Where Stars Fold

Moving

2010-02-01T17:07:00.000-06:00

I tried to make it work with Blogger, but I'm switching over to Wordpress.

http://echoingmetaphor.wordpress.com/

I want your everything, As long as it's free

2010-01-29T19:01:00.002-06:00

I can't believe I have been away for so long. Yikes!

A couple of updates:

Health
I went and met with the ENT specialist this week regarding my sinus issues. The news wasn't great but also wasn't bad. I've basically exhausted all of the non-surgical options so the last resort is surgery. I'm scheduled for Endoscopic Sinus surgery at the end of April. I really wanted to avoid surgery at all costs but if I do then I have to live with my sinus issues for the rest of my life and it's super unpleasant. The surgery only takes about an hour, I'll be put under and there should be no cutting. He's going to go in and scrape away all of the cysts in my various sinus cavities and then he's going to drill larger holes so that they'll drain better. Those 2 things should considerably improve my quality of life and I cannot wait.

The only downside is I won't be able to run in the 5k I wanted to do in May... but I'm ok with that. This needs to get resolved ASAP. And the sort of good thing is I'll get 4 days off work and he says recovery won't be bad.

Life
I found out today that our household has been selected for the Nielson Homescan panel. I went and checked the mail tonight and our scanner had already arrived. I am a giant nerd and can't wait to get started on this! The scanner is charging as I type and starting tomorrow I scan everything that gets brought into the house!

This week was my bf's birthday. He turned 31 which he wasn't particularly thrilled about but what can you do? I overspent again on his gifts. I gave him the X-Files complete series boxed set (which now he says I have to watch with him... ugh!) I also gave him a leather coat which I'd purchased at Danier after Christmas. He LOVES his coat which makes me SO happy! At the last minute I also went out and bought him a video game which cost me an insane $80.

Because of the birthday this whole week has been TERRIBLE in terms of food :( There was lots of delicious cake. Also, I was kind of, not depressed but unhappy re the surgery news so I had Subway for lunch one day which included cookies and pop. No more though. Tomorrrow I get back on track. Clean and healthy eating. My birthday is in a few weeks so there will be more cake then, but then that's it!

With the cleaner & healthier eating comes be getting back on track with my workouts. The wii has been severly neglected these past few weeks. I need to fix this ASAP! Tomorrow I`m going out shopping and I need to find some kind of better resistance band for the EA Sports Active. I think I might also jump on the same bandwagon as everyone else and dust off the 30-Day Shred and get that started.

Since my goal of running a 5K in May has been put on hold, my new goal is to lose 10-15lbs before my surgery. I have 3 months to do this so it`s totally realistic.

And that`s about it for now. After tomorrow`s shopping outing I`ll be able to finalize my January spreadsheet for my budget and then I`ll post my February goals. I`m kind of excited January is almost over. It wasn`t a terrible month or anything but lots of bad happened and I`m ready to put everything behind me and start fresh.

2010-01-23T08:12:00.003-06:00

So I've been pretty much off sick with the flu all week. That was unpleasant :/ I did go back to work yesterday to try and get caught up on some work but missing 3 days meant I fell WAY behind on everything. I'm seriously contemplating going in on Sunday to get some uninterrupted work time. We'll see though because I also need to start my course if I want to write my exam before March 31st.

This week I got paid which is always fun. There's still a week left in this month and I already know I'm going to be way over in the grocery section. I talked about it with the bf yesterday and for the month of February I'm going to try something different. Instead of shopping at the Sobeys by our house I'm going to head over to one of the cheaper stores, either the No Frills or Food Basics and see if that makes any difference. The interesting thing, in January we have my bfs bday so we buy some more expensive food for a meal. In February we have both Valentines Day and my birthday.

In the mail yesterday I also got my renewal notice from Costco. My membership is due in March and for the last 2 years I've paid for the Executive Membership. Up until about a year ago we would shop at Costco on a weekly basis and most of my groceries would come from there. I've slowly changed my habits though and don't spend as much at Costco anymore so this year I will downgrade back to the regular membership. One of the advantages of the Executive one is that you get some cash back. I got my voucher and it's for $55 so that's enough to cover the lesser membership. Yay!

Birthday

2010-01-18T16:31:00.002-06:00

So my birthday is coming up in February and my bf has been asking me for a couple of weeks now to provide him with a list of things I want.

Well.. given that Christmas just happened and I had a hard time coming up with a list for THAT... I'm having an even harder time trying to find things I want! I love my bf very much but he's not very imaginative when it comes to gifts. Also, he's not one to go out and purchase something, he'd likely find a way to order it online. This makes coming up with ideas kind of hard.

I honestly have no idea what I want. Maybe I'll just ask for an ipod to use for running. I already have one but it's one of the big & heavy ones and I love, love, love it but running with it kind of sucks.

Jeff's bday is actually coming up next week but I, being more organized bought his gifts during the boxing day sales. I always spend more than our limits on him so it's good I get things at great deals!

In better news, Pay day is in 2 days!

Weekend Update

2010-01-17T12:15:00.003-06:00

I have had such a lazy and unproductive weekend. I actually hurt myself SNEEZING. Wtf is that??! I have managed to get some cleaning done, but as my movement is limited due to my sneezing injury (so ridic) I haven't been able to workout. It seems as though every weekend a different excuse comes up and that needs to stop.

I wish they would stop playing Christmas commercials on tv. That being said, I still need to take down my decorations.. but I guess they don't feel all that Christmas-y since they're purple.

