night. Mr. Misery should be coming home and maybe I can take day off.

Today Little Peanut had figure skating after school. Usually he comes home on a school bus and I am waiting for him in my car. We have 5 minutes to get to the arena.

Well, being exhausted and having million things on my mind. I grabbed LP's skates and went to wait for him in the car. I drove my car to the end of the driveway, but I didn't stop there. I kept driving...without my child.

Half way to town I realized what happened so I raced back home. There was 7 year old waiting on the front porch not impressed I might add: "Mom, you forgot me...how could you"?

Sorry son, I did forget you, but I had your skates and your snack with me so my intentions were good.

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Yesterday was so ugly outside. It was pouring rain and windstorm to add to it.

Little Peanut came from school totally soaked. I am sure the puddles in the driveway have something to do with it.

He walked through the door:
LP: "I need to take my pants off. I think I will get FUNGUS soon"
Me: ???????
LP: "You know, like foot FUNGUS from all this rain"
Me: "Aah"

Go figure, who knew you get foot fungus when your pants get wet.

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"Secret and private" conversation between Little Peanut (age 7) and his cousin Cart (age 5).

C: "LP, Dominik told me something bad and it's a secret"
LP: "What is it?"
C: "I'll whisper it to you"

Cart whispering while I can hear it from LP's bedroom all the way to the dining room

C: "D said that kissing girls is gross"
LP: " Huh, wonder what is his problem?"
C: "Yeah, huh, wonder what is his problem"

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That's all for today. I am off to the hockey arena and I will see you all on Monday.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kate Gosselin Is Back...Do You Care?

Love her or hate her,but Kate Gosselin is back.

This average woman turned from ordinary mom of twins to mom of twins and sextuplets. Then almost overnight thanks to showing every little detail of their private life to millions of people Kate turned into a "reality star".

Wow, reality star. Where do I apply and what qualifications do I need? Oh, that's right all I need to do is to be willing to put my parental and marital skills (in Kate's case lack of) under a giant microscope for the whole world to judge me. It doesn't hurt that I treat my husband like a door mat when on camera and I scream at my kids whenever possible. More drama I provide more people will tune in. More trips I get to go on and more money I can make (for the future, you know). It doesn't matter that my marriage is crumbling and my kids will be the one to pay the ultimate price.

Kate, Kate, Kate....when will you learn. Money doesn't buy happiness.

We all watched her marriage become a sham and then we watched her to get divorce and eventually she became a household name thanks to the wonderful tabloids and her husband's inability to keep it in his pants.

We watched Kate crying during multiple interviews and we all listened how she needs to get use to being a "single mother" because she has no one to help her...poor, poor Kate.....(she owes single parents everywhere an apology for comparing herself to them)

....then suddenly Kate decided to move on and change her looks. Most single moms without help and jobs are trying to figure out how to pay the bills, how to cloth and feed their children.

Not Kate, she decided to undergo 20 hour hair extensions transformation. With being "single mom" of eight and with having to do everything herself you would think that sassy short hair would be the perfect choice. Apparently Kate has extra couple hours every morning to take care of her long, blond locks.

After getting her very expensive transformation (reported cost $7000) Kate said: "It’s good to have hair again.I never thought I’d have short hair for as long as I did. I feel like this is a fresh start, a fresh me, a fresh life… I’ve got it. I am now Kate Clean Slate.”

Kate I hate to be the one to break it to you, but........YOU HAVE 8 CHILDREN.Not much of a clean slate.

Yesterday Kate was called reality "superstar". So in a few years she went from loving and happy mom, to star and now she became superstar. I wonder if she thinks that it was worth it. In my opinion judging by her behavior and statements she thinks it was. Actually, she did admit on The View that she is in it for the $$$$ because as a SINGLE PARENT she needs to provide for her kids. I feel so sad for her and I feel sorry for the children who are in the middle of all of this.

Apparently Kate is not ready to retire from the limelight, yet. TLC is bringing her back in her own brand new series sometimes this year.The series will not feature her ex-husband or any of her children (thank goodness).

