Baby Age Ticker

Friday, December 21, 2007

Woohoo! Only hours to go!

I only have a couple hours of work left this year! At 1:30pm, we’re having our potluck and gift exchange, so by the time that’s done, it will likely be 3pm and I think we’ll all be leaving the office then. Yay!

I spoke to all 3 of my coworkers that I want to be referees for my P.Eng. application and they all agreed (you need a total of 3 for your P.Eng. application, 2 of which have to be P.Eng.s). It’s not like I thought they would say no, but it’s good to have confirmation that they are on board to help me get my P.Eng. One of them even offered to send me his application so I could look at it as an example. So, it looks like I will be completing my application next week and submitting it at the beginning of January. Who knows how long it will take before I hear back, I’m thinking 2 or 3 months.

I may not post again before Christmas, so I hope everyone has a safe and happy Christmas!

EDIT 12:15pm

CT just let me know that the gift for Koby arrived today. Just in time! On the last possible day before Christmas, in fact! How's that for timing!

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The end is in sight

Only 1.5 days of work left. Tomorrow, we’re having our potluck and gift exchange, and we’re all going home after that, so I will likely be able to leave the office around 3pm tomorrow, I’m hoping. That gives me some time to buy CT’s Christmas present, which I was planning to do on Sunday but then the weather changed my plans!

So tomorrow I’m going shopping to get CT’s present, then Saturday, CT and I are going shopping together to finish up our shopping (I imagine the mall will be INSANE, but we have no choice). Then Saturday evening, I need to finish making the presents for Oma and CT’s mom. Then on Sunday afternoon, we’re heading to my parent’s house for Christmas. We’re spending the night there and doing Christmas morning on the morning of the 24th. Then we have dinner with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and then we go to church at 11pm on the 24th for the candlelight service. Then CT and I get to spend the night at our place and wake up on Christmas Day morning together. Then we head to CT’s parents house for the day on the 25th. Which is only about 45 minutes from us, so it’s not that far to travel at all.

As for the rest of my holidays, I’m sure CT will want to go shopping on the 26th for the boxing day sales, I think I’ll stay home ;) Then the 27th and 28th, I’m going to spend getting my name change done (lots of phone calls to make and places to visit) and preparing my P.Eng. application.

For the 29th to the 1st, I plan on doing not much of anything. It will be fabulous! I have so much work to do when I get back in January, so I will have to make sure I spend some of my time off relaxing because I think I won’t get much relaxing time for the next few months. February and March are our busiest months and January is shaping up to be busy as well.

I am annoyed at the fact that I ordered a Christmas present for Koby (my parents doggie) in November and it still hasn’t arrived yet! Sheesh! It’s coming from the states, so I am guessing it is likely caught up at the border. I guess he won’t really know the difference if he gets it after Christmas, but I thought I was ordering it in plenty of time, but I guess not! I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that it comes either today or tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Happy Birthday to Brad!

Pitt that is, he turns 44 today. And he’s still as hot as the day I started my long time crush, which is probably getting close to 15 years now.

That is all.

Monday, December 17, 2007

I am still a party girl! ;)

My company Christmas party on Friday was an absolute blast. I had a great time. Yes, I got a LITTLE drunk (emphasis on the little), but so was everyone else, so it was all good. I even made myself $20 by drinking a half glass of wine with a bit of salt and pepper in it. It was a dare and was an easy $20. Jim did the same thing and he got $20 too and the deal was that if we could do it, we had to buy shots at the next place for the person of our choice, and they had to drink it. Jim had to go home, so he gave me his $20 with instructions on who I was to buy shots for. Well, when we got to the next place, our boss started a tab and told everyone to put their drinks on the tab. So, I didn’t even need to use the $40! So, I got everyone a round of Jager and we all did those close to the end of the night. And I made sure to get a couple extra for the guy Jim wanted to target. So, it was a fun night for all. Best part was, we were out from 6:30pm until 2:30pm drinking and we didn’t have to spend a dime! Thanks to my company! Oh, and I even broke out some of our classic dance moves (lawn mower, sprinkler, shopping cart, microwave, and the ever popular ski jump and bobsled). They were a hit for sure! Heehee. It was a great night. So great in fact, that I pretty much slept most of Saturday.

So, I saved my $40 and used that the next night at CT’s company Christmas party. I wasn’t up to drinking considering I drank too much the night before, so the $40 covered our cab fare to and from, and 2 rounds of drinks for the 2 of us (my drinks were diet coke). There were prizes at this Christmas party and we cleaned up! CT won a digital tire pressure gauge, a cordless screwdriver thing, and one of those digital photo frames. All of it together was probably worth $150! Score! And I have been wanting one of those photo frames ever since I saw the one at lj’s dad’s house last month.

Due to the crazy snowstorm on Sunday (where police were telling people to stay off the roads), CT didn’t go snowboarding and I didn’t get my Christmas shopping finished. I only have CT’s present to get yet, and I guess I’ll have to get that sometime this week since Christmas is only a week away now! I did start on the mini-scrapbooks. I have all the photos chosen for them, so that is half the battle! I think it will only take me a couple of hours to get them finished since they are only a few pages long. So, I can save that for the weekend.

Only 5 days of work left this year! Yay!

Friday, December 14, 2007

The countdown continues…

...Only 6 days of work left this year!

So tonight is my company Christmas party. I am really looking forward to the time out. My coworkers are always a lot of fun, and I think every time we’ve gone out after the Christmas party, somebody ends up getting hammered (usually many people) and make a total fool of themselves. Good thing it’s not me! There was the one year I tackled my boss in a snow bank, but that was not even close to how crazy other people got that night. We’re going to walk down if it’s not too cold. Otherwise we’ll cab it. Then tomorrow night is CT’s company Christmas party, but at that one we have to pay for our own drinks, so I have a feeling we will drink less at that one ;)

I also want to finish my Christmas shopping this weekend and get started on my mini-scrapbooks. So, it will be a very busy weekend I’m sure!

What are you up to this weekend?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Only 8 days of work left this year!

I am really looking forward to my time off! I definitely need the break.

Not much new to report here. This week, I’ve been working really hard on the weight loss thing. I’ve been drinking 3L of water per day, I’ve been working out every night, and I have been counting everything that I’ve eaten and so far I have not gone over on points at all. I hope this works! I have 2 evenings out this weekend though, but I will use my flex points then. I have my Christmas party on Friday, which will likely involve lots of drinks since I think we’re going out afterwards. CT’s Christmas party is on Saturday, which will also involve drinking. But I think I’ll take it a little easier on Saturday. I’m thinking I will be really careful with what I eat, then I can ‘afford’ to have some drinks ;)

Can’t believe it’s less than 2 weeks until Christmas! That’s nuts! I am planning to make some mini scrapbook type things for Christmas for my Oma and CT’s mom, but I haven’t had any time yet. I’m hoping I’ll have some time to get started on them this weekend. Otherwise, it could be a last minute thing!

I am down to one month to go until I can apply for my P.Eng. That’s nuts! I’m going to get all the paperwork in order on my time off between Christmas and New Years so that in mid-January, I can mail it off. I have no idea how long it takes before I’ll hear back, I guess it likely depends on how long my references take to fill in their part. I’m hoping to hear back within a couple months though, we’ll see! I could potentially have my P.Eng. by the spring – yay! Not that it will make a huge difference for my job, just means I’ll be able to sign off on some things. And I will likely get a raise too!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Great weekend

The concert on Friday was amazing! I left work at 3 and we were at Yorkdale by 4:30, so we definitely made good time! Yorkdale wasn’t actually nearly as busy as I thought it would be. We had no problem finding a parking spot and we didn’t have to wait for a table for dinner. So, we had a nice leisurely dinner and then headed downtown via subway and were at the ACC a half hour before the concert started. Hedley was the opening band and they were pretty good. I’ve wanted to see them for a couple of years now, so I’m glad I had the opportunity. Bon Jovi was amazing! After all these years, he’s still got it. What a smile! We had pretty good seats, I was quite impressed. He played all the songs I hoped he would! It was definitely work seeing!!!

Saturday, we went shopping during the day and then went to a dinner with the church. It was “progressive” style, so we went to one house for salads, then the church for the main course, and then another house for dessert. It was good times. Then when we were coming home at 11pm, we thought it would be a good time to go to Wal-mart (I was avoiding it like the plague during the day), so we got a good portion of our shopping done. We were out of there by midnight and I was happy we went then because there were no crowds!

Yesterday, we didn’t do much. Caught up on some TV and did some grocery shopping.

So, I think we are likely around 80% finished our Christmas shopping. Which feels great! We still have CT’s family to buy for and I still have to get CT’s present. Luckily, he’s going snowboarding on Sunday, so I’ll have a few hours to myself. I’m going to use that time to get his present.

Only 10 more days of work left this year! Yay!

Friday, December 07, 2007

Big night tonight!

Yes, that's right, I'm going to see Jon Bon Jovi tonight! And I am under strict instructions from Mrs. JB that if I get close enough to him, I'm to kiss him from her! And then a kiss from me, of course ;)

And when he plays Livin on a Prayer, I will definately be thinking of you girls and our karaoke at the Silver Spur... "Geo Girls Minus Janet Plus Laura" made their one and only appearance... so far anyways!

I'm leaving the office at 3pm so that CT and I can head to T.O. Hopefully the snow lets up by then! It's supposed to stop this afternoon, so I think we should be okay. We're giving ourselves lots of time to get there.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

I’m proud of myself today

We had a meeting this morning and there was a huge box of doughnuts that somebody brought. So, for the entire hour, they were sitting right in front of me on the table. And I didn’t take one! All I could smell were doughnuts, and everyone around me was eating them, but I totally resisted the urge and didn’t take one! I thought about it, remembered that I had already entered all my food into WW online and didn’t have any points left over for today, so I couldn’t have a doughnut. Of course, I could have used flex points, but I decided not to. I am so proud of myself today! Yay!

Maybe this is the first step in something good for me! I have been working out consistently (3-4 times per week) for a month and a half now, I have to start seeing results soon. I have been noticing that I am feeling like I am in better shape, and I have been able to increase the amount of weights I use in the workouts, so that has to count for something! Maybe one of these weeks my efforts will finally start showing on the scale. It just has to. I have never tried so hard at this in my whole life. It has to start working soon!

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Let's talk about womens stuff...