I'm trying out my new crockpot for the first time today. I made some Boeuf Bourginion and it's making the house smell AMAZING. I also plan on using it more time this week to make some pineapple pork. I really need to find some more recipes so I can get in the habit of using it a few times a week to free up some of my time when I come home from work.

Catching Up.

2010-01-13T16:35:00.002-06:00

I've been on a course all week which has me going into work at my regular time but getting home about 2 hours later which is kind of making things sucky right now.. but it's only temporary so I'm trying not to let it stress me out. It doesn't help that this course is keeping me away from my regular work so when I come home I spend a couple of hours playing catch up with all of my emails. It's only temporary. It's only temporary!

On monday I was able to get a quick run on the treadmill in. I only got a mile done again because I accidentally wore the wrong shoes. Whoops! The good news is I ran most of the mile and shaved a minute off my time. Progress is good however slowly it comes!

Over the weekend I joined the X-Weighted National Challenge and woke up monday morning having had a nightmare that Paul Plakas had kicked me out of the program for having a bad attitude! That was weird. Anyways, my weight-loss goal is 25lbs in 26 weeks which seems more than attainable to me. I actually wanted to up it by 3lbs but it wouldn't let me as it didn't feel it would be a healthy weight for me. If I manage to lose to weight i'll be down to 168lbs which seems reasonable for my 5'11 large build frame. From there I would probably want to tone up but not really lost much more.

Money-wise my spending has been pretty good this week since I've been too busy to do anything! I did spend $10.61 on monday at the Pharmacy, I needed a new toothbrush, toothpaste and some peroxide for my poor toe. These last 2 days I have also spent a total of $2.50 on coffee. I've resisted the urge to buy a bagel or muffin or fritters which I'm super proud of! Good for the wallet and good for the waist-line!

Today is supposed to be grocery day but since I hadn't made a meal plan or list yet we're going to go tomorrow. I'm thawing some fish right now for us to eat, I'll throw together a salad and roast some b-sprouts and that'll have to be good enough. My homework after dinner is getting that list done!

And that's pretty much it. I pvr-d The Biggest Loser last night so I'll try to get through that at some point tonight, I find that show so motivating!

The shape of things to come

2010-01-10T20:32:00.002-06:00

This weekend went by WAY TOO FAST! I can hardly believe it's almost 10pm on Sunday!

I spent zero minutes working out this weekend which makes me mad at myself. Normally I wouldn't beat myself too much over it, but I'm working late 3 days this week and won't be able to work out then either! Such a terrible way to fall off the resolution so early in the year! I'm not giving up though, I'll figure something out.

I did however have plenty of time to go shopping. I bought 2 workout tops, 1 wii game on sale and a bunch of grocery items that were all on sale at costco. I ended up spending about $80 on the grocery stuff alone! But it was on things like PB, bread, V8 juice, cereal, things I would have needed to get at the grocery store eventually. The only other thing I bought myself was a COSCO cup for cold drink. It kind of looks like a Starbucks cup, it's actually super awesome and I can't wait to try it out tomorrow morning for my smoothie!

Today was brunch at my aunt & uncle's house. My uncle is also a runner and I've roped him into running a half marathon with me to celebrate my 30th, which is in 2011 so we have plenty of time to train. I had mentioned it to him on Christmas Eve and he was all over the idea.. but he was also inebriated so I didn't expect him to actually be up for it. Today I found out he's quit drinking and he's dead serious about training! I'm very excited to have a running partner!

After brunch we sat around and watched Fanboys and then I came home to try to get the house as clean and tidy as I could. I got all of my laundry done and put away. I vacuumed the bedroom, hallway and stairs. Vacuumed the main floor and dusted. I still need to get all of the Christmas stuff put away but that won't happen until I get some storage bins.

I also started getting to work on my meal plan for the week. My mother got me a crock pot for my New Year's gift, but I just got it today so I'm SUPER excited to use it! I haven't had a crockpot in over a year since I broke my last one. And this one is even better, it has a timer!

Ok, I'm off to watch the rest of Chuck and then to rewatch this week's Dollhouse. Goodnight!

TGIF!

2010-01-08T18:19:00.003-06:00

I wasn't sure I would make it through this week, it was SO BUSY! I had to deal with the fact that I was off last week, so lots of catching up, plus starting a new job which the previous person left virtually undone for the last 2 months. Everything needs to be done 5 minutes ago! I love this kind of hectic work environment though so no complaints from me!

My workouts have taken a back seat this week which is disappointing but such is life. I'll get back into it tomorrow. I was planning on getting some studying done this weekend but forgot my school books at work... totally accidentally, I swear! Normally I'd be able to go in and get them but this weekend they're doing some kind of power shut-down and I won't have access to the building. This'll give me PLENTY of time to work out! And get some cleaning done!

Money-wise this was a mostly good week. Fridays are usually the 1x/week I buy lunch since a group of us meet to catch up. This week work treated us so I had to pay for nothing! That money will get transferred to savings at the end of the month.

The only bad thing was running out of dog food for both dogs this month. We normally have it timed so that I only have to get 1 bag/month but in December I never got around to it, so it looks like my budget is taking the hit this month but in reality I had money leftover from the last. And you can bet that next month I still won't need food but I'll buy a bag anyway to stay on track!

Here's what my tracking looks like so far, 1 week into the month.

The Bell bill was way high but I called them to have it lowered, it should hopefully be under $300 for next month. The rest of the bills come towards the end of the month so they'll be covered by the second pay I get this month.

