Wow a whole week… and I was doing pretty good too! I guess that’s what happens when your busy and feel like you don’t have enough time to get everything done. We decided to move into my parents house a little early. We went for the weekend to visit last weekend and just never left.  It started out that we didn’t want to feel rushed by trying to move everything in the last weekend in May. So we started bringing things up that we are not using. Then we moved on to some clothing we used but not all the time. Next thing I know we are moving the bed or the mattress anyway up. After that we had no where to sleep other then my parents place.

This weekend we are taking Saturday to pack and move as many boxes as we can fit in my car (it’s a 4 door Cobalt so it’s roomy enough). Unpack things in the late afternoon and early evening on Saturday and then I plan on vegging Sunday for some of the day. Monday is Victoria Day in Canada. It’s a National Holiday but it is not Statutory (not a paid holiday) in Nova Scotia. However my employer has been kinda enough to give the day off to us with pay. Which is awesome! I still have to drive Keith in to work for 8 and pick him up for 4:30 or 5:30 but I have the rest of the day to do whatever I like. Which I plan to enjoy!

I have been walking 3-4 times since last weekend for about 3 km each walk. I plan on building it up to about 5 km 4 times a week by the end of next weekend. To the end of our road and back is about 1.8 km. I plan on walking to the end of the road and then going down the main road for another 1.6 km and then turning around and going back which will be 5 km total. The road into Chester is beautiful. I really want to create a weight loss blog but just haven’t found the time to get it set up beyond the install of wordpress in the directory. I have not had the time to create a theme or anything. Maybe I’ll just use one of my old themes to get it started…

After a lot of deliberation and discussion and an offer from my parents, Keith and I decided the easiest way to get out of debt, besides trying to follow an impossible – impossible for me anyways – to follow budget is to move in with my parents for a year or so. I only say impossible, not because I have no idea how to follow a budget. Which I really don’t!  But because it’s hard to pay out more in bills, rent and debt then what you make in a month, that’s why I say impossible!

Therefor we decided to move into the 4th bedroom in my parents 4 bedroom home. It’s going to make for a bit of a crowded house.  There is my brother (he’s 19) in one bedroom. Mary Ellen (a friend of the family who lives with them… I mean us) in the second bedroom. And my parents in the 3rd. Luckily there is a rather large 4th bedroom/den downstairs on the main floor that has a half bath/laundry room attached to it. We are going to either put our stuff in storage here in Halifax. Or we will take it to Chester with us and store it at my parents house, in the basement. Speaking of which. We may finish off a room in the basement as well for storage/rec area for Keith and I. Just so we have a little more room.

The plan is to take the rent money, the phone/cable/internet which is all one bill, and the money we spend on power, groceries etc, and pay off the debt we both currently owe separately - as we haven’t got a whole lot of debt together yet thankfully – and give my parents $200 a month for groceries and just to help out. Meaning that we probably have an additional $600 to $700 a month to put on past debt and in our savings. So we are aiming for a year. Maybe a year and a half to pay off all or most of what we owe. Then in a year or so when we move back out and find a house to buy or rent we are either debt free or almost debt free. And hopefully with better credit ratings too. So that’s the plan. And we are hoping it works. In theory it’s a great plan.

We both get along with my parents really well. They treat Keith like a son. For the most part. They wont tell him off yet the way they do me when I piss them off. But I’m sure that’s not far away. They are comfortable with him and he is with them. Which is awesome since he’s the guy I plan on spending the rest of my life with. It makes me so relieved to know that they like him and approve of him. More then approve. They think he’s good for me. In so many ways.  I’m not sure I have ever admitted this to anyone before. And I’m not sure I want to admit it now But I am excited and happy to move home this time. I love my family and have always enjoyed their company but I hated the feeling that I could not rely on myself. That I always had to rely on someone else.

Now I feel like we are taking charge. Keith and I. Together. It’s a really nice feeling.

Today is officially my last night shift at work! I start 9-5 on Monday. For the month of May anyway. Hopefully it will be a permanent thing! I don’t mind nights but days are better. I will miss sleeping in though! Am I the only one who loves to stay in bed till 10 or 11? I don’t like doing it every day. Just once in a while. So anyways I guess I am excited about it! I have not been doing a lot other then going from work, to home and home back to work it feels like. So maybe the change of hours will be good.