I have been really frustrated lately due to my lack of weight loss. Well, let me rephrase that, I’ve been really frustrated lately due to my weight gain. I have been on WW for over a year and have gained 10 pounds. Which really boggles my mind since when I did WW 6.5 years ago, I lost 35 pounds in 6 months. And now I’m right back to where I started, within a pound or two from my starting weight 6.5 years ago. And I feel like I am putting more effort in this time. So, I am trying to figure out why this is happening to me. And the only differences I can see between this time and last time are: that I am 6.5 years older now, so maybe my metabolism is slowing down and the fact that I am on the pill now and I wasn’t before. I have been on the pill for 5.5 years now, so maybe that has been contributing to my weight gain. Because if I think about it, it has been a slow and steady thing, it’s not as if I gained the 35 pounds back all at once, it has been a gradual thing, with little periods of losing weight, and then gaining some. 1 step forward, 2 steps back. The only time I gained a lot of weight was on my honeymoon in September, I gained 10 pounds in 2 weeks. Totally not fair. And I have still been struggling to even get 1 of those pounds off. And I had my thyroid checked 6 months ago because I thought that may be what has been hindering me, but it came back normal.

So, I have come to the following conclusion: maybe I need to go off the pill! Which scares me to death. The reason being that I had BRUTAL periods before I went on the pill (7 days of HEAVY flow, so heavy that I sometimes bled through and soiled my sheets and mattress, sorry if that’s too much info!, and INCREDIBLY painful cramps). I used to have to take prescription pain meds for the pain. Now that I have been on the pill, my periods are quite manageable, much lighter flow and I get by with just taking advil. Now I realize that since I’ve been on the pill for so long, that maybe my periods would be just fine now without the pill. I am just scared to test that theory. So, my question to you lovely ladies is: have any of you taken the pill for reasons associated with your period and then stopped taking it? When you went off the pill, were your periods the same or better than before you went on the pill?

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

New 'do for c-dub

I got my haircut on Saturday and it looks really good! I got a total of 5 inches cut off (so now it's just past my shoulders) and have layers now, the shortest is just a bit longer than my chin. I love it! My hair has life and body again!

The funny part was, my family didn't even notice I got my hair cut, but my co-workers noticed right away. 5 inches is quite a significant change!

Guess what I spent my morning doing? A tutorial for ModFlow. Yes, my exposure to that wonderful program has begun. It actually looks really cool. I'm taking a course in February. February 5-8 to be exact. I wanted to get my feet wet a little before the course, so I decided to go through the tutorial today. It was fun!

Monday, December 03, 2007

What a strange wedding

The wedding CT and I went to on the weekend was very strange. It was the first wedding we went to after our own, so I guess I shouldn’t compare it to the perfection that was my own wedding ;) But seriously, I wasn’t the only one who found it strange, there were many people who made comments. And they had been engaged for a year, so it’s not like they were rushed in the planning or anything.

First off, there ceremony was between 10 and 15 minutes long, I’m not exaggerating! The ceremony was rushed, everyone was speed-walking and speed-talking through everything, and we couldn’t even hear a thing because everyone talked so quietly. Nuts. There was no music or anything. There was some very faint music when the bride walked in, but it was barely audible. They walked back out to the Darth Vader theme song, and again, barely audible. While the ceremony was going on, the staff at the car were talking and making lots of noise which was really annoying (it was in a hall).

Then, the food was terrible. Everyone was left hungry and several people tables were asking for more buns because they were still hungry, but they didn’t get any. I think the one thing you should always make sure of at a wedding is that your guests don’t go hungry. Well, we all went hungry. We even talked about leaving for a bit and going to Tim Horton’s to get some food and coming back. It was ridiculous!

Then with the speeches, it was very poorly organized and it seemed like nobody really had prepared anything, the groom said all of 3 words, only 2 of the 4 parents went up to speak, and again, everything was very rushed and again, barely audible.

The dancing was a joke, the music they picked was not easy stuff to dance to. So, the dance floor was empty most of the time. Our table got up to dance for awhile to try to get things started, but we only stayed up for a few songs because then the music took a turn for the worse.

So, we left at 10:30pm and we weren’t even close to the first to leave. Several people at the wedding that were also at ours were still raving about how great our wedding was (not in front of the bride and groom, thank goodness!). I felt kind of badly for the bride and groom, but they didn’t seem to be upset that their wedding was a dud. I guess in the end, they are married now so that’s all that really matters.

I think I have come to the conclusion that I should be a party and event planner! I think I would be really good at it. Maybe in my next career, that’s what I’ll do ;) Seriously, some people could obviously benefit from my help!

Yesterday was my birthday dinner with my family. It was really nice to get the whole fam together again for some food and good times.

Hard to believe the weekend is over already! This morning I woke up to some crazy ice on my car, I guess we got lots of freezing rain and snow overnight. It took me 15 minutes just to scrape off my car! Good thing CT came out to help me!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Trying not to let my jealous streak come out.

I am finding myself a little ticked. CT just emailed me to let me know he’s done work already and is heading home. He only started at 11. So, he left a mere 4 hours into his workday. And this happens all the time. I would say in an average day, he works from 11-5. And usually has a lunch break. So, he leaves the house 3 hours after me every morning and we usually get home around the same time. This just really bothers me because I would absolutely love to have 3 hours every morning to myself. Here is my schedule: get up between 6 and 6:30, shower, make lunch, eat breakfast, and leave the house by 7:30am. Then when I get home, I feed Smokey, clean his litterbox, get changed into my workout clothes, and then start on my workout. Some days I am lucky and get my workout started before CT gets home.

I am in no way mad at CT, I think it’s great that he has short days. I just can’t help but feel jealous. Most of the time he does do the dishes or do a little cleaning in his time to himself in the morning. And he does get up at 7am every morning to spend some time with me before I leave for work. I am just really jealous because he has loads of time so he is already almost done his Christmas shopping and I have barely started mine! And I am NEVER home without him. Now that’s not a bad thing, it just means I can never just pop out to do some shopping without him. Like when am I ever going to be able to get his gift? I never have any free time! The few minutes I have per day to myself I use to work out.

I know that when we have kids I will be really glad that CT has such an amazing schedule and doesn’t leave for work until 10:45am. But for now, it totally stinks. Especially since I would love to have that time to myself. I could work out every morning, get some stuff accomplished around the house, get my shopping done, etc. GAH! I guess I just needed to vent for a minute.

Happy Friday everyone!

Well tomorrow marks the start of the Christmas season (at least in my mind). Yay! I don’t really think we’ll do much decorating at my house, but I do have a little Christmas tree I’m going to put up in my office on Monday. I don’t really see the point of putting up a Christmas tree at our house since we’ll be spending Christmas at our parents houses. Actually, come to think of it though, we will be spending Christmas Eve overnight alone. My family Christmas is on the 23rd in the evening overnight to the 24th, so our Christmas morning will be on the morning of the 24th. Then we have Christmas with my aunt and uncle and cousins for supper on the 24th, then my family goes to church at 11pm on the 24th. So after that, CT and I will spend the night at home I think and then we head to his parents house in the morning on the 25th for the day.

This weekend will be a busy one. Tomorrow, I am getting my haircut and then CT and I are heading to visit with his parents for a bit and then go to CT’s friend’s wedding. The reason we’re visiting with his parents first is they live in the same town as where the wedding is, so we thought we’d hit 2 birds with 1 stone. Then on Sunday, I have to do some haircuts for my family and then we’re spending the afternoon playing games and then having my birthday dinner. Should be an awesome weekend!

I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my hair. I purposely booked the appointment for tomorrow since I knew I’d be going to the wedding that day so my hair will look all nice. I know I want to get a few inches cut off, it has really been annoying me lately, I am constantly laying on my hair, getting it caught in my jacket zipper, etc. So, I’m thinking of getting around 4 inches or so cut off and having the shaping done with layers and framing around my face. That seems to be how my hair was before I grew it out for the wedding, and I liked that. Long enough to still put up in a ponytail, but short enough to have some body and shape. I’m excited!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

I had a great birthday!

When I got home, the living room was decorated with streamers and balloons and CT was cooking me supper. And he had lit a bunch of candles, so we had dinner by candlelight. He made me feel so very special! What a wonderful hubby I have!

My uncle and cousin gave me a call and sang me happy birthday. And at the very end they said “…too bad the leafs suck”. They were doing so well! I think I got a total of 5 birthday phone calls, and a bunch of emails and online messages. So thanks everyone! You sure know how to make a girl feel special ;)

And the celebrations aren’t over yet because Sunday is my birthday dinner with my family. (We couldn’t have it on Saturday since we’re going to a wedding).

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Happy Birthday to me!!!

I have had a really good day so far! This morning when I was having breakfast, CT said maybe we should turn on the radio just in case my mom submitted by birthday to the local radio station (she’s done that for the last 3 years in a row). As we’re listening to the “Birthday Blitz”, they said “A special Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, [C-dub’s name]. Happy 27th from CT.” It was so sweet! I was so surprised that he did that. What a sweetie! I’m not sure what he has planned for the rest of the day, but I do know that he has been preparing all week. I know we’re going out for lunch, but in terms of this evening, I have no idea. He may be making me dinner… I will have to let you all know tomorrow what he had up his sleeve!

And when I got to work, my mom called and sang happy birthday to me. It's been a good morning! Now, if I could only concentrate on work. Concentrating on work to commence in 3...2...1...

EDIT 1:14 pm

Well I am back from lunch and I am now wearing a bright pink button with ribbons around it. The button has a picture of Cinderella and says "Birthday Princess". CT thought it would be fun if I wear it at the office this afternoon. It's a hit so far ;) One of my coworkers even suggested saving it and having everybody take a turn wearing it on their birthday. Good thing Bucky's birthday is next... heehee

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Last post as a 26 year old…

Well this is it, folks. Tomorrow I take the big leap into the world of being 27. I hope 27 brings lots of good things. I am having a rather bad morning (I have gained back all the weight that I worked so hard over the last month to lose, I’m hoping it’s just water retention though and I’ll be back to where I was soon) , so I wanted to look back on the last year and see all the happy things that happened:

1. Planned my wedding! When I turned 26, I was already engaged (only by 24 days). So, much of my year was spent planning the wedding. Which I had a great time doing! I absolutely loved it. It was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed every minute of it.

2. Got married! Hard to believe that was 2.5 months ago already. The time has gone by really quickly. The wedding was absolutely perfect. Many of the guests said it was the best wedding they’d ever been to and of course I agree ;)

3. Had a most excellent honeymoon! We got to see so much and it was so nice to get away for 12 days just the two of us with no responsibilities, no work to do, just us.

