HAPPY EASTER

Audit update

It's finally over. I made it through the audit in one piece. The guy actually got here half an hour earlier then he said he would so I didn't really have much time to get into a state of panic. Unfortunately, he wasn't a hottie:( He was very nice though and answered all of my questions without making me feel stupid. He was only here 90 minutes, but it still felt like an eternity. Especially when he asked me for some paperwork that I did NOT have! Thankfully it wasn't a mandatory thing to keep. Whew. He did say that we are going to owe a bit more to the IRS (imagine that!), but we won't know exactly how much until we get a letter from them, probably a couple of months from now. Great, something else to worry about. The reason for owing more taxes, at least, was not my fault. Apparently the state of Illinois sent me the wrong percentage rate to put in my payroll program. No penalties will be added, but I'm sure there will still be interest. I don't think the State ever does anything without adding interest to it nor would they ever admit fault. I'm sure if I called someone there, they'd tell me that I should have caught that mistake BEFORE I put the amount in my program. So, anyway, to make a long story short....I survived. I just hope we never have to go through that again.

An earlier post then normal

Figured I'd log on tonight and get my post up since tomorrow the dreaded auditor is coming. I tell you, I'm not ready for this guy to be here, but I'll sure be glad when it's all finished. I've been a nervous wreck this entire week and have not slept worth a crap at all. Last night, I kept replaying worst case scenarios through my head all night long. There's nothing I can do about the guy coming or about what he will find, but I tell ya, I've just about been driven to drink because of it. The only salvation I've had thinking about this guy is the possibility that he will be a hottie. Don't laugh! It could happen. I mean, surely not all IRS people are old man scrooges!

Diet-wise, I've not done well at all. I've pretty much been doing whatever all week, eating what I want when I want. I hopped on the scale this morning just to see how much damage I'd done and I am up 2 lbs. I figured as much and truthfully, it isn't bothering me. I know once the stress in my life settles down that things will get back to normal and I'll again move in the right direction. I did visit the website that Karon told me about and signed up. I've not followed any of their advice yet (sorry, Karon!), but I have been looking over the website and message boards each day to get inspiration. It all makes sense and I know I can do it. Hopefully, once tomorrow is over and done then I can get into it and get back to becoming a smaller version of myself:)

Time off

It's been another rough week here. I'm still trying to get things ready for our audit next Friday. I can't believe how many things this guy is requiring. I have them all, but all of last years paperwork is buried in my closet so it's taken some doing get it all back out.

Diet has pretty much gone by the wayside. I mentioned in my last post that I was probably going to stop using NS because of the expense. I went ahead and delayed my next shipment, but kept my account active just in case I can't do it on my own. At least that way I won't lose my discount. Anyway, this past week I've not even tried to follow any type of plan. I've ate some NS food that I still have left, have had lean cuisine meals a couple evenings too, but have also ate whatever I've wanted. Thankfully the scale is still the same as last week.

I know I can't go without some sort of formal diet. I've tried that in the past and it didn't work. I thought about just keeping my portion sizes small, but I seem to do that then add junk on top. Not good. So, will check out a website that Karon recommended and see what they have to say. I want to make this work.

Am I :-) or am I :-(

Another maintain for this week. Frustrating, but at least it isn't a gain. With all the crap I've been dealing with, I really am surprised that I didn't gain weight. Another thing that is stressing me out is that I think I'm going to have to stop ordering Nutrisystem. It's just getting too expensive. I've been reading over some of the NS board posts with others who follow NS without using their food and I think it is totally doable for me to follow suit, but it is still scary. I mean, I've not lost weight USING the ns food, do I really think I'll lose using my own? That is my stressed out mind talking now, but still, it does enter my mind. I am going to try though. I don't want to gain back what I have already lost.

It just keeps getting worse

I don't know how, but it just keeps getting worse around here. Maybe it's the fact that I'm already completely stressed out. Maybe it's that everything has decided to hit us all at once. I just know that I'm sick and tired of it all. I just want to run away or crawl into a hole and hide from the world. Can I do that? It wouldn't make any of these problems go away, but it sure would be nice to not have to deal with them. I'm not going to go into detail here, but I will say that the things that are going wrong are financial. It usually wouldn't be this bad, but it seems like the hole is just getting deeper and deeper no matter what I try to do about it. One of these days, it is going to be so deep that we're not going to be able to crawl back out of it.