Will you watch it? I can safely say that I have no desire to hear about, read about or watch anything with Kate Gosselin. This is my first and last post because I just felt the desire to share my feeling with all of you.

Good Bye Kate, Good Luck and Good Riddance!

Pickles Won Over Kathy Griffin's Book

I want to apologize for those who were looking forward my usual Wednesday Wall Of Shame. I have written half of it, but due to my busy schedule I had not time to finish it so you will have to wait till next week.

Instead I decided to post little funny story I borrowed from my site Guide For Busy Moms.

BTW, if you are not Guide For Busy Moms follower yet, go over there and follow....pretty please.

This story was written October 7th,2009
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First, let me tell you I love Kathy Griffin. Her Life on the D-list is awesome.

I think she’s hilarious. She might be on the D-list, but I prefer her to most of the A and B-list celebrities.

Lately everywhere I look I see Kathy Griffin promoting her new book "Official Book Club Selection". Every time I see it I think to myself that I should go and buy it, but I don’t have the extra money right now (check out my blog and see why I am strapped for cash).

Oh, yeah, if there is some well-to-do person that wants to help me out just because – I‘m not proud (I was a week ago). Just kidding, no I’m not…really I am, but maybe not.

Anyway, this is a true story how I almost bought Kathy Griffin’s book "Official Book Club Selection", but I bought Bick’s pickles instead.

My husband and I took our son for his regular check up at the diabetes clinic this morning.

I decided to do some grocery shopping and since we are on a very limited budget right now (I don’t like it a bit) I made a list of sales in 4 different stores.

First store – grocery store. I stuck to my list (very painful, in my prime I used to be an impulse buyer).

Second store was a liquidation store with great deals and I haven’t shopped for sooooo long. My husband and my son almost had to drag me out of there, but not before I got some wicked deals.

Third store was Safeway (I love Safeway). All I had to get were some Bick’s pickles on sale. Every time I go to Safeway I come out with bags full of stuff “we needed”. I told my husband that I can go in by myself and I’ll be back in under 5 minutes and under $20. My son laughed and they dared me that I can’t do it.

I ran in , grabbed the pickles and on the way out I noticed the BLOWOUT table with books at 40%off regular price. Right on top I saw a pile of Kathy Griffin’s books "Official Book Club Selection". I couldn’t believe my eyes.BLOWOUT sale at Safeway? In Canada? Really?

I stopped, I grabbed it and wanted to purchase it for the BLOWOUT price ( I was willing to put some of the pickles back and they were the hard-to-find European style), but I couldn’t find the regular price sticker anywhere. Of course, no sales people. I was running out of time and I couldn’t risk not having enough money. The clock was ticking and I can hear my son’s laugh and my husband’s “I Told You So”.

Sorry, Kathy I was not about to lose a dare. I grabbed my pickles and left.

By the way, I made it under 5 minutes and under $20. I am a superwoman.

Tuesday Blues and Other Weird Stuff

It's Tuesday morning, but I am sure you all know that. Just in case some of you don't then again it's TUESDAY.

Can you tell I have nothing prepared? Zilch, Zero, Nada, Nil, Nula....big, fat 0.

My brain is totally fried, I am exhausted, Mr. Misery is on the road again and I have the week from hell right before me.

I've been working my little (who am I kidding) tush trying to get my other website going. I have been fixing all my SEO issues, learning the basic HTML to improve the look and all that evil important stuff I really dislike.

You nasty Search Engines.....all I want to do is write. Why can't you leave me alone and let me do what I want? I would be ever so grateful if you just sent your little robots and spiders by, fix everything that needs to be fixed and put me high up in your ranking.Is that too much to ask? Do we have a deal? I make mean cookies, just ask my kids.

All night long I've been dreaming about proper tags, stop words, keywords... when all I want to dream about is Matthew M., George C., Mr. Big. No wonder I woke up cranky.

So, I am asking you my dear friends, loyal followers and supporters find it in your hearts and jump over to my little site and become my FOLLOWER because I just installed Google Friends widget. It is looking mighty lonely with only two followers.

Thank you Lynn and Cristina for being the first ones.

Anyway, enough about that....

I can't wait for this week to be OVER!