4. Have the rest of my life with my fabulous hubby! Okay, this one spans past my birthday, but it is definately something to look forward to.

I really do have a lot to be thankful for. I will try to focus on those things instead of my feelings of complete and utter failure when it comes to weight loss.

Friday, November 23, 2007

TGIF

So glad it’s Friday! And today I am tuning into a webcast from 10:30 until 2:30, with a break for lunch. So, should be an easy day. And we’re having a potluck lunch today here at work and all the dishes had to start with “J”. I think we have 3 dishes with Jalapenos in them, but I was the only one of the 3 that signed up on the list, so it’s not my fault. I made Jalapeno nacho dip. Can’t wait until lunchtime! We usually have a potluck every month or two, and they’re always so yummy! I will be doing the TurboJam Cardio Party tonight to burn some of the calories from lunch off.

Today is my Dad's last day of radiation treatment! Yay! He found it very tiring to work half time, take the bus to Toronto for his appointment, and then bus it back. Yesterday, it took him 3 hours to get to Toronto on the bus because of the weather! My whole family is really glad that today is his last treatment.

I hope everyone has a great day and an awesome weekend! Lj and nej, looking forward to seeing you both tomorrow! I’m looking forward to going to the Festival of Trees, I haven’t been since the time we went 2 years ago.

EDIT 1:20pm:

CT let me know that our marriage certificate came in the mail today - yay! That didn't take too long! It takes 10 weeks for the marriage to be registered, and then another up to 3 to get the certificate. Well, I applied right at the 10 week mark (you know me) and we got it today. Tomorrow, we will have been married for 11 weeks.

So, I can get started on the name change process. First up is drivers license and vehicle ownership, which I will tackle sometime in the next 2 weeks. The rest of the stuff I'll leave until my time off at the end of December.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

It’s halfway through the week, yay!

I’m already looking forward to the weekend. Should be fun fun fun!

Man, yesterday I was so tired, I went to bed at 9pm and I think I was asleep by 9:01pm. Somebody phoned at 9:20pm and the phone woke me up and I was already in such a deep sleep that I could have sworn it was the middle of the night. Guess my body needed the extra rest. I got up at 6am this morning actually feeling quite rested, which was nice.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Feeling blah

I guess I have a case of the “Mondays”. I just want to go home and crawl in my nice warm bed and sleep. I just am feeling really tired this morning and I am having problems concentrating on work. Hopefully after I get some lunch in me, I’ll have a little more energy. I sure hope I’m not coming down with something! I’ll start taking some Echinacea anyways, it can’t hurt.

I had a really good weekend. My visit with Liz was great. I got to show her our house and she loved it. The good thing was that because she was coming, that gave me the motivation to do some cleaning and our house looks pretty darn good right now. Well, except for the office, that room still needs some major work. All in due time, can’t do it all in one weekend!

Mom and I had a girls night on Saturday night, which was really fun. I don’t think I’ve had 1-on-1 time with her since before the wedding anyway. I made a delicious dinner and we watched 2 movies: the Holiday and the Nanny Diaries. Both of them were good. By the time we were done, it was 12:30, I haven’t stayed up that late in awhile! It was funny though, within about 3 minutes of us finishing the last movie, that’s when CT got home from the Bachelor party he went to. Is that good timing or what?!?

So here we are at another week. Tonight after work, a bunch of us are going to decorate our company tree in the Festival of Trees. So that should be fun!

EDIT 1:20pm

I'm feeling much better now that I've had lunch and some caffiene. I guess I was just tired!

Friday, November 16, 2007

To Do list for my 11 days off

Yes, I know, I just found out I get the time off today and already I’m planning my time. I just want to set a couple goals so I’ll be focused on getting things done. My mom will be out of the country from Dec 26 – 30 (for her PhD) and CT will likely have to work Dec 26-28, so I’ll have a few days of uninterrupted time to myself. So, here are the things I want to get done:

1. Name Change on documents. The list of documents is incredibly long. First up is Driver’s License, but I am hoping to get that one done earlier in December since I’ll need my new Driver’s license to change my name on other things. I applied for my marriage certificate today since it’s been 10 weeks since the wedding, so hopefully it will only take a couple of weeks to arrive.

2. Complete P.Eng. application. I want to have this all done and ready to be mailed in January.

Yay for time off work!

My good mood just got better because my vacation request got approved for the holidays! Our office is going to be closed on December 24, 25, 26, 31, and Jan 1. So, I would have had to work on Dec 27 and 28. And I already used my 15 vacation days for the year in September. But I have some banked OT, so I am going to use that to get those days off. So, my last day of work will be Friday, Dec 21st (and the last day before Christmas is only a half day really because we have a potluck and gift exchange at lunch and then we get the afternoon off). And I don’t go back to work until Wednesday, January 2nd! That is so sweet; 11 days off! CT may have to work Dec 26-28, but I could use some time at home to get some stuff done around the house and then I can also get my name change done on most things. That is provided that Ministries are open during that week, I guess I’ll have to wait and see. They should be open on Dec 27 and 28.

Yay! I am so looking forward to my holidays. I know the beginning of it will be busy with Christmas, but then I should be able to enjoy 4 or 5 days off with not much to do.

Hope everyone has a most excellent weekend!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Good mood Thursday is back again

I’m in a really good mood today. Not sure why. Could be that I got a really boring report done and I’m glad to have it off my plate. Actually, it’s already back on my plate for edits, but it’s much more enjoyable to edit a report that is already created that write a report from scratch. I’ve been a little bored at work lately getting that report done, so it’s good to see it’s making progress.

I’m also really excited about the upcoming weekend. I want to get another area of the house cleaned up (the dining room). It has been a total disaster since before the wedding and I want to get it cleaned up by Saturday noon, that’s my goal to work towards. Liz is coming to visit on Saturday afternoon, so I am excited to spend some time with her! Then Saturday evening, I’m spending the evening with my mom. Mom and I have barely spent any time together just the two of us since the wedding, so time to catch up! I’m making a super meal of homemade Caesar salad (my specialty), lobster claws that I bought on sale, and cheese fondue. Good thing I have 25 extra WW flex points saved for that meal!

What do people have planned for this weekend?

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Happy Humpday

Not too much new here to report. My dad only has 1.5 weeks left of his radiation treatment, so that’s good news. I think it is tiring him out to travel to Princess Margaret every weekday for treatment. At least he is taking the bus so he doesn’t have to drive. And he works only every other day, so I think he’s making it through the treatment okay. And then we have to wait 6+ months to find out if the radiation worked in stopping the growth of the tumour. It’s a waiting game, for sure.

I’ve very proud of myself for keeping up with my exercising, I have been doing awesome in the last few weeks! The scale has barely moved, but I’m trying my best to be patient! I am noticing improvements in other ways though. I feel better in general, have more energy, and I’m noticing that some of the moves on the workout DVDs that I couldn’t do when I started, I can do them now! Yay! And who knows, getting myself in a more healthy place may also be helping me stay healthy because it seems that everyone around me is sick (my mom, several coworkers), yet I haven’t been sick in ages *knock on wood*

Only 2 more weeks until my birthday! I think I’m having the week-long birthday celebrations again, sweet! First, a weekend with nej and lj to celebrate my and lj’s birthdays since they are so close together, then dinner with family friends on the Tuesday, my birthday on the Wednesday (hopefully CT will make me dinner), and then time with CT’s parents on the Saturday, and birthday dinner and celebrations with my family on the Sunday. That means I will be celebrating my birthday from November 24th to December 2nd. Sweet!

Monday, November 12, 2007

The start of another week.

CT and I spent the majority of the weekend cleaning and relaxing. Which I think is a good mix ;) I got my clothes situation sorted out and now I actually have some room in my closet, which is nice. I have a wedding and two Christmas parties to go to in December, so I hope I can find some suitable clothes to wear! I just may need to buy something new ;)

Still have some more areas of the house to clean, but we certainly got a good start. Liz is coming to visit on Saturday afternoon, and she hasn’t seen our house yet, so I want it to look it’s best! Saturday evening, CT is going to a friend’s bachelor party, so I will have the evening to myself. So mom and I are going to go for dinner and watch a chick flick. Has anyone seen any good chick flicks lately?

Friday, November 09, 2007

Just incase you were wondering...

I did get ahold of that headhunter and I guess my name came up in their research (who knows how) and they are looking for senior people in the environmental consulting field. I told him I wasn't really interested in re-locating at this time (the jobs were in the Owen Sound/Collingwood area), but I guess it's something to keep in mind. And it's a nice ego boost to know that somebody out there recommended me and that I am a desired employee. I guess in the field of engineering, we can all expect calls from headhunters every once in awhile. So there you have it.

I'm in a good place right now. Job I like, I am one of the senior employees (4th in line in terms of seniority and responsibility), I am also a shareholder (and my shares have quadrulpled in value so far), there are really good benefits, awesome semi-annual bonuses, and a totally kick-ass pention plan, and they keep giving me raises like there's no tomorrow! So I am not about to leave. Especially being 2 months away from applying for my P.Eng.

An interesting phone message

Okay, this is kind of strange… I just got back to the office and I had a voicemail, so I checked it, and here is what it said:

“Hi C…, my name is … and I’m called from … I have a client looking for an individual and I wanted to touch base with you and talk to you about this job opportunity to see if it would interest you… please give me a call back…”

I am intrigued. My first call from a Headhunter. I am not planning on leaving my job any time soon, but I am curious about how he found me and what this job opportunity is. Should I call him back?

Winter Wonderland

We woke up to snow this morning. Everything was white, snow in the trees, it is actually quite beautiful. Did everybody else get snow? It probably won't last, but right now it looks nice.

So glad it’s Friday! I am actually really looking forward to my weekend of cleaning up around the house. I love that feeling that comes with getting things organized and clutter removed. I think the major thing I want to get done is get my clothes organized. And I want to get the hutch in the dining room cleaned off, it is a total mess right now. And I want to get the guest room cleaned up. And I think that’s probably enough for one weekend ;) If I can get those things done, I will be one happy c-dub!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

How lucky am I?

I have been working out 4+ times per week for the last couple of weeks and the best time of day I have found to do this is right after work, so at 5:30pm. That way, I am done my workout and showered by 6:30pm. Well, lately, work has been a little slower for CT, so he usually gets home between 5:30pm and 6pm. So, the last few nights, he’s had dinner waiting for me when I’m done my workout. Man, am I every lucky or what?!?!