Tomorrow I'll be going to Costco to pick up a couple of items in the grocery department. Also, while I'm there I'll be asking for a credit. The weekend before last I bought an Everlast package for the Wii at a cost of $38.XX and this week they have it at $8 off! I want my credit! Had I known I would have just waited to purchase it, but Costco is usually really good about crediting you back.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!

First run done.

2010-01-06T18:11:00.003-06:00

So, I knew I wasn't in the best shape but yesterday I found out how bad I really am! I wanted to knock out a simple 3k run on the treadmill which never used to be a problem for me. O. M. G. I huffed and puffed my way to 1 mile and called it quits. I'm glad that I finally bit the bullet and found out how far off I am though. It's amazing how you lose your conditioning though. Sad really. but what this does is giving me a starting point and I can only improve from here!

A couple of hours after my 'run' I started feeling really cold and overall gross so I think I might actually be fighting off something. I still felt a bit off this morning but got ready for work anyways and the feeling passed by lunchtime.

Today was payday which is always fun. I also got some backpay for some acting I did in December.. I'm counting this towards my extra $2010 in '10, the money's getting transferred to me TFSA. I'll update my sidebars sometime on the weekend once everything has gone through.

I totally forgot to pvr The Biggest Loser last night so I guess I'm off to read a recap so I can be prepared for next week! Not that this show requires muck knowledge, but I like to know what I missed!

First day back!

2010-01-04T17:50:00.004-06:00

I tossed and turned all night last night. I think I may have been a little bit excited to get back at it! I was crazy busy all day at work too which made the day zoooooom by. In a week I start a 4 month assignment which will pay me around $200 extra net per month. So in preparing for this I've been trying to wrap up loose ends in my current job while learning stuff about the new job at the same time. It's going to be quite an interesting experience.

I also received an email today from someone else within the department who's interested in meeting with me to discuss a potential job opportunity. I love how when I'm not even looking for jobs they seem to fall in my lap! Where I'm at now I'm fortunate enough to get my university courses paid for so if I move that condition will have to follow. The nice thing about the opportunity being presented to me is that there's more chance of advancement for me, where I am now, to get anything better that's permanent I would need a university degree, and I'm still a long ways away from obtaining it.

Because of all the busyness at work, I ended up staying late an extra half hour.. which somehow double my time getting home as traffic was heavier. Not fun, but it's not an every day thing. I was hoping to run and also workout this afternoon but all that went out the window. My bf had a lovely smoothie waiting for me when I got home though which was amazing because I was STARVING!

Dinner ended up being Butter Chicken made with leftover turkey and brocoli served on some minute rice. Still no pictures, but take my word for it, it was DELISH! The bf and I played rock/paper/scissors for the leftovers but he won, boourns to that!

While I was getting dinner prepared I was on the phone with the bank which is always fun. When I had set up my student line of credit I had asked for the monthly interest fee to be automatically taken from my chequing account, the fee went through on January 1st but nothing ever came out of my account. Sure enough the girl told me that it was never set up how I had wanted but she fixed that up for me so I'm good to go moving forward. I also activated my new TD Visa which arrived in the mail today, finally! And speaking of things arriving in the mail, my Tax Package also arrived! Am I the only one who gets excited about doing taxes??? Last year I actually got a small refund, less than $50 but every year prior I was always paying. I can't wait to see how all the changes I've made this year will have improved my return. Plus, we took advantage of the Home Renovation Tax credit so a bit of money from that will be coming back our way.

Money-wise I was good today. Well, good but bad. I only spent $1 which is good.. but it was on tea. I have a kettle in my office along with mugs and tea bags but I had it in my head that I wanted a honey lemon tea to help with my sore throat. The $1 comes out of my $20 weekly allowance though so it's all good, it just feels like a waste to essentially pay for hot water!

Tomorrow I have a couple of errands to run. First to the old bank to pay off my old student LOC as my reiumbursement cheque came in. Next to my current bank to deposit a cheque to pay for the Christmas present I got myself! And finally a couple blocks down to Zellers to return the running tights I bought even though I should have just walked away but felt embarassed.

2010-01-03T09:51:00.003-06:00

We had a really late night last night. I was in bed at 2:30 :( I wasn't a big fan of the party as I felt like the ONLY sober person there and half the people were fall on their butts drunk. I'm glad I wasn't drinking though. I had half a glass of wine at dinner and then water the rest of the evening.

The dinner was buffet and incredibly delish. I had a couple of shrimp, some smoked salmon, waldorf salad, a bit of chicken cacciatore, a small piece of salmon and some wild rice as well as lots and lots of maple roasted root veggies. The veggies were my FAVE! After the eating there was dancing and they had set up blackjack & poker tables so I killed time playing those.

This morning I was planning to wake up nice & early because it's my last day of vacation :( I have lots of laundry to do plus I want to be able to fall asleep tonight! Unfortunately, the bad weather knocked out the power and the alarm never went off! I rolled out of bed at 9:30, yikes!

This is going to be a very laid back day, it's my last day to accomplish things on my to-do list such as the laundry, some housework and finding that silly camera cord so I can't start posting pictures! I've only been talking about it for 2 weeks now, lol!

I'm still debating whether I should attempt a 3k run today. I'm feeling very sluggish, as if I'm starting to come down with something, and my muscles are still screaming at me... but today would be a great time to do it as I'm off all day and have no plans to go out. I suppose I'll see where the day takes me. I am going to take a break from the wii workout though. It's been tellingme for the last 2 days I need to take a rest day and I'm more than happy to oblige today!

Christmas Party Day!

