Baby Shopping is Not the Same as Mummy Shopping

Baby C is 7 weeks and counting. I now know what everyone means when they say they grow so fast. It seems she's changing on a daily basis, and I can hardly keep up. Her feet are starting to reach the end of her buggy, her socks no longer fit, her bodysuits won't stretch over her nappy and she's realising that her dummy is not, and should not be given in place of food. Hmmm...

I'm so excited to be going home in a couple of weeks. I haven't been back since we left in February, and I am so looking forward to seeing everyone again, and for them to meet the baby. My brother, SIL and stepmum still haven't met her, as well as all my extended family. My dad said we should try to arrange a get together with his side, and hopefully we can do this on one of the weekends. Shopping for flights is proving to be expensive; it doesn't look like we can do it for less than £500 ($800). So much for being able to fly over there every 8 weeks.

I can't seem to stop shopping for baby C! Every time I go into town I look around for clothes for her. She's finally starting to grow out of a few things, and I'm realising that perhaps I shouln't have spent so much money on buying newborn clothes!I have so many things for her to wear now (I think even more clothes than I have!); I have decided to take advantage of the sales and shop ahead for next summer. However, I am finding more items in the full priced section than the sale. Oops. I've ordered a few things online and had them sent to my mum's house, and will bring them back with me when I see her at the end of the month.

So far C has been sleeping in a moses basket on loan to us from a friend, but at the rate she's growing, she won't be able to fit in it much longer. We have been discussing getting a cot for ages, but didn't do much about it until the last week, where we have been discussing it and looking at options available to us. We measured our bedroom yesterday and found it was just about able to house a double bed as well as a cot, so we scoured the websites of the local businesses and ORDERED IT TODAY! This is the one we're getting:



It will take up to 5 weeks to come into stock, and when it does we will put her in it straight away. I'm so excited, because we can finally start thinking about proper bedding. I can't afford any of the cute sets, but I'm hoping to make a few nice things, and just get some coloured sheets to match. There's a brand in the UK called Cath Kidston, that does beautiful fabrics:

http://www.cathkidston.co.uk/c-104-cotton-duck.aspx

But they're really expensive at £18 ($25) per metre. It's too expensive for me to make an entire item from, but I was thinking of getting a metre and teaming it with a cheaper fabric and making a quilt. It's only an idea at the moment, I don't know if I will have the time for anything like that, but I would love to give C something like that.

Scales Are Not My Friend

I don't even have words for how disappointed I am in myself. I went to my weigh-in this evening to find out that after my dedication and hard work, I'd put on half a pound. What is going on?? It's so disheartening.


My only consolation is that next week my good behaviour will catch up with me, and I will have lost a couple of pounds. This is my fourth week of floating around the 144lb mark, and it's really getting to me. Even when I cut out all the nice food, I'm still static in my weight. Pfft.

But you know what? I'm going to flip this into a positive, because I can't sit around being disappointed in myself. Or at least, if I am disappointed in myself, I'm going to use that and make it work for me.

I'm going to work even harder this week, and I'm going to achieve something next week; even if it hurts me. Although I don't have any more diet tricks up my sleeve, so I'm hoping whatever's wrong with my body works itself out sharpish.

And I just realised that if I still want to get to my honeymoon goal, I now have to lose a frightening 3lbs each week, without fail. I think it's safe to say that my goal of being 133lbs is out of reach, so I've now decided that I'm going to focus only on getting into those surf shorts. Even if I weigh 144lbs on my honeymoon, I'm going to get into those shorts.

Don't ask me how, because I may need a miracle!

What a Good Girl I Am!

I've been caffeine-free for five days now, and in all honesty; I don't feel a difference in my energy levels. I thought I would have had some kind of reaction by now, since I've spent the last ten years drinking Coke on a daily basis.

I'm the only person I know that can pop four Pro Plus, wash them down with 4 cans of Red Bull and STILL not feel anything. Now, before you warn me that that's not a sensible way to live; I should highlight that I was revising for my final exams, working from sunrise to sunset, and I'd finally cracked.

But my insensitivity to caffeine and taurine is probably a good thing, I realise now; because at least I'm not bouncing off the walls after one sip. I'm not about to complain.

I'm feeling super slim today, which is great considering it's THAT time of the month (sorry T.M.I.). I normally feel like a right fatty at this point, so when I saw my now-almost-flat stomach in the mirror this morning, my heart actually leapt with joy. It's put me in such a positive vibe.

You may remember that I stayed the same at my Weight Watchers weigh-in last Tuesday, and I complained that my honeymoon goal was getting more and more unobtainable. Well, this week I've stuck to my points like a trooper. I'm not going to pluck figures from the sky, but let's just say I'll be VERY surprised if I don't lose weight this week.

I have to admit that I've been pretty hungry this week though. I'm hardly an advert for Weight Watchers, I know, but normally I'm quite content on the diet, because I eat filling foods, or foods with little or no point values. But this week has been a mission. Probably because it was the first week I've really stuck to it since March.