The dreaded IRS audit

Guess what? I received a letter from the IRS a few days ago letting us know that our business has been selected for an audit. Yippee, I say. Sounds like fun. Just what I needed to add to my already stressed out life. WooHoo.

Thankfully it is just a payroll audit and not a full fledged federal one, but still it's not something that I'm looking forward to dealing with. Sure I keep good records, we pay all the required taxes (at least I hope we do!), file all the correct forms, etc. It's just the idea, I guess, that freaks me out.

The audit is scheduled for April 14th. I can tell you right now I'll be dreading that day until it gets here. Even then, I'll be a nervous wreck until the auditor leaves. Wish me luck, guys and gals. I hope I don't have a nervous breakdown before the big day arrives.

My week in review

It's not been an exciting week, but it has been a busy one.

Monday was spent doing all sorts of odds and ends around the house, trying to get a bit of spring cleaning done. It seemed like the day flew by and I really didn't get as much crossed off my list as I'd hoped. I did manage to get all the floors mopped and vacuumed, some clutter and junk tossed out and some major dusting done. I also rearranged some of my furniture so I now have a bit more room to do my striptease workout video. I even got in an hour or so phone call with my cousin to get caught up with each other. I always enjoy that:)

Tuesday was spent home with the kids. It snowed here, about 6 inches total, so they had a snow day. I usually don't mind them being home, but they were so rowdy that I finally had to force them to go outside and play to burn off some of their extra energy. I went out also and cleared the snow from the sidewalk, deck and part of the drive so got in a bit of exercise for myself too.

Wednesday was full of fielding phone calls from some of our customers who were wondering if our trucks had been out during the snows on Tuesday. All were answered with a yes and most of the people couldn't believe that we were out in that bad weather. I guess we should adopt the postman's creed. It fits us too. Thankfully most of the snow has melted from the roads already. That's the only thing I like about March snows. They don't last long at all.

Thursday was a fun day for me. My friend from Iowa was home again for a visit so we were able to get together for the day. Went to Applebee's for lunch and then came back to my house for a nice visit. Her kids loved it here. Can't say my cat enjoyed their company so much, but oh well. Made me feel good that the kids enjoyed seeing me and spending time together too, but it also made me sad that I don't get to see them very often. Usually just a couple times each year.

And then yesterday, that's the day that I usually look forward to, but not this week. Got into a major fight with the hubby over some stupid little thing so the day was spent being annoyed. Days like that tend to have everything go wrong too and yesterday was no different. Even the little things weren't working out right for me. I know my bad attitude didn't help, but I couldn't get out of the funk that the fight with hubby put me into. I didn't let it get to me so much though that I ate away the misery like I would have in the past. I did good and stayed on NS 100%.

Today I weighed (I forgot yesterday), but I was still the same as last week. I'm upset that I'm not losing especially since I was so psyched to restart and get back on track, but I'll just keep trudging along. The weight will drop off eventually (at least I HOPE it does) and I'll get there. Onward and downward I go. Talk to you later.

Another week gone

Another week gone, but no pounds lost for me. I figure it is because TOM is due to arrive any day so I'm trying not to beat myself up too much. I've done fairly well following NS and have only cheated one day. That was with a Subway sandwich so even then it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Things have calmed down a bit here, thankfully, so some of the stress that I've been dealing with has gone away. I'm ready for spring to get here and have even started doing some of my spring cleaning. There is a lot more to do though so it will be awhile before my house is nice and springtime fresh.

Not much else going on so will close for today. I hope everyone has a nice St. Patty's day! Later.

Weigh In

Sorry I didn't post Friday. I'm down another pound for the week so still moving in the right direction. It's still pretty stressful around here. Saturday was my nephew's 7th birthday party. I went along with my son. Made me realize why I never offered to host any bday parties like that for my kids. Gee was it loud.

Today is being spent working...again. Seems like it's neverending here lately. I'm so ready for a break.

Ugh

It's been soooo stressful around here these past couple of weeks. Running your own business sucks! I think I'm actually getting an ulcer from all of the worrying that I've been doing lately. What with keeping the customer happy, paying the bills on time and keeping the household running, I feel like I'm in way over my head.