2010-01-02T14:18:00.004-06:00

Jeff's work Christmas party is tonight. I haven't particularly been looking forward to going as I won't know very many people, but today I'm starting to get a bit excited! My aunt, who's a hairdresser was supposed to touch up my color and then do my hair for me but she's MIA which majorly sucks.. but my hair is short, so it's not terribly difficult to style. Last year I had bought a dress for another party we ended up not doing to, so I'm just going to wear that with some heels. Basic but dressy enough for a formal-type party.

I spent the morning shopping with my mother. Zellers had announced a buy 1 get 1 1/2 Price for their Sportek Activewear and I wanted to pick some stuff up. They had tights marked at $12.97. It was too good to be true though, only the CORE stuff was on sale, none of the Running :( I bought 2 pairs of tights and it came up to $60! I felt too embarassed to cancel my purchase though, so I'll for sure be returning those, either tomorrow or this week sometime.

Afterwards we went to Walmart and they had some decent tights and shorts at almost a third of the price. RIDIC. I bought a pair of shorts and will be back once I've returned my other things. Stupid Zellers, this is what I get for trying to support Canadian stores. Idk.

I also stopped by the store and picked up 2 beautiful loaves of bread and some crunchy pears. YUM!

Last night we had a quiet New Years Day. Lots of tv, video games and movies. Apparently we were supposed to be eating dinner at my parents house, but nothing was ever confirmed so I cooked a turkey. It was the BEST. TURKEY. EVER. Omg. i got an about 8lb Butterball. Thawed it overnight. Rinsed & patted dry. I then cut up 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks and an onion and stuffed the bird, then I rubbed some olive oil all over, sprinkled sea salt + pepper and threw it in over at 425 for 25 minutes and then down to 275 for the rest of the time. Also, I cooked her breast down and the meat came out SO. JUICY. This is my 3rd attempt at making my own turkey and this is by far a success. I will make it this way every time from now on!

The EA Active Sports is still majorly kicking my butt. My muscles are still store from day 1 but I've been doing a workout each and every day. After each EA workout I've been doing 10 mins of Step Aerobics using Wii Fit. I got the riser for the step and it's actually a decentish workout. I wanted to also try a short 3k run but I'm going to save that for tomorrow I think.

While we were out I was able to convince my mom to come and do yoga with me. So tonight or tomorrow I'll be looking up locations and dates and sign us up! I'm excited to do this with her! It'll be a good way for us to spend time together without shopping which seems to be all we know how to do!

Anyways, I have to go and shower and do my nails real quick! We have to leave in just under an hour and a half! I can't believe vacation is almost over :(

2010 Monthly Budget

2010-01-01T13:54:00.007-06:00

I've finally finished my 2010 Monthly Budget.

First, we have the breakdown of my monthly income, this is for months with only 2 pays.

In our household, my bf Jeff pays the mortgage, and I pay all of the bills. Every 2 weeks I transfer him my half for the mortgage. Every 2 weeks he transfers me $180 to cover his half of the bills. He also pays for half the groceries and dog food. In december I got an incrimental raise at work, I have yet to figure out what the actual dollar amount of it is though since at that time I had also capped out my EI & CPP. I made this budget based on my old salary and anything above that will get transferred to my TFSA.

I do have quite a bit of money left over which is good. I originally didn't set up a Clothing category as I currently use the money is my slush fund for that, I have more than enough clothes as it is already, I don't want to encourage myself to purchase any more.

I'm thinking about setting up a running category to pay for running clothes, shoes, race fees and such.

My bank account is currently set up so that everytime I pay for something via ineract $0.50 gets transferred into my TFSA so I need to keep about $20 flexible for that, but I think I'm going to look into paying extra towards the mortgage.

I'm going to try this out as is for a couple of months and see how it goes. I may have forgotten something but this is basically the same budget I started using last year so I think I'm on track. And if anything, I'm trying to cut my expenses and bills, not increase them!

At then end of the month I'll recap with actuals and see how well I did.

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-01T07:58:00.005-06:00

I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve! We kept it very low key here. I don't think, in our 7 years together that we've ever done anything to celebrate the New Year. Last night we were even in bed before midnight! I was super tired and I wanted to get an early start to my day today, it was worth it! We had a nice dinner, a bottle of wine and watched a movie and I'm happy with that as a way to bring in the new year.

Over the last week or so I've been putting together a list of Resolutions/Goals that I want to work towards over the next year. I find if I don't have anything like this in place I just kind of coast through the year.

In no particular order, here are my goals.

Create a Will
I've been meaning to do this since we bought the house 5+ years ago. With the house I have my various savings which at the moment don't add up to a fortune, but it's still important to have my will in place. I plan to research this more in the new year and save up the money to get it done.

Bills to Credit Card
Since I became debt-free in May I've been able to prove to myself that I can use a credit card and pay it off in full at the end of the month. I want to have all the bills I can be automaticall paid with the credit card, this way I can take advantage of my credit card's cash back. It's not much but I'm sure it'll add up.

Earn an extra $2010
I got this idea from a variety of blogs out there. My plan is to earn an extra $2010 in 2010 to be put into my TFSA which is my Emergency fund when it's actual cash I'm getting. This money can come from anywhere such as Swagbucks, Surveys, Acting Pay & overtime from work, and anything that I sell.

RRSP
I only started contributing into my RRSPS this summer. When I get my taxes back I want to see what my contribution limit is and figure out a way to achieve it over the next whatever amount of years. I also need to decide if it's more important for me to max out my TFSA first.