AND since I leave the house at 7:30am every morning and CT doesn’t leave until 10:45am (he starts work at 11am), he has 3 hours every morning to himself. Which he usually spends at least a portion of that time cleaning up and washing dishes from the night before. I am spoiled!

And tonight I have a massage after work, so I won’t be home until after 6pm, and CT just said he’ll have dinner started by the time I get home! Yay!

Monday, November 05, 2007

I had a good weekend.

Saturday was spent running around doing a bunch of errands. It was a successful day. We were able to find the perfect duvet cover, exactly what we’ve been looking for, for half price! Sears has been really good to us by putting the items we want on clearance ;) The only problem now was when we went to put it on the duvet we got for a wedding present, the duvet turned out to actually be a mattress pad of sorts because it is the exact same size as our mattress, no overhang. So, no room for bodies underneath it. Luckily, we got a gift receipt with it, so we’ll exchange it for a duvet. After our day of running around, we made the trek to lj’s dad’s place for the engagement party for her and Arash. What a beautiful location for the wedding, I can see why you want to get married there lj!

This coming weekend (I know, always looking forward to the next weekend) is the only weekend for the rest of the year that we don’t have plans. Therefore, we are going to use this opportunity to give our house a top to bottom cleaning. And believe me, it needs it! We are having guests the following 2 weekends, so it will be nice to have the house look somewhat presentable. It’s amazing how much cat hair can accumulate when you don’t vacuum for a week!

Yesterday was my parent’s 29th wedding anniversary, so us ‘kids’ made them a special meal. Amazing steak, caesar salad from scratch, and HUGE shrimp. It was such a yummy meal! We also played a board game for the afternoon (Balderdash) and then after dinner we watched the video from our wedding. My dad laughed hysterically when he saw his dancing, I guess he didn’t really realize how ridiculous he looked until he saw himself on video! I absolutely love the video, it captures everything in around 2 hours. What a wonderful keepsake, I’m so glad we asked CT’s friend to videotape! He did an amazing job!

Have a great Monday everyone!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

In a most excellent mood!

I’m not really sure why, but I am in a fabulous mood today. I think part of it has to do with the wonderful wedding video. I am so happy with it! It’s perfect! It has the ceremony in it’s entirety, some of the receiving line, the trivia questions and impromptu speeches during dinner, all of the planned speeches, the planned dances, cake cutting, garter toss, bouquet toss, and some of the dance when everybody was dancing. It’s 2 hours long and absolutely fabulous! I’m sure we’ll watch it again on the weekend with my family.

I have another busy weekend ahead. Saturday we have a bunch of errands to do during the day and the we’re heading down to lj’s dad’s place for the engagement party. Should be good times! Then Sunday is my parents 29th wedding anniversary (also 1 year after Carlos and I got engaged). So, we’re going to spend the afternoon and evening at my parents house to celebrate. I’m sure they’ll be lots of wine and good eats.

I am also really proud of myself in terms of my exercising. Originally, I was planning to exercise Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, but last night I got home around 20 minutes earlier than I normally do (our server was down at work so I left early), so I decided to exercise last night too. I did the TubboJam CardioParty, and it was my first time doing that workout. 43 minutes of cardio, and it was a lot of fun! So, I think I’m going to keep the momentum going and do 5 workouts this week.

And I should be getting my new work computer today. It is in the building and being configured for me right now. It’s a very cute black laptop and I hope it will be a little lighter than my current one!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Wedding video on it's way!

Looks like we should be getting our wedding video this week, the guy that did it said he mailed it out yesterday. Yay! We may even get it today and tomorrow (I think he did express post). I can’t wait to watch it!

In other news, I am getting a new laptop for work and I should get it tomorrow. Yay! Not that there is really anything wrong with my current laptop, I just needed something a little more powerful if I’m going to be running ModFlow in January. And we had a new employee start this week, so she’s getting my current laptop when my new one comes in. When they do the switchover, I may be without a computer for a few hours, so not sure what I’m going to do about that… Hmmm….

I am quite proud of myself in terms of my exercising. I have been doing really well this week! I will keep it up! I wanted to do 4 times this week and so far I have done 2. So only 2 more to go. Or maybe if I’m feeling it, I’ll do 5 times this week, we’ll see. I want to keep this momentum going!

Oh, and just incase any of you were curious (I mentioned to lj and nej that his wife was getting induced on Monday), but my co-worker Jim and his wife had a baby boy on Monday night. He was a whopper at 10 pounds, 9 ounces and they named him Charlie. Can't wait until I get to see the little guy!

Edit 11:23am

Correction - the wedding video has arrived! CT just emailed me to let me know it arrived this morning, that was quick! I can't wait to get home to watch it!!!!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Feeling frustrated

Do any of the other WW online users notice this? Sometimes, when I go to click on “save”, it just says “saving” forever and never actually saves anything. This is very frustrating to me because I lose any of the items I have just entered. This happened to me for a few days last week and again this morning. Does anybody else have this problem or is it just me?

Monday, October 29, 2007

First frost

There was frost this morning for the first time here… I guess winter is on it’s way.

I had a most excellent weekend. Got to see lj’s new place… Wow, is it ever gorgeous! We went shopping for dresses on Saturday and definitely found some very nice ones. One in particular I absolutely loved on her. And I think all 3 of us agreed it was our favourite from Saturday’s excursions.

I got home yesterday afternoon around 3pm, so I was glad to have some time to catch up on some stuff. I did some laundry, cleaned the house a bit, and did some catching up on my financial software stuff. And I even posted some of the honeymoon pics, still more to post though. I hope to have the rest of them posted in the next couple of days.

I am also bound and determine to keep up with my exercise regime. I have been doing well in the last couple of weeks, so I want to up it a bit this week from 3 times to 4. So, this week, I am going to exercise 4 evenings, twice on the treadmill and twice using the Turbo-Jam dvds.

I’m excited about the lunch I brought today. I was getting sick of salads, so I wanted something that was healthly yet still filling so I’m not starving by the time I get home. I bought some of those already cooked steak strips and brought wraps and all the fixings: tsaziki sauce, feta, olives, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers…. Should be YUMYUM!

In the interest of gathering some ideas, do you have some things you bring to work for lunch that are both healthy and satisfying?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

No fair!

The Finger Eleven/Sum 41 concert was cancelled. Bummer! We’ll get our money back though, but it still sucks!

This morning, I went to put on a new sweater that I just bought on Saturday, and it doesn’t fit. It’s too tight in the chest and arms. I tried on the same style sweater, same size, in a different colour and that one fit. The only explanation I can think of is this one was mislabeled. And of course I already cut the tags off, so I can’t return it. What a waste of money. I guess the lesson is I should always try every item on, even if I already tried it on in another colour.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Monday again?

My dad starts his radiation treatment today. He has to go to Toronto every weekday for the next 5 weeks to have this done. My mom went with him today, so I’m glad he’s not alone for his first day of treatment.

He is getting a really low dose of radiation, so he shouldn’t lose his hair or anything. He may lose just 2 patches of hair where the beams enter his head. I really hope this works in slowing or stopping the growth of the tumour! It will probably be several months before we know if it worked, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Yesterday was such a gorgeous day, so CT and I went for a walk along the trails in a local park. Was it ever great to get out to enjoy the weather! And today is another absolutely gorgeous day which works out well for me since I’ll be out in the field this afternoon.

Friday, October 19, 2007

What do Finger Eleven, Jon Bon Jovi, and Sum 41 have in common?

I am going to see these three bands in concert in the coming months! Finger Eleven and Sun 41 are playing in the same show on November 3rd. And we just got tickets this morning for Bon Jovi on December 7th. I’m excited! I usually go to see a few concerts a year, so these will be concerts for this year.

Too bad I won't be going to the Led Zeppelin concert on November 26th in England. That would be a once in a lifetime event! I would totally fly to England for that concert, but 3 million people requested tickets! Yikes! Guess I'm not getting tickets!

So glad it’s Friday! Tomorrow I’m heading to Toronto to meet up with Eves, Burger, Nej, and Liz to go to the Everything to do with Sex Show. Should be good times!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Incompetence actually paid off…

Here is an interesting tale which has a happy ending, despite the incompetence we encountered.

The day before CT and I left for our honeymoon, we were shopping at the mall for items we needed for our trip and we popped into Sears to have a look around. We received several gift cards for our wedding, which is totally awesome! One gift card we received was for Sears.

Let me background this by saying that we only have 1 set of sheets for our bed so we had been looking to get some more. However, since our bedroom is in an African theme, we wanted something that would match the theme.

So, while we were browsing in Sears, they had one of those beds set up with bedding on it and the sheets were absolutely perfect! Leopard print!!!! We loved them instantly and checked to see if they had them in Queen. Nope. They only had 1 set and it was King. So, we asked at the customer service desk if more could be ordered. They were a little pricey at $120, but they were absolutely perfect for our bedroom and we had looked all over. Well, they looked into it and unfortunately, these sheets were being discontinued and they could not order any more from the supplier. They did however give us a raincheck because they were going to see if they could get some from another store. They said they would call us to let us know either way.

Since CT and I were leaving on our honeymoon, I asked my mom to check our messages while we were away to see if the sheets came in. I left her the raincheck, the gift card, and some cash incase they were able to get them in so that my mom could go and purchase them. Well, when we got back from our honeymoon, no call from Sears.

The next day I went into the store to see if they got them and just forgot to call me. They looked into it, and they told me that they had been discontinued and it was NOT POSSIBLE to get any more in. So, we were out of luck… or so it seemed.

Fast forward 3 weeks later… CT was done work a little early yesterday, so he thought he’d go to the mall to browse for a bit. While he was there, he noticed that they had a clearance section of bedding and had a peek. Much to his surprise, there were the leopard print sheets; the exact same ones we were inquiring about prior to our honeymoon! They had probably 10 sets or so, only 1 of which was in Queen size. So, he promptly gave me a call and I met him at the store (since I had our gift card with me). While he was waiting for me to arrive, he physically held onto the sheets so that nobody else would take them since it was the only one in Queen size.

Anyways, since they were on clearance, they were half price! Regularly $120 on for $60. And we had a $50 gift card, so the total we paid was $18. I was so happy that it worked out! Now I'm glad they were incompetent idiots and didn't call us because I would have been annoyed if I had paid full price and then found them for half price. Yay!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hooray for humpday!