This past week has been especially bad. This is the slow week of the month, but it seems like the busiest when it comes to the bills being due. Plus, I'm trying to get invoices ready to go out on the 15th and its just very overwhelming, for some reason, this time around. Maybe I need a break. Or better yet, some help! Hubby has two employees that help him out. Maybe I should look into getting someone at least part time to help me.

Anyway, the part earlier about my getting an ulcer, I think that could be a real possibility. The gnawing in my upper stomach is getting worse every day. Today it feels like something is going to actually eat its way all the way through. Not good, huh? If I don't start feeling better soon, I guess I'm going to have to force myself to head to the doctor.

Times like these I wish there was a magic little pill that you could take to make all of your worries disappear.

I'm back in the saddle again

It's not been a full week yet since I rededicated myself to following NS 100%, but I couldn't help myself and went ahead and weighed anyway. I'm pleased to announce that the scale showed a 2 lb. loss for these past 5 days! I'm psyched! I was hoping that once I set my mind to doing this that it would work. I'm doing the happy dance and burning off more calories as I do!:)

New exercise dvd

I just finished exercising to the new dvd that I bought and just wanted to hop on here and say how much fun it was. I've been searching for different tapes to do, but have never found ones that I can keep up with. Either the dance steps are too complicated (and I trip over my feet) or they're just too high impact and I can't keep up.

Well, I'd heard a lot about the Carmen Electra dvd (Aerobic Striptease) and thought I'd give it a try. I found it on half.com and purchased a copy. I got it in the mail yesterday and decided to try it out this morning. I was afraid that it was going to be just as complicated as all the others I've tried, but I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was. I actually made it through the whole dvd, no problem. That alone is a big accomplishment for me because half the time I can't even make it through the warm-ups! Anyhoo, this will definitely be a keeper in my collection. It was easy enough, but not so easy that I didn't feel that I wasn't getting a workout. I probably won't be doing it while anyone is home though. It might not be stripping, but there are some sexy moves included in it and that's definitely not something I feel my kids should be subjected to seeing their mother do:)

March 1

I saw this cartoon and thought I'd share. I wish they had this already.



Huh, well, this cartoon was supposed to be moving. Wonder why it's not? Oh well.

Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and check in midweek to let you know how things are going with my "starting over" process. Well, so far, so good. I restarted following NS 100% this past Monday (2/27) and, although it's been hard and I've been hungry, I've stuck to it. The exercise part has been going along well too. I'm not back to where I was when I quit walking on the treadmill, but I'm getting there. The time and miles will accumulate the more I walk. I couldn't believe how much I went downhill though. When I stopped walking on it, I was at 2 miles a day. Now I'm lucky to walk a mile before I'm huffing and puffing. And my legs are so sore. Ouch. But, I'm pushing onwards.

I peeked at the scale this morning (I just couldn't help myself) and it looks like it is going down so happy with that. I will have my official weigh-in Friday. I want to post a big loss so bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Starting Over

Alright, you all know how hard this diet has been for me these past few months. I've not been able to stay motivated or stick with it at all. The past few weeks I've actually been eating whatever I feel like, for the most part. And, truthfully, I've felt awful after each meal. The heartburn, the upset stomach, the feeling like I'm going to explode if I eat another bite. It made me stop and think if that's really how I wanted to feel after eating. It didn't take me long to answer that with a firm NO. So, as of Monday, I'm going to hit NS full force and get back on track. I know, you're all saying that instead of waiting until Monday that I should just go ahead and start today. But (yes, here comes the lame excuse) I want to have one last hoorah in the eating department before I go back to NS. I know, I know, that isn't a good reason. However, that is the mindset I'm in right now so don't argue with me. lol

I was looking over my NS profile the other day and here it is almost a whole year later and I'm not even halfway to my goal weight. I had hoped to be AT my goal weight by now, but because of these last few months and my lack of willpower it isn't going to happen. I'm hoping, though, that by recommitting myself to following NS 100% that by April 17th (my one year anniversary) I will at least be close to that halfway mark.

Friday Weigh In

The scale shows the same weight as last week so guess any pounds that wanted to come settle on my big ol' butt decided that I'd had enough grief and stayed away. I'm so sick of not being motivated to do this anymore. The pounds are slowly creeping back on. I just want to scream.