De-Clutter the House
I have so much stuff that needs to GO! I have lots of books & dvds & video games that I'll bring to a local consignment shop as well as some decorative pieces. Lots of junk that if it can't be sold or donated will be sent to the dump. I also have some bigger things like a couch, a tv & stand, snowboard, aquariums that are taking up valuable space in the house.

Paint Loft, Master Bedroom, Master Bathroom & Basement
This is pretty self explanatory. This summer I did my living room, bathroom, dining room & kitchen, this is everything else except for that cat's room. I've been in this house for over 5 years, it's time some color went up on the walls!

Run 1-2 5K's
I hope to get at least 1 run in but ideally 2. I would like to run the Ottawa Marathon 5K in May and then the Army 5K in Septemeber. This gives me more than enough time to prepare. I've started this goal a couple of times but ultimately give up out of boredom or because of an injury. I plan to train smart and not overdo it. And to overcome the boredom, caused by running on the treadmill, I'm going to get over my self-conciousness and start running outside. I've also talked a family member and a friend into running with my so they'll help keep me accountable.

Finish 4 University Courses by March 31st 2011
I get my university courses paid for by work. March 31st 2011 is the end of out fiscal year at work, between now and then I want to get 4 courses done. In the past year I've only done 2. I need to just buckle down and focus and get them done. I do my courses through correspondence and I get 6 months per course to get them done. I need to trick myself into thinking I only have 3 months!

Try Yoga in a studio
I love yoga but I've only ever done it at home following a video. I LOVE the Namaste series that aired on tv a while back. I feel as though I would benefit from practicing in a studio. This is a challenge in that I'm super self concious and shy to it'll take a lot for me to get over that and go to a new place with new people, but I want to do it.

Only buy lunch 1x/week MAX
I often get into ruts where I'll go days or weeks buying my lunch. Despite doing my best to make healthy choices, this isn't good for my budget. Every Friday the girls get together and do Friday Lunch, I still want to participate in that and I budget for that. Fridays are the only day I want to buy my lunch. Monday-Thursdays are off-limits.

And that's it. I may come up with more as the year progresses but these are the main things I want to focus on this year. Some are 1-time things, some are ongoing but they're all things that I want to get done before the end of 2010.

So much fun!

2009-12-30T10:09:00.002-06:00

For Christmas, at my request, my bf bought me EA Sports Active and it's been sitting in the box for the last couple of days while I was busy shopping and playing Lego Star Wars.

This morning, deciding that I don't need to wait until January 1st to start working out again, and realizing that my basement is still a disaster leaving both the bike and treadmill un-useable, I opened the box. I honestly wasn't expecting much from it. Wii fit is fun but mostly for the games, I find it kind of boring after a while. EA Sports Active? Wow, it was fun and super challenging! It made me do 2 reps of squats. SQUATS! I hate squats. And lunges! My legs are pretty much jello right now. This tells me 2 things, I'm in pretty bad shape, EA Sports Active is a good workout!

It only took me about 22 minutes to complete a variety of activities including the aboe mentioned squats and lungers, also a couple of more toning exercises using a resistance band, some running, in-line skating and boxing. Fun! According to the game I burned 126 calories!

I can totally see myself using this regularly on top of my running.

And speaking of running, I need to get my basement organized so I can start using the treadmill again. I want to sign up for my first 5k in May and I know it's not a very far distance, I'm super nervous about it and would feel better if I could start running now!

Normally Wednesdays are grocery day in our house, but since my bf is off tomorrow I'm just going to go in the morning when there should hopefully be less people. I should need too much since we've got a party on one night and I'm planning on making turkey another. Also, this week a couple of our planned meals didn't happen since I got home too late and made something else on the fly. I have a lot of things to use up in my fridge and I want to do so with the least amount of waste possible!

A Star Wars kind of day

2009-12-29T23:23:00.003-06:00

For some reason, probably because it's cold as all hell out there, I can't seem to warm up tonight. I've made about 4 cups of tea, I've put on my brand new super fuzzy & warm pjs and I'm hiding under a blanket.. nothing's working!

Today was a fun day, but fun days have a tendency to go by way too fast! My mother called me up this morning to see if I wanted to go back to Danier Leather with her and my aunt. The leather jacket I bought for my bf's bday? My aunt had bought one for my cousin yesterday and now my uncle wanted one too. While we were there my mom found on that was a Tall size so she also bought one for my dad. I'm going to crack up if ever we all go out and the guys all wear their coats!

After that purchase we went to St. Laurent mall. Last year my mom had given me 2 $25 gift cards for the mall and they were about to expire, along the way I got another $25 card too so I was looking to spend them. St. Laurent also has a Danier store and I found a coat I loved there for the right price. No more coats now though, I seriously own more than enough!

We also hit up Costco on the way back home. My mom bought a wii yesterday and she wanted to go back and get the wii fit. Since there's some kind of pull between me and Costco and I can't seem to walk out of there without spending money, I bought, for my wii fit the Everlast weights & platform for the step-ups. Also, they had these running shoes at a good deal. I swear by my Asics, but these Avia shoes are pretty comfy from what I've gathered wearing them around the house. I'll probably keep them at work for when I go on walks at lunch.

After all of that shopping it was Eggroll time! Finally!! My mother used to make these all the time when I was a kid but she hasn't made any in YEARS! We threw some cabbage, carrot, celery & green onion into the food processor, I chopped up some turkey, some pepper & fleur de sel and we were ready to make eggrolls!! It was really fun too! My mother insisted on deep frying hers for a couple of minutes to 'start them off' but I wasn't having any of that. I pulled out a Pampered Chef stone and baked mine on there. They were just as good, if not better than the fried ones! I seriously love Pampered Chef stones, I cook everything on them. I ended up coming home with about 20 (!!) eggrolls. My mother has another 20 and the final batch of 20 are going to my aunt, uncle and cousin tomorrow.