Keith and I are looking for a house. We are hoping to rent something just outside the city since our hours will be similar and he can get a ride in with me everyday. I really want something homey and not too small but not too big either. 2 or 3 bedrooms. One for us. One for a computer room/rec room. And a spare bedroom that we can get a little bed for (or maybe an extra bedroom for us later?!?!). We want to find a place with a nice big back yard, a deck (or somewhere where they will allow us to build one). Keith is a carpenter so we are hoping maybe we will find a place that the landlords will not mind us improving and maybe compensating some… They seem to do that a lot in the smaller towns around here. People don’t care if you ask first usually. I want somewhere where we can get a dog. I really would love to get a chocolate lab or something like that. Apartments are no place for animals. We learnt that with Midnight. She drove us nuts. I have never seen or heard of a cat that could not occupy herself!

I’ve been searching the web for tutorials for photoshop and illustrator and I found a pretty good site that gathered a bunch of website layout tutorials. They are great cause you can follow it and create what they have and then you can do it a second time and let your imagination run wild! To bad I don’t know how to code something that comprehensive from scratch. But I am going to try it. I’m going to take my time and take a couple of weeks and really design it. Then take a few days to figure the coding out. And then who knows. If I like it I will put it up here. And I may make a few for download. I know I can do it. I just need more time to do things. But I annoy Keith when I am on the computer a lot. So I try doing it at work or when he is occupied with hockey. Since that seems to be never ending right now. I will be soooooooo glad when the playoffs are over. I would love to see Pittsburgh win though. Just because of Sydney Crosby!

I went back to work yesterday for a 5 hour shift. I am feeling better but I wanted to be sure before doing a full shift. So I went in for 4 instead of 1. I have good news though! I am going to days in May! I will finally be working a 9-5 job Monday-Friday. Since I love the job this is great. I am glad to be back. I was a little concerned about missing time. I hate missing any time. But if your sick your sick…

This will also give me a chance to get out more and do things. I am going to set up a schedule for walking every week. 3-4 times a week. Maybe a day or two with Keith and a day or two without since he wants to walk to but enjoys walking alone sometimes. I also like to go places for a walk , like trails and hiking and he doesn’t so maybe I’ll take off and go find a trail somewhere. There are tons of trails around Halifax and Dartmouth both. I sometimes miss living in Dartmouth.

We’re going to go down to my parents today after he’s done at work. Need to get some laundry done and find out when they want to start building up the ground for the pool. I can’t wait! I want to loose weight so bad. I was doing so well last winter and summer but this winter I just let myself go and gained back some of what I lost the winter before. I am not going to let that happen next winter. I am buying season passes for Denton (my little brother) for our birthdays for Martock. Well I am going to get his for his birthday anyways and also see if my parents can get one for me for my birthday rather then anything else. Or even some money towards it as it’s $115 for the pass right now for next season. I need to also figure out if I am going to get a season rental pass for equipment again of if I am going to buy skiis.

I’m doing pretty good following my budget. I am out of money for the month but since I have only a week left it’s better then running out half way through like normal. Next month is going to be tough again cause my first pay is not going to be a full one. But I just have to re-think things and re-work things to fit. I’m getting there at least. I know where my money is going. Now it’s just a case of getting everything current and up to date so I have less to pay each month. I am really terrible with money and Keith is not much better. I don’t really know how people do it? Anyone care to share ideas?

It’s nice and warm and sunny out again. Last week was snow and – temperatures and the week before was rainy and warm and the week before that was hot and sunny. So it’s nice to have the sun back and the warmth. It’s a beautiful spring day! And I’m stuck inside instead of being out enjoying it.

I’ve been off work since Monday. I started having really sharp intense pains in my chest on Monday and was concerned when they would not go away so I went to the hospital. After 10 hours (and countless fights between Keith and the Doctors) I got sent home without knowing what was wrong. I went to sleep as soon as we got home and by Tuesday morning the pain had moved lower to the top of my abdomen on my right side. Near where my gallbladder is. I went to my family Doctor and she said got me to go get some more blood work done.

Yesterday morning I ended up at the hospital again because I still had the pains on my right side. And occasionally on my left. On top of that I was vomiting constantly and really nauseous. They still couldn’t figure out what was wrong and sent me home (more fights between Keith and the Doctors) and today I am still sick and still in pain. I think it might be getting a little better. I’m hoping by taking another day off and just laying on the couch and watching TV and not moving much that some or all of the pain and nausea will go away.

Anyways I put up the new layout. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything or mess anything up… I worked a long enough time on it that it shouldn’t be. I created it in illustrator and photoshop. My first illustrated layout. Or anything really.