Rambling Thoughts

I was sitting watching tv last night when I got to thinking about Nutrisystem and how I've been doing on it lately. I thought long and hard about WHY I started Nutrisystem last April. I thought of all of the reasons I wanted to lose weight and all of the things that I wanted to accomplish. After doing that, I started thinking about what I've been doing to get to those goals and I came up with pretty much ZIP. ZILCH. NADA.

You see, ever since Thanksgiving, I've just not been in the mood to follow the NS plan. Actually since that time, I've lost a total of 3 measly pounds and last week I GAINED 2 of those back! And the way I've been going, that last one will come back this week.

There are days that I have all the motivation in the world when I get out of bed, but by the time lunch rolls around I'm at the McDonald's drive-up window ordering a Big Mac and fries. I'll be gung-ho about walking on my treadmill, only to let it slip by the wayside and then come bedtime, I've still not done any walking.

I remember how excited I was when I first started NS and how much motivation and willpower I had then. I diligently ate nothing but what was on the NS plan. I passed right by the fast food restaurants. I got as many steps in on my pedometer as I possibly could by taking a longer route to the mail box or parking farther away at the stores. I drank all my water. But now, for some reason, I just can't do it. I've tried almost everything I can think of to get that motivation back, but it just doesn't want to come my way.

I talked to my cousin today and we seem to think that it might be because of the winter months and not being able to get outdoors. I know in the past I've had problems with being energetic in the winter. There were times that I'd be in bed at 7pm. I just couldn't stay awake. It's not that bad now, but I do tend to notice the lack of energy and get up and go around this time of year. I hope that once the weather turns warmer and the sun stays out longer, that my motivation returns and I can kick this diet back into full gear. I don't want to gain back the 41 lbs. that I've lost. I don't want to lose all of the things that I've accomplished because of my weight loss. I don't want to go back. I want to move forward.

How to say I LOVE YOU in different languages

I thought this was interesting.

Afrikaans - Ek het jou lief
Albanian - Te dua
Arabic - Ana behibak (to male)
Arabic - Ana behibek (to female)
Armenian - Yes kez sirumen
Belarusian - Ya tabe kahayu
Bulgarian - Obicham te
Cambodian - Bung Srorlagn Oun (to female)
Cambodian - Oun Srorlagn Bung (to male)
Cantonese/Chinese Ngo oiy ney a
Catalan - T'estimo
Cheyenne - Ne mohotatse
Creol - Mi aime jou
Croatian - Volim te
Czech - Miluji te
Danish - Jeg Elsker Dig
Dutch - Ik hou van jou
English - I love you
Esperanto - Mi amas vin
Estonian - Ma armastan sind
Ethiopian - Ewedishalehu : male/female to female
Filipino - Mahal kita
Finnish - Mina rakastan sinua
French - Je t'aime, Je t'adore
Gaelic - Ta gra agam ort
German - Ich liebe dich
Greek - S'agapo
Hawaiian - Aloha wau ia oi
Hebrew - Ani ohev otah (to female)
Hebrew - Ani ohev et otha (to male)
Hindi - Hum Tumhe Pyar Karte hai
Hopi - Nu' umi unangwa'ta
Hungarian - Szeretlek
Icelandic - Eg elska tig
Indonesian - Saya cinta padamu
Inuit - Negligevapse
Irish - Taim i' ngra leat
Italian - Ti amo
Japanese - Aishiteru
Korean - Sarang Heyo
Latin - Te amo
Latvian - Es tevi miilu
Lebanese - Bahibak
Lithuanian - Tave myliu
Mandarin Chinese - Wo ai ni
Mohawk - Kanbhik
Moroccan - Ana moajaba bik
Navaho - Ayor anosh'ni
Nepali - Ma Timilai Maya Garchhu
Norwegian - Jeg Elsker Deg
Persian - Doo-set daaram
Pig Latin - Iay ovlay ouyay
Polish - Kocham Cie
Portuguese - Eu te amo
Romanian - Te ubesc
Russian - Ya tebya liubliu
Serbian - Volim te
Sioux - Techihhila
Slovak - Lu`bim ta
Slovenian - Ljubim te
Spanish - Te quiero / Te amo
Surinam- Mi lobi joe
Swahili - Ninapenda wewe
Swedish - Jag alskar dig
Swiss-German - Ich lieb Di
Taiwanese - Wa ga ei li
Tahitian - Ua Here Vau Ia Oe
Thai - Chan rak khun (to male)
Thai - Phom rak khun (to female)
Turkish - Seni Seviyorum
Ukrainian - Ya tebe kahayu
Vietnamese - Anh ye^u em (to female)
Vietnamese - Em ye^u anh (to male)
Welsh - 'Rwy'n dy garu
Yiddish - Ikh hob dikh
Zimbabwe - Ndinokuda

TGIF...Finally!