Mom and I always hang out on Saturdays and we usually go shopping... and we're terrible influences on eachother. We were talking today about having to stop that but still wanting to do stuff together, so we're going to look into doing more active things, like perhaps cross country skiing, or hiking. Another option we talked about was getting together to cook or bake like we did today. If we could cut down our shopping to 1x/month it would be an improvement!

While I was at my mom's I set up her wii for her since my dad wouldn't do it. She played around with the wii fit for a bit and she loves it! I'm glad since i've been telling her to get one for ages!! When I came home, after the kitchen was cleaned up and the bf was in bed (he's back at work already and gets up at 4:30am!), I dusted off my wii fit and played for about an hour. I'm not proud to report that I've apparently gained about 12lbs since this time last year which was the last time I used my wii fit! Whoops! I was already planning to get back on track though, so I'm not freaking out over this.

It's snowing again!

2009-12-28T21:51:00.003-06:00

Let me tell ya, online shopping can be a dangerous thing! I've been perusing the Stah Teas website and there's so many flavours we don't have available around here that I want to buy!

Also dangerous, time wasted playing video games. My bf bought me the lego star wars game for the wii and I accidentally just spent about 2 hours playing... it's so much fun but not really worth all of the time it steals away from me!

If I was my camera cord, where would I be?? I seriously need to find it because I want to start posting pictures! I find they always make the blogs I read interesting and that's something I want to do here too!

My mom came by last night to bring me my Christmas presents. That woman seriously spoils me. She had already bought me 2 things, a gorgeous necklace and a leather jacket, but on top of that I also got another necklace with earings and ring, shoes, clothes, a beautiful giraffe statue, the perfume I have been coveting, and other stuff I can't even remember. I love my mom!

Today we went out for some more shopping. We went with my aunt this time and she wanted to go to Danier leather to get her son & husband a leather coat like I had gotten my bf. It wasn't as crazy today as it was on the 26th, but they had the same deals.. I guess the advantage to going early is that you're more likely to get the sizes you need.. I needed nothing though so I walked out empty handed.

Then we went to Costco. Costco is always such band news but I LOVE going there. I walked in needing toilet paper & cheese strings. I walked out with those things plus some cat food... my poor cat has been stuck eating dog food all week since I keep forgetting about him! I also bought dog treats, we ran out about 3 months ago and as much as they love getting carrots as treats, every once in a while they love their cookies too! Plus, the dog treats were on sale! I also bought myself 4 new tops for running. 1 tank, 1 tee and 2 jacket-type things. Two of the items were on sale, 2 were not. I'm in need of some new running clothes though so I'll just pull that money from my slush fund account.. it's what it's there for!

Our last stop was the grocery store. I had forgotten to thaw out some fish for dinner so I ended up buying some tofu, garlic bread and some brocoli slaw. For dinner I ransacked the fridge, I chopped up some brussel sprouts, garlic, zucchini & green onion as well as 1/3 of the tofu and cooked everything up in some olive oil, I then added some left over marinara into the mix. For some reason I had no spaghetti in the pantry but I did find 2 half used bags of Farkay noodles, so I cooked those up and mixed everything together. I served that along with half of the garlic bread and the brocoli slaw tossed with some sunflower seeds & Asian Sesame dressing and it was a super good dinner! Plus, lots of leftovers!

Tomorrow's plan, for serious this time, is getting some cleaning done! Other than the kitchen not much else got accomplished today! And tomorrow is also eggroll making day at my mom's. She's a late riser though so I know I can get some quality cleaning done at my own house before she even gets out of bed! I can't believe that tomorrow is already Tuesday! Vacation always goes by so fast!

To buy or not to buy...

2009-12-27T15:33:00.002-06:00

In our living room we have an old reclining sofa and love seat that my parents gave us about 3 or 4 years ago when they got new leather sofas. These are about 20 years old and super dated but they're still comfy so we took them. The loveseat is still in great condition, the couch however is showing serious signs of wear & tear. I'm guessing having 2 dogs that are regular fixtures on the couch doesn't help much either!

I was browsing various furniture stores for boxing deals in case I found a new set that was at a good price and I came across a couch, chair & ottoman that I quite liked and I've spent ALL DAY debating whether I should order it or not. Shipping is free and it would be here on Thursday which is great since I'll be home. I have about $1300 in my House account which is where I regularly put money aside for purchases such as thing, however about $800 of that is reserved for putting in a fence in the spring. I could probably replenish that in plenty of time but then I remembered I could cash in some savings bonds and only take about $300 from that account.

It's been hours of me deliberating but I've finally closed the window and I've decided to wait. The difference between the regular price and the sale price ends up being only about $250 which is still quite a bit of money but it's not like it's a deal of a lifetime type of thing. Plus, the couch looked real nice on the picture I saw of it on the internet, but I'm guessing the smart thing to do would be to at least get my butt to the store to see it in person first before I actually drop $1200 on the set!

So it looks like I'm going to be stuck with my old couches for a while still but I'm ok with that :D

Boxing Day!

2009-12-26T21:22:00.002-06:00

I am LOVING being on vacation!