To add to my usual duties of cooking, cleaning, doing homework, driving to and from many figure skating and hockey practices this week I will add:

• being in charge of 3 day - 16 teams tournament that my son's team is hosting this weekend which mean I will enter the hockey arena Friday 1pm and I will leave it Sunday 4pm making sure everything goes smooth and all the "wonderful" hockey parents are satisfied (with the exception going home to shower and sleep for few hours)
• making large Gourmet Cookies and Chocolate gift basket to donate for the tournament's raffle table
• baking 4-5 dozen healthy muffins to donate to LP's school for the Breakfast Club Program (making sure that every child starts the day with healthy food and full tummy) as a part of my promise to help or change someones life every month of the year
• volunteering to chaperon both boys school skating programs (part of P.E.) 3 mornings this week (at least I can fit in some exercise)
• attending my best friend's little girl's 2ND birthday party on Saturday and having major guilt issues due to not being able to make her Birthday Cake like I wanted (I make birthday cakes for all of her girls)
• depending on Hormone Boy to get me through this and helping me out with taking care of his brother and cousins. Coming over to the hockey arena and doing odd jobs and filling in for "No Show" parents (I am so going to owe him - BIG)
  

So I want to apologize for the luck of comment love and blogging support this week. All I want to do is stay here with you, but the life is calling me. Can you hear it?

If you can,please shut it up for me cause I just want to ignore it's calls and crawl back to my bed.

It's Time To Share The Love

Over the last few weeks I received three wonderful awards from three wonderful ladies.

It took me some time to return the love and support back, but it's never too late for some love.

The first award I received was Happy 101 Award from lovely Cristina @ Where Is There Time To Sleep who called me her "home girl" (yes,I am blushing).

I would like to pass this award to:

Noelle@ Elastic Waistbands and Comfortable Shoes
Lynn @ Midday Escapades

The second award I received was Light My Fire Award from the blogging queen herself - Lee The Hot Flash Queen @ Headaches, Hormones and Hot Flashes

I would like to pass this awesome award to:

Jo @ Diary Of A Sad Wife
Jenny Mac @ Lets Have A Cocktail
Cristina @ When Is There Time To Sleep

My final award The Sunshine Award came from Ruby @ Growing Up Blackxican

This beautiful Sunshine award goes to:

Kristen @ Scrappin'My Bliss
Lee @ Headaches, Hormones and Hot Flashes
Shell @ Things I Can't Say


So go visit all of these awesome ladies and give them some love. They are all funny, caring and wonderful and that's why I follow them. I know you will love them as much as I do.

I just added the Google Friends "Follow Me" widget on my Guide For Busy Moms site. Please, go visit me and become a follower so I can get this site rolling.

What Will You Do To Avoid Pain?

It's Friday. Mr.Misery is home till Monday. We are taking boys for dinner and to a hockey game tonight (HB's school was giving away tickets as part of School Pride). Good old family time.

I had a very productive day today. As I mentioned few days ago I decided to let Tony Robbins and his wisdom into my life once again.

The best part of Tony Robbins's program is that every day after each lesson he gives me an assignment and I am not allowed to come and listen to another lesson till I finish it. I learned how important it is to keep your momentum going.

Yesterday I learned about Pain and Pleasure. The two controlling forces in our life.

Did you know, that we will do far more to avoid pain then we will do to gain pleasure?

That's where the good old procrastination comes into play. Our brain lets us believe that taking certain actions will be more painful to us then not taking them.That's why we have a tendency to procrastinate.

In order to succeed I must learn to control the motivating forces of pain and pleasure. I need to learn how to link that "not taking action" will be more painful then taking it.

Tony Robbins brought up an interesting point: "Did you know that 95% of people gain 2 or more pounds then they lost on a diet"? It is because they link food and overeating to pleasure and dieting to pain.

In order to be successful in eating healthy and losing weight people need to learn how to link their favorite foods to pain.

So the main thing I learned yesterday is that in order to succeed in no matter what I want to do is to take control of my pain and pleasure. I need to break from letting the fear of the unknown to stop me from gaining pleasure and success.