I'm so glad that this week is over. It's been a long, frustrating and stressful one to deal with. So stressful, in fact, that I "stress ate" my way UP TWO POUNDS for the week. I knew I was doing it though so nobody to blame but myself. I'll work harder next week to get rid of it.

The water leak has FINALLY been taken care of also. The plumber came out Wed and replaced the storage tank. We thought that took care of the problem, but yesterday I noticed another puddle forming underneath the pipes that they'd replaced leading to the storage tank. They were leaking now. So called the plumber back and they said they'd come back out today. So, they came back out this morning and repaired that so hopefully there won't be anymore water on my floor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. At least we don't have to pay for this second trip out here. Since it was their mistake (they used inferior pipe fittings according to the guy today) we aren't going to be charged.

My son got great news at the Dr. last night too. His wrist is 95 % healed and he no longer needs to wear the splint. Yay! He just needs to take it easy for another week, still no contact sports at school and he might have some soreness from starting to use his muscles again, but other then that, he's back to normal.

I need your opinions

I have a question that I'd like some opinions on. It's pertaining to my son's school work and his broken wrist. Whenever he first broke his wrist, the teacher stated that since it was his writing arm that was disabled that I could help him out on his homework by copying it to make it legible. No problem. He would work out the problems on a scrap paper and I'd copy them (even if I knew they were the wrong answer) into his workbooks. He has also had an ongoing project this year regarding the 50 States. He has to do a small report on each state that includes the population, state bird, state tree, some interesting facts about the state, etc. I distinctly asked the teacher if it was ok if I helped him on those also since they needed to be nice and neat. And so that he wouldn't get too far behind on them. She said that would be fine. So, each evening when my son got home from school, we would sit down in front of the computer, look up all of these facts for a state and he'd tell me what he wanted written down. We did that each evening for the past 4 weeks. Ok, here comes my dilemma.

Yesterday my son came home from school, practically in tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he said that his teacher was now saying that his 50 state reports hadn't been done by him and that he wasn't going to get credit for them. I called the school to find out what had happened and his teacher told me that she didn't believe that he had done any of the work on the reports because they were too neat! WHAT?!?! I told her that I'd written them up for him after he'd looked things up on the computer and told me what he wanted written down, but that I'd also called and asked her if that was ok. She'd said yes. I told her that he sat right here beside me at the computer each evening and we'd look up the information and he would tell me what he wanted to write down. Her comeback on that was that there was no way he could have finished that many state reports unless I'd been doing them throughout the day for him. Huh? Let's do the math...1 state report each evening for 5 days (we didn't work on weekends) would equal 5 states each week multiplied by 4 weeks would equal 20 states at the end of that period. I think that's entirely possible to do. She argued with me up one side and down the other. I argued back that I have NEVER done either of my kids homework and have always been adamant about them looking things up for themselves instead of coming to mom or dad for a quick answer. She just kept going on and on and then came the words that ended our conversation. "I don't' believe that your son did this work. I think you are lying about it to keep him from getting into trouble" Nobody calls me a liar! If his teacher had been standing in front of me, she would have walked, no make that crawled, away with some major physical damage. I took the high road though and told her that if she didn't believe me that we needed to take it up with the principal.

So, today, I get a call from the principal stating that they were only going to give my son credit on HALF of the reports and the other half he had to redo. When I asked why, the principal told me that his teacher didn't believe that he'd done them and wasn't backing down on that at all so rather then fail him on all of the reports, they came to this compromise. This compromise came between the teacher and the principal. No word from my son or me on the matter was taken into consideration. It was just between those two. There was no arguing with her on this either so I just let it go. I mean, it could have been worse. BUT, in your opinion, what would you have done if you were in this situation?