A recap of the last few days:

Christmas Eve
The Reveillon was mostly fun. We got the my aunt & uncle`s at around 8:30, we sat around and chatting for about 20 minutes and then my cousin & uncle ordered `The Hangover`on pay-per-view so we all sat down to watch it. About halfway through, around 10pm we paused it to sit down and eat dinner. My aund had made fondue so we had a choice of beef, chicken, cheese and various veggies. It was delicious but eating so late was kind of a weird experience. After dinner we went back down to finish the movie and then back upstairs to open some gifts. My aunt & uncle bought me a warm zebra throw and a zebra statue.

Christmas Morning
The bf and I woke up and after I failed at making coffee 2x he made a pot and we settled in to open gifts. We had set a $200 limit and I`m pretty sure I went over by a bit for him, I`m ok with it. Everything I bought for him I got fantastic deals on so he got a lot for $200! I`m very happy with what he got me, some books, some dvds and a couple of wii games.

Christmas Night
The plan was to drive to the in-laws who live about an hour away. Dinner was supposed to be sandwiches but my MIL ended up doing the whole turkey dinner. We played wii for a while and then ate and opened gifts. We left to come home at aorund 9:30 and on our way home we passed 3 different cars that had spun out into the ditch. I hate driving in the winter so I stressed a bit, but I just slowed right down and got us home safe and sound.

Boxing Day
Today was actually pretty quiet. I slept in late, getting up at 10am and I ended up going out with my mom to shop for a couple of hours. Danier Leather was having a sale so we checked that out. My mom ended up buying me a nice leather coat as a gift which I super appreciated. I bought my bf a coat, his birthday is coming up on January 27th and he`s been talking about wanting a new coat. Plus, I could not pass up the deal, a $400 jacket for $99? Amazing! I hope he likes it! Aftwerwards we went to the mall and I bought the bf a Mustang Page-A-Day calendar at 50% off, I got a Black Lab one for myself and a blank journal to use as my 2010 agenda type thing. I also bought a purple pair of faux-uggs to wear around the house because they are comfy!

Tomorrow
My mom and I are probably going to get out to another mall. I still need to find more things for the bf's birthday. It kind of sucks having to go out and buy more gifts so soon after Christmas, but on the other hand, with all the sales I usually find some pretty great deals! My Godchild's birthday is in March so I always try to find stuff for him too. Also, my birthday is in February so I'm on the lookout of what to ask for!

My mom is then supposed to bring me to her house so we can spend the rest of the day making some homemade eggrolls with all of her leftover turkey! She also apparently has some Christmas gifts for me too which I totally wasn't expecting. I got an early present from her last month and then she bought me that jacket today... she always spoils me SO MUCH.

I would also like to get some cleaning done around the house. At least the main floor since it's where we spend pretty much all of our time...though my day seems like it will be pretty full already!

Anyhow, I hope everyone had a safe and merry Christmas! Presents are always fun but my favorite is by far spending time with family and friends. And talking on the phone to those who live too far away.

Santa`s current location is Egypt!

2009-12-24T15:08:00.002-06:00

It's currently 4pm and I still have 4 hours to kill before going over to my uncle's house for reveillon so I figured I'd drop by and post.

December 23rd was pay day so a bunch of money got transferred into my various ING accounts.

$25 - New Laptop Account
$75 - House Account
$75 - New Car Account
$50 - Slush Account
$30 - Presents Account
$5 - Medical Account (I get reimbursed 80% so this is to cover the difference)
$25 - Non-Registered Mutual Fund
$75 - RRSP
$125 - Canada Savings Bonds
$50 - TFSA aka Emergency fund.

Since I maxed out my CPP & EI a couple of pays ago, I've been transferring the extra to various accounts and this pay period it was an extra $121.97 which I put into my TFSA.

***

Today was an unofficial half day at work so I went in to get a few things done before being off for all of next week! Since our group does a whole thing with Santa and his elf everyone brings in their kids so it was a lot of fun to hang out with all of them and share in their Christmas excitement!

I sat with them and watched Santa arrive and then take a seat and start calling up each child to give them a gift. To my surprise my name got called out to go and get a gift! My father works for the same group and he'd slipped in a gift for me as a joke, lol! So I got to go and and get my picture taken with Santa :D

After all of that excitement I went up to my dad's office and had a couple of glasses of wine with his staff. They had a table full of food & desserts so that was a fun time also! We ended up leaving around 12:30 and I came home and immediately took a quick nap! I didn't get very much sleep though so now I'm slowly drinking a cafe mocha to get some caffeine in my veins!

***

Lastly I have a quick health update, apparently the ENT specialist saw my scans and wants to see me sooner rather than later, so I was able to get an appointment to do that at the end of January. I'm not sure if I should be worried or not since I was initially told it could take much longer to get an appt but until I hear anything I'm not even going to stress about it. It's not like I can do anything to change my situation.

***

I am so excited for Christmas!! As soon as my bf finishes wrapping up my presents we're going to watch the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas Special` I`ve been wanting to see it for so long I hope he`s done wrapping soon!!

2009-12-22T17:57:00.002-06:00

This week has been flying by, it's not even funny!

Today I was a little bit bad. I went out and bought a bottle of spiced rum, I used a $25 gift card my bf received as a secret santa gifts, I had to pay the $1.95 extra to cover the difference. At lunch my coworker talked me into getting Thai food so that cost me another $11.25. The we started talking about the movie Elf and since I don't actually own it and it's my favorite movie.. we went down to HMV and each bought a copy, so that was another $14. Totally worth it though.