So I decided that I needed some new pants. I rarely buy new clothes, so I was definitely due. Not to mention I only had 4 pairs of pants I wear to work, 2 of which were getting pretty thin and are really more like summer pants, so I put those 2 away until next spring. So, I went into Reitmans on Saturday hoping to find at least 1 pair of pants that I liked and that looked good on me. I was thinking brown would be a good colour. So, I walked in, grabbed 4 different styles of brown pants and went to the changeroom thinking “hopefully one of these fits me”. And I had good reason to think that because usually when I go to try on pants, they are either too short, are too tight in the thighs, don’t fit right around the hip region, or look good from the front but have that annoying gap at the back so that if you sit down people can see right down your pants. Well, I tried on my 4 pairs and all 4 fit perfectly! So, I made some decisions and looked at other colours and in the end, I got 3 pairs (different colours and styles). 1 dark brown, 1 light brown, and a pair of navy cords. They were all a very good price and now I have 5 pairs of pants to wear this winter instead of just 2. Yay!

Oh, and next January, guess what I get to do? *Insert appropriate drumroll please* I get to go to Waterloo HydroG to take a course in ModFlow. And the crowd goes wild! I am actually looking forward to it; I think it will be a good skill to have. We already have one employee that does modeling, and my boss wanted me to get involved with it and learn how to use the software so that I could take over the modeling someday. So, I will be Waterloo for 4 days in January taking the course. It will be a nice break from the office. Oh and the other good news associated with this is I will get a new work computer if I’m going to be doing modeling since my current computer is too slow for that.

Monday, October 15, 2007

I had a very productive weekend.

Saturday, CT and I spent running around doing a bunch of errands. We got quite a bit accomplished though and that felt really good! Then we went out to Red Lobster for all you can eat shrimp with my brother Alex and his girlfriend. That was a lot of fun! After dinner, they came back to our place and we played Scattergories, which is always a fun time.

Yesterday was a birthday party for my brother Thom, who turned 18 today. CT and I got him that “Here and Now” version of Monopoly where there is no money, each person gets a Visa card and every time there is a cash transaction, you swipe your card. It’s pretty cool. So after dinner, we played it and it was a lot of fun!

And CT and I are almost finished our thank you cards. CT just has 3 more to write and I have to gather 2 more mailing addresses. Other than those 5, I mailed the rest of them this morning and it felt so good to get them out! I also uploaded our wedding pics onto Facebook (as I’m sure you’ve seen). I didn’t get to the honeymoon pics yet, that will have to be another weekend, it took me long enough to do the wedding pics!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Hooray for short work weeks!

I am totally loving the fact that it’s Friday already! Yay! I feel like I have had a productive week. I have exercised twice so far this week (and tonight is going to be number 3). CT and I have decided on a picture for our thank-you cards (actually, we narrowed it down to 2, so we’re just going to use both, so not everyone will get the same pic). So, I’m going to send them to Wal-mart tonight to be printed so I can pick them up tomorrow. I love the Wal-mart photo centre! I can print all the photos I will need for the thank-you cards for less than $6! Score! I will also sort through some of my wedding photos tonight so that I can print some of those too. And I want to get some up on Facebook. My goal is to have the wedding and honeymoon pics on Facebook by the end of the weekend.

CT and I have a bunch of errands to do on Saturday, so that will be a busy day. And we are also going to get our thank-you cards done so we can mail them on Monday. Sunday evening is a birthday party for my brother Thom since he turns 18 on Monday. Busy weekend ahead!

I found out that it will be awhile before I get the marriage certificate. It takes the province 10 weeks to register the marriage, at which point I can apply for the certificate and then it takes another 2 weeks. So, we’re talking 12 weeks, which puts us into December. I will try my best to be patient!

Oh, and incase any of you were curious, Alex did get that job. He goes in for orientation today. It’s for working as a support worker in group homes for people with mental or physical handicaps. He’s tried retail and realizes he hates that, tried construction and realizes he hates that, so now he’s trying group home work to see if he likes that.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Where’d this energy come from?

For the last couple of weeks, I have been really tired and haven’t felt like doing much in the evenings after work. I also wasn’t exercising like I used to. So, I made it a point to start back into exercising. Yesterday after work, even though I didn’t really feel like it, I used my treadmill. For the first time since before the wedding. I found that afterwards, I had WAYYYYYY more energy than before I started. Usually, I am falling asleep on the couch around 9 or 9:30pm, but last night I stayed up until 10:30pm AND I woke up before my alarm went off at 6:00am. I think I will have to make it a point to start making exercise part of my routine. I’m going to start with 3 times per week, no exceptions. I’m hoping the weather will be nice this weekend because I want CT and I to go for a walk in a local park to see the fall colours. Of course right now they’re predicting rain for Saturday, but Sunday looks nice.

I also feel like I have a lot more energy today. Yay! I have my energy back!!! I think this has given me the motivation I need to keep up with exercising.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Fabulous Turkey Weekend

My weekend was great. Started off with a potluck turkey lunch here at work on Friday. It was really good and a lot of fun. Then on Saturday, we headed up to the cottage. The weather wasn’t that great, but it did mean that CT and I got a really good start on our thank-you notes; we are probably half done. I want to get them finished up this coming weekend and mail them next week sometime. It will feel really good to get those done and out.

On Sunday, we had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and my aunt and uncle and family. It was absolutely fabulous. Lots of food and good times. Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving dinner with CT’s family, which was also great and a lot of fun. As soon as we got there, we had an ‘appetizer’ of HUGE crab legs and shrimp… man, were they ever good! But we all got pretty full from that, so we didn’t eat all that much of the turkey. Which means we brought home leftovers for tonight. Which means I don’t have to cook tonight! Yay!

It was so nice to have 3 days off this weekend. And now it’s a short work-week! Which is great!

My brother Alex has a ‘trial run’ at a job today, so I really hope it goes well and he gets the job! He could really use the boost to his self esteem right now, he’s been rather down lately… poor guy.

Carlos and I have been married for one month (yesterday). It’s gone by quickly!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Thanksgiving thoughts

Well, our wedding photos are absolutely gorgeous! Now I have to try to figure out which one I want to use for our thank you cards. I have it narrowed down to about 5 or so ;) I want to have that chosen by the end of the weekend so I have them printed one day next week. Good old Walmart at 19 cents per 4x6 (they don’t do ones smaller, so we’re going to print 2 smaller photos on each 4x6 and then just cut them ourselves). I will also get some prints made of some of my favorite photos so I can make a little album to carry around in my purse so when people ask to see pictures, I can whip it out!

We’re going to get started on the thank you cards this weekend, so hopefully we can get a good chunk done and then finish them up in the next few weeks. I would love to get them out by the end of October. That’s what I’m working towards.

Tomorrow night I get to bake a pumpkin pie for my Thanksgiving dinner potluck at work on Friday. And then I am going to bake another one on Monday for the Thanksgiving dinner at Carlos’ parents. YUMMM! I love Thanksgiving! With all the yummy food, nice weather, and time with family, it should be an awesome one! Three turkey dinners for me: Friday, Sunday, and Monday! I’ll have to make sure I get lots of exercise in too so I don’t gain a bunch of weight this weekend!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I would throw this out there: what are you thankful for? Me, I'm thankful for my wonderful husband and the best friends a girl could ask for! I'm also thankful that although we have our quirks, I have a really close family. I am also thankful for the challenges I face, as I know they teach me things and make me grow.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Good news!

CT just called me to let me know that our wedding photos arrived this morning! I can't wait to get home to see them!

I believe we have a website where photos can be viewed digitally, so I will be sure to pass that info along as soon as I find that out. Yay!

October, eh?

I had a really good weekend. On Saturday, CT and I did put away most of the wedding presents, so that felt really good. We didn’t get started on the thank-you notes left, but oh well. We may take them to the cottage on the long weekend and try to get started on them then. We still have lots of time.

I also bought myself a new toy on the weekend. I got a Nintendo DS Lite. It’s sort of like a Game Boy only better. It’s pretty neat actually. I got a couple sweet games too like Mario of course. Is there anything better than Mario? I don’t think so.

Yesterday, we went to visit CT’s parents for lunch and then we went out on their boat for the afternoon. It was such a beautiful day and it was so nice to get out on the lake!

So here we are at another Monday morning. I had a difficult time getting up this morning. I would have loved to just stay in bed and pull the covers over my head. I am finding that I’m really tired lately, not sure why. I think I may have a hard time focusing on work today, but I have to try since I have stuff I absolutely have to get done today. I just got back from our weekly Monday morning meeting, so…

Focusing on work to commence in 3…2…1…

Friday, September 28, 2007

It's Friday, I'm in love.... with my hubby ;)

Well I am nearing the end of my first week back at work and I must say, it has gone by rather quickly (although it was a short week for me). I was in the field yesterday all day, so I think that helped break up the week a bit. I have lots of work on the go right now, and it sounds like that won’t really let up anytime soon. And I have no more time off for the year, although I am hoping to be able to use my overtime to get the week of Christmas off.

This weekend will be a good one I’m sure. CT and I are going to spend tomorrow relaxing and cleaning up the house. We still have a pile of wedding presents that need to be put away. And I would also like to get started on the wedding thank-you notes if possible. I know etiquette says we have 2 months after we get home from the honeymoon (which brings us to the end of November), but I would like to at least get started on them soon since we have quite a few of them to do. I won’t actually send any out yet though since I want to wait until we have the photos back since I want to include a wedding photo with each thank you note.

On Sunday we are going to visit CT’s parents which will be nice because I haven’t seen them since the wedding.

Hard to believe next weekend is Thanksgiving! Wow! The summer flew by like a blur because of all the wedding planning, and September has also flown by. This morning it was really chilly out and the air had that autumn feel and smell. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving because it is one of my favorite holidays.

So now that the wedding and honeymoon are over, I am just a regular old married lady now ;) I still find it very cool to say things like “My husband…” or “My hubby…”. Very cool!

I wish my marriage certificate would come in the mail already! I have no idea how long it’s supposed to take, but I am anxious to get it so I can start the name change process. And I want my wedding photos and video soon too! I know, I need to have more patience. I’ll work on that ;)

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

One thing I forgot to mention...

... is that our new deck now has a railing! My dad and brother Thom did this while CT and I were away on our honeymoon! What a nice surprise! This was my parent's wedding gift to us and we were very happy. So, naturally, CT and I had dinner on the deck last night and is it ever nice! I can't wait until next spring and I can get some planter boxes to put on the railing.

The deck is really the only thing we got done on the house this year. Oh well, we were busy with wedding planning. Next summer we'll try to get some more tasks accomplished on the house. Like the bathrooms. That's next year's project. The downstairs bathroom just needs some new paint, but the upstairs bathroom we want to completely gut and start fresh. So we have the winter to save up for that. We got 2 Home Depot gift cards for the wedding, so they will come in handy for next spring's home renos!

