HCG Diet "r1p2d3"

I'm on day 3 of the diet and I'm down to 168 for a total of 13 lbs!! I feel great, I have energy and I'm LOVING waking up every morning and seeing another few pounds gone! Before I know it I'll be into my skinny jeans and out of my fat pants!

HCG Diet "r1p2d1"

Round 1, Phase 2, Day 1!

I decided to try the HCG diet and started taking the drops 2 days ago. I'm on day 3, the day you start taking in only 500 calories. I'm currently at 213 calories for the day and I've been VERY careful, counting everything. I started at 181 lbs, weighed in at 175.5 this morning. My weight has always fluctuated about 8 lbs so that change isn't necessarily due to the diet. We'll see.
I'v been peeing like crazy today lol but I'm guessing that's due to the 1/2-1 gallon of water I've been drinking every day.

Not Back To School - Day 2

Here it is day 2, and she's off to a great start. She has an online "live session" class today for an hour,
She bought herself a laptop using money she had saved in a savings account so she's pretty much set!
School officially started yesterday, and while she hasn't received her physical books and supplies yet, she's able to do most of her work with the online material.

Homeschool

I made the decision today to home school Rabecca for the 2011-2012 school year. A friend suggested Connections Academy to me today when I was looking for information, and I fell in love with it. After doing some research I quickly learned it was the best home school option available. It's a state funded online school, where she can learn at her own pace and I can be more involved with what she's learning. She is actually excited about it, and is looking forward to the possibility of finishing school early in the year. We've already signed up for some amazing field trips, and a "not back to school" camping trip next week!
There's still a few more steps to take for registration, but it should be finished this week and her first day is 8/30. From what I read, she's required to attend 'school' 5 hours a day during the week. It's very structured, she's actually assigned a teacher and we qualify for a free laptop for her to use.
Oaks Park has a home school event 9/9 from 11-4 I'm kind of excited about. $10 for a ride bracelet and skating, plus she gets to interact with other kids in the area that are home schooled. I must admit, I'm a little scared..but I believe it's for the best.
Here's to new adventures, bonding with my daughter and getting her back on track.

What happens when you leave your gear in your car overnight?....

Monday night someone broke into my Jeep and decided my skate bag ($60), including my uniform ($100), skates ($375 including gumball toe stops, Swiss bearings and heartless wheels), knee gaskets ($30), ankle braces ($13 each), wrist guards ($18), elbow pads ($20), mouth guard ($13), black derby skinz ($18), outdoor wheels ($20) Betties shirt ($?) among other misc clothes were more important to them than me..and..100 tickets to the Season 6 Championship bout valued at $14 a piece. I was the new Betties ticket wrangler..they were my responsibility. I decided to have 1/2 in my purse and 1/2 in my skate bag..so when I went into the hangar I'd have plenty on me..

I never leave my gear in my vehicle, much less in my soft top jeep. I coached Wreckers practice on Monday and   planned on leaving again later in the afternoon, possibly for an outdoor skate, so I figured it would be ok as I'd be back down shortly. Well I laid down, iced my knees and didn't leave the rest of the day. I forgot all about my gear until the next afternoon when I when to leave to the store. The back zipper was up and part of my top was ripped. Once I realized my bag was gone I couldn't breathe. The first thing that went through my head was "they're gonna kick me out..I can't play derby anymore"...due to loosing $1400 worth of bout tickets. I immediately called my captain in tears...she was quite calm surprisingly. After a few calls were made, I heard back and found out this type of thing has actually happened before. I was told not to freak out, it's not as bad as it seems. I was able to pick up more tickets for Cheap Ticket Night, and told again...it's ok. It's happened..."not a big deal"..I'll never forget those words. Those words convinced me this will in fact NOT end my derby career...

