30 Days of Truth

I read an email from Biz Mommy about a posting challenge of sorts called 30 Days of Truth. She joined up with the blog With Just a Bit of Magic to post once per day, each day having it's own question or topic to write about.

I think this is a great idea, to help me discover my blog writing style and to learn some interesting things about other bloggers and myself. I'm starting a few days late so I'll be catching up today.

Random Me

Some random facts about me.

1. I hate winter, well I hate ice and white knuckling it in the car while I worry about sliding on said ice and crazy Iowa drivers.

2. I’m sort of winging it with trying to figure out how to raise a 13 year old boy. I mess up often. But in the end I hope he turns out to be a good person, though he will likely be a snarky sarcastic cynic.

3. I’m a sweepstakes and giveaway junkie. I love winning things, anything and everything. Though I do limit my entering to things that I actually want or would give as a gift.

4. I’m an extremely open, honest person. I’ve been told I’m extremely opinionated and sometimes even brutal and forceful with those opinions. I’m learning to be less overbearing.

5. I talk and act and write in the way that I think. I can connect the dots in my head, but sometimes have to slow down to let others do the same.

Reel Reviews, Grown Ups

Here goes my first post for What I Watched Wednesdays. I’ve watched quite a few new to dvd movies lately, which sounds a little like it’s something different, but actually I watch dvds pretty much every week.

Grown Ups came out last week on dvd. I knew I would want to see it when it came out on dvd as it is chock full of some seriously funny guys. Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, and David Spade all in one movie. Should be laugh out loud, pee in your pants, hilarious, right? Wrong. I was worried right away putting the dvd in. That many funny people in one movie and you expect a lot and it’s easy to get let down.

The plot was almost non-existant. The guys grew up together, went their separate ways, and are brought back together for a funeral. The rest of the movie is almost like they were winging it to see what happened. You get very little in-depth character development as there are so many characters. There are a few moments where I giggled, but nowhere near the belly hurting, tears running down my face, laughter I would have liked.

It’s a movie you could watch with your family, there are a few suggestive parts. All in all, I would watch it again on tv unless there was something better on.

What I Watch Wednesdays

I watch movies. It’s rare that I go to the theater, it has to be something really big for that seeing as how one freaking movie ticket is $9.50 and there are three of us. Add in deliciously buttered popcorn with Reese’s Pieces on top and you almost need to take out a loan for two hours worth of entertainment (and if the movie sucks, well…at least the popcorn is good.)

So I rent dvds, usually within a week of them coming out. The employees at the local Family Video know us all by name, actually one of the girls quite frequently flirts with my husband. We generally have a late fee as we’re terrible at remembering to bring movies back on time, but they know we’ll be back in so if we toss them a couple extra bucks we’re golden.

I also subscribe to every movie channel available. I have HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Starz and Encore, The Movie Channel and all the independent movie channels as well. I subscribe to the On-Demand service so I can watch whichever of thousands of movies available.

Needless to say (which makes no sense because I’m going to say it anyway) I watch a lot of movies and I have opinions on them. I’ve seen a lot of blogs with recurring weekly themes and this is something that I like so I’ll give it a shot. I do watch some tv shows as well, maybe we’ll see some comments on those as well.

Mamavation Monday (well, actually Tuesday)

I'm still getting over being sick. My sore throat is gone, but I've still got a cough lingering. I had my Scentsy launch party last Wednesday. My sister and I spoiled ourselves and got mani/pedis. I've only had a few other manis and only one other pedi. I would love to treat myself all the time, it was so relaxing! I got gel nails for the first time, that was a lot of fun, though it was extremely stinky!

Of course, I worked all week and my energy level is still pretty low, so exercising was non existant once again. I'll keep putting that on my goals list and I will get it accomplished. It's hard to motivate myself to exercise though. Before work, I either have only a little time or I just want to sit down a bit. I head off to the casino and run my ass off and by the time I get off work my feet are sore and all I want to do is get off them.

Challenges

1. Still getting over being sick, energy level very low.
2. Eating at work! I only ate at work twice, one time I gorged on breakfast food and the other I had some pizza. I do have a lunchbox that I recently won. I just need to get to the grocery store for healthy options to put in it.
3. I'm finding it very difficult to motivate myself to exercise.
4. I forgot that one of my goals was to track my calories and food.