Monday, September 24, 2007

Back from the honeymoon!

We got home around 10:30pm last night. What an amazing trip!!!! I will give you a run-down of what we did.

We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico around 5pm on September 12th. We went to our hotel and checked in. It was such a cute little place, a little Inn with a private pool. The pool was small, but really pretty with a waterfall running into it and it had all these potted plants around it which we frequently saw these really neat lizards hanging out in. I loved the hotel. We stayed there for 4 nights. It was a block and a half from the beach and we could take a 75 cent bus ride into Old San Juan. Really good location. There was a small restaurant at the hotel, but there were also plenty of places to eat within a 10 minute walk.

So, we pretty much relaxed and did some sightseeing for the 4 days prior to our cruise. Once evening, we went to the BioBay in Fajardo. There is only 4 places in the world where these little creatures exist. We had about a half hour kayak ride into the Laguna Granda (and we had to go at night so we could see the Bioluminescence). It was quite an adventure kayaking in the pitch black trying not to run into mangrove trees! We made it though and once we got to the Lagoon, the micro-organisms there light up with movement. So, everytime we paddled, the water lit up. I'd scoop up some water and let it run down my arm and it would sparkle like crazy. VERY COOL! I loved this excursion!

Last Sunday, we got on our cruise. Our room was all decorated with "HAPPY HONEYMOON" decorations. CT's sister had called and let them know we were on our honeymoon, so they made us feel special. Our room was really nice! I didn't know what to expect since we'd never been on a cruise before, but it was actually quite spacious. And we had our own private balcony, which was really nice.

The ship was HUGE! Amazing! I am totally hooked on cruises now and can't wait until our next one. It was so much fun! We were at a different island every day and then on the ship there would be a different show every evening, which were absolutely amazing. They had a magician, juggler, comedian, a vegas type show, newlywed game, family fued, and that's just naming a few. I had an absolutely amazing time!

The first island we stopped at was St. Thomas. We did a little shopping and then went on a private sightseeing tour of the Island. We went to the top of a mountain which had the most breathtaking views! We could see Tortolla and St. John from up there. And we could also see Anderson Cooper's house and the house where Bill Clinton stayed in during the Lewinsky scandal. We also got to see Blackbeard's castle and I had my first ever banana daquiri that was made with 151 proof rum.... WOWSAAZ!

The next island was Dominica, which was absolutely gorgeous. We went on a tour of the Island in this ex-military jeep. What a ride! Riding through the rainforest in Dominica was quite an experience! The roads are really narrow and in the mountains there are crazy turns and steep inclines. So steep in fact, there was once point where I thought the jeep may topple over backwards, but it didn't. We got to go to the Ti Tou Gorge, one of the spots used in Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It's the part where Jack, Will, and the others are swimming down a crevice in the rocks and arrows are being shot at them. Well CT and I got to swim through that very same crevice! Very cool!

Next stop was Barbados where we got to play with Green Monkeys. It was so neat to hold these little guys, especially the babies! I definitely wanted to take one home! SOOOO cute!

We then went to St. Lucia, which was absolutely gorgeous. We saw the twin Pitons, and I got to go see my first ever volcano that was actually doing something! It is the world's only drive-through volcano and it was super cool. At this spot there were sulphur springs that I got to bathe in... very hot! Like a really warm jacuzzi! St. Lucia was beautiful. We got to try some of the local fruits and breads and I had the best banana I have ever had. Fresh from the tree. Yumm! We also got to see "Pirate's Cove", which was used in Pirates of the Caribbean 1.

Our last port was Antigua, where we went on a 65 foot catamaran and I went snorkeling and then we went to a gorgeous beach. It was my first time snorkeling, and I am hooked!

We took TONS of pictures, so I will put some on Facebook when I have a chance.

We had the absolute best honeymoon I could have ever wanted. It was amazing.

And now it's back to reality; I go back to work tomorrow. And it's going to be a long fall since I have no more vacation days for the year. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be busy! I'm sure there is a large stack of work waiting for me!

I was planning to be all organized and get on my name change stuff today, but I still don't have my marriage certificate that I am supposed to receive in the mail. I hope it comes soon!

I should have my wedding pics within a week or so, so I can't wait to share those with you all!!!!

Have a great week everyone!

Monday, September 10, 2007

It was the best day of my life!

The day began with the ladies and I going to the hair salon to get our hair and makeup done. They did an absolute fabulous job! We all looked amazing!

We then went back to my parents house to get ready and the photographer came by around 12:30 for some pictures of me, my family, and nej and lj. We got some really amazing shots I think. Some of them were taken on the landing of my parents stairs, which was really special because we have pictures of my mom standing in the same spot on her wedding day.

The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and probably 25 degrees or so. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

The limo picked us up at 2:00 and we headed to the church. We arrived fashionably late at 2:10 (the ceremony was supposed to start at 2:00, but I wanted to be a little late, when else would 100 people be all sitting and waiting for me? hehe). Once we got there, the ceremony began moments later. As lj and nej left for their walk to the front of the church and it was just daddy and me standing there, I started to lose my composure, so I told him a joke to keep from crying.

The ceremony was amazing. Just what I wanted. There were a few times when I thought I was going to cry and the tears welled up in my eyes, but I was able to hold it together. I can't wait to see the video for the wedding so I can watch the ceremony again because it was so beautiful.

After the ceremony, we had the receiving line which was nice because people got to congratulate us minutes after we were married.

Then it was back in the limo for our trip to the reception. It was about a 30 minute drive to the reception, complete with champagne. It was a lot of fun!

When we got to the reception location, we took a few minutes to check into our rooms and freshen up for the formal pictures. Wow, the honeymoon suite is absolutely gorgeous! Huge kingsize bed covered with rose pedals, large jaccuzi tub and fireplace, and the biggest bathroom I have seen in my life. The building is gorgeous, we love it there, so I think we're going to make it an annual thing to stay there for our anniversary.

Then it was time for our formal photos with family. The area is beautiful with lots of rocks and water. For the photos with the wedding party, we walked across the river and took the photos on large rocks right beside the water. What an amazing spot. It must have been a strange sight to see a bride and groom and wedding party walking down the side of a road, we got lots of honks, that's for sure. I cannot wait to see the photos, they must have been amazing since the scenery was so beautiful and of course the people looked amazing too!

By the time we got back to the lodge, it was almost time for dinner, but we headed up to the room for a little break to sit down and collect our thoughts. Then it was time to make our entrance into the reception around 6:00. The meal was really good, way too much food though! At least nobody could complain about being hungry! Some people made comments about how the food was the best they have ever had at a wedding. It was very yummy! We then had a dessert buffet, which was amazing! Then it was time for speeches, which were perfect. Everyone had some really touching things to say. I can't wait to watch the video to see them again because there were some really funny parts too!

Around 9:00 we had our first dance which was perfect. I really enjoyed it. Then we danced with our parents and then it was the wedding party dance. After that, it was time to party! The DJ did an awesome job. The dance floor was never empty, people had a great time.

Around 10:00 we did the boquet and garter toss. The florist forgot to make a toss boquet, so I tossed Jen's, but it ended up that she caught it anyway, so it worked out well! Then we cut the wedding cake.

We tried to mingle with people as well as have fun on the dance floor, I think it was a good mix. Everyone was having a wonderful time, MANY people said it was the best wedding they'd ever been to. Of course I'm biased, but I truly think it could not have gone any better. Everything was just the way I wanted.

The reception was over around 1:00, so people retired to their rooms at that point. It was really neat that the recpetion venue not only had an absolutely gorgeous dining room, but it had many rooms for people to stay over. And people made use of it! The rooms in the lodge were fully booked and I think most of the motel units were also booked.

I can't wait to see pictures. The day was perfect (I know, I use that word a lot, but it was!).

And now I'm married to the man of my dreams! I could not be any happier. I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with CT, he really is an amazing guy.

Yesterday, we had breakfast with those who also stayed over, and then headed to my parents house to open the gifts. We are completely blown away by everyones generosity. We received mostly cash and gift cards, which is fabulous! We did receive some gifts too, so that was great. But we received an overwhelming total of cash, so we are going to head to the bank to open up a joint account because I don't want that much money sitting around the house. I think we will use half of the money we received to pay for the honeymoon (it will almost cover our entire honeymoon), and the other half we will put in the joint account and then we'll think of what we want to use the money for later. We also received LOTS of gift cards, so we are all set! I am completely blown away by how generous everyone was, WOW! I guess a lot of people love us!!!

We leave at 5:00am on Wednesday morning for our honeymoon, so today will be spent running errands and then we'll pack tomorrow. So, I'll be sure to post when we get back. We get back late on Sunday, Sept 23rd, but I have the 24th off work too.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

100 hours...

It's crunch time now! We only have a few small details to work out, and the big day will be here very soon!

I had a wonderful weekend. I think it was one of the best I've ever had at the cottage actually. My whole family was there and it was really relaxing. We even made a campfire one night and roasted marshmallows, which was really fun! That's something we'd never done before. One by one, people disappeared to go to bed, so it ended up being me, CT, my brother Al, and his gf for a long time. We sat around the fire drinking and hanging out. It was a nice way to relax a bit on our last weekend before the wedding.

It was such a nice feeling to wake up this morning and not have to go to work! I think I'm going to really enjoy being off work for 3 weeks. I may not want to go back ;)

Today I have a bunch of errands to do. Tomorrow, nej is coming up and we're going to make the pew decorations. Thursday, we have more stuff to do and then we're going to a company BBQ in the evening. Friday, our day is packed with wedding stuff, and then Saturday is the wedding! Yay!

Saturday, September 01, 2007

I think it will be okay.

I just needed some time to calm down, I think. I have been able to find the sheet music online for download and have printed it off and the musician will pick it up when she is in town on Tuesday.

Crisis averted.

I'm off to the cottage until Monday evening.

Have a great long weekend everyone!!!

Friday, August 31, 2007

Just need to vent...

My ceremony musician is driving me nuts!

I gave her my selections for music over a month ago and she still hasn't purchased the music! Then today she sends me an email saying that she can't afford to buy the music. So, I say of course I would reimburse her for the cost (she's going back to school, single mom = very broke). Then she sends me another message saying that she won't in town again until Tuesday (she lives an hour out of town) and that I should do and buy the music. I am leaving for the cottage tomorrow morning! Sheesh! So, I told her that she should buy the music on Tuesday since I'm gone for the weekend and she would have a much better idea of what to get.