So throughout the day we searched garbage cans, local apartment dumpsters, posted fliers and went to a local pawn shop. Nothing. My friends and derby sisters immediately started posting all over Facebook: "Portland: Stolen skate alert! Black Reidell skates with fat pink laces, along with gear and a Betties uniform. Please keep an eye out for someone selling these!!"
I was so thankful to have the most caring friends!
Well, Beki told me later to come into the skate shop before practice that night. I figured maybe she had a used pair of skates I could use/buy, MAYBE there was an option for some kind of payment plan. When I go in, she tells me some money has been set aside to help me get new skates. I was shocked..I couldn't believe it. She asks my size, I say 9. "I've got a pair of 965's size 8 I want you to try"...there NO WAY I could afford 965's. NO way. But, she brought them out..and they were beautiful. Dark purple with a bit of black on the toe. They were wide, which was a miracle in itself. I have flat/wide feet. They fit..it was like having cotton balls stuffed into my skates lol. I do a lap around the rink..I was in heaven. They were SO light! They were custom skates that someone had ordered but were too big. I don't know how I got so lucky all the way around..but these skates were going to be mine. These 965 Minx purple boots with Revenge plates were going to be mine! How did that happen?! I was excited (AM EXCITED) but along with that I have a feeling of obvious sadness...other people would be buying these for me. Because I left my gear in my car. Because I messed up.
So Skatie Kat comes in and tells Beki the whole amt. of the skates would be covered. I teared up..I was planning on a payment plan for the balance. I find out there was some funds left over from a Chip In account that was created for Scrappy Go Lucky (my teammate) that was created just a few days before to replace her skates and that PMRD were the main donators to that account. She received some money for her birthday to get new ones..then sadly she lost her job and needed those funds for expenses. Then Skatie says there should be some more funds coming in and she'd just roll it over to be used for me. *insert overwhelming feeling of love and support here*

I head to the hangar with my new skates in hand and Skatie Kat. It was the Betties last practice, and without my gear, I wasn't able to participate. I chatted with Skatie while she waited for the guys to get back from an outdoor skate. When they got back, I ran outside to show them what they had helped purchase. It was impossible for me to put into words how thankful I was. But I tried and they all smiled.

When I got home, I logged into Facebook and saw a Chip In account was created for me! Before I knew it, there was $25 in there! Then $70, now it's up to $301! (it wouldn't refresh real time for me so that $ may not be correct) I didn't know who was donating, how much, I had no idea of the details. The only information I had access to was the comments to the right from people who helped. There's only a few comments but 20 total donations so far. The only ones I know about are from the comments and a couple personal friends. There was a woman I had skated with in an open scrimmage last month, a bouncer with the DC Rollergirls, a couple girls with the league and 2 people I've never met before! I will keep names private as they might want to keep it that way.
Before I knew it, the link to this page was all over Facebook. Girls from other leagues were posting, non-derby friends were posting, it was on a derby girls Yahoo group I belong to but honestly forgot about..I was full of emotions I couldn't express.
I'm sure I'll never know exactly who helped me but I will forever be greatful.
So I've got my skates, and I was able to buy new wrist guards elbow pads last night. I still need a few more things, but thanks to everyone's unbelievable kindness I should have everything I lost in the next week or so :)

<3 Nori

I'm a swapping fool!

I found this awesome website last year (Swap Bot) and it's seriously SO much fun! Basically you sign up for any kind of swap you want. Some are emails where you can swap recipes, song lists, a letter about yourself, etc. Some are flat swaps like postcards, a sticker sheet, a sheet of clear stamps, or a large package! Where you fill the envelope with scrapbooking supplies, ribbon, sewing supplies, basically anything you could think of.

I had some personal things going on shortly after I joined (and had an AWESOME rating) so it went down a bit but I'm trying to get it back up. I'm now back on and ready to swap again! I even created my own swap last night, just an email one but still!

6 months later!

I can't believe how bad I am at keeping a blog. I blame it on Facebook. Back in the day, when I used Live Journal, I'd write every day...*sigh*

So, I'll try to cram the last 6 months into a few paragraphs and bring everyone up to speed. Well...everyone as in those that happen to come accross my blog for one reason or another lol.

I'm still skating with the Rose City Rollers, and I'm now a Break Neck Bettie (!!!!!) I tried out for the Fresh Meat program for the second time back in December 2010 and made it. After a few months, I got cleared for endurance, then cleared for scrimmage/team practices. After a few practices and some talks with some of the Betties...I was hooked. I knew that was one of the teams I someday wanted to be on. RCR is such a competitive league, it's hard enough to make a team, much less make one of the teams you WANT...so it was a long shot.
So, the first draft since I made FM comes up. I was nervous, but since I had hurt my knees at Betties practice the week before and was actually (temporarily) on crutches, I didn't think my chances were good. The night of drafts I didn't go to practice. My attendance was fine, and I was sick so I figured if I didn't make it, I'd much rather get the news while sitting at Kay's drinking beer with John and some friends rather than sitting on the bleachers since I wasn't able to skate anyway. I get the call. I made it. I MADE IT! I was officially a BREAK NECK BETTIE! I cried. My derby dream came true, and much faster than I ever could have expected.