Successes

1. I weighed myself at the mall when I was getting my mani/pedi. I'm at 232 pounds. I'm nowhere near happy about this weight, but I actually thought it was quite a bit more. I'm glad that I have my starting point though. I still need to get measurements in.
2. I drank my four cups of water everyday! There were several days I drank double that, but four was my goal and I hit it.
3. Last Thursday, it has been 8 weeks since I've had fast food. I have eaten at Subway though. Subway and Panera are the only two places that are "fast food" like that are on my ok list. I love Subway! I used to go there all the time when I was in high school and I would always order a ham and cheese. But once I tried something new, I was hooked on trying new subs! My current favorite is Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, delicious!

Goals

1. Stay away from fast food! I think my goal is 3 months and then I might treat myself. Depending on if I even want it then that is.
2. Four cups of water per day, more is of course better!
3. Measure myself.
4. Track calories 4 out of 7 days this week.
5. Exercise two times this week, for twenty minutes each time.

Billie's Question of the Week
     If you have a physically demanding job like myself, how do you motivate yourself to exercise     outside of work?

Mamavation Monday

I have bronchitis. I got up Tuesday morning with a sore throat, by Wednesday morning I was coughing like a maniac. Thursday I went to see the doctor and was prescribed antibiotics. My sore throat is gone, but my cough is still kicking my ass.

As far as food, water, exercise wise it's been an odd week. Some days I did extremely well monitoring what I ate, controlling portions, etc. Other days I just gorged myself with whatever I could find. Water was the same way. I drank loads one day and barely any at all. Exercise aside from running around at work was non-existant. This past Thursday was seven weeks without fastfood and believe me I could have caved. My husband and son both mentioned picking something up. I told them no and that if they wanted to eat there that was fine. So basically I did exactly what I thought I would do. I made goals and had great intentions with no follow through. But I'll try again and again until it sticks.

Challenges

1. Being sick. I could barely get to work and by the time I got off, I was exhausted so it was difficult to exercise.
2. Lunch break at work. I was able to eat smaller portions one or two days, but the other days I gorged. I did stay away from the donuts. If I had a cookie or brownie, I only had one.

Successes

1. I'm going strong on avoiding fast food. I do wish I had seen even the tiniest of weight difference, but I know that it's a healthy choice to avoid them.
2. On some days, I did get in quite a bit of water.
3. I was mindful of what I was eating on most days.

Goals

1. Continue to avoid eating out.
2. Drink more water! My goal is at least 4 cups per day. I will increase when I've made that a habit.
3. Be mindful of what I eat. Pay attention to portion control. I've decided this week, starting tomorrow, to track everything I eat. I hope to use this to see what/when I eat, so that I can attempt to change it.
4. Weigh and measure myself! I asked Dani to bring over her fabric tape measure, but she forgot and nobody I know owns a scale, so it was difficult to weigh or measure myself. I have to get this done soon, so that I know where I stand! That's the only way I'll know if I make a change.
5. Again, my goal is to exercise twice this week.

Congrats to the newest Mamavation Moms! I wish you both luck on your journeys and I hope to be able to offer support and encouragement.

So there you go, once again. Laid out in black and white. Let's see how it goes.

What are your rules of tipping?

I work at a casino as a slot attendant. I get above minimum wage per hour, plus tips. Tips are shared by all slot attendants in the department. I went to work today and checked to book on how our tips were for the previous week (they are tallied once each week and added to our paycheck every other week). Our tips were on the low side, low enough that we'll be able to tell in our paychecks. There were two other slot attendants in the room with me when I checked the books and we started a conversation about how low they were.

One lady expressed that we should be able to wear something that states "Tips Appreciated/Welcomed". I told her that I think that is solicitation. She stated that at the cage (Customer Service counter) they have small boxes that are labled "Tips" in plain view of the customer. The slot department also has the same small boxes, but ours are hidden in our employee window of the cage and in our slot office. Cage representatives get considerably less tips than we do even with the clearly marked boxes.

Most of our tips come from jackpot winners. It's nearly impossible to know who to expect a tip from. A smaller jackpot winner might tip you $100, while a large jackpot winner might give you zero. I'm sure there are people that have no clue that you can tip the slot attendant, but I'm also equally sure that there are those that know they can, but just refuse.

The same lady then said she has been to several restaurants where the server asked how much she gratuity she would like to add. I asked her if she was using a credit card and she said no. She said she had no money to add to gratuity. I said I thought it was wrong to go to a restaurant without enough money to add as a tip.

My rule is that I tip everyone that does me a service. My hair stylist (when I get it done), servers, bartenders, etc. I tip 15% of my total at for decent service and 20% for fantastic service. It has to be pretty bad for me to tip less than 15%. I've been a server and a bartender and those tips are important, but it's doubly important to provide outstanding service to get that tip.

So what are your rules on tipping? Would you tip the slot attendant if you won a jackpot? Would you go to a restaurant if you had no money to tip?