Geepers. So I hope she actually does go to the music store on Tuesday. And I am keeping my fingers crossed that they actually have the music we need because there won't be enough time to order anything! The wedding will be only 4 days after that!!!

She has known what music I want since the end of July... why is she just looking for the music now?!?!? Now I have to spend my weekend worrying instead of relaxing!!!!

So not cool!!!

I knew that SOMETHING was bound to go wrong eventually, I just really hope this works out! And it's not like she's some stranger, she has been a friend of the family for years.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

9 days!

First off, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I am super excited! The countdown is into the single digits now!!!! Sometimes I find myself literally jumping for joy or shouting with glee.

Going to the cottage this weekend will be really awesome. The entire family is going. That is the first time this summer that all of us will be there. It will make for a packed cottage! There will be 9 of us (Oma, Dad, Mom, CT, Me, brother Alex, his gf, brother Thom, his gf, and dog Koby). For any of you who have been to the cottage, you know that makes for interesting sleeping arrangements. Luckily, we have a pull out couch now, that will make it a little easier. And, when we go out there for thanksgiving, CT and I can finally share a bed! Yay!

We do have a couple of wedding tasks to do while we’re at the cottage. CT and I are going to write our speech and we need to write the questions for the trivia game (we’ve decided we’re going to do trivia questions about us for the ‘kissing’ game).

I’m getting a hair trim and highlights tonight, so I am looking forward to that. I always love getting my hair done. I still go to the same place that I worked at from 1996-1999. Some of the same people are still there, so it’s always a warm welcome when I walk in there.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

For any of you who read the globe and mail

...mummy was quoted in the Life Section. Just thought I'd pass it along!

Only 2.5 days of work left! And Friday won't even be a full day since we're having a BBQ at 2pm and we're done at 3pm. I really hope I'll be able to get all my work done by then! We'll see!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

94-97...

...is the number of people we’ll have at the reception. Which is a pretty decent number I think. The reason for the range is we still have 3 ‘maybe’s. One guy’s date backed out so he is not sure if he’ll be bringing someone else or coming alone and the other 2 maybes are the new parents that just had twins at the end of July. So, I need to submit our final number to the reception venue on Friday, so if I still don’t know about these 3 people, then I guess I’ll just count them in. Better to have too many meals than not enough, I guess.

I think we are looking good in terms of the wedding planning, so I think I’ll be going to the cottage for the long weekend. I wasn’t sure if I’d have to stay home to work on wedding stuff, but I think the few small tasks we have left to do can be done the week of the wedding. So, I am really glad we’ll be able to spend our last weekend before the wedding relaxing at the cottage! We’ll be there from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. Should be a relaxing weekend! Wish it was here already!

Let’s see, what do I have going on this week… well tonight I have to stop by my mom’s house because we’re going to plan the menu for the cottage. She also says she has a wedding present at her place for me (from a family friend). So that’s exciting!

On Thursday evening, I am getting my hair done (highlights and a SMALL trim). Friday evening, CT and I are going to his parents’ house for dinner.

I’m hoping I don’t have to work too many extra hours this week. I have some work I absolutely have to get done before I leave for 3 weeks.

In other news, my aunt broke her nose on the weekend! Ouch! She had to have surgery yesterday to repair it. I hope she’s okay by the wedding. She says she’s still coming no matter what, she’s just not sure how she’ll look for the pictures, poor aunt! Seeing how clumsy I am, I am thinking I should basically be wrapped in bubble wrap between now and the wedding. I already had a tumble about a week ago and managed to scrape my shin and bruise my bum. I am really hoping that will be better by the wedding! Sheesh!

Oh, and for anyone who’s curious, it’s approximately 267 hours until the wedding. Yes, I know, I’m pathetic!!!

Monday, August 27, 2007

Successful wedding planning weekend!

Friday, I had my final dress fitting, and it fits perfectly! So happy with that. All they did was let it out a tad under the arms, so my boobs weren’t all squished like they were with my first fitting. That’s all they had to do to the dress, so I was pretty happy with that. I pick it up on September 6th.

On Saturday, I had my hair and makeup trial. It went amazing. I was so pleased with what they did. I am really glad I went for the trial because that takes a lot of the stress out of it. Now I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll like what they do with my hair and makeup on the day of the wedding. I almost cried when I had my hair all done and they put the tiara and veil on. I looked amazing! Can’t wait until the big day! Oh, and nej and lj, I am supposed to tell you to make sure you wear a button down shirt when we go to get our hair done (so you won’t have to pull a shirt over your head) and also not to wash your hair that morning (dirty hair is easier for them to style).

After that, mom and I did a bunch of wedding related errands. I bought CT’s wedding present, and a couple of other wedding-related items including a lovely cake serving set engraved with our names and wedding date.

CT had a great time at his stag. Such a good time in fact that he said he got a total of 30 minutes of sleep the entire night. My brothers and dad went as well and they said they had a great time. I’m glad the men had a good time. Since our men were gone, I spent the evening with my mom as well. I did her highlights for her. On Saturday, I was out of the house from 9:30am until 10pm! Busy day!

So, here I am at my last week of work before the wedding. I hope it goes quickly! And that I am able to get all the work done that I need to!

Friday, August 24, 2007

So are you totally sick of wedding talk yet?

Well no worries, in 15 days, the wedding planning talk will all be over!

This afternoon, I have my final dress fitting at 4pm (I’m done work at 3pm thanks to summer hours!). I’m sure it will go well. The alterations were VERY minor, so I’m sure this is just a check to make sure it fits perfectly now and that nothing else needs to be done before the big day. Then I think it’s just a matter of them steaming and pressing it, then I can pick it up a couple of days before the wedding. I’ll have to take it to my parents house because I certainly don’t want CT to see it!

Tomorrow, I have my hair and make-up trial run in the morning, then mom and I are going all over the place to do wedding errands. We have to: get some supplies at Michaels, check out possible items to fill favor boxes with at the bulk barn (I’m thinking mints like Mrs. JB did), get stuff for the bathroom baskets, check into getting a cake server and having it engraved for us, talk to the cake baker to confirm last details, etc. Lots to do! And that’s not even everything!

And the hair and make-up trial is on a good day since CT is leaving before I get back. Tomorrow is his stag party and he’ll be gone until sometime on Sunday, so he won’t see me with my hair and make-up done. That was purely coincidental since I had my appointments booked before I knew the date of his stag.

We also want to get the seating plan finalized. We thought we had it all done and then a bunch (at least 4) people backed out yesterday and we still have 4 “maybes” on our list. Very frustrating. Having those 4 people back out and still having maybes totally throws off our whole seating plan. So, I’m hoping by the end of the weekend, we’ll have the maybes confirmed one way or another and then we can finalize the seating plan (again). Because next week, I have to call the wedding co-ordinator with the FINAL number along with how many vegetarian meals we’ll need.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy 1st anniversary to you Burger (on Sunday)!!!

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Update on Dad's tumour

I just wanted to provide an update on my Dad’s medical condition since I’m sure some of you know at least some of what has transpired in the last several years. He went to see the specialist again last week.

Back in 2000, my dad was diagnosed with a benign tumour in his pituitary gland and had it removed. His pituitary gland was destroyed, so now he has to take all his hormones by pill. They could not remove all of the tumour since some was pushed right up against the brain and they thought it would be too risky to remove that. Now, 7 years later, the remaining tumour has grown to a size where something needs to be done. This time, instead of operating right away, they are going to try to stop the growth by radiation treatment. It’s going to be low-dose done once a day for 5 weeks. Which means my dad needs to go to Princess Margaret hospital every day for treatment starting October 22nd. Which means, he’ll be off work for 5 weeks. Good thing my mom has a job now! Yikes! He may be eligible for EI, we’ll see. I’m really hoping this radiation works because my dad says there is no way he’s having surgery again. He almost died the first time since he had a pulmonary embolism (i.e. blood clot) that traveled through his heart. If it had lodged in his heart, he would have been dead in seconds. So, he says there’s no way he’s going through that again. Anyways, there’s the update on what’s going on with him.

Back to wedding talk ;)

The meeting with the Pastor went well last night, I think we have our program looking the way we want, so we can finalize it sometime in the next few days and then I can start printing them off. I would like to have them all done and printed by the end of the weekend.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

...still sad

So the funeral for my Opa was this morning. And the disappointing part is, my mom got home from the cottage yesterday around 5pm and there was a message for her from some relatives saying the funeral was at 9am (Austrian time) today and that we are welcome to stay with them. Given the short notice, even if we had wanted to go, there would have been not enough time to fly to Austria. Which is too bad. Turns out Opa passed away on Saturday morning, but we didn’t find out until Sunday night since we were at the cottage. I mean, we probably all wouldn’t have been able to go, but we could have all chipped in to send my dad. But, there just wasn’t enough time to sort it out. Which is too bad. I just feel really sad about the whole situation.

The dinner party last night went really well. The food was awesome (a group effort on the cooking) and I think everyone had a good time. That was the first time I’d had that many people over for dinner though, there were 10 of us in total for dinner, and then an additional 2 for dessert. It gave us some motivation to clean the house though, so it looks really good right now!

This evening, the Pastor is coming over so we can finalize the wedding program and any other details. It will be nice to get the programs done so we can print them out, one more thing to check off the list!

Monday, August 20, 2007

Received some sad news

Yesterday when I got home from the cottage, I received the sad news that my grandfather in Austria (my Dad's dad) had passed away. I knew this day was coming because he had not been well for the last few years (he’d been in an old age home and was unable to speak or recognize anyone anymore). After I found out, I went to see my dad (since he was home by himself since my mom was still at the cottage, Dad and I came home yesterday since we both had to work today). My dad seems to be doing okay. It’s hard when family members pass away, even if you knew that it may be coming since they were sick, it doesn’t really make it any easier.

Other than receiving this news, the rest of the weekend was pretty good. CT and I met with the wedding co-ordinator and I think we’re all set. She drew me a floor plan, so we are in the midst of finalizing who will sit at what table. It was a bit of a puzzle to figure out, but I think we have it the best way possible.

We then headed to the cottage and the weather was nice, although it was a little chilly. CT stayed until after supper, and then he had to head back since he went to Toronto for the day on Sunday to hang out with his groomsmen for the day. I stayed at the cottage until Sunday early evening when I went back to town with my dad. I had a really nice time at the cottage, I love it out there.

