~*~Hearts Enchanted~*~

Never again

Date: July 31, 2008

Well no one ever showed up to bury the cable, so I called yesterday and was basically told that our burial was last priority on the burial crew's list and that they couldn't give me any set date as to when they would be here to bury it. I am so furious! For a month Charter Communications strung us along with "oh next week they will be there" everytime assuring us that this would definitely be done and we would have our services. Meanwhile we have a $68 credit earning interest in their bank. So tonight I drive to my sisters and call around to find an alternative. I am just in shock at how awful we were treated by Charter. 18 months of service, always paying on time every month and we were not only tossed aside, but then strung along with lies for an entire month. I repeat - I AM FURIOUS!!! I don't make a whole lot of money with the website but I can usually make enough to cover the extras we need each month (like birthdays which I have from July - November). School supplies are usually purchased with the money I make on here as well and I have all of that to buy for four kids this year since Tony should be starting kindergarten finally. So needless to say I suppose, this thing with Charter has set me back quite a bit. I will never again use Charter Communications for anything - ever. We are going down tomorrow to take their hardware back and demand a refund. I am going to see what this AT&T bundle is about. If that doesn't work out then I guess I am back to Bellsouth DSL and phone service and the kids will just have to make do without television. We get a few antenna channels at the moment but I guess they will be gone come February, I don't know. In any case, I hate Charter, I encourage everyone to boycott that sorry company and I will relish the day when that company collapses due to it's absolutely horrible customer service.

With all that negativity out of the way I can happily say I've lost 12 pounds so far on Atkins. Not too bad for a little over two weeks =) I think after the initial water weight loss that puts me around 4 lbs a week. If that rate of weight loss continues for just two more weeks then I will be down to my first goal and a full size smaller =)

I really have to say I am sorry I automatically discredited the Atkins diet the way I did when it was the fad. I really feel SO much better eating this way. I am so rarely hungry. I still have some sugar cravings, although they are limited to when I am really stressed out. This is psychological more than physical I think though. I have been an emotional eater since I was a child, but most of the time I drink some water or eat a string cheese, or if it's really bad I will run to Ingles and get a South Beach meal bar with just 3 digestible carbs and then all is well in my world. I try to really limit those meal bars though. I had one two days in a row and noticed on the third day that the number of ketones in my urine had dropped some - so there is an ingredient in there that interferes with my fat burning. In any case, those sugar cravings are few and far between. Maybe 3 times a week at most, which is so much better than before Atkins when I would have sugar cravings 2-3 times a day. Even if I didn't lose weight with this way of eating I wouldn't want to go back to eating all those carbs again. I felt like crap eating that way. My hair and skin was always so greasy and I was always tired and irritable and soooooo lazy. You know what else is amazing, my depression has vanished. Even on the days when I wasn't aggravated and tired of being around people, the darkness was still lurking there in my heart. But now it's like it just got up and left. It's awesome.

My only complaint really with this way of eating are the Atkins low carb food products. There are entirely too many digestible carbs in most of the items I've encountered, but from what I am told once Dr. Atkins died the company went to hell so, that stuff is not really as much an extension of Atkins. I have found that the South Beach low carb stuff suits me just fine for the time. I am also fairly certain that at some point in my weight loss I will probably have to start calorie counting on top of the carbs, but I suspect that is quite a bit down the road yet. Because of my height and my somewhat sedentary lifestyle I require very few calories in a day at my final goal weight, even with an hour of exercise everyday. That said, once the kids are all in school it might turn out that I am more active than I have been since I will have some freedom to do things without requiring a babysitter or dragging a child or two or four along with me.

Anyway, I've gotta go workout! Lots of love XOXO

GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Date: July 17, 2008

Charter Communications has to be the -worste- company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. One hiccup after another and here I am nearly a month without t.v., internet or phone. I am ready to drop them and go with DSL and Satellite television. No one showed up to bury the cable on July 15th, so when the guy came to install the cable to our house on the 16th, he couldn't because there wasn't any cable within 400 feet of the house :( So now they are telling us they will be here to bury the cable on the 22nd or 23rd and then the installation will happen on the 25th. We will see! This is the last straw. If I don't have the services I've paid for on the 25th I am getting a refund and going to DSL. I am so ticked off over this. Nearly two years of their service, buying their biggest bundle, account paid on time every month and we get treated like this :(

Anyway, so I am on day three of my new low carb way of life - and down four pounds =) Yes, yes, I KNOW it's water weight, but I've never even shed water weight that fast before =p I noticed that I don't start getting the sugar withdrawals until after Chris gets home lol.. He is stressing me into sugar fiending! haha... Anyway, I am real happy with the diet so far. I eat -plenty-. A few times I actually ate knowing I was already full because the sugar cravings were so bad, but from the one other time I did the low carb thing I know that's okay and that it will ease up by the end of the week. I can't wait to be able to recognize being full again - and to NOT crave food like a crack head craves the pipe. Soon!

I've also started my workouts today. I felt too tired and irritable the first two days but I woke up feeling okay (still a bit irritable) so I took the leap and got started. (Okay, I admit - the four pounds of water weight gone provided some motivation heh). Anyway, Arielle worked out with me hehe and we did 50 minutes of exercise altogether. 5 or 10 minutes of stretches, 10 minutes of step aerobics, 15 minutes of "weight training" and another 15 minutes of just dancing around to Metro Station, Madonna and Fergie lol... I say 5 or 10 minutes of stretches because we forgot to look at the clock before we started those, but we definitely did at the start of the step aerobics. Once I hit my first plateau I am going to bump the step aerobics up by 5 - 10 minutes (depending on what I can handle). I was so sore after the workout but soaking in a hot bath helped a ton.

I've also been practicing my pixel work. I've been doing the "painted" pixels for so long I lost the hang of just pixeling. I don't think it's too bad but I am definitely rusty! And pixel hair - OMG how I loath thee! I remember now that it was the two hours it would take me to pixel one single hairstyle that made me start painting the hair lol.. I was happy to get the TSSFF sigs caught up for sure. I am so head over heels for the Demera base I made for TMC. I've done quite a bit with it so far and keep imagining more things I can do with it.

Anyway, I've got my fingers crossed that I get to upload this on my internet on the 25th and that Patience doesn't hate me by then. Poor woman, I expected just a couple days of being absent and here she has held down the fort at TMC for nearly 3 weeks already :(

All set up (mostly)

Date: July 11, 2008

So I've spent what seems like forever getting my websites integrated. I like the result so far. I guess I will see once it goes live. I love our new home, it's beautiful and comfortable for the 8 of us (counting the pups of course!).

Being internetless has been pretty boring hehe. My house is utterly spotless which is nice though. We got Harvey the Guitar Hero game for his 12 birthday last week and everyone is addicted to it. I think I want a Playstation of my own now haha.. I want to try out Dance Dance Revolution though. That looks like soooooo much fun.

Anyway, I sure hope everyone likes the new layout and site integration. It was a lot of work but hopefully it will turn out to be less maintenance and more free time spent creating, chatting and playing WoW =)

~Amanda's Meanderings~

Never again

GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

All set up (mostly)

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~Link Hearts Enchanted~