My basic pattern has been to either have Coco Pops with skimmed milk (and I'm not talking the 1%, I'm talking the 0.1%, which is basically white water), or toast and Marmite for breakfast, some kind of tinned soup with a bit of bread for lunch, and a low fat dinner.

I'm telling you; at zero points, Marmite is a godsend. And what makes it even better is that they sell it in the squeezy bottles. I'm not quite sure about the point of these, because you would think it would mean you get less messy, but you still have to use a knife to spread it...

The hard part of the diet comes when Hubby has his nights off; tonight being one of them. My will power goes out the window when he's home, because he orders take out - yeah, he's not about to spare my feelings and eat something halfway decent, but he'll go overboard and order an entire bucket of KFC and then leave half of it.

The choice I'm then faced with is to either sit and watch him tucking into his mountain of lovely mouth-watering, colonel's recipe chicken breasts as I make a plate of cous cous; or I can join him and be on Cloud 9... if only for ten minutes.

Those heavenly ten minutes are always worth it; even if I put on weight because of it.

The worst thing I did this week was to have popcorn for breakfast on Sunday. I know why I did this too, and I'm not proud of it. Hubby decided he wanted some popcorn at midnight on Saturday. I helped myself to a few, since I had 3 points left for the day, when he turned around and said "should you really be eating that?"

That gets me angry even when I know I shouldn't be eating it. But when I've spent the entire week depriving myself of every scrap of niceness, I feel I deserve my measly little handful of popcorn. But whatever; I got all stroppy and when he offered me some more, I refused on the principle of it.

So on Sunday morning, I woke up and decided that, to get him back, I would eat a bucket of the popcorn myself. In all fairness, I did point it, and I held back from my food as a result. But it didn't get him back because he didn't even realise I'd eaten it; and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared. The only person who feels the consequences of my actions is me, and believe me; I felt it.

I was starving for the rest of the day. I don't know what possesses me to eat to prove a point, but at least I'm aware that I'm doing it, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that does it.

I compensated by having a Weight Watchers ready meal for lunch (the chicken and lemon risotto; which I would not recommend if you have any taste buds at all). The only problem came at 9pm, when I had 5 points left, and a belly that was now threatening to consume me from the inside out.

I gave in, primarily because I wasn't prepared to go to bed with such an unruly belly, and because I had only eaten one real meal so far. And in my moment of weakness (read: starvation), I threw four fish fingers and a (rather large) handful of chips in the oven. It was good, but I was now officially over my points.

Well, you can't be perfect all the time.

But today I'm being good again, and I've only had 6 points for breakfast and lunch combined; since I'm saving space for whatever scrumptious sustenance we choose to eat tonight. Yum; I can't weight ;)

Stayed the Same

In Weight Watchers terms, staying the same can be a good thing or a bad thing. For me, I'm taking it as a bad thing, because since the wedding I've put on 2lbs, lost 2lbs and stayed the same; so effectively, three weeks later, I'm exactly the same weight.

I know, I know; I should be happy I haven't put on weight. I am happy, but I can't help feeling my honeymoon goal slipping through my fingers. I had 8 weeks to lose 11lbs, which in itself was a mission, but now I only have 5.

I haven't been tracking my foods, but I've been eating decently. Decently enough to lose weight; or so I thought. But now it changes; from today I'm properly properly tracking my foods. I've made this declaration before, but this is a proper promise.

I've had a bowl of Coco Pops with 0.1% milk, and at mid morning, I cut up an entire cucumber (zero points), and ate it at my desk. For lunch I'm about to have Butternut squash, parsnip and ginger soup with some Weight Watchers bread. I have no idea what I'll be having for dinner, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!

I've also brought my supply of Neuzekes (traditional Belgian sweets) to work and shared them out, because if they're at home; they're tempting me...

This week I intend to lose a minimum of 2lbs, although secretly I'm hoping I lose 11. If you have any Weight Watchers (or general low-fat tips), be sure to let me know!

Virus Warning - I was sucked in, please don't let it happen to you

I thought I would post a warning about a virus, after my own laptop was infected last weekend. I pride myself on not being gullible to cons and scams, but this one had me fooled.

The virus is called PC Security 2009, and it embeds itself onto your computer without you realising. You soon find a little red cross icon on the bottom right corner of your screen. From this icon a message pops up warning you that your computer is infected, and that you should upgrade your antivirus in order to ensure these infections don’t become a threat to your computer.

This is a screen shot of what the virus looks like:


Unfortunately I couldn't find a screen shot of the warning messages, but it's similar to the pop up speech box that tells you when your wireless is not connected.

The infections the virus is warning you about are not real; this is simply the virus posting these messages. The messages soon come every couple of minutes, and make it very hard to use your computer without getting annoyed by them.

The virus also limits your online browsing. You can still view websites, but when you go to a new page, you may find a warning message urging you to upgrade your antivirus. It will give you two options; either upgrade to protect your computer, or continue browsing without upgrading. If you click to continue without upgrading, nothing happens. The web page you want will not load. The only way you can continue is to click to upgrade.