So I've now been a Bettie for a month. Season championships are next month (6/18/11) and we're going to take on the High Rollers.

Home Alone!

The kids are at my grandmas, John is at the beach for my brothers birthday and I'm all one! I've got coffee in hand, warm fire made and I'm excited to finish my dress for the "Miss Universe Pagent" themed Wreckers meeting tonight.
The agenda today consists of finishing my dress, finishing my hair (putting black & pink over the recent bleach job) Wreckers practice from 1-3 then the meeting at 6 and party after!
Tomorrow is Rosebuds practice, first day of bootcamp (OMG YES!!!!!)  then drinks with Kathryn around 6:30!

Alrighty, fires dying down and coffe is almost gone. Time to fix both and get on to my dress!

Good morning!

So setting my alarm for 5am doesn't really do me much good when I hit snooze every 10 minutes. So up at 7 instead!
I decided to juice this morning, but not my normal orange, strawberry, pear, apple, carrot juice. I've been wanting to try 'green' juice for a while now, I just couldn't bring myself to it. So today it's parsley, spinnach, kale, with a bit of orange. It's really not that bad and I'm really looking forward to the energy. I've been so tired and almost lathargic lately. My dr. thinks I have a vitamin b12 deficiency..I think he's right. This should do the trick!

Off to shower, clean up a bit then head to the studio where I'm sure I'll hit a brick wall and my head will go blank...what will I be creating today I wonder??

2 months later..

It's coming up on 2 months since my last day of work (Sept 2nd) and I can honestly say I'm not exactly proud of what I've accomplished. I planned to sew all day, every day, post items on Etsy, open my website and that would be that! I've done a bit of sewing, some roller derby events, school confrences, shopped for fabric, gone to practice and taken care of some personal things on my never ending to-do list.

My alarm is set for 5am and it's do or die. I told myself from theh beginning, if I can't do it, at least I'll know I tried. But I haven't...not really. I haven't put 100% into it and given it my all.

I'm giving myself 2 weeks. If I don't see a major change in my daily habits and drive, I'm throwing in the towel and rejoining the 40 hour a week work force...

raw dinner -

Last night Miya, her friend Lindsey and I met Sarah & Johan for dinner at the Blossoming Lotus. I've only been there once before, but it's an amazing vegan/raw food resteraunt. I never knew you could be in love with food! I had the raw taco salad for the first time and wow. Wow. Yummy! I also had the live nachos of course, I still need to try to make those at home one day!
Afterwards we went to the Hungry Tiger, apparently they have really good vegan corn dogs. Given the fact that I've now been raw now for 8 days it probably wouldn't be a good idea to fall off the wagon quite yet. It was quite a cozy atmosphere, there were couches on the back porch, and people playing board games. We played Apples to Apples, first time for me. Cute game!
~*~*~*~*~Oh my gosh! I totally have to take a minute to say how excited I am, I just found out I was eligible to register my skate name! It's been submitted! I'm so super excited, I decided to go with Nori Spekt! I feel a little more official lol~*~*~*~*~*
So THEN after the Hungry Tiger, we went over to CC Slaughters. It's a gay bar, I've never been there before. Really cool place, I can't wait to go back! I finally headed home around midnight, crawled into bed and drug myself in here at 8am this morning :)
I'm still so super excited about my name..Nori Spekt...lol :)
Boot camp tonight. 2 hours of getting my butt kicked!

Swap-Bot Fun!

I got a postcard today for my Recycled Packaging Postcard Swap, an envelope from my pink ribbon swap, an envelope of little goodies from my Newbie Niceties swap and my package of deco-tapes from my private swap. How cool is that! I guess all the stuff came yesterday, but I stayed home from work so it was there waiting for me. Speaking of, I changed my address so now I'll be recieving packages at home instead of work since I started to get quite a bit of mail. I'm having so much fun with Swap-Bot, what a cool new hobby! I'm in a few swaps currently that I need to work on and get out in the mail, I'll post about them later. I'll also edit this post with pictures of my packages!
Tonight I'm finishing up my journal for Two Weeks In My Lifeto get out in tomorrows mail, that's the one I've been more concerned with. I've NEVER kept a journal on paper, only blogging online and it really is a lot more difficult!