When I came home I noticed that I'd missed the Purolator delivery guy by about 20 minutes. So now I have to drop by the post office tomorrow afternoon to pick up my Garmin Forerunner! I've decided that since it is in fact a gift to myself for Christmas, I'm going to not open it up right away, I'm going to wrap it up and stick it under the tree! Sadly it's still going to be the ONLY gift for me under there since my bf is the king of procrastinating. None of my gifts are wrapped yet! In fact, they're all still sititng in the same Amazon box they were delivered in!

1.5 more work days and then it's 10 glorious days off!! Tomorrow my goal is to find myself a cute little notebook for 2010 and then that's it for shopping for me!

I used to be a little bit shy.

2009-12-20T14:12:00.003-06:00

I can`t find my cord to hook up my camera :( I made a delish lunch today which I took pics of. Also I baked some tofu fries. Hopefully pictures will come later.

This morning I accidentally woke up at 11am! I can`t even remember the last time I slept that late, apparently I`ve been accumulating some serious sleep debt. Normally sleeping in for me is getting up at 7:30 or 8:00! I haven`t come close to finishing my to-do list but I`m comfortable with that. After these next 4 days of work I`m off for 10 days straight so I will have time then to get caught up on all my chores. I did manage to get 2/3 of the kitchen clean, the rest will be done later. I also vacuumed 2 floors & 1 staircase and did a load of laundry. It's better than nothing.

What I really need to get motivated to do though is clean up the basement. It's such a disaster down there that I can't motivate myself to go down there to run on the treadmill. I should take a picture but it's seriously such an embarassing disaster!

Smiling is my favorite!

2009-12-19T19:52:00.003-06:00

Elf is playing on tv!! It's my favorite Christmas movie and I can't not watch it...so there go any plans I had of being productive tonight! And despite my plans of getting many things crossed off my to-do list today, I spent the day shopping with my mom and therefore got absolutely nothing accomplished. Whoops!

I was certain that this being the last weekend before Christmas the malls would be insane... Surprisingly, we went to 2 and they weren't! We even went to Walmart and it seemed no different than any other day.. I'm very grateful for that!

Last year for Christmas I got $100 in gift certificates from the second mall we went to. Since they're about to expire I was hoping to find something to spend my money on but I wasn't so lucky. I found one bright pink trench-like coat by Peppercorn I really loved, but they didn't have the size I need :( And I didn`t want to just buy something for the sake of buying so I walked out empty handed. I``ll go back after Christmas and hopefully fare better. I think I`ve decided though, if I can`t find anything I`ll either get some running clothes, new shoes or a new watch.

As for Walmart, I did some impulse shopping but I was mostly good. I spent about $23 on some peppermint tea, a new Tetley tea, some tofu, pancake mix, frozen blueberries, cream cheese and a couple of treats for the dogs. I resisted putting many more things in my cart though, including a couple of magazines.. so I`m calling this a successful outing.

All those shadows coming after you

2009-12-18T19:32:00.003-06:00

I'm trying very hard to motivate myself to get something accomplished tonight but I can't seem to even do that!

I think I might just give myself a break for the night. I'll prepare a to-do list for the weekend and then settle in to watch some tv before bed.

Normally on Saturdays I spend the day with my mom shopping or running errands, however we talked about it today and we agreed that if we do end up going out tomorrow it won't be for very long as the malls/shops will be INSANE due to it being the last weekend before Christmas! I kind of hope I don't have to go out, there's a lot I want to get done around my house!

In other news, I had to leave work early today for a doctors appointment. It turns out my CT-Scan results were in already. The appointment was a big waste of time sadly, my doctor just confirmed what I've been complaining about for the last 3 years... I have issues with my sinuses! The scan showed thickening of the bone due to multiple untreated sinus infections & also multiple cysts. I kind of laughed bitterly at the 'untreated sinus infections' I've been begging my doctor for something to help deal with the pain when I have them but she always tells me "You've lived with these problems for so long, we should just wait until we've finished all the testing." So frustrating!! I'm now being referred to an ear, nose & throat specialist but I was told it would be 3-6 months before I would get an appointment. SIGH. I should note though that since the weather got SUPER cold my sinuses have been better so I feel bad complaining at all.

Ok, I have a to-do list to think about now :D

So, So Cold!

2009-12-17T16:48:00.003-06:00

It's really amazing how quickly the time has been flying by! I honestly cannot believe that Christmas Eve is a week from tonight!! I'm very excited :D

This year I have an aunt, uncle & cousin who just moved to town so Christmas Eve will be spent with my parents, them and my bf. I come from a French Canadian background so we'll be doing a Reveillon. I haven't Reveillon'd since I was a kid! The plan is to get there around 8, drink and hang out and then dinner, fondue, will be served at 11pm. We're skipping the whole midnight mass thing in order to drink some more. I do work on Christmas Eve morning though so I think after a couple of drinks I'll be pretty tired! I tend to be in bed by 9pm every night!

On Christmas Day we'll be driving about 45 minutes out of town to spend the evening with my inlaws, me, my bf, his brother and their parents. The MIL isn't planning on a big dinner, just sandwiches and finger foods which is fine by me! We'll exchange gifts, play some poker and call it a night. Very simple but also very enjoyable.

My parents are doing an actual Christmas Day dinner but we'd already commited to the in-laws so I'll miss that which kind of makes me sad, but we'll be seeing them the night before anyways. Plus, they already knew we had plans on the 25th.

Coming up soonish I'm going to post myh 2010 Goals/Resolutions. I've been giving this a lot of thought for the last couple of days and I can't wait to put them out there and start towards achieving them!