Tonight, I am having the visiting relatives from Germany over to my place for dinner (they are leaving on Wednesday). My mom’s cousin, her boyfriend, and her daughter have been visiting for the last 2 weeks.

So here we are at 19 days until the wedding! WOW! This weekend, I have my final dress fitting on Friday, and then Saturday will be a total wedding planning day with my mom (CT will be gone all day Saturday and some of Sunday since it’s his stag weekend). I have my hair and make-up trial on Saturday and then mom and I have a bunch of little tasks to complete. Should be a productive weekend! Now, I just have to get through this week at work first. I’ve been finding it hard to concentrate lately since I’m too excited about the wedding and always thinking about the tasks I still have to do. Good thing I only have 9 days of work left after today! My last day is August 31st and then I don’t come back until Tuesday, September 25th! Yay!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Why must you tempt me?

So, I went to the kitchen to fill up on my normal bottle of water from the water cooler and there on the table sits several doughnuts. They are the jelly-filled kind, so I can easily resist those since I’m not fond of them. However, there was also a paper bag that caught my eye. So, I went over to investigate and inside was a chocolate éclair! Oh my! My favorite! The combination of white doughnut with chocolate icing and whipped crème I find impossible to resist. So, I grabbed it without much thought and have been slowly eating it for the last several minutes.

Miranda from Sex and the City said it best “I’m sorry, but this is just worth being fat for. It just is.” Now, I by no means consider myself “fat”, although I am heavier than I wanted to be for my wedding. But I think I am the ideal weight for my body because no matter what I do, I cannot seem to lose an ounce. So, I have come to terms with the fact that maybe I’m just where my body wants to be and I’m “trying” to be happy with that. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to still try to lose that seemingly impossible 10 pounds. I certainly will keep trying, but I am content with where I am.

And I’m also telling myself that I will need the extra tummy fat for when I am housing a baby, which will hopefully be sometime in the next couple of years ;)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Looking forward to the weekend!

This coming weekend, CT and I meet with our reception site wedding co-ordinator on Saturday morning to go over the final details for the big day. That is likely the last time I’ll need to meet with her before the wedding, we’ll see. Since the reception site is sort of close to the cottage, I think I’ll head to the cottage for the rest of the weekend. CT is going to a Jays game on Sunday, so I’ll have the day to myself to hang out at the cottage, which will be a perfect opportunity for me to get my bridal shower thank-you notes written! My other goal for the weekend is to get the pictures of the bridal shower uploaded to Facebook.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Weekend full of wedding stuff

I had a most excellent weekend. On Friday, I was super tired, so I went to bed early and just relaxed. On Saturday, CT, mom, and I bought the rest of the items we needed for making the favours and then got to work. We worked pretty much non-stop and got the favours done in around 6 hours. I didn’t think it would take so long to make 100 favours, but I guess it is quite time consuming! It feels great to have those all done though. And CT also started working on the programs. I’m hoping we will have a draft done by the end of this week so we can send it to the Pastor for his review of the order of service.

Oh, nej and lj, is it okay with you if you are listed as “bride’s attendants”? I thought that sounds better than bridesmaids or co-maids of honour. For comparison, Nuno and Josh are both being listed as “groomsmen” on the programs since there are only the 2 of them. Thought that was better than one being “best man” and then having only 1 “groomsmen”.

My bridal shower yesterday was fabulous. I don’t think it could have possibly been any better. A lot of people showed up and I had a great time. Thanks for all your hard work ladies!!! It was so nice to see all of my family and friends in one place and I think everyone had a wonderful time. The pictures are on my mom’s camera, so I will get them from her as soon as I can and then I’ll post them on Facebook. I was a little overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity, wow! We received a lot of wonderful presents and tons of gift cards, which will definitely come in handy! I will have to set aside some time this coming weekend to write thank-you notes since I want to make sure I do that sooner rather than later, especially with the wedding only 26 days away!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Woohoo! Very short week!

This was a 3 day workweek for me and the supervisor ‘in charge’ today (my boss is on holidays) just send around an email ‘encouraging’ everyone to leave early since it’s such a nice day outside. So, I am flirting with the idea of leaving early today. With the summer hours, I was planning on working until 3pm, but I may leave sometime between 1pm and at 2pm instead. Very exciting!

My mom and I are going to take Koby on a 10km walk this afternoon, so the earlier I leave work, the earlier we can head out on the trail.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Mine will be filled with wedding stuff and I’m sure it will feel good to get some more tasks completed since I haven’t really done much in the last couple of weeks.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

30 days!

I love how my ticker has started counting in days now instead of months! Very exciting!!!! Only 30 days left now! I still have a lot to do, so I have decided to concentrate on a few tasks each weekend until the wedding, and that should be good. I also have the week before the wedding off work, but I don’t want to leave too much to cram into those days since things usually take longer than I think they will and I don’t want to be pressed for time.

Saturday afternoon, I’m going to concentrate on making the favors. Mom is going to help. And depending on what time you get here on Saturday nej, I would love your help to! The favors are going to be decorated favor boxes and we’ll put chocolates or mints in them closer to the wedding. Mints will likely be better incase it’s a warm day, don’t want my favours to melt! They are plain white boxes and we’re going to make stickers to put on them (one sticker will say “Carlos and Christine, September 8, 2007” and the other side will say something along the lines of “Thank you for sharing in our special day”. We are going to print these on vellum paper and then run them through my mom’s sticker maker to make them into stickers to put on the boxes. We’re then going to make a nice ribbon to go around the boxes too. It’s going to be a 1” wide black ribbon with a thinner blue ribbon centered on top of the black ribbon. It looks really nice with the 2 colours. We’re going to attach the ribbon with Velcro so people can open and close their boxes easily.

The following 2 weekends I’m going to concentrate on making the programs, pew decorations, and finalizing the seating plan. So much to do! But I think it’s doable.

Sunday afternoon is my bridal shower which I am really excited about! It’s not a surprise since I guess they had to make sure I kept the day free, but I don’t really know much about it. I think lj has done/is doing most of the planning for it (since nej thought she was going to miss it because of work, but turns out she can come now – yay!), so I’m sure it will be a great time! I’m really looking forward to it!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

3 hot ladies in the big city

I had a great time in NYC. It is such a large city, we couldn’t see it all. We only went to Manhattan, none of the other 4 boroughs were explored during this trip since there is just so much to see. We did pack a lot into 3 days though.

Nej and I arrived to Newark, NJ around 11am. By the time we got our bags, found a cab, and got to the hotel, it was noonish (our cab driver had issues, so we ended up taking a route out of our way through a very sketchy area of New Jersey). But, we made it to our hotel and were able to check in early. Then we headed to Manhattan. We walked around and explored and had lunch in a neat little Cuban restaurant. I love how Manhattan is so big, you can just get off the subway and just start walking in one direction and you’re bound to find some neat things. We then went up the Empire State building. What a gorgeous view from up there! (I will post pics on Facebook this weekend). You can see most of Manhattan from up there, it was really amazing.

Then we headed to Macy’s. What a HUGE store! Like 9 floors and it takes up an entire city block. It was quite an experience. After walking around for a few hours, we found a little pub to have dinner in and then went back to the hotel to meet up with lj. Then we found a liquor store to buy some wine, and it was very shady looking. The wine was good though ;)

Saturday was a really fun day because we went on 2 tours: Sex and the City tour and a tour of NBC studios. The Sex and the City tour was around 3 hours long and we got to see many of the locations used on the show and we even got to have our picture taken sitting on the stoop of Carrie’s apartment. We also had cosmos in the bar that Steve and Aiden owned on the show. After the tour, we went to this restaurant called “Mars 2112” where before you get seated for your meal, you have to go in this little space shuttle for your trip to Mars. Then when you get to Mars, the waiters are all dressed up like space Captains and there are aliens walking around (with very tight tights on, I might add… that left nothing to the imagination, yikes). It was a really fun restaurant. Then we went to Central Park for a little walk before our NBC Studios tour. On the NBC tour, we got to see the set for Conan (it is really small!) and SNL. We then went back to the hotel to get showered and changed for dinner and then we had some drinks at a neat little bar in Greenwich Village. It was a lot of fun, and I definably got a little drunk from a cosmo followed by a very strong martini ;)

Sunday, we went down to the World Trade Centre site, which is now just a massive construction site. It was very surreal to actually be there. I got goosebumps. We then went to Battery Park and got to see the Statue of Liberty (we didn’t go to Ellis Island, but we saw it from across the river). We then walked around the financial district for a bit and then went to Chinatown and shopped around for the afternoon. We also scored some half price tickets to see Spamalot that evening. What an amazing show! I was laughing the whole time. I highly recommend it; very entertaining. We then had dinner in a neat place that was a 50’s diner with signing wait staff (they are probably broadway wanna-bes). We then walked around time square and then headed back to the hotel.

Monday we went back to Chinatown and then to Macy’s again and I got the cutest shoes. Leopard print open-toed flats. They are awesome! Just before heading back, we went to Saks Fifth Avenue just to check it out. Outrageous prices, but we were expecting that. Like $520 for a scarf kind of prices.

Then we headed back to the airport only to find out our flight was delayed. I guess there was poor visibility in Newark. They initially delayed us around 2.5 hours, but in the end, we ended up getting to Toronto only an hour after we were originally supposed to land, so that’s not bad at all. Poor lj though, her flight was cancelled altogether, so she had to fly to Montreal and then to Toronto instead of flying direct. What time did you end up getting back, lj????

All in all, I absolutely LOVED NYC. Never once did I feel unsafe. I wouldn’t want to walk around by myself at night, but with the 3 of us, it was totally fine. The subway system is great, quite easy to navigate. I don’t think I have a single complaint about the city. Except for maybe the sweltering heat in the subway tunnels, but I don’t think there’s anything they can do about that. It was a very warm weekend. The only time it really rained was when nej and I were inside the Empire State building waiting to go up. The rain had stopped by the time we got to the top.

I am really glad I had yesterday off work, I needed a day to recover and rest. I did some laundry, went grocery shopping for the week, and went with my mom to her dress fitting (she’s having her dress for the wedding designed). It looks amazing!

Oh, and here’s what I missed while I was gone: Alex quit his job to go back to school fulltime in September (he’s going to get his highschool equivalency first and then do a college program) and Thom bought a car (he bought a Camry). Which means my mom is trading her van in, so she won’t have a vehicle anymore. I guess she’ll have the truck to use. Good thing she walks and rides her bike to work!

So now it’s back to work for me. 3 day work week this week, yay! And it’s exactly 1 month to the wedding! Wow!