I'm hungry, what's for dinner!?

She said yes :)

So I've been trying to find a good way to ask Miya to be my derby wife for a couple weeks now but it just hasn't quite worked out. Last night, finally, I asked at Gay Skate :) A bunch of us derby girls to go gay skate, it's once a month and a lot of people are there. It's a ton of fun and basically just another 'open skate'. So I asked, and she said yes. I'm pretty excited about it, she's just adorable and the best derby wife I could ask for.

I'm going on day 6 of 100% raw! I've already lost about 8 lbs, but I know it's probably water weight. On top of that I've been skating my ass off and between the two I'm gonna be down to a size 6 in no time! That's my goal :)

*drooling* The Camera I want

I desperately want this camera. It's on sale right now for $399 down from $899, I've never owned a SLR before and it's about time I bought a grown up camera! :)

Boot camp day 1!

First day of boot camp down...barely..
We got our butts handed to us tonight, but it felt amazing! There were about 30 girls there, we really had to push ourselves. Squats, squats, SQUATS! Wow..I was hurting.
I'm probably not going to Wreckers practice tomorrow night, I'm not sure my body could handle it lol. Boot camp again Saturday and Sunday though!

Derby~Rawsome~Adventures~Creative

Derby:

**A few of us Wreckers met up with Viva & Texine with the High Rollers Saturday morning to be a part of the Street-A-Fair over off of Hoyt. It was a Grand Re-Opening for the local businesses. The lead singer from Everclear was there, we were able to get a picture taken with him so that was pretty awesome. We demonstrated some drills, mingled, and really enjoyed skating outside before heading off to practice. Miya's mom, son, and cousin tagged along too! After practice we headed out to the Mississippi Street Fair to hand out flyers and enjoy the rest of the day outside on skates. It was super busy! We had a beer and some vegan pizza at Mississippi pizza, and got to talk to a couple more people about derby! The street fair shut down around 7, then we headed back to Miya's where I grabbed my Jeep and headed home to sleep. I was so exhausted, and was asleep by 8. The next two days I felt like a truck hit me, and Miya was my angel with Epsom Salts lol.

**Boot camp starts tomorrow! I'm really excited, mostly nervous and a little scared. I think mostly because I don't know what to expect! Well that, and that just means Fresh Meat tryouts are just around the corner (8/12/10) I've heard Fresh Meat is much more intense than Wreckers and if our last practice coached by Wench Warden is an idea of what's to come, I won't be able to walk by the 2^nd day!

**If you don't know what a derby wife is, you're not alone…I had no idea about a month and a half ago. I think I'm going to ask a certain someone to be my Derby Wife J I recently posted on Facebook about this my friend Amanda posted the funniest reply

"remember, derby best friends make the best derby wives. there are still so many doors to open yet in derby Kara, dont rush into things, or you may wind up being derby divorced! then you have to divide up the derby property, hire derby lawyers, its a mess. Lots of derby fish in the derby sea. best of luck in your upcoming derby engagement. Ill be happy to officiate the ceremony when it all goes down. :-D "

I laughed so hard, that was priceless! Well, I knew within the first day or two that we had a lot in common besides derby, and there was an immediate friendship/connection there. She's really fun, laid back, into derby as much as I am and genuinely thoughtful. Now I'm just trying to figure out the best way to ask!

RAWR!:

**I promised myself when boot camp came around, I would go 100% raw for the 3 weeks I was in it..maybe that would be enough to keep me doing it longer! So today I had a medium zucchini (ribbons) some diced red & green pepper, shredded carrots, cilantro salad with avocado mashed up with lime juice for the 'dressing' and it was yummy!

I have a few new recipe books, so I'm excited to see what I can come up with!

 

Sewing/Creating/Adventures:

**I'm dying to start my own business. Every day I come up with new ideas and think of how to go about it. It's a bit hard to do when you work full time. I sewed a bag yesterday, it turned out pretty cute! The pattern is really basic, I'm thinking about editing it to make it my own design. Etsy keeps calling my name..I really just need to jump in and do it.

 

Playing Catch Up

I need to get a tattoo on my hand that says "Update Blog"...seriously.