As an assignment I had to write down 4 actions I need to take right away. Something I've been postponing for whatever reasons. Then I had to write down the pain that I associate with following through, the pleasure I associate with not following through. The pain I will feel if I didn't follow through and finally the pleasure I will get after I follow through. Sounds complicated? It's really not.

One of my actions was to start SEO on my website I am trying to get off the ground since March 2009. I can do lots of things, but computer science and computer language is not one of them.

In my opinion the website is nice, functional and I work hard to write valuable content for it.The problem is that the site has hardly any visitors and is not visible to any search engines.

First order of business was to go over to GoDaddy.com and sign up for Search Engine Visibility.One of their testimonials was from 72 year old grandpa and how happy he was with his site ranking high on search engines and how easy it was to use.

I signed up for 1 year to try it out. Well, I don't know where and when grandpa studied computer science, but I was lost. After spending hours of trying to understand and after the program analyzed my site and pretty much told me that my site was "CRAP" I lost it.

Here I was feeling totally STUPID and comparing myself to genius 72 year old man while I was married to total techno geek and I gave birth to computer genius.

Of course I unleashed my fury on Mr. Misery and Hormone Boy for not helping me and for keeping my website sucky (new word). I did asked them million times over the last 10 months to help, but all my requests were "denied".

So as of yesterday I have a team of technical advisers and they are trying to fix all the technical stuff on my site.

Today I spent 4 hours of making it better, organizing and submitting it to search engines.

Do go over and check it out.....please.....Free Guide For Busy Moms and let me know what you think.

What Drives You To Success?

"People Major In Minor Things" - Tony Robbins


It's year 2004. It's been two years since I changed my identity from full time business woman and part time mom of one to full time SAHM of two.

Life is not bad. I love being home with my children. We have a beautiful house. Mr. Misery is making good living and is happy at work. My little eBay auctions are bringing little extra money every month. After my sister and her family moved out we turned our guesthouse into B&B and it's making extra money through the summer....
but there is something missing. I want more from life. It feels like I am settling.

One night as we watched TV an infomercial came on. It was promoting Anthony Robbins and his new Get The Edge program. I was intrigued and impressed. The next morning I did a little browsing through the good old eBay. As a girl that almost never pays the full price I found the program for 50% off.

I was sold. Few week later Tony became my best friend (didn't have many at that time) and I met him in my office everyday after LP went for his nap.I fell in love with Tony (you know what I mean)and his program immediately. I was INSPIRED!I stopped seeing Tony 3 weeks later after the program ended.

Next 18 months I was working hard and "Living With Passion".

I signed up with mentoring company and even thou they did not provide exceptional service or stand behind their promise of making sure that I will get my money back and more within 3 months working with their coaches I learned a lot.

I managed to build 2 online retail stores using dropshippers. I turned our B&B into rental property. I learned how to take better care of my body and I learned how to love myself.Not bad.

December 2005. My then 8 year old you all know as Hormone Boy became very ill and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The world crumbled around me.

Few months into his diagnoses I was overwhelmed by trying to help him, educate myself, fight our local minor hockey for taking away HB's basic rights and taking care of LP who was a toddler at that time.

There was not much time for anything else. My online business started to suffer. I had issues with our renter who managed to move in her boyfriend while we were dealing with our health crisis....life was falling apart.

Then I remembered...Tony...he will save me. He will give me the reason to get up, dust myself of and start again.

Well, I tried, but this time even Tony Robbins couldn't help. I listen to him few days. I honestly tried. I just couldn't. There was not enough INSPIRATION and as crazy as it sounds there was not enough DESPERATION to get me going again.

.....here we are.......January 2010....new year, new possibilities, new adventures, new beginnings, new mistakes.

Most of you know my story and how I got here.My life it's getting better, but I realized I need help to succeed.

January 5, 2010 Tony Robbins enters my life again. This time around we meet in my living room after lunch just before the boys come home from school.

Day 1 - The Key To Personal Power

Tony taught me that there are 2 things that drive people to succeed. One is INSPIRATION and the other one is DESPERATION!

So when Tony asked "What drives you to success"? I had to scream: "It's DESPERATION, Tony".

