Good grief am I tired!

This has been one of those weeks. Which in Shannan-land is really EVERY week. I am exhausted. School full time is really taking it's toll on my mental energy.  I am taking 12 credits  at a community college and this week we had/have midterms. I fear that I did terrible in my American government and politics midterm on Tuesday only because while answering the questions on the material I know, my mind went blank. I felt like I was being put on the spot and HAD to answer them right there in front of everybody even though it was a written exam. I hope I at least passed, but I won't find out until Tuesday. Tomorrow I have a geography midterm which I have yet to study for and an advertising exam which I have studied for, but need to refresh a little. Next Wednesday is my guitar midterm where I will have to play "And I love her" all the way through and I am sooo slow at guitar.

All this with working part time, taking care of my two children and trying to make jewelry and list it for my Etsy shop is making me so tired. My house is a mess. It looks like a frat house after a party replacing the beer cans with toddler toys.
The only thing keeping me sane is knowing I am doing this so that I don't have to live in such a small cramped environment, and I can actually have the career of my dreams, which at this point keeps changing (God, I would love to be a political speech writer, which is what I wanted to do back in 2000 when I was working for the Green Party and pregnant with my first son. I am too tired for that now. Now I am just going to settle for trying to get into journalism which is going to be a tough nut to crack, but I think I can do it. I just need to get this technical writing thing down).

I see some women doing the exact same thing as me yet they seem to have it all together. Is it just a ruse, or am I just not getting this balancing act?

I need a nap!

I am just a peddler of goods.

 Clover 14 designs
Things are going really slow in Etsy-land. I think it may be because I cannot list all the things I have made because my camera sucks, and I can never get good pictures... However,
I am really excited because starting in May, I will be selling some of these things in Lincoln City Oregon at a shop! I will post a link to that soon too!

 
PS, I made the rings for my Bridesmaids in a copper setting with mint green rose, and they were absolutely adorable! So I decided to keep making them in different colors.

Photos from my wedding.

Our Ceremony at Cathedral Park Portland, Or September 3, 2010

The groomsmen

Love this one

He stole my flowers!

We did it!!!

Flower arrangements made by me, cootie catchers as programs made by me as well!

Reception at the Jupiter Hotel Dream Tent Portland, Or Decorated by me and fam!

Signature drinks.

Cake made by Lambs market and added touches by me!

Made my bouquet. First time ever doing it I was so proud!

We are outta here!

Selling some new stuff on Etsy

I have listed a few of my items and will try and list more when I have time in my busy schedule. It is hard to list things when the photos have to be just perfect and I have no one to model a lot of the stuff I have made just yet. I really like the things I have made and I hope to be able to sell them to people for holiday gifts and maybe just to treat themselves.

Life is getting harder now that I am married and trying to buy a house someday. I really want to not have to work so much so I can spend some quality time with my almost two year old. He is growing up so fast and I don't want to miss it! There is a chance i will have to put him into daycare soon so I can work full time during the day. I did find a great one but It's just a shame.

My greatest hope is that I can push myself to continue to create things and  hope that some people enjoy them and I can sell them and buy more supplies to make more, and this can be a business for me. I tried doing it before about a year and a half ago and it just wasn't lucrative enough for me to keep doing it.


 I think being so DIY with my wedding is what made me decide to try again. I made a lot of stuff for my wedding including jewelry for my bridesmaids and hair clips for them and myself. I will post pics of my wedding in my next blog post tonight.

hypnotized, hiking and losing another pound!

So, I lost another pound, but not sure from what. I am down a total of 23.2 pounds! I went hiking about 1.5 miles yesterday up and down Beacon Rock which is the 2nd largest free standing rock in the world. I have done the DVD and CD that hypnotizes you to lose weight three times, and the weird thing is I have barely eaten anything and felt REALLY full. Maybe it is all in my head, well of course it is, it's hypnotism, but I think it may be working. I notice I only eat half of things, even half of a granola bar! It's a little odd. I have been craving vegetables a lot too!
I guess I will see how it works out. I like noticing the weight loss on the scale, but it sure has been slow. Working out feels great though, and i think I will stick with that. I can feel my clothes fitting better, and my stomach that looked like there was a full term baby in there (a year after my baby was born!) now only looks like I am in my early second trimester! I am posting the view from where we went hiking yesterday. It was breathtaking!

I think it may work...

So I have worked out on my Wave three times since I got it and the scale has shown a 1 pound decrease! Coincidence? Maybe, but I don't mind. Working out on that thing is HARD!! It feels good though, and my legs seem to already be tighter. What I really want is for my stomach to shrink though! Well, I have 7 more workouts and they promised me that I would see results. I think it might be true. I will keep you posted.
I got my Think and Lose DVD/CD yesterday too, and I used it last night. It is made really low budget and it seems weird. If it doesn't work I can send it back in thirty days for a refund but we will see. I am open to it. I will give it a couple of weeks.

Adding exercise is hard

So, I got this contraption called The Wave form an info-mercial I saw one night and it arrived yesterday. I used it once and it seems like it might just have what it takes to get me into shape and help with my stomach which is my biggest problem area. It claims that I will see visible results in 10 workouts so I guess I have nine left to see if it works. It is easy enough, although with my hurt knee I cannot do some of the floor exercises. It is a curved step like thing that you use as a step on one side and then flip it over and use it for it's rocking motion on the other. It came with five workout DVD's and a resistance band which is actually a cheap piece of pink rubber but I think it will do the trick. When I worked out yesterday i just did the instructional DVD and the 10 minute ab DVD and i was sweating even though I had to sit out of some of the floor exercises. It was easy enough for a giant person like me and I exceed the weight limit by over 25 pounds and seemed to have no problem whatsoever.
I will say that my ankles and calves could feel a lot of the workout so I hope I don't injure myself because of that. It looks like you can do modified versions of everything so it would be good for a beginner like me and someone advanced.
 I sound like I am trying to sell the thing lol, I am not. Just trying to show an accurate description of this device. I think I can find a picture online and post it on here. I don't even know if it will work, it just seems like it could. I paid $49.99 and I have one more payment next month of 29.99. That included shipping and all the DVD's. I'm sure I could have bought it on Amazon for cheaper but It was one of those late night I was feeling fat and saw an info-mercial that convinced me two easy payments of $29.99 plus shipping was a good idea.
Two days ago I ordered a CD that is supposed to hypnotise you to not eat a lot. I forgot what it is called but they got me with the 30 day free trial! I will have to post how that works too.

Weight Watchers has been good to me. I am still down, and I am down 20 pounds since February. I only started doing Weight Watchers in May I think. I haven't gone to a meeting in a little over a month and I think I should start going. They are really motivating. It also makes you remember to not binge when you know you have to weigh in and if you gained they will know you cheated. I like being held accountable and I like feeling proud when I lost the weight and they give you a little reward. It is what works for me.

I guess it is time for me to work out. I will never know if I will get results in ten workouts if I just let it sit in the corner and collect dust! After today only 8 more workouts to go! That's not too bad.