A couple weeks ago Tini and I took 13 teenagers (Rosebuds) camping for the weekend. It was fun, but a lot of work/stress for only two people. This caused me to miss Wreckers practice. Last weekend, John, Bex, Rachaell, Jamie and I went camping with my mom, sister and niece down in Southern Oregon for the 4th of July/mom's 50th birthday (yet missing another weekend of Wreckers practice..) I'm really not sure how to explain that weekend, it was a strange one. I love my mom dearly, but I went home remembering again why I moved away.

More derby stuff..love it!! This weekend is my first practice in a month. I've gone to two gay skates and I've skated outdoors but with bootcamp starting next week I need to catch up. Ah yes...bootcamp. I'm so excited I can't stand it. I was on the waiting list for about 3 weeks due to a glitch in the shopping cart. There were 30 spots available and mine went through when there was still room. Aparently it synced up with the system when it was sold out...making me #1 on the waiting list. Well I got the email Tuesday, and I'm in! So starting next Thursday I'll be practicing about 5 times a week, twice on Saturday. It's going to kick my ass, I'll be sore, but it's (hopefully) going to get me ready for Fresh Meat Tryouts in August.
I just bought some awesome tights, socks and laces from Wicked Skatewear, I can't wait to wear them this weekend! And Beki at Oaks set me and Bex up with some awesome new (better) wheels than we already had so I should be set!

Work..ugh. I have a job so I shouldn't be complaining but it's nice outside, I have this great sewing studio/creative space that I'm not able to find time to get to and I'm not in love with my job..not the way I use to be. I can't wait until I come up with an amazing idea, and can sell billions of whatever that may be lol..until then I'm here. Monday through Friday..I'm here. In my cubicle..

Love..oh yeah! I'm more in love than ever. Every day I find yet another reason to be greatful for my awesome relationship. John's really been supportive of RD, helping me figure out what I want to do when I grow up, and the kids. I'm so happy it's one less stress I have to deal with.

Friends..where are they?! Facebook seems to be really the only way of communicating with my friends now, and I'm not exactly sure what I think about it. Jen and I text, Rochelle and I chat online, but for the most part, other than that it's all Facebook. We're all so busy so it certainly comes in handy..but what happened to the personal quality time, the friendly get togethers and happy hour?

I found a website yesterday, Swap-Bot. I can't believe I've never heard of this before, but it's a website where you can go to trade stuff! Handmade, New, Vintage, whatever! I'm excited to get started and start swapping, I love getting things in the mail! I signed up for a few already, one I'm most excited about is a journal swap. We keep a daily journal with a minimum of 10 entries and 10 pictures. We need to include 3 'souveniers' and an intro page. We then send it off to the person that was assigned to us and we get to read about the life of a complete stranger! I think it's really cool, and I'm going to tell them all about roller derby! Another one, is we just need to send a package of pink stuff. That's it, just pink items! Ribbon, note cards, stickers, fabric, etc. We get to read their profile and get an idea of the kinds of things they like and go from there. I can't wait to start getting packages in the mail!

That's it for now, time to work!

Tickets - Tickets- Get your Tickets!

I finally got to experience what it's like to skate in downtown Portland. I met up with Tyger and Tammy at Henry's for a drink before heading out to pass out flyers and promote the awesomeness that is Roller Derby.
We had a great time, the weather stayed dry, and at the end of the night Tammy ended up selling 4 tickets!

2 Year 364 Days!

John and I area heading out of town tonight for our 3 year anniversary. We're going on a weekend road trip with no set destination in mind and I'm pretty excited about it. Tonight we'll be heading toward the John Day Fossil Beds (I think) but we'll see! Now that we have a Cherokee we can throw the air mattress in the back and sleep back there. Who needs a hotel room when you've got an SUV! Lol Tomorrow I think we'll make our way towards Bend and hit some hot springs along the way.

The only thing that really sucks, is I'll be missing practice AGAIN..

I just want to skate!

Is this normal!? I work Monday through Friday 8-5, practice is Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. I live in Oregon, which means rain..and a lot of it. I FINALLY get my outdoor wheels and I have no idea where to skate around here.

I could go to Oaks, and pay $6 every time I wanna go but I'm hoping to find somewhere around here that doesn't cost. That's indoors! The mall? Lol I don't know how well that would go over..but the people would make great obstacles!