Yes, this time around it is DESPERATION and in my heart I believe that DESPERATION for me is much more powerful then INSPIRATION.

I am ready to stop majoring in minor things. I am ready to study SUCCESS. I am ready to change my life by making decisions and following through.

I learned from Tony Robbins that knowledge is not enough if you don't take actions. I learned that the past does not equal future.

The most important thing I learned this Monday is that I should welcome frustration because frustration WILL drive me to success.

So I will leave you now because it is time for me to meet with my friend Tony again.I will be back and share with you what I have learned.

As Tony Robbins says: "Live With Passion"!

Wednesday Wall Of Shame

Before I start my Wednesday Wall Of Shame I need to express how much respect I have for the elders and elderly. I loved and respected my grandparents deeply. I am always ready and willing to help out senior citizens. This post is about the "black sheep" of the seniors kind. I don't want anyone to think that I am senior citizen hater. I just want to point out that even senior citizens needs to respect others, behave properly and mind their manners. After all isn't that what they are trying to teach us?

In case you haven’t guessed it today’s Wall of Shame is about some Senior Citizens.

Senior citizens who think just because they are of certain age they can have bad attitude and be disrespectful to the younger generations.

I was thinking long and hard about this issue. Last year I wasn’t sure if I want to write post like this, but this is New Year and the gloves are off (in my writing).

On the weekend I happened to stop by our local drugstore to pick up some toothpaste and that’s when I decided this needs to be written.

I live in a small town with very large retirement community. Town next to us has even bigger retirement community so I didn’t have to go far looking for a story.

I decided to list few incidents that made me feel the way I do. Just know that this is almost daily occurrence when I venture out of my house.

So lets take a look at the senior citizens behaving badly a.k.a rude, disrespectful and ignorant elderly.

Case #1

First Sunday of the Year in local drugstore. Everything is calm. No customers as everyone is still home enjoying the holidays. The staff is minimal. I pick up few things I needed. I noticed another shopper browsing. As I am ready to pay for my purchases I noticed this old and fragile little grandma standing at the cash register. I smile and then……grandma opens her mouth.

The only employee I see is nice young cashier. I line up behind grandma thinking that she’s paying…...no, she’s not.

She is insisting that the cashier leaves her post against her job regulations and goes not to help her to pick up one thing she can’t find or reach, but to go and do the personal shopping for her.

While she is insisting on this she also tells the cashier that she needs to go get a chair for her, place sit by the cash register so she can sit and wait while the cashier shops for her.

The poor cashier is trying very calmly and politely explain to her that she is in fact a cashier and therefore not allowed to leave the cash. She explains to her that the store does not offer personal shopper service and since it is Sunday there is nobody who could come out and help her. The lady gets very upset and she starts screaming at the poor girl, talking to her like she’s her slave. Totally not listening what the cashier is trying to tell her. I am trying very hard to stay out of it.

After 10 minutes of this performance the other shopper that I noticed comes and offers to do it for the lady (I am not offering because I am trying very hard not to scream at her). The old lady declines the offer and announces that her husband who’s sitting in the car is coming in and he has to do it now since “the girl” won’t. Then very able-body older man enters the store…..yes, you guessed it, the husband.

At that point Mr. Misery dragged me out of the store. He knew better.


Case #2

Imagine beautiful sunny day. I decided to take kids to the park. I have little one (my girlfriend’s baby) in a stroller and my little nephew holding the side of the stroller.

In order to get to the park we need to cross the street. There is a special traffic light right at the park for pedestrians to safely cross.

I press the button and wait for the traffic to stop. It is flashing orange letting the drivers know that they need to stop and let us cross. Three cars later…..all senior citizens I get annoyed and decide to step of the sidewalk onto the road by myself to stop the oncoming car. The driver - old man in a hat slams his breaks and starts honking at me like insane the whole time I am crossing the street. How dare I stopped him. He’s in such a hurry to go......nowhere. I can’t imagine this was somebody’s grandpa. Would he stop for his grand kids? Not sure.

Shame on you, rude and disrespectful SENIOR CITIZENS. Just because you are of certain age it doesn’t give you the right to treat the rest of us like we owe you something, because we don‘t. My grandma taught me to get respect you need to give it first.