Once you do this, you will be taken to the PC Security 2009 website, where you can enter your credit card details in order to download a copy of the antivirus that will supposedly help you rid your computer of the apparent infections. Do NOT enter your credit cad details. I made the mistake of doing so, and I received no confirmation, no receipt; and I’d given them my mobile phone number too.

So, thinking it a little suspicious, I Googled the name of the site, and I found a list of sites warning against this virus, and detailing how to remove it from your system. Click the link to see the results of my Google Search (I promise it's safe to follow this link)

Seeing this, I then had to call my bank and put a stop on my credit card. Soon after this, a “system scan” began scanning the files on my computer, and it found over 700 imaginary infections. I say imaginary, because the infections aren’t really there; this is the virus making you think they’re there.

Within the hour I received a phone call from the hoax company, requesting more information, which this time I did not give. It took a good 6 hours to rid my computer of this virus, because it embeds itself in lots of different places, with lots of different files; so it’s hard to track down. I ended up downloading “AVG Free” to my computer, which managed to sort everything out.

Since Saturday I've been inundated with emails from the scammers, asking me to activate my membership. They also managed to debit my credit card of £55, which the bank is refusing to reimburse me, and I've received another couple of phone calls.

My poor judgement cost me £80, and my entire Saturday. I’m normally pretty smart with things like this, but this particular virus is designed to look exactly like Microsoft, so you think it’s authentic. Don’t be fooled by the same virus. If you find you have a virus on your computer, do not browse any sites with your, or any other person's personal details on (i.e. internet banking, emails or social networking sites).

Please forward this information to anyone who you think would benefit from this.

One Week Left

Yep, you heard it here first: I only have one week until I marry Hubby.


I'm excited, I'm stressed, I'm happy, I'm impatient, I'm fidgety, and I'm also feeling kinda sick.

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. I've been happy, and I've been sad... and I still have a week left! Right now I'm in the middle of the road, though you might call it "blah". I am excited, don't get me wrong; but I don't have anybody around me to be excited with, so I'm biding my time.

I went sunbathing this afternoon, since today has been the only sunny weekend day in the run-up to the wedding, and I was in serious need of some colour. Well, I certainly got some colour, because now I resemble magenta.


Whoops.

But all is not lost; it has 7 days to go brown/peel or whatever, before I desperately try to scour my skin free of embarrassment. But I'm determined not to stress about it, because I have much bigger fish to fry. And besides, we could always add a lobster theme to the wedding. I'm sure my skin wouldn't clash too much with the red of the roses...

Anyway, this afternoon it occurred to me that Wednesday is but four days away, and my mum ever so kindly offered to come by (on Wednesday after Weight Watchers) with her car and collect some things that we need taking down for the wedding. I'm heading to my dad's on Thursday after I finish work. I'll be taking the train (since I don't drive), so I can only take a little wheely suitcase with me.


I want this by the way, but I don't think they do it in my size :(

Hubby will be following in his car when he finishes work at 11pm, and my mum's following on Friday night with my grandmother, aunt and uncle, who are coming over from Homeland # 2.

To make it even more complicated; my brother and sister-in-law were going to go down on Friday night, but when my bridesmaid called last night to tell me she couldn't collect my flowers, I called him deserately asking if he would get them. So now they're following on Saturday morning with the flowers and one of the photographers, who will be staying in our flat on Friday night. My brother's in the area, so he may as well collect the photographer on the way through, and save him the train fare.

Chaos; I know. This is why I can't think straight at the moment.

Anyway, since I'm off to my dad's for a late Father's Day tomorrow, this is my only day free to do things at home before the wedding, so I figured I should probably get some bags packed and ready to give her. She's already taking my wedding dress in her car, so I'm not sure how many bags I can give her, but I'll definitely try to give her the guest book, confetti and cameras (we're both into our photography, but since we won't be using our collection of cameras - we have about 6 - we thought we'd offload them to our guests for the day, and take them back at the end of the wedding = instant photos, woop woop!).


Luckily my grandmother, aunt and uncle will have a car themselves. Phew...

I'm also trying to get some housework out of the way, since we now have house guests (the photographer) on Friday. Eek! So much to do, and I'm nattering on here...

EDIT - Argh! Hubby just called me to say that our band have suddenly demanded £500 to play at the wedding! We had asked them when we booked them if they wanted paying, and since they're friends of ours, they said payment in beer would be enough. They also get a party, hog roast and buffet thrown in. It's not a bad deal.

Apparently 3 of the 4 band members had a secret meeting. The last guy, the closest friend of them all, tried to argue with them, saying they should stick to the deal, as agreed six months ago. But he was out-voted.

Hubby told them where to go. I'm glad; I don't want anyone like that at our wedding. Except now that means we have to look for a DJ that's free next week. It's just one more thing on my list. You gotta laugh, I suppose.

It's sad for the one guy that did fight our corner, because he's caught in the middle. I desperately want him to come to the wedding still, but I have a bad feeling he won't want to show his face. But the others are dead to me.
Sad, but true. You don't mess with a bride one week away from the wedding.