I also wanted to add few cases about senior citizens not knowing when to hand in their driver license and admit that they in fact shouldn't be driving, but that's a lost cause. I can't count how many times over the years I had to honk like crazy for minutes to get attention of senior citizens trying to pull out of their parking spots without looking and missing my car by inches.

To be fair not only senior citizens behave or drive like this, but in my experience it is 8 times out of 10.

Don't Forget To Feed The Birds

Yesterday we woke up with snow on the ground....again. It was all gone and all that was left were ugly, deep puddles. So I guess the snow was a good idea.

Till I went out. It was coming down like crazy, but it wasn't the nice and light snow I love. These were big and heavy mutant flakes. It felt like somebody was pouring slash on me. I was soaked within minutes.

Then I looked around and realized that we forgot something this winter.....something very important to us. We forgot to feed the birds.

Yes, feeding the birds is the least we can do after what they bring to our life every Springs through Fall. We live in the middle of vineyard and orchards. On one side we have vineyard, on the other side we have apple orchard and our backyard is huge cherry orchard. We do live in green "paradise" I agree. I just wish the paradise was in a different town, but that's another story.

Grapes on one side

Apples on the other side

Cherries in the backyard

Anyway, I was bit disappointed with myself forgetting my friends so I ventured out to the shed to locate our bird feeder. Next stop was to brave the element and drive through foot of slush to town to purchase some "overpriced" bird seed (living in small town on a budget and shop for bargains trying to support local stores is a hard thing).

Few hours later, the bird feeder was filled with yummy seeds, hang properly on my front porch. It didn't take long for my little friends to find it and feast.

My friends are happy again

Now, only if I can keep my children from making a line with the seed on our porch so they can watch the birds follow it to the front door. They think it's hilarious and entertaining. We'll see who is laughing when mom gets out the bucket and brush for them to scrub the bird poop from our porch in the spring.

So, my friends DON'T FORGET TO FEED THE BIRDS! I know you, didn't, but in case you did it will be our little secret. You won't tell on me and I won't tell on you. Oops, little too late for keeping my secret. Oh, well....I'll live with the shame (wouldn't be the first time).

Little House (blog) Cleaning Was In Order

Another year full of possibilities....another chance to start fresh.

Kids are back at school and order is restored once again.

Don't you just love the chance to start fresh, from scratch without repeating your mistakes?

I started this journey from Misery To Happiness 3 months ago, but I almost feel like the New Year gave me the extra boost and new hope that I can actually do it.

I can't explain it, but I woke up January 1st with a smile on my face and happy....totally happy.

Mr. Misery wasn't home and for the first time since he got a job away from us it was OK.I finally came to terms with it and realized that's our new life and I will make the best of it.

HB and LP waiting for The Countdown

So it's Monday, first day back to school and first day of reality of the New Year....New Beginning. I am so excited.

First order of business is to catch up with my blogging and commenting.

I did little blog cleaning this morning and as much as I don't like to do that I un-followed quite a few blogs. I realized that I follow these blogs, visit them almost daily, comment as much as I can and yet......nothing is coming back. Not even one comment or email. I decided this year will be a year of productivity and success so I will not waste my valuable time reading and supporting people who don't care about their followers.

I also decided that just because someone left me a comment I will not comment back for the sake of commenting. However, I will visit them again and comment if I have something to comment on. I do not like generic comments and I've been caught in that trap myself few times and I regretted that later.

I will respond by email to comments left for me by new visitors and I will thank them for taking their time to stop by.

If someone decides that my blog is good enough for them to follow I will return that favor.

....and for my loyal followers.....I love you all and thank you for the support you've shown me last few months.

One of my resolutions was to say what I mean and mean what I say with no excuses. I've been truthful in all my writing, but I feel like I kept back a little not to get people upset and not to get bad comments. This year I will write about what is on my mind without holding back and without the fear of some people not liking me (of course certain topics and feelings will still remain Tabu).

.....now I am off to try to catch up on visiting all your wonderful blogs and see what you have been up to cause I missed you all.